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Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

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Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#191
post #41

I guess that’s one way to strike back at Google.

I’m thinking that’s a big driver? Google must be pissed . But correct me if I’m wrong this has no impact on civil suits? So he’s still on the hook for any damages.

"Getting away with it" like this isn't something anyone else is likely to repeat so I doubt they're pissed.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whoa there, Roofus; have a Milk-Bone of information: "In 2017, users on the message-board site 4chan[40][41][42] aimed to convince the media and other people that the OK gesture was being used as a white power symbol. According to The Boston Globe, users on 4chan's /pol/ ("Politically Incorrect") board were instructed in February 2017 to "flood Twitter and other social media websites...claiming that the OK hand sign…

Yes, that is how a dog whistle works. Why are you taking the words of 4chan trolls at face value?

I have to give 4chan credits where it's due, the weakness of the human mind is fully exploited like what happens when nations use massive propaganda machines. A complete non-issue of people "accidently" making a hand gesture has turned into a full-blown conspiracy theory that validates itself by groups willfully coopting part of the ruse. Whats the use of knowing the hand gesture for white supremacy? we've always had gang signs and they were similarly irrelivant outside the groups that use them.

Really makes one think what I believe to be true that just aint so.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#193

So when we do get rid of presidential pardons? We've seen "an American president commutes the sentence of a person convicted by a jury of lying to shield that very president." ~Mitt Romney And we've seen pardons put up for sale.[0] Is the US a nation of laws and due process or a Banana Republic where anyone can be acquitted of anything? [0] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/17/us/politics/trump-pardons...

I'm not sure we should get rid of them because a corrupt sociopath misused the power. We should have gotten rid of the sociopath far sooner however.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#194
post #189
post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having researched the issue carefully [0] I would suggest there is an alternative symbolic interpretation. One that goes something like "our opponents believe anything they read on the internet". Even if it is used extensively as a political symbol, it doesn't represent white power. It represents a political sub-group disrespecting their opposition for being gullible. Insofar as it even could represent white power -…

So, you're saying it either means "white power" or "we're trolling people to think we mean 'white power'"? As for white power not being associated with anything heinous, yeah "Hail victory" also sounds good. Who doesn't want victory?

The whole thing was started as a deliberate meme by /pol/ to take an innocent, commonly used hand signal and make the left treat it as a white supremacist dogwhistle. So it can mean anything ranging from "ok" to "this will make the libs angry" to "I am an actual nazi among like minded friends". Which one it is must be discerned from context, meaning that the symbol itself is largely meaningless.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#195
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or you can use context instead of absolute judgment. When done under water in a scuba suit, it probably means ok. When done when posing with Steve Bannon it probably means white power sign.

"Paranoid dynamic of American politics."

Were you thinking of The Paranoid Style in American Politics[0]?

[0] https://harpers.org/archive/1964/11/the-paranoid-style-in-am...

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#196

I'm disappointed in Michael Ovitz, who I've thought well of before now. Why would he stoop to this? Lewandowski was clearly very much in the wrong. Justice was in no way miscarried by his conviction.

I don't know if you've read Mike Isaac's book on Uber? Michael Ovitz very famously screwed over Travis Kalanick when he invested in Travis' first startup.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#197
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "ok" hand sign isn't a white power sign just because some people have decided it to be. It's meant ok since as long as anyone can remember. I'm not willing to accept I can't say okay now because some liberal thinkers have decided that that's now become racist. People need to lighten up a bit and not make everything an affront.

In reality, these days -- along with most other so-called dog whistles it's quite effective in trolling reactionaries on the left. That's all. Everyone is in on the joke. If I'm Don Jr. or Charlie Kirk or whoever, my prerogative is to invoke liberal "tears" so yeah I'm gonna use all the dog whistle words like "thugs" and flash the OK symbol, because it scores them points with the right, multiplied by the amount of ou…

Sounds like a really healthy mindset.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#198
post #173

So when we do get rid of presidential pardons? We've seen "an American president commutes the sentence of a person convicted by a jury of lying to shield that very president." ~Mitt Romney And we've seen pardons put up for sale.[0] Is the US a nation of laws and due process or a Banana Republic where anyone can be acquitted of anything? [0] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/17/us/politics/trump-pardons...

Pardons by the executive branch are a weapon of peace. It exists to allow the chief executive, whether the President or a Governor of a State, to settle any matter in their jurisdiction. At the Presidential level, the power is absolute because the founders believed in the executive branch being centralized in a single individual, the President. Outside of Senate confirmation, there isn't much that limits the powers o…

Courts check presidential power all the time. A blatant abuse of the authority to pardon should be met with swift checks to limit that power.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#199
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A SCUBA diver here. Apparently we are all racist while submerged.

When you read "inflammable", you can often, from the context, determine whether it means flammable or not. Sometimes you can't. The same applies to the OK sign. Flashing it surrounded by notorious racists after the 4chan hoax leaves no doubt about the intended meaning. Also, given that's it's now been coopted by nazis, you may want to be careful when flashing it if you want to avoid embarrassing ambiguities, yes. It…

I’m not disagreeing with your larger point, but FYI “inflammable” always means “easily catches fire” and never anything else.
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