Why am I suddenly staring at the sun?

I’m inclined to agree. I think the best path through would be to focus on laws that benefit multiple minor players that have a seat at the table.

Antitrust laws in general are a good example. These function at the direct expense of big monopolies, but are exactly what companies need if they want in on what was monopolized. And in the case of breaking a monopoly down, the resulting “baby” companies given more power, growth opportunity, hiring opportunities (job growth) and money making potential than the parent. This can also spur economic growth for all the fat cats out there by creating many new investment and hiring potentials. Overall, if you can get past the monopoly itself (read: take the ball away from your billionaire of choice), everyone else involved stands to benefit.

There may be other strategies, but I can’t think of any right now. I think the key is to tip the scale in favor of more favorable outcomes, then repeat that a few more times, achieving incremental progress along the way. Doctorow outlines the ideal end state for all this, but it’s up to everyone else to figure out how to get there.

While I don’t like the idea of embracing capital to improve things, the whole system is currently run this way. Standing with other monied interests that are aligned with the same goal might be the only way to go.

Just yesterday, Mrs. Warp Core was trying to enroll with an online service. The self-service email confirmation link refused to function correctly in Firefox on a desktop operating system (Windows in this case). It worked flawlessly on Firefox+iOS. Said link also shuttled the user straight off to the phone app.

I’ll add that nearly ever other aspect of their public facing web, including the online chat support, worked flawlessly everywhere I tried it. This all just reeked of hostile design.

When asked about why this is, I simply said:

The browser provides good security and choice for the user. Apps provide good security and control for the vendor.

And the award for best use of Comic Sans goes to… @trek32@lemmy.world !

Oof. Thanks. I hate it.

For those that may need it:

1. Right click and select “inspect”
2. A new panel will open, and the text <img ... will be highlighted. Right click that.
3. Select “Delete Node.”
4. Impress your friends with your new hacker skills.

The current Republican platform is largely based on stupid easily disproven lies.

It’s worth mentioning that this strategy is straight out of the trolling playbook. The overall idea is to get everyone to waste their time arguing nonsense, making it impossible to discuss anything of merit. While the following article applies to internet forums, it’s not hard to see how any social media, TV, or radio, can spill over into our day-to-day discourse and have the same effect: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7573649/

In this case, the topic at hand meets multiple criteria for deliberate trolling. IMO, there’s little room for doubt that we’re being led by the nose and baited to waste valuable pre-election time:

• Digression - Luring others into off-topic discussions by spamming, partaking in cascades or introducing tangential topics (e.g., as in [16]).
• (Hypo)criticism - Excessive criticism of others, e.g. on their punctuation while possibly committing the same errors oneself.
• Antipathy - Creation of a sensitive or antagonistic context through purposeful provocation, in order to manipulate others to produce emotional responses.
• Endangering - Giving out poor advice under an innocent guise, and others are compelled to respond in order to protect others.
• Shocking - Posting about taboos or sensitive subjects, such as religion, death or human rights.
• Aggression - Deliberate and open aggressing of others into retaliating (e.g., by name-calling or foul language).

Well, we are talking about a pop star with absolutely staggering amount of influence and reach, specifically with a young demographic. If she were able to motivate her fan-base to vote, that would be a huge deal.

Edit: Holy shit.

Or just make it a function of the military. A crop corps, if you will. We already have the Army Corps of Engineers. This would be just another civil function.

After all, food independence from other states, and ensuring the security of logistics supply like food, are an important part of any military strategy.

True. But it needs to be one to be an effective boogeyman in a speech like this.

I just want to echo your sentiment with something I’ve been saying here for a while now:

Do not confuse information technology use for computer literacy.

It absolutely is.

As a kid, everyone’s parents (boomers) called NES cartridges “tapes”. Considering their generation had a lot of experience with 8-track, cassette, and VHS/Betamax, it kind of makes sense. I guess every generation has this.

Yes, but only to tell Trump to fuck off. He didn’t stick around for our benefit, unfortunately.

You see, he’s just like his father…

Re-appropriation is the name of the game. These jerks don’t really make much art for themselves; a movement 60+ years old really should have an identifiable subculture with its own stuff by now. Instead, they’re very good at acting like a bunch of kleptos, running with what they can.

You say this, but have you ever tried to drive a car (sober) that is packed full of drunk people? It’s not easy, and they all might just get you pulled over anyway.

Outright prohibition never works. They have to get a lot more clever to work against addiction.

Reading the article, I see why this is a problem to be addressed. At the same time, I’m not sure how in the world you would directly “fix” this other than outright banning unruly customers after they cause problems.

The best course of action might be to quietly work with restaurant managers in major airports to start watering down mixed drinks, and serve lower-gravity beer and wine, on heavy travel days. I’m mostly sure this is how amusement parks operate; they just need to consult with Disney or SixFlags on this one. The threat of airlines (or the airport) banning heavy restaurant customers might be motivation enough. That way, restaurants make more money, airlines have (maybe) less nonsense to deal with, and there’s no documented limit on beverages.

Yup. Nobody else gets those cookies.

Just get AOC’s people on it - she did an Among Us stream a few years ago.

Pretty sure you just triggered every developer and/or person who had to sit through a product meeting.

NGL, I was feeling very uncomfortable myself by the end of typing said list. Is it hot in here? I need to lie down.