You don’t have to have a total lack of self control to be prone to overconsumption. That’s a caricature you have in your mind that’s main function is to make you feel better about your own habits which keeps many from examining their habits in any detail.

No you’re not. Advertising, propaganda, and overconsumption impacts everyone.

Come back to what you’ve posted here in two years and read it again. You’re trusting people with data that you really shouldn’t. Perhaps that’s an acceptable risk to you but you should be sure that you can live without the privacy you think you have because that is a really bad bet.

I’m not going to touch the ethical and emotional minefield that is flirting with a chatbot but I will say that those conversations are definitely not private. That whole industry is based on stealing other people’s data. Do not do anything with an LLM that you can’t handle other people finding out about because there’s a very good chance that they will.

I don’t know what sources you’re referring to but I live in a place in the US that has been choked out by wildfire smoke multiple times a summer for the last several years and no one really talks about it. It’s not acknowledged as a new phenomenon or related to climate change at all. At most you hear a “smoky out today huh?”

Is that different from the way you would describe any service job in America?

I know why some people are trying to leave. I also know that for every person who does, the fight gets harder for those who stay.

Leaving is easier than fighting to fix things. I’m sure you can guess which is more necessary.

He’s gonna be dead soon enough one way or another. He doesn’t give a fuck about the future. He’s just trying to profit as much as he can right now.

Web dev reasons and regular people reasons are not the same things

Or maybe just stop inventing new file formats for no fucking reason

At least we successfully prevented the justice department from having the appearance of pursuing partisan goals. That would have been the worst possible outcome.

You presented your opinion and then contrasted it with that of middle school children spending their parents money. If you don’t think that comes off as you saying anyone who disagrees with you has the perspective of a middle schooler then you aren’t a very good communicator.

Maybe some people just don’t like grinding for hours and hours to replace stuff they already acquired in a video game. I’m not sure why you have to present your opinion as if it’s the only valid option and everyone who disagrees is an immature child.

You’re making an awful lot of assumptions about me and how I live my life. That’s fine, but I’m not all that interested in being a sounding board for your frustrations with my country.

I have the means and the desire to do what you’re suggesting but when it comes down to it my desire to protect my family outweighs my desire to protect my country. At least for now that seems the wiser choice for me personally, and I suspect that is true for a lot of others as well.

The problem is that there’s no clear line to delineate what that decision should hinge on. If you asked me 10 years ago where the line is I probably would have said somewhere well behind us now. Still, I know what will happen to me and my family if I’m the one to act first and that familial preservation instinct is difficult to overcome. Choosing to be first through the breach, so to speak, is a heavy burden to bear.

I think that dilemma is what prevents most who are predisposed to act from choosing to act, more so than a lack of knowledge about the situation.

While there are certainly flaws in the American system of government, this is not the result of one man simply being above the law. There are plenty of existing ways to stop this from happening but half of the government is actively supporting his efforts. There is no system of government that can survive when the people who are charged with enforcing the rules collectively decide not to enforce them. At that point the specifics don’t matter.

Are you really saying that one of the richest men in the world, who bought an election and does essentially whatever he wants with impunity, hasn’t won already?

I mean, who wants to make a deal with an admin, when every 4 years it can go back on its word?

This certainly isn’t unique to the US. It may be more pronounced here at this moment in time but that wouldn’t have been true 20 years ago. The system hasn’t changed in that time. The same can happen anywhere else with the right conditions.

You guys keep bringing this up as if the day when those non-voters start voting for Democrats is right around the corner. The percentage of people who don’t vote hasn’t changed much in 100 years. Quit wasting words on people who will never matter in this context.