• besselj@lemmy.ca
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    2 days ago

    The goal seems to be to keep people in rural areas ignorant and/or sell more starlink terminals

      • Kairos@lemmy.today
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        2 days ago

        I think it’s much more likely that they want their base to keep watching cable TV

    • HarkMahlberg@kbin.earth
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      2 days ago

      It’s easy to funnel money from the rubes. It was only 2 years ago that I learned some churches will automatically withdraw tithes from your bank account and they encourage you to set up “direct deposit” with them.

      The entire economic model of these loons is built on the same principle: anything you use regularly, for “free” or built with taxpayer money, should instead become a subscription service you have to pay for, to a cabal of rich sociopaths. In the meantime, the actual free option is brain rotting propaganda to keep you voting for the rich sociopaths so they can repeat step 1. See: Fox News.

      • Lyrl@lemm.ee
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        2 days ago

        Churches and other religious congregations in the US are NOT funded with taxpayers money (at least, pending Supreme Court decision on the Kansas taxpayer supported Catholic school), and pastor salary and building upkeep are very real costs. If a family values the community having employee(s) and a building, and doesn’t want the hassle of other payment options, automatic debits are a good option to have available.

        Things that actually are funded with taxpayer money, yes, they should be free. The Project 2025 plan to kill NOAA so weather forecasts will only be available to subscribers of private companies is incredibly destructive to such a huge number of people, and yes, this broadband decision is in that same awful category.

        • alsimoneau@lemmy.ca
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          2 days ago

          Isn’t the fact that they get a tax credit kinda means they get that money through?

          • Lyrl@lemm.ee
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            2 days ago

            I’m not sure what you mean by “tax credit”. Religious congregations do not receive payments of any kind from the government. They do not pay taxes on their income (donations/tithes), so each donor’s money goes farther, and donors, if they itemize on their tax returns (pretty rare with how generous the standard deduction has become) have tax incentive to give generously. But without donations, there won’t be any building or full time officiant.

            • alsimoneau@lemmy.ca
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              1 day ago

              So you see exactly what I mean. They get to not pay taxes. That’s money in their pockets instead of the government. Ergo, that’s a grant.

        • HarkMahlberg@kbin.earth
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          2 days ago

          You misread my comment. I’m relating direct tithing to churches, to things like NOAA. That’s actually an incredible example of what I’m talking about. But I’m not saying churches are taxpayer funded no.

          That being said… I’m not putting it past religious fundamentalists to convince Trump to issue an executive order garnishing every American’s wages in the name of tithing to the church. It would be foul, and fucked, but the last 6 months have given me an ample imagination.

      • qprimed@lemmy.ml
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        2 days ago

        ding, ding, ding! close rural offices, make phone support unworkable with additional staff cuts and deadend “AI” phone IVR and finally ensure that online interactions are impossible.

        hundreds of billions will be saved on the bodies of dead Americans to help pay for those trillionaire tax cuts.