Nix

That took a while… enough to have double/triple/quadruple checked and “removed” most high profile names with any modicum of power and/or financial backing 🤔

Well I reserve my judgment until the names are published. We already know some of the entourage from previous journalists and reports.

If most names published are of unknown, foreign or already passed away individuals it would be quite suspicious indeed.

Unfortunately, due to the constant willful or untested shenanigans of various website I have set up all my system’s Firefox profiles to spoof by default its user agent (and other JavaScript properties) as Windows 11, x86_64, Firefox LTS (even if I use latest, Aurora or beta). Some blantant recent example: YouTube uses lower quality options on browsers running on Arm-based systems — misreporting as an x86 CPU appears to be a widespread browser fix

Doing so has helped me and many friends/family I switched to a flavor of Linux (mostly Mint, but sometimes LMDE or Ubuntu or specific requirements/demands) avoid numerous dumb problems.

Even on mobile sometimes UX breaking issues creep up.

Okay, somewhat alive and on crutches. 😓

There are still some rare yet ephemeral sparks of good insights left dwelling and lurking over there.

During the reddit blackout I almost automatically/unconsciously went back there to see what’s up like I used to back then.

Forums/Slashdot(still alive 😃)/digg/newground »» Reddit/facebook/twitter (all dead) »» fediverse »» [the cycle continues] »» ∞

Most of the time, I have been a lurker without an account and only bothered to make an account or even log in with said account whenever I had to ask a question or answer something I knew about well.

I like forums and sites where you don’t have to have an account to post/reply. However, with the growing issues with bots/sockpuppets/trolls and general troublemaker those beautiful vestige of an old trusting era are getting rarer and rarer (still lively, vibrant and growing as they and new services transitions to local networks/intranet though).

In any case, the internet has always been in constant flux. Nevertheless, I have always adapted myself with the changes and try not to put too many eggs in a single or few services. I usually prefer systems and services I can run/host myself for family, friends and myself.

I’m still dumbfounded by the sheer number sycophant and adulator that keeps believing the everchanging nonsense he is peddling.

Despite being proven a liar on a regular basis and destroying the lives of even his closest so called allies and friends.

I just wonder what their daily lives are like to be so gullible and never realising that they are being lied to or being taken advantage of. On the contrary, they insult/trample/lash out against anyone trying to help them or even just trying to understand them.

Well, I have given them all the empathy I could muster (amongst the handful of people I knew).

Lying to more than, let’ say, 100 individual (simultaneously to an audience or separately the same lie to different persons) should entail concrete consequence. For example, being confined to their home for a certain amount of weeks/months without access to TV, internet and other means of electronic/immediate information/communication so as to let them simmer in their thoughts for the duration. Whether they are the president of a company/country attempting a subterfuge or a edgy 13 years old trying to impress their classmates.

Having immediate consequence for proven lies would have solved so many past and current problems and impending crisis (from climate change, antivax, cults, PFAS/pesticides to the subprime mortgage fiasco, tobacco/asbestos disinformation, Libor rate, Enron, Theranos, Boeing 737 MAX, Volkswagen emissions, the ongoing cryptocoin/NFT craze, the list is truly endless… ). Small lies eventually leads to bigger and bigger lies until it’s too late.

Obviously, some lies are sometime necessary to still perform what most would consider to be in good faith. For example, preparing a surprise birthday party for someone and everyone participating having to lie to keep them in the dark until moment is right to reveal the surprise. Or, parents making stories to reassure their children in a difficult or unexpected situation.

In the majority of those “in good faith” situations, the number of people being lied to are limited to less than 20 individual and usually only for a known limited period of time. Hence, my undocumented 100 person treshold. If one has to convey the same lie to more than 50 people they should rethink whatever they are up to.

… Welp, I got sidetracked again …

Politician who blatantly lie to get elected would have never been an issue. They can be “mistaken” or “misremembering” until they are proven incorrect. Which they will have to rectify and therefore cannot continue to peddle the same lie or would be locked at home without any means of outside communication for a non trivial amount of time.

The profusion of misinformation will be the downfall of our societies, before even the climate crisis ruins us, if not dealt with in time with the seriousness it requires.