all 56 comments

[–]simonp 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I was just suspended from Reddit, because Hlynka is both a нигер and a фагот. That is all

[–]mo-ming-qi-miao 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Human Sacrifice and the Digital Business Model

In the sacrificial rituals of ancient societies, the priestly class engineered moments of what sociologist Émile Durkheim called “collective effervescence” as a mode of social control. The priests harnessed the violent impulses that can erode social cohesion when left unchecked, and channeled them into shared experiences that unified the community. Today, the equivalent of these priests are the engineers who lure us into virtual Skinner boxes and use trivial rewards to induce us to mimic brutal ancient rites.

Like their archaic counterparts, these modern priests grasp that “collective effervescence” is a powerful force that needs to be channeled and circumscribed. But the essential goal of today’s priests is not control, although that is an effect. Nor is it social cohesion and the greater good of the community. It is profit. The gamified mechanisms that precipitate us toward indignation against enemies also drive our continued use of the platforms. The more of us that are transfixed by spectacles of victimization, the greater the revenue the platform brings in. Like a bloodthirsty god, the platform business feeds off of sacrifice.

What’s become apparent lately is that the offline world is increasingly subordinate to the ravenous appetites of this god. The recent wave of cancellations of figures both prominent and obscure reveals the degree to which the online logic of gamified sacrifice has taken hold of institutions, and not just cultural ones. The latter may be a leading indicator because their mostly deskbound denizens are more glued to screens than others, but the automated logic of sacrificial resolution is determining outcomes in spaces far less integrated with platforms. Supporters and critics of “cancel culture” alike would agree that journalism’s Twitter-facing culture was a key factor in the recent ouster of several newspaper editors, most prominently The New York Times op-ed page’s James Bennet. But the same mechanisms that empower media workers to take down their bosses also enable anonymous civilians to enact mob vengeance against other anonymous civilians, as the San Diego Gas & Electric case indicates.

The Harper’s letter signatories fear that horizontal policing will dampen debate, and that the chilling effects of the punitive digital environment will induce intellectual uniformity. But for the platform god, this would be an undesirable outcome. If the fear of mob vigilantism made everyone conform to the standards of their group, there would be no more sacrificial immolations to keep people captivated by their screens. The god needs such spectacles to live.

TL;DR - Twitter/Instagram/etc are instruments of Moloch and should be shunned by anyone who wants to be happy.

[–]WickedWitchOfTheWest 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Now it’s Islamophobic to use the word ‘jihadis’

Some of the alternatives suggested are nothing short of hilarious. ‘Faith-claimed terrorism’ and ‘adherents of Osama bin Laden’s ideology’ are among them. But the most amusing is probably ‘terrorists abusing religious motivations’. Catchy.

But this is deadly serious. Increasingly, we are asked to pretend that Islamist terror is not Islamist terror. In turn, any discussion about whether Islamist extremism might have something to do with the religion of Islam itself is chilled.

Despite the fact that ‘Islamist extremism’ is a term used by counter-terror experts, the National Association of Muslim Police want the police to abandon any terms ‘which have a direct link to Islam’.

But what exactly motivates these attacks if not a radical, violent, medieval form of Islam? It may not be ‘good’ Islam, and Islamist terrorists may not be ‘good’ Muslims. But they are Muslims nonetheless.

Imagine the outcry if someone argued that we should not call the Crusaders Christians. Picture the chattering-class outrage if we were to say right-wing terrorists are not actually right-wing.

[–]Steve_Huffman 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

[–]WickedWitchOfTheWest 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Segregated Denver Yoga Chain Shut Down For Insufficient Wokeness

The saga started in the immediate aftermath of the George Floyd riots that swept major cities nationwide in the worst outbreak of civil disobedience in decades. As nightly protests engulfed Denver’s downtown city-center surrounding the Colorado Capitol building located three blocks away from Kindess’ Capitol Hill studio, the fitness franchise saw more than 400 emails flood in from customers cancelling their memberships after already scheduled social media posts featured memes rather than statements on social justice, according to the Colorado Sun.

[...]

On June 19, Harrington announced on Instagram that Kindness Yoga would not be moving through with reopening on the first of July as scheduled, and instead would be closing its doors forever while apologizing that the studios failed to harbor an adequate “safe space” for students and employees, despite offering segregated classes.

[...]

Davidia Turner, is black and identifies as a witch is now starting her own yoga studio, hosting “Yoga for Witches” workshops. she said Kindness Yoga refused to hire a “diversity expert,” and denounced the company website as “too white-centric.” After heeding to Turner’s criticism over its online presence, Kindness Yoga conducted a photo-shoot only to then be accused to “tokenism.”

Harrington told the Colorado Sun that the photoshoot was a mistake and says he wishes he would have hired a photographer to shoot their classes, probably the ones where whites weren’t invited.

Turner told the Sun that when she explained to the company’s CEO who was a white woman that it was no place for minority employees to fix its racist culture, the executive broke down crying. Turner however, derided the CEO’s tears as “the weaponizing of sadness” which was “infuriating.”

[...]

Harrington told the Sun he’s working to better understand his white privilege by reading the infamous book authored by Robin DiAngelo architect of critical race theory “White Fragility.”

Like a whipped dog turning back to lick the boot that kicked him, these people never learn. Pathetic.

[–]Steve_Huffman 3 insightful - 5 fun3 insightful - 4 fun4 insightful - 5 fun -  (1 child)

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) introduced a House resolution Thursday calling on lawmakers to ban organizations or political groups that have historically supported the Confederacy or slavery in the U.S., including the Democratic Party.

[–]mo-ming-qi-miao 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Good news! The New York Times has found out the root cause of all the trouble we've been having with unequal educational outcomes between racial groups. Apparently all this time the problem has been Nice White Parents.

[–]WickedWitchOfTheWest 4 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

Washington Post settles $250M suit with Covington teen Nick Sandmann

The Washington Post on Friday agreed to settle a monster $250 million lawsuit filed by Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann over its botched coverage of his 2019 encounter with a Native American elder.

Sandmann declared the victory in a tweet on his 18th birthday. It’s unclear how much the newspaper settled for.

“On 2/19/19, I filed $250M defamation lawsuit against Washington Post. Today, I turned 18 & WaPo settled my lawsuit,” he wrote.

“Thanks to @ToddMcMurtry & @LLinWood for their advocacy. Thanks to my family & millions of you who have stood your ground by supporting me. I still have more to do,” he continued.

It’s the teen’s second win in a whopping $800 million defamation battle against a number of news outlets including the Washington Post, CNN, ABC, CBS, The Guardian, The Hill and NBC.

I think I'll have a coke.

[–]WickedWitchOfTheWest 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

St. Louis Prosecutor Tampered With Evidence In McCloskey Gun Case

The gun Patricia McCloskey waved at a mob surrounding her home last month was inoperable at the time, but the St. Louis prosecutor’s office ordered the city’s crime lab to re-assemble it into working order after confiscating the firearm, according to a local Missouri TV station reporting Wednesday.

Missouri law requires the government to prove firearms be “readily” capable of fatal harm in order to score a conviction based on the charges filed against McCloskey and her husband this week for their attempt to use legal weapons to deter rioters from their home. Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner charged Patricia and her husband Mark McCloskey each with unlawful use of a weapon, a felony that can carry up to four years in prison, for defending their $1.15 million home.

Streets of Rage 2 was right.

[–]Steve_Huffman 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

[–]mo-ming-qi-miao 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

UK calls for “online harms” regulator to police “misinformation”

Looks like another initiative destined to draw the ire of digital and privacy groups for representing censorship by any other name.

MPs who propose and defend it, however, say that tech companies need to be tightly regulated from the outside.

“The coronavirus crisis has demonstrated that without due weight of the law, social media companies have no incentive to consider a duty of care to those who use their services,” said chairman of a Department’s committee that is putting forward the proposal, Julian Knight.

I'm sure this will turn out well.

[–]lord-kril 6 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

Twitter has allegedly confirmed that inciting destruction of property is A-OK on their platform.

[–]mo-ming-qi-miao 4 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

I wonder what would happen if someone posted the address of Jack Dorsey's house and advocated for it to be burned down.

[–]simonp 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

This does not matter in the slightest, as there is nothing stopping twitter from egregiously biased moderation

[–]simonp 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (8 children)

Request for productive input.

A friend of mine is starting on a passion project (or possibly a startup? I'm unclear) on the subject of "creating productive, pro-social discussion spaces in order to encourage a return to reasonableness, moderation, and peaceful disagreement". He's been asking around for peoples input regarding different design decisions and such that could be made that would encourage such things. Does anybody have any strong thoughts on this subject?

I'll share what he's come up with so far, but I want to hear all of your input first because I don't want to bias the brainstorming

[–]mo-ming-qi-miao 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Sex-segregate it to prevent white knighting.

[–]lord-kril 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

This is going to sound weird coming from me, based on my ideological preferences, but if he wants results: immediately eject anyone engaging in bad-faith shit without mercy or appeal, including concern-trolling, entryism, etc.

[–]Lazar 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

My experience with "concern trolling" is that it's usually a charge leveled by progressives to enforce their echo chambers. After one of my old forums went aggressively woke, anybody who fell short of total enthusiasm for the ever-changing party line was condemned as a fascist concern troll.

[–]simonp 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Concern trolling is usually extremely obvious. You can tell it a mile away from how passive-aggressive it comes off

[–]Lazar 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I mean your experience might differ from mine; I'm just a lot more familiar with bad faith accusations of the tactic than with the tactic itself. For me it's in the same category as "Russian bots" or "sealioning"; my default is to assume that the person being described as a concern troll is the sensible one.

[–]simonp 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

He's going in the direction of "private, curated, invite-only" so so far that seems out of scope of the design parameters

[–]mo-ming-qi-miao 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Even excommunication is better than cancellation

But at least with excommunication there is a way back. And not just as some theoretical possibility. Those who were excommunicated were not stopped from attending church. Indeed, they were still required to do so. They were refused the Eucharist, and no one could talk to them. But their presence was nonetheless important. Because forgiveness was always held out as a possibility.

Once the sinner has repented, the priest (or bishop or Pope in the more serious cases) declared absolution. And upon receiving absolution, the penitent can participate in the full life of the church once again. It doesn’t matter if some people don’t like it, or suspect their motives as less than sincere. It’s not a democracy. They have been officially uncancelled. And there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner that repents than over 99 righteous people that never needed to (Luke 15.7).

One of my favourite hymns praises God for being “slow to chide and swift to bless”. In cancel culture, it is the other way around. Indeed, it is not just slow to bless: it is incapable of doing it. Cancel culture per se has been around a long time. But what is new about its current iteration is that — being suspicious of authority — the culture of condemnation has dismantled all the moral infrastructure by which forgiveness might be accepted and promulgated. That is what makes it such a nasty, pernicious doctrine. When you have been cancelled, you are lost forever.

[–]Steve_Huffman 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

[–]mo-ming-qi-miao 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Woman Brutalized for Refusing to Bow to Compelled Pronouns & Public Recognition of Transgender-Identifying Male

Alicia is still new to radical feminism, and had only recently begun to question the notion that anyone can actually change their biological sex. She says her concerns were only exacerbated when a former personal friend, Emanuel “Manny” Pabon, began trying to force Alicia to alter her language to suit his delusion that he be seen by her as an actual woman. Alicia refused.

According to Alicia, Demi Hart, Shani Monique, and Dyandra Harrison decided that they must defend the honor of Mr Pabon, who tried to initiate an actual brawl with Alicia over this dispute, saying, “All you do is make tweets sprinkled with transphobia.” Alicia says she refused to take part in a physical fight with him, and so Manny urged on the female allies to do his bidding.

After stalking her, the three women – all known personally to Alicia as former friends – hit her in the face, and her nostril ring was ripped out, she says. It was only due to the intervention of Alicia’s family members that more damage was not done to her body.

The incident was reported in a series of tweets by trans allies who demonstrated delight in the attack on Alicia. Unlike the more common reports of assaults on anyone who refuses to engage in the delusions of men who claim to be women, all parties in this particular incident are Black.

[–]WickedWitchOfTheWest 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Twitter announces it will permanently suspend 'QAnon' accounts

Twitter Safety tweeted out a series of tweets laying out an update to their policy against posts that have the potential to lead to harm offline, but managed to avoid addressing Antifa and Black Lives Matter in the update, instead focusing on the conspiracy/LARPing group QAnon.

Twitter Safety started with: "We’ve been clear that we will take strong enforcement action on behaviour that has the potential to lead to offline harm. In line with this approach, this week we are taking further action on so-called ‘QAnon’ activity across the service."

Then: "We will permanently suspend accounts Tweeting about these topics that we know are engaged in violations of our multi-account policy, coordinating abuse around individual victims, or are attempting to evade a previous suspension — something we’ve seen more of in recent weeks."

They continued by saying that they would "no longer serve content and accounts associated with QAnon in Trends and recommendations" ... "Work to ensure we’re not highlighting this activity in search and conversations" ... "Block URLs associated with QAnon from being shared on Twitter."

[–]Steve_Huffman 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

[–]blue_gryphon 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Woah, there's already 1K subscribers here? Is it old guard saidittors or did we migrate the entire community in one step? Should we just close the old place?

[–]lord-kril 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I think we've been passively collecting subs ever since the (now departed) creator account set it up. Most are probably bots or dead accounts.

[–]mo-ming-qi-miao 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

BLM Activist Says White Men Are ‘The Common Enemy’, ‘We Need to Get Rid of Them’

The speaker said that intersectionality “means recognising that there is one common enemy: the white man. The systems that they use are capitalism, patriarchy, and fascism. They were created and perpetuated by white men, for white men, in the interests of white men.”

He added that “once we realise that we are all fighting the same fight, it just strengthens the army. A problem shared is a problem halved. Imagine if we all realised and came together and grouped together?”

“All of these groups of people, the issues they face, it all comes from the same people: white men. So we need to get rid of them,” he said, going on to suggest that — sotto voce — people should “kill the rich”.

At least they've started being honest about their goals.

[–]the_nybbler 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

AOC claims to have been accosted on the steps of the Capital

Even if this story is true (and I'm going to guess it's somewhere between "mostly false", and "pants on fire"), why should I care if Congresscritters get into a verbal spat? Oh, AOC has the answer to that

Gotta love Republican courage from Rep @RogerWilliamsTX: when he undeniably sees another man engaged in virulent harassment of a young woman, just pretend you never saw it in the most cartoonish manner possible and keep pushing.

Oh no you don't. You're a member of the House of Representatives of the United States of America, not some shrinking violet. You can fight your own battles, not demand your opposition do it for you. If you can't, well, maybe we shouldn't allow "young women" to hold high office any more.

[–]simonp 6 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

The literal entire point of America is that you're allowed to say bad things about the government.

AOC needs to be flogged in public.

[–]WickedWitchOfTheWest 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Trump aims to bar undocumented immigrants from counting toward House representation

The order, which will almost certainly face legal challenges, amounts to something of a workaround for Trump after the Supreme Court last year blocked the administration from adding a citizenship question to the decennial survey.

The rationale for the memo rests on the argument that the president has final say over transmitting the final census report to Congress and that the constitution does not explicitly define which persons must be included in determining apportionment.

"The discretion delegated to the executive branch to determine who qualifies as an 'inhabitant' includes authority to exclude from the apportionment base aliens who are not in a lawful immigration status," the order states. "Excluding these illegal aliens from the apportionment base is more consonant with the principles of representative democracy underpinning our system of Government.

The order implicitly calls out California — a state represented overwhelmingly by Democrats in Congress — in making the argument for discounting undocumented immigrants, noting that "one State is home to more than 2.2 million illegal aliens."

"Including these illegal aliens in the population of the State for the purpose of apportionment could result in the allocation of two or three more congressional seats than would otherwise be allocated," the order states.

[–]mo-ming-qi-miao 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Michigan School Fires Popular Teacher For Saying ‘Trump Is Our President’

Varsity baseball coach and social studies teacher Justin Kucera said Walled Lake school district officials hauled him into a closed-door meeting after he indicated his support for President Trump's speech to reopen schools. He told the Washington Free Beacon the Walled Lake Western principal and district superintendent gave him an ultimatum: be fired or resign.

"I was required to meet with [human resources], the superintendent, and my principal [on July 10]. They initially took my statement on why I tweeted those tweets and they told me they would have a decision about my future employment in the upcoming days. When they completed the meeting, I was told I had the option to either be fired or resign." Kucera said.

[–]WickedWitchOfTheWest 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

Rutgers English Department to deemphasize traditional grammar ‘in solidarity with Black Lives Matter’

The English Department at Rutgers University recently announced a list of “anti-racist” directives and initiatives for the upcoming fall and spring semesters, including an effort to deemphasize traditional grammar rules.

The initiatives were spelled out by Rebecca Walkowitz, the English Department chair at Rutgers University, and sent to faculty, staff and students in an email, a copy of which was obtained by The College Fix.

Walkowitz sent the email on “Juneteenth,” which celebrates the commemoration of emancipation from slavery in the United States.

Titled “Department actions in solidarity with Black Lives Matter,” the email states that the ongoing and future initiatives that the English Department has planned are a “way to contribute to the eradication of systemic inequities facing black, indigenous, and people of color.”

One of the initiatives is described as “incorporating ‘critical grammar’ into our pedagogy.”

It is listed as one of the efforts for Rutgers’ Graduate Writing Program, which “serves graduate students across the Rutgers community. The GWP’s mission is to support graduate students of all disciplines in their current and future writing goals, from coursework papers to scholarly articles and dissertations,” according to its website.

Under a so-called critical grammar pedagogy, “This approach challenges the familiar dogma that writing instruction should limit emphasis on grammar/sentence-level issues so as to not put students from multilingual, non-standard ‘academic’ English backgrounds at a disadvantage,” the email states.

“Instead, it encourages students to develop a critical awareness of the variety of choices available to them w/ regard to micro-level issues in order to empower them and equip them to push against biases based on ‘written’ accents.”

I know a guy who does WW2 re-enactment as an SS officer and what the English department is assuming here is far more racist than anything I've ever heard him say.

[–]the_nybbler 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

One of these days someone's going to dig down and find out who is behind all this anti-racist stuff.... and it'll be Richard Spencer.

[–]WickedWitchOfTheWest 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

Damn white people and their *shuffles deck* public parks!

[–][deleted]  (1 child)

[deleted]

    [–]simonp 4 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

    I listen to a comedy podcast. For a while, this podcast had as a regular guest this hilarious comedian woman who was also pretty conventionally attractive.

    At one point, she takes an extended break from the podcast to go on a vacation to Japan. After she comes back, she's on the show talking about her trip to Japan. One of the first things she said was that Japan felt like hell to her, because nobody would ever talk to her in public and it felt terrible being shunned and ignored like that.

    The podcast host spent about ten minutes ripping into her for being an entitled woman, who apparently didn't realize that her experience in Japan is just the normal experience for men.

    [–]the_nybbler 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

    The New York Times tries to intimidate Tucker Carlson by publishing where he lives. Carlson strikes back, in part by identifying the reporter and photographer.

    [–]WickedWitchOfTheWest 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

    I don't think fueling the persecution complexes of the media class is going to work out for him.

    [–]the_nybbler 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

    This country is fucking lost. Over the past few days I've been told

    1) There's no rioting in Portland.

    2) The rioting in Portland is over a small area so it doesn't matter

    3) The presence of the Federal Government caused the rioting in Portland.

    4) Throwing rocks and (lit) fireworks at the Federal Courthouse is no big deal

    5) Arrests are being made by "secret police" (link to video showing police in uniform make an arrest. Always the same one, too)

    6) These arrests are "kidnapping". I might accept that coming from anarchist libertarians (to whom all arrests are kidnapping), but the people saying this are perfectly OK with other arrests; this is 100% tribal.

    7) Federal agents arresting people for rioting is the kind of tyranny right-wingers have been warning of.

    And this seems to be the consensus, the NPC/normie view. It's been a good run the last 240-some years (well, mostly), but it's over now.

    [–]WickedWitchOfTheWest 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

    At what point does Trump invoke the insurrection act? It's not like he has anything to lose.

    [–]RobertLiguori 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

    I know this is the Time of Covid, but do you have the ability to take a weekend off, drive for like an hour out of any city you might be living adjacent to, and talk to some people in a friendly, low-pressure context? I ask because I hear similar sentiment across my Facebook feed, and that is disheartening, but I also am friends with some people who live a ways away from me, and when I visit them, I note, e.g., the still-proudly-displayed Confederate flags on display. It's a good reminder that many people are not only not Extremely Online, they're barely Online at all.

    It might help your own calm if you can have some solid examples of people who aren't saying these things.

    [–]simonp 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

    If I had any people to talk to in person I would have already done that. What am I, just going to drive to some random small town in rural America, get out in the middle of the street, and accost strangers while demanding conversation? As if they don't hate city people enough already.

    [–]RobertLiguori 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

    Well, I was thinking more in terms of a bar or other casual gathering, and also with the implied "practice normal social skills and only move beyond casual greetings if people seem friendly", but why not? Drive until there is something happening to serve as a pretext for conversation, get out, see what it is, and talk to people about it.

    [–]mo-ming-qi-miao 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

    UConn Med. School May Shutter Honor Society Amid Diversity Feud Merit requirement keeps society too white, faculty say

    Five members of the UConn faculty made the announcement in an email sent Friday and obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. According to the email, the board of the UConn chapter is temporarily suspending admissions as it considers whether or not to disband itself. The decision is backed, the letter says, by the school's dean.

    "If we are going to directly address issues of social injustice, we should not continue biased practices while we make the overall decision on the future of the AΩA chapter," the letter says.

    Leaders of many elite institutions now say that a merit-based admissions policy may lead to unacceptable racially unequal outcomes. The New York Times, for example, recently published an op-ed arguing for ending blind auditions in America's orchestras. Such moves indicate an overturning of decades of consensus that neutral meritocratic standards foster racial diversity and signal an institutional shift towards explicit racial quotas.

    "Minorities are too stupid to qualify based on merit" sounds way more racist than selecting members on merit.

    [–]ProfitMargin 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

    The War on Noticing continues.

    [–]the_nybbler 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

    Noticing certain things (and I don't mean Jews) is getting a little too easy, so they have to hide it more.

    [–]the_nybbler 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

    You know, I understand that normies can't do simple reasoning. But that epidemiologists can't or won't do it either drives me up a fucking wall. Epidemic spread, that basic reproduction number R, depends on two things. R0, the basic reproductive rate. And S, the proportion of the population susceptible. Nothing else, unless I (proportion of the population infected) = 0, which is a trivial case. You can manipulate R0 with lockdowns and masks and all the rest. In the absence of a vaccine, you can manipulate S only by having people get infected. It doesn't depend on anything else. Most particularly, it doesn't depend on fucking d(R0)/dt, the rate of change of the reproductive rate. It's not a bomb on a light trigger, you can't back away slowly and have it not go off. R0, and S. The equations say it, the data supports it (qualitatively, though not quantitatively for simple models).

    One consequence of this is that if you want to ever not be locked down -- that is, have R0 return to R0_0, the original R0 before the lockdown -- you need to increase S. Which means people are going to be infected. Ain't no way around it. Another consequence is that the harder you lock down, the longer it's going to take to get through it.

    Yet epidemiologists still babble on about how places released their lockdowns "too fast", and governors supposedly informed by health departments keep lockdowns in place indefinitely. I don't know which is most charitable: that these people are totally incompetent, that they're lying and they want lockdown until vaccine or that they're lying and want lockdown until elimination. I suspect it may be the less charitable "lying for power and want lockdowns forever".

    [–]simonp 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

    If you're having to decide between accusing an expert of being stupid or of being evil, I don't think evil is the less charitable accusation. Most people are evil, at least some of the time. But it takes an extra special, egregiously bad type of stupid to be stupid while being a world expert in something.

    [–]mo-ming-qi-miao 2 insightful - 4 fun2 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 4 fun -  (0 children)

    [–]WickedWitchOfTheWest 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

    Cisco Fires Employees for Criticizing Black Lives Matter During Online Diversity Forum

    Tech giant Cisco has reportedly fired a number of its employees for making comments critical of Black Lives Matter, including the statement “all lives matter” in response to the popular refrain.

    ReclaimTheNet reports that the employees were fired for commenting on a video conference by the company’s CEO and other top executives, who expressed vocal support for the Black Lives Matter organization.

    [–]the_nybbler 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

    You'd think heretics would have learned by now. But while Cisco will fire dissenters, I bet they won't actually hire many more black people.

    Personally I'm counting the days until I can say "fuck you". Until then I'll extract as much money from the wokies as possible. If they try to make me positively support them, I'll just say "fuck you" a bit earlier than I'd prefer. Probably not by spamming the n-word to the company chat, but I reserve that exit for extreme situations (e.g. "post supporting BLM or else")

    [–]simonp 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

    They'll just hire more Brahmin Indians

    [–]lord-kril 6 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

    [Hell, I should be posting this here, because then I don't need to worry about fucking Rednames.]

    I'm in a bit of a mood today. Over the last few weeks, I've watched several geek spaces I'm in get taken over by literal communist entryists. Any pushback is met by offsite-organized "cancel" campaigns, and if that fails they'll start a false-flag campaign, backed up by friendly mods (damn but they're good at playing the long game).

    "Well, no, we can see you technically didn't make death threats against anyone, but there's too many anti-communist comments from when you were arguing against their free-speech restrictions, so you might become the sort of person who would make death threats..."

    Then they move on to space #2, and point at space #1 saying "well THEY bent the knee, why won't you? You must be Nazis then." Second verse, same as the first.

    TL;DR: Mi General did nothing wrong.

    [–]WickedWitchOfTheWest 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

    Then they move on to space #2, and point at space #1 saying "well THEY bent the knee, why won't you? You must be Nazis then." Second verse, same as the first.

    Not one inch. It's the only way to deal with entryists.

    [–]rwkastenBring on the dancing horses[S] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)