There is absolutely hyper-fixation on identity politics over material conditions. This has been an intentional project to move the realm of political discourse and conflict to the immaterial.

Yes, not being a bigoted asshole matters, but also it’s a wedge issue that absolutely moves otherwise poor, oppressed people away from solidarity. I don’t know how you bridge the problem, but as long as those people are on the other side, that’s a problem, and you ignore it at your peril.

Yeah, just make it a felony to use a non-standard OS.

“You installed Linux? What kind of criminal weirdo are you? What are you hiding? You must be a pedo!”

Because we care so much about those…

Obligatory: the Democrats are not here to save you.

Fascism with a smug smile instead of a sneer.

Lately, it seems like bottles of incendiary liquid are the vogue medium of communication, rather than sternly-worded letters. I think it’s like toggling that “flag as urgent” setting on an email.

I visited Switzerland just after the vaccines dropped. The Swiss COVID response far surpassed the response in the United States. They rolled out a nation-wide app for vaccination attestation, and any museum, restaurant, etc. could scan a QR code on someone’s phone with a phone. But do they have a scary, socially reactionary subset of their population? Yes.

In some harmful ways they are fanatically culturally conservative. But they also care about community, sustainability, health, the well-being of children, environmental preservation, organization, and self-reliance. Being a small, rich, homogeneous, topographically-isolated country drives these characteristics.

Surveillance State developments are depressing but not surprising.