The situation is extremely dire. Whilst we have technologically illiterate idiots running the show it will remain so, hence I’m suggesting the building of a portable device that has no affiliation to any particular corporate actor or any specific nation state, that is supported voluntarily by FOSS developers in all nation states including both the US and Russia.
The EU may choose to have its own borders and boundaries but the FOSS community does not.
I think the issue could also be that in addition “we have technologically illiterate idiots” voting these clowns in.
Maybe you were pointing out yet another stupidity or at least a very simplistic view. But that can happen to all of us once we have understood it all. Well, not about phones but about the world, politics and everything.
My oh my….. sometimes I despair! 
Oh boy a political thread.
If this gets heated or gets to hundreds of comments, I just want to say, remember why we are all here & what Jolla is about.
I suppose we must just stay within the sector – hardware, software and telecommunications, excluding who, where and why sending explosives, etc.
is that really true:
who ‘votes in’ the a particular policy manifesto in the EU?
who ‘votes in’ the a particular policy manifesto in the EU?
The voters, it’s called representative democracy, voters vote for representatives and representatives vote in the government. That’s not the issue, direct democracy is literally impossible in places larger than a city-state, the issue is that very few care what those representatives actually do and even fewer are willing to not wait til the next election cycle to try and fix bad decisions by picking from further bad and worse options but rather step up to directly participate, which is still possible as it isn’t directed towards every decision but only those that contradict what serves the public, by communications with representatives, demonstrations, signature gathering to reverse decisions, to force representatives to step down, in really bad situations to even kick in a new election cycle out of turn, and if all else fails, protests that paralyze all but the most essential functions of a country. Sadly most voters think these are annoyances at best and straight up criminal at worst despite all being perfectly legal, the only tools we have to actually make politicians serve the public instead of rule over it (steered by the ultra-rich lobby that doesn’t miss a beat to tell politicians what they want and that takes the voices of millions of average people to counter), and in fact they’re part of our human rights that, unlike in most other countries, unlike even in places like the USA, are protected by our laws and those protections are actually enforced. So far at least as this is a very use it or lose it type of power.
So, yes, the majority of the voters are doing this by proxy and by inaction. Of course many are also kept in the dark (there are still plenty of people around who don’t have access to varied news sources, especially not international ones as they don’t speak other languages) because those who know what’s happening but don’t care enable it, but that still yields inaction.
That’s only half the story. When you elect your MEP he/she takes a seat in the European Parliament but policy decisions are set by the European Commission, (a non elected presidential institution where members are chosen by the elites), to preside over the EU. Ursula Von Der Leyen is the current president and I don’r remember anyone getting the chance to vote for her or any of her EC cronies either.
This is how the elites get to manipulate and control the agenda in the European Parliament so as to make sure their interests are protected in the same way as the House Of Lords operates here in Britain. Right now my guess is that the European Commission members have every reason to follow the money by making sure that the big tech’ giants get what they want as far as the EU is concerned.
You mean by “elites” elected representatives on the EU-country level?
Theoretically yes, but even they have their ‘masters’ it would appear. Certainly here in Britain and presumably so in the EU (as we were a member), you can buy representation only it’s normally referred to as ‘lobbying’. Got to make it sound respectable. It’s only referred to as ‘corruption’ when you do it ‘under the table’ and get caught.
that’s certainly not true, in the last election for european parliament the evp campaigned with von der Leyen as top candidate, and they ended up on top
But this can be seen as more or less undemocratic in other places, just as it is in the EU or Britain.
I don’t think that the EU is uniquely bad compared with other democracies.
i would argue it is so abstracted from the voter that the emerging policy platform has more to do with the will of the coalition than the will of the people.
i don’t see how [you] as a voter in Spain for instance can see a valid path to achieve a non-tyrannical outcome in digital freedom by voting a particular way in an EU election.
Not saying it is TBH. Despite the fact that Britain left the EU some time ago now our policies generally seem to still be in alignment with those of the EU.
EU this and EU that… Yet, EU is the only thorn in the flesh of big tech. Take for example GDPR.
But this hypothetical Spanish voter faces the very same issue in national elections, yet the EU somehow gets the blame.
Maybe the ‘deals’ had already been done! Not sure of the relevance of your point when it comes to voting at the local level.
true, in highly proportional systems that discourage majorities it is practically impossible to guarentee that even if your side wins that the manifesto policy you like will emerge in the coalition policy platform.
and because you end up with a coalition, it is difficult to weigh judgment on the gov’t and decisively punish the guilty ‘party’ if they fail to competently execute on that policy you like.
not my problem as a UK voter with a FPTP electoral system. 
Nor mine either as a non-voter, but that’s not to say that here in the land of grace and favour we don’t have problems as well. It’s a faux democracy at best. Lately we are seeing authoritarian policies rise to the surface and although not popular with the people, they are certainly getting the support of both sides of the house. The outlook doesn’t look good for FOSS values here that’s for sure.