Merv's Politically Incorrect Audio Blog

Pretty much, but you can't stop people like my father who is very Pro Trump for demanding action against social media.

 

Man if it was not for fg COVID I would be already in my car driving from Sarasota

Just imagine how it would be if Dorsey and Zuckerberg were Trump loyalists. That's how the future looks like by the way. Except that Trump has no future.
Twitter and Facebook are the tools made for a totalitarian state, and sooner or later they will be used to exactly this end.

On the other hand if Dorsey and Zuckerberg tried to do to Xi or Putin what they were doing to Trump they would now be breaking limestone with big hammers on 500 calories a day. If they were lucky.

Today, the social media is not exactly just a fountain of joy and wisdom.
And 230 was created for start-ups to let them grow. But I agree that just making them responsible for the content would be a disaster. The worst case scenario is that some moron will watch a video about installing a lamp switch, then will electrocute himself and the family would sue Youtube for half a billion dollars.

 

Just in the last hour I found out about Parler, what it is, and, in the same hour that Google and Apple decided to remove their apps from their stores, and Amazon is going to shut down their servers. I fully agree that all three companies are entitled to do just that. I am actually hoping they will do that. That will show to even the most skeptical, what game the big tech is playing in the coming crackdown on "deplorables".
But I wonder how long it is going to take the people who who stupidly stormed the Capitol Hill to realize that it was just a wrong building? Days, weeks?

 

I agree, in many places social media is a mess... but the removal of 230 means that any curation whatsoever leaves the platform open for litigation. That leaves only two choices:

1. User content remains with no moderation whatsoever... no matter how heinous, disgusting, illegal, etc... any curation whatsoever leaves the platform open to litigation.
2. All user content goes away. The only thing remaining is carefully crafted staff member created content that passes legal review.

If the goal is to get rid of Twitter, Facebook and the like, then I won't lose any sleep because I (personally) have no use for those outlets. Frankly, the world could be a better place if they didn't exist. Maybe people wouldn't be locked to their devices. Maybe families would talk around a dinner table and you wouldn't see people at events (whenever we have those again), paying more attention to things going on around them than their screen.

However, this also means that all forums (eg., SBAF, FredMiranda, watchuseek, etc), user comments on news/sports articles, product reviews on Amazon/Best Buy, etc, etc.... these all go away as we know them.

The internet either becomes the wild, wild, west, or all user interaction goes away and its just different form of TV programmed for your viewing pleasure.

 

what do you mean by “fanatical” exactly?

that word could mean enthusiasm or devotion in which case I disagree. If you mean absolutism (I’m forgetting the better word for it right now) then I agree.

I think most religions have ways of being practiced that are virtuous and create happier people but almost all religions have been corrupted and turned into ways to control people. I see little connection between most practices of Christianity and what Jesus’s teachings were likely to have been.

two religions stand out to me as seeming to create more happy, righteous (I don’t mean self righteous) people- Judaism and Buddhism. But as I said I think there are ways of practicing probably all religions that lead to being happier and spreading happiness. They just aren’t done very commonly.

most often religions seem to turn into some version of some kind of God figure either rewarding you or punishing you and this leads to ignorance. I remember seeing a Hindu man in India pray to a God to bring him wealth and then immediately turn around and physically abuse his child. His actions seemed to be totally separate from his belief in God(s).

 

Something really disturbing about the Capitol Riots to me are some telling contrasts. The difference between the security presence at the Capitol for Trumps protest rally vs the security presence during Black Lives Matter protest events. The difference between the police response to these two. And the difference between Trump’s response to both riots.

very disturbing.

then there is how the GOP is going to react to the Capitol riots vs how they reacted to the Benghazi attack. Unless I am misinformed, more people died at the Capitol Riots than the Benghazi attacks. And the Capitol Riots were legitimate insurrection. Benghazi was one of hundreds of equal attacks and turned into a fake conspiracy in anticipation of Hillary running for president. And it worked because people are idiots.

 

Just know that when a religious group can steer a country towards theocracy and absolutism where a degree of tolerance for others is lacking, run or hide. (Guess how NL became so wealthy in the 1600s and 1700s, tolerance helped a lot.)

When the people practising their religion do not practise what they preach (while quoting verses and referencing their deity, evangelicals love doing that) keep them at a good (safe*) distance. I no longer care about which deity or the system of beliefs and traditions. Practise what you preach or go away, fast mind you.

In NL the separations of powers still is not in full swing so religious groups have been able to get out of Covid19-measures and the rest of the country has to pay the price. If the Bible-Belt groups and other groups give the vaccine process a hard time I will personally boycot all religious movements in NL, regardless of how peaceful they might be.

I am fed up. Article 23 (Dutch Constitution) my gluteus maximus.

* You know the song, very "Vicarious."

 

One thing I learned well growing up Lutheran... never judge a person by what they believe in. Sometimes people are genuine in their beliefs and do good things with them, even if you yourself don't agree with what they claim to believe. Other times, they are still genuine but fail, just as easily as all people fail to know themselves. And other times still, those beliefs aren't serving the goals presented at all, and that is hidden from others. You can't really know, going on the ideas themselves.

But the actions will tell you everything. Talk is for talk. That is a separate realm.

To me, hate is a verb first and foremost. If you speak of love but your actions transfer hate and pain, those words are meaningless, even if you yourself believe they are true. Hatred still moves through you. And somebody else picks it up not because of your words or thoughts, but your choices in the world. You're blinded by the light at best, willfully ignorant of others at worst. Can't see your own shadow when you're always turned towards the light. I think when people get too preoccupied with all of the things they aren't, they wind-up becoming those things. Religions tend to put a lot of emphasis on what not to be. After a certain point, it's sunken cost. You sense the shadow getting bigger, making you want to push harder. It's always getting bigger, getting scarier. And then 10 years later your family is in shambles and you tell yourself they choose to suffer the wrong path, and you no longer care to see the paths that others walk.

Going on a tangent. Point is... the outcome is the same, regardless of the whys. There is nothing more alienating than an over-emphasis on belief.

 

https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/...e-pilgrims-flock-to-manila-amid-covid-worries

Ignore me I'm just actually crying that this is a thing.

 

I won't argue about Trump's response to the Capitol riots, but you are delusional to think they can be compared to the Benghazi attack. Rockets, mortars, grenades, and automatic machine gun fire DID NOT occur in DC!!!

So the occupancy of the Police Station and surrounding area in Seattle last summer by armed citizens was OK? How long did that "insurrection" last? That was an embarrassment, downplayed, and pretty much swept under the rug in the mainstream media. Oh, the riots in Portland that lasted ALL summer long, what about that?

I definitely DON"T condone what went down in DC, but that was a real eye opener for the folks in government hiding under their desks and on the floor of the capital building, with angry citizens standing up for what they believe in. I would say that it shook those cowering in fear to their core, they now realize they are just people too, and may think twice before their next "lie"...

 

sure, the GOP’s response to the two can definitely be compared. One is completely straight forward fucked up and Un-American no matter how you look at it and will be downplayed by Fox News snd the GOP. The Benghazi attack was one of many many attacks on US consulates around the world and the GOP had been looking for something to attack Hillary Clinton for in anticipation of her running for president. They couldn’t find anything so they made up a scandal around the Benghazi attack and then repeated it over and over and over until people became brainwashed with the nonsense. The GOP will downplay literally anything that is bad for them politically and fabricate literally anything for political maneuvers. Even if they completely disrespect the people who lost their lives in the attack by using them for propaganda.

more people died in the riots at the Capitol than Benghazi but you won’t see their deaths repeated over and over for the next 6 years or whatever. They are already blaming the riots on antifa even though all the video footage and photographs clearly show MAGA apparel on everyone but the Viking.

as for your comments attempting to legitimize the riots I don’t even know how to respond. What exactly did the rioters “believe in”? The voter fraud which only exists in Trump’s mouth? And can’t even be proven by Trump loyalists?

 

Remember the US was founded by us saying f**k you to England. Not saying what happened this week was ok....

The big difference here between the summer riots and this one earlier in the week was the summer riots were the states problem. The one from this week were a Federal problem. @haywood earlier comments about the chickens coming home to roost isn't too far off from the supporters of Trump that I know. I know more people who didn't think the riots were a big deal in DC and still believe the election was stolen. Being right or wrong with those comments is a separate matter.

 

are you seriously comparing the Capitol riots about non existent voter fraud to the revolutionary war???????????? I couldn’t possibly add enough question marks to that...

 

It was more than voter fraud that these people were rioting for. Some are fighting for what they see are liberals taking away their rights, shutting them up since they think the liberals are in bed with tech (can't blame them for thinking this way after yesterday), and not listening to them since some of these rioters are poor as f**k.

Here's the problem, these dorks should had harass the state legislatures for their things hard core. Last time I check most of the state legislatures are controlled by the GOP, so if those states want to restrict voting like ban mailing ballots then it is their right to do it per the Constitution. Federal Level have very limited powers on trying to reject any electoral votes.

I have a better solution in stopping this BS in the future: For the states who elect their own judges up to the Supreme Court Justices in the state level, ban that shit via a constitutional amendment. It is crazy mind boggling that states like WI/NC/PA and others elect their Supreme Court Justices directly with politics involved and partisanship. Shit become too pollical. Officially WI races are non-partisan, but they run partisan as F as of late where their Supreme Court is 4-3 Conservative/Liberal. Get rid of the Rs/Ds from these Judge races so they can mostly take the politics out of this shit. Make all that shit appointed as they do in the Federal Level. In FL we can only elect judges in the county level for basic stuff. The higher level stuff is all appointed by the governor so none of these judges in the higher level stuff are too politically involved.

 

Well stated. In the Gospel narratives Jesus was in constant conflict with just these sort of people, "white washed tombs" (i.e. clean and turned toward the light on the outside, dead and in hell on the inside). He runs from them for a couple of years, is eventually caught and executed by them. Before being caught, he was always telling stories about people who could not see their "shadow" and how that shadow eventually catches up to them, so to speak. Interesting how starting 1500 years later Protestants read these narratives and turned them into a sentimental self/society improvement plan (liberal Protestants) or a variation on the Law/light (conservative/reformed).

 

i definitely wasn’t comparing the two movements themselves but only the way the demonstrations were treated by law enforcement. Police reportedly let the rioters who stormed the Capitol just walk away, vs very aggressive law enforcement at BLM protests. This is the f'ing Capitol and our elected officials!!!! I’m just shocked beyond belief that our country reacts more violently to black people marching against being murdered by police than white people literally storming the Capitol while it was full of elected officials and to top it off they were performing the very sacred constitutional duty of validating the election results. This is unbelievable.

I saw photographs of security at BLM protests which was way more than the security at the Capitol. Also unbelievable.

and the way Trump reacted so angrily snd violently to the BLM riots and protests calling on law enforcement to basically be violent and brutal. While he reacted to the Capitol riots totally calm, telling them to carry on but don’t be violent or something like that. Obviously just saying the bare minimum to not look like he was outright encouraging them.

Also unbelievable.

a very dark moment for our country.

 

Shocked I tell you, I am just shocked!!

You know @rythmdevils, if you did not lay it on so thick with the cliché's. For example, have you looked at the "protesters" who are still setting tire fires in places like Portland...your definition of "black people" makes no sense.

That said there is an important difference between Portland or any other inner city ghetto and the capital building. The symbolic meaning of the latter is very important. There is a "sacredness" to our bedrock institutions even though they are secular. To attack them is to attack order itself. There is a reason why Dante had traitors in the lowest level of hell.

Still the left's (including politicians, media, intellectuals, etc.) willingness to turn away from (or outright justify) the violence and attack on America foundational beliefs by BLM and then talk about "sedition" in this context is just a wee bit hypocritical. The fact is the left supports insurrection and rebellion when it supports their agenda, and they admit this fully.

 

you talk about “cliches” and then go on to talk about “the left” with nothing but right wing taking points. Watching Fox News much lately?

I should probably leave this thread again. Too much crazy talk. Better to remain friends and keep it to headphones. It’s not like anyone is getting anyone else to think about anything in a new way here which is the only reason to have a thread like this on a site like this.

I came back here praying everyone here would be outraged and disgusted by what just happened and I guess it’s not surprising to see the same people who vehemently disagreed with everything I posted here in the past making excuses for it. Well it may not be entirely surprising but it is disappointing.

 

The BLM protests were a response to state violence against black lives that has gone on since before slavery ended. How on earth is that comparable to a white supremacist coup attempt to overturn a legitimate election?

 

Sounds like we’re on the same page. As I wrote earlier I’m definitely not comparing the events themselves but the reaction by law enforcement and the president. Starkly different reactions. I can’t believe the Capitol is so pathetically protected.

So much more I could say about all of this but I’m not interested in creating enemies here. I like @crenca and @JK47 despite all the dislikes for simply disagreeing with my point of view. I’d like to maintain friendly relations even if we both think each other’s political views are nuts.

go headphones! We can agree on that.