If you're congratulating yourself for not being "That Guy" while still connected to any of this...
You might as well have.
RICO, baby. *RICO.*
Not to mention, That Guy's OPSEC is now *your* OPSEC.
@ericgarland@CanadianWizardT You're breathing the same infected air, as they burn down every deflection, every game, every contact, every nuance of tradecraft or strategy.
It's like cryptocurrency.
No one said anything, for *years,* because even a dusting of criminal users was too good to be true.
Either before or *after* the technology for nuclear weapons - and equivalent weapons of mass destruction - is as widespread and easily employed as the technology for an electric toothbrush.
Before leaves us a much larger population.
@ericgarland@ProfPaulPoast You will notice with this pandemic, all the research China made in weaponizing coronaviruses since 2015, and the increasing distribution of do-it-yourself biotechnology, that in many ways we're already there.
You'll note I'm doing what I can to give us time.
@ericgarland@ProfPaulPoast From the technology to track weapons of mass destruction globally using generative adversarial networks.
To the ability to map illicit flows of wealth and targeted psychological operations.
But while the solution is clear, to a large degree, I'm not making that argument.
@ericgarland These platforms gave white supremacists, conspiracy theorists and foreign-intelligence assets a captive audience without people having to leave a "legitimate" site for some neo-Nazi forum or Russian social media.
Imagine trying to coordinate sedition when social media knows it?
@ericgarland So either you give up the refined algorithms and enriched data of existing social media, which let you test and refine messaging and calls for action in real time, in exchange for losing most of your following and scattering the rest across multiple niche sites...
@LincolnsBible While the indifference people are showing not only to strangers but also the lives and health of their friends and loved ones is disturbing, there may be more forces driving this attitude than we imagine.
You already know about the vast, targeted psychological warfare online.
@LincolnsBible Allegedly being executed by actors such as Cambridge Analytica, Russian intelligence and other actors, via social media.
But there's another factor, built into this medium.
The steady addiction to the dopamine release of using it.
@LincolnsBible Others discuss this more in depth, but the goal of so many product manufacturers and service providers is to capture their audience by addicting them.
But even people who, say, play video games incessantly have trouble doing it all the time. They have work, school, etc.
Check me on this, but I don't think leaving out significant sources of income on your tax returns is somehow exonerated by neglecting to fill out that part of the form altogether.
@IRS_CI wanting it made *crystal* clear is understandable, however.
@ericgarland Can we all pause for a moment to appreciate the sheer genius of dropping this response to Trump's first, insane pardon, as he dangles full, sweeping pardons for *everyone* inside and outside his Administration?
The possibility of state charges puts him, personally, at risk...
People like @TheRickWilson, who have studied Trump intensely, realize he is intensely self-centered.
If there is a real possibility that each successive pardon offered in exchange for something - money, silence, loyalty, favors - increases the likelihood...
@ericgarland@TheRickWilson He will not only end up in prison, but in a *state* maximum-security prison, like Rikers Island, what are the odds he will endanger himself personally to do so?
*Worse,* what happens when that not only occurs to Trump, but to everyone relying on him for a pardon?