Such as the desire for theocratic surveillance fascism (what Jesus advocated for tirelessly).

> I don’t like this policy, but engaging in exaggerated rhetoric

The Trump admin just sent an official death threat to trans people and anti-fascists (lol??). I am so incredibly sick of people acting like this is ok and normal and any calling out is exaggerating. At some point, you're not defending sensible discourse, you're lecturing people for being upset when they have a murderous regime targeting them. It's a shitty thing to do. You're defending actual fascism at this point. And I'm happy to back up that claim without rhetoric by demonstrating the ways in which the US is (and has been) slipping into fascism for decades. Something tells me I'd be wasting my breath though.

> "Closed a $40M Series B in 11 days. Have not spoken to a customer since 2022."

That gave me a chuckle. Too real.

> They tend to attempt to do this anonymized. How successful they are in anonymizing that is very much so up for debate.

    let anon_id = md5(SSN);

The problem is democracy and capitalism are incompatible, so that "if" is doing some really heavy lifting.

Why are they incompatible? They’ve been operating together for hundreds of years.

I think rather than "incompatible" the issue lies in equality/equity. Too many people are being manipulated.

> Surely this would be illegal? Personal data without consent?

I'm not trying to be mean here, but have you been frozen in ice for the last 20 years? This is effectively the tech industry's raison d'etre.

Yeah, I staunchly refuse to believe an ad company that releases a closed-source browser would violate our privacy. You're probably right that they changed the claim simply because it was too verbose. That's the best and only explanation.

> My belief is that the AI business is all about data collection.

In the short term, maybe. That's what you tell investors.

In the long term, it's about altering, shaping, and even constructing reality: making a new and canonical truth for humanity where the ruling classes are invisible to us and the machine that tells us our history and bedtime stories and how we feel is in every device we carry, until it is everywhere, and it has always been everywhere, and it will always be everywhere.

> Politicians try to square those competing wills.

Yeah! They're doing their best! They definitely aren't fascist stooges trying to expand the surveillance state.

Odd point to raise in a thread about a family killed while waiting at a bus stop in broad daylight. Do you think reflective clothing would have changed the outcome of the event significantly?