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One thing that does have an influence? Money. While the opinions of the bottom 90% of income earners in America have a “statistically non-significant impact,” economic elites, business interests, and people who can afford lobbyists still carry major influence.

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In the last 5 years alone, the 200 most politically active companies in the U.S. spent $5.8 billion influencing our government with lobbying and campaign contributions.

Those same companies got $4.4 trillion in taxpayer support — earning a return of 750 times their investment.

https://act.represent.us/sign/problempoll-fba/

@LodedDiaper @KryptoBlok @OldM8 People are already making conscious decisions not to buy smarthome crap. It has gotten to the point that I feel somewhat more confident that they will never become a near necessity like smartphones, I also feel confident that any micro-chipping and transhuman tech will not become mainstream. Sure there will be those who want to live the "high-tech luxury lifestyle" and buy all the latest gadgets despite all the ethical issues, but more and more people want to minimize their technology usage.

Unfortunately, smartphones are so mainstream that they are even mandatory to get a job in some places (a lot of jobs require you to install some app for 2FA, communication, clocking-in, etc). It only happened because everyone wanted a smartphone without realizing the consequences.

I'm not a luddite in any way but I think we should make conscious decisions on the technology we choose. I'm all for technologies that we control and allow us to be more self-reliant like 3D printers, but not so much about technologies that can be used for control and we can live without (smartphones, smart-home tech, transhumanist stuff, etc basically fits this definition).

@KryptoBlok @OldM8 Honestly I feel like that's why so many governments are pushing licenses for AI. It does have the potential to create more self-employment opportunities but the big corporations obviously don't want that.

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@xianc78 @OldM8 (Sorry I'm late to this convo lol)
I like this, it fits with my prediction/observation that high tech - especially ai - will dissolve centralized civilization as we know it. We'll probably be left to choose between techno-feudal smart cities w/ digital id (because how else will we know if you're a real human?) and more rustic libertarian small towns/vilages (w/ a few small free cities here and there) powered by self-sustaining high tech (3d-printers, exotic alt-tech, etc.) and irl interpersonal relationships.
In other words, technology will force us to return to tradition, so to speak.

@ArdainianRight @hachi @Indigo
>But those types' whole schtick is telling conservatives what they want to hear so they can get accepted as one of the "good ones."

Honestly I see that being a trend with minority conservatives in general, especially back when the "alt-right" kept on bringing up how most non-whites vote Democrat and you had these black and Hispanic conservatives constantly saying "we're the exception".

>My experience is they crave their own validation above everything else.

People with general body dismorphia are like that.

@ArdainianRight @hachi @Indigo The only one I ever knew that was against it was Blaire White.

@ArdainianRight A lot of people still don't realize that the George Floyd riots were a psyop, including those who question the official narrative. There were stacks of bricks conveniently placed in various locations and there weren't any construction sites nearby.

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