Thank you so much for taking the time to lay that all out for me. I’m sure you’ve had to do it once or twice already, lol. I’ll absolutely start curating the stuff I’d rather see. Maybe part of the friction I’m feeling is a procedural rub with marxists/leninists, and it would make sense/be hilarious if I’ve wandered into the middle of their space.

Do you have any less political servers you’d recommend? Besides the servers/services you recommended? Or is it largely an issue with the server i’m on?

I think this is a little bit outside of the ask, but I’d like to find a place that is both positive and relatively politically neutral.

Part of what drive me here was that the tip of the iceberg (facebook, instagram, tiktok) feel so deeply infused with ads/ai/influencers that even the content I like is likely deceitful. This bums me out and makes me not want to use social media.

Places like reddit and any of the #chans have less of this, but the baked-in politics in both make of them bum me out.

I like that Lemmy feels like it’s actual people, but the politics and negativity can get to be a little much for me. I don’t like to think about things I don’t like, and while I can the value in being informed of things that I may need to act on, I don’t think that constantly bringing up things we take for granted is helpful.

What I want to be doing is getting to build and be a part of something positive and purposeful, something people do because they’re passionate, something that is so cool that the shitty stuff outside kind of pales in comparison. I’ve met lots of cool people on here that are that way, and I’ve been able to filter some of the negativity out by ignoring posts that I know will bring that out in people, but still, it would be cool to see something like that.

I hope it’s as simple as finding the right instance for me.

I think longer writeups help to provide for the inevitable nitty-gritty (you can’t click the button because it’s not there, etc) while also provide for holistic development, kind of like how incognito mode doesn’t really mean anything because google is still tracking you.

A few things motivate me to move to Linux. I’ve been made aware of the privacy concerns with Microsoft, and since they’re sunsetting Win10, I expect there’s a bunch of security exploits that will be leveraged almost immediately. I also don’t like doing things I can’t lay out logically, and I haven’t been given good enough reasons to get a new OS/machine, especially because tech is a very small part of my life (I have a thinkpad from 2012 and use it like your grandma uses her PC). Improved UI, inclusion of AI, and whatever other capabilities are things I didn’t ask for. That leads into the principle of the argument, I just won’t be in an abusive money-based relationship with anyone, person or corporation. Microsoft doesn’t seem like they’d be a good friend, or even a good business partner, and I don’t like the underlaying vibe I get from the services they provide, so I just won’t participate in whatever they’ve got going.

Linux, on the other hand, seems to be functional enough to meet my needs and comes without all of the other stuff Microsoft does that I’ve already complained about. In other words, Linux seems like a Honda Civic, and I’m good with that.

I appreciated your description of the depression loop that came from the exposé youtube videos on Win11. It’s something I’m deeply aware of within my own life (I started with the Christine Chubbuck thing) and have taken leaps to get away from that whole cycle of mental torture (it feels kind of Plato’s allegory of the cave). Have you been able to develop/connect/apply that line of thought elsewhere in your life?

I’m not aware of the stuff with Firefox specifically, but I think I can agree with the premise. It seems that this boils down to the question of whether “good enough” really is.

This line of thinking is particularly relevant within this community. For instance, Proton/Tuta isn’t immune to subpoenas, so the only way I can think of to have truly secure email is to have a self-hosted service with a dead man switch. However, most email providers block most self-hosted email servers… so one either needs to compromise, or not participate. It’s an uncomfortable place for a lot of people, and calls into question their morals as well as their commitment to the same. I think this is why points that may seem spurious may often creep in, because we’re all trying to find something to better inform our decisions in uncertain circumstances.

Of course. It seems that one of the foundational truths of antifascism is the approach that fascism, operates in all tenets of life, not just on the debate floor, and so if one resigns themselves to only confronting fascism using the establishes channels (i.e. voting), they are “leaving the back door open”, so to speak.

This leads to a certain suspicion toward all things; for example, not accepting trump’s dismissal of project 2025, because it is a forgone conclusion that lying about something that is exactly something a fascist would do.

However, I think that worldview can complicate (and at times create tension with) other discussions, i.e. Proton. Someone who may not consider themselves fascist or antifascist, and just wants to degoogle, may look up Proton and feel as if they don’t have the tools to separate the stuff which isn’t in the scope of their inquiry from the stuff that does, which what I think is going on here.

To put it another way, it’s like someone saying they want a burger and asking if mcdonald’s is good, then being told that mcdonald’s sucks because their food is unhealthy, they facilitate factory farming, and they take advantage of the economically disadvantaged. While those data points are important to the person sharing their opinion, and may very well extend to the life of the individual asking, it doesn’t say anything about whether the food tastes good or not, thereby leaving the initial question unresolved.

So while the data points about proton’s CEO (and anyone else who may be implicated) may be true, and while there may be wider implications as well, it can serve to muddy the waters for those who are coming in perpendicular to the conversation.

Saving this to go over later. Thank you for the writeup! I’m also looking at going from Win10 to Mint.

I’ve noticed that there’s a peculiarly dogmatic approach to antifascism here, and I think that colors a lot of the discussion around Proton.

Title is true even without the last two words.

Google being a little removed and saying it “detected abnormal traffic coming from my IP” (I was googling something I google often) was my last straw, which ultimately led to me being here and degoogling.

A few years ago I was friends with a cohort of soon-to-be Psychologists, and it was a well known fact that your options for easy employment* were either to get a job as a therapist for a major health corp and make little money and have to deal with the terrible admin, or make 2-3x working for a tech company but having to incur the karmic debt of trying to give Jolly West and James Mitchell a run for their money in the Lawful Evil competition.

*Private practice, teaching, and/or research have their own hurdles that are typically too high a barrier for entry for new grads

Memes aside, my friends and I genuinely would have murdered these things with rocks had they come out before we’d turned 18.

We speak more or less the same language, as I’m sure you’re aware. I’m Danish, by the way.

I don’t understand what your point is, though. I get that you don’t like guns, but I’m having a hard time understanding where all of the other stuff is coming from.

What are you trying to accomplish with this comment

I’m having a hard time understanding the point you’re trying to make.

I think you’d be shocked at how diverse the gun laws are from state to state.

The enemy of my enemy is not always my friend

does that fuckin weenie still train bjj or was that just for show

This sent me for a loop.

I don’t mind older stuff- my car is from the late '10s, and was a few years old when I got it, but blew my mind compared to my last car from the mid '00s. It has a back up camera! And even though my car is now nearing 10 years old, my experience hasn’t changed. I’m still driving on mostly the same roads using the same method. And, when I have to get a new car, I’m sure I’ll marvel at remote start or whatever.

But what’s a bummer is the idea that someone else can decide that the hardware is no longer adequate- that “you must have the newest experience”. I simply don’t want that. Yes, it’s annoying that my phone has to be plugged in to access carplay, while new cars have it over bluetooth, but I didn’t even know it was that way until I got a rental recently.

So for AI, i’m okay with some shortcomings, because I can get to know the software and work with it, and if the shortcoming is a show stopper, then I can seek to upgrade or just not do what I was trying to do with my older gen AI.

But alas, the number must go up so the shareholders can rub their stocks or whatever