cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/8915892
(original article in Swedish that reported this)
Posting this because I hadn't heard about it before and I'm probably not the only Mullvad user here, so might as well.
The party claims to stand for a "class-conscious populism" which according to party leader Markus Allard takes inspiration from marxist ideology and unites the "productive" classes of society against the "Transferiat", with the "Transferiat" being a term coined by Allard to describe the classes of society that lives off transfers that are a net negative for society such as those who, despite having an ability to work, live off social welfare benefits, as well as those who work "made-up services"[...]
The party differs from modern day left-wing parties by seeing the working class as co-dependent with people working in enterprise and business and instead sees the classes that "live off transfers", as specified, as a large economic net-negative and an obstacle for a functional society.
Their ideology is nonsense fake-marxist revisionism to redirect anger at capitalism and turn it against immigrants and people who need social welfare (though they do back some generally left oriented social policies, their main thing appears to be racism)
Even if you're comfortable with funding this, it still begs the question of just how trustworthy Mullvad actually is.
I guess this still beats any of the dozens of Israeli VPNs that definitely spy on you, but it's not great
249 Comments
FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website · 210 pts · 33d
This isn't good. It's also not entirely correct. Mullvad isn't financing this party directly. One of the owners took his money he made from the company and donated it to the loonies. He could've bought crypto with it, spent it in blow maybe, but he didn't. "Mullvad is financing this party" is not correct. "Your Mullvad fees may have ended up indirectly financing this party" is correct and an ongoing concern. So is their tepid response to the story breaking. I would still advise caution, hammer them with public outrage pressure on the socials, and hope they get rid of the loonie party donor before you bankrupt an otherwise serviceable VPN provider. If that guy is still there in a couple of months, by all means leave.
There is no shortage of c@<%s in the tech sector.
Signtist@bookwyr.me · 48 pts · 33d
I mean, it doesn't really matter who actively takes the stance or not. The only question that matters is where the money you spend ends up, and whether you want it to end up there. If you don't want your money to end up in the hands of a far right party, you probably don't want to pay the company that pays the guy who pays a far right party.
Mullvad may say it doesn't support his views, but the main form of support is financial backing, and his own company is obviously going to pay him, so it does support him, regardless of whether or not it wants to take that stance. If you give the company money, then you're supporting it, allowing it to support him, regardless of whether or not you want to.
It's like Harry Potter; even if no corporate announcement is ever going to be made to agree with JK Rowling's anti-trans beliefs, your money spent on merchandise for the franchise still ends up in her hands, and is subsequently moved into the hands of the anti-trans organizations she supports.
FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website · 34 pts · 33d
You may be as outraged as you want. I just pointed out that Mullvad didn't do anything (to their detriment, at this point) like the title of the post suggested. That's misrepresenting the facts. If you feel like that distinction (a company endorsement vs. a private donation) doesn't make a difference, that's fine. I get that. I left Proton when their CEO was praising the regime of 47 for tech regulation. I just believe we should be mad for the right reasons. Facts are good.
It's been pointed out here in the thread that the majority of the donation to the horseshoe loonie party may in fact have come from other income streams, as Mullvad doesn't pay an awful lot. I don't know if that's true but that would put another spin on the story as well.
There is no shortage of c@>=s in the author community either. Let's not mention her name again. She's probably a lot richer and therefore a lot more impactful with her magic money than this mad meatball. In my estimation, a dollar spent in the famous magician universe will have a lot more negative impact on the trans community than a comparable amount of kronor at Mullvad for immigrants to Sweden. The bigger threat there are probably the Sweden Democrats and they're already in parliament as the second largest fraction.
nevyn@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 31d
psycotica0@lemmy.ca · 16 pts · 33d
I don't care about Mullvad, but this is an interesting philosophical question. How far does that chain of money carry responsibility? Like, what if you donate to a hospital, and a nurse at the hospital uses their wages to buy bread, and the owner of the bread factory is problematic?
Definitely some fraction of my donation went to the bread factory owner's politics, but is it my responsibility? Should I withhold donations to the hospital until they've pressured the nurse to buy a different brand of bread, or let them go?
Definitely the bread factory owner has a bunch of money, and money is power, and that money was given by customers in exchange for bread, so at some point if we want their power to diminish steps must be taken. But is the hospital donor's money the right lever for that? Does it outweigh the benefits?
What if the bread factory's owner is fine, but has a worker who spends their money on a problematic cause. Is it still the hospital donor's responsibility?
obelisk_complex@piefed.ca · 12 pts · 33d
This is just one step, though. Money to Mullvad goes in part to the cofounder who is a racist piece of shit.
But to your question, I think the "dilution" question has a different answer for everyone. Have you seen "The Good Place"? Philosophy is the major theme and this is one of the major philosophical questions they deal with. Great show, recommended if it's unfamiliar to you.
4grams@awful.systems · 6 pts · 32d
I don’t think it’s as hard to draw a line as you are portraying it. The hypothetical nurse and bread factory is a non-issue, we’re talking fractions of the bottom line of any of the involved parties. This mulvad thing is the majority of the financial backing of a party by one high level person, who’s made his money from this organization.
I’m quite comfortable putting them under the same umbrella, and quite comfortable ignoring the hypothetical.
But think there might be a philosophical question here, but I kinda think this is begging for one a bit.
Signtist@bookwyr.me · 5 pts · 33d
I believe responsibility is a personal choice. How much something matters depends on how much it matters to you. The more important thing is that you ask the relevant questions to actually assess what matters and how you address issues that arise between what you're doing and how that affects the world around you.
Do you consider the fraction of your hospital donation that goes to the nurse to be significant enough to change how you donate? And do you consider the nurse's bread purchases to be a significant enough portion of the bread factory's profits? And do you consider the significance of that to outweigh the significance of the nurse having enough to eat? And if something about this does reach that level of significance to you, is changing your donation to the hospital the method by which you want to address the issues with the bread factory owner, or is there another action that might be more effective?
It's difficult to address these issues in daily life due to their emergent complexity, but the more we can do to be ethical, the more of a positive impact we can have on the world around us.
godsammitdam@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 32d
Without spoilers, The Good Place is a good show.
In your hypothetical, it would be similar to a person buying a rose from a flower shop for their mother, but the money they earned supported a company that funds another company that bombs children and the flower came from a retailer that orders flowers from a garden in another country that uses child/slave labor to harvest the flower.
At what point is the person who bought the birthday gift responsible for the bombs dropped and the enslaved children?
But, essentially, this is the same question posed when looking at a health insurance CEO. He didn't kill 640,000 people each year directly. Nor did the employees directly. Nor did the hospital or doctors refusing treatment without payment. The illness or injury did. But the health insurance CEO did make the decision to deny coverage as much as possible and to pay as little as possible for procedures and medications that would have saved lives.
At what point was the CEO responsible for the 640,000 deaths each year due to lack of health insurance coverage?
The difference, I believe, lies in severity and knowledge of/if a decision is being made. The person buying the rose does not have a severe impact on the outcomes of the choices made by these companies. They have a very high likelihood of not even being aware and that may even be on purpose, as the PR for said companies would do their best to avoid consumers understanding this. Thus in your nurse and bread scenario. The choice is minimally severe and the individual is likely unaware of the greater mechanisms involved, meaning they won't be making a fully informed choice. Once informed, they likely could make a choice, and that could be the only bread they can afford or maybe they'll switch to a local baker, etc.
The healthcare CEO almost certainly is aware of the impact of his decision and he is able to have a large impact on the direction of the company and on the massive amount of harm caused. He is fully informed and makes his choice anyway out of selfishness and greed.
The nurse and the rose gift buyer shouldn't be held fully accountable, if at all. The CEO is, in my opinion, most certainly accountable.
In the end though, there's no such thing as ethical consumption under capitalism. Does that mean we should forfeit our survival and/or not attempt the best we can through the methods that we can control? (A lot of comments I've seen say you have no choice and it's stupid to think about. Or better yet, even with extra knowledge, they say it's "based" to "remove those invaders" and "need to support them more, it's not like lefties support privacy and free speech." Fuckin wild stuff from the r/SomeOrdinaryGmrs sub.)
Great video from philosofree on the ethics of vigilante counter-terrorism. YouTube took it down and now it looks like even Patreon did too.
antrosapien@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 33d
That's kinda similar question I had while learning about veganism. It's not possible in absolute sense to get rid of animal cruelty, there's always going to have some indirect connection cause the way we have designed our system. So the general answer for me is; as practicable as possible and not letting perfect be the archenemy of good
ramble81@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 33d
Serious question to that. How many degrees of separation does that account for? If I spent money at a random company, that does not endorse a far right candidate, but then it pays an employee and that employee then turns around and supports a far right candidate, is it still “my money”?
Does it matter if they’re a front line worker or if they’re a manager or a C-level if it’s not done by the company directly? Do you have to vet out the buying habits of every employee at every company you spend money on?
I think of Chic-Fil-A, which is different because money from sales goes straight to the foundation, which is used against LGBTQ+ people, but if someone were to be paid via paycheck and then spent it at Chic-Fil-A, is it my money anymore?
Signtist@bookwyr.me · 8 pts · 33d
The amount of degrees of separation is going to have different weights for different people. My point is more concerning the knowledge of the situation, and how that might impact decision making moving forward. This guy spent the money he got from us on the far-right party, which means we helped fund it, but we didn't know at the time that our money would be used in that way, so we can't say we were responsible for that support. Now we are aware of that pipeline, and so we can no longer claim separation from it moving forward. There's still a debate to be had about whether it matters enough for us to avoid putting more money into it, and that cutoff is going to be different from person to person, but the pipeline itself is there and must be factored into our decision making moving forward regardless.
mathemachristian@lemmy.ml · 32 pts · 33d
They won't get rid of him if there is no threat of bankruptcy... "Lets not jump into action maybe they'll do the right thing" is not a good plan
ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 12 pts · 33d
They can force him out as CEO, that can do nothing about his co-ownership though.
mathemachristian@lemmy.ml · 14 pts · 33d
But that's even less reason to give them money, if he is a co-owner part of the profit directly funds fascism. It's not just about funding the parties, but having mullvad as the defacto gold standard, continuing to do business with them gives fascists co-ownership over parts of privacy-critical infrastructure. It's not a serviceable VPN provider if it's co-owned by fascists??
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 23 pts · 33d
Is it really "may have"? Seems pretty clear that they have.
nevyn@slrpnk.net · 3 pts · 32d
matlag@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 32d
As I wrote above: the "good" companies might actually be just led by nazis who are better at hiding their personal beliefs and donations…
nevyn@slrpnk.net · 2 pts · 32d
Seleni@lemmy.world · 23 pts · 32d
Yeah, but his donation was something like 72% of the donations to that party by money given. That’s not just a donation; that’s him funding his own private far-right party. And if he wants his own far-right party, it’s probably not just for looks.
This guy co-owns Mullvad. That all Mullvad is doing about it is wringing their hands and saying ‘oh, but it’s his money, there’s nothing we can do’ is, quite frankly, disgusting. It’s his money that he got from your company, in large enough quantities he can go out and buy himself some racists like Phil Knight buying himself a fucking basketball team.
If a lower-level employee makes some shit-ass racist comment on their own time, they tend to get canned immediately. Yet all this asshole gets is Mullvad shaking their heads and saying ‘well, it doesn’t align with our values, but what you gonna do?’ Bullshit.
nevyn@slrpnk.net · 4 pts · 32d
matlag@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 32d
Well, if he's the co-founder and the co-owner, the only thing "they" (I assume the 2nd owner/founder) can really do is try to convince him to leave.
What else would you expect? That he shutdowns the company, drop their customers and fire their employees, then restart the same company with a different name without that individual?
That would be a guaranteed lawsuit, and could actually break even more trust form all parties.
Or just sells his shares and leaves, alone, so that Mullvad goes from "one co-owner funds a far-right nazi party" to "Mullvad now fully own by a nazi-fanboy"? (again: abandoning employees and customers to the good will of that charming individual).
nevyn@slrpnk.net · 2 pts · 31d
AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space · 16 pts · 33d
Berntsson apparently gets most of his income from other companies that he owns (in investments), with Mullvad not being run primarily as a dividend source, so Mullvad’s contribution to the money he donated to the Nazis was probably small. Still, a small amount of shit in the punchbowl is still faecal contamination, though it may be good to keep the facts in mind if weighing up Mullvad vs. Proton vs. Kape and evaluating acceptable compromises (ethical consumption under capitalism and all that).
michaelalf@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 32d
lol. As if fucking Kape should even be a part of the conversation. Evil scum.
nevyn@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 32d
pmk@piefed.ca · -6 pts · 33d
I don't know how much you know about Örebropartiet, but they've been described as both left and right populist with nationalist and marxist ideas. A study made at Lunds University describe them as "authoritarian left-populism". What they have in common with the actual Nazis is that they want less immigration. We could decide that anyone who wants less immigration is a nazi, sure, but that's a bit dishonest. The founder of Örebropartiet has his background in the Swedish Left party, where he was controversial in part because he defended leftist violent activism.
Melusine@tarte.nuage-libre.fr · 4 pts · 33d
Honestly, trying to descend from Marx and wanting to deport migrants is a sign of poor intelligence. At some point, the German, during WW2 also had some social benefits, and still, nobody with a working brain considers that thc nazis where somehow leftists. I'd even say it makes Örebropartiet closer to Nazis than let's say the RN in France.
nevyn@slrpnk.net · 2 pts · 32d
pmk@piefed.ca · 0 pts · 32d
We don't have duopolies in Sweden, we have lots of parties and shifting constellations of parties pre and post elections, especially on a local municipality level.
Their key issues are strong secularism, a 30-hour workweek with retained pay, lowered wages for politicians, expanded social housing, abolishing preschool-fees, making public transport free of charge, ending taxpayer funding of what it sees as wasteful sculptures, monuments and art and introducing free dental care.
Would you say these are typical left or right stances? Their leader say: neither.
nevyn@slrpnk.net · 2 pts · 32d
_stranger_@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 32d
Here's the fix for you: "Giving your money to Mullvad is like drinking at a Nazi bar. The bar's great, but it's full of Nazis".
SupremeDonut@lemmy.ml · 6 pts · 32d
Sounds more l ike the owner of the bar is a nazi than the bar being filled with nazis
godsammitdam@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 32d
The owner is definitely a Nazi. The bar staff? A little more suspect. He picked them out after all.
_stranger_@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 31d
Feel free to drink at the Nazi owned bar I guess. Be prepared for when they go full Nazi on you and all that information you probably wanted private.
SupremeDonut@lemmy.ml · 0 pts · 30d
Oh my god, shuuuut uppppp
trackball_fetish@lemmy.wtf · 10 pts · 32d
Well there's one thing I do know: I sure as hell wouldn't trust that VPN operator
I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 32d
How does this effect Mullvad's tech or privacy policies?
matlag@sh.itjust.works · 0 pts · 32d
You know, during the backlash against Musk and Tesla, I was wondering how many nazis there were in the board or among the executives of other car makers, and how many among the shareholders.
What I'm getting to is there is no less reason now to trust Mullvad than before, and no less reason to trust more other VPN providers, just because you have no idea who their CEO/founders/owners are.
SGforce@lemmy.ca · 6 pts · 32d
So you did research, found nothing, and are still siding with Nazis?
matlag@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 32d
Funny how you could draw that conclusion from what I wrote.
trackball_fetish@lemmy.wtf · 6 pts · 32d
I didn't trust mullvad to begin with, its not my provider of choice. Did it ever occur to you that some of us do look at the political ideology of the companies we support? I don't know about all of them, but if presented with new information that they might be Nazis I would make a choice pretty quick.
Edit: crazy that this got downvoted - pretty easy to spot Nazi sympathizers lol
matlag@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 32d
Maybe I should have made myself clearer.
My point is you indeed have no way to know for sure what your money contributes to.
Large companies will have larger boards and many shareholders. That considerably increases tbe chances of giving money to nazis sympathizers. Up to what level would you screen thaem?
Even in this case, where the problematic individual is a prominent figure of the company, how long could they operate without the general public learning about his ideology?
You say you didn't trust Mullvad and they're not your provider of choice, and you do check compan=es. Do you mean you knew about their cofounder? Do you use a VPN service, and if yes, how did you vet it?
nevyn@slrpnk.net · -1 pts · 32d
HereIAm@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 32d
Sure, the product is still trustworthy and that it does what it says on the tin, the issue is knowing that part of your money goes to funding an extreme right-wing party.
matlag@sh.itjust.works · 0 pts · 32d
Exactly, thanks!
nevyn@slrpnk.net · -6 pts · 32d
trackball_fetish@lemmy.wtf · 3 pts · 32d
Those things are more or less static, being a Nazi is a choice
nevyn@slrpnk.net · -4 pts · 32d
trackball_fetish@lemmy.wtf · 4 pts · 32d
Huh? That's an extremely odd comparison. Citizens of a country are not inherently fascist just because their leader is, but if they hold the same ideology they can go fuck themselves.
I didn't say anything about the other co founder, but let me put it this way.. The company is owned by both of them. One of them made a half million donation. By proxy it makes the other person look bad. Its as they say, bad for business. My overall point is that I would not trust my privacy with this company as one half of the owners have access to the prod environment, your logs and clearly wants to harm others based on his political views.
I'm really not sure what you're playing devils advocate for. Are you worried that people will assume you hold those views? Do you own stock in the company? Are you worried about restriction of speech? Genuinely I'd like to know.
nevyn@slrpnk.net · -3 pts · 32d
godsammitdam@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 32d
You completely ignored the argument above. Or didn't read. Are you ok? Did you reply to the correct comment?
But no replacement?
Here:
https://vpn.techlore.tech/
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1ijfqfLrJWLUVBfJZ_YalVpstWsjw-JGzkvMd6u2jqEk/htmlview#gid=231869418
trackball_fetish@lemmy.wtf · 0 pts · 32d
I asked you a few legitimate questions and just as it always is, you lost the intellectual race.
Go fuck yourself, Nazi sympathizer.
whatiswrongwithyou@lemmy.ml · 0 pts · 32d
If you’re looking for a replacement and don’t actually need the privacy/anonymity then ivpn might be a good choice. You can screw it up and set up an account that can’t possibly by as safe as mullvad but if you’re careful and know what you’re doing you can also get damn close to it. Theoretically.
But if it matters it’s probably time to reup mullvad with a new account id and cash through the mail instead of whatever they refunded you through.
kossa@feddit.org · 1 pts · 31d
True
False
Maybe not if you have a hundred co-founders...but if you have one co-founder...you probably just founded a nazi company ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
nevyn@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 31d
kossa@feddit.org · 0 pts · 31d
"one co-founder" means there's at least two founders. And if one of them is a nazi, they founded a nazi company.
Zerush@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 31d
No, the Mullvad company isn't sponsoring a nazi party, but the company is owned by 50% of the one who did it, $500k, money gained with this company. This rest for me also at least 50% of trust in this company. Its not the same, if a company with 100 employees has an employee nazi, as when the owner is one. Because this mean, every money which pay the user for an service, 50% serve to support a nazi party. Stop fooling around with "he used his private money", it's money he earned with this company, by donations, VPN and services, paid by the users. Brendan Eich was fired by Mozilla for less.
FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website · 1 pts · 31d
What you call fooling around I call a factual distinction. It's also been pointed out that Mullvad money wasn't possibly a big bulk of the donation. Because they're not raking in the dough.
I'm not telling you not to be outraged. If I were a customer of theirs I'd be mad too. You draw your own line and that's just fine with me. Let me draw mine.
I believe facts matter. Facts like Mullvad didn't directly fund a Nazi party, but one of their owners did. And it wasn't per se a Nazi party becausre they are more of the horseshoe persuasion where they try to marry ideas from the extreme right with those from the extreme left, which is an unfortunate trend in European politics right now. And I've pointed this out before: the real threat is already in the Swedish parliament as the 2nd largest fraction. They are the Sweden Democrats and they are probably more deserving of the Nazi label.
Zerush@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 31d
I understand your point of view, but I can only speak mine. The advance of the far right in Europe and the rest of the world is more than worrying and must be fought, not facilitated. A company must also look at its image in the eyes of the public and show ethics and respect for the customer and user.
Mullvad is undoubtedly a technically good browser with excellent privacy-protecting features, but precisely for this reason it cannot be tolerated that its CEO supports a political party that promotes the exact opposite of what Mullvad claims to defend, because this takes away confidence in the future developments of this browser and what path it will take. The influence of someone who owns 50% of the company is surely not small and the influence and political orientation he has matters, even if it seems a good product.
Eg. Starlink, for sure very usefull to permit the connection in a lot of countries without infrastructure, in catastrophes, in trains, flights, etc. but I see also a worldwide network controlled by one person, Musk. Right populism always use the Honeypot methode for it's advance.
nevyn@slrpnk.net · 56 pts · 33d
Seppo@sopuli.xyz · 21 pts · 33d
Mullvad has not claimed to be against it. Mullvad has pretty much said "if you don't like free speach, we're sorry you feel that way".
ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 29 pts · 33d
Their statement reads
They're pretty clearly saying that they as a company have no part in this political support.
vas@lemmy.ml · -3 pts · 33d
True. But they did not say that they are _against_ the donation.
The original comment should simply be reworded to "and Mullvad says it has nothing to do with the donation and wasn't aware of it" or something like that. Remove "
claim to be against".ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 5 pts · 33d
They don't plainly say against it no, but they're still clearly distancing themselves from it. It's not as good as outright denouncing it, but much better than staying silent.
vas@lemmy.ml · -2 pts · 33d
Absolutely. IDK why me or you are getting downvotes tho. Did they claim to be agai st as the original commenter said? No. Did they distance themselves and clearly separate themselves? Yes.
nevyn@slrpnk.net · 5 pts · 33d
sudoer777@lemmy.ml · 5 pts · 32d
It isn't obvious though because it's the fucking cofounder that's doing it and they keep misrepresenting it as a speech issue. It isn't some random employee, it's the people who invented and make the decisions for the service, and it's a massive amount of money as well
nevyn@slrpnk.net · 0 pts · 32d
sudoer777@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 32d
The headline isn't trash, it's accurate. If Mullvad didn't exist, the majority of the party's funding wouldn't exist.
nevyn@slrpnk.net · 0 pts · 32d
JillyB@beehaw.org · 3 pts · 33d
You're moving the goalposts. Claiming to be against it and saying they had nothing to do with it aren't the same thing.
nevyn@slrpnk.net · -2 pts · 32d
JillyB@beehaw.org · 5 pts · 32d
If they wanted you to think his actions were against their values, they would have said "against". The fact that it's a company owner and CEO, means that the company values and the owner's values are the same, whether they publicly state it or not. That's why they've made such a fence-sitting PR statement. Even when they're trying to downplay the link between the company values and the owner's values, they don't commit because the owner's values are the company's values.
nevyn@slrpnk.net · 0 pts · 32d
M137@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 33d
It has been here on Lemmy too, several threads on the front page without the misleading title. OP either did that on purpose (them not replying here at all gives that more weight IMO) or they didn't even try to see if it had been posted and didn't read anything in the article and posted without caring if the title is ture or not. The post should be removed.
nevyn@slrpnk.net · 0 pts · 32d
daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 32d
But I need to be angry against something and isolate myself in a corner on society where everything is evil but me!
geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml · 45 pts · 33d
TheKaul@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 39 pts · 33d
Clickbait title. It's one of the coowners who has donated his personal funds to this party. The other owner and other members of the company disapprove of the decision.
willington@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 35 pts · 32d
So is the nazi coowner getting ousted soon?
Right now we're at "Mullvad is part nazi, nazi adjacent, nazi lite, moderately fascist, feudalism-curious" stage.
mursejoy@lemmy.zip · 29 pts · 32d
A dinner table with one Nazi amongst five friends just makes a table of five Nazi.
matlag@sh.itjust.works · 11 pts · 32d
True but with enough backlash, he might be convinced to leave.
TheKaul@lemmy.dbzer0.com · -1 pts · 32d
I think the saying goes the other way around. Sit at a table with 5 Nazis, now there's 6 Nazis. A table with 1 Nazi is just an outlier and an embarrassment. A laughing stock.
nevyn@slrpnk.net · 9 pts · 32d
DharkStare@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 32d
He owns half the company so I'm not sure if he can be ousted.
willington@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 31d
The company can be spun out into two.
Let the spun out Nazivad get their own customers separately, if they can.
Otherwise the whole company is now tainted.
nevyn@slrpnk.net · 2 pts · 31d
SpaceMan9000@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 32d
Guess where part of your money is going to...
petco34@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 32d
If you buy most products, chances are some portion of it is going to a Nazi sympathizer.
Prior_Industry@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 32d
Once you get confirmation of this you have a choice. Free market and all that
placebo@lemmy.zip · -7 pts · 32d
godsammitdam@lemmy.zip · 16 pts · 32d
72% of the party's funding...also more than 27x their entire previous years funding...what would constitute financing the party?
It's a founder who owns 50% of the company...he holds majority sway. He directs the company. Elon only owns 15% of Tesla for reference.
placebo@lemmy.zip · -9 pts · 32d
ZeroHora@lemmy.ml · 6 pts · 32d
Did you really asked a LLM to write an argument for you?
placebo@lemmy.zip · -4 pts · 32d
ZeroHora@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 32d
Yeah because is that how LLM works they "understands" things...
nevyn@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 31d
godsammitdam@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 32d
Dumbass, you conceded the argument because you didn't use your own brain to make it.
placebo@lemmy.zip · -3 pts · 32d
godsammitdam@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 32d
God, what are you, a shill? You really do have no brain.
Just because you attempt to call something a strawman and downplay its importance doesn't make it true. We live in objective reality you rightwing numbnut.
The crux of this entire argument is that the owner's political ideology and decisions can be interpreted as synonymous with the company, given his control and that a significant portion of Mullvad's profit will go into his pocket.
Here, let me translate that for you:
That's not a strawman, it's the main throughline of the entire argument.
GaumBeist@lemmy.ml · 7 pts · 32d
Where does he get the money he donates?
TheKaul@lemmy.dbzer0.com · -1 pts · 32d
From his job? Working for an employer who cannot tell him how to spend his own money.
GaumBeist@lemmy.ml · 9 pts · 32d
Who does he work "for"? He's a co-owner/founder according to most of the comments in her
traxex@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 36 pts · 32d
Insane amount of Nazi sympathizers in this thread. “Aw but poor baby is just the CEO!! It’s not his fault he’s a Nazi! Let him do what he wants!” Freaks.
mathemachristian@lemmy.ml · 23 pts · 32d
Assata Shakur
traxex@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 5 pts · 32d
Quite a poignant quote.
VonReposti@feddit.dk · 14 pts · 32d
IIRC it is not the CEO but a co-founder. The CEO condemned it. But it's all the same, money flowing into Mullvad floes into a neo-nazi group.
MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 30 pts · 32d
Title is incorrect, it's not Mullvad donating the money but one of the owners.
HereIAm@lemmy.world · 31 pts · 32d
This is true, but it a co-founder with 50% ownership. Musk has like a 15% ownership in Tesla, yet they are the modern day Nazi car. Surely if half the ownership of a company supports fascists that kind of makes it a racist company.
nevyn@slrpnk.net · 2 pts · 31d
GaumBeist@lemmy.ml · 10 pts · 32d
Where does he get the money he donates?
nevyn@slrpnk.net · 3 pts · 31d
architect@thelemmy.club · 4 pts · 32d
I wonder if people will do this for my business. “It’s not the business! It’s the owner!” (The owner is the business…) I could get away with a ton of shit.
nevyn@slrpnk.net · 0 pts · 31d
captcha_incorrect@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 32d
They even released a statement regarding this.
placebo@lemmy.zip · -20 pts · 32d
ordnance_qf_17_pounder@reddthat.com · 27 pts · 33d
Although this was a private donation and not Mullvad as a company, it's still bad. I've been a Mullvad user for a few years now and I dislike the idea that some of the money I've paid to them, no matter how little overall, might have been used to support a political party that pushes for "remigration".
I may have very indirectly helped finance a fascist party, and I'm not okay with that. I'd like Mullvad to take steps to ensure that this can't happen again. Until then, I can't be sure where my money will end up.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 26 pts · 33d
Yeah... About that....
SupremeDonut@lemmy.ml · 7 pts · 32d
You mailed in cash didn't you
southsamurai@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 32d
Kinda their best feature
nova_ad_vitum@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 32d
In the past they let you keep CC on file for monthly payments but now they're prepay only and they delete CC info after 40 days. I think I prepaid for like a year and half before I knew any of this. Mullvad's obsession with user privacy is completely unparalleled in 2026.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 32d
Monero
Cowbee@lemmy.ml · 19 pts · 33d
Even bigger yikes.
bitwolf@sh.itjust.works · 18 pts · 31d
So.. Is there any VPN provider without controversy?
I think Mullvad was the last one I knew of.
They're either lying about logging, lying about backdoors, or apparently Nazis?
someonesmall@lemmy.ml · 6 pts · 31d
AirVPN is awesome, also port forwards are nice for p29p
freddo@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 31d
I just bought the 2/3 days and tried around 10 servers with wireguard and the best speed that I got was 500Mbit/s which is half of my speed.
Also, most of them did not even pass 100Mbit/s.
Am I doing something wrong? I had great speeds with mullvad with the respective set-up.
starsoaked_lily@lemmy.ml · 5 pts · 31d
i would highly recommend ivpn
(recommended by privacyguides.org)
AfricanExpansionist@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 31d
SOCKS
dektep@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 31d
Windscribe have a good rep. Maybe
sorter_plainview@lemmy.today · 18 pts · 33d
Mullvad issued a response. Which IMO is shitty.
Source
::: spoiler Statement from Mullvad Mullvad is a political company. We fight for freedom of speech, freedom of information and the right to privacy. These are firmly held values of the founders of Mullvad.
Mullvad protects the right for people to express things we don't agree with. We protect the right of everyone to access views we don't agree with.
We also live these values by being tolerant in our daily work. Everyone is welcome to collaborate with Mullvad if they share these narrow core values. As employees, contractors, customers, suppliers, lobbyists, campaign partners or whatever it might be. No matter what their other opinions are and no matter whether the founders or anyone else in Mullvad dislike them. The founders themselves fundamentally disagree on several important issues.
This is what allows us to advance our common causes. Being in a tolerant and intellectually open environment is also liberating and promotes truth seeking.
The more people do this, the better a place the world will be.
It should be obvious that Daniel's private donation to a political party is not part of Mullvad's values or mission, in the same way that someone's opinions on animal rights, taxes or public healthcare policy isn't.
That said, if you no longer want to be a Mullvad customer for philosophical reasons, we think it's important to honor that, and will gladly refund you. :::
sp3ctre@feddit.org · 17 pts · 32d
It's pretty easy in my opinion. We see, that right wing shit spreads around the world.
My consequences will be: Any company supporting this shit (even indirectly) will not be paid with my money in the future.
Too bad my subscription for a year has been paid a few weeks ago....
gnate@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 32d
They've offered refunds for those who are upset about the owner's actions. Not condoning anything, but maybe worth getting your money back.
https://mastodon.online/@mullvadnet/116822246786533774
nevyn@slrpnk.net · 3 pts · 31d
sp3ctre@feddit.org · 3 pts · 31d
Yeah, I will take a look into that. Thanks!
Mikina@programming.dev · 16 pts · 33d
That is a really difficult situation to be in, and I don't envy them. I'm struggling with coming up with a solution to this, when one of your co-founders, that you basically can't force out if I understand it correctly, is using his own money, he made from the company, but it's still his own, to go against your mission.
If they can't convince him to not do that, there's not much they can do.
I really like Mullvad, it's the only VPN that I feel kind of safe abiut and trust them, but if a part of my money goes directly to fund extremistic parties, then I simply won't do that and will be asking for a refund. I really hope they figure something out.
But Mullvad could also react a little better, by emphasizing that they would remove him if they could, and that they are working on a solution. Because it kind of isn't their fault, and it sucks to be in a position like this. Currently it's like Tesla or SpaceX saying that they don't agree with Musk's values, and that he's spending his own money they have no control over, as if that was an argument why it's fiine to buy Tesla or invest into SpaceX.
But unsubscribing from Mullvad is the best thing we can do now, hopefully the co-founder loosing his income will make him reconsider the PR of his personal spendings, and the dropping number will force him to reconsider.
AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space · 11 pts · 33d
He owns 50% of the company. He would be legally within his rights to sack anyone moving against him. Short of him being visited by three ghosts and persuaded to change his ways/sell his share to someone more sympathetic to the company’s stated values/convert it to an employee-owned cooperative, there’s not much that can be done.
Mikina@programming.dev · 1 pts · 32d
There's still the second owner who can maybe convince him, or strike a deal.
A lot of people boycoting Mullvad over it might be the motivation he needs, but it's not an easy position to be in, and I'm not getting my hopes up.
He can also maybe just take/sell his half and fork out? But even to me, who knows nothing about running this scale of business, that sounds like something unreasonable.
irate944@piefed.social · 5 pts · 33d
Don't anthropomorphize companies mate. That's not how it works.
Think about it, from inside the company point of view: who, exactly, would write and post something like that?
Mullvad isn't a company with a board that can vote out a shareholder. Berntsson and Stromberg are the sole shareholders and co-CEOs, 50/50. There's no mechanism to "remove" a co-owner short of him voluntarily selling his stake or a negotiated buyout, and neither will happen because of some angry posts on the internet.
Mullvad isn't a separate entity with its own thoughts and ideologies. It's two guys who hire people to offer a service
Mikina@programming.dev · 3 pts · 32d
You are right, that's what I was trying to say that there's not much they can do about it. I haven't mentioned it directly, but by "Mullvad", I mostly meant the second owner. It's now mostly up to him to either somehow deal with his co-owner, or just loose hopefully a lot of customers.
Lot of people boycotting Mullvad because of this is the only thing that may help in this regard, but I'm not getting my hopes up.
whatiswrongwithyou@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 32d
If it actually matters that you have privacy and anonymity it’s probably best to not switch.
You know what’s best for you, but the guilt of knowing one drop of your money goes to someone whom you find repugnant is preferable to losing life or safety.
Mikina@programming.dev · 1 pts · 31d
I was judt thinking about this, especially considering that it's very probable that most of the money I spend are eventually financing lobyiing and who-knows what else, if you were to track them down simillarly.
But, if it's true that 75% of the donations the party has received is from the Mullvad co-owner, there is a chance that it would allow them to keep on surviving even when they shouldn't, and if they manage to get elected (which unfortunately seems to be more and more of a trend), it can cause a lot more harm than a little bit of lost privacy.
I don't know. I don't want to stop supporting Mullvad, but if that means also giving a far right party a better chance at surviving, then it sucks.
whatiswrongwithyou@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 31d
Whatever you decide, don’t fall into the trap of bearing responsibility for the actions of others.
blueworld@piefed.world · 16 pts · 33d
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48696800
umbrella@lemmy.ml · 30 pts · 33d
scummy af with this deflection. as if anyone would want the money they paid for a service funneled to bad actors regardless of who is doing it..
paranoia@feddit.dk · 6 pts · 33d
Well, it's not like the other founder approved his political donations. I think it's a fair enough point to make, it is a private donation, and not a company donation.
umbrella@lemmy.ml · 7 pts · 32d
a private donation with our money.
nevyn@slrpnk.net · 6 pts · 33d
TheFermentalist@reddthat.com · 15 pts · 33d
“shitty to hold Mullvad accountable for this “ No. It’s not. Hold them accountable. Co-founder must have known that Berntsson has fascist tendencies. That’s kinda hard to hide
AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space · 2 pts · 33d
By all accounts, he seems to have been a fairly standard TESCREAL-adjacent high-decoupling libertarian until now, like a lot of tech founders. While some of these end up steelmanning fascism and coming to the conclusion that it’s pretty neat, it by no means follows.
nevyn@slrpnk.net · -3 pts · 32d
TheFermentalist@reddthat.com · 3 pts · 32d
Fuck off idiot.
nevyn@slrpnk.net · -1 pts · 32d
umbrella@lemmy.ml · 6 pts · 32d
if the company put out a fencesitting statement instead of bringing him consequences, at best they don't care
nevyn@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 32d
umbrella@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 31d
regardless, paying for a service that pays for fascism is something that might put them in trouble if they don't deal with it.
that is if people care. that has to be a consideration these days.
nevyn@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 31d
umbrella@lemmy.ml · 0 pts · 31d
if this amounts to something remains to be seen
TheFermentalist@reddthat.com · 22 pts · 33d
Don’t tolerate the intolerant. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance
Berntsson hides his fascist tendencies behind a thin veneer of free speech.
Strömberg obviously knows his bedmate and tolerates his tendencies.
Fuck them both. Delete Mullvad (which I used until very recently)
jdr@lemmy.ml · -3 pts · 33d
Don't rely on a totschlagargument to to save yourself from thinking about the complex consequences of your choices.
Even if you think Popper was right that doesn't mean you can just draw a line down the middle of humanity dividing the intolerant-because-evil and intolerant-but-only-to-other-group.
JigglySackles@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 31d
I can't keep track of all the assholes. Going to need an asshole tracker soon.
r3plic@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 29d
That would be a fun website. Asshole tracker for Companies & Politicians and others?
JigglySackles@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 29d
Could do an Assholes Wiki and make it community contributions lol
SupremeDonut@lemmy.ml · 13 pts · 32d
Consumers are nothing but fish in a barrel these days
paultimate14@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 31d
I would love to take my money elsewhere, but... Where? Everywhere else is just as bad or worse. Half the VPN's are owner by one Israeli billionaire. I'm running out of options here.
someonesmall@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 31d
I'm using AirVPN since two years and I'm very happy with them.
starsoaked_lily@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 31d
i would highly recommend ivpn
(recommended by privacyguides.org)
judgy_jackdaw@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 32d
How many degrees of separation do y'all deem acceptable and why? If Mullvad donated that money directly, that's bad. If the owner donated that money, that's also bad. What if the owner instead bought something from another company and the owner of the company donated the money? What if this second owner then bought something else from yet another company and the owner of that company donated the money? When can you stop saying "my money is used to fund this thing I don't want"? Because money will spread so fast in the economy that inevitably, no matter what choices you make, your money will fund things you don't like. For example, should the "true scotsman" vegan never buy anything because it is pretty much guaranteed that their money will end up in the pocket of someone who will spend it on meat? Again, I am not criticizing anyone, I am simply asking: where do you draw the line, why, and why not draw the line one step further than you currently are?
Dalkor@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 31d
I think information is useful. I see no problem giving people the information and vehicles for making decisions... but as a society I do think we need to get to a place where we acknowledge that everyone has their own line and trust they are making the best decisions they can be, given the information they have.
I've asked the same question for situations where the court of public appeal has changed the donation decisions and yet people choose to castigate because they believe repreations to counteract their donations are due. I believe progress is progress and it should be rewarded, that is my line. Others will disagree and that's fine.
Tidesphere@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 33d
God dammit, I already switched away from Express VPN because they're owned by Israel, now I gotta switch away from Mullvad too??
AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space · 22 pts · 33d
There’s no ethical consumption under capitalism, just a weighing of compromises and complicities.
Prunebutt@slrpnk.net · 4 pts · 33d
That's the most important bit: Allard had private property (his capital) and he did with it however he pleased. This is a structural issue, which wont be solved by cancelling Mullvad.
chortle_tortle@mander.xyz · 6 pts · 33d
I think this is too quick to absolve the individual. Yes these are structural issues, but apparently his 5 mill kronor was 72% of the party's total donations from 2025. There is tangible effects that boycotts can have, and to me it seems worth choosing another VPN if the gold standard is funding a party that will strip away privacy rights the moment it has power.
Prunebutt@slrpnk.net · 0 pts · 32d
I don't think this'll seriously impact MullvadVPN. But don't let me stop you from trying.
I'm simply a bit weary. It seems a bit to me like a -irtue-signaling liberal cancel-culture move about a party that most people don't understand, because they don't speak swedish.
I've read a bit about them in swedish until I found the damming policy propositions.
drthunder@midwest.social · 2 pts · 31d
I speak Swedish and Allard calls immigrants "fucking parasites" in language that's about as direct of a translation as you can get: https://www.etc.se/inrikes/martin-melin-om-parasit-kommentaren-borde-ha-markerat
Prunebutt@slrpnk.net · 2 pts · 31d
I'm not saying that he allegations are incorrect. I said that I wanted to check for myself and I had to read a bit until I found all the shit.
starsoaked_lily@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 31d
i would highly recommend ivpn
(recommended by privacyguides.org)
RoddyStiggs@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 9 pts · 33d
Nobody using Mullvad is going to have their credit card tied directly to it. Much less are they going to start calling financial institutions and government agencies and tell them they're a Mullvad user.
You need to get way more subtle with your propaganda, corpos.
mathemachristian@lemmy.ml · 13 pts · 33d
Sure lets entrust our privacy with infrastructure owned by a fascist...
Artemis_Mystique@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 33d
clearly you don't know how Mullvad works
mathemachristian@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 33d
Enlighten me how under a fascist takeover it couldn't be undermined to track undesirables... even if, the owner is a fascist?! Clearly your life wouldn't be in danger when tracked by a fascist...
starman2112@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 33d
Technically they could be lying about their privacy policy, and technically it's not impossible that they've colluded with the government to lie about police finding nothing in raids, and saying "well they will lie about it because they're fascists" is myopic and stupid. Moreso than being fascist, they're fanatical about privacy. Everything runs on RAM. They couldn't track you if they wanted to
mathemachristian@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 33d
Why?
and they will be forever and ever? There's one move fascists have, coast on good will until it's time for the rug-pull. A lot of fascists started out genuinely believing in some cause but sooner or later they all turn. What with contradictions sharpening and all
starman2112@sh.itjust.works · 0 pts · 33d
Because you don't know anything about the infrastructure of their operation. It's as yet impossible for them to track traffic through their servers.
As long as it's one guy making personal donations and not the company as a whole, yes
mathemachristian@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 32d
Enlighten me then? Simply calling others stupid and playing coy with your argument isn't that convincing an argument.
that "one guy"? Oh he owns half the company, and we are very happy to run this operation with him don't worry about him.
RoddyStiggs@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 31d
Explain to me how you activate an account on Mullvad. Right here.
Don't Google it. Just explain it.
mathemachristian@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 31d
You create that id number thing and send them money. Do you think that means that your identity is completely secure?
RoddyStiggs@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 31d
Send them money in what form?
mathemachristian@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 31d
I was planning on sending them cash via mail
RoddyStiggs@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 31d
Do you write your name and address on the cash you send them?
mathemachristian@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 31d
No
AlteredEgo@lemmy.ml · 9 pts · 32d
That ideology sounds wild lol. Almost literal "national - socialism"?
The issue is rich people using undemocratic power to fund things like this. Which ironically sounds exactly like the “Transferiat” siphoning money and power from VPN users to funnel it into unwanted, fringe channels.
justaman123@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 32d
I was just thinking, the "transferiat" sound exactly like the wealthy ownership class
AlteredEgo@lemmy.ml · -6 pts · 32d
To be fair, much of this could be flak, deliberate distortion and slander by the neoliberal forces in Sweden. You can't trust the mainstream media not to trash anything that isn't neoliberal.
This all sounds great.
And I suspect a clear majority of Europeans are also against immigration or reducing how many refugees we take in thanks to fucking imperialist wars by the elite. There is nothing "far right" about this. I'm also for sending refugees back (EDIT: After it's safe to send them back!) and strictly limiting immigration in my country. The only real issue is that "remigration" is apparently code word for ethnic cleansing.
The larger issue is that this ideology sounds pretty half baked and too simple for the complexity of the current state of things.
kossa@feddit.org · 9 pts · 31d
Erm..."remigration" is the dogwhistle for concentration camps, though? I mean, you do you, but as far as classifying something as "far right"...talking about remigration easily tops that list ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
AlteredEgo@lemmy.ml · -1 pts · 31d
From what I read remigration is ethnic cleansing by mass deportation. I hadn't even heard of the term before. I guess detention (or concentration?) camps are then inevitable too, we're seeing remigration right now in the US. Everyone just watches and lets it happen.
It should go without saying that I'm sarcastic and absolutely against such inhuman policies and that it's an entirely different thing from being against immigration and unlimited refugees in Europe. Different to the USA which is still mostly empty and an immigration country.
Sweden is now 8.1% Muslim. Even if most are moderate or non-practicing, that's well past a limit where you can expect "assimilation". Whatever that is supposed to mean, are we the Borg?
Does your own country and it's culture mean anything? Are you allowed to have and preserve a cultural identity? Does ideal diversity and internationalism mean homogenity globally? I don't think so.
So yeah, remigration is a far right dogwhistle, but calling anyone in favor of sensible limits on immigration/refugees a racist or xenophobe is a neoliberal talking point.
Anyway, climate change could create something like a billion refugees until the end of the century. That would make ideology pretty much irrelevant.
kossa@feddit.org · 2 pts · 31d
Yes, those are inevitable. Even the death camps within, it's not about detention. Like, the "real nazis" themselves wanted to "remigrate" jews to Madagascar. That was their original plan to get rid of them
Didn't work, so they needed to genocide. And that shit will happen again while we all watch and debate whether "remigration" is a far-right thing and whether donating to a literal nazi party makes you a nazi ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
cheeseharlot@kbin.earth · 6 pts · 31d
Yeah, just the small issue of genocide, but other than that, the rest of their policies are only moderate white supremacist ones.
AlteredEgo@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 31d
Calling everything genocide robs the word of all meaning.
cheeseharlot@kbin.earth · 1 pts · 31d
Ethnic cleansing is genocide. Genocide is a term that has an actual meaning, it's not just "bad things". Please educate yourself before correcting people on the term.
AlteredEgo@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 31d
Ethnic cleansing can mean mass deportation, like in the US right now. You really think that genocide? Would deporting the 1.1 million Ukrainian refugees in Germany back to Ukraine be genocide?
Ethnic cleansing sounds vile enough. No need to call it genocide, which it isn't.
jmp242@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 30d
I'm not even sure I'd call the mass deportation in the US Ethnic Clensing. Part of the problem is it targets minorities, but not one specific minority, and the extent it targets minorities under cover of law is targeting non-citizens. Now, I think the whole thing is horrible, and bad policy. But it seems different to me from openly taking a specific group that are citizens and deporting them en masse.
Now - it's made worse by the wink and nod the US sort of used for decades and never actually made good / modern immigration policy.
I think it's possible to be someone who's for mass deportation of people not legally in a country and not be someone who supports genocide OR ethnic clensing. It can actually be a simple "rule of law" sort of position. I don't think MAGA is that sort of person, or at least many seem to be perfectly happy with ethnic clensing as an idea, but I also don't think they're actually happy to stop at non-citizens. It's just they haven't gotten through the "illegals" yet.
Maybe a good thread the needle would be if you're in the country for 10 years (or some amount of time) without getting deported, a "statute of limitations" has then expired and you're now a citizen. I'm sure that wouldn't pass many people's politics, but it would to my mind hold that if the government didn't care for that long, you can't be that much of an actual problem, and shouldn't be kicked out anymore because you've also likely integrated into communities etc.
justaman123@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 32d
Didn't the swiss banks enrich themselves with Nazi gold?
AlteredEgo@lemmy.ml · 0 pts · 31d
Sure, it was acceptable in the 1930s. But what does that have to do with what I wrote?
Zerush@lemmy.ml · 8 pts · 32d
With this the only European browser is Vivaldi, by its own structure as a cooperative, owned by the employees, quite far from the right. The only thing they sponsor is a local football club in Iceland.
I hope that KDE would improve one day its independent Konqueror browser (KHTML/ Qt engine, ancestor of WebKit and Blink, Linux only), to have some more alternatives in the EU. It works as browser AND file manager, but due to a good improvement very slow nowadays.
marcie@lemmy.ml · 5 pts · 32d
Mullvad browser is still mostly maintained by the Tor project and doesn't phone home, still one of the best choices for a no fingerprint browser even if you use a different vpn for it. Biggest downside imo is it's not on Android. It's entirely FOSS and again, no phoning home on an action, so it doesn't matter what the creator thinks.
My personal use case for tracking is different from others, I mostly want to avoid surveillance capitalism. It's genuinely a problem for my PTSD, if I talk about my PTSD on a corporate app I'll get spammed with triggering shit 24/7 because they like to spam you with "solutions" and self help and news for crimes against women like it's my special interest. Obviously I would love to avoid state surveillance but you're not getting that from any vpn server domiciled in the west, it'd have to be in a geopolitical enemy of the west e.g. Russia or China or Serbia and most people would not like the latency that involves.
Zerush@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 32d
FOSS nowadays is less and less a guarantee, since Google, M$, Amazon and Fakebook are one of the biggest contributers of FOSS (naturally all with their corresponding tracking APIs). Currently the company ethics, transparency and trust are a very important. At least for me, it's not acceptable when a service is used to sponsor right wing or nazi parties. It's not direct Mullvad, but their CEO paid by this product. Faschism is advancing in a creepy manner and at least I'm not willing to support it in any way.
PD. TOR was developed by the US army and secret services and they still owned the onion server. The future and free internet will not be the Onion, but I2P and decentralized networks, out of the reach from big brother corps.
G_M0N3Y_2503@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 32d
If you cut out buffer bloat it's easy to forget that everything is only slightly slower, it's the inconsistency in the latency that makes you really notice. With a base of ~130ms when it doubles for those first couple of packets of every page load you really feel it, as long as it's smooth, your brain can adjust.
I have it for my whole house and no one notices/complains.
https://www.waveform.com/tools/bufferbloat https://github.com/lynxthecat/CAKE-autorate
That said, it's kind of niche then more niche to run it on the VPN too, I wish it were more accessible.
whatiswrongwithyou@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 32d
The person talking about bufferbloat is making a good point and if your router can run even something like freshtomato then you can use cake aqm and make life better.
obvs@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 32d
That moment when you literally sent Mullvad a bunch of cash like two weeks before all of this came down and you know there's literally no way to get your money back and it takes 2-4 weeks for money to get from your country to Sweden so you haven't even started using the service.
gnate@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 32d
They've claimed they'll honor refunds,fwiw:
https://mastodon.online/@mullvadnet/116822246786533774
whatiswrongwithyou@lemmy.ml · 7 pts · 32d
That doesn’t help the cash in an envelope with no return address crowd. Mullvad also doesn’t have any way to associate an account with a person.
gnate@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 32d
So then their offer may not be genuine...bummer.
nevyn@slrpnk.net · 2 pts · 31d
whatiswrongwithyou@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 32d
It’s less of an ingenuine offer issue and more of a “there’s a way to pay thats anonymous and untraceable” problem.
There’s no way to privately and anonymously confirm that the person who paid cash and is asking for a refund is who they say they are. If you have them do that then now you have a record of who they are and that can be used by the cops when they cleverly hit you with a subpoena the month after your big scandal broke.
So if you’re committed to protecting customers privacy you can’t do refunds on cash.
gnate@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 31d
Understood. I was replying more to the general inability for them to associate people with accounts,if I read you right.
whatiswrongwithyou@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 31d
Oh they can do cc and PayPal refunds. Probably monero and bitcoin too. Wire transfers you can’t usually reverse, cash you can’t either. Cooperative merchants can refund a wire transfer, but it’s not as cut and dry as the cc, PayPal or crypto process.
And it’s possible for a rep to decide a person is who they say they are and refunding the balance of an account somehow but that requires the person give up the shield of anonymity and who would do that.
That’s the whole point of paying cash. If your vpn account gets associated, just abandon it and move on. There’s no record of ongoing payment for an investigator to trace back.
nevyn@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 31d
chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 6 pts · 33d
So, what are good alternatives? Anything that accepts anonymous crypto payments and doesn't have accounts?
nevyn@slrpnk.net · 8 pts · 33d
starsoaked_lily@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 31d
i switched to ivpn, personally
T0RB1T@lemmy.ca · 6 pts · 31d
Once again, it feels like too much money and power just makes people into freaks. None are completely immune, too few are effectively resistant.
When money makes you complicit in the system where money is power, there is no way to leverage money to fix the system unless you're somehow completely insulated from direct personal gain.
Morality, ethics, humanity... These must be maintained, have we all just moved on? Maybe it's just me that's given up.
NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone · 2 pts · 31d
You can really tell how cut-throat and efficient the free market is when founders just have millions spare knocking around to play at Blackshirts.
inkblade@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 33d
Yeah, I am not doing that.
Zerush@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 32d
I use sometimes only an Proxy to skip country restrictions, I don't use a VPN. If I need an VPN, I would probably use the SPN from the Portmaster which I use anyway.
airikr@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 31d
The company Mullvad do not support nor like Daniel Berntsson's donation which is a personal donation from Daniel himself.
Mullvad as a company do not support far-right.
https://korben.info/en/mullvad-cofounder-funding-far-right.html
https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privacy-security/i-dont-like-that-he-made-this-donation-mullvad-ceo-reacts-to-co-founders-donation-to-controversial-swedish-populist-party
nagaram@startrek.website · 4 pts · 31d
So long as Daniel is paid from Mullvad, Mullvad financially supports the far right by proxy.
airikr@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 30d
That is true, but since the other employeers at Mullvad don't like Daniel's donation, they don't take his side. Of course it's very shameful that he did that donation, and I truly hope he gets fired.
But one thing must be clear: facts should be just that: facts! Daniel took his own money and personally donated it to that shitty party - not Mullvad!
Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 33d
Privacy is not something that neatly aligns with the left-right spectrum.
Melusine@tarte.nuage-libre.fr · 16 pts · 33d
Far right needs to track their targets. The nazi had IBM census machines to better identify jews, and right now, Palantir fucking exists, and its founder is well aligned on left-right.
ZeroHora@lemmy.ml · 7 pts · 33d
I'm very confused by what you mean with this. It's like saying human basic needs doesn't aligns with left-right spectrum, like no shit!
oyzmo@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 31d
Like people care 😅 look around, Meta and Tesla are doing great! Both companies are sooo much worse, nazi and earning money on child sex ads .. people don't care, most are to hypnotised by their mobile.
starman2112@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 33d
Doomsider@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 32d
Keep giving corporations your money, what could possibly go wrong.
lithiumground@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 32d
Use librewolf browser
chortle_tortle@mander.xyz · 1 pts · 32d
Do they have a VPN?
lithiumground@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 32d
Protonvpn
87Six@lemmy.zip · -2 pts · 32d
madcaesar@lemmy.world · -3 pts · 32d
I stepped in shit with my left foot! Therefore it's ok to step into vomit with my right foot!
nevyn@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 31d
architect@thelemmy.club · -6 pts · 32d
Most Americans do not pay an income tax. That’s how broke bitches be. Paying social security etc is not a tax.
So there’s nothing for them to stop paying.
gleaminggoat@sh.itjust.works · -4 pts · 31d
This seems pretty sensationalized. Wikipedia does not classify them as a far right party. "Some key issues for the Örebro Party locally include strong secularism, a 30-hour workweek with retained pay, lowered wages for politicians, expanded social housing, abolishing preschool-fees, making public transport free of charge,[4] ending taxpayer funding of what it sees as wasteful sculptures, monuments and art and introducing free dental care."
Yeah those Nazis are always for sure advocating for social housing and a 30 hour work week. /s
kossa@feddit.org · 14 pts · 31d
Very convenient how you skipped the next sentence:
Oh, wow. Remigration is a link to another wiki page. Let's learn something about it:
Uh. That sounds pretty Nazi to me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
ZeroHora@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 31d
It's not classify in the sacred text guys everyone calm down!!!!!!
axx@slrpnk.net · 3 pts · 31d
Yeah and it's not Mullvad itself but the cofounder with his personal money (which of course he has for being the Mullvad cofounder and handsomely paid co-CEO, I expect).
Still, nuance?
nevyn@slrpnk.net · -5 pts · 31d
thecam@lemmy.world · -6 pts · 32d
NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone · 8 pts · 32d
Why not just cut out the middle man and join an ethno nationalist party?
sudoer777@lemmy.ml · 5 pts · 32d
You don't have free speech when you're made illegal, which is what far right parties like this one are doing to immigrants
tixnou@feddit.cl · 1 pts · 32d
butsbutts@lemmy.ml · -7 pts · 32d
lets harass them!!
hneerqe@lemmy.world · -8 pts · 32d
This is why I don't like any people and none of their parties.
Years of uncompromised world class service. Then a person there has the audacity of having a political view (shocking!)
Now they suck and should be boycotted. This is how ingrate you look, we were lucky we even had mullvad in the first place.
QinShiHuangsShlong@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 32d
You make me sick you Hitlerite apologist.
hneerqe@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 32d
Not even wikipedia says what fucking side is on and I'm somehow.. whatever I'm going to leave you and your shitty opinions.
FistingEnthusiast@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 32d
You're going to die alone and lonely
hneerqe@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 32d
far away from you
judgy_jackdaw@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 32d
why, just because you say so?
bloogoose@lemmy.zip · -10 pts · 31d
You guys are gonna lose your shit when you find out where your tax dollars are winding up... Or your phone purchase dollars... Or your electricity bill dollars...
Are you alive and spending? If the answer is yes, congratulations you cause pain and suffering.
Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 31d
Yet you participate in society. Curious.
bloogoose@lemmy.zip · -7 pts · 31d
Yeah this is the type of response I expected. An unserious meme potshot because that truth is too uncomfortable.
Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 31d
Yet you're still participating in this thread. Curious.
nevyn@slrpnk.net · 4 pts · 31d
bloogoose@lemmy.zip · -2 pts · 31d
What's the difference in apathy and inaction?
Nothing.
nevyn@slrpnk.net · 3 pts · 31d
cheeseharlot@kbin.earth · 2 pts · 31d
My phone company is evil, sure. And individual consumer choice has limited utility in a world where all the phone companies are evil, which is why consumers should get organized.
But if I find out that my evil phone company is the primary financier of my or another country's most prominent Nazi party that's advocating for Nazi policies, I'm switching to the other evil phone company. Not a difficult decision?
bloogoose@lemmy.zip · -1 pts · 31d
They're all evil, bud. That's my point. You're causing harm to someone somewhere with the things you spend your money on. Folks can downvote all they want, but what I'm saying is true. Doing the least damage isn't doing no damage.
cheeseharlot@kbin.earth · 0 pts · 31d
Try reading my comment again.
magnue@lemmy.world · -10 pts · 33d
Idc
Saapas@piefed.zip · -14 pts · 33d
I mean doesn't sound that far off from "he who does not work, neither shall he eat"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/He_who_does_not_work%2C_neither_shall_he_eat
ViatorOmnium@piefed.social · 20 pts · 33d
That's a fascist position even if it came wrapped in a pseudo-marxist wrapping.
There's a world of difference between "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" and withholding basic needs.
Saapas@piefed.zip · -8 pts · 33d
I'm just saying that it's not like it is a position unfamiliar to self-described Marxists since it was brought in by Lenin and was even part of Soviet Union's constitution.
hneerqe@lemmy.world · -15 pts · 32d
chill. I'm definitely taking your word for it /s. If everything I don't agree with is fascism, well that makes it easy huh?
inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 32d
Yeah, we get it, you love Nazis.
orc_princess@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 31d
Humorless4483@lemmy.world · -47 pts · 32d
I renewed my account after I learned about it. Because the real Nazis are actively trying to cancel him for having an opinion. Wanting someone to be kick out of his job, to be cancelled, to be never allowed to work again because his opinion goes against yours, that’s real fascism.
I’m going to be downvoted to hell because the far left is too indoctrinated into believing that they have the only correct opinion and anyone with a different one is directly their enemy. They won’t understand that they are the fascists here but at least I tried.
godsammitdam@lemmy.zip · 36 pts · 32d
And we're allowed to have our opinions too? The founder can do and say what he wants, but so can we? Right wingers seem to be all about free speech in one direction. No one is entitled to our money. And many of us would rather not have our money, a significant portion of which going to the founder, redirected to a party advocating for ethnic cleansing. Which would make people need a vpn more via persecution. Not to mention a founder with 50%+ ownership would have significant sway on the company itself.
For those looking for other options:
https://vpn.techlore.tech/
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1ijfqfLrJWLUVBfJZ_YalVpstWsjw-JGzkvMd6u2jqEk/htmlview#gid=231869418
And before you try to downplay what the party stands for:
https://www.friatider.se/markus-allard-om-andra-generationens-invandrare-de-ska-ocksa-ut
majster@lemmy.zip · 8 pts · 32d
Damn, that is extreme
lenz@lemmy.ml · 17 pts · 32d
Your money is given to a man. That man gives it to nazis.
You: but he's the middle man! That means he can do whatever he wants with the money I give him, and even though I know he'll give it to nazis, I'm fine with that! In fact, I'll give him MORE money! The left is so indoctrinated for thinking my actions are wrong! It's CANCELLING someone if you refuse to given them money! Being mean to a nazi supporter by refusing to give him my money is the REAL fascism!
FistingEnthusiast@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 32d
You're a real dickhead
Don't breed