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Posted by Risse 10 hours ago

The CEO of Mullvad is the main financer of the Swedish Örebro party(det.social)
411 points | 910 commentspage 4
lompad 10 hours ago|
Damn. Well, if that gets confirmed I'm going to get my company off mullvad.
amarant 10 hours ago||
It's confirmed. And the party in question is quite extreme, at least by Swedish standards.
Gud 8 hours ago||||
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yaris 9 hours ago|||
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microgpt 8 hours ago|||
> IMHO 20% of voters can't be "extreme"

Was the NSDAP "extreme"? They got 43.9%

yaris 8 hours ago||
They got 43.9% in what Wikipedia marks as "semi-free yet questionable election". Also more correct question IMHO would be "was the NSDAP extreme in 1933?" and the answer is probably "no as much as by today's standards".
graemep 7 hours ago|||
They were definitely extreme by the standards of the time. Their aim was explicitly to completely revolutionise European politics, culture, religion.... everything. One comment I heard recent (on The Rest is History podcast, I think Tom Holland said it) they were the most radical movement in European history.

Their ideology implied at the very least getting rid of whole populations. They wanted to reset to an imagined ancient culture and rewrote history to justify it. Mostly imagined, anyway - Sparta was the one real example they looked to.

ahartmetz 4 hours ago||
They were extreme by the standards of the time, but the Overton window at the time did go further to the extremes, so they were considered less extreme than they would be today.
microgpt 7 hours ago|||
What you're actually asking is whether people knew they were extreme. But this makes your overall point circular: we can't say a party is extreme if the majority of people don't call it screens.
addandsubtract 7 hours ago||||
The AfD is a far-right extremist party in Germany with currently 28% projected support[0].

[0] https://dawum.de/Bundestag/

msk2k 10 hours ago||
Companies funding far-left parties seem to be much bigger problem.
microgpt 8 hours ago|
Which companies fund Deutsche Wohnen Enteignen? Let me know so I can boycott them
artisinal 5 hours ago||
Steven Schuurman (Elastic) has given millions to left parties in Germany and The Netherlands.
microgpt 4 hours ago||
Which ones? What are their policies?
Aachen 32 minutes ago||
Dutch person living in Germany. I'm not aware of a party in NL/DE labeled left whose values don't boil down to that everyone (and future generations) should have a chance to live a good life. I, too, would be curious what GP considers problematic about funding them the way that I find it objectionable to fund this party who calls refugees parasites
arjie 5 hours ago||
I wonder, if you model political positions as nations, whether trading benefits you all or whether autarky leads to long term relevance.
wongarsu 10 hours ago||
The wikipedia article about the party is pretty interesting [1]. "The party has also been described as both right-wing populist and left-wing populist as well as left-conservative"

The party was founded after the founder was thrown out of the Left party for liking a far-left extremist group on Facebook and not backing down from that. Since then the party has evolved to also include goals traditionally attributed to the right, like large scale remigration and a stricter immigration policy.

The party also seems inconsequentially small, even at the municipal and regional level. They have 0 seats at the national level

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96rebro_Party

distracted_boy 2 hours ago||
Go Mullvad!
Molitor5901 7 hours ago||
Aren't far-right parties opposed to government control and censorship? Ideally a provider should be politically neutral, but I'm wondering if it's preferable to have one that is opposed to government control and censorship.
pseudalopex 4 hours ago|
> Aren't far-right parties opposed to government control and censorship?

Not more consistently than other parties.

NoImmatureAdHom 2 hours ago||
Mullvad does an excellent job, and I support them.
mrtksn 3 days ago||
I am surprised that people are surprised, all these services are by people for people who are marginalized. Therefore, they are either far-right or far-left. When its business, its more likely to be a far-right since they are more business-oriented. The far left folks usually make a repo and give it away or try to organize some collective effort.
greggoB 3 days ago|
> for people who are marginalized. Therefore, they are either far-right or far-left.

There are many types of marginalised groups, and many other reasons to want to use VPNs. Putting everything on a left-right political axis seems more than a tad reductive.

mrtksn 3 days ago||
Sure but far left and far right is a crude default way to generalize, the left folks will be especially annoyed by this but its still useful when the specifics don't matter.
orliesaurus 10 hours ago||
does it change your trust in the company?

For some people, the answer is obviously yes. For others, they'll judge Mullvad purely by its track record, audits, and technical design.

Honestly, you could say the same about the CEO of ANDURIL in the US - the Oculus guy...but he just cares about the US and wants to make money by making weapon systems etc.

Is he a bad person? Is he a patriot? Who knows, I ain't gonna play the ultimate judge game - but he did release a cool gameboy clone which is literally the closest I will ever get to his work... [1]

[1] https://modretro.com

exitb 10 hours ago||
It's not only about trust, but also about not wanting to give money to an entity that will pass it on to a political party you don't want to support.
hootz 10 hours ago|||
Yes, not only trust but my willingness to contribute money towards his paycheck. I don't want my money to end up in far-right parties.
toyg 10 hours ago|||
In some ways I would say it could even increase trust: if the guy is a privacy absolutist, ultra-libertarian, "my business is not the state's business" type, his VPN products are likely to be pretty good.

On the other hand, he might have other strong right-wing views that users don't agree with, and which might take precedence in one's set of priorities. If I like football and they like football, but they also want to kill me because of <other reason>, I don't think I'd want to give them my money.

pluc 10 hours ago|||
Look at Zuck and Musk. Their platforms are still used by millions. It's only "us" that care about the pedigree of our tech founders, most people couldn't care less.
loloquwowndueo 8 hours ago|||
I commend your correct use of “couldn’t care less”. It’s so rare to see people get this one right these days.
orliesaurus 7 hours ago||
really? how would/did you see others use it?
mos_basik 6 hours ago||
they mean it's pretty common to see the less-correct "could care less"
loloquwowndueo 5 hours ago||
I’d say entirely incorrect. It means exactly the opposite. I don’t buy the “it’s popular usage now so that makes it right” argument - it’s like saying 4 now equals 5 because more people use 4 to mean 5.
microgpt 8 hours ago|||
There has to be some reason that so many projects are started by right wing people. Something in their personality that makes them both RW and willing to start lots of projects.
orliesaurus 7 hours ago|||
I would argue that right-wing people are now the left-wing people from like 30-40 years ago.
microgpt 7 hours ago||
Don't think so. When did left wing people want remigration?
eudamoniac 6 hours ago|||
Right wing thought patterns tend toward believing in oneself; predicating the worth of the individual on their objective behavior or output; valuing individual achievements; and also believing that effort is likely to result in those achievements.

Left wing thought patterns are biased toward less agency, e.g. the individual is a product of the system; systemic discrimination holds people back; one's trauma or neurodivergency is a valid anchor that makes achievements very difficult; failing to achieve is okay and doesn't reduce one's intrinsic value.

microgpt 3 hours ago||
I'm aware that left wing patterns position individuals as moulded by systems but I'm not aware of any that explicitly deny the power of the individual to try weird stuff, especially in a low-barrier-to-entry industry like software. I guess maybe the overall level of that is somewhat lower and maybe low enough that it doesn't really happen?
eudamoniac 1 hour ago||
I think it's just that rightists value personal success more and also think it's more attainable from their own efforts, so they make these efforts more often. Or it may be inverted, that privilege/success leads to right wing beliefs.
echelon 10 hours ago|||
Wanted to mention the Analogue since ModRetro was mentioned.

https://www.analogue.co/products

https://www.analogue.co/editions

I think these look a lot cooler, though they're less hackable.

ursula2 10 hours ago||
[dead]
tamimio 3 hours ago|
Welp, that vanishes my support for mullvad, despite I did recommend it to many of my friends who doesn’t want/can setup their own.

Im not against people having different political opinions, I personally agree with things from each side and disagree with them both too on other matters, plus having my own third option that doesn’t fit any side. But I am certainly against a company marketing itself as a “defender of personal and human rights and freedom”, yet they are sponsoring a party that obviously doesn’t hold these values, this company will report individuals in the future to deport them maybe, 5 years later they are reporting others for disagreeing with whatever agenda that party is having, it’s always a slippery slope, never think it will end at xyz and that’s it.

Goddammit it’s like companies are ALWAYS destined to turn to evil one way or another, it’s just how long it will take is the question. It’s a reminder that you should always host your own, trust nobody, none.

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