Fuck it, sue them too.

Get it dismissed, and then sue the department that sent the fine.

The problem with that is, I’ve watched multiple incompetent people continue to rise despite their incompetence.

I used to think that there were competent people that knew what was going on. Turns out that most people at every level are incompetent idiots that just fake it.

Most of the actual competent people are just sitting quietly doing their work, and don’t generally end up in charge of anything.

Oh, I do actually know about that 🤦 I dunno why I didn’t consider that as a possibility for kei cars/trucks.

There may be some loopholes I’m unaware of, but I didn’t think you could license kei trucks either. I know some people get them for private use though.

You can’t license an imported car for US roads. At least not in any practical way. If you had unlimited funds it is possible, but not really worthwhile.

Mamdani didn’t spout obviously false republican talking points on a public forum, and then double down in defense of the republican party when called out on it. The republicans don’t support the little guy. Anyone that pays attention to anything the party has done since st least Reagan should know that. So what Mamdani did was not the equivalent, and it seems disengenuous to claim such an obviously false equivalency.

And I’m not saying divest from everyone that is wrong about anything. I’m saying that spreading obviously incorrect information that aligns with fascist talking points should be scrutinized. It should get called out. It should make people question your beliefs and motives.

So in 2024 he is praising the republican party about anti-trust, which even you admit he is wrong about. So he is spreading misinformation, or possibly disinformation depending on whether he knows he is wrong. And he really should have known that the republican party rabidly supports mega corporations at that point, with the only exceptions being any that oppose their agenda. And he is ego stroking Trump. Which is what a bunch of other tech billionaires have done as a prelude to climbing into bed with him and going full mask off techno-fascist. So I don’t really see why you’re surprised that this is a giant strobing red flag for a bunch of people that are privacy focused, and largely fall on the left.

I’m not calling for everyone to boycott Proton. I’m answering the original question of why people dislike proton. And I said that it was enough for me to personally cancel my subscription.

It wasn’t just praising an appointment. “By working on the front lines of many policy issues, we have seen the shift between Dems and Republicans over the past decade firsthand,” Yen wrote. “Support for cracking down on corporate monopolies is popular on both sides of the political spectrum. Unfortunately, corporate capture of Dems is real, and in the end, money won. It is hard to see how this changes, and Republicans are likely to lead the antitrust charge in the coming years.”

He is praising the party as a whole. The party that is full of fascists and pedophiles. The dems are corporate shills, but in what fucking reality can any sane person claim the Republicans are better? That is why I framed it as open support to fascists. During the controversy, when people had already expressed disappointment and highlighted the problematic nature of his original statement he doubled down.

There are a couple issues I’m aware of that tend to make people wary of Proton.

First is Andy Yen’s open support of fascists. Which you mentioned in your post. I know that he has tried to walk back his comments and claim they aren’t political, but anyone claiming the GOP is anything other than fascists and oligarchs is either too stupid to trust, or dangerous because their beliefs are aligned with those fascists.

Second is that Proton continues to expand their suite of services and are trying to get people to buy into all of it, much the same way that people bought into the google suite. This centralizes many services, which is problematic if the company makes changes that do not align with the users wants and needs. So many people push to avoid this. Centralization in general opens users up to enshittification that is difficult to extract yourself from.

There may be more, but that is what I’m tracking. And it’s why I ended my subscription with them, and moved most of my things away from Proton mail.

Totally understand that. I have tried a bunch of different Linux builds to see what I like. So certainly won’t begrudge your explorations. And I haven’t tried SteamOS on any of my machines because it didn’t have a desktop build when I was last playing around with new builds. CachyOS has been great though. Everything works well on my machine, and its been easy to use as a daily driver.

Both bazzite and CachyOS are built for computers and will likely work better for a laptop than SteamOS. And they both have gaming focused builds. I haven’t tried Bazzite in a while, but CachyOS has easy to understand instructions on how to install their gaming package.

I understand wanting to know from am academic perspective, but I no longer believe that it matters for eliminating regressive policies and practices.

The holocaust is one of the most studied tragedies in history. That understanding has done nothing to eliminate genocide.

The Jim Crow laws have been studied and the motivations behind them are well known. Yet those same motivations and strategies are still being used to divide the US.

People largely don’t care. A huge portion of the population doesn’t care about an issue until they are personally impacted.

I disagree. The reasons behind cruelty are irrelevant. If it is cruel, that is all that matters. If people try to justify their cruelty, then I can write them off as people worth engaging with.

I’m tired of trying to make sense of the justifications of cruelty and hatred. The reasoning doesn’t matter, the result does.

I know the reasons for both. And for both they are either based in cruelty or bullshit. The origin doesn’t matter. What matters is what we do now, and what cruelty we allow to continue.

I agree. Though I also think male circumcision of newborns should be banned. Not as a comparison, but simply because its a surgery with no benefit and measurable harm performed on people unable to consent. Just stop mutilating people.

I give zero fucks that someone’s imaginary friend told them it is necessary.

Possibly an ‘I won’t bloat up your dumb boat’ fee.

No one can really answer those questions without more detail. Which pixel, which version of android, which Samsung is it being compared to, is it new or used, what is the battery health, what is a typical day of use like for you? You have to give people enough information to form a response.

My app shows the image as “failed to load” and I’m now a little curious if that is funnier than whatever you actually put there.