You sir, have added absolutely nothing to the conversation. This post is a waste of space.

The real people in power are those who tell the best stories.

This tale is as old a civilization: a sword is powerful, but more powerful yet is a pen to instruct a thousand swords.

Maybe we have forgotten that, in this analogy, the pen isn’t literally a pen in an oval office, rather it is a tweet plugged straight into people’s brains.

Too many of you incorrectly assume that the real power of persuasion can only come from inside the Whitehouse, or some other institution, just because historically that is where it came from.

aren’t they pretty staunch bloc supporters rather than lib or con

Pretty easy choice these days

The scientific process derives consensus from not observing what is expected in a theory, rather from repeated failure to observe counter examples to what is expected. This is the whole point of “reject the null hypothesis”.

Stated more plainly, a scientific theory is solidified when you put yourself in the shoes of your own fiercest critics, and attempt to question your own idea (in good faith) and fail to observe any evidence to substantiate that criticism. A scientific theory, is then put under that scrutiny for real, and gains consensus when others fail to observe any counter examples for themselves.

So to answer “what to look at”, the answer is always, what would your competition look at to try to disprove you? Then look at that, to see if there is anything of substance to discredit your own idea, and save everyone the time and your embarrassment in case there are easy counter examples.

Just check your tea leaves.

It’s insane to me that any government would approve “digital licence plates”. Clowns making decisions “because we can”, not “because we should”. Result: a circus.

Lots of great points in the comments. But I think so far no one has really addressed your core complaint head on, which is why society tolerates a double standard here.

Parents get a pass because they are supporting more than just themselves… It may appear that the parent who is getting a free pass is pulling less weight, if you look at this exclusively through the lens of comparing contribution to the company’s productivity. But if you expand that lens a bit, you see that raising a child is also work to be valued (which you benefitted from yourself, btw). Frankly, a company with a work culture that considers its social responsibility to the community beyond merely spitting out products is a really good thing.

If you are ok with the double standard of handicapped parking, you should be ok with this too.

I now only buy offline or local-only software and products. If it doesn’t exist, I hack it.

AFAIAC, all that that achieved was to push me off of those MS products.

All prices are set based on what consumers are willing to pay.

The only way prices ever go down is by exercising a decision not to buy something or to go somewhere for an item.

It will not come from the government, unless the government mandates a specific rate.

It’s the great flood of (miss)information, drowning out truth, and AI is only making it worse. People have forgotten how truth is generated and why it is valuable. This will continue untill people adapt to the new reality that information (AI) is not the same thing as truth. And people being people… they will only adapt and learn after a lot of people get hurt.

None of us should be condoning it either, btw. More like, this is a wake up call for what happens when peaceful protest is suppressed. Like, murdering Nazis was deemed acceptable. We need to draw a line somewhere.

For many people sitting comfortably in the status quo, that line is very far away. For others, we are flying dangerously close to that line.

Agreed. We should be supporting Israelis who recognize and promote that the only solution to peace is harmonious coexistence. Calling it “marketing” seems irrelevant and disingenuous, about as solid an argument as calling “peace and love hippies” fakers.

You both aren’t wrong… But this isn’t about you.

Voting trump as president was the first strike. Supporting a CEO killer was the third strike. Is it going to take a third strike before the people in charge wake the fuck up and realize the bread and circus they’ve been providing just isn’t enough anymore?

All this convenience in tech. We never stopped to ask ourselves what we were giving up. Add protest to the list of sacrifices to the altar of affluence.

Seems like an irrelevant detail.

Wait, you are telling me he drank water too???

Huh. I forgot about that thing until this article.

I’ll forget about it in about two minutes.

Bonus trampoline in the living room.

How about we spend all this money and time on the hundreds of other ongoing murder investigations. A CEO’s family doesn’t need this government handout. They get paid enough to take care of things privately.

Just one more example of the perversion and inequality of America, and how the rich continue to loot the country.