to "save money"

yep.

Fwiw, the article is fine, it doesn't offer anything untrue. And the site isn't "shady", it's just one of many new websites that profit from heightened attention on Ukraine. This is also reported here and there's of course the documentary which I already downloaded for later consumption.

I admit it’s a bit thin, but ultimately all articles about the GRU’s activities are going to be. Russia is closed for any flow of objective information.

Yet we need to talk about it and spread out and combine what we have.

And what we have paints a very likely and very damning scenario.

Firstly, the article is as factual as it can be regarding the topic, and there are multiple additional links for the curious ones, like yourself.

No evidence offered, and the article spends half the time talking about Elon Musk without relation to the report.

I wouldn't say "no" evidence but nothing conclusive, as always with Russia because they don't grant access and deny everything.

I would really love this “news” to present a little bit of investigative journalism so I don’t have to validate it myself each and every time something drops

You mean like going into Russia?

I admit it's a bit thin, but ultimately all articles about the GRU's activities are going to be. Russia is closed for any flow of objective information.

Yet we need to talk about it and spread out and combine what we have.

And what we have paints a very likely and very damning scenario.

Prager of Prager Not-a-University. On a committee that makes decision about actual school education. Goodness. But as things stand, it's just another brick in the wall. The USA is doomed to fail. It's just a question of When and How, not If.

Agreed on all points.

Even the blurb tells us that this has been a thing since basically forever, and the arguments why it should become worse with AI are weak.

But the old fakes were time-consuming to create and required specialized expertise.

Bullshit. Every photographer knew how to take a lead pencil and make the lady's face smoother on the negative.

crickets

I think OP is fighting windmills here. They want to keep this discussion completely theoretical, probably so they don’t have to get off their high horse, make themselves vulnerable. I doubt they’ll ever come up with anything constructive 🤷

I see you are unwilling to answer that or any other question I posed. You want a completely theoretical discussion where people cannot point out to you that you aren't flawless either.

FWIW I had a look at your posting history and I think you're fighting windmills here.

The people here tend to lean in the same political or ideological direction, and they’ve become extremely sensitive to any ideas that seem to go against their worldview.

And there it is. I wonder what really triggered your post?

Even taking all that you wrote into account I still think feddit deals with this better than reddit.

Which btw is also a problem in those subs you describe. No mod can afford to be that strict.

Anyhow, be the change you want to see. I'm sure you performed your searches by now and haven't found anything suitable, so start your own and moderate it the way you see fit!

Or at least tell us which subs you miss.

And another thing that goes for reddit as well as feddit: downvotes by themselves don't mean that you're being dogpiled or silenced or whatever. Controversial takes always attract - well, controversy. Deal with it, discuss your way through it, after all that's what you want, no? I still say the percentage of reasonable people here is far larger than on reddit.

Making the effort to roll your own (totally possible with FOSS)

There were these subs on reddit. I'd actually love some of that here as well; but otoh what you describe is the (dream of the) fediverse anyhow, and so far it really is a much nicer place to be than reddit, so the need is small.

That said, you can look up what these subs were called on reddit, then search for communities of the same name here.

edit: I think OP is fighting windmills here. They want to keep this discussion completely theoretical, probably so they don't have to get off their high horse. I see this a lot with so-called centrists who turn out to be fascists, but a quick glance at OP's posting history does not confirm that. Still, I doubt they'll ever come up with anything constructive concerning the point of this post 🤷

🌈 Enshittification 🌈 in all its facets. This one's pretty bad though.

But he’s also feeling hurt by Canadians’ ban of certain American products from their store shelves in the wake of Trump’s trade war and calls for annexation.

“That is an insult to us,” he said. “We have not done anything like that.”

🤣 - wait, I think he's serious.

Sadly. An example: I work at a small school that does not have an IT department. Staff and teachers are nearly IT-illiterate, and the students can hardly be coaxed to do stuff on a laptop instead of their phones. So installing Linux would add an additional hurdle for both. Probably much smaller than they think, but still: it heightens the threshold to even consider switching to Linux.

There's a few people who know that Linux is just as valid as Windows, but who would they trust to make the switch safely. Me? I'm not a professional. So they'd have to pay someone, properly. And then it all comes down to money again which usually comes down to "let's not change anything".

So for now I'd just be happy if they used LibreOffice instead of MS365.

The same goes for Google Workspace. Making the effort to roll your own (totally possible with FOSS) would require to pay at least 1 person, and some sort of transitional period. It's cheaper and easier to pay none and just blame it on Google when things don't work as desired. These people just don't see it as a priority. Don't understand the dangers.

I use evolution! It has some advantages over thunderbird but afaik it's *nix only.

Are you being sarcastic? Surely some of your streets have them?

LibreOffice

And perfectly working software that covers whatever else MS365 offers, e.g. Thunderbird

I'd love for more people to change to Linux, but these are all (also) Windows software.

Everybody knows the quote about the Torment Nexus. The name of that show is Black Mirror.

Also, after the "Golden Card", who is surprised anymore?

Lastly and most importantly: they use this shit to distract your attention from the actual dismantling of democracy and separation of powers in the USA. I bet some less clickbaity stuff is happening right now.

There is something deeply wrong with those people.

Part thoughtlessness - it never ceases to amaze me how unconsciously most people seem to walk through life - and part entitlement.

But entitlement is always part of it as OP shows.

Where does all this entitlement come from? What's the root cause? I have some jumbled thoughts:

• misunderstood self-confidence
• effectively class society still exists but everybody wants to be upperclass, so every motion of humbleness endangers their idea of themselves

Do you have some jumbled thoughts too?