Hamas has graduated from terrorist group to political faction that sometimes uses terrorist methods. And while it has plenty of policies that I don't like, it gives a modicum of representation to peoples that are regarded as non-persons by the international community, especially those who are allies to Israel.
Hamas has a military wing. The US engages in drone strikes and targeted killings which remain without question in the realm of terrorism and may have a higher civilian casualty count than Hamas (The Afghanistan drone strike campaign averaged 40,000 civilian deaths a year. But it's ebbing and the Pakistanian program is in full swing. I don't have any numbers for Hamas.)
And the US Federal government is teeming with MAGA and QAnon adherents who hold and base policy on counterfactual claims.
That's been an argument for some time, and it's one I never got. Of course black people can be racist, but it doesn't justify racism against them.
In the LGBT+ community bisexuals have been given short shrift for decades because of the political identity aspect. Prejudiced straights think they're gay. Prejudiced gays think they're traitors. But it's entirely possible to simultaneously like the D and the V, and to love the people to whom they're attached regardless of which they got.
There are assholes amongst all folk of all types. And we're not asking that any group or identity be adored, just treated as the same mud apes as the rest of us. Women too.
I grew up in a Wonderbread suburban community in the seventies. In a school district of thousands of students, we had a few brown people. The rest were pasty-faced whites like me.
And the churches were at each others' throats. The Episcopalians hated the Methodists who hated the Lutherans. Society still segregated by religion and class.
Oh, our 21st century Christian ministers pretend there's a united front today, but they still hate less-radicalized faiths and the Catholics. But yeah, they publicly rather throw shade at New Atheists and secularists, now that they are organized movements.
(In the seventies, only academics and scientists really thought about and embraced naturalism. They weren't much of a threat. Also all the television evangelists were still lechers coming out regularly with sex scandals.)
But the conservatives who act on their gut will always be dissatisfied with a society larger than a band of fifty. They'll always be looking to reduce the Other Guys to an underclass. And, it seems, some of them will never get over the fact we live in a society of hundreds of millions, and there are great benefits to doing that which they enjoy.
But if you do insist on weeding out the weeklings, smashing their windows and kicking in their doors then you'll find the next civilization which does learn how to get along will conquer yours, and make you their underclass.
...Or would if we weren't expecting a blue ocean event in the mid 2030s.
Remember 80 million is how many voted against Trump. And it's not like there are other coalitions that have been silenced for decades if not centuries.
The federal government has long had opportunities to take steps to better serve the public and has failed mostly because anyone who gets into power is short-sighted and refuses to yield any of their own power for the benefit of the public.
And when I complain we're going to need violence to change that, this is why. Getting the right guy in office is impossible with the current system. These are irrecoverable faults.
I never read Mein Kamf. I never had easy access to it and I heard it's a tedious, laborious read anyway.
My impression was Hitler liked the glory days of monarchy and feudal hierarchies out of a sense of Wagnerian aesthetics. Also he couldn't imagine not being on the top of such a structure, despite having once lived homeless in Vienna.
The reason we don't do monarchy is we can't trust the next heir to rule wisely and judiciously, and one jerk or even one unskilled administrator (one John of England, or one Caligula or one Joffrey) can roll back centuries of progress.
To quote Sideshow Bob, Your guilty conscience may force you to vote Democratic, but deep down inside, you secretly long for a cold-hearted Republican to lower taxes, brutalize criminals and rule you like a king!
Oh I can assure you that I do not believe in God. And doubly so for the Abrahamic mythology. Heck the notion that the universe is but Azathoth's dream is more credible than the overworked, mistranslated mess that is 21st century Christianity (and its ~40,000 schisms).
I am not Christian nor claim to be. But having a solid grasp on truth based on evidence is way more important to me than adhering to comforting fables based on credulity and faith.
As I've noted regarding the allegiance to Trump of Christian voters in contrast to the national average, Christians are eager to see sin and waggle their fingers at other people. They give themselves and each other a mulligan.
Not all Christians are this way, but enough of them are that the Supreme Court of the United States is now skewed to exalt institutions over people, and to confine women and LGBT+ to an underclass.
So I am entirely unimpressed with Christianity as a source of moral compass. I'll keep my own council as what is right and wrong, and self awareness enough to know I'm still just an ape acting more on instinct than rationality. We all are.
Don't be a sucker, and don't rely on the wrath of some angry all-father to drive you to social propriety. Do right for right's sake, because doing so has material benefit for all.
Start here. I'm sure this rabbit hole goes further than you want to dig.
Your turn. Show me the goods regarding Joe and Hunter Biden.
PS: Biden's not my guy. I know he's old establishment. But like Clinton his corruption is less by orders of magnitude than Trump ever was, and we knew this in 2016.
Yesterday's word of the day was premeditation. Also the Parler videos with GPS tags in or near the raid (time and place) are now accessible to the public.
It's looking less and less like a protest and more like a coup d'etat with every hour.
Video is being shared about people getting surprised in airports and on planes because they've been no-fly'd, in some cases because their faces have been identified on video during the Capitol raid on January 6th.
So some of them already are on a no-fly list. Though I can't say it's the no fly list.
That one, which has long had no accountability, no means to check a no-fly status, and no means to challenge that status (including court orders which have been repeatedly ignored) should be disbanded anyway.
It's mostly full of Muslims that some white supremacists put on there for the lulz anyway.
a) If you have to withhold basic necessities to get your people to work, you're doing it wrong (and they will piss in your soup and knife you in the dark). And...
b) A well fed, warmly dressed, safely sheltered people will gladly work and pay their taxes (Roman senators mocked the plebes and slaves for needing only bread and circuses and not having the sophisticated delicate tastes of aristocrats.) Your feudal lords could have totally kept their position if they just could remember the serfs are human beings too, and need care.
Your shadowy plutocratic masters have had capitalists telling them all this time (for decades) they should take better care of the peons, and if they only would, they'd continue to serve with little complaint. But no. Your upper management decided greed is good, that short-term profits and golden parachutes were more important than a sustainable labor force. So your puppetmasters totally fucked up their own paradise.
And anyone who does laze about like a slug, even when they're adequately sorted probably suffers from depression And the US has entirely shit the bed when it comes to managing mental health. Now the whole nation is a madhouse.
Amazon has filed a response (pdf) to the Parler suit noting over a hundred posts of incitement and intended violence that were not removed by Parler in a timely manner, fueling the compulsion for AWS to act.
And I brought the examples here for your edification, if anyone wants to argue any of these are appropriate political discourse for a public setting (editing theirs):
-~-~- -~-~- -~-~-
Fry’em up. The whole fkn crew. #pelosi #aoc #thesquad #soros #gates #chuckschumer #hrc #obama #adamschiff #blm #antifa we are coming for you and you will know it.
#JackDorsey ... you will die a bloody death alongside Mark Suckerturd [Zuckerberg].... It has been decided and plans are being put in place. Remember the photographs inside your home while you slept? Yes, that close. You will die a sudden death!
We are going to fight in a civil War on Jan.20th, Form MILITIAS now and acquire targets.
On January 20th we need to start systematicly [sic] assassinating [sic] #liberal leaders, liberal activists, #blm leaders and supporters, members of the #nba #nfl #mlb #nhl #mainstreammedia anchors and correspondents and #antifa. I already have a news worthy event planned.
Shoot the police that protect these shitbag senators right in the head then make the senator grovel a bit before capping they ass.
After the firing squads are done with the politicians the teachers are next.
Death to @zuckerberg @realjeffbezos @jackdorsey @pichai.
White people need to ignite their racial identity and rain down suffering and death like a hurricane upon zionists.
Put a target on these motherless trash [Antifa] they aren’t human taking one out would be like stepping on a roach no different.
We need to act like our forefathers did Kill [Black and Jewish people] all Leave no victims or survivors.
We are coming with our list we know where you live we know who you are and we are coming for you and it starts on the 6th civil war... Lol if you will think it’s a joke... Enjoy your last few days you have.
This bitch [Stacey Abrams] will be good target practice for our beginners.
This cu** [United States Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao] should be... hung for betraying their country.
Hang this mofo [Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger] today.
HANG THAt N***** ASAP
-~-~- -~-~- -~-~-
This level of edginess is typical for designated hate threads on /b and it's terrifying there are so many people desperate for it that /b isn't enough of a platform for it.
And yet my grandson's father was pressuring him to man-up(not cry, stuff his emotions) when he was four. We have a society in which men are super protective of their roles, and women don't want to share their spaces.
Abolish gender entirely and the whole transgender conversation becomes nearly moot. It's what we should have done in the 1970s. Instead, we have religious fanatics claiming it's a communist plot. And child abuse because toddlers aren't tough.
LGBT+ Is over 10% of the population and outnumbers us left-handed folk (and I am more than annoyed at the limited left-handed or ambidextrous offerings that free-market capitalism gives us). Transgendered persons (if 2% is correct) is more than the first-nation peoples in the United States, who are also terribly underserved.
And considering that power and recognition is only getting worse and floating to the wealthiest, the US is sucking more every day then you too will find yourself an underperson (or even an unperson) as time moves forward.
On the post: Parler Attempting to Come Back Online, Still Insisting The Site's Motivation Is 'Privacy' Despite Leaking Details On All Its Users
Re: Hamas has graduated from "Terrorist group"
Dangit, I submitted accidentally.
Between MAGA and Hamas, the former may actually be the greater terrorist threat.
On the post: Parler Attempting to Come Back Online, Still Insisting The Site's Motivation Is 'Privacy' Despite Leaking Details On All Its Users
Hamas has graduated from "Terrorist group"
Hamas has graduated from terrorist group to political faction that sometimes uses terrorist methods. And while it has plenty of policies that I don't like, it gives a modicum of representation to peoples that are regarded as non-persons by the international community, especially those who are allies to Israel.
Hamas has a military wing. The US engages in drone strikes and targeted killings which remain without question in the realm of terrorism and may have a higher civilian casualty count than Hamas (The Afghanistan drone strike campaign averaged 40,000 civilian deaths a year. But it's ebbing and the Pakistanian program is in full swing. I don't have any numbers for Hamas.)
And the US Federal government is teeming with MAGA and QAnon adherents who hold and base policy on counterfactual claims.
On the post: Parler's CEO Promises That When It Comes Back... It'll Moderate Content... With An Algorithm
"Black people can't be racist"
That's been an argument for some time, and it's one I never got. Of course black people can be racist, but it doesn't justify racism against them.
In the LGBT+ community bisexuals have been given short shrift for decades because of the political identity aspect. Prejudiced straights think they're gay. Prejudiced gays think they're traitors. But it's entirely possible to simultaneously like the D and the V, and to love the people to whom they're attached regardless of which they got.
There are assholes amongst all folk of all types. And we're not asking that any group or identity be adored, just treated as the same mud apes as the rest of us. Women too.
Is it possible to not privilege anyone?
On the post: Parler's CEO Promises That When It Comes Back... It'll Moderate Content... With An Algorithm
Bigotry never matters.
I grew up in a Wonderbread suburban community in the seventies. In a school district of thousands of students, we had a few brown people. The rest were pasty-faced whites like me.
And the churches were at each others' throats. The Episcopalians hated the Methodists who hated the Lutherans. Society still segregated by religion and class.
Oh, our 21st century Christian ministers pretend there's a united front today, but they still hate less-radicalized faiths and the Catholics. But yeah, they publicly rather throw shade at New Atheists and secularists, now that they are organized movements.
(In the seventies, only academics and scientists really thought about and embraced naturalism. They weren't much of a threat. Also all the television evangelists were still lechers coming out regularly with sex scandals.)
But the conservatives who act on their gut will always be dissatisfied with a society larger than a band of fifty. They'll always be looking to reduce the Other Guys to an underclass. And, it seems, some of them will never get over the fact we live in a society of hundreds of millions, and there are great benefits to doing that which they enjoy.
But if you do insist on weeding out the weeklings, smashing their windows and kicking in their doors then you'll find the next civilization which does learn how to get along will conquer yours, and make you their underclass.
...Or would if we weren't expecting a blue ocean event in the mid 2030s.
On the post: Parler's CEO Promises That When It Comes Back... It'll Moderate Content... With An Algorithm
A right to silence 80 million people
Remember 80 million is how many voted against Trump. And it's not like there are other coalitions that have been silenced for decades if not centuries.
The federal government has long had opportunities to take steps to better serve the public and has failed mostly because anyone who gets into power is short-sighted and refuses to yield any of their own power for the benefit of the public.
And when I complain we're going to need violence to change that, this is why. Getting the right guy in office is impossible with the current system. These are irrecoverable faults.
On the post: Parler's CEO Promises That When It Comes Back... It'll Moderate Content... With An Algorithm
"Some have learned no one gives a shit"
You mean like all the black communities who are still getting funneled into prisons and shot by law enforcement for the lulz?
Yeah, if the Boogaloo bois decide to insist on their civil war they'll find coalitions on the other NFA and ready to counter.
On the post: As Predicted: Parler Is Banning Users It Doesn't Like
"Parler was moderating incitement"
Quite the opposite, according to AWS' report in the current court case.
On the post: Everything Pundits Are Getting Wrong About This Current Moment In Content Moderation
Mein Kamf
I never read Mein Kamf. I never had easy access to it and I heard it's a tedious, laborious read anyway.
My impression was Hitler liked the glory days of monarchy and feudal hierarchies out of a sense of Wagnerian aesthetics. Also he couldn't imagine not being on the top of such a structure, despite having once lived homeless in Vienna.
The reason we don't do monarchy is we can't trust the next heir to rule wisely and judiciously, and one jerk or even one unskilled administrator (one John of England, or one Caligula or one Joffrey) can roll back centuries of progress.
To quote Sideshow Bob, Your guilty conscience may force you to vote Democratic, but deep down inside, you secretly long for a cold-hearted Republican to lower taxes, brutalize criminals and rule you like a king!
On the post: Everything Pundits Are Getting Wrong About This Current Moment In Content Moderation
Re: #nineteeneightyfour
This appears to be a Twitter rule regarding all numbers.
On the post: Everything Pundits Are Getting Wrong About This Current Moment In Content Moderation
#nineteeneightyfour
6. “Twitter won’t let you hashtag #1984”
No but Twitter totally lets us hashtag #nineteeneightyfour. When I refer to Orwell's novel (rather than the actual less-Orwellian year or the recent Wonder Woman movie) I spell it out anyway.
On the post: Parler's CEO Promises That When It Comes Back... It'll Moderate Content... With An Algorithm
SJWs that currently work for the tech companies
SJW is a job title now? How much does it pay? Where do I submit my résumé?
On the post: As Predicted: Parler Is Banning Users It Doesn't Like
"Be assured that you do not believe in God"
Oh I can assure you that I do not believe in God. And doubly so for the Abrahamic mythology. Heck the notion that the universe is but Azathoth's dream is more credible than the overworked, mistranslated mess that is 21st century Christianity (and its ~40,000 schisms).
I am not Christian nor claim to be. But having a solid grasp on truth based on evidence is way more important to me than adhering to comforting fables based on credulity and faith.
As I've noted regarding the allegiance to Trump of Christian voters in contrast to the national average, Christians are eager to see sin and waggle their fingers at other people. They give themselves and each other a mulligan.
Not all Christians are this way, but enough of them are that the Supreme Court of the United States is now skewed to exalt institutions over people, and to confine women and LGBT+ to an underclass.
So I am entirely unimpressed with Christianity as a source of moral compass. I'll keep my own council as what is right and wrong, and self awareness enough to know I'm still just an ape acting more on instinct than rationality. We all are.
Don't be a sucker, and don't rely on the wrath of some angry all-father to drive you to social propriety. Do right for right's sake, because doing so has material benefit for all.
On the post: As Predicted: Parler Is Banning Users It Doesn't Like
White House access via the DC Trump Hotel
Start here. I'm sure this rabbit hole goes further than you want to dig.
Your turn. Show me the goods regarding Joe and Hunter Biden.
PS: Biden's not my guy. I know he's old establishment. But like Clinton his corruption is less by orders of magnitude than Trump ever was, and we knew this in 2016.
You were played. We've all been played.
On the post: As Predicted: Parler Is Banning Users It Doesn't Like
Patience is paying off
Yesterday's word of the day was premeditation. Also the Parler videos with GPS tags in or near the raid (time and place) are now accessible to the public.
It's looking less and less like a protest and more like a coup d'etat with every hour.
📺🍿
On the post: More Bad Ideas: Congressional Rep Suggests Participants In The Attack On The Capitol Building Be Added To The No-Fly List
Meanwhile on Twitter
Video is being shared about people getting surprised in airports and on planes because they've been no-fly'd, in some cases because their faces have been identified on video during the Capitol raid on January 6th.
So some of them already are on a no-fly list. Though I can't say it's the no fly list.
That one, which has long had no accountability, no means to check a no-fly status, and no means to challenge that status (including court orders which have been repeatedly ignored) should be disbanded anyway.
It's mostly full of Muslims that some white supremacists put on there for the lulz anyway.
On the post: As Predicted: Parler Is Banning Users It Doesn't Like
[what] you deserve for being a lazy slug
a) If you have to withhold basic necessities to get your people to work, you're doing it wrong (and they will piss in your soup and knife you in the dark). And...
b) A well fed, warmly dressed, safely sheltered people will gladly work and pay their taxes (Roman senators mocked the plebes and slaves for needing only bread and circuses and not having the sophisticated delicate tastes of aristocrats.) Your feudal lords could have totally kept their position if they just could remember the serfs are human beings too, and need care.
Your shadowy plutocratic masters have had capitalists telling them all this time (for decades) they should take better care of the peons, and if they only would, they'd continue to serve with little complaint. But no. Your upper management decided greed is good, that short-term profits and golden parachutes were more important than a sustainable labor force. So your puppetmasters totally fucked up their own paradise.
And anyone who does laze about like a slug, even when they're adequately sorted probably suffers from depression And the US has entirely shit the bed when it comes to managing mental health. Now the whole nation is a madhouse.
On the post: As Predicted: Parler Is Banning Users It Doesn't Like
And now I brought them here.
Amazon has filed a response (pdf) to the Parler suit noting over a hundred posts of incitement and intended violence that were not removed by Parler in a timely manner, fueling the compulsion for AWS to act.
And I brought the examples here for your edification, if anyone wants to argue any of these are appropriate political discourse for a public setting (editing theirs):
-~-~- -~-~- -~-~-
Fry’em up. The whole fkn crew. #pelosi #aoc #thesquad #soros #gates #chuckschumer #hrc #obama #adamschiff #blm #antifa we are coming for you and you will know it.
#JackDorsey ... you will die a bloody death alongside Mark Suckerturd [Zuckerberg].... It has been decided and plans are being put in place. Remember the photographs inside your home while you slept? Yes, that close. You will die a sudden death!
We are going to fight in a civil War on Jan.20th, Form MILITIAS now and acquire targets.
On January 20th we need to start systematicly [sic] assassinating [sic] #liberal leaders, liberal activists, #blm leaders and supporters, members of the #nba #nfl #mlb #nhl #mainstreammedia anchors and correspondents and #antifa. I already have a news worthy event planned.
Shoot the police that protect these shitbag senators right in the head then make the senator grovel a bit before capping they ass.
After the firing squads are done with the politicians the teachers are next.
Death to @zuckerberg @realjeffbezos @jackdorsey @pichai.
White people need to ignite their racial identity and rain down suffering and death like a hurricane upon zionists.
Put a target on these motherless trash [Antifa] they aren’t human taking one out would be like stepping on a roach no different.
We need to act like our forefathers did Kill [Black and Jewish people] all Leave no victims or survivors.
We are coming with our list we know where you live we know who you are and we are coming for you and it starts on the 6th civil war... Lol if you will think it’s a joke... Enjoy your last few days you have.
This bitch [Stacey Abrams] will be good target practice for our beginners.
This cu** [United States Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao] should be... hung for betraying their country.
Hang this mofo [Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger] today.
HANG THAt N***** ASAP
-~-~- -~-~- -~-~-
This level of edginess is typical for designated hate threads on /b and it's terrifying there are so many people desperate for it that /b isn't enough of a platform for it.
On the post: Not Easy, Not Unreasonable, Not Censorship: The Decision To Ban Trump From Twitter
Writing on a gay wedding cake
💛🧡❤️️Klaus and Larry 4Evar!❤️️💜💙
On the post: Irony: German Chancellor Merkel Upset At Twitter For Banning Trump; Meanwhile Germany Demands Social Media Blocks Dangerous Content
Amount of speech defined by how rich you are
That would describe both advertising and news reporting from cryers to the press to radio and television.
The difference now is that poor people have some voice rather than none.
(And that is freaking plutocrats the fuck out.)
On the post: As Predicted: Parler Is Banning Users It Doesn't Like
"Don't force/teach this crap to our kids"
And yet my grandson's father was pressuring him to man-up(not cry, stuff his emotions) when he was four. We have a society in which men are super protective of their roles, and women don't want to share their spaces.
Abolish gender entirely and the whole transgender conversation becomes nearly moot. It's what we should have done in the 1970s. Instead, we have religious fanatics claiming it's a communist plot. And child abuse because toddlers aren't tough.
LGBT+ Is over 10% of the population and outnumbers us left-handed folk (and I am more than annoyed at the limited left-handed or ambidextrous offerings that free-market capitalism gives us). Transgendered persons (if 2% is correct) is more than the first-nation peoples in the United States, who are also terribly underserved.
And considering that power and recognition is only getting worse and floating to the wealthiest, the US is sucking more every day then you too will find yourself an underperson (or even an unperson) as time moves forward.
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