@mushroom_soup I should have started by reading the reddit community this was posted in.
I wonder if we might need to start building and using freemium internet browsers, if we really want to have online privacy.
If you look at something like Firefox, it generally has a pro-privacy stance, but at the same time, they take massive donations from Google, to make their search engine the default. They literally can't survive without the biggest threat to online privacy. So why the hell are people trusting Mozilla here, when Mozilla is literally throwing any beginner user to the wolves with this move? What, doesn't your grandma also have a right to her data privacy? Just because someone doesn't know technology well enough to change a search engine, it doesn't make it right for Mozilla to essentially profit from their ignorance.
And this does not even get into the issue that we ultimately don't know what Mozilla does with some of your data, like bookmarks that you can sync with their server. If they're cash strapped, why wouldn't they make some extra money by secretly giving that away?
A freemium model might help a browser sustain itself without being dependent on donations from big tech companies that have ulterior motives and goals.
Gacha gaming has unfortunately shown that the 80-20 rule is strong. You can have 80% of the people using a product for free, while 20% are more than able and willing to whale like crazy and sustain the developer of the product.
It doesn't need to be as exploitative as the average gacha game, but what if a similar model could be made to work for other software? A crazy good browser that gets it's money from selling themes? People are perfectly willing to spend money for game cosmetics, you think someone wouldn't spend money for a nice browser theme?
It's a crazy idea, an insane one even. But is it any crazier than expecting the people who take money from the companies that threaten your privacy, to protect your privacy? Isn't that a conflict of interest? I don't even know why I didn't think about this before (the conflict of interest thing).
@icedquinn @mischievoustomato
Nah, furries have been dicks for too long. They deserve some fucking pain.
@a1ba
i poisoned the water supply... with viagra
now everyone gregnant
whoops
@bogdan Just making sure here, you do realize I was joking, right?
@EdBoatConnoisseur That's an impressive amount of mental gymnastics you're pulling there. You practicing for the Olympics?
Romanians have a children's limerick that you use when someone insults you to basically say back at them that they're projecting.
Cine zice, ăla este,
Ca măgarul din poveste,
Și măgarul a murit,
Și tu l-ai înlocuit!
(He who says it, is it,
Like the donkey in the story,
And the donkey died,
And you replaced him!)
Haven't thought about this in many years. There's quite a bit of wisdom in this little poem.
@bogdan There are some things you just shouldn't joke about. Joke about the Holocaust, joke about rape, but don't joke about mpregnating women. That's just abhorrent!
@bogdan
Ewww!... why would you want to do mpregnation with women? What kind of a faggot are you?!
>entertainment media has unrealistic expectations of women
Feminists really took projection to a whole new level with this one. With more and more articles coming out about how women can't find someone to marry because their requirements are to high, it really shows how ridiculous women's expectations of men were all along.
@BasedLunatic Skyrim belongs to the Nords.
@AstolfoCockVore One thing I haven't looked into, I'm assuming she's there in the English version of the game, so who's doing her English voice lines?
@uis @a1ba
At best EU is a bureaucratic nightmare that manages to do nothing, because that's how bureaucracies are.
At worst, EU is actively trying to sabotage the national identities and culture of its constituent members. Nationalism and patriotism are taboo concepts for EU leadership.
BUT... what is interesting to notice, is that EU is and has been pushing, for as long as I know, an European nationalism. I think there are factions within EU leadership that want to completely dissolve the nation states that comprise EU, and create something new, around the newish invented European nationality. And I think ultimately it will lead to a new form of fascism formed around it.
One of the tools I think they're trying to use to achieve this is unrestricted immigration. Get enough foreigners from Middle East, Asia, or Africa to go into a country, over many years, and you'll manage to disrupt its culture. Say you import tens of millions of people into French. At some point talking about French culture and nationality becomes meaningless, because there's no more shared history between everyone living in France. So instead, you get everyone to give up talking about themselves as French people, and have them adopt European as their identity. It's not encumbered with any kind of historical meaning, it's not tied to any cultural norms. You can go "you're not a real British person because you don't drink tea", but you can't use that sort of reasoning to deny someone being an European citizen.
An interesting case example, a few years ago there was a competition for "best town from EU to live in". An Hungarian town was supposed to win it. But then the jury literally went "but... it's too white. Why is everyone Caucasian? Where are the ethnic minorities that dilute your culture and nationality". And they were denied the win, over something that wasn't even an official requirement of the competition. A competition that was about nations celebrating their culture and heritage instantly became "actually, you're following your culture too much".
Of course immigration is not the only tool. They've been pushing propaganda around "European citizenship" since forever. You can have both politicians and media talk about EU citizenship as if it's something that actually matters. That it's something to take pride in. There's a massive push to make it seem like it's the EU citizenship that grants people their rights within EU. They even tried to replace manufacturers putting "Made in France/Denmark/etc." on their products, with "Made in EU".
And EU is becoming more and more like a nation, instead of what it was supposed to be: an alliance. EU already has a central government, with a president, Parliament, the EU Commission. It has a constitution, it has laws. It has it's own justice system with courts of law. The only thing EU lacks thus far is a central military, although there are constant talks about forming one.
And before you accuse me of being an antisemitic conspiracy theorist, I want to make it clear, I am firmly convinced this has nothing to do with Jews. If anything, all of it probably has German origins. Though at this point in the process of reforming Europe in this aberration, the ideological motivation for all of this likely exceeds the borders of Germany, and it's no longer just them that push for this new fascist conformity.
In all honesty, this is pretty much the Nazis winning and Europe finally forming the 3rd Reich that Hitler wanted. And there's more than enough antisemitism to go around, thanks to a deluge of Islamic immigrants that didn't integrate, so we have that part of Hitler's dream covered too.
なんで君はこれを読んでいるかよ
Just another random person passing by.
Oh hi.
The Alyx Vance must go this way anyway.
Gordon Freeman dies in All Dogs Go To Heaven 2.
I wasn't designed to be carried.
En Taro Igel!
Lift me up, let me go...