Come on man, use some critical thinking and context here. He clearly is not saying that cars some kind of an issue here. He was making an idle point about traffic jams in the US with hurricane evacuations and how that doesn't apply in this situation. He's not even making a value judgement on anything here.

Oh man, if service workers can unionize, we may finally be able to rid ourselves of this tipping culture we all hate so much. God speed, service workers. Really pulling for you.

I have never, not once, heard a good thing about mastodon.art. Are they allowed to have any fun over there? Seems like it's a server purely dedicated to being superior to everyone else and sniffing their own farts.

Not a bad idea, but I was working on a project once that would support user uploaded images and looked into PhotoDNA, but it was an incredible pain in the ass to get access to. I'm surprised that someone hasn't realized that this should just be free and available. Kind of gross that it is put behind an application/paywall, imo. They're just hashes and a library to generate the hashes. Why shouldn't that just be open source and available through the NCMEC?

Doesn't seem like he was implying anything. Just stating the fact that part of the burden of citizenship is sometimes having to interact with law enforcement, maybe even go to trial, even if you've done nothing wrong.

A good chunk of them are just mean and want liberals to suffer because they find them annoying.

You're partly right. But it's the job of the citizenry to stand up to this stuff, not the state. We can't keep our heads down and hope it goes away on its own. We shouldn't allow the state, with its monopoly on violence, to fight our social battles for us.

I dislike the idea of the state getting to start making decisions on what is "hateful". And I'm disgusted we don't have more people standing up and loudly declaring how wrong the hateful viewpoints are. It is our responsibility and we are failing.

It is a tempting proposition to let the state handle hateful speech, but we don't have to look much further than Florida to see what happens when the shit side is in power and starts redefining what is "hateful".

Sometimes ChatGPT can be legitimately funny. I asked it to fill out the permissions application as Meta.

A high step count might be rewarded with an ad for comfortable running shoes; prolonged inactivity could trigger promotions for ergonomic chairs.

LOL

Dear App Store Reviewer,

We're pleased to outline our reasons for the various permissions required by our Threads application.

Permission #1: Location Access to location data allows us to provide a more personalized user experience. Localized content, such as debates about neighborhood parking restrictions, would facilitate more engaging interactions. It also enables more accurate restaurant ads.

Permission #2: Health Data With health data, we can offer timely suggestions for wellness activities based on user habits. A high step count might be rewarded with an ad for comfortable running shoes; prolonged inactivity could trigger promotions for ergonomic chairs.

Permission #3: Microphone Access Audio transcriptions serve to identify users' conversation topics, allowing us to tailor content to their interests. Casual mentions of Italian cuisine could prompt an influx of pasta maker ads, enhancing their culinary explorations.

Permission #4: Camera Access Camera access improves our ability to understand user preferences through their captured images. Frequent snapshots of their pet parrot might lead to a subtle increase in bird seed and cage cleaner advertisements.

Permission #5: Contact List Contact lists assist us in identifying common interests within a user's network. Frequent discussions about vintage car restoration with certain contacts might result in targeted ads for classic auto parts, supporting their hobby.

Permission #6: Calendar Calendar sync provides us insight into users' upcoming events, allowing for timely content suggestions. If a user's calendar reveals a dental appointment, we might find it apt to provide ads for mouthwash and high-end toothbrushes.

Permission #7: Biometric Data Biometric data offers enhanced user security, while also informing us about their stress levels. Irregular heartbeats during work hours might indicate a need for calming ads featuring spa retreats or meditation apps.

Permission #8: Browsing History By understanding a user's browsing habits, we can refine the content we present to them. Browsing for second-hand furniture might result in a myriad of ads for antique shops, aiding in their quest for the perfect vintage armoire.

Permission #9: Social Media Account Linking Linking social media accounts allows us to understand a user's broader digital footprint, leading to a comprehensive content curation strategy. Regular 'likes' on pictures of home-baked bread across platforms might trigger an increase in ads for artisanal bread making kits.

Permission #10: Dream Journal Entries Our most innovative request, access to users' dream journal entries, could provide a unique perspective on their subconscious interests. Dreams of tropical beaches could result in a range of ads for sun hats, SPF creams, and all-inclusive resort packages.

We trust these explanations clarify our intent: providing a user-centric application experience, catered to individual lifestyles, with the necessary bonus of extremely personalized advertising.

Yours sincerely, The Facebook Team

I thought the point was a mental BDSM exercise where you come to others for help and are instead punished for your ignorance.

Consider switching now. Your continued usage is contributing to the user numbers they see reported that gives them the confidence to pull this shit in the first place.

Because freedom of speech only needs to be invoked for distasteful speech. And what's distasteful is subjective.

I'm pretty far left in my politics, and growing up in a very far right area of the country, I'm aware that the principal behind free speech is very important. The social pressure to fit in was bad enough on its own; I could only imagine how bad it would have been if they had ability to shut people up by force.

Everyone gets their rocks off dunking on rightoids being shitheels and hiding behind their freedom to be a shitheel. They rarely pause to think how it might be turned on them. Because newsflash, shitheelery is really fucking popular because humans are terrible. If your ideal form of governance and the distribution of rights therein depends on people being as "good" as you are, you're going to have a bad time.

I think the people that value being on a decentralized service will stay on a decentralized server. The people that would abandon one platform to follow their favorite "high follower" poster are normies that never cared about what service they were using to begin with. Meta may absolutely take a large share of users to their platform in the future if they shut off federation and our favorite celebrities and shitposters are no longer visible. But I don't really see how that is any different than Twitter currently having all the celebrities and high volume shitposters. We already can't see them. The EEE argument just strikes me as sour grapes that "their" users are going somewhere else. And I'm on the fediverse (both Mastodon and kbin) so I see the value here. But I'm not going to get angry that normies don't want to put the effort into learning this ecosystem when they have their own lives and struggles and a limited number of social causes to care about.

Now what does bother me is Meta having an outsized influence on the development of the protocol of ActivityPub. We've seen something similar to this with Google using Chrome to push some additions to how browsers handle HTML standards/elements, like supporting DRM.