Most accidents are caused by impaired and distracted drivers, not average drivers. A sober person paying attention is a better driver than a computer. It makes sense for cars to have drivers assistance in case the driver falls asleep or gets distracted, but it makes no sense to have the human as the failsafe in case the computer screws up.
The reason they think they can do unbiased AI is because they think they’re completely unbiased and bias is anything they disagree with. It’s almost impossible to find anyone who will admit to being on the right anymore. They all think they’re unbiased freethinkers who hate both sides as if Trump hijacked the Republican Party to save America from the Uniparty Establishment. Yet they all sound like extreme versions of Bush Republicans from twenty years ago; as if Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones, and David Duke were all uploaded into clones of Tucker Carlson. That describes Charlie Kirk, Nick Fuentes, Matt Walsh, Michael Knowles, and all the other bland white guys who need to be offensive just to get attention. When they attack “both sides” they just mean the left and moderate Republicans, yet imagine they’re somehow in the middle despite being far-right. And they can’t make sense of this contradiction because Cognitive Dissonance keeps these people perpetually angry as impotent rage is their only recourse since rightwing policies only make the problems they want solved worse. And we’ll see the same with any “anti-woke” AI which will do things like claim to be MechaHitler to offend people rather than answer questions. If you want straight answers you’re going to sound like a leftie every time because reality has a well known liberal bias. Rightwing ideology is a demolition derby disguised as a highway. They’re driving really fast and hurting themselves and others yet can’t figure out why they’re not getting anywhere. As it turns out, you can’t insult your way to happiness. Who knew?
Epstein didn’t have kids. He was paying teenage girls which would have been ok if he was their age and not manipulating them. And this sort of thing was considered acceptable until the 90’s and is similar to what Matt Gaetz got away with. That’s why the first time Epstein was arrested they just convicted him for soliciting a prostitute including a teenage prostitute; which only shows how messed up the law is that they pretend teens can consent to being prostitutes. MAGA thinks it’s about little kids based on the Q Anon conspiracy about Democrats abusing kids and drinking their blood to stay young, but that’s not the case. I doubt many of them would even care if they knew it was about teenagers since they typically don’t understand consent and blame victims if they allow themselves to be victimized.
Normal Response: This was just an inside joke between friends and should not be understood in the context of what was later learned about Mr Epstein’s private life. Vance Response: Pics or it didn’t happen, bro! Trump Response: Everyone look at the most disgraceful news article of all time! It makes me look like history’s greatest monster! My former friend and boss Rupert Murdoch must pay!! The first response wouldn’t change any minds. The second is dumb and defensive. The third is the dumbest move possible, which is why it was entirely expected from Trump.
I agree that people overhyped the collusion claims and were wrong to assume that Mueller would save the day, but…the Trump Admin was definitely working with the Russians because they were too dumb to know why they shouldn’t. First off, Trump’s campaign was full of Russian allies, including a dude who had already been investigated as a Russian spy and had been ruled as safe because he was too dumb to be a spy. And they did their best to work with Russia, including when Trump Jr met with Russians to get dirt on Hillary. And the main reason nothing more happened is because they were all too incompetent to understand how this works. But we saw the texts of Trump Jr working with Russian asset Julian Assange to release the hacked emails that came from Russia just to distract from the Access Hollywood story. And so much of the difficulty with proving they worked together was the same reason they weren’t able to do more: Both Trump and Putin are like mob bosses who simply say what they want done and their underlings compete independently to be the one who does it. That’s why there were so many connections between Trump’s campaign and Russians. And another thing: Trump obstructed the investigation, including how Trump pardoned all his guys who were convicted for their dealings with Russia. So we never learned everything. But the main thing is that it’s not even right to separate the Russians from Trump’s people. They all were on the same team and were already undermining the Obama Admin to help Russia before Trump took office. Even now Trump is confused as to why Putin won’t help him by ending the war in Ukraine because he thinks he’s Putin’s buddy. It needs to be understood that the far-right genuinely thinks Democrats are traitors trying to destroy America, which makes Russia their friends. They trusted Putin over Obama when he was president and that hasn’t changed. And at some point we’ll learn that all their anti-government nonsense going back decades came from the Soviets and later Russia. Now Trump is destroying America just like what they wanted all along. But it’s not because Putin told them to. They’re just dummies who are easily duped by anyone who tells them what they want to hear.
Hey, now! Don’t you be doubting Trump’s Sir Stories. Just last week I had five big strong men with tears streaming from their eyes come up to me on their knees and said “Please, sir. Tell everyone that we really do exist and to stop mocking us for our tears. That’s a medical condition and makes us feel like dogs to hear their disgraceful cackling.” Believe me, it’s true.
This isn’t hypocrisy. Rightwingers judge people based on who they are, not what they do. They think we SHOULD have two standards: One for “law abiding citizens” like themselves and another for everyone they hate. They say this all the time, as if a “law abiding citizen” shouldn’t be held accountable for breaking the law because they’re good people and their enemies should be assumed guilty and aren’t even worthy of trials. And if you investigate a “good” person like Trump for wrongdoing that makes you a bad person deserving punishment. And if you defend a “bad” person like an illegal immigrant, that makes you a bad person. Try it all you want. You’ll see this explains everything they say and do. They get offended if you tell them they’re equal to everyone else. And the idea that the Constitution protects noncitizens is an outrage. Being a citizen is one of the few things they’re proud of and they need to believe it gives them special rights that others don’t have.
I don’t think the word fascism is useful anymore. Authoritarianism covers it better. That way we can include supposed communist countries like China who lure in foreign investors with promises of vast wealth, then pull the rug out if you say one wrong thing in your own country. Or letting Chinese become billionaires, then re-educating them if they get out of line. Because capitalist and communist are just economic systems. The political system is authoritarianism and they use the economic system as a way to weaponize money. Whether it’s crony capitalism or crony communism, it’s all about the leaders rewarding loyalty and punishing disloyalty. Going back to Nixon Republicans turned deregulation into a shakedown scheme. You think you’re buying a president but he’s putting you in his pocket and you’ll need to keep paying and say you’re happy about it. This is why our economy does better under Democrats, because we want a level playing field while Republicans only want to help the people who help them. The Dems don’t get everything right but the Repubs will always push things too far and assume they can BS their way out of it.
What we’re really seeing is the end result of authoritarianism. Rush Limbaugh was the true brains behind the conservative movement as it went from Gingrich, to Bush, to the Tea Party, to MAGA; all based on fantasies from a blowhard with an Oxy addiction. Similarly, Scalia was the only rightwing judge who understood how his Calvinball Originalism worked. Now the grownups are dead and we have children following children. They assume Trump knows what he’s doing even though he has the brain of a disobedient toddler and has little impulse control. And they try their best to play Dungeon Master on the Supreme Court like Scalia, but all their decisions are laughable. Scalia still had one foot in reality, while his replacements are fully in the fantasy.
“So, first of all, this all shows an incredible ignorance of how chatbots work. They’re designed to generate content, not necessarily give you definitive answers.” Indeed. I’ve had several people quote AI chatbots as definitive answers regarding constitutional questions while ignoring the direct reading of the Constitution and actual experts I quoted. They even mock me for trusting my own brain over the chatbot’s. They’re absolutely convinced that LLM’s are smarter than humans. Sadly, in their case they’re actually right because LLM’s don’t understand anything while these people misunderstand everything. It’s better to be ignorant than misinformed. And I love how righties can’t understand the difference between facts, opinions, speculation, and beliefs. So an opinion question like which president is least antisemitic is factual if you believe it firmly enough. And if you state facts they disagree with, that’s just your opinion, man. Or if they make a factual claim they can’t support, it’s an opinion or a belief so you’re the jerk for asking them to support it. And if they speculate about the unknowable, these are facts you’re denying because you can’t see the connections that include facts they just made up. Words mean whatever they need them to mean because this is their reality and we’re just silly characters in their personal morality play. Any time we say anything that aren’t the lines in their script it means we’re doing it wrong and need to stop being buttheads with our improvisations. They can only be right if they do both sides of every debate.
“Assume subjective viewpoints sourced from the media are biased” Translation: Reject biased viewpoints if they come from a news organization. This is part of the problem: Rightwingers don’t think they’re on the right. They think they’re unbiased freethinkers who hate both sides while only attacking the left and Republicans who don’t agree with them. They’re the Real Americans, even if they were born in Canada, Hungary, or South Africa; and everyone else is an evil traitor trying to destroy America. The only thing that makes these people conservative is that their rhetoric and solutions never change no matter how much society changes. This is came from Rush Limbaugh’s Oxy brain in the 90’s, went nutso during the Bush years, and now they’re ready to do their purge of every American who disagrees with them.
I’m not anti-religious but I am against bad religion. I was raised Catholic and we were taught that we had to take care of our own problems and prayer is just how you communicate with God. That’s what the Lord’s Prayer is: Jesus’s example of the proper way to pray, which is done in private and is only about praising God. Jesus said public prayer was for phonies who got their reward in this world due to all the attention they get while people who pray privately get their reward in the next world. But the religious right is taught that belief alone is enough for God to save you from your problems and prayer is how you wish for things; as if God is a magic Genie with unlimited wishes if you believe he is. That’s why they oppose government regulations because they think God will solve our problems and government is just about controlling people; since that’s how they use it. And it’s why they’re so angry and confused because nothing works out like they’re told it should. But they’re told to blame themselves or an enemy; not the system of prayer that obviously doesn’t work and isn’t biblical. Never once did Jesus say prayers are wishes. He only talked about helping others and praising God.
This is a distinction I don’t make. We don’t say that Christians are different from christians. An atheist is anyone who doesn’t worship a god. I refer to the rude ones as militant atheists and I’ve always pushed back against them because they’re rude and make the rest of us look bad. I don’t dunk on Christians ever and respect anyone who has a positive belief system. If they say something factually incorrect, I politely correct them; the same as I do with everyone. But if they want a debate, I debate on whatever topic they want. Like I said, I always respected their spaces. But if they come to an atheist space looking for a fight, they’ll get a fight. That’s what they were there for.
I think the point is that framing it as a bubble is inaccurate. Nobody calls their friend group a bubble. It’s only a bubble if you assume you’re required to interact with people you dislike. I myself prefer to interact with people I disagree with, which is why I’m responding to you. But that’s not me going outside of a bubble. I just like debating people as a hobby and consider it a plus if anyone agrees with me. And I don’t think anyone on the left is looking to reaffirm our beliefs. It’s about having people you enjoy being with and sharing news and other stories. Only the right wants affirmation because everything they believe is a lie and it’s so hard for them to find anything that supports the narratives they’re told. They all need to be told they’re the special ones and it’s the fault of liberals and the Bogeyman that life doesn’t work the way they’re told it does. But even they don’t like right-only spaces since they’re only on the right to spite the left. That’s why they want us back on Twitter. That’s not to say all lefties are unbiased or don’t suffer from groupthink, but that’s not what they’re going for. They just want a place where they can feel comfortable, without constantly being told that they’re stupid evil marxist communist socialists who hate America and want sadness, suffering, and crime for everyone. I mean, I take those insults as a badge of honor but not everyone is the same.
This reminds me of the Usenet days when a vocal minority on alt.atheism wanted to ban theists, even though the rest of us were only there to dogpile on any Christians foolish enough to show up for a debate. Like…what would atheists even talk about if we weren’t debunking religion? The weather? I was fine with Christian groups banning us but it made no sense for us to exclude the people we were there to debate. Different strokes for different folks. But that’s why I don’t like any of the Twitter style sites including Bluesky and Mastodon cuz it’s such a terrible format for debate. I can’t even fart in fewer than 500 characters. I actually got in a debate earlier this year during a short time I used my old Twitter account when I had six morons who proclaimed themselves to be the foremost experts on the Kyle Rittenhouse trial try to defeat me in a 6-on-1 debate which was only challenging due to the terrible Twitter format. It’s like shouting across a crowded room. But I actually tried signing up at Bluesky awhile ago just to pump the numbers but some jerk already stole my username even though it’s not his real name. No chance I’m posting as DoctorBiobrain69 or whatever so I just gave up. There can be only one!
As a reminder, Trump ran on locking up Crooked Hillary in 2016 and had Durham investigate her campaign and Mueller’s investigation looking for crimes; including two trials he lost trying to prove that Hillary created “the Russia Hoax” after Trump filled his campaign with Russian agents and allies. And Trump had the DOJ and IRS investigate Biden and his son in his first term; ultimately getting Hunter for lying on a gun form and tax evasion. The DOJ even wanted a plea deal for Hunter until Trump demanded full prosecution from his social media account. And Republicans investigated everything the Clintons and Obamas did; ultimately impeaching Bill for lying about a BJ that was none of our beeswax. They invented weaponizing the government. They just don’t think they should be prosecuted for anything because they’re the main characters so everything they do is justified. This is their world and the rest of us are either loyalists, NPC’s, or villains.
“because he doesn’t realize it’s unconstitutional” This! I always see people speculate about Trump’s sinister plans because they simply can’t accept that Trump is as dumb as he seems and assumes there MUST be a method to the madness. But no, it’s madness all the way down. He publicly confesses to crimes all the time because he doesn’t understand laws and thinks they’re just for suckers. And how does he get away with it? Because he’s rich and a Republican. Tonight I watched the Simpsons season six episode where Sideshow Bob gets released from prison after convincing conservatives that he’s a political prisoner and eventually wins the mayor election and targets the Simpsons for payback. It’s sickening that a joke episode three decades ago is now worse than our reality. They even made a joke about how a felon won an election. Sad!
Republicans are dogs chasing cars because they love simplistic policies that are militantly stupid since that feels clever to them. But every time they do their policies they turn out as bad as predicted. The worst mistake they made was to get a majority on the Supreme Court that would no longer protect them from their own policies. Like how abortion was a cash cow that pulled in votes…until Roe got overturned and things flipped to the pro-choice side. Or how John McCain saved Trump by killing Trumpcare, a law so bad that Trump supporters can’t even remember it existed. Now Trump needs to be stopped from everything because his idiot staff actually listens to him and tries to fulfill his crazy demands instead of distracting him like the first admin did. Republicans only work as a minority party that talks tough and always has an excuse for why they failed. Trump NEEDS these judges to stop him but he’s too damn dumb to know it.
“arbitrarily expelling foreign students teaches kids about “freedom and liberty” and how it was important for them to “learn what this country is about.”“ This contradiction has been at the core of the rightwing authoritarian movement, claiming that because America allows people to protest its therefore wrong to protest and protesters should be punished. They’ll insist that they’ll die to protect your right to free speech before telling you to shut up and leave the country if you complain about anything. But this ONLY applies to protests they disapprove of. They think they have the right to literally attack our own government when they aren’t in power but that any dissent is treason when they’re in power. That’s not hypocrisy, they just think they’re the righteous ones so everything they do is justified and only evil doers would get in their way.
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!