Most crimes have a clear victim that is hurt directly by the crime. Battery, murder, theft, vandalism, fraud.

The problem with laws about penalties for “being” something is that it’s an identity statement. There is no “victim” to someone “being a pedophile” unless a child is sexually abused, just as there’s no victim to someone “being a terrorist”. So, the fascist state works to subvert and divide by othering their political opponents with taboo labels of being “pedophiles” (trans people) or “terrorists” (“Antifa”… i.e. anyone who denounces fascism).

There is a categorical difference between those that is completely unrelated to your main argument. One could be in favour of severe punishment for first degree murder and be opposed to any punishment for “thought crime” without any contradiction.

That said, most progressive people who support LGBTQ+ rights (and, apparently, rule of law) also tend to be opposed to capital/severe punishment of criminals.

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

—Martin Niemöller

You mean the person who posted 3 hours after me?

But, clearly, a Google Home or Amazon Alexa needs cloud connectivity to function. And short of Stop Killing Games regulations forcing companies to release software to keep purchases functional after server shutdowns, there’s going to be no alternative when they shut down the servers.

But where do we draw the line?

A smart fridge should obviously keep working without cloud connectivity, since cloud features aren’t relevant to its core functionality.

A spyware house-scanning vacuum robot, on the other hand, that stores video of your entire house on web servers “to map your home” may not have the processing power to model the home based on its surveillance video recordings. So, is it reasonable, then, that these break when servers go offline?

Without any regulations, the answer is just “consumers can go fuck themselves”, which clearly isn’t a good answer.

You’re joking, but the reverse of that is essentially how early retirement works. Funding a 30-year retirement costs almost the same as an infinite retirement, due to the effects of compound interest. So, if you can increase your income while keeping your spending low, you can afford to retire very early and live off investment income forever.

Exactly. The American 2-party system is between right and alt-right.

ikr? Can we start labeling this as a Republican choice, not just Trump?

This is a Republican administration operating with support from a Republican-controlled Senate and House and by Republican judges and other appointees.

Project 2025 isn’t Trump’s plan, it’s a Republican plan. Let’s start talking about the party that’s doing this to America so they can’t just claim it was “all Trump” and be believed when it all comes tumbling down around them.

Are national guard trained in protestor rights? They aren’t police, aren’t trained as police, and have no business policing unless it’s a state of emergency.

Unless I’m totally off base. I don’t know anything about the American national guard. I’m not even American.

lol. Now that’s a unique take.

Literal newspeak, straight from 1984.