Also, Safari is webkit, not chromium, so... It's not quite as black and white as that.
But in general? Yeah, I guess...
Or Gmail, as OP mentions. Gmail (and GSuite) are ridiculously ubiquitous. Even my Uni used to have it for all students.
That'd hit them, at least a bit.
Wasn't Youtube originally a separate company, before being bought out by Google..? Similar to how Instagram existed before Facebook gobbled it up...
So it must have been profitable at some point, before then, no?
Now do Amazon and (less likely) Disney. Go on, I dare you, DOJ.
Does it work for in-video ads, though?
I thought those were unblockable now…
This is not exactly the same (Ocean, by John Butler) but it's my go-to acoustic guitar instrumental video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdYJf_ybyVo
It's an almost "spiritual" experience, for me, listening to that.
Edit: Be warned that the absolute pricks at Youtube now put ads in the middle of the video (as they do for almost anything over 5 minutes, now), which rather ruins the whole experience. But if you can find a recording of this track somewhere, I really do recommend it. Hugely.
It’s honestly pretty ok if you get out of the cities. For example, I spent a bit of time in a place called Sala, and there was almost zero evidence of this, there. Pretty much the same in Borgholm and Kalmar (though I did encounter a few immigrants).
Pretty much, if you get out of Stockholm County entirely (and arguably a few of the surrounding areas), and avoid Malmö, Lund, and much of Gothenburg, you really won’t encounter much of it at all…
Not that it makes it all that much better, given probably 70% of Sweden lives in the places on that list, but still…
Also worth mentioning that Finland has started to import this “problem”, too…
I think Scotland is somewhat tricky for them, because while yes, there was the whole Wallace/Bruce/Rob Roy period, there was also the fact that the Scottish later directly participated in, and benefitted from, colonialism, were some of the "worst" "colonial masters" to be subjected to (on an individual level), and also contributed massively to fucking over the Irish...
Similar for the Welsh, albeit they had less power in all that.
And then there's the fact that the Lowland Scots treated their Highland brethren worse than pretty much any Englishman of the period, which, again, complicates things. Which I'm pretty sure even the Simpsons joked about, lol.
So... Scotland is a tricky one for the wokies. Like Canada and NZ, lol.
But you're also not wrong about Braveheart itself, and the awkwardness of Gibson, to these types, ha.
Edit: As an aside, Scotland's "rebranding" as anti-imperial, "we were colonized first!", etc., etc., is exactly what Austria did after WW2, to distance themselves from the Nazis. Which is why, in large part, Austria has such a distinct "national identity", now, to differentiate from its "German-ness". Vis a vis for example Bavaria, which is also Catholic and non-Prussian, but which was part of the German Confederation, rather than being "Anschluss-ed". I was not aware of this until recently...
History is written by the censors, and all that...
Yeah, I've had similar experiences with younger classmates at Uni, and this was before AI overview was a thing...
It's been a year and a bit. From what I gathered talking to a Scottish student earlier this year (also female, so there's a pattern, arguably) it's only gotten worse since that time...
On that note, my Uni no longer discourages either generative AI or Wikipedia as a source, when it comes to essay-writing...
Which is... Deeply concerning, IMO.
I hate to think what it is like in corporate-land, these days...
It's like (going off on a tangent here) the "reviewers" who are busily claiming that Cynthia Erivo is "perfect" for Wicked despite being probably the ugliest woman ever in a musical lead role, and the fact that she has continuously insulted everyone from White British men, to entire British cities, to even their precious protected group of autistic black women (despite being Black herself)...
It's amusing to watch the whole thing implode. They literally couldn't have found a more ugly person, inside and out, and yet almost every review is glowing, lol...
Though that's not AI. That's just what passes for "journalism", these days...
The movie does also feature a disabled black woman (not sure if she's gay), in a role that has previously universally been played by an able-bodied white girl, so no wonder they love it so much, lol...
I honestly worry what the consequences of this, and other "AI overviews" on places like Facebook and Quora, will be, for impressionable young people, if these "tech companies" continue to be able to make them virtually impossible to opt out of...
Genuinely crazy how fast this has all happened...
Source A (written by a man) - ok, this is "personal opinion", but at least it's fairly apolitical: https://archive.is/F4gTu
And then Source B (author unknown), where most of the crap in the second sentence was pulled directly from: https://archive.is/TCR2v
Also, I meant *Caledonophile, apparently. The other one is (obviously) used in reference to Ireland.
There's also the social media age ban thing, which is, IMHO, a backdoor way to force us all into having a digital ID, and then linking that with social media accounts...
They'll pass that one, almost certainly...
This is legitimately already the case in parts of Sweden. At least your first bullet-point, anyway. But also the second, to some extent.
Also arguably parts of any of Australia's largest cities. Particularly Western Sydney... And like, South Auckland in NZ.
All for more or less the same reason. And mostly the same "groups", too, lol.
Hahaha yeah...
Though ironically, the most snakes and spiders I have ever encountered has been at my parents' house, so eh...
Encountering a goanna (monitor lizard) just wandering around the Uni res in Qld was pretty cool, though! All the girls squealing and cowering in the halls until someone came and took it away. Good times, good times... Lol.
But yeah, the wildlife is very much like Florida (or I guess Mississippi?) but on steroids, ha. Though if you live in the city (and not near bushland), you're rarely going to encounter anything larger than a possum (not the same as the opossum) or a decent-sized huntsman spider!
Edit: in terms of actual "danger", though, the meth-heads usually beat out most of the non-human wildlife. And the drunks.
In terms of the aquatic realm, however? Yeah, the creatures out/in there will seriously fuck you up, without question or prompting, lol...
Yeah, I grew up in a (relatively) very safe part of Aus, and I wasn't even allowed to catch the school bus. Ever. Not even as a teenager. The only way I managed to force my parents to allow me slightly more independence (such as to let me catch public busses) was to simply refuse to allow them to pick me up, walked into town with my friends, and caught the bus anyway, which in turn left them waiting around at the school gates for no reason. And this is like, when I'm 16...
They didn't even leave me home alone overnight until I was an adult (instead, if they had to go somewhere, I was forced to go stay with extended family. Never friends. Only "family"). They also dictated who I could be friends with (as much as they could, such as by losing people's phone numbers when I was younger) and only allowed friends they chose to visit my house.
These things really, really mess you up. Especially when you live in a rural area, and can't even just... Walk to the shops very easily, let alone go see your friends.
Consequently, I'm a terribly messed up adult, but if I ever do get to have children, I would never, ever put them though what I had to deal with.
Edit: To add to this, my parents raided my bank account (with my own earned money in it) multiple times, as a teenager and adult, to the point where I had to change my details at said bank. They also hacked my personal email account and social media. While I was at university. And finally, they would, not infrequently, turn up to places I was staying (uni accommodation, housing, whatever) unannounced, if they hadn't heard from me in say, five days, and demand that I accommodate them. In my dorm room. Interstate...
When I came back at age 23 for my five-year school reunion, we decided, as a group, to go to a bar after the official "event" was over. I had been living out of home for years at this point. But I "hadn't told [my parents] about the change of plans". So my mother drove around and around the relevant city blocks, following my group of friends as we walked down the street, to see what we were doing and where we were going.
I've never forgiven them for that. I didn't even go to my 10 year reunion, surprise surprise...
So when I say "shit was bad", I unfortunately really do mean it...
Anyway, I feel ya. And I'm sorry you went through that, too. But I also just felt like a rant, lol...
As a non-American (with more than 2% Irish ancestry, if that matters), dear lord that whole ad is cringe…
Having done the SSRI “route” for a bit, I would honestly say that I believe that is the aim of most, if not all, such meds…
Because when the world and/or your life is messed up, “chemicals” aren’t going to correct for that. Nor for loneliness. Nor for boredom.
But they do turn you into a nice, numb, unquestioning slave, so there’s that, I guess…
Having said that, unmedicated (and undiagnosed) ADHD has probably ruined my life, and now it’s probably too late to get a diagnosis (in this country), so eh. I kind of wish there was a “happy median” between both extremes…
There's a casino in Vegas (can't remember which) where you can pee on a piece of the wall (encased in glass, I think) in the men's urinal, lol...
You should make a trip there!
On a slightly different note, I think I have a similar photo outside my old school. Obviously not at all the same, but I fucking hate that place, and everything that happened there...
Edit: Also sorry for what happened to your family. I didn't mean it to seem like I am making light of that, if it came across that way.
On the latter paragraph - I've always found that weird and irritating. Like, I just don't take photos of myself, most of the time. Even when in front of the Eiffel Tower recently, including myself in the photos was secondary to trying to get the best shot of the damn thing...
But almost every woman I've been with, and far too many men, spend almost the entire time either taking selfies, or demanding I take photos of (and more occasionally with) them. It... Really annoys me. And I always think less of them afterwards...
My father is one of the worst, for this, though, so it's definitely not just a woman thing. Perhaps that's played into me going the other direction, though...
Ironically, Denver airport actually is (mostly) shaped like a Swastika lol, and that's much more obvious than this supposedly is. Yet I'm sure the same people would claim that is a baseless conspiracy...
https://history.denverlibrary.org/news/denver/locals-guide-dia-conspiracy-theories
Denver Airport (not Stapleton - the new one) really is a very strange place - demon horse sculpture and all...
And I say that as someone who has spent far too much time in shitty airports around the world...
True that.
Though it's also woke corporate, too.
This is another "gem" I've seen today:
'It's cool to be different': Port ruck's unique approach to love and life
Which is similarly a woke word salad (buzzwords aplenty!), this time justifying grooming and "queerness" within a women's sports team as "inspiring young girls to be able to be different", lol.
By connecting the natural 'bush' environment to settler-colonial social issues and scenes, Gibbs's imagery and narrative reimagined the bush as a 'home' for colonizers, essentially 'indigenising' them in the image of white gumnut babies.
Fuck. This. Shit...
Just checked, my bridge edits are still there. Which very much proves your point, Heretic.
When you edit pages that the jannies/activists don't check, it's quite easy to get away with it, lol...
Someone did this with the page of an Australian (female) hockey player turned footballer turned pundit/influencer (yes, really). First they changed her nickname to "Nappies", and then when she had it changed back (because someone alerted her to it), they changed her birthdate to be nearly a decade older, lol.
Solid troll Though she sort of leaned into the "nappies" thing, afterwards, as a meme, so it worked out alright for all involved, I guess. Took it in good humour.
Funny how she rails against "cuteness" here, and in pretty much every English-language interview she does, now, and yet... That is pretty much the only reason she gets cast. If she was ugly, or hell, even as weird-looking as Rooney Mara or Claire Foy in the same damn role, then we would never have heard of her, so that is... Extremely entitled, and naive at best. Very much like Keira Knightley...
Even more ironically, in English-language films, I have only ever see her play a waifish, unequivocally hetero, damsel-in-distress type character, which is exactly what she purports to hate, and/or refuse to play, lol...
"Have your cake and eat it too", and all that...