jdreyer wrote on Jan 13, 2021, 14:16:

Caladell wrote on Jan 13, 2021, 02:29:
I had never heard of Parler before all this nonsense

That's a good thing.

Me too, and I still care not.

sliv wrote on Jan 12, 2021, 16:47:
I remember the days when....

Reminiscing about the past with a favorable perspective, disgruntle with the present, and sharing your perspective in a well thought out manner... you're more BN than you realize

wrlwnd wrote on Jan 13, 2021, 02:55:

sliv wrote on Jan 12, 2021, 18:53:
I guess "time and place" would be my response to this. Yes, it's the hot topic right now (time) but does it really need to be all hashed out here (place)? Again, I said I try to find escape from it all but politics have infested pretty much everything and it'd be nice to talk about something else, but it sounds like that's all people want to talk about (exhibit a: comment counts). So be it. I'll just move along. BTW I'm pretty sure people changing their political opinions from what they read on a gaming website is batting at .000.

The subject where this thread exists is Morning Metaverse with a topic posted by Blue of "Why everyone should be worried about Parler being booted from the internet."

Said topic is now being discussed. Your disappointment that we're not discussing video games in this *particular* thread is misplaced, to put it mildly.

The other thing is the out importance of this event. In the last 20 years, how many single day "where were you on..." events have we had in the past 20-30 years? The ones that come to mind: 9/11 and the death of OBL. I'd have to Google any others.

So passions are going to run high. That said, this commentariat is pretty good about driving within the lines.

Caladell wrote on Jan 13, 2021, 02:29:
I had never heard of Parler before all this nonsense

That's a good thing.

The Flying Penguin wrote on Jan 13, 2021, 13:10:
It's funny how people think there's some kind of 'right' to access social media, and companies shouldn't be able to police their own websites.

What's funny, is they think that AND believe the answer is revoking Section 230. Which actually would force social media companies to closely monitor all the content posted on their sites. Probably so much so it would effectively kill the sites...

It's funny how people think there's some kind of 'right' to access social media, and companies shouldn't be able to police their own websites.

Before the Internet, the only way to post an opinion in public, over a large audience, was to write a letter to the editor of a newspaper. The editorial depart was under no legal compulsion to print a submitted letter. Like social media, they had printed guidelines that they used to accept or reject a submission.

Media companies have ALWAYS been the gatekeeper.

You feel you're being muzzled? Start a Word Press blog. Host it on your own server.

For people who feel there should be a non-business controlled social forum, by all means, ask your congress critters to pass a bill that would require the US government to host it's own social media site, perhaps issuing everyone an account with their social security number. There would be no anonymous bots. Everyone would be a US citizen.

Of course that will sound like some form of 'socialism' to some people.

What is exceptionally sweet about this is that it was the right that set two conditions in place that they are now balling about.

It was the right Supreme Court that said a business could refuse to put a gay title on a birthday cake, and it was the right that made sure the internet and everything on it was privately owned (remember local public access cable?)

QQQ

If your actions and irresponsible loon ravings are causing you to be shunned by the owner's of private media, and now you are all but hurt, whining about "censorship" just illustrates how dim your memory is of how these two conditions came about.

Nothing is more disingenuous than people who want to spread sedition, treason, and violence against minorities, and then cry like babies about "free speech" in a medium that is entirely private.

sliv wrote on Jan 12, 2021, 16:47:

Beamer wrote on Jan 12, 2021, 15:13:

Tomas wrote on Jan 12, 2021, 15:04:
It's a good thing we have places like bluesnews where we can make sure our opinions are correct.

With this post, you're one step away from calling us sheeple.

I would take a step towards over the past decade Blues has basically turned into an echo chamber itself where I can hardly read the comments anymore without dying a little inside; so toxic. When I do go in I already know what to expect, and my expectations have yet to be unmet.

I remember the days when the disagreements had to do with the actual gaming industry (PS vs Xbox, Nintendo vs Sega, nVidia vs AMD) where both sides could have an opinion and still be able talk to one another with some semblance of respect. Those days are sadly gone, or maybe it's just pure Mandela Effect and wishful thinking. I do know what we have now is a bunch of anonymously tough-talking keyboard warriors with a megaphone wearing earplugs. Though, I'm sure a lot of you all are probably pretty nice in person, too bad we don't get to see that side of you.

Blues was my escape from all the other crap in the world. Do we really need Twitter and FB news here? "If it bleeds, it leads", I guess. Shoot, comment totals alone tell you all you need to know.

Im sorry but you are wrong about this. Blues was always a laidback place where people could shoot the shit about pretty much anything, which is one of the main reasons why I still keep coming back to it. Unlike most other online forums, Blue is very laid back with regards to rules and censorship and the only thing that isn't really allowed are personal attacks.

sliv wrote on Jan 12, 2021, 18:53:
I guess "time and place" would be my response to this. Yes, it's the hot topic right now (time) but does it really need to be all hashed out here (place)? Again, I said I try to find escape from it all but politics have infested pretty much everything and it'd be nice to talk about something else, but it sounds like that's all people want to talk about (exhibit a: comment counts). So be it. I'll just move along. BTW I'm pretty sure people changing their political opinions from what they read on a gaming website is batting at .000.

The subject where this thread exists is Morning Metaverse with a topic posted by Blue of "Why everyone should be worried about Parler being booted from the internet."

Said topic is now being discussed. Your disappointment that we're not discussing video games in this *particular* thread is misplaced, to put it mildly.

I had never heard of Parler before all this nonsense

<Trimmed for brevity>

sliv wrote on Jan 12, 2021, 18:53:

Hmm... nice... lot's of friends huh?

No...but by choice. I have a close circle of deeply loyal friends that, without exaggeration, would help me dispose of a body and take the secret of it to their grave.They, too, can count on me the same.

sliv wrote on Jan 12, 2021, 18:53:
I guess "time and place" would be my response to this. Yes, it's the hot topic right now (time) but does it really need to be all hashed out here (place)? Again, I said I try to find escape from it all but politics have infested pretty much everything and it'd be nice to talk about something else, but it sounds like that's all people want to talk about (exhibit a: comment counts). So be it. I'll just move along. BTW I'm pretty sure people changing their political opinions from what they read on a gaming website is batting at .000.

It is hashed out where people congregate. This is the modern version of the ancient market square or town square for many people, including myself. People talk where they congregate, it's a human behavior that stretches back tens of thousands of years.

I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss any particular place as being unfertile ground from which change can sprout. I have had my opinion changed on this very site after incontrovertible evidence to the contrary of my view was presented. That evidence was researched and I adjust my view accordingly when the veracity of the data checked out. I've introduced people to Linux on this site, some of whom still use it to this day. Because of an uptick in an interest in Linux, we're seeing more Linux articles than we have historically in the past. Moreover, I've taught students that I mentor how to tie a tie (classic Windsor knot) in the middle of a big data analytics tutoring session. Any place can serve as a place to learn and grow.

If a broader view is not to your liking, perhaps it is time that you moved along to something that was more narrowly focused. I am not encouraging you, mind you, simply agreeing if that is your fixed mindset.

sliv wrote on Jan 12, 2021, 16:47:
I would take a step towards over the past decade Blues has basically turned into an echo chamber itself where I can hardly read the comments anymore without dying a little inside; so toxic. When I do go in I already know what to expect, and my expectations have yet to be unmet.

I remember the days when the disagreements had to do with the actual gaming industry (PS vs Xbox, Nintendo vs Sega, nVidia vs AMD) where both sides could have an opinion and still be able talk to one another with some semblance of respect. Those days are sadly gone, or maybe it's just pure Mandela Effect and wishful thinking. I do know what we have now is a bunch of anonymously tough-talking keyboard warriors with a megaphone wearing earplugs. Though, I'm sure a lot of you all are probably pretty nice in person, too bad we don't get to see that side of you.

Blues was my escape from all the other crap in the world. Do we really need Twitter and FB news here? "If it bleeds, it leads", I guess. Shoot, comment totals alone tell you all you need to know.

All that discussion of games and hardware and stuff still happens, and the site is policed to make sure outside of OotB or Legal sections or a section that mentions Trump by name, that off topic stuff doesn't spill in there. The vast majority of threads don't contain the kind of comments you're complaining about. It should be pretty obvious if you wish to avoid it.

Bill Borre wrote on Jan 12, 2021, 17:23:
I'm actually kind of surprised the organizers aren't more successful. I'm not a big fan of those political thriller movies but years ago when social media was getting started it was easy to imagine scenarios where small groups of people with a cause they were willing to die for could carry out very visible strikes.

Because in reality, the vast majority of Americans are horrified by such thoughts. Look at the Gretchen Witmer plot: not one, but two people informed on that group. And it was only 10 people or so.

Mr. Tact wrote on Jan 8, 2021, 14:12:
I can't take credit for coming up with this thought, but I am happy to repeat it:

Why weren't the 120+ House members and 9 (8?) Senators who voted to overturn the electoral votes waiting in the House and Senate chamber for "their people"? They were doing their bidding, attempting to overturn the election. They should have been sitting at their assigned seats saying, "Welcome to your house". Why did they run and hide? Those "protesters" are just patriots trying to make sure Congress does what it is supposed to do -- the very thing those House and Senate members were attempting to do.

Things that make you go, "Hmmm."

I think everyone is feeling pretty beaten and raw. I know I've said some things in hindsight I regret.
There's no denying there's a political lean to the left here on this site and passions can make us phrase things in a less considered way. But I appreciate the differing views and hope people don't feel stifled to express them for fear of being dog-piled.

MoreLuckThanSkill wrote on Jan 12, 2021, 16:30:
A much bigger and more immediate problem is still present: multiple armed attacks are planned before the 20th, being organized initially on Parler, now on various other services. Unfortunately the US is going to simply be too slow to shut down Gab and everything else even if they understood these other forums/programs, there will probably be gun battles in a half dozen cities before the 21st.

Really, the USA is never going to recover from the damage Trump and the Republicans have caused, and people are worried about corporate censorship, rofl.

Agreed on both counts.

After the DoJ press conference earlier today, and terms like "seditious conspiracy" and "20 year federal prison sentence" were thrown around, I suspect that the casual Insurrection LARPers will be deterred from attending the 1/17/21 armed "protest" being organized on the far right internet. But for the hardcore radicals, like the Proud Boys, the 3 Percenters, or the Oath Keepers, I fully expect them to perpetrate organized violence on the days leading up to the inauguration, up to and including bombings and mass shootings.

On the latter point, I've been referencing the assassination of Tiberius Gracchus a lot in conversation lately, for why the riot in the Capitol is so serious, and why had the rioters reached the Vice-President or Speaker Pelosi or even just rank and file lawmakers, we would be on a whole other level of historical catastrophe. But in the longer run I think the historical model is Commodus: American society is not going to collapse in the coming months -- although a prolonged domestic terrorism campaign is likely -- but historians hundreds of years from now will mark the Trump Administration as being the end of the Pax Americana.

Sepharo wrote on Jan 12, 2021, 18:23:
It's not the Mandela Effect, it's rose tinted glasses or something though.
All the comments from the past are still visible, this board has always been this way, and in fact it was much worse before.
You can find plenty of unhinged political ranting at any period here, and in the past moderation was nearly zero.

Indeed. Much of my perpetual annoyance with Cutter dates back to 2002/2003 with the run up to the Iraq War and the attendant vicious flame wars on this board. He ended up being right on Iraq though, and I was wrong. He's said plenty of other things to keep me annoyed though

The Flying Penguin wrote on Jan 12, 2021, 13:54:

Simon Says wrote on Jan 12, 2021, 13:45:

The Flying Penguin wrote on Jan 12, 2021, 13:40:
For the life of me, I don't understand why conservatives want to repeal section 230. I can only assume that because of Trump's misunderstanding of what it is (I'm sure he never bothered to read it, since he couldn't be bothered to read the Constitution in the last four years), and his constant repeating of the 'repeal 230' chant, everyone is just buying into it.

Probably the same stupidity as the left's 'defund the police' mantra.

Now don't be disingenuous. You're comparing apples to oranges. The "left" ( rest of the world's center ) has been pretty clear what they meant "defund the police", they meant to reduce it's funding to:

-Demilitarize it.
-Divert some of the funding to social programs.
-Reduce the police's workload by letting other organisms funded by the social programs deal with calls that have nothing to do with crimes and which police routinely bungles and has no training to deal with, often resulting in tragic unnecessary deaths and violence from the police.
-Other provisions I don't remember which are as clear as those stated above.

Not being disingenuous at all. It's a marketing slogan. Something easy to yell over a bullhorn, but unfortunately it's a poor choice of words.

I know what they mean by it, but it just gives the Right, fuel to mis represent it. Obama himself pointed this out after the election. He specifically called out using the phrase 'defund the police' as what likely caused the loss of house seats.

I'm a left leaning independent, and fully support the idea of 'demilitarizing the police' (there, a better slogan, I offer it royalty free for anyone's use).

You and I may understand what it means, but you and I read a wide range of news sources. Conservatives (even the reasonable moderate ones) get their news from Fox or worse, and they constantly take the literal meaning of the phrase and use it to stoke fear of the 'socialist agenda'.

I have lot's of reasonable conservative friends, not MAGA hat wearing nut jobs, who nonetheless, still believe that 'defund the police' is literal. They don't read the New York Times.

We've become a sound bite society. And that's a lousy sound bite.

Normies and anarchists have different impressions of what 'defund the police' means.

One watches on tv, maybe attends some local protest to walk with a crowd. The other is organizing the protest and doing the yelling from the bullhorn.

Normies think : well, what do they /really/ mean?
Anarchists think : you damn well heard what we said.

Side note, I am more or less ok with the literal interpretation. Fact is, police only show up after the fact to take statements. Reality already is that you have to help yourself in the moment. The movie portrayal with sirens seconds away is just a fantasy. Just save the money.

-scheherazade

Burrito of Peace wrote on Jan 12, 2021, 18:22:

sliv wrote on Jan 12, 2021, 16:47:
Though, I'm sure a lot of you all are probably pretty nice in person, too bad we don't get to see that side of you.

I assure you that I am just as much of an asshole in person as I am on here.

Beamer is right when he said we are discussing and opining on issues that are infinitely more important than video games, consoles, and other such meaningless trivialities. Can you legitimately argue that the scarcity of video cards and their current outrageous prices are more worthy of discussion than the armed insurrection that occurred at the Capitol just six days ago? Or the continued lunacy of Trump and the very real danger he represents to the republic and our democracy? Or the now hundreds of examples of social inequality that we have witnessed over the last handful of years?

There comes a point where you can't bury your head in the sand and hope to wave it all away because you don't want to deal with it. When something becomes a problem of such a staggering nature, it is going to seep in to everything until it is resolved.

Hmm... nice... lot's of friends huh?

I guess "time and place" would be my response to this. Yes, it's the hot topic right now (time) but does it really need to be all hashed out here (place)? Again, I said I try to find escape from it all but politics have infested pretty much everything and it'd be nice to talk about something else, but it sounds like that's all people want to talk about (exhibit a: comment counts). So be it. I'll just move along. BTW I'm pretty sure people changing their political opinions from what they read on a gaming website is batting at .000.

Tomas wrote on Jan 12, 2021, 17:50:

Beamer wrote on Jan 12, 2021, 15:13:

Tomas wrote on Jan 12, 2021, 15:04:
It's a good thing we have places like bluesnews where we can make sure our opinions are correct.

With this post, you're one step away from calling us sheeple.

I don't think that's a fair expansion of what I said, but you are right, I shouldn't have made that comment. I apologize for that.

Not to worry Tomas.
I've enjoyed reading your comments.
These are very difficult times to process. Watching the duck dynasty defile one of our most cherished institutions while being cheered on by a failed politician has been an unbelievable nightmare for most Americans and tempers are high.
Is banning Trump from all social media and shutting down parler the right thing to do, it sure feels that way right now.
But what we do in the heat of the moment isn't always the right move.

After 9/11, even before the facts were in, some Americans would have lined up for an I.D. barcode tattoo and had the flag laser etched on their corneas if given the option.
Instead, we went to war and bombed a country back to the Stone age killing thousands along the way.
We're still involved in that war. We have no exit strategy.
Is the country we bombed better off than it was before.
Are we safer now than we were before 9/11?
Was going to war the correct thing to do.
Have we created a new breed of islamic terrorists and bred our own in-house brand of Timothy McVeigh - Cliven Bundy clones.
It sure feels that way at times.
But for now I feel, there I go using I feel again, the only thing we can do is to turn off the presidents mic and mute some of the chatter while hoping for a peaceful transfer of power like we've had for so many years.
I don't think anybody wants the other option.