txtx 🇪🇺

@randahl@mastodon.social This image is what Russia, AfD, MAGA & Co are moving the free world towards. It's already reality in Russia, coming to our doorstep. For Russia, it's because they'd rather everyone suffer to make themselves feel good about their own situation. For MAGA/AfD/Meloni/Fico/Nawrocki it's because they're a combination of too stupid and too corrupt to do better. Laying down for dictators works for their political careers. But their subservience to Putin degrades our national defenses.

@aho@mastodon.social @kravietz@agora.echelon.pl Yep. This is the problem in Central/Eastern Europe. It's an onion of grievances and all of us want to show we cry the hardest. The problem is that none of us can bring back the dead. But each of us wants someone else to "do something". And that's not wrong, in principle. Yes, build a monument, create a museum. Be proud of the past, be aware of the good and the bad. That said, I really wish we could move on. It's tiring. Europe can't be a giant WW2 museum forever.

@kravietz@agora.echelon.pl @aho@mastodon.social Euromaidan happened because pro-Russian President Yanukovych decided not to sign the European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement. Ukrainians wanted closer ties to the EU, so they ousted him. Only then did Russia invade Crimea as a response. [Edited to remove dramatic statement]

@kravietz@agora.echelon.pl The way I see it, Ukraine can be given a bit of slack — they are in the middle of a war with Russia. Poland is at peace. WW2 is over. Ukraine isn't going to start attacking Poland. WW2 is not a pressing issue the way that Russia killing Ukrainians every single day, right now, is. IMO the least Poland can do is take a deep breath and work things out asap. But they're not doing this either. This is a type of escalation under the current circumstances.

@gonzo_askold@mastodon.social Yeah totally. I think it may turn out worse than the 1990s for Russia — it looks like they're setting up a Greater North Korea over there. At this rate, hunger and desperation is coming. I think it's within possibility that Europe will be hit with a wave of refugees from the failed state. It's such a mind fuck, because they're still going to think they're superior to all their neighbors. They'll just blame the countries they're fleeing to. Take care of yourself. [Edit: grammar]

@randahl @xs4me2 Threads is a censored medium.

@stux@mstdn.social With great power comes great corruption.

@loucyx @daisy Vibing customers was one of the first use cases (see all the fake generated product reviews and fake social media replies).

@kravietz@agora.echelon.pl Ukraine first expressed the desire to join the European Union in 1993, and it became an official policy goal in 1998. The EU was far from excited to make it easy for Ukraine to quickly join, and yes, it's well known that many Ukrainians had a different opinion. Things changed. What is your intent here? @aho@mastodon.social

@ukrdef@mstdn.social Uh-oh, I think I hear another neighborly quarrel brewing 😅 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerzy_Franciszek_Kulczycki

@gbsills@social.vivaldi.net I agree. Corporate social media has nothing to do with freedom of speech — it is a tool for speech restriction and propaganda amplification. It's not surprising that restrictions on these corporations are so popular. Personally I'd rather see more constructive proposals for regulation. If we don't do it, politics will. @eff@mastodon.social

@bagder@mastodon.social It's going to be 100 isn't it.

@rvps2001@mastodon.social Yeah — It seems like the financial info was taken from official Russian sources, which of course omit all the exploding assets. A comment about that would've sufficed I think ('strong ruble blah blah blah also the refineries are on fire')

@rvps2001@mastodon.social Weirdly no mention of the daily refinery and storage explosions all over Russia in that article...

@i@toot.pouyan.net @dangillmor@mastodon.social Foreign numbers are much easier to block/ignore. I'm surprised that the US doesn't require an ID to get a phone number, it makes such a difference.

@i@toot.pouyan.net @dangillmor@mastodon.social Yes, in Germany you need an ID to buy a SIM, as the article you linked from 10 years ago anticipated. The USA is not Germany. Two different countries ;)

@jgg @ekky @opny721 @eunews Possibly this is what happened to Russia (brain drain+nuclear arsenal), so you may be right...

@mattly Another way to frame this is that you actually talk about the issue/problem instead of jumping to insults and accusations. I receive a lot of those insults because I have non-conforming opinions on verification (within the tech community anyway). But I appreciate when someone engages with me on the actual topic.

@randahl@mastodon.social @EUCommission@ec.social-network.europa.eu I don't recall seeing a post with 1000 stars until this one. Nice!

@fabio@zirk.us However you're saying that it makes no difference: X and Mastodon are the same. AWS and your local European hosting provider are the same. That is actually a different topic IMO, because you're talking about policy not wording.

@mvg@ieji.de What argument?

@kravietz@agora.echelon.pl I'm truly perplexed at your soft suggestion that Ukraine is somehow attacking Poland here. Checking your profile, I see you've spent a lot of time in Russia. It seems it has left a lasting effect. I'm un-following this account.

@NicelyManifest @tzafrir @manlycoffee I'd argue that my proposal is doing just that. Of course it doesn't solve all problems, but it would, I think, put a pretty massive block to the various billionaire and dictator projects designed to wreck democracy in Europe — from Brexit to Orban, the AfD and so on. So much of their cross-border propaganda activity is promoted by US-owned social platforms. If we don't shut out those platforms here, we've pretty much given up on democracy and Europe.

@fabio@zirk.us Well let me make my point more clear: I believe that the policy is more important than the wording. As others have stated, just because some right wing party makes uses of a word, does not mean they own it. If we start to use independence or autonomy then they'll take that too. So, my answer is: I don't care what you call it, just do it. If Europe gets off of X and AWS because 'sovereignty', that's fine with me.

@aho@mastodon.social @kravietz@agora.echelon.pl The similarity to Russians is a concoction of feelings: they have a superiority complex to their fellow eastern block neighbors combined with an inferiority complex — and a lot of resentment — to western Europe. And so it goes on and on.

@dim0kq@twiukraine.com This sounds promising 💥

@fabio@zirk.us I think you may have edited your post so I only saw half of it previously. Ok so is the issue that all European corporations are fascist, in your argument?

@zeldman@front-end.social Sam Altman sounds like quite the extremist with his hoarding of guns and land. It's bizarre to me that the NYT frames opposition to Altman, Musk and their activities as "populist." Meanwhile Musk is on stage doing sieg heil salutes.

@matthew_d_green For every person using a VPN or social media platform, there are thousands of scammers, bots and propaganda agents. Since nobody is interested in solving this, politics is solving it for us.

@fabio@zirk.us @tante@tldr.nettime.org Europeans have some level of control and influence over European companies. We have practically zero influence over a US or Russian or Chinese corporation. That said, as we switch away from a US corporation, we can choose where we want to go. We don't need to jump to the worst European equivalent. For example I moved from X to German Mastodon. I sold my American car and take Trenitalia and Deutsche Bahn instead. I chose against Dyson (UK Brexit supporting owner). Etc etc.

@fabio@zirk.us Is there a European social media corporation as fascist as X or Meta? If there is, then you're right and I agree — switching to them has no benefit.

@gonzo_askold@mastodon.social "every day russians give us confirmation that there won't be any peace until there is russia state in current form." Is there a typo here? Do you mean to say there is no more Russian state in its current form?

@fabio@zirk.us @tante@tldr.nettime.org Replacing US corporations is progressive in the sense that funding a country that wants to demolish and take over your politics is regressive.

@fabio@zirk.us I'm honestly not understanding what you mean by this. And I'm genuinely interested. I make mistakes. What am I missing?

@kevinrothrock@infosec.exchange it's perfectly fine to laugh at a joke when a maniac dictator is the butt of the joke. Charlie Chaplin did it about Hitler, Zelensky is doing it about Putin.

@kravietz@agora.echelon.pl It's hard to decipher what Budanov is saying here. It's all sort of cryptic. De-escalation would be a good thing. But neither side seems to be particularly interested in it. Will NATO allies come in and try to mend things? I think it's past time, but, unfortunately, nobody seems interested.

@tzafrir @manlycoffee @NicelyManifest PeerTube is okay. The problem is media ownership concentration by megacorps. Best solution is ban on large corporate social media platforms, especially foreign ones (X, insta, TikTok...). France has it for television and print, it should be applied to social in the EU. Germany has an anti-media-concentration law to prevent a full take over in television/news, we should have this to get rid of Meta/YouTube.

@ariarhythmic@ohai.social @eniko@mastodon.gamedev.place You've earned it.

@alpacamale@social.cologne @parismarx@mastodon.online Exactly. Similar experience here. IMO Google isn't going to kill the web or search, they're sabotaging their own business model. People are going to move on. At some point, google will inevitably reverse course.

@eniko@mastodon.gamedev.place It doesn't sound absurd to me at all. I'm fine with the ban for children, middle aged people and seniors. Banning kids is a start.

@fabio@zirk.us @tante@tldr.nettime.org Either way I think it's a mistake to not take our commercial interests seriously. Maybe Europe will be better off if we allow US/Chinese corporations to fully take over and we import their products? I'm skeptical. They're going to smash us hard, Trump is already trying to coerce us with whatever leverage he can use against us.

@richlv@mastodon.social @kravietz@agora.echelon.pl Fair enough, sorry I'll be nice now :-)

@i@toot.pouyan.net @dangillmor@mastodon.social I think you should read the article again more carefully! Those 200k SIM cards were purchased in Hungary, not Germany.

@mvg@ieji.de Ahhh yes. So you're arguing that Russians have no choice but to continue their war of aggression. Right then. Putin is a war criminal and needs to be nailed. Russia needs to be stopped before they do more damage to the world. It's a sick country.

@ekky @jgg @opny721 @eunews I'd happily have a few democratic Americans here if we can send off our share of extremist citizens from Spain/France/Germany/Poland/etc.

RE: https://mastodon.social/@MAKS23/117002973550132727 How long until air-to-air refuelling drones are a thing?

@fabio@zirk.us (if we agree to disagree, then that is ok too. Some ideals cannot be easily resolved and that's fine.)

@dedicto@zeroes.ca @futurebird@sauropods.win Every poll I've seen in Europe shows something like 60-70% of the population supporting restrictions on social media for children. I think it's going to be a tough approach, if you dig in so firmly. Not saying you shouldn't go this route but personally I think it's good to see why others have this view and try to talk to them openly, Instead of calling them an enemy. These are our fellow citizens.

@aho@mastodon.social @kravietz@agora.echelon.pl In a way yes. The mentality is particularly present in, but by no means limited to, the still-living older generations — roughly what one would call boomers in the west. They didn't have the same experiences as the ones who lived through the hardest of times (WW2). But their worldview is highly influenced by a second-hand understanding of that era. Mentally, they're fighting that fight, even though they never fought it in the first place. Populist politicians woo those voters.

@mvg@ieji.de @andre@mastoart.social Russians don't want to go home and finally put an end to their war, even though there are millions of reasons for them to do so.