That’s all well and good, but the problem remains: Namely, the fact that Meta earns far more every day than all companies worldwide earn from the sale of T-shirts put together - much, much more. And Meta pretty much doesn’t even sell anything physical (Oculus, c’mon). They mainly just sell massive reach for advertisements and PR (influencing opinions). In addition they sell, the personal data of users to make that work devilishly acuarate. As long as the vast majority doesn’t care how this business model works and what power the centralization of attention actually means even for their own reality, nothing will change, I’m afraid.

Yes, just terrible management. They could have just made good money, but no, there has to be more. So excessive greed at any price - now it’s just bankruptcy. But I’m sure that won’t bother the senior management: they’ve already put their millions in a safe place and will simply move on. The next company that needs their outstanding leadership is bound to come along…

Well, I’m from Germany. Fortunately, our terrible history is still taught in every school here - in pretty much all its horrible detail.

That’s why it’s important to me to warn US citizens before it’s too late. I’m not so sure I would be courageous enough to stand up against such atrocities if I had to face deportation to an extermination camp, as I would have in Hitler’s time - please don’t do as the Germans did and fight back while you still can.

I mean there’s a world of difference between posting something somewhat critical on social media and actually having to fear consequences for life and limb. This is only for the really brave. I’m not so sure I’d be one of them if it really came down to it.

Don’t let it get that far in the first place!

Yes, there are certainly many who are just inherently evil, but I don’t think that’s the majority. I think most of them are like Eichmann: objectively speaking, of course, they are also evil, but they don’t get satisfaction from their cruelty. They simply don’t question what they’re told because it’s their job - and that’s enough of an excuse for them towards others and also towards themselves. Doesn’t make them any less guilty, though, I would say.

If I were to carry out this order, I would refuse. Who cares whether she’s “legal” or not - deporting a sick child is simply inhumane. Those goddam monsters!

But yes, that’s quite right. The reign of terror in Hitler’s Third Reich was also only possible with those who carried out orders and clung to the idea that they were not responsible. Hannah Arendt described all this very well in “The Banality of Evil”.

I think what makes most people pessimistic is not technology itself, but the realization that it is always embedded in existing conditions and cannot change these conditions of its own accord.

The internet in particular has shown very impressively in the lifetime of many how quickly promising technology geared towards the common good can actually make life worse instead of improving it for everyone.

Because the advertising business is highly centralized. Getting sponsorships is not as easy as you think.

An example: YouTube pays content producers per click, so to speak, a ridiculously small amount, but in total, with billions of clicks, a crazy amount. The money to finance this comes largely from advertising revenue (also Google’s main business model). They are the Gatekeepers so to speak.

But the content producers can’t live off this because Google keeps most of it for itself. They do give people the opportunity to find sponsors themselves tho - and that’s how people actually make the most money. But you have to find them for yourself or through intermediaries (that’s an industry in itself). This is only realistic if you have sufficient reach (subscribers in the example). And that, in turn, is only possible if you have already invested hundreds of hours in the production of content (you can’t make a living if you don’t get paid for that).

So I think it would be best if the platforms themselves were powerful enough in terms of reach to be able to negotiate well with advertisers. But not as powerful as Google, for example, who can afford to pay content producers a pittance because - unlike small platforms - they are not dependent on them.

I think we should be realistic. Content costs money because it requires a lot of effort. It’s naïve to think that content would just be created because people feel like posting something. If the Fediverse is to compete with companies like meta, this is only possible if there are opportunities for content creators to earn money. That should be self-evident, but it obviously isn’t here.

I’m not saying it’s necessary, but it is if the Fediverse is to have mainstream appeal.

Simply because the absolute majority of people are out and about where everyone is. And that’s where the content is. That’s the point: if you want good content, it costs money. It’s not just corporations that make a living from it.

What I want to say is this: The Fediverse could provide fairer conditions for the people who produce content. That makes sense and is necessary because the Internet lives from that.

I just don’t understand why people here don’t want to realize that work has to be paid for. That’s really strange.

Tell them a random guy on the internet says they should be ashamed of themselves.

Yes, that’s the silver lining.

C’mon, please don’t generate revenue for Tesla - not even from insurance policies. It makes more sense for the cars to just stand around and rust despite the stainless steel. Nobody wants to buy from that goddamn Nazi anyway.

But hey, maybe Musk had the cars set on fire himself - that would be a rather harmless insurance scam compared to his other activities…

I see, a kind of Clarence Thomas type of thing.

I’m not from the US: What happened to Katie Britt, who gave her response to Biden’s State of the Union address from her kitchen? Is she happy now? I mean, not that I wanted to criticize anyone, but that was totally obvious even before the election.

That sounds as if Musk could soon make an offer to take over the company. Then probably also an out-of-court settlement worth some millions so that he can call himself co-founder as usual. Finally, he could speed off into the sunset on a goddamn cyberbike - hopefully never to be seen again.

I think, at least for those in their ranks who are not (yet) convinced Nazis anyway, it’s a similar principle to the mafia: the newly recruited opportunists have to publicly spout Nazi slogans to prove themselves - just as a soldier in the Cosa Nostra has to have committed a serious crime, many particularly serious ones, if he ever wants to become a “capo”.

Like other criminal organizations, MAGA tries to protect itself from potential informants, I think. If you only recruit people who are unscrupulous enough to openly admit to this Nazi bullshit, there’s less chance of someone having a conscience and making all their shady dealings public.

Indeed, and it is frightening how persistent they are. I have blocked pretty much all their names and various connected terms by now, but my Lemmy feed still consists to a large extent of the nonsense and misinformation that these trolls spread on a daily basis to distract from their criminal activities.

I can only imagine how much worse it must be on the mainstream platforms.

There is simply no escaping the bullshit that spills out of the white house all over the world. Unfortunately, even less so because the local Nazis and the conservatives in my home country have long been using the same troll strategies that they have adopted from the US since they have proven effective in Europe as well.

The continuous noise of these trolls really has nothing to do with politics or news. On the contrary, it’s just vicious anti-politics and deliberate misinformation.

True that. It’s the lesser evil. That would probably even be the case if it wasn’t just a deal for the Chinese market.

Fine by me, as long as the Bluetooth logo is never changed. Long live King Harald Gormsson, the unifier!

I think Thomas, like many other influential people, knows very well that he doesn’t have to fear any consequences or even prosecution in this system, which this decision now confirms once again. That was to be expected, because why should anything have changed. I mean, Thomas was already obviously corrupt way back in 2000, when he was already a supereme court justice and, together with his cronies, prevented the recount of the votes in Florida, which meant that Bush became president instead of Gore. Incidentally, his billionaire buddy Harlan Crow was also already involved back then. So he has been doing this for more than 25 years in such a brazen manner and has simply remained true to himself - and only to himself.

Yes, but what most people think is not represented properly on mainstream social media, unfortunately.