Literal thought policing (“what you privately think”) and quasi-religious purity logic (“has tainted Proton”). This nicely reveals the kind of busybodying inquisitorial mindset that keeps losing elections for US progressives and thus landing the rest of the world with Trump.

There’s an easy solution to the pseudo-problem you raise: judge Proton by its actions rather than the (utterly commonplace) opinions of one of its directors.

Your condescension is reaching new levels! It’s not working, try something else.

With your insults and condescension, you’re just proving my point.

Yes I tend to share your analysis.

Leaving aside the absurd and juvenile “Nazi” slur (“fascist” is less of a stretch), I disagree with your analysis. I think it’s exactly the opposite. I think it’s because mainstream politicians have refused to address the reasonable aspects of people’s concerns (about immigration, in particular), and because progressive activists have gone off the leash in their wild accusations of racism at the slightest contradiction of their opinions, that we’ve ended up in this situation of the far right getting into power all over the place.

Once again: I do not vote for these parties. Anyway, we are now completely offtopic so let’s leave it there.

You say it like it’s an insult! Actually I usually vote green. And in Europe the greens are really greens, rather than just spoilers who help Bushes and Trumps into power.

Not an American hmm? It shows!

Completely agree on all that.

Well it’s either true or it’s not. Did you bother looking it up to check?

Sorry but I won’t participate in this juvenile trivializing of the word “Nazi”. Yes, I know that’s become almost a meaningless slur at this point, but personally I just will not take seriously anybody who throws it around like this. Perhaps because I’m European. Perhaps because I studied history. It’s not serious.

Fair enough. But this whole drama is still completely substance-free. The air of US-style thought-policing bothers me.

This is all over the place.

My comment concerns the post above. OP cites a tweet and states a falsehood about it. No, “Proton” did not “take the stance” of anything in that tweet. Yes, Andy Yen is the CEO. Yes, that tweet is in his name and not in the name of Proton. I was not responding to other things that you’ve seen elsewhere.

Now, as for those other things elsewhere, I stick by the substance of my point. Sure, it’s more of a problem that dumb things are being said in the name of Proton rather than just it’s CEO. But look at the detail of those things. There is nothing scandalous. People are getting their underwear in a twist about extremely common opinions being expressed on Twitter. Personally I don’t care if a CEO voted a different way to me, or even if a whole board did. This should not have any bearing on Proton’s product or what makes it better than others. This is just another typically American culture-war drama. It’s boring.

If you’ve got an argument, make it.

Significant if true. But still. Proton has a great product and a lot of stored-up goodwill. I think the reasonable thing to do here is to wait and see, and to judge them on actions before words.

Misinformation. OP is advocating that you shoot yourself in the foot.

The CEO said something silly on Twitter which revealed either that (a) he shares an exceedingly banal opinion with literally half of America or (b) he’s not above a bit of preemptive sycophancy to advance his (positive) anti-trust agenda.

There’s nothing particularly scandalous in the offending tweet:

• Implying that the Democrats are now “the party of big business” is arguably true (and very boring)
• Implying that the Republicans now “stand for the little guys” is dumb but also arguably true, unfortunately - the working classes swung to Trump in the recent election while the Democrats are fast becoming a party of high-earning elites (which is why they lost)
• Saying that the antitrust actions began under Trump I is, well, true

Proton is not owned Zuck-like by its CEO. It’s controlled by a foundation with other stakeholders on the board, including the inventor of the Web himself. In its niche it is still by far the best option. Ditching it for a nebulous non-existent alternative because the CEO expressed a dumb and extremely commonplace opinion is just silly and self-defeating.

PS: to be clear, OP is peddling misinformation because it’s not true that “Proton took the stance” of anything. It’s the personal opinion of the CEO that’s at issue. It’s a major distinction. I find it disappointing that people interested in privacy would have such little respect for a private individual’s right to have their own thoughts.

PPS: to be extra clear, my comments are about the post above, not stuff that people are reading elsewhere. But the substance stands. See discussion for detail.

Fair enough. We can agree on that.

Probably not but censoriousness over wrong opinions is definitely a US specialty these days. I see in the culture and I’ve seen it in person with my own eyes. Culture can have deep roots and America, after all, was founded by religious fundamentalists. The 1st Amendment probably plays a role too. You don’t see any of this because you’re on the inside.

Well one thing’s for sure anyway: you’re intolerantly downvoting all my opinions while I’m letting yours stand. Symptomatic of my underlying point.

That’s fair. Still, I will judge the company on what it does. The situation calls for vigilance, not hysterically running for the exit. Until proof to the contrary is forthcoming, Proton can still be considered a force for good.

You think this is a “both sides” thing

I don’t. I’m not American (as if it wasn’t already clear) but if I were then I would have voted for anyone but Trump and done it with both hands. He’s a literal insurrectionist, an obvious criminal, a complete charlatan, a nasty bully, and generally an all-round terrible human being. I’m a pretty phlegmatic person so these are big words and I mean it.

But I still won’t judge a whole company based on the personal opinions of one of its employees.