Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
from the voices dept
This week, Stephen T. Stone took both of the top spots for insightful with responses to Tim Cushing's first post reacting to the protests in Minneapolis and across the country. In first place, it's his opening take on the subject:
I want to say two things.
- A not-zero number of the peaceful protests around the country this past week didn’t turn violent until the police showed up and inflicted their violence upon protestors. The cops are the ones who use tear gas — which isn’t even allowed in wartime use under the Geneva Conventions! — and dress up in all-black Stormtrooper gear to wage war against people exercising their First Amendment rights.
- The police decide if they’ll attack protestors long before a protest even starts. The lack of violence from protestors never factors into how violent the cops will act. Protestors like MLK chose principled non-violence as a strategy because they knew cops would 100% be violent to them and thus create martyrs out of the protestors.
In second place, it's a comment he dedicated to passing on one of the most relevant quotes in America right now:
Certain conditions continue to exist in our society, which must be condemned as vigorously as we condemn riots. But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice, equality and humanity. And so in a real sense our nation’s summers of riots are caused by our nation’s winters of delay. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again. Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention.
For editor's choice on the insightful side, we start out with a comment from That One Guy (which is actually what Stephen was responding to with the MLK Jr. quote to expand on its meaning) summing up how police bring this on themselves:
Self-fulfilling prophecy
Treat the public as the enemy, claim that they are such a huge threat that you 'feared for your life' and therefore were justified in ending the life of another on a routine basis and eventually they will return the favor.
There are times when 'I told you so' does not carry any satisfaction, where it would have been vastly preferable to admit to being wrong over facing a demonstration that you were right. I just wish this was at all surprising rather than just as inevitable as watching someone throwing rocks straight into the air and eventually being brained by one of them.
And, lest people forget that the justice system's rot doesn't stop with the police, our next editor's choice is Upstream going, well, further upstream:
Prosecutors and Judges working for the defense
Prosecutors often are a cop’s best defenders in police misconduct cases. They have the budgets to be able to afford to hire expert witnesses, who are often well-known, professional “police apologists” or “police exonerators,” knowing full well the testimony they will provide will be extremely favorable for the defense. They can ask questions of these and other witnesses that will lead them to testify in ways that are favorable for the defense. And, of course, they can avoid calling witnesses who they know will provide testimony unfavorable to the defense.
Judges can also greatly assist in the cop’s defense, with their rulings on what evidence or testimony is, or is not, admissible, and with their instructions and statements to the jury.
When you have the defense lawyers, the prosecutors, and the judges all actively working to defend the accused, it is a wonder that any cops ever get convicted of anything at all.
Over on the funny side... it's not a very funny time right now. I'm a firm believer that comedy can be a powerful weapon in our culture, and lots of people are using it for good (it is, for example, nice to see police attempts at Twitter PR getting ruthlessly and dismissively mocked by all comers) but the mood on Techdirt this week was not one of mirth, and I'm not in the frame of mind to go picking through the comments looking for ones that make me laugh (if anything could right now) — so I'm dispensing with the editor's choice for funny today. But we do have a pair of winners by vote, both using comedy to make a point, with first place going to Samuel Abram in response to someone who accused Techdirt of "openly advocating violence and destruction":
Don't be silly, Techdirt isn't pro-cop.
And in second place, it's neost with a response to Tom Cotton's fascist New York Times editorial:
Send in the military! NOW!
I agree with Senator Cotton. The US Military must be sent into cities where violence is happening to de-militarize police departments.
Oh, wait.
(Sadly, some people who should know better seem to have actually convinced themselves that's what the military would do, rather than what Cotton called for which is offering backup to the police and supporting their violence.)
And so, that's all for this week, folks.
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People convincing themselves of that is sad, but only because it ignores reality. De-militarizing the police is (in an abstract/sane-ish world) a reasonable thing to want the military to do in this case.
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Re:
If political leaders order the police to stand down and they refuse, then we can talk about whether a different government force is required to step in, at which point America is in a state of full-blown civil war.
Until then, I refuse to engage in the "which force of trained killers with guns do we want on the streets?" discussion.
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Oops!
I did it again! I won the funny vote! Even if these times are no laughing matter. But I appreciate the votes nonetheless.
Still feels like a Pyrrhic victory, nonetheless...
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Re: Re:
This.
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Re: Re:
The police aren't trained killers but some believe themselves to be. That's part of the problem. They are missing the training, code, and discipline required for someone for whom killing others is supposed or even legal to be more than an ultimate act of defense of self or others, yet often make deadly violence their go-to tool of choice.
Soldiers are not allowed to kill as a measure of "erring to be on the side of safety".
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Re: Oops!
Wanna swap? I won the unfunny vote.
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Re: Re: Re:
I understand what you mean but they are issued official service weapons, trained to use them, and authorized to use legal deadly force. The fact that their training sucks and they ignore most of it and exceed their authorization with impunity doesn't change the fact that they are trained killers.
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Re: Re: Oops!
Naw, I'm good.
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"At which point America is in a state of full-blown civil war."
But for that you must tune in to next week's exciting episode!
My guess: The chiefs and captains are going to try to enact reforms that will seem to logically reduce the opportunities for unchecked disproportionate violence, because right now, what else can they do? And then we'll have a Nacht der langen Messer led by the unions. It may come in the form of a few too many accidents to be believed (not to mention some deliberately sabotaged brake-cables).
We've essentially established through a long run of tracked activity we live in a police-supported fascist state. Our written laws may pretend to guarantee some rights, but the courts don't enforce them, and we have laws that could put anyone away that District Attorneys selectively use to remove enemies. (DAs are largely white, male, religious and right-wing. Even Kamala Harris was right-wing through her tenure as a DA.)
So we're in the fascist state already. We are in the American Nightmare. And people will continue to be murdered whether or not we resist.
Vive La Résistance
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Re: Re: Re: Re:
Maybe the difference in training and discipline is because killing foreign citizens arbitrarily reflects badly on the U.S.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Killing your own citizens arbitrarily also reflects badly on the US, so no, I don't think that's it.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
To be honest, before even getting to the difference, I have a lot of issues with the way this frequently-raised comparison between cops and soldiers paints the US military as being totally innocent of misconduct and atrocities.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Just so you know, "soldiers" only refers to members of the US Army. There are Marines, the Navy (Sailors), and the US Air Force (Airmen). Collectively they are the military, but individually they are called "troops" or "servicemembers".
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Fair point. Though at the moment it is mostly ground forces being discussed for actual use against the protests, so that tends to be the main comparison coming up
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Funny Comment of the Week
So, here's a summary of what is funny about Techdirt. It advocates for the overthrow of the US Government. It advocates for burning down the American way of life. It advocates for the end of Capitalism, the end of the Police, the end of Border Enforcement, the end of Society as we know it. It wants to burn down everything that honest hard working Americans for worked for their entire lives, as well as their parents, and theirs. It advocates for the end of Copyright, the end of Patents, the end of American Inventions, the end of civilization as we know it. And it does so behind the mask of fake names, fake profiles and fake racially charged outrage. AND THEN, it denies it's OWN Philosophy and Political Agenda. Funny. Maybe sad. But really funny. You guys are so pathetic, you can't even create your own thoughts, and rely instead on Bill Ayers and his bankrupt ideology that was debunked decades ago. Funny.
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Re: Funny Comment of the Week
And here's another hint for the "woke children" that run this disgusting web site (Techdirt): You say more by censoring comments than you do with your childish articles and use of profanity in your headlines and your phony pony fake commentators. Pathetic would be too kind a word to use for your fascist, totalitarian and cowardly approach to communication. You can't defend yourselves or your ideas, because you have not yet joined the ranks of adults, and instead mimic the tactics of the Taliban and Hitler. The moral rot of this disgusting site stinks to high heaven.
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Re: Funny Comment of the Week
So, here's a summary of what is funny about Techdirt. It advocates for the overthrow of the US Government. It advocates for burning down the American way of life. It advocates for the end of Capitalism, the end of the Police, the end of Border Enforcement, the end of Society as we know it. It wants to burn down everything that honest hard working Americans for worked for their entire lives, as well as their parents, and theirs. It advocates for the end of Copyright, the end of Patents, the end of American Inventions, the end of civilization as we know it. And it does so behind the mask of fake names, fake profiles and fake racially charged outrage. AND THEN, it denies it's OWN Philosophy and Political Agenda. Funny. Maybe sad. But really funny. You guys are so pathetic, you can't even create your own thoughts, and rely instead on Bill Ayers and his bankrupt ideology that was debunked decades ago. Funny.
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Soldier
I did not know soldier was specific to the US Army but yeah, I can see that now. According to friends in the Corps, every Marine is a Rifleman (even if they have a second duty, such as a pilot, bomb disposal or artillery). But unlike the other armed forces, the USMC is first and foremost an infantry service. The Army is more mechanized.
The term for an individual, incidentally, is trooper who are assembled into troops which are about the same size as a platoon.
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"Honest hard-working Americans"
I'm pretty sure the honest hard-working Americans who have to depend on the goodwill of the bosses for healthcare or even basic survival would be glad to see the American way of life burned to the ground.
I'm pretty sure the people who are murdered by law enforcement, or have the snot beaten out of them for contempt of cop (or protesting for justice) or have had their life savings ripped from them via asset forfeiture all have no love for the police. I'm sure naturalized Americans and native-borns that look too foreign who are deported despite their citizenship (to where?) would be happy to see ICE and CBP abolished with the rest of the law enforcement services. Hundreds of videos of police brutality from this week alone have demonstrated the US law enforcement institution does not serve the people, nor does the legal system that supports the police. Nor does the government system that taxes the people to sustain the police.
I'm pretty sure we the American people no longer hold true the notion that we are temporarily embarrassed millionaires merely waiting for our break. No, if our oligarchs would have it there way, we'd work ourselves to incapacity and then dispose of ourselves without a mess, and be easily replaced by another worker like a cog in a factory machine. That's capitalism, and those captains of industry who could have perpetuated the system by treating their workers fairly and reasonably went the way of all other aristocrats and started pinching for time theft. And here we are, seeing billionaires as a failure of policy and glad to get rid of capitalism and all it entails. (And no, the lack of intellectual property will not slow down the rate of invention. Some people just like to invent and our nation once had thousands of them sell their rights for a dollar because who cares?)
No, the great experiment that was the US is on the verge of collapse, and we're waiting to see as Minneapolis tries to pull a rescue out of its ass by actually considering abolition of their city police department. If they pull it off, and the rest of the nation follows, we may be able to walk back and restore our democracy yet.
Unless the unions try to take over by coup d'etat. Then we have civil war.
Unless they can't go through with it due to unpopularity. Then we have a fascist regime on the verge of civil war.
Unless the courts intervene because they won't be defanged. Then we have that fascist regime again.
But right now the police murder people and that is not a situation that can persist. Because they'll still murder people, only now some of us would regard it as an act of war.
Right now we're in a fascist state in which the police can do pretty much anything to anyone with impunity (at least to us lowly serfs). If I were an official or rich enough and wanted you to disappear Anonymous Coward you'd be gone, and I wouldn't even need a very particular set of skills.)
Right now we're watching our peerless leader and his cronies demanding no quarter given to us lowlifes and losers for daring to want equal justice. If they send military forces to murder us, then we're in civil war.
I'm pretty sure a lot of them are like you Anonymous Coward who would gleefully massacre tens of thousands in the name of their ideology, or would kill us all to keep their power. Didn't one Senator offer to shoot down protesters?
For this moment we have this one chance to see if this can be done without bloodshed and that decides if the great experiment that is the United States can be preserved. Because if it goes fascist, I'm pretty sure most of us can agree it's no longer the US in accordance to the principles with which it was framed.
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Re: "Honest hard-working Americans"
Riiiight. We are the fascists. You are the peaceful protesters who want to peacefully burn down the country and peacefully demand that we get on our knees.
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Re: Re: "Honest hard-working Americans"
And by the way, have you seen the markets? The actual impact of the protests are economically EXTREMELY positive. Everyone has gotten over their Covid fears, and there is a LOT of money to be made in cleanup and renewal, and besides that, it's life reaffirming to recover from attacks by mindless idiots like you that have no idea of how to build a society. You have nothing in mind, only anarchy and chaos. Idiot.
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"Everyone has gotten over their Covid fears"
COVID-19 will transmit whether you are afraid of it or not.
Science is the stuff that works whether or not you believe in it.
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Peaceful Protesters
No. I'm not the peaceful protesters.
I've watched how peaceful protesters are treated by the police. I am skeptical this can be managed peacefully, rather I think the police and the federal government are eager to keep their power.
And I'm not calling them lowlifes and losers. I'm one insisting we give our rivals no quarter. I'm not the one pushing to deploy the military to shoot to kill American citizens, peaceful or otherwise.
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Re: Peaceful Protesters
Why not just be open? You want a revolution, just like the other major sponsors of Techdirt. You want to abolish ICE, defund the police set up your own law enforcement organizations to take over the country unlawfully. Well, America. You want to destroy America. Ironically, the only country in the world that will live at peace with such a tiny fraction of the population that want to destroy it, is America. You have no voting power so you dream of acquiring power by force. Just admit it.
I saw something good today, AG Bill Bar with a spic woman, a nigger man and two white boys that looked like they were about to shit their patents. Barr is a real general. He explained that while you leftist bastards tried to destroy DC, he coordinated the ATF, the Department of Prisons, the FBI, the US Marshalls and the DEA to knock you assholes back on your ass, which is where you are now. Your revolution is OVER! You've all been scanned.
But you can stay in America if you like, this is a free country. And we will talk to you and try to help you with your self-admitted mental illness.
So talk. I'm making money, and when Trump is re-elected, we're all going to make a LOT MORE!
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Re: Re: Peaceful Protesters
You made money and then burned it watching Shiva Ayyadurai run his mouth on a doomed lawsuit and a failure of a campaign against Elizabeth Warren. The less opportunity you frivolous wastes of space have to fritter away money on masturbation, the better.
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"I'm making money"
No, I'm pretty sure you don't make enough to invest.
And I'm not sure whether you're delusional, possibly misinformed, or trolling.
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Re: "I'm making money"
The question remains - why not just be open? Why say "no I'm not a peaceful protester" and NOT say "I am advocating for the violent overthrow of the US". Why do you need to deflect and hide behind what is obvious to everyone?
You read Ayer's Prairie Fire paper, right?
PRAIRIE FIRE is written to communist-minded people,
independent organizers and anti -imperialists; those who carry the traditions
and lessons of the struggles of the last decade, those who join in the struggles
of today. PRAIRIE FIRE is written to all sisters and brothers who are
engaged in armed struggle against the enemy. It is written to prisoners,
women's groups, collectives, study groups, workers' organizing committees,
communes, GI organizers, consciousness-raising groups, veterans, community
groups and revolutionaries of all kinds; to all who will read, criticize and
bring its content to life in practice. It is written as an argument against those
who oppose action and hold back the struggle.
PRAIRIE FIRE is based on a belief that the duty of a revolutionary
is to make the revolution. This is not an abstraction. It means that
revolutionaries must make a profound commitment to the future of
humanity, apply our limited knowledge and experience to understand an
ever-changing situation, organize the masses of people and build the fight. It
means that struggle and risk and hard work and adversity will become a way of
life, that the only certainty will be constant change, that the only
possibilities are victory or death.
We have only begun. At this time, the unity and consolidation of
anti-imperialist forces around a revolutionary program is an urgent and
pressing strategic necessity. PRAIRIE FIRE is offered as a contribution to
this unity of action and purpose. Now it is in your hands.
That's you, right? A leftie Weather Underground Violent Revolutionary.
Denying it vehemently and changing the subject to "racism" is like peeing in our pants - we all can see it, but you're the only one who feels it.
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Does THIS sound familiar to you Idiots?
Very unoriginal, outdated, stupid, and the CENTRAL platform of Techdirt and Today's Democratic Party: STOLEN from Bill Ayer, (Obama's mentor):
What kind of society is it? It is a class society, torn by
contradictions: the heartland of a bloody empire built on the attempted
genocide of Native Americans, the trade in African slaves, the lives of
Chinese and Japanese and Filipino workers, the exploitation of successive
waves of immigrant labor. It is an imprisoner of nations -Guam, Samoa, the
Virgin Islands, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Black and Chicano nations. Like
other empires, it combines stolen lands, stolen riches and stolen labor.
THE ANARCHY OF PRODUCTION
Stolen wealth —not Yankee ingenuity— is the basis of the
tremendous concentration in the US of productive forces -large factories
with advanced machinery, elaborate computer systems, highly extended
organization, the labor of women and men from many nations- all
contributing to an astounding productive capability.
This accumulated productive power is used for the most selfish and
backward purposes. Whereas this wealth is produced by the people of the
world, it is used to enrich the idle handful that controls it, and to subjugate
the dispossessed with the destructive power of economic control and war.
Monopoly capital/imperialism is an irrational system. It is not
organized to meet human needs. It is run by a very small ruling class whose
only morality is the morality of the maximum profit.
This handful of white men control the enormous concentrations of
wealth, the means of production, the government. These are the imperialists,
the common enemy. They hog the wealth which the people produce.
Thirty-two per cent of the personal wealth in the US is owned by 1,6% of
the population.
I heard that Obama and Ayer were gay together, both shoving bananas up each other's ass with Michelle the Gorilla eating the results.
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And I'm not sure whether you're delusional, possibly misinformed, or trolling.
With that particular individual pretty sure the answer is 'yes', but it's also not really relevant as whether they are just pretending to be a pathetic bigoted loser(but I repeat myself) or actually are the appropriate response remains the same.
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Re: "Everyone has gotten over their Covid fears"
Even if COVID-19 did circulate at protests, that could be countered by the good that would come from calling attention to the danger of police violence. These aren’t the same as gatherings protesting stay-at-home orders, Marcus says; those sought to undermine public health, while anti-racism protests could ultimately improve it.
“Ultimately, these protests, if they bring us any semblance of progress in terms of structural racism — they will have had a positive impact on public health, not a negative one,” she says.
Yeah, and if smashing people skulls with bicycle locks brings more attention to Anti-Fascists and their cause, then that's OK, too. And killing old black men while looting stores and burning churches ALSO brings a great deal of GOOD to society. Get your head on straight! Get down on your KNEES!
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Re: Does THIS sound familiar to you Idiots?
Is right wing nutjobbery all you have to offer?
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Techdirt's Philosophy - Go ahead, deny it, we all see it
Some on the left dissociate mass struggle from revolutionary
violence and condemn any act of public militancy or armed struggle as
adventurist. This is characteristic of oppressor-nation movements where
violence is raised to a question of abstract principle, and the illusion is
fostered that imperialism will decay peacefully: "Violence turns people off,"
"It's too early," "Violence only brings down repression."
—The movement should argue for and explain armed action.
develop parallel strategies, openly support the thrust and political content of
revolutionary armed actions, claim and spread the message of struggle, help
create the "sea" for the guerrillas to swim in. Don't talk to the FBI. Resist
grand jury probes of revolutionary struggles. Laying the basis for armed
struggle is also the responsibility of mass organizers,
—From the very beginning of guerrilla action, mass armed
capability develops. Its spontaneity will be slowly transformed into the
energy of a popular armed force.
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Re: Re: Does THIS sound familiar to you Idiots?
You fucking idiot! This is LEFT-WING NutJobbery!
https://archive.org/stream/PrairieFireThePoliticsOfRevolutionaryAnti-imperialismThePolit ical/Prairie-fire_djvu.txt
Bill Ayers! Barack Obama! Duh.
What an idiot you are.
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Re: Re: Re: Does THIS sound familiar to you Idiots?
• Ayers and Obama worked together for years on a school reform program called the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.
• Ayers and Obama also served together on the board of the Woods Fund of Chicago, a separate charity organization.
• Obama had his political coming-out party in William Ayers' home.
• Ayers mentions Obama by name in a book he wrote in 1997, and mentions that the two are very close neighbors.
• Obama gave a short glowing review of that same Ayers book for the Chicago Tribune.
• Obama and Ayers were both presenters together on a panel about juvenile justice (organized by Michelle Obama).
• Both Obama and Ayers were close friends with the same person, Rashid Kalidi.
• There are also several unverified rumors swirling around that have not been documented: That Ayers may have helped to write part (or all) of Obama's autobiography; that Obama and Ayers shared an office space together for three years, on the same floor of the same building in Chicago; and that Ayers and Obama may have known each other as far back as 1981.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Does THIS sound familiar to you Idiots?
Look, it's easy to understand what's going on. There is a small fraction of society, too small to vote their will, that wants to impose a "new world order". They have their ideas, they think they are good, and they're more than willing to impose violence to get them. Their strategy is to feed race hatred and gay hatred into a fire that will ignite enough citizens to overcome the police. Then they rule. That's simple. That's AntiFa. That's TechDirt. That's the whole story. Enough said.
But, it also might be worth mentioning that Obama is STILL trying to regain power. He's organizing the whole George Floyd thing, as well as the arsonists, rioters, fat black screaming bitches and skinny young hoodlums with crowbars.
TOO FUCKING BAD FOR YOU LEFTIST ASSHOLES! ME AND MY PERSONAL FRIEND BILL BARR HAVE CHECKMATED ALL OF YOU!
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'Would you like some cheese to go with that whine?'
Oh do I regret not immediately checking out that link to the portland police twitter account, the mockery in there is absolutely epic and well worth a good while of scrolling.
Gonna guess that that one didn't quite work out how they were hoping, but really how monumentally stupid do you have to be to think that posting a 'here's a photo of some things that protesters have thrown at heavily armored police' is a good idea or way to garner sympathy when the police have been 'throwing' far worse?
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Re: Re: Does THIS sound familiar to you Idiots?
Depends, do you consider gross dishonesty and rampant bigotry to fall under the 'right win nutjobbery' umbrella, or would they be in their own categories?
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Re: 'Would you like some cheese to go with that whine?'
Right. Fuck the Police, just like you said.
To retaliate for the most savage criminal attacks against Black and
Third World people, especially by the police apparatus, and especially George, we bombed and burned:
Haymarkct police statue, Chicago, October 1969 and October 1970;
Chicago police cars, following the murder of Fred Hampton and
Mark Clark, December 1969;
New York City Police Ileadquaters, June 1970;
Marin County Courthouse, following the murder of Jonathan
Jackson, William Christmas and James McClain, August 1970;
Long Island City Courthouse, in Queens, in solidarity with prison
revolts taking place in New York City, October 1970;
Department of Corrections in San Francisco and
Office of California Prisons in Sacramento, for the murder of
George Jackson in San Quentin, August 1971;
Department of Corrections in Albany, N.Y., for the murder and
assault against the prisoners of Attica, September 1971;
103rd Precinct of the New York City police, for the murder of
10-year-old Clifford Clover, May 1973 . . .
The nice church across from the White House, June 2020
The men's clothing store in LA (we won't need suits in our new society)
Pharmacies and high end art stores (well, we gotta eat and get high too)
How fucking boring your leftists are - nothing new to say at all.
50 years. Now. 50 years. Now. Nothing new. What dunces. Especially you, PaulT
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Re: Re: 'Would you like some cheese to go with that whine?'
You're not saying anything new either.
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Re: Techdirt's Philosophy - Go ahead, deny it, we all see it
Quoting that book doesn't make it Techdirt's words, you nonce.
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Re: Re: Re: 'Would you like some cheese to go with that whine?'
Yes I am. MAGA. Bill Ayers did not invent "MAGA", that was Donald Trump.
MAGA is not the same old whining about race relations and sex relations and police relations. It's about making the country GREAT for people who WORK and not LEFTIST CRAZIES, like you and your wacko leftie friends.
MAGA. God Bless Donald J. Trump, the Magnificent
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"Donald Trump invented MAGA"
Um, no.
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Re: Re: Techdirt's Philosophy - Go ahead, deny it, we all see it
Well, Stone vouched for the whole thing, and he's Techdirt's official mascot.
That's hard evidence. In public, in writing, and plain for all to see.
Let those who reject the Ayers' ridiculous, criminal, traitorous, seditious rat bastard book say so. I reject it. Amen.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: 'Would you like some cheese to go with that whin
And how did "MAGA" work out for George Floyd?
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Re: "Donald Trump invented MAGA"
Are you denying a blessing? Are you rejecting God? Did you get that from Ayers' book?
Are you dethroning God?
Of course you are. How boring and predictable. Are you a bot?
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Re: Re: Re: Techdirt's Philosophy - Go ahead, deny it, we all se
Care to link to the comment you're talking about, where "Stone vouched for the whole thing"?
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Does THIS sound familiar to you Idiots?
Get some help, man, before you end up going on a killing spree.
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Re: Re: "Donald Trump invented MAGA"
No, but you're suffering from paranoid delusions and possibly schizophrenia.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: 'Would you like some cheese to go with that
Flynn was doing OK after serving his time, he was well liked, seemed like a genuinely good guy, from what I have seen. The policeman was insecure, had a small build, and probably hated himself, likely had psychological problems, and thank God we collected the evidence to prosecute him and serve Justice and prevent him from ever doing it again. The white/black thing has all the appearances of happenstance.
In a free country, that's how it's done. We work together to right wrong, when we can, how we can, and we do it together.
Not like these anarchist seditious traitorous rat bastards like Obama and Ayers. Not mob justice. Not Techdirt justice, a combination of mob attacks and censorship. It's so un-American here.
You should call this "AyersLand". That would be a good name for it. Ayer's little playground of Ayer's stupid friends. Which includes, Obama, of course.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: 'Would you like some cheese to go with t
You couldn't even get his name right and it was in the post above yours. You need help.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Techdirt's Philosophy - Go ahead, deny it, we al
From Stephen T. Stone - His Political Goals, and Techdirt's Political Goals:
Destroy Capitalism
Does this mean “dismantle the systems that value property before people and allow a select few people to unethically and immorally exploit the lower class for the sake of hoarding obscene amounts of wealth”? If so: #Count_me_in.
Promote Systematic Racism as Justification for Revolution
Yes, that sounds so awful, the idea that a racially oppressed class of people should and could revolt against their oppressors as a means to find a better life~.
…seriously, have you never heard of “slave revolts”, or do you think those revolts were A Bad Thing? #Count_me_in
Identify and Organize the Victim Class, stoke hatred between classes
Republicans already do this. #Count_me_in
Engage an International Community to Attack the Middle Class
Republicans already do this, but they don’t even need to go outside the country. They need only lick a few corporate boots to make it happen. #Count_me_in
Dethrone God
Last I checked, God isn’t here right now, but if She wants to fight for Her throne, let Her come here and fight on equal terms with Her beloved creations. #Count_me_in
You are Ayers' children, doing Ayers' work. You are the leftist underground. You are Anti-Fa members. You are terrorists, just like the Weather Underground. I have reported all of you to https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/terrorism/joint-terrorism-task-forces
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Techdirt's Philosophy - Go ahead, deny it, w
Man, Stone lives rent-free in your head. Get some help.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Techdirt's Philosophy - Go ahead, deny it, w
Considering your histrionics here you mostly managed to put yourself on FBI:s watch-list. Good for you!
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Trolling
I haven't seen trolling this thick on a weekend-post. Some people must have become very insecure... Afraid that white lives matter less when black lives matter?
(I've always read "black lives matter" with the added "just as much".) Runs to protect his fur.
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Re: Re:
I think you are reading a bit too much into my comment. I wasn't suggesting that we want deployment of force. Merely that the statement contains a bit of an irony. As you said the first (sane) step would be for political leaders to order police to stand down. However last I checked police departments are... not so good about following orders (when those orders... rare though they may be, involve not fucking over citizens).
So to re-iterate. I agree (such a discussion is pointless). However that wasn't really what I wanted to start... just pointing out an irony.
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Re: Re: Re:
"The police aren't trained killers but some believe themselves to be"
Have a read up on this guy, and what he trains* cops to do, then think about that again:
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/02/dave-grossman-training-police-militarization/
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
"killing foreign citizens arbitrarily reflects badly on the U.S."
So does arbitrarily killing your own citizens.
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Re: Re: Re: "Honest hard-working Americans"
"Everyone has gotten over their Covid fears"
Which is why you're doomed to have a second wave.
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Re: Re: "Everyone has gotten over their Covid fears"
"Even if COVID-19 did circulate at protests"
It has. You just don't know how many were infected yet.
"that could be countered by the good that would come from calling attention to the danger of police violence."
Most of those attending aren't stupid. They will have weighed the infection risk against the need for change, and decided that latter was worth the risk.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Techdirt's Philosophy - Go ahead, deny it, w
I understand your need to invent a fantasy world to live in to avoid the real world right now, but why is yours always so violent and stupid?
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: 'Would you like some cheese to go with t
"Flynn was doing OK after serving his time"
You're getting your right-wing idiot sphere talking points mixed up. Michael Flynn is the criminal Trump conspirator who was going to jail until Trump's corrupt DOJ let him off, despite due process having been followed.
We're talking about George Floyd, the man summarily executed by police without trial or due process.
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Re: Re: "Donald Trump invented MAGA"
If anyone has dethroned God, it is you and those who have placed Trump in God's place.
If you claim to follow God, read God's word, ask for understanding, and obey God's commands:
The very Word of God commands these things. To love God is to obey these commands. Will you obey? Or do you serve another master before you serve God?
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Re: Funny Comment of the Week
"It advocates for the overthrow of the US Government."
What overthrew your reason?
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: 'Would you like some cheese to go with that
The slogan is not "Make Floyd great again". Slavery considerably contributed to the wealth of the United States in their early phases because the effective wealth, as a measure of the means available for individuals and their agents, can be greatly larger if you declare a number of humans as cattle and do not give them a voice or a reflection or representation in the constituency of a country.
In reality, a country is only as great as it allows its least privileged members to be, while Trump et al, in their quest of making "America Great again", use the metric of the most privileged members which is punting on the actual task.
The funny thing with humans is that this actually works to some degree: professional sports live from people associating themselves with the feats of the people they cheer for, and it's the poor people of often dubious fitness who cheer for their sports teams and continue most faithfully to buy their entrance tickets into the stadium.
Which is the equivalent of watching headscratchingly how "take from the poor and give to the rich" programs are able to garner the support of those on whose back they live.
People are proud to starve for the benefit of people like Trump. Even if this nightmare may be over next January (and it's nowhere certain that it will), getting the population of the U.S. back to where they base their decisions, even if they may be different, on the same kind of facts and truths and consequences seems like a daunting task after the reign of the prince of lies.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: 'Would you like some cheese to go with t
Racism as a prime social and cultural dividing line was born in
North America, out of slavery —it was born out of greed for profit,
perpetrated by deception and a monopoly of firearms, not of biological
superiority real or imagined. The notion that slavery is somehow based upon
racial and cultural inferiority of African and other Third World peoples has
been deeply embedded into every US institution as the chief means of
brainwashing and using the white population.
The importance of this to us is that it begins to focus on too other,
hidden side of our history that the rulers conceal.
Racism is not only directed at Black people -it is also aimed at
controlling whites to keep Black people in slavery, and the rulers firmly in
command.
The institutionalizing of white supremacy created a structure to
divide the white worker and small farmer from the Black slave. Coupled with
the economic bribe of white privilege, it is the corner-stone of US history,
the rock upon which capitalism and imperialism have been erected. It is not:
the material bribe alone that is effective; iL the bribe plus self-justification,
social approval and status, backed up by punishment for non-conformity,
that does the trick.
The US invented a new kind of racism and a more horrible form of
slavery. It has been building on this ever since; and exporting its variety of
racism to the rest of the world.
OMG this is so old, 50 years in the past. don't you assholes have any original thinking? Or are you all like Obama/Ayers?
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: 'Would you like some cheese to go wi
Do you have anything other than the delusion that anyone who isn't a Republican must be plotting the downfall of America?
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Re: Re: Re:
"The police aren't trained killers but some believe themselves to be."
The bad part here is that proactive response training - learning how to shoot and kill before a threat is fully manifested, IS a standard part of police training in many places in the US.
So they are indeed often trained to kill. At the drop of a hat. Before actually being able to make a judgment.
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Re: Re: Re:
Fair enough - and I didn't think you were saying it's what you want or anything.
But I do think a whole lot of people are being shockingly casual about raising the specter of America sending its army to forcefully stop its heavily-armed and militarized police which, again, to me sounds like undeniable civil war.
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Re: Trolling
Well, "black lives matter at all" would be a start. The way George Floyd died did not look like it.
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Re: Trolling
When you're privileged, calls for equality feel like oppression.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Maybe they should stop doing that, then.
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Wouldnt it..
Be interesting IF' we had the power to use the police against the Corps/??? that is being used against the Lower classes, in this country?
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Bold of you to assume a Trump supporter pays attention to the Bible when Trump himself has never so much as read a page of it.
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Trump Supporters who believe in the bible
Considering US Catholics and US Protestant Evangelicals voted for Trump in 2016 at a rate of about 80%, there are a lot of bible-believing Trump supporters.
Or, sorta. About 30% of Evangelicals actually read the bible and have enough of an awareness of their creed. The remaining 70% really are fanpersons who may know little more than Jesus is my co-pilot and it's okay to hate gays and witches. A different 30% (with some intersection) believe in prosperity gospel, which is what Trump allegedly believes in, which is to say they don't take seriously the story of Jesus and the Rich Young Man and that camel through the eye of a needle nonsense.
Also the bit about cursing the fig tree. For all we know that was about horticulture.
And to be fair, saying one believes in the bible doesn't say much about their creeds or ethics. Every individual and every denomination selects favored passages and ignores unfavored ones, which is how we ended up with centuries of armies following an allegedly pacifistic faith. Also, the churches have scholars much like political thinktanks to interpret the bible to suit the institution...and then they tell the laity that their policy is word of God without even mentioning the from a certain point of view part.
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Re:
I actually assume they haven't, which is why I've gone to the trouble of quoting it, so that everyone can see what is actually written.
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Re: Trump Supporters who believe in the bible
The prosperity gospel is an insidious poison, and also gets heavily tied in with the "Word of Faith" people (note, Paula White, Trump's 'spiritual advisor,' is either with or associated Word of Faith). A whole 'magic words' philosophy, of 'speak it and it will come true.' Complete nonsense which treats God as a magic wand or vending machine, rather than a person and actual Sovereign being.
They ignore, in addition to what you've already mentioned, this part of the Sermon on the Mount:
Anyone preaching Prosperity Gospel or etc. is ignoring the whole of the message, and they fall under those False Prophets and False Disciples mentioned in Matthew 7:15-23.
Which is why personal familiarity with the Bible is so important, and why so many Bible translation projects exist. My church and my family put a heavy focus on ensuring the Bible is read individually, in its entirety, and that discussion and understanding is had, as opposed to solely relying on the interpretation of others.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
"Maybe they should stop doing that, then."
A novel idea. Unfortunately there's a very vocal minority who appear to think that actually doing that would somehow cause the oppression of white people.
With the president apparently on the side of that minority the novel idea you suggested may not gain much traction. Pretty clear what Trump wants to see are body bags so he can claim to have been a war-time president.
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Re: Re: Funny Comment of the Week
"So, here's a summary of what is funny about Techdirt...<proceeds with diatribe stolen from Mein Kampf>"
Damn. And all of that because the general trend here is that we insist that a black person should be equal to a white person?
To think, Baghdad Bob, that we never realized that demanding equality would mean calling for the burning down of the american way of life and the end of civilization.
...And i noticed you managed to substitute your normal "But Obama!" for that far older "But Pirates!" you used as a catch-all excuse.
"You guys are so pathetic, you can't even create your own thoughts..."
This, coming from someone who has spent the last - what, ten years almost? - showing every Techdirt and Torrentfreak reader that the only thing you were ever good for is to collect slogans from the MPAA and the white supremacy movement and then copypaste them a hundred times over.
I swear, every time you demonstrate the type of person you really are to everyone and try to call us every name under the sun - in the hope that eventually some of them will stick - puts a big cheerful grin on my face.
Thanks again, Baghdad Bob, for saving us all the trouble of having to, ourselves, produce the arguments as to why you are so damn wrong all the time. We couldn't do it without you.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
"With the president apparently on the side of that minority"
Not apparently. In the last 24 hours, he's been tweeting conspiracy theories from a right-wing propaganda TV channel he seems glued to.
https://www.twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1270333484528214018
OANN - the TV channel bigots run to when Fox doesn't seem pandering enough. He's not just on their side, he's openly brainwashed by them.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Does THIS sound familiar to you Idiots?
"Get some help, man, before you end up going on a killing spree."
Fortunately although police recruitment vetting in the US appears to be awful it probably isn't awful enough to let old Baghdad Bob get a foot in. He's...none too subtle so I can imagine his psych eval;
"But Obama! and Pirates!"
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Re: Re: Re: Funny Comment of the Week
"And all of that because the general trend here is that we insist that a black person should be equal to a white person?"
These guys are too dumb to understand that society is not a equal sum game. They assume that in order for blacks or gays to gain rights, then straight white men must lose rights.
This is not true, but they're scared of this because they know how poorly they treat minorities, and assume that the same will be done to them when they lose their position of privilege. Then, of course, they will also tell you with a straight face that there's no such thing as white privilege.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: 'Would you like some cheese to g
"Do you have anything other than the delusion that anyone who isn't a Republican must be plotting the downfall of America?"
Well, he appears to subscribe to the idea that black people are plotting the downfall of the whole of western civilization. Apparently it comes true once black lives become worth as much as white lives.
It's pretty telling that Baghdad Bob used to spend time on and off Techdirt and Torrentfreak for many years, only surfacing persistently when there was some copyright maximalist outrage he could defend...but then came George Floyd and he's in hysterics like I've never seen before, shitting out one diatribe after the other about the hazards of the Bad Black Man and the loss of white sovereignty.
I mean...we always knew he was a horrible person. This may be the first time I've seen him earnestly trying to emulate a classical old SA thug from the early days of the third reich.
Shit like the stuff he writes these days might as well be lifted straight from the pages of the old nazi propaganda rag "Der Stürmer". Just substitute "jew" for "black lives matter" and you've got the whole nazi rhetoric bingo.
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Re: Re: Trolling
...and that, in a nutshell, is why we see Hamilton/Baghdad Bob losing his shit completely around here these days, and why every other white supremacy group is out selling their narrative of impending doomsday.
If black people are suddenly equal to white people, who will the white trailer-trash and basement-dwelling "supremacists" have to look down on?
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
"Not apparently. In the last 24 hours, he's been tweeting conspiracy theories from a right-wing propaganda TV channel he seems glued to."
Duly noted.
I wonder how long it'll take before he sees fit to test the resolve of armed forces commanding officers by saying something he thinks sends a strong message, such as "Bring me bodies in bags until the violence stops"?
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Funny Comment of the Week
"These guys are too dumb to understand that society is not a equal sum game. They assume that in order for blacks or gays to gain rights, then straight white men must lose rights."
Close, but I think you're giving them too much credit.
Racism is a simple set of mechanisms. The need to lay the blame for any grievance at the feet of the other. The tribal urge to exclude. Being able to define yourself by something as easy as who you hate. and most importantly, being able to know, in your heart of hearts that there will always be someone beneath you on the social totem pole.
I'd say that it's when you can set those primal atavisms aside that you take the final step from being an animal to becoming a human being. And facing those fears the racist instinctively responds by climbing out on a treetop branch and start flinging feces while screaming as loud as they can.
I see no other way to explain Hamilton/Baghdad Bob.
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