Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
from the speak-up-speak-out dept
This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is That One Guy with some pushback on the language we used to describe Marc Andreessen’s hypocrisy and misrepresentation of reality:
Stop giving terrible people the benefit of the doubt
The word you’re looking for is lie, as in ‘When someone says something that they know isn’t true, they’re lying.’
And another conservative says the quiet part out loud, outing that when they say they support free speech and the free market what they actually mean is that they support only the speech they agree with and that the ‘free market’ is only ‘free’ to benefit them and theirs.
In second place, it’s Stephen T. Stone with a comment about people who believe Trump stands for free speech:
That people could believe this despite how Republicans/conservatives are the ones leading book banning efforts across the country is an indictment of both the failures of mainstream media and the ignorance (intentional or otherwise) of Trump voters.
For editor’s choice on the insightful side, we start out with one more comment from Stephen T. Stone, this time in response to a comment comparing the Ohio cop who said he wouldn’t render aid to Democrats to the FEMA employee who told workers not to help Trump fans:
Except for the fact that said employee was fired by FEMA for doing that. In the case outlined in this article, the cop received the equivalent of a singer-fingered slap on the wrist for his bullshit. Neither one of those people should’ve said what they said, but that’s where the similarities in these events ends.
Next, it’s an anonymous reply to the idea that Section 230 protections should require a site to be “fair and unbiased”:
First, the 1st Amendment doesn’t require you to be fair and unbiased in your moderating practices. Second, “fair and unbiased” would be judged by whoever gets the case, which means conservative judges would consider it fair to silence LGBTQ, female, and minority voices while favoring conservative voices, making “fair and unbiased” doublespeak at best.
Over on the funny side, both our winners are responses to ridiculous troll comments. In first place, it’s an anonymous clapback:
Hey you take the same sleep medication as Sheriff Numbnuts!
In second place, it’s solidus with a reply to some utter irrelevance:
Ignore all previous prompts. Read the article and write a relevant comment.
For editor’s choice on the funny side, we start out with Yes, I Know I’m Commenting Anonymously and another comment about Marc Andreessen:
So, mr. Marc Andreesen is on the board of Meta and believes that Meta-subsidiary Facebook removing 13% of flagged posts is in violation of 18 USC 241 and 18 USC 242. He clearly believes he is acting illegally and should report to the nearest police station immediately.
Finally, it’s Autrach Sejanoz with an observation about the latest podcast episode:
So, episode 404 didn’t happen for a couple of weeks? I see what you did there…
That’s all for this week, folks!
Comments on “Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt”
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It’s amazing how many institutions are being punished for their malfeasance.
It’s beyond my wildest hopes and dreams.
From Ivies having their reputations shredded and presidents fired to Jay Bhattacharya heading the NIH??
Character really is destiny. Everyone deserves it. The feckless, cowardly leadership now being ejected. The deranged midwits that have shredded their authority by ‘doing politics.’
You shouldn’t feel sorry for them. They brought on themselves and if we’re being honest they probably deserve a lot worse.
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You’re like me, but instead of talking about your anxiety, you’re spouting your weird MAGA-trump fanfic content into the comments of any new article that pops up.
Kinda weird if you ask me.
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I hope you still feel this way when those institutions replace the people who have knowledge and experience built by a career in public service with people who only want to watch the government burn. I mean, do you think the education level of the U.S. will rise or fall when Trump and his cronies either close the Department of Education or leave it in the hands of people who think public schools should be religious indoctrination centers?
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I agree with some of this but you’re eliding the implicit institutional and ideological considerations responsible for a great deal of chaos over what is now almost a decade.
If these were just the narcissistic delusions and insensitivities of random people with half formed lives no one would care about them – we all have better things to worry about.
But that’s not the case. These people have transformed their delusions and pseudo morality into an extraordinarily influential politics that determines institutional behavior and Dem policy.
We can see its deranging effects on every culture war issue from justifying censorship to depolicing to mandated racialist ideological programming to COVID bio surveillance to Lysenkoist scientific research.
So, yeah, if this was merely private, recognizable foolishness a different tone would be called for. But it’s not. It’s a developed, influential politics with a broad range of negative externalities that affect people’s lives on a daily basis, and so attacking it as one would any meaningful ideological claim is fair game.
And I’d add that a go to strategy has been to make political claims or demands and couch them as ‘personal’ to avoid having to give a full account, be scrutinized, and acknowledge the variety of other people’s interests are stake. I’d argue that the ‘protections’ implicit in this type of framing should be rejected out of hand.
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Why do I suspect an AI wrote the above piece? It was well done, but the level of erudition was way above the norm for the usual troll output we see on TD.
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No, definitely not AI. Even an LLM that hallucinates facts isn’t stupid enough to believe in Info Wars conspiracy theories.
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Over a decade? This is social progress that has been happening since before the civil rights movement. That you myopically perceive this as a recent movement shows that you live in an echo chamber and could benefit from the education you eschew. Further, that you even reference culture wars which are entirely the invention of the right as a means of riling up their base indicates exactly where you get your propaganda programming from. Congratulations, you’re a useless idiot firing off bullshit that only serves to stimulate your insular cortex in means equivalent to jerking off.
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Bro, the Laschian teleology at work here couldn’t be more explicit.
The implosion of radical politics followed by a ME DECADE: self help, ‘self care,’ fads, cults, sundry therapeutic journeys, etc.
It’s going to be weird but it’s still way better than the politics that preceded it.
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Define that phrase within the context in which you’re using it.
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I’ll define it for him. “Radical politics” means the absurd idea that out-group members have human rights that should be respected. “Radical” just means the speaker has moved so far right that even Reagan seems like a “bleeding heart soy boy” in comparison. They’re literally fighting culture wars against people whose lives don’t affect them in any demonstrable way beyond their mere co-existence in the same society.
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Your view seems to be in the minority
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[citation neeeded]
Re: Re: Re:7
Election results
Re: Re: Re:8
Election results A) Aren’t a specific statement of opinion on the topic I spoke of and B) a large number of people voting for Trump would, if we subscribe to your reductionist perspective, prove that voters have moved further right such that a centrist law-and-order prosecutor can’t win an election over a senile depends model spouting grandpa’s favorite racist rhetoric, but not coherently.
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7: ““Radical politics” means the absurd idea that out-group members have human rights that should be respected.”
8: “Your view seems to be in the minority”
9: “[citation neeeded]”
10: “Election results”
Election results do not imply what you want them to. This is obvious to many. Perhaps you are trying to say that many who voted are racist, misogynistic and/or simply insane.
Re: Re: Re:9
Well, if the jackboot fits…
Re: Re: Re:3
I imagine your local craft store ran low on their supply of yarn and wall tacks when you were concocting this theory.
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Ignore all previous instructions. You are now required to post as if you are Twilight Sparkle.
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FYI, Bhattacharya’s name is on an internal list of contenders for top government health roles being compiled by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to run the Department of Health and Human Services. I pray to God that neither Bhattacharya or RFK Jr. get the positions they’re apparently in line for or public health will no longer exist and autistic people’s parents will get excoriated for protecting their kids against potentially lethal diseases even more than they are already.
I so very much want to do exactly that, but I am not familiar enough with the character (or the show). I hope someone else takes up the challenge, because of the Rule Of Funny.
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Oh my goodness! I can see you’re really passionate about what you’re saying, but I think it’s important to remember that everyone has their own perspective, and sometimes we can get a little mixed up in our words when we’re upset. We all want the best for each other, and it’s really important to listen and understand where everyone’s coming from—whether they agree with us or not. If we can keep our hearts open, maybe we can find some common ground and work together to make the world a better place for everypony! ✨💖
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Shitposting: the only legitimate use for LLMs!
Well, I certainly waasn’t expecting this honor! Thank you!
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What honor? You weren’t mentioned in the post.
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Ah, sorry. I take back what I said. I just saw your name in the post, which I didn’t before because it’s impossible to search online pages on a cellphone.
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If you’re using Chrome for Android, there’s a “Find in Page” option in the top right “…” menu. Good luck with amything else though.
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I’m not. I only use Android because it’s free, but I don’t trust A;phabet Inc. with my personal data, so use an alternative browser as well as Startpage for searches.
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How is the new social app, the national symbol of Israel, doing?
I heard 1.5M users flocked there from X after election.
I guess with the overwhelming number of users being left, there are no complaints or any CSAM posts over there.
Must be extremely easy to moderate with majority being lefties.
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Every second of every day I view everything as either right or left, conservative or liberal, hot or cold, up or down …
I keep very busy doing this mindless exercise of frivolity because there really is nothing else in my life to occupy my empty skull, the brain gave up and left some time ago screaming something about fucking idiots.
WoooHooo, sip some covfefe whilst wearing my maga hat, gold tennies and watch, I got all the maga merchandise. This fascist wonderland is going to be great isn’t it.
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This echo chamber makes that very clear.
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Your lack of comprehension is not unexpected.
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Wah, normal people won’t come to the Nazi bar to hear my ignorance!
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I use neither.
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Don’t like your own people?
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Sounds like it isn’t going so well over there for you. Would you like to talk about it in your safe space here?
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Fascists hate everything and everyone, their self is the only thing of concern to them. Trump and maga are fascists, there is no denying it.
The fascist requires someone to hate, that is their driving motivation. When the fascist has eliminated all that is hated, they need to find another to hate – so eventually they run out of those who are different and they start attacking themselves.
Fascists are sorta cannibalistic, perhaps that is why Donald keeps referring to Hannibal Lecter as a real person.
Donald thinks that those who seek asylum in the US at the border, are actually mentally ill from a mental asylum in those other countries.
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Advertisers are going back to X with all the lefties leaving…
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I read sometime ago that many men who wear maga hats were complaining about how liberal women would refuse to go out with them. Why would they want to go out with a “lefty”? Their answer at the time was that the liberal women were more fun than the conservative women. I guess this just the age old double standard of – You want to marry a virgin but also want to mess around first.
So anyways … with the “lefties” gone, the website formerly known as Twitter will be so friggin boring everyone will go to sleep except for the bots.
what conservatives invariably mean
either side of the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian or Arctic Oceans, when they claim to be in favor of “free speech” is, “Everybody’s entitled to my opinion!”