I live in Chicago near a park and every now and then I’ve seen someone juggling there. I’d say it’s out of the ordinary but not in a bad way; it’s unique. Still a fun hobby and you’re not hurting anyone, so go for it!
Multiple times he has publicly defended a German political party that has a leader who has stated, and I quote: “Germany was safer under Adolf Hitler.” End quote.
He personally flew out to attend a party from this, uh, ‘party.’
Fuck Elon Musk and every single person who defends him in any way, shape, or form.
As I understand it, the protocol has the ability to decentralize built in. But the technical requirements are prohibitively high to the point only large businesses or corps could afford to do it. I also believe (someone correct me) the company hasn’t switched on the functionality yet.
It isn’t complicated: they’re racists and bigots. Their leaders figured out it’s much easier to control people when you unify them against a group of Others. People aren’t born racist, but they are tribal. And it’s easy to twist that affinity for one’s own group into evil and profit.
I feel like this kind of misses the point. To be clear: If someone absolutely cannot avoid installing slop apps and enabling notifications for everything, I can see their need for an ultra minimal device or other solution. But I also think that speaks to a larger, personal discussion about discipline and possibly addiction, but that’s outside the realm of this thread.
My point is we can choose which apps, notifications, features, and algorithms are allowed to get our attention. It’s easy to turn off all notifications or never even allow them in the first place—after all, apps have to ask for that permission in the first place.
But the choice is the point. If someone is traveling somewhere they probably want maps to tell them important information about the journey. Otherwise why turn on directions at all? That’s the entire point.
We even have the ability to disable all texting notifications but also choose to allow them from certain people if they’re important enough. These devices are simply tools and we have the power to choose how they operate. The device isn’t the problem, it’s our choices.
Pragmatically: It depends on the country’s laws for free speech and criticism, your location, and a country’s extradition relationship.
Personally: Yes, we should all have the right to criticize our own and others’ governments. But we should also take the responsibility and initiative to get educated while doing so.
I like Eddy. And at first I’ve liked this essay subject from other creators, but now I just find it shortsighted. The phone isn’t the problem, just like the television and radio weren’t the problem. It’s the content you put on it.
You can watch great TV shows—documentaries, masterpiece dramas, etc. Or you can watch slop.
You can do incredible stuff with your phone—get directions, listen to almost any song ever recorded, learn about the night sky, watch documentaries anywhere you are, write, create your own content, sky’s the limit. Or you can install slop and brain rot apps like Twitter.
You don’t have to pull a stunt like locking your phone away. Just delete the slop. Be more mindful of what an app and the company behind it are, and either limit your use of it or simply don’t install it at all.
A person refusing to waste time on a troll has literally, fundamentally, and atomically nothing to do with totalitarianism