I might get downvoted for this, as I know the emotions are strong in this topic, but I’ll try and voice my humble opinion once again:

The Russian PEOPLE are not my enemy, KREMLIN is! And I don’t need stickers to tell me this. There are plenty of reports coming from independent journalists all over of not only the horrors that Kremlin motivates soldiers to commit in Ukraine, but what Kremlin is doing even towards civilians inside Russia! There’s a reason for the mass emigration and protests across Russia when this conflict first broke out, and that is that most of the people do not want unnecessary conflict. The Russian people suffer more and more, and also want this to end.

As long as Kremlin and its supporters are allowed to abuse their power however, the suffering will continue, so no mercy for them.

You seem to look at it quite pessimistically imho, but I’ll try and counter ;-)

developers won’t support a third platform

We’re not talking about a vastly different ecosystem. Probably Android-derived (which is open-source), very likely Linux derived. So compatibility is not going to be a huge issue, hence developing not hard. Developers will usually follow where user demand goes, not the other way around.

nor will customers move to a platform that doesn’t have the big apps that they need

Most of the big apps today have a smaller equivalent, check AlternativeTo.net.

Doubling your market share is easy when your market share is so low.

Generally true, but we’re talking a growth of millions of users a year. Millions of people is no small number. 5% of the US’ traffic are from Linux desktops, according to StatCounter (here’s an article with many links).

Nope, not in the tens of millions

You’re correct wrt. gaming, as 2.89% of 157 million active monthly users is about 4.55 million, which is not a small number either.  If you look at Linux desktop users in the US however, we’re talking over 5% of 347 million, which is 17.35 million users in the US alone, which is also not a small number. It’s more than the population of Greece and Bulgaria combined.

Purely because of the steam deck (wrt. Steam Linux users growth)

Do you have numbers? I can’t find any official numbers of active users on the Steam Deck, but there are estimations of 3+ million devices sold. I feel like I keep seeing posts of people who move over to Bazzite and similar distros these days for the sake of playing games, but nevertheless, both of these factors weigh in, and are steadily increasing the adaptation of Linux systems.

without [kernel level anti-cheat] it will never take off because the overwhelmingly most played games all have kernel level anti-cheat.

This is denying the antecedent. The amount of games, and money in games, without KLAC is plenty substantial to make a difference in the approach of both developers and DRMs, further increasing ease of adaptation by users. Do not undermine nor underestimate the potential of marginalities.

The Windows phone entered the market while the market was stable, and users had little reason to move away from what they were used to and comfortable with. These days users are getting more uncomfortable, hence why Linux is on the rise. Same with the push for more liberal software (FOSS). I believe if a company can do it right, and offer a stable and comfortable alternative, they can manage to be much more successful than the Windows phone was 10 - 15 years ago.

Disclaimer: I haven’t checked the statistics, but I remain optimistic, and continue making choices that align with my principles.

Availability in the US might be a bit of a challenge, as the Google/Apple duopoly has solidified greatly over the years there. Europe has the entire BoycottUS movement these days, so there are a lot of attempts at developing something independent there. But as with most new solutions, they have the added difficulty of being compared to these bigger companies who’ve already had many years to develop and perfect their solutions.
The choice boils down to how much you value your principles over comforts, and whether downgrading to physical cards is worth it. Personally I’ve recently done just that.

In regards to Android clones becoming worse, I saw GrapheneOS say on Mastodon that it won’t affect them in any significant way. Hopefully this is the case for most, and will remain the case.

/e/OS works with most, according to this list.

The founder of /e/OS has a blog where he talks about alternative payment solutions, and he mentions Curve being one.

I just recently ordered the Fairphone with /e/OS, and will be looking into this myself soon enough…

Not a lot currently, but what’s needed is for the snowball to start rolling. This means the early adopters will have to make the more difficult decision of choosing “lesser” options wrt. comfort and convenience, compatibility, and bang for your buck. All decisions matter, and it will have long-term effects en masse.

While I can agree with the sentiment (we’re living in an unforgiving world), I also believe it’s a big matter of perspective. There is good in the world, and losing sight of it will easily land you on the highway to rumination. So as helpful as these drugs are for the biological addiction, the psychological one is a different yet vital chapter of a healthy mind (which can also be assisted by drugs).

I feel like a lot of comments here suffers from The Paradox of Tolerance.

This is about a minister setting down their foot on what degree of tolerance outside of cultural and societal norms this country should have. Just like any other country. Look at for example at Afghanistan, Japan, and Estonia - are they any different? Better or worse?

You should contact as many as you can bother, really, regardless of whether they’re the “right” person. It will increase the perceived magnitude of concern, even if just by a little. And every little bit counts.

If it’s the wrong person, ask who you should contact, and keep going!

Other players who have walked the same path will affect your world positively, but only after walking it alone first (and connected the region to the network).

It greatly depends on what kind of games you like playing. I’ve personally greatly enjoyed both the 1st and 2nd game.

If you enjoy a good, long, story with strange and novel elements, the game is for you.

If you enjoy a peaceful game you can play for hours traversing increasingly difficult terrain, with the help of creative use equipment and other players’ previous efforts, the game is also for you.

Game mechanics are refined, facial animations are emotional, and the game maintains a sense of novelty throughout the game, imho.

If you’re easily bored (desiring action), or can easily find things to become repetitive or tedious, the game is probably not for you, as there is a lot of walking in the game.

Architects - Animals, specifically this drop. Makes sure I’m awake when I start talking.

I think you’re right on all these points, though it depends a bit on what part of the Fediverse you’re exposed to.

On the point of anti-capitalism, I agree, but (again, depending on the part of the Fediverse) there’s also an incredibly high amount of open-minded people here, compared to other more mainstream social media (like Reddit). I speak much from my perspective of being from lemmy.zip, which I’m impressed by the healthiness of the community since I joined. But there are also less “healthy” instances like lemmy.ml which is considered by many to be infested with tankies (anti-capitalism?).

And yes, the average age seems to be around mid-30s to me, based solely on how people speak and what they reminisce about.

Fair point. Though that’s why I think the term is composed with “violence”. The desire for chaos and destruction comes from the human in question, while the nihilism is what removes the barriers of committing to the desire. Nihilism goes both ways, and there’s nothing inherently good nor bad about it.

I wonder what other term would be accurate for these groups though?

Nihilism means there is no meaning. Whether that pertains to existence (existential nihilism) or morals (moral nihilism). Nihilism effectively works both ways: “Nothing matters, so I might as well kill myself”, and “nothing matters, so might as well make the most out of it” (constructive nihilism).

This I believe falls under moral nihilism, where there is no right or wrong, only what feels good or bad. Which the article hints at by mentioning that the actors seem to have no ideological goals.
So it’s not a completely irrelevant use of the term, imho.

I interpret it more as “since nothing matters, might as well have fun”, and “fun” is subjective and can be interpretted as enjoying watching things burn in unpredictable ways (chaos & destruction). Human nature can be a bit messed up in that regard.

As with every monthly update, comes a monthly colossal thank you! You’re doing awesome and impressive work, operating with clarity, transparency, and a noble intent! Keep up the fantastic work, as it yields great results also for an ever-growing healthy community!

This game is one of my all time favorites! The game engine is cool, love the story and it’s all its twists, and especially all the small hidden pieces of background info, like the alternate history you pointed out!

It also has some great puzzles and secrets hidden in areas that are interesting to explore every nook and cranny of. I feel rather clever for noticing things like “huh, this is a window, but this game has something called a ‘looking glass’… I wonder…”. And the verticality of a lot of these maps is so fun, giving you the possibility to approach enemies and puzzles the way you prefer (just like the Dishonored franchise, which I can greatly recommend to anyone reading this!).

I wish you a great time with it!

That’s a pretty good deal! It’s a huge game (some say too big), but if you don’t mind a bit of repetetiveness, this would get you a lot for the money

This is super cool! I’d love having something like this when I was a kid! I’ll see if I can find some kids I know to take a look at this, and I’m confident they’ll have a blast!