If you haven’t seen them yet: Check out the “Lego Scandal” videos by Reckless Ben.

While some of his methods are certainly questionable, and he does misrepresent certain things to boost the production value, what he experiences seems to me to be indicative of the state of the entire U.S. system.

While all of this happens on a relatively small scale, his observations appear to me to be the rule rather than the exception in this country.

I know that, given all this, it may sound more frustrating than helpful, but don’t let it get you down, and don’t lose hope!

Throughout history, even in the face of massive and violent oppression, people have repeatedly broken free from the powerful - even through nonviolent resistance against horrific atrocities. India’s independence from British colonial rule is a good example.

Either way, all the best!

The latest attempt at chatcontroll was rejected as recently as April 3 mainly due to massive public opposition. They will try again, and someday they will succeed if too many people succumb to defeatism.

So it’s pretty counterproductive to say that it wouldn’t make any sense anyway, because that’s not the case.

That is precisely why regulations such as the GDPR are so important; among other things, they set limits on automated facial recognition at the European level.

As I said, these regulations are under constant attack, especially from the U.S.

Nevertheless, all is not lost here, and these regulations are indeed being enforced, since the European legal system actually still functions quite well. Here, too, it makes no sense to draw a comparison with the U.S.

Just because the U.S. system is so obviously corrupt that it can no longer fulfill its purpose doesn’t mean it’s the same in other parts of the world. U.S. billionaires have a keen interest in this, and they’re supported by the corresponding elite in Europe as well, but the world in Europe is actually quite different. While you can buy a lot of things here too, European nations are not an obvious oligarchy. The US, on the other hand, has been a de facto oligarchy for several decades. The current regime, through its utter unscrupulousness, simply makes this fact much more obvious than previous administrations did.

That is fundamentally true, yet European law and the respective national constitutions set limits on unwarranted mass surveillance. Lobbyists for tech companies—especially American ones, led by Palantir—are working tirelessly to erode these limits, thought.

Under the status quo, however, the scale of surveillance is currently in no way comparable to that in China or the U.S., as there are still legal limits in place—at least for the moment—that are also enforced, albeit only in a basic sense.

This makes it all the more important to preserve these rights and to advocate for them. It is not helpful to equate conditions in Europe with those in the US, as this creates the impression that insisting on existing law is a futile endeavor.

So Meta wants its own army of unsuspecting spies?

I can’t for the life of me imagine that this is legal. Maybe in the U.S., since the legal system there is so completely broken, but in Europe, the mass surveillance of millions of people by a private company seems likely to be a criminal offense.

You’re right, of course, that the billionaires’ all-encompassing power—especially through digital media—makes public resistance very difficult, but I don’t think that such blatant corruption, as the U.S. regime practices it so shamelessly and, above all, so openly, would be tolerated in my home country (Germany). I mean, this is literally organized crime on a scale that’s almost beyond belief.

Corruption exists everywhere, but such blatant criminality in public office seems to me possible on this absurd scale only in the land of superlatives.

I can’t understand how this can be tolerated, especially since it has such negative consequences for the population.

The fact that U.S. authorities are actively covering up the crimes of what appear to be numerous and influential co-conspirators—by unlawfully redacting documents and withholding material they are required to release—is likely a factor. The fact that U.S. law enforcement agencies refuse to investigate this case for the same reason is another factor.

Consequently, there have been no new developments, since it is clear that the investigation has effectively been suspended, even though the case is obviously far from closed.

This in itself is, of course, a scandal that in any reasonably functioning country would inevitably lead to the government’s downfall.

But as many have already said, the media isn’t reporting on this because there is essentially no free press left in the U.S.

However, I simply cannot comprehend the fact that U.S. citizens have apparently resigned themselves to the fact that their system is so obviously corrupt that it not only fails to prevent the most serious crimes but actually enables them in the first place. To me, it is absolutely inexplicable that the current regime remains in office despite its obvious criminality and is not forced to resign through mass civil disobedience.

This regime and its network of oligarchs behind it are the reason why the most serious crimes, including those committed by Epstein’s accomplices, go unpunished.

In short: There is no longer any reporting on Epstein and his network because high-ranking members of the U.S. government are quite obviously involved themselves and are therefore doing everything in their power to suppress coverage. This, however, is only possible because U.S. citizens are not holding them accountable.

That’s frightening, but unfortunately it’s the reality.

I’ve had many positive interactions with other users on Lemmy and piefed—across various communities.

I really appreciate the Fediverse, but unfortunately I’m also familiar with the phenomenon where people go along with the majority and downvote comments or posts just because the opinion expressed doesn’t match their own.

I think the developers of reddit clones like Lemmy should change the system so that downvotes are only available to users who have already contributed helpful posts or comments.

The requirements for this should be left to the community.

In my opinion, this would significantly reduce the burdensome negativity of apps of this kind, and the discussions would be better. This is all the more true in the Fediverse, since it is much easier here to create multiple accounts to influence the discourse.

It would likely also prevent the inevitable misunderstanding that downvotes on reddit clones like Lemmy are not intended to express disapproval, but rather to flag a post or comment that are unhelpful, nonsensical, offensive, deceptive, or malicious—in short, not conducive to the discussion.

If you feel that way, social media is no different at all from what legacy media used to be. The only difference is that you don’t want to pay for that content and take all of that for granted.

Thank you very muc! I’m not really into jazz, but even I know these songs. It just goes to show how timeless they are—and how well-known they are, even among people who don’t know the first thing about jazz.

Aww, that’s such a classic. It seems to me that there aren’t many new, heart-felt love songs like this one anymore - not the over the top flashy ones, but rather those with a down-to-earth, relatable charm. But maybe I’m just out of the loop :)

Oh yeah, that’s great, but I’ve always thought the Ventures’ version is the most badass.

Yes, Yusuf Islam is truly timeless, even though he probably wouldn’t be very successful in the U.S. today under his new name

As relevant today as ever

No, no, I mean songs that stand the test of time because they’re so catchy. “Son of a Preacher Man” is definitely one of those songs. I actually hadn’t heard “Just a Day” by Feeder before. Probably because alternative rock was never really my thing - but I can see, or rather hear, the timelessness in this one too :)

I’ll definitely do that—just like Blur’s “Song 2”

I’d say this is the best version, and a very useful one at that

I don’t think I ever knew the name of this song, even though everyone knows it, of course. Thank you so much!

Aww, thank you very much for this comment, which not only has “time” in the title but is actually pretty timeless, beyond any meme value. Jim Croce even has several songs that have outlived his generation, such as “I Got a Name.” Those are exactly the songs I was referring to - the ones that, decades later, continue to reach new audiences through movie soundtracks and such.