We need to elect a party that actually wants to improve this country, not just loot it. We should be investing in our infrastructure and our quality of life, and raising taxes on the ultra-wealthy to pay for it.

I’d like to become a German citizen and watch Germany flourish. The CDU and the AfD will continue to worsen the quality of life for the average German while enriching themselves and their friends.

Please, if you have the ability to vote please vote for progress and vote as left as you can. Talk to your neighbors, your family, your friends. We’re in a class war and either the rich win through conservative politics or the people win through taxing the wealthy and holding politicians accountable.

I’m self-hosting my own music as of recently. I’m paying for every song. I don’t have as much music as I did on Spotify, but I’m also A) owning the music B) slowly acquiring more and C) actually paying the artists. For me this is a good step in the right direction.

I’m seeing a lot of comments about music discovery being the reason to not stop paying Spotify. Idk if that’s something I’d agree with. First of all, I personally listen to singles and not albums but I’ve been buying albums simply because that’s easiest for a lot of sites (or cause I’m getting them on vinyl). So swapping over has led me to listening to full albums and thus a bit of discovery. That may not apply to everyone though. Several of those albums or artists have had collabs that have turned me on to other artists, again, maybe the music discovery people think this is child’s play but it’s led to a noticable increase in my collection.

Second, can’t you just use Spotify free version to discover music? That’s what I plan to do if I’m feeling like my current collection is getting stale. But between friends, other web services for discovery, various platforms like YouTube that happen to unveil a song here and there, indie concerts that show off new openers to me, or what have you I feel like my discovery is more than sufficient to grow the list of music I need to pick up faster than I’m burning it down or becoming bored with it.

Also, I don’t understand how discovery can represent a majority of a person’s listening habits. Like isn’t the point of collecting favorites songs and making large playlists to listen to those things. I’ve got playlists with like 48 hours of music on them which cause me to not hear a repeat idk, more than once a month if I’m not seeking them out. That’s partially because I have 3 playlists or so I rotate through but like… Is music discovery so critical and so exclusive to Spotify that it’s worth the subscription. More me it’s not.

Not to yuck anyone’s yum or anything. Just trying to add an alternative perspective to these pro-spotify comments.

This is exciting. The more Linux gets the spotlight the better and I generally love all open source, self hosting, of degoogling vids they do.

I’d like any source saying they only did Linux content because of Emily. They continue to talk about doing the next Linux challenge on the WAN show, they are working on a grapheneOS vod if I’m not mistaken, etc.

I agree most of their OS specific content is specific to Windows and I can entirely understand why but to suggest they’re incapable or unwilling to do Linux content feels ungrounded.

You are either misunderstanding me or misunderstanding the conceptual differences between debt, money, and wealth.

A nation can absolutely be debt free and wealthy - there’s a world where a country owns many things (wealth) and owes no money to anyone (debt free). “Creating money” as you put it is accomplished by the government creating money and then spending money on things. Debt does not have to come into the picture for money (literal currency) to be created and spent. Loans (I think the most common form is bonds for the government but I’m actually not sure) are a way for the government to spend money they don’t have by borrowing it (debt). This is good if you use that money to grow the governments revenue, the nations revenue, or the nations productivity (building schools, funding healthcare, building public transit, etc). It’s sometimes bad when you use it to buy temporary services or fund inefficient projects or when the money leaves the nation entirely (sending money to a corporation based in the US that spends little to no money here, for instance. A military contract for instance fully built in another country gives us an expensive product we may not use and which no money recirculates in our nation).

So no, I am not for zero debt at the government level - I very plainly think government debt is a good thing in reasonable quantities and when that money is spent on the improvement of the nation and its people. I think too much debt becomes a noose around the annual budget and slowly errodes the governments ability to do its job. I also think any debt spent poorly is as foolish as it would be for anyone to spend money poorly - except in this case it’s everyone’s money being wasted and it’s a gateway to corruption and the further enrichment of the wealthy.

So I believe what Merz is doing is bad for the country because they’re spending money we don’t have inefficiently on companies that are not wholly based in Germany and will not produce efficiency or quality of life gains for the German populace. Furthermore, doing this entirely through debt when there is a way to generate sufficient income AND benefit the average German is incompetent at best and evil at worst. We could tax the wealthy such that we could do this stupid deal AND not go into further debt, which is obviously more ideal than this stupid deal and debt. Just like doing a good deal and going into further debt would be better than both of those.

Yes, we should focus on improving the lives of Germans and accumulating wealth in the form of education, public housing, public infrastructure, clinics and Apothekes and energy farms, and strengthening our farming infrastructure, etc. All the things a good government would be doing, instead of selling off bits and pieces of itself while cutting services to their citizens while spending money on foreign contracts for a war the rich want because it means more inefficient spending in companies they have stocks in.

Tax the ultra wealthy and invest in the country and its people. Build wealth as a nation! Invest in rail and schooling and walkable cities and watch things flourish.

I’m new to Germany but this seems pretty on par for the FDP. I haven’t seen or read a single thing that’s shown me the party as a whole is interested in actual public service. After their sabotage of the traffic light coalition the party should be publicly shunned.

I think it’s a bit reductive to point to one moment and focus there. It can always get worse and the current CDU are working to make it so.

But also thank you for the opportunity to read about German history more. I need to learn more.

That seems wrong based on what I’ve read so far about Die Linke, but also haven’t the CDU increased our reliance on Russia and shut off our nuclear? Merz putting us in further debt to give money to the military complex is not the same as being anti-russia or aggression. Where are the increased sanctions and taxes? Where is the armament and reinforcing of Ukraine (and the other eastern countries) that is meaningfully different than what Germany’s policies have been before?

I have no reason to believe Merz, who would sell his neighbors into poverty if it meant enriching his friends, is willing or able to standup to trump and Putin. But I hope I’m wrong about this.

I’d also love to see any source for that. I haven’t had the time to work through their full policy book but my point isn’t really that Die Linke is the best - it’s that their tax policy would have been effective. We the people could demand all parties adopt a similar policy strategy. The AFD and the CDU won’t because they serve corporate masters but this is also a good test for the SPD (whom I’m starting to suspect are more akin to the status quo Democrats from the US) and the Greens (whom I’ve not been able to form an opinion on).

I mean, we should care about the debt. We as a nation should be accumulating wealth and spending it to increase productivity to the benefit of all citizens (and residents). That’s the point of a country in my eyes. We should be working towards working less and having more and doing so sustainably and peacefully.

A little bit of debt is fine, you use it to pay for increased growth or invest into things that can give you reduced costs later. But the CDU want to sell off the country’s wealth, give the money they raise to the rich, and cut the benefits of being a German citizen (and resident) at the same time. They are working against every Germans interest and they are doing so loud and clearly.

Casual reminder that Die Linke had a tax plan that would have paid off the debt and all new expenditures the CDU introduced without any issues. Instead the CDU has put us and our children further into debt.

/thread

That’s not how that works. That’s not how any of that works. If you tax a rich person more, they barely feel it. Their lifestyle hardly changes. They also do not deserve a lifestyle 10,000x better than the average person’s.

Sometimes I feel so new to setting up my own digital ecosystem because I look at a thing and think “that’s so cool” but struggle to imagine it at home. So could someone help me understand.

This would be a replacement for something like Google Drive or Proton Drive? The actions I would use this for would be:

• sending files to friends
• managing a collection of files like PDFs, music, ISO’s that could be accessible by my friends (or just my household)

So I would spin this up on my NAS or my main PC and replace those services and accomplish those actions using this software?

Are there other services or actions I’m missing? Am I misunderstanding the premise entirely?

I was just getting this set up, this and the music one, because I want to leave Spotify. Hopefully an alternative solution shows up.

The CDU will sell the German people’s future if it means they can increase their stock portfolios for a few extra years.

The stock market is not a marker of a good economy, the number of hours a person has to work to afford a home is. To afford healthcare and retirement and education and transportation an OLED TV etc.

Don’t vote for the CDU or the FDP ever again, they’ve proven they’re incapable of improving society more than they hurt it.

Merz is in power today because Germans feared the AfD gaining power if they voted for more extreme parties capable of change so they voted for safe choices. The catch is voting for the CDU guarantees things get worse, which then further cultivates the AfD.

Merz wants the AfD to exist because it helps keep him in power. People most vote progressive, must vote to tackle wealth inequality, or the AfD is inevitable. We either fix the root problems or we decline into fascism. The CDU are incapable of fixing the root causes because that is where they thrive.

Why would we want to increase working hours? That’s the opposite of progress in society. Why would we ever think this is necessary?

Conservatives will put our country in debt, they will make it less safe, they’ll blame the most marginalized groups as they enrich themselves and their friends, and they will ask you to work more and for longer.

This is why the AFD are succeeding, because what people see as the most safe options are also the ones destroying their country and worsening our lives.

Educate your friends, educate your neighbors, organize with your unions, don’t give an inch to the conservatives. Demand progress, not societal decline.