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Suppression is a bigger scandal than the actual story

taibbi.substack.com

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Re: Suppression is a bigger scandal than the actual story

#421

Post by flower-giraffe »

googthrowaway42 wrote: post #226
hackyhacky wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I respect Swartz a lot, and he makes many good points. But let's not pretend that Twitter and Facebook hold information monopolies with equivalent power to the government's ability to censor. As proof, consider that we are having this conversation right now, about an article that was published and is freely, legally available online to anyone with a web browser. You can disagree with Twitter's editorial choices, but…

The lines get blurry when there is a revolving door between Silicon Valley tech companies and DC. Recent example from the banning of Bret Weinstein from Facebook: https://twitter.com/Liz_Shepherd/status/1319451084859953154?... This is a Facebook communications person responding with an official reply to this incident. She describes herself as "Facebook comms, formerly @TheDemocrats and @SpeakerPelosi". This is an exa…

It’s not limited to DC - Former UK deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg @Facebook VP, Global Affairs

Re: Suppression is a bigger scandal than the actual story

#423

Post by himinlomax »

comex wrote: post #382
rayiner wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They're not suppressing the article because it's wrong, but because it's pretty obviously intentionally planted misinformation disguised as news. This would be a more credible assertion if the media hasn’t spent 3 years reporting totally random shit as “bombshells.” Taibbi, himself a left-leaning journalist (formerly at Rolling Stone) has catalogued these at length on his substack. https://taibbi.substack.com/p/the…

> Taibbi, himself a left-leaning journalist (formerly at Rolling Stone) Yes, he's the type of 'left-leaning' person who described a book about white privilege as "Hitlerian race theory" and wokeness as "mak[ing] the Junior Anti-Sex League seem like Led Zeppelin" [2], and also described not only what you (and he) call 'Russiagate', but the Ukraine incident as well, as a "permanent coup" [3] where Democrats' conduct wa…

"White fragility" appears to legitimately be a shit book, and not just one with a very shit title, according to a lot more self-described leftists than just Taibbi. This is a bizarre and unconvincing argument.

Also you clearly appear to be unfamiliar with Taibbi's writing style. That's how he wrote stories about the war crimes of the previous admins; remember those? Or is GWB now considered a leftist?

Re: Suppression is a bigger scandal than the actual story

#424

Post by lawwantsin17 »

pseudo0 wrote: post #408
tt433 wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

The post didn't vet the story at all. It's an op. Nothing more.

Re: Suppression is a bigger scandal than the actual story

#425

Post by chrisco255 »

barumi wrote: post #418
pseudo0 wrote: post #355

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…

> According to the FBI[0] and the DNI[1], there is no evidence indicating that Hunter Biden's laptop is misinformation. You're just saying that a misinformation campaign aiming at manipulating the US elections quite possibly according to the whims of a totalitarian regime that aims at undermining the US from the top might not have resorted to use totally false and made-up information.

It's Hunters laptop. Hunter is a crack head and he was dumb enough to drop a laptop off for repair and never come back to pick it up. There is a signed receipt by Hunter. The email dates match up with secret service flight records. Hunter peddles access to his father for millions of dollars. Joe got a piece of the action.

Re: Suppression is a bigger scandal than the actual story

#426

Post by chrisco255 »

jsu32 wrote: post #254
hackyhacky wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're not suppressing the article because it's wrong, but because it's pretty obviously intentionally planted misinformation disguised as news. Twitter has a choice: either they can suppress it; or they can be pawns of whatever bad actors are creating this disinformation. It's a hard choice, and clearly it's a struggle that as a society we have to deal with. Right now, creating and distributing disinformation is ea…

It was really fun to watch half (liberal) Twitter claiming this was disinformation (i.e. false information) and the other half - including Twitter itself - claiming it was hacking (i.e. absolutely true information, albeit one they shouldn't have their hands on). I feel most people don't care about the facts, they care about their opinions which is now part of their identity. This is not good at all.

This wasn't a hack. Hunter dropped his laptop off for repair and never picked it up.

Re: Suppression is a bigger scandal than the actual story

#427

Post by skinkestek »

j8hn wrote: post #401
skinkestek wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> In three of the videos with younger women, they all seemed to recoil from his "affection".

I pointed out it was clumsy ;-)

But I think the larger context is he knew he was on tape so he should know better than to willfully do something that would be taken as sexual harassment.

I honestly think he tried to come off as caring, just failed spectacularly.

Re: Suppression is a bigger scandal than the actual story

#428

Post by roenxi »

Synaesthesia wrote: post #415
hackyhacky wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I respect Swartz a lot, and he makes many good points. But let's not pretend that Twitter and Facebook hold information monopolies with equivalent power to the government's ability to censor. As proof, consider that we are having this conversation right now, about an article that was published and is freely, legally available online to anyone with a web browser. You can disagree with Twitter's editorial choices, but…

They're unaccountable and significant centers of power (unaccountable to the public), yes maybe not with the power of the government, but approaching it. Is that the kind of rule we want?

Yes, it is better for power to reside with people who are easily replaced and/or ignored if necessary. I'd rather have Twitter go off the rails than my local council.

However, it is still a scandal and worth bringing everyobody's attention to. I don't think we've ever seen such naked politicking by a tech company in the West. This is a concerning new low for Silicon Valley.

Re: Suppression is a bigger scandal than the actual story

#429

Post by skinkestek »

nradov wrote: post #377
skinkestek wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Election meddling in general isn't a crime. It's not something the government could charge the site owner for, unless they somehow violated campaign finance laws.

> It's not something the government could charge the site owner for,

I didn't mean the site owner did election meddling, rather than Facebook when thet selectively block sites like this.

Re: Suppression is a bigger scandal than the actual story

#430

Post by barumi »

chrisco255 wrote: post #425
barumi wrote: post #418

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. You're just saying that a misinformation campaign aiming at manipulating the US elections quite possibly according to the whims of a totalitarian regime that aims at undermining the US from the top might not have resorted to use totally false and made-up information.

It's Hunters laptop. Hunter is a crack head and he was dumb enough to drop a laptop off for repair and never come back to pick it up. There is a signed receipt by Hunter. The email dates match up with secret service flight records. Hunter peddles access to his father for millions of dollars. Joe got a piece of the action.

> It's Hunters laptop. Hunter is a crack head (...)

Ok you already made it quite clear that you don't care about the issue being discussed, and your focus is only on smearing by proxy an election candidate that you feel strongly against.

I have no dog in the race, as I am not an US citizen nor do I live in the US. However, it's very disheartening to see a country, which a couple of decades ago was seen as the shining beacon of democracy, see their democratic process dragged through the mud by people the likes of you, who are more interested in fabricating propaganda and conduct smear campaigns than actually help out their country rise above their internal problems.

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