Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
from the so-sayeth dept
We’ve got one commenter taking both top spots on the insightful side this week, but also… not really. Because in what I believe is a first, our top winner on the insightful side is Samuel Abram commenting on the previous comments post to celebrate a comment from last week, by Stephen T. Stone, that didn’t quite make the list (and it’s a very good comment). Got that? Here it is:
I want to give a shoutout to my favorite insightful comment of the week, which is this one by Stephen T. Stone:
Trans people are being denied gender affirming healthcare in multiple states thanks to specifically targeted laws, whereas cis people (including teenagers!) can get gender affirming treatments such as breast enhancements without any real trouble. Trans people are being targeted by laws that try to force them out of the public sphere by way of determining what public restrooms they have to use—something cis people will never have to worry about. Trans people are being murdered, harassed into suicide, blamed for crimes against children that they didn’t commit, and generally treated like subhuman filth by conservative jackoffs only because trans people are transgender.
You may not think that’s persecution because trans people aren’t being systematically rounded up into concentration camps or murdered in the streets by a military police group. But that’s the thing about persecution: It never starts with death camps—but on a long enough timeline, it sure as hell ends there. The only way to stop that from happening is to stop the persecution. To do that, you must first admit the persecution is real.
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
The point of that bit of prose: Those who would have defended you against persecution will already be gone thanks in part to you and your indifference towards their persecution. Before you know it, the leopards you thought would never eat your face are making you their next meal. And no one will stop them because the people who might’ve saved you already learned their lesson from your indifference: They’re not you, so they don’t need to speak out when the leopards (fascists) come for your face (your life).
Transgender people are being persecuted regardless of your position on the matter. Will you be courageous and raise your voice against that persecution, or will you be a coward and stay silent as the persecuted suffer and die?
I really felt it was a powerful defense against the genocide that is happening in the US right now against Trans people.
In second place on the insightful side, it’s one of Samuel’s own comments, on our post about Elon Musk talking about paywalling ExTwitter:
To Koby, Matthew M Bennett, and all of the Elon Stanboys…
To every Elon defender here, I say this:
You think X/Twitter is doing so great, eh? Pay up. Put your money where your mouth is.
For editor’s choice on the insightful side, we start out with a comment from Somewhat Less Anonymous Coward in reaction to ExTwitter’s dwindling trust and safety team:
20 trust and safety people for purported 350m active users? I don’t even have a witty comment on that one, this is just staggering.
Next, it’s an anonymous comment about the Biden Administration seeking a deal where it oversees content moderation on TikTok:
Still with the “concerns” about privacy/security somehow leading to control of moderation. How the hell does this work?
The TikTok thing, while being a bunch of xenophobic security theatre, is also a bunch of bafflegab to get a foot in the door. “Well, TikTok is controlled by the government, so shouldn’t all the things be controlled by the government?”
Over on the funny side, our first place winner is an anonymous comment about Musk’s abject failure to eliminate bots leading to the idea of a paywall:
So his solution to kill the bots is to make the product far worse than the bots ever did.
[insert Obi-Wan meme here]
“It was said that you would destroy the bots, not join them!”
In second place, it’s another anonymous comment from that post:
“Twitter Blue failed, so now EVERYONE has to use Twitter Blue! By making it cheaper for everyone!”
I… I’m gonna need to actually develop a drinking habit to handle Elon’s stupidity.
For editor’s choice on the funny side, we’ll start out with Bobson Dugnutt and one more comment about the proposed paywall:
What’s worse than a Nazi bar? A Nazi bar with a cover charge.
And finally, it’s an anonymous comment that could easily go on the insightful side too, regarding the sorry state of the Supreme Court:
There aren’t any justices anymore. Just Justifiers.
That’s all for this week, folks!
Comments on “Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt”
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Of COURSE you sick degenerates at TD are again leading with pro-transgenderism crap.
Your collaboration and promotion of that death cult won’t be forgotten!
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You seem confused, the only death cult is right wing bigots that want to kill trans people.
No one, including trans people want anything to do with your gender or what you do with it. Or is that your real problem?
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You re more degenerate that the my LGBT neighbors, who are polite and helpful, unlike you who rant and rave about what other people are doing.
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I’d rather deal with a trans asshole than with the 74 million who believe in white supremacy.
That includes you, Jhon.
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How is it that you really and truly believe that you are somehow going to convert any of us to your point of view?. That’s like banging your head against the wall to make the pain go away, and I’ll bet that’s not working out for you either, is it.
In the final analysis, you don’t live rent-free in our heads, we’re the one’s living rent-free in your head. That’s ’cause we spread the load amongst many TD readers here; you don’t have that luxury.
The German language has a word for you (and your kind): hanswurst. I thought it applicable since you so badly want to be a Nazi ….
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lmao fuck off
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“Your collaboration and promotion of that death cult won’t be forgotten!”
Come at me bro!
Re: You got that big nazi, little dick energy bro
You know Herman. If you’re weren’t so determinedly stupid and bigoted, I’d just assume Mr. Stone is making up strawmen just so he can continue dominating the weekly Funniest/Most Insightful lists.
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They claim that transgender people are being “genocided”, yet when you support genitally mutilating and sterilizing children, that is somehow NOT genocide.
Not only that but trangeder people are by definition ending their genetic line by doing so, so its functionally impossible to “genocide” a transgender.
Then they want to call people fascists, yet when it comes to totalitarianism, its the left who cant stand freedom of speech, parental control of their childrens education, and systematic discrimination such as affirmative action and “equity”.
War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.
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You know nothing about being Trans. Not all Trans people get their genitals operated on. There are Trans Women (and yes, they are women) who ejaculate semen and Trans Men (who are men) who can get pregnant (not to mention Non-Binary people who can do one or the other), so you are false in your assertion that trans people are infertile.
Also, if you’re somebody who can’t tell the difference between choosing to get Gender Reassignment Surgery and having others determine that for you, I think it’s you who need help.
Yes, it’s the left who has those “don’t say gay” and book bans. Right.
Do you have a problem with Legacy admissions into colleges? Are you even aware of them?
You’d do best to follow Orwell’s advice.
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Hymie, that you can write any of this with a straight face shows just how insane you are.
Re: Re: Re:2
Congratz, you didn’t respond to Hymie. You responded to Samuel.
Re: Re: Re:3
In this case, he’s saying “Hymie” as an anti-Semitic slur, rather than addressing Hyman Rosen per se.
Re: Re: Re:2
I know trans people IRL. So yeah, I can and do write that with a straight face.
Fuck off, you anti-Semitic tranmisiac!
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…hallucinated nobody mentally competent, ever.
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Dude, I’ve pointed out multiple times that your positions are out of touch even with many on the far right. You’ve got no perspective on this.
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But are they out of time? 🤔
While I agree overall with that first insightful comment, it’s totally false that cis people “never” have to deal with worrying about which bathroom to use. They’re tons of examples of cis people being harassed for using the so-called correct restroom. From incidents I’ve seen, usually women who don’t look quite feminine enough.
Of course, this is still because of this ridiculousness, but I couldn’t just let that blatent falsehood go.
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Of course, that proves the point of people like me and Stephen T. Stone: that these transmisic laws harm cisgender people as well and not just transgender people. It’s kind of like how gender-neutral bathrooms also benefit cisgender people and not only transgender people because gender-neutral bathrooms take the fear away from going into the wrong bathroom. Also, for gender-neutral single-stall bathrooms, if one is occupied, use the other one!
My point is this: Laws and policies that protect transgender people protect everybody, and laws and policies that target transgender people have cisgender people as collateral damage.
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A fair point, but I temper that with a qualifier: Cis people generally don’t go out in public thinking they might be harassed for using the “wrong” bathroom. While it might happen to a cis person every so often, it doesn’t happen often enough to make it a regular issue for cis people in general.
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Yeah, I think maybe the English language is just lacking here with forms of “general.” Obviously, this doesn’t happen to the majority of cis people. But, it might happen often to particular cis people. I didn’t intend to imply otherwise and I apologize if it came across that way.
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S’alright, I could always stand to be a bit more precise in my communication.
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Re: Re: Re:2
This from the man who demonstrates almost daily that he knows how to call a spade an asshole.
Re: Re: Re:3
lmao u mad
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True, as a trans girl I’ve bonded with cis lesbians who also got challenged in bathrooms for being butch
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1) File this under “things that never happened.”
2) “Trans girl” = mentally-ill male
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Fuck off Hyman.
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Re: Re: Re:2
Why so hateful, Hymie?
Re: Re: Re:
It has happened before. It will happen again.
Re: Re: Re:2
Yeah like not only am I not making it up, it happens to women who aren’t even butch
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How does it feel to serve as an object lesson on how not to act bro?
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True story: when I was singing tenor in a comparatively renowned university choir, we were singing some large work (complete Bach Christmas Oratorio or something along that line) with a large break in the middle. We were singing in the central auditorium which also houses a concert organ and has considerable basement passages (and connections to the parking areas) for lots of stuff, and the designated choir break room happened to be accessible right through the central ladies’ restroom, sort of a big room with about two dozen stalls and washing basins.
So at the start of the break, I happened to be talking to a member of the audience while eventually going down the stairs to the restrooms and steering towards the ladies’ restroom. My company started looking somewhat quizzical at the doors I was steering towards, and I said in an explanatory voice “that’s the ladies’ restroom”. Before I could offer anything more explanatory, he apologised “oh, I’m sorry” and turned the other way.
To this day I have no idea what he was thinking at the moment or afterwards. There is nothing effeminate about my features and talking voice (I am one of those fake tenors that are actually bass-baritones with a passable upward extension).
Frankly it’s hard for me to understand what all the genetically assigned bathroom drama in the U.S. is pretending to be good for in the first place since anything of possible interest would be hidden away in the stalls.
But recollecting that apology to me still makes me smile.
Re: Re:
There is a facinating amount of culture and different social ‘outrages’ that go into this, but it might shortcut things to say its simply an extension of the same strategy of social repression that created seperate restrooms for whites and blacks. The culture warriors have simply changed targets. The goal is to create an other, stoke fear over the other, and exclude the other from public life. Than while the people focus on the other, those stoking fear get power higher on the heiarchy and often the people consumed in their fear and an existential threat can’t look too closely at how that power gets used to benefit the powerful, and harm the people.
It may not be intentional. They might not have mapped out this plan in advance, but its the playbook it comes from.
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It is intentional. Conservatism necessarily requires hierarchies, and to achieve such hierarchies, it must categorize people. This is why the social construct of race exists: “White” and “Black” are distinct categories that were initially created to give one group of people power over the other. Gender is much the same way to conservatives—e.g., “there are only two genders”—so anyone or anything that upsets this construct via “non-compliance” is seen by conservatives as a societal threat.
Whether it was Mary Tyler Moore wearing pants on The Dick Van Dyke Show back in the day or a trans woman existing in public today, the moral busybodies who want to enforce their ideas of gender have always found a target for their ire. But these days, the Internet has made that a more violent affair thanks to social media, instant sharing of videos, and the ever-worsening search for clout. (Libs of TikTok, for example, is basically a stochastic terrorism operation at this point.) One has to wonder: How long will it be before one of the bomb threats aimed at a school or a public library or a hospital become a reality—and how fast will conservatives rush to either justify the attack or distance themselves (and their rhetoric) from the attack?
Honored.
First of all, Stephen T. Stone deserves all the credit for the top spot. Not me. 100% him, 0% me.
But I’m still honored that I got second place!
I love everybody here in the Techdirt Community (except the trolls, you monsters can go to hell)!
Hear, hear, Steven! It’s reassuring to see the TD community has trans people’s back.
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*Stephen, dammit.
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translation: “It’s reassuring to see the TD community supports the for-profit mutilation and sterilization of vulnerable children and young people.”
Imagine being psyched that you’re part of a group of degenerates who cheer the modern-day equivalent of lobotomy!
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lmao imagine being a genocidal fascist
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People who live in an imaginary word, and carry on as if that imaginary world was the real world are insane, and you sure live in an imaginary world.
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You are just another stupid hateful internet-Karen whos only means of social interaction is butting into other peoples lives. Pathetic.
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There’s nothing stupid about hating gender ideology and the maniacs who promote it.
Re: Re: Re:2
There is, when you hatred is based on an imagining version of what people say, and are.
Re: Re: Re:2
The only people promoting a “gender ideology” are the people who believe gender must be enforced by state action (up to and including violence). Those aren’t trans people, my dude.
Re: Re: Re:3
One side with the heinous and totally insane ideology of ‘hey it would be nice if you would stop treating us as subhuman filth and blaming us for all the stuff your side is doing just because of your obsession with our genitals’, the other side with the entirely reasonable and totally evidence-based ideology of obsessing constantly over the genitals of complete strangers(including kids), blaming the other for anything and everything short of global warming and reasonably keeping people on edge about the threat of the international je- trans by constantly accusing them of their own side’s actions with regards to children.
Yup, one of those is certainly putting forth a ‘gender ideology’ that’s a threat to society and the people living in it…
Re: Re: Re:4
Stop right there. Why wouldn’t the kind of God reputed for raining fire and brimstone on sinners not revert to global warming as punishment for not stoning the sexually deviant (or otherwise outcast) to death?
I really don’t see why there would be a reason to stop short of blaming tolerant folks for being responsible for global warming.
Re: Re: Re:5
… damnit, tripped up by the impossibility of making a poe of people that actually are that insane yet again, I forgot that blaming weather events on the existence of certain ‘sinful’ groups is not and would not be out of character for those bigots.
Re: Re: Re:2
Opinions so popular that even mentioning them makes people dial the first two digits of 911.
Re: Re:
Now imagine that you have a brain.
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Imagine hating the fact you want to suck a dick so much you’d put people in death camps to avoid thinking about it constantly.
Re: Re:
Do you enjoy lying? Or are you really that delusional?
Top Comment Inception
So if I make a comment commending Samuel Abram’s comment that commends Stephen T. Stone’s comment, and I get the top vote in a category, does that mean Stephen’s comment somehow wins 2 and a half times?
BTW, congrats to Samuel Abram for the top comment, and to Stephen T. Stone’s comment that prompted it.
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If you quoted me quoting Stephen T. Stone’s Comment, I think you’ll break the Matrix for good this time.
Also, thank you for the hearty congratulations! Even though the credit should be 100% Stephen’s.
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COMMENTCEPTION. [bwaaaaaaaaaa]
One notable point the poem misses
One notably absent fact from the poem – the nazis came for trans people in 1933, going after institutes offering gender affirming care.
It took only eight years to get from there to the holocaust. That’s two US presidential terms.
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Reminder: Fascism never starts with death camps, but it always goes there in the end.
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Well, in a nutshell fascism says that people are there to serve the state rather than the other way round. It’s sort of like despotism without the ultimate goal of maximizing profit to a despot. Like all political theories, it ends up with someone lining their pockets and egos anyway, but in the meantime, it still will serve to justify atrocities against minorities even in peace times.
It is sort of an outlier in that you don’t even need to pervert its central doctrines to make it fit the state trying to kill parts of its populace.
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In an even smaller nutshell, Fascism is basically Colonialism directed inward.
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Supercilious STStone
He thinks he’s a poet, sooo dramatic. He’s not.
But the reality he can’t see is that ethical doctors are mercifully refusing to medically mutilate mentally ill people for profit.
Mentally ill men cannot become women, and mentally ill women cannot become men. The mental and emotional pain they are experiencing becomes far worse after they are butchered by evil doctors.
Yes, we should try to help the mentally ill. We certainly should not promote mental illness and medical malpractice and pretend such evil is “kindness” or “caring”.
All efforts by good people to reject the imposition of this evil on society deserves our full support.
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lmao fuck off
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On what grounds do you claim the authority to determine what is best for other people?
If you only listen to demagogues spewing a gospel of hatred, you will live a hateful unfulfilled life, unlike many of those that you attack who have fulfilling lives.
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I think I rather take advice from actual health-professionals than some stupid and hateful fucker posting anonymously on the internet.
Or perhaps you can dazzle us with the degrees you hold to make you an authority on the subject?
Re: Everything that you said is wrong.
I mean, the percentage of trans people who regret transitioning is so close to zero it’s insignificant.
Also, Trans People feel less suicidal after transitioning.
But facts don’t matter to transmisic bigots like you.
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Not to mention to the extent that there might be trans people who regret transitioning the first question I’d be asking is ‘how much of that is due to anti-trans bigots making their life hell’?
It’s like the previous incarnation of this flavor of bigotry claiming how being gay is bad because gay people are more depressed and forgetting to mention the people and groups constantly publicly and at times literally bashing them as subhuman filth.
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“Yes, we should try to help the mentally ill.”
Nah bro you can still fuck off.
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I don’t know if you’re Hyman or one of his fascist allies, but…
Please do tell me where are these unethical doctors.
If these doctors are so widespread, then the New York Times should be reporting on this.
And not the Murdoch Empire.
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This isn’t about what doctors are saying. This is about the government and other non-medical authorities are trying to do.
In the end of the day, the new anti-trans mob sound exact like the old anti-jewish nazis. Nazism is well and strong and the West is, once again, closing their eyes to it. Let’s hope this doesn’t lead to another World War.
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Let us not forget that trans people were among the first people targeted under the third reich. The “new anti-trans mob” is definitely not going to end with trans people.
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Talk about living rent-free in your heads; this is my first comment here (because it’s basically a rehash of last week), but you’re all yelling and screaming my name as if I’ve made a dozen. As I’ve said, if you want to know that it’s me, get the site owner to stop sending my signed-in posts to moderation.
Anyway, as per usual:
People can only ever be the sex of their bodies. No amount of costuming, medicine, or surgery can ever change anyone’s sex. Sex is observed and noted at birth or earlier; it is not assigned. Gender is the same as sex. Gender ideology is false, so it should not be taught as true in public schools. No one should be forced to affirm gender ideology even indirectly, such as being asked for assigned sex.
People have cultural, social, and religious taboos against mixing sexes in certain contexts, and therefore people must not be allowed into single-sex spaces for which their bodies disqualify them.
Male trans-deluded activists are misogynists; they both want to be women and despise the real women that they can never be. They seek to replace real women with themselves, such as when they steal medals in those women’s sports that still allow men to compete as women. Trans-deluded male misogynists calling themselves lesbians despise the real lesbians who will never consider them for a romantic or sexual partner. Male rapists calling themselves women seek to further victimize real women by demanding to be incarcerated with them. Trans-deluded activists seek to gaslight mentally ill children and their parents and teachers into having those children be sexually mutilated.
As with facilitated communication and recovered memory, the trans delusion will soon come to be seen as yet another chapter in the inglorious history of pseudoscientific wishful thinking that passes for science in psychology.
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…hallucinated nobody mentally competent, ever.
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🥱
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I understand that repetition can seem tedious, but when the liars and error-mongers keep repeating their messages, the truth-tellers must do the same so that the truth is not drowned out.
And it seems to be working, at least to some extent.
https://natcen.ac.uk/publications/bsa-40-liberalisation-attitudes
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lmao fuck off Hyman
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Re: Re: Re:2
🥱
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That’s always been only you.
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Then, Hyman…
GET THE FUCK OUT.
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Nah.
man abusing woman an molesting kids
Dr Brian Talarico, North Bay Psychiatrist Has been convicted of child molestation, and possession of child pornography on his computer. Sexually molesting a young boy. He had prior convictions for child molestation in 1990 and 2001. After his parole in 2006 Dr. Talarico Brian Works for North Bay Regional Health Centre, and elsewhere, despite his background, and numerous complaints against him of abuse, fraud, negligence, and imprisonment. he has a sexual preference for younger boys, feeds them antipsychotics, and fondles children… we’re now dealing childhood trauma, we’re concerned for the safety of the public