Steam.
Bic pens and lighters.
None. I have no loyalty to any corporation or product. I will find another, build it myself, or do without it before I contribute to something I’m against.
If it turns out tomorrow that King Arthur flour company is evil I’ll be deeply upset and then sigh and buy a new brand. No matter how good they are, nope!
The King Author Company evil? The sounds like some propaganda spread by Foricher.
I have been deep diving into internet privacy and cyber security for a while now. I’ve noticed that any popular privacy related product will get haters for some reason. Obviously I am not going to support a privacy related product “no matter what controversy surrounds it”, in fact I have VERY specific requirements for that. And I get people being paranoid in that specific community, and that maybe people will be on the lookout for controversy. But people will be like “you use PROTON products? What a basic entry level choice” and it’s like do you not know WHY they are so popular in this space? Because they hit all the check boxes and are easy to use. One time I mentioned Signal and someone was like “isn’t that a CIA honeypot?” No. No it is not. There is no evidence whatsoever. And the code is right there, you can just read it. Just because some “normies” like a product doesn’t mean it’s a trick.
And people don’t seem to understand that it is sometimes not wise to completely avoid controversy. Who do you trust more, a group of devs (or even gasp a company) who has been around for 15 years, had a security flaw 3 years ago and patched it after someone noticed and passed independent 3rd party audits since then, or a brand new 1 man project that has no controversy (yet)?
So while I absolutely disagree with blind loyalty to anything, people are sometimes too quick to jump ship and end up being like the “yet you participate in society. Interesting!” meme.
You need to teach the normies what to look for. I use Proton because it was the first one i tried and it did what I wanted to. I dont trust it though. I dont know what to look for for it to be trustworthy.
“You know the government and basically any corporation that wants it can have access to all of your activity and tie it to you? Send all your data through me first. Trust me bro. Totes secure dawg.” Just immediately triggers my suspicion, and it will be triggered on any service like that.
For what to look for, sometimes people’s priorities will be different, and unfortunately sometimes you may need to sacrifice usability to meet all your personal criteria. But this is what I look for.
FOSS (free open source software). The source code is open for everyone to read, and therefore you know exactly what the application is going, and security flaws will be noticed and fixed more quickly. There are sometimes exceptions for infrastructure. Back end software for services like email or cloud providers will not generally be open source for various reasons. E2EE (end to end encryption, it is encrypted from the moment it leaves my device and decrypted on your device). ZAE (zero access encryption) for services that store my info on a server, such as email or cloud storage. This means that the data is encrypted on the provider’s server, and they do not hold the encryption keys. Independent 3rd part audits. Privacy enthusiasts whose job it is to suss out problems are given free reign to inspect every part of the provider and see if they are really doing what they claim with privacy and security. Further proof may be shown by ethical hackers posting results of what they were able to do. Location: the Dev/provider has to obey local laws, so I trust if they are based somewhere that respects data privacy and are not authoritarian. If the company still seems a bit shady (certainly if they are closed source) but I want to use their product, I will carefully read their privacy policy. Sure, they may be lying, but you’ll be surprised at what some companies openly admit to. And if you’re not comfortable with what they state publicly, you should probably move on. To a lesser extent, I also prefer seeing open standards instead of proprietary ones (like PGP for encryption for example) and a strong choice for encryption because I know a little bit about that. No ads: self explanatory. Is the company/devs shady seeming in general? Also fairly self explanatory but more arguable.
Proton meets all of these requirements for all their products, with the slight exception that not every part of every project is fully open source. If it was, you could hijack their email or cloud servers and use their infrastructure with any amount of storage for free, for example. This is pretty common for service providers. No idea what you’re on about with the last part. They specifically have a no logs policy for their VPN that has been “battle tested” by governments subpoenaeing info. They don’t have that info, so they were unable to give it.
Yeah, that’s how I look at a lot of products. There will be faults and there are some red lines that I won’t cross, but I’d rather a company have done minor faults, be open about them, and fix them rather than be brand new and possibly hiding a lot worse.
I completely agree. Nearly every product, service, or company in the privacy sphere has some controversy. If I based my choices on the lack of shitty behaviour, I would have to give up on the internet completely.
My ebike. I have a 14 mile commute each way. With my ebike I can bike to work door-to-door, every day. Would not be possible without my ebike. I get a lot of hate and cries of cheater on the trail but it is worth it not to have to drive to work.
You only hear the people giving hate because the others don’t say anything.
I was one of the [silent] haters. Like, why get a bike if you’re going to just ride it without pedaling? Then, I realized that this is one less car on the road. Kids are getting outside more. People are using the sidewalks and trails and bike oaths so the city will make more. One less car in the parking lot. Yeah, this is moving the needle in the right direction.
yeah I kinda thought they were silly and then I got old. someone then mentioned about coming back from the store all loaded up and im like. wow. that would have been useful. trying to get up to speed all loaded up is a pita.
I view an ebike as a vehicle. A means to an end.
I want one, I’ll never afford it, but I want one. Not because I want to ride around without pedaling, but because I want to get to someplace without having to work my ass off in the miserable heat, so I have the energy and stamina to do stuff at the destination without being soaked in sweat. Like go fishing, or have lunch, or go for a walk on a trail,or even go to the store for a few essentials, or any of a hundred different things that normal people’d use a car for.
Vehicles are often a means to end
I’ll never afford one
A cheap E bike meant for the city only costs about 2 tanks of gas
I have the one that can throttle and pedal, ngl i used to hate people who throttle without pedalling but then i start using the throttle and immediately “get” it. It’s fun, like a light motorcycle, though pedalling save power and can go further, but people often only use it for short distance. Less car on the road, slower than motorcycle, it’s no downside.
I still view those that shaped like a motorcycle, can go as fast as a motorcycle, but with a decorative pedal in disgust though.
I’d rather someone ride an E-Bike than a bicycle with a 2-cycle engine.
Pizza
Minus pineapple, what’s the controversy?
I know, right? There’s no controversy. Pineapple is delicious on pizza.
Is Chicago deep dish a pizza or a casserole?
It’s not lasagna… It’s a pizza pie. Pie has height to it. Therefore still pizza.
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Chaokoh Coconut Milk. It’s good stuff and authentically Thai. Started using it since it’s really available and was recommended on nearly every Thai cooking website.
A few years back, PETA tried to get them and some other folks in trouble for using monkeys to harvest coconuts. I watched videos from both sides, and that job looked much, much scarier to have humans do it, honestly! For the monkeys, it’s their natural behavior. They harvest the coconuts in exchange for food and shelter upgrades from being in the wild.
They looked perfectly cooperative even in the PETA videos, and in the vids from the workers, they said they let the monkeys go after a while and while they are working they treat them as one of the team, basically.
If they aren’t abusing the monkeys and it’s keeping them also moderately exploited humans safe, that seems like a win-win to me.
Incogni has gotten more expensive and charges for things it used to just provide. It’s definitely marketing itself to a demographic that is highly susceptible to mental disorders and that’s pretty exploitative. It’s profiting from an issue that nobody can really prove it doesn’t invest in the perpetuation of.
But it did really help me when I had a problem with a stalker. In the US your county clerk will literally just give out your address to whitepage websites the week you register to vote, get a drivers license, apply for plates or a post office box that that’s pretty fucking stupid. There’s no law against it, they’ve been doing it since phonebooks existed and the people who legislate that too fucking old to ever reconsider what they’re doing or why people’s phone blow up with 50 texts and spam calls/day during election season.
Ranger SRA198 noise cancelling CB radio mics. They’re more durable and have a way wider frequency response than the Astatic 636L, which helps you sound a lot better on AM if you have a deep voice. Since it picks up low tones so much more than other mics people say that it’s bad on single side band, which may be true with some radios but I’ve gotten a lot of compliments on my audio when using it on SSB.
*Will get
Idk, I have some things I wouldn’t get rid of if I found their designer/maker was a horrible person. But I wouldn’t necessarily buy them again.
I can’t think of anything I wouldn’t try to avoid buying new. There’s too many alternates available.
Steam frame
How can you swear by it when it isn’t even out?
Head & Shoulders shampoo. My scalp is rather sensitive and i can’t use any other brand without suffer the consequences.
I don’t not buy things because other people are outraged by it. If I want something I get it.
Baby seal fur boots. Soft as hell, but those guys are so cute with their big eyes. Makes you want to look away while clubbing them.
Sissy
Condoms?
Safe sex. What’s the controversy there?
Catholicism.
Our holy Cathol never said anything about condoms.
There is no controversy? OP asked what product you’d buy no matter what regardless not “what controversial product will you still buy?”. Maybe I’m an idiot and understood the question wrong idk.
I am the OP. I was asking more about specific brands, not type of products, and controversy involving the product, not some invisible sky daddy dogma.
