this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2025
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Privacy

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[–] [email protected] 360 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

I am so tired of feeling like I have an adversarial relationship with everything in my life

[–] [email protected] 78 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

It's what's known as "vulture capitalism" or "parasitic capitalism", where sociopathic kleptocrats are allowed control and treat all aspects of life as hostile and adversarial — value must be extracted and stolen from others — rather than a mutually beneficial relationship to improve and enrich the experience for everyone.

This is exemplified by the stock market and "line must go up" — the belief that stable, sustainable profits are a failure and growth must be continuous and exponential, in a planet and civilisation of finite resources, analogous to cancer.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

There is even a rumor that, perhaps, no other form of capitalism truly exists.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 weeks ago

I was about to say that just sounds like capitalism.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago

It’s what’s known as “vulture capitalism” or “parasitic capitalism”,

So, capitalism.

Or please kindly enumerate what other kinds of capitalism provably exist.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 3 weeks ago

This!!!! All this!

[–] [email protected] 26 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Hard agree. It does feel like we're entering an age where that may start to shift, though. Well, not so much a shift in the "mainstream", but it feels like we're starting to see more and more parallel products and services that have anti-enshittification built in. And I think that's our best path forward, all of us who care should work towards a parallel ecosystem that cuts these practices out as much as we can.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago

And be vocal about it! People are usually surprised in how I run services. Many many people won't be able to, but many people can, so let them know they don't have to be locked into paying for services.

For example "ugh Google, I hate paying for drive every month"

What do you use it for?

Oh just backups really.

Why not just an external hard drive then, or there are more expandable options out there.

Oh yeah, I forgot about those... Maybe I should look into them again...

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 weeks ago
[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago

It's because This Is The Bad Place

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

I selfhost and use mostly FOSS and have ways of blocking 99% of ads and locally control all my IoT so if you're willing to learn then you don't have to feel that way. Because I feel in full control and in harmony with everything.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Sure, Jan. I guess you're not using a web browser to post this? Not using an app, because that would mean having an Android or Apple phone?

I think you underestimate just how shitty everything now is, even if you're putting a massive effort in by using almost exclusively FOSS and maintaining a stack of ad blockers.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

My phone is running LineageOS without GAPPS. I use Firefox but with the advent of this news, will be changing to more hardened versions of it. I spend no effort maintaining my ad blockers past the initial setup, the fact that you have no idea how much work is involved shows that you have no idea what you are talking about.... you are a smoke blower.

I'm more than happy to go back and forth with you and give you specifics to show just how little you know, but I'm curious. Why did my comment seemingly irk you? Do you feel insecure because are lazy and adopted a defeatist attitude to justify your laziness and/or lack of knowledge? Because it is 100% possible to control your devices and data, honestly, you're probably just kinda dumb buddy. But again, if you want to learn, I'll happily educate you on specifics.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

So, you use a browser that's vulnerable to enshittification, because there's no way to avoid this. There are only 3 companies working on browser engines, only 2 work on non-mac platforms, and both depend on advertising. Sorry you didn't realize that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

You realize that Firefox and Chromium are open source and there are hardened versions that have the "enshitification" aspects removed from them, right? How fucking slow are you buddy, because that's the great thing about FOSS... if we don't like something in a project, we fork it. Let me know if you would like me to continue schooling you.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Firefox and Chromium are open source, but virtually everybody working on them is employed by Google or Mozilla.

If you look at the changelogs and dev blogs of all the various forked versions of those projects, what you'll see is that the devs spend basically all their time trying to keep up with all the changes coming out of Google/Mozilla and then trying to find out how to re-integrate the tweaks they've developed that makes their version different -- which is normally just applying a skin, or a plugin, or removing something they consider a misfeature.

Let me know if you would like me to continue schooling you.

Oh, I wasn't aware you'd started. You must be a terrible teacher.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Firefox and Chromium are open source, but virtually everybody working on them is employed by Google or Mozilla.

If you look at the changelogs and dev blogs of all the various forked versions of those projects, what you’ll see is that the devs spend basically all their time trying to keep up with all the changes coming out of Google/Mozilla and then trying to find out how to re-integrate the tweaks they’ve developed that makes their version different – which is normally just applying a skin, or a plugin, or removing something they consider a misfeature.

Lmao, no... browsers like LibreWolf have no issues keeping up with updates.

Oh, I wasn’t aware you’d started. You must be a terrible teacher.

That's because you keep moving goalposts so you don't have to face the reality that you're a moron that's blowing smoke. You stated, "even if you’re putting a massive effort in by using almost exclusively FOSS and maintaining a stack of ad blockers." That gave it away. With that statement, I know, you're an idiot and have nooooooooooooo fucking clue how this shit works. And I called you out there... and you conveniently ignored that and changed the subject. So do you want me to explain how easy it is to setup adblocking that requires no maintenance? And then will you admit that you are wrong? Because again, it doesn't require any maintenance whatsoever... I'll teach you buddy, don't worry, no cost to you.

Also let's look at my initial claim, "I selfhost and use mostly FOSS and have ways of blocking 99% of ads and locally control all my IoT so if you’re willing to learn then you don’t have to feel that way. Because I feel in full control and in harmony with everything."

Two things. 1) I said mostly FOSS, 2) I do feel in harmony with the amount of control and customization I have over my devices which was in response to someone feeling the opposite. You've not said anything to counter this. I can easily go through my entire stack on every platform if you are actually interested in learning how these things work. But if not, I will continue to make fun of you for being dumb, I don't care either way. You're entertaining me.