The Pillow Dude's 'Free Speech' Social Media Website Will Moderate 'Swear Words' Because Of Course It Will
from the everyone-moderates dept
It seems like every few months a new social media app comes on the scene, promising to be the "free speech" social media app that says it won't "censor" (by which they mean moderate) anything. And those of us who have been in this space for more than two seconds laugh. Because every single internet service that allows third party speech sooner or later realizes that moderation is not optional -- it's necessary to keep any site running. At a basic level, it starts with spam. Leaving up spam makes a site unusable. After that, there are things that you are legally required to remove, including child sexual abuse material and (in some cases) copyright infringing material.
Sooner or later, though, every such site realizes that it has to go through the content moderation learning curve. That doesn't mean they all need to follow the same rules or do the same thing, but they do need to recognize that content moderation questions are always there. This includes things like "how do you deal with abuse and harassment" and just generally how do you deal with trolls who are clearly up to no good. There are many different approaches to this, but insisting that you're the "free speech" site that will "do nothing" is not a realistic statement. It's one that demonstrates ignorance.
Enter the MyPillow dude, Mike Lindell. Last month Lindell announced that he was building his own social media site, with a tagline "voices of free speech." I'm not even sure what that means. He insisted that people will have "10 times more followers" on his janky platform, and that Twitter and Google will "be a thing of the past," which shows a bit of bravado, I guess.
Mike Lindell announces that he'll be unveiling a new social media platform within two weeks that will put both Twitter and YouTube out of business. pic.twitter.com/PsDuBOWd5H
— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) March 11, 2021
Of course, the "free speech" part of his "voices of free speech" is apparently a lot more limited than is implied. Lindell has now announced that "the four swear words" will not be allowed. There are just four?
“You don’t get to use the four swear words: the c-word, the n-word, the f-word, or God’s name in vain,” Lindell says in the video.
Huh. So, I'm not even convinced which "c-word" is being used here, and I note that "the s-word" is apparently allowed? From what was said it sounds like Lindell and whatever programmer he's pulled into this wacky scheme have implemented a lame keyword filter, which anyone who has done work in content moderation will tell you does not work nearly as well as people expect it to. People who want to use that words will quickly find alternatives, g-d dammit. I mean, f0ck, who doesn't know that s#it?
Anyway, this has all the hallmarks of yet another social media train wreck, but I look forward to Lindell and Trump fighting it out for users of their new social networks, when they're not in court relying on Section 230 to protect them from legal liability of whatever crazy things their users are posting.
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Filed Under: content moderation, free speech, mike lindell, social media, swear words
Companies: frank, mypillow
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Swear words: Prejudice against vernacular used by "undesirable individuals" especially if they are different from you.
Also, using gods name in vain is condemning god or using god's name for evil purposes like the uber common practice of using religion to manipulate people, not hyperbolically saying god should condemn toe stubbing because you stubbed your toe.
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The c-word
Surely the banned c-word is charisma-uniqueness-nerve-talent?
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I really think Mr. Lindell should be focusing in on dealing with the $1.3 billion lawsuit against him rather than wasting his money on websites.
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Heh, be interesting to see what happens the first time someone comments that they like visiting Scunthorpe. AKA "The Scunthorpe problem" which just took me down an amusing Wikipedia rabbit hole. Think I'll register an account with the username "Scunthorpe Cockburn" and see how far I get.
Also which god are you not allowed to take in vain? Humanity has come up with so many over the millennia. Zeus? Odin? Flying Spaghetti Monster? or could I get away with "Cheeses H FCUKing K-Riced, that ludicrous." ?
I suspect that in the first two weeks most sign ups will be people curious to see what the limits are before the user base is inevitably taken over by crypto spam bots, bikini porn ads and a few clueless right wing uncles gently bouncing off each other in the comments wondering when Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley and DJT will create verified accounts?
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Swears
Man, now it's just going to be a game to see who can find the best way to swear. Once it's online I'll be posting every day after Monday. So once it's up I'll see you next Tuesday.
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I wonder if they allow links to, hmm, I dunno...Techdirt? :D
I think I know what my first post there will be.
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Mike Lindell: “My social media service will protect free speech of all kinds!”
Also Mike Lindell: “…except for this speech that I don’t like because fuck you.”
Dude has a right to moderate his service however he wants, don’t get me wrong. But every time I hear someone like him go on about starting a “true free speech service”, I always wait for the other pillow to drop. Because it always will.
(Oh, and as for the wordfilters? Assuming the site can parse Unicode, a zero-width space would likely be enough to get obscenities past the filter…and leave an admin scratching their heads.)
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That right there is priceless! Do keep us informed of your adventures, please.
They won't be able to, because AC (immediately above) and others of like mind will beat the "real" ones to the punch. Often and repeatedly, ad finitum. Hell, I'm tempted to sign up as "TheRealJoshHawley'sMentor", but I don't want to step on CJ Robert's toes. He might be even funnier than I could ever be, who knows.
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Nothing says free speak quite like have more restrictive swear word rules than the websites you are trying to compete with.
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Re:
*speech
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Re: The c-word
And there was I thinking is was "commonly unwelcome nautical terminology".
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Four words?
I would have thought the four banned words would be 'We lost the election"
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“You don’t get to use the four swear words: the c-word, the n-word, the f-word, or God’s name in vain,” Lindell says in the video.
Someone's got to tell him there's 7 - and for christ's sake, "goddamn" isn't one of them.
But I do think it's really nice of him to turn it into a game for us. These people never learn.
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What's he going to call it?
Pillow talk?
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Four words?
Even Carlin could come up with seven.
(Well, six. "Motherfucker" is redundant, but necessary for the rhythm of the routine; it just rolls off the tongue after "cocksucker".)
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyBH5oNQOS0
God/jesus? thats 2, not one.
AND YES, we found ways to say things they cant EDIT, Except. When they do it has some strange consequences.
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/58036/50-words-sound-rude-actually-arent
I like these English versions:
https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~biglou/resources/bad-words.txt
Then:
https://www.babbel.com/en/mag azine/best-curse-words-in-other-languages
Slang and alt language.
https://www.afar.com/magazine/10-english-words-with-unfortunate-meanings-in-other-language s
Then SCIENCE:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dirty-science-words_n_5529731
Alternatives
https://www.tenne ssean.com/story/life/entertainment/12th/2019/07/19/50-curse-words-alternatives/1673915001/
God knows what?
https://www.bustle.com/articles/81192-20-innocent-words-that-sound-dirty-and-will-make-you-gig gle-like-a-5-year-old-no-matter
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Original
The original purpose of content moderation was to eliminate obscenity, and not to control people's beliefs. It's good to see someone living up to the original purpose, and demonstrating that moderation doesn't need to violate people's ability to speak freely.
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Re: Original
That's one hell of a ball of assertions right there.
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Re: Original
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Re: Original
"The original purpose of content moderation was to eliminate obscenity not to control people's beliefs"
Exactly.. Then we found out it's Potato potawto since one mans obscenity is another's belief.. Do we really need to go through it all again
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God, that Scunthorpe Problem...
The list seems very arbitrary, and is either using the jankiest of janky word filters, or is going to be a moderation nightmare.
Not only is there the Scunthorpe problem, but how does one distinguish between legitimate invocations of God versus those in vain? Just like how copyright filters would require an army of judges, this would require a Sanhedrin!
Also, this probably is, on record, the first "free speech" platform that bans the use of the n-word.
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Re: Original
"There is no such thing as bad language...We are adults. These are the words we use to express frustration, rage, anger. In order that we don't pick up a tire iron to beat the shit out each other." - Lewis Black
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Thou shalt not take thy lord's name in vain?
It's okay, really it is. Lord Fruitbatten is a righteous dude, but a bit of a schmuck some times, y'know? He's told us to correct him when he does that.
Oh, you meant YOUR lord? I didn't even know you were in the feudal system!
... what?
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Re: Original
Yet, if someone posts "For goodness sake, people, the election wasn't stolen, it was honestly lost by DJT. Here's the proof ..." I strongly suspect it will disappear like it was never posted. Either that or a virtual lynch mod will descend to run the miscreant poster out of town.
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Re: Original
Which means almost nothing the Drumpf blabbed on about would have been permissible on this platform. Impressive.
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OK so this guy says he'll have more than TWO BILLION USERS.
I wonder if I could invest in his scheme, maybe $10.
Then when he fails spectacularly to gain his 2 billion and 1st user, sue him for hundreds of millions of dollars in promised ad revenue?
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I noted one word missing.
So we need to spam quote Trump on every post.
"I just grab them by the pussy. They let you do that when your famous." - Donald J. Trump
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Re: Original
It was to allow removal of comments from people like you who think they can force their words into all forums.
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Re:
Or get your name on a list of radicals in the USA??
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Re: Original
90% of moderation is keeping spam out.
The rest tends to be keeping the Language hospitable.
Using words people Dont get upset about.
The problem tends to be that Last part, and what OTHERS consider hospitable.
Cause in his Ideal, I could call him a hemorrhoidal symptom, and get away with it.
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Is it live yet?
It's been over two weeks from the announcement...Is this "revolutionary" platform up and running yet?
Doing a search for VOCL on 4 major search engines just finds news articles about it, but no site. I'm going to call vaporware on this one. With his history with the FTC he needs to be careful...
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Re: Original
You can point to nowhere where moderation was used "to control people's beliefs."
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It's amazing how many misread that commandment.
It simply and directly says
"Though shalt not TAKE God's name in vain."
That means, of course:
"Don't claim to be a Jew or Christian and fail to live up to it."
Sadly, it comes as no surprise that the same folks who read that wrong also are the ones who break that simple rule. ; ]
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Moderation, by default and design, will always “violate people’s ability to speak freely”. The thing you don’t get? Moderation only applies to a given service/site/property/community. It can’t prevent someone kicked off Twitter or booted out of Walmart from speaking their mind in general.
Moderation doesn’t violate your civil rights, Koby. You’ve been told so a hundred times. Stop being intentionally ignorant and start acting like you believe in something other than your precious fee-fees.
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You may wish to refine that search. According to Lindell, his service will now be called “Frank”.
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Re: Original
Since exactly when did 'goddamn' become obscenity?
Because goddamnit! I want my freedom to say 'goddamn this' or 'goddamn whatever the hell I want.'
Goddamnit, why are you defending this hypocritical self-righteous crackhead who would happily trod over my goddamn rights?
Assuming this reply is obscene, MIke would be legally required to remove it, as obscenity is not protected by the first amendment, goddamnit. Let's see how your shitty theory plays out.
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Creating yet another site advertising to white-wingers that they're the "free speech" platform, then declaring the n-word more worthy of being censored than the s-word or h-e-double-hockey-sticks? Bold strategy Cotton, let's see how it works out for 'em.
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Cocaine... its a hell of a drug dot gif
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Re:
Ahh...Thanks..Looks like it has a cloudflare front on it.
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Re: Re: Original
There aren't any words that people don't get upset about for copyright's sake. It's all trumping contextual. Spammers will get upset that you call their stuff spam. If you are on a recipe forum, people will get upset that you bring up video games or politics or anything else. Some people will have a knee jerk and be swatting offended just any time they see certain words based on their prior experience..
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Re:
He has talked about moving to South Dakota before...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/18/us/south-dakota-meth.html
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Know your audence man...
I mean I knew the guy was delusional after listening to GAM reviews of his 'films' but damn, the kind of people looking for 'alternative' social media platforms after being kicked off the civilized ones are going to see those 'rules' are a fun little challenge and will be throwing fits should the rules ever actually be applied to them, so good job covering yourself in blood and jumping in shark infested waters man.
That said I do find it funny to see yet another example of how fragile the feelings of the 'fuck your feelings' crowd are, how very quickly they go from 'if you don't like it then don't listen' to 'how dare you offend my sensibilities?!'
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Re:
I imagine he plans to use the website to draw in suckers to pay for said lawsuit.
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Re: Know your audence man...
Hey, this forum sucks, it's is full of asshole trolls.. I wanted a platform where only I was allowed to be an asshole troll and everyone else was forced to be civil and put up with it
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Re: Original
Well shit, that's fucking awesome!
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Re: Re:
Probably.
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Re: Original
Except he's planning to censor blasphemy, that's a textbook case of trying to control people's beliefs and violating people's ability to speak freely.
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Mike Lindell is an f-wording c-word.
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Re:
This guy seems like a right cvnt.
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Re: Re: Original
"You can point to nowhere where moderation was used "to control people's beliefs.""
LMAO..
FDROFL.
Please kill me, I cant stop laughing.
Please god, Please Stop me.
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Re: Original
You are trying to hard.
Quit.
Really, there are people out there, that can not Talk in ways that you MAY like. You can not supply a PERFECT forum of discussion.
Its the thought, that even a Dumb person can have good ideas, Just not be able to express it in a way YOU can understand.
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God's name in vain
Whose God; Yours or mine?
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Re:
"Also, using gods name in vain is condemning god or using god's name for evil purposes..."
Which god?
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Related query: Which f-word? The answer would likely reveal more than I think Lindell would want to let on.
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Re: Re:
The one which provided capital C Commandments and has an issue with people using "his" name - all name of which are actally titles and descriptors because He Is The One Who Shall Not Be Named. (Literally.)
That one.
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Re:
Sadly, he's making the right call. Him and his friends are probably going to face non-zero consequences in those lawsuits, so they have to grift as much as possible to pay the resulting bills.
What better way to grift in today's climate than getting right-wingers to support a "free speech" site that expressly bans free speech?
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Re:
"Heh, be interesting to see what happens the first time someone comments that they like visiting Scunthorpe."
I somehow think that the Venn diagram of the target audience and people who have ever been outside of the US looks like this: O O. So, unlikely, even if someone were to unironically say something positive about Scunthorpe ,)
"Also which god are you not allowed to take in vain?"
That was actually my first thought, although of course we all know the answer. But, he knows his target audience - right-wing morons with a persecution complex who don't mind losing free speech rights so long as their religion is OK.
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Re:
"But every time I hear someone like him go on about starting a “true free speech service”, I always wait for the other pillow to drop"
When these people say "free speech", they mean consequence free speech, but only for them. Speech they don't personally like is to be censored at will. They never seem to understand why people who disagree with them don't see it their way.
"(Oh, and as for the wordfilters? Assuming the site can parse Unicode, a zero-width space would likely be enough to get obscenities past the filter…and leave an admin scratching their heads.)"
I'm sure that some people are going to find it very entertaining educating them about how flawed their system is...
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Re: Re: Original
"Here's the proof ..."
The last part confuses them, they're not used to real evidence being presented.
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Re: Original
"moderation doesn't need to violate people's ability to speak freely."
It doesn't and cannot. But, you know this you disingenuous twat.
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Still not as deliciously ironic as Parler, which started by censoring the people who laughed at their promise not to censor anything.
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Re:
Well, right-wingers' two most-hated concepts, as shown by their actions and policies, are "constitution" and "freedom."
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Re: Four words?
"I would have thought the four banned words would be 'We lost the election""
Yeah, but give it time. The man's a trump sycophant. He's going to need to learn to spell those words properly before he can get the filter to weed them out.
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swearing as a fucking god given right
Ricky: Look, I can't speak without swearing, and I've only got my grade 10, and I haven't had a cigarette since I've been arrested, I'm ready to fuckin' snap. So I'd like to make a request under the people's freedom of choices and voices act that I be able to smoke and swear in your courtroom. Because if I can't smoke and swear, I'm fucked. And so are all these guys. I won't be able to properly express myself at a court level, and that's bullshit. It's not fair and if you ask me, I think it's a fuckin' miss draw.
Prosecutor: This man can't represent anyone! Your Honor! He's a complete and total idiot!
Judge: Now although I am opposed to that kind of language in my courtroom, I'm going to allow it, as unfortunately it is part of your right to a fair trial. So you may proceed, but please, I want to remind you that this is not a carnival. Richard, you have permission to smoke and swear.
Ricky: Thank you. I just gotta get some cigarettes, actually.
[Ricky walks over to the prosecutor's desk and snaps his fingers]
Ricky: Let's go, smokes!
Prosecutor: But I only got 2 left!
Ricky: I don't care. You've been a dick all morning. It's the least you can do for me!
Prosecutor: Oh, for the love of God.
[Several members of the prosecution start to light cigarettes]
Judge: Just the defendant, please.
Ricky: My first order of business is to tell the prosecutor to shut the fuck up and wipe that stupid fuckin' grin off his face because it's distraculating my case. Next I want to announce that Lahey and Randy have been drinkin' all fuckin' day, they're wasted out of their fuckin' minds and they're both assholes. And the testimony they gave was total fuckin' bullshit. I can prove it and show you what really fuckin' happened here.
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Hopefully this will mean the return of changes like clbuttic and buttbuttinate.
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Re:
But only if you play Buttbuttin's Creed first.
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Re: It's amazing how many misread that commandment.
It doesn't make much of a difference even if you are right. Those that "use" the name of the christian god for selfish purposes definitely don't "live up" to christians standards. Unless we're talking about "eye for an eye", slavery, death penalty... this kind of standards.
Definitely not the sections about tolerance, humility, "casting the first stone" and "chasing the money changers out the temple".
Their supposed "holy book" has tons of things, some good, some bad, some downright abhorrent (not even cleanly separated by old/new testament distinctions). And the most bigot and fanatic they are, the more they seem to follow the abhorrent parts and ignore the good ones. As they are now, I'm pretty sure that, should Jesus come back and preach the same as before, they would chase him out as a "commy", and possibly as a "witch" for good measure.
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Re: It's amazing how many misread that commandment.
Christian's didn't exist when the commandments were written. Jesus wasn't even born.
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Re: Original
The original purpose of content moderation was whatever the content moderators wanted it to be.
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Re: Re: Original
OR DIDNT.
That is what moderation IS.
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Re: Re:
He was a cocaine addict before he found jeebus & the magic pillow.
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Re: Re: It's amazing how many misread that commandment.
Yet, "Christians" keep trying to demand that the commandments are placed in government buildings in an attempt to show how Christian they are.
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Re: Re: Re:
Specifically crack, IIRC, and judging by his recent behaviour I have my doubts about that being in the past tense.
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Re: Re: Re:
Cthulhu? :o
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Re: Re: Re:
So just call him Voldemort.
Maybe we can even get him taken down by the HP publisher.
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Re: Re:
I was on a game once where they had *** out most of "Captain". Because obviously "ptain" is a bad word ;)
Luckily we could still play Arsearsein's Creed...
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Frank
It's up and it's not. It's playing videos in a loop.🤣🤣🤣🤣
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