Hyperreality
Google isn't evil. Human morality doesn't apply to an algorithm. They're amoral.
Enshittification:
See also: reddit, amazon, tiktok, facebook, etc. etc. etc.
The quality has been declining for years now. This last thing has only made it worse, but you're likely now noticing how bad it is because you spend less time on it.
The protest won't work. It's failed in crippling reddit. Reddit will keep going, but as a shadow of its former self, with increasingly shallow discussions and increasingly crappy/old/unoriginal comment.
Remember that a lot of people are on mobile. Android's standard browser doesn't allow you to install adblockers anymore, last I checked. Doubt safari does either.
A lot of content on reddit is posted by bots. Votes are often bots generated. Comments are increasingly bot generated. Especially in the larger subs, and when it comes to (international) politics.
When reddit was new, reddit they used bots and fake accounts to make it seem less empty. Huffman has admitted this publicly and in interviews.
With this whole API debacle, I've seen numerous identical comments about not using third party apps, so reddit.com is almost certainly using bots to swing the narrative on the API too.
Have a guess why the average review of the app is high? Even ignoring the people who aren't rating the app but reddit itself, it's almost certain that that rating is rigged.
Yep. It's like adobe acrobat reader.
You can use the official app. Slow and bloated.
You can use something like sumatra or foxit, they're faster and takes up almost no diskspace.
IRC acrobat has trackers and telemetry included, allowing it to send data to adobe about where your mouse hovered, etc. etc.
Same for reddit. Reddit.com doesn't consider users customers. We're product. There to be mined for (personal) data.
In the late 90s gangsters who run Russia but often fought amongst themselves, made a deal and let Putin be the figurehead.
Now the gangsters who run Russia are back to openly fighting each other.
Yep. We're entering dicey waters.
Even if the coup fails, this weakens the Kremlin, and increases the likelihood of Russia descending into civil war like Libya.
But as you say, Russia has 40,000 nukes.
Yeah. It's not unusual, for example:
https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a33457596/israeli-carmel-tank-video-games/
James Cameron's not faking expertise in deep sea diving. He did a solo dive to the deepest-known point on Earth back in 2012.
Have you ever heard of Aleister Crowley? He's an early 20th century occultist and demon worshipper. He was once labelled the wickedest man in the world and considered a satanist.
When someone decides to give me a lecture on religion and respecting their beliefs, I enjoy discussing Crowley.
Turns out religious people aren't nearly as tolerant or open-minded as they demand the rest of us should be to their religion.
Do I have a moment to talk about Jesus Christ? No problem! Did you know that Aleister Crowley wasn't actually a satanist? Sure, he claims to have summoned demons, but his works are misunderstood. If anything he was using poetic license, don't you know?
To be clear, also a kook. But a more recent one.