When called out on it, they then doubled down on this dogshit take: https://archive.ph/quYyb
This is def not what going full MAGA looks like, lmao. This tame AF.
this post was submitted on 15 Jan 2025
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No no, this is tantamount to violently storming the capital to delay the certification of the election.
huh
Oh my God. I went directly to the Reddit thread. Why is the Reddit UI so bad? How can people use that?
Wait I'm confused why this is him going full MAGA?
I legitimately don't want the Republicans in charge of anything unless they drastically change their policies, but this actually seems like a pretty decent pick considering the absolute trash that trump has nominated so far?
If she is actually trying to break up these companies that's generally good right? We've been wanting to break monopolies for a while.
If Republicans go so far right that they swing back around to the left I'd be fine with that lol
I'm not voting because of the letter next to their name, I'm voting because of policies. If someone wants to provide universal health care, protect the environment, break up monopolies, stop price gouging, stop hating gay and trans people for no reason, etc. I will vote for them. And yes I understand that the republican party as it is is the least likely group of people to ever do that. But the democrats didn't do it either they just pay it lip service when they want votes.
Vote for actual policies you want, not because someone pretends they're a D or an R.
You need to read Andy's replies after people questioned him on that initial post. I linked to an archived thread in my OP, or you can check the Proton Mail subreddit.
I read his replies; what about them are "full MAGA"?
I'm assuming you're arguing in bad faith, or you missed his uniformly glowing praise of Republicans and how they defend "the little guy" as opposed to the corrupt dems.
This is the comment which you linked to, copied and pasted:
Here is our official response, also available on the Mastodon post in the screenshot: Corporate capture of Dems is real. In 2022, we campaigned extensively in the US for anti-trust legislation. Two bills were ready, with bipartisan support. Chuck Schumer (who coincidently has two daughters working as big tech lobbyists) refused to bring the bills for a vote. At a 2024 event covering antitrust remedies, out of all the invited senators, just a single one showed up - JD Vance. By working on the front lines of many policy issues, we have seen the shift between Dems and Republicans over the past decade first hand. Dems had a choice between the progressive wing (Bernie Sanders, etc), versus corporate Dems, but in the end money won and constituents lost. Until corporate Dems are thrown out, the reality is that Republicans remain more likely to tackle Big Tech abuses.
This doesn't seem like a glowing commendation to me. It seems he said exactly what he thinks happened, and that only one person showed up. He even brings up the fact that Dems could choose the progressive wing with Bernie, but that they chose to follow the money. That's not false either.
I really don't get how this is full MAGA, unless you're stating that anything that praises the Republicans is full MAGA.
So you are being absurdly hyperbolic. Gotcha.
Here's what he said in Reddit
Source: https://snoo.habedieeh.re/r/ProtonMail/comments/1i1zjgn/comment/m7ahrlm/
Andy here, since it's my original post that's being reposted here, let me comment further.
My post is talking about Gail Slater, who is by all measures, actually a good pick, with a solid track record of being on the right side of the antitrust issue. Yes, she happens to be nominated by Trump, but her record speaks for itself.
This is not going to be a popular opinion, but on the specific issue of antitrust, Democrats fell short. In 2022, we campaigned extensively in the US for anti-trust legislation. Two bills were ready, with bipartisan support. Chuck Schumer (who coincidently has two daughters working as big tech lobbyists) refused to bring the bills for a vote. In the aftermath of this failure, great people like former Democratic rep David Cicilline left congress, leaving few strong voices for antitrust left in the Democratic party. In the meantime, at a 2024 event covering antitrust remedies, out of all the invited senators, just a single one showed up - JD Vance.
By working on the front lines of many policy issues, we have seen the shift between Dems and Republicans over the past decade first hand. And that's a missed opportunity for Dems, because by and large, support for cracking down on corporate monopolies is popular on both sides of the political spectrum. Unfortunately, corporate capture of Dems is real and in the end money won. It is hard to see how this changes, and Republicans are likely to lead the antitrust charge in the coming years.
From that perspective, and going back to my original post, Gail is a great pick. One should not equate our support of Gail for Proton not being neutral anymore. We continue to call out bad behavior from both sides, whether it's Dems or Republicans, on our core issues. Just a few weeks ago, we were called out for being in bed with Soros because we gave money to too many "liberal" organizations: https://proton.me/blog/2024-lifetime-fundraiser-results No, the Proton Foundation isn't the new Soros either (even if we may coincidentally fund some of the same things sometimes). We simply stick with our strongly held core believes, and leave politics out of it, because the issues we care about, should be apolitical.
UPDATE: I posted another comment further below in response to a user, but I'll reproduce it here for completeness:
I don't really want to wade further into what is obviously a very polarizing political topic, but since you are asking for some thoughts, I can share.
We have been fighting big corporate interests since the very beginning. People have short memories, so few remember that in 2019 and 2020, we were working with congressional Democrats on this issue. We're even cited a dozen times in the report, which by the way, was partially authored by Lina Khan, who at that time worked with Ciciline. This is the report here: https://proton.me/blog/congress-antitrust-report
The American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA) was also mentioned. Guess what, we supported that too: https://proton.me/blog/congress-stand-up-to-big-tech More than with blog posts, I personally was on Capitol Hill trying to convince senators who were on the fence, on both the Democratic and Republican side. The votes where there, but in 2022, Democrats controlled the Senate, and ultimately Sen. Schumer decided what gets to be voted on, and as we know, AICOA was not advanced.
Epic vs Apple was also mentioned. Well, we supported that one too. In fact, we were one of the founding companies of the Coalition for App Fairness, along with, yes, Epic: https://proton.me/blog/coalition-for-app-fairness
The point I am trying to make is, in the past 10 years, our position on corporate monopolies has not moved. But US politics has shifted, and the parties themselves have moved. We're huge supporters of Lina Khan and her work. But you know who else agrees with Lina Khan on Big Tech? Actually, JD Vance, as he's publicly stated: https://fortune.com/2024/08/11/jd-vance-5000-child-tax-credit-support-ftc-lina-khan-tech-regulation/ Can you imagine the Republican Vice Presidents of the past taking this position?
It is not a bad thing that Republicans have moved so far on this issue, and are now in a position to go even further than Democrats have managed in the past four years. It's a good thing, and something that should be welcomed irrespective of your political leanings. Ultimately, we will judge actions, but for now, I am supportive of Gail Slater, just as I was supportive of Lina Khan. And honestly, it should not matter that one is a Republican, and the other is a Democrat.
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Wow, lots of people on Lemmy just look at screenshots of text and dont read anything anymore.
I dont think he said anything controversial. Read what he wrote.
He's not supporting Trump or the Republican party in general. He is calling them out for selecting someone good on antitrust. That's not controversial.
Read what he wrote. He said Dems used to be for the little guy and the Republicans were for big business but now the tables have turned...
So now the Republicans, party of billionaires, is for the little guy and Dems are for big business?
Controversial no doubt.
.... Are you seriously claiming the dem party is not a party of billionaires? Soros? Gates? Bloomberg? Hoffman?? I could go on.
What little business policies have Dems put in place? Seems to me the biggest dem states absolutely demolished small businesses during COVID, and have not done a gd thing to rebuild them.
Bush-era republicans haven't done a gd thing for small businesses either, don't get me wrong, but it's so dumb to say the Dem party is for the little guy.
How is that controversial? Harris lost because she was so fucking pro-corporate. Same thing happened to Hilary.
They're both pro-corporate parties, and breaking up the trusts is progress.
Yeah, but surveillance is also high on the fascist agenda, so you'd think a company pitching privacy would be more concerned about approving of anything they do.
He didn't say Trump has good policies on surveillance. The two corporate parties in the US are terrible on privacy.
He said the tables had completely turned, that the Reps were now supporting the small guy. It's idiotic at best, dishonest at worst, to assume that such praise will change anything about the fact that the incoming US regime will seek to undermine Proton's stated objective and prime selling point. Even if they somehow followed through on those antitrust expectations, I have no doubt it would double back into serving corporate dragons in the end.
Using language like "the tables have completely turned is unforgivable".
He needs to go, or we all leave the platform.
Fucking hell. I just signed up for Proton last week. Why do these "alternative" companies always end up being run by techbro dumpster fires like their mainstream counterparts?
I don't know if this is the case for Proton specifically, but this is true so often in the tech entrepreneurship world because they're just at an earlier stage of bilking investors until they have to eventually sustain themselves by bilking everybody else.
And... now I have to get out of Proton. Not USA citizen, just a leftist from South America, but not gonna accept fascism in any country, neither will I support enablers of it.
Check out Mullvad maybe instead!
God damn it, I just got fully in to proton, took me a year or so to slowly switch everything over, the new proton services like the drive, docs and wallet are pretty sweet. ugh. Gonna have to watch proton closely.
read the pinned comment before taking harsh actions
Thanks for that, that does help put things in perspective. However, I am not pleased to see proton taking political stances at all. Money corrupts and it seems they are following whats best in their interests that doesn't always reflect the users (ours) so. This is a space I'm gonna have to follow. The minute they start doing any sort of data sharing, data "personalization", ad integration, etc. That's when I'll be moving.
Very disappointing though. I just want google like services but without the spying on me by me paying.
I was just permabanned for making this comment.
Reddit is in full censorship mode over this. Oh well not the first time, certainly not the last.
I dont even recognize it anymore. I was on reddit for over a decade before the api fiasco. I am there for a few subs that just dont exist here and I cannot stand reddit. The only way I can even stand it for my few subs is with a Revanced Patched app that removes the ads.
I am there for a few subs that just dont exist here and I cannot stand reddit.
Same. Lemmy needs the membership to support niche communities. I wonder if that's possible without falling into what reddit became: a toxic hog lagoon where the only real rule is "don't sass the nazis."
Yep, its just a numbers game. We don't have enough for all the niche communities but we have a lot of major ones already here which is nice and I like the more tech centric feeling lemmy has too.
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Shit, I was literally about to open a Proton account as part of my degoogling this weekend.
Ok, new plan. Sigh.
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cancelled today. I have a few months to find alternatives. I've been a paying customer for years. Proton has always been a bit buggy but it was worth it I thought. bowing down to tRump is a deal breaker.
Already cancelled my yearly renewal. I'll switch to Mullvad and save some money anyways. Never really used Proton Mail, drive, calendar, etc but I wanted to support them.
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