Werbefrei dank Spendenfinanzierung!
Ohne Euch ginge das nicht. Spende auch du.

Uns fehlen diese Jahr noch 170.000 Euro.

https://netzpolitik.org/digitalfights

Apple computer says no.

Anyone got a lawyer to recommend to help me write a nastygram to Apple and/or help me sue them?

RE: https://social.computertruhe.de/@computertruhe/115677934525884172

Draußen ist es bereits neblig, düster und kalt. Da wäre jetzt doch der ideale Zeitpunkt, sich mit einem Heißgetränk, etwas Lebkuchen und Plätzchen aufs Sofa zu kuscheln und unser akuelles #ComputertruheAdventsrätsel zu knacken. Für wen die ein oder andere Rätselnuss zu hart ist, spielen wir auch gerne den Nussknacker und helfen euch auf die Sprünge. Bis morgen um 12 Uhr habt ihr noch Zeit, eure (Teil)Lösungen einzureichen.

Do you remember NFTs? I remember NFTs. They exploded onto the scene in 2020 and were *everywhere* in the public discourse. At their peak in 2021, there were something like $25 billion in NFT sales globally. There were NFT Super Bowl ads. Jimmy Fallon had Paris Hilton on his show to awkwardly shill for NFTs.

And then, by 2022, 2023 at the latest, the bubble had burst and NFT market had lost up to 99% of its value.

Blessedly, I never have to think about those fucking Bored Apes ever again.

I remember thinking, when NFTs first appeared, that they were so obviously a scam, but also a vague sense of surprise that such an obvious scam was proliferating while we were still living through the previous blockchain-related scam, cryptocurrency. And since the NFT bubble burst, we moved on absurdly quickly to the next tech scam-bubble, AI.

1/

All the elections in Western democracies have become so ugly.

The societal fracture lines are so predictable that all it takes for a politician to win elections is to exploit them.

All the large cities in the #Netherlands (with the exception of Rotterdam), like basically all the large cities in the West by now, voted compactly for progressive and center-left political forces.

The rural side, and all the cities with less than 50k people, like everywhere else in the West, voted compactly for the populist and xenophobic far-right.

The map of the political preferences can almost be perfectly super-imposed to a population density map.

Large cities with large foreign communities are thriving and trying to send a political message - that diversity is ok and it's actually good. Rural districts that have almost no influx of migrants, on the other hand, keep being frightened by something they barely know.

The educational fracture line has also become too wide to ignore. Especially in these elections: https://www.dutchnews.nl/2023/11/analysis-votes-piled-up-for-wilders-as-migration-became-focus/. According to a poll, 62% of college-educated voters in the Netherlands voted for PvdA-GL. When combined with the preferences for other center-left parties (D66, Volt, PS...), it turns out a scenario where almost 3 out of 4 college-educated folks cast their vote on the center-left.

On the other side of the spectrum, however, things are flipped. 47% of those with mid-low level education voted for PVV.

And the old-vs-young divide is also becoming more and more relevant. Cities with a younger population consistently cast their vote on the left; rural communities with an older population (that has in many cases already exited the workforce, and in many cases has a net fiscal benefit thanks to the taxes mostly paid by those younger than them, who earn more than them and who mostly live in large cities with a higher cost of life) consistently cast their vote to forces that want to reduce rather than increasing the opportunities for the younger. We're literally witnessing older generations voting against the interests of their own kids.

The results of these elections, and many others in Western democracies in the past few years, are really shaking my core political beliefs.

I'm probably part of the top 5-10%, but I support parties that want to increase taxes on people like me in order to spread wealth more equally.

I've already purchased my house in the middle of Amsterdam, but I support parties that want to build more houses in order to fix the housing crisis that has left thousands either homeless or struggling to pay rent - even if that means higher taxes on my house, or the value of my house going down once supply increases.

I've already completed my academic studies a while ago, but I want more people to get access to affordable high-quality education in order to have a chance to improve their lives like I did.

I've already got a well-paying job, but I want more people to be granted the possibility of accessing well-paid jobs, and even have a dignified minimum wage and a dignified employment contract.

In other words, like many Millennials in my demographic group, and unlike the Boomers and even X-Gens that came before us, I support political forces that often go against my own short-term interests because I see how structural injustice, scarce societal mobility, scarce attention given to equal opportunities for all citizens and outright discrimination affect millions. I support those causes because it's the right thing to do, even if it doesn't directly benefit me on the short term.

On the other hand, how do those who are oppressed the most cast their vote lately?

By voting for those who promise a minimum wage and decent contracts for everyone?

For those who promise to increase the number of paid paternity/maternity benefits, so people can actually take care of their kids and start a family with none of their parents losing their income, instead of just bitching about migrants popping out too many kids, while they silently watch their country become too old and decrepit to be productive?

For those who promise to increase the number of houses on the market so everybody gets their fair shot at buying a house and starting a family, instead of letting the invisible hand of the market take over the house market, turn a basic necessity into a luxury asset to trade and push millions out of home ownership?

For those who promise more funds to education, so many kids will have a better chance in life than their parents?

No, they vote for an ugly racist face with an ugly wig who shouts "kut-marokkan" from a stage like a drunk peasant, who has no plan for fixing any actual problems, but wants people to believe that all of those problems are caused either by the low-skilled African who comes here to do the jobs that the locals no longer want to do, or by the highly-skilled EU/US citizen who comes here to do the jobs that the locals aren't sufficiently qualified to do, and that once we go out of "their" tiny country things will get better for everyone. They'll get back their Zwarte Piet, they'll get back their racist jokes and traditions, they'll get the Quran out of the libraries, they won't get any more gay pride parades, they won't have to say sorry to anyone about their colonial past, they'll put their heads under the sand so climate change won't come after them, and their lives will objectively get better I guess.

This is seriously one of the biggest political identity crises I've ever faced. My generation keeps being robbed again and again of its chance of influencing politics by a mostly older, mostly rural, mostly uneducated and mostly unjustifiably embittered population that mostly perceives us as a threat to them. Too many today believe a perverse proto-fascist tale that tells them that basic rights are a zero-sum game, and that stripping others of their rights and dignity will give them more rights and dignity. Is it even worth to fight political battles for more equal opportunities, when those who need fairness and opportunities the most keep squandering their votes with abhorrent political pipers like #Wilders who have scapegoats for everything and solutions for nothing?

https://www.dutchnews.nl/2023/11/analysis-votes-piled-up-for-wilders-as-migration-became-focus/

Wer ist eigentlich noch da von der großen Herbstwelle?

Wann bist du ins Fediversum gekommen?

a.) vor über 9 Monaten
b.) im Frühling 22
c.) im Herbst 22 oder später

Gern teilen, wer mag.

EDIT: Ich werde ab sofort nur noch sternen ⭐️, nicht mehr antworten (komme nicht mehr richtig hinterher.)