without being in a surveilance state

Those cameras only activate when people run a red light, right? And if they don’t, that’s the problem that should be fixed, not taking down the whole thing instead. People following the rules and not endanger others is kinda a good thing.

Isn’t this what the volume on your sound system is supposed to do? Master volume in a game should be pretty much maxed out by default and the volume on whatever you use to output the sound should be set so loud isn’t blowing your ears out.

Unless you are actually complaining about sound levels of stuff that shouldn’t be loud (like menu clicking or background music) but that’s relative sound levels of different categories in the game, not the master volume.

That’s why independent news media is so important. And not just independent from state interference, but also financially. Consolidation into a few big players is really counterproductive.

And lately there is the whole social media debacle that needs a solution, even more so with fakes and invented “news” becoming more and more easier. That’s an unsolved problem that needs a solution.

However an informed population really is the only way to keep a system from going downhill, everything else basically bets on some benevolent ruling class or dictator and history has plenty of examples how that goes.

The trick is to build a system with good checks and balances and an informed populace willing to uphold those rules.

Not surprising tbh.,I’ve been in a security meeting before where the owner of the company just said outright his password was written in big letters on the outside of the building we were sitting in. Some people really have zero sense for security or just don’t care.

In my experience that has been extremely rare in recent years (or more like decades now).

Don’t ignore the media. A lot of money also means a lot of media attention which is skewed to the right and the whole social media, advertising industry and getting paid by clicks favors emotional content.

Human nature seems to be a huge part of it. Blaming someone else for all your troubles is such a winning concept, it’s really hard to fight against it. Plus actually having to acknowledge real issues and trying to fix them often comes with people having to change or sacrifice and that’s a hard sell compared to someone just pretending to have perfect solutions and that everything will be fine.

Sadly emotions win debates against facts almost every time.

Yes, roads are important. Attributing costs to who or what is causing those costs is still a good idea.

Paying for roads is fine, paying for 10 lanes of roads that only exist because the real costs aren’t included in all kinds of decision making is dumb.

Sure, some places basically require personal transport. Some of it because it is really rural, some of it because it is build to require cars (which is something that can be changed, although it takes time). The problem with cars being the default for everything in everyones mind is just, that possible alternatives aren’t even considered and thus even more car requirements are locked in for decades to come.

You can’t get rid of cars, not everywhere and in many places not right now. But you have to start and look for alternative ways to manage things so you can reduce the need over time.