ImplyingImplications

Back in my day, it was only a penny for someone's thoughts!

I'm the only one in my friend group that watches anime and it led to them making lots of pedo jokes at my expense. I'm not a pedo and my friends know that. It's just a running joke. And then they make a joke when someone new is around and everyone needs to explain I'm not actually a pedo...

I still find it crazy. I was watching a show with a friend that displayed where people were from and one guy was from Canada, specifically Alberta. Being Canadian myself, I had the legal requirement to point out another Canadian and said "Hey, that guy's from Alberta!" To which my friend said "I've been to Alberta." I replied "I haven't." That was that. A few minutes later he's scrolling through social media and tells me he's getting a bunch of tourism ads for travelling to Alberta. He thought it was funny but honestly that just creeps me out.

What if we had said something we didn't want everyone to know? What if we were from a country where being gay was illegal, and we mentioned something gay in the presence of a phone, and now we're flagged as gay by these companies. The government then demands consumer information from them and now they have a list of gay people. It sounds paranoid, but the current US government really shows how quickly things can go from being socially acceptable to criteria for being sent to a concentration camp.

NOT BE FUCKING LYING AROUND LOADED AND READY TO BE FIRED

This guy bought the gun to protect his family! What if some gang members busted through his front door and started attacking his family? The gun needs to be loaded with one in the chamber and laying on the kitchen table for maximum family protection!

I have a friend who is a solo dev. He applied for some funding once and was denied because he said he intended on using it to pay himself. They told him it's not just free money for anyone saying they're making a game; it's meant to support businesses. He would need to incorporate, have monthly expenses, and multiple employees. I'm assuming this funding also works like that. It's stimulus for the economy, not funding for art projects.

Yes, that's why I didn't suggest Americans start a petition. A boycott and/or social media campaign is something Americans could do rather than just hope and wait for Europeans to fix everything.

not doing anything is even more useless.

I agree. I also think if you're not European, you've not done anything. There wasn't even a petition made in the US so Americans haven't done a single thing, yet are the most vocal about it. That's the part that confuses me.

I'm gonna screenshot this Lemmy post of a Bluesky post of a twitter post and post it to Piefed.

Maybe an issue with federation? Heres the link https://lemmy.ca/comment/10932620

I don't understand why there's such a hyperfocus on petitions. The only thing being attempted is signing petitions in various countries. Every country has declined to do anything and the last hope is the EU parliament which is being treated like some all or nothing final bet. Why just petitions?

Why not directly put pressure on some of the worst offenders like Ubisoft? Lots of people are saying they're not buying another Ubisoft game again. Cool! Start an official boycott. People who cant sign the EU petition can sign a boycott promise. It wouldn't be binding or anything but it could create more solidarity around not purchasing their next big release. Companies care about their bottom line.

You know the hate campaign against piratesoftware? Why not do that to the official Ubisoft account instead? They're the company that is actually causing the problem. You might not like piratesoftware but he's not the enemy. He hasn't killed any of his own games. He didn't make the decision to shut down the Crew. The offical Ubisoft account shouldn't get to post a single thing without pressure from the movement. Critical memes should be made about the company and shared on social media. The CEO shouldn't get to speak to an audience without being booed. Companies cave to negative PR all the time.

These things can be done in addition to the petitions. Personally, I don't think any petitions are going to bring about the change people are looking for. Governments rarely listen to them and the EU isn't much better. There are just 10 citizens initiatives that have passed and all their responses have been pretty lack luster. Even if the EU enacts the exact laws people are hoping for, what about everywhere else? The idea seems to be that other countries will get trickle down consumer protections. Americans are pushing Europeans to petition the EU parliament to make law changes hoping it will cause American companies to change how they sell products to Americans. It's just such an odd strategy to me. Again, it can be done, but there's no reason more direct action can't be taken in tandem with the petition.

I get lots of downvotes and angry replies for this take which I'm not sure why. I can only assume people don't like hearing that petitions are largely useless.

I have posts being critical of it from over a year ago. I'd assume most people who have criticism don't leave a comment because it'll get you massively downvoted and your inbox will be flooded with angry replies.