Judges rejecting cases because they are either on the payroll or take seriously the death threats issued against them and their families doesn’t necessarily mean that the cases aren’t valid. Before you tell me that doesn’t happen, perhaps you should look up Judge Esther Salas whose son was shot dead outside her home by someone masquerading as a FedEx delivery driver a few months back. She was due to preside over a case looking into Epstein’s tax affairs.
Simple question for CT and Trump /conspiracy supporters... What would be the motivation for REPUBLICAN election officials in REPUBLICAN held 'Swing' States to rig an Election against their own party? Supplementary question: IF it had been a conspiracy, how many tens of thousand of 'conspirators' from 'top down' would be involved to coordinate a Nationwide 'Steal' and how would they have been recruited without one single whistle blower anywhere exposing it from the start? The incredible lack of intelligence and reasoning ability of millions of conspiracy supporting Americans is absolutely astounding and incomprehensible to anyone of even average intelligence.
Whilst I partially agree with the ban. It does bring up the worrying scenario of the owners of Twitter snd Facebook becoming world police. Which will only divide the citizens who will feel that their side is being ignored and removed, leading to further radicalisation.
Perhaps you should look up that shooting too and realise that the murderer had a personal grudge against the judge.
Disagree. They are private companies and don't have to offer a platform to anyone. Trump is free to create or use a personal website to pedal his bigotry if he so wishes but why should anyone be forced to offer him a platform? I've said it before but it's like being invited to someone's house and shouting abuse while you're there. The homeowner would rightly kick you out and people wouldn't be saying 'this is not fair he deserves to be allowed to abuse anyone it's censorship'.
I don’t think that’s the worrying point on this one though. We’re already being force fed specific info on the platforms you have through Twitter and Facebook algorithms, where they almost dictate what you see and what you don’t see. That’s not healthy to start with is it? Their influence is already too great. They haven’t created a house for us to all nip round for tea and biscuits, it’s a massive money making machine. In this instance someone high profile has had their account suspended, deleted, or whatever. They’ve made the decision for the world that this account had to go. But they’re also making the decision for the world which accounts stay. I think it’s dangerous personally, not in relation to Trump’s account, just as a general trend and thinking about the amount of power they have to influence.
Well, I'll try again. Free speech, along with any other type of right is not an entitlement that is untrammeled. It comes with responsibilities. Your right to free speech versus my right to have my democratic vote counted according to the principles enshrined in the constitution. There has to be a balance, you see. I think I have been civil with you, Mr Casual. But I think we have to form a view. I was inclined much earlier in this thread to think you were a wind-up merchant making entertainment for yourself (and a few of us, come to that). And a very good one at that. But your persistence suggests to me that you are actually invested in some of this alternative reality. I assume you are a consumer of that side of the social media that perpetuates these nonsense conspiracy theories. I entreat you to seek out some truth in what is being fed to you, and not to accept stuff because it is repeated so often that it becomes part of your own internal narrative. I realise that I am probably going against what I said to Mr jjsmiff in attempting to reason with you, but heigh-ho! It's worth a try! In the meantime, maybe you'd like to consider how many corrupt demagogues and dictators have prospered in the longer term. And Trump is only a pound shop version! A good day to you!
I’m not a Trump conspiracy supporter, but the answer to this is that US politics is massively complex, difficult to really understand if you’re just part-time to it, and the different levels of authority and sign off on things is a minefield. Somebody more clued up than me might be able to clarify or correct this, but being a Republican state doesn’t mean you’re Republican run. The governors of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin were/are Democrats. You then have the mayors who might have specific political allegiances, and then also the Senators.
I accept that we will disagree. And I accept your views. But we’re not talking about someone’s house. We’re talking about a world wide political platform not someone’s house. A news agency that censors one part of the argument, however ludicrous becomes more of political tool than a news agency. When a platform removes a voice of a current US president, it creates more harm than good creating a distrust and fuelling the thoughts of people like the jamiriquai lookalike. Radicalisation and conspiracies are fuelled by these kind of actions. It stokes up the anger of the nut jobs in their Deep South bunkers who aren’t having their words heard. In my opinion it would be better to keep the views with educating debunking of the stupidly of the man. In effect they’re creating a martyr without him even dying.
I don’t know the solution. I’m not pretending I do. I’m just saying your analogy of it just being a house you pop in to is wrong and I think it’s something that we should be worried about overall. We see vile things posted on Social Made every second. Disgusting things. The odd temporary ban gets handed out but no widespread permanent banning. Why? Because every subscriber using the platform equals cash. Share price inflation. Let’s not pretend these companies are looking out for us long term, they’re a massive part of the problems in society today.
I very carefully worded my post to be aimed at no one in particular, but a broad scope of radicalistation, that can apply to politics, religion or any other area of life. Clearly Trump behaved as a demagogue in his incitement of the domestic terrorists on wednesday evening, as per the dictionary definition below: a political leader who seeks support by appealing to the desires and prejudices of ordinary people rather than by using rational argument. I do not claim to be hugely intelligent or educated but i did study modern European history to a high academic level and the parallels to Germany in the 1930s are very clear. Polarisation of the people to ideologies, a propaganda controlled press led by an influential demagogue, and ideas of other sides shouted down with no evidence. Even, in the case of the BBS this week on another thread there was a suggestion that a section of the population be gathered together separate from the rest of the population that clearly could have been construed as in a "camp". As i repeat these are scary times. In terms of freedom of speech, as i included in my post, and you refer to, i personally strongly believe in it. You @casualtyke are free to express your opinion on here, as you have been doing. What i find disingenuous is your limited evidence to back up your opinions. You are very like Trump in repeatedly saying that something will happen, and then it doesn't and you move the goalposts. also, when challenged you have provided evidence that is from QAnon or other similar sources that have very little credibility and are often easily undone by research of the available evidence. As a historian i understand different viewpoints and where they are sourced, but we have to return to facts and when the facts say otherwise this is how accurate opinions are developed. As i say, feel free to continue to have your opinion, and continue to repeat it, but please provide evidence of a credible nature to back it up. I don't think this is an unreasonable request
What would be the motivation? We are a greedy species by nature Tekky. Cross the right palms with thirty pieces of silver and many people will largely do exactly as they are instructed. Failing that, blackmail and death threats can be effective tools. Incidentally, have you seen the video of Mike Pence receiving his ‘payment’ for being a good boy on Wednesday? There are plenty of whistleblowers but they are either paid off, ‘suicided’ or cleverly branded as ‘conspiracy theorists’ to keep them quiet. It also helps when the US media is almost entirely a CIA-controlled propaganda machine. As the founder of the CIA’s Operation Mockingbird once said ‘We will know our disinformation program has been successful when everything the American public believes is false’. Yes, I suspect that there are tens of thousands involved in the US. In fact, I hear that there could be in excess of 600,000 criminal indictments worldwide. As for exposing it ‘from the start’.... when do you suppose the ’start’ was? This is an not simply an operation that was set up for the 2020 election. Yes I appreciate that I’m talking about crazy conspiracy theories.... but I think you will all soon come to learn that the ‘crazy conspiracy theorists’ were right all along.
I can (almost) guarantee that those who criticised the death penalty would have said that these people should not have been subjected to it either. That doesn’t mean I don’t get why people wouldn’t have a wry smile (or even a full blown laugh) at idiots being killed whilst being not only an idiot but engaging in terrorism at the time. People laugh all the time when people get killed doing stupid things, like poking an alligator or something, that’s why there’s jokes about ‘Darwin Awards’. That doesn’t mean that people would want the alligator poker to be executed.