DreadPotato

My free Dropbox had 100gb for years, but then they decided that was too much and nerfed it to 10gb. At least I could still access my files.

a dumb phone and some other machine "to fill the void"

So a dumb phone and a stationary computer or laptop for internet access...exactly what most millennials grew up with.

Easiest way is to just point qbit at the "tun0" interface from the network tab in the menu of qbit...point-click-done

Not with my real name, age, gender, address, phone number or even email.

I personally find calls to be much more annoying and disruptive than a text I can just ignore.

What do you think about national emergencies triggering automated calls to landlines?

Well that is something that could require immediate action for your safety, so it could make sense. We have a nation-wide civil defense siren system where I live for that kind of stuff, which I believe is a much better solution than cold-calling people who may or may not even be within range of their land line.

Utilities and such institutions that have your membership (library, gym, health care etc) should be welcome to use robocalling to notify you of useful info like emergencies or changes to their schedules

Those scenarios would be better handled through email or text message. Nothing that should be handled by a robocall is urgent enough to warrant disturbing people with a phone call, it should just be text or email.

An actual emergency call, requiring your immediate attention, should absolutely not be handled by robocalls. If it doesn't require immediate attention, then a call is not necessary.

How do you think people and libraries obtain their material? They dont get it for free, they buy it. So that still puts money in the hands of companies you're trying not to give money. Every time you borrow something from the library, they pay a little to the copyright owner of that material. So you're still supporting anti-consumer companies with your wallet by doing it like that. Like I said, voting with your wallet only works when there are alternatives, and we pretty much have none left.

You're cutting one...but now they're all doing the shit that made you quit Netflix, and you have no (legal) way of getting access to pop culture without endorsing the shitty behaviour that doesn't listen to consumer desires. That is why "voting with your wallet" doesn't work, because there is no alternative to vote for with your wallet. So unless you keep endorsing the shitty corporate behaviour, you're pulling the plug on basically everything, and that is definitely a disconnection from many social interactions since you'll have no clue what they're talking about.

I'm not talkong about streaming services in an isolated case, I'm talking about the entire company behind it. It only makes sense to evaluate them as a whole and not their subcategories in isolation from the rest of their company.

Paramount, Disney and HBO are profiting in the billions.

That the market actually responds to consumer desires.

Unfortunately with the excessively oversized conglomerates that do vertical integration in an ever increasing number of industries, there is only the illusion of choice left for consumers. Not using any type of media (books, movies, etc.) is not actually a solution or a choice. So consumers are left with no choice but what is offered, and the offering is not dictated by their desires but by the companies who will screw you over to increase already obscene profits. The "vote with your wallet" argument you use leaves you with "pile of crap A" and "pile of crap B" to choose from, with no alternatives. Your solution is social disconnect from everything and everyone, that is not actually a solution or a real viable choice.

It's an industry that's earning literal billions every single year...they absolutely don't need to have ads, they could serve their paying users a good ad-free product, and still make money. They choose to deliberately annoy their paying customers because they're fucking greedy.