This is a Nazi's wet dream, because they have always been enemies of thought, and now they have a machine that eloquently sells their animalistic ideas.
I've looked into it a little. If all you want to do is listen, I don't think ya need a cert *at least around here. And the transmit one isn't that hard to get. They removed the Morse requirement, though you can still get a higher tier certification for learning it. There are a surprising number of ham antennas and generators in my neighborhood.