Hahahahahaha FUCK YOU ORACLE!

sorry, needed to get that out of my system

I don’t do deep packet inspection on Lemmy traffic, nor am I a behavioral analyst. I simply think it stands to reason that if there are organizations who are capable of running influence campaigns that Lemmy would be a natural target. Any online forum is potentially at risk of targeted disinformation campaigns. I don’t apply this logic on an individual basis, because witch hunts are just as counterproductive as being overly credulous. But I have a pretty simple razor that if someone is trying to incite me to violence, meet offline, or divulge personally identifying information I should block them whether or not they’re some kind of operative.

I think there’s a motive. If I were the FBI I wouldn’t be too concerned about actual violent outcomes, so long as they were lone wolf attacks or the product of tiny cells of radicals. It’s like a controlled burn in a forest. You get the fire out of the way before it reaches a critical mass. “Voting doesn’t work, burn down a government building” is a real hard sell to someone with a stable job, but the people it does sell to might one day be the types of people to organize and lead a meaningful opposition. So you flush them out early and fast. Some people might die, but Director Patel told me to catch leftists, not to prevent violence. As an added bonus, each violent act turns liberals more and more against what they perceive as an inherently violent ideology. “These are terrible times, and maybe if it prevents another bombing mass surveillance is acceptable even if I don’t like it,” they might think. You don’t have to go back too far to see that mindset in action. In the aftermath of 9/11 Americans saw an unprecedented erosion of their civil liberties. Terror is good for an autocratic regime.

That being said, I will grant that there’s no evidence of this. But then again there wasn’t evidence of COINTELPRO until the FBI field office in Media PA got broken into by a group of concerned citizens. Not that I’m condoning B&E. I also don’t think it would be productive to point fingers even if there were evidence the FBI was doing COINTELPRO 2. “So and so is a fed” is actually one of the tactics used in COINTELPRO to sow discord in infiltrated groups. Just, maybe we should keep in mind that we’re bound to see some discourse here that is trying to get us to play a useful idiot.

The difference between me and a conspiracy theorist is that I can point at past evidence. COINTELPRO is a historical fact, and part of that program involved infiltrating dissident groups and acting as agents provocateur. The Church committee found that the FBI engaged in “covert action designed to disrupt and discredit the activities of groups and individuals deemed a threat to the social order.” The committee also found that the tactics employed by the FBI “would be intolerable in a democratic society even if all of the targets had been involved in violent activity.”

I am not saying the FBI is definitely here now. What I am saying is it would be naïve to assume that they would not be willing to run an influence operation on public forums where people skeptical of the US government gather, and it would be foolish to assume that nobody else is carrying out similar operations for their own respective interests, state-level or otherwise.

Mastodon isn’t American either and they still seized a Koliktiva server. Jurisdiction nothing. They can’t arrest you, that doesn’t mean they don’t have an interest in influencing you. And they’re one group of many who has an interest in running influence operations. Fuck dude, it could be Russia, it could be Mossad, it could be GISS. The barrier to entry is so low these days.

Lemmy is big enough to be a psyop target and has been for a while. This place is rife with feds and bots of every persuasion and they will try to influence you from every angle. As Lemmy grows it will only get worse. It’s easy to brush off pushback for criticizing nation states but also be aware that the FBI in particular has a history of trying to push people towards violent radicalism and in person meetups. Do not trust anyone online. Especially if they agree with you politically.

why is everyone commenting on a blank post

For anyone else who resents this site’s desperate attempts to get you to download their app:

A new report confirms that Halo Studios’ upcoming Halo multiplayer title, Project Ekur, has been canceled.

There have been many news reports and rumors circulating about the Halo franchise recently, particularly concerning remakes. After the successful remake of the first game, it appears that remakes for Halo 2 and Halo 3 are also in development. Players have been eager to learn about new installments in the series, but it seems that a new multiplayer-focused game will not be released.

The initial report regarding the cancellation of Halo’s Project Ekur came from a well-known member of the community, Rebs Gaming. This report was then confirmed by Jez Corden, who, in his latest article for WindowsCentral, stated, “Halo Studios was working on a multiplayer title known as Project Ekur, which has been canceled. I’ve verified that as 100% true.” No further details about the nature of the canceled project were disclosed.

Recent reports from Rebs Gaming revealed that Project Ekur was one of the new projects from the Halo franchise. It seems that after the cancellation of battle royale mode for Halo Infinite, Certain Affinity, the developer of Project Tatanka, was given the go-ahead to prototype Project Ekur to see how Halo would unfold in Unreal Engine 5. There were two goals in mind: whether Slipspace and Blam assets can be moved to UE 5 and whether the engine can provide the Halo feel.

The game seemingly had extraction elements, but Halo 5 Warzone was looked at as a ‘conceptual foundation’. Certain Affinity was also offering playable Spartans and Elites with full customization. However, additional information from another source raised the question of whether Project Ekur was a traditional multiplayer game, a new experience, or both.

When people who care win

Not the first time…

Genovia is a critical friend and ally to the United States. I stand with Genovia, both because of our shared values, which are so fundamental to the founding of both our nations, and I believe the bonds between the people of the United States and the people of Genovia are unbreakable, and we can never let anyone drive a wedge between us.

this is basically how time worked before we invented railroads

rolling brownouts are preferable to being politely asked make a small sacrifice for the good of society

Did you expect a cookie? I mean good job, you finally realized you made a mistake three times in a row after it’s too late to do anything about it.

Fuck your feelings. You remember that? You’ve thrown in with a cult that has been singly focused on being as destructive and as obnoxious as humanly possible for over a decade, and now you’re getting your feelings hurt? Did you actually believe that Donald “losers and suckers, I prefer people who didnt get captured” Trump was anti-war? Then you are, or at least were, a moron.

that would drive up the price of ram in China too, which would likely make the CCP quite cross with them. Electronics are a huge export and the Chinese government has to worry about entire cities going offline or having to pivot their entire industrial sectors if the shortage lasts too long.

i am going to laugh my ass off if he gets heatstroke and passes out on live national television

DRAM is a global commodity. Kind of like how Iran selling oil to China affects the price of WTI crude.

i think. I’m not a fuckin economist I just like to sound smart

Truly, once you pass a certain threshold of capital accumulation nothing can dethrone you. Not even your brain being turned to mush. The things Thiel says are the ravings of a lunatic. If he weren’t an oligarch they’d put him away. And obviously he’s not the only one. One has to wonder if perhaps it is the power itself that drives a man mad. There ought to be a marginal wealth tax that starts wherever the gains to happiness begin to diminish and build exponentially towards 100% at, say, 1000x the median net worth of a single individual. The way things are isn’t good for us or them.

It’s too bad there’s nothing that could have been done to prevent this.