That being said, I can't trust MKBHD is not hallucinating either.

Doesn't Fediverse mean "these applications can federate with each other"? How would you federate with Lemmy without ActivityPub?

If there are multiple protocols, then that defeats the entire purpose of a protocol. If Matrix and ActivityPub are in the Fediverse, then Facebook and Twitter should be, too.

Facebook can't talk with Twitter, so they aren't federated with each other. Same goes for ActivityPub and Matrix. Fediverse doesn't mean "has a federated protocol". It means "these applications are federated with each other" (from what I understand).

The Fediverse uses the ActivityPub protocol. This allows everything in it to communicate with each other. Lemmy can't communicate with Matrix since Matrix is a different protocol.

IMO he can contribute all he wants. His PRs will still have to go through someone else (i.e. the new maintainer / lead dev). I don't care if he adds new code. That's much appreciated.

Toxicity is more of an issue if you're the maintainer since you have control over the project.

I'm very close to pulling the trigger on Graphene. One question though - usually when I try open source / secure alternatives to some popular software the UI is janky and super old looking.

Is Graphene like this with their custom apps / UI stuff? Will I notice? Or is it identical to the stock OS UI design?

They claimed that authoritarian governments do not do this since they have no reason.

Sure, but what the person I replied to is claiming is that e.g. North Korea doesn't lie to its people about reasons it does things, which is, of course, bullshit.

One thing I really hate is when people use that clap emoji between every word to try to solidify what they're saying.

Doing that, or saying "full stop", etc. doesn't make me trust what you're saying more. Explain why what you're saying is correct. Use words, logic, and sources.

LOL, this is a joke right? Authoritarian countries don't lie about reasons for doing things? LMAO

For Google, nothing is too dumb! Not even joking. They're absolute trash nowadays at almost everything they do, even for normal / startup standards.