Yeah, sure. Like the police need extra help with racial profiling and “probable cause.” Fuck this, and fuck the people who think this is a good idea.

I’m sure the authoritarians in power right now will get right on those proposed “safeguards,” right after they install backdoors into encryption, to which Only They Have The Key™, to “protect” everyone from the scary “criminals.”

Laws only apply if you get caught.

I’m old enough to remember when that wasn’t the norm people were used to. It’s hot, and people have either forgotten or never knew differently.

I recommend reading the article, because holy fuck is that whole thing dystopian, but here’s who was there:

Those present included representatives of Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Palantir, which works closely with the US military and has contracts with the NHS. IBM and the private prison operator Serco also attended alongside tagging and biometric companies, according to a response to a freedom of information request.

Ah, yes. The very companies that helped install a fascist in the US would be great partners to bring about safety and criminal reform, and they would definitely not inject their fascist ideals into the UK government, eroding and poisoning it over time. Sounds like a brilliant plan! /s

Pragmatically, yes. Legally, no. Progressives have been fighting for years to get internet classified as a utility in the US, and regressives and (ironically) internet companies have been fighting against that effort at every turn in the name of profit.

And now look how well that’s turned out. Gee, if only some people had warned them that deregulation was a monkey’s paw…

Fix? Bruh, they explicitly cultivate that shit. Even if they could, they’re not gonna.

American here. Keep up the pressure. Maybe blatant fascists aren’t enough to open people’s eyes to the dangers before them, but maybe an economy that’s all fucked up will shake enough people out of their stupor.

Never heard of a modern laptop with an ergo keyboard. The shape tends to be in opposition to portability. I couldn’t even find a picture of one. And since it’s likely to be such a specialty item (if such a thing even exists), you’ll pay extra for it.

You should be able to buy anything with an AMD processor and discreet GPU (if you need the GPU part). If you’re unsure, go look at Framework or Starlab, check what they’re using, and find a laptop with similar specs.

You need to cite specific people, because right now, your post reads like the screed from an Alex Jones’s rant. Vaguely gesturing towards some shadow organization isn’t useful information, and it can lead to being manipulated by people who know how to weaponize that vaguery. You can’t act against the unknown.

There’s certainly bad actors at work, but they operate out in the open. Everybody who hovers in Trump’s orbit, everybody who worked on P2025, the Heritage Foundation, the Federalist Society, fundigelical churches, every billionaire…

If they currently have money or power (often both), they’re almost definitely part of the current problem.

You can even get a modern gaming distro based off of it (PikaOS).

If you’re willing to pay for it, Mailbox.org would be my choice. No provider will give that feature away for free (which I’m sure you know). My threat model can tolerate an extra hand via Addy, so I don’t mind them being there.

But no matter who you choose, email just isn’t the best option for true privacy. There will always be some cleartext email somewhere in the process, even if only sometimes. And as somebody once said, “No company is going to break the law for you.”

If you need an extra level of privacy with email specifically, your best option is to self host. That way you control both the server and the database/storage.

I use Tuta combined with Addy.io, and it’s been great. I never hand out the main email at Tuta, and if I ever want to pack up and move, I just tell Addy to change where to forward email.

I don’t think you need to worry about Tuta. Iirc, all of the encryption/decryption happens on your device, so they can’t see the content of your inbox, even if they wanted to. Their free tier is enough for me, and I just make sure to clean out any unwanted emails so I don’t hit the 1GB limit.

Now, there’s the caveat that encrypted email needs to be able to work with unencrypted email, so somewhere along the way, it’s possible somebody could figure out who you are and what you’re talking about by intercepting traffic or the endpoint, but if you need that level of privacy, email shouldn’t be trusted anyway.

The biggest benefit of encrypted email is a judge can’t force the company to hand over your inbox (because it’s encrypted), and you don’t have to worry about the parent company or whoever data mining it. But even if it’s in a country that could order data collection, and you “aim to misbehave,” I think it’s moot, since you should know better than to use email for that purpose.

Incel means more than the state of not being in a relationship, these days. Some very sad and terrible people turned it into a subculture that revolves around imaginary grievances directed at women.

Jesus Fucking Christ.

Y’all, remember when people freaked out over Mozilla changing their TOU (but not their Privacy Policy)? This bill is the pro-corporate, ultracapitalist, “hold my beer” version of that change, and it could be enshrined into law.

If you live in California, call your state reps (i.e. don’t just email or write a letter). Tell them to vote no on this blatant privacy violation.

ETA: this is a bipartisan bill. If you have a Democratic rep, don’t just assume they’ll vote against it. Call them, too!

No, they can’t. DOGE gutted basically everything that made the government useful to regular people. And it’s the Trump regime’s fault we’re in this mess in the first place.

They’re not going to admit fault, even indirectly. We’re on our own.

It makes me sad that some of the “nerdy” people in these spaces would join with the very people that would gladly throw them under the bus or use them as minority fodder, but as I’ve seen with experts in science, high intelligence in one area doesn’t mean you are capable of critical thinking.

ETA: to be clear, I’m not saying we should ignore scientists and experts, just that specialized expertise ≠ general expertise.

That is what I meant. An entirely separate system, as you would do with a Windows dual boot.

You need to think of the kind of people that are interested in nerdy computing topics. Regular people that just want to make something nice to share with the world, sure, but also incels, toxic masculinity proponents, etc.

They’re mostly able to hide, because like you point out, computer science and related topics are mostly apolitical; when you make scary changes, however, those same latter people can’t help themselves but to blame the villainous “They.”

I absolutely would use a “trusted gaming mode,” even if that meant a separate partition just for those few games that need it.

I’m not familiar enough with the technical aspects of how kernels and bootloaders handle the various launch procedures to ensure they haven’t or aren’t being tampered with, but I think your idea sounds like a good compromise between, “It’s my Linux to modify,” and, “It’s my Linux to use.” There’s not exactly a ton of games that require anti-cheat, so I think giving up a little freedom for those few games (which you would be anyway, due to anti-cheat) with a separate mode/system is justifiable.

Also, spinning up VMs and practicing setting up your programs is a great way to get used to things and know what to expect.

If you want to do UI customization, be sure to look up some videos on how to do it for your chosen Desktop Environment (like Gnome, KDE Plasma, Cinnamon, XFCE, etc.).