Bitcoin specifically? No. It’s a janky prototype that should have been superseded a long time ago.

Crypto in general? Probably something. It’s good for buying and selling illegal things.

Like I said in OP, that’s how modern dictatorships work, too. They have coups and intrigues and corruption absolutely everywhere you look. The dictator spends most of their time just staying on top and keeping the factions in balance.

I’d say you’re right that the degree of control was lower on average before the conveniences of fast travel and communication, but then again it varied quite a bit. Rome’s level of centralisation is still etched across the European landscape.

You don’t??

Dictatorship had a pretty clean run of several thousand years there. Sure, dynasties changed, but never the actual system.

Also, consider the attractiveness of dictatorship. I think that everybody would like to be a dictator. Who wants to share power? Not me. I want to be in control, of my forum, my project, my game.

So, my second paragraph kind of addresses that. It’s never actually about one person having the power, as a government system.

One-person control over something, backed by externally imposed laws, is a completely different thing. You don’t have to worry about your forum members poisoning you and physically taking control of your server.

Experience shows democracies work better in just about every way. Mainly, there’s questions about how stable they can be over the long term.

I’ve known people who liked the idea of a dictatorship, but they’ve all had funny ideas about how they internally work. Palace intrigue and corruption are inevitable and huge, it’s never just one potentially-wise individual calling the shots.

I don’t know, but the way they’re answered often ends up being very interesting.

Interesting. Mine is based on a NiCad battery and I don’t think it lasts anywhere close to that long.

The specific model is rechargeable, unless I’m misunderstanding you.

I’m pretty sure the trend didn’t come from nowhere, although like every other fashion most adherents wouldn’t have necessarily chosen it in a vacuum.

Whether that makes the preference less valid is an interesting question of it’s own.

It’s pretty impossible not to be tangentially connected with someone bad somewhere. Unless I have reasonable grounds to think the production of something was directly unethical I can’t and don’t worry about it.

For example, if you buy a thing from a poor country, there’s a chance a slave made it, but a greater chance it was part of somebody’s ticket out of rural poverty, and there’s no way to tell. On the other hand, meat is always meat (unless it’s lab-grown I guess, but that technology doesn’t work very well to date).

I mean, it’s not really a new problem, although it’s just been ordinary health issues rather than AI.

Usually disability has been addressed very poorly, though.

It sure seemed like one, yeah. One unusual thing is that there was apparently a Discord channel with multiple marks in it at once.

I like how Nichole’s last message to Lemmy was just a bunch of crypto wallets and some lame, one-sentence excuse for why we should fill them.

I might actually prefer winter all year if it wasn’t for that pesky “growing food” thing.

Interesting. Are there workers that cater specifically to women (going by your username)?

Yeah, OP has since clarified they meant that more literally than I expected.

Unless you’re in Europe that’s even more sex-touristy than Thailand. Nobody crosses continents for windmills, but lots of people like Buddhist architecture, beaches and sticky rice.

It’s regulated prostitution in the Netherlands, at least, and sex work is work.

I’m not saying anything bad about the country I’m just saying if you want to visit you probably don’t have the best intentions.

I want to visit. Not for sex.

I wouldn’t jump straight to sex tourism if there’s no other red flags, no.

I have family connections out that way, I am aware there’s lots of other great stuff around.

I’ve never had a guy tell me that exactly, but I’ve definitely encountered people (drunk people? I feel like I’m remembering a drunk guy going on about it) who have mentioned regularly going to Thailand and who make me wonder.

I’m not talking intimate, close confidants here.