Stephen T. Stone 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (26972) comment rss

  • On the post: Citizenship Ceremonies Are Being Disrupted By Trump’s Latest Wave Of Bigoted Cruelty

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 09 Dec, 2025 @ 12:07pm

    Their desire to make others suffer brings them a momentary feeling of happiness, but it is never enough to fill the hole inside their hearts. They cannot know, and will never know, true joy.

  • On the post: Three Tweets That Capture The Entire Elon Musk Free Speech Con

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 09 Dec, 2025 @ 12:05pm

    Don't forget about disowning his transgender child! Even some not-so-extreme conservatives actually try to evolve past their bullshit beliefs if they have a trans child, but Elon went so far to the right that he literally refers to his transgender daughter as a “murderer” because she “killed” the son he wanted to have. Speaking of which: Elon’s obsession with eugenics is also a sure sign of Nazism.

  • On the post: Recent Boat Strike Sure Looks Like A War Crime

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 09 Dec, 2025 @ 11:08am

    And that’s why I don’t hold out any hope of Trump being the target of any sort of investigation by international courts: Even with a Democrat in the Oval Office, the United States would never let the ICC arrest Trump.

  • On the post: Citizenship Ceremonies Are Being Disrupted By Trump’s Latest Wave Of Bigoted Cruelty

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 09 Dec, 2025 @ 10:33am

    They don’t have any problem with legal immigration of Europeans, if’n you catch my drift.

  • On the post: Your Job Was Stopping CSAM? Trump Says No Visa For You!

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 09 Dec, 2025 @ 05:23am

    You’re getting an extra-large helping of snark today.

    So what? I’m not changing that copypasta because you alone have an issue with the phrasing. Any change to the wording will happen because someone makes an argument for an improved nuance with which I agree. But if you really want me to “improve” it by making it needlessly wordier so that it can be better registered as an opinion just to make you happy, fine. For one time and one time only, this is for you:

    None of the following text should be taken as any kind of objective meaning of any word in any dictionary or thesaurus, professional or urban, and nothing I am about to say has the force of law to back up what is ultimately my subjective and personal opinion. In my personal opinion which has no strength of fact or law, I personally and subjectively believe that “moderation” is, subjectively speaking from a non-objective viewpoint that has no actual social weight and can be dismissed without consideration, a platform/service owner or operator saying “we don’t do that here”. In my personal opinion which has no strength of fact or law, I personally and subjectively believe that “personal discretion” is, subjectively speaking from a non-objective viewpoint that has no actual social weight and can be dismissed without consideration, an individual telling themselves “I won’t do that here”. In my personal opinion which has no strength of fact or law, I personally and subjectively believe that “editorial discretion” is, subjectively speaking from a non-objective viewpoint that has no actual social weight and can be dismissed without consideration, an editor saying “we won’t print that here”, either to themselves or to a writer. In my personal opinion which has no strength of fact or law, I personally and subjectively believe that “censorship” is, subjectively speaking from a non-objective viewpoint that has no actual social weight and can be dismissed without consideration, someone saying “you won’t do that anywhere” alongside threats or actions meant to suppress speech. None of the preceding text should be taken as any kind of objective meaning of any word in any dictionary or thesaurus, professional or urban, and nothing I have said has the force of law to back up what is ultimately my subjective and personal opinion.
    Does that cover enough bases for you, or is there anything I need to add so I all but disclaim basically everything I believe while also making the actual point of the copypasta more about making people understand what I’m saying is my opinion and less about the actual belief I’m expressing between the lengthy-yet-necessary(-for-you) disclaimers?

  • On the post: Recent Boat Strike Sure Looks Like A War Crime

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 09 Dec, 2025 @ 05:05am

    It wouldn’t surprise me at all if part of the reason Hegseth is so confident in defending and ordering war-crimes is that Trump has already told him that he will be pardoned for anything he does for the regime.
    Whether it’s by Trump, Vance (in the event Trump leaves office early, one way or another), or the next Republican to hold office, he will eventually be pardoned. He knows it. That’s why he’s effectively betting his life on that pardon being his. All he has to do is not piss off Trump and boom, free get-out-of-war-crimes-jail-free card.

  • On the post: Recent Boat Strike Sure Looks Like A War Crime

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 08 Dec, 2025 @ 10:11pm

    Reminder that exactly four weeks after that double-tap strike, Pete Hegseth gave a speech in which he implied that the US military should inflict “overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy” and wouldn’t “fight with stupid rules of engagement”. He further implied that he would “untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt and kill the enemies of our country” so that soldiers would no longer have to worry about “politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement”. And yes, everything in quotation marks above is an actual quote from that speech.

  • On the post: Recent Boat Strike Sure Looks Like A War Crime

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 08 Dec, 2025 @ 10:06pm

    Donald Trump is not a young man and he won’t be there forever to protect them from the consequences of their actions.
    Even if Trump manages to make it through the next 37 months without dying of (what I very much hope would be) a(n excruciating) heart attack, the chances that he’ll remain in office after the 20th of January 2029 are⁠—and I can’t believe I actually have to say this⁠—slim-to-none. Once he’s gone, unless a Republican holds the White House, Hegseth will be a target for investigations just like every other member of Trump’s regime (save for Trump himself). Any Democrat who doesn’t run on investigating and punishing members of the Trump regime for criminal acts is a Democrat who isn’t going to win an election in 2026 or 2028.

  • On the post: Your Job Was Stopping CSAM? Trump Says No Visa For You!

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 08 Dec, 2025 @ 06:44pm

    Damn, haven't had to use this one in a while.

    Well, “content moderation” is absolutely “censorship.”
    Moderation is a platform/service owner or operator saying “we don’t do that here”. Personal discretion is an individual telling themselves “I won’t do that here”. Editorial discretion is an editor saying “we won’t print that here”, either to themselves or to a writer. Censorship is someone saying “you won’t do that anywhere” alongside threats or actions meant to suppress speech.

  • On the post: Recent Boat Strike Sure Looks Like A War Crime

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 08 Dec, 2025 @ 06:43pm

    The International Criminal Court may eventually issue an arrest warrant for Trump or other involved people.
    The word “may” is doing so much heavy lifting in that sentence that it could enter a weighlifting competition and clear everyone else’s best by at least a thousand pounds.

  • On the post: Elon’s Crying Censorship Over An EU Fine That Has Nothing To Do With Censorship

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 08 Dec, 2025 @ 02:51pm

    You’re just lying.
    Show me the proof that he’s lying. I’ll wait.

  • On the post: Recent Boat Strike Sure Looks Like A War Crime

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 08 Dec, 2025 @ 12:52pm

    The inevitable counterpoint from the Trump administration: “Trump said it isn’t and Trump is the law, so fuck you.”

  • On the post: Recent Boat Strike Sure Looks Like A War Crime

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 08 Dec, 2025 @ 12:25pm

    Cotton’s rhetoric was not even attempting a defense. It was a celebration of success.
    Distinction without a difference in this situation.

  • On the post: Elon’s Crying Censorship Over An EU Fine That Has Nothing To Do With Censorship

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 08 Dec, 2025 @ 11:25am

    “This is a deep pain.”

    I hadn’t considered that angle of the theory, and now that I have, I have to quote Hellsing Ultimate Abridged: “Oh cool, it gets worse!”

  • On the post: Netflix Makes Itself Less Useful, Removes Casting With No Explanation

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 08 Dec, 2025 @ 10:50am

    We made a mistake when we didn’t immediately side with and fight alongside the orcas. Nature warned us and we ignored it.

  • On the post: Netflix Makes Itself Less Useful, Removes Casting With No Explanation

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 08 Dec, 2025 @ 10:48am

    I’m sure the higher-ups wish they could, just as soon as AI gets good enough to not require so much human intervention to look remotely passable to the average person.

  • On the post: Elon’s Crying Censorship Over An EU Fine That Has Nothing To Do With Censorship

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 08 Dec, 2025 @ 10:46am

    I know the “everyone is 12 now” theory is getting a little overplayed on social media, but man, is it accurate as hell. This situation is Elon getting a slap on the wrist for fucking up and complaining that “the adults” (i.e., authority figures) are being mean to him so much that he wishes they were dead. He wants all the power, none of the responsibility, and nobody to tell him what to do. Huh. I know he’s a fascist and all, but are we sure he’s not a Libertarian? Someone go ask him if he knows the age of consent in all 50 states.

  • On the post: Radicalized Anti-AI Activist Should Be A Wake Up Call For Doomer Rhetoric

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 05 Dec, 2025 @ 08:15pm

    To wit: the current state of the CDC.

  • On the post: Congress Is Finally Going To Look Into Trump’s Boat Strike Killing Spree

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 03 Dec, 2025 @ 02:41am

    Even if I were to believe that the US government orchestrated the September 11 terror attacks (and I don’t): No one in the Trump administration⁠—including Trump himself⁠—is competent enough to pull that off.

  • On the post: The Leopard Has Come For A Small Town Kansas Mayor & Its Residents

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 03 Dec, 2025 @ 02:39am

    “But we thought he was only going after the rapists and drug dealers and murderers! We didn’t think he was going to go after those guys at Home Depot or my neighbor’s cleaning lady!” — the average Trump voter, probably

Next >>