Slightly OT but I think Ford's chance to beat Tesla has flown out the window. Ford is partially withdrawing from Europe - it might linger on selling commercial vans & tractors but as a consumer brand they're nearly gone. GM has pulled out of Europe (and China). GM sold it's European Opel operation to Stellantis. There is talk of GM trying to enter Europe with EVs but we'll see.
Anyway the point is they both kind of blew it and are retreating to their domestic market, probably hoping they can cling on there, weather the storm and come back later. I think Tesla has taken over as the dominant auto maker and it's unlikely to change unless Elon does something spectacularly dumb or drops dead.
He posted the other day about being proud American etc. and yet he's actively giving comfort to hostile adversaries like Russia and screwing US allies. I think if I were the US federal government I wouldn't touch SpaceX or Starlink with a shitty stick given the mercurial, manchild in charge of them with his own agenda.
So whilst you’re not wrong that these cars currently hold the lowest ratings of cars tested with the new post-2020 procedure, I’m sure a lot of older cars would fare far worse.
The NCAP test advances over time so of course an older car would rate worse. NCAP updates its testing regime to incorporate safety functionality as it becomes mainstream, e.g. automatic emergency braking.
But these cars were tested against their peers in 2021, not older cars. This is not city car vs SUV but city car vs city car. The Dacia Spring, Jogger, Sandero and Renaul Zoe were the worst cars in the City / Supermini category. In the same year, that Dacia / Renault were scraping 0, 1 or 2 stars, Fiat 500e and Hyundai i20 were scoring 4 stars. I'd add that all the city cars tested in 2022 were also 4 or 5 star rating. It's actually funny in a way that the revamped Zoe scored worse than the original model for impact protection because they actually removed safety equipment.
So basically it's about Renault cheaping out on safety, nothing else. It's not acceptable. Maybe the driver / occupant are fine with the extra risk of injury or death in a collision. Doesn't mean the pedestrian / cyclist they hit was so on board with the idea.
Hardly seems surprising that Renault / Dacia is the least worst since it is a European car company that doesn't sell in the US. I should point out though that Dacia holds the record for the absolute worst NCAP safety ratings at this time and some Renault cars aren't far behind. So swings and roundabouts.
It's true he doesn't give a damn about these people but they're useful for his scam. He's already said he'll pardon people and will continue to say it because it suits the narrative he's pushing and what his base wants to hear.
The problem is he is toxic and will only get more so as his legal issues turn into jail time so it's unlikely he'll win election. If he were smart he'd drop out and secure a pardon from a more electable GOP nominee in return for endorsement. But he won't. So it seems that these proud boy / oathkeeper idiots are likely to be spending a long time behind bars.
Bricking is a possibility but for phones that can be unlocked, it should be a matter of following the instructions on Lineageos - unlock the bootloader, flash the recovery partition, flash lineageos + Google apps.
The biggest pain in the ass for me was trying to get the adb & fastboot tools to talk to the device in the first place. For example OnePlus requires drivers for its devices but Windows doesn't install them automatically so you have to go find them. Except the adb driver works but the fastboot one didn't. Then after a bunch of searching it turns out OnePlus forgot to sign the fastboot driver so Windows refused to install it and I had to boot Windows in a convoluted way to disable signature verification to get the driver installed.
After all that, the rest was relatively straightforward but it still took several hours of effort. IMO Lineageos is a pretty ugly dist but if you install Google Apps it's not missing anything and it extends the phone's life beyond what the manufacturer could be bothered to support.
.1) Nobody is being "forced" out, they choose to, 2) and home schooling is a thing EVERYWHERE, 3) extremism is a thing EVERYWHERE and usually not during a child's education but later in life. Most extremists are in fact just losers - petty criminals, drug addicts, social misfits etc. who get sent to prison or who join forums and are groomed and radicalised. Across the pond in the UK with no laicite and you will still have extremists. In virtually every case they were groomed after the fact.
Laicite is not the cause of this, although a child's upbringing, or lack thereof, does have some bearing. The majority of parents, regardless of religion are not fundamentalists, let alone extremists, and will sensibly choose to send their kids to a state school or private school. I daresay the vast majority of Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Jews and every other denomination in France are more than happy to send kids to a state school. I daresay the majority of people in France after a generation or two don't even have an objection to this arrangement and consider it normal.
One of my kids asks maybe once in six months to watch something on Disney+ so I subscribe and instantly cancel (don't get me started about auto renew). I swear in that six months there are maybe a handful of new shows and movies that are worth watching and the rest is the same old junk as before. It probably doesn't help that Disney is making some really terrible content lately.
Netflix isn't quite so bad but I can see why people would want to take a break from it. While I think they have a slightly better hit ratio than Disney they've also put out some expensive stinkers too.
Article seems to confuse cause and effect. Maybe some subscribers left but they more likely because the service is too expensive or didn't like the content. It doesn't necessarily follow they all left because some freeloaders lost their access to another person's account.
Calling your arguments stupid is not ad hominem. But if you want me to elucidate then by all means:
Forcing people to eat beef (or pork) is not covered by laicite. Wearing religious clothing & symbols on state property is. I'm sure a case to be made that schools should be sensitive to religious dietary restrictions and provide alternatives, but that's not what you were saying.
Circumcision is not covered by laicite at least insofar as school is concerned. Maybe there are regs about how it is performed in public hospitals. Wearing religious clothing & symbols on state property is.
Laicite has been a thing in France for over a 100 years. There is nothing "narrow" about it and it affected religions LONG before Muslims became the latest to experience it.
It's not about arguing but stating a fact. Power companies have roadmaps for electrification and removal of fossil fuels. EV adoption isn't something they're not preparing for. It's very easy to search this out.
It's not about stopping people from being coerced, it's about the state forbidding religious symbols on state property including schools. France is strictly secular and forbids religion in the public sphere, i.e. state property like schools, politics etc.
It just so happens to have the pleasant side effect that kids in state schools are free from the segregation, clothing and other religious bullshit they might have to endure in their private life. The government has no control over that other aspect however it might lead to kids growing into adults who are less orthodox in their own lives.
France has been enforcing secularism since the turn of the 20th century. If you turn up with a turban, or a yarmulke, or a cross you'd be sent home too. If parents feel so aggrieved that the state disallows religious symbolism & clothing on state property they can send their kids to a private school.
Laicite has been a thing for a very long time. Simply put, France recognizes your right to believe any crap you like in your private life and recognizes religions under law, but people don't get to practice their religion in the public sphere, e.g. on state property.
This is as opposed to US secularism which is barely lip service and constantly undermined. If you want an analogue, France erects a steel barrier between religion and governance whereas US erects a 4ft chain link fence.
Slightly OT but I think Ford's chance to beat Tesla has flown out the window. Ford is partially withdrawing from Europe - it might linger on selling commercial vans & tractors but as a consumer brand they're nearly gone. GM has pulled out of Europe (and China). GM sold it's European Opel operation to Stellantis. There is talk of GM trying to enter Europe with EVs but we'll see.
Anyway the point is they both kind of blew it and are retreating to their domestic market, probably hoping they can cling on there, weather the storm and come back later. I think Tesla has taken over as the dominant auto maker and it's unlikely to change unless Elon does something spectacularly dumb or drops dead.