I forget the name of the short story, but I read a great sci-fi short where the premise is: It becomes possible for a person to make a weapon capable of destroying the world with stuff found in the kitchen. Imagine every person having the ability to end the world. What would you trade for security versus freedom?

They're working on it. Or at least, ban all communication not pre-approved by the Lib-NDP alliance.

This is not populism This is nanny state left wing authoritarianism, the same fascists who froze bank accounts of truckers for protesting ridiculous mask/vaccine mandates, on full display once again.

Prime Minister Blackface is a fascist. And I bought a Flipper from the manufacturer less than a month ago without any issues or delay. Granted, it was ripped open in a very obvious manner so they could peek inside by US Postal Inspectors (also fascists).

Any general-purpose computer with the right interface hardware can do what a Flipper Zero does, if not so conveniently...are those safe? Or will they ban general-purpose computers with certain software as well?

No. The problem is the EU reaching out beyond its borders and "regulating" those of us who are not *in* the EU. IDGAF if France wants to reglulate what people in France can look up on google.fr. Nor do I care if Belguim wants a popup for every single cookie that's ever set. And if Spain wants its deadbeats to be able to skip out on paying their bills and "be forgotten" such that other people won't know they're deadbeats and they can go on to scam others; that's on Spain.

But nothing that any EU lawmaker or regulator says should ever be allowed to have any impact on what I... sitting here in the US...

So what, it's basically like the EU's requirements for exporting data to the US, companies must comply with EU standards on handling it? No data export to countries on some blacklist of places that blackmail Americans?

Good luck with that. Banks already have a terrible time with that, and they're the ones most likely impacted. One exploit and systems are compromised.

Arguably knowing how serious it was or was not, was none of his business, and not a predicate to reporting it.

He may have been curious. I know I would be. But we all know what happened to the cat...

Ok so here it is as intelligent reductionism:[...]Hows that?

Very good about social media, but "I think you'll find/well akshually" it's very poor reductionism, what with not being reductionist :)

Social media is a place to practice discourse with few real-world ramifications for "wrong-think."

I think Bartlett is on to something here. A case in point: I was horrified and outraged by the attack by Hamas on Israel. I was also horrified and outraged by Israel's response. And I do feel an obligation to condemn one side or the other, which I haven't done publicly. I do have a personal opinion, but I'm not confident enough in my facts or understanding to loudly proclaim judgement, or to tell others what they should think.

Social media is 100% performative.

No it isn't this is just stupid reductionism.

Ok so here it is as intelligent reductionism:

Social media often involves performative behavior, driven by a desire for recognition, credibility, or moral influence. While it may appear self-centered, this behavior is influenced by the evolving nature of online communication platforms, such as the shift from BBS-style forums to instant messaging like Twitter. However, acknowledging the performative nature of social media doesn't negate the potential for genuine interactions or meaningful discussions. Furthermore, recognizing the performative aspects of online communication allows individuals to engage more thoughtfully and understand the dynamics at play.

Hows that?

Performative to the invisible crowd watching. In my ...30ish years on everything from bbs's to x, the number of times a post is directly responding to someone (like I'm responding directly to you) is very much the minority.

And that's sort of my point....until the internet era, I'd say most communication was to the person present or to whom you wrote that letter, etc. The very little 'group talk' was reserved for politicians or their analogue (like an Icelandic Thing). We've basically inverted that which is weird.

Hah! Fair point, though actually, it's not far off. Some places don't even keep the check anymore - they just scan it to capture routing and account numbers and immediately run the transaction electronically. If checks were still prominently used, I could see them incorporate that into the payment consoles that are customer facing.