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Why Epik welcomed Gab.com
This post will summarize why Epik welcomed Gab.com. It will also address why I believe the operators of the site have the right to be online.
epik.com
So, who the heck is Epik? Never heard of them.
After GoDaddy cut ties following Pittsburgh shooting, Gab back online thanks to Seattle startup
A Seattle startup has inked a deal to host domain registrar services for Gab.com, the site that was dropped by GoDaddy and other companies in the wake of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.
www.geekwire.com
The story is here: https://epik.com/blog/why-epik-welcomed-gab-com.html
Let Freedom Ring
To the casual observer, the case of Gab.com seems like it is something new. It is not. It is history repeating itself. While there are consequences to actions, there is also the proverbial risk of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. My hope, for all of our sakes, is that Gab.com treads wisely, using its liberty for the betterment of most, and the enlightenment of all.
Sincerely,
Robert W. Monster
Founder and CEO
Epik.comNovember 3, 2018
Maybe it's my browser configuration, but gab.ai doesn't seem to be working, completely. But, they haven't gone away. The pages that load are filled with bitterness, and maybe even some hate speech, if you're into that sort of vilification. Still don't know diddly about Robert Monster, but maybe he's a "good guy".
Previously: Social Media and the Pittsburgh Shooter: Gab.com Going Down
Gab's Plan To Use Blockchain To Make Itself Indestructible
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 07 2018, @01:40PM (11 children)
First, Robert Monster looks like an opportunist to drum up business for his registrar. Ok, whatever. But he took the same bullshit stance like GoDaddy did in silencing gab.com. "Let freedom rein"? All they are suppose to do is manage registration of domains names for the .com and other registrars. That's all. No "freedom reign" and bullshit. Just do your damn jobs and allow people to register and public their domains. If they want "nazimonkeyfuckers.com", whatever. It's not the policy of registrars to police content of websites. It's policy of governments to police content of websites. And if the want to remove some website, it should be via legal channels.
And if GoDaddy doesn't want to do business with someone, fine. Whatever. But that doesn't mean the site should disappear from the internet, especially if they are only using the registrar for registrar part, not other BS services like DNS.
Finally, this term "de-platforming" - what a stupid term to use here. No one was "de-platformed". What happened was straight bullshit by GoDaddy. GoDaddy is no more a platform than soylentnews.org or walmart. Maybe now we'll just say "you weren't fired, you were deplatformed for better opportunities".... WTF?
As got gab.com, fuck you and your Nazis.
Now get the fuck off my lawn. /election cycle
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 07 2018, @01:55PM (2 children)
we won't make progress with all the hillbillies in the flyover states without their help
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 07 2018, @04:58PM
What a profoundly stupid comment! Your open hostility to the working class is what set the stage for the resurgence of white nationalism.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 07 2018, @08:26PM
Holy shit Arik what happened to your font?
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday November 07 2018, @03:02PM
It's policy of governments to police content of websites.
It may be their policy, but the government had no right to meddle with content either. The government needs to police the service providers, not the content providers.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 3, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday November 07 2018, @03:45PM (1 child)
Are you saying that you can't get platform shoes at Walmart? Are they out of style - again? What does Walmart have to do with anything, anyway? Walmart shouldn't be able to de-platform anyone. Freedom of the sole is guaranteed in the constitution, or something, isn't it?
(Score: 3, Funny) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday November 07 2018, @08:32PM
You can be assured that platform shoes will never go out of style.
The same can be said for flared trousers with stars 'n' stripes pockets. Also anything recorded by Yes between 1969 and 1978.
I have a list.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by jmorris on Wednesday November 07 2018, @06:41PM (4 children)
If it were only GoDaddy the term "de-platforming" wouldn't apply. When it is Godaddy and most other domain registrars, most (including Microsoft) hosting companies, all currently known payment processors, both the Google Play and Apple App stores, Medium, Embedly, and several I'm forgetting it is an almost unified front among the leftists who run Silicon Valley AND the Wall Street bankers, then it is "De-platforming".
We really need to have a national conversation on this. Because if it IS ok for trillion dollar publicly traded corporations to impose political tests for who can buy and sell goods, host Internet sites, etc. then it goddamned well be one rule for all. If it really is required for us to "build our own" world, we better be just as permitted to keep who WE consider "undesirable" out to prevent entryism.
(Score: 3, Touché) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday November 07 2018, @08:39PM
Why?
Those trillion dollar companies have purchased the right to dictate how your country is run, because they are the ones paying for the election of the people to do their bidding. It really is none of your business.
If you don't like that, buy your own Senator.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Wednesday November 07 2018, @10:44PM (2 children)
I have zero fucking sympathy. Everyone gave the control to Silicon Valley, so much so, that we look at them now as these monolithic entities that unilaterally shape our world. No sympathy. You all dug the graves you stand in. Tiny violin here :)
Yet, there is still the Internet beyond them. What a fucking shocker. I'm not sure what the big fucking deal is either, or why it took Gab so long to come back up, or why it even went down in the first place. There are plenty of registrars that take a strong free-speech stance, and ISPs should not be able to police for content, nor should they be asked to do so. I cannot imagine government asking local ISPs to block gab.com like sci-hub.com has been blocked over in Sweden(?).
I'm a free speech advocate, even for the people that need a punch in the face like you :)
People around me don't make the mistake of asking what I think about "deplatforming" and the colossal fuckup that is social media, or complaining about it. It's like a girl complaining about an abusive boyfriend, but never leaves him. She's part of the problem. The answer? Stop using Facebook. Stop using Twitter. Stop using Uber. Stop buying from Amazon. Stop searching with Google. Deliberately choose a smaller competitor that still has a quality product, but maybe a little more on the purchase price. In other words, stop kissing their asses and bending over for them all lubed up. The wallet is by far louder than any blog post, fucking tweet, etc.
Let me serenade you all with my tiny violin.......
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Wednesday November 07 2018, @11:13PM (1 child)
I'm sorry you had such an urgent need to speak from admitted ignorance. Education cures ignorance but not stupidity so lemme put ya some knowledge on and see it it cures your problem. :)
They went down because when Azure kicked them (Azure gave two weeks notice and assisted the migration, so at least they were reasonable and only a couple of hours downtime resulted) earlier they picked Joylent based on their assurance they understood Gab was controversial and they wouldn't have a problem with that. So what happened? On a Saturday afternoon they were told they would be disconnected at 9AM Monday morning. At the same time every other vendor they had a business relationship with announced a termination of service, literally in a span of hours. After finding a new server host they took the week to migrate all of their data and get the new machines running well enough to put into service. At the sane time they had to replace enough of the other vendors like DNS to allow them to come back up. They still haven't found anyone who will allow them access to the financial networks so they can accept money for subscriptions or merch. Assuming they can find a new source for merch since they too canceled them.
The IT vendors are apparently replaceable. That is annoying but not the BIG problem. The problem is the payment processing which is a government entangled monopoly. It isn't just Paypal and Stripe, it is apparently the banks dictating to Paypal and Stripe. People have tried to launch new services and hit a brick wall at the banking cartel.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 08 2018, @06:21AM
Have you asked help from ... Russia?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday November 07 2018, @01:59PM (33 children)
I signed up for a Twitter account when they first started years ago. I never sent a single message or logged in once. The breathless excitement about it coming from the press was enough to repel me.
Likewise I had little use for Gab. It's another copycat social media play to the eyes of one who has seen them come and go, come and go over the years (remember MeetUp.com? Friendster? GeoCities? Yahoo Groups? MySpace?). FireChat was briefly interesting because its use of mesh networking to evade cell network shutdowns by the Chinese authorities in Beijing, but that's the only thing I thought worth spending 60 seconds thinking about.
But now with this gross attempt at censorship at the infrastructural level, I decided to create a Gab account and give it a go. I don't need to converse with StormFront refugees per se. Flamewars between NPCs and SJWs and wingnuts define tedium. But virtual lynch mobs who want to destroy free speech must be opposed.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 07 2018, @02:20PM (29 children)
No. In order for society to survive, we must never tolerate the intolerant. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday November 07 2018, @02:45PM (1 child)
We're losing a lot of very special people because of internet. We have to go see Bill Gates and a lot of different people that really understand what's happening. We have to talk to them. About closing that internet up in many ways. Somebody will say, "oh, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech." These are foolish people.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday November 07 2018, @03:47PM
EDO, or Early Dementia Onset is a thing with orange people, isn't it?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 07 2018, @02:54PM
Perhaps we can import them to the tune of several million a year instead.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Wednesday November 07 2018, @03:06PM (7 children)
You don't have to tolerate them, but you have no right to silence anybody. That is the working rule of all communication medium, or it should be.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday November 07 2018, @03:50PM (6 children)
Exactly. As much as I loathe the foaming-at-the-mouth white supremacists over at Stormfront - I've never considered trying to shut them up, or shut them down, or even organizing a girlcott. (Why is it always a boycott? Hell, they name hurricanes after boys these days, right?)
(Score: 3, Troll) by jmorris on Wednesday November 07 2018, @06:48PM (5 children)
Because you understand the reason for Free Speech. On an even halfway level field the Truth usually wins arguments. Our current world is the result of a century of horribly biased debate. Communists held all of the "commanding heights" of mass media, entertainment and news, education, etc. and even controlled the nominal "opposition" so they could carefully banish any ideas that could disrupt the lies we were being fed.
Which is why any forum that fails to practice active censorship quickly becomes a right wing "hate" forum. In a dark world of lies, any flicker of the Light of Truth is hurtful.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 07 2018, @06:52PM (4 children)
McCarthy didn't you die???? Maybe you found the Satanic ritual to convey your soul into a younger vessel?
(Score: 1, Troll) by jmorris on Wednesday November 07 2018, @07:07PM (3 children)
In your dark ignorance and malice you malign a good if misguided man's memory. History has issued a verdict, his only sin was a failure of imagination. What he thought a controllable infestation at State was already fully metastasized into the very Committee he called into being, thus it almost instantly turned into an investigation of himself.
Go read Blacklisted By History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies and become educated. The reproductions of actual documents that finally came out of the Senate's fifty year seal leave no doubt.
(Score: 4, Informative) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday November 07 2018, @08:53PM
Oh, you mean Tail-Gunner Joe, the guy who lied about his war service?
Or maybe the "good if misguided man" who drove Senator Lester C. Hunt to suicide because his son was gay?
Or maybe the "good if misguided man" who was censured by the Senate? Because that's almost unheard of.
By the way "Blacklisted By History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies" is written by a notorious propagandist for the weirdo religious far-right. You are probably OK with that though.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 07 2018, @10:24PM
I wish I could believe you are trolling.
Jmorris and McCarthy sitting in a tree
G E N O C I - DING!
First comes fear
then come stupid
Next is a man baby committing homicide
Ya ya the last bit didn't rhyme that well, this isn't News For Poets, Stuff That Makes Jmorris Feel Like A Man
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 08 2018, @02:31AM
Shirley you're not serious with that!
Guess you're a fan of fiction, are you?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 07 2018, @03:50PM (11 children)
I have my own philosophy and that is that Karl Popper is an idiot. Humour is a sufficient method to cope with intolerance. Human psychology is more advanced than Karl Popper can imagine.
I can tell by experience that the most annoying thing for the people I have talked to, who have intolerant views is that I don't get angry and listen to what they have to say, while still politely disagreeing. If you meet an intolerant person, please be tolerant and offer them a way out, instead of strengthening their views.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday November 07 2018, @04:26PM (10 children)
That works up to a certain point. If someone is calling for $GROUP to be exterminated on a public platform, it's safe to say no amount of engagement with either reason or humor is going to persuade them otherwise. Should the Jews, Roma, gays, Communists etc in Nazi Germany have attempted satire on the Nazis? Would that have worked?
Because make no mistake, "Intolerance" is a watered-down, weak, toothless euphemism for what's really going on here: calls for at *best* a return to pre-Civil-Rights-Act society and at worst outright genocide. That's intolerant, yes, the way the bottom of the Pacific Ocean is a little damp and kind of hard to see in.
Mockery might work, but it only works if widespread and it reaches more people.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Wednesday November 07 2018, @05:17PM (1 child)
Mockery might sometimes work on the group doing the hate-xenophobic behavior, yes, but I wouldn't discount the power of reason and humor.
Reason and humor reach not the xenophobics, but rather everyone else, calling out the xenophobes for being just that--and providing a framework from which those with reason and intact senses of humor make the xenophobes look even worse by comparison. (Mockery is not as good at this, as it requires moving a tiny bit closer to the xenophobe position.)
I'd say that to the extent that it might have highlighted the jarring evil of the Nazis during that period and provided additional impetus for those countries and influential individuals "on the fence" about whether to appease Hitler or oppose him, to go ahead and oppose him, that yes, it might have. No way to know for sure at this remove, but I don't think the suggestion is without value.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 08 2018, @12:07AM
Reason and humor reach not the xenophobics, but rather everyone else
Exactly the point that wannbe censors prefer to ignore. It's the followers/believers that are dangerous. The xenophobes are just loudmouths. It is not their fault if other people choose to take them seriously and follow. Those who want censorship obviously don't believe in free will. If there is no free will, then the leaders can't help themselves either and shouldn't be punished for their actions. Everything was already predetermined.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 07 2018, @05:53PM (3 children)
Nor should invaders be tolerated. Of course, when Germany tried to defend their country from enemy moles, the international Zionist banksters who controlled the recently conquered Russia, the British monarchy and the US treasury decided to teach them a lesson. Ever since then, the Jewish controlled media and school systems have been brainwashing everyone's children that the Jews were the victims.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 07 2018, @06:25PM
I'm pretty sure dead jews can be classified as victims.
(Score: 3, Funny) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday November 07 2018, @09:08PM (1 child)
By invading Czechoslovakia? Then invading Poland then invading France, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, The Netherlands and The Soviet Union?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 08 2018, @06:15PM
yes. the best defense is a good offense. :)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 07 2018, @06:23PM
While there could be a perfectly reasonable rationale for exterminating $GROUP, I'm faily certain in most cases there aren't and the problem these people are trying to solve could be solved a better way, without creating a world where some arbitrary group decides who should be exterminated. I don't think that's the kind of end game these people want. So we killed $GROUP1, but that $GROUP2 is pretty annoying as well. Okay guys, let's pinky-swear that we won't exterminate more groups!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 07 2018, @07:49PM (2 children)
Are you seriously defending gypsies?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 07 2018, @10:24PM
> Are you seriously defending gypsies?
If gypsies/Roma break the law, the authorities ought to be able to deal with it the same as if anyone else broke the law. No need for all the hate and mob action.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday November 09 2018, @05:17AM
What the AC below you said. Yes, I am defending the Roma, for the same reason and to the same extent, no more and no less, as any other group that faced genocide. You don't seem to understand this whole human rights thing...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday November 07 2018, @04:04PM (2 children)
So, we should not tolerate those who are intolerant of the intolerant?
Free speech means everybody gets to talk, even, and most especially, those we disagree with. That is a core American value we can never relinquish nor equivocate on.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 07 2018, @09:10PM
It's not tolerating anyone who does not tolerate anything, all the way down.
(Score: 3, Touché) by RandomFactor on Wednesday November 07 2018, @11:05PM
It's funny, based on snippets of speech, signs and behavior I noticed in passing, I actually thought 'ANTIFA' meant ANTI-First-Amendment for like a year before I found out it meant ANTI-FAscist.
There is a very strong sentiment propagating that is quite favorable towards restricting the first amendment.
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 07 2018, @05:09PM (2 children)
I'm seeing lots of intolerance in the responses realDonaldTrump gets on Twitter. So much hate for our president! You'd support banning that, yes?
Anti-semitism is now running rampant in the Democratic party. What should be do about it? There's Linda Sarsour, Louis Farrakhan, Rashida Tlaib, Keith Ellison, Cory Booker... when do we ban them?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 07 2018, @11:09PM
You know, you misspelled Cory Borker, right?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 08 2018, @12:31AM
Ilhan Omar just got elected as a democrat.
One of her tweets: "Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel"
She is now elected. She is an islamist from Somalia who MARRIED HER BROTHER. Seriously, WTF. She will now represent house district MN-5 in congress.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 07 2018, @02:22PM
"The breathless excitement about it coming from the press was enough to repel me."
This was the big one for me and why i never even looked at it at the time.
"But virtual lynch mobs who want to destroy free speech must be opposed."
* drinks to that *
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday November 07 2018, @03:02PM
I got a Twitter account some time ago mainly to make sure no one else took my handle. Not that I've ever had any problem with anyone trying to or wanting to impersonate me, or just coincidentally coming up with the same handle, as far as I know. I feel I don't have to concern myself too much about it, unlike public figures such as realDonaldTrump.
Twitter is big enough I thought it worth reserving my handle even if I never made a single tweet. But there are plenty of sites, such as this gab, that I've never visited or heard of. I'd rather not be in any way associated with a wacky alt-right site. Don't want to create an account there even if it's only to prevent someone else from creating an account with my handle.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday November 08 2018, @12:35AM
I signed up, did one post and got advertised to by people 'posting comments and 'likes'' in order to get me to login and see the advertisement and haven't been back since.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bradley13 on Wednesday November 07 2018, @02:41PM (3 children)
Either we believe in free speech, or we don't. There is no middle ground. It's time to stop tolerating the hypocrites who believe in free speech, only as long as it doesn't offend anyone.
This, in my mind, is why "common carrier" was defined all those decades ago. The phone company had no business monitoring your conversations, or denying you service based on what you talked about with whom. If you did something illegal, it was on the police to get a warrant, tap your phone, and ultimately prosecute you. Nothing illegal? No problem.
Today, the picture is more complex, and also part-and-parcel of "net neutrality". The common carriers of the Internet age include not only ISPs, but also domain registrars, cloud services, and so forth. Realistically, they must also include payment processors. None of these companies should be allowed to deny any customer service, as long as that customer pays their bills and does nothing illegal.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by DannyB on Wednesday November 07 2018, @02:52PM (1 child)
The picture is more complex as you say.
I want to point out: the telephone is, and especially more so in the past, a one to one communications medium. So what one says in private to another person or small group was not quite the same thing as the internet, which can be both a broadcast medium and an infinite printing press that distributes tweets in real time.
As much as I think some speech simply does not belong, or perhaps more properly those who hold the ideas behind some speech, I think that those who control "the tubes" (both connectivity, IP addresses, and DNS) should not be denying service based on content of speech. Nor on how unsavory an internet site, or its users may be. Instead go after the users. It's the same thinking behind copyright infringement. Don't blame the site, blame individual users who are the ones engaging in such activity.
It seems that we already do go after people who make plans to overthrow the US government. Or who truly threaten our democracy. Or plan terrorist attacks. So there is already some level where you don't get the "free speech" card.
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday November 07 2018, @03:12PM
Don't blame the site, blame individual users who are the ones engaging in such activity.
Hear Hear! The real danger comes from the followers and believers, but it's much more expedient to silence the speakers, being a singular focal point and all. But make no mistake, the blame is on the crowd.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 07 2018, @05:26PM
This is true. But that doesn't mean we can't, or shouldn't, push back against speech that deserves it. Where do we draw that line? And who draws it? Each person should be the arbiter of their own limits. But should the government ever be involved?
For example, if a public figure with a large following starts lying about something - let's say water safety - should we simply say "well, it's his right to tell people polluted water is safe to drink, and if they are stupid enough to believe him that's on them"? Or should we push back against the lies? What if someone who is in a position within local government that makes decisions about water safety believes the lie and endangers tens of thousands of people? Are they free to believe any speech, whether it is true or not?
Should lies be tolerated? Should we defend truth? And who gets to decide what is "true", especially if the government - or some of its leaders - decides that telling lies is OK?
So it's either we believe in free speech, or we don't. But it is not that simple.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 07 2018, @03:04PM (5 children)
So gab is basically 4chan but you have to have an account to post. How I miss the days with spammers couldn't post inline video.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday November 07 2018, @03:58PM (3 children)
Actually - I think maybe 4chan has more intelligent trolls. Certainly more imaginative trolls. And, 4chan has actually managed to accomplish a few cool things. Minor, but cool. Gab, on the other hand, doesn't seem to have accomplished anything to date, unless we count survival, and pissing off the politically correct crowd. Or - did they piss ON the politically correct crowd?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday November 07 2018, @04:10PM (1 child)
Pissing off the politically correct crowd is an accomplishment. Every lover of freedom ought to strike that blow at every opportunity.
I don't use racial epithets because I am not a racist. It is a worldview alien to me, and none of it resides in my heart. But I'll be damned if I'll tell some guy who is a racist that he is not allowed to use such. In fact, I would appreciate him being open about it so I know right away not to associate with him.
A pox on political correctness.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 07 2018, @05:36PM
Let us troll every chance we get. Riling up the masses and being divisive, for our own entertainment and sense of self worth, is far more important than simply letting people agree to disagree. We should look for every opportunity, and we shall claim our actions are in the name of freedom! If you dare to disagree with us we shall troll you simply to put you in your place, because who are you to not be affected by our disruptive whims?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 07 2018, @04:39PM
The only thing I know of is the free visual novel: Katawa Shoujo. Knowing 4chan's reputation, I figured that a story featuring multiple disabled girls would just be an irreverent dark comedy but it was surprisingly well put together with mult-dimensional characters.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katawa_Shoujo [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday November 07 2018, @06:59PM
gab is kinda like /pol/ with more social media youtube streaming alt-lite people. I can't remember any interesting memes coming from gab, or really anything interesting at all. Gab is definitely more a "meetooo" "I luv your stream show" level of conversation than 4chan, 4chan is fairly serious most of the time.
Gab is very lightweight alt-lite. I don't think there's much overlap between the old TRS forums and gab, or between /pol/ and gab. If you think infowars and Milo Y are the most right wing thing ever, then you'll fit in on gab.
/pol/ gets raided a lot with slide threads during politically interesting times, like half the threads were raid threads before the election, of course its pretty low noise now.
gab does allow longer conversations. On 4chan a thread slides off the page into archive and then deleted in .. hours on a busy board. You only have maybe four hours on a typical night on /pol/ before archived, so say what you gotta say and quickly before you can't.
gab and /pol/ have little to do with other boards on 4chan, such as the interesting and non-political /diy/ or /out/. Some of the advice on /diy/ is questionable but nothing a smart google using anon couldn't figure out. Consider the stupidest stuff on /diy/ to be an intelligence test. /out/ is maybe the only place on the internet for outdoor gear where advice and commentary is more than poorly hidden advertising. /out/ is awesome.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday November 07 2018, @04:29PM (4 children)
Same thing I said in my journal post: you don't get to give our freedoms away piecemeal to private business and then complain when one of them does something you don't like. And it would help to actually study the Constitution: first amendment says the *government* can't limit your free speech, and even then there is judicial precedent otherwise.
If you don't like what was done to Gab, consider that--gasp--laissez-faire or even a close approximation of it gets you this.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Wednesday November 07 2018, @07:00PM (1 child)
The domain registrar problem has been solved for now. Hosting providers are available, Hell you have "bulletproof" hosts who will take on known criminals, questionable porn (even by porn standards), spammers, scammers, etc. The app store block is even being worked around, sideloading for Android and a Progressive Web App for iOS got around their block.
How about The Federal Reserve? The block nobody has yet found a way around is the banking blockade originating with Visa and Mastercard. Those entities are pretty much appendages of the FED.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 08 2018, @04:10AM
The Federal Reserve is privately owned. Doesn't apply to them either.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 08 2018, @12:18AM (1 child)
Labeling and regulating the service providers as common carriers would fix this problem, so that nobody can be shut down for offending a person's sensitivities. You don't have to like what's being said on the internet, but nobody is forcing you to tune in.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday November 09 2018, @05:19AM
Oh, I agree, and I want to see that happen if for no other reason than to see every gibbertarian moron's head a-splode :) Everyone wins! Except the ones whose heads went splodey-boom from cognitive dissonance of course.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2, Troll) by VLM on Wednesday November 07 2018, @07:30PM (2 children)
I think its very telling that the discussion is entirely about if Nazi Germany propaganda would theoretically require heavy handed censorship as a straw dog, but the people actually being censored are civ-nat alt-lite alex jones info wars and Milo Y and /r/The_Donald tier people.
I'd say I'm to the right of almost everyone on gab, and other than some posters here who can't control their weak personal attacks, its not really much of a problem. So if you're able to read this, you'd probably do OK on gab. Its not exactly a tumblr or reddit highly censored antifa hugbox, but if you go in expecting that, you'll be OK.
Lets check my actual honest to God gab newsfeed:
"Truthwillout films" is still trying to spread the news that allied propaganda from WWII was indeed propaganda, duh. Like I figured that out when I was about 10 yrs old. But they're spreading the truth, so hard to get pissed off.
PrisonPlanet / infowars alt-lite news, mostly its true stuff that makes leftists look bad.
Heartiste makes strange insightful one line observations, occasionally pretty insightful.
Pol news network PNN posting screenshots of anti-white anti-female leftists on twitter expressing their explicit hatred of white women WRT election results. Boy oh boy are leftists racist and sexist. Even folks like me on the far right aren't as full of sheer hate as leftists are.
Babylon Bee making fun of the anti-trump RINO legacy -R who failed to accomplish much over the last two years.
Judge Holden making fun of neocon military strategy in the middle east, which is kinda like shooting fish in a barrel but whatevs.
Striker complimenting some candidates slightly to the right of me (not by much) who got 25% of the vote in freak'n IL and CA. Good job guys doing Gods work. Thats really the story of the election, "literally hitler", and not in the sense of all Republicans are Hitler, is polling about 25% now a days, which is good.
Some real "inside baseball" stuff making fun of Cernovich for whining about gab whining about ... something. What a surprise, politics pulls in Drama?
Lord Humungus pointing out that most of the people on twitter melting down about gab being online have historical tweets proclaiming their hatred of whites and ... unusual distribution of self proclaimed religious belief. The people who hate gab (and who hate white people) are not exactly mainstream. AT least thats my interpretations of his weirdly written posts.
MadeWolf points out that based on some election poll stats, some demographic groups such as blacks and jews are essentially single party voters. Evidence of identity politics. Those racist whites don't vote along purely racial lines unlike other demographic groups, interesting.
Another Jim Acosta behaving badly video make it to Heartistes repost.
Zman shitposting against boomers for being greedy gibs single issue healthcare voters. This is a resounding "maybe?"
Bechtloff reporting on an Anti Semitic poll result.
Wolfe and christi junior and hill of tyr pointing out that civic nationalism isn't working as a strategy even if it got 10% of blacks or 20% of jews off the Democratic plantation. Pandering to people who hate your race to try and make them like you never works.
GuardAmerican making fun of Beta for driving drunk, wasting millions, losing, and having ugly fat people in his audiences. Seriously why are right wingers hot, and lefties so dang ugly?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 08 2018, @04:31AM (1 child)
That one is easy and explains a lot about who is on which side.
People who are* [smart|good-looking|rich|healthy] like to think that it is so because of their own hard work or inherent attributes.
People who are* [dumb|ugly|poor|sick] want to blame someone else or bad luck.
*they may not actually be, they may just think they are.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Thursday November 08 2018, @08:09PM
Fairly accurate with a side dish of good/bad decision making and ability to plan. And those have many physical effects mostly related to health and exercise.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by ilPapa on Thursday November 08 2018, @12:48AM (2 children)
It's a way for the rest of us to contain the virus by putting all of the infected in one place. This makes it easier to snuff out.
I am OK with racist scumbags, incels, MRAs, gamergaters and outright Nazis to have a little clubhouse where they can do their thing. It makes watching them a lot easier. Now, whenever there's a school or synagogue shooting, or pipe bombs are sent or whatever, we know where to look for the perpetrator.
You are still welcome on my lawn.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 08 2018, @06:55PM
If you had to place MRA and racists in same sentence then you should place feminists in between, right next to racists. I have consistently found feminists to be the biggest racists. It is like they need to look like good people because they are aweful abusive shit heads and they know it.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday November 09 2018, @05:21AM
EXACTLY! Fuck, the main reason what this idiot in Pennsylvania did rankles me is because he just blew a perfectly good opportunity to let these idiots concentrate in a known, accessible place where their every move could be tracked and their stupid fucking plans could be stopped before they even start. Someone give that man a pair of wings, a tutu, and a wand with a star on it and call him the Fuckup Fairy.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 09 2018, @08:52AM
Just sayin.