Melbourne, Australia — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese accused Iran of organizing two antisemitic attacks in Australia and said the country was cutting off diplomatic relations with Tehran in response on Tuesday.
The Australian Security Intelligence Organization concluded the Iranian government had directed arson attacks on the Lewis Continental Kitchen, a kosher food company, in Sydney in October last year and on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne in December last year, Albanese said.
I'm a Linux user since 1998 (my main desktop PC runs Debian), however I do have a couple of Macs around because I love their hardware (not so much the software though). In fact, I have three old MacBook Airs (mid-2011, 2012, 2015), all running Linux. The moment I got them, I erased MacOS and installed Linux pronto!
But my main laptop is a MacBook Air M1 with MacOS because it's much faster than these older Intel-based MacBook Airs. Modern web browsing and video editing requires a lot of processing power.
So, I want to move to have my main laptop running Linux too. I DON'T want to install Asahi Linux on my M1, because I don't consider it a proper solution for my needs (I want to run Resolve, you see, and most foss apps that I use would need recompiling). Also, I don't like that Asahi is dependent on MacOS to exist, because you can't boot with a usb to install it.
My issue is that I can't find ANYTHING on the PC market that is as slick or full featured as a MacBook Air (minus its limited ports). What I need is this:
Screen no larger than 13.3" inches, Full HD at least, preferably good color gamut (but not a must). I still need the laptop to be portable though. Basically, I'm not even asking for HDR, as the MacBook Air features.
Keyboard to have backlight, without the numpad (I hate these laptops where the touchpad is off center).
The touchpad needs to be glass or of equivalent feel. The Apple touchpads slide/glide with ease. I find every PC touchpad I've used so far to be "sticky". My finger on some Chromebooks and Dell/Lenovo laptops is doing a "grrrkkk, grrrkkkk" when I slide my finger! There's something special about Apple's touchpads, I dunno.
Intel 13th+ gen CPU, with passmark points over 17,000 on multi-threading. My M1 scores about 12,000 points, and it's 5 years old. So obviously I'd need something faster than what I have now.
Intel GPU (no AMD or Nvidia please, I need Intel's superior video decoding abilities). On a Mac that isn't a problem, because Apple does support these 10bit 4:2:2 codecs I need, with hardware acceleration. But on the PC side, only Intel provides good support for these without headaches (only the newest nvidias support that, but I don't want to use Nvidia for too many reasons -- AMD is a disaster on that video front btw). I don't play 3D games.
I need speakers that sound good. Every single PC laptop I've tried, had the worst sound ever. I need it to be hear-able on YouTube and not sound as if you're listening via a can. I bought a Thinkpad x280 a few months ago and I can't use it because its speakers are so bad! DELL (from 5 years ago that I tried) aren't better either.
I need a (supported) fingerprint reader!
32 GB of RAM.
1 TB of storage.
Below a $1800 price tag. That's the price I can get with a MacBook Air for all that.
Now, you might think that "well, it seems that you just want a new MacBook", but that's not true. I want a PC laptop so I can run Debian Linux instead of MacOS. But I need it to be a laptop that is "proper" by my own standards. The quality of the interaction between my palms, fingers, eyes and PC laptops IS NOT the same as with any Apple laptop I've ever used. The reason people buy Apple hardware is NOT because "MacOSX is lickable" (as it was suggested many years ago by Jobs). I've actually researched the "why". It's because the INTERACTION of your senses and the laptop's design/quality FITS. It's like a glove for one another. It's difficult to explain but I know it now to be true. It was never MacOSX itself (although MacOSX's gui smoothness helps the overall experience).
So the question is: am I missing that special, Linux-compatible, PC laptop somewhere? If you know that such a laptop exists, please reply with a link. I'll buy it in a heartbeat.
This is a serious post btw. I spent the whole weekend trying to find that mythical PC laptop, and I can't. I'm frustrated.
EDIT: I might end up with the Framework 13. Not 100% what I'm after, but probably the best solution right now.
EDIT 2: I bought a DELL 5640 16" laptop, 32 GB RAM, i7 cpu, that comes with Linux pre-installed (so I know it's compatible). It ticks all my boxes except the size and the trackpad being off center. Oh well.
The StarBook Mk VI features Intel's 12th Generation and AMD Ryzen 7 processors. Available with a host of options, including open-source coreboot firmware.
Thank you, I think this puts it well. I'm not sure yet if I want to compromise or not, to be honest. I was hoping there's a well-designed PC laptop out there.
In fact, 2 years ago I bought a levovo (16,000 passmark points, touchscreen, unfortunately large). I thought "ok, I'll compromise". But the moment my fingers touched the touchpad, I just couldn't use it. It was just terrible. Sticky, and NOWHERE to disable the terrible tap-n-drag (I had left it with Windows11 back then).
That laptop now belongs to my niece. I just gave it away (and it was our fastest machine at our house at the time!).
Part of me wants to plug Thinkpad E16 as the cheapest new laptop you can get away with, but if the trackpad is the same one that drives you insane. Honestly, I don’t really care about the trackpad because I exclusively use Trackpoint.
Also, I would call the speakers mediocre, but honestly, I rarely listen to audio on my laptop, so they may be total crap.
On the off chance that you’re still reading responses to this post:
I repair electronics, everything from automotive to industrial to audio to computers and phones. Not just screwdriver work either, bga rework and microscopic trace repair. I’m speaking from years of hands in experience with lots of computers, tablets, phones, amplifiers, plcs, ecus, and anything else you can think of plus countless hours of exercise helping people figure out what to buy, weather to repair, what to change and how a failure happened.
Get the mac.
You are describing the choice as being between the linux support level and the quality of other laptops. One is constantly improving, currently only falling short of your expectations due to requiring the existence of the computers native os and requiring you to maybe compile some stuff, the other begins below your expectations and cannot meet them. No one’s gonna push a free update that fixes the fit and finish or shitty trackpad of a computer.
Get the hardware you need.
Also, macs are secretly extremely repairable. People don’t like that they can’t just get in there and fuck around with a jewelers screwdriver and guitar pick, but it’s easy to find a qualified shop around you to fix whatever’s wrong with the computer. There’s always tons of replacement parts available, first party support docs (for shops that can prove they are real businesses) and third party info of all kinds.
Thank you for the lucid reply. I already got a DELL 5640 16" laptop in the interim. It ticks all my boxes except the large size and the off centered trackpad. Otherwise it's ok. Nothing amazing, but it's fast and with a lot of RAM for the $765 euros that I paid.
I've tried switching to Linux from Windows 10 twice now. The first time went wonderfully (on Mint) until I found out that secure boot was stuck in the enabled mode and I had to completely reinstall my bios. This was absolutely necessary as everything was unbelievably slow, especially gaming (on a decent laptop). I understand this is totally my fault as almost every Linux guide says to make sure secure boot is disabled. After fighting with that for literal days, I finally reinstalled Linux mint. WiFi was suddenly completely nonfunctional, no networks were detected, and none of the proposed solutions I saw online worked. I have very little experience with Linux and other complicated tech nerd stuff besides that which comes with tinkering with computers occasionally. I do however have a great deal of patience and stubbornness. I spent maybe a week or 2 just working on this first attempt at making Mint work, until I ran out of patience. After coming back to it a month or 2 later, I decided to try Pop!_OS. Once again, it went incredibly at the start. Because I fixed the secure boot situation, I could now game better than I ever could when I had windows installed. Very few compatibility issues showed up that I couldn't conquer. Suddenly, I try playing Enter the Gungeon after having already played it a couple of times. Nothing out of the ordinary, I had done this before. Suddenly the entire computer freezes and I can still hear just fine. I restart my computer and... no sound. Nothing from any possible source, not Discord, not Firefox, not even the media I have downloaded. I look up the problem, I see several people have had it before, and only a couple ever got a solution. I try EVERY proposed solution on any forum with even similar issues, and still nothing. I have been fighting with my computer for 3 or 4 hours now. I've heard Linux praised for feeling like it is *your* computer that is subject to your will. I'd disagree right now, because it feels like there are spirits in my laptop trying to intentionally fuck me over every time I start enjoying the Linux experience. Does it get better? Am I crazy? Am I haunted? How is this anyone's ideal experience?
edit: I'm on an MSI Thin GF63. Nvidia GPU, Intel CPU. Compatibility seemed fine WHILE this latest attempt was working, up until my sound got fucked. I have a hard time imagining if that could be related to anything besides my sound card and drivers, but I'm nowhere near savvy when it comes to Linux. I'm now installing Bazzite as some of you guys recommended so I can ease myself into this whole Linux thing. I'll give another update if this fixes it :3
edit edit: It's still happening. I can see the "Alder Lake PCH-P high definition audio controller" in my audio config GUI apps and I can see the meter moving when audio is playing. Still, nothing is played. I am not dual-booting. Ive seen people have had issues with this card before, but seemingly the only solution (that I've yet to try) is to buy a whole new laptop. I don't have the money to do that currently. If someone is particularly tech savvy I am willing to hear out proposed solutions, but know that I have tried nearly everything online even remotely related to broken audio on Linux. My computer is haunted and I'll need a proper qualified exorcist it seems. note: it works with Bluetooth headphones. I haven't had a chance to test it with wired headphones but I will continue to give (near)real-time updates.
Seconding just installing something easy and pre-setup. Try a desktop variant of Bazzite (I like the gnome flavour) and see if most of your issues just disappear.
I have just seen your edit. I had a similar problem with no audio but meter levels working on my toughbook. Could you start terminal, type alsamixer and turn all the volumes up? Press F6 to swap through sound cards.
When I first moved to linux I used Mint for a week and then moved to something else. As always by EVERYONE it was suggested to me as a "starter" distro and I really wish people would stop doing that.
I, like you, had issues with it. Sound issues, Wifi issues, GPU issues, and doing personal research and digging the consensus was always "it's an issue with Mint." I was about to go back to Windows 11 cause I was like "none of this linux shit works"
THEN I decided to try a different distro, CachyOS, and suddenly the sound was fixed, the wifi didn't randomly drop out, and my GPU worked flawlessly. I've distro hopped since then and those Mint/Ubuntu issues never came back.
Try something other than Mint. if you still have the issues go back to Windows.
The National Immigration Agency said in a press release it launched an investigation immediately after learning of the video. It confirmed that both individuals involved were Japanese nationals who had entered Taiwan visa-free.
The NIA said the men violated Article 18, Paragraph 1, Clause 13 of the Immigration Act, which bars actions that “endanger the interests of the nation, public safety, or public order.” It ruled the incident required compulsory deportation and follow-up entry control.
Local media reported that one of the men is an online influencer and the other a Japanese-language teacher. Their actions were suspected to be an attempt to boost online traffic and influence among Chinese viewers.
Google has been trying to make Android proprietary for a few years now, and that's not news, as many AOSP default apps have been abandoned over time in favor of proprietary Google ones. This was never a huge problem for me, as you can still use those apps without network access or use open source alternatives like Fossify on a custom ROM.
However, the situation is quickly getting worse, now that Google is actively trying to prevent the development of custom ROMs and taking a page from Apple's book by forcing developers to beg them for permission to release apps on the Android platform, even outside of the Play Store - giving Google full control.
Is there still any hope left for privacy respecting Android ROMs? What do you think will happen next? And what would be your suggestions for those looking for a phone in 2025?
If you have a different perspective on the situation, also please comment below!
Fairphone 6, especially with /e/os is not an option atm from a security standpoint. But then again, no phone is except iPhones and Pixels (and more recent Samsung phones).
Fairphone 6 does not keep up with standard Android privacy/security patches and has no secure element to provide working disk encryption for typical users not using a strong password, among other flaws.
Regarding privacy, Murena is shilling their own proprietary Apps as alternatives to Google.
/e/OS includes numerous non-private apps and services. The Murena voice-to-text service included in /e/OS even sends user speech data to OpenAI with no local option compared to Apple and Google both offering offline speech-to-text support via local models which users can make sure is always used:
As I was reading the Murena’s terms of use I discovered that the voice to text feature introduced with e/OS/ 3.0 is using the Open AI API. That means our voice is sent to Open AI so they can translate it to text.
Any device and OS that uses standard google play services (and therefore its device integrity system) will be restricted from now on. So either go with AOSP+microG or just plain AOSP like lineage os.
e/os is lineage+microG so shouldnt be affected. Lots of apps like banking stuff are starting to prevent their apps from running on on google certified devices however. You will have to test case by case.
Not on Android. People love to stan for Android because "it's open source," but Android would have gone nowhere if Google didn't buy it, and Google wouldn't have bought it if they weren't convinced it would let them scrape more personal data than Gmail. (And Andy Rubin made Android because he heard Steve Jobs say the iPhone would run OS X, and he thought he could probably whip up a Linux distro to run on a phone.)
You could get an iPhone and not run any apps by Google, Meta, Microsoft, X, or any of the other privacy-opposed companies. You'd also better change the default search off of Google. DuckDuckGo is an option. Ecosia might be. Not sure. The issue is, while Apple says they're all about privacy, that's based on them being a computer/hardware company first (and Google being a data company first). However, Apple is heavily leaning into services now — Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple News+, and more — and there are rumors they want their own search engine. So while Apple may be privacy strong now, you don't know what they'll be a year from now, or three, or five.
It's like Tim Cook (Apple CEO) said about Facebook when they introduced the tracking limiter. "You can still give Facebook permission to track you all over the web, they just gotta get your permission first." That's true of privacy. You can still use Google, Meta, Microsoft, X, TikTok, and other privacy-violating companies' products, but what you share is entirely up to you. You can use some of those services in Safari and block some tracking, or you can install the apps and allow it all. It's up to you.
Or, you can buy a Pixel and reward Google's business model, and put GrapheneOS on it. That is probably better, privacy-wise, than using an iPhone. But you're still rewarding Google's business model. And if they're making so much money off your data that opting out isn't even an option, why does the Pixel cost the same the iPhone does (and more, considering the Pixel Fold)? You are getting more RAM, but RAM is cheap. You're not getting a better processor — Apple has won that race for years. Camera tech is about 50/50. Screen is up in the air — I think Apple's is better, but Google et al use higher resolutions. Apple buys from the same companies but screens are made to spec which is why Apple's are better than those by companies they buy from. Their spec is more demanding. "Good enough" is what passes in Android — it's like how iPhones use NVMe and Androids use UFS. NVMe is more expensive, and it's faster on paper, but in the real world? UFS is good enough. You wouldn't see a difference, or a significant one, in real world usage. So what are you paying for in a Pixel? The lower specs plus the privacy/data factor should make the Pixel significantly cheaper... except Google is a publicly traded company, so they can't sell it that low.
Apple may not be the best option, but they're advertising that they are (with regards to privacy). And I think they're trying. I'm not saying they're saints. They are doing better than Google though. And you have to decide if that's worth your money. And dealing with a crappy keyboard. The keyboard sucks.
Memo about custom firmware? No. I did see the bit about Google blocking sideloading. True, I don't follow Google/Android news as closely as I follow Apple news due to that being what I use.
That said, I know a fair bit about Android and used to do custom firmware. I know it's never been easy, largely due to the carriers getting involved. I thought Pixels were unlocked though, at least those bought direct. In the early days when they were Verizon exclusive, the carrier bought ones were locked (this was 2016). Custom firmware in the last 5-10 years? I know a lot less about that.
Apple has a search engine, it’s just not publicly accessible. They’ve had a web crawler for many years and their internal search engine is likely what powers things like siri suggested sites and information for apple maps. It is correct they could enter the search and advertising game at any moment, though unlikely because it would destroy their brand integrity.
That said apple is no saint for privacy. For one they actively enable google; they take billions from google to fund safari development in exchange for prioritizing google as built in search and feeding google user data. For a company like Mozilla this is an ethical conundrum; without googles money they’d likely be done. For a company like apple it is inexcusable. the few billion, while a tremendous amount (I think 18 billion?) is a pittance to them.
Further to your point of “active permission” with the tracking limiter this is not always the case. Apple is aware and does not do anything to reform. Part of the reason companies want you to use their app on ios is because then you will be far more likely to open links via the in app browser, which is still safari/webkit, but now escapes sandboxing and allows for far more precise tracking and fingerprinting even if you utilize the tracking limitations built into ios.
Notice how only sketchy games with tons of blatant ads will prompt the “ask ad not to track” box. Instagram, twitter, youtube, reddit, etc generally don’t because they don’t need to track you through permitted routes. Apple has long been aware of this and continue to do nothing (forcing links to open in safari or another browser, limiting traffic on in app browsers, etc). Lord knows what other tricks scumbags like facebook have to circumvent systems and track everything you do. Apple is well aware it happens without user consent but tolerates it and then has the gall to say their hardware and software is “privacy oriented”
Yes, ironically I just read another article about how Facebook/Meta has gotten around the ATT (App Tracking thing, I forget what the other T stands for) with in-app browsers. The article's point was that all the beef between Apple and Meta is just for show and that they need each other like Apple and Google, Apple and Samsung, et al. So yeah, with you on that.
People love to stan for Android because "it's open source," but...Google wouldn't have bought it if they weren't convinced it would let them scrape more personal data than Gmail.
I mean it can be both? Android has been awesome for many years precisely because it was open source. It's the reason we have had and continue to have so many custom ROMs. It was open source so it could be run by Samsung, Motorola, LG, etc. while Google collected all the data. It also meant that independent developers could create their own OSs without any of Google's BS in it. And that was fine, because us nerds are not even 1% of the market. But something seems to have changed because they're very suddenly clawing back control of the entire OS. Pretty much the beginning of the end for private mobile devices. This trend is likely to continue faster than the community can create workarounds.
It was open source so it could be run by Samsung, Motorola, LG, etc. while Google collected all the data.
Wait, it being open source should have no effect on this? It could just as easily be closed source as long as Google offered licenses for manufacturers to use it.
How does it have nothing to do with Google, if Google did it, even if it was by order of the US government? Regardless, this still clearly demonstrates that AOSP being open-source has no bearing on an OEM being able to use the full Android system or even the name "Android".
Contrast that with a fully open system like Linux, where this wouldn't be possible. No OEM would get banned from using Linux, even if the US government ordered it.
We seem to be having a communication problem. I was originally addressing this specific statement:
It was open source so it could be run by Samsung, Motorola, LG, etc. while Google collected all the data.
Those OEMs could run Android and let Google collect all the data regardless of whether it were open-sourced or licensed, and the Huawei case demonstrated that "Android" is licensed. It's only AOSP minus Google services that is open-sourced. I don't understand what's so controversial about what I'm saying.
We are not having a communication problem. We have a failure to understand. If you want to challenge the entire definition of open source, that's not something that I'm going to entertain. You can take that up with OSI. Every other open source project is susceptible to the same legal shitfuckery.
regardless of whether it were open-sourced or licensed
These are not the same. And it's preposterous to suggest such a thing. It's like saying licensing movies from Amazon is the same as owning them. The implications are completely different.
and the Huawei case demonstrated that "Android" is licensed
Again, only as much as every other open source project is "licensed", as in it's susceptible to legal regulation.
It's either failure to understand or you're intentionally twisting my words. I'm not challenging the definition of open source and I'm not claiming open source and proprietary software is the same.
Let me restate and clarify what I'm saying: - For giant corporate OEMs like you listed, all else being equal, it makes not much difference to them in their choice to use Android on their phones whether Android is open source or proprietary. The only significant difference between the two is that open source allows them to further customize and perhaps contribute back to the OS source, if they desire to do so. If Android were proprietary and had the same market and lack of fees (or even reasonable fees to allow them to still be profitable), they would still use it. - The complete Android system has a unique vulnerability to attacks like the one on Huawei (compared to another open source OS like Linux), because of its deep dependence on Google's (proprietary) play services and mobile services. The Huawei case illustrated that GPS and GMS are proprietary, are licensed, the licenses can be pulled, and Android is pretty useless to a giant corporate OEM without those two proprietary components. That's why I'm sometimes using "open source" in quotes, because Android being open source is only useful to an OEM as long as they agree to Google's GPS/GMS licensing.
I hope you understand my points now. If you still want to argue either of them, I think we've reached a dead end.
Yes you are. You are claiming that open source and "licensed" are the same thing, because the government can get involved and take away someone's right to open source.
The Huawei case illustrated that GPS and GMS are proprietary, are licensed, the licenses can be pulled
GPS and GMS are not components of AOSP. They are proprietary Google apps.
and Android is pretty useless to a giant corporate OEM without those two proprietary components
It doesn't matter if it's useless or not, because it's not part of Android
Its obviously not useless because Huawei continued using using Android, minus GPS and GMS, as does Amazon.
Yes you are. You are claiming that open source and “licensed” are the same thing, because the government can get involved and take away someone’s right to open source.
That's not at all what I'm saying. Please point out where I said that open source and licensed (i.e., proprietary licensed) software are the same thing? First, I'm not saying anything about AOSP, which I recognize is fully open source and which I use myself. I'm talking about full Android, the trademarked, licensed product, which includes AOSP (open source) plus GPS and GMS (proprietary) components. We're talking about Android phones here, before you go "but but but".
From the link above:
"The "Android" name, the Android logo, the "Google Play" brand, and other Google trademarks, are property of Google LLC and not part of the assets available through the Android Open Source Project."
"Use of the "Google Play" name and the Google Play Store icon is allowed only in association with devices licensed to access Google Play. For a list of devices licensed to use Google Play, refer to Supported devices."
Second, a combination of open source and proprietary components is not fully open source, do you agree with that at least?
It doesn’t matter if it’s useless or not, because it’s not part of Android
It very much does matter in the case of Android because AOSP without the proprietary components is limited to a market niche. Show me one really popular phone or phone brand which does not use Google's proprietary Play Store. Maybe there's some edge case that doesn't, I don't know, but it would be the exception that proves the rule.
Its obviously not useless because Huawei continued using using Android, minus GPS and GMS, as does Amazon.
Both had to either develop their own app store or rely on a 3rd-party app store, I don't know. But they're definitely not using Google's Play Store, and thus are limited to market niches like I mentioned above.
Please point out where I said that open source and licensed (i.e., proprietary licensed) software are the same thing?
When you suggested that Android is licensed because the government restricted who could use it, that's what you said. I don't understand why this is confusing. Any other open source project is susceptible to the same fate, ergo they're the same thing. I already explained this.
I'm not saying anything about AOSP
AOSP is Android. This seems to be where you're getting confused.
When you suggested that Android is licensed because the government restricted who could use it, that’s what you said. I don’t understand why this is confusing.
That's not what I said. What I said was that the fact that Google blocked Huawei's ability to use Android's Google Services on their devices at the government's orders meant that the they had a mechanism that allowed them to do so. Namely, the proprietary license for the Google Services. Do you dispute this exact thing, not some twisted version of what I said? I don't understand why this is confusing either.
Any other open source project is susceptible to the same fate, ergo they’re the same thing. I already explained this.
How so? Do you have any examples of an organization blocking someone from using a common open source license like GPL, MIT, or Apache License, with the possible exceptions of GPL license violations or export controls for things like cryptography, etc? The fact that Google didn't block Huawei from using AOSP most likely means that it was easier for them to ban Huawei through their proprietary license to Google Services than through the Apache License for AOSP.
AOSP is Android. This seems to be where you’re getting confused.
This seems to be where you're getting confused too. I've already explained multiple times that what I mean by "Android" is the full suite (AOSP + GPS + GMS) that an OEM would need for a mass-market phone. AOSP is not enough for that. No OEM in their right mind would try to market a mass-market phone with pure AOSP and no Google Services.
The open source thing is largely a myth, though. AOSP is what's open source. The version of Android on Pixel phones and Nexus before them was forked from that and bundles a lot of closed source stuff, like Google Play Services, Gmail, and more. But it's close enough to AOSP that devs can target it and it should run on most/all Android forks.
So then Samsung and others take AOSP and they fork it and make their own OS that is based on Android. They are required per licensing to use Android branding if they want Play Store access. There are other rules, like Chrome and/or Google has to be on the main launcher page, Play Services has to be included... if they don't play by the rules, they can still fork Android, they just can't use the name Android... like Fire OS and Switch OS. (It's unclear if modern Switches use any Android code. Before they were released they were rumored to have forked Android. Switches absolutely do not run Android apps, but the OS borrows several cues from Android design language.)
Keep in mind that every Apple phone is also an AirTag, even if "powered off". This isn't the case with most Android phones, and you can get one with a removable battery to ensure it. Sure, there's Faraday bags, but they are easy to mess up, while you can't go wrong with just pulling the power at the source.
Also, you don't have to buy from Google. There's the second-hand and discount reseller market.
We shouldn't live life settling for the "lesser evil", we need more hardware to support things like GrapheneOS.
It's the other way around, it's down to GrapheneOS to support other hardware. They simply choose to focus on Pixels.
You're onto something with the AirTags but you haven't got it quite right. Every Apple device participates in the Find My network, which means any Apple device marked as lost will have its location reported, anonymously, by every other Apple device it can communicate with. This is a good thing, unless you're being stalked via an AirTag placed on your person, but Apple has taken pains to mitigate this issue. One shoe company recently released shoes with AirTag compartments so parents could track their kids, and the placement should mitigate the beeping they can emit. Honestly the AirTags and Find My network do more good than harm, the impact to devices participating in the Find My network is minimal, and if it's your device that's lost, you don't want people opting out so thieves can get away with stealing your stuff.
Development of Linux on mobile will ramp up. EU or similar wrecking Google over being monopolistic would be nice but unlikely. Same but targeting phone manufacturers.
We need the EU to regulate Banking and Payment apps to not rely on Google apis first and mandate that they have to be available in open app stores or as apk.
Maybe they can regulate themselves first as a start then. They already use Matrix, so it’s not like they are completely lost regarding IT Security and FOSS.
From the EU to wreck Google e-Foundation, with advantage substituting GMail, GDocs and GDrive >Murena Workspace, Murena Phones (FairPhone) with /e/OS by default, Murena is OpenSource (GitLab) selfhostable or Freemium if not, including Murena Cloud., All 100% de-googled and encrypted, no knowledge. The EU offers enough alternatives, you only have to use these.
Yes, FairPhone is currently somewhat bullied by the traditional companies. I don't think that /e/OS will have problems with Google, it's like also Linage OS, a fork of Android (FOSS) with the only difference that all refereences and APIs of Google are gutted and out of it's influence. It's a pure Android code as is and as such 100% compatible with all Android apps, but these don't depend on to be approved by Google like those for the normal stock Android.
In an FOSS which is free to use, to fork and modify for everyone? The only copyright that Google has over Android made, that the fork can't be called Android nor use it's logo, because this the forks are called /e(OS and LinageOS with different logos. Naturally Google has the right to select Android devs and those which develope apps for Google play, but this isn't aplicable to the mencioned and other forks, these are out of the reach of Google, except if they still contain certain APIs from Google or using apps from Google Play, not the case in the mencioned forks. It's like with Chromium, there are forks which simply patch their logo on it and those which use de-googled forks (Brave (?), Vivaldi, de-googled Chromium and also EDGE (with it's own tracking APIs from M$) )which are not phoning home to Google.
absolutely ture in a purely foss environment; but we're talking about android phones whose manufacturers are locking down the bootloaders in lock step with google's efforts to lock down android.
both lineageos and e/os/ are going to be difficult to maintain going forward without projects like murena making their own phones.
Well, I'm still hoping for Linux phones to skyrocket a bit when more people realize we're fucked with Google. But as of today I don't think we have a reliable alternative for day to day use...
"Linux phones will skyrocketed" by who? Nerds, the comum user doesn't care if Android is proprietary or opensource, they don't even know.
There's already other mobile OS but have the same issue, no apps or developers interested on making apps for it.
FirefoxOS, Ubuntu touch, something else Linux based, it's for some nerds play on a secondary phone.
Comum people don't stop using Windows or macOS because it's proprietary or a privacy nightmare. EU didn't stop selling iPhones because it's proprietary.
It's the device vendors that decide which OS would ship, and people will use it
Because the main apps used on other systems work on Linux, and also games.
Linux phones now is more Linux in early 2000, a few apps that kinda work, you don't have banking apps, games, android auto like, streaming apps or any of most common apps used by users
Phones that don't support Google play services (AKA any hardcore privacy phone) will not be directly effected by Google restricting sideloading. The restriction is only for phones that use the Google suite. (source: 9to5google.com/2025/08/25/andr… "This requirement applies to 'certified Android devices' that have Play Protect and are preloaded with Google apps.") Graphene OS isn't going anywhere, AOSP is open source, even if Google tried to make that change in the OS, the community would hard-fork AOSP instantly and continue like nothing ever happened.
Realistically this is going to squeeze people "in the middle" towards fully-google controlled Android (one exteme) and towards fully-de-googled Android (the other extreme). Its just elminating the middle. Which is bad for people trying to gradually de-google their life, but not as dire as it might seem.
On the bright side, this is an opportunity for play-services spoofing to become commonplace and easy, and could cause more apps to avoid google play services. The EU also has a shot at forcing google to allow sideloading, since they've recently been forcing Apple to move in that direction.
So, while not a bright future, its far from hopeless for privacy respecting Android phones.
Lock down their own ecosystem because they're jealous of how Apple does it, so they can herd all users into their walled garden. Then close the gates behind them. There's no easy way out, you can't just wander back and forth anymore. You have to scale a wall in the dead of night and shed a tear as you look back and see everyone else having a lovely life, then set off into the dark forest of privacy on your own.
People hate friction in the first place. This is as much friction as they can realistically make on their own without triggering anti-trust cases and EU fines.
So how long until celluar providers also say you have to have a trusted device to activate your SIM? Apple, Google, Samsung, automotive and Windows would be fine and they’d probably allow their branded or limited hotspots.
This would basically eliminate any Linux option (pc or phone), and DIY devices. I could see other OOB vendors getting on board to be certified to have a certificate issued to them.
This morning, I’ve been giving evidence to the European Parliament’s Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee on the Digital Markets Act (which the committee led on). Alongside Epic Games
That was then, now they are very pro FANGS and removing all barriers because they are afraid of tariffs and want the US to keep selling them weapons for Ukraine.
I'm not gonna go looking for it or share it, but I am here using my Librem 5 and kinda feeling like that kid in the meme hitting a bong in the background while people in the foreground fight.
I’m stuck with Apple or android as my bank only has an app, as in, no web interface. I could change bank, but I don’t think I’d be able to. It has features that use every day that other banks here don’t have afaik
Is all the talk about not recieving phones ordered and the poor customer service just a smear campaign or is there truth to it?
How do you like the kill switch?
What country/service are you on?
Have you heard any rumors regarding the inventory issues? They do not have US modem version of their phones in stock, even if you get the really expensive one or a refurbished option.
For context, I am probably as much of a Purism fanboy as you are likely to find...
Is all the talk about not recieving phones ordered and the poor customer service just a smear campaign or is there truth to it?
There is a lot of truth to it, but I do think there were a few very loud voices making it sound worse than it was. I got mine in June 2023, and I was one of the last people on the "preorder" list. I hear a few people mention not receiving theirs still every now and then. The cases I saw mostly came down to emails landing in Spam/Junk folders on the customers end.
But I do think Purism's support was very lacking in past years. In recent months I have seen some new faces in their Matrix and forums and the new people are really great and responsive. I do not blame certain past Purism employees who were in the firing lane for these issues. Rather I blame Purism's handling of the refunds for drawing up enough ire to make Purism's support reps sound like the bad guys.
The refund thing was less than great, for sure. I feel they are improving.
How do you like the kill switch?
Love em. I wish the modem powered on faster but that is nit the fault of the switch, or really a big problem. It takes like 20-30 seconds maybe. The Wifi powers on in a few seconds.
What country/service are you on?
US, Mint Mobile. AT&T also worked for me in the past.
Have you heard any rumors regarding the inventory issues?
Hmmm, maybe? I know there was supposed to be stock of new Liberty Phone main boards this year, and there was hope they would go on sale as a sort of L5 upgrade path. This either did not happen, or Purism is waiting for something to announce it.
I don't own any other Purism hardware, and so I do not pay much attention to the L14 stock or the Mini or anything.
Thanks so much for letting me know all that. The phones are in stock, but just not with the North American modem selections. Maybe I could contact the company and see if they will arrive soon. I makes me a bit nervous to pay so much with all the hoopla that has happened, but the big corpo stuff is driving me absolutely nuts.
If you don't commit to anything in the coming months, it may be worth checking it out after Purism (finally 😀) pushes out some much needed OS updates. If you go to their forums you'll see people talking about Crimson and Dawn, this is that update I am referring to.
Until substantially more people join the fight for privacy or something else fundamentally changes, I think there is a very real possibility of Google completely clamping down on Android while governments and workplaces mandate apps that only run on phones with all of Google or Apple's bells and whistles.
But the folks at GrapheneOS, Calyx, and Murena seem to be a devoted and resourceful bunch, so I am hopeful that they can give something for us to work with, even if Google pulls the plug, whether it's a fork of Android or rebasing to mobile Linux.
If that all falls through, I'll look for whichever phone supports Linux best and eventually move everything over. The vast majority of the apps I use regularly on my GrapheneOS phone aren't very demanding and have a decent alternative on Linux. And whatever apps are forced on me by other people will reside on a dedicated Android phone, ideally with a removable battery.
For this year, I'd still recommend a secondhand or reseller Pixel with GrapheneOS. Everything just works on it.
we need the devs who make lineageos to come up with something, because that's what most people have access to. and their stance is that they won't be doing anything to bypass any of google's restrictions.
that's if unlocking is still a thing in the near future.
yeah i can see this kinda thing becoming the resistance by the looks of it. i'm already wondering to myself if it could be practical to use something like this with postmarket or aosp.
i wonder if i could make it thinner and more ergonomic if i desoldered unused io.
I was more referring to telemarketers. Lol. I don't use landlines anymore for that reason. I've thought about it from time to time, but then I hear about the experiences of other people who still have them, and apparently it's just a telemarketer cesspool at this point.
Yes. As long as GrapheneOS still exists there is at least some hope. The sad thing is even before this outside of GrapheneOS there really isn't any other "ROM" actually focused on privacy.
I've heard that there's phones that use Linux, so I imagine once modifying Android isn't an option focus will probably go into making that more viable.
There has been focus on making it not viable in my opinion. We're going to need to use dumb phones and faraday bags soon. I am about to give up. I can not compete with a bunch of psychos with billions of dollars that constantly need more and more money and data.
I was thinking of selling the Samsung, getting a dumb phone or Purism. I gave an old Ipod classic thay still works. Its so nice to listen to shit with no tracking.
I was thinking this. With advances in text recognition, they can potentially filter all that data now. Since five eyes is essentially for industrial espionage, google first requiring access to source code to ensure compatibility, and that you can't really turn off chrome web page sniffing (I have found the disabled chrome app still running, with "force stop" available,) all this makes more sense than the little bit they'd squeeze out of ad revenue chasing people who avoid chrome and google assistant. After all, it isn't bad actors or people who already buy from google they are spending so much effort on - it is the tech competent.
For an experience a bit more familiar, you might consider a pixel, GrapheneOS and pgpp. If I understand it correctly, this setup is a Google-free and privacy-based carrier alternative to the system that is currently at risk.
Google free but with a google phone. Yall know they can put backdoors in hardware? Does everyone not think it is a coincidence that the only phone that works well for this in the United States of Fascism is a Google phone?
I'd really love a Linux phone (personally, I have a Linux PC and I use Arch, btw) so don't get me wrong when I question: what about the banking and government apps? Yeah, because finance systems are getting increasingly digital around the world and every payment will eventually need to involve banking apps, and you guessed it: just Android (Google) and iOS (Apple), no Linux, no KaiOS. One will eventually need apps to pay for rent and consumer bills, even for buying groceries, as fiat currency will get more digital and less physical.
And, no, European Union won't fight against it because, in fact, the same European Union is seeking to digitalize EUR (see "ECB publishes third progress report on the digital euro preparation phase", published by European Central Bank on 16 July 2025). It's not a matter of if, but when physical currencies will become ruled out, and "For Our Security™", Linux (alonside other alternative OSes) will either be ruled out from internet banking altogether or it'll be forced to comply with "security requirements" that, in practice, would turn Linux indistinguishable from Android and iOS.
And this seems to be where everywhere is headed, it's not just an European or USian phenomenon. The future is bleak.
Because the government outright hates it and is doing everything it can short of outright banning it which would be a transparent violation of their own laws. When the government hates it so much that they literally write papers on purposely attacking it in order to suppress it, you know there's something there.
I'm Brazilian and many Brazilian banks require apps, be it for generating a unique code (e.g. Itaú's iToken) to authorize/authenticate, to scan a QR code every time the Web client requests an action (e.g. Mercado Pago and Santander), or even to do mobile-only transactions such as Pix (Brazilian instant payment/transfer) because our Central Bank (BACEN, who created and maintains Pix nationwide) requires banks to limit Pix in a per-device basis. The latter is crucial because Pix became the main payment method around here, and it can't be done through Web browsers.
Then, there are the "safety measures" inherent to these banking apps, so they refuse to work outside rawdogged Android/iOS. Even enabling "Developer mode" or having some apps installed (such as Termux; apps can see which other apps you have installed) is enough for some banks to refuse logging in (and certain banking apps won't even tell why, just some generic error message).
Also, depending on where a person works, the employer may require the employee to receive their paycheck at a specific bank, which in turn will require an app if the employee is willing to use their own paycheck to pay their bills. Banks have been trying to push their mobile internet banking to their customers, with many banks (such as Bradesco) closing many of their physical branches so people have no nearby ATMs to do banking things.
Finally, even browser-based internet banking (e.g. Caixa Econômica Federal) sometimes require the installation of software akin to kernel-level anti-cheat because "muh security", and some will support neither Linux nor virtualized Windows (most (if not all) virtualization hypervisors can be easily detected by techniques such as the Red-Pill).
So it's not as easy as "use the browser versions", unfortunately.
There is Android virtualization already (e.g. Genymotion, Android-x86 project, QEMU, among other projects), but just as "Red-Pill" can detect virtualization for x86-based systems, the same concept applies to ARM-based virtualization, and banking apps would likely detect the atypical environment. Also, things such as fingerprint reader (needed to authenticate for certain banks) are likely to not work properly for emulated environments.
I also momentarily forgot about it, but there's waydroid! if we modify it a bit(make it look more normal, like make it think some common apps are installed), we should be able to get it to run banking apps. also just don't use fingerprints(but that could also be implemented).
At this point, I'm just hoping to grab a HarmonyOS phone soon. I'd rather have China hoovering up my data than the US, 5 &14-Eyes, and fascist US tech corporation. Terrible compromise, but I don't see an inexpensive Linux phone on the horizon any time soon.
In order to obtain and maintain a visa where I live, I am now actually required to maintain a mobile phone number. You are correct, I could live without a mobile phone, but I'd really miss the GPS.
Issue is whether you can even use it outside of China because of the wireless band difference. I had a Fairphone in Canada that suddenly stopped connecting to the network.
I'm quite sure HarmonyOS won't even be available in the US, and probably banned being it's Huawei. Since I don't live there, I don't care. Asia will be using Harmony with 6G, while the west trundles along with ever more restrictive OSes, 5G, and an ever aging internet infrastructure.
I hope so. But I'm gonna be real grumpy about it when I can't tap to pay for shit anymore because all of the standardized payment apps will only work on signed Google and Apple devices.
As of right now, it's looking like GrapheneOS will be unaffected, and Google has yet to lock down the bootloader. So this should remain a valid option for at least 2 years.
Other than that:
Any smartphones with an unlocked bootloader + any ROMs without gapps
Chinese smartphones with non-Google Android builds
Linux smartphones
Bonus: Huawei is about to release their own non-Android OS, but I wouldn't expect it to be privacy-friendly
Honestly there probably isn't any good, long-term solution. Personally I'm somewhat shocked we've gone this many years with reasonably open smartphones. Next step is probably closing bootloaders in new laptops, as part of the switch to ARM (which is already undergoing).
I'm pretty seriously considering the pinephone. I think it's super neat there's a LoRa module backplate you can buy with it, although my understanding is nobody has made it work with meshtastic yet.
I'm a huge fan of Pine64, but I wouldn't expect the PinePhone to be a great replacement for an Android smartphone. Personally I have quite extensive experience with PineBook Pro, PineTime and PineBuds Pro. I haven't had the chance to try the PinePhone, but I'd definitely go for the Pro.
Even then, prepare for a junky experience and forget about lixuries such as good camera, nice screen, smooth UI/UX. Their devices are great, and the ideas behind them more so. But unfortunately they rarely work well, perhaps with the exception of PineBuds Pro.
Hey everyone! As many have noticed, the PinePhone Pro is currently out ot stock on the Pine Store. Unfortunately we have to deliver you the following news: the PinePhone Pro is officially discontinued.
Hey everyone! As many have noticed, the PinePhone Pro is currently out ot stock on the Pine Store. Unfortunately we have to deliver you the following news: the PinePhone Pro is officially discontinued. We were told it didn’t sell well enough to keep production going. But the good news for current owners are that spare parts will still be made for up to two years, depending on demand. Meanwhile, the trusty PinePhone (A64) is still alive and kicking, and Pine Store plans to keep it rolling for about two more years.
Well, that sucks. So I guess the better move here would be to wait for something new? I don't think the regular PinePhone is at all viable as a daily driver.
Depends, if it is used as a dumbphone (calls, SMS, being in sleep most of the time), it is okayish. However, going outside dumphone sphere, it becomes cumbersome to use.
If it can handle basic calling and texting, mp3 playback, and occasionally open my banking/email (both of which have acceptably usable mobile websites) I think I can work with that. If I'm home I use my computer, if I'm out and about I'm too busy to be on my phone for more than it takes to transfer money or fire off a quick text.
Linux phone will hopefully become realistic thing.
But the more this goes on the more my attitude has changed. I now do far less on my phone, I'm more careful about what I expose to it. As a result I spend very little time on it and that's been great.
To be clear I hate what's happening, it's just been working out to improve my time.
It’s been a while since the last update on GNOME Shell mobile, but there’s been a huge amount of progress during that time, which culminated in a very successful demo at the Prototype Fund Demo Day...
[Edit: this question came out of my confusion. I thought Unbound could somehow substitute DNS servers (like CloudFlare), but it can't. Apologies for my ignorance.]
I've often heard about Unbound, and the possibility of using it as a DNS resolver on my laptop. So, to be clear, not as a DNS resolver in a local network; just in a single machine, also because I'd like to use it no matter where I bring my laptop.
The instructions given in the second link above seem quite complete. Does anyone here have other tips or experiences to share? I'm with Ubuntu on a Thinkpad.
Thank you, I see the advantages of a network approach. In my case it's just two laptops in my network, and I'm also thinking of the case when I'm using the laptop in some other networks.
If you only have 2 laptops and they are both going to search externsl DNS, then there's probably still no point in local DNS
To refer to each other - presuming they have static IPs - just update their /etc/hosts with the other device's IP address and that will speed things up
You may already have a local dns caching mechanism on your computer. I think by default Ubuntu uses systemd-resolved (it does on my desktops anyway). If you check dig it’ll show lookups coming from 127.0.0.53. With that in place, your local machine is caching lookup results and anything it doesn’t know, it’s forwarding to the network’s resolver (which it gets via dhcp, usually).
Unbound can query the root dns servers, but it’s also commonly used as a recursive resolver, which just uses a server upstream, similar to systemd-resolved. I use unbound network-wide, but I have it querying 9.9.9.9 to take advantage of their filtering.
I'm starting to think that I've misunderstood what Unbound does. I thought I'd be a replacement for a DNS resolver (like CloudFlare). But from the replies here I'm starting to think it isn't?
IMPORTANT NOTES (PLEASE READ!): * These are NOT products. They are for testing and demonstration purposes only. * They have NOT been reviewed or audited. Do NOT use for sensitive data. * All functionality demonstrated is experimental. * These are NOT meant to replace robust solutions like VeraCrypt, Simplexchat, Signal, Whatsapp, wetransfer. It's a proof-of-concept to show what's possible with browser APIs. * Cyber security is full of caveats, so reach out for clarity on any details if they can't be found in the docs.
Aiming to create the worlds most secure messaging app.
In the ever-evolving landscape of digital communication, decentralization has emerged as a powerful concept with diverse interpretations and applications.
Not trying to be rude but I am unclear of the purpose of this. Especially if they are not meant to be eventual replacements. If I already use Signal and OnionShare what am I doing with this info?
Since Debian 13 (Trixie), when using the default FDE which uses grub to decrypt the luks partition, I have a single attempt
When the password is mistyped there is a long pause (over 10 seconds) and then the error appears.
I already tried increasing the max tries, which seems to be set to 1 when a keyfile is used.
The config/script seems to be in /usr/share/initramfs-tools/scripts/local-top/cryptroot.
I copied that to /etc/initramfs-tools/scripts/local-top/cryptroot and replaced the value CRYPTTAB_OPTION_tries=1 with 10 using find/replace (ansible stuff).
I think this has no effect though and doing so (might be a different issue) breaks boot entirely 💀
More info: - by default when legacy boot (BIOS) is available, Debian will install grub to the MBR. This is where it happens - when forcing or prioritizing legacy boot and using GPT, debian somehow boots from a 300MB efi partition, the same happens though, one attempt
I think he's referring to the 10 second pause between attempts. It's security theatre because you can replace the bootloader with one that doesn't pause.
So, it is purely a software timeout and not hardware due to key derivation algorithm? That's partly understandable and partly a security hole if it can be disabled so easily.
Newer versions of grub let you retry up to 3 times before going to grub rescue. Check if your grub is up to date, and if it is, wait for Debian to release the update to their repos I guess
But bootloaders are distro/OS agnostic. Why wait for Debian, when you could, for example, boot an Arch live ISO to install a newer GRUB?
I don't use GRUB, but have done the same thing with SystemD Boot before. As GRUB's configuration system is a bit more complex, you might have to mount your main install to get the correct config file.
As it's a bootloader, it should make almost no difference which distribution was used to install it. (I'm not sure if Debian patches their GRUB.) I just used Arch as an example, as it is famous for being up to date. And, no matter where it's installed from, if you've made changes to GRUB's configuration, you'll have to copy it over to the live distribution to keep your changes.
Yes, Debian Sid might be more familiar for Debian users, but that's it.
Edit: You said "get the grub debs from Debian sid", but installing Sid packages on non-Sid systems isn't something that you should do.
Why install it from a package manager at that point? It's probably more of a pain to get an Arch package working on Debian than it is to just build GRUB from source and install it according to whatever instructions GRUB distributes
I meant the following: 1. Find out the Debian package is too old 2. Create Arch Live USB 3. Boot Arch Live USB 4. Copy GRUB config from the Debian install to the current Arch live system 5. Install the up-to-date GRUB while in the Arch environment
The bootloader installer package is distro dependent, the bootloader the package installs isn't. You can boot Debian no matter if the GRUB is installed from Debian stable, Debian Sid, Arch, Fedora or even FreeBSD. Otherwise, dual booting wouldn't work.
Like I said, I've done that before, though with SystemD Boot instead of GRUB, which was a bit simpler due to how the bootloader is configured.
Ran update-initramfs from the chroot trying to repair it
Found that there is a cleaner way in /etc/default/grub with grub commandline arguments. But that wants a source= variable which is weird to me as that hardcodes a drive in there that wasnt there first?
Tbh I will try this on a secondary laptop now, I reinstalled that thing like 5 times now and am a bit traumatized XD
I'll be self-hosting a service with user submissions soon, so I'm worried about the howto.geoblockthe.uk/ situation.
Based on this I've wondered, are there any community maintained geo block lists that might be useful? All database options I found are either 1. an on-demand online service which seems questionable for privacy reasons, or 2. IPv4 only, or 3. have weird terms of use with a gag clause regarding the entire company making it and other weird stuff.
I'm not a fan of geo blocking in general, but the situation is what it is.
PS: Please don't discuss the Online Safety Act itself too much in the comments, or whether somebody should be using a geo ip to handle this. While I might appreciate useful input on that, I'm hoping this post can remain a resource for those who are looking for such a database for other reasons as well.
So... Poland is finally admitting that the hate symbol used by hate group is a hate symbol yet is still showering that group with money, weapons and other support.
Typical fucking Poland, mistaking enemy for an ally.
All I could find is how to make a list, and reinstall flatpaks from that list, as well as backup app data, however all of that assumes I want to do updates.
Meanwhile what I want is akin to extracting APK of a stable version of some app, backing it up and using it for years to come. For example that's how I joined these 2 screenshots, using JointPics from 2014 which isn't even on Play Store anymore, and targets API so low that it has to be installed via ADB. (Yeah, I am too dumb for GIMP)
As for the regression, you can see. On left is older Flatpak, on right is version from Arch repo. The Flatpak I originally installed as a hotfix for update that broke it completely at one point on Arch. You can see the older version nicely fits the screen, splitting up text into columns. Meanwhile the new version just does smaller page in middle of screen that doesn't even work properly with Breeze Dark theme, causing different background for text sections.
The only improvement is ability to flip pages rather than use arrows, but that's minimum. Well, and maybe the progress keeping got fixed, but I didn't test that much.
Don't pay attention to the taskbar. I wish it could flip to vertical with different screen orientation. Yeah, the icons' clickability is a dice roll of what you tap.
Are you sure not just the defaults changed? Or isn't it a problem on your end? On the project page the screenshot looks like the old version: invent.kde.org/graphics/ariann…
Have you contacted the developers? They have a matrix chat. Maybe you found a bug, and it would help others if you would report it.
Are you sure it's not a you problem? Or isn't it a you problem? Go read the docs.
Have you contacted the devs? Reporting a bug would be helpful.
Sorry to be so rude, but you really hit a nerve. It isn't even your fault.
Anyway, rant time:
KDE and bug reports. They always come to you like "Hey, bug reports are so really importsnt to us! And we'll guide you through it. Here's our lovely oh-so-helpful wizard!
Except it ain't lovely. Nor helpful. The only thing it does is pop up whenever a KDE app has an aneurysm and asks you for a backtrace. And then... backtrace is declsred useless.
Why even bother people with the stupid popup if in 90% of cases it's declared as useless. Why not do the backtrace silently and then annoy the user only once you declare the bug "useful".
Last instance of this: I was using my KDE desktop. For some reason, Plasma seems to really hate me, because I need to fix default apps every few weeks. For some reason, jpegs and pngs open in Krita by default.
So, wanting to close Krita, becuse I don't need an entire editor to look at a photo, with tools taking up 25% of the screen, when it asked me about the import resolution, I pressed 0. Krita proceeded to crash and open the report bug dialog.
Not having seen the KDE report wizard for quite some time, I felt inclined to go fill out the report. Got through the first few pages just fine. Then came the backtrace. Sure, do it. I'd like whoever debugs this not snooping through a data dump containing god knows what, but sure. Then it gets called useless. AFTER you've taken 30-ish seconds of my life on preliminary questions.
Look, if you're gonna ask people for input and discard said input if something unrelated happens, at least ask after the something unrelated decided it's not gonna be yeeted away. No need for the "Oh, wait, we don't really need this, it'll take too much time to play detective" after the user already passed three screens of interrogation.
Anyway, the point is:
KDE clearly doesn't care about bug reports. Because if they did, the guide on installing backtrace-enabled packages once the inevitable verdict of "useless" wouldn't be a wiki page with the generaal message of "find backtrace-enabled packages, you buffoon" when you could point to them.
Another problem with this is: when a bug happens without backtraceable packages, how is the user supposed to recreate it if they don't know how?
And besides, my bug is very recreateable. Open an image in Krita (preferably from Dolphin, after Plasma mangled the defaults, again and again). When prompted for some integer, enter "0". Instead of a generic error message, see the entire app sink into oblivion.
Anyway, if anyone feels like reporting the totally useless report with totally unrecreateable conditions, feel free. I won't. Just too much work, for it to be discarded just like that by some wizard no one even thought through.
And why would I contact the devs? Or rather, where could I do that? They're worse than government agencies, for god's sake. The right person or place just doesn't exist. Wherever you go to or ask, it's someone else's responsibility or your fault. And the wizard, that true single point of contact - refuses any contact just as consistently.
So tell people to call the devs. Tell them it's their fault. Tell them to make a bug report. Say it just might help not just you, but someone else when all hell will freeze over before anything like that becomes even a remote possibility.
Wtf man, developers are also people. Most of them doing this for free in their free time. You are the kind of entitled user who makes foss devs burn out. Never thought I will find one in the wild.
I use krita frequently and never met your bug so it's not as recreatable or important as you think.
Noone forces you to use krita. If it doesn't fit your workflow or if you think developers are deliberately sabotaging your work, you can switch to another free or paid alternative. If you would switch to a paid one, you could speak to a manager.
In op's case I'm not sure it's a you problem. In your case I'm sure it is.
Krita's devs specifically? No. I respect devs by default. I don't doubt many of Krita's devs love what they develop. I also use Krita. I don't have it installed because I don't need it.
The problem that I keep running into is my (Plasma) defaults being changed for (some) reason. Krita usually gets the defsult for photos. Rhythmbox for audio and MPV for video. I prefer using Pix for photos and VLC for AV.
Noone forces you to use krita.
Plasma, kind of - does.
99% of people do not want a photo editor to be their defsult app for opeing photos. Some artists? Sure. But me? No.
Again, it's nor a Krita thing specifically - Plasma fucks with my defaults. It's a Plasma/KDE thing. Krita is just the unfortunate app to have become Plasma's senseless-default victm.
If it doesn't fit your workflow or if you think developers are deliberately sabotaging your work
Oh, Krita fits my workflow quite well. Personally am in the process of switxhing to it from GIMP. I know I wrote up a huge wall of mostly garbled text in a passionate rage, but reading just the first part of my rant should've made that clear.
I use krita frequently and never met your bug so it's not as recreatable as you think.
Of course you didn't. Because who in their right mind enters "0" as the target resolution? That's right - on one! Except for me, apparently. It's a stupid bug. One which doesn't mean anything. It opens no attack surface. It doesn't cause random crashes. It doesn't interfere with anyone's work.
However, you clearly haven't read my essay. Which is fine with me. It isn't quality reading material by any sensible metric. But, were you to have read it and tried to recreate the bug, you probably would've succeeded.
With that out of the way, my main point was how no - devs (especially KDE, and very transparently so) don't value your feedback as much as one might think.
Which is - understandable.
As you said, many keep FOSS software alive in their free time for nothing other than the moral gratification. Which is much more than merely commendable. And please, do not try to tell me I don't respect that when I do.
Where would devs be if they only replied to stupid questions from new users? That's right - in a tech support hub!
Which is obviously a waste of their time. The fact they don't do that isn't anything negative.
The problem, as always is - documentation. My little beef with KDE's crash wizard is but one example of this deeply-rooted problem.
As is seen in our (both mine and your) example, reading is hard. Writing - harder still. Were I able to read and fully comprehend the ill-fated link on the KDE wizard's "fuck you" page, you probably wouldn't be rading this. But alas, I am a human whose reading comprehension skills aren't top-notch.
Another, equally deeply rooted problem in FOSS is lack of general design thinking and logic. Am I calling KDE devs stupid? Of course not! But any UI (including the KDE crash wizard) should have a few eyes to assess it first. Then research on a batch of test users should be done. And then feedback from the general user population should be listened to. Is that a hard ask? Yes. Step 2 is expensive and as such out of reach of most FOSS projects, and not even Big Tech bothers with step 3.
But am I wrong in calling the KDE modal annoying and badly designed ("stupid") even, when it has already wasted my time in the same way on 15 occasions? Maybe not. I am angry and it may have been irrational. But I feel my perspective is at least understandable even if the wording isn't.
In the end, users can't live without developers and developing user-facing applications makes little sense without users. I'm not in the Linux community because I don't like FOSS, Linux or KDE. I'm percisely here to support them. However, sometimes issues arrise, and having a good community to help with fixing issues (because the devs can't (obviously) handle all that load themselves) is good.
Having a community where the answer to a simple, begginer question is basically "bother the devs, they have a Matrix", "it's probably your fault" isn't an answer. It's a fuck you. And once they find out they've been mislead (not even intentionally perhaps), they might go back to Big tech.
Saying to me that I don't support FOSS, that I don't like it and that I can go back to Big Tech (when I haven't been there for over 4 years now), is an even bigger one.
I like FOSS. Saying I don't respect them wben I truly do is an insult. I merely don't understand some of their decisions. Probably due to a lack of context and knowledge, which is on me.
But does giving a rant about, what are tiny problems in the running of a huge machine known as My Computer, spurred on by someone's unhelpful advice, given in hopes of starting a discussion and the wholly implausible odds of the issue at hand given as an example being fixed due to it call flr the reply "Go to Big Tech, there's clearly no room for you here"?
If you already have the correct version of the flatpak installed, you can try flatpak build-bundle.
flatpak build-bundle LOCATION FILENAME NAME where - LOCATION is the path of the repo on disk. Run flatpak info -l org.kde.arianna, and copy the part before /app - FILENAME is the output file name, preferably .flatpak. Eg: arianna.flatpak - NAME is the name of the app, here org.kde.arianna
The generated file can be installed with a double-click, or with flatpak install <file>
This is the equivalent of an Android .apk. It contains the app but depends on a runtime. If you want to install it in a few years, odds are the runtime will no longer be available. You can backup the runtime the same way with the --runtime option.
flatpak build-bundle --runtime LOCATION FILENAME NAME where - LOCATION same as earlier - FILENAME eg arianna-runtime.flatpak - NAME is the name of the runtime, which you can get with flatpak info --show-runtime org.kde.arianna
This takes a while, for some reason. Maybe it's compressing stuff?
The runtime is installed the same way as the app: double click or flatpak install.
Note: I only did this once, and not specifically on Arianna. Hope it works.
A Greenlandic mother’s one-hour-old baby was removed from her by Danish authorities after she underwent “parenting competence” tests – despite a new law banning the use of the controversial psychometric assessments on people with Greenlandic backgrounds.
The “parenting competence” tests, known as FKU (forældrekompetenceundersøgelse), were banned on people with Greenlandic backgrounds earlier this year after years of criticism by campaigners and human rights bodies, who argued successfully that the tests were racist because they were culturally unsuitable for people from Inuit backgrounds. As the law came into force in May, campaigners are asking why Brønlund was still subjected to a test.
Brønlund was told that her baby was removed because of the trauma she had suffered at the hands of her adoptive father, who is in prison for sexually abusing her. The municipality told her she was “not Greenlandic enough” for the new law banning the tests to apply, despite her being born in Greenland of Greenlandic parents.
As I understand eugenics, it's all about ensuring babies with "correct" genes are born and babies with "wrong" genes aren't, so yes, preventing pregnancies or births seem to be at the heart of eugenics.
And doesn't seem to directly appear in this story.
assessments for people's "fitness" for having children is a cornerstone of eugenics and it's current incarnation exists in institutions lilke child protective services within the united states.
I'd say there's a difference between assessing people's fitness to have children, and their fitness to raise children. The latter is a lot less eugenics-related, and clearly necessary in some form to protect children from being abused by their parents.
Though of course it isn't always done perfectly or even well.
The removal of KDE Discover has me considering going back to plain Kinoite on my HTPC. I figure I can build a sysext with the handful of bazzite bits I actually use and keep the unbutchered plasma experience
Would you be willing to say more about what you know / experienced about the removal of Discover? Preferences included? I only noticed it recently, been away from things for a bit, and you sound like your brief info would probably be at least as fruitful as the reading I was gonna look for 😀
the ublue project / bazzite decided to make their own flatpak first app store called Bazaar. Fair enough its their distro. However they created it with GTK4/Adwaita libraries, so its a Gnome native app and looks completely ugly on a KDE Plasma desktop. Also as a flatpak first app store it doesn't update anything else on your machine like what discover is capable of (cant update ostree, knew stuff etc). This means you have to use the ujust terminal app to access updates, which I dont agree with.
I think technically you could layer it back in with rpm-ostree install kdediscover - however this pulls back a couple of hundred meg of plasma dependencies, which if you're not aware, when you update your system would be redownloaded and reinstalled with each new ostree snapshot, slowing down the update process even further. I I tried doing it as a sysext (myrepo) but it ~~keeps segfaulting and I havent worked out the issue~~ edit: I have fixed the segfault issue and readded the ostree backend. Sysexts are new experienmental alternative to package layering which hold a lot of potential (check out tim ravier's development of them here travier.github.io/fedora-sysex…)
You don't use the terminal to do updates, updates are automatic by default.
We also completely removed discovers ability to update OSTree. It's never been present in a single build of Bazzite.
This is why I don't pay attention to people that complain about toolkits. You don't like the way it looks so you make up absolutely disingenuous points to argue about it.
I also said ublue is free to do what they want, why are you attacking me for suggesting I want to put something back the way it was? I never asked for your attention, I'm not pestering the developers about it, instead I attempted to author a fix for anyone who also is not a fan of the change.
Yes, I dont like a core system tool not being part of my desktop, I dont want my updates to fire via a timer, and I have updated my ostree via discover on my bazzite box. I understand a lot of your target audience does want those things, an appliance type experience - I even suggested 2 posts up that perhaps bazzite was no longer for me as the target audience.
I appologise for drawing your ire
edit: FYI I'm not some bad faith poster, having defended bazaar - Also my particular bazzite box has been rebased between Fedora and Aurora, probably accumulated some artifacts in the process, which may explain why my discover had not been previously hobbled. Have a good night
the minimum requirement for this to constitute a meme is for the members of the KKKommittee (that you're a part of) to agree on whether this is funny or not.
True but, despite how soulless it is, I'd still rather live in the occupied zone. It's financially privileged by the West though, so that makes sense. 🤷
I live in South Korea. It's convenient, safe, and modern. I might be biased because I live in Gangnam, but I feel like people here have more spending power on average than people in the US.
The societal pressure is a fucking nightmare, but that's a uniquely Korean thing. Nothing to do with the US.
Calling the South under foreign occupation is utter nonsense. Obviously, it's hyperbole and propagandist, but it also acts like Korea doesn't have its own culture or resist American influence. Quit trying to be edgy and use your brain.
If you want to talk about occupation, read up on the Japanese occupation of Korea. That was foreign occupation.
The immense societal pressure is directly related to the ROK's colonization by the US Empire. From the outset, when the US went in to the southern half and made the PRK illegal, the US millitary directly created a society strictly regimented, millitant, and with the purpose of being a foothold for the US Empire in East Asia. There is a direct line from imperialist Japanese colonization of Korea to the modern colonization of the Republic of Korea. Reunification activists, above all else, seek to expel the US Empire from the peninsula so that Koreans can decide for themselves how they wish to chart their course, free from US dominance and the chaebol compradors.
Korea absolutely has its own culture. It's a rich, historied culture. Blaming societal ills on Korean culture, and not on the US-installed system that directly went against the collaborative system that Koreans were charting for themselves before the US made it illegal is a chauvanistic point of view. Lee Sung-Man, Park Chung-Hee, Chun Do-Hwan, all fascist dictators that were met with revolutionary violence that the US came in and crushed, or was crushed by the fascist comprador regime. Korean culture is not to be stomped on in a heavily regimented society, that's a direct consequence of an uninterrupted line of colonialism that directly erases the common history across both sides of the DMZ of anti-imperialism and collectivization.
Okay, your second paragraph confuses the hell out of me. It sounds like you're arguing against yourself. Can you rephrase it for me? I want to understand what you're saying.
Also, the US doesn't have an emperor. It may be imperialistic, but it's not an empire. But reading that makes me imagine it as an actual empire, which is fucking terrifying. Please don't? At least for me? That makes me wildly uncomfortable.
So... The US occupied the South until the ROK was established. This was kind of like Germany but for a much shorter time. When the North invaded the South, UN forces came to help. Yes, there was a direct line from Japanese occupation to US occupation, but US occupation ended very shortly afterwards. Say what you will about influence, but influence and occupation are very distinct. And yes, the US fucking with the PRK was terrible. I'm with you on that. But we're talking about South Korea today.
But going back to the original point, if the societal pressure results from the US, then why don't we see such pressure in the US itself? Your historical argument for this doesn't stand.
A simpler explanation is the rise of Neo-Confucianism during the Joseon dynasty. It was patriarchal, focused on hierarchical structures, and expected testing for advancement. This clearly leads to competitive behaviors. While you could argue the US has similar things, Neo-Confucianism cranked that up to 11. The Joseon dynasty after Sejong was pretty shit. Korea was like this before the US showed up, even before the Japanese showed up (the last time. They tried so many times before that).
To rephrase the second paragraph, it isn't naturally "Korean culture" that keeps Korean society in the ROK so strictly regimented and class-based. Korean culture, without US presense, formed to be very collaborative and anti-colonial from the decades of fighting against Japanese colonization. That's why when Korea was free, they formed the People's Republic of Korea, a quasi-socialist state based on people's committees. The years and years of collective resistance to Japanese imperialism had advanced a collective culture.
When the US millitary came in, they divided the nation in two, and made the PRK an illegal state. This was a wildly unpopular thing to do, because Korean society was advancing its own sovereignty. This sparked conflict, such as the rebels in Jeju Island, to the general massacre of communists in the south. The US millitary installed what would later become the ROK in place, using much of the old, colonial compradors from Japanese colonialism. The new politicians, officials, etc. were the direct descendents and even the same people from the colonial government that cut deals with the Japanese and sold out their countrymen.
The US didn't do this all just to be evil. The US did this because the US Empire's long-term plans for the Pacific involved restarting the Japanese empire as a subservient empire. Essentially, the US was rebuilding Japan and trying to start the same colonial relationship going, but instead of the Japanese Emperor, the profits would mainly be going to the US. What prevented this from truly happening was the Korean War. Following the Korean War, the ROK went from Lee Sung-Man to Park Chung-Hee to Chun Do-Hwan, all fascist dictators, and US financial capital poured into the ROK to both build it up and profit dramatically from it, directly working with the government and the chaebol. The ROK millitary is even subservient to the US millitary "in times of war," which hasn't ended since the 50s.
To sum it up, had Koreans been left to their own devices, the PRK would exist today as a more collaborative, quasi-socialist or outright socialist society. The strict regimentation of society and dominance of the chaebol we see in the southern half of the peninsula is due to the comprador regime put in place by the US Empire, which still recieves backlash from the revolutionary undertones of the Korean working class. We see this at Jeju, at Gwang-Ju, and so forth. The US occupation of Korea serves as a millitary base in East Asia to keep the PRC in check. This is all ignoring the atrocities and genocide committed by the US against Koreans, including various massacres and the entire history of "comfort girls."
As for the US Empire, it very much is an empire. An empire is not determined by having a literal emperor, but by running an economy that leverages economic and millitary power to extract vast wealth from other countries, in this era through the dominance of finance capital. This is a good article on imperialism, but if you want to understand it from how it formed to how it exists today then Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism followed by Super-Imperialism: The Origin and Fundamentals of U.S. World Dominance will catch you up.
As far as decolonizing Korea goes, check out the orgs listed in the People's Summit for Korea, particularly the Korean orgs as you said you're in Gangnam.
"…with fraternity on your lips, you declare war against mankind."Jeremy Bentham, addressing France's National Convention in 1793, urging it to "Emancipate Your Colonies...
To give you a real answer and not a canned response by a North Korean propagandist lol, the uptick in Korea-posting is probably due to the fact that Trump and the South Korean president met either yesterday or the day before, and the meeting (afaik) went well. I’m no fan of Trump, but I can also recognize that SK is a long-standing US ally, so I’m glad things went well. Obviously, NK is pissed that it went well so they’re sending out propaganda for dipshit “leftist” westerners to parrot brainlessly while also likely having their own people comment on places like this.
International politics is weird nowadays and everything revolves around social unity/division through internet platforms.
Yeah, I realized that when I saw that news later. Not sure about the DPRK explicitly sending out propaganda, but it makes sense the it would get pro-DPRK folks active
but it also acts like Korea doesn’t have its own culture or resist American influence
Also... I am no Korean expert, but doesn't North Korea have, uhh... some influence from their northern neighbors, too? Like, significant influence?
I wouldn't call the North 'occupied' either, and obviously the agreements and military logistics are different, but still, it seems a bit hypocritical to call South Korea an assimilated vassal or whatever.
The DPRK has some mutual trade and cultural exchange with the Russian Federation and PRC. It's certainly not colonized like the southern half of Korea is, though, it's just normal diplomacy. The ROK, on the other hand, was directly set up by the US Empire after declaring the country the entirety of Korea was making, the People's Republic of Korea, illegal. The ROK's millitary is directly subservient to US commanders. Recognition of the ROK as colonized isn't exclusively a communist thing, reunification activists generally recognize this. Check out the orgs that attended the People's Summit for Korea.
Uhh... the USSR occupied the North until Kim Il-Sung took control. Just like the US with the South.
The (current) relationships between the North and China and between the South and the US are very similar, except the US has military bases in the South. But the US does that with all its allies.
As for the ROK military being directly subservient... I'm not as knowledgeable about this, but I think that's only half true. The Korean military largely focuses on logistics and raw manpower, plus their special forces. (Holy shit, Korean special forces are fucking terrifying.) It's largely understood that the US would lead operations, given that the US has more veterans, mass, and better-tested doctrine. However, as I understand, legally, Korea still controls its own military. KOTRA is one exception, but that's a small subset of Korea's military. But to be clear, this is my understanding from passive learning. I could be wrong about things and don't have the time to read up right this moment. I'd appreciate corrections with sources.
The USSR was mostly hands-off with the DPRK, when the DPRK formed it was more of a merging of the various socialist parties with the remnants of the PRK that were not declared illegal in the North. Further, the US is extractionary towards the ROK, while the PRC is not towards the DPRK, the economic relations are different because the modes of production are different. Further, the scale of US millitary presense in the ROK is far beyond typical for its allies.
I’ve deleted multiple Google accounts in the past. The experience was pretty straight forward. Nothing out of the ordinary that I remember.
I went through and deleted everything first… photos, docs, history, etc. If I recall, I tried to delete any info not required for the account. I think at the time I may have address info that I removed.
Walked through the process and account was deleted.
Do I trust them to delete everything? No, which is why I did what I could before removing the account. Also, that account really won’t be deleted, it will be marked as such and you can’t reuse your Gmail address but the actual account will still be around.
Most companies are like that… I said most, please don’t flame me about all the companies that actually remove accounts 😆
If you have an account and want to delete it, clean it up first, wait a bit, then follow the process. Not much else you can really do.
Hard to say, things like Nextcloud, Immich, Emby, and Mealie probably get the most exercise, but being a tech person some of the more interesting are things like Security Onion and some of the infrastructure tools.
I am pretty sure that every data they ever gathered about you is still there, just marked as hidden. Data is their currency; you don't throw that away.
The biggest problem was changing my email. Many companies are simply not equipped for such a request.
Some of them actually told me I had to cancel my account and open a new one. Others would send half my emails to the new address and the other half to the old one. So fucking ridiculous.
I moved my email to my own domain, so hopefully I never have to deal with that again.
God help me if I ever have to change my phone number again for all the fucking companies demanding SMS verification.
Based on recent reports, YouTube is actively restricting access to Premium accounts created through VPNs and cracking down on users accessing Premium content across different regions. According to user discussions, YouTube now detects and blocks VPN connections when attempting to stream Premium content12.
Some key impacts:
Users report being unable to play YouTube Music through Sonos speakers when using a VPN, with the service becoming accessible only after bypassing VPN connections1
Premium subscribers attempting to access content from different regions than their subscription face connection errors and service disruptions
The restrictions appear to be part of YouTube's broader strategy to enforce regional content licensing and subscription terms
The crackdown coincides with YouTube's increased focus on Premium subscriptions, including showing longer unskippable ads to free users in 2025 to drive Premium adoption3.
Not OP but for me I'm fine giving them some money in exchange for me not having to watch any ads while using their services. Just not the amount they want to charge me in my home country. 5€ a month feels fair, 15 does not.
That's fair, but my code of ethics prohibits me giving money to a corporation that engages in mass surveillance and actively radicalizes young men and women into the alt-right rabbit hole.
I do value my adblockers very highly, and I blocks ads in the browser, via DNS on my home network, and on my rooted phone too. Every time I access the internet on a device that isn't mine, I'm blown away with how bad it is.
Every time I access the internet on a device that isn’t mine, I’m blown away with how bad it is.
Sometimes my friends will ask if I can take a look at their computers because it's not working as expected or something is definitely wrong. I am always blown away by all the ads and crap all over the screen. It's like going to a porn site. I always ask 'How the fuck do you do this?' At the very least, install an adblocker. Sometimes I'll just go ahead and install UBlock, but there's an issue with doing that. Ublock Origin has a little bit of a learning curve. You actually have to put in a little work before it really works optimally for you. I find that people are not willing to do the work.
If you don't have Bypass Paywalls Clean too, some news sites won't let you read their articles when they detect your browser- or DNS-based ad-blocking. The user might want to know how to turn it off for a particular site (or learn how to switch to reader mode and/or how to use a site like 12ft.io) to get around that. Or if they turn on extra uBlock lists like the "annoyances" ones they might not see certain social media sign-in pop-ups they're expecting to see, for example.
This is how we all give Boatracecrook the cold shoulder and leave. The more people they block the better.
Boat race, is cockney rhyming slang for face.
At the very minimum, to protect future generations and our grand children and their children from; the banal, brainless, brain dead, manipulative surveillance.
I have never used Boatracecrook.
I must admit that as a new user on Lemmy, I do take umbrage at all the links to Boatracecrook videos that people feel they need to share and promote.
I trust people to watch the video and give a short written description, not add a poxy link in the avatar image.
I have got caught out more than once clicking on an user supplied avatar and I have been taken to poxy Boatracecrook.
To be honest, I was under the impression that lemmy was different and did not engage in the anti-human practices of Boatracecrook.
I cannot understand why anyone watching a Boatracecrook video, then suddenly decides to add a link for Lemmy users.
Then manipulatively hides the link in the avatar of the post, when the link could be added to the main text body for all to see, and give people a choice if they click on it.
I can only assume this is about self promotion and not about supporting the Lemmy community.
You can call it Facebook or YouTube. No evil entity wins if you do, you just make it much easier for fellow community members to understand what you're trying to say. Your two comments are impossible to track and understand.
Hah. I mean no offense but you sound exactly like Gemini or copilot after I call it out for some egregious hallucination.
"Of course you're absolutely right, I completely understand how saying X would undermine your confidence in my abilities. I'll keep that in mind for next time, I'm always learning etc...
you are very kind, I am glad you found it funny, I do try my best.
You never know what sort of feedback you will get.
After all there are 8.5 billion different opinions in the world.
I sound like gemini or copilot. Not bad for a 69 year old.
Wow! I heard some difficult personal feedback, learning about things I did not know about myself, in the weekly process group during my psychotherapy training, but sounds like gemini or copilot, I would have said that sounds more like Projective identification
Projective identification is an unconscious phantasy in which aspects of the self or an internal object are split off and attributed to an external object.
You know, I was trying to pay for YouTube Premium. I do think that was fair even though I knew I could use ad blockers for free.
The prices are outrageous where I live so i used a VPN to find a more reasonable price. Every so often, YouTube would cancel my account and I’d do it again.
This happened several times, but I finally realized that YouTube doesn’t want any money for my account! They would rather I pay nothing at all! That’s so generous of them.
So, now I use ad blockers and I get the same service for free.
YouTube is trash. I was watching a cooking video, and I swear, after 60 seconds of ads, the YouTuber talked for maybe one whole minute before it went to ads again with a 60 second timer.
I’m not sure. There have been times where I thought, this would be the perfect place for an ad break. And lo and behold… ad break. Sometimes they get cut off mid sentence and I think, either it’s automated, or maybe you’re right and they got a say but didn’t specify enough ad breaks so one was inserted semi randomly…
Per their support page, videos over 8 minutes long can have mid roll ads. They can be manual, automatic, or a combination.
If ads were placed that closely together on a video longer than 8 minutes, the creator either did that manually or did not care enough about their audience to check what automatic ads got placed.
SponsorBlock skips sponsor segments. SponsorBlock also supports Invidious and Piped if you enable Support 3rd Party YouTube-Sites in the SponsorBlock options.
As far as YT & Google et al, I don't participate. A good while back, I tried to promote some of my music on YT. The experience was...... terrible afaic. I used to use YT for tutorials, but there is no way I'm going to jump through all their hoops and endure back to back, un-skippible ads, to find out that the tut is shit. Screw that noise.
Reddit has been silently rejecting accounts that sign up with a VPN for quite some time now. If you make an account using a VPN, an alias email, using a hardened Firefox, and all the blockers, you can expect that your account will be shadow banned almost immediately. So, as long as Reddit front ends work, I'll still use it as a resource....for now.
I foresee that private forums will become a thing again where people of like minds congregate and exchange info, expertise, ideas, content, etc. They were once quite popular but people gravitated to these multi billion dollar corp owned social media outlets because it was the next best thing, and now the other shoe has dropped.
Honestly just need to bring back Usenet newsgroup traffic
Hey bro. I appologize for the late reply. Apparently I lost track of time.
First, I am a mediocre musician on my best day. I've been playing stringed instruments for about 65 years, but it's more of a hobby that I get a lot of satisfaction out of. I did entertain the notion that maybe I could pick up one or two gigs doing background music for an indie game dev, which is why I was using YT. I do have some tracks on PeerTube, but as you are probably aware, the traffic flow of PeerTube is rather spartan.
At least on Brave you don't have to use an account (which Mozilla hasn't figured out yet) to synchronize your bookmarks, extensions and settings. And mind you that you can disable all the controversial things.
It's true. I use Brave as well. They have several novel privacy features that no one else does. And although the company has a checkered history, I still think it's the best (for now). I just wish more FOSS devs would take notes and implement these privacy features in other browsers.
Yeah and majority of them aren't as popular. Think Fedi.Directory has selection of various PeerTube channels which the popular ones like The Linux Experience, Veronica Explains more used PeerTube as a mirror for people who don't want to use YouTube and then there's some FOSS Project (think KDE?) that use it just to show off features related to their project.
Beside Tilvids' instance, there's barely much video on PeerTube I feel like I want to actually watch
The problem here is the lack of a current alternative. As others here have mentioned, peertube might be a future alternative, but I can not help but feel that only fairly ideological people like myself would be interested (in the sense of dropping youtube on privacy grounds). I can't see "normies" moving elsewhere. That said, maybe a good alternative doesn't require mass uptake. I mean Lemmy seem pretty cool, albeit I haven't been here very long at all (like a day lol, although I have lurked for sometime).
Nebula seems promising. It's reasonably priced and because they charge money there are no ads. I can afford it while I can't afford the amounts people ask for on Patreon. But I don't know whether it can scale up while paying the creators enough and keeping the price to users low.
Download Video Background Play Fix for Firefox. Some sites may not work with Firefox for Android video background play feature. This add-on provides a quick fix by blocking the Page Visibility API and the Fullscreen API.
The Russian Presidential Aide and head of the Russian negotiating group with Ukraine also said that recently the Russian Military Historical Society handed over several thousand books to the institutions where Ukrainian prisoners of war are being hel…
Russian state media. Not a credible source for anything (see also the other articles for some glaring examples of misinformation).
Although if Ukraine has less PoWs to exchange, part of the reason might be that Russia would rather see their soldiers die than surrender. They actively shoot their own soldiers.
haha yea, the western media says it's un-credible so it must be true! Not lik they have any incentive to slander a news outlet that bucks approved western narratives or anythin. Nope. No reason at all! 😂
Western media is usually beholden to state department lines, and recieves partial funding. Moreover, western media is thoroughly under the control of wealthy capitalists laser-focusing on their own interests. There's no such thing as "free" mass media.
Which state department do you mean? Are you aware that "western media" is spread over 2 dozen different countries? Sure, US corporate media is highly partisan and corrupt, but even the US has independent media, and many other countries have much more independent media. They're certainly not as dominated by the state, let alone a single state, as they are in Russia. Not even in the US (although that's certainly moving in that direction). And in every western country, even the US, the media will often disagree with or debunk the government's narrative.
Private media is beholden to the wealthiest in society, and often recieves state funding as well. This is true across all western nations, including European nations. The few, minor independent news organizations that go against the grain are overwhelmed by the standard mass media.
Bullshit. Sure, in the US everything is corporate owned and controlled. But in Europe, there are media reporting every side of every story. My primary newspaper (NRC, a major Dutch newspaper) has no problem going against the grain when the situation calls for it. But even in the US with its highly partisan media, there are news outlets for every political leaning, and many do not blindly parrot the government narrative like Russian media does.
Whatever misgivings you have about western media (and some are definitely justified), it's really no comparison to Russia, where a wrong word can have you falling out of a window. Putin brutally silences dissent in a way even Trump can only dream of.
Dutch media isn't particularly different from US media. Further, the "every political leaning" really just translates to various flavors of right-wing, from SocDem to fascist. What gets boosted by private investors is what permeates discourse. Private media is no less biased than state media.
Dutch media is far less partisan than US media, which in turn is still far less state-controlled than Russian media. You're fooling yourself if you want to pretend these are all the same.
Furthermore, SocDem is not right-wing by even the farthest stretch of the imagination. It's moderate left. If you want further left than that, there's still small indie media for you. If you consider every voice out there to be compromised and right-wing, maybe the problem is you.
In modern practice, social democracy has taken the form of predominantly capitalist economies, a robust welfare state, policies promoting social justice, market regulation, and a more equitable distribution of income.
Read your own link, man. It calls Democratic Socialism a wing of Social Democracy. Also, why do you not also share the article about Social Democracy itself?
Now, you would be correct if you merely argued that many Labour movements dipped to moderate right with their embrace of neoliberalism in the 1990s, but outside of that, they've been moderate left. But SocDem has always been considered various degrees of left. Sometimes not even moderately so.
All economies are mixed, what determines mode of production is the principle aspect of the economy. In social democracy, the large firms and key industries are still privately owned, with perhaps some little nationalization, and the state is dominated by the wealthy.
Even after the victory of fascism, the influence, ideology and traditions of Social Democracy continue their baleful and disorganising role, preventing the emergence of a united working class front to confront and defeat fascism. Further, if fascist dictatorship’s grip on power weakens, then Social Democracy stands in wait to come to the rescue of capitalism.
What is beyond doubt is that both Social Democracy and fascism are agents of monopoly capitalism; both fight tooth and nail against the struggle of the working class for its social emancipation. With this as their aim, both disrupt and weaken working-class organisations.
Their methods are, however, different. While fascism smashes the class organisations of the working class from without and opposes their whole basis and counters them with an alternative ‘national’ ideology, Social Democracy undermines them from within by diverting them along reformist bourgeois channels. Whereas fascism relies mainly on coercion, along with deception, Social Democracy relies mainly on deception, along with coercion. Their aims are identical; only their methods differ. In view of the identity of their aims and differing methods, one cannot but agree with Stalin’s observation, made as early as 1924, that “Social Democracy objectively represents the moderate wing of Fascism.” (Concerning the International Situation, Collected Works, vol 6, p.294)
The Marxist-Leninist is reproducing the following article by Harpal Brar from the Stalin Society in order to counter propaganda that fascism is something other than the open terroristic dictatorshi…
You're still equating private funding with independence. Further, social democrats are capitalists, by definition they are right wing. There are exceedingly few leftist voices except for small indie media, across the west, and these voices get drowned out by the huge private mass media corporations that are just mouthpieces for wealthy owners.
Yes, leftist news is worth listening to, but these are by no means the common news sources in the west. Social democtats are not socialists, you cannot be both a capitalist and a socialist. Believe me, I have done reading on the history of socialism, I'm a communist.
Dutch media copies US media to the tee. The difference is that it only follows US democrat media, until far-right movements popped up and one of them created a 'US republican outlet' show.
There's currently a wave of articles in the NRC going on about feminism, for the millionth time, about violence against women, because one teenage girl had been killed. Meanwhile, in Palestine we have hundreds of thousands of women and children dying of a genocide and it's being completedly ignored. And that's deliberate to pull wool over your eyes from the genocide our country is complicit in.
If NRC condemned Israel like it does Russia, we'd have articles like these: "Name of person is resisting Israel for its human rights violations" "Israel keeps repeating it's imperialistic tricks" "Netanyahu's borders doesn't stop at NATO's borders" "The Liberal Party manoeuvres into the heart of a pro-Israeli network" etcetera, etcetera, etcetera
And if NRC would be writing about Russia if it were Israel we'd have articles like these: "Greater-Russia has deep historical roots" "Russian parlement votes against the establishment of a Ukrainian state" "Why did Russia attack Ukraine and twelve other question." "The Netherlands wants Russia to deliver proof that the murdered journalists were Azov nazis" "Russia air strikes Lithuanian military targets" "Putin’s long cherished air strike attack on Poland is also a welcoming diversion" "UK, France and Canada warn Russia that they will take concrete measures if Russia continues this war"
And the problem here is that Russia actually has a legitimate reason for their invasion where Israel does not.
When Ukraine got independent, pieces of Russia that the Soviet Union gave to Ukraine for administrative purposes came with it. It was accepted as Ukraine was thought to be a "sister nation" like Belgium to the Netherlands. Today Ukraine can no longer be trusted to safeguard its Russian population as it tries to join NATO and NATO is anti-Russia. Ukraine has been actively been suppressing its Russian population, including but not limited to machine gunning civilians trying to enter voting booths for the demand of independence from Ukraine. Russia's response to that was demilitarization of Ukraine, targeting military only, with a record low amount of civilians killed per soldier.
That's very different from Netanyahu's "Greater Israel" plan that tries to simply conquer 9 nations, most of them tacit allies, with zero historical roots to them, apart from parts of Palestine, but that already pales in comparison to the area south of Beersheba Israel already occupies that never were historically Israeli. Hamas did a desperate attack on Israel as Netanyahu publicly displayed part of his Greater Israel plan at the UN.
Israel's response to that is genocing, targeting civilians first and foremost. Women, children and hospitals first.
There's currently a wave of articles in the NRC going on about feminism, for the millionth time, about violence against women, because one teenage girl had been killed. Meanwhile, in Palestine we have hundreds of thousands of women and children dying of a genocide and it's being completedly ignored.
If you know about the articles in NRC, you also know that they have many articles about Gaza, and yet you choose to lie about that. Why would you even think you can lie about that when I also have access to those articles?
Gaza: Een Israëlisch bombardement trof het huis van de buren van fotograaf Bashar Taleb, die onder meer voor NRC werkt. Intussen groeit met het offensief in Gaza-Stad de uitzichtloosheid van het conflict.
If you know about the articles in NRC, you also know that they have many articles about Gaza, and yet you choose to lie about that. Why would you even think you can lie about that when I also have access to those articles?
Because you can do both. You can ignore and highlight aspects of a story. Case in point is Donald Trump, the Epstein files and lots of distractions to ignore that, while still having highlighted a few aspects of it in the past and present. Just like the NRC highlighting some aspects of Israel's genocide against Palestine, Donald Trump both can highlight some aspects of the Epstein files multiple times and still put key story aspects, like the fact that he's in it, on ignore by using distractions. Stories of releasing Martin Luther King files, threatening Venezuela, Mexico and invoking national emergencies in cities with mayors or governers not totally aligned with his political viewpoints, sending the military there to detain and deport innocent civilians, are distractions to ignore his pedophile crimes. Or would you say "Why do people keep talking about the Epstein files?" is enough for a pedophile to get away with his crime and isn't trying to make you ignore it, just because he mentioned the crime a couple of times? Because I personally think he's burying one crime with another, dangling shiny keys in front of people in order to hope they'll forget about their heinous crimes and it seems to be working.
And NRC is no different. Like, I don't know about you, but having a pedophile sex offender as your top ally, should maybe raise some concern about what the Netherlands is allied with, a pedophile fascist crime lord that takes orders from a genocidal regime, but it doesn't seem to register with NRC now does it? I guess since NRC collaborated with Adolf Hitler before, that this stuff only comes natural to them. I guess their pro-fascism angle hasn't really gone away at all.
When NRC actually writes about the genocides done by Israel, it makes it look like Israel is having a picnic with Palestine. But there's fully no going around the genocide when Israel is blasting their crimes for the world to hear and see and so pro-Israeli-fascism newspapers like NRC will try anything to distract the public from its heinous crimes and that includes pointing towards any domestic murdered woman or girl and calling that femicide when it's absolutely clear that Isreal is currently conducting femicide as part of its genocide as it deliberately targets civilians before it targets the Palestinian military.
So no, I'm not lying. NRC is publishing stories to ignore the Palestinian genocide. I tell the truth because none of those articles you mention comes even close to acknowdleging that a genocide is taken place there, making NRC is complicit in it, because it is complicit in the genocide. And those articles you posted proves it even further as constantly filters down Netanyahul's heinous crimes in order to normalize them.
The "feminist one-murder equals femicide" IS a giant and insulting distraction from a genocide that's happening right now. A GENOCIDE!!!!! We're not talking about kittens being ignored here, but hundreds of thousands of human lives being slaughtered like Jews slaughtered by Nazis.
Just to illustrate two common denominators of the articles you posted:
1) None of the articles mention the state of Palestine. They only mention Gaza. Have you noticed that? I have. You'd notice it too if Ukraine would be constantly mentioned as "the Ukraine" in any of the Dutch newspapers. 2) None of these articles even mention Benjamin Netanyahu. Have you noticed that? I have. You'd notice it too if Benjamin Netanyahu would be constantly be referred to as dictator. And no, being elected doesn't count. You can't go "Netanyahu was democratically elected, therefore he's not a dictator" and then turn around and take exception on every other elected leader by a majority of people bombarded as dictator by NRC, e.g. Putin, Maduro, Xi.
Now let's go through the articles you posted individually:
When are pro-palestine protests terrorism?
This is just soft pretense of resistance, when in fact NRC silently endorses the genocide of the Palestinians. The NRC refuses to give the rounding up of protesters by UK police as: "UK cracks down peaceful protesters calling for an end to the worst genocide in human history since the holocaust" Because that would be truthful instead of blaming the protesters for siding against genocide.
Desperation in Gaza city by Israeli invasion will lead to a complete destruction
They say destruction where they should be saying massacre. That would be truthful, but NRC always likes to use soft language to soothe you. NRC does this deliberately because NRC is complicit in this genocide.
After a davastating blow of a rocket, Israel opens the offensive in gaza city
NRC uses soft language again. Always does, always will, because it is complicit in this genocide. Do you think they would ever write this way when it comes to Russia? This completely ignoring that Israel is commiting a genocide there.
European patience with Israel shrinking but doesn't agree with a modest sanction.
Why would the EU have patience with a genocide and why does it not seem to bother NRC? Meanwhile the EU has over a dozen sanctions on Russia and is running out of things to sanction with. And Russia isn't commiting a genocide or going for "Greater Russia" world conquest. It is just defending the violent suppression of its own people that have been locked out of Russia's borders during a collapse.
Are the Palestinians becoming bargaining chips for South Sudan?
This type of language NRC uses makes it seem that they want their readers to convince them that Palestinians should be seen as bargaining chips and not human beings. Or else, they would maybe, I don't know, get mad at the people who told them so and write a little bit different about these diplomatic suggestions.
You keep pretending that the NRC is somehow neutral in this conflict. It isn't. It supports the Israeli genocide and will keep supporting it in any way possible. This can and will include distractions because otherwise they'd actually have to write about the truth again.
But I guess you want to keep a blind eye to this and pretend that the NRC is non-partisan, just like it was "non-partisan" during world war II. The new extreme right that the NRC is wholly supporting is now ironically supporting Israelis to commit multiple genocides, as they've already made clear that they won't stop at Palestine. ___
The netherlands are absolutely not exempt from this phenomenon. It affects every country where capital stands above political power and the media, including yours.
It is one of the most important aspects of our media system – and yet hardly known to the public: most of the international news coverage in Western media is provided by only three global new…
None of that confirms the claim that western media is as unfree as Russian media. Sure there are concerns, but even then, none of the quoted percentages are 100%; the other voices do exist. And regardless of the power of money, there are many journalists out there risking their lives to report the truth. Look at Gaza, for example. Many western governments wanted to ignore it but now can't because media keep reporting about the atrocities.
Pretty fucked to say that murdering journalists isn't "brutally silencing dissent" just because other sources report on it, sometime. Do you apply the same standard to Russia?
Besides, the western media have done everything they can to downplay it without losing credibility entirely.
Western governments are (too) slowly changing their stance on Israel and Gaza because western media keep reporting about it.
No, I was just pointing out that it's fucked up that you denied that Israel and the West killing far more journalists than Russia is “brutally silencing dissent”
Then you’re reading the wrong media. I’ve been reading about these atrocities constantly.
Really? What have you been reading that has accurately been describing Israel, and the West's, planned extermination of the population of Gaza, including the deliberate killing of journalists, and has been doing it consistently over the last two years?
It’s happening. Dutch government just fell apart over
Really? So Denmark is a governmentless failed state now?
You need to come out of your bubble and inform yourself.
Have you considered that maybe you should come out of your bubble and inform yourself? Do you really think that I, as a westerner, am not exposed to Western Media all the time?
This coming from someone who was perfectly happy using the Ukrainian military as a source. Are you going to also try to argue that they are independent from the state?
So yes, I do know what I'm talking about, and I suspect you know to, and are just pretending not to because you can't actually defend yourself on this.
They've got a strict separation between ownership and editors, though. They regularly go against the grain and report deeper than merely repeating the convenient narrative.
Sure, capitalism and independent media don't go together well, but state control and i dependent media are an even worse combination, and on the scale of what's possible, NRC is doing quite well. Certainly much better than Tass.
I read and compare. When Maccabi supporters were picking fights with Arab taxi drivers in Amsterdam, they didn't blindly repeat the government story about pogroms but told what really happened, a story that eventually won out. They've never shied away from stories inconvenient to any government or corporate interest, as long as it's based in facts.
They're highly regarded for their objectivity.
If you want to attack them, you've got to come up with more than vibes.
And the fact that you're baselessly attacking them while defending Tass, is outright ridiculous.
Finally a productive question. You listen to all the sides. You listen to independent media on the ground. You don't just cling to whatever story happens to fit your worldview, but you consider the different stories and watch what adds up and what doesn't. Who leaves out what details to better fit their narrative and who tells the whole thing.
And sure, that means you've got to do some work. Put in some actual critical thought. And yes, lots of people don't like that just stick to whatever narrative they prefer, or even whatever is fed to them. But looking critically at media is a vital survival skill these days.
Blindly accepting known partisan media on the very topic you know they can't be objective about, is not that.
No, I asked how you did it. Because you clearly didn't listen to all sides, and you clearly did just cling to whatever story happens to fit your worldview. You were even at the point of lying to defend your worldview
Who leaves out what details to better fit their narrative and who tells the whole thing.
How do you determine what "the whole thing" is?
And sure, that means you’ve got to do some work. Put in some actual critical thought. And yes, lots of people don’t like that just stick to whatever narrative they prefer, or even whatever is fed to them. But looking critically at media is a vital survival skill these days.
Lol, maybe you should try it then.
Blindly accepting known partisan media on the very topic you know they can’t be objective about, is not that.
Except sides published by state media in countries you don't like, or media that you personally have determined is false. So no you do not listen to all sides, you listen to all sides that fit your worldview. This isn't complicated for everyone else in this thread but it's apparently quite complicated for you
Do you think the state media of a nation committing atrocities is going to tell you the truth about those atrocities? Do you believe Israeli denial of genocide in Gaza?
The only difference between Russian State media and our media, is that the western ruling class is savvy enough to launder their propaganda through privately owned media.
It's absolutely terrible that so many American media is owned by billionaires, but that's not all of western media, and it's still not the same as Russian state media.
I still don't get why so many people here are so desperate to defend the state-controlled media of a brutal dictatorship.
Russia is no more a "brutal dictatorship" than the US is, or the UK, or any number of other capitalist shithole countries that call themselves "democracies." Russian state media is no worse than, for example, the BBC or CNN. But more importantly, it does not have the global reach that the BBC and CNN have. The key thing that you're utterly failing to understand here is that Russia does not have the global hegemony that the US has (and NATO in general, though NATO is just a collection of vassal states subservient to US capital). Russian state media cannot begin to compete on the global stage with the overwhelming stranglehold that western media has over not only their own domestic populations but the rest of the world. We here in the west are not saturated day in and day out by Russian propaganda, but we absolutely are by western capital (which is synonymous with US state) propaganda. Pretending like this is an even playing field is absurd and it's why no one here is taking your whining about eBiL RuZzIaN media seriously. It's not about "defending" Russian media, it's about recognizing geopolitical reality.
Russia is no more a "brutal dictatorship" than the US is, or the UK, or any number of other capitalist shithole countries that call themselves "democracies."
Surely you must recognise how ridiculous that claim is.
Sure, Trump would love for it to be true, and he's certainly trying to, but even in the US, you can still publicly say this, while in Russia, you'd be headed for prison. Putin's political opponents frequently fall out of windows or catch some polonium poisoning.
These things are not the same, and pretending they are, makes you blind to how much worse they can still get. Russia is absolutely more of a brutal dictatorship than even the US, but especially than most European countries.
I'm not denying the toxic influence of money either, but that's still not comparable to the hold Putin has over his country and his media.
I always start out believing people are capable of critical thought and self awareness, until they prove otherwise. Plenty of that in this discussion, unfortunately.
Should I just accept that you're incapable of critical thought or grasping meaningful nuance?
You losers should really expand your list of rote thought terminating cliches, they get incredibly repetitive when you just use them over and over again.
Putin’s political opponents frequently fall out of windows or catch some polonium poisoning.
Hmm... I wonder what happened to the original leadership of BLM? And hey, what are Fred Hampton and Mark Clark up to these days? Has Gary Webb published any articles recently?
These things are not the same, and pretending they are, makes you blind to how much worse they can still get. Russia is absolutely more of a brutal dictatorship than even the US, but especially than most European countries.
Oh believe me, I am well aware how bad they can get, you're just completely unaware of how bad they've already been. You believe all these lies about how terrible Russia is, looking at it only through the lens that western propagandists have carefully cultivated for you without realizing that every accusation they've levied on their enemies is a confession about what they themselves have been doing all along. You're as intellectually domesticated by US imperialist interests as any diehard Kremlin-supporting Russian citizen, only you have the benefit of being on the side that enjoys global hegemony without even understanding what that word means. You're all up in arms about the lies of the media of an enemy state without having even an ounce of self awareness about the lies of the media you're consuming, the very same media from which you think you've learned how uniquely bad the enemy's media is.
I don't even live in the US. I live in Europe, and I'm concerned about the freedom and safety of my fellow human beings, and I'm disgusted by how US imperial interests have suddenly decided to embrace Putin and is turning against Europe.
My side is not enjoying global hegemony. I only wish Europe asserted itself against wannabe hegemons like the US and Russia, but political leaders here are too cowardly for that.
I see American media increasingly parroting Putin's viewpoints, because of this American realignment, and that's what you're asking me to blindly accept? No, fuck that. You talk a lot about others being controlled by propaganda, but I don't see an ounce of self awareness in you.
That's certainly what they want you to accept. What Putin wants you to believe. But this is clearly a case where US and European interests diverge. Trump wants to play nice with Putin while waging his economic war on Europe and the rest of the world, while Europe is trying to stop or slow Russian aggression. And degrading itself trying to keep Trump onboard.
It's a mess, but defending against aggression is still better than surrendering to it. Europe needs to learn to stand on its own feet.
That’s certainly what they want you to accept. What Putin wants you to believe.
The USA empire doesn't work by having individual governments enter secret conspiracies to obey the USA in favour of their own interests. The USA government and military are just stewards of the empire, the empire doesn't exist to benefit them.
Ultimately the majority of oligarchs whom the USA empire exists to serve are born in Europe, or they come from European dynasties that happen to live in the USA. It's simply a system of systemically and organically empowering those who benefit capital.
The EU, which has incredible sway over the politics of EEA nations, is explicitly an organisation that exists to create oligarchs out of capitalists. And who are the European capitalists? Are they staunch nationalists? No of course not, they're globalists with huge amounts of wealth tied up in USA stock exchanges. That means that with only one level of separation, the EU's explicit mission becomes an implicit mission to strengthen the USA empire's power over EEA nations.
But this is clearly a case where US and European interests diverge.
I would recommend this video to you on the topic: youtu.be/J_4srRdIK4k It's recent and current, made by a person who supports social democracy, that is to say, he's not a socialist or a Marxist. He doesn't use marxist dialectics in his analysis but still comes to the same conclusions. I think you'll find him more agreeable. He presents clearly without making assumptions about prior knowledge, citing all his claims, as much as possible using Western sources.
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.
The leaders in Europe are all financial capitalists who invested a lot of capital into US financial system. Even if European people face hunger tomorrow, their assets are secured at US banks. For this reason, they don't care whether they sign deals that are unfavorable to the European people.
We definitely should elect better leaders, that's for sure. These have to be dragged kicking and screaming into doing the right thing. It takes too much effort, and it's going way too slowly, but they can be moved. They've moved somewhat (not enough) on Ukraine, Gaza and even the environment, all due to popular pressure, but they need to move a lot further. People need to stop voting for the right wing idiots they keep electing.
You should definitely elect better leaders. If something is consensus in all so called "democracies", is that everyone thinks everyone else need to elect better leaders. The majority of the working people, which comprises the majority of population of most (pseudo-)democratic countries are mostly unsatisfied with their governments. This is occurs repeatedly and consistently in all liberal democracies, with a few exceptions. If there's something all liberal representative democracies look alike is that most people don't feel their interests are being represented by their government.
There's a reason why this happens in all capitalist societies. Note that it's not an individual issue and the reason is not lack of education and stupidity, as people often say, as even well educated individuals do bad voting decisions. This is a social and systemic issue and it's not a coincidence.
I won't tell you why, I want you to think about it. Then tell my why this happens.
Read the rest of the discussion. To me, you come across as part of a mob trying to defend Russian state media. And yes, arguing that all of western media, despite its freedom of the press, diversity of ownership and various degrees of editorial independence, is just as bad as Russian state media, is defending it.
I'm not arguing that all of western media is perfect; much of it is corrupt (especially in the US, but that is not all of the west). But not all of it is that bad. And even the corrupt ones frequently disagree with each other. That gives us access to much more diverse reporting than Russian state media provides.
I am aware that making sense of that diversity requires critical thought, which is in increasingly short supply in recent years.
Also note that the link you shared, of Trump flanked by billionaires, comes from western media.
Read the rest of the discussion. To me, you come across as part of a mob trying to defend Russian state media.
And I'm saying that's a problem with your reading comprehension; not the content of my argument. Especially because I never defended Russian state media. I too think state media is bad. The difference between you and I is that I'm not fooled by the corporate proxy that is western media.
I'm not arguing that all of western media is perfect; much of it is corrupt (especially in the US, but that is not all of the west). But not all of it is that bad.
Again, go on...
I am aware that making sense of that diversity requires critical thought, which is in increasingly short supply in recent years.
And yet you seem to struggle to explain how it's so "diverse." What's diverse about it? Who are the non-corrupt Western sources? Please tell me, since I'm so stupid 😕
The difference between you and I is that I'm not fooled by the corporate proxy that is western media.
And that's only something you're reading into this. I'm well aware of the problems with western media. Some of them are notorious for their lies, many are corporate controlled, and especially in the US, refuse to even acknowledge anti corporate sentiment (see how US media struggled to make sense of Luigi Mangione, for example), but they're fairly transparent about it, and and sometimes they really are telling the truth.
With some critical thinking, you can actually discern the truth out of that, without having to resort to Russian state media's reports on the disastrous war Russia is waging.
Lol, those are literally using the Ukrainian military as their source. Not even state media, literally just the state military itself. You absolute hypocrite.
Are you arguing that all video from a warzone is inherently fake?
While it's true that truth is the first casualty in war, and you've got to apply that filter to all news coming from any warzone (also the Russian side; again, see what you're defending), the reports on Russian atrocities, even against their own soldiers, are overwhelming. They're also coming from Russian sources.
But sure, keep your head in the sand. You probably also don't believe reports about IDF atrocities in Gaza, do you?
You know someone has nothing when they're resorting to "are you saying that [obviously false statement that doesn't actually resemble what they said]?"
the reports on Russian atrocities, even against their own soldiers, are overwhelming. They’re also coming from Russian sources.
You say, having only been able to provide sources from the Ukrainian government.
Obviously you're unlikely to see Russian media reporting on how they shoot their own soldiers as a matter of policy, and obviously the only parties close to the front lines as Russian and Ukrainian, but there is a variety of sources reporting on this, and Russia has a known history of using barrier troops.
But if you believe only Russian state media is telling the truth, then no amount of facts will convince you.
This article literally does not contain your claim! You are just LYING THROUGH YOUR TEETH now.
I'm not going to address the rest of them if you're just deliberately posting unrelated articles and lying about their contents, because at that point it's clear you're just being dishonest and trying to waste time!
Lying? Because a Russian source talks about Russian soldiers shooting Russian soldiers in a different context than barrier troops? You're just cherry picking so you don't have to address the facts.
Do you seriously want to argue that atrocities don't exist unless the party committing them admits they exist? You live in a very pleasant world.
Yes, lying. You claimed that Russia was shooting it's own soldiers, and now you're trying to pass off an article about Russian soldiers deliberately injuring themselves to defraud the Russian government out of benefits as a source for that claim. THAT IS LYING.
Ah, you see your precious government defrauded. That's what's upsetting you. I'm pointing out the brutality of the Russian war machine, I'm pointing to a lot of different sources about various kinds of violence, but it's the fraud that gets you.
You haven't even addressed any of the other links I shared, because you're not here to learn, but to spread propaganda.
Learn what? Most people here just repeat shallow dogma. Brainless zingers like that, no actual info. Nothing new at least. Bully people into accepting the propaganda. That's not how people learn.
Well, the thing is Ukraine has been known to use barrier troops. And not only is there actual video footage sputnikglobe.com/20231231/watc… but there is an azov commander openly talking about "motivational troops"
A Ukrainian barrier unit has shot at a group of retreating fighters of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, a source familiar with the situation told Sputnik, providing the agency with confirming video footage taken by a drone.
Isn't that bad optics for Ukraine? If they're killing more and capturing less, then that has to mean something like Ukraine is killing POWs (a war crime), or Ukrainian soldiers have a higher desire to surrender, which could be indicative of idealogical sympathy or of horrible treatment by the army.
During the 2022 offensive Ukraine themselves claimed KIA:PoW ratio something like 21 to 1. For comparison, even the most brutal fighting on Okinawa which is infamous for Japanese not surrendering and US not taking prisoners had that ratio around 14 to 1. So by their own admission Ukraine was either not taking prisoners or killing surrendering soldiers.
This guy makes one mistake in his reasoning. He's absolutely right about Trump not offering a real peace deal, but he talks about the conflict as if it's something the US forced on Russia, which is of course not true; it's Russia, and specifically Putin, who chose to start this war and invade Ukraine. He talks about NATO expansion as if that's something the US is pushing, but again, countries want to join NATO because they feel threatened by Russia.
Russia started this war because NATO rejected Ukraine's membership, leaving Ukraine vulnerable. But it wasn't a definitive rejection, leaving Putin to think he had a closing window of opportunity to invade Ukraine, which is why he rushed into this foolish war. Harder guarantees for Ukrainian security would have dissuaded Putin.
EU, meanwhile, never wanted anything like this, and even remained in denial after the invasion started. The EU just wants to trade with Russia and treat it as a normal country, a trading partner. Even after Putin invaded, they kept buying Russian gas for quite some time and some countries really didn't want to stop. Because gas is more important than human lives, to some.
Freezing the conflict is a bad idea; there needs to be a permanent peace, but there can only be a permanent peace if Russia stops invading its neighbours (this wasn't the first time), and Putin made it clear he has no plans to stop. He's frequently talking about Lithuania, Moldova, and more recently Azerbaijan.
It's pretty clear what the problem is here. It's Russian imperialism. Putin's dreams of empire. His unwillingness to accept other nations as equals.
This is a very naive reading of the Ukraine-Russian conflict. First of all, the conflict actually started in 2014 when Russia reacted by annexing Crimea after president Yanukovych was ousted following the Maidan uprising (which was carried out with EU/US support). Since then, there have been many skirmishes between Ukrainian military and pro-Russian separatist groups in the Donbass region, before Russia escalated the conflict in 2022. You should know that Crimea and Donbass are regions of a Russian ethnical majority, and these people didn't support the Maidan uprising.
Secondly, I am tired of people (especially liberals) which talk about laws, agreements and treaties as having some kind of supernatural power to stop things from happening. It's as if treaties, laws, agreements and commitments were never broken in real life, as if there was a supreme mystical power that bounded every party to commit to them.
Ukraine is not under NATO in all but paper. Its troops were trained by NATO countries, they are being supplied by NATO countries, there are mercenaries (and clandestine troops) from NATO fighting in the frontlines, the intelligence provided to Ukraine is from NATO countries. Not only that but the top NATO members are overseeing all Ukraine political decisions. Ukraine is not in NATO today because NATO countries never wanted to be directly involved in the first place and just wanted that Ukraine and Russia to bleed each other for their benefit.
Today NATO is actually a means to make all members fund the US military industrial complex, and provide other material and human resources to US, Germany, France and UK imperialist adventures. To this day NATO was never used as a defensive alliance, but NATO was always used in offensives against other countries. If Russia was weak like Afghanistan, then I'm sure NATO would have advanced in full force, like they did after the 9/11 attacks.
I am trying to gather some information on steps, procedures, and options for increasing privacy while crossing into the US.
My girlfriend goes to school in Canada and crosses the borders frequently throughout the year for; long weekends, extended holiday breaks, semester breaks, and summer breaks.
She'll be going back to Canada for this next year and with everything happening she's asked me to help her find ways to limit her exposure to data being reviewed or stored as she's studying a more Social/Liberal Arts degree which could flag her as a target because of the current political climate.
I've also suggested possibly limiting border crossing instead of coming back as often as she used to.
I'm working through articles and finding things from EFF and ACLU, but would happily taken suggestions, guidance, or any direction from anyone willing to share.
I've considered trying to find a way for her to backup her devices, maybe store those backups in the cloud, create "decoy" states of her devices (elaboration below), then restore the original state of the devices once she's safely past the border.
Devices:
iPhone 11 [18.6]
MacBook Air 13 [Possibly Sequoia 15.5, as stated in her iCloud, she doesn't have it with her right now]
For "decoy" device states, I mean having some apps and data on the devices, but nothing identifying/or that might otherwise give agencies data to further search (online account names/services, stored passwords, large collections of contacts/message histories, etc.)
I've suggested trying to switch to android/PC devices to provide alternative privacy/security options, but her family pays for the devices so it's just the same brand as whatever they have. So, that's not an option at this point, but any statements regarding increased effectiveness, or even lack thereof, by switching to different brand devices may help with any future transition considerations.
Thank you very much for taking the time to read through my post and any guidance you might be able to provide is highly appreciated.
On the advice of various experts, people are locking down social media, deleting photos and private messages, removing facial recognition, or even traveling with “burner” phones to protect themselves.
In Canada, multiple public institutions have urged employees to avoid travel to the US, and at least one reportedly told staff to leave their usual devices at home and bring a second device with limited personal information instead.
It seems like you already know what you’re doing and I agree with everyone else: backup your data and reinstall later. Create an iCloud account specifically for travel purposes.
This article mentions someone who opted to delete their social media accounts before coming to the US. So don’t be surprised or offended when some of us start deleting our comments, lol. Good luck.
EDIT: As long as you have a travel account you shouldn’t need Advanced Data Protection but perhaps after you/she reaches her destination.
1) Burner: Take a device that isn't a normally used device for each category. Make sure it has nothing you care about on it, no incriminating web history, no accounts logged in or saved as cookies that are incriminating, etc, etc. This is simplest, most expensive, but also most fool-proof against all possible threats.
2) Wiped: Wipe the device before travel, possibly backing things up in the cloud to download after arriving. You'll have to back up again with any changes you make and wipe again before traveling back then at your final destination again restore the device from backups. If you have serious fears of close inspection or forensic analysis then it would behoove you to use a secure erase feature on the drive and reinstall the OS rather than just trying to delete problematic files. For smartphones especially doing this and restoring from a cloud back-up can be pretty easy, for laptops it's more of a pain.
3) Mail ahead: Take the devices to a package service, UPS, FedEx, DHL, etc ahead of time, mail them ahead of or just behind you so they arrive just before or slightly after you. For this to work you need a fixed accommodation that can accept packages and which you trust to store them and give them to you. This technically doesn't prevent mail interception but unless you're a high value target that's unlikely at present as its kind of a multi-agency intentional effort thing. Still I'd mail the device in a fully encrypted state.
No other feasible options exist. You can encrypt yes and if you are a US citizen you cannot be denied re-entry (non-citizens can be not only denied entry but barred for years after for refusing to decrypt a device/cooperate) but they can seize your device and hold it for up to a year while trying to crack it and you'll have to expend effort to get it back at the end of that period. They can also put you in a holding cell for hours or hypothetically up to a couple days if they really want to press it accuse you of something and be unpleasant during that time.
Among the recent public letters was one from dozens of Orthodox rabbis demanding “moral clarity” to what they called a humanitarian crisis.
By Elizabeth Dias and Lisa Lerer Aug. 26, 2025, 12:01 a.m. ET
As Israel’s tactics in Gaza have increasingly provoked international condemnation, rabbis from across the world are taking the unusual step of speaking out against the Israeli government’s conduct in the war, on moral and religious grounds.
Over the past few weeks, as reports of starvation and mass killings in Gaza have spread, a significant number of clergy across the spectrum of Jewish observance and affiliation have signed a series of high-profile, carefully crafted public letters criticizing the Israeli government.
Rabbis Emerge as Growing Voice of Criticism of Israel’s Tactics in Gaza
Among the recent public letters was one from dozens of Orthodox rabbis demanding “moral clarity” to what they called a humanitarian crisis.
By Elizabeth Dias and Lisa Lerer Aug. 26, 2025, 12:01 a.m. ET
As Israel’s tactics in Gaza have increasingly provoked international condemnation, rabbis from across the world are taking the unusual step of speaking out against the Israeli government’s conduct in the war, on moral and religious grounds.
Over the past few weeks, as reports of starvation and mass killings in Gaza have spread, a significant number of clergy across the spectrum of Jewish observance and affiliation have signed a series of high-profile, carefully crafted public letters criticizing the Israeli government.
Instructions to add Plasma Discover package manager back into Bazzite using a Systemd Sys-Ext. Based on Travier's Fedora Sys-Ext work at travier.github.io/fedora-sysex… and relies on his base images on quay.
I'm really excited about the application of SysExts to bridge the gap many perceive in adopting atomic distros! This seemed like a fantastic solution to adding this tool back for those who want it, without the overhead of package layering
This is interesting, Bazzite abandoning Discover was the final straw for me to dump Bazzite on my TV pc and move back to Kubuntu. I don't have GameMode anymore but the feeling of being in control is worth it so won't be switching back
I thought so, and its not something Ublue has started using yet to my knowledge - there's some good potential that a lot of stuff they add could just become a set of extensions you can plug in like Lego bricks
The issue with them right now is there's no update mechanism. If you use something as a system extension that depends on a library in the image, and that library gets updated, you could have an unbootable system or at the very least a non-functioning application until you can update your system extension manually.
Ideally that update mechanism needs to be a part of bootc so if your system extension is part of your boot process it can be updated ahead of time before the image is loaded.
We've looked at it since it's inception and it's something we really want, it's just nowhere near ready yet.
But why tho? Bazaar (the few times I use it instead of cli) actually works without randomly freezing while loading, searching, downloading, deleting, just about everything, unlike when I tried using Discover on Arch, Opensuse, Kubuntu, Fedora, and Fedora Atomic.
I've never had issues with Discover on Fedora KDE and then even when I moved to Kinoite. I didnt have any issues using it on my Bazzite machine. I wanted it back, I also wanted to see if it was something I could do with a SysExt, which as I said is something I'm excited about, as I have started using them to add stuff on my Kinoite work machine.
It doesn't take Bazaar away, it just puts the items back for anyone who wants it. Spoiled for choice
Among the recent public letters was one from dozens of Orthodox rabbis demanding “moral clarity” to what they called a humanitarian crisis.
By Elizabeth Dias and Lisa Lerer Aug. 26, 2025, 12:01 a.m. ET
As Israel’s tactics in Gaza have increasingly provoked international condemnation, rabbis from across the world are taking the unusual step of speaking out against the Israeli government’s conduct in the war, on moral and religious grounds.
Over the past few weeks, as reports of starvation and mass killings in Gaza have spread, a significant number of clergy across the spectrum of Jewish observance and affiliation have signed a series of high-profile, carefully crafted public letters criticizing the Israeli government.
Rabbis Emerge as Growing Voice of Criticism of Israel’s Tactics in Gaza
Among the recent public letters was one from dozens of Orthodox rabbis demanding “moral clarity” to what they called a humanitarian crisis.
By Elizabeth Dias and Lisa Lerer Aug. 26, 2025, 12:01 a.m. ET
As Israel’s tactics in Gaza have increasingly provoked international condemnation, rabbis from across the world are taking the unusual step of speaking out against the Israeli government’s conduct in the war, on moral and religious grounds.
Over the past few weeks, as reports of starvation and mass killings in Gaza have spread, a significant number of clergy across the spectrum of Jewish observance and affiliation have signed a series of high-profile, carefully crafted public letters criticizing the Israeli government.
Among the recent public letters was one from dozens of Orthodox rabbis demanding “moral clarity” to what they called a humanitarian crisis.
By Elizabeth Dias and Lisa Lerer Aug. 26, 2025, 12:01 a.m. ET
As Israel’s tactics in Gaza have increasingly provoked international condemnation, rabbis from across the world are taking the unusual step of speaking out against the Israeli government’s conduct in the war, on moral and religious grounds.
Over the past few weeks, as reports of starvation and mass killings in Gaza have spread, a significant number of clergy across the spectrum of Jewish observance and affiliation have signed a series of high-profile, carefully crafted public letters criticizing the Israeli government.
I changed my main machine over to Linux in the beginning of April, setting it up on its own NVMe so I could keep my other drive with Windows 10 intact and dual boot when needed.
I've been having a blast - ricing hyprland, better workflows, great gaming experiences.
Then yesterday I realized that I hadn't actually bothered to dual boot once since testing out the Windows entry in my systemd-boot menu when I first set it up.
Guess who just gained a 1TB drive to install more games?
I wiped out the Windows drive with no remorse. Damn, that felt good.
You should be able to natively do what Rufus does in Linux, if you have a disk imaging software installed. I think Ubuntu comes with gnome-disks, you right click an ISO file, click open with, select disk image writer, and select the destination device (your USB drive) and it writes the ISO file to the USB device. You should double check it actually makes it bootable, but I think it does.
You can also use Ventoy to do what you want. You install it to the USB drive and then just drop the ISO files into a folder that you want to boot from, and it creates a menu for you to choose which ISO file to choose at boot time.
Ventoy is an open source tool to create bootable USB drive for ISO files. With ventoy, you don't need to format the disk again and again, you just need to copy the iso file to the USB drive and boot it.
Trying to set up Ventoy on a flash drive through Linux looks like a hassle. Windows, I know what I have to do: download the installer and push the button. In Linux, it's obviously not that simple.
I have 2 ssds. 1st ssd has 512MB partition for both Windows and Linux bootloaders and rest of the storage for data, games etc. 2nd ssd has both Windows ans Linux OS on different partitions and some more partitions for data.
It's good to have a critical understanding of RT's viewpoints. In this case, like the other user said, it's Trump driving his own wedge (per usual), so ofc RT will run an article on it.
My understanding of this problem is that there's still a very strong cultural impetus that males aren't allowed to have/share their feelings. In a way, even "go to therapy" is dismissive, in that the ppl saying it (often those that care about them most) don't want to be bothered to address their feelings, or the precursor(s) to the depression, directly. Acknowledgement is definitely a step in the right direction, but I think there's a ways to go. Just my $0.02
ok i will rephrase to: is society not offering real solutions nowadays.
I mean, as a woman, i will probably never understand how it feels to never really/freely be able to share emotions and be vulnerable. I thought this whole problem is somehow getting better or is better nowadays and that society is moving forward, though. Also, if "go to therapy" is dismissive, then what is a better response, i wonder.
Haha sorry in advance for a long response, I love psychology and am a strong male mental health advocate 😀 TL;DR: I don't have the answers, its getting better societally but that doesn't solve it at an individual level, I believe loneliness and being heard are major contributing factors.
I'm hard pressed to give you a good answer on that. I think it's more socially acceptable for men to have feelings, but maybe it's hard for the crop of men 30+ to understand that due to their upbringing, and seek help (it's getting much better for Gen Z, I understand). So maybe the options are there, but the "man up" mindset persists?
There may also be an individual element to it - the willingness to learn about our own feelings after decades of "man up" can be perplexing at best (I've been blessed with some wonderful women in my life and it is still in my blindspot all the time). I understand there are also many women that expect their men to "man up", not to say that's the norm though.
I don't have a good answer for you on the last point either. I think go to therapy is great, but i find that being male and our problems can be wildly isolating and lonely experiences - being told to go to therapy is kind of "take your feelings over there". At the same time, until men are able to build healthier communication with their loved ones, I think it won't be solved (which is where therapy does help).
I would also think that this "men-up"-mentality is a generational thing and eventually (hopefully) dies out soon (in men and women and anything inbetween). In order for that to happen it would probably help not to reproduce and repeat the belief that the mentality persists (for example by sharing memes that suggest otherwise...maybe i can help with that). You know... be the change you wanna see.
I guess there is also a nasty trend of going backwards and anti-DEI all over the world (in my understanding the E in DEI is suppose to also cover that whole male-mental-health inequality aspect) so that doesn't help.
Regarding the response "go to therapy": i was told the same thing several times and it sometimes felt like "i don't want to listen to your problems anymore" or "go fix yourself, you're not functioning like you're supposed to" and that does hurt. As i grew older i realized that these responders usually mean well and probably were overwhelmed themselves or were simply unable to help or didn't feel qualyfied enough to help. So the message they were unable to transport probably was something arround: "i care for your feelings and i am here for you but also i have limits to be respected and i want you to get the best help you need. Sadly i can not provide this, so i would suggest to seek help of a professional. I will help you as best as i can to make this happen"
Another aspect is (I'm not trying to derail now, or use whataoutism this is just sideaspect or orverlapping development) the somewhat common expectation that women are expected to do care work or emotional labour for free, which sometimes gets disappointed. And maybe there is a trend of women being less willing to do so nowadays. I don't know If that makes sense and one would have to look at actual data on this but i don't even know which field of study collects data on this topic.
any way it seems to be a somewhat complex topic but i stand with the believe that memes shape perception of the world and one can use that to also shape that stupid society for the better (i know i am heavily overestimating the power of memes but one can hope and dream 😀)
I'm sorry I didn't respond sooner, I just wanted to give this the time it deserved 😀
I agree the man-up mentality needs to die, or at least be dialed back. It's not inherently bad, tough love is a thing, but our society has taken manning up to an untenable extreme. For the record, I think the meme did an excellent job of putting a truthful light on the current reality - it definitely got us talking!
I agree about DEI, and love your comment about equality. Ppl often forget that equality means for everyone, and I think men are villainized as a general punching bag (punching up?). In this respect, I think men maybe pay a price that is overlooked for the more tangible equity issues (e.g. pay and service access for minorities)? But I'm cautious to bang that drum too hard haha just thinking it through.
I see what you're digging at about therapy, and it's possibly a perception issue on my end. It's hard to tell someone they need therapy at any time, and my sensitivities may just be coming into play there. Therapy can be incredibly helpful.
Women absolutely get saddled with unfair emotional labour. I think it's a bit of a downstream effect of unhealthy male emotions, in that men are taught to clam up and hide from feelings for decades, then get into relationships with women who just want the best for their partners. Men finally have a safe place for the first time in their lives, and BOOM all of it comes out with no skill at managing it haha. I'm not excusing this behavior, it can lead to some bad outcomes. I think there's a balance - ppl in relationships need to do their fair share or emotional labour (relationships aren't always 50/50, sometimes they're 90/10), and men haven't been taught to do their half. But at some point, they also need to take accountability and learn to do their half, dang it (see tough love lol).
All in all, I agree this is a stupidly complex topic, and I agree we proooobably won't fix mens' relationships with the world and themselves in this conversation, but we can try! That said, I'd be very happy if we could find a way to meme our way to a better place for everyone 😀 thank you for digging into it with me!
So, a lot of men went to college, got degrees in computer science having been sold the abject lie that higher education means greater job prospects, only to find programming as a career has been repealed because AI. They now have expensive college loans to repay and the same job prospects they did as a high school junior.
What's a therapist going to do about this? Other than, you know, waste your time and take your money.
Help you understand. Make new attainable goals. Find some peace. Change your mindset. Therapists aren't wizards, just like doctors don't just make ailments like cancer just go away. They help us heal as much as we can and then treat whatever symptoms linger. We do as much good as we can. I'm sorry society did this to you and to us.
I feel like the op meme would hit harder with this on the well guy cause they're fine to push the 'lesser evil' when it means getting their preferred evil in. when it comes to opposing communism then it's suddenly purity testing is fine
It lasted less than a generation, because it was a terrible design. They tried to get rid of capitol, but instead married the power of the state with the power of capitol
A benevolent hypercompetent dictator is obviously the greatest system of government. The rub is in the details
It did quite well, considering how it rapidly indistrialised their union of states, gave national-level voting rights to women before USAmerica did, fought external and internal sabotage, was waay better than the USAmerica which had racial discrimination on voting till the 1960's etc. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_R…
They also were the major force to fight against Nazis.
Cool, so they rapidly industrialized. Putting aside my feelings on industrialization, how is that useful a second time? It's also not unique
That system was good for growth, but it instantly was filled with corruption. It was manageable when there was explosive growth and everyone in the government just skimmed a little off the side, but once they modernized that growth slowed. From there the corruption spread like cancer
They went from being mostly agrarian to the most advanced county in the world to complete stagnation, and finally collapsed into complete oligarchy at record speed
I'm not saying they did nothing good, but that model is trash. We can learn from what it did well, but it has no answer to bad, or just selfish, actors
What we need is stability and quality of life, and for that I think you need to set an upper limit on how much power any one person can obtain.
I'm on board with the end goal, but this is a bad starting point to build a new system on
The USSR lasted several generations, generations are measured by the few decades and not by centuries. It lasted as long as it did because it worked remarkably well.
One thing that is important is that they didn't "marry the power of the state to capital." They had a publicly owned and driven economy, central planning is completely different from private ownership and production for profits.
But what I meant by they married the power of the state to capital is that as an agent of the state, you had the authority over capital.
In capitalism if you want a factory, you need money (and/or investors). In the USSR, you needed an agent of the state to make it happen.
In theory, that works. In practice, the agent of the state often becomes an investor - they profit off the factory, either through bribes up front or skimming off the top to sell the products on the black market
It's a system that invites corruption at all levels. No amount of policing can regulate a system when the individuals are incentived to skim off the top... This works at a smaller scale, but when you scale it up to county size ideology and policing will never tamp down the temptation. And the more people do it, the more normalized it becomes
You will always have people trying to exploit any system, the system has to have an answer that doesn't assume the individuals will act in good faith
You have to align incentives between actors and the system as a whole. I don't think you can do that top down, but you could do it bottom up. No individual should be allowed to have much power, and centralized planning concentrates power
You'll never approach communism top down. You can only do it by empowering the workers, from the bottom up
This is a pretty big misunderstanding of both what capital even is, and how socialist economies, the USSR included, function.
First, capital. Capital isn't a synonym for "means of production." Capital is a social function. Money, commodities, means of production, etc can all function as capital. What makes something capital is its use to generate more wealth in the form of profits. A worker that owns their own hammer is not an owner of capital, but an owner of a tool.
Secondly, socialism. Socialist economies, where production is generally planned for use rather than profits (depending on the stage), does not have the system of "skimming" like you imagine. In the USSR, the difference between the top and the bottom of society was about ten times, as compared to thousands to billions in capitalism.
Communism, in the Marxist sense, can only come about through full collectivization of production and distribution, it can't happen from the bottom-up. I just posted an updated Marxist-Leninist reading list, maybe give it a try!
It's time to read theory, comrades! As Lenin says, "Despair is typical of those who do not understand the causes of evil, see no way out, and are incapable of struggle." Reading theory helps us identify the core contradictions within modern society, analyze their trajectories, and gives us the tools to break free. Marxism-Leninism is broken into 3 major components, as noted by Lenin in his pamphlet The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism: | Audiobook
Dialectical and Historical Materialism
Critique of Capitalism along the lines of Marx's Law of Value
Advocacy for Revolutionary and Scientific Socialism
As such, I created the following list to take you from no knowledge whatsoever of Leftist theory, and leave you with a strong understanding of the critical fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism in an order that builds up as you read. Let's get started!
Section I: Getting Started
What the heck is Communism, anyways? For that matter, what is fascism?
Breaks down fascism and its mortal enemy, Communism, as well as their antagonistic relationship. Understanding what fascism is, where and when it rises, why it does so, and how to banish it forever is critical. Parenti also helps debunk common anti-Communist myths, from both the "left" and the right, in a quick-witted writing style. This is also an excellent time to watch the famous speech.
Section II: Historical and Dialectical Materialism
By far my favorite primer on Marxist philosophy. By understanding Dialectical and Historical Materialism first, you make it easier to understand the rest of Marxism-Leninism. Don't be intimidated!
Further reading on Dialectical and Historical Materialism, but crucially introduces the why of Scientific Socialism, explaining how Capitalism itself prepares the conditions for public ownership and planning by centralizing itself into monopolist syndicates. This is also where Engels talks about the failures of previous "Utopian" Socialists.
Section III: Political Economy
That's right, it's time for the Law of Value and a deep-dive into Imperialism. If we are to defeat Capitalism, we must learn it's mechanisms, tendencies, contradictions, and laws.
Best taken as a pair, these essays simplify the most important parts of the Law of Value. Marx is targetting those not trained in economics here, but you might want to keep a pen and some paper to follow along if you are a visual person.
Absolutely crucial and the most important work for understanding the modern era and its primary contradictions. Marxist-Leninists understand that Imperialism is the greatest contradiction in the modern era, which cascades downward into all manner of related contradictions. Knowing what dying Capitalism looks like, and how it behaves, means we can kill it.
Section IV: Revolutionary and Scientific Socialism
Can we defeat Capitalism at the ballot box? What about just defeating fascism? What about the role of the state?
If Marxists believed reforming Capitalist society was possible, we would be the first in line for it. Sadly, it isn't possible, which Luxemburg proves in this monumental writing.
Excellent refutation of revisionists and Social Democrats who think the State can be reformed, without needing to be replaced with one that is run by the workers, in their own interests.
Section V: Intersectionality and Solidarity
The revolution will not be fought by atomized individuals, but by an intersectional, international working class movement. Intersectionality is critical, because it allows different marginalized groups to work together in collective interest, unifying into a broad movement.
Critical reading on understanding misogyny, transphobia, enbyphobia, pluralphobia, and homophobia, as well as how to move beyond the base subject of "gender." Uses the foundations built up in the previous works to analyze gender theory from a Historical Materialist perspective.
De-colonialism is essential to Marxism. Without having a strong, de-colonial, internationalist stance, we have no path to victory nor a path to justice. Fanon analyzes Colonialism's dehumanizing effects, and lays out how to form a de-colonial movement, as well as its necessity.
Solidarity and intersectionality are the key to any social movement. When different social groups fight for liberation together along intersectional lines, the movements are emboldened and empowered ever-further.
Section VI: Putting it into Practice!
It's not enough to endlessly read, you must put theory to practice. That is how you can improve yourself and the movements you support. Touch grass!
Mao wrote simply and directly, targeting peasant soldiers during the Revolutionary War in China. This pair of essays equip the reader with the ability to apply the analytical tools of Dialectical Materialism to their every day practice, and better understand problems.
Congratulations, you completed your introductory reading course!
With your new understanding and knowledge of Marxism-Leninism, here is a mini What is to be Done? of your own to follow, and take with you as practical advice.
Get organized. Join a Leftist org, find solidarity with fellow comrades, and protect each other. The Dems will not save you, it is up to us to protect ourselves. The Party for Socialism and Liberation and Freedom Road Socialist Organization both organize year round, every year, because the battle for progress is a constant struggle, not a single election. See if there is a chapter near you, or start one! Or, see if there's an org you like more near you and join it.
Read theory. Don't think that you are done now! Just because you have the basics, doesn't mean you know more than you do. If you have not investigated a subject, don't speak on it! Don't speak nonsense, but listen!
Aggressively combat white supremacy, misogyny, queerphobia, and other attacks on marginalized communities. Cede no ground, let nobody be forgotten or left behind. There is strength in numbers, when one marginalized group is targeted, many more are sure to follow.
Be industrious, and self-sufficient. Take up gardening, home repair, tinkering. It is through practice that you elevate your problem-solving capabilities. Not only will you improve your skill at one subject, but your general problem-solving muscles get strengthened as well.
Learn self-defense. Get armed, if practical. Be ready to protect yourself and others. Liberals will not save us, we must save each other.
Be persistent. If you feel like a single water droplet against a mountain, think of canyons and valleys. Oh, how our efforts pile up! With consistency, every rock, boulder, even mountain, can be drilled through with nothing but steady and persistent water droplets.
"Everything under heaven is in utter chaos; the situation is excellent."
Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) is a national organization of revolutionaries fighting for socialism in the United States. Our home is in the working class.
Capital is what allows you to obtain the means of production. Before capitalism, capital required a title of nobility. It is not the same as money... Capitalism is the system where capital is just money. Just money can buy the mine, can buy the land, can buy the tools for the factory, can employ the workers.
These are things that require authority under both feudalism and a Marxist-Leninist system
Socialism does not require skimming off the top. That's obviously the opposite of what it aims to do
But going all in on central planning basically guarantees a system of skimming off the top.
There are other, better models for socialism. What if all companies became worker controlled, direct democracy style? What if the state controlled everything considered utilities, from food to healthcare to power and electricity to education, and you let capitalism compete in the background?
Communism is where the state withers away, because it's not needed. Where we grow beyond needing rulers.
You'll never get there by concentrating all the power and capital in the state. You could get there by using the state only as a check to make sure everything remains bottom up
Again, what determines what is capital or not is its social role. It isn't purely money within capitalism, there's money capital, commodity capital, etc.
Further, you're deeply misunderstood on the rest of this comment.
Central planning in a fully collectivized economy does not certify "skimming off the top." You're thinking of socialist production and distribution as the same as capitalist, but with the government. On the contrary, socialist production makes it far less likely, compared to capitalism where that is the sole aim.
All companies being worker controlled cooperatives is not a better model, it's much worse. Cooperatives can be a part of a broader, developing socialist economy, but cannot form the basis, as competition will result in some cooperatives flourishing and others dying, resulting in class striation.
Having public ownership for part of the economy and private for the rest is either social democracy, ie capitalism with safety nets, or the primary stage of socialism, before more development and collectivizing. If the large firms and key industries are privately.owned it's capitalist, if they are publicly owned it's some kind of socialism.
a. Social democracy, as its still capitalism, still has far more "skimming off the top" as that's the purpose of capitalism to begin with. You're still under a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, the workers still have no power, and in the global north you still rely on imperialism.
b. The socialist market economy is just what the PRC is doing now, and it's extremely effective. They are still pursuing a fully collectivized economy, but are working with diverse forms of ownership of medium and small firms as they are only in the primary stage of socialism.
The state withers away when class withers away. Communism in the Marxist sense is a global, fully collectivized economy run along a common plan. The state is merely the extension of the class in power, ie the bourgeoisie or the proletariat, it isn't a class in itself. Once all property has been collectivized by the state, it ceases to function as a "state," but planning still takes an active role. Over time, formal structures are replaced by habit, but you still have a huge, interconnected, planned economy.
Ultimately, you are fundamentally confused about what Marx was advocating for, and are mixing it up with anarchism, when these are fundamentally different concepts. Reading theory would be a good idea for you.
Orwell hated the working class, his chief critique was that the working class is too stupid to think for itself and that it is destined to be swayed by whoever is most charismatic. The same monster snitched on gays, jewish people, and communists to the British government, and during WWII claimed that criticizing the USSR was the real litmus test of a leftist. That's not even getting into his history of sexual assault.
As for the USSR in reality, read Blackshirts and Reds and This Soviet World. If the CPSU was a "ruling class," it absolutely failed at being so. The discrepancy between the wealthiest and poorest in the Soviet Union was around ten times, but that number is in the thousands to billions in the Tsarist and capitalist eras respectively, and not just in Russia, but all capitalist systems.
...what? I criticized Orwell for his hatred of the working class, anti-semitism, homophobia, work with MI6, anti-communism, being a sex-pest, and criticizing the country that was responsible for 85% of Nazi soldiers killed during World War II in the midst of fighting said genocidal invader. The issue wasn't "thinking for himself," it's him being a social fascist antisemitic fed. Critique of him is by no means hypocritical.
Do you have some theory reading which supports that, comrade? If not then you should read more theory, comrade. Make sure to post like 15 paragraph replies when you're done compiling your theories.
I already posted the sources for Orwell being a piece of shit at the beginning of this conversation, though that certainly isn't "theory." It's just documenting how much of a piece of shit Orwell was as a human being.
Comrade earlier you said that the CPSU was a failure, why are you so critical of glorious leaders, comrade? Would it be so bad if they were in charge of everything, comrade? You need to read more theory, comrade.
The one of the defensive is you, and the people you're defending allied with the nazis to split Europe between themselves as well as enabled the nazis war effort via trade of necessary materials.
The communists spent the decade prior trying to form an anti-Nazi coalition force, such as the Anglo-French-Soviet Alliance which was pitched by the communists and rejected by the British and French. The communists hated the Nazis from the beginning, as the Nazi party rose to prominence by killing communists and labor organizers, cemented bourgeois rule, and was violently racist and imperialist, while the communists opposed all of that.
When the many talks of alliances with the west all fell short, the Soviets reluctantly agreed to sign a non-agression pact, in order to delay the coming war that everyone knew was happening soon. Throughout the last decade, Britain, France, and other western countries had formed pacts with Nazi Germany, such as the Four-Power Pact, the German-French-Non-Agression Pact, and more. Molotov-Ribbentrop was unique among the non-agression pacts with Nazi Germany in that it was right on the eve of war, and was the first between the USSR and Nazi Germany. It was a last resort, when the west was content from the beginning with working alongside Hitler.
Harry Truman, in 1941 in front of the Senate, stated:
If we see that Germany is winning we ought to help Russia, and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible, although I don’t want to see Hitler victorious under any circumstances.
Not only that, but it was the Soviet Union that was responsible for 4/5ths of total Nazi deaths, and winning the war against the Nazis. The Soviet Union did not agree to invade Poland with the Nazis, it was about spheres of influence and red lines the Nazis should not cross in Poland. When the USSR went into Poland, it stayed mostly to areas Poland had invaded and annexed a few decades prior. Should the Soviets have let Poland get entirely taken over by the Nazis, standing idle? The West made it clear that they were never going to help anyone against the Nazis until it was their turn to be targeted.
It's time to read theory, comrades! As Lenin says, "Despair is typical of those who do not understand the causes of evil, see no way out, and are incapable of struggle." Reading theory helps us identify the core contradictions within modern society, analyze their trajectories, and gives us the tools to break free. Marxism-Leninism is broken into 3 major components, as noted by Lenin in his pamphlet The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism: | Audiobook
Dialectical and Historical Materialism
Critique of Capitalism along the lines of Marx's Law of Value
Advocacy for Revolutionary and Scientific Socialism
As such, I created the following list to take you from no knowledge whatsoever of Leftist theory, and leave you with a strong understanding of the critical fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism in an order that builds up as you read. Let's get started!
Section I: Getting Started
What the heck is Communism, anyways? For that matter, what is fascism?
Breaks down fascism and its mortal enemy, Communism, as well as their antagonistic relationship. Understanding what fascism is, where and when it rises, why it does so, and how to banish it forever is critical. Parenti also helps debunk common anti-Communist myths, from both the "left" and the right, in a quick-witted writing style. This is also an excellent time to watch the famous speech.
Section II: Historical and Dialectical Materialism
By far my favorite primer on Marxist philosophy. By understanding Dialectical and Historical Materialism first, you make it easier to understand the rest of Marxism-Leninism. Don't be intimidated!
Further reading on Dialectical and Historical Materialism, but crucially introduces the why of Scientific Socialism, explaining how Capitalism itself prepares the conditions for public ownership and planning by centralizing itself into monopolist syndicates. This is also where Engels talks about the failures of previous "Utopian" Socialists.
Section III: Political Economy
That's right, it's time for the Law of Value and a deep-dive into Imperialism. If we are to defeat Capitalism, we must learn it's mechanisms, tendencies, contradictions, and laws.
Best taken as a pair, these essays simplify the most important parts of the Law of Value. Marx is targetting those not trained in economics here, but you might want to keep a pen and some paper to follow along if you are a visual person.
Absolutely crucial and the most important work for understanding the modern era and its primary contradictions. Marxist-Leninists understand that Imperialism is the greatest contradiction in the modern era, which cascades downward into all manner of related contradictions. Knowing what dying Capitalism looks like, and how it behaves, means we can kill it.
Section IV: Revolutionary and Scientific Socialism
Can we defeat Capitalism at the ballot box? What about just defeating fascism? What about the role of the state?
If Marxists believed reforming Capitalist society was possible, we would be the first in line for it. Sadly, it isn't possible, which Luxemburg proves in this monumental writing.
Excellent refutation of revisionists and Social Democrats who think the State can be reformed, without needing to be replaced with one that is run by the workers, in their own interests.
Section V: Intersectionality and Solidarity
The revolution will not be fought by atomized individuals, but by an intersectional, international working class movement. Intersectionality is critical, because it allows different marginalized groups to work together in collective interest, unifying into a broad movement.
Critical reading on understanding misogyny, transphobia, enbyphobia, pluralphobia, and homophobia, as well as how to move beyond the base subject of "gender." Uses the foundations built up in the previous works to analyze gender theory from a Historical Materialist perspective.
De-colonialism is essential to Marxism. Without having a strong, de-colonial, internationalist stance, we have no path to victory nor a path to justice. Fanon analyzes Colonialism's dehumanizing effects, and lays out how to form a de-colonial movement, as well as its necessity.
Solidarity and intersectionality are the key to any social movement. When different social groups fight for liberation together along intersectional lines, the movements are emboldened and empowered ever-further.
Section VI: Putting it into Practice!
It's not enough to endlessly read, you must put theory to practice. That is how you can improve yourself and the movements you support. Touch grass!
Mao wrote simply and directly, targeting peasant soldiers during the Revolutionary War in China. This pair of essays equip the reader with the ability to apply the analytical tools of Dialectical Materialism to their every day practice, and better understand problems.
Congratulations, you completed your introductory reading course!
With your new understanding and knowledge of Marxism-Leninism, here is a mini What is to be Done? of your own to follow, and take with you as practical advice.
Get organized. Join a Leftist org, find solidarity with fellow comrades, and protect each other. The Dems will not save you, it is up to us to protect ourselves. The Party for Socialism and Liberation and Freedom Road Socialist Organization both organize year round, every year, because the battle for progress is a constant struggle, not a single election. See if there is a chapter near you, or start one! Or, see if there's an org you like more near you and join it.
Read theory. Don't think that you are done now! Just because you have the basics, doesn't mean you know more than you do. If you have not investigated a subject, don't speak on it! Don't speak nonsense, but listen!
Aggressively combat white supremacy, misogyny, queerphobia, and other attacks on marginalized communities. Cede no ground, let nobody be forgotten or left behind. There is strength in numbers, when one marginalized group is targeted, many more are sure to follow.
Be industrious, and self-sufficient. Take up gardening, home repair, tinkering. It is through practice that you elevate your problem-solving capabilities. Not only will you improve your skill at one subject, but your general problem-solving muscles get strengthened as well.
Learn self-defense. Get armed, if practical. Be ready to protect yourself and others. Liberals will not save us, we must save each other.
Be persistent. If you feel like a single water droplet against a mountain, think of canyons and valleys. Oh, how our efforts pile up! With consistency, every rock, boulder, even mountain, can be drilled through with nothing but steady and persistent water droplets.
"Everything under heaven is in utter chaos; the situation is excellent."
Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) is a national organization of revolutionaries fighting for socialism in the United States. Our home is in the working class.
Didn't say that, you just outright didn't clarify your vague, vacuous statement. You, on the other hand, defended a homophobic, anti-semitic, rapist fed.
Hey man, I saw some of your posts and while you're here, I just want to thank you for all the work you do making anticommunists look both factually ignorant and personally deranged.
In the past, I've heard about how Google can keep records of all your Google phone's past locations and text messages.
What about RCS messages which supposedly are encrypted from Android to Android? I know that it's possible that they secretly keep a log behind the scenes, but as far as the regular consumer knows is there any record being kept with regard to the contents of these RCS messages?
MMS is not a text message, it’s a media message (that’s what the M stands for).
See, that's interesting because I was always taught that "text message" is just an overarching term used to describe SMS and MMS. The notion that a text message is a synonym of SMS and only SMS is a new one to me!
Yes, RCS chats are encrypted (supposedly)
Good to know! Do you happen to know if the decryption keys are stored offline or on the carrier's end? Because if the latter, then okay it's more secure than SMS or MMS but only in the sense that some encryption is better than none. Lol.
I mean it's in the name. A message containing media and not text is simply not a text message. Many people use them incorrectly but it's literally in the name.
RCS is (supposedly) E2EE so keys are stored locally.
I mean it’s in the name. A message containing media and not text is simply not a text message. Many people use them incorrectly but it’s literally in the name.
Hey, I get it now. Lol. I was just explaining what my mindset was.
RCS is (supposedly) E2EE so keys are stored locally.
Well, you can have E2EE with keys stored server-side. It's just kind of pointless from a security/privacy standpoint, but I've seen it happen.
Okay, so, originally, I was going to look it up to prove you wrong, but after looking it up across multiple sources, it seems that you're right and I'm wrong.....mostly.
However, the Wikipedia page section "Definitions" does back me up somewhat. It says:
The term "end-to-end encryption" originally only meant that the communication is never decrypted during its transport from the sender to the receiver.[23] For example, around 2003, E2EE was proposed as an additional layer of encryption for GSM[24] or TETRA,[25] ... This has been standardized by SFPG for TETRA.[26] Note that in TETRA, the keys are generated by a Key Management Centre (KMC) or a Key Management Facility (KMF), not by the communicating users.[27]
Later, around 2014, the meaning of "end-to-end encryption" started to evolve when WhatsApp encrypted a portion of its network,[28] requiring that not only the communication stays encrypted during transport,[29] but also that the provider of the communication service is not able to decrypt the communications ... This new meaning is now the widely accepted one.[30]
(Relevent text is embolded.)
So, I'm not misunderstanding, just misinformed that the definition changed.
Make no mistake, of course: I do appreciate you correcting me as I hadn't realized the definition had changed. Lol.
![stupid_asshole69 [none/use name]](images/person-80.jpg)
cause they're fine to push the 'lesser evil' when it means getting their preferred evil in. when it comes to opposing communism then it's suddenly purity testing is fine
Cat_Daddy [any, any]
in reply to geneva_convenience • • •like this
geneva_convenience e Maeve like this.