I am extremely dubious of most of the stories as well, but I think that they did work as a cable tech probably. The comments on having to piss hit very close to home even though I was a different blue collar worker for many years. I also am really close friends with a couple of cable techs and the cat piss soaked floor was an exact story they told me once. So there is a ring of truth here, but some of the encounters seem too ridiculous.

Although not really what you are talking about I think the issue is that stripe and paypal willccut people off also. subscribestar, a competitor to patreon, was banned from paypal and stripe for being allowing some of the 'banned' people on their platform this week.

> To say that the internet decreased the amount of false information in the 2016 election is misleading and false.

That is not what is being said though, the amount of 'false information' increased for sure. The point is that the internet lets NEW actors manipulate minds outside of the standard 'mass media' channels. The 'mass media gatekeepers' did not have full control on the narrative at all times anymore. IOW 2016 made it clear that mass media is not in absolute control.

Now consider that these standard channels (tv, papers, etc) are used by everyone as the main means of transmitting messages from not only advertisers but also by interest groups pushing a cause and also government actors pushing an agenda (the 'buildup' to the iraq invasion springs immediately to mind). It should be no shock that everyone involved in these media channels is freaked the fuck out by the 2016 election. There is no longer any mass narrative. I think some actors realized this sooner than the actual media, which appears to have just woken up to it this year.

Which won't happen since the 'cost' of mining is electricity and hardware costs which for some miners is probably very close to zero. All this is going to do is shuffle out the miners who have no efficiency.

Sounds like an opportunity for someone to get control of more than 50% of mining capacity.

At which point, could you unilaterally hard-fork it, e.g. to fix this problem with the difficulty-adjusting rules?

Though if that is an option, I would guess it would be more likely for a coalition of miners to choose to do so before any individual achieves 50%.

There is a middle ground, it is rolling back the bankruptcy exceptions. If the burden is too high, let these people bankrupt out of them with the cost of having your credit/name tainted for years. Bankruptcy seems to be a 4 letter word no one dares speak anymore but it is the root of the issue here.

Right - it should be harder to get money for less-productive specialty degrees in the humanities. Creditors would have to decide whether to risk their money, and become gatekeepers.