They’re insecure about their intelligence but too prideful to admit when they don’t know something, even to themselves.

Education is the obvious fix, but at least in America, the idiots are trying to destroy it. If people learned critical thinking, almost everything else would fall into place. If we stopped reinforcing learned helplessness and made people practice logic and learn consequences, society would see a huge benefit. People need to be held accountable for their ignorance. Otherwise, they won’t learn. Those who refuse to learn should rightfully be shunned, because they’re the biggest propaganda weapon out there.

Cognitive dissonance is another major reason for idiocracy. The MAGAts are so blatant about their love for it. “Wokeness” is healing from cognitive dissonance, which they’ve labeled as a virus.

I’m sympathetic and offer to help someone if they’re being a bit stupid (all of us have our moments), but if they refuse, that’s where they should be held accountable.

I have spent the past 3 years complaining about settling for Biden, but he’s actually done a ton for the country in his short time. The media reports none of it. I still think voting for a non-dictator is worth the sacrifice for a 3rd party voter, which was me in 2020. The GOP has made their threats clear.

The headline is very misleading. Porn companies are considering facial recognition as an option for validating age. Governments are putting more pressure on porn websites to keep minors away from the content, but it’s very hard to thoroughly prove your identity online. A government issued photo ID is useless if you have nothing to compare it to visually. That’s why many websites use bank/credit card info as opposed to an ID.

It is definitely a privacy concern if you worry about it being known that you watch porn, but I don’t think it’s right to fault the company.

I’d love to hear the black community’s take on this. It smells racist, but I’m not sure. I think you’re right that they’re trying to take the angle that they’re trying to help the black population instead of focusing on the tobacco industry as a whole.

Are Republicans any better, though? Granted, Trump did do more for black people since Jefferson /s

It’s all relative. Ubuntu desktop is minimal compared to Windows, and I’ve found KDE to run much better than default Ubuntu. It’s lightweight for how much it offers.

I guess it would generate a bigger pool of people if they want to get super technical about who they want to genocide. US citizens already have to hand over their demographics to the government, but worst case… I could entertain that idea.

That’s a good point that I hadn’t considered. I’m not sure how that would go over legally in the US. They could gather very similar information by looking at records from relatives who have used the same insurance company, even just financial records, but that is monitored closely by the government. I wonder if we’ll be seeing any lawsuits in the near future.

What is your concern with doing a DNA spit test? I’m honestly curious, because I haven’t heard an actual answer yet. I don’t see how it exposes any more information compared to what advertisers already have.

I struggle to see what someone could do with that information. My ethnicity is already known by the government and every advertiser collecting my information online. I randomly had my identity connected to my cousin’s before any family took DNA tests. Her name would show up in those questionnaires along with what car I’ve owned and where I’ve lived when I had to go through online government stuff.

I’m relatively paranoid about giving out personal information, but I don’t consider my spit very sensitive.

They don’t care about women who are considering abortion. I’d be more worried that they’d implement a less reliable test.

My 1995 truck could handle that throw, but sure, we’ll call it “innovation”

I use KDE plasma because I’m new to Linux but also want something minimal system-wise. I love the programs and the interface. Maybe my opinion would be different if I spent more time with other DE’s or used it as my daily driver, but I’m sold on it now.

GNOME is definitely more user-friendly for someone who is moving over from Windows/Mac. I wouldn’t recommend KDE to someone who is just going to stick to using one-click apps.

A lot of people are getting back into pirating because of this. If a show isn’t on a streaming service you use, you either pay $2/episode and hope that Amazon doesn’t drop it, or you pirate it. I went almost a decade without pirating, and now I just bought a 5tb SSD for my Plex server. I’m tempted to fully convert now that I’ve already set everything up, too.

Which is almost impossible now. You can’t even play offline games without internet access because companies force you to use their app to launch it.

I thought I would be able to get around that system with EA by purchasing a hard copy of the game circa 2016, but nope, I just bought a plastic case to throw away. I miss the old days of owning things.

You can’t even buy MP3s anymore?? I haven’t paid for a digital download since before smart phones. I would be more concerned about downloading digital content from a website that charges for it rather than pirating tbh. Where did the seller get it from in the first place??

That’s not a bad black-market business model, actually…

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I’m staying pessimistic about all of the legal cases surrounding Trump because I don’t want to get my hopes up, but this is a very good sign. I’m sure they’ll continue to let him violate it with a light slap on the wrist at most, but it’s a bold move.

I read that Linux usage is much higher in India (I think ~13% vs 5% in the US, though the statistics are probably outdated). I am totally ignorant when it comes to India, so correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m wondering if the rise of Linux users has something to do with the government trying to limit access to Github.