Slashdot Mirror
YouTube Disabled Comments On Livestreams Of A Congressional Hearing On White Nationalism Because They Were Too Hateful (buzzfeednews.com)
Tuesday's hearing was meant to examine the rise of white nationalism and white supremacy and the role social media plays in its spread. Then the comments got hijacked. From a report: YouTube moderators disabled comments on livestreams of the House Judiciary Committee's hearing about hate crimes the rise of white nationalism on Tuesday, deeming them too hateful for the platform. The comment sections quickly flooded with hate speech and white nationalist memes before the hearing had even started. The comments included derogatory remarks about women on camera, anti-Semitic slurs, far-right memes with references to "white genocide," and pro-Trump slogans. The channels' comments sections were deactivated within an hour. [...] YouTube's disabling of comments is ironic: House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat from New York, made special reference in his opening statement of the role social media platforms play in spreading hate speech and extremism in his opening statement.
I'm no babe in the woods (I completed my 100th trip around the block last week), but I've seen some comment threads on news sites that would convince you Neanderthals didn't go extinct; they're alive and well. You just hope the comments are more troll/bombastic in nature and not what people truly believe (OK, maybe I am still a bit naive).
Seriously .... it's amazingly bad, how often online conversations or comments on social media devolve into utter garbage. I imagine in this instance, it was egged on because of the political topic of discussion. Furthermore? I'm fairly confident the vast majority of "white supremacist" comments were made by teenagers trying to get a rise out of people.
I mean, sure -- you really DO have these racist hate groups around. But they're generally rather disorganized or lack enough membership to do anything significant. You have FAR more people who are just angry and like to talk trash than you do people who are truly committed to promoting neo-nazis or some kind of white supremacy movement.
It also works semantically if someone is a nationalist, who happens to be white. Which provides a convenient way to conflate nationalism with racism.
Knowledge Brings Fear
The narrative here seems to be "talk about white nationalists, and gangs of white nationalists show up to prove just how demented and determined to be assholes they are."
That's certainly the narrative. I'd bet the reality is "the chans saw this as a wonderful opportunity to troll, plus some actual white nationalists (who were also channers).".
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Hmm... I'm not certain. I am convinced that Trump thinks HE himself is (genetically and presidentially and otherwise) superior, but I think it is mostly at a personal, familial level rather than at a racial level. Rather I suspect Trump is so solipsistic that he has no real feelings about groups as such. Therefore I think Trump can be played by the racists, but he isn't nearly as sincere about it as Miller and Bannon. I think Trump has always been a puppet, and the only trick to pulling his strings is to convince Trump it was his idea in the first place. As long as you are pushing him from behind, Trump thinks he's leading.
Having said that, I do have to agree that there is plenty of racist stuff in Trump's past. The Central Park Jogger stuff is especially bad, but there was some less racist stuff mixed in, too. For example, if a black celebrity could help him make some money, then Trump was much more concerned about the money than the race.
I just don't think Trump was smart enough to come up with the idea of the Department of White Homeland Security, and his willingness is not that important. In fact, now he seems to be getting cold feet.
If Trump had any imagination, then I'd think he was afraid of a protest mocking one of his own rallies. I still want to see the video of "Lock kids up, LOCK KIDS UP!" In my imagination, the protesters are in Trump face, and the video builds to an angry crescendo before collapsing into howls of insane rage.
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
Marsh v Alabama doesn't apply because a) YouTube set up rules of conduct regarding comments from the beginning. It did not single out one specific type of speech it would ban over another and b) YouTube also limits what can be posted as far as videos, and has done so from the beginning. Neither is an abridgement of free speech.
The only ones outsourcing totalitarianism are Republicans who keep claiming the free market will fix everything, then turn around and use taxpayer money to prop up the free market and businesses. Or, in the current case, crawl into their holes while the corrupt con artist rides roughshod over them because they're too stupid and cowardly to do their duties as members of Congress to reign in his dictatorial ways.
And for the record, I do agree that free speech should be defended. If nothing else, it reveals to the world the true nature of an individual. That said, there are limits, and a company has every right to censor speech on their site if that speech bumps up against their rules.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Oh, you fucking make me laugh with https://fullfact.org/crime/eth...
So more white people are arrested than any other single racial group. A whole 38% of arrests. It's almost as though 86% of the population are classed as 'white'.
Of course, since you're the racist focussing on 'white' people, we can look at this another way: Even though 86% of people in the UK are 'white', 62% of terror arrests are for other demographics. Seems to me the white majority are being extremely tolerant of representatives of the 14% getting arrested for 62% of the terror.
It depends how you slice it.
I try to slice it in a way that doesn't demonise primarily innocent demographics. I try to slice it in a way that doesn't push a racist narrative. I try to slice it differently to you for both of those reasons.
Who are these Marxists committing all these terrorist acts?
Perhaps you should ask the US Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigation, as they're the people that designated Antifa a terror organisation.