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"Hush child! Free speech is the reason you grew up without a grandma or your mommy or daddy! They all went to the Utah camps for demonstrating against the Democrat Party!"
https://twitter.com/Julio_Rosas11/status/1520790249957429248?
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/apr/28/dhs-created-disinformation-governance-team-police-/
https://ijr.com/dhs-dismisses-concerns-disinformation-board-leader/
Geeez, people, too bad we didn't have a disinformation board in the McCarthy days, huh? All those commies and socialists could have been put into concentration camps. Those radical black activists could have joined them. All the gay activists, a bunch of feminists, the free sex cultist hippies, and all the druggies. Don't forget the illegal aliens!!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02 2022, @03:49PM (17 children)
Telling lies (i.e., "disinformation") is a sin. It makes the Lord weep.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02 2022, @03:52PM (16 children)
Telling lies is a sin, of course, unless they are Democrat lies. Hiding the truth about Democrat candidates in the run up to an election can never be a sin. Lies are really only lies when Republicans tell those lies!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Subsentient on Monday May 02 2022, @04:16PM (13 children)
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Enough with the sarcasm. Those of us with a spine are appalled at ideas like a "disinformation board". It's true the unwashed masses can have the cognitive dissonance to say "hurr it's okay when we do it" without realizing it, but those of us with a spine and a functioning logic center know better.
God fucking dammit, humans are such stupid, nasty little monkeys; I'm ashamed to be one.
People don't learn. Either everyone plays by the rules, or the rules lose their meaning and moral authority.
I'm a free speech near-absolutist. I'm also left-leaning and a registered Democrat. Don't think the left is a monolith. We're not.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Subsentient on Monday May 02 2022, @04:19PM (12 children)
And, as someone who checks multiple sources of news before believing much, I can tell you that the Republicans are currently the leaders in lies -- that said, the Democrats invented gerrymandering, though the ideologies of the parties were flipped back then.
Election fraud is never okay. Full stop. But Trump lost to a senile old kid sniffer because Trump was even more unpalatable. They could have put a tweaker with no teeth in the running and he'd be more appealing than Trump.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 0, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02 2022, @05:09PM (8 children)
Echo... echo... echo... yup, must be true.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02 2022, @08:45PM (7 children)
Just remember, it is the New York Times, and the Washington Post, not the other way around.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Times [wikipedia.org]
And:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Post [wikipedia.org]
Murdoch!
Now we see why Runaway has been operantly conditioned to bark at CNN.
And for those deny all common sense:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/29/the-five-wikipedia-biases-pro-western-male-dominated [theguardian.com]
Or,
https://thecritic.co.uk/the-left-wing-bias-of-wikipedia/ [thecritic.co.uk]
But to fact check the fact checker:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Critic_(modern_magazine) [wikipedia.org]
.
Who would insist on "culture war content"? Oh, yes, a conservative. Point being, they have found a culture warrior, a man after what passes for Pat Buchanan's heart, in our own Runaway. Looking forward to him getting spanked again in this journal entry. Runaway journals are about the only entertainment left on SN, other than Fine Articles on subcutaneous nematodes in swarms out of some bloody chap's bum.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02 2022, @08:54PM (6 children)
Sounds serious, we should report him to the Disinformation Governance Board [babylonbee.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02 2022, @09:12PM (5 children)
Somebody needs to add the BabylonBee to Wikipedia’s list of deprecated sources. Conservatives suck at humor, they are just not funny.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02 2022, @10:23PM (4 children)
I've seen a few actually funny pieces from there, but mostly it is very on the nose libbies evil hurrdurr. Satire is not their strong suit, as usual cons copy the free. What else can you say about a group of privileged white bigots that thinks Rage Against The Machine is on their side?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02 2022, @10:52PM (3 children)
The Babylon Bee got banned from Twitter and had posting disabled for an article naming Rachel Levine "Man of the Year". They were banned because it was deemed offensive due to Levine being a transgender person. Here's an article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/petersuciu/2022/03/21/the-babylon-bees-twitter-account-was-suspended-but-that-made-its-story-go-viral/ [forbes.com].
I'm not weighing in on whether the attempt at humor was funny or not, or whether it went too far. That's up to you to decide.
The CEO, Seth Dillon went on Tucker Carlson's show to discuss the ban: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnq92_mR3yo [youtube.com]. The problem here is that Dillon goes beyond saying that satire and comedy should be protected. Instead, he suggests that the point of the satire was to take a position on whether a transgender person can actually transition to the opposite sex.
A lot of comedy becomes unfunny when it focuses on taking political and social positions instead of humor. That's exactly what the Babylon Bee is doing here. SNL wasn't funny at all when it became too political, and I just wasn't interested in watching. And I'm someone who has watched all of the Celebrity Jeopardy sketches so many times on Youtube that I have pretty much know every line in all of the sketches. Yes, I enjoy them too much, but SNL actually was quite funny at times. The Babylon Bee is getting political here, and it's just not funny to me. It makes me less interested in any of their other content because I know they're trying to make political points instead of just being funny and writing satire.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03 2022, @06:14PM (2 children)
A joke is funny because people laugh. Not everybody will laugh. Not everybody can. Some are too stupid, some aren't stupid enough, some internalize everything. Some simply lean back, turn it all off, and read Mark Twain or watch Blazing Saddles (1974) [imdb.com], every few years. Others...
Analysis paralysis ensures that some people will end the day, drained from a hundred conflicting emotions, and very few of them good.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03 2022, @09:46PM (1 child)
The measure of good humor is if it makes people laugh. The Babylon Bee has posted some quite funny content in the past. Politics isn't off-limits. SNL has a long history of satirizing politicians. I always enjoyed Darrell Hammond's caricature of Bill Clinton; it was hilarious. I remember a sketch, and I'm pretty sure it was a cold open, where it involves him calling Saddam Hussein and asking him to kick out the weapons inspectors to distract from the impeachment. It's political, but it's absurd and very funny. The difference between is that political humor wasn't trying to persuade me to some political view, which is a lot of what late night comedy turned into for awhile. When it became clear that the Babylon Bee was trying to make a point about transgender people, it made it unfunny. People tend not to laugh when you're beating them over the head with a political view.
It's not about good or bad taste in the jokes. I know the sketch with Dakota Johnson where a father was dropping his daughter off at the airport to join ISIS [youtube.com] was controversial, but I thought it was funny as hell and well executed. I know that people complained about Gilbert Gottfried cracking a joke about 9/11 a few weeks after it happened, but dammit, it was funny.
Good humor unites people, getting them to laugh about something where they might otherwise disagree. I don't have a problem if it's in good or bad taste if it's funny. Just don't beat me over the head with political views, because that defeats the purpose of humor and is unfunny.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03 2022, @10:18PM
Gilbert Godfried died last week. I suppose Don Rickles would work as a meat packer, today. Everybody has a point to make or an axe to chew on... other people suck.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03 2022, @09:38AM (1 child)
That applied to the 2016 primaries and election as well. Think about that for a minute.
(Score: 2) by Subsentient on Friday May 06 2022, @09:18PM
Yes, but Trump lost the popular vote in 2016, and only got in because of the electoral college. Still, a majority of Americans found him unpalatable. This time around, people got to see that he was every bit as braindead and hopelessly corrupt as "ze libs" said he was, which is why he lost reelection.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday May 03 2022, @11:05AM
Nope. Gerry represented the Democratic-Republican Party, which was the originator of the concept in context of modern western democracies. That didn't fraction off into the Whigs, the National Republican Party, and the faction that merged into the not-yet extant modern Democratic party until a decade after his death.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02 2022, @06:24PM
Where I live, there are constant TV advertisements about Republicans being against rule 42, against the border wall, against apple pie, and they show pictures of Republicans standing next to Obama or Hunter Biden's dad. Oh, the democrats in their advertisements are heroes, protecting us from evil and giving us cheap healthcare... their pictures are with adoring fans or doing hero poses before idyllic lakes at sunset. That was all April... can't imagine how it'll all spin as we get closer to November.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02 2022, @08:40PM
Lies are still lies, no matter who is telling them. Just so you know. Also, having differences on matters of policy is not automatically a lie. In addition, pointing out how horrible your preferred policy positions are, isn't a lie either. I hope this clarifies things for you.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02 2022, @04:32PM (4 children)
Simply put, I don't think Runaway is posting in good faith. He's not sticking around to discuss anything in these journals, just posting fear mongering articles from sources that are highly biased. This uses loaded language, and is offensive for implying that efforts to limit the spread of disinformation are equivalent to the Holocaust. Also, remember that the right is pushing to repeal section 230, which will have a chilling effect on free speech. And it's the right that wants to ban critical race theory from being discussed in schools. But Runaway's journals are only directed at the left, which shows that these are just politically motivated hit jobs. I support that Runaway should be free to post what he wants in his journals. I support his free speech. I am just warning that these journals aren't being posted in good faith, and it leads to toxic discussions. Don't expect productive or meaningful discussion in Runaway's journals. If you choose to post anyway, you do it at your own risk. Be warned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02 2022, @08:45PM
Ya don't say! Gee, ya could have knocked me over with a feather!
Thanks for the warning. I feel like my eyes have been opened. I shall now proceed with renewed awareness.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03 2022, @01:04AM (2 children)
It's her journal, and she can post in bad faith if she wants. Also I remember her declaring at one point that she sexually identifies as a Black trans lesbian now, so we should respect her pronouns.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03 2022, @01:11AM (1 child)
No way! We should get her to cosplay Mami Tomoe!
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday May 03 2022, @02:12AM
That would never work. How could anyone bite Runaway's head off when it's so far up his (her?) ass it's getting a facefull of what great-grandpappy Runaway, all four of them, ate the night before they died?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by khallow on Monday May 02 2022, @04:54PM (21 children)
Now (May 1, 2022, from your first link):
"Not on our platforms"! Right?
That should be a lesson to us all. It didn't even take a year for this guy to sing a completely different tune - from smugly bragging that Trump had been kicked off Twitter and mocking Trump for alleged concerns about freedom of speech being under assault to "we are headed to hell" (and whining that Trump somehow did it). Notice also that he repeatedly conflates regulation with control - with the emphasis on control. For example, in the above video quote, it actually starts "You need controls on this. You need regulation. [...]"
Once again, we have a journalist backing censorship without consideration of who will be in charge of that censorship and that's after getting bit by karma. And his reasons are vague stuff like Russian propaganda in 2016, Musk's dislike of the SEC, and that Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg want to make money. One of the dumbest things I've ever seen.
As an aside, it will be interesting to see if the Biden administration throws any roadblocks up for this buyout. Maybe we'll get to see what some of the present day control can really do.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02 2022, @08:56PM (10 children)
Hmm, someone accuses Runaway of bad faith, and immediately khallow shows up? Coincidence, or an obvious confirmation?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02 2022, @09:54PM
Unconfirmed confirmational coincidence.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02 2022, @10:19PM (8 children)
Tjey are limely the same person. Their disagreements are basically walls of text spewing rightwing talking points, just more trolling by a shameless sock puopeting propagandist. Khalliw disagrees with Runaway just enough to seem plausible, but never on anything important.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday May 02 2022, @10:58PM
Because there'd be no reason to agree with Runaway on something like the Zurawik drama? As to disagreeing on important things, I disagree with him on both the Ukraine and covid policy. If those aren't important, then maybe it's not interesting or relevant at all what we agree or disagree on.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Monday May 02 2022, @11:23PM (6 children)
There is a real problem here. Zurawik isn't the only authoritative Chicken Little advocating ending US freedom of speech. But Runaway did us a great service by finding someone so blindingly hypocritical about it. I wonder if the rest of my list of problems above have done the same about face, gloating when it was Trump subject to their whims and whining when the tables turned with Musk's buyout.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Puffin on Tuesday May 03 2022, @02:31AM (5 children)
That's very nice, khallow. What "whims" are you talking about?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday May 04 2022, @06:18AM (4 children)
Let's see...
David Zurawik on CNN in Runaway's linked story. Jack Goldsmith and Andrew Keane Woods in The Atlantic in my first link. Andrew Marantz in New York Times in my second link. Richard Stengel in the Washington Post in my third link.
(Score: 1) by Puffin on Wednesday May 04 2022, @07:52AM (3 children)
But, what "whims"? Seems like those Gentlemen are grounding their positions on fairly substantial legal principles, and not at all on the whims of fickle partisan opinion, like you are, khallow. So, what whims are you complaining about? I ask again.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday May 04 2022, @12:54PM (1 child)
Like what? I'm not going to bother reading through what I've already written on the matter - which honestly already rebuts your assertion, but what would you be referring to that I've somehow missed for years?
On the present case, Zurawik's outburst during the CNN show above, he cites no such substantial legal principle. It was just Musk and Zuckerberg are here to make money - not serve whatever higher cause he implied needed serving, Trump is bad, and Russians wouldn't have been able to steal the 2016 election for Trump, if it weren't for Zuckerberg taking his Ruble payments. And then made an empty appeal that we needed controls on this without specifying what form that would take.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 07 2022, @08:27AM
Finally! Something I can wholefartedly agree with khallow on! I, as well, will not bother reading through what you have posted, in the past, or in the future. Better for all concerned.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday May 04 2022, @12:57PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02 2022, @10:47PM
All’s well that’s Orwell
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 2, 2022
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03 2022, @04:19AM (8 children)
Looks like the same tune. Earlier quote is pointing out how his free speech isn't being censored precisely because they have the right to remove information and do whatever they want on their platform, and by extension Trump doesn't have the right to post there. Second quote is pointing out that the people who own the platform can control whatever information appears on that platform. Since you went through his Baltimore Sun articles, you should have noticed a number of articles saying the same thing for years about social media and the internet needing regulation. But I can see why you left those out since they don't fit your narrative about his having a change of heart in the past year.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03 2022, @11:56AM
I re-read the quotes, sir. No sir, second does not seem to say that, sir. Nice try though, sir. MSM editorials are always self-contradictory shit, sir.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday May 04 2022, @06:26AM (6 children)
Nope. In the second quote, he is calling to put "controls" on the people who own the platform. In the CNN spot, he's ranting about Musk and Zuckerberg, not Trump. "These guys" refers to them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 04 2022, @09:03PM (5 children)
Fail to see the disagreement about ownership and the situation with a lack of regulation. You do you though.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday May 05 2022, @12:06AM (4 children)
He did too, I suppose. The cognitive dissonance is in arguing against regulation of these platforms when it was Trump being suppressed (the owners were merely exercising their rights) and arguing for regulation of the same when the new owner would likely reverse that decision.
In other words, actions that Zurawik agrees with are merely exercise of owners' rights - "Not on our platform!" Actions that Zurawik disagrees with are "You need controls on this."
It's a typical authoritarian pathology. The big missing key to understanding why it fails is that Zurawik won't be in charge. He won't be controlling the bad things he worries about.
What happens when another Trump gets elected and puts their mangy paws on the levers of control for the social media giants? It's not like we've forever lost our ability to elect creepy or criminal presidents, right? Then Zurawik is the voice in the wilderness complaining about free speech and owners' rights. Who knows we might even be able to read that stuff if we're sneaky about it and someone passes us a link.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 05 2022, @02:11AM (3 children)
If only you spent more time reading his articles instead of mining them. Of all the greatness that could have been.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday May 05 2022, @04:35AM (2 children)
What would be the point? As I suspected would happen, I caught Zurawik in a state of pure hypocrisy, indicating that he has pathological understanding of this subject. I would no more read him for free speech issues than I would for general relativity. Plus half his stuff is paywalled.
Life is too short to read sources that have demonstrated fundamental ignorance and lack of credibility. Move on and find someone more useful.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 05 2022, @08:29AM (1 child)
On that we agree. If only the irony weren't so rich.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 07 2022, @08:33AM
Irony for khallow is like metaphor for Drax the Destroyer, it flies right over his head. As khallow says:
Khallow don't know what khallow don't know, which means what he do know, exists in a tiny bubble of obvious rebuttal and mutually reinforcing ideological daisy chaining. Don't pull out, khallow!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02 2022, @05:01PM (1 child)
Now child, let me tell you a dangerous story about how conservatives desired freedom but ended up taking it away from everyone. It is a sad tale of how easily humans can be convinced to work against their very own interests. If they catch me telling you this story I will be sent to Jesus Appreciation Camp and probably will not see you again.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02 2022, @08:49PM
Like this one?
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/jesus_camp [rottentomatoes.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Monday May 02 2022, @06:50PM (5 children)
It is clear in the very last chapter of the Bible that in the holy city they don't let liars in.
Would a Dyson sphere [soylentnews.org] actually work?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02 2022, @09:10PM (4 children)
Jeez! Thanks for spoiling the ending.
I was sure it was going to end with a pandemic.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02 2022, @09:38PM (2 children)
A plague of marxists.
Unless that's the same thing.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02 2022, @10:16PM (1 child)
Poor wannabe hitlers, even your cosplay sucks, you all look like fat neckbeards with fedoras squeezing the skull just a little too tightly.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02 2022, @10:22PM
¿Yo hablo inglés?
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday May 03 2022, @08:34PM
It doesn't end with a pandemic. The fourth seal in chapter 6 might be or include a pandemic. In chapter 16, the first golden bowl might be a pandemic affecting only the people who took the mark -- maybe some kind of a reaction to something in it.
Would a Dyson sphere [soylentnews.org] actually work?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02 2022, @07:30PM
See? See? I told you they were fascists! Damn DEMONRATS are CRITICIZING and LABELING muh propaganda! LITERALLY TWITLER!
Wake me up when DHS is authorized to actually do something to infringe your freedom, or you start caring about the freedoms they are actually infringing on.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03 2022, @01:00AM
My eyeball read this as 1 headline: "Fireball Spotted Over Southern Mississippi, NASA Confirms Army of Worm Larvae Hatch From Man's Bum, Visibly Slither Under His Skin"
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday May 03 2022, @02:10AM
Everything you and your kind piss and bitch about is, as the title says, a confession or a projection or some unholy combination. It's something you want to do, are doing, have done, or will do.
Behind it all is the tribal fallacy, that "it's only moral when my tribe does it." Do you fucks really think you're fooling anyone besides yourselves? Are you so blinkered and insular and void of any theory of mind that you think everyone is as stupid and evil as you are? Pathetic. You really believe yourselves to be the measure of all things...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...