Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

from the on-the-grapevine dept

This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is an anonymous comment about the legality of Elon Musk’s vote-buying scheme:

My trainers say it’s illegal

(volunteer voter registrar)

We were taught that under no circumstances could we induce or attempt to induce anyone to register to vote, let alone to vote, let alone to vote any particular way. Our role is to register anyone who wishes to be registered, and to do so according to federal and state election laws (which govern things like proof of identity). That’s it.

This means, for example, that while I can sit at a table outside a sporting event with a sign that says “register to vote here”, I cannot initiate a conversation with anyone passing by in an attempt to get them to register. I have to passively wait until they initiate the process, and then of course I can converse with them, explain how it’s done, go through the process, etc.

Yes, I know: following the law is for the raggedy poor people, not for the rich elite. But this is yet another reason Musk should be stripped of everything and deported. The US doesn’t need this malignant cancer.

In second place, it’s another anonymous comment about Musk’s gullibility and fondness for spreading misinformation:

The amount of energy required to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude greater than to produce it.

For editor’s choice on the insightful side, we’ve got a pair of comments from That One Guy. First, it’s another comment about Musk’s million-dollar vote gambit:

Two truisms apply here:

1) Every accusation a confession, every self-given label a rejection of.

Of course the person who turned his dumpsterfire of a social media platform into a platform to push his preferred (convicted felon) candidate, and created a lotto to collect personal data for campaign purposes to push people to register and vote accused someone else of spending a bunch of money to create a ‘propaganda machine’, the best way to know what a republican is doing/wants to do/plans on doing is merely to pay attention to what they claim someone else is doing.

2) Laws are for the little people.

Is it possible that he’s breaking the law here? Absolutely. Will he face any penalty whatsoever beyond a wrist slap at most if he is and is found guilty in court? Not a chance in hell and he knows it.

Next, it’s a comment on our post about conspiracy theories and how they are fueled by not trusting anything:

‘I reject your demonstrable reality and substitute the one given to me’

“Everything is a conspiracy theory when you don’t trust anything.”

I’m not sure this one is quite accurate either since I’d argue that not trusting things is only half the problem, with the other, more impactful half being the trust in people that definitely should not be trusted over demonstrable, observable reality, such that what the person says is given higher priority over what can be observed, tested and measured.

Over on the funny side, our first place winner is another anonymous comment, once again about Musk and misinformation:

Truth does another hit piece on Musk.

In second place, it’s an anonymous comment on our post about Chris Rufo abusing academic plagiarism’s absurd norms, replying to another commenter who attempted some sort of weird irony in saying they “didn’t expect” us to be pro-Rufo:

I didn’t expect to be abducted by aliens either, but that also didn’t happen, so I didn’t otherwise think it was relevant to mention.

For editor’s choice on the funny side, we start out with an anonymous reply to the first place funny winner above:

More anti-liar hate speech from TruthDirt.

Finally, it’s Toom1275 with a reply to a screeching accusation of “ORANGE MAN BAD”:

Orange fan SAD.

That’s all for this week, folks!


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Comments on “Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt”

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79 Comments
This comment has been deemed insightful by the community.
Anonymous Coward says:

The increase in troll activity is annoying to peruse, but heartening to see in that it shows that the disingenuous sociopaths are upset that their propaganda isn’t working. Every post of theirs is a testament to their failures. The more they have to say, the newer tactics they attempt, the more apparent their failures are.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re:

Herman is usually the transphobic troll. Is he also the pro-cop troll with a cop for a son?

The defeatist troll is right here and spewing the usual bullshit.

It looks like Arianity might be the contrarian “No, you’re the troll” troll who lurks at the end of the commenting activity trying to get the last word in. They accidentally signed in once while doing that.

Matt is something else entirely, obsessed with Mike to a disturbing level such that he seems to have made it his entire personality.

Leah (Samuel) Abram (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:

Is he also the pro-cop troll with a cop for a son?

No, that’s davec.

It looks like Arianity might be the contrarian “No, you’re the troll” troll who lurks at the end of the commenting activity trying to get the last word in. They accidentally signed in once while doing that.

I see Arianity as a broken 6-hour clock: right only four times a day.

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Arianity says:

Re: Re: Re:

It looks like Arianity might be the contrarian “No, you’re the troll” troll who lurks at the end of the commenting activity trying to get the last word in. They accidentally signed in once while doing that.

I’ve never made a comment that hasn’t signed my username on it (except an occasional accidental one that I immediately replied to with my name on it).

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Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:

I agree that I’ve failed to rally people to the cause of saving Democracy. As I said in a previous comment on a different post, I’m thinking about removing and destroying my Harris-Walz yard sign and replacing it with one for Trump in hopes that my neighbors won’t burn down my house (or at least egg it) after he wins. 🙁

This comment has been deemed insightful by the community.
Stephen T. Stone (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:2

We get it, you want people here to believe you’re a defeatist left-winger when you’re really a right-wing dipshit trying to act like a defeatist left-winger to push more people here into supporting Trump. Don’t insult our intelligence and I won’t insult yours, dumbass.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re:

Sure, Chicken Little. Illustrate my point some more.

“Do something” isn’t a viable solution without knowledge and opportunity. Telling people to spin their wheels worrying about aspects of problems that are largely out of their hands only aids people who want thing to get worse or at least stay the same. Real change doesn’t come from panic. It comes from educating yourself and making consistent, reasonable coordinated efforts.

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Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:

Tor is a free overlay network for enabling anonymous communication. Built on free and open-source software and more than seven thousand volunteer-operated relays worldwide, users can have their Internet traffic routed via a random path through the network. Using Tor makes it more difficult to trace a user’s Internet activity by preventing any single point on the Internet (other than the user’s device) from being able to view both where traffic originated from and where it is ultimately going to at the same time. This conceals a user’s location and usage from anyone performing network surveillance or traffic analysis from any such point, protecting the user’s freedom and ability to communicate confidentially.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:2

Interesting. Please tell us more? Is there any hope of using Tor to defeat Donald Trump at the polls? I mean, I don’t think it’s likely that he loses the election (and, in fact, he’ll probably win the popular vote, which is horrible!), but anything that would help the movement would be good, right?

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:

Tor is a free overlay network for enabling anonymous communication. Built on free and open-source software and more than seven thousand volunteer-operated relays worldwide, users can have their Internet traffic routed via a random path through the network. Using Tor makes it more difficult to trace a user’s Internet activity by preventing any single point on the Internet (other than the user’s device) from being able to view both where traffic originated from and where it is ultimately going to at the same time. This conceals a user’s location and usage from anyone performing network surveillance or traffic analysis from any such point, protecting the user’s freedom and ability to communicate confidentially.

Stephen T. Stone (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:4

How about you shut up instead of spamming multiple replies to every comment you think belongs to a troll. How about you stop thinking that shit has ever made, or will ever make, any kind of difference. How about you go to fucking 4chan and spam /pol/ to your heart’s content. You’re not making the discourse here better, you’re not needed here, and I’m pretty sure you’re the only person who wants to see you around here. You’re a troll, plain and simple, and the best thing you can do for everyone⁠—including yourself!⁠—is to leave and never come back.

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Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:

You have no free speech rights on a private website. It’s not wrong to prevent non-owners from speaking on your property. To argue otherwise is to say that every website host has a moral obligation to let anyone say anything on their property. And that argument is is morally wrong and a violation of the site owner’s free speech rights, the same as the fact that I can kick you out of my house for saying something I don’t like. The idea that “free speech” means you have to host the speech of others against your will isn’t free speech at all.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:3

“So why do so many here have a problem with it

I think you already know why someone might have ‘a problem’ with ‘it’.

Since you already know, why ask? Is it then a rhetorical question?

How should one respond to a rhetorical question? A rhetorical answer? Many people simply ignore the bullshit I imagine.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:3

It’s Bezos’ prerogative as owner, but we can still disagree with the decision. It’s a newspaper, which historically have been a check on government overreach and injustice. To not fight injustice is to abdicate their role and just tells you that Bezos is only out for himself, which we knew, but he’s just not pretending anymore.

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Anonymous Coward says:

Guys, I can’t believe that the 2024 version of the German American Bund could hold a rally tonight in MSG. It’s outrageous. It’s demoralizing. It’s criminal. Yet Trump and his evil allies like Tucker Carlson and Elon Musk mock us and all but state explicitly that Democrats and Green Party supporters will be sent to internment camps. I’m broken 😞.

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Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:3

It’s inevitable that we’ll all die and you’ll have wasted your life spewing bullshit like this. Even if you were sincere (you’re not) and even if your predictions were right (you’re not psychic and don’t know anything for sure about the outcome of the election), it’s still a useless message. It’s even worse than useless. It only helps people who want what you predict, which is exactly how we know that’s why you’re doing it.

N0083rp00f says:

Raisins

I find the whole voter registration thing asinine. They already know who you are.

As for a right instead of a responsibility, that just plays into the hands of those who are futzing with things to stay in power.

Low voter turnout plays into their hands since they only have to convince enough of those willing to go through the registration circus instead of an actual majority.

Makes you wonder how different things would turn out if voting was a responsibility 🤔 and first past the post was replaced with 50%+1 where people had to put in a second and third choice?
Of course you would need a nobody option for a first choice just to keep all the candidates nervous.

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