Imagine if the cops had come back and apologized to him and helped him fix his door and make things right as they would have voluntarily done if a friend or coworker of theirs was an accidental victim like this. Then rather than look like the bad guys they could have been good guys. All Afroman did was give them the opportunity to be good or bad and they chose bad instinctively.
They think they’re inherently good because they’re cops and he’s the dirty rapper they knew was a criminal as soon as they heard about him. So they were eager to follow the first scent they got that would allow them to deny his rights they think criminals shouldn’t have because they think the Constitution only protects Law Abiding Citizens like them; not criminals. So that means they can’t do wrong and if you think they did anything wrong then you’re the bad guy. They think we should all be judged by who we are, not what we do. So dirty rappers belong in jail and cops deserve to be worshipped regardless of their actions.
The other side of this is also frustrating because they’re solving the wrong problem. They believe algorithms are designed to force everyone to see the same content, which is stupid since forcing specific content on people is the easiest thing to do. But few people want to be on a site that spoonfeeds everything from the top. That’s why social media became popular because there was no gatekeeper deciding what was posted and what we saw…depending on the website. It’s like these people can’t even grasp the basics of what the internet is. It’s the internet that is 100% neutral. Websites can be as biased as they want to be and users decide where to go.
A proper algorithm gives people what THEY want and the more a site tries jiggering the results to push an agenda the more it messes with their algorithm and makes the site worse. And you can’t fool everyone. We’re not mindless sheep and when a rightwing billionaire takes over Twitter or TikTok to push their agenda it’s obvious and the people who oppose that agenda will leave the platform.
I was addicted to Facebook for years until they changed the algorithm in 2017 and I stopped using it completely. There’s always another website.
Part of the problem is that the right doesn’t even know how to understand reality or do investigations. They start with conclusions based on narratives that they’re told then look for evidence confirming it. They know who is guilty or not instinctively. They just need to prove it.
That’s why they were outraged that Trump was even investigated for Russiagate or any other crime because they “knew” he was innocent so there was no point in even looking at why the investigations started. And they don’t. They think Russiagate was about the Steele Dossier that was obviously fake because that’s the conclusion they were told and they don’t need to look into it any further.
Similarly, they think investigations are how you find the proof of the claims they make, so you can get subpoenas and arrests based on hunches and if you can’t find the evidence you need to keep looking until you do. So Renee Good and her spouse were part of an evil terrorist network because somebody made the claim and they get to dig into her private life to prove it. And if they never find the proof that proves how powerful the evil network is.
Glad to see someone else explain the game of Telephone the right plays to invent outrage, but it didn’t mention my favorite part: When the message comes back around to the clowns who started it and they honestly think it affirmed that their theory was not only true but worse than they even imagined. Then they tweak the story to juice it up further and pass it on again. And none of them realize the others are juicing the story too.
Republicans used to have really smart people running their propaganda machine. Now all those people are dead or moved to our side and they’re left with the rubes who got duped. They’re not just purveyors of lies, they’re also customers.
A split second to react? He didn’t stop her! Had he kept his gun holstered it wouldn’t have changed anything except maybe he’d have not gotten bumped by her car had he moved faster. It’s embarrassing how you people describe this like a cop show instead of what clearly happened. The fact that you have to lie only proves you know he’s in the wrong. He put himself in danger and all she was trying to do was leave. That’s it. That’s your real argument: Everyone should do as they’re told and they won’t get hurt.
And yeah, we’re allowed to be anti-government! Welcome to America! It ain’t a crime to be anti-ICE and they could have driven by her so there wasn’t even excuse to arrest her. They obviously had nothing better to do or he wouldn’t have been strolling around her car with his phone recording. And now that thug is most likely going to prison. Play stupid games, indeed.
She was obviously trying to avoid him and if she bumped him it’s because he foolishly put himself in danger and she couldn’t possibly avoid him. She was turning the wheel while backing up in a way that would avoid him, then turned the wheel away from him to avoid him. Had he just stepped out of the way he’d have been totally safe and that’s what law enforcement is required to do. His bullets did nothing to protect him so he obviously didn’t need to shoot.
The idea that law enforcement can block your car and use that as an excuse to shoot them if they drive forward is not only laughably dumb but is not the law. Not only do cops not have a right to block your car upon penalty of death, but they’re trained to NEVER put themselves in that position. I’ve seen so many police stop videos and cops put their own lives first and demand that drivers turn off the car even for routine traffic stops; let alone when dealing with a supposed domestic terrorist. They don’t stand in front of cars because real criminals will just run them over. And they definitely don’t stroll around cars with their phones out recording. He was only saved because she DIDN’T want to hit him.
But this moron either has no sense of self preservation or intentionally put himself in danger as an excuse to shoot. And last year he got hurt putting himself in danger doing something cops don’t do because it’s dangerous and you can end up getting hurt like he did. Either way what he did was criminal and you’ll just be angry when he gets prosecuted because you watch too many movies and think that’s how the law works.
“They seemed to think that once they were in power, the public would love and admire them for their power.“
Indeed. These people think respect comes with the job because they’re authoritarians trained to think authority is always legitimate so you should always respect the people above you. Just like they think being a white man automatically makes you the most qualified for every good job, so DEI hiring means you can’t be getting the best people. Because that’s actually the big joke of this: If they don’t like someone above them, they not only don’t get respect but are considered to have the job illegitimately.
The idea of earning respect seems impossible to them because they think fear and respect are the same things and not opposites. I’ve had several righties say this despite my best attempts to explain the difference. They were taught to fear authority and call it respect; then wonder why the people under them don’t like them. So much of what we see are emotionally repressed victims still traumatized by their mean parents and dumping that trauma on others. They were forced to fake maturity at a young age and never really grew up.
And yeah, Trump has been craving respect his whole life because his success is unearned and anyone with taste or brains knew he was a clown. Yet those are the people he wanted praise from and he loathes people who are submissive to him like MAGA because he doesn’t want to be the member of any club that would have a creep like him. He thought being called Mr. President would finally give him the admiration he needs and instead he just gets his handlers coddling him and telling him that all dissent is manufactured and his approval ratings are 1,600%. Sad!
It’s because they define doxxing as identifying. So if you merely identify someone they don’t want identified you doxxed them. And they only learned that doxxing was bad when they got called out for real doxxing since they love to dox people and it became another weapon of theirs to attack us for what they do using another tactic we use.
Because they’re small kids and all they know how to do is copy us and think it’s clever to use our own tricks on us even though we aren’t using tricks. But they just loooove tricks. They’d rather lose in a tricky way than win honestly. If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying.
Trump better hope his supporters don’t find out what this case is about. I’ve dealt with many of them regarding this speech and they all know he said the peaceful part but refuse to believe he told them to fight like hell or they won’t have a country anymore.
Once I quote it the best they’ll do is insist that the peaceful part was all that matters or think it was at the end of the speech right before they left. But some refuse to believe he said it even when I provide the quote. Because they never heard the speech; same as most of his speeches.
That’s something the anti-MAGA crowd usually doesn’t understand. They think MAGA are somehow getting duped by Trump, but they rarely ever listen to him at all because they secretly know he’s terrible to listen to. They get their Trump news from their favorite influencers; not Trump himself. They know Trump says crazy and rude things but are assured that it’s just an act and are told what he really thinks. And they all have their own version of Trump, just as there are so many different versions of Christianity claiming to have the one true message.
Trump is just demonstrating the big flaw of authoritarianism: The more you try to steamroll other people the more they’ll fight back. Even Trump’s own side is squirming due to his illogical decisions and all he can do is throw impotent attacks that only work against his own side if his angry mob targets them.
Some people think looking strong and threats are all you need to cow people into submission, but that’s completely backwards. The more you tighten your grip, the more people slip out of your hand. That’s why authoritarian countries rely on fear, lies, and corruption to maintain power; to the point that suppressing their own people becomes their main goal and they lose sight of how to govern properly. They start by trying to scare dissenters but eventually live in fear of their own people.
Democracy isn’t just a nicety. It’s how you get people to buy-in on your government by making them a part of it. Just like how employees work better if their bosses listen to them and treat them with respect. While jerk bosses drive off all their good workers then they complain that they can’t find good help. If all you want are mindless robots, you can’t complain when they act accordingly.
I just like how he tries to Both Sides this by pretending as if when lefties see the flag burning it also makes them commit violence because he can’t admit his side is uniquely violent. Yet his supporters ignore this and won’t claim that flags need protecting because it makes them violent. Just like how they ignore everything else he says. They’re all secretly ashamed of Trump but will NEVER admit it.
I’ve tried to explain this to rightwingers going back to the Obama Administration that he and Biden prioritized deporting new arrivals and dangerous criminals while Trump prioritized all illegal immigrants; but if everything is a priority then there are no priorities. And they would ask why we needed to prioritize anyone as if that’s obviously unnecessary and I would explain that the government doesn’t have unlimited resources and needs to prioritize the worst cases. But they refused to believe this and would insist that there are always more resources.
And sure enough…I was right. The government doesn’t have unlimited resources. But rather than admit that Obama and Biden were doing it right, the Trump Admin instead prioritize low hanging fruit like workers and immigrants following the rules, not dangerous criminals. And they can’t admit that because they refuse to see anything that goes against their beliefs.
But these people get their understanding of society from TV and movies. As if the only thing stopping police from ending all crime are corrupt politicians, evil defense attorneys, bureaucratic red tape, and bleeding heart liberals. So we just need to unshackle the police by denying constitutional rights to anyone the cops think is a criminal and everyone will be safe. That’s liberal Hollywood for ya!
And now we’re being led by a Boomer raised on television who believes everything it shows him besides criticism of himself.
The most unbelievable part of the video was how normal Trump sounded, like he’s a normal person who had rehearsed it at least once and not a bored child speaking in a sing-song voice and odd punctuation as cover for the fact that he’s barely literate and needs to sound out the words one by one.
I don’t trust anything the real Trump says but AI Trump made me believe that Medbeds are real and he’s going to get me access to one. I betcha AI Trump would be too smart to post an AI video of himself.
I like how MAGA relishes in using the attacks against them as attacks they can use. Not only is every accusation they make a confession of what they’re doing, now every accusation against them becomes their latest weapon.
That’s why Trump labels anything that hurts him politically as election interference, not because it makes any sense but because it was a weapon introduced to him when he interfered with the 2020 election and now he uses it as much as possible. And they’re attacking people with RICO because it was used against Trump; most recently saying the group that shouted at Trump in a restaurant might be charged with RICO for conspiring to damage Trump’s precious fee-fees.
And they’re targeting Trump’s enemies with mortgage fraud because Trump was convicted of mortgage fraud. They’re doxing/canceling people who said mean things about Charlie Kirk because some lefties do that to bigots. And they’re saying it’s stochastic terrorism to call them fascists or Nazis because that’s something lefties say about them when their rhetoric makes righties turn to violence.
And while these people denounce all of these tactics when used against them, they insist that it’s ok to use leftie tactics against lefties because they believe in double standards and that it’s wrong to treat everyone equally. And it’s really about faux payback because these people are toddlers who were scared into being good so they look for any excuse to be as bad as they want to be. So it’s ok to be a monster if you pretend you’re fighting monsters.
If Wikipedia was biased nobody would use it. It’s only useful if it’s accurate. But that’s a concept rightwingers can’t understand because they think nothing ever changes and all our favorite businesses and institutions would remain even if you change the people involved.
By this thinking, in all possible universes Wikipedia would always exist no matter who runs it, so they can work the refs to push their bias and it will remain a trusted source. And they can take over the CDC to recommend the most ridiculous medical suggestions and everyone who trusted it before will continue to trust it. And they can pressure every news org to only report rightie propaganda and their readers and viewers will now become Republicans.
Once you recognize this pattern you see it in all their arguments. Professional athletes aren’t the best of the best, you can replace the ones you dislike with cheaper options who do what they’re told and those people will become our beloved stars. We don’t need leftie actors like Robert DeNiro and George Clooney because we’ll happily watch rightie actors like Scott Baio and Kevin Sorbo if given the same roles. And we can replace liberal professors with Prager U videos and still get all the educated college grads we need without the pesky radicalism.
We’re all just mindless sheep who agree with whatever you put in front of us so you should just make everything how Trump wants it to be and everyone in America will support him.
I don’t want to use ad blockers and happily watch YouTube ads as long as the creators I like get a piece of the action because I don’t want to pay for them. I’ll even let ads play silently at the end while I read and post comments. But most websites are so terrible about ads that they make the sites unreadable. People deserve to be paid for their work but these sites are ruining themselves.
I’ve turned off the blocker on my gaming computer for websites that require it and can hear the fans speed up just to handle the ads. I avoid those sites as much as possible. I prefer using my iPad and never even know the ads exist. Sometimes sites still require I allow content, but Apple lets me easily vanish each one in a satisfying manner. There needs to be a better way.
Option A was not collecting any child data and that’s most definitely the safer option than collecting data with parental consent. I don’t think they should collect the data even WITH parental consent since most parents will consent without knowing what a company will do with the data. Allowing websites to collect the data of children is the problem, but COPPA allows them to collect it with consent just to appease websites that want to collect child data.
And yes, they’re arguing that Roblox allows pedos to set up anonymous accounts and nothing in COPPA stops that. Do you imagine this will prevent pedos from signing up as kids because the pedo’s parents will refuse to consent? I’m pretty sure a pedo can pretend to be their own parent while signing up as a child. Just as they can get around any age verification by signing up as their child, niece, etc. Age verification might stop a minor who can’t pretend to be an adult but not an adult pretending to be a child.
D1DDY P13NS
Part of the issue is that rightwingers can’t conceive that anyone could honestly see anything differently than they do. They know what’s harmful when they see it and assume everyone else has the exact same standards unless they’re evil. Making people jump through hoops and punishing sites for things they alone deem harmful are features, not bugs.
And the other issue is that many of them are totally happy if large chunks of the internet are off-limits. They wish they could outright decide what is allowed to be online but think it’s a valid alternative if it’s done broadly like this. They need to control all information or nobody would agree with them at all.
Every time I see Musk use the word thermonuclear I just think he watched War Games too many times when he was young, but instead of learning that nuclear war was unwinnable, the message he got was how cool hackers are because they can cheat and steal; as well as thinking artificial intelligence would be easy. The word nuclear is good enough for most, but Musk prefers thermonuclear because he’s fancy like that.
And every time rightwingers allege a mass conspiracy by everyone they deem as an enemy it’s a confession that this is what they do. OF COURSE Media Matters was colluding with advertisers to hurt Twitter because that’s what righties do. You use a supposedly independent front group to make a public accusation, then the rest parrot it as if it’s undeniably true. The fact that they can never find lefties doing this is just proof of how powerful we are. But they know if they just look long enough they’ll find we do as many crimes as they get caught doing.
I suspect that the reason many people think algorithms turn third party content into first party content is because they don’t understand what an algorithm is and think it just means sites forcing specific content on people to push an agenda; ie, what normal content sites do but not proper algorithm sites. So they’ve got all this backwards and don’t even understand the basic terminology.
I routinely see people complain about their algorithm feed because they think everyone is seeing the same content they do and it’s proof of a biased website when they keep getting fed the kind of content that outrages them enough to click and comment. And when I try to explain that they have their own feed and only have themselves to blame for clicking on content they don’t want to see, they get upset and refuse to believe it. The idea of a program selecting individual content for them seems impossible. It’s GOTTA be a conspiracy!
Imagine if the cops had come back and apologized to him and helped him fix his door and make things right as they would have voluntarily done if a friend or coworker of theirs was an accidental victim like this. Then rather than look like the bad guys they could have been good guys. All Afroman did was give them the opportunity to be good or bad and they chose bad instinctively. They think they’re inherently good because they’re cops and he’s the dirty rapper they knew was a criminal as soon as they heard about him. So they were eager to follow the first scent they got that would allow them to deny his rights they think criminals shouldn’t have because they think the Constitution only protects Law Abiding Citizens like them; not criminals. So that means they can’t do wrong and if you think they did anything wrong then you’re the bad guy. They think we should all be judged by who we are, not what we do. So dirty rappers belong in jail and cops deserve to be worshipped regardless of their actions.
The other side of this is also frustrating because they’re solving the wrong problem. They believe algorithms are designed to force everyone to see the same content, which is stupid since forcing specific content on people is the easiest thing to do. But few people want to be on a site that spoonfeeds everything from the top. That’s why social media became popular because there was no gatekeeper deciding what was posted and what we saw…depending on the website. It’s like these people can’t even grasp the basics of what the internet is. It’s the internet that is 100% neutral. Websites can be as biased as they want to be and users decide where to go. A proper algorithm gives people what THEY want and the more a site tries jiggering the results to push an agenda the more it messes with their algorithm and makes the site worse. And you can’t fool everyone. We’re not mindless sheep and when a rightwing billionaire takes over Twitter or TikTok to push their agenda it’s obvious and the people who oppose that agenda will leave the platform. I was addicted to Facebook for years until they changed the algorithm in 2017 and I stopped using it completely. There’s always another website.
Part of the problem is that the right doesn’t even know how to understand reality or do investigations. They start with conclusions based on narratives that they’re told then look for evidence confirming it. They know who is guilty or not instinctively. They just need to prove it. That’s why they were outraged that Trump was even investigated for Russiagate or any other crime because they “knew” he was innocent so there was no point in even looking at why the investigations started. And they don’t. They think Russiagate was about the Steele Dossier that was obviously fake because that’s the conclusion they were told and they don’t need to look into it any further. Similarly, they think investigations are how you find the proof of the claims they make, so you can get subpoenas and arrests based on hunches and if you can’t find the evidence you need to keep looking until you do. So Renee Good and her spouse were part of an evil terrorist network because somebody made the claim and they get to dig into her private life to prove it. And if they never find the proof that proves how powerful the evil network is.
Glad to see someone else explain the game of Telephone the right plays to invent outrage, but it didn’t mention my favorite part: When the message comes back around to the clowns who started it and they honestly think it affirmed that their theory was not only true but worse than they even imagined. Then they tweak the story to juice it up further and pass it on again. And none of them realize the others are juicing the story too. Republicans used to have really smart people running their propaganda machine. Now all those people are dead or moved to our side and they’re left with the rubes who got duped. They’re not just purveyors of lies, they’re also customers.
A split second to react? He didn’t stop her! Had he kept his gun holstered it wouldn’t have changed anything except maybe he’d have not gotten bumped by her car had he moved faster. It’s embarrassing how you people describe this like a cop show instead of what clearly happened. The fact that you have to lie only proves you know he’s in the wrong. He put himself in danger and all she was trying to do was leave. That’s it. That’s your real argument: Everyone should do as they’re told and they won’t get hurt. And yeah, we’re allowed to be anti-government! Welcome to America! It ain’t a crime to be anti-ICE and they could have driven by her so there wasn’t even excuse to arrest her. They obviously had nothing better to do or he wouldn’t have been strolling around her car with his phone recording. And now that thug is most likely going to prison. Play stupid games, indeed.
She was obviously trying to avoid him and if she bumped him it’s because he foolishly put himself in danger and she couldn’t possibly avoid him. She was turning the wheel while backing up in a way that would avoid him, then turned the wheel away from him to avoid him. Had he just stepped out of the way he’d have been totally safe and that’s what law enforcement is required to do. His bullets did nothing to protect him so he obviously didn’t need to shoot. The idea that law enforcement can block your car and use that as an excuse to shoot them if they drive forward is not only laughably dumb but is not the law. Not only do cops not have a right to block your car upon penalty of death, but they’re trained to NEVER put themselves in that position. I’ve seen so many police stop videos and cops put their own lives first and demand that drivers turn off the car even for routine traffic stops; let alone when dealing with a supposed domestic terrorist. They don’t stand in front of cars because real criminals will just run them over. And they definitely don’t stroll around cars with their phones out recording. He was only saved because she DIDN’T want to hit him. But this moron either has no sense of self preservation or intentionally put himself in danger as an excuse to shoot. And last year he got hurt putting himself in danger doing something cops don’t do because it’s dangerous and you can end up getting hurt like he did. Either way what he did was criminal and you’ll just be angry when he gets prosecuted because you watch too many movies and think that’s how the law works.
“They seemed to think that once they were in power, the public would love and admire them for their power.“ Indeed. These people think respect comes with the job because they’re authoritarians trained to think authority is always legitimate so you should always respect the people above you. Just like they think being a white man automatically makes you the most qualified for every good job, so DEI hiring means you can’t be getting the best people. Because that’s actually the big joke of this: If they don’t like someone above them, they not only don’t get respect but are considered to have the job illegitimately. The idea of earning respect seems impossible to them because they think fear and respect are the same things and not opposites. I’ve had several righties say this despite my best attempts to explain the difference. They were taught to fear authority and call it respect; then wonder why the people under them don’t like them. So much of what we see are emotionally repressed victims still traumatized by their mean parents and dumping that trauma on others. They were forced to fake maturity at a young age and never really grew up. And yeah, Trump has been craving respect his whole life because his success is unearned and anyone with taste or brains knew he was a clown. Yet those are the people he wanted praise from and he loathes people who are submissive to him like MAGA because he doesn’t want to be the member of any club that would have a creep like him. He thought being called Mr. President would finally give him the admiration he needs and instead he just gets his handlers coddling him and telling him that all dissent is manufactured and his approval ratings are 1,600%. Sad!
It’s because they define doxxing as identifying. So if you merely identify someone they don’t want identified you doxxed them. And they only learned that doxxing was bad when they got called out for real doxxing since they love to dox people and it became another weapon of theirs to attack us for what they do using another tactic we use. Because they’re small kids and all they know how to do is copy us and think it’s clever to use our own tricks on us even though we aren’t using tricks. But they just loooove tricks. They’d rather lose in a tricky way than win honestly. If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying.
Trump better hope his supporters don’t find out what this case is about. I’ve dealt with many of them regarding this speech and they all know he said the peaceful part but refuse to believe he told them to fight like hell or they won’t have a country anymore. Once I quote it the best they’ll do is insist that the peaceful part was all that matters or think it was at the end of the speech right before they left. But some refuse to believe he said it even when I provide the quote. Because they never heard the speech; same as most of his speeches. That’s something the anti-MAGA crowd usually doesn’t understand. They think MAGA are somehow getting duped by Trump, but they rarely ever listen to him at all because they secretly know he’s terrible to listen to. They get their Trump news from their favorite influencers; not Trump himself. They know Trump says crazy and rude things but are assured that it’s just an act and are told what he really thinks. And they all have their own version of Trump, just as there are so many different versions of Christianity claiming to have the one true message.
Trump is just demonstrating the big flaw of authoritarianism: The more you try to steamroll other people the more they’ll fight back. Even Trump’s own side is squirming due to his illogical decisions and all he can do is throw impotent attacks that only work against his own side if his angry mob targets them. Some people think looking strong and threats are all you need to cow people into submission, but that’s completely backwards. The more you tighten your grip, the more people slip out of your hand. That’s why authoritarian countries rely on fear, lies, and corruption to maintain power; to the point that suppressing their own people becomes their main goal and they lose sight of how to govern properly. They start by trying to scare dissenters but eventually live in fear of their own people. Democracy isn’t just a nicety. It’s how you get people to buy-in on your government by making them a part of it. Just like how employees work better if their bosses listen to them and treat them with respect. While jerk bosses drive off all their good workers then they complain that they can’t find good help. If all you want are mindless robots, you can’t complain when they act accordingly.
Both Sides
I just like how he tries to Both Sides this by pretending as if when lefties see the flag burning it also makes them commit violence because he can’t admit his side is uniquely violent. Yet his supporters ignore this and won’t claim that flags need protecting because it makes them violent. Just like how they ignore everything else he says. They’re all secretly ashamed of Trump but will NEVER admit it.
I’ve tried to explain this to rightwingers going back to the Obama Administration that he and Biden prioritized deporting new arrivals and dangerous criminals while Trump prioritized all illegal immigrants; but if everything is a priority then there are no priorities. And they would ask why we needed to prioritize anyone as if that’s obviously unnecessary and I would explain that the government doesn’t have unlimited resources and needs to prioritize the worst cases. But they refused to believe this and would insist that there are always more resources. And sure enough…I was right. The government doesn’t have unlimited resources. But rather than admit that Obama and Biden were doing it right, the Trump Admin instead prioritize low hanging fruit like workers and immigrants following the rules, not dangerous criminals. And they can’t admit that because they refuse to see anything that goes against their beliefs. But these people get their understanding of society from TV and movies. As if the only thing stopping police from ending all crime are corrupt politicians, evil defense attorneys, bureaucratic red tape, and bleeding heart liberals. So we just need to unshackle the police by denying constitutional rights to anyone the cops think is a criminal and everyone will be safe. That’s liberal Hollywood for ya! And now we’re being led by a Boomer raised on television who believes everything it shows him besides criticism of himself.
The most unbelievable part of the video was how normal Trump sounded, like he’s a normal person who had rehearsed it at least once and not a bored child speaking in a sing-song voice and odd punctuation as cover for the fact that he’s barely literate and needs to sound out the words one by one. I don’t trust anything the real Trump says but AI Trump made me believe that Medbeds are real and he’s going to get me access to one. I betcha AI Trump would be too smart to post an AI video of himself.
I like how MAGA relishes in using the attacks against them as attacks they can use. Not only is every accusation they make a confession of what they’re doing, now every accusation against them becomes their latest weapon. That’s why Trump labels anything that hurts him politically as election interference, not because it makes any sense but because it was a weapon introduced to him when he interfered with the 2020 election and now he uses it as much as possible. And they’re attacking people with RICO because it was used against Trump; most recently saying the group that shouted at Trump in a restaurant might be charged with RICO for conspiring to damage Trump’s precious fee-fees. And they’re targeting Trump’s enemies with mortgage fraud because Trump was convicted of mortgage fraud. They’re doxing/canceling people who said mean things about Charlie Kirk because some lefties do that to bigots. And they’re saying it’s stochastic terrorism to call them fascists or Nazis because that’s something lefties say about them when their rhetoric makes righties turn to violence. And while these people denounce all of these tactics when used against them, they insist that it’s ok to use leftie tactics against lefties because they believe in double standards and that it’s wrong to treat everyone equally. And it’s really about faux payback because these people are toddlers who were scared into being good so they look for any excuse to be as bad as they want to be. So it’s ok to be a monster if you pretend you’re fighting monsters.
If Wikipedia was biased nobody would use it. It’s only useful if it’s accurate. But that’s a concept rightwingers can’t understand because they think nothing ever changes and all our favorite businesses and institutions would remain even if you change the people involved. By this thinking, in all possible universes Wikipedia would always exist no matter who runs it, so they can work the refs to push their bias and it will remain a trusted source. And they can take over the CDC to recommend the most ridiculous medical suggestions and everyone who trusted it before will continue to trust it. And they can pressure every news org to only report rightie propaganda and their readers and viewers will now become Republicans. Once you recognize this pattern you see it in all their arguments. Professional athletes aren’t the best of the best, you can replace the ones you dislike with cheaper options who do what they’re told and those people will become our beloved stars. We don’t need leftie actors like Robert DeNiro and George Clooney because we’ll happily watch rightie actors like Scott Baio and Kevin Sorbo if given the same roles. And we can replace liberal professors with Prager U videos and still get all the educated college grads we need without the pesky radicalism. We’re all just mindless sheep who agree with whatever you put in front of us so you should just make everything how Trump wants it to be and everyone in America will support him.
I don’t want to use ad blockers and happily watch YouTube ads as long as the creators I like get a piece of the action because I don’t want to pay for them. I’ll even let ads play silently at the end while I read and post comments. But most websites are so terrible about ads that they make the sites unreadable. People deserve to be paid for their work but these sites are ruining themselves. I’ve turned off the blocker on my gaming computer for websites that require it and can hear the fans speed up just to handle the ads. I avoid those sites as much as possible. I prefer using my iPad and never even know the ads exist. Sometimes sites still require I allow content, but Apple lets me easily vanish each one in a satisfying manner. There needs to be a better way.
Option A was not collecting any child data and that’s most definitely the safer option than collecting data with parental consent. I don’t think they should collect the data even WITH parental consent since most parents will consent without knowing what a company will do with the data. Allowing websites to collect the data of children is the problem, but COPPA allows them to collect it with consent just to appease websites that want to collect child data. And yes, they’re arguing that Roblox allows pedos to set up anonymous accounts and nothing in COPPA stops that. Do you imagine this will prevent pedos from signing up as kids because the pedo’s parents will refuse to consent? I’m pretty sure a pedo can pretend to be their own parent while signing up as a child. Just as they can get around any age verification by signing up as their child, niece, etc. Age verification might stop a minor who can’t pretend to be an adult but not an adult pretending to be a child. D1DDY P13NS
Part of the issue is that rightwingers can’t conceive that anyone could honestly see anything differently than they do. They know what’s harmful when they see it and assume everyone else has the exact same standards unless they’re evil. Making people jump through hoops and punishing sites for things they alone deem harmful are features, not bugs. And the other issue is that many of them are totally happy if large chunks of the internet are off-limits. They wish they could outright decide what is allowed to be online but think it’s a valid alternative if it’s done broadly like this. They need to control all information or nobody would agree with them at all.
Every time I see Musk use the word thermonuclear I just think he watched War Games too many times when he was young, but instead of learning that nuclear war was unwinnable, the message he got was how cool hackers are because they can cheat and steal; as well as thinking artificial intelligence would be easy. The word nuclear is good enough for most, but Musk prefers thermonuclear because he’s fancy like that. And every time rightwingers allege a mass conspiracy by everyone they deem as an enemy it’s a confession that this is what they do. OF COURSE Media Matters was colluding with advertisers to hurt Twitter because that’s what righties do. You use a supposedly independent front group to make a public accusation, then the rest parrot it as if it’s undeniably true. The fact that they can never find lefties doing this is just proof of how powerful we are. But they know if they just look long enough they’ll find we do as many crimes as they get caught doing.
I suspect that the reason many people think algorithms turn third party content into first party content is because they don’t understand what an algorithm is and think it just means sites forcing specific content on people to push an agenda; ie, what normal content sites do but not proper algorithm sites. So they’ve got all this backwards and don’t even understand the basic terminology. I routinely see people complain about their algorithm feed because they think everyone is seeing the same content they do and it’s proof of a biased website when they keep getting fed the kind of content that outrages them enough to click and comment. And when I try to explain that they have their own feed and only have themselves to blame for clicking on content they don’t want to see, they get upset and refuse to believe it. The idea of a program selecting individual content for them seems impossible. It’s GOTTA be a conspiracy!