So. With Elon’s closeness with Trump and he’s desire for X to be the US’S ‘Everything App’, could he force any payment of taxes, goods and services to only go through X? Is this possible with his powers? Do you think it’s possible or likely to happen? I just envisage him making it mandatory for you to use it for everything and if you don’t, you’ll have to face fines or other consequences. (I’m from the UK so I may not understand how this might pan out, I just think he’s crazy enough and cozy enough with Elmo to force it).

    • MothmanDelorian@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      16And the second beast required all people small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, 17 so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark— the name of the beast or the number of its name. 18Here is a call for wisdom: Let the one who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and that number is 666.…

      Revelation 13:16-18

      It’s somewhat interesting to see how they align though

      • FourPacketsOfPeanuts@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        It is not that interesting to take a single prediction of a totalitarian leader controlling commerce (there have been many) and play games with the number 666 while ignoring that earliest manuscripts had 616 and the beast is mortally wounded / crowned with ten crowns / originates from the sea / persecutes Christians etc etc none of which applies to Trump…

        “Babylon” in revelation has some similarities to New York and Trump has connections there. The arrogance / grandstanding too. The full picture painted is more interesting, personally, than wading into numerology.

        I think people just latch on to 666 because it’s mysterious (it has a first century meaning, so is literally ‘meaningless’ - and all its numerology - as far as a modern day fulfillment goes).

        • bitcrafter@programming.dev
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          3 hours ago

          Also, as I understand it, the Book of Revelation essentially only barely squeaked its way into the Bible anyway under the belief that its author was the same John as the John that wrote the Gospel of John; if it had been believed to have been authored by anyone else then it would have been left out because it was hardly a unique representative of its genre.

        • MothmanDelorian@lemmy.world
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          6 hours ago

          No previous attempt has been tied to having a specific number to buy and sell like this one does though as all accounts are essentially numbers.

          Then there’s all the other signs which are also metaphorical (you really should know that and it is noteworthy when someone doesn’t) . I don’t believe in this but it’s odd.