The interesting thing is, Tesla is perhaps the most obvious and extreme example, but they’re not the only auto manufacturer this is happening to right now. Nissan is in a bit of a tail spin as well.

There are so many problems slamming in to the auto industry right now. Even beyond the tariff instability.

In the US in particular, As cars have gotten more reliable and longer lasting, the market for new “budget” cars has dried up. Car buyers who might have once bought budget are now buying used cars that probably have a good many years left. The sales of new cars have been declining since 2016 but new car price have been skyrocketing, keeping up revenue growth for automakers.

This seemed ideal for automakers as it meant they could drop the lean margins of cheap cars and focus on higher margin markets, which looked much better to shareholders. Those companies that focused on this budget market have suffered, the best example being Nissan. The ideal for automakers is that people will buy “up” the value chain over time, buying higher end or “less used” vehicles when they trade in their old vehicle, going from a twice used, to a once used and eventually to a new car.

This kind of came to a head during the pandemic. Not only was the supply of lower end used vehicles dwindling as less and less entered the market due to less being made a few years back, there was also a shortage of new cars due to supply chain break downs and an increase in demand. Many people were taking out insane financing on massively over priced cars, both new and used. Now a lot of people are underwater on those auto loans from the pandemic because the trade-in/sales price is less way than what they have left on the loan. Many are also defaulting on those insane pandemic auto loans and their repossessed cars are ending up back on the market, increasing supply in the used market.

Many who are underwater on their auto loans but can still make payments can’t afford to make even larger payments, so rolling over the principle from the last loan into a new loan on another car is impractical. So they aren’t buying, let alone moving up the market to buy new or higher end. The demand being suppressed in the used market and the supply being bolstered by repos means used prices are massively depressed. This depressed used market carries over to the new market in turn, as most people buying new probably couldn’t afford to do so without trading in their old car, so a depressed used market hurts their purchasing power. Why would someone buy a new car when the only new one the could afford is probably worse than the existing car.

Tesla is getting a lot of focus because of the political entanglement of their high profile CEO, but the whole industry is under strain. Nissan is frantically looking for buyers to help them out of the debt hole they’re in, and groups like Stellantis (owners of Chrysler, Fiat, Jeep, Ram and Dodge) are desperately chasing new revenue streams as absurd as ads in the central console.

Or we could just tighten the regulations on large vehicles, rather than removing the whole system which is a net good over all.

Best not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Utility, in the context of the automobile market, is a class of vehicles, hence why Australians call pickups “utes”.

Kai trucks count as utility vehicles, as do american pickup trucks.

Although, realistically, most pickup trucks sold In the US would better be described as “premium” or “luxury” vehicles given that most people buying them are not using them for off roading, hauling or towing, but rather as “life style” vehicles and status symbols.

I am referencing from the motion to dismiss or suppress evidence given by the defense on the 1st of may. If you don’t like how I have stated it, go read it your self and see what they’re saying on the matter, but they explicitly request that transcripts from the arrest at McDonalds to be dismissed on the grounds that he was not read his Miranda rights.

They get insane margins on those big payment princesses. For a lot of US automakers that’s what’s keeping them above water.

The market shifting towards small affordable utility vehicles is their worst nightmare.

According to motion filed by the defense on the 1st of may to dismiss multiple items from evidence, including the bag search, the police reported finding the gun during the warrantless search of the bag at the McDonald’s, not just during the second search at the police station.

it’ll definitely be less feature complete than eu4, but that’s probably a good thing given what a bloated mess of modifiers and tacked on systems Eu4 is by this point.

I read a few of the dev diaries, and it looks like they reworking the underlying mechanics quite a bit, which gives me hope.

So, according to the motion filed on the 1st of may, which is what I assume the tweet is referencing, I think there are two things of note.

1st: When cornered at the McDonald’s, the police questioned him about his name and requested his id, then proceeded to ask him a bunch of different questions regarding his identity, the validity of his id, wether he had lied about his name, and any travel to New York. They, at no point at the McDonald’s, ever read him his Miranda rights, even after informing him that he was under investigation and detaining him, even after one officer told the others to read him his rights.

2nd: They moved his backpack to another table before informing him he was under investigation. They did not have a warrant to search his backpack, and given that it was far beyond his reach, and he was handcuffed when they began searching it, there was no reason to suspect anything in it would have been dangerous to the officers on sight. They found a computer chip in the bag while he was still inside, and did not “find” the loaded gun until he was outside and being driven to the precinct. After “finding” the gun, the officer searching the bag stated that they were searching it to make sure there “wasn’t a bomb or anything in here”. The motion I’m referencing suggests that this statement was a hasty attempt to justify the warrantless search post facto.

I think it’s not the cops who were scared, but other executives who have done just as much harm, the cops probably just wanted the executives to shut the fuck up.

I don’t think so, because then he’s an innocent person who was screwed over by the medical insurance industry, who then had his life derailed again in the name of “justice” for a dead insurance executive.

I think a lot of people will just stop using social media rather than move to platforms that don’t exist to manipulate people

And for the groups who are ruining the internet by making it a tool for mass manipulation, that’s fine. Their hope is those who engage with and believe the disinfo will stay, those who don’t will leave and be apathetic and isolated.

They’re betting that basically everyone will fall in to one of those two camps. I don’t think that’s how things will play out. Long term, the places they can’t take over will be more stable and grow even without corporate money funded elements to draw people in.

I don’t think the 3d printers out there are a significant producer of plastic waste in the grand scheme of things. They can actually prevent a lot of waste by making replacement parts or fixing something to meet a new use case.

But the narrative that they were going to revolutionize everything comes out of this idea that things are generally improved by the production of more stuff, more niche gizmos and doodads. It is a facet of the thinking behind over consumption.

Often that kind of thinking even gets in the way of implementing solutions to real problems. Much easier to sell people on an ineffective solution based in more stuff than a solution that requires them to alter their life style or accept a little inconvenience.

3d printers are just tools, but the idea that new tools are all that is needed to solve issues is a huge problem.

“Of course the Americans introduced the Colorado potato beetle! After all, where is Colorado? America! Check mate liberal”

For real though I hate those little fuckers. Every time I try and grow potatoes in a garden I get an infestation and it’s a pain to deal with in a small plot, can’t imagine how much of a nightmare they are on a proper field.

Propaganda, is a craft, it’s a whole world of tricks and manipulations. Not just censorship and positive stories about the leaders. It can get shockingly sophisticated. We usually only take note of the obvious and obtuse propaganda.

People aren’t dumb for believing it, it’s a whole field of figuring out how to convince people about things. Often if the propaganda doesn’t work on you, that’s because it’s not designed for you, or it has worked but the goal of it wasn’t what you thought it was.

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Yes, but Miku is a drug, so it all works out

I mean, no? He lived in England throughout the controversy, he didn’t move to Japan till 2022, years after his controversy died down. He probably moved because he’s a fucking dork.

They’re lying about using AI to write software, they probably have required all their programmers to have an AI plugin installed, and are thus counting any code they make as “written by AI”, and then are counting any minor edit to existing code as the entire thing being “written by AI”.

The software is bad because it’s written to serve the infinite growth imperative. The reason they claim they’re writing code with AI is because that being true is the only hope that they have for achieving the infinite growth imperative. It’s a con, it’s a cult, they are extracting as much value as they can before everything falls apart.

The AI is not the reason their software is bad, but their software is bad for the same reason they’re claiming to use AI to write it.

I mean, he never really went anywhere, still gets like 2 to 6 million views a video, he just stoped doing news worthy edgelord shit for attention.

The stuff that was getting him in trouble was stuff like paying some kids on fiver to hold up an antisemitic sign, used some Nazi imagery in videos, shouted the N word on stream, and a bunch of other things. This was all between 2017 and 2019 and while he hasn’t made amends, he also hasn’t kept doing it.