A stretch, yes. But it’s an interesting model for understanding what communication is. By telling you this, I am manipulating you into understanding my point of view and hopefully getting you to agree with me.

It’s important to note that not all manipulation is negative. I should hope parents manipulate their children into being aware of safety.

Even chit-chat could be seen as manipulating each other into “being social” but even I would say that’s a long shot.

The Dutch system does have fractional representation and multi-party coalition governments, and still the far-right is on the rise.

This is a complex situation, not simply fixed with a magic bullet of voting reform.

You’d think that euronews, a European news org, would know the difference.

Nothing about Lapland in this article 🤷

I agree, but this billionaire can do what few communities can: invest in scale.

Overall I still think this is good news.

I believe some websites say “fuck it, fuck them” and block European IPs rather than put in the work to become GDPR compliant

I agree that Reddit has more unknowing “Hwell Acktually” types than is good for anyone’s mental health. It doesn’t make discussion any better. But if you proclaim your hate and call people morons you might be part of the problem. If someone is wrong on the internet you could just be doing them a favour by acting like that.

I totally agree. This series, along with the original Dune novels, is the bedrock of my love for sci-fi.