I hope nobody buys a Tesla. It’s an inferior car so it’s not even about politics anymore, you can get a better car for less money by going with another brand.

I see, I guess I’ll have to see if I can find any troubleshooting information or take it up with Zip.

Wow! That is so uncanny it’s scary. That is exactly what MAGA is doing. They have extensive propaganda websites and news stations that are very repetitive in particular emphasizing the “big lie” which is false claims the 2020 election was stolen.

Russia has already being waging hybrid warfare against the West through a massive campaign of disinformation, bots and propaganda. In addition we do it to ourselves as well. In America we have so much propaganda, it’s insane. We have Fox News, Newsmax, so many conspiracy theorist podcast hosts like Alex Jones (who has ties to Russia), Joe Rogan and way more. We also have billionaires funding our elections and supporting Republicans. Of course Germany is a lot better than we are but they have the AfD which receives backing from Elon Musk. 30 years ago I guarantee you almost no American could predict we would have fallen so far and have a president who’s loyal to Russia instead of our country. Likely if you were to tell an American 30+ years ago about this they would explain why they are “exceptional” or different from other countries. But you can see we were wrong. Never assume it can’t happen where you are too.

One key mistake which powered this all: how so many Americans fall for this is because we didn’t do nearly enough to stop it. Our education is underfunded and we don’t learn media literacy and civics. Now I ask will other countries repeat our mistake or will they take action?

I urge you demand your politicians really strengthen and enhance your education system by adding media literacy and emotional skills like conflict resolution, emotional regulation, attention span and impulse control, give the next generation the skills needed to be resilient against Russia’s hybrid warfare against Europe. Public media can also step in and educate adults and there can be workshops and classes. Students should be urged to pass the skills they learn along to their parents and grandparents.

One thing that I think Europe is really overlooking is part why the US is the way it is today is because the education system is based around trying to train people to be suitable for employment rather than educating and enriching the next generation of people. Basically obedient and not thinking for yourself. I hear politicians say schools should focus on jobs way too often.

To mitigate the harmful effects of tech Europe needs to ensure that schools focus on making sure students are resilient with strong media literacy, aware of propaganda, how to use reliable sources as opposed to shaping one’s views with unreputable “TikToks”, “Tweets” and things like that. Also skills like resiliency, habits, attention span and emotional regulation. Social media attacks all of these things. Meta, Google and Twitter are like modern day Tobacco companies. Just like the Tobacco companies they buy politicians rather than admit their products are harmful and shut down or make changes. Schools should also emphasize civic duty and societal impact of personal choices.

That’s brilliant! I really like your idea!

It’s going to take a lot more than one of us. I recommend in specializing in something you feel most passionate about. I have two strategies I try to resist the Trump regime:

1. Help remove Trump’s pillars of support via boycotts. In particular I recommend boycotting Tesla, Twitter, Uline, Fossil Fuel companies and Tobacco companies.
2. Try spreading the word and encouraging others to take action.

I have a suggestion: skip the pop especially skip pop from US-based companies. I think if you want to make changes to your diet this is the best change to make because it will also improve your health and water is almost free (when compared to pop).

I see your point about my Apple example. I ended up thinking about this more and removed it from my post because it’s not a good example.

I will say I did research where Spotify has the most employees and it says they have the most in the United States so it’s not built solely by Swedish people. In fact I suspect the percentage of Spotify built by Swedish people to be somewhat low or very likely less than 50% but I don’t have enough information to be sure on this, this is conjecture on my part.

For far-right I’m saying that Trump is far-right so supporting Trump is supporting the far-right in America.

Joe Rogan actually isn’t the most extreme right wing person. What I object to most is his willingness to spread disinformation. Here’s a good article about him: https://www.mediamatters.org/joe-rogan-experience/joe-rogan-wrapped-year-covid-19-misinformation-right-wing-myths-and-anti-trans

In fact the very first line in the article is “Joe Rogan: “You can say whatever you want. We’re on Spotify.””.

I suspect that yes the “far-left” would be allowed to use Spotify and a quick glance seems to show that it’s allowed.

About shutting things down because of disagreements I understand you there. If someone believed all bike sheds should be painted blue and someone else thought they should be painted green in that case it’s likely blue advocates would try to shut down the green advocate’s podcasts simply due to disagreements even thought it would be wrong to do so.

But now let’s imagine this: the people in favor of blue paint started to be dishonest by spreading disinformation and advocated for harming people who wanted green paint. Isn’t that different morally? I do thank platforms should take a stance against disinformation.

Also with my paint example neither opinion causes harm to society. What happens if someone advocates for things that are harmful to others like anti-vax? That has real world consequences.

About trying to make better points that’s also a good point, no matter if Rogan is allowed or not we should be doing this.

The website you posted has a history of collaborating with other fake news fascist websites.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SouthFront#Disinformation_and_propaganda

In 2016, Finnish journalist Jessikka Aro described SouthFront as “an allegedly citizen-sourced project that looks more like a suspicious information operation”. Describing it as “a fascinating hybrid of revealingly detailed military intelligence and totally bogus stories”, she said that the site’s content centers on “the success of Russia’s armed forces, and showing off Russia’s weapons”.[13]

In 2017, researchers at Oxford University’s Internet Institute studied the collaboration of SouthFront with two US-based fascist fake news sites, Veterans Today and its sister site Veterans News Now.[14][15]

Philip N. Howard, one of the paper’s coauthors, told McClatchy DC that the three websites underlay “an entire ecosystem of junk news about national security issues that is deliberately crafted for U.S. veterans and active military personnel … a complex blend of content with a Russian view of the world – wild rumors and conspiracies”.[16] The Oxford researchers concluded that the three sites were more successful on Twitter than on Facebook, saying “on Twitter there are significant and persistent interactions between current and former military personnel and a broad network of Russia-focused accounts, conspiracy theory focused accounts, and European right-wing accounts.”[14] SouthFront representatives responded to a Politico story about the Oxford study with an email saying they had no connection to Russia’s government, adding that describing them as part of a Kremlin network was “contrary to the principles of freedom of speech and … discriminatory against Russians.”[15]

Hey Bubbles,

I notice you’ve been posting some articles from Sputnik news. Do you know about Sputnik news?

According to https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/sputnik-news/

Sputnik news is a right-wing biased website known for “Russian Propaganda, Conspiracy, Lack of Transparency, Some Fake News”. It’s factual reporting is “very-low” and it was created via a presidential decree by Vladimir Putin.

That’s a great update! Also remember to include the foreign ownership. According to https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/newsmax-bias-credibilty-reliability/

In 2024, it was reported that between 2019-2020, Former Qatari government official Sheikh Sultan bin Jassim Al Thani invested $50 million in Newsmax through Heritage Advisors. The paper cited sources employed at Newsmax at the time as saying that they were urged to soften news coverage of Qatar — a claim that the outlet rejects.

It reminds me a little of how GB News is owned by an investment firm in Dubai. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legatum

Legatum Limited is a private investment firm, headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.[1] Legatum was founded in 2006 by Christopher Chandler. Legatum owns the British broadcaster GB News.

* of course I’m just joking about including this in the article, it would be too long for the table to list all the problems with Newsmax, what you have is great!

I was shocked to learn that Spotify was based in Europe. They seem equally evil to US big tech companies so I assumed they were based in America. Reminder that Spotify is paying lots of money to fund Joe Rogan so he can spread disinformation and lies.

I did some research on this and found out it’s part of the streamed channels https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_DTT_channels_in_the_United_Kingdom#Streamed_channels. I couldn’t find a contact form on the Freeview website but I sent a message to the “Channels” partner with us email address. I also sent an email to Stop Funding Hate about this to see if they would be interested in taking it on.

For what it’s worth the article I linked to claims that Fox News is available in France through something called “Free” I suspect it’s this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_(ISP) and “Orange, France Telecom (Voyage SAS)”. I guess those fall under the Pay TV umbrella.

EDIT: See comrade_twisty’s comment. This might only be part of the AFN: https://lemmy.zip/post/55893766/23606295

In that case nevermind. Here’s what I originally wrote:

I completed the contact form https://astra.de/kontakt. Here’s the message I wrote to them:

Dear Astra,

I noticed Fox News was listed as one of the options for channels (https://astra.de/channels/fox-news-channel). I strongly urge Astra to consider dropping Fox News from your channel lineup. Former Fox News executives have said that say they now believe the conservative broadcaster has become a “disinformation machine” that’s destabilising democracy. (source: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/fox-news-executives-disinformation-dominion-b2374308.html)

So Fox News isn’t a real news station, it’s a disinformation and propaganda machine that spreads hate and lies. I suspect very few Astra customers actually watch this channel yet depending on your agreements with Fox you may be giving the station a lot of money. Please consider dropping the channel as soon (I should have said as soon as possible I made a typo that I didn’t notice before I hit send). Thank you so much for your consideration.

If there is someone who I can better address this matter to please pass along their contact information.

I’ll admit I’m not the best writer and it probably wasn’t the best move sending it in English but I felt it was likely better just to use my own words rather having AI write it in German or use a machine translator. Maybe it would be better to ask for help next time and have someone in the country the station is assist with the message if someone is willing.

However don’t worry about this too much because I suspect volume and the basic message is what matters most: the more TV providers are contacted about this the better the chances are they will drop it so don’t let the fact that I contacted them prevent you from contacting them. In fact if anything I hope it will encourage others to do likewise. It only took me a few minutes to fill out the form.

Keep talking about it and never give up! If you convince even one person it’s a victory!

I’ll admit actually this time I’m in Apple’s favor. Personally I don’t think there should be any tracking even opt-in but it’s good they give people a way to opt-out.

Start with the worst of the worst. Targeted action can have a chilling effect (in this case I mean it in a good way but chilling from their perspective) on other billionaires and big donors.

By far I believe everyone should coalesce around protesting Musk’s companies especially Tesla and Twitter because we all have the power to make a difference. Leaving Twitter is free and will actually save time because no more time wasted using Twitter. Avoiding buying a Tesla is just common sense because it’s an inferior car compared to other EVs.

No more learned helplessness, we can make a difference!

With the Trump regime this should be a firm NO.

Is there anyone we can contact to voice our opposition to this?