20250128-humanity_js_and_ai.txt

I was setting up Brave on my phone and, as per usual, set up a
Javascript whitelist.  It's a bit tedious, but I really like the
ability to avoid JS whenever it's not necessary, especially if I come
across something like an ad or a website that I don't trust.

I went to log into a restaurant site and I got a message: Verifying
you are human."  And I just thought to myself that Javascript being
enabled doesn't make me human.  It's a requirement (the only one from
what I can see) to pass the test.  But I'd argue the people who
disable JS are the ones that are more human than those who don't.

Every human drone uses JS by default.  The vast majority of those
drones have never even seen a noscript message.  They couldn't tell
you the difference between Java and Javascript.  Many of them probably
can't tell you the difference between Big G and a web browser.  They
probably couldn't even tell you the difference between HTML and JS.
What does it mean to be human if you behave like everyone else?  Is
there any difference between a bot/crawler and a person that f its
neatly in the human drone box?  I don't really think so.

I know there are bad actors out there that abuse JS-less web tools to
wreak havoc on servers.  While I certainly understand it, I still
think that basic PHP form CAPTCHAs can and do address these better.
As others in Gopherspace have noted, JS is just way overused and web
devs who can't create a site without JS are brainless.  And who is to
say AI won't be able to cross the low barrier of JS browsing?  It's
just stupid all around.

Tangential rant: One example of a horrible site that is unequivocally
broken on my PC is Dominos.  It doesn't even work if I enable JS.  I
am 80% sure this is due to me blocking a few Big G subdomains via
hosts.  But it's fucking ridiculous.  If I want to order, I HAVE to
use my phone because that's how fucking stupid Dominos is.  I've
contacted corporate about it and they have not gotten back to me.

I guess it's for the best as the site has the most egregious pandering
and modal popup upselling I've ever seen.  "Want to cheese it up?"
Not if you're going to charge me.  The default amount of fucking
cheese is fine.  "Order a side?"  No.  If I were going to, I would
have done so.  "Add a drink!"  Fuck you, asshole.  "Round up to donate
to St. Jude's."  No, because you're being an asshole.

I don't think it's overkill to say there are at least 3 popups every
time I use their fucking site.  The only reasons I use the site are
price and convenience.  If Dominos were farther away from me or jacked
up their price, I would never order from there.  As it is, I still
sometimes get so frustrated trying to order a fucking pizza that I go
elsewhere.