"Most people today regard America’s experiment with alcohol prohibition as a national embarrassment, rightly repealed in 1933. So it will be with the closures and lockdowns of 2020-21, someday. "
I don't think so.
Everyone seems to forget that the purpose of the lockdown was to make time to prepare enough ventilators for those that the disease would effect seriously. It definitely went on for way longer than it needed to I'm not complaining.
I also think the whole covid experience has had an overall positive effect on society. It has been a negative effect for people like landlords or businesses owners who exploited their employees.
Things have been shaken up, and the situation is still developing from that input.
I don't know if it's summarized somewhere because it is still unfurling over reddit and forum reactions (to the claim against him, then his admission, then his later attempt to back-pedal). I would warn you that there's a lot of time to be wasted addictively trying to unpack what exactly happened here because 1) it's all arguments and interpretation and 2) if you have any interest in using meditation to move toward freedom from desire, here's someone who claimed to spell out exactly how to do that, but then obviously it didn't actually happen because he admitted to acting in a way that implies a high level of sensual desire, grasping and craving etc. - so it brings the whole undertaking into question, right?
My eventual take loosely is that the guy was somewhat of a charlatan/double-minded from the start so, it's fine - it's still worth trying to free yourself of desire you can probably do something like that, and best to go on as if this guy never existed.
Also, apparently he now has terminal cancer, and likely has less than a year to live. He's staying with family, which makes the above posters comment about "he is now isolated, leaving his very-much-extant sensual longings starved.)" seem untrue and unnecessarily cruel.
This is exactly how I feel to a T. It's intangible to explained but I'm not a criminal and I'm not on probation. Apple as zero business scanning my phone for anything and I don't want that to be done.
Authoritarianism doesn't only swing in the liberal direction. Until the last generation most authoritarian policies were of the conservative sort.
And with regards to this specific debate, being tough on crime and (largely unnecessary conspiracy level) fear over pedophilia are both conservative darlings.
The 2nd amendment has typically been the only love of conservatives.
Where were they when the police illegally searched us in dozens of ways, or when free speech was limited to easy to ignore "free speech zones"?
They've only clamoured to defend free speech once the right to freely abuse weaker social classes was at risk of being taken away.
What's at risk of being taken away is the right of weaker groups to abuse stronger ones, at least to some degree.
Stronger ones always have and always will abuse weaker ones. It's pretty much a tautology. Freedom of speech and classical liberalism in general is the only defense the weak have.
So how are we going to stop this if it becomes a reality for 99% of phones sold?
I'm very poor- like on and off homeless poor- and I would be willing to pay up to $200 for a free phone, but I couldn't go higher. I dearly hope that it doesn't become the case that any "free" phone isn't a luxury like current privacy oriented phones.
"You should have control over your own computers. Your phone should be your castle. True control means controlling your hardware and software. It means picking hardware that doesn’t depend on absolute trust in a vendor for its security, but gives you control over your own security so you don’t have to ask the vendor’s permission to use the computer how you wish. It means using a free operating system that lets you install whatever software you want and remove any software you don’t."
Has this ever been the case
even since the very beginning of smartphones?
No, smartphones have historically been under the control of the phone operators. But that doesn't mean it shouldn't be true. I'm looking forward to getting a Linux I control and which provides strong protections.
I personally think the only way to handle climate change will be to force the more selfish US citizens to change their lifestyles. Just being realistic I don't think they will change without a civil war type scenario. Or the threat of a war.
They won't listen unless they are forced to. Period.
its NOT individual person's fault. Its large dirty businesses that create majority of the pollution. Only way to fight global warming is to target them to pay for their externalities.
You can help, you can recycle. But all of the businesses could be forced to use environmental responsible packaging.
Thats the kind of externalities I am talking about.
How come when a tanker spills oil in gulf we as tax payers pay for the clean-up, how come when a power lines start forest fires we have to pick up the bill?? And so on...
Except we use that efficiency to consume more, hence increasing GDP. We have also been picking the low hanging fruit. It is going to get progressively more difficult.
I don't think so.
Everyone seems to forget that the purpose of the lockdown was to make time to prepare enough ventilators for those that the disease would effect seriously. It definitely went on for way longer than it needed to I'm not complaining.
I also think the whole covid experience has had an overall positive effect on society. It has been a negative effect for people like landlords or businesses owners who exploited their employees.
Things have been shaken up, and the situation is still developing from that input.