Urban sprawl, zoning laws, lack of dedicated bus lanes with safe and walkable stops, low frequency, comfort (seat, space, aircon/heat, chargers), and prices.
Comfort and frequency are the easiest to solve, prices, urban sprawl, zoning laws, and the like less so. Not to mention that labour rights must be improved for bus drivers.
Just call terfs what they are: transphobes. They’re not feminist.
I don’t disagree with you. I think that we should encourage the hexbears to be pitted against the great danger first - fascism. When I discuss factionalism and solidarity, I try to put the accent on “I understand your criticism, and that is why we should focus on the great danger: fascism and corporatism. If we will grow without compromising, we must rally all behind that cause, so that we foster solidarity.”
Propaganda at its core, is “sling something at the wall often enough and it becomes truth”.
Well, for one, in eg. East Germany, homosexuality was decriminalised before in the West.
In fascist Italy and Germany, you were sent to a concentration camp.
[source needed]
I don’t like tankies much either but I’ve seen way worse from the fascists.
Great news!
correction: heat from large and combustible vehicles
(also wide stroads and lack of trees; zoning laws, with the exception of isolating heavy industry, also don’t benefit society much, as they contribute to urban sprawl, meaning people need to travel longer to go to work).
Nothing is disrespectful in wanting to change a name to no longer be associated with a toxic person, for example.
Never thought I’d see the day someone actually propose Voodoo Economics seriously, ie. Thatcher’s and Reagan’s policies. Fuck that shit
deleted by creator
Correction: thanks to lower taxes on the average Joe, and higher taxes on the wealthiest…
Better to go with Lix, imo. NixOS had a controversy surrounding sponsorship of American warfare industry.
I’ve standards, no thanks. If I had to choose between a billion for praising the anti-labour Israel, or nothing at all, then I’d rather the latter.
Defederation with Threads should be a priority. They’ll attempt an Embrace, Extend, Extinguish tactic.
All very good suggestions indeed. But there are more. Most of them are North(west) European, but this is because most of those countries got their own systems set up already, and got relatively robust privacy laws. Not sure about other ones, but please do inform!
Weather
Windy 🇨🇿 - expansive, worldwide. Pretty.
Yr 🇳🇴 - Norwegian-focused but has good coverage for Europe.
Meteonet 🇫🇷 - old interface, but no-nonsense.
Whatever your country has, also works.
Payment processors
National/regional ones exist, they’re more independent and should be preferred.
But also, Wero 🇪🇺 is there. Check if your bank already has it. Though I think it must address tech reliance concerns.
Some forms of crypto also are independent, but beware of how much electricity they use.
GNU Taler may also be considered, it’s independent and decentralised!
Banks
If you wish to stick with a ‘traditional’ bank, then these following would be best:
ASN Bank 🇳🇱 - government-safeguarded. Came best out of the Dutch Ethical Banking Guide (Dutch).
Triodos 🇳🇱 - independent (second-best in that guide), Europe-wide.
Ekobanken 🇸🇪 - ecological.
Or check Febea and GABV, those two have lists of European ethical&pro-labour banks (the latter also has lists for other areas).
If you’ve the choice, you can also go for a local bank that’s a co-op, or a credit union. Then you can decide along where the money goes, and hold the bank more responsible. They don’t have stocks, instead having different financing methods.
Phones
Jolla 🇫🇮 (has Sailfish OS)
FairPhone 🇳🇱 is a very good option (best balance between ethics, repairability, and privacy).
Murena 🇫🇷 has the iPhone look and feel. Pretty easy to use.
Nothing 🇬🇧 - a bit riskier in my opinion, since they share demographic and fiscal data, and share data outside of the EU/EEZ+UK. However, it allows bootloader unlocking.
Shiftphone 🇩🇪 - has 3rd party support.
None of these support GrapheneOS, but they really ought to. GrapheneOS may soon be available on Motorola (Chinese-owned, US-based), though. Currently, if you want one, get a used Pixel, ‘clean’ thoroughly, and then put GrapheneOS on it. Alternatively, there’s Purism, but that’s also US-based.
Tablets
Archos 🇫🇷
Juno Tab 🇬🇧 (runs Linux)
Murena 🇫🇷
Nokia 🇫🇮 (also has phones, TVs and laptops)
reMarkable 🇳🇴
The Purism one is good too and has some killswitches, though it’s US-based (California, at least, which has a sort of GDPR-like law).
Laptops
Do you want to game -> Tuxedo 🇩🇪
It just works & supports FOSS devs -> Slimbook 🇪🇸
Privacy-focused Macbook-like? -> StarLab 🇬🇧
More customisable -> Novacustom 🇳🇱
Customisation and colour -> Framework 🇳🇱
Nokia supposedly sells some too, but I couldn’t find a place to buy them.
You can also get an Asus or Acer 🇹🇼 (🇼🇸), or if you don’t mind Chinese products, Lenovo.
Clevo is also a good one, it’s Taiwanese.
Regarding hardware, if you’ve a laptop with an Intel chip, disable the Intel Management Engine, it’s likely backdoor spyware. VIA Technologies 🇹🇼 (🇼🇸) is the only non-American one that makes graphic cards supporting x86, like Intel and AMD.
What OS to pick (an OS is a software like Windows or Macintosh)
Anything Linux, really. Some of them are headed by the Red Hat project, which is good, but it’s American, so keep that in mind. Nevertheless, depending on your tasks:
New to Linux -> Linux Mint (it just works)
Privacy -> openSUSE
Security -> QubesOS (multiple computers on one)
Stable updates -> Debian
I use -> Arch Linux (btw)
Resembles Macbook -> elementaryOS
With most Linux distributions you can make them look like Windows or Mac either way, but I’d like to throw that in.
Smartwatch
PineTime 🇪🇺 - FOSS, more privacy friendly than the big players.
WatchMark 🇬🇧🇩🇪 - has the Apple Watch look, manufactured in Europe.
Montblanc 🇩🇪 - Manufactured in Germany.
Polar Electro 🇫🇮 - Owned by Finns, made in China and Malaysia. For outdoors.
MyKronoz🇨🇭- Swiss, pretty affordable.
And for printers;
Epson 🇯🇵 EcoTank especially, all-around.
Canon 🇯🇵 Pixelma.
Novaware 🇳🇱 - they got a good thermal printer.
Nuvance 🇳🇱 also thermal.
I feel something like this could be a way…
Overhaul Planes
What if we had smaller planes? You could end subsidies for plane flights under 1,000/1,500 km, as planes are less energy efficent below those distances than train. You can also abolish flights for planes that are heavier than a certain weight, and subside investing in green plane fuel research. To make the transition smooth, you’d have to do this in phases, and ensuring CEOs are on board with it without corruption.
With flying, the security and having to travel to the airport (the airport requires a lot more specialised infrastructure), a journey for 1,500 km would take at least 3 to 5 hours.
Trains
Train stations by comparison, take up much less space and thus occur more widely. Thus travel time to them is less.
Therefore, accounting for security and travel time towards the station, a train can be equally fast, and doesn’t lead to ear pain for passengers. If they don’t stray too far, scenic routes are also possible, which is beautiful. As you curve downward a valley, the Mont Blanc reveals itself to you. Driving along rolling hills, past rustic pines and beaches, floral meadows and fair lakes and cities…
They should be massively more subsided to reduce prices. Avoiding overcrowding (which decreases comfort) could be done by only allowing as many to board as there are seats available.
High speed rails could be ideal for daytime travelling. They should be frequent and between many mid-sized and large cities. That is, up until the journey would be longer than a plane flight and its preparations. With longer distances between stops, sleeper trains would be handier, especially if their comfort is seriously improved.
What would sleeper trains need?
Wifi, chargers. You could have cabins for 4 people as the standard, with:
Interior should be simple, hypoallergenic but ‘cosy’. Not claustrophobic, unclean, or metallic.
A more luxurious option might be a private shower (as well baby diaper changing spot) and toilet, with more space. Breakfast served.
A direct journey thus would be handier for sleeper trains, or at the very least the time between transfers should be at least 10 hours (8 sleep, 2 for going to sleep and waking up). There could be transfer hubs for these sleeper trains where you have lounges that are for eating breakfast/dinner, letting children play, or for focusing.