I was responding to someone else’s post which was discussing intergenerational blame. I’m sorry if this made you feel like you weren’t the center of attention for 2 seconds. But I’m sure if you keep being an asshole to random strangers on the internet you’ll eventually fill that void.

Everyone who is alive today is descended from slave owners, thieves, rapists, murderers, conquerors and oppressors. They are also all descended from people who were the victims of slavery, theft, rape, murder, conquest and oppression. If people are responsible for the actions of their ancestors, then we are all guilty of damn near everything, and it’s basically just original sin without all the Catholicism.

Not in a million fucking years Sony. I would have gladly given you my money, but apparently that’s not good enough for you.

I guess Sony didn’t want my money after all.

Part of the issue is the balance between the stakes of the current election vs the value of the potential change for future elections. It’s possible for someone to be willing to stay home or choose a different candidate as a protest vote during one election, and then view those same strategies as monstrously irresponsible in a different election.

And to add another layer of complexity, keep in mind that both parties are fluid and can change radically over time as factions within them rise and fall.

For example, in some alternate timeline where Clinton got the nomination in 2008, a protest vote against Clinton would have risked a McCain presidency, which would have likely been the most moderate Republican president in modern history. This would have been short term loss for Democrats but likely would have been a long term win for progressives. The Democrats would likely have shifted to the left as they sought more candidates that appeal to their base, and the Republicans would have had their more moderate wing exerting greater influence and filling their leadership positions.

The situation we have today involves very high stakes, in that Trump and pals are threatening serious damage to the basic principles of democracy and rule of law, in addition to all of their horrifying policies. And the message that the Republican party will get from the next election is especially critical. Trump won in 2016, but they performed poorly in 2018, 2020, and 2022. Their shift to the right and the purging of anyone not 100% loyal to Trump has lead to a significant brain drain and a shrinking of the party.

A Trump victory would help the worst people keep a stranglehold on the party, while another defeat would send the message that their current path is a dead end. There’s a sizable portion of the Republican party that isn’t particularly happy with the MAGA crowd, but who are willing to go along with them if it means winning, and others who are just trying to keep their heads down because dissent is punished harshly. The power struggle that would occur after another Trump loss would very likely push the party to move back towards something resembling sanity and competence.

Hell, just being rid of the 800 pound orangutan in the room would make it easier for both sides to work together on the things that shouldn’t be partisan. We didn’t have a problem getting Ukraine aid passed until Trump started exerting pressure, which only got worse when he vetoed a speaker candidate that supported Ukraine aid in favor of the current one who is more than willing to open his ass cheeks for Trump’s puppeteering hand.

Not everyone ignores the problem. Some will actively make it worse just to stick it to the people warning about the problem.

There’s enough good “old” media that I don’t think any of us will exhaust the entire supply in a single lifetime.

Elon: “Now that I’ve purchased reddit, we’re going to rename it x.”

Person with an ounce of common sense: "But you already changed twitter’s name to that.

Elon: “Don’t be stupid. I named it X, whereas reddit is going to be x. It’s going to be a totally different brand.”

I love that the post about dis-inventing stuff is directly beneath an intrusive ad disguised as a post, a prime example of the kind of thing that should never have been invented.

Owning vs not owning is binary, all or nothing, a strict dichotomy.

Data security and risk management is a vast spectrum of possibilities. We all make decisions about those risks, whether we acknowledge it or not. The risk is real, but not completely beyond our control. The more aware we are of the actual risks, and of the ways in which those risks can be mitigated, the more prepared we can be to make informed decisions. It’s not just whether or not you do something, but also how you do it.

Ignoring risks doesn’t negate them. Privacy violations shouldn’t happen, but that doesn’t mean they won’t. The violator is the one who is wrong, the victim doesn’t deserve it, but that doesn’t undo what happened to them to make them the victim. Maybe we can make a better world someday where these things don’t happen, but until we do, this the reality we have to live with, and all we can do is exercise our best judgement.

The difference is that your house and TV are physical. You can try to secure them but, there’s nowhere else to put them.

Unless you are snapping polaroids or using actual film, nude selfies are not physical things, just data. Data that exists purely offline is going to be as secure as any physical object, but data on a connected device or in a server somewhere is only as secure as the weakest link in the chain. Given the evaporation of privacy and the ever increasing trend of connecting accounts and storing everything in the cloud, and the overabundance of permissions that apps demand, it takes consistent effort to keep your data secure.

How would you treat a picture of your credit card info? Or all your logins and passwords? Would you be comfortable just leaving it in your phone’s picture gallery? Would you knowingly store it in an icloud or onedrive account? Who would you be comfortable sending it to? How would you send it? Do you trust that other person’s data security practices?

If you’re going to have a credit card, you should be aware of the potential risks so that you can protect yourself. It’s not all or nothing, there will always be some risk but the key is to be aware so you can make informed decisions and manage that risk. The same goes for any data which you want to remain private, including nudes.

That would only be an equivalent if you had the alternative of storing all your belongings in your own personal extradimensional space which is inaccessible to the thief, but instead chose to leave all your valuables sitting on your coffee table. It should be safe there, but it’s going to be a lot safer if it doesn’t occupy the same realm as the thief or the shitty lock.

There’s also a lot of context being ignored. Nude selfies are usually taken with a smartphone by someone who has numerous connected accounts and apps that can potentially have access to those pictures. And that’s assuming they stay on your phone and not in the cloud by default. And that no one else is physically interacting with your phone.

In the dystopian hellscape of modern technology, everything is connected, your data is not your own, and privacy is obsolete. Fighting that trend and keeping your data secure is a constant battle that the typical user gave up on long ago.

Imagine if people were taking pictures of their passwords, credit card numbers, social security cards (or equivalent sensitive data for those in other countries) and various forms of identification. What would you need to do to feel those pictures were safe from unwanted attention? And would it really be surprising if someone pointed out that this is an unnecessary risk?

Not long before covid took off, the first case of ebola in the US was confirmed and people flipped the fuck out. I’m fairly certain that if ebola were actually spreading even a little, those same assholes who treated masks like some kind of human rights violation would have been more than ready to quarantine it, lock everything down, and burn the entire affected area to the ground.

Conform. Reproduce. Stay aslep.

Was not expecting They Live. I hope that was prompted. Creepy if it wasn’t.

I remember the time that a friend of mine was lying on a bed, looking me in the eye and saying “fuck me” and I somehow missed the hint.

Creating massive penalties equal to the whole cost of a house for anyone that sells after less than 6-8 years would have devastating unintended consequences. It might make flipping impractical, but it would also hurt a lot of people who find themselves in a position where they need to sell, and would increase the risks associated with buying a house for lower income buyers.

It would help if you targeted the profit from the sale instead of the whole price. Flipping is about buying low, minimizing the cost of improvements, and then selling for a massively inflated amount. Without that profit it’s not worth it. For a normal person, being able to make money on the deal is nice, but at least recouping your costs can keep you economically stable and allow you to move on with your life.

I also think that you would want to combine this with some plan for helping low income buyers with the restoration of neglected properties that would normally be snatched up by flippers.

I also think the arbitrary age restriction on owning a rental property needs an exemption for inherited properties if nothing else. A 20ish year old who inherits a home or rental property when their parent(s) die is not abusing a loophole, and immediately hitting them with additional legal problems and forcing them to sell a house that has a tenant already in there is just unnecessary chaos for everyone involved.

I’m also curious how large apartment complexes fit into this plan. Are they also banned? Do you just need an owner to occupy a (potentially much nicer) apartment in the building? If you can still operate a huge apartment complex, I would expect the market to shift heavily towards those. If you can’t well, that raises it’s own issues around urban housing and population density.

I also expect to work until the day I die.

Before he died he also wrote an article staking his position that video games are not a legitimate art form. That doesn’t necessarily mean he hated games or would never play one, but it does make it somewhat odd to see a list like this on a site bearing his name.

Well, since you say Christmas or not, my favorite show any time is Babylon 5.

But for Christmas stuff, Hogfather is my favorite tradition. Also Die Hard, and the Christmas episode of Justice League.