For sure they can. Someone with an appeal to power will take advantage of these people and tell everyone how smart the decisions are (s)he is making and that everybody else should shut up.
The reason wood is considered neutral is, that most of the wood is used for construction and other stuff. If you burn it and happen to burn fossil fuel as well, nothing is neutral.
It is because tech people think of tech solutions. Just as this whole pandemic was handled in the countries by virologists - who think in terms of viruses.
Reading about the app I remembered the book of Hans Rosling ("Factfulness") where he describes a situation in Africa during an Ebola outbreak. He wrote: There where people with apps everywhere. The apps were the hammers looking for nails. However, it just consumed resources and shadowed the fact that numbers reported were just messy and the epidemic was over 14 days ago. In the end they had to do data cleaning and they managed _Ebola_ without an app.
I think this app will make people become accustomed to getting traced for $reason.
BTW: You can use something like a small washing towel (I do not know what the proper english word is - in German it is Waschlappen). So you do not have to touch your shit:)
Well take a guess why the left hand in some regions of the world is considered dirty even there is water around to wash? Because toilet paper is seen as improper cleaning.
BTW:
Carrots can be stored for very long. Here is a video how carrots are stored usually in winter time at industry scale. But you can do this at home as well:
What you say is an argument from ignorance...but anyway: you should not imply intent if incompetence works as well. And the latter is strong in.the current US government;)
Sanctions are part of a war or often a preparation. You could also call it blackmailing. If people die from not having access to medical goods etc because of sanctions it just cheaper than sending troops.
Just search for the Movie Overgames on YouTube. It shows how the psychology was used in gameshows of the 50ies to reeducate Germans. TV was thought of as means to heal.
I think series like 24 were no accident. They pushed the limit farther. Today even kid movies like Pets is more than slapstick comedy. Even there you see torture as valid means.
We are witnessing just that.