It’s only implemented in 4 countries and mine doesn’t even use Euro

It’s not just a “business decision”. It’s about control and they’re connected. You’re naive if you don’t see the bigger picture

It’s the slowly boiling water, mate. You think governments give a fuck whether some neckbeards play incest video games in their mum’s basement? It’s about power and expanding the reach of what they can monitor and control. One day it’s porn games the next day it’s books. It’s a tiny step towards a more and more authoritarian world.

What is wrong with that? It’s not like actual democracies are a thing. The elites somewhat allow us to decide on “Western bullshit” topics such as killing games, gendered bathrooms, national dishes, and other issues that don’t affect their bottom lines. They don’t allow us to influence geopolitics. Sure you can yell about freeing Congo, and it should be… but ehh, if some people care about stop killing games then whatever. Anything positive is something - and I don’t even really play video games or care about this thing.

And what do you recommend paying with instead?

No shit… you think it’d be fair to devs and creators if you could just buy the game, play it for 15 hours and then get a refund every time?

And payment infrastructure. Being dependent on Mastercard and Visa is no longer viable.

That’s a respectable age! Personally I’m 69 years old.

And likewise in a time with such a strong pushback against knowledge, science, and innovation… Oh the things humanity could achieve without these destructive forces!

Very disappointing indeed. Hoping to at least see continued work on digital independence, especially in governmental entities.

Don’t get me wrong, but why are matters of governmental surveillance and control inherently “right-wing” rather than a totalitarian policy not otherwise directly connected to wing politics? Extremists on both sides have a history of creating totalitarian, Big Brother states (which the UK is certainly headed towards).

If Israel stops starving children and razing villages you’ll probably see Hamas’ influence diminish ;)

Or start building underwater cities!

Unless you’re tech-savvy and actively change your OS, people just use whatever is shipped with their computer and, yea, Apple isn’t nearly as popular outside of the English-speaking world as it is within it, at least when it comes to laptops. The share of Linux, and other smaller systems, is probably roughly the same.

Because it’s mainly a measure of how much people use Macs. Apple products were always significantly more popular and “hype” in the Anglo world than anywhere else. 5,5% global vs 16% in USA, for example