Citizen 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (57)

• On the post: Advertisers Aren’t Thrilled With Zuckerberg’s Embrace Of Hate Speech

  

  Citizen ( profile ), 29 Jan, 2025 @ 12:17pm

  Live by the Dollar, Die by the Dollar

  When your top priority is to make money, politics and morals cease take a back seat to profit. If a company believes continuing to advertise on Meta's platform is more profitable than cutting ties, it will continue advertising there. If not, then it will leave. These advertisers are no different from Zuckerberg in that regard; their interests just might happen to conflict with his in this case.

• On the post: Empowering Users, Not Overlords: Overcoming Digital Helplessness

  

  Citizen ( profile ), 27 Jan, 2025 @ 10:08am

  [citation needed]

  Do you have a source for that claim or did you just pull it out of the orifice your head is lodged in?

• On the post: New York Law Requiring Cheap $15 Broadband Takes Effect

  

  Citizen ( profile ), 24 Jan, 2025 @ 12:55pm

  I'll be pleasantly surprised if this is the end.

  So what's next? Attempt by the FCC to overrule the policy? New dubious telecom-backed lawsuit arguing the law's unconstitutional? Massive lobbying campaign to stuff the state legislature with telecom puppets?

• On the post: Milwaukee Meteorologist Fired One Day After Criticizing Elon Musk’s Nazi-ish Salute

  

  Citizen ( profile ), 23 Jan, 2025 @ 07:10pm

  SLAPPed into Submission

  My hypothesis is that WDJT was afraid Musk would file a SLAPP suit unless they signaled to him that they didn't endorse Kuffel's statements. We've already seen through the Media Matters case that there's at least one judge who's willing to aid Musk in his efforts to silence his critics. Even if Media Matters wins their case, Musk has demonstrated his willingness to SLAPP his critics, which makes the mere threat of a suit enough to intimidate outlets into silence--and even complicity.

• On the post: As Zuckerberg Goes Around Whining About Biden, He Made Sure To First Get His New Approach Approved By Trump

  

  Citizen ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2025 @ 10:57am

  Vichy gonna Vichy

  Zuckerberg: The Biden administration was constantly telling us what to do. It was awful. Trump administration: Do this, this, and this. Zuckerberg: Yes, sir!

• On the post: Celebrated Lawyer ‘Fires’ Meta As A Client Over Zuck’s ‘Neo-Nazi Madness’

  

  Citizen ( profile ), 15 Jan, 2025 @ 03:49pm

  Strike three, you're out.

  My disdain for Trump began with Birtherism, well before he ran for office. My disdain for Musk began with that Hyperloop nonsense, well before he showed any interest in buying Twitter. As for Zuckerberg, my disdain for him formed as Facebook became increasingly infested with ads, engagement bait, and AI-generated slop--i.e. well before he kowtowed to Trump.

• On the post: Twitter Briefly Blocked The NY Post, Elon Cried Foul. Now He’s Doing Far Worse

  

  Citizen ( profile ), 06 Jan, 2025 @ 09:48am

  Doxxing is whatever Musk says it is.

  This is a classic right-wing tactic. Claim to support a certain freedom, but then change the rules along the way so that only the in-group has that freedom in practice. It's doxxing because Musk says it's doxxing. If it doesn't qualify even under Musk's definition, he'll change the definition so it does qualify. If someone Musk likes does something that qualifies under the new definition, Musk will change the definition again such that they no longer fall afoul of the rules. He'll still claim to be all for free speech, though, and his fans will still agree with his assertion. They'll tie their brains in knots trying to come up with logically consistent justifications for doxxing ever so conveniently only ever being something done by people Musk dislikes. As Abigail Thorn recently pointed out, though, it's not really about facts. It's about values, and about finding "facts" to justify those values. What values would those be? You've seen it quoted in comments here before: "Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: "There must be in-groups whom the law protectes [sic] but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect." --Frank Wilhoit "Free speech" for people like Musk is really just the "freedom" to publicly agree with him. It is ultimately he who decides what is and isn't covered by "free speech," not based on anything logical or consistent, but based on how he feels. With all due respect (by which I mean none) to a certain far-right propagandist, Musk's feelings don't care about facts.

• On the post: Trumplican 6th Circuit Just Killed Net Neutrality (And Whatever Was Left Of Pathetic U.S. Broadband Consumer Protection)

  

  Citizen ( profile ), 03 Jan, 2025 @ 02:24pm

  Needless to say, if allowed to slow the connections of those who don't cough up extra money, ISPs will do that, too. The top priority of a private business is not to innovate or to provide quality service; it is to make money. If doing the right thing costs more than doing the wrong thing, a company can be trusted to do the latter.

• On the post: Trumplican 6th Circuit Just Killed Net Neutrality (And Whatever Was Left Of Pathetic U.S. Broadband Consumer Protection)

  

  Citizen ( profile ), 03 Jan, 2025 @ 02:13pm

  Blood-suckers gonna suck blood

  If a business is lobbying to get a regulation abolished, it is safe to assume that they intend to do something the regulation forbids. Anyone who claims ISPs won't offer faster connections to sites that pay extra now that Net Neutrality's dead is either naive or lying.

• On the post: ‘Free Speech Absolutist’ Elon Musk Suspends Critics On ExTwitter, Asks People To Be Nicer

  

  Citizen ( profile ), 30 Dec, 2024 @ 04:03pm

  Dear Muskovites: You can either have your cake or eat it--not both.

  I would like to make something clear: As the owner of Х, Mr. Musk is within his rights to restrict users' expression however he wants. To my knowledge, no one is disputing that. The problem is that Mr. Musk has also claimed to be a free speech absolutist, which conflicts with his shadowbanning of users and language that he objects to. If Mr. Musk is a free speech absolutist, then his moderation decisions conflict with his ideals. If Mr. Musk's moderation decisions do not conflict with his ideals, then he is not a free speech absolutist.

• On the post: The Trump Vengeance Tour Continues As He Sues Pollster For Being Wrong

  

  Citizen ( profile ), 18 Dec, 2024 @ 11:49am

  Don't you have more useful things to do with your time than roleplay as Ms. Habba in a Techdirt comments section?

• On the post: Police Chief Tries To Defend Torturing A Mentally Ill Man Into Confessing To Committing A Murder That Never Happened

  

  Citizen ( profile ), 18 Nov, 2024 @ 02:50pm

  I've come to think confessions should be made inadmissible as evidence.

• On the post: Porn Is Protected Speech. Trump’s New Presidency Will Test That Sentiment. The Courts Can Uphold It.

  

  Citizen ( profile ), 07 Nov, 2024 @ 03:53pm

  Someone hasn't seen Avenue Q...

  I knew Trump was an idiot, but attempting to stop American Internet users from accessing pornography is a very special kind of idiotic. If my experience as a forum admin in the Spambot Wars is anything to go off of, I'm pretty confident that demand for pornography will lead to the very quick development of a way around any government effort to restrict Americans' access to online pornography. Remember how YouTube tried to crack down on ad blockers and it only led to more people learning about ad blockers and the ad blockers themselves being updated to get around YouTube's countermeasures? To me, this is less a question of what the law says and more a question of how much the government is going to waste trying to enforce said law (assuming it's enacted and upheld); a law is only as effective as the people's willingness to obey it and the government's capacity to crack down on violators.

• On the post: Data Shows ‘Progressive’ Prosecution Policies Don’t Lead To Higher Crime Rates

  

  Citizen ( profile ), 29 Oct, 2024 @ 03:41pm

  Miscegenation? In what country is that still a crime?

• On the post: Data Shows ‘Progressive’ Prosecution Policies Don’t Lead To Higher Crime Rates

  

  Citizen ( profile ), 29 Oct, 2024 @ 03:39pm

  That strikes me as needlessly harsh. Judging by the fact that it doesn't warrant the death sentence these days, it would appear that humanity in general is in agreement with me.

• On the post: Data Shows ‘Progressive’ Prosecution Policies Don’t Lead To Higher Crime Rates

  

  Citizen ( profile ), 29 Oct, 2024 @ 03:01pm

  The courts and police do not have infinite resources. No matter what is done, some criminal behavior will go unchecked simply because the police can't be everywhere at once. Those "virulently opposed to law & order" are of the opinion that going after serious crimes like arson and murder matters more than hauling a homeless guy in over a stolen water bottle and are refocusing police and court resources accordingly.

• On the post: Lies, Damned Lies, And Elon Musk

  

  Citizen ( profile ), 25 Oct, 2024 @ 04:18pm

  This is Your Brain on Fame/Power

  I won't deny being pleased when a post of mine on Bluesky or in a comments section gets a like, but this talk of audience capture is leaving me wondering if maybe it's for the best that I'm a nobody. I can tell myself now that I wouldn't be swayed by a pattern of certain posts getting a whole mess of likes, but I also have the advantage of not being a big name, so I don't really have any way of proving that I'm above the temptation of turning my social media presence into a show for my followers. Granted, Musk isn't being a jerk and posting right-wing propaganda exclusively for likes, but I can't help but suspect that the audience feedback is nevertheless a factor in his behavior. It gets even worse when the abundance of bots on the site enter the equation. How many of those likes are even from humans? I'm reminded of what I call the Yes-Man Problem: If someone I have power over laughed at a joke I made, is it because they truly found the joke funny or because they desire my favor and/or fear my wrath? Musk's basically surrounded himself with people whose humanity he can't always be sure of and who might only be pretending to like him because they want something from him. The nice thing about being a nobody is that if someone laughs at my jokes, I can be pretty confident it's because the jokes are funny.