Response to popular issues matter

So there's this thing happeing in German politics that's kind of... well, it's fucked up, honestly.

Everyone with half a brain knows the AfD are terrible. Like, seriously terrible. They're like that weird guy at the party who won't shut up about his retarded political views. You know the type.

But here's the kicker – when people contact their representatives about EU Chat Control (you know, that surveillance thing that could basically turn every chat app into a police scanner), guess who actually bothers to write back? Yep. Only the AfD representatives. What the actual fuck.

We're talking about legislation that could fundamentally screw with digital privacy across Europe. Chat Control doesn't actually protect anyone – it just gives elites another tool to police the rest of us. And the real kicker? Criminals will just switch to other methods while law-abiding citizens get surveilled 24/7.

People contact their government representatives. "Hey, what's your position on this?" Nothing. Radio silence. Maybe they're too busy talking to Palantir already. :shrug:

Meanwhile, the AfD are responding and engaging with people's concerns. It's like your most annoying relative being the only one who remebers about your birthday.

Let me be crystal clear – I don't agree with AfD policies. They're absolutely terrible. But here's the thing: most people don't look at policies. They look at who pretends to give a shit about their concerns. When someone's worried about Chat Control and only the AfD bothers to respond, guess who suddenly looks like they care? That's how reasonable people end up giving platforms to unreasonable parties without understanding the consequences.

And this is the problem. When only the fringe parties respond to legitimate concerns, they don't stay fringe for very long. People don't vote for extremists because they love extremism. They vote for them because they seem to be the only ones who actually give a damn about what people are worried about.

The mainstream parties really need to wake up here. Ignoring important issues doesn't make them disappear – it just hands the microphone to people you really don't want having it. If you want democracy to actually fucking work, you need to participate in it.

We have a table in our database named commission_payments, and now when I write SQL joins I'm afraid to shorten that to select * from commission_payments cp. With automated code scanning private chats these days (what else Slack?), even innocent database aliases can get flagged. I'm fucking scared now.

Remember that dad who took pictures of his toddler's swollen genitals during COVID to send to the doctor? Google's AI flagged him as a child abuser, locked his decade-old account forever, and called the cops. Police cleared him. Said no crime occured. Google still refused to give his account back. All those emails, photos, access to bank accounts – gone. He had to start everything from scratch. What about those old invoices you need to give to the IRS? Too bad, you're fucked. The guy was literally following medical advice during a pandemic and the surveillance bots destroyed his digital identity and made a real dent into his life.

Now imagine you're playing Helldivers, Call of Duty or some other online game. Have you ever had gaming shittalk? Yeah, good luck with that when the chat surveillance bots start flagging every heated gaming moment. One rage quit message and suddenly you're on some watchlist because the AI doesn't understand context.

Or what if your girlfriend in her thirties sends you nudes and you respond back with a dickpic of your tiny junk? Right, AI never hallucinates.

Maybe it's time for the grown-ups to start acting like grown-ups and actually engage with the things people care about. Revolutionary concept, I know.

Quick FAQ

But it will protect kids!
No it won't.

But it will figure out real criminals!
No it won't. Have you heard about VPNs or even stenography? You really think it's not possible to exchange information in ways that no one will know?

But but...
No, go eat dicks while reading history books.