Not exactly, but Runescape3 went hard into microtransactions (which arguably generated the revenue needed so they didn’t need to be implemented in OSRS) but they did a pivot abd are rolling back microtransactions, removing gambling loot boxes in some cases and leaving things as direct purchase, etc

https://secure.runescape.com/m=news/the-future-of-mtx-our-approach--your-involvement

They’ve even gone as far as to launch cosmetic free worlds so mtx cosmetics are disabled. Which I, for one, have always enjoyed the visual progression of gear in games, getting cooler gear as you get more powerful and knowing of the really cool items which are hard to get.

https://secure.runescape.com/m=news/mtx-experiment-cosmetic-free-worlds-live-now

I would still say no.

You should have a right to privacy. And there are still ways in which law enforcement could investigate and track perpetrators of crimes and implement “justice,” though as is obvious in America now, justice isn’t ethical either, and what can be labelled as crime, or even terrorism (take a look at NSPM-7.

Even if 100% ethical, I still have my right to privacy. Should I commit a crime, then I would forfeit that right. It would be up to law enforcement to enforce that law. By penalizing a VPN service, which is a leg service, it removes the right of privacy from everyone, not just myself whom they supposedly had evidence of a crime in this hypothetical. Otherwise, they targeted a VPN for their claims alone.

Regardless of that, taking down said VPN will not stop crimes from occurring. Users will simply use other VPN services as more exist.

Given the recent legislation to try an ban VPNs, this could mean that VPNs could be forced to track the traffic of users, which kind of defeats the point of them. Even in this 100% ethical government scenario.

Basically, law enforcement has the tools to individually track perpetrators already, if they were interested. In real life, they’re interested in protecting capital. Individual investigations are expensive. But working with corporations and governments to collect data and track all users? Well then it becomes much cheaper to press a button and arrest someone for whatever “crime” you define.

I think the real questions at hand are:

Is it ethical to remove the right of privacy of everyone in the name of “justice?” (No)

Are the laws by which certain actions are labelled as crime ethical? (Also, no.)

We believe that justice should be ethical. When capital and authiritarians rule, justice has no ethics.

I stand by my distinction.

The CEO argument collapses under the smallest scrutiny. Are we seriously suggesting Elon Musk, Larry Ellison, or Mark Zuckerberg perform labor? Their employees do. The engineers, the warehouse workers, the content moderators, they all generate the value. The CEO class performs ownership, and the ideological justification for their outsized returns is supposed to be risk. But when that risk materializes it gets offloaded onto workers through layoffs, wage cuts, and benefit reductions. They privatize the upside and socialize the downside onto the very people generating the value. That’s risk transfer which is exactly the exploitative relationship the original definition was describing.

The Social Security vs Chinese wages comparison is purchasing power theater. You’re comparing raw dollar amounts across completely different cost of living contexts without PPP adjustment, while ignoring that Chinese wages have been rising rapidly and the social policies that significantly reduce the cost of living for Chinese citizens. And even more absurd is the fact that Social Security payments in many cases, such as minimum payments, can place Americans below the poverty line. Most importantly though, it’s entirely beside the point. American elderly poverty rising in the context of American costs is a domestic policy failure. ‘Someone somewhere has it worse’ has never been a coherent rebuttal to a structural critique. It’s a deflection.

And wealthy pensioners have completely different voting incentives than struggling retirees. Conflating the two obscures a deliberate class dynamic. The generation now calling younger people lazy came of age with defined benefit pensions, strong union density, affordable higher education, and accessible housing. They built their security on a social contract that existed because previous generations fought and died for it then systematically voted to dismantle every piece of it once they’d extracted what they needed. ‘Fuck you, got mine’ basically, which is exactly how modern CEOs operate, amassing their wealth, laying off employees, stock buybacks, corporate bonuses, and abandoning ship on a golden parachute eventually.

Housing is the clearest mechanism. Homeowner retirement security is often directly financed by artificial scarcity. They vote against density, development, and tenant protections because their nest egg depends on keeping supply constrained. Their comfort is structurally contingent on younger generations being priced out.

Then they attribute their own material advantages to hard work and personal virtue, and younger generations’ struggles to laziness and poor choices. That’s just ideological cover for a clear material interest as we continue to be more productive than previous generations. We’re just too tired and burnt out to put on the theater anymore and call out the problems with the system that the older generations benefit from or are too much of cowards to admit. The meritocracy myth in its most cynical form, deployed by people who benefited from collective infrastructure and then pulled up the ladder. This is why the older demographic skews Republican and MASSIVELY so. It’s not nostalgia or confusion. It’s class interest expressed through the ballot box, dressed up as culture war.

“Tennessee officials” aren’t paying shit. Tennessee taxpayers are paying for the officials’ fuckup. Perhaps it should be taken directly from the officials’ private accounts. Why punish taxpayers for the officials infringement on another taxpayer’s rights?

The officer who arrested him should pay for not refusing an unconstitutional arrest.

The police chief should pay for not slapping down such an arrest.

Any officers that were aware of it should pay for not acting to protect the man’s constitutional rights.

The DA and the judge the signed for any arrest warrant should pay for, again, blatantly ignoring the unconstituionality of this arrest warrant.

Hold the people who failed the system accountable so they don’t want to fuck up again. None of them give a shit and the taxpayers have to make this man whole rather than the people that harmed him. Contrarily, the taxpayers brought light to the case to try and protect the man.

American justice at work.

And Jellyfin downloads start spiking.

Huh, coincidence I guess.

It’s never an option to tax the megacorporations that force us to use public roads that they don’t pay for to get to work is it?

Good ol corporate socialism. Privatize the gains and socialize the losses.

Tax the megacorps more and use that to maintain roads and expand public transit providing an actual choice for people rather than forcing the individual to buy a car, pay for maintenance, for registration, for fuel, for a license, for tolls, all just to get to work.

Retirees live off deferred compensation from their own labor in the form of savings, pensions, social security, etc. Capitalists live off returns generated by other people’s labor. The distinction isn’t whether you work, it’s where the income comes from.

And if retirees were actually ‘rich’ by your logic, elderly poverty wouldn’t be rising as benefits get gutted. People are committing petty crime in their 70s to survive. Poverty and crime are intrinsically linked, even against the belief that as age increases, the level of crime committed will decrease. That’s not a rich class, that’s a working class that got squeezed their whole lives and arrived at retirement without enough buffer.

The actual capitalist class never has that problem because their wealth compounds regardless of policy. Conflating ‘not working’ with ‘owning capital’ is exactly the meritocracy myth my previous comment was describing. It obscures who actually extracts value from whom.

This video was very informative on the retirement situation in America imo. When in reality, most of that “retirement money” is for people that would never need it given their vast wealth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRLxcx79OvE

The simplest way to classify “rich” is capitalist class. Those that no longer perform labor. Instead, their wealth passively generates wealth that sustains their lifestyle. There’s no set, defined number. Someone who is “rich” does not need to work and affords luxury.

Which, this is only facilitated via an exploited working class that are not fairly compensated for the labor that they perform. Hence why the rich are a parasite class. Socialism for the wealthy and slavery for the workers.

Basic fundamentals of capitalism. Meritocracy is the myth that allows it to function similar to how a religious mandate provided legitimacy to monarch.

I’d also like a world where we don’t need to survive off charity. Redistribute the stolen wealth and provide for everyone.

Yeah…yeah. We live under authoritarianism no matter how much authoritarians want to gaslight us.

It shouldn’t in theory. Worst case is if bitwarden closes source, just fork the latest current open version and use it.

Ideally, a group, either independent or joining with vaultwarden devs, can build/maintain the frontend for vaultwarden that is bitwarden.

Nah, copper has better conductivity. Gold is better with corrosion resistance and it doesn’t char when making contact. That’s why it’s used to plate terminal contacts, like the ends of hdmi plugs, and switch contacts. Silver is the best.

It doesn’t exist yet 😅 as I said, still learning and trying to avoid using AI as a lot of vibe coded discord clones popped up. I did compile a list (which probably needs updating)

https://github.com/DukePantarei/discord-alternatives-wishlist

You’re right. And that’s why more of us need to contribute and spread the word of projects to support them.

Honestly, FOSS is our last bastion against this consumerist hellscape. I’m working on learning to build my own discord-like front end on matrix specifically for gaming. But I’m just one guy. We’ve all gotta pick where we place our effort and support those around us similarly.

Vaultwarden taking over bitwarden, should they shut doen as open source, I think would be entirely worthy. But it might need more people to either help vaultwarden or maintain it on their own, you’re right.

To me, seeing and learning about all of these projects gives me hope. All of these people and communities working to build things out of passion and dedication, because they care and want to provide value to others. No profit motive necessary. We just need to be there to support them as we’ve tied capital to our survival currently.

Has Vaultwarden said anything yet? I imagine that, if necessary, given that bitwarden’s client is still open, at the point they choose to try and close it, we, the users, can fork it and establish it for vaultwarden, correct? Or, maybe even the vaultwarden team will think about forking it themselves and making a light client as well to pair with the current server.

But Vaultwarden can exist without “leeching” they just haven’t needed to yet. That’s more symbiotic than parasitic. The parasite class just took over Bitwarden after all.

I’m getting more involved in that I’m discovering more open source projects that I can support.

Open source really gives me hope. Instead of a profit motive, communities form and work together out of passion and dedication to a project or idea.

That’s really invigorating to me. And, in many ways, can often be a big fuck you to our capitalist overlords. I’m working on presentations and such to teach my friends and spread the word about various projects and better op sec to make it all the harder to harvest our data.

Idiocracy was a prophecy.

Well, according to billionaires that are crying literal crocodile tears on the news, “tax the rich” is a racial slur.

They’re so deluded that they don’t even know what comes after tax the rich. That’s the moderate position.

If there’s no point in voting, what’s the point in following the law at this point? That’s the only thing holding up this system of governance, the will of the people. Should the people feel the government has become tyrannical (aka consistently ignoring the direct democratic will of the people through their votes) then it is the duty of the people to alter or abolish it. The Declaration of Independence says as much.