The Ashley Madison hack story is for me somewhere between the gift that keeps giving (outing some of the most noxious of Conservative types as two faced cheaters), and a seagull circling over your head, dropping shit on you at every other turn. It’s sort of a manic depressive situation that really sort of makes me shake my head.
The good: Watching idiots like Josh Duggar (fucking self-righteous puke) getting exposed AGAIN as a liar and a cheat is fucking awesome. This is the sort of proof that the whole conservative values thing is crap, and that some of the biggest pervs are the ones who lie about it by pretending to be better than everyone else. It’s freaking awesome to see some of the names turning up on the membership list, and watching them have to publicly backtrack from their naughty secrets revealed.
The bad: Some people can’t handle the exposure, and reportedly a couple have already taken their own lives as a result. It’s pretty sad, but at the same time shows the insane level of conflict between their public face and their private desires. It’s a sort of crock of shit situation where we need to perhaps all learn to just shut up and enjoy ourselves, and not try to put on airs of being better than others. Nature makes us want to fuck, plain and simple, why deny reality?
The interesting: I think the most interesting thing here is just how many people were involved. Online dating, porn, and the like isn’t a marginal or unusual thing, it’s pretty much the norm. There are risks involved, but it’s not something you should be that shy about.
The implications of the hack for the online world is pretty large. There is no reason why Ashley Madison should have had the credit card information of it’s customers on hand in a manner that could be read and downloaded. Quite simply, that is a really major fail on their behalf. It’s not really any different from hacks of major department stores and hardware stores, but equally frustrating. It gives one pause about buying online.
The good news? There is a solution at hand – prepaid credit cards. My best suggest for online fun it this: Signup here for a free live cam account. Seriously free, you don’t need a credit card. Check out the fun. If you like it, stop by your local supermarket or whatever, and get yourself a pre-paid mastercard or visa. Get a small amount (maybe $50 or whatever) and use that to sign up. Your financial risk is very low, and a hack can’t hurt your bank account. I would say that without a functional payment method, your account information would likely be undesirable for most hackers. So you would be more likely in the clear.