dabbledash

I think people are wrong to be unconcerned, and that governments and corporations will use this data to dominate and manipulate people.

But I think you’re absolutely right about what’s going on emotionally. People care about things like incognito mode because it hides activity from people they care about. That don’t see nameless strangers as a threat.

It doesn’t take much to convince “professional journalists” of things, as long as the things confirm their priors.

I’d cut them some slack, because we’re all bad at that, but their literal job is to check things out.

The left i remember from the 90’s and early 2000’s would have been skeptical of huge corporations suppressing political dissent and providing political training at work, for example. They aren’t skeptical now because the corporations are “on their side” on the issues they now consider most important. Issues that conveniently don’t threaten corporate power in any way.

I think if you looked over the last 50 years, you’d actually see a collapse in trust in large institutions. I think what we’re seeing, in the US at least, is an authoritarian response from these institutions (government / media / academia) to the threats posed by the internet and their general decline in prestige since the 70s.

See the other comment in this thread that free speech has been “weaponized” and therefor presumably must be curtailed “for our own good.”

What is going on with Australia? Are they just generally giving up on liberal democracy and the idea of individual rights?

As you can see from some previous replies, it’s because people are less concerned with what’s true than with how (they believe) information will influence the behavior of others.

The apparent prevalence of this attitude in media and public health is eroding the credibility of those institutions, imo.

I wonder low likely it is that over the course of a lifetime the vaccinated will end up with both forms of immunity. I assume we’ll be exposed to the virus regularly. Would the natural immunity be weaker if it comes from a second, very mild, infection?

Yes, because an action against a minority by a majority can be coercive. I think American history demonstrates this pretty clearly.

Congratulations!

>> Isn't this also a statement against gun control or generally anything that increases the power of the state with respect to the citizens?

Yes.

I think when the person you’re responding to says “they are not racist” he is referring to the texts being analyzed, not the model. I.e, “your model can take texts about or against racism as inputs and from these texts form an association between negative sentiment and certain races.”

There’s nothing stopping governments from banning E2EE, but in the absence of such bans, no one is under any obligation to build systems that empower them to spy on their users.

There is no way to scan people’s content while “respecting their privacy.” The goal should be to create a system where you couldn’t do so even of you wanted to (or the state demanded it).

$local_area_code-867-5309 is almost always registered. No reason to sign up for your own card.

Laws allowing this might be constitutional. They would still be Orwellian nightmares. (We probably need a constitutional amendment addressing the issue - but regardless the fact is a proposed law can be both authoritarian and constitutional).

If they’re serious about this, I will become a single issue voter.

Then read the odometer. You don’t need to subject everyone to constant surveillance to pay for roads.

Trusting the people in power now wouldn’t make me any more ok with this. To find constant tracking of everyone acceptable, you would have to be naive enough to believe not only that your current masters are benevolent but that all the future masters would be too.

You would think recent experience would be enough to teach Americans that sometimes untrustworthy people win elections. Maybe don’t hand them absolute power ahead of time.

E2E encryption isn’t meaningful if third parties get to look at the decrypted content.

The point of encrypted data is not to be “reached.”

No, I’m not discounting it. That’s what I’m talking about when i refer to people resistant to things “pushed from above.” I’m saying that’s part of the issue, and it’s only going to be solved (if it can be), by depoliticizing the issue and making it a mundane medical concern. And that’s going to take time, and backing off the stick.

Or… you know, just give people 500 bucks (including everybody who already did it.)

Well 70% of people adults are already on board, so we don’t need to worry about besting that number. The question is how do reduce resistance. My totally made up theory is that some people are just generally resistant to things being “pushed” from above, and some people are more concerned about new technology than others. Both of those things will probably improve as this cools off and becomes less political. In the mean time, there are other things we could be working on.

I hope you understand that we will not be “wiping out COVID” any time soon.

We need long term management strategies that are actually sustainable and protect the most vulnerable. And we probably need to worry less about persuading the die hards and more about things like standing up booster distribution and making ventilation improvements.

And a lot of the die hards will probably come around when the vaccine becomes part of the normal, boring health care routine instead of something they’re being “forced into” in an emergency, You know, you go in to the clinic in the winter with a cold. Doc asks if you’ve had your flu shot. Asks if you’ve had your COVID shot. That’s a much more comfortable context for people, I think.

When I listen to German the words seem more distinct from one another than Spanish or Italian. I wonder if it’s a reflection of how many words in the language end in consonants vs vowels.

I was with you until the nazi thing. I doubt GP would condone actual violence.

I always wonder if people who make comments like this are old enough to remember when gay people were considered deviants by most of society.

“Ask women what they experience if they show up to work without makeup.”

My experience of not wearing makeup in lots of places, over many years: Nothing happens. It’s fine.

Which suggests maybe we aren’t doing a good job teaching history.

That’s true. I remember being so surprised when I found out how few calories I burned running a mile! There are other reasons to exercise obviously, but it’s easy to overestimate how important it will be to weight loss for sure.

I think weight loss is an area where giving advice is a bad idea unless it’s specifically asked for. It’s not like it’s hard to figure out what to do, it’s just incredibly difficult to do it.

If I were asked, i’d say that all diets that produce a calorie deficit are similarly effective and to try different things until you hit on the plan you can see yourself following for the rest of your life (at maintenance calories). Lots of people lose weight, maintaining is the biggest challenge.