I use PIA VPN.

I apologize, I stopped reading about halfway through your post.

A lot of the call outs in this thread to delete your social media go outside and touch grass are spot on. You’re way too deep in social media and the 24hr news cycle.

I work in an industry that is very much conservative. Even the devoted MAGA people I meet are generally very nice if you speak with them outside of politics. A handful of the ones that seek out and want to talk politics (which is rare) are calm and I usually can get them to acknowledge the shortcomings of Trump when I start questioning the inconsistencies of his policies.

Our politics have grown courser and more extreme because of social media and the news cycle. The MAGA politicians of the Republican party take extreme positions to get attention. Moderation is ignored because it doesn’t grab headlines.

Yes Republican policies and very bad for our nation. But it doesn’t mean common citizens share those views. Usually it is much more nuanced.

I agree, free speech means you can be called a dumb ass.

False information claims can often be used to silence critics or ideas you don’t agree with.

I wouldn’t trust many of the mods to be impartial arbitrators of what information is false and what isn’t.

Absolutely but we are fucking over Elon right now… and that is all that matters at the moment.

One government is actively committing genocide against subsets of their population I’d say it’s a pretty big fucking difference.

It is not meaningless to deny X/Twitter content and legitimacy. It may not be the solution you want but it ultimately hurts X/Twitter which hurts Elon. That’s all that matters to most people.

China? Orange turd has beef with Canada, Greenland, Denmark and Panama.

China isn’t the dependable partner it used to be. Basing your entire supply chain in China introduces too much risk. Apple has been sourcing production to other countries for a while.

I always found the build quality for Lenovo Thinkpads to be better than any of the top tier Dell laptops. Most of the laptops I had in circulation were Dells and the always gave me problems. The Thinkpads just worked.

The US has been an oligarchy for some time. Act accordingly.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/princeton-experts-say-us-no-longer-democracy

You’ve described my limited FB experience. After refusing to join FB since the 00s, I joined FB a few years ago to get better access to the Marketplace. (Craigslist has gone to shit).

I joined a few groups that interested me and then the constant political bombardment started in the more mainstream groups.

Small niche FB groups are a night and day difference compared to some of the more contemporary groups I’ve seen.

Bot algorithms definitely target large groups with lots of activity. The resulting increased activity due to algorithms just amplify it further.

I just try to stick to my smaller groups to avoid all the mess.

They probably did build it. It’s possible they sourced the necessary chips through intermediaries. Sanctions aren’t going to stop them from getting their hands on small batches.

Sanctions will prevent them from being able to do this at scale. They can’t source enough high end chips to really build out the infrastructure to take advantage of AI for their economy at large.

It is the same with automotive parts. Anything imported from China has at least a 40% markup before it is resold.

If you are young a down market is a great opportunity to buy. That ten years allows you to pick up stock and build your portfolio.

There are a ton of videos on how to do this yourself for less than half the cost you can put in a better battery yourself. I highly recommend Mobile Sentrix if you want to get good quality hardware and responsive support. Invest in some good tools up front and you can reuse them over and over.

https://www.mobilesentrix.com/

As an owner of a Nissan I am thrilled Honda is bailing them out. I need those spare parts to flow.

China has terrible demographics, a real estate mark that is in free fall, high debt, is the target of tariffs in every major economy and a domestic market that can’t consume what they produce.

Economically they are fucked unless the US and EU throw them a life line and allow them to dump products in their market again… which is not going to happen no matter which party is in control. The best they can hope for at this point is a Japanese style lost decade. But I doubt they can manage even that outcome.

Bottom line is the CCP will do whatever is in the best interest of the CCP staying in control of China. Even if that decision is terrible for China itself.

If they are backed into a corner it doesn’t matter that Taiwan is out of reach. All that matters is that the CCP stays in control.

That is what makes this next ten years very dangerous.

Those stances aren’t mutually exclusive. Both arguments can be right at the same time.

Middle class families passing down inheritance is not a driver of inequality.

A dozen individuals controlling 60% of the wealth in America is.