I had assumed that our technologically competent admins would have checked out the IP address he uses as a guard against that - too naive?

Any VPN can mask an IP. Besides, it isn’t a deadly serious suggestion, but it would make sense, I’m sure you’d agree.

I've sometimes referred to the basement in Moscow which I had assumed was his - their?- abode. Perhaps it was not in jest.

If you care so much about what others expect of you, you will never be free. — Olivier5

If you don't care much about what others expect of you, you put yourself at risk of their anger and their revenge.

I see the logo and think "Aww, they kinda fucked that apple symbol forever."

Fraud is only fraud if it is not done by the government, then it is a policy.

A slick sales pitch (fraud) has always been used by whoever needs it and thinks they can get away with it. I hear the words, I consider them, in context, and weight them against what I know, what makes sense, and ultimately, what I want. If I elect to ignore logic and experience and go only with what I want, and how I want them to support something I already wanted, that result is on me; not the speech maker.

I tell you to stop paying taxes because the government is too busy to notice...First off, Are you actually going to believe me? Secondly, if you do, should I be held accountable for your actions? Is there no such thing as personal responsibility? Or personal accountability?

I make a shit call: my error. I make a great call: my success. Not sure where the narrator comes in.

So it makes sense that a company's employees act in line with company policy 24/7 and that the company has some overview and control over it. — baker

And if I am getting paid 24/7 I will be more inclined to follow company policy 24/7. Outside of that, pass on policy. I do not require my employees to follow policy on their off time, unless they are running around in company clothing and company trucks. Simple as that. It's called off time for a reason. A good employee is one who does their job well, is reliable, and lets me know what is frustrating them about the company before they tell others about it. A good boss will listen to what is frustrating the employees and will try to solve the issues before the employees feel so frustrated that they bad mouth the company while off work. If I treat my people well they will be protective of their jobs and the company: no policy required. If I treat them poorly, no policy will protect me from myself.

Wow. You're not a typical capitalist!

Treat, and pay, your people well, never ask them more than you would ask of yourself, and support and promote their improvement and education. Never, ever, screw with their pay cheque or time off. You will have exceedingly loyal staff. Loyal happy staff sell the company to the customers and do a great deal of advertising for you.

Pay them poorly, make them feel disposable and always wonder when you will have to close your doors.

Pay them poorly, make them feel disposable and always wonder when you will have to close your doors. — Book273

I suppose that's true for small companies, but I'm not so sure about the bigger ones.

I see the logo and think "Aww, they kinda fucked that apple symbol forever." — Book273

It was always kinda fucked up if you asked me, with “the fall of man” jazz.

If you don't care much about what others expect of you, you put yourself at risk of their anger and their revenge. — baker

Sooooo scary.

The implications are dire, I admit.

This is where Wayfairer works. He has a VPN.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang_re-education_camps

Opposing free speech in schools, the media, political correctness etc. is instead rewarded.
— Nikolas

If you care so much about what others expect of you, you will never be free. Rewards from society are not necessary to live well. Your own personal freedom to say whatever you want may not agree with other people's expectations that you're going to stick to "proper language", but then, don't you also expect things from others? And do you feel like you restrict their freedom when you expect something from them? — Olivier5

Personal liberty is not the same as societal liberty. They require different qualities of obligations. I may demand the right to kill you to enhance my personal freedom. However societal liberty demands the respect for life. Personal liberty may give a woman the right to kill her fetus while societal liberty demands the attitude of respect for the life process from birth to death.

Societal obligations require voluntary obligations individuals in this day and age are likely to ignore. They require an awareness beyond selfish attitudes.

Mark 12: 17 Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”

It seems that Man as a whole, living in Plato's cave, has forgotten what belongs to God and what belongs to Caesar and cannot distinguish between them. If we can't, liberty by definition is only a potential for Man. As we are, we are incapable of it and some form of psychological slavery is the lawful result of ignorance for a society.

What I mean is, the meaning isn’t in the symbol. I carry it around with me so that when I come across a symbol I can understand what it means. Obviously I must first learn what it means.

It was always kinda fucked up if you asked me, with “the fall of man” jazz. — praxis

Their original logo was a complex drawing of Isaac Newton under an apple tree:



So no, it’s not THAT apple (which if anything was more likely meant to be a pomegranate anyway).

Companies rebrand. Of course you've noticed the bite in the Apple logo, so whatever sublimated meaning was being attempted with Newtons apple was replaced with something of more biblical proportions.



My point is that others deliberately try to control the meaning of symbols etc. in order to manipulate.

Personal liberty is not the same as societal liberty. — Nikolas

That's a totally different topic. My point is you cannot be a free spirit if you keep anguishing to no end about what others will think of what you say. Of course if you want the folks on twitter to love you, you may have to give them what they expect, but what's the point of that?

You don't actually need to conform to PC in real life.

That is an internally consistent, though unpopular view. Let me guess, no one in your family has been a victim of fraud, right?

Personal liberty is not the same as societal liberty.
— Nikolas

That's a totally different topic. My point is you cannot be a free spirit if you keep anguishing to no end about what others will think of what you say. Of course if you want the folks on twitter to love you, you may have to give them what they expect, but what's the point of that?

You don't actually need to conform to PC in real life. — Olivier5

But sometimes a person's voluntary obligations learned by experience is hated by normal people. They will have to drink the hemlock. They can avoid these obligations and be happy or be hated by the educated. What are the obligations of a real human being aware of the human condition? Do they drink the hemlock? From Plato's Cave allegory:

[Socrates] And if there were a contest, and he had to compete in measuring the shadows with the prisoners who had never moved out of the cave, while his sight was still weak, and before his eyes had become steady (and the time which would be needed to acquire this new habit of sight might be very considerable) would he not be ridiculous? Men would say of him that up he went and down he came without his eyes; and that it was better not even to think of ascending; and if any one tried to loose another and lead him up to the light, let them only catch the offender, and they would put him to death.

What to do?

They will have to drink the hemlock. — Nikolas

Oh really? I thought Socrates was sentenced to death because he was what we call today a pedophile. Also I am not aware of any present day philosopher forced to drink any hemlock...

Oh really? I thought Socrates was sentenced to death because he was what we call today a pedophile. Also I am not aware of any present day philosopher forced to drink any hemlock... — Olivier5

No, Socrates was more concerned with the minds of the young rather than their bodies. Pedophilia was common practice in those days and nothing to be killed over.

Socrates was a disruptive influence and his ideas corrupted the youth of Athens so had to be killed. In these times a philosopher on the level of Socrates would have to be banned from teaching with the goal of killing him on the inside. They wouldn't understand that his death was intentional. Such a philosopher would be canceled out for the masses but a life giving influence for a minority..

Socrates was a disruptive influence and his ideas corrupted the youth of Athens so had to be killed. — Nikolas

The phrase "to corrupt the youth of Athens" has more than one meaning. The charge may have refered to something far more mundane than philosophy. We know next to nothing about Socrates.

In any case, the point was that philosophers today are not sentenced to death for their ideas. Go easy with the drama.

In any case, the point was that philosophers today are not sentenced to death for their ideas. Go easy with the drama. — Olivier5

No but the ideas are: "Who were the fools who spread the story that brute force cannot kill ideas? ... And once they are dead they are no more than corpses." Simone Weil

Socrates was killed because he threatened ideas based on and justified by imagination established in Plato's cave. Now laws don't allow for killing philosophers but the great perennial ideas at the source of philosophy like the essence of Christianity can be condemned and canceled out of society.

What can be more insulting then person acquiring some respect asserts that "I know Nothing"? We are intelligent and assumed to have knowledge and now Socrates asserts that he knows nothing. Residents of Plato's cave must kill such ideas. They inspire thought which is simply offensive and intolerable for educated people.

If we can't kill at least make sure these ideas have no safe spaces with no freedom other than to remain silent.

In truth we know very little about Socrates, and it's all based on one single source: what his student Plato wrote. As for his ideas, they were not actually killed. We're still talking about him after all this time.

From 1984

‘ “Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.” ’

Peace is assured

There will be no need for safe spaces. Your government and censorsip will make them unnecessary. Your government will teach you the correct words to use. In this way peace is assured.

‘ “Big Brother is Watching You.”’ He knows you need to be loved. Once you learn right from wrong you will be loved. It is just a matter of time and proper education and you will automatically do the right thing and deserve his love.. The need for safe spaces will be a thing of the past

@Olivier5. Just to clear a couple of things up...

We have Xenophon’s Memorabilia, alongside Plato’s Dialogues, as another source, sometimes more powerful than Plato, of the details of Socrates’ life.

Secondly, The charges against Socrates were twofold: corrupting the youth, and teaching gods other than the official gods of Athens.

...and I think the two charges work in unison. In other words, Socrates corrupted the youth by teaching strange gods, not by loving boys sexually...

...as a matter of fact, in all the Dialogues, Socrates steers his audience away from sex toward an, anachronistically, “Platonic” relationship.

At any rate, in Ancient Athens, pedophilia was a practice countenanced quite openly; to have sentenced one to death for it would have decimated the aristocracy.