georgie01

It seems to me it’s also bizarre to say it’s bizzare without even knowing what it is. I stay away from Google products as much as is practical (I use YouTube…) but maybe they have something cool. They’ve had a cool thing here or there before. 

fastasleep said:

Which was also a horseshit argument. If a hostile government wanted to force Apple to install nefarious software features, why would they need this feature as a smokescreen? And would you expect Apple to comply with something like that?

This is actually the mindset that results in government overreach, because it misses the reality that people are conditioned over time, step by step, to accept what they previously wouldn’t have accepted.

Or do you suppose that there were many people prior to the covid pandemic would have been in favor of all of the restrictions that came about? Maybe 5% of the population, at most. It was obvious to some from the beginning that the restrictions were not about public safety but conditioning. They were criticized as fools but time is showing they were correct (cloth mask efficacy, etc.).

Mass manipulation is accomplished over time, because people have stupidly short memories. So the manipulators push the boundaries in steps, enduring the initial backlash, then when enough people get used to the idea they take another step, and the people completely forget about their former ideals, believing themselves to have become more educated when in reality they’re just easily manipulated by their overlords. Nowadays an alarming number of Americans aren’t even bothered by the idea of having an overlord (as long as it’s not Trump, at least). 

Interested read but such naivety…

“Governments can't tell Apple to include terrorist content into the CSAM database.”

Right now. But that is being pushed step by step. Is the author unaware of the pressure the current government has put on private companies to censor content? Does the author not understand that the obsession with ‘misinformation’ is little more than a means to inject that government control?

Is the author unaware that ‘misinformation’ has been going on forever and that it’s not a new phenomenon? I watched a TV show on a reputable TV network decades ago on the moon landing being fake. Back then exploring a wide range of ideas, no matter how ridiculous, was considered valuable for mature humans.

The only thing that has changed is people in society are increasingly immoral, and therefore people are increasingly unable to express self-responsibility and think critically. 

The more we take the power away from the people the more likely it will end up in the governments’ hands. The government is not an altruistic benign organisation.

jimh2 said:

This won’t pass. I would not think Pelosi, Schumer or even Biden would entertain this. 

Are you kidding? This administration has by far the most authoritarian policies of any administration in my lifetime (40+ years). Just because Joe seems like a nice kind grandpa doesn’t mean anything. Trump was an arrogant smack but his policies were not at all authoritarian in comparison.

rob53 said:

The sad thing about members of Congress is that there's no requirement for having a functioning brain. If you're elected, you serve. 

Actually, I would say fundamentally that’s a good thing. The US government is supposed to be run by ‘the people’, ordinary people.

Though there’s still ignorance. The implication here is that Apple’s devices and ecosystem are essentially a public service by itself. To me this is ignorance because there are competitors with equal and unhindered access to the overall market (i.e. Samsung’s phone division isn’t stifled by Apple not allowing side-loading, and any Apple user can switch to a Samsung device without hinderance).

The issue with government now is most politicians live in a different world—remember Pelosi early in the lockdowns talking about having to stock up on her expensive boutique ice cream kept in her multi-thousand dollar freezers while the population are standing in food bank lines? Most politicians are disconnected from the lives of ‘the people’.