We are absolutely worse off in the real 2024 than what "Past Tense" depicted.

• Vin asks Sisko for a "UHC card" when trying to identify him. A universal healthcare card. In the real 2024? Still no universal healthcare in the US.

• The famous billionaire's role in the story of "Past Tense" was to get residents of the districts access to "the nets" to tell their story. In the real 2024, Elon Musk would just take to Xitter and advocate for crackdowns.

• Once on the nets, the resident's stories actually swayed public opinion. Can you honestly imagine the stories they told making a dent in the zeitgeist, even if they trended on YouTube and TikTok?

• Sanctuary districts exist too, they're just on the border and privatized.

Ira Steven Behr set out to depict a horribly dystopic 2024, succeeded, and undershot.

That’s easy: unlimited SMS was common on most mobile plans in the US as early as the mid-2000s. Unlike the rest of the world, Americans had no financial incentive to use WhatsApp.

Based and friendpilled

I dunno about favorite, but my go-tos are an Old Fashioned in the fall and winter, and a Tom Collins in spring and summer.

Those become a Manhattan or an Aviation if I’m feeling fancy or just want to mix it up.

In the US you either had unlimited SMS or no SMS plan at all, in which case you got charged for every single message, sent or received. But I remember having unlimited SMS as early as 2003.

If you had no SMS at all then you certainly didn't have a data plan, which ruled out WhatsApp entirely.

It’s extremely easy, you just install AdGuard.

Thank you for looking into it!