Who needs dollars when you have $TRUMP meme coins?

I meant something even more radical than translating language. This is Google maps changing borders for disputed territories depending on what side of the dispute the user is: https://theweek.com/speedreads/451127/google-maps-changes-chinas-borders-based-viewers-locations .

I imagine Apple has similar policies too where they adhere to local regulations or just don’t want to piss their users in any country, so they just show everyone what the want to see.

So yes, they do have the tools to do it and on top of that they also have a consolidate tradition of doing it.

I don’t know… Isn’t naming (and even country boundaries) already localized based on where the users are? Isn’t a possible scenario that Apple and others could show Gulf of America to US users and Gulf of Mexico to everyone else without even spending too much effort?

or from windows for even shorter periods. Very popular in Russia

EU sure mulls a lot… (Source: I live in the EU)

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I agree with you on the web privacy legislation, but the point u/Filthmontane was making is that the CCP could have our data anyway, by buying it from Meta or Google, so at least giving it directly to China is better (in that at least Meta and Google don’t have it). I think that argument is only half-serious, but after the whole Cambridge Analytica debacle still more serious than it should be…

Imagine one of your friends says “wanna bet I can beat you at arm wrestling?”.

Scenario 1: you look at them and they look more or less your size, so you bet $10. They win, but you say “wait, I wasn’t ready, let’s repeat”. They win again and you say “my elbow slipped, let’s go again”. They win for the third time, you say “you are cheating” and refuse to pay the bet. You couldn’t blame them if they concluded that you’re full of it and didn’t want to be friends with you any longer.

Scenario 2: you see that your friend has biceps the size of your head. You laugh and say “no way man, not going to arm wrestle with you!”. You share a laugh and go get a beer.

You can think of Insurance as a morbid type of betting, where you don’t really want to win the bet, because it’s something like “hey, wanna bet that I don’t get killed in a car accident this year?” and the Insurance can decide to take the bet or not depending on what they estimate your odds of dying in a car crash. If you want to bet on “wanna bet my house does not get destroyed by a fire this year” and no insurance company wants to take that bet, that’s a pretty bad sign, because they think the odds of a fire are way too high.

I don’t know how you feel about the ethical aspect of betting at all, but I think there’s a difference between them being unwilling to take your bet and them taking your bet but then refusing to pay you if you “win”.

I don’t want to be the one defending Insurance companies because seriously fuck them.

But… Please correct me if I got it wrong, but for the California fires they are accused of refusing to sell insurance policies or asking very high prizes for them, which is a very different thing than selling the policy and then denying and delaying payments after something has happened.

An insurance company saying they won’t insure you means that the risk is visibly and insanely high. Which it clearly was. If anything this should have been a pretty loud alarm bell that has been ignored.

I agree with you. I’m not saying we should leave it to the market and I’m sorry if I didn’t express myself clearly enough.
My point was that not being an asshole and working towards a society where we treat each other like decent human beings should be a valuable goal and even if it wasn’t the profitable thing to do, we should be prepared to give up something in exchange for it. If it turns out it is ALSO the profitable thing to do, even better, because at that point even the Musks of the world will get around to it eventually, but I mean for us regular and hopefully decent human beings…

The thing is that a lot of people who advocate for it don’t seem to be willing to accept even minor inconveniences like getting off Facebook or X, let alone losing some actual potential money.

I get your point and you’re right, thanks, I used “regulated” wrong. I meant that the expectation, if the market worked as advertised, is that companies that do keep DEI policies in place would have a competitive advantage over others. Then, clearly, sucking up to whoever’s in power has a much larger effect on these companies’ profits, so the market is probably not working as advertised…

I’m really happy to hear that, thanks! I mean, not the nixing part… the “not being a complete asshole is even good for business”

“we love you Jesus, whether you want it or not. Your body my choice. Now shut up and get back on that cross”

That part I don’t know. I’m not saying it’s not true, I certainly see the reasoning for why it should be good for business. But the classic conservative counter-argument is that you shouldn’t need to regulate it, because The Mythical Free Market should ensure that companies with a more diverse workforce out-compete the others.

So I prefer to think that sometimes you do things that are right just because you think they are right and even if they cost you. And as part of that, you vote with your wallet and maybe use products that are slightly less shiny and convenient than others because the companies behind them treat people more nicely. And then the Mythical Free Market does also start taking care of things and allowing these nicer companies to survive and even out-compete the Metas of this world. (But we’re all here discussing on Lemmy, so probably I’m already preaching to the choir on this one)

Accepting diversity as part of life and not making life more miserable for people just because they don’t look like you or have your same taste, gender or religious beliefs shouldn’t be far left or far anything. It’s just the decent thing to do. It’s ironic how in the US the political side that aligns themselves more closely with radical Christian beliefs is so against that view

He wasn’t. Mark used to be a sweet kid, but he’s been radicalised by all the shit he reads on Facebook. It’s not too late, Mark, delete your social media profiles, stay away from that poisonous hellhole!

“I’m not paid enough for this crap” gets a whole new layer of meaning now

“I am so far right that compared to me Hitler was a communist” FTFY Elon

nah, Trump did that for years, but he keeps talking just fine. In fact he usually begs for more

Trump might be just a conman and he is 78; his main goal now might be just to live comfortably and stay out of jail for the few remaining minutes, days or years he will statistically survive his age and unhealthy lifestyle But Musk is a person with Big Goals, he’s selling actual stuff; and the type of stuff he sells happens to be very sensitive to the political climate.

Some of Musk’s products are so big and expensive that his target customers are whole Countries: Space rockets, Satellite communication systems, Giga factories. Here’s Musk peddling his stuff to Italy’s far-right government. Other Musk products, like Tesla EVs, are sensitive to governments’ policies on green transition, incentives, protectionism from China’s cheaper (and by now better) EVs.

So far, billionaire businessman were mostly keeping a friendly, progressive mask and were leaving it to their lobbyists to do the dirty work of convincing or bribing politicians. Musk is by all accounts a prima donna and certified megalomaniac and likes to take these matters into his own hands. He decided that a little push here and there to whoever is in power right now takes too long and that it’s more effective to just control the whole thing directly. He had a spectacular success with the far right and Trump, so he’s now repeating the same playbook in other countries (and other billionaire pals, like Zuckerberg, are starting to follow suit too, so they can finally stop pretending they are real human beings).

The UK example of Musk pushing Brexiter Farage and then dumping him because not far-right enough for his taste is almost comical. And here’s Musk endorsing far-right AfD in Germany.