Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

from the talk-of-the-blog dept

This week, our first place winner on the insightful side comes in response to Sean Spicer's about face on the Confide app, which prompted one anonymous commenter to point out a second layer of hypocrisy:

Oh the irony and hypocrisy when the team that screamed "her emails!" so much didn't learn to use official channels from the Clinton issue, but just learned to work harder at hiding their electronic use policy violations.

For second place, we head to our response to T Bone Burnett's video submission to the Copyright Office, were That One Guy had some additional thoughts:

Ignoring for a moment the fact that more is being created than ever before, including music, which rather nicely undercuts the whole 'scorched earth of creativity' thing he seems to have going, reading this I can't help but wonder about his stance towards the 'creative wonderland' that was the major labels before the internet came along and yanked the rug out from under them by offering creators a way to have their music heard and purchased without going through them.

Because I don't know about anyone else, but 'handful of mega corporations ... living fat off the artistic, cultural, and economic value everyone else creates online' sounds like a dead ringer for the labels who demanded that if anyone wanted to be heard they went through them, paying and paying dearly for the privilege and leaving anyone they didn't grace with their benevolence in the dust.

For editor's choice on the insightful side, we'll start out with one more response to that video, this time from hij:

This guy cut his teeth in a traveling revue playing on the road. He moved from playing small events to big time concerts. All of the issues he brought up have nothing to do with the internet. You can replace "internet" with any other venue. The problems he brings up are exactly the same whether or not it is a bunch of local bands playing down on the corner bar, big name productions at a nearby city's stadium, or some nebulous internet people.

Then he explicitly says the problem is not technology it is the business models. If that is the case change the business model. The world does not owe him a chance to play in his studio. The world wants to see him on stage playing. It is not up to the government to provide a way for him to create a monopoly and force people to listen and pay for his music the way he wants it. It is a two way street, and he needs to listen to his fans. Both the fans and the artists need to adapt. Rigidly clinging to a way for him to control his fans will only result in him watching them walk away regardless of the technology.

As for his disdain for the mega corporations getting fat off the backs of the poor artists, he is right that it is a problem. Trying to go back to a time where it was his buddies in the recording industry who were taking advantage of the artists is just a quest to go backwards to a time that is not so different than the present dystopia he insists we are living in. (We are not.)

As for bemoaning the idea that the internet is turning into a corporate playground designed to take people's money away.... Sorry, but that happened 20 years ago. That train left the station a long long time ago. When T-bone Rip Van Winkle wakes up and realizes that it is 2017 he is going to be surprised.

Next, we've got some thoughts from Roger Strong on the idea that Trump's behavior is no different from previous presidents:

This is how you normalize corruption and incompetence. Declare that "everyone else does it."

Sure, you could declare Obama to be the same as the previous administration. There'd be some truth there, as he kept most of the same policies and didn't prosecute those who turned the country into a torture state. On the other hand he do anything on the scale of the lies and deception used to drag the country into a decade+ long war.

But declaring Trump to be in the same league? Take Obama's worst lie and put it into a Trump speech. It would go entirely unnoticed, overshadowed by far worse Trump claims.

Over on the funny side, first place goes to an anonymous commenter who made the most obvious and appropriate joke when we had some HTML issues in a post about "fake news":

fake formatting.

For second place, we head to our post about the leak of a State Dept. memo on the subject of stopping leaks, where one commenter objected by pitching a bunch of strange hypothetical alternative scenarios. Thad offered a delightfully deconstructivist response:

You make a good point. If this thing was a different thing, would it be the same thing?

For editor's choice on the funny side, we've got one more nod to Thad since he was on a roll shutting down silly criticisms this week and because it gives me a chance to shamelessly remind you about the Techdirt Gear store on Teespring. After one commenter objected that our Takedown tee doesn't include explicit recognition that some takedowns are valid, he hit back:

Other facts which are omitted from the T-shirts:

Murder is illegal.
Puppies are adorable.
Water is composed of two parts hydrogen to one part oxygen.
Neo Nadi won five gold medals for fencing in the 1920 Olympics.
Batman was created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger.
Val Kilmer's first film credit is the 1984 film Top Secret!
You're an idiot.

This is an exhaustive list. There are no other facts besides the ones I have just listed.

Finally, we head to our post about IBM's terrible patent on out-of-office email responders, where TechDescartes neatly wrapped everything up in a bow:

Is it just me?

Or does it seem like Patent Examiners have set their out-of-office replies to "Patent Granted"?

That's all for this week, folks!

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Reader Comments

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  1. icon
    David Muir (profile), 5 Mar 2017 @ 12:27pm

    I keep calling him Sean Spencer too, which made me notice the name in the first sentence of the post.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. icon
    Leigh Beadon (profile), 5 Mar 2017 @ 2:25pm

    Re:

    Oh weird, first time for me I think - thanks for catching that, fixed now!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Thad, 5 Mar 2017 @ 4:16pm

    Thanks, but I'm sure any second now somebody's going to come out and tell us that second-place for funny was actually Moonlight.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. icon
    timmaguire42 (profile), 5 Mar 2017 @ 5:34pm

    "But declaring Trump to be in the same league? Take Obama's worst lie and put it into a Trump speech. It would go entirely unnoticed, overshadowed by far worse Trump claims."

    That's such a load of ignorant partisan garbage I'm amazed it didn't take first prize for insightful.

    I refute you thus: If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.

    Idiot.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 5 Mar 2017 @ 5:44pm

    Re:

    It was actually That One Guy, sorry.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 5 Mar 2017 @ 5:45pm

    Re:

    If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.

    Actually, you can. You just have to pay for it. Nobody said it would be free.

    Idiot.

    I'll refrain from calling you names.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 5 Mar 2017 @ 5:46pm

    Re:

    Sounds like you think you actually won second place for funny. Sad.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    Thad, 5 Mar 2017 @ 8:31pm

    Re:

    I refute you thus: If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.

    You are correct in identifying Obama's worst lie.

    However, given that Trump is currently ranting, without evidence, that Obama had bugs planted in his office, the point you've just made is not the same point that you think you've just made.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. icon
    Roger Strong (profile), 5 Mar 2017 @ 10:47pm

    Re:

    Obama's worst lie - your choice and others' - was a wishful thinking in that while there was nothing about ObamaCare that would prevent you from keeping your doctor, it wouldn't guarantee that you could keep your doctor any more than the old system did. Insurers drop policies and doctors change networks all the time.

    Just to put that into Trump era perspective, Trump has already repeated that lie regarding his own plan. Last Week tonight had fun with this last week (Feb 29th show, about 24 minutes in) complete with video of Trump making the promise. "They can have their doctors, they can have their plans, they can have everything."

    I stand by my claim: "Obama's worst lie and put it into a Trump speech. It would go entirely unnoticed, overshadowed by far worse Trump claims."

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 6 Mar 2017 @ 12:03am

    If their sedition overthrows the government chosen by we the people there will be hell to pay, literally.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 6 Mar 2017 @ 12:50am

    Re:

    It would be hard to find a real hell to pay with, literally...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. icon
    That One Guy (profile), 6 Mar 2017 @ 1:14am

    Re: Re:

    If you read the comment as paying hell, rather than paying in hell as a form of currency, not so much actually, a quick search found four 'Hell's(though one of them was abandoned, guess no-one wanted to live in that particular Hell) that I'm sure would be quite pleased with a little extra money in their coffers.

    Of the three that are still around you've got:

    Hell, Michigan

    Hell, Grand Caymon

    Hell, Norway

    link to this | view in thread ]

  13. icon
    Roger Strong (profile), 6 Mar 2017 @ 1:30am

    Re:

    No-one except the most delusional nutjobs is suggesting sedition or anyone trying to overthrow the government.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  14. identicon
    Baron von Robber, 6 Mar 2017 @ 7:04am

    Re:

    the government chosen by the electorial college (we lost the popular by 3 million)...

    FTFY

    link to this | view in thread ]

  15. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 6 Mar 2017 @ 7:41am

    Re: Re:

    No-one except the most delusional nutjobs is suggesting sedition or anyone trying to overthrow the government.

    Breitbart ran a recent story about an attempted coup by Obama. Check.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  16. icon
    jupiterkansas (profile), 6 Mar 2017 @ 7:54am

    Re: Re: Re:

    Please link to the story so we can tell you why it's wrong.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  17. identicon
    Thad, 6 Mar 2017 @ 8:02am

    Re: Re:

    I would add that, while all politicians lie, Trump's lies are very unusual.

    Usually, when politicians lie, it's to tell the public what it wants to hear in order to get support ("If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor"; "Read my lips: no new taxes"). Sometimes, it's to deny their role in a scandal ("I did not have sexual relations with that woman"; "I did not have communications with the Russians"). Even very serious lies ("Saddam sought uranium", "I have no recollection of that at this time, Senator," "I am not a crook") usually fall into those categories.

    Trump tells those kinds of lies. But he also tells other lies, lies that are totally outlandish and serve no apparent political purpose. I would put those into two categories: gaslighting and conspiracy theories.

    Gaslighting is when there is a record of something, everyone has seen it, and he brazenly contradicts it: his inaugural crowds were bigger than Obama's; he opposed the Iraq War from the beginning; he never mocked that reporter's disability; he never said global warming is a hoax created by the Chinese.

    And then there are the conspiracy theories, which he grabs from sources like Breitbart (Obama wiretapped Trump Tower), Infowars (3 million illegal immigrants voted, in an effort so vast that it encompassed nearly 1 out of every 100 people in America, so organized that not one single person has come forward with any verifiable evidence that it happened, and so incompetent that none of them ever considered that maybe it might help if they went and voted in some swing states), and the National Enquirer (Ted Cruz's father met with Lee Harvey Oswald right before the JFK assassination).

    This shit is weird. It is not normal. Say what you will about Obama, Bush, any other President or politician; there are legitimate criticisms to be made of everybody. But most Presidents do not repeat conspiracy theories they got from a guy who thinks the government is using chemtrails to turn people gay.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  18. identicon
    Baron von Robber, 6 Mar 2017 @ 8:04am

    Re: Re: Re:

    Checkmate. Breitbart also ran false stories about Obama's birth, thousands of muslims celebrating 9/11 in the US, 3 million voter frauds, ect kookery.

    You're a looney.

    PS. If there was a FISA approved order, that looks very, very bad for Trump and his admin. That means, somebody had some evidence of issues with Trump's admin, the Russian banks, and Russia. Now where does the sedition seem to point to?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  19. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 6 Mar 2017 @ 8:17am

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    You're a looney.

    I rather thought Breitbart was a good example of "delusional nutjobs" as Roger called them. Of course, if you want to call people who agree with him "looney", then go ahead.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  20. identicon
    Baron von Robber, 6 Mar 2017 @ 8:34am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    Ah I had read your line to be in agreement with Breitbart about Obama. Not that you were in agreement with Roger about Breitbart.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  21. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 6 Mar 2017 @ 3:24pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    The trump minion's are making satire nearly impossible; that's the biggest conspiracy.

    and... I thought it was frog's that the government was supposed to be turning gay? I'm pretty sure that's what I heard jones say in that clip- or was that satire/parody? See! you just can't tell anymore.

    Why is the government supposed to want gay frogs anyway?

    link to this | view in thread ]


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