Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
from the louder-for-those-in-the-back dept
This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is an anonymous comment responding to someone who framed the debate over Section 230 as a contest between the free speech rights of citizens and corporations:
Citizens have never had the right to force a corporation to carry their words. Indeed the newspapers and traditional publishers place even more restriction on what they will publish that Internet sites that allow user generated content.
Your problem is that people do not want to listen to you, so you want the government to force them to listen. You will not succeed in that, as people will find other ways of communicating where they can avoid the likes of you.
In second place, it's Bloof with some thoughts on the controversy over the social media blocks of the NY Post story about Hunter Biden:
Fortunately conservatives have Parler and Gab where they can share misinformation to their hearts content... Oh wait, they don't want that, they want an audience for their lies and they know normal people aren't super keen on going places where hate flows free.
For editor's choice on the insightful side, we've got an anonymous commenter once again clarifying an important point about that incident:
Twitter DID NOT BLOCK A MAJOR NEWSPAPER ARTICLE! The article in question was easily available by, you know, goin to the ny post site and reading it!
Next, we've got That One Guy raising a good counterpoint to our criticism that Twitter's block played into the narrative of "anti-conservative bias":
'You looked at me funny, anti-conservative bias!'
Not saying Twitter didn't screw this one up, but to be fair these days having rules at all that are applied to 'conservatives' is seen as evidence of 'anti-conservative' bias so they were basically in a lose/lose situation, where they either let the story fester on their platform and spread freely, in which case they get called out for allowing bullshit, or they do anything to hinder it, in which case the perpetual 'victims' scream about how persecuted they are again.
Over on the funny side, our first place winner is Thad responding to a particular sentence from our coverage of the controversial block — "NY Post released a story that[...]'s hot garbage":
But you repeat yourself.
In second place, it's PaulT responding to a commenter who seems really, really angry about open source:
I always love it when ignorant dickheads use open protocols via their open source browser to navigate to a website built on an open source database, web server on an open source operating system to talk shit about how open source is useless.
For editor's choice on the funny side, we start out with Hieronymous Cowherd's comment on that same post, which was about how the pandemic-driven explosion of distributed teams working from home follows a route charted by decades of such organization in the open source development community:
Is this finally a case of
Herd Community?
Finally, we've got Uriel-238 offering some free advice for the FBI task force in Portland:
The Antifa Hierarchy Well I could have told them the Antifa is the active arm of the Deep State.
This should be easy for the FBI: They capture someone and ask them if they harbor anti-fascist sentiments If the answer is yes, their subject is clearly Antifa.
Other signs can be: They own a white van or a black duffel bag.
These are all signs they are from Antifa or the Black Bloc.
Unlike other insurgency groups, Antifa is a monolithic unilateral front, kinda like the Swedish Borg. When a member of Antifa joins he or she get a decoder ring, an indoctrination video and an easy-to-memorize manual that explains the whole hierarchy from the bottom-most goon to the Taco Grande Supreme Commander of the Upper Echelon.
The reason the FBI has not yet been able to infiltrate Antifa and acquire their own copy of these materials is this: The video is super effective.
In fact, the Antifa indoctrination video may be too effective, and capable of bringing down entire established institutions. If an FBI special agent passed it on to other agents or analysts, they too might become radicalized and join the burgeoning ranks of Antifa!
The White House has suggested as much, that the Comey directed FBI has been subverted, hence its antagonism to the Trump presidency and the current administration of the DHS, as shown by the uncovered Strzok/Page texts.
One should always be on the lookout for Antifa sleeper agents who can be anyone in the walks of the United States.
Aside from the flagging devices above (white van, black duffel bag) Antifa sleepers will also purport and flaunt an extreme Protestant Evangelical Christian identity and lifestyle. Watch for the words Jesus is my co-pilot, a phrase Antifa use to signal their presence to each other. If one person says it, and another person responds positively or reaffirms the sentiment, this is likely two antifa sleepers connecting in order to collaborate on future sorties.
See something? Say something! Report all sightings to the DHS anonymous tip line at 1-866-347-2423 or call your local precinct.
That's all for this week, folks!
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Heard(Herd) Community?!
It would be interesting if the Virus was a Fake.
To place all of us into Lock down and listen to the TV for the next ?? months to be Slowly brain washed or confused to Hell about whats going on.
But the backdoor to this is being built.
The internet.
They have given us the time to LOOK AROUND, and read everything we can on the net, as well as interact, and to look at the idiot posts that are going up on both sides.
I do hope it educates some or most. The biggest Difficulty has been that the corps want money ALSO, even tho they can show a Loss to sales and everything else, they also Arnt paying employees, their insurance, their medical. (But isnt there a Wage Insurance for such cases, Epidemic insurance(yes there is, and the ins corp dont want to pay out)). And this is costing allot more then they expected, IF we are paying the corps Profits on top of this.
Anyone wonder why they dont update the IRS.
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I.m sure all the Conservative websites will be delighted when they are flooded with random spam, comments from left wing anarchists,
Posts from real scientists who will explain the threat of climate change and real info about trumps low rate of payment of taxes since the 90s and they will have to ask permission from some government committee can we moderate this content and block users who post spam,?
If we make a few random mistakes we will lose our section 230 protection and be at risk of expensive lawsuits from anyone
Section 230 protects Conservatives and liberals
and ordinary users who just want to comment on local news or post a meme on reddit
Any new laws that restrict moderation will effect all websites that host comments or user content
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Re: Heard(Herd) Community?!
"Anyone wonder why they dont update the IRS."
Obvious, it's their Herd Mentality!
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Re: Heard(Herd) Community?!
It's also possible that some readers missed the second level on this joke, " a Twitter thread by Chris Herd, who is CEO of FirstbaseHQ,"
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Re: Re: Heard(Herd) Community?!
Oh, I hadn't Heard that.
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Swedish Borg
And here I thought the Borg were from Star Trek.
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Most of the content of this message
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Most of the content of this message
I'm going to take a completely wild guess here that most of the comments posted in this message come from authors apparently suffering from the TDS ailment.
Hopefully by 2024 there will be a cure for that.
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Re: Most of the content of this message
Is that your excuse for anything you disagree with, TDS?
I don't see anything in particular on this page, that would lead one to that conclusion.
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Huh. I thought it was "Ghandi is my weapons officer"!
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Borg Borg Borg.
Nope. Swedish.
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Re: Re: Heard(Herd) Community?!
Gary Larson nails it, https://i.imgur.com/xBuhnGw.jpg
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Trump Derangement Syndrome
Trump is going to move the United States forward the way King John ushered England into a Constitutional Monarchy by signing the Magna Carta, or the way Hitler invited the allies to come occupy Germany for a couple of generations.
So many individual facts point to Trump being delusional, a compulsive liar and having no empathy for others, that it seems delusional not to realize he's not only bad for the people of the US, but the presidency is bad for him.
Granted, Trump might be a useful idiot for other oligarchs and plutocrats trying to secure their power or destabilize the United States (and by extension US influence in the international community). And if you Paul Gratton Stout are one of those folk, or closely connected, only then can I assume you're not sorely mistaken.
But most of us here are not in that narrow margin of people who benefit from Trump's regime, nor those that are but don't sleep well knowing that. To suggest the rest of us somehow just don't get how brilliant Trump is raises the specter you might be completely delusional, Paul Gratton Stout, or maliciously trolling us. Do you like drinking liberal tears? Do you love it when the libcucks get owned?
But I'll give you the benefit of doubt that you haven't actually looked at circumstances in the US and have only exposed yourself to pro-regime propaganda. If FOX News is your only source of information, that might be a cause. Failure to actually research and look at multiple news reports to get the consistent facts can lead to some misconceptions.
But then, some people are terrified of learning they are wrong and will throw good loyalty after bad. It's one of the effects leading to attitude polarization.
In the meantime, feel free to attempt to prove me wrong and point to a policy of Trump's that might lead the United States once day toward greatness.
If he were to take some major steps to pull the US out of the global epidemic, out of the peonage state, out of the fascist police state, out of the looming runaway climate crisis, any one of those would be nice. But a truly great leader of the nation would manage all these problems, and we the people should expect no less from our elected representatives.
So far all I've heard from Donald J. Trump's public statements is that these issues aren't real, that we should blame China, not Trump, and that Trump takes no responsibility whatsoever. Oh and maybe they'll go away on their own (without people dying by the hundreds of thousands).
If you think I'm misread you, Paul Gratton Stout, feel free to explain yourself, but as I am skeptical and have little patience, don't expect to get any respect by bullshitting. Already, I suspect you're just a malignant troll desperate for a sense of identity and embittered you can't find it on the internet.
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Re: Most of the content of this message
How's that Manafort defense fund coming along bro? You guys any closer to arresting Hilary yet?
If you still haven't delivered on that crucial campaign promise... then what the fuck are you doing here?
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Re: Re: Most of the content of this message
Nevermind that campaign promise unless I missed one I'm not sure he's actually delivered on any of them.
He didn't 'lock her up'.
He didn't 'build that wall'.
He sure as hell didn't 'drain the swamp'.
While Trump's GOP is giving it another last-minute go he didn't manage to 'get rid of Obamacare'.
If I was masochistic enough to want to have anything to do with his cultists it might be interesting to find out exactly what they think he's done to 'make america great again', because unless the standard for that includes among other things 'botched a pandemic to the tune of two hundred plus thousand dead and counting' I'm not seeing anything that I'd want to boast about, though that might be due to my standards, namely the fact that I have some.
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Re: Most of the content of this message
[Projects facts not in evidence]
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Re: Re: Re: Most of the content of this message
If you are part of the 1%, Trump has done quite a bit to make America great again, by removing many of those pesky regulation that protect the environment and people, and therefore increasing corporate profits by eliminating a cost.That everybody else will have to pay because of the health hazards of pollution and global warming is a trivial side effect of de-regulation, and of no great concern to the oligarchs.
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Re: Most of the content of this message
Oh by 2024 you'll all be cured of the brainworms that caused the derangement that lead you to support Trump, just like you pretended to be cured of them after Bush. 'Trump? We never supported Trump! We on the right were all calm and rational, and were every bit as critical of his hateful policies as everyone else!'
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Re: Re: Most of the content of this message
And anyway, his daughter/son/-in-law is so much more trustworthy.
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Re:
You gave Ghandi nuclear weapons? We're screwed.
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Re: Re: Most of the content of this message
Point to a few that are debatable.
you should look at the list of persons he has pardoned before you continue.
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Re: Re:Ghandi
Ghandi's back, and he's kickin' butt, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ega5Rcct2s
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Part of the 1%
It's actually 0.1% and by 2020 it might be 0.01%.
Essentially, if you personally know a billionaire (and talk to him frequently), or a billionaire is your relative, then you're not on the purge list.
But if neither of these are true, you may be way down near the bottom of the purge list, but after the Communists and Trade Unionists and Jews (and...and...) they'll be coming for you and packing you on the cattle trains with the rest of us.
So I'm curious, how many of us on TechDirt forums, including the trolls are not on the list.
I bet none of them. I bet they're all distant enough from Putin to be expendable. And expend they will.
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Re: Trump Derangement Syndrome
Heh... After reading your overly long missive, I see I hit a nerve.
TDS indeed.
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Hitting a nerve
If you look at my history of posts, I'm verbose. I'm writing for more of an audience than just you. Hence the links to contextual topics.
But now I get to assume that your intent was not to engage in good faith but to hit nerves. You just graduated from ignorance to stupidity right up to malice.
Good job.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Most of the content of this message
I get that, if you're rich odds are he's been great for your bank account, I just wonder what the average cultist would be willing to admit that he's done for them given all the failed promises and massive pile of corpses.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Most of the content of this message
The thing is, the tax cuts where beneficial for the lower income brackets - but it was great for the rich and ridiculously so for corporations and which meant the disparity in wealth increased more rapidly.
The problem is that from an economic standpoint for those in the lower income brackets, the tax cuts only benefit them in the short run.
You do have to wonder though, where all the money will come from to fill the rather large gaping hole called the National debt, which is getting bigger at an alarming rate.
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'That sounds like a problem for someone else.'
Well gutting social safety nets seems to be a popular way to 'save' money for the GOP, I imagine they'll try that a few (dozen) times whenever they're in power, and if a democrat makes it to office it will be treated as entirely their fault and used as an excuse for why you need fiscally conservative republicans in office.
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