[ThrowAway1922A]

> It does not weigh heavier, and I wish people would stop repeating this.

They keep saying it because to most people they absolutely do weigh heavier. Very, very few average people are going to agree with what you just said.

[seanw444]

Maybe not with all the finer details considered. But we're talking about dirty games, like misleading vague headlines about how children are in danger, and not mentioning how "solving" it directly leads to a nightmare for privacy. It's the shock factor, not the logic. And a lot of people definitely do not care to read the fine print. I'll wager most. In fact, I'll wager overwhelming majority. That's what's scary.

Anecdotally, my close friends struggle reading the single short paragraphs I send them about important events. Bad enough that they skip over a couple numbers, and then say "I'm not doing all the math for that", when it literally says the answer directly. The mere sight of a couple numbers immediately puts them into "gloss-over" mode.

I really have no faith in Gen Z at large. I largely blame Tik Tok, but at the same time, something like it was inevitable. Capitalizing off of a feedback loop of shortening attention spans is going to spell doom for our society.

[r3trohack3r]

I keep getting told that, that very few people agree with what I just said.

Every conversation I’ve had IRL on these points, after the initial negative reaction to what I just said, progresses into mutual understanding that an organized government is the ultimate threat when left unchecked - and that these rights are core to the system that protects us from that power structure.

It protects us from the very same people who are telling us to “think of the children.” When Feinstein and co. proposed “child abuse” legislation to “protect the children” - my point is that children need to be protected from her and the power structure she represents first and foremost.

Endlessly repeating that you are “thinking of the children” when you trade their future safety away digs this toxic thought deeper into the cultural zeitgeist.

When I opposed the president’s surveillance program, I was thinking of the children and how it was going to shape their lives in the US.