God this is so depressing. Remember when people were actually INTERESTED in things and learned because they were curious and stimulated. Fuck all of these little corporate know nothings and their cheat-machine. If I were teaching these classes, I’d be standing these kids up in front of the class and asking them probing questions about the essay topics they wrote about and grading them purely on demonstrated knowledge.

Okay, so $0 for the FBI. Done!

How funny will it be when all of the seats are empty? Americans don’t care about soccer, this event will be funded by tourism and now those folks will be opting out. If I were planning this event I’d be livid. Vance, shut your stupid fucking mouth and never speak again as long as you live.

Camacho would be an improvement, he listened to people smarter than him.

Do you want to tell them that people with a diminishing budget and ballooning costs will simply stop buying toys, or shall I?

God Rochester MN is a weird cult of deranged rich white people.

I’m sure they’re probably a good idea, I’m just crabby.

Rightwing populism is killing America. Take note, Europe. It starts with unrelenting right wing punditry and “news.” Crush misinformation sources before they become movements.

Welp, all the trees are gone but at least there are these cloudy stinking tanks of goo everywhere. Does anything not dystopian happen anymore? Like these things are a set piece from Blade Runner FFS.

Underrated comment, lol

Sure I know what it is and what it is good for, I just don’t think the juice is worth the squeeze. The companies developing AI HAVE to shove it everywhere to make it feasible, and the doing of that is destructive to our entire civilization. The theft of folks’ work, the scamming, the deep fakes, the social media propaganda bots, the climate raping energy consumption, the loss of skill and knowledge, the enshittification of writing and the arts, the list goes on and on. It’s a deadend that humanity will regret pursuing if we survive this century. The fact that we get a paltry handful of positives is cold comfort for our ruin.

AI is a fucking curse upon humanity. The tiny morsels of good it can do is FAR outweighed by the destruction it causes. Fuck anyone involved with perpetuating this nightmare.

So you’ve won. Here’s how you keep it: first, pass strict laws against publishing misinformation and shut down shitspreaders HARD. Do everything possible to put more money in voter’s pockets and remind them constantly of that fact. Compare everything the right says and does to Trump. Do the opposite of whatever the US does. Work to remove any leverage the US has over your countries and help each other out.

Full disclosure: I’m a USian. Our recovery depends on the right failing as hard as possible, here and in your countries. There is an international far right movement at work, don’t get comfortable and don’t think you are safe. Identify their sources, causes, support structures and propaganda channels and shut them down before they can take root. Good luck and godspeed!

Agree, but right now we have bigger fish to fry. We are in chemotherapy mode to save democracy, anything that hurts Tesla is good for now. We can debate the pros and cons of the dealership business model if we survive.

Hey thanks for the input, this helps!

One of big hurdles with therapy is finding a therapist that won’t gaslight me with capitalist propaganda when I express political or career angst. Being well adjusted to an insane system is not the goal I’m looking for.

The voter turnout was very low, Trump’s active supporters are more like a third of the country, which is still too much, but not insurmountable. And many of those were just one issue voting dummies. I think Trump’s hardcore base is closer to 20%.

No one is looking to incite a civil war, even if many people on both sides fantasize about it. War is grueling and terrible and we are still too comfortable to risk it. BUT. I think preparing ourselves for the eventuality is wise. Really the best move we could make would be a general strike. It’d be a bloodless deathblow to this stupid stupid situation.

Hannah Dugan is a hero and a patriot

For sure. Not that we don’t have problems, but corporate overlords mining our data or censoring us for political back scratching aren’t among them. That’s all imma trying to say.