I don’t think a suit is going to make him any less of a jackass. He’ll just be a jackass in a suit.

That’s just like… You’re opinion, man.

Hitler comes to mind.

IDK if it killed democracy because it can fail. Almost all systems of government have failed.

The only one that hadn’t (yet) is democracy.

Not sure why anyone would be surprised that democracy has a best before date…

Narrator: they didn’t.

I can likely fall into some version of a category of learned professional. IMO, it’s fine, many of us have made our migration to Lemmy. Reddit can burn.

That’s just it. Police beat and harass people and the public barely takes note. So fighting back and getting beaten isn’t really going to move the needle here in terms of public support. Those that would be outraged by someone getting disappeared in broad daylight by thugs in all black with masks on, that are claiming to be law enforcement, will also be outraged by anything more significant. From a public support standpoint, you don’t gain a lot of attention by fighting back and getting beaten.

Honestly, someone should go to the local PD and report that person as missing/abducted.

To be clear: anyone with the skillset, knowledge and experience to effectively stand their ground against these kinds of people, absolutely should.

Unless they clearly identify themselves and show proof (badges and documents) that prove their claims of being law enforcement, you should 100% fight back against being kidnapped by these thugs. They are little more than a gang with government funding if they’re not doing things “by the book” so to speak.

As far as I can see, most of this kind of thing that’s been happening lately is more based on feelings and assumptions by a small group who is going around mostly unchecked, doing a lot of damage. If the police/LEO crowd had a PR problem with BLM (and all related incidents including protests) then this is going to be a complete shit storm when it finally hits the fan, which might be four years from now…

On an individual level, I completely understand why someone untrained and unprepared would want to avoid any harm coming to them by complying, regardless of who the perpetrator is. Whether police, FBI, homeland security, secret service or some other form of LEO, or simply an organized gang of thugs… Self preservation is going to be the main goal. Far be it for me to fault someone for doing what they feel is going to give them the best outcome in that scenario.

As much as I agree, resisting is likely going to escalate the situation beyond what most people are willing to deal with.

Face it, very few people have the knowledge and skill required to even put up a fight against anyone that is prepared for that encounter.

I get why the victim here didn’t really fight back. I get why she let them take her away. I understand the fear she was probably feeling in that moment, and it can be paralysing for someone who isn’t prepared to fight for their life and doesn’t have the knowledge, skill, or experience required to handle the situation.

To be clear: I’m not saying this victim is dumb, inexperienced, or lacks general life experience, I would argue quite the opposite, in fact. The problem is that they don’t have the knowledge, skill, and experience with confrontations. I’m certain, beyond any doubt, that this person was very intelligent, skilled and experienced; just not with physical confrontation.

This is shameful behavior. Why did they feel the need to ambush a bookworm? Not to insult them so all but they are clearly more of an intellectual person than a combative person.

Disclaimer: I’m not American, I’m just empathetic to those that get disappeared in the middle of the day by people wearing all black without so much as a badge being flashed.

That’s the trick, isn’t it?

Make a thing that helps collaboration that people buy into for long term survival, sacrificing what “could be” to hopefully achieve a better tomorrow…

Nobody has successfully achieved this yet.

I agree with the underlying concept, that having low/no empathy is rewarded under the current capitalist systems that most first world countries endorse.

The conflict I have with that mentality, which drives me, personally, away from it, is that if you go back in the history books, we only survived some eras because of strong communal bonds and collaboration with our tribe. In every circumstance, collaboration has been more beneficial economically, than any other option.

Therefore, I reject the selfish capitalist ideals and embrace empathy for the sake of humanity and my role in it.

I’ll note, I am neither rich, nor American.

Oh, I’m not saying anything about the quality of their product. I’m only discussing the popularity of their product. Enshittification comes for every company, and when subway started operating at a much larger scale than they used to, in part because of Jerrod, suddenly, saving 5 cents on something (and making it shittier) would actually result in millions of dollars extra on the earnings sheet.

Before, the 5 cents wasn’t worth much because quantities were too low to matter, and the better quality item could be a reason that people kept coming back. But they started to expand and grow before Jerrod was brought on, he was just extra jetfuel for the whole thing.

Due to the limited amount of information stored in QR codes, it’s generally a shortened URL, so usually that doesn’t tremendously help at informing where you are supposed to end up.

If you’re trying to do something unique, that you don’t normally do, which IMO is the entire use-case of QR codes (go here to do the thing), and you’re expecting… Say, a website for paying for parking, then… It wouldn’t be hard for an attacker to create their own mock-up of the site, grab the URL and feed it through a shortener, and encode that into a QR code, printed on stickers, that they them plaster over the legit QR codes.

Unless you’re looking at the URL, and let’s face it, most people don’t, the sites are similar enough that they are just handing their credit card info over to an attacker, thinking they’re paying for parking.

Of course, that’s just one of many examples.

Personally, I don’t generally trust anything I scan. Most of the time, the QR code has a website name printed next to it, and I’ll scan the QR, because if it works and goes where I want to end up, so much the better, so I will follow the link, and if it lands at any URL that isn’t what is displayed on the label with the QR code, I back out and type in the URL by hand.

I expect exactly zero users to have the same caution and attention to detail.

For some reason this didn’t really occur to me.

I don’t see QR codes as a potential attack vector… At least, I didn’t… Until now.

It’s weird because I’m usually the one pointing out issues with everyone else’s plans… I didn’t realize I still had blind spots on this. Oh well, I’m only human.

Reminds me of subway. They somehow survived that whole PR nightmare, but still… They’re not nearly what they used to be.

I’m not sure they’re going to be able to give those things away.

Seems to me, at this point, this is a bit like owning anything with a swastika on it in 1946.

Honestly: leave Reddit to the bots.

Anyone who is still there after all the bullshit, well, I would argue that either they’re oblivious, or some kind of bootlicker, either way, we are probably better off without them.

On an unrelated note, I hope Luigi gets Justice. I mean, he won’t, but… I can hope.

The just outcome for Luigi is to acquit him. He acted in the best interest of the people. He was protecting and serving the people. He’s a better enforcement officer than any LEO I’ve ever met.

Best of all, he wasn’t tasked with doing it. Nobody asked him to, nor did anyone pay him for his efforts. He’s a hero of the people. IMO, his actions, while extreme, are on par with someone who saves a person from a burning car, or picks up a victim and drives them to the hospital so they can get to the care they need more quickly. Luigi just did it on a much broader scale. Here’s this guy that’s preventing people from getting to the care they need. He’s like a bouncer for a hospital. So when an injured patent rolls up and the bouncer says “no” to providing care, it’s reasonable to remove that bouncer by any means necessary to save the people that he’s blocking from getting the care they need.

Yes, he used methods that are unconventional. Yes, he probably shouldn’t have. The outcome is the same. He moved the needle towards good.

While I can sympathize with those that lost their father/brother/husband/son/etc. I can’t sympathize with the man that was removed from blocking critical care to those who needed it, paid for it, and wanted it.

Anyone in charge at any US insurance company: they’re is blood on your hands. Do the right thing, or Luigi won’t be the last martyr to go down for the good of the people.

Patron saint of justice.

You’re not wrong, but you’re getting down voted… Lemmy, you crazy.

Everyone is allowed an opinion.

In my opinion, when discussion doesn’t work, action is required, and sometimes that action is wacking a dude to prove a point, or simply to remove the harm they’re causing to society.

I’ll give an example. Hitler.

Do I need to say more?

This. He’s basically a martyr at this point.

Luigi reminded the people that we have power. We don’t need to be subservient to the whims of corporate interests. We can choose to go a different way. He’s in jail but millions of people who are inspired by him are roaming free, any of which could become the next Luigi, and wack some CEO who is devoid of empathy or ethics (which is all of them). Anyone could be the perpetrator, anyone could be the target.

It’s like a large chunk of the USA is now part of anonymous. Expect us.

(And for anyone who binds anonymous with 4chan, you don’t understand anonymous)

I know a lot of people who use and like brother printers. Years ago the go to was HP, then it was Xerox for a while when they had decent small format printers, but they seem to have gone back to their roots of large multi function printers for the most part and priced themselves out of most markets. They’re still good, but you pay for the name.

Toshiba’s printing division was absorbed by Xerox, no help there. Dell… Has printers? I guess?

Brother is kind of the stand out. Everything else you can buy as a consumer is either HP, which went completely nuts on the whole “genuine” printer ink/toner, which is why a lot of people ran away screaming. The quality of the printers declined as they tried to force people into, what is basically printer ink as a service. Stupid.

But yeah. Bother is a decent mix of functional, affordable, and being low on the bullshit of using a printer. … That is, as long as the article isn’t a sign of things to come…

I’m hoping that by the time I need a replacement for what I have right now, there will be something open source… Cries for an open alternative to the current printer market have been ongoing pretty much anytime printers are mentioned. I expect someone is, or will be developing something to the effect of an open source hardware printer.