Today is April 1, right?

Jokes on us, then?

Huh?

Facebook Blue!

#Facebook #Twitter #AprilFool #Joke

@david
Awe, has Marky been talking with Elon?
How sweet.

@GlennMG @david Yep. ‘[We’re] all in it together’. Remember that?

@PaulNickson @GlennMG

It's all magic -- smoke, mirrors, pickpockets...

@david @GlennMG I kick myself for not realising sooner that phrases like ‘We’re all in it together’ actually only apply to them. That’s what the ‘we’ means.

@PaulNickson @GlennMG

Right. They pay. We squeal.

There's never something for nothing -- and the sooner everyone realizes that we all have our price... some people will do anything, and give anything away... as long as they have the perception of it being "free" and they think they're taking one over on the company. It's really sad, actually.

@david @GlennMG That’s the illusion we’re fed with and unless we’re savvy we’re taken in by it every time. What happened to ‘There’s no such thing as a free lunch’? As you say it is *us* who have the power and until we realise that we remain serfs.

@PaulNickson @GlennMG

People today seem to think they are owed a free lunch -- especially the young -- that they're so special they deserve all the chits in the world for no fee and no personal cost or investment. It's dangerous and deadly, and the smart business sociopaths know that about them, and they exploit their egos for quick profit.

@david @GlennMG Agreed. Also we have been under psychological scrutiny for some time. Surveys, targeted ads, polls all add to their digital profiles of us leading to gaslighting and manipulation based on our habits to mould us into the brand of serf they want in order to extract as much money, time and effort out of us as poss.. And we are, apparently largely oblivious to it. Sad really.

@PaulNickson @GlennMG

I asked ChatGPT-4 PLus to suss this out for us:

"Describe, with a list, and citations from where the information is gleaned -- how Americans have been watched and capitalized by advertisers over the last 100 years."

@david @GlennMG GDPR and the ICO will have an increasing workload while Govts & corporations want to take away their power.

@PaulNickson @GlennMG

ChatGPT-4 Plus:

"Explain, with citations, a detailed timeline of hidden consumer tracking that the USA government has been perpetuating against its citizens for the last 100 years."

@david @GlennMG This is where it has ended up. Very sinister. New tech enables the system to take advantage and be a bit naughty with data. Then it’s up to us to monitor & police it but we don’t because of ‘boiling the frog’ politics partly. The other reason is we are blind as well as too trusting that the system has our welfare at heart.

@PaulNickson @GlennMG

Yes. We live in a perpetual police state. We are in an Panopticon not of our choosing. It's only going to get worse, too.

@david @GlennMG That’s what scares me the most. Our power is being systematically eroded and we’re worrying about how long it takes to get through Dover to go on holiday. We’re doomed.

@PaulNickson @GlennMG

I agree, and I'm not sure what the endgame of this authoritarianism is supposed to look like in the end.

Just a bunch of slaves, without rights, obeying their trillionaire masters? That doesn't seem like a good plan for longevity of the cruelty.

@david @PaulNickson @GlennMG
Yes, and they DGAF if we are sick, miserable, and dying, as long as we are endlessly replaceable.

@_L1vY_ @david @GlennMG Agreed. Endlessly replaceable or useful. Nothing else matters. *We* are the machines until AI is up to speed.

@PaulNickson @david @GlennMG Even then, someone has to vacuum the dust off the stacks.