Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
from the talking-about-stuff dept
This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is MrWilson, with a comment on our post about ChatGPT and privacy rights in Europe, specifically in response to someone who raised the issue of “false light” torts:
False light is a privacy tort in the US. We’re talking about Europe. But also, false light typically requires the defendant to publish the information widely rather than just in a private chat, it requires the misinformation to be highly offensive to a reasonable person, and the defendant must be at fault. These requirements aren’t met unless you can prove the company intentionally programmed an LLM to specifically identify and defame individuals and did so to a large audience rather than just one person in a chat. And no reasonable person, understanding that a non-human LLM literally makes up everything it says by its very nature (barring a web search or a RAG), would be offended by it. So you’re wrong on top of being wrong on top of being wrong.
The irony is that your hallucinated “facts” are more offensive than ChatGPT’s.
In second place, it’s Stephen T. Stone with a comment on our post about Utah’s transphobic snitch form:
When the anti-trans crowd is done with trans people, they’ll go after other queer people next. Anti-trans bigots never stopped being anti-queer—they just stopped being so loud about gay people because nobody was buying into their shit any more.
For editor’s choice on the insightful side, we’ve got a pair of comments responding to the idea that banning TikTok is okay because China bans sites already. First, it’s an anonymous reply:
I’ve seen loads of people make this argument (they ban us, we’ll ban them), only it’s a 5 year child’s argument, not that of an adult.
Next, it’s That One Guy expressing a similar sentiment:
If you would throw your principles aside that easily you never had them
It’s both telling and disturbing how quickly some people are to dismiss any moral high ground or principles they might have held the second they find it inconvenient to hold them or or beneficial to throw them aside.
Over on the funny side, our first place winner is a reply to another comment that just barely didn’t make the winners, so we’re going to go a little out of order and slip that one in as an editor’s choice first, to provide proper context. So, as our first editor’s choice, it’s an anonymous comment about ChatGPT privacy concerns:
They’re really gonna have fun with my Magic 8 Ball.
Now, for our first place winner on the funny side, it’s an anonymous reply to that comment:
Don’t count on it.
In second place on the funny side, it’s another anonymous comment from the post about Utah, this time replying to a commenter who went on a rant about gender identity which, in their hate-filled world, is apparently casually abbreviated to GI and decried for not being “a valid science”:
I’m pretty sure the Gastro-Intestional tract is both real and both a part of science and medicine. Though I do agree there there’s no reason for a GI Tract Bill Of Rights outside the context of a Taco Bell bathroom.
Finally, for our second editor’s choice on the funny side, it’s an anonymous comment about Louis Vuitton’s latest silly trademark crusade:
Louis Vuitton: Next lawsuit, “Ludwig van Beethoven” aka “L V Beethoven”, let’s ask 1€ per CD ever sold.
That’s all for this week, folks!
Comments on “Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt”
Given that a certain group of people view anything said that they don’t agree with as being “hate filled,” can anything they say ever be considered as having any value whatsoever? (In other words, hypocrisy is a mirror, not a window.)
Re:
Defending hate-filled posts then? Strange position to take.
Re: Re:
Someone’s mad they got clowned on… again.
Re: Re:
Every accusation a confession.
This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it.
Re:
Agreed. The amount of times I’ve seen perfectly reasonable (i.e., not hate-filled or maximalist-shilling) comments dog-piled with flags just for expressing an opinion that differs from what those who flag them hold. And such individuals like to differentiate themselves from conservatives/Republicans!
Re: Re:
Gonna go with a [Citation Needed] for that one.
This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it.
Re: Re: Re:
Hey, if you can’t navigate the site, then I can’t really help you. Maybe enrol in online classes?
Re: Re: Re:2
Hey, if you’re too lazy or too ignorant to back up your claims, that’s fine. Just don’t expect people to take you at your word.
This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it.
Re: Re: Re:3
When one is on the actual site where the problem is cited as existing, the evidence doesn’t actually need to be linked. Gonna have to agree with AC on this one, especially as their comments have (yet again?) been flagged into invisibility for the “offense” of defending minority groups.
Re: Re: Re:4
[citation needed]
Why would you purport to know why people clicked a button?
Which minority groups are you even referring to?
Re: Re: Re:5
So 20% (disabled people) isn’t a minority? Well, thanks for informing us all of that.
Re: Re: Re:6
Why are you responding as if statements were made rather than questions were asked? This is the first instance in which disabled people have been brought up. And where did the 20% number come from? What the fuck are you even talking about?
Re: Re: Re:7
So, you also lack the ability to navigate the site. That… doesn’t bode well for any of your time spent online.
You have a point, the figure is actually 27%. Still the second largest minority group in the US, though.
Re: Re: Re:8
No, I can’t parse your statements. You’re not making sense. I read through the thread. You responded as if people said things they didn’t. You responded to me as if I said things I didn’t. You’re the common factor, not the site navigation.
I don’t have a point. I didn’t make a point at all. I asked a question and you still haven’t answered it. Why did you bring up disabled people? What does that have to do with anything?
Re: Re: Re:9
Given your latest comment, the above bears repetition.
Re: Re: Re:4
So you admit to your obligation to submit evidence but refuse to because you’re just full of shit.
Re: Re: Re:5
Said the constipated disability phobe.
Re: Re: Re:4
I fell your pain. All these ‘people’ demanding links to where your comments have been hidden for defending the world’s second largest minority group (and the one anyone can become part of at any time, let’s not forget), knowing full well that one effect of comments being hidden as that they become unlinkable. And they claim to stand up for freedom of speech!
Re: Re: Re:5
Again [citation needed].
Where was the defense of disabled people mentioned? You’re the only one referring to them.
Re: Re: Re:6
Let me guess, pre-schooler. How else can’t you understand the statement that “hidden comments become unlinkable” made by AC?
Only as admissions of guilt and statements of violent intent.
The irony is that your hallucinated “facts” are more offensive than ChatGPT’s.
Hey, good news. Humans are still better at hallucinating than AI. Who’da thunk it.
This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it.
In the US, the slogan “Education Not Indoctrination” has typically been used to protest public schools pushing political ideologies onto students.
Gender identity ideology isn’t “just” a postmodern social justice ideology, it’s actively replacing basic facts of the world with total fictions.
Teaching it to kids isn’t only objectionable on grounds of political indoctrination — it’s downright fraud committed against students who rely on educators to convey factual knowledge.
Re:
Except it’s a fact, not a fiction.
If anyone is obsessed about this stuff, it’s you. People like us just want to live our lives in peace.
This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it.
Re: Re:
Genderists get away with not defining how they use the word “gender.” But however “gender” is used by ideologues, “gender identity” is either a “sex identity” or a “stereotype identity.”
Neither is a medical problem. Neither is progressive or a legit subject of civil rights or non-discrimination law.
Whether dubbed “gender identity” or “sex identity” or “stereotype identity” this ideology is a garbled bunch of tenets of a faith that denies the very reality of sex based on which women do need and deserve legal recognition & protections.
Re: Re: Re:
Me thinks the ladyboi doth protest too much.
Re: Re: Re:
Gender identity: the gender that typically corresponds with the sex that the proprioception of a person’s brain sees the body as.
Proprioceptive dissonance, which is where there is a discrepancy between the actual body and the brain’s proprioceptive map of the body, can cause intense feelings of physical, mental, and/or emotional discomfort, which—in extreme, untreated cases—can lead to chronic depression and low self-esteem, both of which are medical problems.
I fail to see how it isn’t progressive, and given that people are discriminated against on the basis of their gender identity and gender expression and it’s an immutable trait, I fail to see how it is any less of a legit subject of civil rights or non-discrimination law than religion is.
No aspect of gender identity denies the reality of sex, and your refusal to accept the scientific research on the topic or to understand the topic doesn’t mean it’s “a garbled bunch of tenets of a faith”; that is entirely on you.
Re: Re: Re:2
i liked they way they helpfully listed three things which they maliciously conflate for their rhetoric.
Re: Re: Re:
Gender is a social construct that is defined, at least in part, by various external markers of identity that marks people as men/boys/males or women/girls/females to a large swath of society. Dresses, for example, are widely accepted as “women’s clothes” even though dresses are inert pieces of cloth that have no innate sexual characteristics. A cisgender man who wears a dress—or a skirt, or a kilt, or any other dress-like piece of clothing—is no more or less biologically male because he wears that piece of cloth. But society at large would perceive him as “girly” or “a lesser man” (and that’s without getting into bigoted language) because dresses are an assumed marker of female identity.
Gender dysphoria is, though.
Consider the following: A cisgender man and a cisgender woman who work for the same company both wear the same kind of clothes. One of them is fired for their choice in clothing, which is perceived by their boss to be “wrong” for that employee’s sex or gender identity. That could easily be considered a form of sex discrimination because the boss is penalizing one employee over said employee’s sex/gender identity. Note that even without mentioning the specific gender of the employee and the specific type of clothes being worn, the point still stands.
The ideology of anti-queerness posits that life would be much simpler for everyone if they stuck to a very specific binary: Men are men and wear “men’s” clothing and marry women, and women are women and wear “women’s” clothing and marry men. In so doing, many people would have to deny part of their own identity—their being gay, their being trans, their being aromantic or asexual or any other non-binary identity—and live in a hell where they cannot be themselves without risking expulsion from their family and community (at best). The ideology of anti-queerness is fundamentally anti-human, for it asks people to deny themselves the right to exist as they so desire in exchange for conformity with society’s expectations and the comfort of false acceptance.
Do I understand transgender identities? Not really. I’m not trans, so I don’t know what it means to be trans. But I know what it means to be bisexual, and to therefore feel things that society at large says are “unmanly”. That gives me the ability to empathize with those who society marks as Repugnant Cultural Others only for their sexual identity. So yes, I stand with transgender people, and I believe they deserve to be free of the kind of discrimination and bigotry that was once visited upon gay people—and would be revisited in a heartbeat if anti-queer bigots ever had the chance to enshrine their bigotry into law.
This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it.
Re: Re: Re:2
Find yourself a nice tranny (good luck), take her out for dinner and then when you get home you can suck her dick.
Re: Re: Re:3
ngl, that sounds like a good time
Re: Re: Re:3
Trans men don’t exist because they aren’t scary enough, apparently.
Re: Re: Re:4
Men don’t appeal to that kind of predator, which is why they’re so scared at the thought of one of their next victims could have male parts.
Re: Re: Re:3
If it makes both of them happy, I don’t see why he shouldn’t.
Re: Re: Re:3
Techdirt isn’t your personal erotica site bro.
This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it.
Re: Re: Re:4
I know. You keep reminding everyone it is for you.
Re: Re: Re:5
Well you tried for an insult… kind of.
This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it.
Re: Re: Re:2
One consequence of gender activists’ insistence that “being trans” is a joyous spiritual journey of (often med-tech enabled) authenticity, & that “gender identity” must be validated always in all ways w/o any evidence of “dysphoria,” is Team Reality does a lot less of “omg gender dysphoria must be so painful I have so much sympathy & want to be as gentle & kind as possible just please if you could just avoid letting male criminals bunk with women & maybe at least test T levels of a person-born-male before letting him dominate a female sport then we can all have our rights okkkk?”
Dysphoria just means distress. Life is full of it. We can all find tools to deal with it in the real world that don’t involve stomping on women or wasting an adolescence navel-gazing.
Re: Re: Re:3
ahahahahaha fucking what
The average trans person would probably tell you that being trans isn’t “a joyous spiritual journey”, but a rollercoaster of highs and lows (with more lows than highs, given the treatment of trans people by society in general). No one trans person’s experience is universal, and even the most accepting of places can still find some way to fuck up that experience.
Lots of cis people undergo plastic surgery of some kind to validate their gender identity—botox, boob jobs, and so on. You gonna shit on them, too?
Yes, “Team Reality” (i.e., conservatives/right-wingers) does seem to lack empathy for people who don’t conform to its rigid ideology.
Yes, yes, you want trans people dead, we get it. You got anything other than rank-ass bigotry to pass along here, or is this the extent of what you’ve got? Because if it’s the latter, you may as well just use all the anti-trans slurs you have and be done with it, because outside of your fellow trolls, you won’t find a sympathetic ear for your bullshit here.
Re: Re: Re:3
Criminals are criminals irrespective of gender identity. If criminals are bunking with anyone of any gender, you have a non-gender-related problem that is a real problem.
This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it.
Re: Re: Re:4
Interesting how you ignore that in general population, men are reported to commit violent acts significantly more frequently than women*!
[*source: Angelica Staniloiu, Hans Markowitsch, “Gender differences in violence and aggression – a neurobiological perspective,” Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences,
Volume 33, 2012, Pages 1032-1036]
Re: Re: Re:5
Sir this is still an arbys. Do you want curley fries or what?
This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it.
Re: Re: Re:3
Fuck off, Mrs. Murray, you nasty cunt.
Re: Re: Re:3
Hyman
Just leave already.
Re: Re: Re:
“Genderists”? The only one here who screws around with definitions are bigots like you in defiance of accepted norms and definitions and when it’s pointed out that you are wrong according to science you dismiss the factual evidence with some lame excuse of “liberal science” or something.
It’s funny how you flaunt your lack of knowledge publicly but I guess that’s what people like you do who can’t process reality like a decent person, you wallow in your ignorance and bigotry which you then try to foist upon others against their will.
Ever heard of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 Title VII?
You know what we women really hate? Men like you who think they are the righteous champion for us when in reality you are belittling and diminishing us through your actions, declaring us incapable of fighting for ourselves while dragging us into fights of your making. It’s just like mansplaining, where the “superior male” must prove how better he is than the poor little women. Fucking male chauvinist pigs the lot of you.
How about you shut your trap about women until you get a vagina of your own and the right perspective, pig.
Re: Re: Re:2
To wit: Abortion rights. As a man, my only strongly-held opinion on abortion rights is “every woman should have the right to choose and the choice itself should be left to the woman and her doctor at most”.
This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it.
Re: Re: Re:2
Happy Mother’s Day to “trans” widows who have had to endure the gaslighting abuse of a husband & father to your kids claiming to have become their “mother.”
This is one of the most twisted claims of “trans” & “queer” ideology: that men can be mothers. Women who celebrate it are incomprehensibly self-hating & child-harming.
Re: Re: Re:3
You’re wasting your time typing out bigoted nonsense about people’s lives who don’t affect you, ranting about “ideologies” that don’t harm you and in fact confirm rights that you enjoy as a human being, likely all because you waste other time absorbing bigoted media that makes you feel better about your pathetic existence. You rant about ideologies when yours is just an ideology of hate. You’re the equivalent of a middle school bully who persecutes someone because they look different. I’d tell you to think about your life, but you probably shy away from introspection and self-reflection because that’s when the dark thoughts take over. Get some therapy, especially for the sake of anyone who has to interact with you in person frequently.
Re: Re: Re:3
“I said words, look at meee!”
Re: Re: Re:3
One of the most enlightening statements made about JG Ballard after his death was the title of a memorial article written by one of his daughters:
https://www.beaballard.com/writing-bea-ballard/jg-ballard
“My dad, the perfect mum”
First published in Times.co.uk
It’s well worth reading it.
Re: Re: Re:3
Yeah bro we aren’t your therapist. You need to pay a qualified person to untangle that mess of a home life.
Re: Re: Re:3
Well, actually men can be mothers, although I don’t think Thomas Beatie identifies as such.
Re: Re: Re:3
Keep wrapping your bigoted delusions around yourself, it doesn’t change reality one bit and it also doesn’t make you feel any better because it’s all based on your fear for something you can’t and doesn’t want to understand. Man up you little pissant.
Re: Re: 'Reality and science don't support my bigotry so neither are real.'
To the alternative facts crowd ‘I don’t like/agree with X’ is equivalent to ‘X isn’t real’, with the result that whether something is true or not is not based upon whether it’s been tested, studied, and has supporting evidence to back it up but rather whether or not it conform to and/or confirms their currently held beliefs/positions.
This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it.
Re: Re: Re:
Groups like Trevor Project concerned w/ suicidality used to tell gay youth “It Gets Better.” Now “LGBTQ” orgs tell youth “Get a glitter family & medicalize or you’ll kill yourself.”
Manipulating kids to justify men’s fetishes isn’t a charitable purpose. Keep TQ away from kids.
This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it.
Re:
Better get used to wearing a clitty cage, trash.
Don’t knock it until you try it, and you’re going to try it until you like it.
We’ve had it with your kind contributing to violence against women and gender and sexual minorities and overpopulation.
Re: Re:
Now switch to your right-wing alt and post something about admiring fascists.
I mean, you do know that the extremism of your bullshit is what gives you away as the right-wing “we should totally genocide all the queers/Black people/Jews” troll, right? If you weren’t so eager to be all “I’m posting what I think extreme left-wingers sound like because surely they’re exact polar opposites of extreme right-wingers” with this shit, you might be able to hide your sockpuppeting a little better.
Re: Re: Re:
There was all the time he flat out admitted he said what he thought radical left wingers would talk like. Must bother the shit out of him we never seem to fall for it.
Re: Re: Re:2 'I want to do X to them, so clearly they want to do X to me'
There was all the time he flat out admitted he said what he thought radical left wingers would talk like.
As always ‘Every accusation a confession’ with that lot. They would gleefully treat and/or see treated those they would Other as sub-human filth to be silenced if they can’t be killed/driven into suicide and as a result they simply cannot comprehend the idea that those that don’t agree with them might not be just as homicidal and warped as them.
Re: Re: Re:2
And poof Herman disappears just like that.
Re: Re:
Bro, Herman. We know it’s you. It’s not even funny any more. Just sad and pathetic.
Re:
FTFY
This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it.
Happy Mothers’ Day Ladies and Gentlemen!
This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it.
Re:
Now why would you hide that comment? I am being inclusive by including all the men who think they are pregnant!
Re: Re:
LOL When I am quickly going through comments, I don’t read very many unless I recognize user name. With one exception. I always unhide comments to see what the controversy is(rarely spam).
So I just wanted to give a shout out to all who high-lite my comments. Thank-you!
i feel like i should properly attribute my quote, “Don’t count on it,” to the font of wisdom which is the Magic 8-Ball. i don’t know if they’re on Twitter.
uwu
Bananya