SnoringEarthworm

You're assuming we'd stop at Bruce Wayne.

The same people willing go after Batman are willing to go after Lockheed-Martin and every politician they paid for.

I agree.

Halloween is the context.
I said it was fine without context.

As in, on a normal day where people are not trick or treating (and therefore expecting candy)... it's fine.

As long as they wash their hands first.

I appreciate your use of the word smote.

State violence is there to enforce rules, conquer territory or achieve political goals. Terrorism is there to create fear.

Many terrorist attacks were and are part of a campaign with explicit political goals, often including taking territory.

• The IRA's political goal was to remove northern Ireland from the UK
• The Taliban's political goal was to enforce a strict interpretation of Sharia law
• Hamas wanted to establish a Palestinian state

We just don't call these behaviors terrorist attacks when they're perpetrated by a state.

• Russia's bombings of Ukraine
• Israel's violations of the Geneva convention in the Gaza strip.
• The United States' air strikes on Venezuelan ships

I'm not advocating for violence by anyone, but your argument buys wholesale into every state's argument for why they should get to have a monopoly on it.

When a non-state actor does it, we call it "terrorism". When a state does it, we call it "state violence".

But the killing is the same. The desire to strike fear into opponents is the same. The goals are the same: to get power and control, or to keep it.

"Terrorism" is a word used and abused by state actors against smaller non-state actors, so that they can destroy it without having to negotiate (and possibly give concessions).

Trump is trying this now with Venezuela. If it's a corrupt government, you still have to engage in diplomacy. If it's a cartel, you have carte blanche to air strike Venezuelan ships.

The Taliban succeeded and now control the state of Afghanistan. Now that they're a state actor, violence against civilians has not stopped, we just stopped calling it terrorism and seeing it in the news.

Oh, right, that holiday.

Without context, this is just... fine? As long as they wash their hands first.

Can someone explain?

I think maybe he wore the mask on purpose.

Please do tell what artifacts you were referring to.

Oh hey, it's the other Mastodon.

I really don't understand this tendency of authoritarians.

Yes, you got rid of all the people smart enough to call out your dumbass decisions.

But also, you got rid of all the people smart enough to call out your dumbass decisions.

Just double-checking how long I'm supposed to boil this ramen for.

Yup. Still three minutes.

Signal CEO Whittaker said that in the worst case scenario, they would work with partners and the community to see if they could find ways to circumvent these rules. Signal also did this when the app was blocked in Russia or Iran. "But ultimately, we would leave the market before we had to comply with dangerous laws like these."

This is why we need the ability to sideload apps.