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Suppression is a bigger scandal than the actual story

taibbi.substack.com

401–410 of 596 posts

Re: Suppression is a bigger scandal than the actual story

#401
post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yikes, I never really paid attention to how creepy and inappropriate he was with little girls and young women.

Just remember: Just like with DT this is also pulled out of context. I don't like any of them and won't (and can't) vote for any of them so I have no dog in the fight. That website shouldn't have been blocked, whoever did it should probably been charged with election meddling but it doesn't change my view of Biden. As for the videos I think many of them shows him (clumsily) trying to comfort people. Again - I'm also…

Are they out of context? Granted they are short video clips, but what would the greater context show?

In three of the videos with younger women, they all seemed to recoil from his "affection". With the young girls, I don't think it would ever be appropriate for a stranger to touch them like he did.

Re: Suppression is a bigger scandal than the actual story

#402

I fear Taibbi is right, the suppression by Twitter, irrespective of the merits and veracity of NY Post's report, will now normalize all kinds of behavior by platforms of all kinds big and small. Which will then incentivize governments to take on the platforms. This also raises issues of unequal treatment - say the NY Post report was factually wrong - why pick on the NY Post only? Why not the hundreds of other "news o…

Pretty sure twitter said they blocked it because the information came from a hack, not because they claimed any veracity for it being fake or not.

Re: Suppression is a bigger scandal than the actual story

#403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is getting blurry as well, and though you are technically correct, one might have to sue or suffer damages for not following their rules: My children’s schools requires the use of Microsoft Teams From home (and associated TOS) for them to attend class. There is also a parent WhatsApp group for urgent messages to parents. And as of the pandemic, there is also mandatory Zoom classes. This is a public school. If I…

It's still fundamentally government that made that choice to force you into one service.

[deleted]

Re: Suppression is a bigger scandal than the actual story

#404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a lot of respect for Aaron swartz, but: > They have no constitution to answer to. Do we seriously believe any government follows it's constitution? What is the mechanism for redress should it fail to do so? > They’re not elected. Neither are most operators in the government. And even for those operators that are elected, the role of government has expanded to the point where any given elected official has auth…

> Do we seriously believe any government follows it's constitution? Absolutely. Many do. Look at America and their second amendment: there's no way that would fly today if it wasn't in the constitution. Luckily it is and power hungry politicians have to accept it. Same with the first amendment. Some of these are even are powerful today than before and I hope the fourth amendment will soon see a renaissance. > What is…

>Look at America and their second amendment

In America the right to an abortion is more respected under our legal system than the right to a gun despite what is written in the Constitution.

The law is downstream of culture, and that document only says what 5 Justices say it says.

Re: Suppression is a bigger scandal than the actual story

#405

I fear Taibbi is right, the suppression by Twitter, irrespective of the merits and veracity of NY Post's report, will now normalize all kinds of behavior by platforms of all kinds big and small. Which will then incentivize governments to take on the platforms. This also raises issues of unequal treatment - say the NY Post report was factually wrong - why pick on the NY Post only? Why not the hundreds of other "news o…

> why pick on the NY Post only?

Keep in mind that the 3 year long series of false and inflammatory stories alleging Russian collusion were allowed. Finally it turned out to be a hoax. FB and Twitter felt no obligation to censor that.

This is plain abuse of monopoly position by FB and Twitter, conscious attempt to keep voters ignorant, to push a certain political candidate.

Re: Suppression is a bigger scandal than the actual story

#406
post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to the FBI[0] and the DNI[1], there is no evidence indicating that Hunter Biden's laptop is misinformation. Given that some of the emails have been independently verified by their recipients who have made statements on the record[2], and Joe Biden's campaign still has not disputed the emails' authenticity, the vast majority of the evidence points towards this material being authentic. The media and big tech…

Your article [2] doesn't actually say anything about Bobulinski claiming laptop emails were authentic, though perhaps he did somewhere in the full statement. Even if the emails themselves are authentic, the New York Post article which revealed them (the article that was suppressed) is misinformation in that it mischaracterized them. Their alleged provenance is also probably not authentic.

Thanks for pointing that out, I've changed the link to a different article that has Bobulinski's full statement. He verifies the authenticity of the contentious email referring to a "10% cut for the big guy" in the first paragraph of the full statement.

What exactly did the New York Post mischaracterize? I read the article and my general impression was that it was a bit sensationalized, but that's rather typical when it comes to bombshell scoops. My understanding of the term misinformation is that it refers to presenting outright false information as fact, not the (unfortunately typical) narrative framing of factual information that happens in the news every day.

Regarding the provenance of the emails, the FBI subpoenaed the laptop over a year ago, and they've had the original in their possession since then. If their digital forensic experts haven't found evidence of foul play, I'd consider that a good indication that the laptop is indeed Hunter's and was found in the repair shop. Hunter's lawyer allegedly also contacted the repair shop on Oct 13, in an attempt to recover the laptop.

Re: Suppression is a bigger scandal than the actual story

#407

One has to be somewhat ignorant of the mission of the IMF or World Bank to think this is somehow new: " Poroshenko was telling Joe Biden that in order to get an American aid package, he’d gone beyond even what the I.M.F. asked for and raised energy prices for ordinary Ukrainians not by 75%, but by 100%, as well as taking steps to curtail subsidized medicine prices. " Where this is good or bad, this has been common si…

Everyone should read Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins. I first read it in highschool and it really shaped my thinking about the USAs role in international affairs. Some accuse the author of exaggerating certain things but nobody really denies the main facts that he lays out.

Re: Suppression is a bigger scandal than the actual story

#408
post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to the FBI[0] and the DNI[1], there is no evidence indicating that Hunter Biden's laptop is misinformation. Given that some of the emails have been independently verified by their recipients who have made statements on the record[2], and Joe Biden's campaign still has not disputed the emails' authenticity, the vast majority of the evidence points towards this material being authentic. The media and big tech…

I mean it's a false equivalency in the first place to put Hunter in some special bad place while the First Children reap the rewards of nepotism themselves. Misinformation doesn't need to be foreign, just good enough swill to distract some people from the important abuses of power.

Is anyone putting Hunter in some special bad place? We've had four years of virtually every newspaper in the country covering Trump's family, personal life, business dealings, taxes, etc. in exhaustive detail. I think everyone agrees that nepotism and misinformation are bad, so surely journalists should critically examine all allegations of misconduct, even when it affects their preferred candidate?

Re: Suppression is a bigger scandal than the actual story

#409

I fear Taibbi is right, the suppression by Twitter, irrespective of the merits and veracity of NY Post's report, will now normalize all kinds of behavior by platforms of all kinds big and small. Which will then incentivize governments to take on the platforms. This also raises issues of unequal treatment - say the NY Post report was factually wrong - why pick on the NY Post only? Why not the hundreds of other "news o…

Pretty sure twitter said they blocked it because the information came from a hack, not because they claimed any veracity for it being fake or not.

Can you point me to a claim from the Bidens or law enforcement that the information was hacked?

What are your thoughts on the Trump tax records which were criminally released to the NYT not being censored?

Re: Suppression is a bigger scandal than the actual story

#410
post #206
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> what they considered to be Russian disinformation and propaganda was it?

I don't know about Russian involvement, but it was clearly a right wing attempt to meddle in the election to achieve a last minute bomb on their opponent like in 2016.

Are you aware that the "grab her by the pussy" tape was a timed drop just before the 2016 election? Would you have preferred that be censored?
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