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It's been one heck of a week:
Against the backdrop of record-setting numbers of COVID-19 deaths and infections in the US and around the world, there was turmoil in Washington, DC. As court cases surrounding the presidential election were filed and dismissed, a close race in Georgia was coming down to the wire and with it control of the US Senate. While the US Congress was completing the Electoral College tally and certification, a mob formed outside — and eventually broke into — the US Capitol. This resulted in a 4-hour lock-down. Eventually, the intrusion was repelled, and the Electoral College count was completed: Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was confirmed as the 46th president of the United States of America.
Conspiracy theories have flourished. Propaganda has streamed forth across multiple platforms. Tempers have flared.
And SoylentNews has been there for you. And have you ever spoken up! Two of the most-commented stories in the site's nearly seven-year history were posted in just the past week!
Insomuch as the activities in the US Capitol were far from the US' most shining moments, neither were things all unicorns and rainbows on SoylentNews. Tempers flared. People were attacked and called names. I even accidentally deleted a story and the 17 comments attached to it! [NB: Problem addressed: the delete button no longer appears by default for our editors.]
IRC (Internet Relay Chat):
Even our IRC service was not free from controversy. We had a spate of nick (nickname) impersonations. Going forward, IRC users are free to use whatever nick they like with the following caveats:
- Prefix / suffix of a nick is fine for practical purposes (e.g. ${nick}_laptop)
- Impersonation or misrepresentation will not be tolerated
- The use of another user's website nick or derivative thereof on IRC will be subject to sanctions up to and including perma ban.
Further, we understand conversations can easily ramble from subject to subject, but there are separate channels for different topics. (Use the /list comand to see what is available.) As #soylent is the default landing channel, we want to keep the discussions there civil. Name calling and personal attacks are grounds for a timeout. I have had discussions with deucalion (the site's CEO and also IRC-maintainer) about these activities.
NOTE: we are NOT going to sit there watching every discussion, poised to take action. But, if such activity is seen by staff on IRC, they are free to take such actions as they deem necessary.
Aspirations:
As I approach posting my 10,000th story(!) to SoylentNews, I think back to when it all started. How a group of people got together. They shared freely of their expertise, of their free time, and of their hard-earned funds. They tried to create a place free from corporate overlords where people could engage in discussions that focused primarily on technology, but with a dabbling in other areas and current events.
SoylentNews provides a forum for discussion. It also provides tools so the community can express themselves in the comments and moderate those comments, as well.
This got me to thinking. What are our aspirations today? What are our guiding principles? I will list some of my guiding principles, and I encourage the community to share what guides them in the comments.
- "Explanations exist; they have existed for all time; there is always a well-known solution to every human problem—neat, plausible, and wrong." --H. L. Mencken (cite)
- "People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do." -- Isaac Asimov (cite)
- "If you speak when angry, you'll make the best speech you'll ever regret." -- Groucho Marx (cite)
- "Say what you mean, mean what you say, but don't say it mean."
- "Don't get furious, get curious" -- Miley Cyrus (cite)
- "Humiliation is when someone points out my shortcomings. Humility is when I confess them myself."
- "I need not participate in every fight I am invited to."
- The most difficult behaviors to observe in another person are the ones I dislike in my own.
- "You have not converted a man because you have silenced him." -- John, Lord Morley (cite)
How about you? What sayings guide your aspirations?
Thank You!
Lastly, I thank all of you for supporting me as Editor-in-Chief. I have no formal background in writing or management. I've made mistakes, but I've tried to own up to them as they happened. I strive to be fair, impartial, and open-minded. Under the watchful gaze of the community, I have grown. It is my hope that I may continue to earn your respect and continue in service for many years to come.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Monday January 11 2021, @07:18PM (1 child)
The way the parties have shaped up, no... they really don't. Show me districts that have been gerrymandered to benefit Democratic voters? The type of poll shaping that benefits Democrats is: Get out the vote, get as many people to vote as possible - so, I suppose they're "guilty" of that, but that's the ideal situation in a democracy anyway.
Are Democratic (or any) politicians blameless angels? No. Ala Arthur C. Clarke: any person who actively seeks public office should be automatically barred from holding it.
When the shit went down in Florida in 2000, I wasn't happy with the result, but I wasn't joining a mob to lynch the public officials who were carrying out the transition of power. The losing side in 2000 didn't entrench and turn the country upon itself, give inflammatory speeches inspiring a fringe minority mob to zealous action: stampeding themselves and law enforcement to death like some little Who concert [usatoday.com] chanting about hanging the Vice President and carrying handcuffs into the halls of Congress. Hillary lost in 2016 by the same margin that Trump did in 2020, I don't recall endless lawsuits and claims of fraud.
It seems to me that the events of the past week are the culmination of 30 years of borderline hate speech on talk radio, and yes there's the opposing viewpoint espoused by NPR and similar outlets, but when you weigh the two sides - one comes up not only smelling better, but also much closer to legal than the other one.
I will also say: it is unfair to paint all Republicans with the Orange brush. But I would say that any Congressman or Senator who took a stand in open session to protest the most carefully examined election results in US history, with 0 for 38 court cases supporting allegations of cheating, they do deserve to be remembered as part of the Orange party and the Orange party deserves more excoriation, ridicule, shame, boycott, un-employment, and microscopic examination of their dealings than Communist party did from the 1950s to the 1970s.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 11 2021, @09:32PM
Obi-wan got blacklisted for being an open communist party supported back in the 50s. Star Wars was his first major break in 20 years.
I think the same or greater level of condemnation he recieved for his otherwise innocent support of a political party should be shown to Trump's most fervent supporters. It's only fair if supporting an unpopular position gets you blacklisted for 20 years that supporting a violently and eventually unpopular decision gets you condemned for at least that long.