I actually disagree that a book is “problematic” because it touches, presents, includes etc. any topic that morally we disagree with. Not every book has to be a manifesto or a depiction for a moral and just society, which is why I find most of the arguments against HP to be weak (some points were listed in a sibling comment thread).

subjecting any popular series to close reading with an eye for affront is likely to show up its flaws

I am quite sure this is true for any book (especially fiction), in fact. Which is why I think it’s an activity that makes sense only to justify the pre-existing opinion about the book, rather than having a value in itself.

if you have the chance to pick it up second-hand I’d encourage you to see if you can finish it.

To be clear, I know that Dan Brown stuff is garbage. I just have seen people who I think never read a book in the previous 10 years read that one (in translation though, so who knows…). So the book must at least be interesting and intriguing to keep the attention of people who are not used to read. For me this means not fitting in the “terrible writing” category, but maybe we mean different things by that.

The DaVinci code sold 80 millions copies. The first HP book alone sold 120 millions, and the whole series 600 millions, being the most sold series of books.

Not only they are one order of magnitude apart, but I think they sold for different reasons.

I haven’t read Dan Brown’s stuff, but I also doubt it’s terribly written by the way. Books that capture the interest of a population more and more unused to read can be shallow, banal, inconsistent, whatever, but not terribly written. Casual readers can hardly finish a terribly written book. In any case, HP books are children’s books. Children or teenagers are not literary critics, it’s not about reading “great literature”, however you define that.

I also can’t help to notice the coincidence that all the HP critiques started appearing in the last years, when the author went bananas. A series this popular, which ended in 2007, and suddenly 15 years later people notice that it’s “terribly written”? This smells more to me of a damnatio memoriae than genuine critique.

Honestly, I read the books translated + I could not and still cannot relate with the issues that I often see raised against the book (like the way diversity is represented). Especially when I was a kid, those issues were so not in my mind that I would never ever flag as issues.

To make an example: for me as a kid, slavery was something that mostly had to do with the roman empire. The whole debacle about house elves etc. is completely disconnected from real societal probelsm, recent history etc. I have always rooted for the elves because that’s what I was pushed to do emotionally, but without really ever reflecting on slavery as a whole. I am picking this example because it’s one of the most used ones to critique the book.

In general I also believe that authors can build worlds that do not represent their views, I find a lot of the critique I have read a stretch and I am especially suspicious that most of these critiques started appearing recently. I believe people started with the thesis (she is an asshole) and then backtracked the analysis trying to find anything at all in the books that could support the conclusion (rather than viceversa).

Either way, all of this is relatively irrelevant. People can like or dislike books - especially fiction - freely. For me the book is mostly associated with a vibe of being young, thinking about those stories, relating with the characters etc., not with the actual books content. So it’s more about thinking back of childhood/past than appreciating the literary value.

I found it very fun, interesting and captivating when I read those books (that is, when I was maybe 13-16?). If it was “terribly written” it wouldn’t have made the success it did, and also the target audience is generally not made of literary critics.

So I don’t think there is much to judge, especially since many people’s good opinion on the story is based on their lived experience with it, from when they were younger etc. And you can’t erase that from your life because the author turned out to be an asshole 15 years later.

which is who I was referring to

So when you said

money you pay them go to support a facist

You meant Trump…Sorry, I am going to doubt that. I am quite sure that sentence meant “money you pay to Proton go to their CEO (a fascist)”. Why money would go to Trump otherwise…is Proton sponsoring Trump? Hence my comment.

Alternatively, your comment was completely off-topic and unrelated to the post. Possible, I simply assumed you were not lost on the internet.

Wire transfer can still go through intermediaries, although I generally don’t think these companies are in the business of selling data.

For example, a bank can use a service to connect to a scheme (say SEPA, or FPS, or whatever).

Source: I have been employed by a company who does this.

Yes, tuta encrypts the subject, which is not encrypted in Proton for example.

So, TLS is just a point-to-point encryption protocol, it doesn’t prevent anybody of the parties involved from having access to the content. Once the email is encrypted with PGP, Proton loses permanently access to this content.

So this is pretty much what happens with a Gmail <-> Outlook and a Gmail <-> Proton email.

Gmail to outlook:

A writes the email in their editor <- TLS -> Google servers <-TLS-> outlook servers <-TLS-> B reads the email. While every communication is encrypted with TLS, every server has access to its content. Every time B accesses the email from outlook servers (I.e., their inbox), the data is transferred with TLS, but outlook is the “other end of the tunnel”, so it has access to this content.

Gmail to Proton:

A writes the email in their editor <- TLS -> Google servers <-TLS-> Proton servers -> encrypt original message with B’s public key and discard original -> send to B inbox -> Proton client decrypts email -> B accesses it.

So yes, it is

about making sure your data on the servers stays safe even if someone gains access

As long as you consider the email provider part of those potential “someone”.

The way I would say it essentially is that PGP encryption (even in cases where the original messages was not using it) still gives you the confidentiality property of PGP, even without the integrity and non-repudiation properties (which are not possible to guarantee with respect of the original message of course). In other words, the biggest difference is that the email provider doesn’t have access to your stuff.

Fun fact: Fascism is not thinking republicans will do better than democrats in pursuing antitrust battles against big tech for the benefit of smaller businesses.

Please don’t use this word at random, plenty of people in my country (and many others) died fighting fascism.

If the authoritarian one does better than the conservative one in some regard, there should be the moral honesty to admit it and demand better. If it’s not possible to do this, the political discourse is completely sterile, and there is no accountability for anybody. Which is exactly what the american political discourse looks like from outside. Italian politics is messed up, but I can’t even imagine someone being attacked and labeled as a fascist/Meloni supporter for saying that Meloni government did one thing better than previous government or another party.

Also this whole thing happened before the government formed.

Supporting his choices and the Republican party at large is the problematic part. I don’t care if he loves Trump or not.

He supported one choice, and for motivated reasons. You can disagree. It doesn’t matter to me, but saying that republicans can do better than democrats in fighting big tech in the antitrust space doesn’t make you a trump supporter. Especially when democrats shat their pants within this space.

Also I know you don’t care, but the person I was responding to misrepresented the facts saying that he loves Trump.

So yeah, this opinion doesn’t make anybody a fascist, a Nazi, a Trump lover etc. It’s a totally legitimate critique of democrats actions, couple with an (unwarranted, in my opinion) optimistic take on republicans, in a specific context.

The fact that the american political debate is so toxic that even expressing this opinion is a problem is something to reflect on. Tons of people talking about democrats having faults (but republican being worse), but when someone points out actual things that historically Republicans did better than democrats (again, the very narrow context of antitrust vs big tech, which Republicans pushed because twitter, google etc. were mostly dem-leaning years ago) immediately the pitchforks are taken.

To be precise, even when an email is not from Proton user, they encrypt it with ypur public key, send it to you and delete it (they call it zero access). Which is the best you can get. Also managing PGP keys, especially on multiple devices is a pain.

There is not a single comment either on reddit or elsewhere that shows love for Trump. Supporting a Trump’s choice doesn’t mean supporting Trump.

I know the facts.

And that’s why I am calling you out for misrepresenting the facts. There is just no way that tweet can be interpreted as a “rant to say he loves trump”.

So, “there has been a controversy about a tweet from the CEO who praises Trump’s pick for antitrust and saw it as a confirmation that republicans are more likely to pursue antitrust battles against big tech, compared to democrats” =/= “the CEO went on a rant to say how he loves Trump”.

The tweet (can a tweet even qualify as a rant, given the length?):

Great pick by @readDonaldTrump. 10 years ago, Republicans were the party of big business and Dems stood for the little guys [small businesses, n.d.r. as explained on reddit], but today the tables have completely turned. People forget that the current antitrust actions against Big Tech were started under the first Trump admin.

A rant about how he loves Trump?

I think their new (not so new anymore) mobile app has been a major improvement. It is much faster and usable IMHO. This on Android (degoogled).

I am quite happy with the service, and so is my family (non-techie).

Generally you can do it from settings with automatic forwarding feature.

See this article for actual instructions.

Consider that:

• this means google will know your new email address
• obviously google will keep accessing your data

For the first point, Proton migration tool (from gmail) works flawlessly and doesn’t disclose your new address (plus it moves all your previous emails). I didn’t try similar tools for other vendors but I am sure they have similar options.

For me it took months to get the bulk of the services moved over, I added a label to all emails forwarded and I periodically reviewed them. It’s a perfect occasion to change password or delete the account.

Pizza a taglio is actually something almost exclusively found in and around Rome.

BTW even regular pizzas have various toppings, they just need to make sense (for example tuna and onions is a possibility).

Tbh, I have been to Iceland twice and I have managed to eat very well! (Italian here)

There is no much variety, but I have eaten very good lamb (as you are saying), stews (both mean and fish), even baked goods (there was a tiny house with very good cakes in the middle of nowhere in Westfjords).

My favorite probably was a fusion sushi place (I.e. sushi with local fish) in Seydisfiordur (the town where Ben Stiller arrives to in the Walter Mitty movie BTW). I don’t think the place exists anymore (that was in 2018) but it was very good.

Sometimes you can find very good food in unexpected places (for example, I have never eaten better Mexican food than in Rovaniemi, in Finnish Lapland!).

I like Estonian Kelluke, a local carbonated lemonade. Probably mostly meant for kids, but hey…