"And we are just letting it happen because why the fuck not?"

Who is "we"? You? Are you letting it happen?

"...our love of moral panics and knee-jerk reactions."

Like your post?

No conversation cannot be improved with more bigotry, right MAGA?

With the rise of MAGA, it seems there is more than that. SuperKendallism is pervasive.

This is not only true, it is the most important takeaway. AI has not created these two kinds of users, they have always existed.

"Religions generally accept wisdom from sacred texts."

This is false. Religions CREATE privileged texts, which they call "sacred texts" or scriptures, which contain stories that are fabricated. Religions do not "accept wisdom" from these created texts because religions create those texts.

Now, parishioners could be said to "generally accept wisdom from sacred texts." Perhaps that is what you meant. Religions are a mechanism to control people, scripture is a tool that is used.

Personally, I think the entire premise here is absurd. AI usage doesn't create two kinds of users, there were these two kinds of users before AI came into existence. Religion is particularly effective on one of those two kinds.

"... this CO scheme wouldn't be legal here in CA..."

It would not be legal in Texas either, but legal is what a judge says it is. Judges aren't there to find you not guilty.

Earlier in my life I had a friend whose father was a prosecutor. He claimed his father had never lost a case and couldn't understand criticism how that result was not something to brag about. Turns out his father was a personal friend of the judge that tried his cases and served as a temporary judge in that same court when the judge wanted time off. He thought this level of corruption was a point of pride. Texas, although likely occurs everywhere.

Speed limits are set to ensure a ready supply of people to fine. The more effective and automatic enforcement is, the larger a problem there is going to be with the public. Local government basically steals whatever money it wants while officially looking good to the voters by making the "bad guys" pay for things. That will end when the "good guys" get fines in the mail.

Society seems to be engaging in a race to ruin its infrastructure.

"...not that you should be speeding on public roads in the first place."

Why is that? Speeding is defined relative to an arbitrary value, if the state doesn't want speeding it should set those values properly. Speed limits are set to ensure speeding, not to improve public safety.

Hm. Interesting. I thought it had been dismantled by now.

...to tell us why this is a bad thing.

I have been wondering for years why they couldn't/wouldn't do this.

...for a non-profit.

Betterbird doesn't solve all of Thunderbird's problems, but it *does* act a little more sanely in many respects, and the search works a bit better on my machines.

This says everything

As always, Microsoft can't help but punch themselves in the dick, and it's been like this for decades. They have the option to provide services to leading agencies and they somewhat provide it because people who write these fucking contracts say Microsoft can be "accountable" but I've never seen any actual accountability. Has anyone in government actually recuperated some of the costs of dealing with Microsoft's bullshit?

Microsoft doesn't provide a good service. They don't deserve our tax dollars.

"SS is a scheme designed to rip off people like me"

How is SS designed to rip off dumbasses?

"I'm more than likely not going to live far enough into the age it allows you to start receiving benefits from..."

Sounds like a "you" problem, and ages are not selected to rip off morons, they are selected to balance cost and benefit for the population as a whole.

"Why can't we just have a mandatory individual retirement contribution system ... instead a stupid fucking Ponzi scheme, which by design, causes some people to lose? Oh wait, I forgot, it's not a Ponzi scheme if the government does it."

Because you don't understand what a Ponzi scheme is and you believe that "mandatory individual retirement contribution systems" have guaranteed returns. The problem here is how stupid you are. SS is LITERALLY a "mandatory individual retirement contribution system", it ensures the largest possible population to participate AND uses the most stable investments with payout guarantees.