Silentiea

Why do people keep reading dystopias as instruction books?

Oh, I'm with you. I don't think anyone using Google VPN was using it because it protected their privacy on the Internet generally. At least I hope not.

The NASA VPN, on the other hand

Reasonable when the alternative is literally getting mugged on the daily?

L stands for leap year, so that tracks.

Then you have already lost, and are without honor.

I remember my FIL asking each one if they were trying to supplement a living or if they were purely a for-profit capitalist venture taking advantage of an opportunity at an anti-capitalist protest.

Out of curiosity, how would he draw that line? When does it stop counting as a living and start being a purely for-profit venture?

Not tipping doesn't fix this problem, it just makes someone get payed less.

Just in case it wasn't clear, when one is not tipping, they are very literally not giving people money. The only "people" you are giving money to are the owners of the service, not the wage workers you may otherwise have tipped.

Nothing on Lemmy is posted on basis of "needs to be mentioned",

Literally everything on Lemmy was said for a reason. Bad reasons exist, but I like to give people the benefit of the doubt.

Tipping causes lower wages because it relieves the employers of the obligation of paying their workers. Also, I am talking about systemic change,

Tipping doesn't "cause" lower wages. Tipping becoming an expected social norm can cause that, or exacerbate it. But you as an individual choosing not to tip doesn't really impact that. It certainly doesn't effect systemic change. If the norm is already present, all you're doing is literally lowering one individual's wages by not tipping them, and if it's not then what you're doing is making a statement to that individual (ranging from "I come from America" to "you were really exceptional").

How about family dynasties?

Wait, did somebody say Kennedy?

Ah, yes, the Athenian Method.

Tipping occasionally doesn't cause this problem either.

Being vocal about never tipping implies that it's an exceptional stance for some reason. If that's the norm where you live, why does it need to be mentioned?