That Thread about US current events

[E.A.B.]

If Hillary won in 2016 it would've remained peaceful just as it had when Trump won. But for 2020, no matter who won someone was gonna try something.

 

Democrats have been told by the most watched late night show hosts, by a large portion of major news networks, and by their entertainment establishment that Trump is literally Hitler and is actively trying to murder anyone who is non-white in this nation.

 

You think they weren't about to roll tanks into DC and try some assassination attempts if Trump won? Wouldn't you if literally Hitler irl won your presidential election? There were a few pieces about electoral fraud worries around October before those same newspapers called it the 'cleanest election ever' when Biden won.

 

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Eventually, we will reach a point where a Hitler or a Stalin type gains power. One that actually can implement their f*cked up agenda. It's only a matter of time.

 

Trust me, if there is ever a Hitler or Stalin in America's seat of power, he won't be opposed by practically every single establishment in the US. They'll be the type that bends and warps their office in such a way that it gains more power than it should have.

 

The closest person who did in recent memory was Barack "f*ck the legislature I'll just do everything via executive order" Obama. The only reason people either don't care or don't know is because most of the establishment was in love with Obama.

Edited January 9, 2021 by E.A.B.

[FanEu7]

18 minutes ago, Fake Lilina said:

Now im starting to wonder.

 

What if Hilary Clinton was president instead of Donald Trump?

 

I think it wouldn't change much.

 

America wouldn't be so divided if she was President

[D T]

47 minutes ago, E.A.B. said:

I'd also call the Trump twitter banning bullsh*t as well. They've wanted him off the platform for years now.

 

Hillary Clinton has done exactly the same thing for 4 years, parading around about an electoral steal by Russia with absolutely no repercussions. But suddenly Trump doing the same retardation is unique. Admittedly the difference was that no Democrat tried storming the Senate, but she still didn't receive any "this claim is disputed" banner underneath her tweets.

 

Hillary Clinton conceded the election the very next day. It's incredibly disingenuous to imply there's even a modicum of similarity between the two candidates. It's also objective reality, confirmed by multiple intelligence agencies around the world, that Russia had absolutely interfered in that election. Whether or not it affected the final results of the election is debatable, but pretending it didn't happen is high fantasy. Multiple indictments throughout Trump's administration took place because of that investigation. Whereas every single investigation into widespread voter fraud for this election hasn't uncovered a f*cking thing. It's been a meme perpetuated by our president that has now resulted in a riot on our country's capital and multiple causalities. I know it's difficult not to soy it up here watching your side get blown the f*ck out but anyone with an IQ above room temperature can see through this sh*t my dude.

  

1 hour ago, E.A.B. said:

She's also trying to get her friends at Twitter HQ to prevent retweets

 

https://www.bizpacreview.com/2021/01/07/aoc-spox-openly-asks-twitter-for-help-censoring-congresswomans-tweet-on-defund-police-riots-1013531/

Super cool ad-ridden link you got there though. I really appreciate that it cites a white supremacist like Jack Posobiec and pro-rape Mike Cernovich as reliable sources. It sounds like we can definitely trust them in their evaluation of whether or not protests to stop black kids from getting murdered is comparable to cultists storming the capital over a f*cking election fraud meme.

 

[FanEu7]

10 minutes ago, Laura91 said:

 

We are more than a mess. The U.S. is a f*cking joke.

 

None of this surprises me. When I was a teen in the early 90's, I knew that the future of this country was going to be f*cked. It was obvious to see for anyone that was paying attention. The Trump era was a long time coming. Eventually, we will reach a point where a Hitler or a Stalin type gains power. One that actually can implement their f*cked up agenda. It's only a matter of time.

Let's hope not. I think silencing conspiracy theorists and the violent right is a good step to prevent anything like Trump happening again. And for a Hitler/Stalin type of figure to take over way more would need to go wrong, Trump clearly is crazy and dangerous but he never had the support of very important people to do his sh*t (even Pence abandoned him at the end, doubt the military was ever with him etc.).

 

With Biden things should move towards the right direction although Trump supporters remain a problem

 

[Lonely-Martin]

2 hours ago, Raavi said:

Trump has been kicked off twitter.

 

 

 

Made me chuckle.

[ddarko12]

Don't compare attempts to destroy our democracy to protests against police brutality towards minorities. Really, don't even start. I'll be the first to say that the riots in the summer did disgust me. The actual protests didn't. And they had merit. Versus this piece of crap that lunatics are still claiming won when there has been ZERO evidence. He lost. Get over it. These two situations are not comparable.

[trip]

Yeah...I'm taking a break from everything.  Ate some food, poked around with some raspberry pi stuff, played a couple hours of Metro Exodus until I decided to put Police Academy 2 on.

 

Just a quick check in... and Trump is off twiter?!  I know its been discussed here but I just resurfaced.  Nutty.  And Parlor is down...and is being removed from Apple and Google?  Nutty

[Fake Lilina]

Just 12 more days until Trump is done...

 

Let's hope there won't be any worse things to happen prior to the 20th...

[Laura91]

55 minutes ago, E.A.B. said:

Trust me, if there is ever a Hitler or Stalin in America's seat of power, he won't be opposed by practically every single establishment in the US. They'll be the type that bends and warps their office in such a way that it gains more power than it should have.

 

The closest person who did in recent memory was Barack "f*ck the legislature I'll just do everything via executive order" Obama. The only reason people either don't care or don't know is because most of the establishment was in love with Obama.

 

That is f*cking laughable. I'm no Obama sycophant. Sure, I voted for him in '08. But, I wasn't one of these starry-eyed dorks who acted like he was the second coming of Christ. Yes, he did a lot of sh*t overseas that just continued what W was doing. But, to say that he was the closest that we came to fascism is simply absurd.

[kobeni]

 

I can see why dan houser said its hard to make a gta set in this timeline

[E.A.B.]

1 hour ago, D T said:

Hillary Clinton conceded the election the very next day. It's incredibly disingenuous to imply there's even a modicum of similarity between the two candidates.

 

 

If Trump spends the next 4 years talking about how he should have rightfully have been President and had the election stolen from him, its exactly the same thing.

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2019/05/06/hillary-clinton-warns-2020-democratic-candidates-stolen-election/1116477001/

 

"Hillary Clinton says she has been telling candidates seeking the 2020 Democratic nomination that even if they run a perfect campaign, the election could be "stolen" from them, implying that was what befell her in 2016."

 

https://joemiller.us/2020/10/hillary-clinton-the-2016-election-was-stolen-from-me/

 

“I was the candidate that they basically stole an election from,”

 

You're right, there's not a modicum of similarity there's universe of similarity.

 

1 hour ago, D T said:

It's also objective reality, confirmed by multiple intelligence agencies around the world, that Russia had absolutely interfered in that election.

 

 

lmao if you actually knew what that 'interference' consisted of you'd laugh.

 

https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/politics/presidential/facebook-russia-fake-posts-trump-election-clinton-20171006.html

 

The brunt of it was basically facebook groups with 3 followers with names like, "CHRISTIANS FOR TRUMP" and "TEXAS PATRIOTS" posting badly photoshopped images of Hillary next to Satan or Sadam Hussein. By that metric Americans themselves 'interfere' in their own elections. People posing as 'Berniebros' or 'Trump supporters' is so common it makes you wonder if the Russian state is inept if this is the worst they can do.

 

The worst Russia did was their attempts at hacking voter registrys and the DNC email hack. The real crux of the Muller investigation was whether the Trump campaign attempted to somehow coordinate or work in tandem with Russian state actors.

 

It's worth nothing that Russia also  tried to get Bernie Sanders elected.

 

"In that closed hearing for the House Intelligence Committee, lawmakers were also told that Sanders had been informed about Russia’s interference. The prospect of two rival campaigns both receiving help from Moscow appears to reflect what intelligence officials have previously described as Russia’s broader interest in sowing division in the United States and uncertainty about the validity of American elections."

 

Russia also tried to sow racial division by posing as BLM recently

 

"Russia’s lead intelligence agency, the S.V.R., has apparently gone beyond 2016 methods of interference, when operatives tried to stoke racial animosity by creating fake Black Lives Matter groups and spreading disinformation to depress black voter turnout. Now, Russia is also trying to influence white supremacist groups, the officials said; they gave few details, but one official said federal investigators are examining how at least one neo-Nazi organization with ties to Russia is funded."

 

Russia's goal is to sow discord in American elections. It worked stupendously. Cause Hillary can't take an L.

 

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Multiple indictments throughout Trump's administration took place because of that investigation. Whereas every single investigation into widespread voter fraud for this election hasn't uncovered a f*cking thing.

 

You should look through them.

 

A lot of the indictments have to do with tax fraud, lying under oath, using political contributions to enrich themselves, tax evasion, and a wealth of other 'typical politician' crimes. Manafort went to jail over falsifying business documents. Rick Gates concealed millions he received from Ukraine in business deals with Manafort. Flynn was jailed because he lied about his conversations with a Russian ambassador about policy. Cohen lied about campaign contributions and hush money payments to prostitutes. Kurson was arrested due to cyberstalking.

 

So basically the same sh*t hillary and her team could've been indicted on if they were also investigated

 

Probably Joe Biden too if his dealings with his son are exposed.

 

I agree that the whole investigation into the current election isn't turning up sh*t. But I never said that was even a worthwhile thing to look into.

 

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It's been a meme perpetuated by our president that has now resulted in a riot on our country's capital and multiple causalities. I know it's difficult not to soy it up here watching your side get blown the f*ck out but anyone with an IQ above room temperature can see through this sh*t my dude.

 

 

10000% agree with the first sentence; 'lol' at the second sentence. If you're gonna meme and act like a child have a conversation with someone else. Cause I'm not the type that is about 'sides'. I'm a Republican, I'm a conservative, and I have my biases. But I'm not one of those "f*ck YEAH OWNING THE LIBS" types in anything other than just a memeing context. It's not 'difficult' to 'watch my side [get] blown the f*ck out' cause I really don't care. I'm really not that vested in 4 year cycles of political parties.

 

You shouldn't be either.

 

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Super cool ad-ridden link you got there though.

 

Irrelevant; calm down. Get ad block; its free.

 

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I really appreciate that it cites a white supremacist like Jack Posobiec and pro-rape Mike Cernovich as reliable sources

 

irrelevant; I'll link the actual tweet itself since you're grasping to attack the point of including that in my post without actually addressing it:

 

 

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It sounds like we can definitely trust them in their evaluation of whether or not protests to stop black kids from getting murdered is comparable to cultists storming the capital over a f*cking election fraud meme.

 

again; the point of the link is to provide evidence of AOC's staff attempting to censor something that shows them as hypocrites.

 

You have failed to actually address this hypocrisy and instead seemingly threw a fit.

 

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Don't compare attempts to destroy our democracy to protests against police brutality towards minorities. Really, don't even start. I'll be the first to say that the riots in the summer did disgust me. The actual protests didn't. And they had merit. Versus this piece of crap that lunatics are still claiming won when there has been ZERO evidence. He lost. Get over it. These two situations are not comparable.

These situations compare.

 

I won't get into whether or not BLM's entire movement has any legitimacy, because that's a separate conversation. I think they're full of it, and I can argue all day as to why. The point is that they are a protest movement fighting what they believe is an injustice.

 

The Trumptards in Washington are doing the same. The difference is you agree with one and not the other, so your argument is "they arent comparable".

 

Objectively they are, and objectively they have both burned this f*cker down. Only difference is there's hypocrisy when one does it and not the other. My complaint was the bias in coverage and the excuses made for one by people condeming the other.

 

it stands

Edited January 9, 2021 by E.A.B.

[Craigsters]

 

 

 

 

[E.A.B.]

1 hour ago, Laura91 said:

 

That is f*cking laughable. I'm no Obama sycophant. Sure, I voted for him in '08. But, I wasn't one of these starry-eyed dorks who acted like he was the second coming of Christ. Yes, he did a lot of sh*t overseas that just continued what W was doing. But, to say that he was the closest that we came to fascism is simply absurd.

 

I said the 'closest'.

 

Which means the closest we ever did, even if it was the distance of Earth and the Moon. In other words, Obama wasn't a fascist, but he's the closest in terms of proper control of all levers of power, including those that are supposed to objectively report on him.

 

The media treatment of Obama reminded me of that time Mr Burns ran for political office, and had a staged event where he fed Lisa a question:

 

""Mr. Burns your campaign seems to have the momentum of a run away freight train. Why are you so popular?"

 

Obama was pampered. And I'm not knocking it: I understand why. he has a nice smile. Hes a shrewd political strategist. He goes on outlets favorable towards him while Trump walks into MSNBC interviews like an idiot. I understand why Obama was popular. But if we're talking control of the message and partaking in questionable actions that diminish the office and diminish the seperation of powers it was definitely him. In modern memory, at least.

 

The person that will change American democracy wont walk in with a military uniform in a coup, he'll be a beloved political strategist that changes the nature of the office with no one noticing and no one criticizing him. Your idea of a fascist is very 20th century. Not even Putin acts like that. He uses his office and changes the nature of his political powers without having to draw a gun or trample a person.

Edited January 9, 2021 by E.A.B.

[Craigsters]

 

https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2021/01/video-clearly-shows-rep-mike-nearman-helping-right-wing-demonstrators-breach-oregon-capitol.html

[Laura91]

1 hour ago, E.A.B. said:

 

I said the 'closest'.

 

Which means the closest we ever did, even if it was the distance of Earth and the Moon. In other words, Obama wasn't a fascist, but he's the closest in terms of proper control of all levers of power, including those that are supposed to objectively report on him.

 

The media treatment of Obama reminded me of that time Mr Burns ran for political office, and had a staged event where he fed Lisa a question:

 

""Mr. Burns your campaign seems to have the momentum of a run away freight train. Why are you so popular?"

 

Obama was pampered. And I'm not knocking it: I understand why. he has a nice smile. Hes a shrewd political strategist. He goes on outlets favorable towards him while Trump walks into MSNBC interviews like an idiot. I understand why Obama was popular. But if we're talking control of the message and partaking in questionable actions that diminish the office and diminish the seperation of powers it was definitely him. In modern memory, at least.

 

The person that will change American democracy wont walk in with a military uniform in a coup, he'll be a beloved political strategist that changes the nature of the office with no one noticing and no one criticizing him. Your idea of a fascist is very 20th century. Not even Putin acts like that. He uses his office and changes the nature of his political powers without having to draw a gun or trample a person.

 

You are a f*cking moron.

 

Trump comes in and calls the press "the enemy of the people." He also said that being "president for life" wasn't a bad idea and "maybe we should give that a try some day."

 

And, that is just two examples of the sh*t that he spewed. What the hell do you think would've happened if he got that second term?

 

Go f*ck yourself.

[ddarko12]

1 hour ago, E.A.B. said:

I won't get into whether or not BLM's entire movement has any legitimacy

When people who look like me can get treated worse/killed because of the color of their skin, I think a movement against it has legitimacy.

 

When people choose to ignore the facts of an election that has been analyzed and verified to no end, I don't think their "movement" has any legitimacy.

 

The hypocrisy is on the right. They're the ones who whine about BLM "all lives matter" forgetting the fact that the point is all lives DO matter so people need to act like black lives matter. When that bullsh*t went down in the summer, people just pulled the "BLM is terrorism" card forgetting all of the actual peaceful protests and the point of the sh*t to begin with. But then here comes January 6 and they pull this crap. I'm sorry, the intolerant left? More like the intolerant right.

 

Oh god, I am sick to death of the gaslighting about how black people are treated in this country. I'm particularly moderate in my political views but this is one issue that I cannot sugarcoat and quite frankly I'm tired of people who ain't black who think they have a damn say about it. You don't.

Edited January 9, 2021 by ddarko12

[Craigsters]

 

Jonathan Swan: The Cabinet Is Acting As If Trump ‘Is Not The President’ | Deadline | MSNBC

[E.A.B.]

2 hours ago, Laura91 said:

 

You are a f*cking moron.

 

Trump comes in and calls the press "the enemy of the people."

 

at least he didnt spy on them and put them on criminal lists

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2018/06/08/seizing-journalists-records-an-outrage-that-obama-normalized-for-trump/

 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fox-news-reporter-secretly-monitored-by-obama-administration-court-documents/

 

I don't blame you for being ignorant on this. I really don't. Our media does a sh*t job at actually being impartial. It's not your fault.

 

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Go f*ck yourself.

u mad? Seriously though calm down.

 

No one should ever take politics that serious where they actually get mad. Honestly its effin pathetic. I hate seeing that.

 

It leads to people actually fighting and arguing and getting all enflamed over differing political views. Thats the problem with this nation.

 

Treat it like sports instead its not that serious. I majored in this topic and spent a looot of time on it so take it from me: it's really not that serious. 

 

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When people who look like me can get treated worse/killed because of the color of their skin, I think a movement against it has legitimacy.

 

 

https://www.statista.com/statistics/585152/people-shot-to-death-by-us-police-by-race/

 

 

So there are the number of people shot to death by the police segregated by race. In total numbers, whites make up the most victims. Blacks come in second at a high of 235 for 2019.  The washington post has a good infographic on this

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/national/police-shootings-2019/

 

The WaPo infographic lets you segregate the data further, and if you preem it it turns out that 8 unarmed black men were killed by police in 2019. Its incomplete though.

 

Even if we disregard that, Blacks make up a smaller portion of the US populace. Under 13%. So if we just take the above chart at face value, that's still a lot of Blacks shot at and killed compared to their numbers. They're shot at a higher rate.

 

And that's where we differ on reasoning. BLM's take is conspiratorial racism. Either precincts are manned by racists, or purposefully staffed by racists, or just America as a whole has this racist view on Blacks.  Either way, there is something that hates on Black men and leads to them being disproportionately killed by cops.

 

My take is that-and the numbers bear some of this out-Blacks commit a disproportionate amount of crime in the US. The FBI publishes data on this yearly. If you commit a disproportionate amount of crime you will run into encounters with police disproportionately. Especially if the crime is violent.

 

https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019/topic-pages/tables/table-43

 

Even if you're law-abiding, the median Black income is lower than any other racial group in the US, and as such their communities tend to be in poorer areas with higher crime rates. Of the most dangerous US cities, the most dangerous neighborhoods are overwhelmingly Black. As such, just in pure numbers, Blacks are more likely to run into encounters with police officers in areas where cops would face the most danger. So even if you're law abiding you're just more likely to run into cops as a Black person.

 

And before anyone gets upset at me I'm not claiming that Blacks are somehow inherently violent; I'm giving you numbers and reasons that may explain their disproportionate fatal encounters with cops. It's much more reasonable to look at the numbers and draw inferences than conspiratorial ideas that white people just despise Blacks en masse. Especially when they don uniforms.

 

The sad part is that I can get behind the idea that police brutality is an issue, but BLM makes it a racial issue. It definitely doesn't help that in some of their protests it turns out that it wasn't even an innocent person being killed. But I guess not being able to shoot at cops is wypipo keeping a brutha down.

 

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When people choose to ignore the facts of an election that has been analyzed and verified to no end, I don't think their "movement" has any legitimacy.

 

I think both movements are protesting for perceived wrongs done to the group. And I think they're both based on falsehoods. In that case, they're both illegitimate in my eyes. But objectively anyone can protest any perceived wrong and, as such, they are both just as legitimate as the last. It's people protesting sh*t. That's nothing new in America. You're just partial to one more than the other. I'm partial to neither but I don't see either one as 'less'.

 

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The hypocrisy is on the right. They're the ones who whine about BLM "all lives matter" forgetting the fact that the point is all lives DO matter so people need to act like black lives matter.

 

wat.

 

I never thought that 'All Lives Matter' was a good slogan since the idea behind 'BLM' is that some lives are treated as if they matter less, but I still stand by the critique of BLM. That's neither here 'nor there, though.

 

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When that bullsh*t went down in the summer, people just pulled the "BLM is terrorism" card forgetting all of the actual peaceful protests and the point of the sh*t to begin with.

 

Well, that's irrelevant here since I don't think they're a terrorist group. Just idiots. Useful idiots, mind you.

 

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Oh god, I am sick to death of the gaslighting about how black people are treated in this country. I'm particularly moderate in my political views but this is one issue that I cannot sugarcoat and quite frankly I'm tired of people who ain't black who think they have a damn say about it. You don't.

 

That's a very convenient way of getting out of having to argue anything by simply applying a racial requirement to debating. Real convenient for you.

 

Oh, sorry, you're not white. You can't argue taxation with me. too bad.

 

'you just dont get it' isn't a good argument here. If your point has any validity it should be able to stand on its own. Not have some sort of racial requirement. The only people accepting of that racial requirement are either too scared to actually argue with you, or suffer from some complex that leads to racial guilt which just blindly accepts what you just said. No one should rationally accept it. Just explain your position to me reasonably.

Edited January 9, 2021 by E.A.B.

[Eutyphro]

17 hours ago, Mister Pink said:

 

Going to be accused of being some right-wing fascist for agreeing with this very fact but it's irresponsible comments like these (AOC's), which the phrase "the left eats itself" is very applicable. 

 

 

It's shocking.. reposting part of the tweets for context again.

 

If you are going to advocate for violent protests then be prepared to advocate for people's right to be violent on things you don't support. Either you support violence or you don't. I thought we live in a civilized society where protest should and could be peaceful. AOC advocating or being apologetic to violent protest in only comes back to bite her in the ass. I think it's irresponsible for people in office to be advocating for violence. You can't say it's OK only when you want it. It's everyone or nothing. Personally speaking, I choose non-violence. I'm against it by principle. But if you gave AOC her own logic back to her and said these Capitol building rioters were just doing as she said "protesting to make people uncomfortable" I bet she couldn't defend it. Because she's not saying it on principle. She's saying with her team in mind. 

 

I think it's people doing things like harassing politicians at restaurants, or the people that vandalized Mitch McConnell's home, that were setting precedents for what happened at the Capitol, which was like a parody of a coup, both frightening and hilarious.

I think Trump being banned from Twitter had become inevitable after what happened. I have always been an opponent of banning Trump, but social media platforms should not let themselves be used for very pernicious and damaging misinformation campaigns that lead to large upheaval. Those who support some type of 'absolute free speech' on social media should consider the fact that social media have been weaponized in ultra violent and genocidal events like what was done to the Rohingya. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-46105934

Social media is like a massive human experiment that is hard to control. But bad faith actors should be equally punished on all sides. In my view Twitter should not exist at all and I consider a majority of what happens on Twitter politically to be in bad faith, to be some kind of trolling, or posturing. Twitter in my view is a cancer that should be rooted out in its entirety.

Edited January 9, 2021 by Eutyphro

[Tchuck]

Lol at the absolute dumbass saying Obama was the closest America got to fascism. Absolutely lol. Imagine thinking that unironically. Must have been living under a rock for the past 4 years.

[sivispacem]

7 hours ago, E.A.B. said:

In other words, Obama wasn't a fascist, but he's the closest in terms of proper control of all levers of power, including those that are supposed to objectively report on him.

I'm sorry but if you honestly, genuinely believe this, then I can only conclude that you have either zero factual appreciation for American political history, or no real understanding of the definition of Fascism.

 

Put simply, there is not a single aspect of the Obama administration which even conceptually skirts fascist ideology. It was not ultranationalist, it did not seek to striate society on the basis of ideology or other determining factors, it was not characterised by suppression of individual liberty or authoritarianism. In fact most relative measures of freedom show the US either remaining static or improving broadly across a number of indices and metrics between 2008 and 2016, only for that to be reversed enormously under the Trump administration, which has done far more to suppress individual liberties than any administration since the end of the Cold War.

 

Nor was the Obama administration "more" fascist than preceding ones. You could quite literally pick any presidency after 1945 and before 1990 and it would be closer to fascism. You seem to have forgotten the decades of Red Scare bullsh*t which were used to sanction far reaching state oppression, the use of federal law enforcement and intelligence services to harass, denigrate and in some instances murder political opponents, sweeping attacks on press freedom and use of the education system to instill politically motivated false narratives about American ideological and cultural supremacy.

 

Even Kennedy, the darling of American Liberals, was far closer to a fascist than Obama.

 

 

 

Also, whilst we're on the subject of questionable assertions, drawing any kind of analogy between the events that took place on the 6th and Trump's role in inciting them, and the BLM protests and comments made by ideological supporters of the movement is absolutely absurd. In one instance you have a primarily peaceful movement (93% of the circa 2,500 BLM protests saw zero recorded instances of violence) addressing legitimate societal grievances, and on the other you have an army of far right, neo-Nazi and white supremacist goons equipped with firearms and IEDs who attempted to overthrow a legitimately elected political administration, kidnap and kill government employees they saw as traitors, and who in about three hours of violence in one location resulted in more fatalities and more dead law enforcement officers than have been attributed to the actions of BLM and their supporters in over 2,400 protests across 5 months.

 

Quite aside from the obvious differences between the events themselves, the comments and actions made by Trump and the likes of AOC could not be more unalike. AOC's expression of support for the ends of direct action is not an incitement to violence. She hasn't committed seditious conspiracy by claiming herself the rightful leader of the US and actively encouraged her followers to perform actions specifically designed to undermine the elected leadership and the US Constitution. AOC did not use her powers to prevent the involvement of the National Guard  or federal law enforcement until after an attempted insurrection had failed. 

 

 

The politest way I can describe the suggestion that some fairly wishy washy comments of the ends of direct action are akin or comparable to inciting and enabling an armed insurrection is "ridiculous".

 

 

That's before we get onto the claims about race and crime which are construed in such a way as to ignore the core issues. Multiple academic studies have demonstrated that US law enforcement disproportionately targets ethnic minorities in their actions, with analysis suggesting that as many as 40% of police interactions with black Americans would not occur if the individual was white. Comparing outright numbers of police shooting victims ignores that demographics of the US, and comparing crime rates to shooting rates commits the double fallacy of ignoring the fact that commission of crime is not in itself a justification for shooting (only the specific circumstances of the incident are), and that the reasons for higher crime rates amongst ethnic minorities are chiefly a result of economic, political and social suppression. 

[Craigsters]

 

Feds say police found a pickup truck full of bombs and guns near Capitol insurrection as wide-ranging investigation unfurls

[Mister Pink]

3 hours ago, Eutyphro said:

think it's people doing things like harassing politicians at restaurants, or the people that vandalized Mitch McConnell's home, the were setting precedents for what happened at the Capitol, which was like a parody of a coup, both frightening and hilarious.

I think Trump being banned from Twitter had become inevitable after what happened. I have always been an opponent of banning Trump, but social media platforms should not let themselves be used for very pernicious and damaging misinformation campaigns that lead to large upheaval. Those who support some type of 'absolute free speech' on social media should consider the fact that social media have been weaponized in ultra violent and genocidal events like what was done to the Rohingya. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-46105934

Social media is like a massive human experiment that is hard to control. But bad faith actors should be equally punished on all sides. In my view Twitter should not exist at all and I consider a majority of what happens on Twitter politically to be in bad faith, to be some kind of trolling, or posturing. Twitter in my view is a cancer that should be rooted out in its entirety.

Absolutely. It almost makes me wonder if there's such a thing as too much freedom in the context of freely voicing opinion on such a platform? I don't mean I'm advocating for censorship. If asked, I'll lean towards freedom and non censorship but.. in the state that Twitter is in and as you said, how it's been weaponized, it's almost a romantic notion to think of times when someone was an influencer back in the day (before Twitter/internet)  - they had to really fight to get on TV or do something special to make earn an appearance on TV and have such a large reach of the ears of 1000's or 100's of thousands. Now, anyone and everyone and as you said, bad-faith actors have a voice on Twitter or Facebook. There's no filter.  I try stay away from it, except for some business interests I may have. 

 

It's not easy, all right. I don't know the solution. I also don't know how much we are benefiting from Twitter versus the damage it could be potentially or all ready is doing. 

[sivispacem]

The issue with platforms like Twitter now is that we can't really put the genie back in the bottle. We've already seen a wholesale move to other platforms from those on the far right as their ability to use the larger social media platforms as a mouthpiece for their hate has been eroded. That's a bad thing for everyone because it creates fragmented echo chambers away from the direct oversight of the likes of LE. In some ways it's better to keep them around spewing their hate publicly on platforms that are in cahoots with LE and the IC and where mechanisms exist to identify and disrupt genuinely malicious plots. But on the flip side, that's pretty much exactly how we ended up where we are now.

[Halal Cyborg]

Personally if i see opinions on here that are different to my own I don’t assume the reason that person hasn’t come to the exact same conclusion as me is because they don’t know enough about the current subject being discussed  

 

Maybe it’s because I’m not an egotistical know it all that only accepts people being in exact aggreement with me.

 

So yes that does apply to the situation with BLM and Trump supporters...tbh They have fed off each other and you wouldn’t have one without the other.

 

They do have one thing in common though...BLM have done nothing to truly help the black community and have received sh*tloads of money...Trump has done nothing to help poor uneducated rednecks despite receiving sh*tloads of donations to “fight” the “rigged” election.

 

Yes I feel this way and its my opinion that I have come to...it doesn’t mean I need to do more research.

[Craigsters]

Right-wing social media app Parler has been removed from the Google Play store

[Halal Cyborg]

1 minute ago, Craigsters said:

Right-wing social media app Parler has been removed from the Google Play store

I don’t know much about that App but is it really just a Nazi hideout?

 

If it is merely alt-right like Ben Shapiro etc but they’ve banned it because of Trump that’s really not the place of an App Store to decide.
 

Also Hitler was a socialist.

[sivispacem]

28 minutes ago, Halal Cyborg said:

Personally if i see opinions on here that are different to my own I don’t assume the reason that person hasn’t come to the exact same conclusion as me is because they don’t know enough about the current subject being discussed

I would posit that this is because you have enough of a degree of awareness about your own knowledge or lack thereof, and therefore don't overestimate your own competence to the point at which you think you know more than others.  By your own subsequent admission the conclusion you reached was based on no real evidence so it's not really reasonable to argue the toss about it being "differences of opinion" and makes my initial read that your supposition that "something was off" about the set of events being primarily a product of ignorance accurate. That difference most likely wouldn't exist were we privy to the same information when the initial statements were made. 

 

28 minutes ago, Halal Cyborg said:

Maybe it’s because I’m not an egotistical know it all that only accepts people being in exact aggreement with me.

There's a difference between accepting informed and well-articulated opinions that contrast with your own and accepting any old speculative tripe someone magics out of thin air.

That you can't see the difference, and apparently believe that there's parity of value in our views despite admitting yours are not informed, is quite telling.

 

28 minutes ago, Halal Cyborg said:

So yes that does apply to the situation with BLM and Trump supporters...you wouldn’t have one without the other.

BLM has existed since July 2013; that's three-and-a-half years before Trump's administration started. 

 

28 minutes ago, Halal Cyborg said:

BLM have done nothing to truly help the black community

On what are you basing that assertion?

 

5 minutes ago, Halal Cyborg said:

Also Hitler was a socialist.

No he wasn't. National Socialism is not socialism. In fact, German economic policy under the NSDAP was the literal inverse of socialism inasmuch as it privatised public industry, removed all workers rights, and handed the reigns of industrial power to the leadership of a relatively small number of extremely large companies, most of whom were headed by senior members of the party.

[Halal Cyborg]

Sorry to go off topic for a sec.

 

Naz1 party member Gregor Strasser said the below in 1926...did they stop being socialists after Krystalnacht?

 

 

[spoiler]we are Socialists, enemies, mortal enemies of the present capitalist economic system with its exploitation of the economically weak, with its injustice in wages, with its immoral evaluation of individuals according to wealth and money instead of responsibility and achievement, and we are determined under all circumstances to abolish this system![/spoiler]
 

 

[sivispacem]

23 minutes ago, Halal Cyborg said:

Sorry to go off topic for a sec.

 

Naz1 party member Gregor Strasser said the below in 1926...did they stop being socialists after Krystalnacht?

They were never actually socialist in the first place. They used the pretext of socialism and wealth redistribution as a means to drum up popular support but had no ideological commitment to it. This is born out by their explicit opposition to actual socialist economic policy in Bavaria in 1921.