And if you are american: fucking fix your government

I live in a red state where our last two Attorney Generals used the position as a ladder to go to the senate. The first one on the whole Jan 6 attack ran like a coward after fist pumping to the crowd of rioters. The state loved it so much they elected his clone.

Some states are just choke holded by a cult. This isn't a top down thing, no matter how much the President thinks he is. No, down to the grass roots we are fucked to a level that I don't see how we come back from.

The worst part, the state I'm in now is an improvement from the last one I escaped.

And if you are american: fucking fix your government

I try everyday and I will not give up until it's fixed.

Your government could end up more like mine if the AfD takes power so I urge you and all Germans to fight that with everything you got. It's terrifying here and I really don't want other people to have to go through what we're going through so please take action now.

One threat that I believe people in Europe are not taking seriously enough is foreign interference in your elections from our Oligarchs like Elon Musk and our government. Trump's so-called National Security Strategy explicitly calls for interfering in EU countries and the Heritage Foundation (the organization who planned much of Trump's second term) has explicitly called for eliminating the EU.

Please consider these actions to immunize yourself and your country from us:

1. Stop using Twitter, Meta products, TikTok and Reddit. These companies all have owners who are sympathetic to the Trump regime or in the case of Twitter it's way worse. I'm personally a big advocate for Bluesky for replacing Twitter and of course goes without saying I really hope Lemmy can fully replace Reddit.

2. Educate people on how to recognize disinformation and propaganda. This should be taught in school along with classes to mitigate the harmful effects caused by social media. Classes should hopefully cultivate skills like emotional regulation, critical thinking and conflict resolution because cognitive warfare is more successful against people who are weak in these skills.

3. Try resolving people's frustrations and social differences without them turning towards the far-right. This is part of how Trump got into power some people feel unhappy and vulnerable so the far-right takes advantage of them. I don't understand this well but I've read that part of the AfD's popularity has to do with unresolved differences between East and West Germany. If I'm wrong here or misunderstanding I apologize.

4. If applicable campaign finance reform especially to restrict foreign money. I suspect Germany is way better than America here but if this is a risk please fix as soon as possible.

5. Consider simulating what would happen if the AfD were to take power almost like the way a pentester tests software. Figure out what vulnerabilities in your government the AfD could exploit and solve them before they take power. This is really important because for Trump you can think of him almost like a hacker except he's not breaking into computer systems, he's exploiting vulnerabilities in both humans and our government doing things like declaring fake emergencies.

Obviously this is by no means a complete list. I'm sure there's a lot to do.

we just take the piss and moan approach then vote back in the assholes.

Someone will just make the required tools. You can buy the keys for TSA locks on Amazon. I think we're past fixing this country. Once the American empire falls, hopefully we'll fall in line with the rest of the world. Though I'd like for someone to fix this country.

I have a set of spanner drive screwdrivers, I'd walk right over this design

After the whole heated seats subscription bullshit I expect only the worst from them.

Did you see the Rossman video about this? The patent explicitly calls out that the reason for this design is to prevent people from using it without the proper "authorization" or told or whatever. It is not about branding or better functionality or anything else

Patenting things you don't have intention of actually doing, "just in case", is just shit tbh.

Yeah the patent doesn't mention anything about it being a security screw as far as I can tell, it just looks like they patented a dumbass design that's only useful for the aesthetics and people are making some sensational headlines. Like, yeah, we'd just get or make the bits to undo them - they also know that?

They will have the patent on the corresponding driver for the screw, and i doubt they will allow third party shops to purchase the drivers for anything resembling a reasonable price. Meaning that you will be forced to take the car to a BMW authorized mechanic. It's taking away the consumer's right to repair.

You‘re onto something there. Another approach would be to use a Dremel tool to grind a narrow slot.

The surface that takes the pressure would be very similar to a flat screwdriver. Looks like it has no taper, so it would be harder to put in place but harder for it to skip when applying torque. It's not a good design, but not horrible.