It’s better to be told that you can’t enter by the embassy than to be detained at the border.

Even during the World Wars the defence industry wasn’t wholly nationalised.

37% of Rheinmetall’s shares are owned by NA investors, none individually control more than 6%. And no, Rheinmetall wasn’t founded by Nazis. It predates the Nazis by decades, the company was founded in the same year Hitler was born in. And even if it was, why would that matter today? The company is not owned by the people who founded it. It’s not even owned by their descendants (who still would not be the same people).

They are also NOT selling to both sides. I’m not even disputing that they wouldn’t, they might well want to, but they literally can’t. They’re not allowed to and that is enforced.

So what’s your alternative? Do nothing as Russia invades country after country and hope that they’ll stop before it’s our turn?

If they’d be willing renounce their claims to Taiwan and allow democracy in Hong Kong and Macau, maybe I could see that. Until then, same shit in more outwardly rational packaging.

So give me a Fediverse Twitter alternative that’s actually a drop-in replacement for Twitter the way Bluesky is and that is (and this is by far the most important factor) as easy to sign up for as Bluesky is. People aren’t leaving Twitter because it’s “corporate” or “enshittified”, they’re leaving because it’s the proverbial Nazi bar and they want to jump through as few hoops as possible to get where they want to go. Which is Twitter, minus the Nazi in charge and his followers.