What you see as "woke" I see as pop. "Woke" gives you a convenient political lens in which to criticize film, but it forces you to look exclusively through that lens.

"Pop" is just writing to the times. It's what the majority of film projects have always been and they have always sucked. White hat/black hat westerns sucked because the writers tried too hard to write what people wanted, what studios wanted, etc. Everyone in Hollywood is looking for a formula and the producers and executives who get the final say have always been there to make bad decisions based on what they perceive to be the correct formula.

Making the main characters black or trans or whatever may be part of the current formula, but that's not what makes the formula bad. The formula is bad because it's a formula. Even when you escape the bean counters, there are tons of Hollywood jackasses who believe in the monomyth (it is to literature what Freud is to psychology–influential bullshit). Pop film usually sucks.

I watched episode 7 of Star Wars in theaters and before the film was half way over I decided to never watch another film or show in the Star Wars franchise. But it had nothing to do with "woke." It was just redundant and pointless. It was Disney-fied. It's like they focus grouped the shit out of the original Star Wars films and just copied everything that made the uber-nerds cheer. But if you ask me, the greatest filmmaker of our time is Jordan Peele, and you can't get more "woke" than his films. He doesn't take crappy formulas and insert minorities into them. He makes spectacular genre films with original twists and allegories.

I'm no fan of Disney, but methinks you aren't the aesthete you claim to be. There are tons of great movies and TV shows out there, but instead of finding them you watch childish superhero crap and--here's the kicker--your complaint is about "DEI."

Childish superhero movies have always sucked. It shouldn't require a black protagonist for you to notice their many shortcomings.

As for your nostalgia for the "moral themes of the 60s," I suspect you're not talking about Dr. Strangelove. How about The Graduate? You're definitely not talking about To Kill a Mockingbird.

Catching up? Far surpassed. BMW and Mercedes always had much better chassis and interiors than Tesla, now they have the electric motors, too. Teslas have the build quality of a GM and the price of a BMW.

That is just the status quo. Without a congress and judiciary willing to do something about it, there is nothing the president can really do. If you look at the Biden agency appointments, it is clear he has tried to some degree, but the Supreme Court is now of the opinion that federal agencies have no authority to police corporate malfeasance.

You clearly hold the EU in much higher regard than I do.

Yeah, you're right about that one. That's what I get for relying on my memory. It does weaken my point a bit, though, as Clinton and Dole were probably closer policy-wise than Bush and Gore.

I would argue that you have to tease out the message from the content. Press releases always have a strategy beyond the raw news they publish.

Regarding the regulations, I fear whatever the EU will put forward. We have no idea how to regulate AI and any hasty action will likely do nothing but allow the tech giants to gain a stranglehold on AI going forward. There is reason the ones with the deepest pockets are clamoring for regulation. Regulation is costly and will elbow out startups and smaller competitors.

Sorry, but this is just bullshit. Biden is far from my top choice, but Trump actively attempted to dismantle our government and lease it out to cronies. Biden may not be fantastic, but the most terrible things that have happened under his watch were enacted by the Supreme Court installed by Trump.

I remember this same bullshit was spouted about Gore and Bush in 2000. The Simpsons famously mocked them as clone aliens. Everyone thought they had no choice, that there was no difference between the two. Notably, Bush won because a bunch of Green Party whackos voted for Nader because they thought Gore was no better than Bush. But then Bush won and, among the many terrible things he did, he loosened environmental regulations as much as he could and started environmentally disastrous wars. Gore, meanwhile, would dedicate his life to environmentalism.

There are many issues where things will be no different, regardless of who occupies the White House in 2025. However, there are many more issues where it will be crucial.

This announcement seems to be just a PR piece for MS. Otherwise, it is just the sort of obvious speculation one would expect from an opinion piece.

Here is what it really says:

1. We are good guys protecting America! Microsoft will protect you.

2. AI is dangerous and needs to be regulated so the barriers to enter the market are high and foreign companies cannot compete. All non-Microsoft AI should be illegal.

3. Any information originating outside Microsoft should be distrusted.

I suspect you somehow believe your post is both on topic and makes sense. You live in a bubble of nonsense.

The problem here is that the companies who can afford to operate at massive losses will until they are entrenched and any upstart competition has been eliminated or purchased by a big player. Not to mention the fact that if you want to compete in this space you'll also have to rent hardware from your competitors, because they're the only ones with the infrastructure big enough to scale up quickly if you grow.

Also, Bitcoin is a weird example, and I don't think it supports your point. Bitcoin is another example of a system where those with the resources to endure massive can make out like bandits, while it's liable to ruin anyone else who gets involved.

If you are using a VPN for privacy, then it makes absolutely no sense to use Google. I do not understand how a Google VPN would provide any value to a user.

Please explain what good Putin has done for Russia. There is literally nothing to praise.

As much as I find the oversensitivity to the image amusing and absurd, I also feel the same way about your hyperbolic freakout in response.

Did you forget about Unity? Canonical has always had a not-invented-here problem.