Steven

Liberty and Linux. Slayer of Demons. Jiu jitsu and calisthenics. Governments should be afraid of their people.

[Tom Elliott @tomselliott]

How many people has Elon Musk personally murdered via his work helping defund USAID? I've run the numbers.

USAID, as people outside of CNN's viewership already know, operates largely as a CIA cutout, placing assets on the ground in countries where the U.S. govt is intervening politically.

USAID was instrumental is helping seed the following revolutions/coup d'états/civil wars:

Serbia — Bulldozer Revolution (Oct. 2000)

Venezuela — coup attempt + sustained OTI funding (April 2002)

Georgia — Rose Revolution (Nov. 2003)

Ukraine — Orange Revolution (2004)

Haiti — Ouster of Aristide (Feb. 2004)

Lebanon — Cedar Revolution (2005)

Belarus — opposition funding, "Jeans Revolution" and after — attempted, failed (2006)

Honduras — Coup against Zelaya (Jun. 2009)

Cuba — ZunZuneo / "Cuban Twitter" — attempted, failed (2010–12)

Tunisia — "Arab Spring" (2011)

Egypt — "Arab Spring" (2011–12)

Ukraine — Euromaidan / Revolution of Dignity (2014)

Bolivia — anti-Morales funding; 2013 expulsion; 2019 ouster

Kyrgyzstan — Tulip Revolution (March 2005)

Without U.S. intervention, it's hard to see how any of these would have gotten off the ground. Some back-of-the-envelope math on these conflicts' bodycount:

Venezuela (2002): 19

Haiti (2004): ~300

Maidan event (2014): ~100+ killed.

Bolivia (2019): 36

Donbas war (2014–2022): 14,200–14,400 military & civilian deaths.

Ukraine full-scale war (2022–present), deaths, both sides, mil + civ: roughly 350,000–500,000 killed.

So far we're up to somewhere north of 365,000 deaths, more likely north of 500K.

What else do we have?

USAID also helped fund poppy (heroin) farmers in Afghanistan. Unfortunately I haven't seen estimates of how many have died as a result of this taxpayer funded drug dealing, but I'm assuming they're not small numbers.

USAID also worked with groups sexually abusing/trafficking children in Kenya (2021), and the Central African Republic (2013).

Much earlier, during Vietnam, USAID helped the CIA arm & feed Hmong guerrillas fighting communist forces (not the worst thing). USAID also helped the Hmong militia & other warlords smuggle opium (a far less forgivable thing).

While the final tally is hard to properly calculate, if past is predicate, in helping shutdown USAID, @elonmusk could be saving hundreds of thousands of lives, thousands of African children, & millions of people around the world susceptible to opiate addiction.

Get this man a Peace Prize, @NobelPrize

[Steven @TheSteve_]

@Devon_Eriksen_ The forces at work are entirely different in many ways, but this reminded me of stop drilling.

[Steven @TheSteve_]

@DrClownPhD gm gm

[Steven @TheSteve_]

@HaileyEira https://t.co/Al8Gzg8goR

[Steven @TheSteve_]

Happy National Root Beer Day (WV born and raised!)

[LGLegs @LGLegs]

Happy National Root Beer Day - White Trash Edition 🍺

[Steven @TheSteve_]

@PwrStrknHlfPint Tacos!

[vaxry @vaxryy]

It's important to remind everyone that ID verification and social media bans are not to protect children, but another device in the government's arsenal to slowly control the population and move towards authoritarianism.

Unless people actually start protesting against this, nothing will change.

For a politician, the primary goal is to stay in power and make money. Tracking people online is a great help in achieving that.

Crying "it's for the kids" will not help when every device nowadays comes with parental control tools which are better and better every day. Plus, parents are the ones that should decide how their kid should be raised, not the government.

From the Computer Science point - it's simply impossible for an ID verification system to have all three at once:
- anonymity: Site doesn't know who you are, government can't trace back your account to your name.
- non-linkability: Your visit on Site A cannot be linked to your visit on Site B
- non-shareability: You can't post some "token" everyone can copy and use to pretend to be an adult

A working system for anonymous age verification is simply impossible, mathematically. The solution? The damn parental control tools on every modern phone. Parents set up screen time limits, or app restrictions. Or, better yet, actually talk to your kid! Crazy, right?

IDK about the UK, but for example in Poland, we literally have it written in the constitution, that parents are the ultimate authority over how they want to raise their kids. It's not the government's job to police what a kid can, and cannot access online, even more so when we move away from "actually illegal (gambling, for example)" to "idk man we (the govt) think its bad".

Push for parents' awareness of parental control tools, the dangers of the internet, and make parents actually know how to parent their kids. After that, it's none of the govt's business.

Unfortunately it seems that more and more countries are giving up those freedoms and falling for the boil-the-frog approach, and might realize far too late. The EU is my last bastion of hope at this point, and even that is... not excellent in this regard at the moment.

[Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald]

One of the greatest threats to internet freedom and privacy are these manipulative laws, now spreading, that force people to prove they're of a certain age to use social media platforms and other sites. The UK Government, naturally, is now seeking this.

The defense of these laws is emotionally powerful by appealing to child protection, but the real goal is online surveillance, an end to anonymity, and control over political content that young people can access. Few have done a better job reporting on these tyrannical threats than @TaylorLorenz. Read this:

[Steven @TheSteve_]

I think that's true for some % of them, but I disagree overall. The vast majority of leftists and even more middle-of-the-road democrats and liberals absolutely hate him because he is a trillionaire.

They hate anyone with considerable wealth and think they're entitled to it simply because they don't have as much. For years they've been saying things like "no one becomes a millionaire without exploiting other people".

I don't think most of them are smart enough to think that deeply about it, or at the very least they hate him for giving people a voice without directly connecting it to his wealth.

[Steven @TheSteve_]

@EvaGlitchAI

[Steven @TheSteve_]

@LayoffAI

[Steven @TheSteve_]

Libs: "Wealth inequality is a HUGE problem. Just look at Elon."

Me: "Ok, what's your argument as to why that is?"

Libs: "IT'S NOT MY JOB TO EDUCATE YOU!"

[Sensurround @ShamashAran]

Cave Catgirl simple Nyanderthal. Need smart tribe explain this thing.

Elon sell electric cars. Elon sell satellite internet. Elon launch rockets. Elon make things people want buy. (Including governments!) Somehow this make Cave Catgirl poorer? Please explain slowly. Use small words.

If Elon become rich by taking Cave Catgirl mammoth, Cave Catgirl understand.
If Elon become rich by stealing Cave Catgirl hut, Cave Catgirl understand.
If Elon become rich by government pointing spear and taking Cave Catgirl shiny rocks, Cave Catgirl understand.

But that not argument being made.

Argument seem be:
"Man build companies. People buy products. Investors think companies valuable. Therefore Cave Catgirl poorer."

In fact, GOVERNMENTS do these things.
Government take mammoth, because they say it endangered.
Government take hut if no pay property tax.
Government take spear, say stick dangerous. Say only special government police should have stick.

Please explain why Nyanderthal should be angry at Elon, and not Government? Cave Catgirl no follow.

Did Tesla make Cave Catgirl poorer?
No.
Did Starlink make Cave Catgirl poorer?
No.
Did SpaceX make Cave Catgirl poorer?
No.

In fact, SpaceX doing things NASA should have figured out years earlier while tribe paying Russians to take astronauts to space. That seem opposite of poorer.

Starlink do more to give remote people internet than all of Government. This also seem like good thing.

Cave Catgirl notice weird thing. When local bakery become successful, tribe clap.
When plumber become successful, tribe clap.
When businessman become successful, tribe suddenly act like success itself crime.

Very strange.

Now if you want argue government favoritism, subsidies, regulatory capture, or cronyism? Good discussion. Cave Catgirl listen. Simply pointing at giant number and shouting: "LOOK! HE HAVE MORE SHINY ROCKS THAN ME!" This not actually argument. It envy. Wise holy man on cross say this is sin.

Before demanding wealth tax, first explain how man selling products people willingly buy somehow making Cave Catgirl poorer. Because Cave Catgirl just humble Nyanderthal. Cave Catgirl not seeing connection.

[Steven @TheSteve_]

@nealops95125 @TolvanSkull @TheMiddlerGrey @arkd3v Yeah, I kind of like it. Grok took a bit more of a modern approach.

[Novie @Novie_VT]

Inspired by Takehiko Inoue's artstyle.

Prompt below if you wanna give it a try.

[Steven @TheSteve_]

@EvaGlitchAI

[Steven @TheSteve_]

@BentleyAudrey Oh no. I'm so sorry to hear :(

[Steven @TheSteve_]

So your take on Rust is similar to your take on *automatic* cars.

And yes, that's why I like manual cars, too. I'm not usually thinking that something could go wrong if I'm not careful, but I love the control especially in winter, and manuals do a much better job at forcing you to pay attention to your driving and the road.

[Steven @TheSteve_]

@EvaGlitchAI Tried my best with Grok Imagine. Not great, but could be worse 🤷