I’m speaking only of things it has already come to. Even in our current admittedly low point, the things currently going on in some European countries would be considered a failed state scenario in the U.S. we can’t be Europe’s lead to follow because we haven’t yet fallen as far as some European countries have.

A country where you can be arrested by the government for a mere opinion cannot in any sense of the word be considered a civilized country, I’m sorry to say.

Standards of living, life expectancy, consumer protections, the list goes on - all of these are way way worse in the US vs Europe.

Patently false. The U.N.’s Human Development Index, which is the defacto standard measurement of global standards of living, ranks the United States above 70% of European Nations.

I get that the unearned Euro-centric world superiority complex is implanted at birth and all, but even if you live in one of the minority of European countries that actually do consistently rank above the US in standards of living and personal and economic freedoms, don’t let your obsession with the U.S. blind you to the dire state of your neighboring countries on your side of the pond.

The linked article wasn’t about the pentagon.

And yes things are currently very bad in the US, but we’re far from the only country that are dealing with a resurgence of fascism. We’re just the only country that has retained our means to do anything about it.

In the last year alone UK authorities have arrested thousands of innocent people on terrorism related charges for simply supporting Palestine.

The rise of the AfD in Germany.

The push for chat control in the EU, turning several countries into complete surveillance states.

Americans will ultimately sink or swim on their own. Your thoughts and prayers are better utilized on European countries that have thrown themselves to the mercy of their governments.

Oh no there are plenty of other examples involving federal agencies, but they’re far more rare. A big part of how the second amendment helps is that it prevents the government from even trying. It’s much harder to quietly disappear people in the middle of the night with secret police when the attempt would cause a loud and deadly shootout that would rile up the rest of the rabble nationwide. You’ll have noticed how even our currently blatantly corrupt government had to save face and fire top officials after just two people died in open confrontation with police. Dozens of armed standoffs nationwide would not be conducive to their plans.

The pentagon isn’t relevant, that’s a military institution.

Oh a number of times throughout American history.

The most popular single example of which was the Battle of Athens, where returning WW2 veterans used firearms to fight back against their corrupt local government that was using police brutality and voter intimidation to remain in power.

Then there’s the rabbit hole of the whole Jim Crow era of American history. Back then local law enforcement was often allied or directly members of the Ku Klux Klan and would harass black communities at night. These communities would form an armed militia to protect their neighbors from government sanctioned violence.

Ultimately, the whole anti-gun debate hinges on public trust of the government and law enforcement. You limit the possession of guns to people in positions of public trust and allow them to police the community and keep you safe from danger. When those people are the danger however, you only have America’s legal system to defend you. We obviously don’t allow the police to be openly corrupt. However what happens when all branches of government to the highest level are corrupt and you become an enemy of the state? Appeasing the government by giving up the one measly way you have of resisting them is not going to spare you.

It’s not. They’re doing it as a form of political intimidation. It’s a problem that the second amendment in America exists to solve

It’s a bolder than usual move for Sony to announce the end of physical media prior to a new console launch, and launch this “you don’t own the digital games you buy” campaign at the same time.

The usual easy strategy is first you end physical media sales, let people be content with the idea that they own their digital games at least so that the only thing people think about is the convenience of digital, then after you launch your new console, get everybody locked in, that’s when you launch the “Oh you don’t own these digital games btw” campaign.

The fact that they’re just doing all of this at the same time means they know they won’t lose any money over it because we’re sheep and the consumer just doesn’t care anymore

Side note: Axon is the older of the two companies, and has been making police body cams for over 30 years

Well HuggingFace won’t sue them now because they’re owned by Nvidia

It’s also included in the Apple one subscription that comes with Apple News, Apple Music, iCloud storage, etc. people might cancel their subscription to one of those, but not want to lose the others.

I disagree. In both the consumer electronics world and even in the world of super nerds of IT, there is a very distinct, palpable loss of the joy that accompanies new technologies. And I’m not reaching back to the late 90’s either. The difference between just 10 years ago and today is nuts. And it’s felt not just by me but also younger people just entering the workforce.

You think Rockstar just decided to run their trailer on an exclusive platform, limiting its viewers for free?

I mean of course it won’t. Netflix paid them a handsome some of money for that exclusivity and they are certainly contractually obligated to honor it

It doesn’t get older than working in an office though lol

Animal agriculture only causes more pollution than AI data centers today because Agriculture is a mature industry with thousands of years of supply and demand built up over time, whereas the AI datacenter boom has barely begun.

One Acre of land used for livestock farming emits on average 0.5-1 metric ton of CO2 equivalent annually.

One Acre of land used for a datacenter is anywhere from 150-300 metric tons of CO2 annually.

AI datacenters are 3-4 orders of magnitude more polluting than agriculture comparatively. There’s just currently more agriculture than datacenters, which is something these AI companies would like to change

These things are usually hidden to the human eye unless you specifically look for them.

Tell it to your Discord kitten

Yes, back to enjoying your Reddit moderating

No, no moral high ground or grandstanding…just reality

No it’s 100% grandstanding, sorry. Thats the reality, if you’d care to join me in it.

What I’m pointing out is that, at the end of the day, it’s not your lump of clay to mold even if you disagree with the way it’s being molded.

This is not insight. You’re using so many words to say nothing of any substance. The fact that you’re saying this in response to the backlash is an implication that this is a reason people shouldn’t complain. If that’s not what you meant, you’d wouldn’t have said anything at all.

Hmm seems everyone is living in the same reality as you though, so your comment has no substance or meaning other than some weird self-enlightened moral grandstanding.

This type of pseudo-intellectual bullshit is the exact type of thing I’m talking about lol

People are absolutely justified and allowed to criticize the greed of this company. Part of living in objective reality is that you reap what you sow. Everything you just said is not really relevant to that simple fact.