Laptops, cuz I like to travel a lot and…4 years later now, I can still play the new games or go back to the old ones whenever I want to.

It’s very convenient.

If I was in one place, I’d probably get a PC just cuz it’s usually cheaper for the same hardware.

But I love traveling and I don’t love extra possessions! And I love playing games now and then.

Bummer, I didn’t downvote you.

I think that’s the nature of the beast here, don’t take the fake Internet points too seriously.

The phrase “privacy nightmare” gets thrown around a lot, but an online service taking pictures of your screen every few seconds does not sound worth the risk of exposure of personal information.

As for someone needing physical access to your device in order to access those screenshots, there’s no way that’s correct.

If they’re locally stored on your machine, those screenshots can be accessed by an intruder.

Seems like a long walk for an extremely limited scope of benefit.

Drowning a baby in bathwater.

What is the stated reason for this proposed function?

This is the first I’ve heard of this terrible and invasive idea.

You haven’t entered a discussion, you’ve cried incredibly short-sighted neoconservative talking points that I’ve completely taken apart in my other reply to you.

I attacked your ridiculous comment, not your character, unlike your personal insults.

You’re labeling me a “reactionary” because I didn’t call you any of the slurs you listed.

You might want to sit in that a while.

Actually, I have time, so let’s dismantle your comment.

"Keeping thieves and robbers from entering your house is not, ‘immobilizing yourself.’ "

Nobody said it is.

“The idea that America would be immobilized by taking care of itself instead of carousing around with the rest of the world is just silly.”

Something nobody said again, but:

Thinking that having literally enough land to fit people and resources to perpetuate some contemporary level of technology ignores all of history and every metric of national success.

You know who had overabundant physical resources and separated themselves from other civilizations?

Incans.

“Canada could also seal off its borders and in a thousand years from now still be going strong.”

So we ignore Canada’s transportation imports, machinery imports, electronics imports, plastics imports, energy imports， services that alone account for 1/3 of Canadian GDP, then Canada will “go strong”?

5 winter months a year without cars, oil or modern manufacturing to compensate for the weather, not to mention financial services, infrastructure services, science in every form; they’re sunk.

Oh and we can’t forget that you are wishing away Canadian exports, which also account for 1/3 of Canadian GDP.

Your canadian isolationist whim has zero legs to stand on and 1.5 trillion dollars of debt annually.

“International relations are the cause of war” in the same way that air is slowly poisoning you to death.

Such a zoomed-out, irrelevant statement ignores literally every significant factor of conscious reality.

There are two hundred ish countries.

Show me the thriving utopias that refuse to interact with any other countries.

You’re arguing the international merits of “separate but equal” while ignoring how much the United States and other countries have benefited from open borders.

You are wrong top to bottom here on every short-sighted jingoist allegation.

“Afraid of your neighbor’s dog? Never leave your room, add a harness to your bed and strap in, wear plate armor at all times”.

Not exactly practical.

There are ways to improve security without immobilizing yourself.

Blocking the widespread distribution and use of an app that sends personal and national data to a hostile government actively collecting and using that data to conduct digital and electoral attacks is not immobilizing, it’s a simple step with zero downside that safeguards hundreds of millions of people.

Yikes, what a flawed set of premises.

" What if Canada did the same thing to the US? They did!"

No, they didn’t. Canada tried to boost Canadian media presence on American streaming platforms.

Making sure gooby gets an international viewing is very different from transmitting information to an overtly hostile government known for cyber attacks on its international peers.

“The platform isn’t a national security threat”.

It’s a fact that the app TikTok is based off of, Douyin, sends the private data of every user straight to bytedance, owned in powerful minority stake by the Chinese government and that tiktok did the same thing with US user data until they promised they stopped a couple years ago.

As of January 2024 however, whoops, US citizen data(names, birthdates, location) is still being sent back to bytedance: https://www.wsj.com/tech/tiktok-pledged-to-protect-u-s-data-1-5-billion-later-its-still-struggling-cbccf203?mod=followamazon

It’s not some baseless concern, it’s a national security consequence against data disclosures that were already carried out and have continued to this year despite assurances 2 years ago that data leaks to bytedance are not happening.

“Instrument of soft power”

Marvel movies becoming super popular internationally is an example of soft power. Gathering the personal information of users with a continuing precedent attacking US digital infrastructures and democratic institutions is not soft power, it is hostile statecraft.

I am not a proponent of monolithic tech companies nor am I particularly aligned against international competition in tech supremacy, but this ban isn’t about theoretical cultural competition.

This tiktok ban is about the recent gathering of personal information that can be used to assess and attack digital infrastructures and electoral behaviors by entities that are continually attacking digital infrastructures and electoral processes, entities focused on consolidating power not within some international free market of soft cultural influence but by gathering and consolidating power and using that power to forward state ambitions.

Just so you know, I’ve always been a huge fan of you people.

My anecdote is about prices in a single country skyrocketing, I think you only find that particular country’s data less interesting because it’s a country you’re familiar with.

I do have more international data points for you, though.

All the American fast food joints keep their prices pretty consistent across countries I’ve been to in any year, within ten percent or so of conversion rates anyway.

As for local fare in Taiwan, inflation is blowing up here. prices in general here seem about 50% higher than 5 years ago.

China’s prices have all doubled since ten years ago, except for housing, which is slightly cheaper(evergrande). Not that they were ever expensive.

I was traveling for several years and when I visited the states again I thought it would be fun to go through a Wendy’s. I was charged 4.50 for a plain hamburger, and I was shocked and assumed she entered the order wrong, and asked the fast food worker why the price was so high and if it was that high all the time.

She was so bummed out and told me she couldn’t even eat fast food except for the fries she got on her shift because the prices were so crazy now. That’s about the last time I stopped by any fast food places in the states.

I’ve been traveling again and I’m in Taiwan right now, a stacked buffet plate is about 4 bucks and the vegetarian pay by the plate place I’m at now are 2 bucks a full plate.

I literally don’t believe American fast food prices and second every point you’ve made.

I hope they are okay and shutting the site down helps.

This is incorrect and lazy.

Ppf. It’s digital currency. It’s not a scam.

You sound like an 80-year old who refuses to use debit cards because they aren’t cash.

Also sexy yoda. She became self-aware of her own power and had to take herself out of the equation.

But there’s never been another Yoda similarly balanced in the force.

I no joke found a restaurant named city wok in China.

It was a weird moment.

Yes, a Mexican person being appreciative of a random foreign guy wearing a sombrero does excuse your interpretation of stereotypes.

You don’t actually need to ask people for passes, that’s a silly meme.

You can appreciate someone’s culture and they’ll talk to you like a human being.