Smear campaign

A smear campaign, also referred to as a smear tactic or simply a smear, is an effort to damage or call into question someone’s reputation, by propounding negative propaganda.[1] It makes use of discrediting tactics. It can be applied to individuals or groups. Common targets are public officials, politicians, political candidates, activists, and ex-spouses. The term also applies in other contexts, such as the workplace.[2] The term smear campaign became popular around 1936.[3] [Wikipedia[

A good example of this scam that sticks out to me is plastics recycling. The marketed goal is a circular, sustainable^TM plastic economy. The real goals are uninterrupted plastics manufacturing and the maintenance of tax receipts from plastic goods consumption. Industry and government simply do not want less plastic in the world.

Characters like him are targeted because they are both successful and anti establishment

Not silly at all. It’s a ship of Theseus situation, and the ship has helmsmen with bad attitudes. Bad attitudes engender bad decisionmaking.

2035 2028: Browser content is piped to a local AI that filters junk and noise then feeds the result back into the browser for screen display

All problems are user’s own. Yes enshittification sucks. You’re free to disconnect as much as you can.

Wrong attitude. Only atomization and further exploitation lies that way. The solution is to get vocal and demand higher standards.

Always cut out the intermediaries.

(I’m glad this story was published. We may roll our eyes, but it’s a contribution toward raising normie’s consciousness, which is welcome.)

Users: Do you realize what Windows is subjecting us to? MS board of directors: Windows? We don’t even use PCs

Bell curve meme:

Grug: A file on my computer (/Desktop/passwords.txt) Matty Midwit: Cloud connectivity! Phone numbers! Biometrics! Just install the app! Less than a cup coffee per month! Backed by FAGMAN^TM! The monk: A file on my computer (KPXC)

Context is king. If there’s vital/time-dependent correspondence you’re waiting on, notifications can matter. But email in 2024 is pretty darn transactional, in which case a daily check is enough for most. Notifications for something suggest that I need to drop what I’m doing and attend to whatever arrived. That just doesn’t apply for service provider marketing, purchase receipts, etc.

And then the opsec angle comes into play: https://www.axios.com/2023/12/06/apple-google-requests-push-notification-data

Notifications are overrated. I turn them off for the bulk of apps.

Devote one or two small time windows each day for life admin. Outside those windows it shouldn’t be seen or heard.