Perhaps that’s an opportunity, if you don’t think it’s a value trap that is.

I like that it’s a separate application. I had issues with the way OneDrive integrated with Windows/Office and conflicts with my corporate OneDrive account (this was a while ago, this may have been fixed).

I always prefer to have a full local copy (Google Drive, which a use for specific data has been really annoying with this) without using Cloud Files API or any extra features. A literal cloud sync of specific folder, nothing else.

I mostly use Dropbox out of habit (and because I have a grandfathered account). I’ve been meaning to switch to ProtonDrive (already have a paid account with them for email), just haven’t got to it yet.

One advantage of Dropbox is that it is not that integrated into Windows/office.

I use Dropbox, albeit I have an old free account with much more storage than their 2GB base.

Pichai steered around such questions on grounds that the case is in progress, but warned possible remedies “could have unintended consequences, particularly to the dynamic tech sector and the American leadership there.”

And monopolies also have consequences in terms worse pricing, fewer product offerings and less innovation.

Meta AI (I didn’t even know this was a thing) has 185 M WAUs?

Is this a real number or some sort of misleading stats where they include people are only technically using it via some sort of hook into FB/Insta (don’t use them so not aware).

Clippy 2024!

Never heard of the “thefp”, but I would be very careful with their content.

The article in OP links to another article from the same source “The Fantasy World of Ta-Nehisi Coates” by Coleman Hughes.

Irrespective on where you stand on Israel/Palestine or your opinion of Ta-Nehisi Coates or his book. There is a basic disregard of facts in “The Fantasy World” article.

There is a discussion of an Israeli law on marriage with foreigners. The author claims that it is limited to nationality (emphasis mine):

For instance, as an example of Israel’s Jim Crow–like “two-tier society,” he asserts that “Jewish Israelis who marry Jews from abroad needn’t worry about their spouses’ citizenship,” whereas the state “tracks Palestinian noncitizens through a population registry” and “bars Palestinian citizens from passing on their status to anyone on that registry—abroad or in the West Bank.”

The implication conveyed by this sentence—that Israeli law treats Arab Israelis differently than Jewish Israelis—is simply not true. The law in question is neutral as regards the race of the citizen attempting to naturalize his or her foreign spouse. **The restriction is instead based on the nationality of the spouse. **

Passed during the Second Intifada, the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law erected barriers to one’s spouse obtaining Israeli citizenship if that spouse was from the West Bank or Gaza. This becomes understandable once you consider that the law was passed in 2003, after a Hamas member who had received an Israeli identity card by marriage blew himself up in a restaurant, killing 16 Israelis. Nor was this an isolated example. Since 2001, 155 Palestinians brought into Israel in this way (before the 2003 ban took effect) have been involved in terror attacks.

But the actual link provided by the author himself for more information on the law explicitly contradicts this.

The aim of the law was to prevent terrorists from entering Israel and becoming citizens as well as to preserve the nation’s Jewish character.

Demography was a consideration as well. “According to demographer Arnon Sofer, had the process [of giving Palestinians marrying Israelis citizenship] continued unabated, 200,000 Palestinians would receive Israeli citizenship in the first decade alone, and the number of Palestinians in Israel would rise exponentially due to the law and high population growth. Within sixty years, Jews would be a minority within Israel (not including the West Bank and Gaza Strip), effectively destroying the Jewish character of the state.”

A bit of tangent, but I was surprised by the level of sloppiness (and the contrast with the “serious” writing style).

Russians are already hostile to Ukrainians my man. Saying “if you don’t treat us with respect, then we’ll really fuck you up, this is nothing!” is just another facet of russian supremacist and imperialist thinking. As are your justifications of protecting russian settler colonialism in Ukraine or Latvia.

What fucking self-fulfilling prophecy? Russians have been invading Ukraine and working on eradicating Ukrainian identity for a third of independent Ukraine’s history (and that’s just one example, there is also Moldova, Georgia, Chechnya and Belarus). Not to mention all the work russians have done on trying to eliminate Ukrainian identity in the centuries before.

Being nice to russians? How were Ukrainians not nice to russians before 2014? We decided to demonstrate self-determination?

We’ve seen how peace was brokered after 2014. So spare your fake calls for peace. You full well know that peace for most russians is just re-grouping period for another invasion and more mass murder of Ukrainians.

Buying into false allegation that the majority of russians do not want to eradicate Ukrainian identity is not going to bring peace in Ukraine.

The first step for Ukrainian society (and it’s sad that it took so much death and destruction to get there) is recognizing that:

1. A strong majority of russians are genocidal imperialists. They overwhelming supported the annexation of Crimea. At the very least a strong majority support the full scale invasion and eradication of Ukrainian identity and mass killings/torture of Ukrainians in occupied territories.
2. Russians are not going to change any time soon. Not because of some “imperialist gene” or something stupid like that, but because of the choices they make (as adults that hold responsibility for their actions).

Poland and the Baltic nations recognized this and successfully took measures to account for this (you can’t invade them and you destroy their culture).

We did not and that is why we are going through this current hell.

I dare say it’s an outcome of being nice to russians before 2014.

I may be wrong, but I get the impression that the US legal system does not allow for real (not a $3.50 fine) prosecution of oligarchs/high end organized crime outside of some edge cases (Theranos, Madoff) where it’s physically impossible to come up with an excuse.

That crime family running a “legal” opiate distribution cartel comes to mind.

The plan this time is to build not just a different interface for a browser, but a different kind of browser entirely — one that is much more proactive, more powerful, more AI-centric, more in line with that original vision.

Who could have thought? These goons are so predictable…

This is just one survey you can look multiple other (different provider, different methodologies) and they show the same thing. Bold of you to call me emotional when you’re approach to any and all research (or even history for that matter) is “it’s not valid if it doesn’t show russians in a good light”.

They are not really Latvian if they support Latvia’s enemies, are they? This is not a complex topic, if you don’t support the country, don’t want to learn the language, don’t care for the culture, then you can’t call the country your home.

I say many of the people that can be defined as pro-war are not for it because they want to see Ukrainians gone.

The goal and the outcome of the war and occupation of Ukrainian territories. Preference falsification goes both ways. This is not some sort of secret information; the individuals know full well that Ukrainian are brutally prosecuted in the occupied territories and they support it. That is why they are genocidal imperialists.

Never denied your ethnic background. I said you are not Ukrainian; not all Ukrainians are ethnically Ukrainian (one example would be Crimean Tartars). You don’t speak Ukrainian, you don’t live in Ukraine, you openly white-wash russian genocidal imperialism, you support settler colonialism in the Baltic nations (literally saying the Latvia must tolerate individuals that openly oppose Latvian statehood and want to turn Latvia into an authoritarian hellhole).

I brought up victimhood because revanchism and victimhood are defining features of russian culture. It doesn’t have to be that way, but that is the choice russians make. Going back to my previous post, show me one example where a public figure (not Novodvorskaya or Kasprov) admitted that at least some of russia’s trouble are the cause of russians themselves and they need to take responsibility for their actions. Since you claim that victimhood is not a defining element of russian society/culture, this should be easy.

I am not going to speculate on future developments. One thing I will say is I would never trust any russian who talks about “peace”.

I believe I explicitly stated that I don’t believe that russians are “inherently imperialist”. I do believe that this a choice that they make and that we should treat them as adults.

Earlier in this thread someone (was it you?) claimed that russians have no access independent non-state media. I pointed out that this was false and that every russian with a smartphone has had uncensored access to youtube (until this summer) and that major reliable news agencies have had russian language service on YT since ~2010. The point being is that the broad alignment of a strong majority of russian society with state propaganda is a choice! And russians need to take responsibility for it.

You mentioned helpful. Let me flip this around a bit. How has your approach (“russians are defacto completely innocent and you’re just spreading hate!”) been helpful to your own country?

What has your “opposition” achieved in the past 15 years? I will note that they have largely maintained a chauvinistic posture - e.g. support the annexation of Crimea. How will everyone (Ukrainians? the west?) being “helpful” (as defined by you) impact anything in Russia?

Linus is a god for many of us… with human traits though… His Finland, although historically robbed by Russia, achieved its highest splendor during the decades of neutrality, not by fiercely antagonizing one or the other power… same as Switzerland, Ireland, Austria and Singapore.

Ukraine was neutral before 2014, that didn’t help avoid an invasion. Not to mention they occupied Moldova and Georgia before that too.

They have not been able to attack the Baltic nations or Poland because they joined NATO.

Neutrality word salad is only for the ignorant or those who support russian imperialism.

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You’re lying about the authors conclusions. They explicitly stated that the support was higher than 65% due to their methodology. And they did clearly state that preference falsification is a mere ~10%. Therefore their research (like any quantitative research on this topic) supports my statement that the majority of russians are genocidal imperialists as they want to conquer Ukraine and destroy Ukrainian identity.

No, they need to learn the Latvian language at a high level if they want to live there. This is basic component of calling a place your home. You have to some loyalty to your country and not support a genocidal enemy. The fact that russian culture is at least on some level defined by genocidal imperialism is not a problem of the Latvians. This is basic stuff.

Ukraine is not your home. You are a russian, no Ukrainian would try to come up with “war is necessity” word salad or your comical “russians the people are truly in the hard spot right now”. So don’t lie!

You don’t care about borders because you don’t care about the ten of thousands of civilians in russian torture dungeons. We also both know that vast majority of russians are not interested in any kind of real peace. Just like in 2014, the goal is to get some breathing room, then attacks and try and get more territory and exterminate Ukrainian culture in the newly occupied territories. This approach is nearly universally known and (silently) supported by a strong majority of russians.

GTFO with your “on my people”. You defend russian imperialism and colonialism and you dare to imply you have some relation to Ukraine?

Victimhood is a defining element of russian culture. Without it there is no russian “culture”. Conspiracy theories blaming foreign countries for any and all ills are extremely prevalent in russian society. This has been true in the past, this is true today and it will be true in the future.

I don’t understand what you mean by your “punisher” sentence. The vast majority russians already blame everyone but themselves for all their problems. You brought up russophobia as an implicit excuse for russian crimes. Russophobia doesn’t really exist. When a society consist of a strong majority of genocidal imperialists that lack empathy, it is reasonable to see that society as a threat and a problem. This is not rocket science.

Have you ever seen a well known russian (outside a few figures like Novodvorskaya) admit that at least part of the problem lies in russian society at large? I think not … because we both know the role of victimhood among russians.

To develop a russia strategy that works, the world needs to understand that russians will never act in good faith, russians will always play the victim and a strong majority of russians are committed and genuine ethno-racial supremacists that lack empathy.

Alienating russians is a red herring. The only way forward is a sober view of russian culture and methods and an understanding that russia only understand force; you have to treat them like they treat others.

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For you, extermination of Ukrainian identity in the occupied territories is OK. For me it’s not.

And at any rate, I don’t buy your “whataboutism” about Iraq. You don’t care about killed Iraqi civilians just you like you don’t care about Ukrainiains killed by Russians.

I want to ask you another thing - do you realize that the mafia group in control of Russia got to the point of no opposition and ability to invade, for example, Ukraine, because from the very beginning it was supported by the West against democratic forces in Russia?

No, I do not believe in russian victimhood narratives.

And I don’t buy your claim that everyone is “anti-war” and a small minority believes that “war is a necessity”. Your anecdotal experience is not really relevant when we have qualitative, quantitative research and reality (that russian have been directly occupying three nations since the USSR broke up - is this not fucking imperialism).

There are people who are generally speaking of exterminating Ukraine, putting Z signs on the vehicles etc., but there aren’t that many of them.

As I wrote earlier, it’s not only an issue with those who openly express their genocidal imperialism (and there are tens of millions of such adults). It’s also those who doesn’t see a big problem or think it’s a fair sacrifice that works for them. Such people are just as bad and their actions lead to the same outcomes.

“but not aimed at exterminating Ukrainians per se”.

This is just white-washing russian genocidal intent. Your “restore the slavic world” fellows know full well that russia is doing everything possible to exterminate Ukrainian culture (not to mention torturing tens of thousands of civilians and terrorizing millions). They all know it and they all support it.

And there is a majority of people I know, people that are opposed to war. Most of them have something to lose, and even those who previously protested now can’t risk that, because regime got way more brutal. They literally don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do while my close ones are in danger.

The overwhelming majority supported the annexation of Crimea (80-85%), the occupation of Donbass and the full scale invasion. Same with the 2008 invasion of Georgia. And yet you bring the people you know?

For Latvia to be their home, they would need to learn Latvian language and be part of Latvian culture as opposed to supporting Putin and imperialism more broadly. You can’t call a place your home when your loyalties lie to a regime that wants to destroy the country you allegedly call home.

What an interesting interpretation of the first paper. It pretty clearly states that preference falsification is at around 10% with support for the full scale invasion going from 75% (direct polling) to 65% (list experiment).

“the research you provided only confirms that there is an issue of hiding true opinions, without definitively stating wide support.”

This is complete bullshit that directly contradicts the findings of the paper. The authors even explicitly state that due to their methodology they believe that the true level of support is higher than 65% even when accounting for preference falsification.

List experiments have issues, any methodology does. But when multiple quantitative methodologies and qualitative research show the same findings, you can’t just bring up “plenty of inaccuracies of its own”.

Did we read the same paper? It’s a pretty damning picture of even those who are not aggressively pro-imperialist genocide. I don’t see what getting tired or not getting has to do with anything. They still support the russian army (that send cruise missiles into children’s cancer hospitals) and in principle they are OK with killings and destruction as long as it benefits them.

There’s one thing we have in common - we want this war to end. You, probably for overall peace in the world, me, because my close ones are in danger, and also for global peace, of course. But seeing how it unfolds in Russia, how russophobia channels and feeds into Russian nationalism - something that can easily be weaponized - I really don’t think this is the answer. Russians the people are truly in the hard spot right now, and if we can influence them in a friendly way, we should, because animosity clearly doesn’t help.

This is great example of supremacist russian thinking. It perfect aligns with notion that a strong majority of russians are genocidal imperialist (while not necessarily open stating this).

Let me translate:

“We want to keep 20% of Ukraine [and attack again later], because of “world peace”, we all want “world peace”, right?”

“Show respect to us russians, this is nothing. If you don’t show us respect we will fuck you up!”

“Russians the people are truly in the hard spot right now” - Typical russian victimhood. They are always the victims in any situation!

“and if we can influence them in a friendly way, we should, because animosity clearly doesn’t help” - There is not a single example in recent history of russians doing any type of good faith actions in the geopolitical sphere. On the contrary, a recognition that a strong majority of russians are genocidal imperialists, that they do not believe in human rights (beyond using the concept for manipulation and lies) and they support authoritarianism (in their own country, but in others too) is the only way forward.

This is pretty tired whataboutism w.r.t US and Iraq.

The Iraq equivalent would be American annexing Basra state, banned arabic and forcing everyone to speak with a Texan accent and eat pork chops.

All the while sending Arabic speaker to dungeons and having state TV with goons laughing about how they caught a local Iraq women speaking Arabic and sent her to a dungeon.

I wouldn’t be able to answer accurately either.

The definition of genocide is an interesting one. I have a DIY definition that may not be listed in the human rights charts, but has what I would argue a rather lucid quality to it.

“Actions against you specifically, your immediate and extended family and your broader ethno-national group that make you wonder if the russians want to destroy you.”

On some level, I do agree with what you’re saying about the role of oppression and propaganda.

But how do you know this is the primary cause? What if it’s a choice the russians want to make?

It’s unfortunately not unheard of for whole nations (i.e. close to or at overwhelming majority support level) to support and engage in genocidal imperialism. Arguably, one would only continue at this path if they have the benefit of people white-washing their actions, no?

The reason I brought up choice earlier is that I do not believe russians are “inherently” genocidal or that they are not capable of change. This would be a ridiculous argument. I do believe that they do want to change, they like being genocidal imperialists.

And they will continue to do so until there is pushback (they get treated like they treat others) and less people buy into their white-washing propaganda.

This is not a cartoon for adults.