Rocky 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Does The Government Have The Right To Keep And Arm Bears (With Cameras)?

    Rocky ( profile ), 13 Jun, 2023 @ 05:41pm

    Project Orcon by B F Skinner during WWII also comes to mind, which used pigeons to steer bombs onto targets.

  • On the post: Elon Musk Says Twitter Is Going To Get Rid Of The Block Feature, Enabling Greater Harassment

    Rocky ( profile ), 12 Jun, 2023 @ 06:25pm

    Aside from some people flipping out at the word "satanic", not an insignificant amount of people also goes completely nutters at the "basing your beliefs on the best scientific knowledge available".

  • On the post: OpenAI Sued For Defamation Over ChatGPT ‘Hallucination’; But Who Should Actually Be Liable?

    Rocky ( profile ), 09 Jun, 2023 @ 11:56am

    Someone has to publish said "defamation" somewhere for public consumption.

  • On the post: Possible Reasons Why YouTube Has Given Up Trying To Police 2020 Election Misinfo

    Rocky ( profile ), 08 Jun, 2023 @ 04:19am

    Except 2+2=4 is generally not considered to be objectively true by anyone with a passing understanding of the philosophy of mathematics.
    The above is just a bad form of appeal to authority which doesn't fly here. May I suggest you take your ass somewhere else if you want to discuss the finer points of philosophy, because 2+2=4 is true for all practical purposes that matter.

  • On the post: Possible Reasons Why YouTube Has Given Up Trying To Police 2020 Election Misinfo

    Rocky ( profile ), 07 Jun, 2023 @ 04:35pm

    They are in the business of making money, any decision they make will reflect that - so why should they give up that control and possible make less money? Because some stupid asshole thinks the election was stolen? Pfft.

  • On the post: Possible Reasons Why YouTube Has Given Up Trying To Police 2020 Election Misinfo

    Rocky ( profile ), 07 Jun, 2023 @ 04:09pm

    Well, per your own words:

    Almost everything that anyone has ever said is either false or could reasonably be construed as false. The remainder can (and often is) construed as false for political or other gain.
    Me claiming that the above is false is entirely in the spirit of what you said since I construed it as such. If you don't like getting your own words flung back at you, perhaps don't make sweeping generalizations which are never actually true. Considering everything else you said, especially "Censorship itself is an act of extreme violence", you seem to have a tendency to play fast and loose with words and contexts which is why I'll dismiss most of the stuff you say as emotive bullshit. If you don't like that, perhaps you should reconsider how you actually approach things.

  • On the post: Possible Reasons Why YouTube Has Given Up Trying To Police 2020 Election Misinfo

    Rocky ( profile ), 07 Jun, 2023 @ 07:46am

    Property owners can police their property as they see fit in almost any case. If you don't like it, start your own media-site.

  • On the post: Borked KOTOR 2 Switch Release Ends As It Began: A Shit Show

    Rocky ( profile ), 07 Jun, 2023 @ 05:59am

    Wow…this comment section…ads show just fine, but dare disagree with the hive, and the comment gets marked
    Nobody has any quibbles with people disagreeing, but if someone's whole argument consists of talking-points that are divorced from reality and they refuse to acknowledge that perhaps they are wrong in spite of supplied facts, then they aren't here really here to debate. If you think what I say is bullshit then you are entirely free to give examples of comments that doesn't fit what I say. You should know though, that the obvious trolls and assholes get flagged on sight due to their previous behavior.

  • On the post: Possible Reasons Why YouTube Has Given Up Trying To Police 2020 Election Misinfo

    Rocky ( profile ), 07 Jun, 2023 @ 01:44am

    So what if it is false?
    Have you stopped kicking puppies yet?
    People saying false things is not inherently dangerous.
    COVID-19 is just another flu. COVID-19 vaccines doesn't work. The election was stolen.
    Almost everything that anyone has ever said is either false or could reasonably be construed as false. The remainder can (and often is) construed as false for political or other gain.
    The above is a false statement.
    What is damaging is censorship, especially unequally enforced censorship.
    Examples of this that actually matters?
    Censorship itself is an act of extreme violence, often motivated by intense hatred and anger, especially when committed by those who sincerely believe they are suppressing untruths.
    Extreme violence? Well, if you are going define it that way your argument becomes essentially null and void because you have taken a position that is extremely unreasonable and antagonistic with little bearing on reality.
    Avoidance of disinformation does not excuse the far greater sin of advocated for suppression of opinions just because you believe them to be false.
    And what if someone know they are factually wrong and doesn't want to be associated with lying assholes or extremely stupid people who are unable to grok factual reality?

  • On the post: Twitter Briefly Pretended To Take A Stand Against Hate, But Then Elon Admitted It Was All A Mistake (Or A Marketing Campaign?)

    Rocky ( profile ), 06 Jun, 2023 @ 09:15am

    There are an estimated 1.6 million people who identify as transgender in the US. 25% of those have been physically attacked because of who they are and 20-40 are murdered yearly for the same reason. So take your crocodile tears somewhere else, because bigots deserve everything they get.

  • On the post: Twitter Admits in Court Filing: Elon Musk Is Simply Wrong About Government Interference At Twitter

    Rocky ( profile ), 06 Jun, 2023 @ 08:51am

    That effort, involving Facebook, Twitter, etc seems to have been centrally orchestrated.
    Only if you are stupid and went looking for simple answers at a time when there were no answers.

  • On the post: Twitter Admits in Court Filing: Elon Musk Is Simply Wrong About Government Interference At Twitter

    Rocky ( profile ), 06 Jun, 2023 @ 08:48am

    Berenson take on a preprint report:

    URGENT: The most powerful evidence yet that mRNA vaccines hurt long-term immunity to Covid after infection
    Experts:
    There is nothing in this paper that suggests the vaccines don’t work. ... What the data show is that vaccinated individuals get infected less and have milder infection, and therefore the footprints of infection are smaller because you have less infection. - Dr. Lindsey Baden, infectious disease researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute It’s a good thing that you have a reduction in anti-N antibodies because it shows the vaccines are doing their job. - John Moore, professor of microbiology and immunology at Weill Cornell Medicine. ... because vaccination limits the infection there is less nucleocapsid produced. ... This is not worse immunity. This is in fact better immunity. - E. John Wherry, immunologist at University of Pennsylvania
    Berenson on Tucker Car:
    It is completely clear now that the vaccines don’t really work at all against Omicron. In these highly-vaccinated and highly boosted countries, rates of infection are incredibly high and rates of serious disease and death are also rising. The mRNA Covid vaccines need to be withdrawn from the market. No one should get them. No one should get boosted. No one should get double boosted. They are a dangerous and ineffective product at this point.
    NIH article on COVID-19 vaccines effectiveness against Omikron:
    COVID-19 vaccines still provide some protection against infection and symptomatic disease from all Omicron subvariants for at least several months, with greater and more durable protection against severe disease.
    The final nail in the coffin for Berenson's claim that vaccines aren't effective is that evidence from all around the world shows that those hospitalized due to Covid-19, and those who perished from COVID are almost always unvaccinated. All this information is easily accessible if you bothered to look for it, but instead you choose to wallow in ignorance while trusting grifters.

  • On the post: Twitter Admits in Court Filing: Elon Musk Is Simply Wrong About Government Interference At Twitter

    Rocky ( profile ), 05 Jun, 2023 @ 01:42pm

    TBF, maybe he hasn't kept up with the entitlement and victimhood group because there sure are more productive things to do than wading through that dreck.

  • On the post: Not Everything Is Bigger In Texas: Latest Dumbass Anti-Drag Bill Appears To Outlaw Breast Enhancements

    Rocky ( profile ), 05 Jun, 2023 @ 01:39pm

    That can happen if you don't jack it up first.

  • On the post: Not Everything Is Bigger In Texas: Latest Dumbass Anti-Drag Bill Appears To Outlaw Breast Enhancements

    Rocky ( profile ), 05 Jun, 2023 @ 12:01pm

    I've haven't really read through the bill, but this seems a tad "encompassing":

    (E) the exhibition of sexual gesticulations using accessories or prosthetics that exaggerate male or female sexual characteristics.
    So, no VR-sex?

  • On the post: City Of Minneapolis Kicks A Bunch Of Pretextual Stops To The Curb In Settlement With State’s Department Of Human Rights

    Rocky ( profile ), 03 Jun, 2023 @ 09:21am

    I'm sure must have read the report then which makes you a liar: Cause of death: Cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression Manner of death: Homicide

  • On the post: Telecom Lobbyists Have Had The FCC Under Their Boot Heel For 7 Straight Years And Nobody Much Seems To Care

    Rocky ( profile ), 02 Jun, 2023 @ 06:02pm

    AFAIK, nobody said the internet would break. What was said and what all statistics actually prove was that people have to pay more for less plus that the service providers would hamper competition in various ways. You try to blame the repeal on "activists" when in reality the incumbents poured vast amounts of money into lobbying and fake organizations to get what they wanted, not to mention the millions of fake comments impersonating people they made to the FCC. You mere existence at this point makes the US a worse place.

  • On the post: Perhaps GPT Is Not Ready For The Supreme Court

    Rocky ( profile ), 02 Jun, 2023 @ 07:26am

    There’s a tremendous overexpectation that AI will never misinterpret a request or worse, provide outright garbage data, and this is largely to blame by the people producing AI failing to educate and temper people’s expectations. AI like this is not ready to be in the public sphere.
    It's exactly the same for any new automation tool that comes to market, the gullible and the stupid can't be bothered to read the little disclaimers about the tools caveats. And when they manage to figuratively shoot themselves in the foot using said tool, there's always other tools blaming the tool instead of the lazy stupid users.

  • On the post: Governor Newsom Desperately Begs NetChoice To Drop Its Lawsuit Over Unconstitutional AADC Bill

    Rocky ( profile ), 02 Jun, 2023 @ 06:50am

    . anti woke .. (whatever that means)
    It's telling when even Trump mock people who use the word woke.

  • On the post: A Deeper Look At The Surgeon General’s Report On Kids & Social Media: It’s Not What You Heard

    Rocky ( profile ), 02 Jun, 2023 @ 04:27am

    My positions are rooted in a decade of research related to several courses I teach on the subject.
    Two things. First, your position is based on how you interpret and question the information you came across during your research which means it's inherently subjective to a certain degree - especially if you where predisposed to a certain outcome from the beginning. Second, never be in love with your own theory or conclusions to the degree that you ignore criticisms directed at it.
    It is cultural shift driven by business models that cause psychological effects influencing the perception of reality. It creates an endemic distortion field of misinformation on a scale of hundreds of millions.
    Not really, it all comes down to how people in general functions. People tend to believe the simple but wrong argument/position over a complex/nuanced and correct argument/position. This has been true from the moment humans gained the ability to walk upright and communicate ideas with speech. What has happened is that technology has facilitated the ease and speed of how ideas spread, this has been a steady progression since the first proto-human drew a stick figure in the mud somewhere. The actual cultural shift is in the fact that people no longer question things from unknown sources since anyone can seem to belong to the "in-group" as long as they say the "right things" in an anonymous fashion (social media et al) compared to how it was: don't unconditionally trust the stranger on your door-step until that person have been proven trustworthy. The effects of misinformation is most felt in totalitarian countries or in countries that are politically fractured where the population largely can be considered poorly educated on many subjects, like the US. YMMV.

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