@AlexGallagher

@Bandersnatch

Funny that.

@AlexGallagher

@Valent

I like the idea, and I think the criteria for banning countries from sporting events could certainly be applied far more fairly than it has been of late (some wars are deemed more worthy of a ban than others). I'm just not sure that nations who invade other nations would care overly about international opprobrium arising from sports when they're also being accused of war crimes.

@lerxst @EugeneMcParland

@crazyeddie

Pretty sure that war is a bad thing for most of the people involved.

Bankers, politicians and resource hoarders might disagree.

@Valent @EugeneMcParland

@lerxst

By example, the international sporting ban imposed on South Africa contributed to the end of apartheid, but would it have had the same impact if every other nation had been prevented from playing alongside SA?

@Valent @EugeneMcParland

@lerxst

Seemingly, but it's phenomenally unlikely that ever modern State would put sporting interests ahead of security interests, so the outcome would be no more Olympics and non-warring nations being penalised for the acts of the aggressor nations.

Penalising warlike nations by barring them from competition (ie what we have) seems to be the better option.

@Valent @EugeneMcParland

@Valent

I agree with the sentiment, but I suspect that the most likely outcome from such a policy would be the permanent cancellation of all international sorting events.

@EugeneMcParland

@Valent

Has there ever been an Olympics or World Cup that hasn't coincided with a war going on somewhere?

@EugeneMcParland

@harrysintonen

If govts can no longer be trusted to regulate tech companies then self-regulation becomes the norm I suppose.

If services had insisted on all of these additional requirements at the outset then no one would have signed up.

@eunews

The EU is currently trying to do all the same things that the BRICS has already done for pretty much the same reasons.

@r_alb

The ability to learn about something objectively without a search engine/agent/application deciding what you want based on your prior searching habits...or worse, the interests of completely different people who happen to share a few common elements of an artificial profile.

This is related to the importance of preserving a degree of serendipity in finding new information.

@West

You're referring to fascism rather than communism. Fascism is the combination of private ownership of government and authoritarian/totalitarian control.

Communist states might be totalitarian and authoritarian, but they are run bottom-up (literally the commune) rather than top down as the US is. Private industry (ie big corporates like Google or Lockheed) would be nationalised under communism, and Kings would be deposed in short time.

@West

What makes you think America is #communist?

@ChrisMayLA6

True, although Mandelson's as slippery as a greased pig.

@etchedpixels

@FediThing

Absolutely, and while Russian propaganda regularly gets called out, its US equivalent is roundly ignored.

The EU have banned political advertising on social media, and the US platforms are variously trying to game or maliciously interpret the ban, The UK has done nothing afaik.

https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-political-ad-rules-google-meta-microsoft-big-tech-kick-in/

@ChrisMayLA6

@ChrisMayLA6

It's surprising that the usually astute far-right haven't noticed that their British patriotism is a thinly-veiled replica of the foreign and homeland policies of the USA under Trump.

@cstross

The assumption is that the govt needs to implement age verification for an ostensibly sensible reason (in this case preventing under-16s accessing unsuitable material), but in reality age verification is often no different to identity verification and so by extension the govt ends up verifying the identity of the user of every mobile device, which thanks to the general dependency on Apple and Google phones would give the govt the ability to identify and track anyone with a smartphone.

@hamishb

Yes, many (not all) were certainly happy to kick the ladders away in the 80s, and that generation's luck has continued with triple-locked, final salary pensions.

I read something recently about European counties where Boomers had higher incomes in retirement than the average salary of working people, but this seems to be changing for more recent retirees thanks to retirement age increases and taxes.

@contrasocial @hajni @thordis

@hosford42

Yes, I experienced similar. A massive reversal that's left the majority much worse off than they were.

@contrasocial @hajni @thordis

@ShadSterling

Could be. Gen X were mostly too young to vote against the new wave of neoliberalism in the 80s, but still hung onto some of the benefits before they were completely stripped away for the Millennials.

Gen X is also much smaller than both the Boomer and Millennial generations so that might be a factor.

@contrasocial @hajni @thordis