doubleplusUNgood.

Goodthinked that for you.

$45 million??? That’s a rounding error on a single day of Google’s income. I’m not even a little shocked that they have no scruples or integrity whatsoever, but I AM shocked how apparently CHEAP our democracy is.

Hell, it’ll probably cost more than that to IMPLEMENT this in any meaningful sense!

“Involuntary Unpaid Interns”

They’re going to get stopped either way. A flotilla of 27 civilian ships isn’t sneaking past one of the most advanced, heavily armed navies in the world, no matter how “sneaky” they try to be.

At least this way they’re on record for stopping the delivery.

Let’s not forget it’s convenient for conservative parties of BOTH sides to have some red meat to throw to their country’s nationalists. Normal, everyday people scarcely have the time or interaction to have strong feelings about another country whose people they don’t encounter that often, independent of history. But when you stir up your constituents to unite against an out-group, you can get them out to the polls and have a nice convenient threat to accuse the other guys of being soft against. They will become real friends when the real threat from China is greater than the political benefit of using each other to keep a united nationalist wing.

The solution is what it has always been.

Since DAY ONE phone hardware should have been as standardized and open as normal PC hardware - able to run any operating system that you want.

But every time it got brought up for DECADES, techbro corporate apologists were ready to line up and talk about all the reasons that wouldn’t work and how companies would NEVER do that, as if that was some kind of sensible counterpoint.

Now the noose is closing and all it’s going to take is the combined forces of the richest companies in the world to crush what little competition remains. Undercut or sue Fairphone into oblivion, for example. The lawsuits don’t even have to have merit - they can eat the costs for a few quarters to ensure no viable alternative to the walled garden ever gets a foothold.

The thing to be done now is minimize your mobile usage altogether and try to make it to the tech dystopian endgame with a few local files of your own left.

What could possibly go wrong with pushing the two most resource rich and populous countries in the world onto the same team aligned against you? I’m surprised nobody’s thought of such a winning strategy before.

What if what you want to do is be elitist about hot dog condiments?

I’ll drink to that, my friend.

Exactly what they’re doing right now. What cable companies did. What every dominant business does when something better starts to eat their lunch.

Become increasingly abusive and scummy towards the customers who are left, because they’re either too deeply ingrained, spineless or lazy to change and they’ve already self-selected.

I’ve learned no lesson. I secured a permanent residency abroad the first time this chucklefuck was in office, and I’ve already bought my plane ticket out. I feel so, so awful for people who voted reasonably and are stuck there, and I encourage everyone who can to get out now, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to let the self-righteous attitudes of people with no sense try to punish me for exercising logic.

Nobody’s “souls” matter anymore. The world is completely fucked and our physical bodies are going to be going through the ringer very soon. I hope you’re on the right side of the people who can now do whatever they want with absolutely no guardrails. Otherwise you’re about to REALLY experience solidarity.

If it’s any consolation you and everyone else are likely to get a firsthand lesson in it in the near future.

Now EVERYONE is fucked. Congrats!

The Dude abides.

Genuinely laughing at how you construct a false premise and then continue building a mountain of straw men on top of it.

I guess that’s what happens when liberals abandon reality. Better luck constructing a coherent thought next time!

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"I will never, ever, EVER explicitly make a claim for a course of action, because then you’ll be able to refute my decision as stupid.

Instead I just want to hold my nose in the air over all of you sheeple and criticize and shame you for EVERY action, shaking my head and smirking like some kind of disingenous gaslighting machine. Happy Election Day!"