Prozac

Holy shit guys, some of you really do need to go back to high school. So the WH Press Secretary says “Facebook needs to move quickly” and all of a sudden that’s the law? Do you really believe we rule by decree in this country? Nothing Psaki said compels FB or anyone else to do jack shit.

Nope. What legal action is being threatened. The White House is flagging posts that it considers to be disinformation and bringing that up with Facebook. It is still facebook’s decision as to what they will do with those posts. Is the government pushing its agenda? Absolutely, as they have done with various media outlets forever. Are they COMPELLING social media companies to censor their content through legislation or legal action? Nope.

Ok. I’ll ask you the same question I asked ratner: how exactly is the federal government compelling social media platforms to do its bidding? Can you point to any legislation or lawsuit that would compel Facebook to suppress anyone’s opinion?

You are so wrong. Social media is basically private property. Twitch can ask you to leave at any time, for any reason. I’ll remind you that you agree to each content host’s policy every time you sign up to participate on one of these sites. If I own a restaurant and I feel you are disturbing my other customers I can absolutely kick you out and suppress tour speech in my business. I can’t stop you from grabbing a megaphone and shouting from the street corner. If you think Facebook is a public space because it’s “online” then you just failed civics 101 dude.

Ah. So, there are a couple of individual lawmakers openly considering whether there needs to be more government control over what propagates on social media. Yet you argued “the government is the one trying to block it”. Those are two different things. There is no US vs Twitter lawsuit citing misinformation that I am aware of. Nor is there any legislation circulating in congress that addresses the issue. So, despite what Sen Feinstein may have said, no, the federal government is not suppressing speech or threatening social media platforms. It is putting pressure on them to do more to combat misinformation, but there is no legal action or threat of penalty to compel them to do so. You say I made a statement that was factually incorrect but the truth is that it’s the other way around.

I’m sorry but I must’ve missed it. What action, exactly is the federal government threatening against social media platforms?

Nor is anything on social media subject to, or protected by the first amendment. The government is engaging with private companies to get its own messaging out to the public. People will always have freedom to spew whatever bullshit they want from rooftops, street corners, and/or whatever media outlets are willing to host their content. Why should our government not be free to counter speech that is harmful to public health? Why shouldn’t our government encourage social media, as well as other outlets to spin its own agenda? Government officials have been appearing on Sunday morning talk shows for as long as I can remember doing exactly that.

Back in the 80s, the federal government decided cigarette smoking was a public health epidemic and launched a media campaign to, amongst other things, silence the tobacco companies and lobbyists that were spreading what it considered misinformation about the threat nicotine posed to the public. The tobacco giants, and many, many Americans were up in arms about this. The science “wasn’t settled”. The government was “infringing on my rights……I don’t need the goddam gub’mint protecting me from myself”. And yet here we are. I view the America of today as better for it. My tax dollars are freed up from paying for treatment of a terrible disease that was entirely preventable. Big tobacco’s first amendment rights were not violated. They were, however, severely restricted in their television and print advertising, which is how you interacted with the public back then. What’s happening now is no different.

Good thing we have a metric fuck ton of E-3s and can afford to lose a few so some WG/CC can get his next promotion. Not like those jets are a precious and finite national asset or something…..oh wait. Oh yeah, playing fast and loose with the lives of 20 some odd crewmembers per jet is also bad. Feel for you guys that continue to ride out bad leadership (and/or have no choice). FWIW, I know quite a few good dudes and dudettes that stuck around after I left and seem to be making a difference. Hoping that’s a trend. If not, airlines will be continuing to hire for a bit & the water’s nice.

Agreed. Organizations like the Teamsters have likely contributed to the most anti-labor environment this country has ever seen. Politicians of all stripes are also more anti-labor than ever.

It’s almost as if the world isn’t black and white and economic policy, like everything else, exists on a spectrum. Huh. 🤷‍♂️

I dunno, here’s a few fun ones from the generator: Dirk “Double Take” Diggler Ron “Boss” Burgundy Daniel “Diva” LaRusso Pete “Muffin” Mitchell

The suppression and decline of organized labor in the United States is a discussion/thread all its own.

Quote: America has moved from a relatively free economy to socialism – which has worked so well NOWHERE in the world. Pretty much everything from here on is complete and utter bullshit. We have moved to socialism? Really? Just what industries has our government seized control of? While I’m waiting for that answer, does this guy (or many of you) actually know what socialism is? FFS arguments like this are so full of hyperbole and bullshit it’s almost funny. This is exactly the reason most Americans won’t take the arguments of the right seriously. It’s constantly chicken little, the sky is falling and it’s utterly ridiculous. There are good arguments for conservatism but the right has thrown them away in favor of pure standup comedy.

Cool man. If the Marxists have taken over by this time next year, beers on me! 🍻 Meanwhile, I’m going to go on enjoying the fruits of our capitalist society like along with most other Americans and not worry too much about the imminent revolution.

Point 1: Here is a good, somewhat in depth discussion of what CRT is and is not: https://www.edweek.org/leadership/what-is-critical-race-theory-and-why-is-it-under-attack/2021/05 I think it’s a bit of a leap from what’s described here to cry MARXISM! I also think there is a spectrum presented here and many districts may wishing to present a more accurate view of American history are being conflated with radical actors. Like most things, this isn’t a black and white issue. Point 2: Speaking of black and white, the argument that BLM is a Marxist movement isn’t so cut and dry either. One of the founding members did, in fact identify as a “trained Marxist” Trained by whom exactly? I do believe this movement is a bit young to have founders who defected to the Soviet Union to be indoctrinated with Marxist dogma and return to the US in order to start glorious communist revolution in America. I could be wrong though. So one of the founders says they’re a trained Marxist. Does that make BLM a Marxist movement? Here’s another good discussion: https://www.politifact.com/article/2020/jul/21/black-lives-matter-marxist-movement/ A pertinent quote from that article: “I am fairly convinced these are mostly attempts to smear anti-racist activists. I think in some media, ‘Marxist’ is dog-whistle for something horrible, like ‘Nazi’, and thus enables to delegitimize/dehumanize them," Miriyam Aouragh, a lecturer at the London-based Westminster School of Media and Communication, told PolitiFact. Black Lives Matter "is not an organization, but a fluid movement; it doesn’t actually matter if one of its founders was a liberal, Marxist, socialist or capitalist.” I don’t necessarily agree that it doesn’t matter at all whether one of the founders was Marxist, but for the millions of Americans who actually make up the movement, the guiding principle seems to be anti racism, not Marxism. Once again, things are a bit more nuanced than MARXIST PLOT! Look, one of the cornerstones of my upbringing was to beware of extremists and/or people that would have you believe every argument is black and white. I seem to be seeing a lot of both recently. I bring up problems on the right here because I feel like their arguments are fairly well represented on this forum but believe me, there are plenty on the left who fall into the same pitfall. What’s tiresome is that there seems to be less and less room for middle ground. Take CRT as an example. Are there some good things that we can all agree on here? Probably. I’d honestly never heard of Juneteenth until a couple years ago. I learned in grade school that the founding fathers were basically beyond reproach. Manifest Destiny was covered with very little regard to the plight of native peoples. That seems more like indoctrination than teaching to me. We should be able to say in the same breath that we are the greatest nation in the world, AND that our history is deeply flawed. Those are not mutually exclusive things. Conversely, are there things about CRT that we should discard. Probably yes. But we can’t even seem to have a conversation without the MARXIST PLOT! red herring thrown around continuously.

Yep. When I joined the Bill Gates fan club I got my little orphan Annie secret decoder ring and have been receiving messages from the Gates-Clinton-Soros cabal ever since with Marxist talking points attached. SMH. Simply giving my opinion that this is just the latest boogeyman for the right out of a long list of things that have really turned out to be not much. Example: remember ANTIFA? I thought they were taking over and that due to their highly organized and dangerous tactics we’d all be mandarin speaking marxists by now. For such an existential threat to our society they sure seem to have disappeared quickly. What about Hunter’s laptop? I thought there was devastating evidence that was seemingly continually about to be released. The shills on the right seem to have lost interest in that one. The list of right wing phantom threats goes on and on. Somehow all of them seem to be Marxist in origin as well. What’s with that? From my perspective nobody seems to be able to define CRT. Many of the people advocating for it appear to be arguing for nothing more than adding a dose of realism to the history that is taught in our country. The right seems to be very good at defining and demonizing many of these movements. BLM: A simple idea that Black Lives Matter as much as white ones? Nope. It’s a Marxist plot to overthrow the American way. ANTIFA: A bunch of hippies who don’t like neo nazis? Nope. It’s a Marxist plot to overthrow the American way. Democrats: A sometimes overly sensitive group of heavy spenders who nevertheless want to see The United States improve and succeed? Nope. A Marxist plot….well you get the picture. CRT is just the latest leap the right is making in order to keep its base energized. It’s all getting a bit stale for those of us non-Tucker, non Alex Jones consumers.

Teaching critical race theory isn't happening in classrooms, teachers say in survey https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1272945

If it turns out Chinese negligence is responsible for COVID-19, I’d love to see all the consequences listed above and then some levied against them. I doubt any of that is realistic though. Lots of Chinese trading partners with a lot to lose. IMO, the Chinese have already lost a lot of face and there is a significant backlash already going on regarding Chinese soft and hard power. I don’t think the Italians are nearly as keen on belt and road as they were two years ago. As unsatisfying as it is, that may be all the repercussion China faces. I suspect it’ll at least be a while until Chinese tourists are welcomed as warmly as they (and their money) were pre-pandemic.

Even though you might occasionally hit the target, shooting from the hip is seldom a wise idea. Agreed the lab leak seems more plausible now than it did a year ago. Let’s do the detective work and see what we dig up. Let’s say it was a leak/mistake from the wuhan institute of virology. What then? Sanctions? Sue in the world court? War?

The resolution says that teachers will: “Publicly (through existing media) convey its support for the accurate and honest teaching of social studies topics, including truthful and age-appropriate accountings of unpleasant aspects of American history, such as slavery, and the oppression and discrimination of Indigenous, Black, Brown, and other peoples of color, as well as the continued impact this history has on our current society.” Seems pretty reasonable to me. It also appears that CRT means different things to different people. I’d tend to agree that insistence on seeing the entirety of American history through the lens of race might be rather limiting and problematic. I have no problem whatsoever, however, with teaching American history with a “warts and all” mentality.

I’d be interested to see exactly what’s going into the curriculum, and at what grade levels, that constitutes CRT. The point I was attempting to make is that CRT is a somewhat nebulous, difficult to define concept that has been presented by the right wing media outrage machine to drive up viewership. Meanwhile, on the right, there is a concerted and explicit effort to present religious anti-science bullshit to our children. If Tucker Carlson is an intellectually honest human being (he is not), then where’s his outrage over this very real travesty?

Another interesting and entertaining race. Spoiler alert: Mazepin finished last. Again (ahead of one DNF). Won’t give anything else away for the DVR crowd.

You’re absolutely correct there. Of course, I couldn’t find a single example of a school district in the United States espousing CRT, but there seem to be plenty that still want to teach creationism, like in Arkansas: https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2021/apr/08/house-advances-bill-to-let-schools-teach/ The radical conservative agenda has no place in our public schools!