Wow, I'm glad I left during the API debacle. Getting banned for an unpopular good-faith post is so frustrating, especially if it's about something important like Gaza.
What kind of idiot would underestimate France. They're a nuclear power, hold a permanent seat on the Security Council, and brought us democracy as we know it.
Because once the laws themselves make sense, it would no longer make sense to call them "drug laws". They would be called "free health care" and "social workers".
I'll admit this is easier for me because I was never a huge HP fan. But I don't even pirate it because I don't want to increase its cultural impact. I don't even want to seed the torrent, and leeches suck. I want Harry Potter to disappear because even after Rowling dies, the profits will go towards a transphobic foundation.
In some cases piracy increases total revenue by getting more people interested in the product.
That'll save a lot of people in the short term so it's certainly worth doing. But that still won't save the United States of America, any more than it would have been possible to save the German Reich, the Kingdom of Italy, or the Greater Japanese Empire.
I want a mirror whose only purpose is to force SUVs to turn off their high beams. Somebody's gonna be blinded either way; better it be brief than constant.
Unless he is, in fact, a chicken.