It’s not some anonymous force forcing you to act like many of your fellow citizens do on social media. It’s what the US believes, I’m affraid. Even on Lemmy. It’s all “I don’t like Trump” but strangely enough many still agree to some of his key positions when his name is not mentioned. It’s weird.

You might want to check out the Patriot act (especially section 215) and how that plays into your believe of your constitutional rights. If there are any questions, just ask Clarence Thomas - he knows his stuff. I really don’t get how you could be so blind to issues like that just because this post is about China. This is not a popularity contest - it is not US vs the world. This is about your rights, your data and your democracy. I’m from Europe and I’m kinda getting tired of reminding people from the US that your blind patriotism is just that…a blind spot that is used against the US citizens on every corner.

1984 is already a reality - in every country of the word, especially the US. Apple’s famous Superbowl commercial from the same year, which suggested that data privacy (…) was important with regard to their strongest competitor at the time (IBM), does nothing to change this. On the contrary - none of this was even halfway true even back then. I really don’t get why people think this is just an issue in China. It is an issue all over the world. For years and years.

That is certainly not wrong. However, I believe that it’s not just the Chinese but that the US government (and other states around the world) has very far-reaching access to its citizens’ data as well. Among other things, the Patriot Act makes it very easy to demand user data from companies without appropriate checks and balances, if the NSA is not already aware anyway. Without somewhat decent legal regulations such as those that exist in the EU for example, citizens have to trust that the state will not abuse this largely unregulated power. With regard to the question of who will form the next US government, I see a significant problem in this context: I think that Trump’s right wing GOP will use this power against their political opponents and also, as a precaution, against ordinary citizens. I don’t think they would shy away from setting up a surveillance state based on the Chinese model - the conditions for this are certainly met in the current legal situation.

You can’t be serious.

We dine well here in Camelot. We eat ham and jam and spam a lot.

I assume he’s trying to lull people who haven’t seen the debate. Well, it’s going to be tough to keep this going with all these memes of his embarrassing performance. The cat is already out of the bag and there sure is no one to eat it.

At least Harris has policy positions and a corresponding agenda. Trump has none of that, at least nothing that he could talk about in public. Did you not watch the debate? Did you not notice that he made no factual arguments whatsoever, but responded to every question on every topic with the same old empty polemics and unfounded recriminations?

Once again, we see what the debate between Harris and Trump illustrated very clearly: The GOP in its current state is not pursuing any program whatsoever, but merely builds up imaginary enemy stereotypes that they blame for all their problems - without any even halfway factual reasons. Democratic processes are impossible with this tedious kindergarten approach because they are based on factual arguments, cooperation and the willingness to find common ground. I sincerely hope that there are some rational thinking conservatives left who will refuse to vote for this hateful orange moron and his ridiculous henchmen.

He probably remembered his tasteless lie that he owned the tallest building in Manhattan after the Twin Towers collapsed. He said this to a TV station on 9/11/2001. No one asked him for this interview; he found it necessary to call there in order to flatter himself with falsehoods instead of mourning the victims. He hasn’t changed a bit since then.

By concepts of a plan, he probably means Project 2025, the plan that his “strategists” have drawn up to install him as a fascist autocrat if people are stupid enough to actually vote for him. It is hardly surprising that he does not want to comment publicly on the details of this deeply anti-democratic endeavor.

ChatGPT and basically any other powerful LLM is very likely trained on lots and lots of pirated data.

What about OpenAI?

It’s just so sad that misguided ideology and lobbying have prevented regulations for decades that could easily prevent school shootings. That’s why these tragedies are incredibly more common in the US than anywhere else in the world. So it seems to be a fact of life that guns are more valued in the US than children’s lives.

I think you meant to comment on OP’s post. If you ask me, I’d say he rather belongs in jail. Given the countless serious cases that have been and are being brought against him, it’s inexplicable to me that he managed to get around jail time - and is even a presidential candidate instead.

I think the only way to solve this problem for good would be to tie social media accounts to proof of identity. However, apart from what would certainly be a difficult technical implementation, this would create a whole bunch of different problems. The benefits would probably not outweigh the costs.

Well, unfortunately, the internet and especially social media is still the main source of information for more and more people, if not the only one. For many, it is also the only place where public discourse takes place, even if you can hardly call it that. I guess we are probably screwed.

Also, despite the fact that he is a criminal, a racist, a misogynist, denies climate change and pretty much exclusively pursues policies contrary to the interests of ordinary citizens.

Yes, the KPD and the NSDAP both rejected parliamentary democracy and briefly formed a blocking minority in the Weimar Republic. Nevertheless, I do not think it is correct to speak of the KPD enabling or supporting the NSDAP’s seizure of power - on the contrary. As I said, the situation is quite different with the conservative forces of the time - they were definitely at least partly to blame for Hitler’s rise.

I was not aware that the KPD had ever cooperated with the Nazis. I’ll have to read up on that.

Still, I think it’s a bit far-fetched to see the KPD as Hitler’s enabler. After all, the Communists were one of the Nazis’ main enemies and put up considerable resistance until the end (as did the SPD, which exists again today as a (somewhat) social democratic party under the same name after being banned following Hitler’s seizure of power).