Hyman Rosen 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Prosecutors Lose Drug Conviction After Appeals Court Reminds Them They Can’t Ignore The Presumption Of Innocence

    Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 03 Jun, 2022 @ 07:57am

    Errors are not the same as malice.

  • On the post: Prosecutors Lose Drug Conviction After Appeals Court Reminds Them They Can’t Ignore The Presumption Of Innocence

    Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 03 Jun, 2022 @ 06:44am

    Written Instructions

    Although the jury was not instructed orally about the presumption of innocence immediately before starting deliberations, they were given a written document containing that presumption of innocence, based on the instructions the judge had given them when the trial began, which was only two days earlier. This is just another example of Cushing's agenda to find fault with law enforcement in any way he can.

  • On the post: Prosecutors Lose Drug Conviction After Appeals Court Reminds Them They Can’t Ignore The Presumption Of Innocence

    Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 03 Jun, 2022 @ 05:03am

    Instructions

    Since when is it up to the prosecution to instruct the jury? Isn't it the judge who is supposed to do that? The instructions tend to be very formalized, explaining what beyond a reasonable doubt means, and so forth, and they're given just before the jury goes off to deliberate. When prosecutors make their closing statements, they're always going to claim that they have demonstrated guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, not least because if they didn't think that, they wouldn't have brought the case to begin with. (I have been a juror on two criminal cases in NYC. We convicted on the first and acquitted on the second.)

  • On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

    Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 02 Jun, 2022 @ 07:46am

    I know that's a cliche, but I doubt that its true for me. I'm an AMC A*List member, so I see lots of movies. In particular, I recently saw the gay Russian soldier movie Firebird and the French pro-abortion movie Happening. The former has a good amount of kissing and making out between the soldiers, and the latter has nudity including a shower scene with multiple women. The former's scene left me cold. I don't see why anyone, men or women, are interested in men. They seem yucky. On the other hand, even though I think the latter's scene wasn't meant to be prurient, I enjoyed it.

  • On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

    Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 02 Jun, 2022 @ 12:00am

    No. Editorials discretion is fine. Not stocking titles that sell poorly is fine. If Revolution Books in NYC doesn't want to sell The Wealth of Nations or Atlas Shrugged, that's fine. That store has an editorial point of view, and its patrons know what to expect from it. Patrons of Amazon and Barnes & Noble have different expectations - that they're generic bookstores that can be expected to stock books based on popularity and sales (or in Amazon's case, expected to have every book ever), but not to exclude books based on their viewpoints. Every time you say that someone is "allowed" to do something, you are completely missing the point. No one (or at least me) is suggesting that anyone be compelled to publish or sell anything. What I am saying is that a company that purports to be a general-purpose publisher or bookseller should not be engaging in viewpoint-based censorship, because that is unfair to their patrons who are expecting no such thing. Should, not must. They *can* do whatever they want, but they *should* not. And you know that when the shoe is on the other foot, you bitterly hate it. Florida is allowed to set its public-school curriculum to exclude education about gay and trans people even though it's viewpoint-based censorship. Government is constitutionally permitted to speak for itself in any way it wishes, and to order its employees to reflect the agenda of the government when speaking for it as part of their jobs. Do you shrug that off as well, just because they're allowed to do it?

  • On the post: Using Rap Lyrics As Evidence Of A Criminal Conspiracy Threatens First Amendment, Unlikely To Succeed

    Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 01 Jun, 2022 @ 06:40am

    Joker or Terrorist?

    https://teamhcso.com/News/PressRelease/ea4aecba-250c-4668-b831-f476770c04bf/22-079 A 18-year old who posted a picture of himself with guns (they turned out to be BB-guns) and captioned as asking Siri for school directions has been arrested for terrorism. As with content moderation, the dividing line is fractal. Should the picture be automatically dismissed as evidence, as you would have the rap lyrics be dismissed? Is it obviously a joke? Is it obviously a threat?

  • On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

    Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 01 Jun, 2022 @ 06:19am

    :-)

  • On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

    Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 01 Jun, 2022 @ 06:18am

    Trying to force books to not be sold or distributed is, of course, exactly the opposite of "ain't buying" - it's fear that, in fact, people are buying those books.

  • On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

    Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 01 Jun, 2022 @ 06:16am

    Much like "cancel culture", it's a way to shift the blame onto the people who are attempting to silence opposition to views they don't like, rather than allowing them to blame the people they are trying to silence.

  • On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

    Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 01 Jun, 2022 @ 06:14am

    Yes, but of course I would put it as disputing the false claims of woke gender ideology.

  • On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

    Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 01 Jun, 2022 @ 06:07am

    That's what Facebook tries to do with their community-standards timeouts - nudge people into not posting wrongthink. That's why I exited Facebook. I will continue to state my correct views here even if other commenters flag them, since the effect of the limited censorship Techdirt allows is tolerable.

  • On the post: Very, Very Little Of ‘Content Moderation’ Has Anything To Do With Politics

    Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 01 Jun, 2022 @ 06:00am

    It's not going to work. Even if you managed to stop the spread of physical disease, conservatives are always going to be able to find examples of anomie and discontent and argue that non-traditional lifestyles are a disservice to humanity and civilization. That was their slippery slope argument against same-sex marriage, and unfortunately, the woke gender ideology movement is providing evidence for their point. As a believer in freedom, I have no interest in trying to stop anyone from living the life they want, but that's different from then trying to force people to affirm that those ways are true or good. (Same-sex marriage is true and good, which is why the woke ideologues of that generation opposed it as "heteronormative".)

  • On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

    Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 31 May, 2022 @ 05:54pm

    There is a difference between editorial judgement, subject matter limitation, and viewpoint-based discrimination. As ever, censorship remains censorship even when alternative avenues exist. (And of course, the primary way to self-publish these days is on Amazon, so if Amazon is censoring based on viewpoint...)

  • On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

    Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 31 May, 2022 @ 05:47pm

    Why would I want to go anywhere where posts are censored? It doesn't matter if they censor left or censor right. Silencing anyone's opinion is bad. The problem with flagging here isn't that I'm being flagged. It's that the flagging is being used for viewpoint-based censorship to the extent the site allows. I stay here because, sadly, this is one of the few places where all opinions can still be stated. For that, I can tolerate being flagged.

  • On the post: Very, Very Little Of ‘Content Moderation’ Has Anything To Do With Politics

    Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 31 May, 2022 @ 04:12pm

    As with masking and vaccination, some people place a lot of emphasis on harm reduction and others don't. There is no universal "we" who are always careful. I read And The Band Played On many years ago, and many of the actions it described were a disaster waiting to happen, which it then did.

  • On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

    Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 31 May, 2022 @ 03:55pm

    Once again, you fail to distinguish between rights and actions of different parties. Regardless of how and why a book is removed from publishing or sale, the potential reader is being deprived of the opportunity to discover, buy or borrow, and read the book. Whether the government is trying to unconstitutionally press the seller or publisher, or they have succumbed to pressure from outside parties or even from their own employees, the ultimate result is that the book has been censored.

  • On the post: Using Rap Lyrics As Evidence Of A Criminal Conspiracy Threatens First Amendment, Unlikely To Succeed

    Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 31 May, 2022 @ 03:46pm

    Legal Consequences

    https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/justice/evidence/hearsay_evidence.html You are wrong. If, for example, you hear someone admit to a crime, that can be used as legal evidence against them.

  • On the post: Using Rap Lyrics As Evidence Of A Criminal Conspiracy Threatens First Amendment, Unlikely To Succeed

    Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 31 May, 2022 @ 12:28pm

    A woman who wrote an essay years ago called How to Murder Your Husband was just convicted of murdering her husband. The prosecution tried to introduce the essay as evidence in this case too, but the judge didn't allow it. Techdirt commenters are always going on about how freedom to speak does not mean freedom from consequences. That holds for everyone, not just people they don't like.

  • On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

    Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 31 May, 2022 @ 04:28am

    Censoring books is OK, naturally...

    ...as long as woke ideologues get to decide what to censor. The American Booksellers Association offering abject apologies for including Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters in a set of books they sent out. https://www.themarysue.com/aba-apologizes-anti-trans-book-but-is-damage-irreversible/ Amazon refusing to sell When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment. https://ncac.org/news/amazon-book-removal Bookstores refusing to sell Harry Potter books. https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/83771-mission-driven-indies-drop-j-k-rowling-s-books.html The Harry Potter case is especially funny because conservative ideologues used to try to cancel Harry Potter because they thought the subject matter was demonic. Now that woke gender ideologies think that the author is demonic, they're on board too.

  • On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

    Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 30 May, 2022 @ 01:41pm

    Censoring bad people is OK, naturally...

    ...as long as woke ideologues get to decide who is bad. Seriously, what is less insightful than "we didn't censor people because we disagreed with their opinions, only because they're bad people", when you determined that they're bad because they disagreed with your opinions?

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