I’ve once again sent complaints up the Google/YouTube flagpole. Perhaps Racket readers are tired of digital censorship tales. If so, I understand, I do.
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Hell no we aren't tired of them! This sort of censorship/debanking is the #1 threat to our way of life -- we should ALL be screaming about it every chance we get, because we KNOW that it won't just stop at the 'bad' people. (This article is proof!!!)
So true. I'm convinced that I was banned for posting our official covid data to Jay Inslee's twitter page, because the official data has ALWAYS undermined the official narrative.
I once got kicked off Twitter because I opened an account simply to go after the "first lesbian Seattle Mayor." That account was strategic, and only online for 5 days. My quickest exit. Haha!
I agree: a blessing. It’s easy for me to say of course since I am a social media virgin. Twelve years ago some kid tried to sell me on Facebook. My instincts, groomed by McCarthy, Mario Savio and the Seymour Hersch, prompted me to ask the kid: If Facebook had been designed by the NSA, how would it be different?
Alternatives must be found, created. We’re trying to build a world safe for freedom of thought and speech, but we’re playing on their field, and by their rules. I’m afraid this is going to be a ground up undertaking. We have to make sure we don’t get ground up undertaking it.
If Facebook had been designed by the NSA, how would it be different?
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Great question!! I often say that the smartphone might not have been designed as a spying device, but if I was going to make a spying device it would look an awful lot like a smartphone.
Phone technology peaked with the answering machine. If I'm out doing stuff, I'm out doing stuff and don't want to be on the phone anyway. I'll call you back when I'm done being busy!
I had some of my first political experiences on Sproul Plaza. Berkeley was very special in the 60’s. And Robert Scheer referenced Savio on one of his recent podcasts. And, yes we should!
That's cool! You were right in the burgeoning movement. I've always been interested in the '60s as a time of great change and promise. I loved his speech about throwing oneself on the 'gears of the machine.'
As fhe uncensored stream is richer than the censored stream readers will be attracted to it. The more intense the censorship, the steeper the gradient.
A farmer and his son had a beloved stallion who helped the family earn a living. One day, the horse ran away and their neighbors exclaimed, “Your horse ran away, what terrible luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not. We’ll see.”
A few days later, the horse returned home, leading a few wild mares back to the farm as well. The neighbors shouted out, “Your horse has returned, and brought several horses home with him. What great luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not. We’ll see.”
Later that week, the farmer’s son was trying to break one of the mares and she threw him to the ground, breaking his leg. The villagers cried, “Your son broke his leg, what terrible luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not. We’ll see.”
A few weeks later, soldiers from the national army marched through town, recruiting all the able-bodied boys for the army. They did not take the farmer’s son, still recovering from his injury. Friends shouted, “Your boy is spared, what tremendous luck!” To which the farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not. We’ll see.”
The first time I was ousted, I had over 5000 followers. That was in the early days. Then, it became a game as to how fast could I be kicked off the platform! 5 days was the fastest. They didn't like my campaign against the "first lesbian Mayor."
I may not be a member of the shadow government, and I don't hate you, but it is true that want you silent (at least until you scoop all that dogshit out of your brain cavity and start thinking like a sentient human being again).
To achieve that end, I'll go just about as far as posting this comment.
YouTube is not a tongue, it's borderline mind-control tech. IMO, the current industry standard of algorithmic content surfacing is totally immoral. Censoring obvious shitheads like Orfalea is just a fig leaf over the massive societal and cultural harm companies like Facebook and YouTube have done by giving every psychotic idiot in the world a megaphone and a soapbox to stand on.
Also, George R.R. Martin is an asshole. What kind of damaged mind produces indulgent swill like Game of Thrones? Yuck.
Some people can think for themselves despite what they watch on YouTube and despite what it chooses to put in your "suggested" feed. At least users can curate their feeds using the "don't recommend" button. Anti-establishment political videos and alternative news/commentary are still pretty well represented, and those who get fucked over should move to Rumble, like many already have.
Facebook has become the equivalent of a grandparent's photo album. Nobody considers it a forum for any discussion beyond cats, cars, boring vacation stories and hobbyist show-and-tell.
Let "every psychotic idiot in the world" post their stuff on YouTube. Nobody's holding a gun to my head, forcing me to watch them.
It only stands to reason that now that the government finds itself the defendant in multiple civil rights lawsuits (which they are likely to lose), they've become more subtle and sophisticated. I don't foresee an end to this nonsense anytime soon, because there's simply too much at stake. This is a battle for truth.
Exactly. They aren't just going to pack up the ball and go home -- this is an incredibly organized, well-funded censorship apparatus. We didn't like the idea of the DGB, so they'll go back to hiding what they're doing and float another trial balloon up after 5 more years of shrieking about 'disinformation'.
We're not packing up and going home either. I don't care how well-funded they are, we're smarter. I know that because if they were smart, they would join our side.
Totally agree. I’m in this fight for the long haul, until at MINIMUM these decisions by YouTube and the rest are made transparent, and detailed explanations are given. How can we assess their misinformation case if they won’t even explain their thinking? At this point, is there anyone who assumes they aren’t being made by a callow 20-something with aposematic hair?
I learned how to write composing comments to the New York Times twenty five years ago when I lived in Chicago south of the Midway. I wrote only for myself . I learned that from Irving Layton I could not learn in school. Everything was in slow motion. My body can't work in slow motion slow motion is too quick for body and too slow for my mind.
I always knew when I struck a nerve at the New York Times. The only thing unfit to print is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
You are not allowed to offend everybody.
Mark Twain was the greatest of the great Socratic philosophers Diogenes the Cynic was a world renowned comedian but in America Twain is Comedy. There is no comedy in Twain it is simply the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
You must pick sides even if both sides are off balance.
"Neoliberalism is neither new nor liberal" John Ralston Saul Socratic Philosopher and authority on Press Freedom consecutive terms as head of PEN International
Lots of John Ralston Saul on youtube speaking the truth to people like Chris Hedges. about things like Covid and government.
John Ralston Saul on Press Freedom there is at least a week of binge watching.
75 is a good age to study philosophy for me. My wife says 85 is even better. It is hard to get to the library but Amazon delivers new books and old books everyday. Today's book I studied in jr high school. It was written by our local lake. Two Solitudes by Hugh McLellan. We read it as a current literature my wife grew up in Michigan. Hers was a different world.
Quebec went from theocracy to liberal democracy and America not so much.
I still watch Ronald Wilson Reagan's Time for Choosing Speech in 1964. It is on youtube.
Reagan calls liberal democracy America's worst nightmare. He was talking Civil rights and voting rights. You can watch the Klan marching in San Francisco at the GOP convention with their Goldwater signs.
My wife grew up reading Little House on the Prairie.
We both got what we asked for a long long time ago.
Taxi Harry Chapin I saw him live at the Jubilee auditorium in Regina Saskatchewan when my life intersected with his.
I saw him in concert where my sister went to college. He was gone too soon. As for it being hard to get to the library, many of us old folk find reading is easier these days on an ereader where you can make the print bigger. And most libraries now offer both ebooks and audiobooks, which has saved me a deal of $$ the last few years.
My wife likes the feel of a book in her hand. She is a retired philosopher studying philosophy. Technology is today and tomorrow never comes. She went to the University of Chicago and I am me teaching her Jefferson and Franklin and Mark Twain and Orwell. I failed public school she is a Doctor of Philosophy in Education with a Master's in Science Education.
She was scammed by a phony virus threat and hasn't touched her new computer. I dare not get her a kindle. I am wondering on which one I need. Do they have a 72"?
I can't read and write at the same time and if I am reading more than writing I want a giant screen.
I have my ereaders in cases, so they're really a lot like a small paperback. And you can size the font up to better than a quarter-inch; you just have to flip the screen more often.
Mine are all older models I've had for probably close to a decade. The library app is for phones and tablets—it's called Libby. You can read or listen to books borrowed from the library on that, or send the print versions to Kindle. I do the latter because I have the reader, but Libby's just as good—you can take and save notes on both. And don't forget to add Aldous Huxley to that reading list. Brave New World is actually more applicable than 1984 or Animal Farm. 😄
I disagree. Eugenics is bullshit it always has been; greater intellect it not always the proper adaptation to change. Mark Twain said Man is the end product of devolution. It always has been 1984 since I was born in 1948. I read lots of Orwell especially essays like Why I Write and On Nationalism and his autobiographies are the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth. He wrote about Newspeak. I am autistic Newspeak sounds like Greek to me.
They say I am autistic and a genius at logic and linguistics. I don't know how to do Newspeak it sounds like Humpty Dumpty on another side of the looking glass.
In the bible my ancestors called it the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. We are mortal and not subject to miracles. There is no such thing as eternity.
I remember the day before the Big bang.
There is no Alpha or Omega. Eternity is a human fantasy like religion, race and gender here in Quebec. We live in the now.
The future may be in our hands. #e live in the present and we can'ttravel backwards in time even as we can make light travel at seed of full stop. Time doesn't travel in reverse.
Some on this site think sea monkeys and water bears higher forms of life. They are almost immortal.
Just waiting for my sub to expire. I'm gonna miss dunking on you braindead MAGAts, though... kinda fun, in a "what am I doing with my life?" sort of way.
I'd hazard a guess that it's only the "#1 threat" to the logorrheic hysterics among us. Right of the bat, I'll be worrying about food and water thank you very much.
Readers/Users/Viewers need to stop the "YouTube default." Go to Rumble in the first place. The videos are usually cross-posted anyway. Just STOP the knee-jerk move to YouTube.
And that goes for Matt & Orf: Post the Rumble link.
Can someone link to an article explaining why so many independent journalists and videographers only link to youtube, and not routinely systematically provide at least one alternative link to their content? Why not? There seems to be something very basic that I do not understand. Does youtube or substack, for instance, require only youtube links?
Allowing Big Tech to swallow whole our society, culture, discourse, democracy, our souls and brains (and, even worse, become the real parents and friends to our children), has been a total humanitarian disaster and is one of the major causes of American immiseration and derangement. We have abdicated independent thought and surrendered human connection to the cruel and greedy tyrant His Majesty the Algorithm, which would be bad no matter what, but is horrific considering the algorithms have been designed to addle us with fear, panic and outrage and get us all to hate each other.
The road back to sanity, comity and a future of human flourishing (and the off-ramp to the globalist's Brave New World) demands that the Big Tech companies be broken up and that their owners be heavily taxed, so as to put an end to their unearned social dominance.
This would mean the Department of Justice breaking up the infrastructure which the state propaganda machine relies on. Not happening as long as Merrick Garland or a Biden-appointed successor is in charge.
And say Donald Trump is re-elected in 2024. Will he appoint a reformer willing to do that, or will he be tempted to cut a deal to use the Censorship Complex for his own purposes?
Aside from the antisemitic dog-whistling (in American politics, "globalists" pretty much means "George Soros"), I agree with basically all of this. The internet has all but robbed us of our humanity. Social media took a huge bite out of our ability to socialize in person, and it imposes a completely dehumanized and uncaring technological layer that controls and manipulates our thoughts and interactions in ways both subtle and overt.
It's why I can't stand right-wingers politicizing this issue. I initially thought it was smart move for Taibbi to focus on censorship of left-wingers and right-wingers both... over time, though, it's become abundantly clear that he is mainly interested in propping up the anti-left left. His whacky crusade against government employees having any contact whatsoever with social media companies is the perfect strawman for establishment and big tech apologists to replace every legitimate criticism with.
This is just silly nonsense and pls take your dog whistle and shove it.
"globalists pretty much means George Soros" is just another moronic media narrative designed with the goal of erecting an electrified fence around discourse and designating various words or terms as "bigotry" (via guilt by association). This is another aspect in the corporate-media campaign to tell us all what we're allowed to say or think if we want to avoid cancellation or being thrust beyond the moral pale.
Globalist corporations and their media propaganda outlets want to make it impossible for us to reasonably discuss globalism and its downsides, by making even mentioning the term an act of bigotry as if it were a magical Satanic incantation. Thus—poof!—the bigotry accusation allows them to operate beyond the reach of democratic accountability and tar their opponents as proto-fascists.
Just because you are susceptible to dishonest media framing doesn't mean everyone else is. Please find someone else to slander.
I agree 100%, but I get the impression that accusations of "racist" are losing their magic. Same with "homo/transphobe " and "misogynist."
Taibbi's and Schellenberger's testimony before that asshole Plaskett also went a long way to demonstrate the ineffectiveness of rote, boiler-plate accusations made by the totalitarian left (sorry for the redundancy).
"Globalist corporations and their media propaganda outlets want to make it impossible for us to reasonably discuss globalism and its downsides, by making even mentioning the term an act of bigotry as if it were a magical Satanic incantation."
The "Globalist corporations" have moved on from that mission. They spent some time recently on the Racket News threads and were satisfied that Taibbi's subscribers had already successfully made it "impossible for us to reasonably discuss globalism and its downsides."
government employees coordinating and teaming up w/ corporate shithole is more fascist than anything. maybe you meant "right," but Ive always seen fascism and socialism two side of the same tyrannical coin.
if you could drop the false left right paradigm, you could probably see things more accurately but alas, i doubt your're capable of that feat.
For the record, I'm not tired of digital censorship tales, and on the contrary really appreciate all your hard work on this. It is still underreported in my opinion--or perhaps it's reported but we can't find it? Either way, more please.
Hey, remember that time you referred to 30,000,000 Ukrainian Soviet soldiers who died in WWII as Russians? And then paywalled your comment section hours after I commented about it? And then repeatedly lied about it?
If OP wants to spend the next 30 years embarrassing himself repeating easily debunked "facts", by all means he should give your blog a read.
You mean that one time I embarrassed the shit out of you by citing basic history that anyone with any semblance of an education would know, then got tired of you running your mouth like a spazz and spewing bullshit? That time? If you want to comment again, pay me $5. I love how absolutely triggered you remain about that. It was like 18 months ago, yet it apparently haunts you. And it's not a "blog," you ignorant tool. It's a Substack.
Go back to trawling Taibbi's comment section for someone to exercise your moral smugness on. All you do when you come at me is make an ass clown of yourself, though I do thoroughly enjoy it.
The free exchange of ideas is simply too dangerous to be allowed in the hands of the layfolk, so the authorities must save us from ourselves lest we engage in unfettered speech, which as Taibbi has pointed out leads to Trump and fascism and death.
Here’s what YouTube doesn’t understand. The “legacy media” that news consumers are fleeing from used to be new media too. They lost their credibility by going down a road YouTube is currently starting down. If YouTube wants to be end up where CNN is today, hemorrhaging viewers and unable to right the ship, they should keep doing what they’re doing.
The problem with that is alternatives like Rumble don’t have the videos on blacksmithing or powerlifting techniques or jazz guitar melody chords or a hundred and one other non-political topics. Building alternative platforms means building something enticing to people other than just political commentary.
All the art and craft videos and “how to” stuff are needed elsewhere too! Anytime I want to find info it seems YouTube has better results that using the plain old browser.
At this point I worry that YouTube is too big to fail. YouTube is actually the world’s second most popular search engine, behind Google. As early as 2009, search volume on YouTube outstripped Yahoo!’s by 50% and Bing’s by 150%.
And in 2009, if you had told cable networks that their viewership would be dwarfed by YouTube and Netflix, they would have laughed at you. Every new generation is ready, willing, and eager to abandon what their parents tell them is too big to fail for a new thing that their parents don’t understand. In a media world changing as fast as ours is, nothing is too big to fail.
Let’s hope so. But they don’t care. They have bigger plans ... to enslave humanity so I think these blobs are not running like actual businesses anymore.
July '21: Whole channel demonetized over "violent criminal organization" policy. After much outcry on Twitter, YouTube admitted error. (No relation to "Rigged Elections" video)
June '23: YT says they will no longer delete videos with content questioning election results. I re-upload the "Rigged Elections" video. It's demonetized, I appeal successfully, YT emails me to say it is now monetized and suitable for all advertisers.
August '23: By chance I see YT secretly demonetized the "Rigged Elections" video (with no notification) due to alleged violation of its "Harmful or Dangerous Acts" policy. In the past (for ex, when my channel was demonetized) I always received notifications from YT about it BUT I received no notification about the this.
I would recommend Brave as a browser and Rumble for video for the time being. They will be corrupted at some point, and I will move on to whatever company has the product that I want....
Brave doesn’t limit quoted searches to what’s in quotes. I just tried “dog popover” and was overwhelmed with popover recipes. I would expect zero results.
I also switched to Brave, Rumble, and GiveSendGo. However, whenever I want to look up something that I know will irritate the media powers that be, I will also go feed it into the Google algorithm, just so they see that we know what is going on and aren't falling for their bull.
Brave browser seems to be more privacy oriented but its search is not good. Apparently our Global Overlords have allowed Google to monopolize search. Hell, I don't know. Some genius needs to figure out how to compete/defeat.
Yes Brave is just as bad. Yandex gives completely different results and I find it is more like the old internet. At least the results are related to my search terms.
Yandex is like the old internet. But it’s Russian owned so probably manipulates in reverse. Still it is far far better than anything based in the west. They are all highly manipulated to a such a degree as to make them all but useless. So much for Western freedom. It no longer exists.
Let me get this straight: in your mind, Russia is a more reliable place to get your info than the entirety of the west? What kind of insane funhouse mirror reality do you live in? jesus christ
I'm sure it's a great place to join a botnet, though, if that's your thing.
🤣 I actually have grown to like when people like Feldspar, etc. leave completely pseudo intellectual comments that never address a point. It's a good reminder of how propaganda works; name calling, diversion, pompous jargon, etc. I do miss Jeff Biss, or at least I haven't seen him lately, with all his LOLs, mocking, and calling everyone a stupid idiot. Man, dude had some charm.
Matt, We are NOT tired of these censorship posts. This may be the #1 problem for us and the country for the foreseeable future. Please keep it up. We will all support you as best we can.
It seems to me that these tech companies are in violation of their behavior with respect to their FCC Section 230 protections as "platforms". They are operating as publishers and thus should be subject to the same liabilities of all publishers for the content they allow or filter.
I have written to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and the Senate Oversight of the Federal Communications Commission to complain about these abuses, and the need for new penalties for any platform company negatively impacting public 1A rights... including their exclusion from Section 230 protections if they continue to act as publishers and not platforms.
This crap is not gonna' stop by just complaining about it. I am generally not a fan of government intrusion into the business practices of corporations, but these are businesses that have become the dominate communications platforms for society. They are no different today than has been for example the telephone service companies. What if your telephone services started listening to your conversations and banning you from access to the services because some human operator objected to what you were saying on the phone? YouTube cannot both have 90% of the market share for Internet video content delivery and then decide what it will allow or not except for legal limitations for obscenity, etc., that the FCC applies to network TV. It is either a publisher or a platform. Pick one.
That’s for sure. Politics attracts all the wrong people for all the wrong reasons. Change incentive structures change the types of people who --‘serve’ (🤣)
The first step is to stop them from redefining language. An "obscenity" is defined as "the portrayal or description of sexual matters offensive or disgusting by accepted standards of morality and decency." In other words, just porn.
Now from a libertarian point of view, even THAT definition can be exploited and corrupted to harm 1A rights. For example, bible thumping locations might ban books that depict human anatomy, pregnancy and giving birth as being "sexual". A leftist community might band books on real history & religion but require K-6 students to read books depicting children giving and getting same-gender oral sex and claim it is educational. I get the difficulty here; however, there is a Final Rule process for regulatory change. We only need to require that any and all thing on the list of what can be and should be legally censored to be public and require the public input to make changes to it. There is also an appeal process for when the FCC attempts to fine a media company for breaking the rules. Lastly people can appeal by electing new politicians that will oversee the government institutions getting it wrong. But there is no appeal process for private business.
You can make the also make the libertarian case that nobody is forced to do business with Youtube or Google. I think there are three arguments against that. One, both are defined as platform services... and thus are expected to operate in ways different than publishers that control the content of their products and services and that accept the risk of liability for what they allow. Two, both are monopolies so the alternative choices are limited and mush less valuable to users. Three, the services provided from these platforms have become the defacto way to find information, communicate, advertise and also for some, to make a living. Their canceling and censoring is analogous to having a checkpoint at the village market where 90% of the village residence talk with each other, and conduct trade transactions that are a requirement for their lives... and a percentage of those residents are disallowed into the market because they have said things that the market administrators don't like.
"For example, bible thumping locations might ban books that depict human anatomy, pregnancy and giving birth as being "sexual". A leftist community might band books on real history & religion but require K-6 students to read books depicting children giving and getting same-gender oral sex and claim it is educational."
Or: A right-wing community might sneak a little Jesus into the daily curriculum, thus violating the 1st amendment, or ban books that depict the full scope of the sciences up to the present, or disingenuously "gatekeep" unadulterated, unapproved "real," factual history by "real" historians that has not been vetted by secretive star-chamber-like committees that almost are always adjacent to right-wing prejudices, and most probably shriek and pearl-clutch at the sight or sound of human anatomy, human rights, human health---hell, anything frankly human.
Gotta keep a trained eye on these mischievous, censorious folk. They almost always travel with red pens and are always at the ready to use them.
Meanwhile the California legislature has mandated Ethnic Studies for high school and state universities. It is clear ideological indoctrination... and the difference between it and religious indoctrination is nothing.
Relentless, Frank, you're relentless. I said the same thing about algebra in middle school and my lawsuit nearly made it to the Supreme Court. Later I had to be deprogrammed from all the quadratic equations drilled into me.
That is silly. My internet service provider is a platform. My cell phone company service is a platform. Yes, Substack is a platform and a number of writers HAVE a business that relies on it.
Matt...this problem is becoming worse and now our good buddy Elon has invited a WEF shill to run Twitter and outlook is not good there either, despite the promising start. It is becoming increasingly difficult to read and share valuable information, to have unfettered conversations and enjoy critical thinking. Thanks for all you do....keep fighting the good fight!
I would hope that Racket readers never tire of digital censorship tales, for as long as they occur. The democrat party seems to love throwing around the phrase "a threat to our democracy", and nothing is a bigger threat than censorship.
lol, you missed the "dems are fascist" fad train by a few months, sorry bro.
Here's the thing: fascism does not exist without ultranationalism. So, if you choose to call dems fascist now, you really should abstain from ever calling them globalists in the future (given that "ultranationalist globalism" is an oxymoron).
So you don’t see any merger of state and corporate power in the case of the you tube (google) censorship antics Matt specifically called out, and the many other instances of this sort of thing?
Couple this with Grayzone's recent GoFundMe disaster, it seems the beast will not be satisfied until all of us become drooling subhumans eagerly snarfing up the latest CIA approved mindless entertainment or fascist "news" narratives.
Perhaps it's time we developed a new Internet we will term "Intervus", along the lines of Festivus (for the rest of us) in which we will celebrate the airing of grievances, feats of strength, and a Intervus miracle during which we will blink into an alternate reality bereft of all Corporations.
Of course, the real problem is that content creators and providers are now embroiled in a Catch-22, in which the beast provides food on the table, but demands compliance. I hate to say it, but we can't have it both ways. If you want to play, then it's by the golden rule.
I don't know what the answer is other than there are always choices. We may not like the choices, but they are ours to make.
Uh, okay? Who exactly am I working for, in your mind?
Is it *that* implausible that a regular human being would find your POV idiotic and braindead? There's literally *no* other explanation than that everyone who disagrees with you is paid to do so?
People who insult and ridicule other people always have an agenda.
Perhaps if you had an alternative viewpoint or other ideas as to the topic at hand, I could find it plausible that you disagree with me, and are simply too socially inept to express it without resorting to character attacks and ad-hominem childish retorts.
Lacking that, I would suggest that you go spook an AI forum before a computer-generated shill takes your job - it would be much better at it and wouldn't waste its time on people who recognize what it is.
If you really just think that censorship and authoritarianism is okay, then D(why) are you here??
My original playful comment hardly rises to the level of ire that you assigned to it. So one of two things is true: either 1) you're paid to ridicule and insult people who's worldviews differ from your Master's, or 2) You're just another angry asshole who gets his jollies by trolling forums looking for suggestible marks who are easily cowed by such unpleasantries the likes of which you tried to do to me.
Since you don't sound old enough or stupid enough to be the latter, I will settle on my original assessment.
"People who insult and ridicule other people always have an agenda."
Really? 𝘈𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴? That sounds like sloppy hyperbole to me, especially considering that you contradict this further down (unless you bucket "getting your jollies" under "having an agenda"... in which case I'm not sure what you accomplish by accusing me of "having an agenda". Who *doesn't* want to get their jollies?)
"If you really just think that censorship and authoritarianism is okay"
...I don't...
"then D(why) are you here??"
Bought a 1yr sub back when I still thought this place was worthwhile. Just waiting for it to expire.
"My original playful comment hardly rises to the level of ire that you assigned to it."
You're free to pollute your worldview with as many paranoid assumptions as you like... it's no skin off my nose. Given what I know about myself, though, I do find it mighty entertaining when thin-skinned babies like you refuse to believe that anyone could just *want* to say mean things about them on the internet.
I’ve once again sent complaints up the Google/YouTube flagpole. Perhaps Racket readers are tired of digital censorship tales. If so, I understand, I do.
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Hell no we aren't tired of them! This sort of censorship/debanking is the #1 threat to our way of life -- we should ALL be screaming about it every chance we get, because we KNOW that it won't just stop at the 'bad' people. (This article is proof!!!)
“When you tear out a man's tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you're only telling the world that you fear what he might say.”
― George R.R. Martin
LOL that was my first Substack post after getting kicked off Twitter. Turns out that ban was a blessing!
Getting smacked by the ban-hammer just means you're getting under their skin. Kudos to you! It's time for ALL of us to make a stand.
Apathy is the Fire in Which We Burn: https://tritorch.substack.com/p/apathy-is-the-fire-in-which-we-burn
So true. I'm convinced that I was banned for posting our official covid data to Jay Inslee's twitter page, because the official data has ALWAYS undermined the official narrative.
Inslee is a horrible man who has never met a tyrannical leaning that he didn't want to embrace.
He's got his marching orders. From Gates or the CCP or Bezos, it doesn't matter -- he's gonna do what he's told.
It's InSLEEZE. Please correct yourself.
I once got kicked off Twitter because I opened an account simply to go after the "first lesbian Seattle Mayor." That account was strategic, and only online for 5 days. My quickest exit. Haha!
I agree: a blessing. It’s easy for me to say of course since I am a social media virgin. Twelve years ago some kid tried to sell me on Facebook. My instincts, groomed by McCarthy, Mario Savio and the Seymour Hersch, prompted me to ask the kid: If Facebook had been designed by the NSA, how would it be different?
Alternatives must be found, created. We’re trying to build a world safe for freedom of thought and speech, but we’re playing on their field, and by their rules. I’m afraid this is going to be a ground up undertaking. We have to make sure we don’t get ground up undertaking it.
If Facebook had been designed by the NSA, how would it be different?
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Great question!! I often say that the smartphone might not have been designed as a spying device, but if I was going to make a spying device it would look an awful lot like a smartphone.
I refer to my smartphone as my "tracking device" as in "Honey, I’m headed to the store and leaving my tracking device at home."
We are trying to break the habit of keeping the damn things with us 24/7.
Phone technology peaked with the answering machine. If I'm out doing stuff, I'm out doing stuff and don't want to be on the phone anyway. I'll call you back when I'm done being busy!
Exactly. Leave it in your house, in one place, like it's a land line. That also solves the problem of losing it.
Funny you should mention that. Facebook was designed by the CIA. It started out as Lifelog. The day Lifelog went offline, Facebook went live:
https://tritorch.com/lifelog
Search In-Q-Tel. It is quite the rabbit hole and will change your perspective of some major American corporations.
Wait, Zuck told me HE invented FB.
That actually made me laugh pretty hard. Good one
Mario Savio! There's a name you don't hear much about these days, but we should.
I had some of my first political experiences on Sproul Plaza. Berkeley was very special in the 60’s. And Robert Scheer referenced Savio on one of his recent podcasts. And, yes we should!
That's cool! You were right in the burgeoning movement. I've always been interested in the '60s as a time of great change and promise. I loved his speech about throwing oneself on the 'gears of the machine.'
One of my best friends went to Berkeley in the 60s. Her parents were my godparents. She retired a few years ago from nursing.
That was supposed to be under Sera's post, don't know what happened.
As fhe uncensored stream is richer than the censored stream readers will be attracted to it. The more intense the censorship, the steeper the gradient.
Come join me: https://www.mewe.com/i/lizburton
It’s incredible how many dark moments become blessings in the end.
http://www.drmarlo.com/dr-marlo-speaks/maybe-so-maybe-not-well-see/
A farmer and his son had a beloved stallion who helped the family earn a living. One day, the horse ran away and their neighbors exclaimed, “Your horse ran away, what terrible luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not. We’ll see.”
A few days later, the horse returned home, leading a few wild mares back to the farm as well. The neighbors shouted out, “Your horse has returned, and brought several horses home with him. What great luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not. We’ll see.”
Later that week, the farmer’s son was trying to break one of the mares and she threw him to the ground, breaking his leg. The villagers cried, “Your son broke his leg, what terrible luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not. We’ll see.”
A few weeks later, soldiers from the national army marched through town, recruiting all the able-bodied boys for the army. They did not take the farmer’s son, still recovering from his injury. Friends shouted, “Your boy is spared, what tremendous luck!” To which the farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not. We’ll see.”
In lieu of taking his son, the army requisitioned all the farmer's horses . . .
Love it.
I got kicked off Twitter so many times I was like a cat with nine Twitter lives.
I just want to be allowed back so I can tell my followers that I'm leaving :p
The first time I was ousted, I had over 5000 followers. That was in the early days. Then, it became a game as to how fast could I be kicked off the platform! 5 days was the fastest. They didn't like my campaign against the "first lesbian Mayor."
More like a vampire impervious to the wooden stake and garlic necklace.
The shadow government fears public commentary more than anything.
Yeah they hate it and want us silent. I don't know to what extent they'll go but I'm afraid we're going to find out.
I may not be a member of the shadow government, and I don't hate you, but it is true that want you silent (at least until you scoop all that dogshit out of your brain cavity and start thinking like a sentient human being again).
To achieve that end, I'll go just about as far as posting this comment.
Who gets to decide what we think?
YouTube is not a tongue, it's borderline mind-control tech. IMO, the current industry standard of algorithmic content surfacing is totally immoral. Censoring obvious shitheads like Orfalea is just a fig leaf over the massive societal and cultural harm companies like Facebook and YouTube have done by giving every psychotic idiot in the world a megaphone and a soapbox to stand on.
Also, George R.R. Martin is an asshole. What kind of damaged mind produces indulgent swill like Game of Thrones? Yuck.
Some people can think for themselves despite what they watch on YouTube and despite what it chooses to put in your "suggested" feed. At least users can curate their feeds using the "don't recommend" button. Anti-establishment political videos and alternative news/commentary are still pretty well represented, and those who get fucked over should move to Rumble, like many already have.
Facebook has become the equivalent of a grandparent's photo album. Nobody considers it a forum for any discussion beyond cats, cars, boring vacation stories and hobbyist show-and-tell.
Let "every psychotic idiot in the world" post their stuff on YouTube. Nobody's holding a gun to my head, forcing me to watch them.
I like Youtube's "suggested" feed.
Me love dragons and beautiful women. What is on Masterpiece Theater now? I must catch up.
Agree on all accounts. Youtube and shows like GoT are absolute toxic waste for the mind, and it is no accident.
Tiktok does the same: https://bitchute.com/video/MW67NcNlJhFs
It only stands to reason that now that the government finds itself the defendant in multiple civil rights lawsuits (which they are likely to lose), they've become more subtle and sophisticated. I don't foresee an end to this nonsense anytime soon, because there's simply too much at stake. This is a battle for truth.
Exactly. They aren't just going to pack up the ball and go home -- this is an incredibly organized, well-funded censorship apparatus. We didn't like the idea of the DGB, so they'll go back to hiding what they're doing and float another trial balloon up after 5 more years of shrieking about 'disinformation'.
We're not packing up and going home either. I don't care how well-funded they are, we're smarter. I know that because if they were smart, they would join our side.
the bad guys wont stop until they fear for life and limb. this is just an acknowledgement of reality.
Seconded.
IMNSHO, Matt should have sent his readership the Google email so that we, too, could share our dismay at YouTube's totalitarianism.
Matt?
You beat me to it. Was going to confirm I’m not tired of journalists telling the truth.
I am fairly damn tired of realizing censorship is pouring hot out of the corporate and politically affluent taps. Jesus. Stop it.
Totally agree. I’m in this fight for the long haul, until at MINIMUM these decisions by YouTube and the rest are made transparent, and detailed explanations are given. How can we assess their misinformation case if they won’t even explain their thinking? At this point, is there anyone who assumes they aren’t being made by a callow 20-something with aposematic hair?
I learned how to write composing comments to the New York Times twenty five years ago when I lived in Chicago south of the Midway. I wrote only for myself . I learned that from Irving Layton I could not learn in school. Everything was in slow motion. My body can't work in slow motion slow motion is too quick for body and too slow for my mind.
I always knew when I struck a nerve at the New York Times. The only thing unfit to print is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
You are not allowed to offend everybody.
Mark Twain was the greatest of the great Socratic philosophers Diogenes the Cynic was a world renowned comedian but in America Twain is Comedy. There is no comedy in Twain it is simply the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
You must pick sides even if both sides are off balance.
"Neoliberalism is neither new nor liberal" John Ralston Saul Socratic Philosopher and authority on Press Freedom consecutive terms as head of PEN International
Lots of John Ralston Saul on youtube speaking the truth to people like Chris Hedges. about things like Covid and government.
John Ralston Saul on Press Freedom there is at least a week of binge watching.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eztFbBAuNyg&t=15s
75 is a good age to study philosophy for me. My wife says 85 is even better. It is hard to get to the library but Amazon delivers new books and old books everyday. Today's book I studied in jr high school. It was written by our local lake. Two Solitudes by Hugh McLellan. We read it as a current literature my wife grew up in Michigan. Hers was a different world.
Quebec went from theocracy to liberal democracy and America not so much.
I still watch Ronald Wilson Reagan's Time for Choosing Speech in 1964. It is on youtube.
Reagan calls liberal democracy America's worst nightmare. He was talking Civil rights and voting rights. You can watch the Klan marching in San Francisco at the GOP convention with their Goldwater signs.
My wife grew up reading Little House on the Prairie.
We both got what we asked for a long long time ago.
Taxi Harry Chapin I saw him live at the Jubilee auditorium in Regina Saskatchewan when my life intersected with his.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeMX1JfqKuc
I saw him in concert where my sister went to college. He was gone too soon. As for it being hard to get to the library, many of us old folk find reading is easier these days on an ereader where you can make the print bigger. And most libraries now offer both ebooks and audiobooks, which has saved me a deal of $$ the last few years.
My wife likes the feel of a book in her hand. She is a retired philosopher studying philosophy. Technology is today and tomorrow never comes. She went to the University of Chicago and I am me teaching her Jefferson and Franklin and Mark Twain and Orwell. I failed public school she is a Doctor of Philosophy in Education with a Master's in Science Education.
She was scammed by a phony virus threat and hasn't touched her new computer. I dare not get her a kindle. I am wondering on which one I need. Do they have a 72"?
I can't read and write at the same time and if I am reading more than writing I want a giant screen.
I have my ereaders in cases, so they're really a lot like a small paperback. And you can size the font up to better than a quarter-inch; you just have to flip the screen more often.
Mine are all older models I've had for probably close to a decade. The library app is for phones and tablets—it's called Libby. You can read or listen to books borrowed from the library on that, or send the print versions to Kindle. I do the latter because I have the reader, but Libby's just as good—you can take and save notes on both. And don't forget to add Aldous Huxley to that reading list. Brave New World is actually more applicable than 1984 or Animal Farm. 😄
Thank you Liz,
I disagree. Eugenics is bullshit it always has been; greater intellect it not always the proper adaptation to change. Mark Twain said Man is the end product of devolution. It always has been 1984 since I was born in 1948. I read lots of Orwell especially essays like Why I Write and On Nationalism and his autobiographies are the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth. He wrote about Newspeak. I am autistic Newspeak sounds like Greek to me.
They say I am autistic and a genius at logic and linguistics. I don't know how to do Newspeak it sounds like Humpty Dumpty on another side of the looking glass.
In the bible my ancestors called it the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. We are mortal and not subject to miracles. There is no such thing as eternity.
I remember the day before the Big bang.
There is no Alpha or Omega. Eternity is a human fantasy like religion, race and gender here in Quebec. We live in the now.
The future may be in our hands. #e live in the present and we can'ttravel backwards in time even as we can make light travel at seed of full stop. Time doesn't travel in reverse.
Some on this site think sea monkeys and water bears higher forms of life. They are almost immortal.
High on the Wings of SINA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDT2UMuG0Uc
All the people who are tired of Taibbi crying wolf have left already, is my guess.
Everyone except for you and Gene Frenkle. Bless your hearts.
And I mean that in the sense I hope your hearts are ok after all of those covid shots.
You forgot CommProf2.0
Fortunately CP isn’t on Racket; He’s only on The Free Press. Ironic ain’t it. That dude suuuuuuuuucks😇
You're right! Hope he never subscribes here, he's kind of mean.
🏆
Just waiting for my sub to expire. I'm gonna miss dunking on you braindead MAGAts, though... kinda fun, in a "what am I doing with my life?" sort of way.
Says the tick on the asshole of society.
Absolutely right!!!
I'd hazard a guess that it's only the "#1 threat" to the logorrheic hysterics among us. Right of the bat, I'll be worrying about food and water thank you very much.
Please post these videos on Rumble!!!!
It’s like an abused spouse who keeps going back to the abuser expecting things will be different this time.
Gofundme is even more ridiculous. How many times does it have to happen?
GiveSendGo has replaced it for most normals.
Yeah, they just fucked over The Grayzone. More like Gofuckme.
Matt Orfalea is on Rumble as are all his videos. https://rumble.com/c/Orf
It's the network effect that Rumble must overcome as your post proves so well.
Mos def. They're all on Rumble too @ https://rumble.com/orf
Readers/Users/Viewers need to stop the "YouTube default." Go to Rumble in the first place. The videos are usually cross-posted anyway. Just STOP the knee-jerk move to YouTube.
And that goes for Matt & Orf: Post the Rumble link.
Can someone link to an article explaining why so many independent journalists and videographers only link to youtube, and not routinely systematically provide at least one alternative link to their content? Why not? There seems to be something very basic that I do not understand. Does youtube or substack, for instance, require only youtube links?
@Orfalea this is the only reason I have not subscribed to your substack content -I do not want to subscribe to Youtube by way of Substack.
Allowing Big Tech to swallow whole our society, culture, discourse, democracy, our souls and brains (and, even worse, become the real parents and friends to our children), has been a total humanitarian disaster and is one of the major causes of American immiseration and derangement. We have abdicated independent thought and surrendered human connection to the cruel and greedy tyrant His Majesty the Algorithm, which would be bad no matter what, but is horrific considering the algorithms have been designed to addle us with fear, panic and outrage and get us all to hate each other.
The road back to sanity, comity and a future of human flourishing (and the off-ramp to the globalist's Brave New World) demands that the Big Tech companies be broken up and that their owners be heavily taxed, so as to put an end to their unearned social dominance.
Bring back antitrust! Down with digital tyranny!
Amen.
This would mean the Department of Justice breaking up the infrastructure which the state propaganda machine relies on. Not happening as long as Merrick Garland or a Biden-appointed successor is in charge.
And say Donald Trump is re-elected in 2024. Will he appoint a reformer willing to do that, or will he be tempted to cut a deal to use the Censorship Complex for his own purposes?
This, a thousand times this.
Aside from the antisemitic dog-whistling (in American politics, "globalists" pretty much means "George Soros"), I agree with basically all of this. The internet has all but robbed us of our humanity. Social media took a huge bite out of our ability to socialize in person, and it imposes a completely dehumanized and uncaring technological layer that controls and manipulates our thoughts and interactions in ways both subtle and overt.
It's why I can't stand right-wingers politicizing this issue. I initially thought it was smart move for Taibbi to focus on censorship of left-wingers and right-wingers both... over time, though, it's become abundantly clear that he is mainly interested in propping up the anti-left left. His whacky crusade against government employees having any contact whatsoever with social media companies is the perfect strawman for establishment and big tech apologists to replace every legitimate criticism with.
" antisemitic dog-whistling"
This is just silly nonsense and pls take your dog whistle and shove it.
"globalists pretty much means George Soros" is just another moronic media narrative designed with the goal of erecting an electrified fence around discourse and designating various words or terms as "bigotry" (via guilt by association). This is another aspect in the corporate-media campaign to tell us all what we're allowed to say or think if we want to avoid cancellation or being thrust beyond the moral pale.
Globalist corporations and their media propaganda outlets want to make it impossible for us to reasonably discuss globalism and its downsides, by making even mentioning the term an act of bigotry as if it were a magical Satanic incantation. Thus—poof!—the bigotry accusation allows them to operate beyond the reach of democratic accountability and tar their opponents as proto-fascists.
Just because you are susceptible to dishonest media framing doesn't mean everyone else is. Please find someone else to slander.
I agree 100%, but I get the impression that accusations of "racist" are losing their magic. Same with "homo/transphobe " and "misogynist."
Taibbi's and Schellenberger's testimony before that asshole Plaskett also went a long way to demonstrate the ineffectiveness of rote, boiler-plate accusations made by the totalitarian left (sorry for the redundancy).
It's like "the Boy Who Cried 'Wolf'."
"Globalist corporations and their media propaganda outlets want to make it impossible for us to reasonably discuss globalism and its downsides, by making even mentioning the term an act of bigotry as if it were a magical Satanic incantation."
The "Globalist corporations" have moved on from that mission. They spent some time recently on the Racket News threads and were satisfied that Taibbi's subscribers had already successfully made it "impossible for us to reasonably discuss globalism and its downsides."
government employees coordinating and teaming up w/ corporate shithole is more fascist than anything. maybe you meant "right," but Ive always seen fascism and socialism two side of the same tyrannical coin.
if you could drop the false left right paradigm, you could probably see things more accurately but alas, i doubt your're capable of that feat.
have another anal chug of the govt assjuice. its on the house.
For the record, I'm not tired of digital censorship tales, and on the contrary really appreciate all your hard work on this. It is still underreported in my opinion--or perhaps it's reported but we can't find it? Either way, more please.
Google's censorship and election interference is definitely underreported.
https://www.euphoricrecall.net/p/googlegov-part-2-64f
Hey, remember that time you referred to 30,000,000 Ukrainian Soviet soldiers who died in WWII as Russians? And then paywalled your comment section hours after I commented about it? And then repeatedly lied about it?
If OP wants to spend the next 30 years embarrassing himself repeating easily debunked "facts", by all means he should give your blog a read.
You mean that one time I embarrassed the shit out of you by citing basic history that anyone with any semblance of an education would know, then got tired of you running your mouth like a spazz and spewing bullshit? That time? If you want to comment again, pay me $5. I love how absolutely triggered you remain about that. It was like 18 months ago, yet it apparently haunts you. And it's not a "blog," you ignorant tool. It's a Substack.
Go back to trawling Taibbi's comment section for someone to exercise your moral smugness on. All you do when you come at me is make an ass clown of yourself, though I do thoroughly enjoy it.
Either one of you care to share the details of this lingering dispute? Things are getting a little "dry" here on the Racket News threads.
Dollars to donuts that this is at the behest of the government or government funded agencies.
The free exchange of ideas is simply too dangerous to be allowed in the hands of the layfolk, so the authorities must save us from ourselves lest we engage in unfettered speech, which as Taibbi has pointed out leads to Trump and fascism and death.
That sounds dangerously like wrongspeak........do you have a permit for such speech?
Knock. Knock. Knock. Is that the IRS at your door?
You have to say donuts to dollars these days, as donuts are now $1.75.
Not taking that bet.
Here’s what YouTube doesn’t understand. The “legacy media” that news consumers are fleeing from used to be new media too. They lost their credibility by going down a road YouTube is currently starting down. If YouTube wants to be end up where CNN is today, hemorrhaging viewers and unable to right the ship, they should keep doing what they’re doing.
We should assist YouTube in this endeavor by not watching. Speed their end!
Boycott all things Google, including YouTube.
The problem with that is alternatives like Rumble don’t have the videos on blacksmithing or powerlifting techniques or jazz guitar melody chords or a hundred and one other non-political topics. Building alternative platforms means building something enticing to people other than just political commentary.
All the art and craft videos and “how to” stuff are needed elsewhere too! Anytime I want to find info it seems YouTube has better results that using the plain old browser.
Yes! That’s why I can’t abandon it entirely! The “how to” videos for just about anything you need are just so useful!
You're right about that. I long for the day when I can abandon the beast entirely. Rumble is not a real alternative and mostly a waste of time.
Can’t wait for U-tube to become bankrupt.
At this point I worry that YouTube is too big to fail. YouTube is actually the world’s second most popular search engine, behind Google. As early as 2009, search volume on YouTube outstripped Yahoo!’s by 50% and Bing’s by 150%.
And in 2009, if you had told cable networks that their viewership would be dwarfed by YouTube and Netflix, they would have laughed at you. Every new generation is ready, willing, and eager to abandon what their parents tell them is too big to fail for a new thing that their parents don’t understand. In a media world changing as fast as ours is, nothing is too big to fail.
Very true.
More useful than Google too a lot of the time.
Let’s hope so. But they don’t care. They have bigger plans ... to enslave humanity so I think these blobs are not running like actual businesses anymore.
Remember when Google’s motto was “Don’t Be Evil”?
I never bought that for a second.
My being correct isn’t even the least consolation.
Sigh.
I always thought that “Don’t be evil” was a pretty low bar.
That was the point I was making, inelegantly apparently considering the lack of likes and responses. Absolute power...
TIMELINE FOR CLARITY
July '21: Whole channel demonetized over "violent criminal organization" policy. After much outcry on Twitter, YouTube admitted error. (No relation to "Rigged Elections" video)
https://www.racket.news/p/meet-the-censored-matt-orfalea
Nov '22: "Rigged Elections" video is ***DELETED*** (not just demonetized) for allegedly violating YT's "Elections Misinformation" policy.
https://www.racket.news/p/election-denial-for-me-but-not-for
June '23: YT says they will no longer delete videos with content questioning election results. I re-upload the "Rigged Elections" video. It's demonetized, I appeal successfully, YT emails me to say it is now monetized and suitable for all advertisers.
https://censorednews.substack.com/p/did-youtube-end-its-elections-misinformation
August '23: By chance I see YT secretly demonetized the "Rigged Elections" video (with no notification) due to alleged violation of its "Harmful or Dangerous Acts" policy. In the past (for ex, when my channel was demonetized) I always received notifications from YT about it BUT I received no notification about the this.
https://censorednews.substack.com/p/youtube-secretly-labeled-my-video
I quit Google and YouTube a year ago for the first episode with this video.
I'm life has improved tremendously since.
I highly recommend that everyone who can boycott google/YouTube.
Fuck em...
What alternatives have you found? My default is DuckDuckGo, but I’m not too happy with it. Please see my commend above.
I would recommend Brave as a browser and Rumble for video for the time being. They will be corrupted at some point, and I will move on to whatever company has the product that I want....
Brave doesn’t limit quoted searches to what’s in quotes. I just tried “dog popover” and was overwhelmed with popover recipes. I would expect zero results.
I also switched to Brave, Rumble, and GiveSendGo. However, whenever I want to look up something that I know will irritate the media powers that be, I will also go feed it into the Google algorithm, just so they see that we know what is going on and aren't falling for their bull.
What about Freespoke instead of Google
Brave is just as manipulated. I think it uses indexing of Google.
I use the Brave Browser and Brave search. I VERY rarely need to use Bing or Google search now.
Brave is better, but it is still lacking.
Brave browser seems to be more privacy oriented but its search is not good. Apparently our Global Overlords have allowed Google to monopolize search. Hell, I don't know. Some genius needs to figure out how to compete/defeat.
Yes Brave is just as bad. Yandex gives completely different results and I find it is more like the old internet. At least the results are related to my search terms.
Brave + Duck Duck Go
Yandex is like the old internet. But it’s Russian owned so probably manipulates in reverse. Still it is far far better than anything based in the west. They are all highly manipulated to a such a degree as to make them all but useless. So much for Western freedom. It no longer exists.
Let me get this straight: in your mind, Russia is a more reliable place to get your info than the entirety of the west? What kind of insane funhouse mirror reality do you live in? jesus christ
I'm sure it's a great place to join a botnet, though, if that's your thing.
Cool. I’ll give it a test drive thanks.
I left social media years ago and I never looked back. Life is so fun when my own brain chooses the next image/article/adventure!
( Obligatory ) You’re technically on social media right here [ comment ].
Ouch! ;) I think of this as community but yes, point taken.
My inner pedant is showing sorry! I’m glad you’re here with us. Now if only Feldspar and Dwhy would leave…
🤣 I actually have grown to like when people like Feldspar, etc. leave completely pseudo intellectual comments that never address a point. It's a good reminder of how propaganda works; name calling, diversion, pompous jargon, etc. I do miss Jeff Biss, or at least I haven't seen him lately, with all his LOLs, mocking, and calling everyone a stupid idiot. Man, dude had some charm.
Unanimity would be a bad thing - in fact, comments like that would be useless. Gadflies are always a bit unpleasant, but necessary.
Lol, I'm life is the cool new way to say my life....
Matt, We are NOT tired of these censorship posts. This may be the #1 problem for us and the country for the foreseeable future. Please keep it up. We will all support you as best we can.
It seems to me that these tech companies are in violation of their behavior with respect to their FCC Section 230 protections as "platforms". They are operating as publishers and thus should be subject to the same liabilities of all publishers for the content they allow or filter.
I have written to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and the Senate Oversight of the Federal Communications Commission to complain about these abuses, and the need for new penalties for any platform company negatively impacting public 1A rights... including their exclusion from Section 230 protections if they continue to act as publishers and not platforms.
This crap is not gonna' stop by just complaining about it. I am generally not a fan of government intrusion into the business practices of corporations, but these are businesses that have become the dominate communications platforms for society. They are no different today than has been for example the telephone service companies. What if your telephone services started listening to your conversations and banning you from access to the services because some human operator objected to what you were saying on the phone? YouTube cannot both have 90% of the market share for Internet video content delivery and then decide what it will allow or not except for legal limitations for obscenity, etc., that the FCC applies to network TV. It is either a publisher or a platform. Pick one.
But the government doesn’t function so good luck regardless of how many tools at their disposal to fix the problem.
Why we need a completely new type of people in national politics and running government agencies.
That’s for sure. Politics attracts all the wrong people for all the wrong reasons. Change incentive structures change the types of people who --‘serve’ (🤣)
Whose definition of "obscenity, etc."? My platform, my definitions.
The first step is to stop them from redefining language. An "obscenity" is defined as "the portrayal or description of sexual matters offensive or disgusting by accepted standards of morality and decency." In other words, just porn.
Now from a libertarian point of view, even THAT definition can be exploited and corrupted to harm 1A rights. For example, bible thumping locations might ban books that depict human anatomy, pregnancy and giving birth as being "sexual". A leftist community might band books on real history & religion but require K-6 students to read books depicting children giving and getting same-gender oral sex and claim it is educational. I get the difficulty here; however, there is a Final Rule process for regulatory change. We only need to require that any and all thing on the list of what can be and should be legally censored to be public and require the public input to make changes to it. There is also an appeal process for when the FCC attempts to fine a media company for breaking the rules. Lastly people can appeal by electing new politicians that will oversee the government institutions getting it wrong. But there is no appeal process for private business.
You can make the also make the libertarian case that nobody is forced to do business with Youtube or Google. I think there are three arguments against that. One, both are defined as platform services... and thus are expected to operate in ways different than publishers that control the content of their products and services and that accept the risk of liability for what they allow. Two, both are monopolies so the alternative choices are limited and mush less valuable to users. Three, the services provided from these platforms have become the defacto way to find information, communicate, advertise and also for some, to make a living. Their canceling and censoring is analogous to having a checkpoint at the village market where 90% of the village residence talk with each other, and conduct trade transactions that are a requirement for their lives... and a percentage of those residents are disallowed into the market because they have said things that the market administrators don't like.
"For example, bible thumping locations might ban books that depict human anatomy, pregnancy and giving birth as being "sexual". A leftist community might band books on real history & religion but require K-6 students to read books depicting children giving and getting same-gender oral sex and claim it is educational."
Or: A right-wing community might sneak a little Jesus into the daily curriculum, thus violating the 1st amendment, or ban books that depict the full scope of the sciences up to the present, or disingenuously "gatekeep" unadulterated, unapproved "real," factual history by "real" historians that has not been vetted by secretive star-chamber-like committees that almost are always adjacent to right-wing prejudices, and most probably shriek and pearl-clutch at the sight or sound of human anatomy, human rights, human health---hell, anything frankly human.
Gotta keep a trained eye on these mischievous, censorious folk. They almost always travel with red pens and are always at the ready to use them.
Meanwhile the California legislature has mandated Ethnic Studies for high school and state universities. It is clear ideological indoctrination... and the difference between it and religious indoctrination is nothing.
Relentless, Frank, you're relentless. I said the same thing about algebra in middle school and my lawsuit nearly made it to the Supreme Court. Later I had to be deprogrammed from all the quadratic equations drilled into me.
Hmm...Yves Smith, over at Naked Capitalism (which has its own issues, like a walled garden):
"If your business depends on a "platform", you don't HAVE a business."
We'll see how far Rumble and Substack carry us.
That is silly. My internet service provider is a platform. My cell phone company service is a platform. Yes, Substack is a platform and a number of writers HAVE a business that relies on it.
"I have written to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and the Senate Oversight of the Federal Communications Commission to complain"
I'm sure that was an entertaining read. I'll bet some faceless bureaucrat is using your complaint as a coaster right this very moment.
The House Committee is dominated by Republicans. They are on it. However, if Dems take over the House again, then censorship expands.
Matt, I'm not the least bit tired of "digital censorship tales." It is among your most important work, maybe the most important. Keep on.
Matt...this problem is becoming worse and now our good buddy Elon has invited a WEF shill to run Twitter and outlook is not good there either, despite the promising start. It is becoming increasingly difficult to read and share valuable information, to have unfettered conversations and enjoy critical thinking. Thanks for all you do....keep fighting the good fight!
I would hope that Racket readers never tire of digital censorship tales, for as long as they occur. The democrat party seems to love throwing around the phrase "a threat to our democracy", and nothing is a bigger threat than censorship.
Wanna bet?
All I can say is welcome to “fascist” America:
“Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power”
Benito Mussolini
See any similarities playing out, in real time, here? Hmmm 🤔
lol, you missed the "dems are fascist" fad train by a few months, sorry bro.
Here's the thing: fascism does not exist without ultranationalism. So, if you choose to call dems fascist now, you really should abstain from ever calling them globalists in the future (given that "ultranationalist globalism" is an oxymoron).
So you don’t see any merger of state and corporate power in the case of the you tube (google) censorship antics Matt specifically called out, and the many other instances of this sort of thing?
💯
Couple this with Grayzone's recent GoFundMe disaster, it seems the beast will not be satisfied until all of us become drooling subhumans eagerly snarfing up the latest CIA approved mindless entertainment or fascist "news" narratives.
Perhaps it's time we developed a new Internet we will term "Intervus", along the lines of Festivus (for the rest of us) in which we will celebrate the airing of grievances, feats of strength, and a Intervus miracle during which we will blink into an alternate reality bereft of all Corporations.
Of course, the real problem is that content creators and providers are now embroiled in a Catch-22, in which the beast provides food on the table, but demands compliance. I hate to say it, but we can't have it both ways. If you want to play, then it's by the golden rule.
I don't know what the answer is other than there are always choices. We may not like the choices, but they are ours to make.
I'd subscribe to a CIA streaming service. Can't be any worse than Netflix.
"drooling subhumans"
Good news -- you're already there!
"Perhaps it's time we developed a new Internet"
Good fucking luck.
"I don't know what the answer is"
Be less of a paranoid dummy, that's what I'd suggest.
Your sentiment is lost on me, same as last time DY shill.
You only pipe up when something threatens your Master.
Uh, okay? Who exactly am I working for, in your mind?
Is it *that* implausible that a regular human being would find your POV idiotic and braindead? There's literally *no* other explanation than that everyone who disagrees with you is paid to do so?
People who insult and ridicule other people always have an agenda.
Perhaps if you had an alternative viewpoint or other ideas as to the topic at hand, I could find it plausible that you disagree with me, and are simply too socially inept to express it without resorting to character attacks and ad-hominem childish retorts.
Lacking that, I would suggest that you go spook an AI forum before a computer-generated shill takes your job - it would be much better at it and wouldn't waste its time on people who recognize what it is.
If you really just think that censorship and authoritarianism is okay, then D(why) are you here??
My original playful comment hardly rises to the level of ire that you assigned to it. So one of two things is true: either 1) you're paid to ridicule and insult people who's worldviews differ from your Master's, or 2) You're just another angry asshole who gets his jollies by trolling forums looking for suggestible marks who are easily cowed by such unpleasantries the likes of which you tried to do to me.
Since you don't sound old enough or stupid enough to be the latter, I will settle on my original assessment.
"People who insult and ridicule other people always have an agenda."
Really? 𝘈𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴? That sounds like sloppy hyperbole to me, especially considering that you contradict this further down (unless you bucket "getting your jollies" under "having an agenda"... in which case I'm not sure what you accomplish by accusing me of "having an agenda". Who *doesn't* want to get their jollies?)
"If you really just think that censorship and authoritarianism is okay"
...I don't...
"then D(why) are you here??"
Bought a 1yr sub back when I still thought this place was worthwhile. Just waiting for it to expire.
"My original playful comment hardly rises to the level of ire that you assigned to it."
I'll be the judge of that.
"So one of two things is true:"
Yeah, not really. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dilemma
You're free to pollute your worldview with as many paranoid assumptions as you like... it's no skin off my nose. Given what I know about myself, though, I do find it mighty entertaining when thin-skinned babies like you refuse to believe that anyone could just *want* to say mean things about them on the internet.
You’re a drum with only one sound seems to be his specific complaint, rather than your more generalized version.
I don't get tired of this sort of thing, it is an important public service.