As I understand the headline, it could just as easily be someone in the prison that tampered with the data. That would be the simplest explanation, then.

After reading the article, it’s not even clear it was tampering, as opposed to conversion and compilation of the original file formats. And apparently, if the footage is what it appears to be, he actually did kill himself.

It truly is just a handful of unscrupulous, malignant narcissists that have ruined everything (including the planet) for everyone else.

No, that was a much larger group effort. You and me can’t wash our hands of it. Like, even if you ignore the majority of stuff they don’t own, we let them do that.

Okay, I’ll be a bit more direct. Go talk to the aliens about it, maybe they have time. I believe the hexbear way of saying that is “disengage”.

Huh. Is there a way I could have asked that without implying an answer, or a value judgement about the answer?

Like, if it was two hours on every trip I’d say it’s not worth the added safety, but a lot of driving tends to happen off of local streets anyway, so I was honestly wondering.

They had to explicitly exempt religious texts, lol.

That she wants to keep her party together at all costs, including the wingnuts.

Maybe she’s anti-vaxx herself as well, I don’t know, it’s hard to tell.

Yes, she is shit. The only bright spot is that her government feels like it could fall apart at any time.

I believe in conspiracies as a general concept, like the two guards, and I believe governments have classified programs. When it gets to a certain point where vast numbers of people are involved in covering up something huge perfectly, you run into the problem of everything being possible and nothing being falsifiable, though.

In practice, people don’t believe in conspiracy theories because they honestly assess it’s the neatest way to explain the world, it’s because they get emotional satisfaction out of the community and the feeling that they know something which other people don’t. There’s psychology literature about it and everything.

What I said is my goto answer when I suspect I’m about to be arguing about melting steel beams or whatever, because that’s just a waste of time.

Bitcoin specifically? No. It’s a janky prototype that should have been superseded a long time ago.

Crypto in general? Probably something. It’s good for buying and selling illegal things.

Well, I don’t see the government covering it up, and I don’t believe in conspiracy theories.

I’m not surprised, and I’d still say it’s not an unlikely grand conspiracy if some rich guy paid a couple guards to kill him.

Relevant XKCD.

Yes, I think it’s a pretty common pet peeve.

Good for you! That’s quite the impressive setup.

Like I said in OP, that’s how modern dictatorships work, too. They have coups and intrigues and corruption absolutely everywhere you look. The dictator spends most of their time just staying on top and keeping the factions in balance.

I’d say you’re right that the degree of control was lower on average before the conveniences of fast travel and communication, but then again it varied quite a bit. Rome’s level of centralisation is still etched across the European landscape.

You don’t??

So how much time will this add to most trips, in the end?

Edit: I have no formed opinion on this policy. I don’t even know which side is downvoting me, lol.

What about just enforcement?

Yes, I’m pretty sure that’s the whole point. I’m guessing they could pick one or two Central American or other African countries and get the same balance.

Also, picking on SA specifically smacks of the whole apartheid hangover thing that’s going on.

Only sort of facetiously, it’s all filmed up here anyway.

Yes, the tech and media giants are harder to avoid. Ali Express has left a lot to be desired as an Amazon replacement, although I haven’t quite given up. For streaming, CBC Gem is publicly funded. The boycott is mainly targeted at physical products.

Stagnant wages aren’t that new. 2008 was worse. The rest, yeah.