Chinese President Xi Jinping Says Internet Must Be 'Clean and Righteous' (reuters.com)

The internet must be "clean and righteous" and vulgar content must be resisted in the field of culture, Chinese President Xi Jinping told a meeting of senior propaganda officials, state media said on Wednesday. From a report: The government has been tightening controls over internet content as part of what it says are efforts to maintain social stability, taking on "vulgar" and pornographic content as well as the unauthorised dissemination of news. The moves come amid a broader clamp-down targeting online content from livestreams and blogs to mobile gaming, as the country's leaders look to tighten their grip over a huge and diverse cultural scene online popular with China's youth. Speaking at a two-day meeting, attended by officials from major state media outlets and the internet regulator, Xi said propaganda efforts needed to be put front and centre, the official Xinhua news agency said. "Uphold a clean and righteous internet space," the report cited Xi as saying. China shut as many as 128,000 websites that contained obscene and other "harmful" information in 2017, Xinhua reported in January, citing government data.

Comments

Clean and righteous, right on!

[llamalad]

Now, what's his email address?

And does anyone know a good goatse mirror?

Re:Clean and righteous, right on!

[alvinrod]

While you're at it, tell him that the communist party needs a rebranding. Lemon Party sounds catchy.

And if there's anything that will help clean thoughts of Tank Man from the minds of people, it's definitely tub girl.

Re:Clean and righteous, right on!

[llamalad]

Well played, sir. Well played.

You win at the internet today. I'm impressed.

Re:Clean and righteous, right on!

[Anonymous Coward]

Get my family freindly Goat C shirt! ~ CaptainDork

Re:Clean and righteous, right on!

[Anonymous Coward]

It really bad how in this day and age governments and corporations fell that they have some right over a computer network and wish to restrict it, when in the early days before the "uneducated" got online with Fidonet and early Internet/JANET in the mid 90's things were great then, but as time has got on the uneducated have brought the internet stands to it's knees with their warped sense of mentality and closed sense of sexual practices, which the world managed to get by with shagging for the last 1000,000+ years

Re:Clean and righteous, right on!

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

> goatse

pandase

Re:Clean and righteous, right on!

[Rick Schumann]

You'd need an entire tanker ship full of bleach to scrub tub girl from your brain, though, and it still wouldn't be enough.

Re:Clean and righteous, right on!

[Anonymous Coward]

You could always overwrite it with two girls one cup. Not sure it's any better.

Re:Clean and righteous, right on!

[Anonymous Coward]

WINNIE THE POOH GOATSE

Re: Clean and righteous, right on!

[Anonymous Coward]

Xi Jinping is right, as a PROUD AMERICAN, why does the first amendment allow the protection of GARBAGE, it should be amended to protect only truthful speach while garbage speach should be a misdemeanor. If the first amendment is allowed to continue to protect garbage, it might as well protect child predators and street artists because of a lack of boundaries. Decency is a characteristic that eclipses religious boundaries. If you are willing to protect any kind of speach, well then.... if you don't agree with being a decent well-rounded person of courtesy; clean and righteous, make yourself known! There are street artists more than happy to beat the living fuck out of you, knocking you out, then grabbing your hair or ear and slamming the fuck out of your face on the ground and as the coup de gras, stomping on your lower jaw till it looks like mush. Wow such a hard decision: being courteous and decent and clean and righteous or ending as an art show. Hard decision, yeah I know...

Re: Clean and righteous, right on!

[c6gunner]

This message brought to you by the Communist Party of China.

Re:Clean and righteous, right on!

[Anonymous Coward]

Everyone getting all high and mighty about the Chinese government censoring the internet. I live in the UK... we do exactly the same - and are planning to do more.

We're barely any different.

Re:Clean and righteous, right on!

[interval1066]

FOR GREAT JUSTICE!

Re: Clean and righteous, right on!

[Brujis]

What? Your post is ten billion words with no actual point or any meaning whatsoever. Are you Alexandria 'bug eye' Cortez by chance?

Re: Clean and righteous, right on!

[Brujis]

"Xi Jinping is right," No he is an arrogant dictator who needs a bullet in his head. "as a PROUD AMERICAN," Is that why your comment is anonymous? Because you are proud? "why does the first amendment allow the protection of GARBAGE," Because you don't get to decide what is garbage you braindead retard. "it should be amended to protect only truthful speach while garbage speach should be a misdemeanor." With the government determining what is truthful... I see... "If the first amendment is allowed to continue to protect garbage, it might as well protect child predators" They are committing acts of physical violence which is not speech. "and street artists because of a lack of boundaries." If they are making their street art without the consent of the people who own the property then they are criminals and need to be put in jail. "Decency is a characteristic that eclipses religious boundaries." And you have proven stupidity is a characteristic that eclipses all boundaries. "If you are willing to protect any kind of speach," That is what free speech means. All speech is protected, even stuff I don't like. "well then.... if you don't agree with being a decent well-rounded person of courtesy; clean and righteous," Which you define obviously... " make yourself known!" Here I am, bring on the soy boy brigade! "There are street artists more than happy to beat the living fuck out of you," They can try, the little soy boy bitches aren't strong enough to even hurt. "knocking you out," They can try but it won't go well for them. " then grabbing your hair or ear and slamming the fuck out of your face on the ground and as the coup de gras, stomping on your lower jaw till it looks like mush." So speech you don't like is bad and needs to be stopped but being a violent piece of shit is all good in your book? Go f**k yourself anonymous, you are clearly a pu**y ass soy boy trying to act like a man... "Wow such a hard decision: being courteous and decent and clean and righteous or ending as an art show." Yeah your try that with me a**hole and see how beaten to death you get. "Hard decision, yeah I know..." No it's pretty easy, you are a coward and evil, just pure evil.

Re: Clean and righteous, right on!

[Anonymous Coward]

No, the UK is still very different from China. I don't see anyone over there seriously talking about curbing the media's free speech. By that pace you'll run out of comparisons if things get worst.

Re: Clean and righteous, right on!

[Anonymous Coward]

Ironically this is how plenty if Americans view life?

Everyone hates free speech because it can be mean.

Re: Clean and righteous, right on!

[Anonymous Coward]

What.

The UK and the US both are on the verge of curbing free speech.

It's on the lips of every barely-legal voter

Re: Clean and righteous, right on!

[Anonymous Coward]

No. In the UK, police have the power to decide what is hate speech, and have already jailed people even for stating something very benign, and in one case for stating a fact.

Re:Clean and righteous, right on!

[Anonymous Coward]

This is a very interesting development.

As most people know, the Chinese don't have a real written language. They have a primitive system of hieroglyphics pictographs to represent words, much in the same way the ancient Egyptians did. As you can imagine the typewriters for such a crude language are monsters with thousands of keys. The same with computer keyboards. They can't use normal keyboards but need fat keyboards with hundreds of very small keys, and even then they are required to use complex "compose" operations of pressing multiple keys to generate just one little pictograph. Very inefficient to say the least.

And then there are the Chinese themselves. Their society is set up like a termite mound or an ant hill. Chinese are not individuals but rather better described as worker ants who all look alike and are indistinguishable from one another. They relinquish all personality and personal rights to the state which essentially owns them. They are regimented into the state approved "intranet". There is no such thing as the Internet in China because Google and other multinationals have created a set of blockers and filters. Whole blocks of normal Internet addresses aren't even routeable in China. Google's censorship software will even report to Chinese authorities any attempts to view forbidden content. The penalty for reading banned content or discussing banned topics is years in a Gulag. Many never return having been worked to death under brutal conditions.

When we think of China, it is best to think of them as faceless insects, one identical with the next, all doing the will of the socialist party bosses. Termites and ants that try to stand out will be squashed. So you have a billion little insects tapping away on their monster keyboards generating pictographs which no one will ever read. Be warned. This is the future the socialists have planned for America. The State is all. The individual is nothing.

Re:Clean and righteous, right on!

[SuricouRaven]

Difference of magnitude. Both countries censor, but China censors a lot more.

Re: Clean and righteous, right on!

[Anonymous Coward]

Egyptian heiroglyphs are phonetic, not pictographic.

Re: Clean and righteous, right on!

[Anonymous Coward]

Hugs for Puppies Party has a nice ring to it.

Re:Clean and righteous, right on!

[Anonymous Coward]

Quantity vs Quality.

China's approach to population control is overt and dominant control of the lives of the people.

The Western approach to population control is to fatten and entertain the people while subverting what they see and hear.

Which one is better? Pick your poison.

lol captcha = auditors

Re: Clean and righteous, right on!

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah it's a problem that you can't speak the name a particular African country if you are white in the US. You can't even ask " Hi, are you from N*****?" Even if it is a fact or a perfectly reasonable question. How the fuck is that free speech?

Re: Clean and righteous, right on!

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually it's ok to be a proud Racist in US. It's perfectly fine. In fact 46.1% are Racist and they are not in jail or anything. In fact Racists run the country.

Re: Clean and righteous, right on!

[Anonymous Coward]

Did you really get beat up by a street artist? Sure it wasn't a street thug?

Why the street artist hate? They make art and ask for almost nothing in return.

If you were complaining about overpaid classic or professional artists, we might have a worth discussion.

And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

Come to think about it, most Europeans and most Americans do wish for that.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[KiloByte]

So do bible-thumpers. There's no meaningful difference between left-nazis and right-nazis here.

In the US, far left is currently mainstream while far right is not (Unite the Right 2018 had ~20 participants, most of the hype came from Russian trolls), while eg. in Poland the left is nearly non-existent while far right is everywhere, but that's just a matter of different colors of the same. Just note the name: national socialism.

Their policies are very alike. This includes censorship.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[RyanRife8866]

The difference between all of those groups and Xi is that he actually has the power to censor the Internet.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[KiloByte]

The difference between all of those groups and Xi is that he actually has the power to censor the Internet.

You mean, deplatforming isn't a thing?

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

wanting people to be held accountable for spewing hate-filled ideas =/= censorship

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

So do bible-thumpers. There's no meaningful difference between left-nazis and right-nazis here.

...

Bullshit.

First, left-nazis actually have terms for censoring opposing viewpoints.

Second, Bible-thumpers may be obnoxious in their misguided attempts to save your soul, but they won't beat up a progressive Bernie Bro for the crime of carrying an American flag, like a bunch of left-ACTUAL-nazi risibly self-proclaimed "Antifa" goons did.:

Paul Welch came to the downtown protest Aug. 4 to let his political leanings be known.

With pride he clutched his U.S. flag as he moved among the crowd of like-thinking demonstrators.

Soon a group of black-clad anti-fascist protesters, also known as antifa, demanded he lose the flag, calling it a fascist symbol. Welch refused, and a tug-of-war ensued.

It ended with Welch taking a club to the back of the head, lying on the ground in a pool of his own blood.

Only Welch was not a Proud Boy, a Patriot Prayer supporter or among the other conservative activists who descended into the area that day, many from out of town.

He was one of hundreds of progressive Portlanders who had turned out to oppose the right-wing rally held at the Tom McCall Waterfront Park.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

bullshit. You want them silenced. That's censorship.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

Whatever. Your ideas suck, they are wet toilet paper. So you ban water.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Kjella]

You mean, deplatforming isn't a thing?

It's a thing, whether it's a bad thing depends on what you think they're being deplatformed from. Just because it's open to the public most private places and events have some sort of rules. Heck, they'll kick you out of the public library if you can't behave not even their tolerance is infinite. Has YouTube deplatformed, or rather unplatformed porn since they carry all sorts of strange videos except porn? Does YouTube have to carry all IS propaganda that doesn't violate any laws?

I assume it's an implied reference to Alex Jones and yeah it almost looked like a coordinated effort but it probably comes from him being way across the line on almost service he's on, it's just nobody wanted to ban him alone. So when one started, the rest said hell yeah good riddance. The order didn't come from the government. He's still free to set up his own site. He's had way more press coverage than he'd manage on his own. And that's really the biggest difference, if you talk about the sites China shuts down they shut you down too. Here it's like are you really in the "IS beheading videos" class.

Re: And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

Yet they have no problem bombong abortion clinics.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_of_God_(United_States)

Re: And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

Yet they have no problem bombong abortion clinics.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_of_God_(United_States)

When one of those right-wing bombers becomes a glorified member of accepted academe and the ghost-writer behind the "autobiography" of a President, then you'll be able to claim equivalence with "progressive" acceptance of violence.

Also, call me when a right-wing person takes it upon himself to shoot up the Democrat's congressional baseball team.

Fuckwit.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Rick Schumann]

The difference between all of those groups and Xi is that he actually has the power to censor the Internet within the territorial boundaries of China.

Fixed that for you.
NO ONE can censor the entire worldwide Internet. If that fact ever changes then we've all got a much bigger problem to worry about.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

Remember, hate speech is violence. So Jinping is just fighting violence, like any good leader should.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

Broadly speaking everyone wants there to be no obscenities in their enviroment.
The trouble is everyone has a different only occasionally intersecting set of what they consider obscene.

That's why "removing obscenity" is such a useful stated goal for somone who wants arbitrary control over what people can comunicate. It's easy to get support for the high level idea, and then use the discord over the low level implementation to twist the end result to arbitrary goals.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

There's a difference between banning someone from a site over rules violations and brigading every site with any content to remove a person from public discourse.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[KiloByte]

Second, Bible-thumpers may be obnoxious in their misguided attempts to save your soul, but they won't beat up a progressive

Hmm, I think I can recall quite a few people burned at stake for saying things that were disliked by official teaching of Christianity (often things that were obviously factually true, or explicitly mentioned in the Bible). And even in modern times, censorship by Christians goes strong.

And that's still nothing compared to censorship in Saudi Arabia or the likes.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[kaatochacha]

So then why are maps from american airlines changing their Taiwan labelling?
Don't believe the within china nonsense., they're getting everyone to censor themselves.
PS: Xi Jinping looks like Pooh.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmm, I think I can recall quite a few people burned at stake for saying things that were disliked by official teaching of Christianity (often things that were obviously factually true, or explicitly mentioned in the Bible).

Except, you're wrong. The excuse was heresy, but those executions were political moves by local landowners. Usually killing off a rival or someone with dangerous information. In the case of Salem, those were all property grabs using a local ordinance about witchcraft to justify denying heirs ownership of the property.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[lgw]

Just because it's open to the public most private places and events have some sort of rules. Heck, they'll kick you out of the public library if you can't behave not even their tolerance is infinite.

When a private site becomes the de-facto public forum, free speech laws may apply. There's precedent for this in meatspeace, though it's not 100% clear. It's also not so clear that social media has reached that level of importance.

It's a lot more clear that you're either a carrier, and carry everything legal without liability for content, or you're a publisher with full editorial discretion and liability for what you publish. I think it's time that principle applies to social media sites.

I assume it's an implied reference to Alex Jones and yeah it almost looked like a coordinated effort

"Almost looked like"? He was deplatformed from every social media site (except Twitter) in a 24-hour period - they even closed his Linkedin page. Do you need a press release?

it probably comes from him being way across the line on almost service he's on,

Across what line? He's a nutbag, and is routinely sued for slander, but he's within the policies of these sites. They simply don't like his politics, and figured no one would defend him since he's crazy. But he's obviously the canary, and they'll be coming for more mainstream people next.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[lgw]

Hmm, I think I can recall quite a few people burned at stake for saying things that were disliked by official teaching of Christianity (often things that were obviously factually true, or explicitly mentioned in the Bible).

I'm sure it happened over the centuries, but it was almost always politics that got you burned at the stake. Either local politics, or church politics. The more things change ...

Re: And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

Republican tears are so salty. I love it.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Rick Schumann]

That's not 'censorship', perhaps you should go look at the defiinition of the word?

Re: And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

LOL. So you define the criteria. Stfu you repubtard. Keep the tears coming. They are so saltyyyy and tasty.

Re: And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

LOL. You are legit a lunatic.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[citylivin]

"In the US, far left is currently mainstream"

bwahaha...

Left:
- universal healthcare
- environmental protections
- marijuana legal
- hate speech outlawed
- no coal plants

FAR left, is above plus
- universal income
- 50%-90% corporate tax rate
- all drugs legal
- proportional representation
- nationalized critical industries (energy, water, internet) and some too big to fail businesses or businesses in the national interest
- no more nukes, nuke plants or any polluting power plant. renewables only.
- cap higher end wages

So I very much doubt that the "mainstream" in the USA is "far left". I think you guys can barely get to the centrist position.

I know its said time and time again, but the USA version of "left" is considered center or center right by other 1st world democracies.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[ewibble]

Although I agree with you that both far left and far right want censorship. In many respects the USA main stream is anything from left. The USA cannot even provide free hospitals (which every other country in the world provides) or add a background check for owning an automatic rifle. The far left would be advocating communism that is definitely not mainstream in the USA. Although the left in terms of feminism is mainstream (in the media at least, talking to real women it isn't the case), you are not even allowed to say men may have a valid opinion, or innocent until proven guilty without being labeled misogynist.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

lol no such thing as left-nazis, chum.

The far left brought you weekends off and a raise now and then. The far right brought you the KKK.

Re: And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

Bombong? Are they high when they set off those bombs?

Or do they just use explosive bongs?

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

When a private site becomes the de-facto public forum, free speech laws may apply. There's precedent for this in meatspeace,

In meatspace, a public business can tell anyone they want to leave and refusal to leave will result in them calling the police for trespassing. Further, you can be banned from public businesses meaning any attempt to go on to the property can result in trespassing charges. If that's the de-facto standard, then Twitter and the like have every right to ban him.

Really, there's only two places I'm aware of in which private businesses have free speech considerations forced on them: unions and company towns. Plenty of people disagree against the former believing that a private business has every right to demand union discussions to happen off the work site and off work hours. For the latter, the severe abuses that company towns can be and where a business effectively becomes the government, it's little wonder that eventually States recognized that certain basic standards of democracy had to be imposed or those who lived and worked in a company town were little more than slaves to the company.

"Almost looked like"? He was deplatformed from every social media site (except Twitter) in a 24-hour period - they even closed his Linkedin page. Do you need a press release?

While I wouldn't dismiss that it was a coordinated effort, you don't need need anything like that when news is very rapid. I mean, in your own town/city do gas prices tend to jump in a "coordinated" way? Does the news itself "coordinate" the big stories (like Manafort's convictions)? Are you coordinating with others in your response that this was a coordinated attack by social media platforms? It's often enough that a variety of like minded people would come to the same conclusion and do the same action, and all it takes is seeing one or two stepping forward and doing it first to "me too" it.

Across what line? He's a nutbag, ...

Having not watched Alex Jones (except in a handful of excerpts about him), I can't say from personal experience (even particular the nutbag part), but the contention is that Alex Jones has went from "nutbag" to "nutbag inciting people to violence". That latter part is what tends to cross even "free speech" lines in most jurisdictions.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[chronoglass]

or add a background check for owning an automatic rifle.

no issue with most of your post, but throwing this in (being that it is 100% false) could undermine peoples perception of the rest of it, as you appear to be outraged by things you don't understand.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[gweihir]

I still have not found any meaning full difference between any xyz-nazis. Left/right/religio/etc.-nazis. Extremist minded-people that feel entitled to push their ideologies on everybody. All the same scum, with a bit of different imagery and catch-phrases. At least in the end all willing to kill anybody who disagrees.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[gweihir]

Indeed. The religious fuckups are entirely willing to kill, maim and slaughter anybody believing differently. At the moment these specific ones in the US are just not powerful enough to get away with it, so they exercise some limited restraint out of self-preservation. But even a brief look at history shows their real nature in action.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Darinbob]

National Socialism was very much not socialist in any way. The name was used to attract people. On the other hand, it wasn't very right wing either. But everyone insists it must be one or the other and it's used as a way to tarnish the reputation of the side that they disagree with. Politics these days is just stupid, I'd rather people get along as opposed to parties which claim that the othesr are traitors (not just the US, this is everywhere). Political parties are one of the worst ideas invented in my view.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[gweihir]

The bible serves excellent pretexts for all kinds of political murder. So does every "holy book". The whole idea of such a book is the very opposite of "holy". And since not even the very short abstract version (10 commandments) is in any way abuse-proof, the whole approach can safely be regarded as a fundamental failure.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[gweihir]

The US only has right and far-right.

Re: And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

You cannot refute with solid evidence so you resort to name-calling. You're either a small child or a retarded adult.

Re: And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

National socialist party was a far right party of the nazis who were again a form of far right extremism.

Repeating lies won't make them so.

History 101 fail.

Re: And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

The far left brought us the italian Brigate Rosse, the german Rotee Armee Fraktion and assorted terrorists. Not to mention Stalin, Pol Pot and more recently, Chavez and Maduro who aren't on the same level of murderous, mass-genocidal violence but managed to completely ruin a nation. You're an ignorant and, probably, a terrorist sympathizer.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

Every country's political makeup is different. That said, all you're doing is splitting hairs while ignoring the point.

And yes, our "Far Left" is the same thing (more or less) if you were to run down your list, you'd frequently our "Far Left" is in favor of everything you just listed. And yes, they're pretty mainstream at least in comparison to the "Far Right" who essentially have borderline no support, as much as people pretend otherwise. That said, the "Far Left" struggles to get enough "high-level power" to actually push their agenda (in the USA). There's lot's of reasons for this, but it doesn't change their aim or their support among the common people.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[wisnoskij]

Is all censorship the same?

The Left wants to censor incorrect political opinions, claiming that Ideas are harmful because they have the power to change someone's mind and make them believe something you do not want to believe. Please, if you believe their is a better or more less partisan way of putting this, please help me come up with a better one.

While the Right wants to ban content they believe is unsavoury or harmful.

Banning pornography is definitely not the exact same thing as banning all opinions different than yours. For one, if it turns out that banning pornography was wrong, everyone can still express their opinion, have arguments about, and publish research on the effects of pornography on the individual and society. While the open debate, or research into banned opinions are by definition illegal themselves.

Re: And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

The left is incompetent at getting anything done and the right is only competent at getting the wrong things done. -_-

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[lgw]

In meatspace, a public business can tell anyone they want to leave and refusal to leave will result in them calling the police for trespassing.

Not even close. If you're open to the public, you can't discriminate against protected classes. There are some additional restrictions around community message boards.

Really, there's only two places I'm aware of in which private businesses have free speech considerations forced on them: unions and company towns.

Good point, I had forgotten about company towns. But it's the same principle - if you are a de-facto public forum, there are some restrictions to your ability to censor not limited to protected classes.

he contention is that Alex Jones has went from "nutbag" to "nutbag inciting people to violence".

Yep, that's the given reason. No evidence or audit of that, of course.

Any one of these sites banning him, I could buy. We all know how bizarre e.g. YouTube's censorship algorithms are. But this Stalin-esque un-personing? That's very clear.

Personally, free speech advocates should make their own platforms, and conservatives should actually move to them and abandon the platforms that hate them. Gab.ai and minds.com seem worthwhile. Seems like whining to complain Twitter is evil but keep using it.

But I do think that once e.g. Facebook starts applying editorial discretion, they should be liable for fraud and libel for the user content they allow.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[lgw]

Ah, so the structures that successfully kept societies together for 2000 years "can safely be regarded as a fundamental failure"? How convenient. All religions over history combined have killed fewer people than communism, of course.

Any set of laws, without a sense of morality to guide their interpretation and enforcement, can be turned to evil. Does that make the concept of "laws" bad? Of "morality"? Or does it simply mean that humans are fallible?

There was this guy once who said that scripture is complicated, and it's easy to read it wrong, so if you think it's telling you to hurt someone, that's how you know you're reading it wrong. He got pretty famous for saying things like that, though it didn't end well for him. However, he got the last laugh, as it turns out, since you've probably heard of him.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

- no coal plants

Only a dipshit would say this...
Coal is dead because of fracking retard.
It has nothing, zilch, to do with alternative energy like solar or wind.

You've exchanged some coal jobs for a butload more of gas field jobs.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[liquid_schwartz]

"In the US, far left is currently mainstream"

bwahaha...

Left: - universal healthcare - environmental protections - marijuana legal - hate speech outlawed - no coal plants

FAR left, is above plus - universal income - 50%-90% corporate tax rate - all drugs legal - proportional representation - nationalized critical industries (energy, water, internet) and some too big to fail businesses or businesses in the national interest - no more nukes, nuke plants or any polluting power plant. renewables only. - cap higher end wages

So I very much doubt that the "mainstream" in the USA is "far left". I think you guys can barely get to the centrist position.

I know its said time and time again, but the USA version of "left" is considered center or center right by other 1st world democracies.

You left out their most extreme positions and you know it. For example:

Left:

- general disdain for white people and favor affirmative action type programs. I think this is unique to the US. - OK to openly fly job ads that specify no white males unless they are gay - general disdain for Christians as a group - general disdain for anyone from "fly over" states, the south, or just not from a city - amnesty for all illegal immigrants is acceptable. Multiple times is fine too. - Abolish ICE so that enforcement of immigration laws is handicapped - force people to use an ever expanding list of new pronouns depending on what they identify as that day - deplatforming / censorship is OK as long as it's hate speech. Note that hate speech is very broadly defined and full of exclusions.

Far Left:

- wants reparations for slavery, always calculated to be in the trillions of USD - segregation in the form of safe spaces where only "people of color" are allowed - abolish borders altogether, anyone can come in any time and stay however long they like

Think I made this garbage up? Here are some citations:

https://www.inc.com/suzanne-lu... https://www.thecollegefix.com/... https://www.theatlantic.com/bu... https://www.washingtonpost.com... https://www.washingtontimes.co...

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[wyHunter]

Indeed. It's pretty terrible. Amongst the bible thumpers I know (I'm not one of them) they DO respect the first amendment and whilst they'd LIKE to see things censored they are also aware that freedom is important. I know no SJWs so I can't speak on them. Whether or not ALL bible thumpers respect the constitution, I can't say.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[wyHunter]

Indeed, the far left almost openly supports genocide of white folks. Pretty astounding.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

How come a such historically ignorant comment gets such a high score?
Teaching of history has stopped, or too much FOX news and youtube exposure?

Man says Nazis were socialist, gets schooled by history writer | https://www.indy100.com/article/nazi-socialist-right-wing-white-supremacists-history-twitter-mikestuchbery-7900001

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[serviscope_minor]

Just note the name: national socialism.

Well you just fell for a big pile of Nazi propaganda. Tell me, if you think the Nazis were actually socialists, then why did they throw socialists in concentration camps?

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[interval1066]

Whether you censor because I'm holding a gun to your head or you're censoring because you're swallowing my kool-aid whole-sale; its censorship.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

Pft, sure kid. You might have well labeled those "What I want", "What I think the nutjobs want". The thing about political parties is that there's about 7 billion shades of grey and there's only a loose coupling between any two people. Parties are a group of people who are "close enough" to agree on at least some things. Oh, and it's not grey, we've got a whole color wheel, with saturation, polarization, and plenty of huehuehue.

What I want:
- Universal healthcare (How to do that is debated).
- Environmental protections.
- Legalize marijuana, but shun it like tabacco.
- Standardized nuclear power.
- Renewable energy (So far there's been good progress).
- Promotion of capitalism and competition, as long as it's not underhanded and anti-competative.
- Regulations on industries that don't have open competition and a free market.
- Additional personal income tax brackets that keep going up and up.
- If housing prices in cities are atrocious, build more housing, apartments, lofts. This isn't rocket science. Planning for city growth is why we have mayors.
- Stop foreign wars, we are not the world police. Our military should be for defense.
- Reduce military funding.
- Increase R&D grants. (Those last two should definately be a swords to plowshears sort of plan. Retooling the military industrial complex will take time).
- The federalized system of testing policies at the state level needs to start declaring what has worked and what hasn't, but mandate nothing.
- With technological disruption should come additional unemployment benefits.
- We've got to reduce the price of higher education. Throwing money at acedamia has raised tuition. For-profit universities are atrocious. I don't have a plan here, I just want something done.
- Keysian economics seems crazy, but they appear to have worked: Government throws out loans and props up markets during crisises. And needs to build up it's wealth during good times. Meaning taxes, surpluses, and making a strong currency.
- Network neutrality by whatever means. I liked the title II classification angle.
- Free speech is not absolute, but is not something for other people. The current trend of claiming it only protects you from government is horrifying.
- Space is best explored by robots. We really ought to practice sustainable colonies in the antarctic and sea-bed before trying for Mars or Venus.
- Equality of opportunity.

What the crazies want:
- universal basic income (Anyone who has looked at the math knows that there's no way you could give everyone a check for more than $400/mo circa2016)
- 50%-90% corporate tax rate (Pointless, as only profit is taxed and there's a billion shell games they play with that)
- all drugs legal (also a goal of libertarians. But there's just no case for why people should get on heroin)
- proportional representation (This is hardly a right-left thing, it's just democrats in California bitching)
- nationalized critical industries (energy, water, internet) and some too big to fail businesses or businesses in the national interest
- no more nukes, nuke plants or any polluting power plant, renewables only
- cap higher end wages (Pft, I've never heard ANYONE suggest a cap. Just additional brackets going up to 90%)
- no coal
- hate speech is violence
- politically incorrect actions outside of work are sticky and you deserve to get fired for it
- sex and gender are meaningless distinctions
- protected classes
- central economies, price-fixing
- free speech when it's convenient, otherwise freeze peach is a tool of nazis
- equality of outcome
- no military (Hey, I've heard at least 2 wackos suggest this)
- no police
- money for nothing, checks for free

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

Come to think about it, most Europeans and most Americans do wish for that.

In what universe do Europeans want to censor the internet exactly?

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[KiloByte]

This. Early Christians didn't murder anyone, but the very moment they were legalized and gained some political power (Constantine the Great), they started mass-burning of libraries, killing heretics, etc. Then not long after there was Theodosius -- also "the Great", who outright demanded people to convert or die. And they stopped going after heretics only after their political power diminished.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[KiloByte]

Tell me, if you think the Nazis were actually socialists, then why did they throw socialists in concentration camps?

If Sunnis are actually Muslims, then why do they mass-murder Shias? Or if Protestants were actually Christians, then why did they mass-murder Catholics (and vice versa)?

Enemies can be negotiated with. Heretics need to be eradicated without mercy.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

"Deplatforming" is (apparently) a thing. An old thing. It's called censorship. The additional twist the term adds is so minor as to be insignificant. If you get the people in charge of the platform to deny someone the ability to speak their mind, that's censorship whether or not that platform is the USA public square or Twitter or Facebook or a college campus or a newspaper. Yes, the first amendment only restricts the government, but the ideals of free speech are older than the US government and pertain to EVERYONE. It's not something for other people to uphold or to only support when it's convenient. If you are actively trying to remove their ability to send a message, you are censoring them.

Worse, is if you go to a public space and simply shout over them. You are nothing more than a bigoted asshole. No, really, "Bigot". Look up the definition:

Noun
bigot (plural bigots)

One who is narrow-mindedly devoted to their own ideas and groups, and intolerant of (people of) differing ideas, races, genders, religions, politics, etc.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[losfromla]

only 2000 years? I thought religion and society had been around much longer...

So this imaginary guy that we may have heard of, his message has persisted? Or are his "followers" now not remembering his sage advice about not inflicting violence on others?

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[losfromla]

Except that in the US even our "Left" doesn't have much traction, sadly.

Re: And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Brujis]

Their reason for deplaforming him is vague and indefensible.

Re: And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Brujis]

"Although I agree with you that both far left and far right want censorship." Mostly the left because their ideas tend to disagree with reality. "In many respects the USA main stream is anything from left." The mainstream media definitely is left. "The USA cannot even provide free hospitals" Why should they? " (which every other country in the world provides)" That isn't an argument, if it were then it could be used to pronote anything other countries are doing regardless of it being the right thing or not... "or add a background check for owning an automatic rifle." To own an automatic rifke in the U.S. requires special licencing , background checks, and mental health assessments. Only a very small portion of the population are able to own them and it is very very expensive. I think you are confused with semi-automatic rifles. This covers every rifle that is not bolt action... Also they already require background checks for all rifle purchases. Like I said earlier leftist nonses tends to disagree with reality. "The far left would be advocating communism that is definitely not mainstream in the USA." Communism is just a form of Socialism and the left is advocating Socialism. "Although the left in terms of feminism is mainstream (in the media at least, talking to real women it isn't the case), you are not even allowed to say men may have a valid opinion, or innocent until proven guilty without being labeled misogynist." Proof that the left is evil and doesn't like facts.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[losfromla]

From your first link:
"So, here's the thing: You can't do this. Not legally, anyway. It's important to note that this is not DNC hiring policy, but one hiring manager gone rogue. "
        emphasis mine

From your second link:
"...the university’s Black Student Union issued a set of demands in response to what its members contend are frequent “racist attacks” on campus, such as “racially insensitive remarks” and “microaggressions” by professors and students. One demand was for a “CSLA housing space delegated for Black students.”"

    So, the black students are being harassed and wanted a place where they could feel safe from institutional racism. Why is that bad?

Your third link is a an article by Alex Tabarrok is a professor of economics at George Mason University. So, one (neither famous nor particularly influential) academic's opinion defines an entire group? Also, do you disagree with his thesis? Have you analyzed his arguments critically and found either their basis or usage wanting?

On your 4th article: I suppose you don't believe in self-determination and freedom or in "the American Way". I guess I'll just refer to you as an illegal immigrant rat fink piece of shit" and then if you protest my label I'll cry some delicious salty right-wing tears about how you're infringing on my freedoms to call you what I want to call you.

On your 5th article: It's true, we want to get rid of ICE. Fuck ICE and every atrocity it commits. Kidnapping of children, extrajudicial expulsions from the country, rape and torture of asylum seekers... Abolish that department and hang the fuckers in charge. Did I make your point? Good! Then you must understand how I feel.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[losfromla]

you must be an Alex Jones acolyte. That guy is a just a fat dumb blowhard, fyi.

Re: And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Brujis]

"National Socialism was very much not socialist in any way." Expect in regards to completely removing private control of the means of production. Government provided medical. Government provided jobs. Government provided everything... "The name was used to attract people." No it was the basis of their policies "On the other hand, it wasn't very right wing either." It was Socialist, by definition of the term. "But everyone insists it must be one or the other and it's used as a way to tarnish the reputation of the side that they disagree with." Because it actually was left wing, with all the lefties praising the Nazi policies before the war. " Politics these days is just stupid, I'd rather people get along as opposed to parties which claim that the othesr are traitors (not just the US, this is everywhere). Political parties are one of the worst ideas invented in my view." Democracy is one of the worst ideas ever.

Re: And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Brujis]

Then explain the removal of private control of the means of production? Which is the definition of Socialism..

Re: And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Brujis]

The Nazis removed private control of the means of production, which is the definition of Socialism. This makes them Socialists. End of discussion.

Re: And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Brujis]

Because they were an opposing political group, what else you got?

Re: And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Brujis]

No it isn't. Hate speech is just words you don't like

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[gweihir]

Ah, so the structures that successfully kept societies together for 2000 years "can safely be regarded as a fundamental failure"?

A convenient lie. Claiming that only the right set of beliefs can instill morality and order is right out of the fascist's handbook.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

Did you miss the part of socialism where they throw socialists into concentration camps (gulags)?

Re: And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Darinbob]

The Nazi governments cooperated as partners with industrial companies, those companies were not nationalized. The Nazi government did sell off some state owned companies, or sell off enough to no longer have majority shares. Some were sold to entities within the party but not all. For instance, banks were re-privatized by the Nazis, so that the government was no long a majority shareholder. Similar with steel, railroads, ship building, etc. Before the war, industrialists loved the Nazis because they were clearly not acting like the red wave that was sweeping much of europe, and they were rapidly improving their economy.

The term "privatisation" was invented by The Economist in the 1930 to describe Germany's economic policies.

The official Nazi economic programs did have proposals for larger scale nationalization, but in practice they did not do this. Partially one can suppose that after the Great Depression no one wanted this very much. But I think that because they were a populist party they were doing what felt right at the time rather than having a coherent long term economic plan. So rather than say that they had an ideology that guided them, it seems likely that they were flying by the seat of their pants. Also privatization of government owned resources earned them a lot of money which certainly helped get the country out of the terrible situation it was in.

The tricky part in this is realizing that the Nazis did not have strong left versus right economic ideologies. So one can look at their actions and see evidence pointing either way. If someone has a simplistic one dimensional political view of left vs right then they will want to put Nazi Germany on that scale, but they don't fit that way. For instance, the state exerted little control or regulation over how companies conducted their own affairs internally, whereas it had very strong control when it came to operating within the market (building the product vs selling the product). They also were highly critical of communism and socialism. They were in some ways marketing themselves as a hybrid; parts from socialism and parts from nationalism, both of which were popular ideas that arising earlier in the century.

Re: And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Brujis]

The Nazi party forced every single company to become 'partners' which meant the company did exactly what they were told to. That is nationalisation by another name and the fact that you try to defend that proves what kind of person you are. The Nazi party sold off some shares and then regulated complete control of the companies anyway so still prvented private control of the means of production, which is the definition of Socialism... Who owns the business on paper isn't what matters, that is why Socialism is defined as control of the means of production. As to improving the economy, no such thing happened. Germany always had shortages of just about everything. If we look at the facts we see everything you said is a lie. They didn't need to nationalise the companies they just took complete control of them by force. Hitler even said he was a Socialist and praised Socialism constantly.

Re: And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Brujis]

Usually your greatest competition is from on of your own kind, so it makes sense.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[eaglesrule]

Personally, free speech advocates should make their own platforms, and conservatives should actually move to them and abandon the platforms that hate them. Gab.ai and minds.com seem worthwhile. Seems like whining to complain Twitter is evil but keep using it.

Last time I checked gab was still blocked from both the Apple and Google app stores for failing to adhere to the SJW censorship standard. Or pretty much any other excuse they can scramble to come up with.

I know it's popular to say 'if you don't like it start your own', but the goal post is constantly being moved. Seems as if some anti-trust litigation is long overdue.

Re: And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Brujis]

Actually the Democratic party brought us the KKK and still has active members of the KKK in their ranks. Robert Byrd is a great example of that...

Re: And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

My money is on a small, retarded man-child.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Raenex]

FAR left

o Open borders
o Welfare state
o Anti-First Amendment (Antifa)
o Transgender "rights" for the 0.1% over the rights of the 99.9%.

Re: And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

US has barely 10 days vacation compared to 28 days in Europe, so clearly the left didn't get much traction in the land of the wage slave.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you underestimate how much burnie sanders ticks off that list.
the UBI / equality of outcome crowd is too loud to write off the 'far left'

Re: And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

They shoot faggots like you in Russia and China.

Re: And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean a mong? Or a spazz? A regular Joey Deacon windowlicker!

Re: And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

In all of them. You can google Franco Frattini for yourself. The blog-killing law decree in Italy is pretty much a thing. In Germany you can be prosecuted for stating "wrong" opinions. You can be subjected to "berufsverbot" punishment (you can be legally banned from keeling or obtaining gainful employment) if the authorities say so. In Austria their own SWAT equivalent raided a man's house for running a TOR exit node and effectively intimidated him into shutting it down even if he wasn't doing anything illegal. Europe is like this, and what is worrying is that Europeans are OK with it. Traditionally, Europeans like kings, emperors, strong leaders who give them a sense of purpose and belonging and clear directives on how to think and act.

Re: And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

No, coal and oil industries are dying because companies want to keep it doing it like we're were still on the year 1500, plus automation, they nevera invested un making it cleaner or safer.

Seriously, all the technology we got and the top notch tools for cleaning their constant mess are always a bucket and a sponge.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[lgw]

That just adds Apple to the "start your own" bucket. There's no natural monopoly here, and while the network effect is powerful, you'd expect the second-biggest site to be at least 20% as big as the biggest. Certainly not the case with YouTube or Twitter. Conservatives do need to get off their ass here, and remember that capitalism depends on new companies challenging old as the old lose their focus.

Agree on the anti-trust. It certainly seems like there's something wrong with the oligopoly of "social media" companies colluding to drive out new entrants.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[lgw]

Maybe so, but there's no surviving documentation of moral codes derived from religious principles before about 600 BC. E.g., I don't think the Code of Hammurabi calls out any religious basis. I think something changed in the way humans saw religion around 600 BC, and it's probably not an accident that that's the point where written history becomes sparse.

And of course his message has persisted, but then there's the "humans are fallible" part too. At least his message is there to read for those who care to listen.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[lgw]

You added the word "only" when you made your strawman. Before the Enlightenment, that's just how it happened to work for 2000 years. It didn't seem to work that way before that, not sure why, but then civilization was very spotty before 600 BC. There's at least a correlation between the idea of morality as something other than the will of the king, and civilization becoming common enough to preserve written histories and other documents consistently enough to reach us today.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

Not even close. If you're open to the public, you can't discriminate against protected classes. There are some additional restrictions around community message boards.

That's more to do with access to services than free speech per se. But yes, protected classes are also an example that indirectly, if free speech were the service, would also be included in the public forum.

Good point, I had forgotten about company towns. But it's the same principle - if you are a de-facto public forum, there are some restrictions to your ability to censor not limited to protected classes.

Actually, it's not the same principle at all. Company towns are de-facto monopolies* so have special restricted placed upon them. Twitter, Youtube, etc are not de-facto monopolies because there do exist other platforms. Or people can make their own services. Yes, they wouldn't probably be as popular, but then nothing about free speech mandates that popular third parties be a microphone for your message.

But this Stalin-esque un-personing? That's very clear.

Alex Jones still exists. He still has his own platforms. People can still access them and listen to him. The only Stalin-esque aspect of it is how wide-spread the bans were, how quickly they occurred, and the fact that most platforms that ban a user erase third-party access to that information. By that standard, smaller towns with a few rich founders can be more Stalin-esque than this. The whole treatment of the Kennedys could be said to be similar with the whitewashing.

I understand the concern, and if there's some direct evidence of collusion, I entirely agree that there should some sort of punishment. But in every other walk of life where a lot of people all decide to shun someone we don't break out the pitchforks to defend them. At some level, social shunning is one of the mechanism people (and companies) can do to people when there's no legal framework for punishment. After all, even if there was collusion that likely wasn't illegal, so any useful response would invoke the same sort of Stalin-esque tactics.

Personally, free speech advocates should make their own platforms, and conservatives should actually move to them and abandon the platforms that hate them.

Most conservatives (like most liberals) don't support free speech. They support speech they don't personally find too objectionable. I would call that hypocrisy, but I think like many things in politics the implicit goodness or badness of words are used as a weapon without looking too far into their actual meaning, so I think most have put enough thought to really know what they're advocating. The free speech advocates have the hard sell, where real murder videos and real sex videos have to coexist side by side.

But I do think that once e.g. Facebook starts applying editorial discretion, they should be liable for fraud and libel for the user content they allow.

The real question is, where do you draw the line? Slashdot engages in editorial discretion--shock videos aren't merely modded down but are at times removed. Meanwhile, lots of other posts on Slashdot claim all sorts of things--like the whole Alex Jones inciting violence. One of the arguments made by some is that courts go by intention so Facebook/Slashdot would have to be shown to be willfully fraud/libel by users, but that tends to be a burden that's almost impossible to reach. It's a major reason why the whole Backpage thing took so long to take down, even though AFAIK the new SEOSTA Act which its advocates were pushing existed in part precisely to take down Backpage.

In short, I just don't know how that logic can actually be applied because too often companies are these massive beasts, and it's too easy to blame "misunderstanding" and "fix" things without any real consequences. Proving criminal negligence or intent when one's job is on the line and all one need to say is "I don't know anything" makes it very difficult to get anywhere.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[losfromla]

From wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
The Pyramid Texts from ancient Egypt are the oldest known religious texts in the world, dating to between 2400-2300 BCE.[7][8] Writing played a major role in sustaining organized religion by standardizing religious ideas regardless of time or location.

So, that's much further back than your 2000 years ago belief. Religious ideas of course date back much further than that.

My problem with the "humans are fallible" argument is that it is too easy to fall back to that. Maybe if humans are so fallible so frequently under a given religious doctrine there might be a problem with the doctrine itself. There is also of course the fact that your imaginary friend never did claim to do away with Mosaic Law which is brutal and vicious, therefore the more violent in your camp might indeed be those who are more correctly following the scriptures (all of the scriptures).

It is sad that as we live in a more apparently Fascist regime, people with brains still think that Socialism is the problem.... (that's in response to your sig)

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Rick Schumann]

If you say so, buddy. Maybe airlines just don't want to confuse travellers, did that occur to any of you? Of course not.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[liquid_schwartz]

While I'm happy to have a discussion with points being made back and forth may I first ask you a question? Do you support one set of laws for all people or are some people more equal than others?

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

I like how half your examples of "the left" are literally made up by right wingers. There is no "general disdain for Christiams", only evangelical Westboro Baptist types. There is also no "general disdain for white people", only the ones that publicly express their desire to kill all non-white Christian people.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[lgw]

The situation in ancient Egypt is a bit speculative, though. It may well be as you say, that there was some idea of morality more important than the will of the king. Personally I think so, just because church-state political rivalry seems inevitable.

Maybe if humans are so fallible so frequently under a given religious doctrine there might be a problem with the doctrine itself.

Maybe so. But there is no perfect set of rules for humans, and we know that the rules that survive as the basis of the major religions worked quite well to make societies function because those are the cultures that survived.

never did claim to do away with Mosaic Law which is brutal and vicious

Eh? There were 2 different v2.0s - the New Testament, and the Torah.

Mosaic Law was better than what people had before, and the 10 commandments are a reasonable starting point for a set of laws: don't kill, don't steal, and don't do the kind of shit that makes people want to kill you. Eventually it accumulated a bunch of stuff more appropriate for a tribe constantly at war, which turned not so helpful when they were conquered. The Koran is still all Old Testament stuff, but then Islam is still growing.

It is sad that as we live in a more apparently Fascist regime, people with brains still think that Socialism is the problem.... (that's in response to your sig)

Fascism and socialism don't really oppose one another meaningfully - they're both about giving power to the government to control things, especially the economy, and hopig you don't get an asshole in charge. Fascism ended up with an asshole in charge 100% of the time, while socialism has evolved to have more democratic control - some people make a strong distinction between Marxism Socialism and Social Democracy. It's very clear, however, that socialism can evolve directly into fascism, since it did, given the right asshole.

Anyway, we're only "apparently fascist" because a lot of people call everyone they don't like a Nazi, especially when they lose an argument. This has replaced calling everyone "racist", since that accusation has lost it's emotional power. In a few years we'll have a new insult, and we won't be "apparently fascist" any more.

I do find if funny that the early nerd-only internet was years ahead of its time in the fashion of calling someone a Nazi when losing an argument.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, forgot to fill in the asterisks.

* They pay you in company money, own the company store, heavily thwart your purchase of anything that'd allow you to regularly leave or communicate outside their sphere of influence, and can punish you for any disparaging remarks by having a contract that promises to only convert company money to regular money when you leave the company payroll so can put you (or anyone who "conspires" with you) on "reserve" in the payroll indefinitely. Hence if you have an n month/year contract you have to wait n months/years, wait until they get around to converting your money, and then finally you can actually say anything without risk of punishment. If you're lucky they company store will have not gouged you too badly and the experience will not be absolutely horrible, but even if they do and it is you'll have plenty of apologists who say that they work they do and the living conditions they experience are just as bad. So, not really comparable.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

You probably aren't old enough to remember, but as close back as the 70's, everyone knew National Socialism was a far right movement. There was no question about it, it was like calling the sky blue. After a concerted effort by the right to revise history, they attempted to paint Nazis as left wing in order to remove the stain on the right. It's not super effective, as the propaganda only really works on the less intelligent Americans (roughly 0.000001% of people outside of America believe Nazis are left wing). But that doesn't stop them from trying; and convincing people that Nazis weren't right wing is victory enough for them.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

And the far-right does openly support the genocide of non-white people, so you are ahead of the left on that. Congrats.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

See? This is another extremely easily disproven canard from the right. Yes, religion is considered a fundamental failure by those with an IQ above room temperature. This is very plain to see with a basic understanding of history; religion has served as the abusive husband of humanity for those 2000 years, and we're just now on the cusp of leaving it forever and freeing ourselves. I understand your brain does not understand "freedom" and "responsibility", hence why you insist religion is necessary while all evidence points to the contrary.

Also, it is a proven fact that capitalism has (and continues to kill) more people than communism can even dream of. To deny this is to deny basic logic and math, but right wingers typically consider logic and math to be liberal conspiracies, so whatever :)

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[gweihir]

So you think, I don't know, a 130 year war or witch-burning or frequent famines are signs of a healthy society? Nice. No. I have your number exactly. You are a part of the problem and as soon as people like you get enough power, torture and murder of people thinking different starts. Again.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[lgw]

You imagine this sort of thing wasn't the norm in earlier societies? Why would you imagine that? You blame the Catholic Church for not being strong enough to stop the 100 Year's War? Fair enough, but you're advocating that it should have been stronger.

The argument that "bad things happened in places with religion, therefore religion is bad" is childish. The only decent arguments in this regard must show that religion caused the evils, such as blaming the Church for the Inquisition, or Islam for its wars of conquest. Pointing out that the church failed to stop some evil doesn't mean much in isolation. Did the church ignore the events in front of it, contrary to the admonitions of that religion, as with the Holocaust? That's a decent argument that something is amiss, but not one that the situation with religion was worse than it would have been without.

It's important to remember that the common morality in 600 BC was "might makes right". Not just that the strong can do what they want to the weak, and ignore morality, no, but the belief that they are morally right to do so. You have to show that a religion is worse than that starting point, if you want to make a case against religion historically.

Post-Enlightenment we can see the possibility that social science could do better, but we only have social "science" thus far, and so no progress on that front yet.

Re: And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

You blame the Catholic Church for not being strong enough to stop the 100 Year's War?

We blame them for inciting the war. And others. And we recently found them guilty of sexually abusing children.

Oops.

Re: And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

As we said the right-wing.

Funny you always champion Byrd without mentioning Thurman though.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

The evidence of Alex Jones inciting violence has existed for over 10 years. Almost every single one of his videos where he rants about a person(s) involves barely veiled calls to violence that quite often get acted upon. Have you really been living under a rock this whole time? Remember Kathy Gifford's assassination attempt? Remember the Sandy Hook parents' getting death threats from Jones' followers? The evidence is staggering and undeniable.

Re: And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[lgw]

Sure thing, wars of conquest between neighboring kings totally don't happen without religion.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[Anonymous Coward]

> All religions over history combined have killed fewer people than totalitarianism under the guise of communism, of course.

FTFY

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[lgw]

Actually, it's not the same principle at all. Company towns are de-facto monopolies* so have special restricted placed upon them. Twitter, Youtube, etc are not de-facto monopolies because there do exist other platforms.

YouTube is a de-facto monopoly. They have a much bigger market share than Microsoft ever did. And, again, my entire point is that yes, if you're a monopoly, maybe you should be forced to be a microphone for other people's free speech, just as you can be in equivalent circumstances in the real world.

but in every other walk of life where a lot of people all decide to shun someone we don't break out the pitchforks to defend them.

We do when they shun all blacks. We do when they shun all gays. It's just as important to have a diveristy of views in the marketplace of ideas. Especially ideas you think are obviously stupid and wrong, because you are stupidly wrong about at least one of your ideas, and you deserve the chance to grow (doubly so ideas that everyone dislikes).

Most conservatives (like most liberals) don't support free speech. They support speech they don't personally find too objectionable.

Perhaps so. But most progressives violently oppose free speech. That's a real problem.

The real question is, where do you draw the line? Slashdot engages in editorial discretion--shock videos aren't merely modded down but are at times removed.

They claim this is not the case - they they've only ever removed content when legally required to do so. One of the janitors told me this directly when I confronted him about it. Nor does an ISP block content unless legally required, for just this reason. Either be a common carrier, or be a publisher.

It's a bright line.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[DRJlaw]

There was this guy once who said that scripture is complicated, and it's easy to read it wrong, so if you think it's telling you to hurt someone, that's how you know you're reading it wrong. He got pretty famous for saying things like that, though it didn't end well for him. However, he got the last laugh, as it turns out, since you've probably heard of him.

He did? Because I was under the impression that people took his words, mixed them together with a bunch of earlier words, and used them as an execuse to hurt everyone who was not precisely like them. Women. Children. The unmarried. Sexual "deviants." The poor. Anyone following a different doctine, much less a different religion. Anyone "getting in the way."

Yes, he's surely laughing at the fact that he's the titular face of rank hypocrisy.

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[wyHunter]

Not in the slightest, sorry. Even I'm not that paranoid ;-)

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[losfromla]

Yet you sound just like him. You show what appears to be an alarming lack of self-awareness. So does Trump, so now I guess you're behaving presidentially. Congrats!

Re:And so do feminists, socialists, anti-fa

[wyHunter]

Your statement is illogical. I'm quite self aware, thank you.

Unauthorised dissemination of news

[olsmeister]

Scary phrase, there. I knew there was a Trump liked this guy Xi.

Re:Unauthorised dissemination of news

[DontBeAMoran]

I think you a word.

Re:Unauthorised dissemination of news

[olsmeister]

Not sure what mean.

Re:Unauthorised dissemination of news

[Anonymous Coward]

The whole word.

Re:Unauthorised dissemination of news

[MBGMorden]

Don't ridiculous.

Re:Unauthorised dissemination of news

[bwd777]

This is my wife talks.

Re:Unauthorised dissemination of news

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe the word was censored to clean and righteous.

Re:Unauthorised dissemination of news

[Anonymous Coward]

you guys crack up.

Re:Unauthorised dissemination of news

[Anonymous Coward]

Some time ago it was spreading of false rumors. Funny how things rapidly turn to worse as people spend more time on their crowns.

Re:Unauthorised dissemination of news

[Anonymous Coward]

Trump's trade war is about lining the pockets of producers of steel and other dying industries in the US. The target of the tarrifs are unimportant to him.

Re:Unauthorised dissemination of news

[Anonymous Coward]

He just accidentally a whole word!

Re:Unauthorised dissemination of news

[kaatochacha]

I completely this.

Re: Unauthorised dissemination of news

[Anonymous Coward]

You can't talk common sense. They don't speak it.

Re:Unauthorised dissemination of news

[SCVonSteroids]

Haven't heard? It's the bird.

Re:Unauthorised dissemination of news

[Anonymous Coward]

Not sure what mean.

Notice how you didn't get modded up-Funny for making the exact same as the post before yours? Some people just don't know how to tell a joke.

Interesting.

[Gravis Zero]

Who knew that Winnie the Pooh was so dirty and unrighteous.

Fuck Xi Jinping, fuck him up his stupid cartoon bear ass. (we both know the internet has images of that)

Re:Interesting.

[Anonymous Coward]

Who knew that Winnie the Pooh was so dirty and unrighteous.

...

So you think walking into the woods pantless with a baby pig and a jar of honey is OK?

Re:Interesting.

[lgw]

So you think walking into the woods pantless with a baby pig and a jar of honey is OK?

That pig is a liar!

Re: Interesting.

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds like everyday life in fly over county.

Baaaaachinggg.

I'll be here all day, maybe.

Re:Interesting.

[serviscope_minor]

So you think walking into the woods pantless with a baby pig and a jar of honey is OK?

Huh so actually David Cameron is winnie the pooh.

Re:Interesting.

[Hallux-F-Sinister]

Isn't this the same setup for the story Tyrion begins telling but never gets to finish about walking into a brothel with a jackass and a honeycomb? It's a shame we didn't get to hear the rest of that story. :/

Re:Interesting.

[lgw]

/thread

Took me a minute - Americans aren't so familiar with that particular incident.

Mine Is

[Anonymous Coward]

Mine is, I simply block the entire .cn domain, incoming on port 22, since most of the hacks come from there.

I also block any outgoing requests from any IoT devices that contact any cn domain, actually, they are on a sub-net, with no internet access, on no wan access.

Chinese devices are bad, so Chinese devices need to be banned from the internet.

Re:Mine Is

[Anonymous Coward]

Block domain... as source...

Hmm, I don't think you understand how the internet works.

Re:Mine Is

[Anonymous Coward]

Yep. This guy knows enough to cause problems and not enough to be useful.

Re:Mine Is

[Rick Schumann]

AC if you're going to go there then why not just sever all the cables connecting China to the rest of the Internet and let them have their own literal walled garden?

Re:Mine Is

[Anonymous Coward]

Now now, Cheeeena paid good money for Global Crossing. Can't have that.

Re:Mine Is

[novakyu]

You can do a reverse look-up (not always successful). Maybe he meant he blocked an IP range.

Not being tolerant of the intolerant

[Anonymous Coward]

Not very tolerant of you.

Says who?

[StandardCell]

This from a guy whose party has sanitized the killing of tens of millions of its own people, is now ruler for life, has a social credit score to force people to behave according to the CCP's wishes, could care less about the 300 million people in abject poverty without regular access to clean water, and won't acknowledge the Tiananmen Square massacre to the point of banning the term "63+1", or 6/4.

Yeah, you can go fuck yourself Xi Jinping. We'll keep trying to show your people how the rest of the world works and hopefully they'll finish what was started in 1989.

Re:Says who?

[gslavik]

Likely the reason for "clean and righteous." It shouldn't mention anyone being killed.

Re:Says who?

[rojash]

You jealous of him ?? You clowns who just rant on dictator types...c'mon..provide solutions already !!

Re:Says who?

[DigiShaman]

Xi is a proud Communist whereas the Globalists are Communists (whom see themselves as the Elite group of authoritatives to run the show), but too cowardly to admit it.

The Communists are really of (ironies) feudal group. They create a caste based society. The first tier are the party members and those that serve them. And then, there's the serfs that suck air and are best to be out of their way.

The Serfs are the ones that get fucked the hardest. If you're not contributing to the rightous cause of "Communism", YOU WILL BE PURGED! And 100 MILLION purged there was under Communism. At worst, you could be a nice person, and will be purged because of some malthusian reason that robots and AI to better to serve the elite...and you have no reason to exist but to get in the way.

Mark my words. If Communism takes hold - and I believe it will - the human population will be engineered in such as way as to reduce the count to 500 million on Earth or less. That's the future of humanity. Managed oppression for the elite, and China is leading the way with the globalist sure to follow in the shadows.

Re:Says who?

[UnknownSoldier]

> to the point of banning the term "63+1", or 6/4.

Wow, that's a new low for China.

What's that quote?

"You can tell how advanced a society is by what they censor."

--
Only children censor.
Adults communicate and even laugh at taboo subjects.

Re:Says who?

[Anonymous Coward]

Facebook is currently testing a social credit score to stop "divisive trolls".

Re:Says who?

[SuricouRaven]

Censorship leads to people finding ways to indirectly speak of subjects, which in turn must be censored, and this can lead to some things that appear very strange.

Re:Says who?

[UnknownSoldier]

Exactly. It gets absurd quickly.

Apparently the Chinese never heard the cliche:

Ignoring a problem doesn't make it go away.

Re:Says who?

[Anonymous Coward]

The scary part is if you swap Communism/Communist for Capitalism/Capitalist, it's becomes even more irrefutably accurate.

Re:Says who?

[DigiShaman]

Globalists derive their power from both capitalism and government. It's really hard to point to capitalism being the sole culprit here when we don't really practice it. What he have is collusion, AKA crony capitalism. It's a bastard fusion of both public and private in all the worst ways possible. That said, it's still not nearly as bad as pure socialism/communism as indicated in past recorded history.

In other words - The government should be a referee calling out the BS that capitalist enterprises engage in. But we don't have that, because the gov is also an active player.

communism

[davek]

It's about time communism got with the program.

Re:communism

[Rick Schumann]

'Communism getting with the program' == 'Democracy, freedom of speech, and freedom of expression'.

Re:communism

[Anonymous Coward]

It's about time communism got with the program.

In communist China, communism IS the program! See five-year plans for details.

Re:communism

[Anonymous Coward]

'Communism getting with the program' == 'Democracy, freedom of speech, and freedom of expression'.

Those two things do not equate. Personal freedom is liberalism. Communism is NOT a liberal ideology. Everyone is subservient to the collective, you have NO individual rights.

{pot, kettle}.color == black

[Anonymous Coward]

817 48860 DROP tcp -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 match-set cn src tcp dpt:22

activity from the last hour, cn needs to clean up their internet indeed.

Think of the children

[Anonymous Coward]

Who want to freely see whatever. In loco parentis is not the place of government.

Xi has KTV stock?

[magarity]

But there's still a KTV every few blocks in every Chinese city.

Re:Xi has KTV stock?

[Actually, I do RTFA]

Xi doesn't need stock... he essentially can do whatever he wants in China.

Re:Xi has KTV stock?

[magarity]

Xi doesn't need stock... he essentially can do whatever he wants in China.

But he still maintains enormous bank accounts in Panama, Caymans, etc. Just in case.

Xi Jinping also says...

[gtall]

that Tibet belongs to the Tibetans and that the Chinese project of replacing the Tibetans with Han Chinese will be reversed. And, Taiwan can now be considered an independent country of 23 million Chinese and can determine their own future with full recognition from Beijing.

Hope springs eternal...and in Xi's China, goes there to die.

Re:Xi Jinping also says...

[Darinbob]

I heard he was going to announce he was relinquishing claims on the South China Sea, after looking at a map and deciding that China was clearly wrong.

Clean and trustworthy!

[Anonymous Coward]

Seems as if President Xi Jinping has a lot in common with Facebook and Twitter!

Ban those dissidents with their wrong-think!

Imagine that!

Re:Clean and trustworthy!

[Anonymous Coward]

Crawl back under your rock, Nazi.

The Internet will be clean and righteous when

[Anonymous Coward]

The Internet will be clean and righteous when humanity is clean and righteous. In other words: Never.

?? 'Clean and rightious'

[fish_in_the_c]

I assume there is a transnational issue.
Isn't he an atheist? What does righteous mean? For something to be 'righteous' it must be justified, for something to be justified it must be brought in line with some standard ( not unlike left or right justified on a word processor). Perhaps he means all things must fall in line behind himself?

Again Clean? It what was is it dirty?

Re:?? 'Clean and rightious'

[Anonymous Coward]

https://youtu.be/dn2r11gYShM If it's not righteous, it's not excellent! He's just tired of visiting all the porn sites that promote simulated incest. That crap is so dirty.

Re:?? 'Clean and rightious'

[Rick Schumann]

He's set himself up as Emperor for all intents and purposes. Apropos for Emperors, especially in China, he probably considers himself a god. Therefore anything he decrees as Good is 'righteous'. Disagreeing with him becomes 'blasphemy'. Disobeying his decrees makes you a 'sinner'. And so on.

Re:?? 'Clean and rightious'

[lgw]

Isn't he an atheist? What does righteous mean?

Everything within the state. Nothing outside the state. Nothing against the state.

This is why

[Tokolosh]

China will have periodic revolutions and will never be a front-rank country, Western angst notwithstanding.

Re:This is why

[Rick Schumann]

revolutions

The ruling Communist party makes that much more difficult, but yeah, I've been kinda waiting for that to happen for quite some time now. It's hard to suppress unrest when you have over a billion people in your country. Imagine what Bashir al-Assad has done to the people of Syria, but on the scale of China. It might just plunge the rest of the world into World War III along with it, as it polarized every other nation on Earth, one by one.

Re:This is why

[kaatochacha]

As long as the economy kept cranking along, no problems. I'm worried where they'll go once they realize you can't grow forever. People put up with dictators as long as their situation is improving enormously. when that stops...

Re:This is why

[Darinbob]

China has never been able to control that many. That's part of the irony here, they have a centralized party that claims to control everything, but it is so weak that it has very little actual control over the regions. So the regional party bosses very often end up corrupt and abusing power without getting punished for it (or at least not until a school falls down).

Re:This is why

[larryjoe]

As long as the economy kept cranking along, no problems. I'm worried where they'll go once they realize you can't grow forever. People put up with dictators as long as their situation is improving enormously. when that stops...

See 1984. Control thought, language, and news. Then create alternate enemies for would-be disgruntled people. Punish the disobedient as enemies of the people. Economic turmoil is only a challenge for governments who care about human rights. In fact, the Chinese government is concerned about the possibility of the challenge to their tight-fisted control that economic turmoil might present. Therefore, it believes it needs to double down on the Orwellian strategies.

Him and the Democrats

[Anonymous Coward]

Safe Space the Internets! yay

Remember the Puritans!

[Rick Schumann]

Know what this fuckwad communist dictator sounds like? The Puritans. Remember them? They were at least as corrupted as anyone else, all the while pretending to pure and 'righteous'. Of course in this case it's an order of magnitude worse: this jackass includes things like 'freedom of speech', 'freedom of expression', 'criticizing the communist party', 'criticizing the government', and of course 'criticizing him' among the things he considers 'vulgar' and 'pornographic' content.

As an aside to all this: know what I think is really ironically funny about this? For a country that has recorded history going back, what, 3000 years at least? They still fail to learn from their own history. This guy has set himself up as Emperor of China for all intents and purposes. How's that worked out for you in the past, China? Do you even remember? Or has the Communist party removed your access to (or worse, rewritten) your own history, too? Sad, sad, sad. I actually feel bad for the average Chinese citizen.

Re:Remember the Puritans!

[magarity]

They still fail to learn from their own history. This guy has set himself up as Emperor of China for all intents and purposes. How's that worked out for you in the past, China? Do you even remember?

Yes, he certainly does know and remember. For the vast majority of Chinese emperors, being emperor totally kicked ass.

Re:Remember the Puritans!

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean the same way the USA rewrote history to make them look like they single-handedly won World War 2 while the allies cowered in fear?

Re:Remember the Puritans!

[Type44Q]

I've read a lot of accounts of WWII and have never come across that version; sounds pretty cool, though.

Is it French??

Re:Remember the Puritans!

[iggymanz]

You don't know much history, "Puritans" weren't a denomination just a blanket term. they're still around in the USA, didn't go away at all. I'd argue they're holding power right now.

Re:Remember the Puritans!

[Rick Schumann]

Wow. Just. Wow. Were you homeschooled? That would certainly explain it.

Re:Remember the Puritans!

[Rick Schumann]

*Drum hit*

Re:Remember the Puritans!

[Rick Schumann]

Where precisely did I say 'Puritans were a religious denomination'? Stop making shit up, don't put words in my mouth.
That being said: yeah, the GOP sounds and acts an awful lot like them don't they?

Re:Remember the Puritans!

[Kjella]

While I don't disagree with what you said, I don't know if the average person feels that much difference between the one Party and the one Emperor. I mean China has been cracking down on freedom of speech for 30 years if not longer, how much is really new and worse now?

Re:Remember the Puritans!

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd argue they're holding power right now.

You'd be wrong. The jews have that title now.

Re:Remember the Puritans!

[Anonymous Coward]

They still fail to learn from their own history. This guy has set himself up as Emperor of China for all intents and purposes. How's that worked out for you in the past, China?

Well, many individual Chinese dynasties have lasted as long as the US itself has existed, while the overall system of Emperors and dynasties has lasted for, as you noted, thousands of years. It's been around longer than Christianity has been around.

So I wager most Chinese actually don't mind, if not are proud of their history. And this is with them knowing about China's history. Were there violence and corruption and other bad things? Sure, but every culture had those.

To the Chinese people, I wager most of them would instead focus on the good parts of what their system created: a culture that has more or less persisted for thousands of years, and given China's economic rise in the last few decades, they probably think the CCP has been doing something right.

Re: Remember the Puritans!

[Anonymous Coward]

LOL. Got em.

Re:Remember the Puritans!

[DarkOx]

For a country that has recorded history going back, what, 3000 years

Don't give them that! Its Chinese propaganda. The Chinese nation as it exists today dates to October 1, 1949. In fact as far a "developed" they are whippersnappers. There is no meaningful connection to the China that came before. They ensure that themselves with the 'great leap forward'

Re:Remember the Puritans!

[Darinbob]

Maybe he only watches Fox News?

Re:Remember the Puritans!

[Anonymous Coward]

One of them had 80 wives of descending status which is why royal mathematicians were needed to plan a hierarchy preserving order of fulfilling marital obligations with all of them.

Re:Remember the Puritans!

[iggymanz]

Only that they were protestants that then went into various denominations that are still around. Would include Trump's main power blocks.

Re:Remember the Puritans!

[Darinbob]

Not a denomination but they were still a clear sect with teachings and beliefs setting them distinctly apart from other Protestant churches. And they were relatively few. History makes them see more populous than they really were. What people today call "puritan" has only marginal relationship to the actual Puritans.

Re:Remember the Puritans!

[Anonymous Coward]

It's right after the chapter where the Americans defeated Imperial Communist Japan.

Re:Remember the Puritans!

[wyHunter]

Indeed. BTW the Puritans were also socialist.

Re:Remember the Puritans!

[BrianMarshall]

I actually feel bad for the average Chinese citizen.

No kidding. It isn't the citizens that make China a totalitarian state.

Re:Remember the Puritans!

[magarity]

One of them had 80 wives of descending status which is why royal mathematicians were needed to plan a hierarchy preserving order of fulfilling marital obligations with all of them.

Just make an orderly line, ladies. Don't worry; everyone will get a turn.

Agree in principle

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree that we need to remove vulgar material from the internet. Much of the world has become immoral. But, I'm also pragmatic enough to know mankind will never agree on the definition of "vulgar" or that there's even a problem.

TL;DR - The principle is a good idea. But, Xi is delusional to think it'll ever happen.

Re:Agree in principle

[DontBeAMoran]

I agree there's a lot of vulgar content to be removed.

I mean, Futanari is one thing, furry is another, but furry futanari? The line must be drawned here! /Picard

Which is why you don't criticize the government

[Karmashock]

... they're still blocking Tienanmen square. Because, remembering the tyranny of their own government is lacking in righteousness?... or cleanliness?

Re:Which is why you don't criticize the government

[Type44Q]

To be fair to Xi, the tracks of those tanks were hosed-off immediately afterwards...

Same problem in Nazi Germany

[deviated_prevert]

Sanitizing of all media was a primary goal of Adolf. However I can understand this move from a perspective of historic Chinese social and their moral history. Mao was no saint but he did finally endorse a state set of morals largely based upon a Taoist cultural society. Thus todays leadership must bow to the will of the Chinese people in regard to social interaction morals. Amoral bureaucrats and political figures are a huge problem when a political system allows them to wield power over information, thus the people they are claiming to serve.

Re:Same problem in Nazi Germany

[deviated_prevert]

Sanitizing of all media was a primary goal of Adolf. However I can understand this move from a perspective of historic Chinese social and their moral history. Mao was no saint but he did finally endorse a state set of morals largely based upon a Taoist cultural society. Thus todays leadership must bow to the will of the Chinese people in regard to social interaction morals. Amoral bureaucrats and political figures are a huge problem when a political system allows them to wield power over information, thus the people they are claiming to serve.

Correction and post edit...sorry if that is not possible. change "social and their moral history" to just "social and moral history" to avoid the grammar police coming to my door step. WHICH CAN BECOME A HUGE PROBLEM ON THE NET if is policed for moral correctness!!!

Re:Same problem in Nazi Germany

[DNS-and-BIND]

So pretty much how Facebook/Twitter/Google are policing undesirable thoughts off the internet? Only Xi is using the same methods but has different outcomes in mind (e.g. continuous communist party control, forever).

Re:Same problem in Nazi Germany

[hey!]

Trying to make sense out of Nazi actions and ideology is a fool's errand, but it's quite a stretch to imply that sanitizing the media of sex was a "primary" goal. The media was used to serve the regime in any way it could, on an opportunistic basis.

While pornography was officially frowned on, it was really pornography produced by people who weren't in the party. The Schutzstaffel "Hygeine Institute" actually produced pornographic films for use by party members, and titillating images of naked "Aryan" women were common. For the vulgar masses, material that was pornographic by the standards of the day was printed in Der Sturmer -- if often depicted the violation of young Aryan women by Jews, skillfully blending sexual arousal and hate.

It wasn't porn they objected to, it was porn that didn't serve their political ends.

Re:Same problem in Nazi Germany

[deviated_prevert]

Trying to make sense out of Nazi actions and ideology is a fool's errand, but it's quite a stretch to imply that sanitizing the media of sex was a "primary" goal. The media was used to serve the regime in any way it could, on an opportunistic basis.

While pornography was officially frowned on, it was really pornography produced by people who weren't in the party. The Schutzstaffel "Hygeine Institute" actually produced pornographic films for use by party members, and titillating images of naked "Aryan" women were common. For the vulgar masses, material that was pornographic by the standards of the day was printed in Der Sturmer -- if often depicted the violation of young Aryan women by Jews, skillfully blending sexual arousal and hate.

It wasn't porn they objected to, it was porn that didn't serve their political ends.

Precisely the point I was getting at and thank you. I was certainly not trying to justify the actions of an obvious dictator which is what the poor unfortunate masses have. China now must endure dictatorship again because in truth there is no real democratic system there to keep the assholes in check. There are only bullets not ballots. I just wonder if the central committee votes with a bowl and black and white balls the same way as the Greeks did. This is the problem with too much centralization of power in one party it is the wet dream of dictators!

Re:Same problem in Nazi Germany

[deviated_prevert]

Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!

No argument there, that is why eventually reason will prevail because the bigotry, hatred and prejudice that we see from the alt right can shout louder but those who have real intellect can write much more effectively. The pen is much mightier than the sword and must never be silenced!

Re:Same problem in Nazi Germany

[liquid_schwartz]

Mao was no saint...

Now there's the understatement of the day. Being responsible for ~45 million deaths is more than just not being a saint.

Re:Same problem in Nazi Germany

[DNS-and-BIND]

Only the Left has been using violence to shut down free speech, friend. Hell they don't even believe in the concept.

Re: Same problem in Nazi Germany

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure man, that's why nobody right-wing in Poland, Russia, or Iran has attacked dissidents.

And no Republican had expressed a desire to attack NFL players for kneeling.

WindBourne

[Anonymous Coward]

China has only 1 internet user and he's picking on me. -- WindBourne

Re: Which is why you don't criticize the governmen

[Anonymous Coward]

When was the last time you criticized a government you supported?

Clean vs. threats righteous + speedgains via

[Anonymous Coward]

See subject & APK Hosts File Engine 2.0++ 64-bit for Linux & BSD h t t p : / / a p k . i t - m a t e . c o . u k / A P K H o s t s F i l e E n g i n e F o r L i n u x . z i p

Yields more security/speed/reliability/anonymity vs. any 1 solution (99% of threats use hostnames vs. IP address most firewalls use) more efficiently/FASTER + NATIVELY 4 less!

Vs. "Bolt on 'MoAr' illogic-logic" slowing you hosts speed u up 2 ways: Adblocks + Hardcode fav. sites u spend most time @ vs. competition loaded w/ security bugs (DNS/AntiVir) + overheads slowing u (messagepass 'souled-out' to advertisers easily detected & blocked addons + firewall filtering drivers) & their complexity leads to exploitation!

* ONLY 1 of its kind in GUI 4 Linux/BSD

(Better vs. Windows model in speed/efficiency/merge)

APK

P.S.=> CHINA agrees by COPYING part of what I do (hardcodes vs. DNS down/redirect poisoned + dns tracking) http://theregister.co.uk/2017/...

Re:Clean vs. threats righteous + speedgains via

[Anonymous Coward]

Spammer faggots and their shitty products no one wants need to fuck off and die.

100,000++ users of my work agree... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

See subject: See 30 reviews by registered /.ers on quality/efficacy of Win32/64 model (Linux one's faster too) https://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=12478398&cid=57130680/ https://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=12478398&cid=57137806/ https://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=12478398&cid=57137868/ https://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=12478398&cid=57137916/ https://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=12478398&cid=57137944/

* Want more? Ask & "ye shall receive"!

APK

P.S.=> Accept NO substitute for NATIVE efficacy vs. "Bolt-on-'MoAr'" ILLOGIC-LOGIC "solutions" FULL of security issues (DNS/Antivirus) OR that don't work by default (e.g. AdBlock) that SLOW YOU DOWN vs. hosts speeding you up 2 ways... apk

I've seen the future...

[RickyShade]

See, according to Cocteau's plan, I'm the enemy. Cause I like to think, I like to read. I'm into freedom of speech and freedom of choice. I'm the kind if guy who wants to sit in a greasy spoon and think, "Gee, should I have the T-bone steak or the jumbo rack of barbecued ribs with the side order of gravy fries?" I want high cholesterol. I want to eat bacon, butter and buckets of cheese, okay? I want to smoke a Cuban cigar the size of Cincinnati in a non-smoking section. I wanna run through the streets naked with green Jello all over my body reading Playboy magazine. Why? Because I suddenly might feel the need to. Okay, pal? I've seen the future, you know what it is? It's a 47-year-old virgin sittin' around in his beige pajamas, drinking a banana-broccoli shake singing "I'm an Oscar-Meyer Wiener". You wanna live on top, you gotta live Cocteau's way. What he wants, when he wants, how he wants.

Re:I've seen the future...

[Rick Schumann]

+1

Yugoslavia in the 80s

[pacija]

I was born in "communist" Yugoslavia, and lived there through my early childhood in the 80s. There was no Internet, but the only three national TV programs were what you could call "Clean and Righteous". Lots of educational stuff through the morning, classic Disney or Fleischer cartoons before bedtime, movie classics, both domestic and foreign in the evening.

Yugoslavia was torn down in early 90s by "western democracies", split to smaller, weaker countries, and one of them - Serbia, where I live now - was finally bombed in late 90s and early Y2K with depleted uranium by NATO member states. We finally got rid of the "dictators" and got "democracy".

A few weeks ago my 7 year old son asked me and my wife if he could watch football world cup semifinals on TV because our neighbor Croatia played, although it was past his bedtime (9PM). We allowed, but at the half-time we were genuinely afraid to start to switch through channels because we knew there will be stuff we don't want him to see. And don't get the wrong impression, as I completed Medal of Honor with him when he was 5, and at the same time he saw Lord of the Rings - he ain't a snowflake.

Freedom and democracy and free speech my ass. If you don't take western corporations' shit and also pay for it you get depleted uranium. Maybe not if you are as powerful as China.

Re:Yugoslavia in the 80s

[Anonymous Coward]

Yugoslavia was torn down in early 90s by "western democracies."

Wrong. Yugoslavia was torn down when — after the commie bloc that was enforcing peace fell apart — the various ethnic factions of Yogoslavia reverted to their natural, ungovernable state of genocidal warfare. The western democracies had to take over the role of adult for you.

Re:Yugoslavia in the 80s

[He Who Has No Name]

You don't get to blame western democracies when Serbs and Kosavars start slaughtering each other because they can't get over ethnic conflicts from almost 900 years ago.

And if your argument is that it was all worth it so your son maybe doesn't see boobs or unfiltered news coverage on the TV, then I would suggest immigrating to North Korea where they still practice the clean righteousness you miss.

Re:Yugoslavia in the 80s

[Anonymous Coward]

So you like the video game violence and don't like the "stuff you don't want him to see". If only there was a way for adults, who gave birth to children, to somehow moderate what their children see and teach them right and wrong. To allow them some freedom, and to restrict others.
Oh wait, there is. It's called parenting.

Wow

[DNS-and-BIND]

I bet he has no idea how much he has in common with Facebook, Twitter, and Google.

Re:Wow

[liquid_schwartz]

I bet he has no idea how much he has in common with Facebook, Twitter, and Google.

Indeed. One has a social credit score and the other has a trustworthiness rating.

And anyway...

[Anonymous Coward]

Sex is righteous. Sex is how our species survives. It is the reason everyone of us exists. And so on.

Sex is not dirty. It is perfectly natural and clean. Sexual desire is not dirty. It is an instinct that our species relies on for continuance.

Pornography is not dirty. It is the most automatic expression of our sexual instincts, given the tech available. It plays its part in assisting the entire enterprise of keeping our species alive.

People who want to block pornography usually have an ulterior motive. Either they actually want to block a whole bunch of other things and are just using a widespread cultural discomfort with our own survival instincts to get the necessary approval, or they are threatened by the fact that standards of beauty actually exist and aren't always trivially easy to achieve. Or they are just under-developed and hence erroneously believe their own sexual instincts are dirty. In any case, they insist that pornography is dirty, when it is not.

Re:And anyway...

[Anonymous Coward]

> Sex is not dirty. It is perfectly natural and clean.

Clean? So you're comfortable with other people having sex on your bed?

Sorry, sex is not a clean affair. It's sweaty, involves some bodily fluids, and usually leaves stains on the sheets.

Re:And anyway...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's sweaty, involves some bodily fluids, and usually leaves stains on the sheets.

Use old beach towel. Mattress stains prevented. Wash towel as needed. Problem solved. Profit???

Re:And anyway...

[Anonymous Coward]

Equivocate much?

The poster was obviously using "clean" in the sense of "not vulgar, not needing to be censored."

Re: And anyway...

[Anonymous Coward]

Email me. I think we are on to something.
I dub it the "sex towel".

We can market it to teens and college kids.

Re:And anyway...

[Rolgar]

Or perhaps you should study what science has to say: https://fightthenewdrug.org/

Porn makes people stupid. Science FTW.

Re:And anyway...

[serviscope_minor]

Pornography is not dirty.

Dude, you need to find better porn.

Re:And anyway...

[Hallux-F-Sinister]

Sex is righteous. Sex is how our species survives. It is the reason everyone of us exists. And so on.

Sex is not dirty. It is perfectly natural and clean. Sexual desire is not dirty. It is an instinct that our species relies on for continuance.

Pornography is not dirty. It is the most automatic expression of our sexual instincts, given the tech available. It plays its part in assisting the entire enterprise of keeping our species alive.

People who want to block pornography usually have an ulterior motive. Either they actually want to block a whole bunch of other things and are just using a widespread cultural discomfort with our own survival instincts to get the necessary approval, or they are threatened by the fact that standards of beauty actually exist and aren't always trivially easy to achieve. Or they are just under-developed and hence erroneously believe their own sexual instincts are dirty. In any case, they insist that pornography is dirty, when it is not.

"Do you think sex is dirty?"

"It is if you're doing it right!"

~ Some Woody Allen movie.

Re:And anyway...

[Anonymous Coward]

How about you link to actual science articles and not some propaganda site?

Re:And anyway...

[SuricouRaven]

I've tried to see what science has to say. But once you discount all organisations that are misrepresenting scientific studies to push a political agenda, all the personal anecdotes, and all the sensationalist reports just trying to get some views, science doesn't actually have much to say. There are studies that give contradictory results, but it's not an easy area to study. For one, good luck getting ethical approval for a controlled study.

Fight the New Drug looks superficially respectable. They don't have an obvious religious or political bias, and they do use a lot of citations. Promising. But the closer you look, the more suspicious they appear - a lot of the citations are either other anti-porn groups, dubious correlative studies, or selectively chosen experts. They make a lot of use of personal stories in their videos (not so much their writing though), and have close ties to a very shady 'rehab' program. If you dig around enough, you discover that the shady rehab program came first, and they share a founder (Clay Olsen).

You can also check out their team listing page. It uses a few humorous comments about each member, but you might notice that not a single one of them has any scientific background. At all. Nothing. Strangely, though, for a non-religiously-affiliated program... some people have done a little digging, and apparently (though this might be dated) it's almost entirely run by Mormons.

The problem isn't that they outright lie, it's that they present a very one-sided view. The old trick of selective citations. If you have one study saying A and ten saying B, it's easy to claim "Science says A, and here's a study to prove it."

It's a better attempt than most, but you can find plenty of expert columns that will savage their one-sided presentation.

Wrong

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

And a dictator consolidating his power as we speak wants this massive censorsjip wave for purely coincidental reasons.

Re:Wrong

[Rick Schumann]

Yes. 'Vulgar content' == 'criticism of the Communist party or of the God Emperor Xi'.

Re:Wrong

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes. 'Vulgar content' == 'criticism of the Communist party or of the God Emperor Xi'.

And somehow, when Trump the Idiot talks about taking away press credentials, or how the media is the enemy of the state, nobody seems to make the parallels.

Trump is firmly in the camp of "any criticism of me is bordering on treason", so in that regards, I don't see much difference here.

Trump doesn't believe in the truth unless it fits his narrative, and Xi is doing the same thing. The difference being, for now Trump can't do this to the same extent.

It's shocking how often what Trump does lines up with what dictators do. He wants the freedom to ignore laws and do anything he wants, which isn't exactly someone who gives a fuck about freedoms.

Re:Wrong

[Rick Schumann]

I know, AC, I know. The Correction is forthcoming, however.

Re: Which is why you don't criticize the governmen

[Karmashock]

when was the last time you criticized a government you supported?

China are on point

[Anonymous Coward]

The degeneracy of the West is itâ(TM)s downall and the Chinese understand this well. If western nations are to stand in the future a little jinping ideology would go a long way.

Re:China are on point

[Anonymous Coward]

First we must purge the degeneracy of iOS, it's a corrupting influence.

Re: China are on point

[Anonymous Coward]

Tut tut mr smartphone elitist

fuck em

[Anonymous Coward]

If only investment restrictions could be imposed on China... Maybe tariffs on Chinese tech goods could also show what the US thinks about the regime.

A lot of free people want the same thing

[Anonymous Coward]

They just won't admit it or dance around it. They're begging to have their freedoms taken away for the "greater good."

"1.42 billion Chinese can't be wrong"... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

"1.42 billion Chinese can't be wrong" http://theregister.co.uk/2017/... w/ 30 regsistered /.ers https://tech.slashdot.org/comm... saying THEY LIKE + USE my Hosts Engine + 100,000++ users of MY program WORLDWIDE (not your "notware/hotairware" that's NOT THERE, lol, you UNIDENTIFIABLE anonymous JEALOUS "Lil' Jowie").

* You WISH you were me!

(Your kind? ANTIFA anonymous "ne'er-do-well" DO-NOTHING punks don't have the SKILL or the WILL to make success happen for you - & you KNOW it!).

APK

P.S.=> Lastly - in case you hadn't noticed? You're VASTLY outnumbered as you HIDE from me via your UNIDENTIFIABLE troll STALKING of myself - see links above as proof... apk

Re:"1.42 billion Chinese can't be wrong"... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

Technically, they can. I mean, they've got Xi Jinping telling them what to do.

Re:"1.42 billion Chinese can't be wrong"... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

Good to know that those Chinese aren't using your work so we shouldn't either. All of those quotes were taken out of context which if included shine a very bad light on you and your work. Just because you got your mother, who fled to Poland to get away from you, to download your software 100,000 times doesn't mean you have over 100,000 users.

Chicom delendo est

[He Who Has No Name]

The planet must be clean and righteous and Communists must be destroyed. Xi first.

Nazis get bayonets, Communists get helicopter rides, humans get freedom.

To speak freely is to think freely

[blindseer]

I saw just an epic speech by Dr. Jordan Peterson on free speech. It's about a half hour long but worth every minute.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Dr. Peterson explains how vital it is to speak freely to develop one's thoughts. If people are not able to say anything that isn't "righteous" then nothing of importance can be discussed. And who is to be the arbiter of what is righteous? To have a functioning society one needs to be able to say uncomfortable things. That includes "hate speech". Most anything of importance is in some way uncomfortable, hateful, or not "clean". It can be important as an example of good behavior as well as what we should not do.

To know what is good we at times need to see what is bad, and the damage this can cause. We define our heroes by their villains. You can't have Batman without the Joker. There is no Superman without Lex Luthor. These comic book characters borrow from old myths to the point of pulling Thor and Loki from mythical characters and turning them into big budget movies and comics. Wonder Woman borrows heavily from myth as well. In every case we see examples of heroes, fighting what we consider evil. To purge evil from society to the point that Chinese citizens can't even read of news of such evil outside their borders means Chinese people cannot learn how to see such evil within themselves.

This censorship can only end badly. We should not tolerate it in any form. That includes these college campus protests to "de-platform" people that student groups despise. By expressing intolerance for "bad speech" means in the end expressing a disdain for thinking clearly. If you cannot think of a better response then to make noise and smash things then you are no better than unthinking animals.

Re:To speak freely is to think freely

[lgw]

It's gotten bad enough here ta]hat Tom Sawyer is getting pulled from libraries because, in order to learn that slavery and racism are bad, Tom meets racists and interacts with them. Now that must be banned, as it's presenting racist views. FFS.

Re:To speak freely is to think freely

[Anonymous Coward]

The lobsterman is mostly incapable of saying anything epic. You should see the correction videos that have already been posted that point out the flaws in Peterson's arguments. Now those are epic.

To summarize, he's saying that good cannot exist without evil. It's good he considers the right wing evil (that's the most accurate thing he's ever said, according to most), but life is not a fictional universe. There is already evil in the world, and the right is championing putting it on a pedestal as an example to live by, in order to "learn" how to not be a rightwinger I suppose?

Logic left the right decades ago, everyone has noticed.

Our wishes are smaller

[Opportunist]

We'd already settle for a clean and righteous Xi Jinping.

Just needs a rebranding

[Anonymous Coward]

It's ok, Goatse is just "Clean and Righteous" with Chinese characteristics(tm).

If he were American he would say the same thing ex

[Anonymous Coward]

The words would be : âoeWe need to crack down on fake news.â

First thing to attack

[Anonymous Coward]

Facebook has just introduced social scores, to indicate the level at which users tell lies. This will seem great until the liars count in the tens/hundreds of millions. I'd say that at that point we'll see the reality of what human beings are at the base, won't we? OTOH, I can't see how their new policy doesn't end up in court.

Anyway, one of the first things authoritarian systems do, when it's time to "crack down" - is to demonize some group or activity. In this case, it's "vulgar language" and porno. There are some selfish thoughts in porno, but such "art" is also identified with the kind of individualistic traits that they like to eliminate when panning for conformity. And usually, after the numbers are quantified, the real level of porn/vulgarity/etc is small compared to the wide open scope of things the official explanation is used to suppress.

The political plank that promised to crack down on "deviants" is what put Hitler into power, not his economic plan (which hadn't been proved). It's always the go-to bad-boy for this kind of stuff. Rinse, repeat.

Re: Which is why you don't criticize the governme

[Anonymous Coward]

You messed up your comment. Try again.

Wierd, Democrats say the same thing!

[Anonymous Coward]

Alex Jones leads to inharmonious society!

Realistically...

[Anonymous Coward]

That subject line is enough to convince me he's never actually *used* the internet at any point in his life.

The Internet is not in China

[Anonymous Coward]

President Xi is simply trying to order something well beyond the reach of his armies and laws.

I clean myself dayly and only God could make me righteous.

APK continues to lie, never trust him

[Anonymous Coward]

APK just can't stop lying.
Like how he claims the Chinese copied him but can't produce any evidence to support that claim and even admits that there isn't any. He just can't stop with this one and repeats it here despite being false and despite nothing else they are doing being similar to his work. The only thing they have in common is a stupid simplistic obvious idea.
How about when he states that hosts does port filtering but again can't backup his statement which was shown to be false.
There is also his list of "experts" who support him but it turns out they don't say what he is claiming.
This also ignores his out of context quotes he uses to lie by omission that are frequently spammed.
The problem with APK is that his entire reputation is built upon the lie he told years ago that hosts is an effective security solution. It has been exposed numerous times as being a lie and when exposed APK fails to argue logically and instead will try to deflect criticism, change the subject, move the goal posts, return to a previously disproven statement, demand you prove you did better than his file concatenator, or just call people names. He will continue to lie by stating that he won or "dusted" you while failing to refute anything you said, will never provide real evidence, and generally try to dodge the issue.

Face it APK is one of the most detested individuals here for good reason. When ever his poor behavior, awful logic, over statements, and horrendous writing are called out he has a fit and has done so for years across the internet. He is a spammer, and is an abusive insecure little man who is washed up and never amounted to anything. Until he produces actual verifiable facts supporting his case nothing he says should be taken seriously.

Commandments of Winnie The Pooh

[Anonymous Coward]

A subset of the infinite commandments of Winnie The Pooh,
Princeling, President for Life of the Chinese Peoples Republic:

Winnie The Pooh is thy lord and master. He is the princeling
who is leading the Chinese people out of bondage from the
Imperialists.

1. Thou shalt have no other president for life before or after
      Winnie The Pooh.

2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image of Winnie The Pooh.

3. Thou shalt not take the name of Winnie The Pooh in vain.

4. Thou shalt not post the name, Winnie The Pooh, over the Internet.

5. Thou shalt not envision the character of Winnie The Pooh in your
      brainwashed brain.

6. Thou shalt not spell the name Winnie The Pooh with any writing
      instrument on any surface, including paper, stone, wood, or any
      other surface.

7. Thou shalt not do anything that Winnie The Pooh would not do,
      but that doesn't leave very much.

8. Thou shalt not take the wife of Winnie The Pooh as your own
      concubine.

9. Remember Winnie The Pooh's birthday, and keep it holy.

10. Honor Winnie The Pooh's father and mother.

11. Thou shalt not kill Winnie The Pooh or any likeness thereof.

12. Thou shalt not burn Winnie The Pooh's image in effigy.

13. Thou shalt not step on Winnie The Pooh's image.

14. Thou shalt not take target practice on Winnie The Pooh's
        image.

15. Thou shalt not play darts on Winnie The Pooh's image.

16. Thou shalt not make memes of Winnie The Pooh.

17. Thou shalt not cheat on Winnie The Pooh.

18. Thou shalt not steal any of Winnie The Pooh's treasure.

19. Thou shalt not bear false witness against Winnie The Pooh.

20. Thou shalt not covet that which Winnie The Pooh has, or has
        taken by force, or has usurped, including the artificial
        islands in the seas between the Phillipines, Vietnam,
        Malaysia, and Indonesia.

21. Thou shalt not covet Winnie The Pooh's wife.

22. Thou shalt not covet Winnie The Pooh's slaves, animals,
        or anything else, but that doesn't leave very much.

SICK, SAD WORLD.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm here with my AR-15 to investimagate that thar horrible child molestation I heard about on the internet! Bang!Bang!

Oh, they're brown children? Carry on...

Re:SICK, SAD WORLD.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hi Mr. Schitzo, keep on topic or get the fuck out.

Re:SICK, SAD WORLD.

[losfromla]

That's very much on-topic moron. Alex Jones is inciting violence, the idiot investigator with his AR-15 is a very likely example of what AJ is instigating.

Re: SICK, SAD WORLD.

[Anonymous Coward]

[Citation needed]

Word diarrhea and nonsensical riffraff.

It's cold hard censorship to protect the feels and the flakes.

Re:SICK, SAD WORLD.

[eaglesrule]

I can't wait for this wave of censorship intended to prevent violence to be applied fairly and consistently, with clear unwavering standards as to hold people accountable.

Oh wait, ha ha, we'll just walk past a mountain to point at a mole hill, and use any excuse we can think of to ban or hit someone we don't like.

Re:SICK, SAD WORLD.

[losfromla]

We just need to shut down fascist voices. Fuck the alt right, they're just neo Nazis and don't deserve a seat at the table of civilization. That's right, I'm all for curtailing the voices of those fucktards.

Re:SICK, SAD WORLD.

[eaglesrule]

Here's a good example of someone being 'held accountable' for daring to display a symbol of the fascist alt-right neo nazis, and being 'censored' as your ilk would have it.

No thanks. Religious fanatics have no business deciding what is or isn't 'harmful' or 'hateful' for the rest of us. Only a fool would submit to this kind of tyranny.

Immigration, Diversity, Social Welfare

[Dr. Evil]

Are you talking about literal Nazis here?

The 1942 Berlin diversity and Gay pride parade was quite a show. People came in droves, from many different nationalities. The military turned up too, on account of the huge social welfare projects created by the newly expanded funding. Controling the executive, legislative and parliamentary branches of government created a utopia, with one man in charge.

The only part which sucked was when the German military forced the racially impure, the Jews, Roma, sexual deviants and enemies of the government at gun point into concentration camps where they were BURNED IN OVENS.

Only evidence I need (nobody trusts you).. apk

[Anonymous Coward]

Who did it 1st: China or me? I did - dates are my proof http://theregister.co.uk/2017/... w/ the FACT China rampantly STEALS U.S. Intellectual properties & military secrets!

* See subject: NOBODY TRUSTS YOU as you STALK ME by UNIDENTIFIABLE anonymous fool - real "trustworthy" you are, lol (not) & when you've done BETTER than I have in a ware that protects & speeds folks up online? THEN, they might (you never will though & you KNOW it JEALOUS "Lil' Jowie").

(Arstechnica got BLOWN away by me years ago & I laugh about it to this very day (they did what you do & got burnt for it)).

APK

P.S.=> TONS of security experts KNOW blacklists work (no questions asked) & 3 things show I do it right:

1st = User praise my hosts engine https://tech.slashdot.org/comm... (so much for ME being "detested" but I'm not here to win a popularity contest - just here to WIN so everyone does).

2nd "ATTACKS" I GET (from UNIDENTIFIABLE ac as Elon Musk got https://tech.slashdot.org/stor... )

3rd BEING IMITATED = "Imitation = sincerest form of flattery" https://linux.slashdot.org/com... JUST LIKE CHINA DID ME TOO... apk

This is why we can't have nice things

[Anonymous Coward]

Why to bring the problems and stupidity from the real world?

Can someone explain this to me?

[Anonymous Coward]

Can someone please explain to me what the difference is between what the Chinese government want for their internet, and what the "left" (including facebook, google, twitter, etc.) want for this country's internet? This is not a troll, I would really like some insight - I can't see the difference.

Did Bill and Tedd say Righteous a lot?

[omfglearntoplay]

Because I thought they did, but I can't find any quotes from their movies to... uh... quote.

The Chinese are pure evil

[Anonymous Coward]

just like google

He can go fuck himself

[rsilvergun]

but America won't be taking away their most favorite nation status anytime soon. Meanwhile our close allies the Saudis are seeking the death penalty for a peaceful protestor who demanded women's rights. Last I checked we're still selling them bombs and they're still dropping them on school buses in Yemen.

It's all well and good to say "Fuck so and so" but until you vote people into office who will actually get tough on human rights abuses it's pissing in the wind.

I wouldn't even call that far left

[rsilvergun]

Far left are the actual communists and maybe the anarchists. We had a 50-90% tax rate in the 50s and 60s. All drugs legal comes with the stipulation that hard drug use is administered by the government and treated as an illness. Renewables isn't far left, it's common sense and the cap on wages comes from the Japanese who's economy stagnated shortly after they removed the caps.

Re:I wouldn't even call that far left

[Anonymous Coward]

What are you? Some kind of sensible person? This is Slashdot. Fuck off. We don't want your kind around here.

Facebook, YouTube et al

[Anonymous Coward]

The big tech companies are scrubbing everything they can. Free thought will dry up eventually

Righteous alright but

[Anonymous Coward]

Righteous and chronic dude.

Sounds familiar.

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds like a lot of kids in the USA and Europe.

Anything they deem to be bad is bad and must be removed from the pages of history.

Kind of exactly like Google/YouTube/Twitter already do

So

[AHuxley]

No Tibet?
No Taiwan?
No Tiananmen square?
No awkward cartoon bear?
Emperor?

The internet belongs to its users, not the Communist Party.

and china should be...

[Anonymous Coward]

clean and righteous, so lets get rid of the communist party there. they are just thugs. not even communists, though thats definitely not much better.

Winnie The Pooh

[Anonymous Coward]

Can suck my fat Piglet

Re: Which is why you don't criticize the governme

[Karmashock]

You messed up your comment. Try again.

Obligatory SMAC reference

[Evtim]

https://youtu.be/iY57ErBkFFE

This is why no new posts on ./ after this article?

[ayesnymous]

notext

more importantly

[mapkinase]

He achieved his vision of Internet in China. Putin achieved his vision in Russia. In contrary to the naive belief of Internet enthusiasts, it turned out to be possible.

Totally righteous

[Daralantan]

I too hope that the internet will be righteous, radical, gnarly, and SO bad. Not sure about the clean part though?

Reputation will be the key

[mrwireless]

China's reputation system will allow them to do this. By 2030 China will be the biggest economy in the world, and they will probably start exporting their scoring system to the rest of the world. Want to do business with Chinese people? Make sure you have a 'clean and righteous' social credit score in their system.

The bigger picture is that we are slowly moving from an information society towards a reputation society. Where the information society was about access to data and information, the reputation society is about the flow of social capital. Our social capital is measured now, both in China, but also in the west. Just this week we saw how Facebook is measuring trustworthiness. Behind the scenes databrokers have been deriving and selling data like this for a long time.

The 60's were all about breaking free from crippling social pressure to conform. Now the data driven panopticon might undo that.


The reputation society: https://tech.slashdot.org/stor...
Facebook's reputation score: https://www.dailydot.com/debug...
Databrokers: http://crackedlabs.org/en

Seen this before?

[Anonymous Coward]

Good, because history has shown todo what leads to people in power saying things like that.

Clean and righteous

[Anonymous Coward]

"The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the
Inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men"

Pooh Bear

[spinitch]

A cute endearing children character banned coz Xi and minions don't like the likeness assertions. Could be worse likeness such as the borg, vice lord etc I get there is desire to deter as rebellion symbol but that seems to on embolden it. Would have faded by now. Instead new movie coming out from West resurrecting story.

I am APK the LORD of HOSTS

[Anonymous Coward]

I am APK the great "LORD of HOSTS", a.k.a. AlecStaar from ArsTechnica or Alexander Peter Kowalski.

See subject & APK Hosts File Engine 2.0++ 64-bit for Linux h t t p : / / I . a m . a . f u c k i n g / a s s h o l e . r e t a r d . z i p (remove spaces between characters & download).

I am the godlike creator of various GUI front-ends for other people's configuration files.

I think only one person stalks me as I shitpost and I dusted them on another site but in reality I am widely hated all.

When presented with facts I rebut them with wild speculations, false support, and out of context quotes

Don't call me out on anything as I will state that you are a webmaster and that I cut off your revenue stream.

You must be conspiring with the Jews and Soros if you disagree with me.

Mistaking mockery and parody for impersonation is how I think people flatter me because I can't possibly understand that they detest me.

See me lash out at one person for 2 weeks straight and claim everyone who mocks my retarded ass is actually them.

Bask in my greatness as I post my advertisements in discussions where they don't belong, by the way this is every discussion I post in.

I just don't understand why every site I post on everyone makes fun of me, it can't be because I am a shit stick but instead because they are all Ne'er-do-well SOYboy Jealous JOWIEs.

Watch as I claim I win every argument when in reality I know I lost but that won't stop me from proclaiming my victory.

Witness my descent into madness

APK

Re: Which is why you don't criticize the governme

[Anonymous Coward]

You don't know what you're talking about. Please give up now and find a new hobby.

Of 100,000++ users of my work? apk

[Anonymous Coward]

Of 100,000++ users of my work, I think there might be a Chinese national in there or two (lol) but 1 thing's certain: NOBODY uses your "not there ware" that doesn't exist!

* LOL - I love the b.s. about my Ma - she got to live her dream & return home (nothing to do w/ me @ all, it was what she always wanted to do - she missed her REAL home, Poland).

APK

P.S.=> Nothing "shines a bad light on my work" chump (you do on yourself with your JEALOUS showing "Lil' Jowie" (lol))! See subject: You don't get that many users MINUS giving folks what they want (heck, on today's internet. what they NEED is more like it in more speed/security/reliability/anonymity for free)... apk

Dear JEALOUS "Lil' Jowie" (lol)... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear JEALOUS "Lil' Jowie" (lol): When you can do as well as I have in software w/ PROOF of it? Then talk - otherwise you're BLOWHARD hotair!

APK

P.S.=> ... & nothing more... apk

Re: Which is why you don't criticize the governme

[Anonymous Coward]

Managed it twice in a row, keep working on your communication skills.

Re: Which is why you don't criticize the governme

[Karmashock]

You don't know what you're talking about. Please give up now and find a new hobby.