• ShareMySims@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    I can’t be the only one who struggled to read that, and for general accessibility purposes since I’m already here:

    Image ID:

    andy1011000 Proton CEO posted:

    “People honestly seem to forget that I live in Switzerland, where Republican/Democrat doesn’t mean anything, and Trump isn’t even on our ballot to be voted for…”

    Onyx376. replied:

    “The point is that fighting for a more just and equal society is not just about fighting for the fundamental right to privacy but also for all other fundamental rights, including individual rights and life. When you, as the CEO of a company that starts from these principles, nod positively to whatever action a political figure like Trump, who is known for always flagrantly putting his private interests ahead of those of his own nation, makes speeches about eliminating minorities, hurting their rights as citizens and flirting with Nazi movements, it is understandable that members of the privacy community are disappointed as this reveals a little about who is being the face of a company that should follow contrary principles. But now we really know what “freedom” means to you.”

  • AnAmericanPotato@programming.dev
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    1 year ago

    Ridiculous.

    He specifically started talking about American party politics, unprompted, making sweeping statements about both Democrats and Republicans. NOW he wants to blame us for…being concerned with his views on American party politics? Dude. Get real.

    Saying stupid shit now and then is forgivable, but not if you take it in as the new nucleus of your public image. Why do so many public figures have this compulsion to double down combatively?

    • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Isn’t 88 neo-Nazi code for “heil Hitler”? And isn’t putting it in binary to disguise it evidence that he knows full well what it means?

  • ShareMySims@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    Now to reply to the post itself, I think this sums it up:

    As we say in Germany, if there's a Nazi at the table and 10 other people sitting there talking to him, you got a table with 11 Nazis.

    Though the sad truth is that almost every single product or service we use are owned and run by people with similar opinions, it is literally the nature of the capitalist beast, it’s how it function, and why it will always decay in to fascism - because those with the power and the money (not just those at the very very top, but several levels bellow them, too, like this guy) will always and forever care solely about maintaining it and creating more for themselves, that’s it. And to do that, they have to side with whichever dictator-du-jour benefits them the most.

    Remember - there is no ethical consumption under capitalism, and this is only one of the reasons why.

      • curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        Probably where I’ll go next, I have until the end of February and then my business will be elsewhere.

        Since I set up some family at the same time, I’ll be doing it for a few accounts.

      • M137@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I saw mullvad ads on the trams in my city yesterday, really nice to see something good like it being advertised like that.

  • Onyx376@lemmy.mlOP
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    1 year ago

    https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonMail/comments/1i2ff6q/call_for_andy_yen_to_resign/

    UPDATE: Andy Reply

    According to Andy’s logic, if Hitler were the president of some unfortunate country, we should differentiate the boss from his good nominees. Even using a company founded by an entire community to show a good evaluation made by one of its founders to give him a loving pat on the back and show the world that he is not completely bad as they think, but not meaning that the founder agrees with all his innocent actions, of course, such as disregarding the rights of many people around the world because they are just part of the democratic game.

    • _____@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      le false equivalence totally validates my endorsement for the worst president elected in US history

    • sudneo@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      So, to get this straight, for you it’s impossible to recognize that a pick for a position is a good pick in the Trump government, by definition, without consideration of the actual pick?

      To me this is religion, not politics or ideology (which I both consider very good things). To be even more clear, I consider Andy’s position completely rational and legitimate in this case. I believe it’s absolutely legitimate to be happy Trump picked someone good for a position and at the same time not support the rest 98%. At most, the interesting debate is why that pick is not good, which is 100% opinable and worthy of a discussion.

      But saying that any statement, in any context, whatever narrow and specific equal full support is completely insane to me.

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        1 year ago

        If all he said was literally “i approve of this pick for this position” you’d be correct.

        What actually happened was he approved of the pick and also claimed the republicans are now actually the party that stands for the “little guy”.

        Then followed up with a non apology that claimed what he said was not intended to be a “political statement”.

        by all means, argue that you think there’s a fuss over nothing, but if you leave important context out seemingly because it doesn’t suit your narrative it weakens your argument substantially.

        • sudneo@lemm.ee
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          I know what happened, I followed quite thoroughly.

          He thinks that republicans are now the ones with a higher chance to push antitrust cases against big tech (I.e., work for the little guy - EDIT: source). He thinks this based on the last few years and a few things that happened. He likes the nomination from Trump. How is this a full support to Trump? How believing that republicans will do better - in this area - equals being a Nazi?

          Of course I believe that there is a fuss over nothing. The above statement has been inflated and I have already read “he applauded to Trump antitrans policies”, " posted Nazi symbols" and other complete fantasies.

          Many people, who are on the internet on a perpetual witch hunt decided to interpret a clearly specific tweet (about antitrust and big tech) as a global political statement, and read that “little guy” as “common man” or - I have read it here on Lemmy - “working class”. Basically everyone tried to propose ideas about why that post was so awful, rather than first trying to understand what the hell he meant. I will agree the first tweet is ambiguous, but that’s because it’s a 200 characters tweet, he then explained his position quite clearly, and the summary above is what he actually meant.

          This “context” added doesn’t move my post a centimeter IMO.

            • sudneo@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              He praised one thing, and motivated that praise. It’s 100% possible to disagree, but I don’t find it concerning at all. I find it reasonable, because proton can better protect the privacy of users if more people can choose freely privacy oriented tools (like proton). Hence, if Trump does or says something that can help moving in that direction, it can be labeled as a good thing. Not every sentence is a collective or global assessment of all things considered.

              When Trump wants to break up big tech it’s because he wants to eliminate the competition to his concentration of power.

              • this is something US citizens should concern themselves
              • it is only tangentially irrelevant
              • if by breaking up monopolies people will be able to choose more privacy-preserving services, what you think is Trump’s goal will fail anyway. More privacy and less data is also a way to limit the amount of demographic targeting he uses so well in his campaigns.

              So I am good with him doing the right thing for the wrong reason, and I wish him a swift failure afterwards.

              doesn’t understand this or doesn’t care is deeply concerning

              Have you considered that he might not agree with what is just your opinion? Obviously you are free to draw any conclusion you want and not use them.

          • Senal@programming.dev
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            1 year ago

            See, now that’s a more thorough explanation of your position.

            I disagree with pretty much all of your assertions (though the witch hunt stuff can be true sometimes) , but at least i know I’m disagreeing with an opinion formed using the whole of the information provided.

            This “context” added doesn’t move my post a centimeter IMO.

            It shows you read the initial information in it’s entirety and still came to the conclusion you did.

            That removes the possibility of responses such as “Did you even read the initial tweet?”.

            Well… it should remove that possibility, in practice it just means you can safely ignore those responses because clearly the people making those responses haven’t read your response in it’s entirety.

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        1 year ago

        Context matters. Why did you ignore it? We see so many CEOs kissing Trump’s feet these days. Here Andy is, doing the same… Of course I don’t know what’s in Andy’s head, but Trump loves groveling, and clearly Andy is riding that bandwagon on purpose.

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          That’s not context, that’s a superficial observation. Zuck kissed the ring by changing Facebook policy to align with trump/musk posture on “free speech”, Andy said he likes the antitrust pick. They are completely different things.

          • orcrist@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            Right, Andy’s action was bad but not as bad. We agree. It’s not identical.

            And when given the chance to explain how he felt about this situation, on how the bad timing is … purely accidental or something … he did a bad job of it. Which suggests our original conclusions were in fact correct.

            Also, if you think observations about time, place, and manner are superfluous, that’s a peculiar thought. Maybe we disagree. Maybe I think basic elements of societal interaction and communication are important and informative.

            • sudneo@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              This tweet happened right after trump picked for the antitrust position. The “time” is completely logical, the “place” is a tweet and the manner is a short statement supporting that pick. Also proton is a US company, so it doesn’t have the same reason to “bend the knee” as other US big tech are doing.

              So it’s not that I am ignoring context, I genuinely don’t see relation. He praised something that he pushes for years, he did not suddenly switch to “free speech” like Zuck.

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      1 year ago

      Honestly I find his attitude to be quite commendable and I think that speaks much louder than whatever it is you disagree with.

      Maybe he should have just left Trump’s name out of it entirely as that seems to be what really pushed people’s buttons.

      People are going to twist things around no matter what is said though. Don’t forget hindsight makes everyone look guilty.

      • KinglyWeevil@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        It would be one thing if Trump was actually anti-trust…but he isn’t.

        He’s anti companies which don’t prostrate themselves in front of him and bow to his whims. They’re bad, terrible, anti American companies. The ones that do are great, wonderful, beautiful companies. The bad ones need to be broken up and given to the big ones.

        He’s so transparent it’s painful. If someone says good things about Trump or give him money, they’re good. If they don’t, they’re bad. It’s absurdly obvious.

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          If that motivation still leads to work against tech monopolies, good. Can’t wait for people to do the right thing for the right reason. If that won’t happen it will be criticized as a lack of action.

          Ultimately the benefit for the population is having as much freedom and fair competition in the tech space as possible. If that comes from Trump hallucinations, from a dream or from something else, who cares…?

          • msage@programming.dev
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            1 year ago

            If that motivation still leads to work against tech monopolies

            It doesn’t, never did, never will.

            I can’t believe we have to argue in 2025 about this.

            The whole project 2025 is about breaking bad regulations, antitrust won’t survive. You just have to kiss the ring, and do whatever.

            • sudneo@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              OK, but it’s a speculation as much as the other position. I also think it won’t happen, but it’s besides the point. Does it matter IF trump does it for a good or a bad reason? If it happens, can we be happy about it?

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                1 year ago

                If it happens to only specific companies, but others will do anything without issues, it will be a huge problem.

                And it will.

          • aimizo@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            How can anyone possibly think that Trump is against tech monopolies when Bezos, Musk, and Zuckerberg are going to be sitting behind him shoulder to shoulder at the inauguration?

            • sudneo@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              He expressed his motivations, which we are all free to disagree with and consider stupid. He considers especially the past history for the current antitrust nominee. Either way (and he said this too), we will be all evaluating actions, and at the moment we are speculating on what’s going to happen. Why so much heat for an opinion on such thing though?

      • Doomsider@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        He should have just stayed the fuck out of Americans politics being a provider of a secure service that many Americans of all political persuasions use.

        He is an idiot who cost his company business. The only spin is trying to downplay it at this point. The consequences are lost profits.

        • _cryptagion [he/him]@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 year ago

          Let’s be real. You mean he should have stayed out of it if he was going to voice an opinion that doesn’t match yours. People don’t want apolitical, they want an echo chamber.

          • Doomsider@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            No, he should stay out of either side because business is about making money. I don’t want to know what politics you support. I don’t care for politicizing everything. It is a fucking turn off.

            You want my money, do your job, sell me your product, give me your service, but don’t talk to me about your hot takes on politics. Also religion as well. I and many many other people don’t want to hear it.

            • howrar@lemmy.ca
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              1 year ago

              Better that they tell us imo. If someone thinks that the people I care about don’t deserve to exist for reasons no one can control, I’d rather know and avoid giving them money than to help them quietly gain influence and power until they can eradicate these people themselves.

              • Doomsider@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                There is a certain logic to this. I tend to agree that I would like to know. I also think I would probably find out I would have to be self sufficient if I truly did not want to give to bad actors.

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              Your comment might hold a valid argument, if your previous comments hadn’t made it perfectly clear you take issue with the fact he praised something a politician you don’t like has done.

              • Doomsider@lemmy.world
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                Whether you agree with my character or not what I said was accurate for any business person/enterprise. It is really not beneficial and increases risk unnecessarily.

          • njm1314@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            You say it doesn’t match that other users opinion, but doesn’t it not match the vast majority of proton users opinions? Authoritarians aren’t usually big on personal privacy. So praising one when you run a company based upon privacy is a dumb idea. It would be like running a vegan food company and praising people who like Slaughter cattle. It’s a stupid fucking mindset. Which says a lot of things to me about his capacity as a CEO frankly. If he’s this dumb why should people trust them to run a business they frequent?

  • Jumpingspiderman@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I seem to remember that Switzerland has a history of profiting from their relationships with Nazi’s. Thus they might not be a good source of advice as to what to do about Nazi’s.

    • BothsidesistFraud@lemmy.world
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      It’s dumb to call Trump a nazi and the populist wing of the Republican party nazis.

      It’s not even clever at this point, maybe it was edgy and transgressive like 7 years ago.

      The reason it’s dumb is that you are wasting all of your powerful language and you will have no more if things get worse. Boy who cried wolf. Just like people did to racist which used to carry great power and now is basically meaningless as a powerful descriptor.

      • GlacialTurtle@lemmy.ml
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        It’s not even clever at this point, maybe it was edgy and transgressive like 7 years ago.

        Are you really this childish that you genuinely think the only reason people might suggest Trump is a fascist is because it was “edgy and transgressive”? Not the fascist rhetoric, increasingly fascist policy and the various fascists he’s willing to work with and support?

        • BothsidesistFraud@lemmy.world
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          Nazism is a very small subset of fascism, they are not equivalent. Nazi also carries VERY heavy baggage which is inapplicable to Trump. Use the right terms.

          • GlacialTurtle@lemmy.ml
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            Hey guys, look at this dipshit, drawing irrelevant distinctions and pointlessly trying to police other peoples language because they think the only reason others would use those terms is because they’re “edgy and transgressive”.

            Tell me, where on the fascism to nazism meter is mass deportations, muslim bans, endorsing far right militias, supporting running over protestors, palling around with white supremacists, and seeking to eradicate trans people from public life? Are we at .49? or is it more like .76? My readings seems to be off. Just so I know I’m not using the incorrect terms so some moron from .world doesn’t get mad and try to incessantly police terms on the internet.

          • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Nazism is a very small subset of fascism, they are not equivalent. Nazi also carries VERY heavy baggage which is inapplicable to Trump. Use the right terms.

            Can’t tell if you’re defending trump or gatekeeping nazism.

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              1 year ago

              Peak 2020s narcissism, pointing out historical facts is “gatekeeping”

              Sorry I meant, everyone is entitled to their own history. I have some cool ones I could share?

      • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Gee. Which side has all the people marching with nazi flags?

        Which side never kicks them out when they do?

      • orcrist@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Now now. Many MAGA are in fact documented nazis, and Trump’s record is bad but it quite as explicit as that. If you’re afraid of the term being bandied about, I recommend therapy.

      • TGS@lemmy.ml
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        I’m sorry but what? This is really weird logic as language and words aren’t required to follow some linear path of severity. People call the GOP, Trump and the like Nazis because… they fit the definition of Nazis, actual card carrying Nazis support them by a significant majority. (Yeah yeah I know there is the odd one here or there that doesn’t)

        If it walks like a Nazi, talks like a Nazi and engages in Nazi tactics, behaviors etc. Then it can be called a Nazi. You don’t reserve your language so that you have some end point to progress to.

        It’s also very weird to use the boy who cried wolf when the whole point of that story is that you don’t call something that which it isn’t for fear that when the real thing comes along no one will believe you as that would imply that they are in fact not Nazis. Which would only be true in the most technical of sense (As in they are not of the Nazi party of Germany) but by most dictionary definition the word fits.

        Lastly, what the hell are you even talking about “edgy”? Do you think people are calling them Nazis to be edgy? Because that’s ridiculous and quite frankly your entire comment screams of someone trying to defend them through deflection.

        • FMT99@lemmy.world
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          What’s more important, winning the fight over what label to put on those assholes or actually fighting what they do? It’s the same as people arguing about whether the Gaza situation is technically a genocide or not. Endless debate on the technicalities while nothing changes. Calling Trump and by extension all his followers “Nazis” just reinforces their belief that the “left” is their unrelenting enemy.

          • TGS@lemmy.ml
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            Why in your view is it mutually exclusive? To address any problem one first has to identify that there is in fact a problem. Calling it out where it exists IS that identification. It isn’t about “labels” it’s about identifying what needs to be dealt with and make no mistake there are a lot of people who don’t want to acknowledge the problem and if anything what you’re doing is exactly the shit the fascists do by forcing the side wanting to fight fascism to moderate its language on the belief that if we use that language against the fascists the fascists will dig into their fascism… as if they aren’t doing that anyway.

            In fact letting the right-wing control the narrative no matter what happens is in large part why we are where we are and why this shit needs to be called out, identified, labelled and opposed at every point with whatever means are necessary.

            • FMT99@lemmy.world
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              Do you think a large majority of Trump voters (not the vocal, terminally online ones) are actively hoping for an end to democracy? No, they’re just misled by someone who pretends to be on their side. And to turn the tide we need them back on our side. You think they’re going to be convinced by us shouting “fascist” at them? Obviously not. So what’s your plan to control the narrative?

              Trump has a plan. Unlike the tone deaf democrats who even now don’t seem to be able to present a message that normal people are interested in. They’re seen mostly as defenders of the status quo. The status quo that forces folks to work 3 jobs to make rent, then Trump comes along and shouts “death to the status quo”. Just repeatedly shouting back “Trump is evil” isn’t going to cut it.

  • Petter1@lemm.ee
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    As swiss person I have to meet and talk to this guy, he can not be that stupid!

    We definitely have something like the republicans party, it is called SVP (Schweizerische Volkspartei). SVP uses exactly the same tactics as republicans, like anti “woke”, anti regulation, anti common media, pro hate-speech(“anti censorship”), etc.

    We just not have a single party to counter it, like democrats, but like 10 parties with little nuances.

    We have some small parties besides SVP “on the republican site” but those tend to be irrelevant. Maybe, the anti corona party has a some relevance, still, but I guess their power is sinking.

    I personally support the pirate party, which mainly stands for privacy, no matter if left or right, but the party it self is leading to the left (democratic) side.

    At least, that is how I understand our situation here.

    • Doomsider@lemmy.world
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      I am sure he is very smart about a lot of things. Unfortunately US politics are not one of those things. I also suspect he is not that good at business considering he just alienated a lot of his customers.

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    He’s kind of right on the money and kind of being completely dumb.

    The fact of it is that Republicans don’t want to help privacy or take down big tech’s abuses, they want to make it worse. All of the reasonable things Andy has said have taken place past that, so in a way the entire conversation is talking past the point.

    The question is, how can somebody so influential at a major privacy company not have such a pre-school understanding of major world figures’ relationships to his core business?

    • Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      That question is now irrelevant. He doesn’t and so his company cannot be trusted. He showed his hand and its a straight flush, suited ignorance.

  • dan00@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Totally in good faith. A post from last year? Yea, suck my dick andy. Deleting my account asap.

    • FilthyHookerSpit@lemmy.world
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      “hey guys social media manager here. It was all my fault. It’s not our CEOs fault, at all. Just mine. Who am I? Well I can say my name definitely doesn’t start with an A and end in a Y. Just little ol’ faceless nameless me. Tee hee sorry.”

  • The Bard in GreenA
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    Scratch under the surface of every for profit privacy / anonymity service, you find shitty libertarian cryptobros who probably post racist memes on 4chan while whining about feminism in the man-o-sphere. That doesn’t speak to the nature of people who care about privacy, it speaks to the nature of people who care about privacy and also want to do capitalism.

  • kreskin@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Sounds like the CEO of proton doesnt understand the basic privacy concerns for the US VPN market. He should really look that up someday-- theres money to be made in the Us market if he cared enough.

    • humble peat digger@lemm.eeBanned
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      1 year ago

      Americans just now finding out what has always been in place.
      Vpn from Switzerland won’t save you - they will share our data if it comes to us needing access to it. And if proton refuses - it would have been shut down already like tiktok

    • krolden@lemmy.ml
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      Lmao that onyx guys comment is at -18

      And protons reply:

      I believe this is a false equivalence. Supporting a nominee for antitrust, is not the same as endorsing everything else Trump may or may not believe in or flirting with Nazism as you put it. It goes too far to draw that conclusion about Proton or myself.

      They just dont get it

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    This needs to be pinned at the top: only a Nazi goes out of their way to put an 88 in their username. He thinks he’s clever by putting it in binary so people don’t immediately call him out. Nazis get off on that kind of “clever” dogwhistle.

    • Frostbeard@lemmy.world
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      When was he born? Not everyone knows all the “secret” signs for stuff. How 18 is A.H or how 81 is H.A (Hells Angels) 1% biker clubs have surprisingly much of such codes. 8 is also the number of Khorne in the Warhammer fantasy/sci-fi setting. And before we start with that there are surprisingly few Nazis who play, but the few are very vocal.

      Years ago I saw a guy in a crocery store in Norway wearing a “Combat18 Böhmen” hoodie. Buying ingredients for tex-mex taco incidentally. And when I pointed him out to my wife, she said that you are probably the only one in here to know this, and spot him for what he is.

      So if Andy was born in 1988 I hope it’s why he has 88 in his username.

      • KingRandomGuy@lemmy.world
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        He’s apparently said he was born in 1988. In another thread others mentioned that would make him 21 when he started his PhD, which checks out.

      • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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        When was he born? Not everyone knows all the “secret” signs for stuff.

        I don’t care when he was born. Who puts their birth year in their username? “Here, internet. Here’s one less piece of information you need to steal my identity!”

        No. “ItS mY bIrF YeEr” is just what nazi shit says when they get called out on being nazi shit.

        • Cracks_InTheWalls@sh.itjust.works
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          Look, I can’t comment on the significance of binary 88 in this instance with any confidence, but a lot of people use their birth year in their username.

          Is it stupid? Absolutely, alongside demonstrating a total lack of any creativity whatsoever. But it’s 100% a thing.

          Edit: Lol, will also note the first ‘people also search’ suggestion coming up when Googling Andy Yen is “When was Andy Yen born”, and in the 5 seconds of drunken searching I still haven’t seen a birth date.

          • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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            Look, I can’t comment on the significance of binary 88 in this instance with any confidence, but a lot of people use their birth year in their username.

            A lot of people who like trump were coincidentally totally born in 1988.

            • Cracks_InTheWalls@sh.itjust.works
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              To be clear, I’m not arguing that people don’t put 88 as a clear dog whistle to white supremacists/general Nazi bullshit. This is more to the comment “who puts their birth year in their username?” bit specifically. The answer is a lot of people.

              I also am not excusing Yen for his pro-Trump comments - that was fucking bullshit and I’m deeply disappointed - I’m just saying the YOB thing is a thing, but also coincidentally I also can’t seem to find a source to prove if he’s also doing the YOB thing or something else.

              Note to self: Limit Lemmy to 3 beers max, particularly where Trumpian bullshit is involved. And thank god for autocorrect. Apologies, I really should not be interneting right now.

              • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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                To be clear, I’m not arguing that people don’t put 88 as a clear dog whistle to white supremacists/general Nazi bullshit.

                To be clear, anyone who supports trump is already nazi-adjacent enough to get no benefit of the doubt, and I don’t buy the “It’s my birth year” shit from any of them. Even if they were born in 1988, that’s not the reason 88 is in their username.

                I also don’t believe that someone whose entire personality centers around cannabis has “420” in their username because they were born on April 20th. I don’t believe that some fratboy who is constantly making horny comments has “69” in his username because he was born on June 9th, either.

                • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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                  88 is so much worse that I wouldn’t even compare then to the anodyne 420 & 69 examples.

              • HowManyNimons@lemmy.world
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                If I were born in 1988 I would not put an encoded “88” in my username. I wouldn’t want people to think I was dogwhistling.

        • Victor@lemmy.world
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          He’s my generation. That’s what we did in the dawn of the internet when web email was new and shit. Everybody has “coolname87” “dogshit89”, “hipguy88” as their username. It’s not such a wild idea.

          • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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            He’s younger than me, but there was a broad age range that all caught the internet around the same time. I’m aware that this is how it was once done. Usernames are longer now, allowing for greater creativity.

            And this goober still uses his first name and an obfuscated 2 digit number? Yeah, he didn’t choose it because it’s his birth year.

        • lenz@lemmy.ml
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          Tbf I’ve put my birth year in my username before when I was a kid who knew next to nothing about privacy. I’ve seen other people do this too. So it’s not totally implausible. But yeah it is a bad look for Andy regardless.

          • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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            Tbf I’ve put my birth year in my username before when I was a kid who knew next to nothing about privacy. I’ve seen other people do this too. So it’s not totally implausible.

            It’s one thing when you’re a naive kid or a clueless boomer. It’s quite another when you’re the ceo of a privacy-focused company.

        • rottingleaf@lemmy.worldBanned
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          Who puts their birth year in their username?

          You are not very old, right?

          Maybe now, in our stupid time, folks use phone numbers for identity, some stupid handle (or just their actual name) and then post a lot of text, photos and such, totally less harmful for their privacy than their birth year. And no birth year

          But in the olden days it was the main solution to “such user already exists” problem, combined with things like ‘xXx’ and ‘+0+’ on both sides or something.

          • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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            You are not very old, right?

            You’re not getting my birth year this way, either.

            But in the olden days it was the main solution to “such user already exists” problem,

            The account in question is two days old. And it’s from the CEO of a VPN service. This isn’t him signing up for baby’s first AOL account back in 1994.

        • sudneo@lemm.ee
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          Yes, a public figure, whose data can be discovered in few minutes, considers his birth year a secret. Also nobody ever used the birth year in their username on the internet.

          Also ANDY = 1 + 14 + 4 + 25 = 44, which is half of 88 and contains 14, another nazy symbol. He is trying to pass it off as his name, but who uses their name on the internet? I will check the cabala now, because I am sure there is more.

          God, I hope Nick Fury is already grouping the avengers, because Hydra is really making a move here.

          • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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            If you don’t want people to think you’re a nazi, don’t say good things about trump with 88 sitting right there for everyone to see in your username.

            The account is 2 days old. He knew what he was doing.

            • sudneo@lemm.ee
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              If trump did a good thing in a very narrow context you can’t say it, otherwise you are a Nazi? OK, this is madness. Also, it’s not “sitting there for everyone to see” because it’s binary. You also realize that people have different cultural references right? Maybe it’s not your responsibility to compute the cabala horoscope for everything you do, and assume that people will be able to use at least the 2% of the brain and for example distinguish from a bold Nazi supporter with 88 tattooed and a guy born in 88 who appends 88 to his username (in a nerd way). But apparently not.

              He created an account to speak personally and not from the proton account he uses before. Anyway, “he knew what he was doing” is conspiracy theory again.

              • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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                Also, it’s not “sitting there for everyone to see” because it’s binary.

                Yes, obfuscating it makes it better!

                Maybe it’s not your responsibility to compute the cabala horoscope for everything you do, and assume that people will be able to use at least the 2% of the brain and for example distinguish from a bold Nazi supporter with 88 tattooed and a guy born in 88 who appends 88 to his username (in a nerd way). But apparently not.

                He supported trump with 88 in his username.

                He created an account to speak personally and not from the proton account he uses before.

                And he didn’t need to put 88 in there, or obfuscate it. And I’m increasingly certain that you’re freaking out and defending him for it because you’re happy that your political party is represented.

                • sudneo@lemm.ee
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                  He supported Trump’s pick. I know reality makes little difference for you, but still. Also yes, he put 88 in his username, which is not a crime, especially for a Taiwanese guy born in 88 lmao.

                  The sole fact we are even discussing this is just absurd. Absurd. It’s 5g gives cancer absurd. It’s vaccine give autism absurd.

                  And I’m increasingly certain that you’re freaking out and defending him for it because you’re happy that your political party is represented.

                  Correct, because as non US citizen communist republicans are my party. In fact, anybody who disagrees with you is secretly a republican, and even more secret a Nazi, there is no other reason to disagree with you, absolutely. In fact, sudneo has “south” in it, and “o” at the end, what do you get it you put “o” south of “o”? 8, and that’s half of 88. Considering there is also “n” in it, and that’s 14, I think it’s quite clear that I am also a Nazi, trying to cover my Nazi colleague Andy. Heil Hydra.

                  You are just a maga with slightly different moral values. Still a cultist fanatic on a witch hunt that threw reason and reality out of the window.

      • Petter1@lemm.ee
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        But he is swiss, and here we know that 88 is for prising Hitler

        • sudneo@lemm.ee
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          He is from Taiwan, studies in US and then moved to Switzerland.

        • rottingleaf@lemmy.worldBanned
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          If it’s really plausible, then you’ve got no way to tell it’s a dogwhistle.

          Your comment is equivalent to “I can’t prove that Jews rule the world, but that’s because they’ve worked for plausible deniability, I know they do”.

    • Lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      only a Nazi goes out of their way to put an 88 in their username

      Yeah, I’m gonna need a citation for that. I was born in 1988.

    • sudneo@lemm.ee
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      This is at the same time:

      • a novax level conspiracy
      • a completely idotic assumption that not only doesn’t stand Occam’s razor, but not even basic common sense.
      • racist and showing a colonial mindset, clearly prioritising what is relevant in YOUR culture (superior, more important), compared to what is relevant in that person’s culture.

      Please can someone tell me how this attitude is fundamentally different from people who are in other cults (maga, novax, etc.)?

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.worldBanned
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      For limited people, maybe.

      88 is:

      1. important for people born in 1988

      2. amateur radio romantic message (apparently older than Nazis, don’t ask me how I know, but it has to do with being used in that, and not HH, meaning in one Nazi song ; felt strange for me, until I’ve just read that it was a telegraph thing before radio)

      3. two eternity symbols turned (not those wheely ones)

      4. as people have mentioned, common as a lucky number in certain parts of the globe

      5. people can also be born on 8 August

      6. had that number on some item memorable for him (I had 72 in plenty of my nicknames, I can promise you it’s not about 72 virgins or 72 names of god and I’m not Muslim, I just had a yellow t-shirt with that number when I was a kid).

      The funny part is that points #2 and #4 are probably known to him, tech company and all.