Just to make this more explicit, I lived near a mall growing up. The mall actively fought against getting a bus stop put in near by. Why? Because if there is a bus stop near the mall, then, gasp, THOSE PEOPLE might come to the mall. And by those people, I think we all know I’m talking about.

deleted by creator

Mostly start up time for me. It just takes the programs longer to launch.

I think the line between needing corporate approval for your music, and needing government approval for your music is a blurry one, and it is difficult to judge what actually happens from the outside. The people who grant the corporate approval play golf, do drugs, and get hookers with people in government, so the government could have politely asked the capitalists to ban the act. Let’s not undersell the deep alignment between corporate and government power.

Same as Facebook and Google. Sell all the data they collect on you to whoever will buy it. It’s advertising start to finish, top to bottom.

And, whatever isn’t advertising is part of the surveillance state. Palantir and Peter Theil get to look over your colonoscopy results while they decide whether or not your social credit score has fallen low enough to revoke your citizenship.

No. There is no mechanism to allow this. The union is perpetual, and cannot be brought to an end. A state can no more leave than US than a city or a house.