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posted by Fnord666 on Friday November 17 2017, @12:39PM   Printer-friendly
from the sometimes-a-cigar-is-just-a-cigar dept.
Both mrpg and realDonaldTrump write in with stories about an update to Twitter's verification system.

A Twitter rules update rolled out on Wednesday to address the site's "verification" system, and it attached a new set of standards to any user whose account receives a "blue check mark."

Twitter's "verification" system is used to confirm accounts of celebrities and other accounts of "public interest." However, the feature has long straddled a blurry line between identity confirmation and "elite" user status, especially since verified accounts receive heightened visibility and perks such as content filters. That issue returned to the headlines last week when Twitter gave a blue check mark to white nationalist Jason Kessler. Kessler is best known as an organizer of the Unite The Right white-supremacist rally, but before then, he had racked up a significant record of online hate propagation, particularly with anti-Semitic rhetoric about "cultural Marxism."

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/11/twitter-our-blue-check-marks-arent-just-about-verification/

"Twitter on Wednesday removed the 'verification' checkmarks from the accounts of a number of white nationalists and far-right activists -- in a move that critics say could have a chilling effect on free speech." http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2017/11/16/twitter-targets-white-nationalists-and-far-right-activists-in-de-verification-purge.html


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  • (Score: 2) by qzm on Friday November 17 2017, @09:26PM (9 children)

    by qzm (3260) on Friday November 17 2017, @09:26PM (#598399)

    Rednecks certainly exist, and a bunch of them seem to think its 'cool' to think they are Nazis (in their thinking it seems to fit in with the gunrack in the back of the truck I guess), however I suspect they would actually be pretty shocked to have known what actual Nazis were, and how they would have reacted to those rednecks (hint: strong family and moral views were a core part of the Nazi ideology, as was an absolute respect for authority and law, for their version of moral anyway).

    then of course you have the American 'left' (which is in a race with the rest of american politics to the finishline of a totalitarian state it seems) who consider anyone to their right to be a Nazi, again with zero apparent knowledge of what a Nazi actually was (hint: it was a strongly centralist party, quite possibly to the left of the Dems these days)

    I am pretty sure that the rest of the world see most of the American 'Nazis' as, well, Americans...

    Calling people a Nazi now is pretty much exactly the same as calling people a Commie under McCarthyism - perhaps some of the people making those claims should brush up on their history and consider how that is viewed these days.

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  • (Score: 1) by ants_in_pants on Friday November 17 2017, @09:51PM (8 children)

    by ants_in_pants (6665) on Friday November 17 2017, @09:51PM (#598406)

    who consider anyone to their right to be a Nazi, again with zero apparent knowledge of what a Nazi actually was (hint: it was a strongly centralist party, quite possibly to the left of the Dems these days)

    Have you ever met someone on the far left? Aside from neo-nazis(which are notable for being exactly aryan-worshipping, swastika-toting, jew-hating national socialists), "nazi" is an insult applied to fascists(authoritarian racists) of any color. It's not an academic term, and it doesn't need to be, just like how nobody in real life cares about whether you're a Maxist-Leninist or a Trotskyist, you're just a commie.

    Also, wrt the nazis being a strongly centralist party: pure historical revisionism. They weren't economically one way or another but their ideology was singularly reactionary and right-wing.

    --
    -Love, ants_in_pants
    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 17 2017, @10:11PM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 17 2017, @10:11PM (#598418)

      Nazis gained appreciation and power in part by violently fighting communists in the streets. Compared to communists, the Nazis were certainly on the right.

      Nazis still favored all-encompassing big government, including government control of much of industry. Nazis made joining a union a requirement; there was no right-to-work law under the Nazis.

      That puts them well to the left of Bernie Sanders. They might be "right" of Antifa, but Antifa is hardly normal mainstream American political opinion. Nazi beliefs are clearly to the left of mainstream American political thought.

      Nazis also liked to have a scapegoat. Jews were pretty much the 1% of the day. Blaming the Jews was rather like how today people blame the whites, the males, the Christians, and similar. Oh, and the American/European left is getting back toward hating Jews, supporting people who want to exterminate Jews. Look who supports Israel and who doesn't. Look who welcomes Muslims into places like France, where Jews have recently enjoyed a few decades of relative safety.

      Fascism is less well-defined, but pretty similar. It is "right" of communism, and that's about it.

      • (Score: 1) by ants_in_pants on Saturday November 18 2017, @03:44AM (2 children)

        by ants_in_pants (6665) on Saturday November 18 2017, @03:44AM (#598553)

        Nazis still favored all-encompassing big government, including government control of much of industry

        I don't think having an all-ecompassing government is at all synonymous with being left-wing. If you look at the material actions of the American government, they're heavily involved with the economic process, especially in wartime. They contract military companies, give them a huge number of requirements, and done. Or they subsidize the shit out of everything.

        Oh, and the American/European left is getting back toward hating Jews

        Really? I've never personally met an anti-semite, and I've met *a lot* of left-wingers. People who are anti-Israel, sure, but I know ethnic jews who are more anti-Israel than I am.

        Look who welcomes Muslims into places like France, where Jews have recently enjoyed a few decades of relative safety.

        So, allowing muslims in a place is anti-jew? This is a tenuous link.

        And you ignored the key points of nazi ideology -- building an ethnostate, returning to a glorious past, and intense nationalism. All of those are very reactionary positions.

        Fascism is less well-defined, but pretty similar. It is "right" of communism, and that's about it.

        Actually, I consider there to be heavy overlap between statist communism and fascism. "Red fascism" as it's called.

        --
        -Love, ants_in_pants
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 18 2017, @05:01AM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 18 2017, @05:01AM (#598572)

          So if "building an ethnostate, returning to a glorious past, and intense nationalism" is it, then lots of places qualify. Counting unsatisfied dreams of nationhood as nationalism:

          Japan, Mexico, South Africa, Palestine, Hawaii, South Ossetia, Hong Kong, and Bolivia all qualify.

          No, really that isn't it. Those aren't left/right attributes. You can have them on both sides.

          Having the all-encompassing big government is pretty much the definition of being on the left. Yes, there is the theoretical big happy commune, but that always turns into prison camps. Everybody, right and left, buys stuff for war. In war, everybody compromises their beliefs to survive, so the right doing commie stuff (price/wage controls, etc.) doesn't really make them commie. The left does commie stuff willingly, with or without a war; this is what they like.

          • (Score: 1) by ants_in_pants on Saturday November 18 2017, @09:06PM

            by ants_in_pants (6665) on Saturday November 18 2017, @09:06PM (#598755)

            I agree that right-wing nationalistic movements are generally on the right. All those places certainly have that particular attribute, although nationalism itself is not contituent of being "right".

            Having the all-encompassing big government is pretty much the definition of being on the left.

            Not historically, theoretically, or in any real way. I consider myself left-wing, I have all the left-wing opinions, and I'd rather there be no government at all.

            Everybody, right and left, buys stuff for war.

            so you admit that just because the German state was heavily involved in its military-industrial complex doesn't mean it was left-wing?

            Yourt post displays a complete lack of understanding of anything about ideology -- on either the left or the right. Just because people talk about it in America that way doesn't mean it is that way.

            --
            -Love, ants_in_pants
    • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday November 20 2017, @04:43PM (3 children)

      by tangomargarine (667) on Monday November 20 2017, @04:43PM (#599285)

      but their ideology was singularly reactionary

      This is another word that has lost all meaning to me from overuse. What is "reactionary" supposed to actually mean, other than "I don't like them"?

      One of Hitler's obsessions was anti-communism. One of communism's obsessions was anti-capitalist. Is communism considered "reactionary," too?

      --
      "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
      • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday November 20 2017, @04:45PM

        by tangomargarine (667) on Monday November 20 2017, @04:45PM (#599287)

        A reactionary is a person who holds political views that favor a return to the status quo ante, the previous political state of society, which they believe possessed characteristics (discipline, respect for authority, etc.) that are negatively absent from the contemporary status quo of a society. As an adjective, the word reactionary describes points of view and policies meant to restore the status quo ante.[1]

        So basically it means "conservative." As contrasted with liberal? Fucking useless term.

        --
        "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
      • (Score: 1) by ants_in_pants on Wednesday November 22 2017, @12:16AM (1 child)

        by ants_in_pants (6665) on Wednesday November 22 2017, @12:16AM (#599978)

        One of Hitler's obsessions was anti-communism. One of communism's obsessions was anti-capitalist. Is communism considered "reactionary," too?

        I literally don't understand what point you're trying to make here.

        Anyway, it basically means a desire to keep society the way it is, or to change it back to the way it used to be. Anti-progress is a good way of putting it.

        --
        -Love, ants_in_pants
        • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday November 22 2017, @03:50PM

          by tangomargarine (667) on Wednesday November 22 2017, @03:50PM (#600205)

          Progress can be good or bad. But people seem to always use "reactionary" with a negative connotation.

          Hey, Hitler was taking aggressive and proactive action towards "the Jewish problem." That's "progress," right?

          --
          "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"