Apparently another one got arrested within hours of a Snapchat too.

I'm no fan of capitalism, but nothing in it requires public schools to install surveillance software on laptops. This seems purely like an administration issue, which is often the source of problems in general, not just in schools, but also in other sectors like healthcare, where they put in stupid policies while sucking up funding for themselves and their pet issues instead of towards the core purpose of that sector.

Agreed on the snow days. In fact, I think we should reduce the number of school days (and work days, for that matter) in general.

I kind of agree with you. Things in the US (and most of the rest of the world) have taken a turn for the worst. I've been digging into all that's been going on since January, and comparing it with how the nazi party came to be in power in Germany, and the similarities are scary, to say the least. Sure, it's towards other races more than anything, as well as religions, sexual preferences and other key differentiator, but the core is exactly the same. How the Nazi party got most Germans to believe that being German meant hating jews, blacks and who knows what else, and that's what made the holocaust so effective. Propaganda pushing hate and dividing the same country. If we go back in history, we can see all the same bullshit propaganda from those days today.

And, full disclosure, I am not opposed to countries controlling illegal immigration, as not doing so is extremely detrimental to any country, however, there is no need to completely destroy people (mentally, spiritually and sometimes even physically) to achieve these goals.

It is as you say. Americans are focused on the lie that surveillance will make them safer, and this government has exacerbated that exponentially in just half a year, using fear as the tool, and fear of immigrants, LGBT people, any skin color difference, and many more.

Now, let's look at the other side of this. By promoting all this crap, the US has managed to make previous allies look at the possibility of moving to the other side. China, Russia, India and a few more countries have all but created their own "UN", and contrary to what the media is showing us, they are actually flourishing, which points to a dramatic shift in global politics.

The UK, EU and Australia are leading the surveillance regimes, even for the US (visa, mastercard and steam are US companies, and all 3 were bullied into submission by a fucking Australian NGO, fucking up millions of US gamers in the process, and the authorities of the US haven't even blinked, WTF?), which is building rapidly into a distrust climate among all allies (assuming they still are).

This is way more complex than war, surveillance, racism, xenophobia and finances, this is the decline of the Roman Empire all over again, bringing with it all the disasters to civilization that comes with this fall.

Money as we knew it doesn't exist anymore (it hasn't been based in gold for decades now, and now there is no physical base for it either), values have been stripped from morals in every single community (religious or not), existing weapons could destroy every living being on the planet within a couple of hours, and everyone seems to be blindly following so-called "leaders" that are only looking after their own benefits (and I'm talking about every facet of our civilization: business, work, families, governments, nobody gives a fuck about the common wellbeing anymore).

From my perspective, it falls on each of us to take the best care possible of our families, if and when we achieve this, do the same for our immediate communities, and if that pans out, then each of our countries. But I'm not counting on any "leader" to do what is needed to reverse the downward spiel the whole world is in right now. At this rate, we're all just going to crash and burn.

Sorry for the horrible and long rant, I am extremely frustrated watching the world my kids will have to try to survive in, and the feeling of helplessness is overwhelming.

Adding the cost for training, which is a one time cost, to ChatGPT raises the power consumption from 3W to 4W. That's the high-end calculation btw.

Damn kids gotta make everything public these days lol

The few ones are already good enough.

There's not much else the little guy can do.

Care to explain what you meant then? Because the most I did was paraphrase what I understood to be your stance.

Hey, this is me! Currently using a OnePlus 5 with LineageOS and a Sunbeam phone. If I need to connect to the Internet or use any phone app, I just use my hotspot.

OK FC, come at me! But be warned, I've been armed by Hancock! AND Pink Floyd!