#consumed by deception

[bookishpedia]

Adrian: Wait you like me? For my personality?

Lia: I know, I was surprised, too.

[adrianvokov]

headers adrianlia like

[safiraerklare]

deception trilogy by rina kent

reblog if you save.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The CFPB is genuinely making America better, and they're going HARD

On June 20, I'm keynoting the LOCUS AWARDS in OAKLAND.

Let's take a sec here and notice something genuinely great happening in the US government: the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau's stunning, unbroken streak of major, muscular victories over the forces of corporate corruption, with the backing of the Supreme Court (yes, that Supreme Court), and which is only speeding up!

A little background. The CFPB was created in 2010. It was Elizabeth Warren's brainchild, an institution that was supposed to regulate finance from the perspective of the American public, not the American finance sector. Rather than fighting to "stabilize" the financial sector (the mission that led to Obama taking his advisor Timothy Geithner's advice to permit the foreclosure crisis to continue in order to "foam the runways" for the banks), the Bureau would fight to defend us from bankers.

The CFPB got off to a rocky start, with challenges to the unique system of long-term leadership appointments meant to depoliticize the office, as well as the sudden resignation of its inaugural boss, who broke his promise to see his term through in order to launch an unsuccessful bid for political office.

But after the 2020 election, the Bureau came into its own, when Biden poached Rohit Chopra from the FTC and put him in charge. Chopra went on a tear, taking on landlords who violated the covid eviction moratorium:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/20/euthanize-rentier-enablers/#cfpb

Then banning payday lenders' scummiest tactics:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/01/29/planned-obsolescence/#academic-fraud

Then striking at one of fintech's most predatory grifts, the "earned wage access" hustle:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/01/usury/#tech-exceptionalism

Then closing the loophole that let credit reporting bureaus (like Equifax, who doxed every single American in a spectacular 2019 breach) avoid regulation by creating data brokerage divisions and claiming they weren't part of the regulated activity of credit reporting:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/16/the-second-best-time-is-now/#the-point-of-a-system-is-what-it-does

Chopra went on to promise to ban data-brokers altogether:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/13/goulash/#material-misstatement

Then he banned comparison shopping sites where you go to find the best bank accounts and credit cards from accepting bribes and putting more expensive options at the top of the list. Instead, he's requiring banks to send the CFPB regular, accurate lists of all their charges, and standing up a federal operated comparison shopping site that gives only accurate and honest rankings. Finally, he's made an interoperability rule requiring banks to let you transfer to another institution with one click, just like you change phone carriers. That means you can search an honest site to find the best deal on your banking, and then, with a single click, transfer your accounts, your account history, your payees, and all your other banking data to that new bank:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/21/let-my-dollars-go/#personal-financial-data-rights

Somewhere in there, big business got scared. They cooked up a legal theory declaring the CFPB's funding mechanism to be unconstitutional and got the case fast-tracked to the Supreme Court, in a bid to put Chopra and the CFPB permanently out of business. Instead, the Supremes – these Supremes! – upheld the CFPB's funding mechanism in a 7-2 ruling:

https://www.scotusblog.com/2024/05/supreme-court-lets-cfpb-funding-stand/

That ruling was a starter pistol for Chopra and the Bureau. Maybe it seemed like they were taking big swings before, but it turns out all that was just a warmup. Last week on The American Prospect, Robert Kuttner rounded up all the stuff the Bureau is kicking off:

https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2024-06-07-window-on-corporate-deceptions/

First: regulating Buy Now, Pay Later companies (think: Klarna) as credit-card companies, with all the requirements for disclosure and interest rate caps dictated by the Truth In Lending Act:

https://www.skadden.com/insights/publications/2024/06/cfpb-applies-credit-card-rules

Next: creating a registry of habitual corporate criminals. This rogues gallery will make it harder for other agencies – like the DOJ – and state Attorneys General to offer bullshit "delayed prosecution agreements" to companies that compulsively rip us off:

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-creates-registry-to-detect-corporate-repeat-offenders/

Then there's the rule against "fine print deception" – which is when the fine print in a contract lies to you about your rights, like when a mortgage lender forces you waive a right you can't actually waive, or car lenders that make you waive your bankruptcy rights, which, again, you can't waive:

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-warns-against-deception-in-contract-fine-print/

As Kuttner writes, the common thread running through all these orders is that they ban deceptive practices – they make it illegal for companies to steal from us by lying to us. Especially in these dying days of class action suits – rapidly becoming obsolete thanks to "mandatory arbitration waivers" that make you sign away your right to join a class action – agencies like the CFPB are our only hope of punishing companies that lie to us to steal from us.

There's a lot of bad stuff going on in the world right now, and much of it – including an active genocide – is coming from the Biden White House.

But there are people in the Biden Administration who care about the American people and who are effective and committed fighters who have our back. What's more, they're winning. That doesn't make all the bad news go away, but sometimes it feels good to take a moment and take the W.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/10/getting-things-done/#deliverism

[edensbackyard]

I am going insane over tmagp

[ataykiri]

Our stay on this earth is so so short, we’re in such a dream state that we keep forgetting this truth

[verflcht]

𝐢 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮, 𝖘𝖚𝖓𝖑𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐰 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮, 𝖘𝖚𝖓𝖑𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙

[roseofhybrids]

Always underestimate how long it takes to process the reference images. You'd think I'd learn my lesson after the original took nearly 48 hours to do, but no

like, the episode's only 25 minutes (and 6 minutes of behind the scenes from Kevin and Austan Todd), I'm skipping around, playing at 2 times speed

why is this taking 12 hours? Somethin bout this math ain't lining up

[jewishcissiekj]

Steven Barnes I'm in your walls

[tacticalgrandma]

I don’t know if this is a hot take or not but I just do not like Immaru as a character. Ghosts are often sort of comic relief-y but it’s very weird for Savathun, this imposing, fascinating presence, to have an 80s football coach villain as the advent of her most terrifying plot. And like it maybe could be a fun weird if he were funny, in the way our ghost or Glint is funny at times, but he’s just not. He has stepdad jokes and repeats them to the point where they’re not corny they’re just grating and bad.

And it does a disservice to Savathun! It seriously undermines her as this gray figure if she has a cartoon villain as a ghost!

Idk man I just do not get the point of him at all, and it’s annoying to have to put up with.

[sohannabarberaesque]

No doubt the Clue Club will be interested in this scenario, particularly from the standpoint of Trademark Infringement:

(And I assume Dottie has access to the websites of the major watch manufacturers to help with spotting knockoff watches besides the deliberate misspellings of known brand names and the cheap-looking wristbands and housings.)

[swordmaid]

am getting a lot of character inspo for shri’iia from amy gone girl. I don’t think she’s as smart nor calculated but she is similar to some degree in that she’s hyper aware of the current persona she’s presenting and how she’s appealing to the people. the masks and the mjndgames, that’s basically how shri’iia operated while she was still serving under her matriarch in menzoberranzan. she needed to play the roles the matriarch required of her and it was only when she was with her matriarch that she can be ‘Real Shri’iia’, and that’s how I imagined shri’iia to be esp in act 1 when she is so new and scared in the surface. she needed to work out who these people are (her companions) and what they liked, so her first persona - her blank one - the charming helpful paladin who got tadpoled and wants to go back home just like the rest of them (which was half true). she didn’t really argue and she generally agreed to what the group wanted. she was helpful and co-operative, ask her about her past and she will tell you something bland and generic- interesting enough to be ooh-ing about but not too interesting that they’ll delve deeper into it. then, when she got to know them a little more, she started crafting little personas adjacent to her first one ; she’s the girl who’s curious about magic but never had the chance to learn with gale, she’s a cool girl who likes mischief as debauchery with astarion, she’s the one who likes to take risks and live in the moment with karlach, the knight in silver armor who’s willing to help the tieflings with wyll, a disciplined fighter with lae’zel, someone who understands the depths of devotion with shadowheart - but none are really her, not really. ofc her own personality might slip in here and there but for the most part she’s appealing to them and what they’d like her to be but none of it is really genuine. shri’iia just needs to be on their good side to minimise the chances of them turning on her, and if they let her guard down it’ll be easier for her to get rid of them should the need arise. taking up all these different masks, collecting all these intel abt them to be used for later, slithering and making a place in their minds - it’s really how she operated back in menzoberranzan. I think the only one who catches on to her game is astarion but that’s bc he’s doing the same thing too, so it’s very game recognises game lmfao

it’s only when she breaks her oath and goes through her existential crisis that all of her masks drop and her real self comes out. she was never that kind of person lmfao ^, she’s greedy, selfish, paranoid and rather obsessive. she doesn’t care about a lot of things that doesn’t concern her, she has a cruel streak that she hasn’t shown before, and she hates doing anything that won’t really benefit her. but she’s fiercely loyal to anyone she likes, like a dog. and severely she craves validation and approval - also like a dog.

[kimuramasaya]

trying to make an instruction guide for new student orientation processes for my new staff and I'm already at 7 pages but not even halfway through everything 😭

[geraskier]

i got a live rosin disposable vape of "cake crasher" and it was soooo good. it's definitely more intense than a regular vape so if you treat it like one, you get mega stoned in an uncomfortable way. ended up using it too much yesterday and i just felt super paranoid. granted i also smoked and took edibles so i was chill about being paranoid but that's another limit i'll respect. vape weed sparingly, vape rosin even *more* sparingly, be careful about taking edibles if you're smoking at the same time, etc etc.

[poojahedge5]

In a world where environmental consciousness is on the rise, businesses are under increasing pressure to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability. However, not all companies play by the rules. Enter greenwashing – a deceptive marketing practice where companies exaggerate or fabricate their environmental credentials to appeal to eco-conscious consumers. Greenwashing is the modern-day equivalent of putting lipstick on a pig – making something appear better than it truly is.

But how does greenwashing work, and why should we care? Let’s dive into the murky waters of this practice and explore how it manipulates perceptions, impacts consumer behavior, and ultimately, hinders true environmental progress.

[horreurscopes]

i do not have and will never have an iphone but i've been watching hugh jeffrey's videos where he keeps exposing apple's cartoonishly evil anti-repair practices and whatever you think they are doing to keep people purchasing new devices, it is astonishingly worse.

jeffrey's releases videos every time there's a new iphone where he tries to switch parts between two brand new, straight-from-the-store working phones and shows how apple has serialized the internal components so multiple phone functions are disabled when a part with a different serial number is put inside it, effectively killing third party repair, as well as scraping non-functioning phones for parts, while iOS deceptively claims that it is a third party part and it is locking the phone for "safety" purposes.

apple was also exposed recently for not only shredding half a million traded-in phones, but taking the company they were hiring to do so to court for failing to destroy products and instead selling some of them on the side 💀

this video jeffrey posted a month ago puts side to side the claims an apple technician gave at a legislative hearing when speaking against oregon's right to repair bill, and jefferey himself demonstrating that they were, well, lying out of their ass. it doesn't have nearly enough views imo so i'm sharing it here.

in short: stop buying apple products if you care about the right to repair, reducing e-waste and human rights.

the exploitation of cobalt mines in congo is fueling the fire of genocide; people are dying in the thousands in subhuman slavery conditions every day while apple does everything in their power to stop people from repairing and re-selling their products while claiming they are committed to reducing e-waste.

we need to be committing acts of t[redacted]ism against corporate greed but in the meantime withholding your consumer power is the bare minimum