We passed Idiocracy some time back. We're now in a region where satirists and humourists are simply no longer able to function without sounding saner.

True, but to be fair, the scientists, engineers, and scholars are largely fleeing the country, the tech industry is in a massive slump (agriculture is the only sector growing jobs according to the last reliable official figures), and there's a political need to create the impression that the country isn't in a bad way.

In their more enlightened future, we are told, they only pursue the more benign science of longevity.

Bah, we swap blood with juice boys too!

Your prose indeed is usually beautiful. In this case, I think you'll have to agree that:

This impacts nearly(*) everyone, indirectly.

The reason being that the statement applies to Europeans, which is almost(*) everyone who pays for Microsoft products.

(*)virtually

Windows is everything people don't want: a surveillance platform, an advertisement billboard and now an unreliable "agentic" piece of shit.

But worse of all, Windows is mostly what people have to put up with at work.

And finally, there's another negative factor working against it: Microsoft is a company headquartered in a rogue fascist country. My company for one is actively exploring option to ditch Office 365, Teams, WIndows and depend on Microsoft things as little as possible. I'm sure it's not the only one.

They go from 0 to 100% Nazi in less than a year!

Boycott products that make Musk money.

The Chinese EVs may be technically superior and better value, but they are not available in Musk's adopted home market for.... reasons.

Is it? Or is it wishful thinking? Some of us have stricter standards than you.

I have commented on this, in excruciating detail, many times in the last 4 years on slashdot. You're welcome to look up my comments. They have all borne out experimentally, in hindsight.

I don't think you know what the word "virtually" means.

Because incels on Twitter have never seen real ones?

"Just accept mediocrity and don't resist, it'll be less painful, because we sure as hell won't stop trying to make money off of AI."

I think he's saying: it's very hard for the previous generation, who didn't grow up with computers, to navigate the online world today: Up is down, left is right, and intelligence is slop.

Oooooh! Is it a good deal? I just got paid!

Let me be the first to create a new Theory of Human Minds Enhanced by Slop Insertion Tools(TM).

It goes like this:

Law 1: Human (average intelligence) + Slop Insertion Tool = Enhanced Human (below average intelligence).

Law 2: Enhanced Human + Bridge = Money Machine.