I’d prefer no tyranny at all, but if I had to choose, I’d pick the tyranny of corporations because, at least, companies don’t have a monopoly on violence.

As a non-American, I only recognize Donald Trump and Hulk Hogan in this picture. I would pick seat 7. The person in front of me looks innocent, and behind me is a woman, so she probably isn’t too tall and won’t kick my chair. She might even allow me to recline my seat. I don’t know much about Hulk Hogan, but he seems like a cool dude, and I like his mustache. Tell me, did I choose wisely?

Isn’t it kinda funny that the “most harmful applications of AI tools are not hidden on the dark corners of the internet,” yet this article is locked behind a paywall?

2% for the reliable independent monetary system seems like a good deal. How much does our current one consume with all its flaws?

For Karl!

I’m going to be heavily downvoted again, but can y’all please stop posting Al Jazeera links? Al Jazeera is propagandistic media. They lie too often to be trusted. Every word that they say should be heavily fact-checked.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Jazeera_controversies_and_criticism

But why though? I’m serious. People willingly want to be customers of this. They know that *polies are going to have leverage on them and still buy their product. Why should we say, ‘No, we’re not going to let you do that’? Or maybe you think that people are just not informed enough and don’t understand the consequences of their actions? Then maybe we should educate them instead of trying to control?

But that’s the thing - they aren’t. Not once they’re bought. At that point, they’re my device, or your device.

Well, you may want it to be completely yours, but in fact, there are many things that you can’t and sometimes don’t want to control on your phone. But Apple never claimed that you can control everything. Apple never advertised their phones as having many application stores; quite the opposite, actually. You don’t expect a satellite connection from a phone that doesn’t have it; you don’t expect a phone without water resistance to work underwater. I understand if some product does not meet your expectations, you’re frustrated, but in this case, you received exactly what you asked for. Want something else? Buy from another company. Why force this company to do things your way?

Surely you can see how having a single supplier can be a bad thing, right? That supplier has no incentive to deliver quality. Why would they?

Of course, I can see that having a single supplier can and will cause many issues. The problem for me is that I don’t believe in monopolies. Monopolies are very unstable. Firstly, for a monopoly to form, a few things with low probability should happen: in your analogy, there should be no other cookie provider (neither now nor in the foreseeable future), and customers should be willing to buy cookies that I produce at any cost. In reality, there’s always someone else who’s willing to (or at least can) produce more cookies, and customers are not complete idiots. If I increase the price or lower the quality beyond their limit, very quickly I will be left with full warehouses and a bad reputation and go bankrupt. Secondly, you always have a choice. Present me with a situation, and I will tell you which choices you have (they all may be bad, but whatever they are, they are options). In the case of Apple, there are obviously plenty of choices. They’re not the only company producing smartphones. And even on their phones, there’s Cydia. So, what monopoly does Apple have? Well, they’re the only corporation that can produce iPhones. Should we allow other companies to produce iPhones in this case?

I’m an anti-Apple advocate and an Android user. And I’m against this law. What good does it bring? These are Apple’s devices; let them do whatever they want with them. Don’t like how Apple does business? Buy another brand. Advocate against Apple. Suggest alternatives. But do not force them to do things how you like. It’s just toxic. I believe that the most anti-consumer thing is when governments try to decide what customers want or need. I hate it when they take me for an idiot (I might often be, but let me make my mistakes and learn from them).

https://vanillaos.org/

Wow. Yeah, it doesn’t work anymore. I tried a similar thing (printing numbers forever) about 6 months ago, and it declined my request. However, after I asked it to print some ordinary big number like 10,000, it did print it out for about half an hour (then I just gave up and stopped it). Now, it doesn’t even do that. It just goes: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5… and then skips, and then 9998, 9999, 10000. It says something about printing all the numbers may not be practical. Meh.

Great guide!

I genuinely appreciate your willingness to engage in a thoughtful conversation and consider different perspectives. It’s refreshing to see open-mindedness in discussions like these. Your message truly made my day, and I’m grateful for your understanding. Thank you! ❤️

I’m not protecting someone’s feelings, at least not intentionally. I’m just trying to stop hatred towards people based on their nationality. Care to take a guess who historically propagated such nationalistic hatred?

My intention was not to upset you, but rather to offer a perspective that looks beyond a blanket condemnation of a whole country. I believe in addressing issues by holding those in power accountable for their actions while recognizing that not all individuals within a nation support or approve those actions.

True, but propagandists don’t care. They pick facts that support their view and discard ones that oppose it. So, for everyone who says “FUCK RUSSIA,” they answer with “SEE, SEE, WE ARE RIGHT, WE SHOULD RESIST AND FIGHT BACK.” They will just pull your words out of context.

So, if you are a responsible citizen, I ask you not to spread hatred towards our country, but to support it on the way to sanity, normality, and democracy. Please spread hatred towards propagandists, war criminals, and usurpers instead.

It’s sad to witness the animosity towards Russia. The responsibility lies with Putin and those who actively support him - they seized power and manipulated the populace, and commit war crimes. Not all Russians do that. Despite his suppression of independent media and the severe penalties, including up to 15 years of imprisonment, for engaging in not only “anti-war” but even “pro-peace” protests, a significant number of people continue to oppose the war.

Putin’s narrative revolves around the notion that “in the West, they harbor hatred towards us, attempting to dismantle us.” By uttering “fuck Russia,” unwittingly or not, you’re just endorsing Putin and his propaganda. Please don’t do that. Instead, say “fuck Putin”.

Although I am also very much against government control over things and believe that for every one good control law from the government, we get 5 things that infringe upon our rights, I believe this particular legislation is a good one. I don’t think that phone manufacturers maliciously make irreplaceable batteries (although they do many other malicious things, so who knows), but there was a race for thinness back in the mid-2000s when irreplaceable batteries were “invented”; now it’s just inertia. In any case, I can see a demand for fully repairable items and believe that the market is moving in that direction; governments are just pushing it a little.

As someone who shares your desire for a better alternative, I find it disheartening to witness aggression. Although my experience with Lemmy was similar to Reddit (perhaps it’s just a matter of how I express myself or the communities I engage with), I genuinely hope you can also find comfort in Lemmy. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.