The even brighter side of it is that it should be easier to spot these companies when job hunting.

IMO: Demand higher wages and iron clad contracts from them because they already demonstrated how they feel about paying people.

They’ll surely cut anyone they can again as soon as they can.

Croissant.

What I suggest/have done:

1. Rent a cheap VPS in a non-five eyes country that comes with a static ipv4.

2. SSH on random port with certificate auth only. No root, no password auth.

3. setup WireGuard server with random port.

4. firewall block all incoming except ssh and WireGuard port at first.

5. set home server to connect via wireguard as sole client to VPS.

6. individually add any ports you want to go to the home server from the internet as NAT forwarded ports. Basically WWW -> VPS -> Home.

7. have a separate WireGuard VPN for outgoing from the home server.

8. profit?

But it’s crazy complicated. At least it was for me. Not for the faint hearted imo.

Thanks for this! I’ll read up on it.

The name unfortunately put me off from looking into it before. Basically anything with ‘coin’ in it just makes my brain go to crypto scam automatically these days I think.

You are 100% correct. The issue isn’t the infrastructure per se, but the usage of it.

By decentralizing, I guess I mean finding a way to remove the ability for a mega company like Google from being able to dominate the playfield.

The percentage of internet users that can or will bother to run their own DNS is way too low.

How easily DNS can be manipulated by any network for the average end user is the blessing and the curse it seems.

Can someone considerably smarter than me, with time to spare, please just find a way to federate/decentralize DNS.

I can fathom that it is complicated, maybe even impossible in the current setup, but the internet we all grew to love dies a little bit more each time the mouth breathers try to restrict it on behalf of capitalism.

Maybe remembering ip addresses can fill the void of not having to remember phone numbers anymore?

Use it to hire most of the best minds to be found with the sole purpose of creating an expansive infrastructure to provide regular people the means to organize as one.

The undertaking would be staggering. Reviewing all the known history of man, considering all the languages, cultures, failures and successes.

Researching and combining all known technologies.

All to set the groundwork for a global union of human kind to be able to collectively counteract the disease that is the upper most classes.

After much daydreaming on the subject. I think this is the way of long term existential survival for the human race.

TL;DR: Basically, the Star Trek federation.

Ok, so not really bright, but visible. I smell the plot to a bank heist movie.

And blinded by security cameras?

Seriously, wouldn’t being able to see infrared basically make you see night vision cameras like they are street lights?

Strategy.

No, your half-baked, half-plan you stole from an intern, is not only not good, the last guy tried it and we are still trying to fix that mess.

I’m not sure if it really counts as a buzzword though.

I think you are confusing Nazism with genuine concern. Careful with that. Hating people for opposing views is more dangerously close to what you so easily accuse me of, and your tiny tough guy attempt to mask your own bigotry just highlights that you may need to reflect a little.

To my previous point, not somehow mitigating the easily duped portion of our formerly democratic systems is a big part of what’s driving the Nazi ideals back into popularity. As long as untamed propaganda is allowed into the thoughts of the weak minded, the rest of us face an uphill battle.

If you read my previous statement about this again. You’ll notice that I didn’t say anyone should be controlled. Whether we bring facts back into law and punish those who spread lies, or bolster education to teach people how to spot the lies, it doesn’t really matter. But splitting hairs over how I said it won’t change that it is a problem.

Trying to deflect, blame or sidestep that is playing right into the MAGA/Nazi mindset. Division of the people and spooky non-issues to rally fear in the populace is what gives them control.

It’s the right idea, but too narrow of a demographic. It’s not the old people that seem to be the problem. At least not only them. It’s the uneducated or intellect impaired that should be reined in. The ones that are just smart enough to use Facebook, but would struggle to understand the concept of the Dunning–Kruger effect

The amount of younger people that are sucked in hook, line, sinker, rod, boat, trailer and truck is staggering.

It’s like they decided that reality didn’t work for them, so let’s just ignore it in favour of “insert discriminatory slogan or catchphrase here”.

It’s bonkers.

The pay rate of the lowest paid worker of any company or institution should be somehow legally and directly tied to the pay rate of the highest paid executive.

If the executive wants to make more money and gets a raise, then so do the workers.

I hear you and agree, but part of me wonders if that is solely because they were always nasty people, or they are actually reacting to the awful way they get treated.

They are already probably dealing with failing health, burying most of their friends, not understanding most of what is going on in the world, feeling left behind, etc.

In their shoes I’m not sure if I could be very cheerful myself. Maybe I’ll get the opportunity to find out and hopefully I’ll not be one of the ones you mention, but who knows.

Most of us are tired from all the crap of the world already, imagine 30-40 more years of that on top of the things I just mentioned.

Absolutely, which is why cooperative corporate structure appealed to me. Everyone has there same stake in it and still maintains their own separate lives. Only things that are agreed upon as shareable would be shared.

Like bulk food, equipment, etc.

TL;DR: capitalism.

I’ve put some thought into this and I don’t have a good answer other than because of how society is designed to keep us from doing it now.

Evolutionarily speaking, we are designed to thrive in smaller communities. It’s only in the more recent part of humanity that we seem to have moved away from that. I mean, there were still cities a long time ago, but within them were what could be thought of as smaller communities.

I myself am of European descent, but currently live in a place where there is a thriving native community and realizing that I sometimes have envy of some of their ways of life is what got me thinking.

For instance, in western society becoming elderly is almost seen as a problem, like a burden that needs to be “dealt” with. For them it is a station of respect and reverence. If an Elder walks down the street, they are taught to show respect and pay heed to their wisdom and guidance. If the rest of us are lucky, we can get a seniors discount at select stores by declaring they we are among the needy.

I’ve even went as far as researching communal living, intentional communities and cooperative housing, but I keep chickening out when it comes time to pull anything into action.

The idea of finding 4-6 like-minded families to share resources with and use our individual talents and skills to help each other really appeals to me. It makes sense to build resilience against harder times.

But to answer your question, smaller communities helping each other is against the capitalist ideal and is/will be thwarted at any scale by corporations and corporate influenced governments alike at every turn. So I guess that’s the most likely reason.

Not nearly enough.