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   Micah Lee (micahflee@infosec.exchange)'s status on Wednesday, 29-Jan-2025 01:11:30 JST Micah Lee

   • Proton

   Proton Mail @protonprivacy claims to be “politically neutral” while praising the Republican Party https://theintercept.com/2025/01/28/proton-mail-andy-yen-trump-republicans/

   • Embed this notice
     feld (feld@friedcheese.us)'s status on Wednesday, 29-Jan-2025 08:36:32 JST feld

     in reply to

     • DroidPort
     @micahflee @DroidPort I don't know if you've noticed this, but Big Tech is on the side of whoever is in power so they can get their sweet sweet tax breaks, cheap labor, and make sure they're not held accountable for their skeevy and monopolistic behavior
     
     Biden likes DEI? Everyone is now doing DEI and towing the line
     
     Trump doesn't like DEI? Ok, time to wipe out those DEI departments
     
     They have no morals or loyalty. Shareholder value is their north star. They will suck up to customers if customers are upset about something. They will kowtow before the current government if it makes their revenue rise even 0.0001%.
   • Embed this notice
     DroidPort (droidport@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 29-Jan-2025 08:36:33 JST DroidPort

     in reply to

     @micahflee

     Can somebody point to the exact part of their commentary I'm meant to be outraged about?

     Their official response is a pretty perfect summary of how little Democrats actually did on the issues of anti-trust... and although I have no faith in Republicans to be better in practice, I don't think the comparison on the surface level is a bad one.

   • Embed this notice
     Micah Lee (micahflee@infosec.exchange)'s status on Wednesday, 29-Jan-2025 08:36:33 JST Micah Lee

     in reply to

     • DroidPort

     @DroidPort

     "Until corporate Dems are thrown out, the reality is that Republicans remain more likely to tackle Big Tech abuses."

     Dems sucked, but this is obviously nonsense right-wing propaganda considering that all of Big Tech is on team MAGA, and they fired Lina Khan, the only hope for actual anti-trust reform.

     Also, promising to be "politically neutral" and praising the fascist party while fascism is on the rise is pretty bad.

   • Embed this notice
     feld (feld@friedcheese.us)'s status on Wednesday, 29-Jan-2025 08:53:48 JST feld

     in reply to

     • DroidPort
     @micahflee @DroidPort If Dems were the party of anti-trust they'd have at least sent someone to meet with Vance like he said in the original thread. And the current anti-trust progress was started under Trump
     
     It's OK to acknowledge when people you absolutely loathe do something good. It doesn't erase their sins.
   • Embed this notice
     Micah Lee (micahflee@infosec.exchange)'s status on Wednesday, 29-Jan-2025 08:53:49 JST Micah Lee

     in reply to

     • feld
     • DroidPort

     @feld @DroidPort this is entirely true. It doesn't make Proton praising the fascist party as being the party of anti-trust any better.

   • Embed this notice
     feld (feld@friedcheese.us)'s status on Wednesday, 29-Jan-2025 09:03:27 JST feld

     in reply to

     • DroidPort
     @micahflee @DroidPort I'll just repeat the facts as we know them:
     
     In 2022 Proton pushed hard for anti-trust legislation.
     
     A bill was ready. It had bipartisan support. Schumer refused to bring it to the floor.
     
     There was an event that Proton was at to try to engage with Senators on the issue of anti-trust remedies in big tech. Only JD Vance showed up.
     
     That's it. That's the whole thing. Dems couldn't find a single person to send to show they actually care about trying to take on Big Tech.
     
     And now Trump is gonna end up doing it and get all the credit and he'll use it to hide all the other evil shit he's doing. It's ridiculous.
   • Embed this notice
     Micah Lee (micahflee@infosec.exchange)'s status on Wednesday, 29-Jan-2025 09:03:28 JST Micah Lee

     in reply to

     • feld
     • DroidPort

     @feld @DroidPort uh, why would having someone meet with a fascist VC tech bro with Peter Thiel backing have been a good thing for anti-trust?

   • Embed this notice
     DroidPort (droidport@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 29-Jan-2025 09:03:39 JST DroidPort

     in reply to

     • feld

     @micahflee @feld

     Because he was the candidate for VP... and was likely a powerful force on the issue regardless of the outcome of the 2024 election.

     How did writing him off as a fascist, tech bro, unworthy of talking to work out for Dems?

     It seems like it worked out pretty well for him and the Republicans.

     *Please don't interpret any of this as support... I'm just sick of the attitudes of "Fuck all these people" and then having nothing to show for it when they end up in power.

     feld likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     DroidPort (droidport@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 29-Jan-2025 09:04:18 JST DroidPort

     in reply to

     • feld

     @micahflee @feld

     I don't see much praise mentioned in any of the official posts from Proton... the CEO's comments were a little tone-deaf in the current climate, but I'm not losing sleep over them.

     I think "Republicans seem more willing to act on Anti-Trust" is the crux of their commentary... and as I said, on the surface, I am inclined to agree. In practice, I don't see this actually happening, though.

   • Embed this notice
     feld (feld@friedcheese.us)'s status on Wednesday, 29-Jan-2025 09:04:18 JST feld

     in reply to

     • DroidPort
     @DroidPort @micahflee the post/thread that is referred to was deleted and can be found here
     
     https://archive.is/lBQd8
   • Embed this notice
     DroidPort (droidport@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 29-Jan-2025 09:04:55 JST DroidPort

     in reply to

     • feld

     @feld @micahflee

     "It's OK to acknowledge when people you absolutely loathe do something good. It doesn't erase their sins."

     This is what so much of the Left (which I am firmly a part of on basically every issue) don't seem to grapple with.

     It's the reason the right "Big-Tent" Politics translates to election victories and the Left's version translates to in-fighting.

     feld likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     feld (feld@friedcheese.us)'s status on Wednesday, 29-Jan-2025 09:13:26 JST feld

     in reply to

     • DroidPort
     @micahflee @DroidPort "talking with Vance would be worthless", he says as Vance announces that Big Tech has too much power
     
     https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jd-vance-interview-big-tech-too-much-power/
     
     If Amazon, Google, and/or Meta get broken up are you going to eat your hat and apologize? I don't have the impression that it will happen, but I can tell you that I think it's more likely *now* than it was a year ago.
     
     (Why would Trump break them up? Well I think there's a heft profit motive to sew chaos into the markets and capitalize on it when you have inside knowledge. I think he'll do it if he knows a way to get rich off it. But it's still better than nothing.)
   • Embed this notice
     Micah Lee (micahflee@infosec.exchange)'s status on Wednesday, 29-Jan-2025 09:13:28 JST Micah Lee

     in reply to

     • feld
     • DroidPort

     @DroidPort @feld talking with Vance would have been worthless. The tech billionaires are not going to regulate tech. The problem with the Dems isn't that they didn't talk to Vance, it's that they don't have spines or any real convictions. Still better than fascism though

     feld likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     DroidPort (droidport@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 29-Jan-2025 09:19:30 JST DroidPort

     in reply to

     • feld

     @micahflee @feld

     I'm not saying they are the same Big Tents.

     They are firmly different voters with different priorities in each

     What I mean is that the Republicans can fit Anti-Vaxxers, Racists, Transphobes, Gun Nuts, etc... who care about different things while not concerning themselves in what they differ on.

     The left spends more time arguing about the minutia of what they don't agree with... which results in less time focused on the macro they agree on.

     feld likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Micah Lee (micahflee@infosec.exchange)'s status on Wednesday, 29-Jan-2025 09:19:31 JST Micah Lee

     in reply to

     • feld
     • DroidPort

     @DroidPort @feld sorry, what are you referring to? Do you have examples of e.g. Trump acknowledging that immigrants or trans people have done good for US?

     The Right's big tent politics is based around shared hatred of LGBTQ people, immigrants, diversity initiatives, "elites", etc. It's based on lies and disinformation. They never acknowledge anything good about their enemies.