I'm not being unable to separate crime from policy, you're the one trying to dilute both as showing a signal to policy change.
If this was just a political action to take down just another corrupt official enabled by the government, how is this a good thing?
Well for a lot of countries protecting inventions with patents was a major trigger for development, so much so it became a cornerstone and you can even say an institution. So of course it would be viewed as corruption by any country with such institutions.
And it's not like China says it would never abide by IP, else they would have never got the investment that made them into what they are today.
But look further from IP theft, what about seizing assets from companies, or whole companies?
There's been a lot of pressure to break the EU for quite some time, and now even the US is also aiming for this.
It's a lot of misinformation and funding from too many countries, for a long time.
What's impressive is how much this tension had actually been holding on, which goes to show that education actually plays an important role when dealing with misinformation.
For some time a lot of people though these guys were going to be the "cool" elites that can influence the government positively, and people were willing to vote for this administration because it would be "their turn at the table".
They're just cringe, awkward, and just as damaging - if not more - then the previous elites in modern times.
At least the oil barons, big pharma, banks etc stayed in the shadows - these guys are celebrity divas...
How many iterations are we going to need to end this sort of wealth?
With the massive bot networks shoving misinformation and propaganda, it's also a new infrastructure that will destabilize a lot of countries unfortunately.
Yes my phrasing was deliberately like that because I think that's the general sentiment.
I don't think Valve has high margins with this when you factor in assembly and distribution costs, and I don't think Valve has the business model like some console makers had where they could afford to sell at a loss - it would be sold out anyway.
The way you summed it up as the truth, is spot on.
I don't think the problem is that there aren't people in the market for it, but more that increasingly products that used to be meant for the average middle class are now perks for wealthier individuals - to the point where I think if there's a collapse of the AAA gaming industry is because there's not enough wealthy people time to accommodate for all the titles.
Like GTA VI is speculated to release at around 90$, and any AAA game that will drop around that time will probably have a bad release.
But regarding the steam machine, it's just yet another example that this product isn't at the reach of "the people", it's yet another luxury item.
Not because Valve wanted to, but because this new standard of scalping, hoarding and squeezing the most out of the market is having repercussions across industries.
The sad thing is that Valve used to be on the other side of the fence, at least for some products, it seemed like it was aimed to be accessible for gamers in a pro-consumer way (not all of course, that would be impossible).
In the end even Valve had to fall in line with the rest, and it's just sad to witness it.
So let people grief, they're not just grieving Valve, but also the last hope of a group that still thought there was a counter culture company in the current state of a greedy world, where shared holders value is more important than customers.
I think just accepting that is more than enough, the US, and Western countries have been target of foreign propaganda and internal self flagellation for old and new imperialism, to the point where some former colonies are getting annoyed because it implies they don't have agency because they were former colonies!
I think the first step is to start to expose the colonists and imperialists in disguise and start to address them for what they are.
If it's Russia, the biggest colonialist country in the world, using Neo Nazi "PMC", or trying to annex neighboring countries, it's not colonialism, it's "liberation from colonialists".
If it's China doing mass acquisitions of state and private assets, it's not colonialism, it's "development".
If it's a western country doing what ever, it's colonialism lol it's such a dumb propaganda trope.
So the conclusion is that the new western colonialism is actually looking like a pretty good option, and shouldn't have such a bad connotation, perhaps it should be embraced in this new world order no?
If it's just going to mean cheaper hardware, cheaper access to models and cheaper energy prices, it's going to be all right I think!
I very much doubt the general public will accept a any sort of government bailout - people are completely done with the rug pulls, the only worrying sign is the new cult standard of people that just blindly accept whatever their leader states.
But in a moment of crisis it might reactivate normal people back into voting. Cause if it doesn't, it might be the final nail on some democracies as we know.
So yeah, either not such a big deal or the final nail for some decades.
Have at least some conversations with people you trust, that's the bare minimum.
Saying you're uneducated in local politics is just an excuse you're making to justify your actions.
Local politics isn't filled with much drama, and probably isn't that entertaining, but that exactly the problem with global and national politics - it's all driven by dopamine.
You shouldn't vote just to vote, you should vote to make some sort of change (or not), and it's ok to be wrong in this decision. That's why democracy is great, it renews itself every X years.
Due to ad transparency you can access ad libraries of brands advertising on several platforms, and depending on the platform and country you can also see some targeting details.
I'm not 100% sure but I think ad transparency was enforced in Europe after the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Russia at this point has no functioning democratic institutions, and even political institutions - for example at this point no document inherited or signed by the regime is worth anything.
That's why they're considered a rogue state at the moment.
So at best you can say the Russian regime claims Russia is a democratic, that's not de jure, because for it to be de jure you'd need institutions to make sure it was in fact de jure.
There's none, just signs with the name on the wall, and people roleplaying.
If this was just a political action to take down just another corrupt official enabled by the government, how is this a good thing?
Well for a lot of countries protecting inventions with patents was a major trigger for development, so much so it became a cornerstone and you can even say an institution. So of course it would be viewed as corruption by any country with such institutions.
And it's not like China says it would never abide by IP, else they would have never got the investment that made them into what they are today.
But look further from IP theft, what about seizing assets from companies, or whole companies?