Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

from the things-were-said dept

This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is Thad, responding to the tired line from apologists for Trump's immigration atrocities that there would be no problem if immigrants followed the law:

The families the Trump Administration has separated have included asylum-seekers.

Trump's Muslim ban targeted refugees.

Trump scuttled the bipartisan DACA deal partially on the grounds that it didn't do enough to decrease legal immigration. You may remember his statement at the time that he wanted more immigrants from places like Norway, as opposed to "shithole countries" like African nations and Haiti.

Basically, anybody who claims the Trump Administration doesn't have anything against legal immigration is lying, ignorant, or both.

In second place, we've got a response from Anonmylous to the pro-copyright-filter political party in France that got upset about its own content being filtered:

Ostriches are lousy politicians

Maybe.... maybe an allegory will work? Let me try.

*ahem* Dear politicians. Creating laws requiring internet companies to create algorithms that account for fair use is like passing laws requiring the Sun to burn less brightly in order to reduce global warming. It looks great on paper, but to anyone even slightly educated, you appear foolish.

We live in the Digital Age now. Stop clinging to your ignorance as if it were some badge of pride or honor. Learn about these things so you can make laws that actually help your constituents, and the world. Copyright does need reform, but not in the ways that the industry players want. they have a duty to make money for their shareholders, and nothing more. YOU have a duty to your citizens, and no one else. Its about time you remembered that.

For editor's choice on the insightful side, we've got a pair of responses to Ajit Pai's attempts to claim the net neutrality repeal had lots of support. First, it's an anonymous comment commending NPR's handling of his statements:

Props to NPR for calling him out on his bullshit to his face. We need more of this type of behavior.

Next, it's a comment from Toom1275 responding to Pai's claim that "my job is not to put a finger in the wind and decide which way the winds are blowing":

...it's to put a finger on the scales until I get the result I want.

Over on the funny side, our first place winner is an anonymous commenter responding to the (joke) idea that broadcasters should switch to the loot box model:

Spend $1 right now for a 5% chance to skip this commercial.

In second place, it's a response from David to the inclusion of spyware in video games:

Look, this is for serving you better.

All of this paranoia is overblown since this is done in service of the customer.

It's like a plumber who goes to the pain of installing a camera in your bathroom so that he can get a better picture of what may be causing repeated clogged drains and can install the best countermeasures. You don't want every handyman to pester you with details and permissions for doing the best to make things go down the drain smoothly for you in particular.

For editor's choice on the funny side, we've got a pair of comments on our post about the fired FBI official who is now experiencing the other side of the relationship between civilians and government agencies. UniKryn busted out a tiny violin joke:

Tries to build a violin out of Quarks, but those are still too large.

In response (and to be honest this is why I chose these comments — because I'm a huge Star Trek nerd) an anonymous commenter dropped a solid Deep Space Nine reference:

Don't let Odo catch you doing that; as much as he dislikes the bartender, I think he'd frown at the murder that would probably be necessary to reassemble him into a violin.

That's all for this week, folks!

Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • icon
    ECA (profile), 24 Jun 2018 @ 12:34pm

    fun time..

    Immigrants??
    Why arnt we FIXING Central and south America..We do it for the middle east, and we DONT BUY THEIR OIL..
    Except where Bush said it would PAY for the war..
    NOW you know why GAS prices are so high..

    Filtering content..
    Dam..
    I keep throwing this stick, but it keeps hitting me in the face..(my boomerang wont come back)

    Pai and fingers..
    WATCH WHERE YOU ARE POINTING THAT THING, and Which finger you are using..

    Program Trackers..
    ANYONE brave enough to run an UNPROTECTED SYSTEM, that blocks 3rd party inserts from Every site you visit??
    DIDNT THINK SO..

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Anonymous Anonymous Coward (profile), 24 Jun 2018 @ 12:56pm

      Re: fun time..

      Why arnt we FIXING Central and south America...

      Name one time where our efforts at 'fixing' another country worked. We've screwed a lot of them up, but I cannot find evidence of any 'fixes', not that lasted. We tend to dump one regime, considered bad at the time, and get another that is often as bad, and sometimes worse, for various values of worse.

      Maybe if we used different tactics.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Robert Beckman, 24 Jun 2018 @ 3:05pm

        Re: Re: fun time..

        Germany and Japan. Though both took us two tries. ....

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          Anonymous Anonymous Coward (profile), 24 Jun 2018 @ 4:01pm

          Re: Re: Re: fun time..

          Those took a bit more than just us going out and 'fixing' some country. Actually, they were our last two, actually declared wars, though we have been 'fixing' a few more recently, in a war like manner, without declaring war, or succeeding.

          In addition, I wonder about whether they are, as yet, fixed. Or ever will be. Or, unless they get into the warlike world domination mode, again, if we want to fix them more.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

          • icon
            Talmyr (profile), 25 Jun 2018 @ 3:30am

            Re: Re: Re: Re: fun time..

            You were also solidly working with other countries then, and had Russia as a counter-weight. Left more to yourselves, it's a bit more of a disaster.

            link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Anonymous Coward, 25 Jun 2018 @ 1:51pm

          Re: Re: Re: fun time..

          Germany and Japan. Though both took us two tries. ....

          Ummm. Japan was on the allied side in the First World War.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 24 Jun 2018 @ 5:01pm

        Re: Re: fun time..

        Fix...
        how many have we PUT our hands/fingers/money into...
        Instigated takeovers..and LOTS of other rotten things to install our SUPPORTED leaders..

        We started in South America..

        As to Current, I would suggest that you LOOK HARD into them..we are STILL paying for them..
        Afghanistan, Made us look like idiots..WE DIDNT CONTROL THE BORDERS, as he ran threw them..
        saddam?? Had only 1 problem, controlling 3-6 groups of Muslims, and EACH time they started fighting, he killed both responsible..WE ran in FOR LITTLE REASON...how many leaders since?? 3.. is it any better?? only if you have guns.

        Vietnam..we were on the WRONG SIDE..
        Korea?? to fight China??

        Japan Attacked the USA because we were helping China, and blockading them from the middle east oil.. look it up..

        Spanish American war(banana war) was 40 years long..Started in Cuba. Thats where we got all the heroes and WWI and WWII..

        really want some fun..
        WHy goto war...look up Food as a weapon, and KNOW that the USA EXPORTS OVER 60% of our food stock..

        link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Lawrence D’Oliveiro, 24 Jun 2018 @ 5:43pm

      Re: Why arnt we FIXING Central and south America.

      Remember what happend the last time you tried?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 25 Jun 2018 @ 6:57am

      Re: fun time..

      considering instart logic, most people can't do the last anyway...

      it sneaks 3rd party content in as 1st party. and tends to override things like ad blockers (or script blockers) in the process.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Pixelation, 24 Jun 2018 @ 9:37pm

    No

    "Trump's Muslim ban targeted refugees. "

    No. It targeted Muslims. Not that he has any special affinity for refugees.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Thad, 25 Jun 2018 @ 9:50am

      Re: No

      It targeted Muslims, it targeted refugees, and in particular it targeted Muslim refugees.

      This administration is more than capable of discriminating against multiple overlapping groups at the same time.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    UniKyrn (profile), 24 Jun 2018 @ 10:00pm

    Bwahahaha, Mine wouldn't have been nearly as funny if not for that anonymous followup. Hat's off to who ever wrote that. :)

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.