h4890 @[email protected]

@shortstories This is very dystopian and very authoritarian. =(

@ChrisMayLA6 Sad to hear that it is not only in sweden that this happens. Remember the story of a man who wrongfully served 12 or 14 years in prison for murder.

In the end, _he_ was able to prove himself innocent, something which countless lawyers had not been able to do for 12 years.

I think he got 1.5 million GBP in damages and left sweden forever to start a B&B in southern spain.

Horrible when the state steals 12 years of your life like that. 1.5 million GBP is not near enough.

@ChrisMayLA6 What I fear though, as a libertarian, is that governments all over learned through corona, that smartphones are the best tool for monitoring and controlling the population.

I fear that they will soon become mandatory in western societies, and that pen and papers means to interact with the government will be abolished.

Think no further than how unpleasant it would be if Trump controlled your digital ID, or if, for the other side... Starmer controlled it.

@ChrisMayLA6 attacksurface for scammers. If they discover that you don't have a smartphone with (in my country) mobile digital ID, they just hang up.

@tartanroots @ChrisMayLA6 Laptops are often cheaper than modern smartphones, so there would be a financial benefit to move to laptops as well.

If you look at a used computer website, or other online market place for used equipment, you can get an old laptop for 50-200 GBP, at least in sweden. Compare that with the price of a smartphone.

@ChrisMayLA6 This is the way! I also only own a dumbphone, and the mental health benefits are considerable. I am able to concentrate, I am not interrupted every 5 minutes, no scammers are able to trick me into startings apps or to use my mobile id, my colleagues only call me if something is really important, not just "checking" or wanting my opinion on the most trivial things, which inevitably happens if they can "chat" with me on the phone.

For elderly, I strongly recommend it to remove an

@ChrisMayLA6 has followed a leftist economy, which we know, lowers growth and makes things worse for the country. If post-brexit would have followed a diet of complete deregulation, cutting taxes in half, becoming a tax- _and_ data-haven etc. the EU would by now be begging the UK to come back in any form they would choose.

@ChrisMayLA6 I wouldn't call it right, in the US example, I would call that "nationalism". And as we all know, nationalism taken to its extreme, always ends in tears.

I would argue though, that the UK example is closer to what you can call "right".

Complaining about the situatoin is silly, and if the UK would only adopt a right stance towards financial questions, after a few years of booming economy, the EU will beg the UK to negotiate.

The "right" took them out of the EU, but after that

@shortstories The question is.... are the beavers ready to join the war?

@shortstories Try computers and ecnryption instead. Isn't it already a theoretical possibility that the US can take away your laptop in case you refuse to unlock it?

I am certain that tor, i2p, and similar software will become a crime in our more authoritarian western "democracies" in the next decade.

Movie recommendation: Perfect days (2023)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27503384/

A beautiful meditation on what gives life meaning, and how much you can simplify life, while still living a rich one.

Warning, it has a minimum of dialogue, and no background music, yet manages to tell a beautiful story. If you like minimalism and existentialist themes, give it a try.

If you like something fast paced, or something very close to hollywood story telling, stay far away.

@shadowferret Rust is very strange in that it gives rise to religious wars. Very strange indeed. I'll continue with my bash scripts for many more years to come, and let them war on. 😎

@ChrisMayLA6 You are a wise man!

@ChrisMayLA6 management team is physical, so I had to leave in the end.

The company then went on to lose about 50% of its employees and about 3 years of revenue growth.

@ChrisMayLA6 Haha... brilliant quote.

The last 2 times I had management arguments I used logic and fact which made the opposite position untenable.

But humor is better, because disproving an "opponent" breeds resentment, and later counter attacks.

But the environment was very leftist, and for 3 years I managed to get them to focus on business, rather than on politics, but there is only so much you can do remotely when the rest of the

@ChrisMayLA6 You do! It would actually be very interesting to watch you in action at some municipal politics.

@freepatriot This is the truth!