They lobotomized the wrong Kennedy.

Something something government tracking with microchips

General Jack D. Ripper.

You know what else would help? Annual (or more) blood tests during routine wellness checks with your doctor.

Do you know why most people don't get those?

Insurance won't cover them. Many insurance providers won't cover them.

Maybe start there? Although I'm guessing he has no buddies who would make money from routine blood tests.

American evangelicals when the government suggests getting a vaccine for a deadly virus- "IT'S THE MARK OF THE BEAST DON'T GET IT OR YOU'LL GO TO HELL"

American evangelicals when people they voted for say you need to wear something on your wrist to participate in society - "This is fine"

A wearable computer is much more similar in form to what is described in the Book of Revelation than a vaccine is, but these dumbasses don't see that because they're not operating on logic but instead are just doing what they're told.

"Wearables" but they forget to mention it's about government mandated trackers in a closed ecosystem.
They will track which bad (health or otherwise) groups of people one has come in contact with and make deductions based on that.

Ofcourse it's also extra business for the ice teams.
And the deluxe wearable also tracks payments.

The European Covid tracking app back then already was very scary in its early setup ... and this mandated wearable idea will be far worse.

The best part is the random bill.

• Go to the doctor. Get blood drawn.
• Doctor send the blood to a lab for the test. Doesn't tell me who. I don't care who. It's their subcontractor, let them worry about it.
  *Go back to the doctor or get a call for results. Pay the doctor the standard co-pay.
  *Months later a random company sends me a bill. This is a company that I have never interacted with or entered into any contract with, for work that somebody else (presumably my doctor, but who the fuck knows for sure) asked them to do for them, sending the results to that other person and NOT to me.

The system is broken. If any other company subcontracted a part of their work to a third party, you as the client would reasonably expect that work to be paid through the original contract, not get a bill directly from the subcontractor. I didn't hire them, the doctor hired them. As far as I'm concerned, that's the doctor's subcontractor and their debt, not mine. I paid the doctor already.

Or another variant.

• Go to the emergency room.
• Get separate bills FOR THE SAME SERVICE from the hospital, the doctor, and somehow the hospital again but this time it's the emergency room (which is somehow separate with a different billing company).

The system is not just broken. It is designed to fleece us and train us to always accept whatever debt the institutions decide to levy on us without question.

Exactly!

The thought of a low battery alert saying “fancy a wank. M8?” got a laugh out of me

I chose to stop wearing a watch more than 20 years ago. I thought about getting one for the health benefits five years ago, but concluded that I don't want to have a watch nor cover an awesome tattoo. As a friend once wrote, "wearing a watch is like being handcuffed to time."

Not when the lab and the hospital are owned by the same company. Promedica (local hospital) sent my sample to Promedica (lab) and I got a bill from the lab. Because Promedica (lab) didn't have my insurance information.

Somehow I think the national lab test company's lawyers have got them covered. This wasn't exactly a fly by night, no name company. Having in known third party send you a medical bill months later is pretty fucking common place. This was just one anecdote of many, not an isolated incident.

If it ever comes to this, I'm going to "forget" to charge mine. Every day since it comes out of the box. I might wear it so that I don't get stopped in public but this is going to be a brick.

Sure Bobby. I went and got myself an open-source "smart" watch that pairs with another FOSS app that doesn't send anything outside of the device.

What? Not like that? Oh, too bad.

You know what else would help? Annual (or more) blood tests during routine wellness checks with your doctor.

Do you know why most people don’t get those?

Insurance won’t cover them.

My insurance covers this.

As a friend once wrote, “wearing a watch is like being handcuffed to time.”

This is pretty out-of-touch. I mean, a lot of us kinda need to know the time at some point. It takes a special kind of privilege to be able to unshackle yourself from any semblance of a schedule, a privilege that not many of us have.

Pine64's Pinetime is pretty close. I use one. I like it.

I have a decent sense of time and an abundance of options to verify it

I tweaked. Many (most?) don't.