That reminds me of the scientists in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, who let themselves dangle in a basket from the edge of the world to conduct their research.

We’ll see. One thing, however, should be quite clear: it is very unlikely that the living conditions of U.S. citizens will improve significantly, even if the status quo is maintained. The system has already been infiltrated far too deeply for that to happen. The US will therefore remain an oligarchy one way or another - living conditions will continue to deteriorate until US citizens dismantle the system, which I consider virtually impossible. The only question, then, is whether the democracy charade will continue or not, because there is truly no democracy in the U.S. where the system serves the people. The current administration merely makes this clearer than its predecessors.

Yes, that’s true: the methods of oppression in the U.S. are still relatively subtle at the moment. However, that doesn’t change the fact that in the U.S., too, a tiny elite exploits the country while standing above the law - a point proven by the very fact that the current president is, in fact, president rather than serving a life sentence in prison.

What I’m getting at is this: It would be easier for this elite to switch to the Russian model. I consider it likely that they intend to do so, since the current regime demonstrates on a daily basis that the most serious crimes in the US always go unpunished - so why even maintain the facade when it’s already abundantly clear that the law simply doesn’t apply to the powerful elite?

I don’t think one can expect even the slightest resistance from the police in a crisis, since their leadership is largely made up of the same people who elected these crooks to the White House.

I believe the circumstances surrounding the military’s current war against Iran - a war that violates both international law and U.S. law, during which they are committing the most serious war crimes - clearly indicate that no resistance is to be expected from them either. Furthermore, all generals critical of the regime have already been removed.

In Short: Both the police and the military are led predominantly by MAGA officials who would benefit from the establishment of a dictatorship. I therefore do not think they would offer resistance in a crisis - they could do so right now given the obvious crimes the regime commits on a daily basis, but they just do not.

I think it will simply turn out however the oligarchs who actually control the U.S. decide. If they want a dictatorship modeled on the Russian one, that’s exactly what will happen.

"…

Are you ready? Hey, are you ready for this?

Are you hanging on the edge of your seat?

Out of the doorway, the bullets rip

To the sound of the beat, yeah

Another Cat-in-the-box

Another Cat-in-the-box

And another one gone, and another one gone

Another Cat-in-the-box (yeah)

Hey, I’m gonna get you, too

Another Cat-in-the-box

…"

They’re just the backup, after all. Do you really think the military would put up a fight? Or even the police?

For these three reasons alone, I consider it highly likely that this regime will now abandon even the pretense of democracy and establish a true autocracy:

1. ICE has a larger budget than all U.S. federal agencies combined. This budget is equivalent to the military spending of a medium-sized country. It is clearly a secret police force.
2. Given the serious crimes they have already committed, all members of the cabinet would likely face criminal prosecution under a new administration—even within the completely dysfunctional U.S. legal system. They will not let it come to that.
3. Coups d’état have no criminal consequences in the U.S., at least for conservatives, as evidenced by the fact that no one actually responsible was prosecuted during the last coup attempt—even the foot soldiers are all back on the loose.

Just to be on the safe side, in case the mainstream media in the U.S. doesn’t give this much coverage: The advertising budget to secure Gallrein’s election victory amounts to $32 million, a large portion of which comes from pro-Israel groups. It is the most expensive campaign of its kind in U.S. history.

Yes, that’s true, because of the network effect. But you can still rest on your laurels as long as there’s no serious competition. Another motivation for PeerTube & Co.

Regarding federated applications: I think they not only need content, but also have to become significantly more user-friendly to ever have a chance in the mainstream. It’s simply a reality that the average user doesn’t know the first thing about the applications they use—and, above all, that they never want to know. The essential and only “selling point” is and remains convenience—and even setting aside the lack of content, federated applications unfortunately can’t keep up. Not for technical reasons, but because the average internet user is such a complacent wimp.

Isn’t it unbelievable how multi-billion-dollar corporations push out updates that should never have been released, despite the warnings from their undoubtedly highly competent developers?

That alone says everything you need to know about the times we live in…

It seems we’ve reached the end of the road for hyper-capitalism.

Unfortunately, that’s about as likely as the tech giants paying for the data they use to train their models.

The thing is: even under the status quo, AI is already a money-losing venture due to its enormous energy consumption alone (only a fraction of the actual costs). If the tech giants were now required to cover the costs they currently avoid by misusing public infrastructure and stealing the work of others, there is simply no business model that would be profitable.

Even if additional revenue—such as from advertising (Google’s main source of income)—were to be added, which will almost inevitably happen sooner or later, it doesn’t account for the tech giants having to cover the additional costs they would incur if things were done properly.

Or to put it another way: The hype would come to an abrupt end if the courts did not rule in favor of the billionaires. Because then AI would not be economically viable to operate, at least not with those LLMs that the tech giants tout as all-knowing “artificial intelligence,” which is intended to be used by the general public as well as by companies to supposedly replace workers.

In short: Not only are the promises regarding the technology’s potential massively exaggerated, but the corresponding business models are also built on sand—they simply cannot work if the tech giants were also required to bear the costs they are legitimately obligated to bear.

Edit: Given this context, in my view there can really only be two reasons why the tech giants are still investing so heavily in AI:

1. It is a “pump and dump” scheme of unprecedented scale, because the major investors will still make enormous profits even when the bubble bursts, since they are the ones keeping the hype alive and will therefore be the first to sell their shares with profit before everything collapses.

2. It is an attempt by billionaires to centralize the world to their advantage, because multi-billion-dollar corporations are the only ones capable of covering the astronomical costs of developing AI models and operating them. Consequently, they are also the only ones who stand to profit from the widespread adoption of the technology. A bit like in the Middle Ages, when the monopoly on knowledge lay exclusively with the clergy: The billionaires would have absolute interpretive authority—exclusive control over the medium and thus, in a sense, also over what is generally accepted as truth, which narratives are socially accepted, and so on. It would multiply their current, already enormous power yet again.

I think it’s a bit of both.

If Jesus were a U.S. citizen, he would certainly organize a general strike that would last until the oligarchs were driven out of the temple once and for all.

He probably tried that long ago, but received no support from the American people and was therefore forcibly shipped to a concentration camp in a foreign country thousands of miles away, where he likely perished … or even worse … no one knows where he is … the U.S. authorities refuse to comment on the matter, yet they continue to commit mass murder in his name…

I think there are mainly two reasons for this:

1. In fiction, you’re simply not personally affected, so you don’t have to face any adversity or negative consequences. It costs nothing to see yourself as part of the revolutionary movement, and you don’t put yourself in danger.

2. Apparently, many people simply don’t want to admit what monsters their leaders really are, even though it’s actually obvious. This is the result of decades of propaganda, I think: The U.S., for example, has always seen itself as the friendly superpower that brings freedom and democracy to the world. Now that it is obvious even to the biggest idiot that this has always been a lie - since the regime has abandoned the facade - people are looking for other explanations to maintain the worldview they have long held to be true - such as the excuse that the current U.S. president is being controlled by evil forces from other countries (Russia/Israel) and therefore does not represent his own, indeed so righteous, country at all.

Naturally, in this system, the logical response is to vote for the Democrats because they are the lesser evil.

It’s been almost 40 years since the late 1980s. That’s certainly a historical context, especially since it has had such a profound impact on the world we live in today - not for the better, if you ask me.

Wouldn’t that mean that KPIs need to be applied to the output, just as they are to employees’ work? Otherwise, no comparison would be possible at all: To measure how much time an employee saves by using AI, one must measure the value of the AI’s output. If you don’t do that, the time savings could be attributed to any other factor - such as the employee working overtime because they don’t want to be replaced by AI, which in this scenario is simply not possible because, due to the lack of metrics, it is unknown whether AI can replace the employee at all.

If the U.S. had a majority voting system, it would never be possible for the U.S. to have the government it does. Unfortunately, however, this is a fact. So I can only say: Fuck off - I obviously know more about how the U.S. political system works than you do - and I’m not even a U.S. citizen.

Please don’t get me wrong: It’s great that New York has the mayor it does. But put that in a global context: In Europe, Mamdani would be a moderate centrist politician, by no means a radical leftist.

Here’s an outside perspective: Regardless of who is in the White House, the U.S. forces other countries under its thumb - using the tools of predatory capitalism, which is represented by the political parties in the U.S. no matter who’s in office. For the rest of the world, the only difference is whether this happens openly, as it does now, or is nicely disguised, as was the case with an eloquent president like Obama.

So there is just as little of an alternative for the world as there is for US citizens. Of course, we would like to see someone in power in the US with whom one can at least somewhat reason, but in essence it makes hardly any difference.

This is the reality for the world and also for US citizens.

Naturally, in this system, the logical response is to vote for the Democrats because they are the lesser evil.

However, that does not solve the fundamental problem for anyone. The problem lies in the fact that the US is by no means a democracy, as it is portrayed through Hollywood and all that.

The US is an oligarchic system very similar to today’s Russia. These are simply facts.

Posts like this don’t change the facts: If US citizens want a life worth living, there is simply no way around overthrowing the existing system.

It’s that simple, because even the U.S. Constitution, which was drafted with slave-holding states in mind, stands in the way of democracy.

What I’m saying here is simply reinforced by the fact that in the richest country in the world, there are no social benefits whatsoever, as are more than common in all democracies.

Edit: Since this comment is once again being downvoted simply for stating the facts. The answer is not violence, but mass civil disobedience by U.S. citizens. Together, they would have the power to put a stop to their billionaire rulers. Tomorrow, there is even a symbolic one-day general strike planned - but unfortunately, that is not enough: there must be a general strike by the citizens that lasts until the oligarchy is overcome. This is not utopian, but feasible, if only enough people understand that the U.S. system logically leads only further and further toward what it is constitutionally designed to do.

This is an approach that could never succeed in the U.S., because there the focus is always on throwing as much money as possible at the defense contractors so that the billionaires can get even richer.

A current example: the war of aggression against Iran that the U.S. is waging in violation of international law.

To my knowledge, not even a halfway plausible reason has been given for this. And so it becomes quite clear that this is simply about shifting state resources into the pockets of the super-rich - and U.S. citizens just go along with it, even though it isn’t even them who are dying by the thousands, but rather, among others, Iranian schoolchildren, hundreds of whom were murdered simply by a bombing of a school…

Isn’t that the whole point of the matter anyway? It’s all about ensuring that the arms manufacturers rake in as much profit as possible. I mean, who’s going to buy the line from a pedophile and serious criminal that this is about anything other than enriching his degenerate billionaire clique?

Edit: What, exactly, is the official justification being put forward in the U.S. for this mass murder that violates international law? Has one even been given by now, or is it still just the orange mob boss doing whatever he wants, and the citizens don’t even bother to ask anymore why the U.S., together with the butchers from Israel, is committing the most egregious war crimes, just so the richest can get even richer. You know, that’s how it looks to the rest of the world, I’d say - because that’s exactly what it is.