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The Big [Censored] Theory

pudding.cool

571–580 of 891 posts

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#571

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taken to it's logical extreme though, such a service could easily render copyright effectively useless. Break the movie into 10 second clips, "rent out" each of those clips during the 10 seconds they're being viewed and automatically return them after. There, you can now "legally" stream 720 concurrent copies of a 2 hour movie at once in perpetuity for near zero marginal cost. The only reason rentals worked was becau…

So put a minimum rental time on things. Banning online rental is a bad solution.

No-one's saying that online rental should be banned.

Instead, the solution that the USA's current legal system is going with is "You _can_ run an online rental service, as long as you have the copyright owner's permission (e.g., you have a contract with them in which you give them money and they give you their permission)"

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#572
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is right. If people vote for censorship in a democracy, that's a perfectly fine form of governmental heterogeneity. What's happening in China is not that.

I completely disagree. An individual's rights should have nothing to do with the people who happen to surround them and what they happen to think. If different countries allow different things, that would mean that what a person is allowed to do would depend on where they happen to live, which is usually close to where they happened to be born. That doesn't make any sense to me- the lottery of birth should have no im…

Possibly true, but can we at least agree that a democratic majority deciding to censor something is significantly better than a dictatorship deciding to censor something?

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#573

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the downvotes you're attracting give some indication for the HN crowd.

Not a single one of those stories was suppressed by the government in the U.S., which is what the article details happening in China. In fact many government officials supported and promoted those stories. Disagreement among private parties, or getting less private promotion than you wanted to get, is not “censorship”. It’s free speech in action.

The Hunter Biden laptop story wasn't suppressed by the US government? Zuckerberg was on Rogan recently explaining that the FBI told him the story was Russian disinformation and Facebook took that to mean they should suppress the story and they did. Presumably something similar happened to Twitter and possibly other platforms. If memory serves former intelligence officials do go to mainstream media and say the story was fake. In what sense is this not government suppression?

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#574
post #518

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

[flagged]

First off, opening a comment with "Hello Troll" has to be the most childish and reddit-like way of opening an HN comment I have ever seen. If you think GP is a troll, you can simply not reply, indeed you are practically obligated by the guidelines not to. Once you reply, you are obligated to at least pretend you take the claims that you reply to seriously.

Secondly, why are you responding to "Those topics are censored" claim with "Here are all the correct answers to those topics that my media tells me to believe"? GP didn't say whether they think there is a correct answer to a topic and what, if any, may that answer be, GP has simply observed that those topics are heavily and nakedly suppressed in legacy media and social media, often with hilarious results (e.g. Instagram banning Cochrane, a medical database of the highest quality, simply for mentioning Ivermectin).

Contradicting GP here would consist of bringing up evidence that those topics were, on the contrary to GP's claim, discussed fairly and found wanting. Talking about correct answers are irrelevant, we're talking about whether all questions and answers are allowed for discussion. Because Americans are often shocked that China hates things they consider elementary and bans them, GP is simply saying their own society frequently and obviously engages in this as well, often with cheering from those self same people.

Third, some of your points about masks are self-contradicting. If the CDC lied about masks once, why wouldn't they lie twice or third or tenth? You would be a fool if you trust a liar after the 1st time, and medical institutions have proven to be thoroughly partisan and rotten and corrupt during the entire crisis, anybody taking a covid-related claim from a medical institution at face value is a prime target for bridge selling.

Another point is that masks come in types, and only very few types protect adequately against the latest covid variants, and the vast majority of people don't buy those types (N95 or KN95) or don't wear them correctly. So masks, as worn in practice, are indeed very close to useless, as evidenced from the fact that they're not predictive of viral spread (i.e the fact that a country's population wears masks has no better than random chance correlation with whether it has lower infections, i.e masks are statistically useless).

This why your correct answers are wrong, at least in part, some of the time. This is why you need to be constantly questioning them, and not rushing to defend the censorship loving institutions and corporations who have no particular interest in you or your well being, and all the interest in Power and Money and Status.

Fourth, why the hell are you bringing up more evidence for censorship as evidence against GP? You're supporting them, not contradicting them. GP never claimed the censorship is done by only 1 party, only that is done. You're arguing for GP's claim while thinking you're arguing against.

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#575
post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any culture in the world without significant taboos or social rules around sex? I can totally see why that’d be the default, simply because sex is such a charged act in any culture. Purely biologically: it’s a very vulnerable act and has tons of “political/social implications” in a social species. Who you have sex with and be that vulnerable with signals your “allegiance” in a sense. Even chimps have taboos…

Chimps, as far as I'm aware, don't talk about sex. I suppose my naive view is that the more society is prepared to talk about their behaviours, the less likely it is we'll indulge in the worse aspects of such behaviour. Hence taboos over discussing particular subjects have become ingrained despite being most likely counterproductive, at least for society at large, even if they serve the interests of some.

I was primarily responding to your suggestion that strict social rules around sex were an intrinsically Christian take (or religious in nature).

Beyond that though, Chimps have social hierarchies around sex. It’s hard to imagine why something you believe to be so counterproductive would exist so persistently across cultures and times unless it had serious value.

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#577

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the downvotes you're attracting give some indication for the HN crowd.

Not a single one of those stories was suppressed by the government in the U.S., which is what the article details happening in China. In fact many government officials supported and promoted those stories. Disagreement among private parties, or getting less private promotion than you wanted to get, is not “censorship”. It’s free speech in action.

These are just a handful off the top of my head…

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BN3PIGLDscQ

https://twitter.com/alexberenson/status/1558060844549902338

https://childrenshealthdefense.org/wp-content/uploads/FACEBO...

https://nypost.com/2021/07/16/government-dictating-what-soci...

I can keep going, but most of those people who are impacted you don’t hear from due to censorship.

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#578
post #58

We have this kind of censorship in India as well, even the in weirdly innocous places. In James Bond movies, and I think Gone Girl as well, scenes were by zooming into character's faces or just straight cuts. This is probably the only reason I maintain a US iTunes accounts (used to have to buy gift cards from sketchy sites online to keep this going, but I recently discovered that my Indian Amex card works fine with a…

Given the racist protrayal of Indian American Raj Kuthrapalli, I am of the opinion Indians are magnanimous in allowing this show to be aired there.

People here are a lot more thick skinned than you lot.

We found Raj hilarious, and I don't know of anyone finding his portrayal "racist."

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#579

Is aversion to discussion of sex a part of traditional Chinese culture? Seems odd given I'm not aware of any puritanical religions taking hold there.

Not really, but then again traditional Chinese culture isn't really that alive in China either. Communism in the Eastern bloc imported plenty of Western attitudes, including puritanism albeit under a secular/atheist branding. Also Christianity itself directly has a fairly significant history in the country. The Taiping rebellion was started by a Christian cult after all, and the Protestant House Church movement nowad…

I don't see this as a China cultural thing, but as an authoritarian thing primarily.

You see the same thing in Russian society. Stalin reinstituted anti-sodomy laws. Look at how LGBT are treated under Putin. Authoritarian governments seem to like oppressing cultural misfits.

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#580

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Again my point was most people don’t. It wasn’t a troll; it was a comment about censorship. How certain topics are also censored on HN and elsewhere. That people whom we otherwise would expect curiosity are instead pro-suppressing discussion ie censoring. The fact you responded with “hello troll” is a perfect example. 1. The “election fortification” comment is in regards to https://time.com/5936036/secret-2020-electi…

The thing is, people and corporations saying they don’t really want to hear or spread bull shit isn’t censorship. It’s basic social contract/etiquette and a right. I have the right to hit “block user” - does this mean I’m censoring someone? If not, where is the distinction drawn? If yes, well, that’s a hell of a slippery slope…

Corporations are not people outside of idiotic law speak. They should have no rights to freedom of association once they reach a certain (law-defined) size.

Banana699 has the right to block you or otherwise tell you to fuck off from their private property, the 10 million viewers Banana699^TM Inc Ltd does not. Media corporations picking and choosing the type of the story to serve is a very plausible reason for the intense polarization and Rage-As-A-Service ecosystem we are in.

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