Of course, but that doesn’t contradict what I just said. Anyone can be susceptible to this psychological manipulation tool regardless of if they are lonely or not. This can’t be waved away by blaming it on loneliness. The blame lies on the companies that know how to capture and hold people’s attention and reel them in, not on the victims.
Thanks for the tip, I’ll look it up.
Appearances can be deceiving. From what I’ve read, Talarico seems the more progressive of the two. If he wins, we’ll find out–the system is entrenched and hard to buck for anyone, until enough more progressive members are there to form a coalition with some power.
But I have no doubt that no matter what, he’ll be vastly better than if the R wins. I’m much more worried about Platner turning out to be a Fetterman/Sinema than I am about Talarico.
I also recognize that being lonely is what opens them up to believing in something like this.
Come on, this is so overly simplistic. There are plenty of lonely people who don’t get sucked in and plenty of people with friends and family around them who do-not being lonely is no protection. I read about another one on Lemmy today, a man with a wife and friends, who still got sucked into delusion.
Sure, there may be cases where loneliness is a contributing factor to wanting to use a chatbot, but to say that lonely people are somehow less capable of distinguishing reality from fantasy or more susceptible to succumbing to psychological manipulation is wrong and could give a false sense of security to the “non-lonely”.
After all, everyone thinks they’re immune to falling for scams or frauds until they find out they aren’t. Or that they don’t fall for propaganda or get manipulated “the algorithm” on social media. Chatbots are very similar. An algorithm designed to keep people hooked and paying to spend more time using the ‘service’.
Yes, I thought back through them and I can totally remember and visualize them. But I’ve forgotten a lot of the address numbers.
This is dementia
Don’t catch him slippin’ up
Look what he’s whippin’ up
This is dementia
Look at how we’re livin’ now
Police/ICE be trippin’ now
They just want the money
They’re kind of vague about it but it sounds to me like you’d have to have some stuff posted online under your real name for it to find and match to. So if you’ve only ever posted things under various pseudonyms in social media, etc. it could match those up to each other, but not to your real identity.
Those are good ideas, though the court costs of fighting Fed lawsuits might outweigh the amount garnered. And/or the Feds would retaliate by withholding other fed money owed to the state (like it’s already doing in some cases! Like the medicaid money for Minnesota, etc).
Thanks, it’s good to know that it wouldn’t fall on the employee. I looked it up[1] and you’re right – if your employer withheld the money and you can prove it (either via the W2, or by producing your paycheck stubs showing the amounts withheld if there’s no W2), then the Feds will go after the employer, not the employee.
I also learned that if your employer didn’t pay the feds and/or give you or the Feds a W2, then it falls on you to prove they withheld money by showing the IRS your paycheck stubs (or by managing to get that info from the employer), otherwise you will still have to pay the taxes. So the lesson there is to save your paycheck stubs (or electronic copies thereof), especially the last one of the year showing the totals, just in case!
So, back on the topic of States trying to keep that money from going to the Feds, my previous argument would still apply, except that the employers would be held liable by the Feds instead of the individual employees, under current laws (AFAIK!). So if the State passed a law saying the companies have to give that money to them instead of the IRS, the companies would be in a catch-22 situation of Fed law saying Feds get it and State law saying the State gets it. So again, Fed law would supersede the State law and companies would have to give the money to the Feds.
Do you know a way the States could get around that issue? It would be great if they could but I don’t see how.
See my answer to glitch1985. I meant to put it here but accidentally clicked reply on their post instead.
The federal government will hold the taxpayer responsible for not paying their federal taxes. The employers withholding federal taxes from paychecks and not forwarding that on to the IRS would be committing a federal crime, but the IRS would still demand their tax payment from each taxpayer, just like how it happens if the employer didn’t withhold enough–the taxpayer has to send in a check.
That’s just how the system and law works. Federal law supersedes State law. You pay federal taxes to the federal government under federal tax laws, and the State has no power to say you don’t owe them.
It’s a great idea, but the problem is people file their federal taxes as individuals and pay the IRS directly, so how are the blue states supposed to withhold the money?
Yeah, I almost typed “(rhetorical question)” there but I figured it was obvious.
Shah Alam had been in the Erie county holding center for the past year, after being arrested by Buffalo police in 2025 on charges of assault, trespassing and possession of a weapon. The arrest stemmed from an incident in which Shah Alam got lost while on a walk and ended up on the porch of a woman’s home. He had been using a curtain rod as a walking stick, according to his attorney. The woman called the police, and when Shah Alam did not follow police commands to drop his curtain rod, they tasered and beat him, his attorney said. He was released on bail, and then transferred to border patrol custody. Border patrol agents then dropped him off at a Tim Hortons about five miles from his home. Neither his attorney nor his family were notified of his release.
Holy shit! Will there be any kind of accountability for this at all?!
charges of assault, trespassing and possession of a weapon.
Sounds bad? Translation: Assault = cops beat him for being disabled/unable to follow instructions; Trespassing = Finding his way to someone’s porch after getting lost and needing help; Possession of a “weapon” = holding a curtain rod he was using as a navigation cane.
As long as his mother doesn’t turn him in he’s safe.
Wish Mastodon had like a default “what’s hot” or “Discover” feed. Really helps find people to follow as well.
You mean like Mastodon’s “Trending” and “Discover” feeds?
Those must be pit vipers.
Yes! Especially Tatiana Maslany. You’d almost swear those parts were played by different actresses! The whole show was so good.