How much faith does anyone have in the EU Commission?

I have very little.

The very fact that these companies are allowed ‘privileged access’ to the commission disgusts me.

Lobbying in all of it’s forms should be banned, it 100% goes against our supposed democracy.

…And that end piece is coming from an article that seems to be ‘pro’ Mercosur deal. I can only imagine how much worse it actually is (for the rainforests), but I must confess, that I haven’t read a lot more into it yet. A few articles cite that there are huge regulations, but a little deeper search shows that’s not really correct.

I was too busy looking at what the right hand was doing to not notice that this was being redone. (NOT in political terms - but an old political tactic).

“Untraceable beef from untraceable farms from deforested land, with drugs and hormones, that were banned here in the 1980’s.”

To me, it looks like “The EU” is quickly turning into the US.

Jealous of the money or something, but it’s all about that and not about us. That’s the way it seems.

Definitely caring less about regulations and the planet - I will never count greenwashing or the BS regulations to make it look like something is being done, as anything.

Most of their headphones are made in China. You can search by country, brand or product HERE

For example Sennheiser Products made in China (69)

Sennheiser Products sorted by category and by country they are made in

Sennheiser Products made in Germany (38) and Ireland (3) and Romania (14) and United Kingdom (4)

Take the site with allowances for discrepancies and some issues on the site itself, or example searching product type and then digging deeper to find more info.

But then where will all of the backhanders come from? For example, privacy is not a God given right, it’s something that we should have to fight tooth and nail for - according to these same people that are currently fighting to monetise our privacy and ‘eyeing’ the freezing of a trade deal that they have probably already been paid half for, for agreeing to it in principal. Many of them, themselves fighting to clear their names of taking payments for agreements or contracts be they Pfizer, Apple, Google, Microsoft or any other mainly US company. They, nor their children or grandchildren will be held accountable or even have to deal with whatever comes as a result of this. So realistically don’t care. Denmark citizens might get lucky with some deal that exempts them from all sorts of bullshit coming down the line that we won’t know about until it’s far too late.

Hopefully within 2026 we can start to refer to phones as ‘Android/Google Phones’, ‘iPhones’ and ‘FOSS Phones’ - No longer referring to them as ‘DeGoogled’.

But I am 100% understanding why we use the term now, it came from a Reddit sub. I think (and hope) if we start using the alternative term - FOSS Phones or Open Source or Sailfish/Jolla or whatever else they are… that people will start looking at that option quicker.

DeGoogled sounds to many like it is a bit of work to get rid of google (Buying a google phone and having to remove it). At one stage that was true, custom roms etc.

But I am hoping at this stage anyone buying any of these phones will already know why they are choosing them over other brands.

I do thank platforms should take a stance against disinformation.

Definitely. That should be enforced more. Companies should be fined every time they allow their platform to be used to spread disinformation. €1 for every person believed to have read/listened/viewed something. If 500,000 people viewed it and it spread to millions, then obviously the larger effect should have a deeper reach into their pockets.

Would we call Apple an Irish company because they evade taxes in Ireland?

You’ve lost me there. I won’t disagree with your points, but I am curious…

Spotify was created and built in Sweden by Swedish people. I know nothing about what you are referring to regarding the far right and Joe Rogan etc. - I have heard of him, but I do not know anything about him, what he looks like or what he has actually said about anything. I do know that (I think) he is very far right in his opinion.

But… Can the far left or whoever are the opposite of these extreme politics not just pay for advertisements or produce popular content etc. on the same platform, would spotify take their money, allow their content for profit?

Or

Are spotify exclusively working and promoting the far right?

I don’t agree with shutting down somebody or something because you don’t agree with them or it. I believe it could be far more effective and better for everyone if you explain why you think somebody is wrong in what they are saying, and what way you think it would be better to do something that they are talking about.

The Irish government allowing Apple, Google, Amazon and other big tech to not pay any taxes whilst not really helping the country as a whole is a good reason for the Irish to dislike them, but they (the government) believe that the employment - and more importantly the money that they bring to them is more important than their countries future. It will not be 20 years before they have all pulled out and left Ireland like one of the barren states in the U.S., devoid of employment, with both Dublin and Cork falling into Urban decay.

It is possible to agree with a little bit of one and little bit of the other, and a lot of neither. No point in silencing one to make your voice louder. Just make your points better.

I think that they block detected VPN’s. Been happening for a while for me using Proton every now and then, but recently started happening a little more often than before.

That is fucking insane.

In Ireland in 2002 they tried to bring in electronic voting. It cause uproar, they had already paid for the machines so for almost a decade the machines stayed in storage in ‘accomplices’ - storage facilities among other friends locations.

The machines cost €55m (to buy and store)

Storing the machines cost as much as €700,000 one year

Dropping slightly a few years later

Election Officials to get €400,000 from state for storing them

The €51m machines were eventually sold for scrap for €70,000

Ireland could still be paying some costs until 2029 regardless that the machines have been scrapped

Sounds good, but with the big tech lobbying in Europe and many politicians having their ears bent for the right price there will be a pushback that will delay it until it’s too late.

Too many saying our privacy is not a priority. Identify those and get rid of them (don’t elect them) and block it at every possible point.

I don’t know. It is impossible to tell how effective anything could be against Billion and Trillion-aire companies that are intent on lobbying for our data.

I think join or create any counter-movement.

If you create one - maybe merge it with a larger counter-movement or vice versa.

Privacy might be a decent place to start - https://lemmyverse.net/communities?query=privacy

And unfortunately the platforms that create this and are lobbying might be most effective.

-Reddit Facebook Instagram TikTok Google

And so on

Checkout https://european-alternatives.eu/

https://www.opensourcealternative.to/

And these types of movements.

We need counter movements and fast. Lobbying is happening way too quick (Please think of the children).

That’s not a European thing, that happens everywhere in the world, I would blame your south American office branch for accepting it without checking or trying it first.

I thought that there was already an EU payment system in the pipeline, due to roll out completely in 2026? Or did I make that up… 🤔

EDIT - Wero - https://sbs-software.com/insights/wero-europe-payment-race/

No. Sorry. I’m very stoned now and respelling words for ages.

I don’t think the Palestinians should move. I hope that they don’t. I don’t want them to.

But Israel could’ve tried that option before committing genocide.

Israel uses money, yet again with corruption implied somewhere (I didn’t read the article).

My point is, did it ever occur to them that they could’ve paid the 80,000+ people that they murdered to peacefully and happily move, Probably for cheaper than the genocide has cost them.

Now I doubt, and I hope, that they couldn’t pay most of them enough. They definitely wouldn’t offer enough anyway.

That’s my point.

USA = Trump

Russia = Putin

Getting away from them to make another.

I’m all for EU in theory, but it’s becoming harder and harder to want what they are pushing. Especially the way that they want it.

It also makes things much much easier to corrupt.

I used https://instag.com/reddit/ to bypass the block rather than disabling my vpn for that smut site.

Here is the image for anyone that couldn’t see it.

All of their guides are available here - https://lemmy.world/c/PurchaseWithPurpose

and here - https://purchasewithpurpose.eu/