Right, like, … I can imagine how some of the sociopathic fools who tend to find themselves in executive positions could be fooled into thinking this was a sensible cost-saving measure… But anyone who’s capable of an ounce of reasoning, or who has any basic understanding of generative AI or statistics, shouldn’t need more than a few seconds to realize why this could not ever provide output that would reliably emulate a survey of actual humans.

Or in cases like this, use a different name and just say it’s an homage or something.

I find kidney or garbanzo beans a good substitute.

People are, in fact, hot garbage at risk assessment. See, for example, how many people refused to mask/vax during the height of the pandemic, and the concurrent death rates…

I’m in the southern US. I’ve heard a couple of the doctors I work with say negative things about Trump, but none have said anything positive. Mind you, I work in mental health, and people in this field tend to skew left.

It is indeed the nurses who are more a mixed bag. I’ve even met a couple who have become antivaxxers since COVID, and it boggles my mind.

I am so placated right now.

Can we just stop putting these people with no background in health in charge of health systems? The hubris is astonishing.

I mean, what next, are we going to put a TV host in charge of the military, or a wrestling business executive in charge of education?

Right, like, who did you think you were making surveillance tools for? Because it wasn’t Mr. Rogers.

Also, sometimes people can catch something without being aware of it.

Not just sometimes, a lot of the time. STD’s are often asymptomatic, especially in men. The majority of HPV infections have no symptoms, but they can cause cervical and other cancers (and warts!). Even with HIV, an estimated 13% of people who have it don’t know they have it (per hiv.gov).

Not just suicide assistance chat bots, but suicide promotion chat bots.

The only computer software I specifically must use at work runs on Java, so it would run just fine on another OS… Even so, there’s not a chance in hell I’ll be able to use anything other than Windows :(

You’ll get no argument from me!

Both of whom are old enough that they wouldn’t be drafted. Barron happens to be the right age.

Why would you not both be able to take both names? Is there some archaic, patriarchal law getting in the way?

Look up the McMahons. There are several stories about accusations/investigations of their being directly and indirectly involved in sexual abuses, including of children. If they’re not in the Epstein files, it’s simply because they already had their own thing going and didn’t need him.

I have mixed feelings about zoos. The ones with tiny cages made just for ogling at animals just should not be allowed to exist. The ones which exist to support conservation, research, and educational efforts (and thereby go to lengths to ensure the animals are treated well) I think have a reasonable place in a reasonable society. Although, a reasonable society wouldn’t be creating the conditions which make conservation efforts necessary, but here we are.

sometimes it can be really disruptive and long-lasting. Why are we pretending that’s disordered?

Because if it’s “really disruptive” then a person might need support to be able to function well enough to, e.g., keep a roof over their head. Insurance companies require a label in order to pay out for that support, so there it is. If you’re grieving for 2 weeks plus 1 day, but still able to function, no one is going to arbitrarily slap a diagnosis on you.

Fwiw, “disordered” doesn’t necessarily mean abnormal in the context of mental health, it really just means causing problems (or, “really disruptive”). Indeed, it’s normal to grieve for more than 2 weeks, but our broader society is geared toward extracting profit from you, not toward making sure you can work through your emotions, so mental health professionals are often stuck with just trying to facilitate the least-bad outcomes. Also, as you said, sometimes the changes are just to appease insurers; the system is dumb, so sometimes you have to do nonsensical things in order to make it help people like it should.

As for narcolepsy/etc., yeah … As a mental health professional, I am also befuddled. I suppose a psychiatrist with appropriate training could diagnose and treat that, but normally it would be a sleep specialist.

Tl;Dr: the healthcare system itself doesn’t make sense, so we do things that don’t make sense in order to make it work for patients.

They’re allowed because who’s going to stop them?

They’re not allowed by law - they’re allowed simply by being in control of who enforces the law. This kind of government corruption would normally be investigated by the DOJ… Except it’s the DOJ doing it, and the only people who might be able to anything about that (the legislature and judiciary) are complicit.

Eh, yeah, we know what they’re doing. But making a public statement of the pretext isn’t for our sake, it’s just to appease the executive.

You gotta meet the people where they’re at to get them informed. If this information was hidden away in some privacy/security-centered blog, a fraction as many people would see it.