People from the U.S. (and even parts of Europe) do not understand how corrupt, stupid, and unstable majority of the world is. It is genuinely unfathomable.

This does not excuse the fascism of the current admin, nor the war-crimes of the U.S. as a whole, but they are nowhere even remotely close to the likes of Moldova.

There is a reason I said this was consistent.

I checked on four different servers (feddit.nl, lemmy.ml, lemmy.world, and sh.itjust.works) and all of them reproduced the automatic download for only this post. Of course, this can be due to an error with lemmy’s source itself - which is why I said it isn’t necessarily malware.

Secondly, I did a non-trivial check of my network for MITM when the error first occurred - and there was no evidence of MITM. I also highly doubt that the browser itself is compromised, as it is up-to-date and is focused on both privacy and security.

I posted it as a warning for those to check their machines if the browser (or other mechanisms) didn’t catch it. I am also not above reproach; it is okay to criticize my claims - but they were not made without reasonable cause.

P.S. The files were blocked from downloading (and I will not be downloading them) so I am unaware of their contents. If it is just PHP, then lemmy itself likely has a edge-case bug triggered by this post (which is bad). But I do doubt it is PHP, considering all other posts do not display this behavior.

[ OFF TOPIC - SECURITY WARNING ]

When opening this lemmy post, it attempts to download content to the user’s device. This is consistent behavior. This is not an accusation of malware, but is a tactic often used in drive-by attacks.

It is recommended to check your download folder for strange files, and perform a general security check.

Is America the only country on the planet?

You seem to forget that the EU and China are starting to mingle; and that China is heavily involved in Africa et al via the Belt&Road Initiative.

Obviously everyone gets hurt in it a trade war, that’s why it’s called a war. But the the long term outlook for China is significantly better than America’s - they will win a war of attrition.

China is also doing their due diligence. Tit-for-tat is the most effective negotiation strategy, you will not beat physics, and they understand this.

The craziest part is that both America and China were benefiting immensely off of the status quo, considering they were the #1 and #2 richest countries on the planet. But since the least qualified person on the planet to handle money (Trump) has unregulated power, it has all gone to shit.

This is the most effective form of protest, that every single American should be doing.

It also happens to be extremely efficient where it needs to be.

We should’ve been calling them this since the 1950s. And even this is too kind - they are terrorists. Their policy platform is (and has been) to oppress, kill, and exploit.

I’ve noticed that many of these cruel and reactionary ideologies are not based in any historical data nor science. This is used to be called hysteria.

They still haven’t answered either; so I can only assume they did not realize the contradiction between accelerationism and paying more taxes. Sad times we live in.

The appropriate sequence of events would be:

Trump starts tariffs > People switch to FOSS > Trump cuts funding to FOSS

This really isn’t double-speak and, if anything, clearly shows the hostility of the admin. They are just incompetent, short-sighted, and overall an enemy of the people.

It’s not about “hating”. It is because you (and the current administration) have no idea what you are talking about and are trying to pass it off as fact.

People really do not like imposters, larpers, and pretenders - and when in positions of power they get people killed. This is not a video game, nor a simulation, educate yourself before you speak.

There are many many expert peer-reviewed studies that show tariffs do not work - especially in the way Trump is using them. Also the U.S. had no “economic failure”, they’ve been the richest country to ever exist. BlackRock and Vanguard also manage a significant amount of U.S. property assets and they are American companies.

The problem was the wealth-gap and no amount of tariffs is going to fix this; people need to pay their taxes. Companies need to be paying the 91% rate they paid in the past, and people need the minimum wage to rise with inflation.

There is more than enough money to do this, but you vote for Trump who actively makes the situation worse. This is not to say Dems would’ve made it better - but Republicans will always make the problem worse, since that is their whole policy platform.

You’re okay with more taxes, but you’re an accelerationist…

What does accelerationism mean to you? And what benefits do you believe society gains from this?

P.S. For the sake of transparency, I’m not liberal; but you can call me whatever you like.

You’re okay with 50 years of widespread suffering to maybe have any society. But not okay with paying increased monthly taxes to guarantee a stable society.

The Greek were right, democracy doesn’t work.

I get what the founders were talking about now. A lot of people really shouldn’t be able to vote if you want a functioning society. They just chose the wrong metric.

If you run a market and take a cut of every sale, you will make infinitely more profit than selling items yourself. This is exactly the position the U.S. was in - which is why it became the richest country in human history.

You also argue that the U.S. is getting “exploited” because they aren’t the ones doing the selling. But who cares? I’ll tell you who, people who don’t know wtf they are talking about.

In your infinite wisdom, the better choice is saddling yourself with more risk and less rewards because “the vibe” feels better.

*Serves you right for using your brain without proof-thinking.

This context does not change anything. Not prioritizing health shows a critical misunderstanding of what wealth is, and how to reap its benefits. You are not likely to be a good business person if you do not understand fundamentals.

That being said, if you’re willing to cheat/lie/steal you can ignore a lot of the fundamentals - which is the route most of these “cofounders” took

You assume that educated people are making the final decision, when that has not been the case in at least 60 years.

Economists can scream from the roof-tops that the wealth-gap is harmful (they have), that ignoring science is regressive (they have), and that tariffs are fucking stupid (they have). But if the people in power (i.e CEO, Lobbyists, President) simply ignore them and do stupid shit anyway, it’s all pointless.

Moral of the story, this is not on the economists. This is on the stupid being in positions of power and the ignorant masses not holding them accountable.

So people also use the term “news provider”? What about “email channel”? This argument falls apart fairly quickly with any level of scrutiny.

The English language has connotations. Certain words are more likely to be paired with others due to cultural or historical reasons. “Instance” has a medical and technical connotation; and Lemmy is a technology (software). News is not technical, so it is unlikely (but still correct) to use the word “instance” with it.

Email is more of a service than a technology, so due to connotation, it is often paired with “provider”. However, “email instance” is still a completely correct phrase.

Once again, we should not be calling fundamentals of the English language “gatekeeping”. This is how you get widespread ignorance and shitty communities.

P.S. Also, your “no one outside of Lemmy” argument is also just wrong. Invidious, Redlib, and other frontends refer to themselves as instances. Bluesky calls itself an instance. And it is very common to use the term for weather services as well.

Can we make it okay for humans to use their brains again?

The term “instance”, in this context, means exactly what it says - it is one existence of many. How is this gatekeeping or jargon?

This implies to me that the “gatekeeping” you are referring to is reading comprehension and basic vocabulary; and frankly, if we’ve stooped that low, keep them out. There is nothing to be gained from a group that refuses to learn the basic definition of the word “instance”.

P.S. “provider” is a good (and correct) term as well.

Would you consider basic economics specialized knowledge?

I read the thread you linked. I’m so fucking tired boss.

What do you even do in this situation? The algorithms and propaganda networks are all controlled by fascists and people don’t care. Beyond not caring, they refuse to even protect themselves from being targeted in this way - they do not value privacy nor integrity.

So what do you do? We have to figure something out.

Agreed. There are many facets to this problem, so it’s difficult to get in one post, so I’ll try to reconcile the main points.

The core of what I’m trying to say, is don’t kill Linux trying to become Windows. Linux is great because it diverse, but it also has difficulties because of this. We should not change (nor destroy) the ecosystem for people who do not care to understand it.

That being said, we can also make it easier for people who do care and cooperate to make it over. But if we do this we, as Linux users, have to look at this from the right lens. The question is not “Linux users, what do you find difficult?”; this is survivorship bias. The question is “Windows users, why can’t you get Linux on your machine?”. From this framing, the real issues become a lot more apparent:

• Not savvy enough to set up USB stick
• Driver, and other hardware, issues
• Programs needed for work, or general daily usage, are unavailable
• Too much tinkering required (this is related to, but not the same as RTFM and CLI)

The first two points can be solved by purchasing a machine from a Linux OEM (i.e System76). If this is not possible, then you are going to have to do research; if this burden is too heavy, Linux is not for you.

AI has a good and valid use-case here, as it can significantly ease this process (even if it’s only right 60% of the time).

Linux may not have an alternative for your preferred programs; if this burden is too heavy, Linux is not for you.

Developers should follow open guidelines (i.e POSIX). If they refuse to, there is nothing Linux can (nor should) do about it.

The last point can be solved by distro choice, we completely agree here. The problem is finding said distro, which is difficult. For example, I’ve never heard of Ublue until your post. I appreciate distros that handle defaults and don’t push breaking changes. The community can make this better by having a dedicated website (with a decision tree) for choosing a distro, but this has its own set of issues.

No matter, the responsibility falls on the user to pick the right distro; if this burden is too heavy, Linux is not for you.