Hans-Christoph Steiner @eighthave@librem.one

@Lazycog@mastodon.online @nanoelquant Finland became neutral after the Soviet Union's invasion. That is what I'm referring to. Allying with Sweden and Germany means Finland was not neutral then.

@nanoelquant And Austria and Finland provide possible examples of how neutrality could work for Ukraine. Austria was neutral while Soviet tanks rolled into our neighbors Hungary and Czechoslovakia. They did not invade Austria, even though militarily, it would have been simple for the Soviets to take over Austria. They had done it before. I know at lot less about it, but #Finland's situation during World War Two looks quite similar to Ukraine's now. Finland was neutral yet not invaded again.

@nanoelquant Joining military alliances also means getting dragged into the wars of other countries. You can see that over the history of #NATO. Right now, it is plain to see how Putin is leaning on Belarus to join in the war of Ukraine, and tried with Kazakhstan too.

Consider #Trump does not seem to like NATO and could be the next US President https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/04/john-bolton-trump-nato-2024

NATO won't let Ukraine join until the war is settled. After that, its not clear Ukraine benefits. Neutrality might work better

@nanoelquant Switzerland and Sweden have been neutral for centuries, they were not taken over by the Nazis or Soviets, unlike all of their neighbors. So saying military alliances will save a country from invasions is overlooking actual history. It is not that simple.

@nanoelquant And also consider that #NATO and #US directly supported terrorist militants in Kosovo, where they remain problematic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo_Liberation_Army

@nanoelquant I think this leaves out the part where #NATO started a 20 year #bullshit war in #Afghanistan, disasterous involvement in #Libya, and key NATO members invaded #Iraq because they wanted its oil. Sure, joining NATO could stop #Russia from invading, but then you're contributing to invading other countries.

@FeralRobots @librarianshipwreck that's a great analogy. Your SAT analogy struck a chord, I was always good at standardized tests, even in subjects I was not good in. I got 790/800 in the math SAT, and I barely could make it through calculus. That always left me the impression that standardized tests don't really measure capability or knowledge, but more the window dressing around capability and knowledge.

wow, the @EU_Commission 's grants website includes a #Panic button!

So many English-language media outlets report on coups simply as an attack on democracy without actually talking about why people are supporting the coup. Too often "democracy" in post-colonial states means choosing between leaders handpicked by old colonial powers who represent those interests (Afghanistan is a clear example).

One #NigerCoup supporter said: "There’s a small number of people profiting from the riches of Niger, Nigeriens cannot live like that."
https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-08-02/some-of-nigers-neighbors-defend-the-coup-there-even-hinting-at-war-its-a-warning-for-africa.html

Neither #ElonMusk nor #Tesla is helping with #ClimateChange. They are giving us an easy out that won't actually work. Even so-called #green energy has an environmental impact, including water use, mining, use of oil for plastics, etc. At this point, electric cars should be taxed the same as any other, except maybe cheap ones. It is absurd at this point to subsidize building environmentally damaging luxury cars like Teslas. Get more people walking, biking, taking transit

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/23/07/31/0128257/elon-musk-predicts-electricity-shortage-in-two-years

@jaschop I agree there needs to be better funding models, that's very difficult to establish given the cartel nature of the current copyright regimes. This handful of large copyright corporations have managed to buy lasting influence in so many governments.

Its frustrating to see how deeply #Copyright cartels have infiltrated our culture, that people call making cost-free digital copies "theft" even in countries where it is fully legal to do so. It is not even "copyright infringement" if it is not against the local copyright laws. And yes, unlike laws about theft, copyright laws vary widely around the world. I've always liked "Copying Is Not Theft" has an illustration of the difference https://yewtu.be/watch?v=IeTybKL1pM4

I still don't get why #Apple #AppStore or #GooglePlay do not allow devs to give source when uploading apps for review. It makes review tasks much easier and more reliable, as we've seen with #FDroid's review. Would it scare the #proprietary app devs too much? Are they more interested in cheap "window dressing" reviews than actually catching things? It is hard not to see bias since both are #gatekeepers getting lots of money from apps they are policing.
For example
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/07/apple-tries-to-close-privacy-loopholes-with-new-app-submission-policy/ 1/

@rene_mobile I can't think of a technical measure to detect any compromise, but it would surely be possible to detect compromise using other evidence. For example, someone suspects foul play, they ask group members they trust to let their devices be forensically inspected. Then any differences between the group transcripts should be clear upon visual inspection, and probably provable based on an export of Signal history from the devices. This kind of investigation caught NSO's #Pegasus

@rene_mobile In theory, it sounds great. I'm still curious to see how much it will affect real world communications. I haven't really heard about exploits to Signal's lack of Group Integrity.