Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
from the so-you-say dept
This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is Strawb with a reply to a couple parts of a comment on our post about “Trump derangement syndrome” turning out to be pretty damn correct:
“Why? Is your contention that non-democratic or abnormally-democratic government inherently represents an “existential threat”?“
That seems an odd question. If a democratically elected leader chooses to shit on democratic principles and enforce fascistic ones, it seems pretty clear that that’s an existential threat to democracy.
“Okay, but that’s putting a lot of blame on “ordinary” people, whereas I’m kind of baffled about how U.S. leadership apparently did nothing for 4 years“
That’s whataboutery. A lot of “ordinary” people are complicit in that they voted for him despite his obvious character flaws and tendency to distort reality.
That doesn’t mean politicians don’t also carry part of the blame.
In second place, it’s Rocky with a comment about the FCC installing a babysitter at CBS:
And here it is, the Ministry of Truth, something that “conservatives” claimed the Democrats wanted to create. Lets see the excuses flow defending this abomination claiming this is just a way to fix anti-conservative bias in the media.
For editor’s choice on the insightful side, we start out with a comment from Stephen T. Stone about Trump’s DOJ failing to convict ICE protestors due to the constant lies of federal officers:
Liars get lazier with time because they fool themselves into a false confidence. Just look at Donald Trump: He doesn’t even bother trying to justify his lies any more because the GOP buys into him wholesale, his biggest supporters don’t care that he lies, and most of the people in power who supposedly oppose him just accept his framing without bothering to push back on both the lies and the context behind them.
Next, it’s n00bdragon with a comment about judges running out of patience with the administration and the DOJ, but not fast enough:
They’ve “had it” with them so much that they still aren’t disbarring people or ordering arrests for willful violations of court orders.
Contempt of court means jail time for little people. Wake me up when it means jail time for big people too.
Over on the funny side, our first place winner is an anonymous comment about the attempt to sue social media companies for the Buffalo mass shooting:
Why didn’t they sue phone and computer manufacturers too? If it wasn’t for them, people wouldn’t have been able to post on social media sites.
Next sue the power company for providing electricity that enabled the internet site to exist.
Then sue Comcast, not because they provided the telecommunications medium to get to the site, but because they are a terrible company and deserve to go bankrupt.
In second place, it’s MrWilson answering a question about where another commenter got the idea that ExTwitter is “doing pretty great right now”:
Grok told them so after it searched for Musk’s perspective on the topic.
For editor’s choice on the funny side, we start out with another comment from Rocky, who continued the riffing that occurred after the second place winning comment above, about who else people could sue:
Ultimately it’s the Big Bangs fault.
Finally, it’s one more comment from MrWilson, breaking out a string of acronyms in pushing for SCOTUS to cut it out with the shadow docket rulings:
After all, subverting and weaponizing rules for your own benefit is the GOP MO and SOP, those POS SOBs.
That’s all for this week, folks!


Comments on “Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt”
Just waiting
For the REALIZATION of Christians, that the GOP and Trump ARNT acting, and never were, CHRISTIAN.
Politicians:
No more wages
No more retirement.
Neither were part of your job.
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I wouldn’t hold my breath. Charismatic Christianity wasn’t really Christian to begin with. That its heroes and champions aren’t paragons of its supposed tenets isn’t a new revelation. It’s par for the course.
Re: Re: Agreed
But Iv watched the Truth Sayers, and the Snake oil Since the 60’s. Ranks up there with Wrestling.(loved GMa, but Forgive me, I hated that Crap, AND the Rodeo)
Would love the Christians to START Condemning those they NOW UNDERSTAND, arnt acting like Christians.
Those Guys set the rules For everyone else. So let them live along the rest of them. There is NO greater then THU. Supposedly.
Regarding the first quote about what Mike Brock meant by “existential threat”, we never did get an answer from Mike. Certainly the idea that it’s “democracy in the U.S.A.” is a good guess, and is supported by the text (though not spelled out explicitly). It could also refer to the existence of democracy in general; the existence of the U.S.A.; or the existence of the U.S.A. as we know it (the idea being that some areas would secede).
People who used the term “existential threat” when I was a child often meant something that literally threatened the existence of humanity. That is, they believed the President of the U.S.A. had the power to end all human life on Earth (which I think is hyperbolic; probably at least one in a million would have survived, not that this is much better). So, there are lots of plausible interpretations.
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“Outside of the words used, we have no way to know what the author meant!”
I think Gavin Newsom deserves an honorary funniest because of his Trump trolling…
“DONALD ‘TACO’ TRUMP, AS MANY CALL HIM, ‘MISSED’ THE DEADLINE!!! CALIFORNIA WILL NOW DRAW NEW, MORE “BEAUTIFUL MAPS,” THEY WILL BE HISTORIC AS THEY WILL END THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY (DEMS TAKE BACK THE HOUSE!). BIG PRESS CONFERENCE THIS WEEK WITH POWERFUL DEMS AND GAVIN NEWSOM — YOUR FAVORITE GOVERNOR — THAT WILL BE DEVASTATING FOR “MAGA.” THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER! — GN”
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The best thing about Newsom’s trolling is that right-wing media outlets are falling for it, and brightly displaying their own hypocrisy.
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According to the Deadline article on this, Newsom will be running for President in 2028 (if Trump hasn’t managed to do away with the 22nd Amendment by then). I, for one, hope he gets it.
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Hopefully not. This is indeed a funny response. It’s a good poise to take in general to mock authoritarians, but this doesn’t prove Newsom is a good choice for president just because he or his staff has a good sense of humor. There are plenty of reasons why he’s at best a significant compromise for president.
As I’ve mentioned on previous articles about troubling aspects of Newsom’s positions, he’s not the best candidate, but he’ll probably be considered a safe one by the DNC who will fear a racist and/or misogynist backlash against a woman or a person of color because they think that may have affected Harris’ candidacy.
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Well, the only better candidate I can think of is ineligible due to a racist clause of the US Constitution.
Funniest comments post has lost focus
It is now just a platform for projecting political bias. Isn’t it just getting old? Change the name or actually do the work to find what’s funny.
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Alternatively, get a different sense of humour or ignore this weekly post.
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Out of curiosity, did you find them funny? To me, they’re somewhat amusing examples of reductio ad absurdum; but more sarcastic than “funny” per se, in that they don’t really make me laugh. In contrast, Jon Stewart’s similarly sarcastic political commentary often did, so I don’t share Charles’s opinion of “politics” being the reason.
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Sure, though I found the runner-up funnier than the winner.
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It’s gallows humor because the dumbest passengers in the plane have decided they’re smarter than the pilots and locked themselves in the cabin.
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I have little power to actually stop the people actively destroying democracy, the economy, the lives of innocent people, and the country at large, so I make fun of them as medium for speaking the truth and very minutely hurting their fragile egos, though only their supporters are likely to see the comments.
I’ll also make fun of anyone else, including the weak Democrats who aren’t fighting back nearly as hard as they should. Ironically, claiming that it’s just political bias only reveals your political bias.
I have a bias against awful abusive authoritarians and their sycophants. That’s not political, that’s existential.
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Get over yourself.
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Which Fox News has been for decades. Your point?
That’s only true of authors who are no longer around. Still-living authors can resolve such ambiguities.
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Stephen King answers your assinie questions?
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As long as i’m confused, everyone is confused!