It’s discrediting valid concerns against card-payments. It’s invalidating how great cash is.
It’s when the worst person you know makes a good point.
And things now are so Culture-Wars-y, nobody makes solid analyses any more, that when the far-right say cards are bad, everybody jumps to thinking cards are good.
Are there reasonably okay options to paying digitally without the surveillance part (or at least less of it as compared to credit cards?) Blockchain is a nonstarter due to the practical limitations in sustaining proof of work and stake.
No. You can’t have privacy and also a ledger required to prevent money laundering and other scams.