| Author | Message | ||
     Sami |
It's warfare, but as I mentioned in another thread, it's 4th generation warfare. Can Democrats Win Back the Internet In the Age of Trump? https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/06/can-democr ats-win-back-the-internet-in-the-age-of-trump Dems deploying DARPA-funded AI-driven information warfare tool to target pro-Trump accounts https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dems-deploying-da rpa-funded-information-warfare-tool-to-promote-bid en Democrats to Use Pentagon-Funded AI System to Target Pro-Trump Narratives Online https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2020/05/04/gen-stan ley-mcchrystal-advising-democrat-pacs-online-fight -against-trump/ Initiative seeks to challenge Trump's online megaphone https://www.stripes.com/news/us/initiative-seeks-t o-challenge-trump-s-online-megaphone-1.628186 | ||
| Sami |
He Who Controls the Microphone, Controls… https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2017/07/con trols-microphone-controls-shannon-holzer.html | ||
| Aesquire |
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/05/n o_the_usa_is_not_communist_yet.html | ||
| Sami |
Facebook Announces ‘Hateful Memes Challenge’ With $100K Prize Pool To Identify ‘Hate Speech’ https://nationalfile.com/facebook-announces-hatefu l-memes-challenge-with-100k-prize-pool-to-identify -hate-speech/ Facebook created more than 10,000 'hateful memes' to help researchers learn how to spot hate speech https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-hateful-m emes-dataset-hate-speech-researchers-2020-5 Top Far Left Organizations Bragged About Working with Facebook and Twitter to Censor and Eliminate Conservative Content https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/08/top-democ rat-activist-organizations-admitted-to-working-wit h-facebook-and-twitter-to-eliminate-conservative-c ontent/ | ||
| Sami |
Trump's Executive Order to prevent online censorship: https://twitter.com/byjacobward/status/12658642711 38828289 https://kateklonick.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05 /DRAFT-EO-Preventing-Online-Censorship.pdf | ||
| Sami |
Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/ex ecutive-order-preventing-online-censorship/ President Trump Signs an Executive Order https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=CN r2QdpoKZ0&feature=emb_logo | ||
| Blake |
Long overdue, but perhaps politically strategically timed, which I'm not a proponent of. Will be interesting to see how it plays out on the courts. With Bill Barr fully on board, it doesn't look good assuming honest unbiased non-partisan, non-leftist judges. I'm watching an interview of Mark Zuckerberg by Fox News' Dana Perino. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu7SgOZ2nEs He apparently cares a lot about a lot. I hope that's true. He made an interesting comment about how the China issue is playing out in other nations. I use Facebook. It's a valuable resource for staying connected with friends and interesting people, but most of what I use it for is my news feed. Twitter just doesn't have the appeal for me; even if it did, their blatantly corrupt leftist censorship and deplatforming makes it untenable for regular use. I just refuse to support such a corrupt company that is undermining core American constitutional principles. | ||
| Blake |
Interesting analysis of the EO: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JnK80wk4Smcu3l t4TCwajQNTk0_v1sNR-FGhnoMZyWM/edit# The author is a coward for not including a category, say "green" that indicates defense of core constitutionally protected rights. That she thinks the issue is so nuanced is indicative of a political bias, but overall it's an interesting take on the EO. You can't be an impartial platform, akin to a telephone service provider when you start pretending to "fact check" and deplatofom those who's speech you don't like. You're either an open platform, or you're a publisher who shapes and directs content. Twitter in my view has no leg to stand on in a court of law on that issue. Nor Google/YouTube. The point made about how the social media platforms rose to prominence specifically by such open and free speech, but then once dominant altering that model to one of leftist activism was a very strong one. It shows disingenuous and inconsistent behavior, essentially a con game. That should carry weight in court. | ||
| Blake |
Twitter is feeding it's own dumpster fire. They're going up against the master of media, and they will lose. Americans HATE riots/arson/looting by violent mobs, and the President is 100% spot on with his comments.  | ||
| Blake |
Amazing...  | ||
| Hootowl |
I am no longer amazed at anything the left does. | ||
| Court |
Amazing. . . . . Twitter, an amorphous, faceless, electronic blob. . . . Has appointed themselves as the arbiter of what is good, appropriate and acceptable for me to read? I hope the Tweet folks realize that most of us, in the real world, simply laugh at them. I suppose someday I should look at Twitter and Facebook and see what they are. . . . But, for me, they are the modern equivalent of parking my ass in front of Mario Brothers 23/7. | ||
| Sami |
Social media companies have been given a few months to decide whether they're platforms or publishers. Some background information on the difference between the two: Platform, or Publisher? If Big Tech firms want to retain valuable government protections, then they need to get out of the censorship business. https://www.city-journal.org/html/platform-or-publ isher-15888.html Mark Zuckerberg seems to get the message, at least more so than Jack Dorsey: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/202 0/05/trumps-executive-order-isnt-about-twitter/612 349/ Quote: In reality, Trump’s salvo on social-media companies has primarily an audience of one: Mark Zuckerberg. And it is already working. After the executive order was issued, Facebook’s CEO quickly gave an interview to Fox News in which he said, “I just believe strongly that Facebook shouldn’t be the arbiter of truth of everything that people say online.” He added, “Private companies probably shouldn’t be, especially these platform companies, shouldn’t be in the position of doing that.” (Message edited by Sami on June 01, 2020) | ||
| Sami |
Facebook employees hold virtual walkout over Mark Zuckerberg's refusal to act against Trump https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jun/01 /facebook-workers-rebel-mark-zuckerberg-donald-tru mp Facebook Employees Stage Virtual Walkout to Protest Trump Posts https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/01/technology/face book-employee-protest-trump.html | ||
| Aesquire |
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/07/how -bad-are-americas-colleges-this-bad.php The New Religion. | ||
| Aesquire |
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/07/an_su spicious_fire_at_mission_san_gabriel_and_a_curious ly_incurious_mainstream_media_that_parrots_the_lef ts_mendacious_narrative.html The Cathedral of Notre Dame, San Gabriel Mission, is your church next? Destroying statues, burning churches and synagogues, erasing history... The only difference between leftists and the Taliban is one has murdered more and the other has 1000 years more practice. | ||
| Aesquire |
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/07/hagia _sophia_an_islamic_gauntlet_has_been_thrown_down.h tml It's been a mosque before. I'm too old to Crusade to free the Holy Lands or save Constantinople. But the Hagia Sophia is on my bucket list. Notre Dame 1160, Chartres 1194, Armagh 455, Haggia Sophia 532... There's more great churches to visit for the history and architecture. A Dan Brown Da Vinci Code tour would be great, but the last 2 on my list above, are the 2 I'd settle for since both have graffiti left by Norse relatives.  | ||
| Sami |
The Patreon Lawsuit Involving Owen Benjamin Explained by a Lawyer https://www.cernovich.com/patreon-lawsuit-owen-ben jamin/ I mentioned ''tortious interference'' a couple of months ago in this thread, here it is explained by Cernovich: ''Patreon, by banning a Creator, disrupts the economic relationship between Creator and Backer. In legal terms this is called tortious interference with a business relationship.'' If Patreon loses this lawsuit, then other Creators and Backers can sue platforms that have tortiously interfered in their business relationships. This is going to be big, because such lawsuits have the potential to bring down these platforms (Patreon, Twitter, YouTube, etc.). Add to this Trump's Executive Order against online censorship, and it doesn't look very good for these platforms. | ||
| Sami |
Attorney General Barr accuses Hollywood, Big Tech of collaborating with China WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General William Barr took aim at Hollywood companies, including Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) on Thursday as well as large technology firms like Apple, Alphabet’s Google and Microsoft Corp over company actions with China. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-barr/ attorney-general-barr-accuses-hollywood-big-tech-o f-collaborating-with-china-idUSKCN24H2JT | ||
| Aesquire |
https://www.startribune.com/racial-justice-the-new -religion/571899352/?refresh=true Well, America always had a Puritan streak. I suppose there is a yearning for parenting among those who lacked it. The Woke punishment may offer these people the spanking they desperately need. | ||
| Sami |
Patrick: "Well, America always had a Puritan streak." True. John Locke, the Father of Liberalism, was a Puritan. Locke's views have shaped American Liberals to this day. Though lacking self-awareness, many Liberals today are not aware of their Lockean roots. I've watched this video years ago, it is now more relevant than ever: John Locke: Un-Lockeing America https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCT-CmBz0J8 Patrick: "I suppose there is a yearning for parenting among those who lacked it. The Woke punishment may offer these people the spanking they desperately need." Definitely, spare the rod spoil the child. The Left's lack of discipline has created a generation of spoiled children who cry until they get what they want. They cannot be reasoned with, because they have learned early on in life that they get what they want by passion, not by reason. Your article is on point: "Yet something is profoundly amiss in the frenzied movement that has America in its grip. This movement elevates passion over reason and dogma over data. It contemptuously rejects, and attempts to silence, calls for objective analysis as self-evidently racist." The silencing of speech as mentioned above is especially concerning. It is one thing that they let themselves to be ruled by passion, but it is another thing that they silence others. If it weren't for their cancel culture and silencing people, the Left would not be much of a threat to liberty. But since they do cancel and silence people, their attack on liberty cannot be ignored anymore. Arguably Trump's greatest speech where he calls a spade a spade, the far-left is fascism: Donald Trump Mount Rushmore Speech Transcript at 4th of July Event https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump- speech-transcript-at-mount-rushmore-4th-of-july-ev ent "This attack on our liberty, our magnificent liberty must be stopped and it will be stopped very quickly. We will expose this dangerous movement, protect our nation’s children from this radical assault, and preserve our beloved American way of life. In our schools, our newsrooms, even our corporate boardrooms, there is a new far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance. If you do not speak its language, perform its rituals, recite its mantras, and follow its commandments, then you will be censored, banished, blacklisted, persecuted, and punished. It’s not going to happen to us." | ||
| Aesquire |
For years the Christians have been the boogeyman of the Leftist. The Republicans are going to ban ( fill in the blank )!!!!! They're going to herd you to church at gunpoint in cattle cars!!! ( I made that one up, but you probably couldn't tell ) And to be fair, consider the movie Footloose. The Upright Town Elders ban dancing because of a car crash that killed children. Nevermind that in the Real world that crash would have been caused by reckless driving. ( The children get too excited by dancing! ) alcohol. ( dances are dens of iniquity! ) or texting. ( movie predates the testing traffic death pandemic, so ignore ) The REASON Footloose became the greatest movie of all time ( per Starlord ) is the Uptight Elder Meme ( original definition, before Photoshop ) is universal. Every generation in history has rebelled against the Uptight Elders. Every generation has bemoaned the folly of Youth. And as recently as my own childhood and in small towns into the late 20th century, the dominant busybody gossip pressure group & source of shaming has been the Church culture group. And in America, that was some denomination of Christian, usually Protestant. ( Lutheran in areas settled by German and Scandahoovian immigrants, others in English/Scots/Irish areas ) And while the name on the sign changed based on migration patterns and the opening of the West, and the sermons had different favorite passages, the Culture of church potluck dinner, frightening casseroles, and primacy in finding life/sex/dating/marriage partners was the same. To this day, church is a prime location for finding a mate. Don't think it's #1 anymore. Schools, High school & college, are the other traditional mate finding spots. And Hobby/interest groups like D&D, ballroom dancing, historical recreation, & athletic interests may be #1 today. Ok, I'm stretching it with D&D, but you might be surprised, & for me personally, college and Interest groups have been primary meeting places. And Dancing! Bars? How many married couples do you know who met in a bar? Outside Hollywood movies? What was the ratio of long term vs. soap opera hookups? So the primacy of the neighborhood church in family creation has faded, but not vanished in modern society. More importantly, the Church as Boogeyman has lost a lot of teeth. Because it's no longer the most important means to get along ( & get laid ) in a community. ( you thought I was ADHD digressing, didn't you?  ) Until the 70s not going to church, being one with the group, was grounds for gossip, rejection, even inability to buy a house & find a mate. Mrs. Grundy is still a powerful force in American culture, but the Church centric culture isn't near the only game in town, today. So the threat that the Dreaded Christians will Force you to... Is now fantasy propaganda from the left. However, uptight gossip culture is still with us. In small towns a Goth kid or Gay/lesbian teen is still subject to hateful prejudice. And in the cities, mrs. Grundy, the busybody gossip power freaks, are still there, they're just using a different power base of conformity. Woke cancel culture is psychologically the Same as evil church lady. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs_Grundy "Freedom begins when you tell Mrs. Grundy to go fly a kite." RAH. | ||
| Sami |
The modern-day equivalents of mrs. Grundy are far more pernicious due to being backed by every leftist media outlet. Mrs. Grundy's platform was her neighborhood church, her reach and influence was local. Compare that to the social media platform of woke cancel culture, their reach and influence is global. They shape world politics, corporate policy and church doctrine, things that mrs. Grundy only could have dreamed of. So yes, on the psychological level they are the same, but in terms of reach and influence they are a different beast altogether. | ||
| Aesquire |
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/08/will_ lack_of_religious_distinction_lead_to_judgment_day .html My own faith has a future apocalyptic tradition, much like Christianity. Oh, it's different in detail and symbolism, but both predict the SHTF and war for the survivors for their souls and against Evil. Personally, I really doubt anyone would know they were really in The End Times, since absent undeniable physical evidence, like millions of empty graves, how could you tell? For thousands of years, people have screamed the End Is Near! You'd be a fool to believe that, since the last million times... It wasn't. Otoh, we could well be in the Heart of the End Days. Despite those who take every word of prophesy literally, word for word, there's a lot of symbolism. And most "prophesy" in the Bible is Not announcement From God, especially the New Testament, it's "Prophet Fred said" and pretty plainly we're supposed to listen & learn from prophets, but the rant of a desert hermit maybe shouldn't be believed literally. I could be wrong. Spinning wheels of flame with faces might fly overhead next week. Cows might have Marxist Protests and speak fluent Hebrew. ( Which means I need to write a joke about a Nebraska Farmer who tells the NY Times after a Jewish scholar reports Hebrew speaking cows, "yeah, they always do that. Some years they moo in latin." | ||
| Sami |
Free speech according to the Left:  Damned if you are silent, damned if you are not. | ||
| Court |
Schizophrenic? Let me guess his name is Gordian Knott?  | ||
| Sami |
The movie "Equilibrium" is about a distopian future where the State mandates taking a pill that prevents people's feelings from getting hurt. Imagine a world without feelings, imagine a world without hurt, the Perfect Totalitarian State. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFXOKxqZT5c The Left is so guided by their feelings that they just might make a pill to stop all the feel and all the hurt. Feel not, hurt not. | ||
| Aesquire |
I saw there's another movie version of Brave New World. Drug use was central to the book, and while Equilibrium had fun, if ridiculous Gun Kata, it's the Darker Knight rip off of BNW. The difference in slant on "everyone does drugs" is interesting. Brave New World has social pressure and recreational use. Equilibrium had authoritarian mandatory use. While the Covid Panicdemic Power grabs points towards the mandatory side, most trends seem to point at socially pushed voluntary sedation. I'm not putting real money on this, but my guess is towards social peer pressure first, then Chinese Social Scoring authoritarian control... A little later. | ||
| Pwnzor |
Yeah... that kind of thing is bound to creep up on us when the loony left finally gets their way... and they will get it eventually. I figure the older I get, the farther I move away from "civilization". I've no real personal need for cities anymore, and rarely visit the one I live nearest to. I pass through it quite a bit to get to the airport, get my freight and get gone. There are two exceptionally good BBQ places in Atlanta that I love. I go maybe once a year to each of them. I'd rather go to Jim's, where open carry and judicious marksmanship are appreciated. | ||
| Sami |
The storyline of "Equilibrium" has an underground movement that is set to overthrow the government. The protagonist joins this movement to achieve his goal of doing just that. This reminds me of current events. Leftist movements such as Antifa and BLM also see the government as evil. Overthrowing the government hence becomes their goal. They believe that the (current) government to the "right" of the Left represents evil, in the form of racism, sexism and the list goes on. They believe that in order to end racism, sexism etc. the Right government must be overthrown by any means necessary. This way, they can bring about an end to racism, sexism, etc. and establish their utopian government as they see it. In doing so, they eradicate history as well. This happened in China, where Mao removed history and replaced it with his own. Historical buildings and monuments were destroyed and replaced by what Mao approved. The movie analogy breaks down at some point. For example, the movie depicts the authoritarian government as Right-wing. In the movie, the government has removed history by destroying buildings, statues and art. Whereas authoritarian governments in the real world often come in the form of Left-wing ideologies such as Communism and Fascism. Authoritarianism and the removal of history is a Leftist act, something the movie gets wrong. The Left does not tolerate the Right. The father of the New Left, Herbert Marcuse, wrote in his book "A Critique of Pure Tolerance", that: "Liberating tolerance, then, would mean intolerance against movements from the Right and toleration of movements from the Left." https://www.marcuse.org/herbert/publications/1960s /1965-repressive-tolerance-fulltext.html The Left does not believe in tolerating movements from the Right, rather they believe in "liberating tolerance". What is "liberating tolerance"? This Orwellian speech means that only speech coming from movements from the Left are tolerated. Of course, this is an upside down version of what tolerance is supposed to mean. But that is the point, the Left cares more about the redefinition of terms than they do about logical consistency. The Left is defined by redefinition. If the world is evil, then redefine the world to make it good. However, this is like putting the cart before the horse. Something does not become something else by mere redefinition. Calling the cart the horse and the horse the cart is not only confusing, since history has to be rewritten to account for this redefinition, but it is also not true. The horse is not the cart and the cart is not the horse, they are different for good reasons. We need tolerance, but we do not need "liberating tolerance". Tolerance is the freedom to say 2+2=4, it is the freedom to say evil is evil and good is good. Tolerance is not to call good evil and evil good, that would be "liberating tolerance". |
