The FTC will take ten years to accomplish nothing of value – and even whatever fig-leaf ruling they issue will be sued into oblivion, or voided by the Supreme Court.

Privacy is dead because killing it was in the interest of too many wealthy and powerful companies, government agencies, and individuals for it to have ended up any other way.

Don’t buy shitty Chinese EVs, buy the somehow even shittier American EVs!

Yeah, if it says Crypto on it, it’s a scam. Full stop.

Almost no one reads the fucking article.

You are describing the human species. Through its entire history.

“Unknowingly”

You know, it’s almost like the justice system has… I dunno. Problems or something.

Top Six Hours Gang represent.

I’ve sort of come to the conclusion that the spirit of the times has turned toward chaos and away from stability. These sorts of vague political commitments no longer have the power to avert the disaster we’re facing. We are fully in the grip of vast, impersonal historical forces again, and just have to see what happens.

It has no chance of becoming a reality

You could have just stopped there. Every item on this list is antithetical to the interests of the people who rule us.

Do these people proclaiming Reddit’s data as a “treasure trove of human-generated information”, or Spez claiming “We know your dark secrets” not realize that most of what people say online is at least partially a lie? Most Reddit comments were either low-effort echolalia parroting old memes or outright bullshit of the, “Yeah, that happened eyeroll” variety.

I mean, taking risks sounds great and all, but what specific, actionable things could someone do – even if they’re risky – to thwart collusion between an unelected supreme court and these massively powerful corporate actors to further curtail my civil rights?

I’ve reached such a state of pessimism politically that, reading this article, I came away with the assumption that declaring the NLRB “unconstitutional” is basically a fait accompli at this point, and there’s very little anyone can do about it.

My schematic for interpreting the news has become, “Imagine the worst case scenario. Make the impact 10% less severe. Put the stupidest person you’ve ever met in charge of the solution.”

“But the economy is great — how can people be so pessimistic and gloomy?!”

I’m about fifteen years older than you, and I think what I’d say is, for the United States – and a lot of developed countries – the the majority of progress has been made on issues that matter the least in the grand scheme of things.

Like, I agree, a moderate decline in the number of homophobic jokes from culture is a good thing – but compared to the lack of action on an existential crisis like the climate, or the active encouragement of wealth hoarding, and the deterioration of your once-vaunted democratic norms…? I mean, that’s like saying, “At least my executioners were polite!”

Most of that applies to developed countries generally. For the United States specifically, you folks don’t have universal healthcare, you have a tremendous problem with guns, you have tremendous problems with education, you’ve made precious little progress on race issues, you’re backsliding on women’s rights, and – to circle back – it’s not like the actual legal situation of LGBTQ folks is great and getting better.

Basically, from the outside, it looks like your nation’s vast resources are being applied to everything except improving the lives of your citizens.

And I know someone will say – “the United States isn’t homogeneous – it’s huge and there are a bunch of different states, so things aren’t bad EVERYWHERE! Don’t trust the news you see!” But, really, that just makes the United States looks like an orange that is slowly rotting. Some parts of it are still orange and healthy-looking, but vast swaths appear to be deep in decay.

Edit: And I really want to say, this isn’t sourced from smugness or intended as an insult. It’s despair for your situation. And despair for a lot of the rest of us. Because, unfortunately, the end of the United States as a functional democracy is going to pull the keystone out of the modern world, and drag all the rest of us down with you. I desperately want your country to get its shit together, while simultaneously doubting you’re capable of doing so at this late date.

This reply sort of makes the point for the OP though – the American system appears to be broken at levels so fundamental that it’s not worth engaging with, much less saving. It’s amazing the evil that people are comfortable shrugging at.