Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
from the threaded-thoughts dept
We've got a double winner this week, with a comment from Bloof taking the first place spot for insightful and the second place spot for funny. It's a pretty comprehensive response to the allegations of fraud in the 2020 election:
Voter fraud that only happened in the parts of the ballots and the states that went against Trump, not the house and senate races where an unassailable democratic majority would be incredibly useful, only the top ticket featuring a massively unpopular republican candidate. Voter fraud so cunning that it only happened in cities filled with minorities among whom Trump is about as beloved as porcupine skin toilet paper. Voter fraud so cunning it somehow managed to happen in places where republicans controlled the elections. Voter fraud so cunning the Trump team have been unable to present any evidence of it whatsoever and had their legal teams back down the moment any judged asked them for actual proof because they don't fancy parroting the same lies they vomit on TV in a place where there'll be consequences for lying. Voter fraud so cunning that republican donors are suing the groups they funded that claimed they're able to prove it happened, for not being, in fact, able to prove anything. Voter fraud so cunning even the most hyper partisan right wing 'news' outlets like Fox and Newsmax issued on multiple on air retractions the moment the election machine companies got the lawyers involved because their stories were based on 4chan posts and the say so of the son of the guy who runs notorious pedophile and Qanon hangout, 8kun.
They have no evidence, there is no evidence, it did not happen and screaming and committing acts of terrorism will not make your far right fever dreams of fraud and persecution into a reality. They had ample opportunity to present evidence in front of friendly TV hosts like Tucker Carlson, as well as judge after judge after judge, some of which were appointed by Trump himself and they showed nothing and their cases were rejected every single time.
It is clear to everyone with even a lick of common sense that the people parroting these lies are so full of sh*t even the Trump gutted EPA would consider them for a potential superfund site.
In second place on the insightful side, it's Stephen T. Stone with a response to Josh Hawley freaking out about his publisher dropping his book:
A reminder for those who need it
Ah, I get to break this out for the first time in 2021:
Moderation is a platform/service owner or operator saying “we don’t do that here”. Personal discretion is an individual telling themselves “I won’t do that here”. Editorial discretion is an editor saying “we won’t print that here”, either to themselves or to a writer. Censorship is someone saying “you won’t do that anywhere” alongside threats or actions meant to suppress speech.
For editor's choice on the insightful side, we've got a pair of comments from That One Guy. First, it's a response to tiresome attempts to equate this week's events with the summer's protests:
GIve me a minute, I'm sure it'll come to me
Let's see, protests against police brutality and a legal system that treats certain people as second class citizens, versus a 'protest' against the fact that the 'wrong' person won an election that involved an attempted insurrection to overthrow the democratic process, there's something different between these two but I just can't place my finger on it...
Next, it's a comment expanding on the point that Section 230 protects both big and small sites:
'Their pocket-change is your entire site's budget'
Not just protects big and small, it protects small businesses way more than it protects big ones. Gut 230 and Facebook will have some extra expenses to deal with but they've got the resources to do so, whereas smaller companies that might compete with them, either now or in the future are going to be screwed as they lack the needed resources and are forced into the position of either crippling themselves if not shutting down entirely.
It's the ultimate irony that when dealing with the people attacking 230 the companies they like to hold up as boogiemen and justifications to gut the law are the very ones that stand to gain the most by it's removal.
Over on the funny side, our first place winner is Thad with a comment on our post about how easy it will be to identify insurrectionists thanks to them posting all their activities on social media. The comment comes in the form of a link to a frame from The Simpsons, so I'll replace it with the image itself:
We've already had our second place winner above, so it's on to the editor's choice and a comment from Crafty Coyote about a circuit diagram being spread with claims that it's a 5G chip inserted in the COVID vaccine, but which turned out to be schematics for a guitar pedal:
So if the implanting chip really is just the schematics for a guitar pedal, does that mean we'll be getting The Cure when we get the cure?
Next, it's an anonymous comment about CERN's new open data policy:
This is a disaster! How will scientists be motivated to collect data if their great-grandchildren can't cash in on the copyrights? How will they pay for their supercolliders, supercomputers, and vacation homes? How can they keep individuals from inferior races from doing science also?
And just imagine, some of the data might be chanted by a rapper without attribution. Or used to remote-control a John Deere tractor.
Stand up and stop the madness! Send your anti-proton to CERN now!
That's all for this week, folks!
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The most dastardly form of cheating
Well of course Trump and his cult can't find any evidence of voter fraud, Biden did the unthinkable and stole the election in the most heinous and underhanded way possible: He won it legitimately.
It's the best form of cheating because it provides no evidence for the other side to present, leaving them with no options but gnashing their teeth, throwing infantile tantrums, undermining trust in the democratic system through lies and apparently instigating failed insurrections.
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Re: The most dastardly form of cheating
It had to be cheating since there's no way Trump could lose legitimately. He said it himself countless times so it must be true. If Trump lost it could only be due to Democrats cheating in some imaginary way.
I'm convinced that anyone who still can support that moron after everything he has said and done are themselves morons. If they're in office then they need to be removed. We should require IQ tests with minimum requirements for all elected officials. All, any side of the aisle.
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a plan so cunning you can put a tail on it and call it a weasel
You think COVID is about a virus?
COVID - Change Of Votes, Installing Democrats
What do you think all those 5G towers are REALLY doing near voting booths?
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The ironic thing is weakening section 230 makes facebook / google stronger,
it will reduce competition from startups who cannot afford dozens of lawyers and 1000,s of moderators .
if section 230 is gone, small websites may be forced to shut down the
comments section and ban user uploads, of simple images, or memes ,
simply to avoid expensive lawsuits
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Re: Re: The most dastardly form of cheating
Hmmm,
Cheating?
How could/would he know?
I wonder?
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Mind blown.
Oh man. I totally approve of this message.
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As to..
230 is interesting in 1 Point.
What to replace it with.
As to what happened in the past. Where 1 Judge said they Should NOT censor Anything, and another Suggested They NEEDED to censor everything.
Which would you prefer?
I would love the stand that Anything posted Must stay, and then watch then fight out the Piracy issue. Youtube Would love this, they could get rid of Thousands of monitors.
backpage could come back.
But the Amounts of Spam and raw language would abound.
We need to find a better picture of WHY they dont want 230. It just dont mean much if we already have the answer, that they wish to go after Bigger fish with more money. Holding Google responsible for what Youtube does, or Holding the Major internet corps(not the ISP(???)) for anything on their servers, even tho they had/have no control over what a Purchaser of service LETS appear on their part of hte net.
Could we tack it all back to the Tier 1, section of the net and take the ISP to court, and forget everything in the middle?? Just cause Johnny blow, a 10 year old called you grandma a whore?
As to Cern.
How many scientists OWN anything they have done, while working for a corp? They dont own anything, after someone Else pays them money for their service.
Summer protests.
There is a video about that, a few even.
Comparing what happened in D.C. to the Other protests around the nation in the last 4 years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb3OLGZrLxE
very strange.
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Re: As to..
If they are in academia, they usually own their own research, otherwise they could not move between institutions as their careers advance without changing their research projects.
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Owning their own research
Feynman had a story about selling his research to the US Government for a dollar (a formality at the time) but when he asked for the actual dollar, it caused considerable consternation in budgeting, as there was no mechanism to actually pay scientists for their patents.
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Re: a plan so cunning you can put a tail on it and call it a wea
Providing decent cell phone coverage?
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Decent coverage
I've heard not much better than 4G. Certainly not enough to change phones or plans.
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Re: Re: As to..
Good comment, but working at BK, and trying to be a scientist? Then you do create something and a Corp walks over and TRIES to buy it from you, but you are an honest man and wont sell? THEN they wait until you die and steal it. Or pay your family, because they didnt have enough to bury you.
OK, I get it.
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How did "I Have Been Silenced!" do?
Hey Leigh, I wanna know, how did this comment of mine rank as far as funniest and most insightful of the week go?
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Gee, how very con-CERN-ing.
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