There’s a reason flights are so cheap compared to to rail, and it’s not good news for anybody except the CEOs of airline companies. TLDR: they’re subsidised and the fuel is subsidised to artificially price them below public transport. We could have cheap or even free public transport if we wanted using the same method.

https://www.greenpeace.org/eu-unit/issues/climate-energy/47717/low-cost-flights-up-to-26-times-cheaper-than-trains/

But not Palestine I bet. Thanks for showing us who you are, Germany.

It’s hard to call that one misinformation outright, since the translation turned out to be correct. But the video of the woman saying those words was clipped short until they released the full version, which is obviously not good enough at all on the part of the BBC.

I also noticed an unusual statement by them in an article shared here on Lemmy https://lemmy.world/comment/18624554

I can’t find a record of the (pretty serious) mistranslation you mentioned.

It’s great to see people speaking out from inside about serious bias. Reuters and BBC are two publications that (I thought) had better reputations prior to this.

That’s not the point. This is about legitimising the Russian regime in the eyes of millions, and normalising war crimes in a time of sanctions.

Sky News is trash. Surely a better publication has covered this story.

We should be sending troops at this stage.

That’s the thing. We have a foresight Americans don’t necessarily have and we’re still making a mess. It’s an even more damming reflection of our society.

I appreciate the recommendations! I’m working on a list of alternatives. I might upload it to Codeberg or somewhere similar once it gets to a decent size.

Okay. I think we agree on more than we disagree.I also appreciate your input on effective strategy on serious issues like this - I 100% agree. I think you’ve misinterpreted me a little, so let me clarify:

1. I support BDS actively. Organised movements are vital.
2. As I’ve said in the comments: perfect is the enemy of the good. I will drop as many projects as I can. Media players, web browsers, mail clients, social platforms - can all be changed for more ethical alternatives. It doesn’t have to be black or white.
3. I will never wait for any individual or group to give me the go ahead to do what I think is the right thing. BDS isn’t perfect.
4. I am not selling anything, or trying to temper my actions to be more palatable to the more hesitant . It also turns out that I’m far from alone in this, but I was equally happy to go first. I don’t think that it’s a waste of effort at all.

So, yes, strategy is important. But personal efforts count too. Among other things, I am challenging the widely held apathy (and empathy deficit) held by tech enthusiasts that such a move is pointless or too difficult. And along the way I am finding likeminded people I didn’t know were out there.

Ah, thank you for this! I see in their latest issues that they might even create a demo server. I appreciate you !

Less is better than more, but like the occupied territories bill here in Ireland it’s intentionally weak and ineffective. Sanctions are what is needed in times of genocide, such as in apartheid South Africa. Sending them weapons (even less) is not a sanction.

I can understand your fatigue. I have personally always respected Germany for being open about their past, unlike our neighbours in Britain who celebrate the leaders of their atrocities.

But I think if you are tired of the trope then you should ask why it is still relevant. The entire EU is complicit, but Germany are the ring leaders here. “Never again” has become “many one more time”.

I’ll be looking into Lemmy alternatives too.

h, I see what you mean now. The thing is, the massive numbers of users we collectively provide to Microsoft (even non-paying) is a huge benefit to them. They wouldn’t offer free stuff otherwise. It gives them all kinds of leverage in negotiations. I’ve elaborated a bit more on it in another reply in case you’re interested.

GitLab mirrored on GitHub is totally fine with me, thanks so much for the thoughtful comment! I’ll add Icecast to the list of things to look into. I’ve encountered it with internet radio.

And I appreciate the respectful response. “Support” means “contributes to” when I use it. My car does contribute to climate change. The thing is, GitHub is a choice. For some people, driving isn’t a choice due to lack of public transport and distance to work. However if I use my car when there is plentiful public services (but I just like to hear my music at full volume in my car), then that is a choice.

So if I’m driving when I have better options, then my actions do support climate change, and I do so knowingly.

I wonder if this works for cigarettes too. If I smoke half a pack each time will I avoid the consequences?

Germany is going to be in our school books again for a whole new (and almost identical) reason.

Thanks for the response. I also feel that open source projects contribute to a better world, but I think we sometimes have a puritanical view of ourselves. We do not make a better world by supporting Microsoft while they enable a genocide. We do the opposite. Using even their free stuff is support. If genocide isn’t a red line for them, then they have no red lines, and I become very uninterested in their games

I also agree that it’s important to be effective. Richard Stallman et al can do what they do, but I’m not one of those people. Just a consumer. It’s important that we exercise the few rights we have (while we still have them).

I’ve been an open source advocate for years. Helped many people migrate to Linux in my free time, submitted as many well formed bug reports as I could and remained available for follow up requests and further debugging.

The thing is: none of this matters if we’re willing to sit on our hands while people die. Our repositories are not so precious. We shouldn’t let our love of software replace our love of humanity.

Even using their free stuff is supporting Microsoft. As long as they provide sophisticated facilities for genocide, I’m out.

As a wiser person than me once said “be the change you want to see in the world”.