VOAT goats urged not to use Saidit: The leftist censorship shithole by VantaFount in MeanwhileOnVoat

[–]Alduin 11 insightful - 4 fun11 insightful - 3 fun12 insightful - 4 fun -  (0 children)

The same thread that they're complaining about censorship, they're saying don't bother joining the conversation on voat unless you hold particular political views.

I would like to see any proof of the base claim though. Because... No offense magnora... But if this place were run by experienced Reddit admins then they would know a lot more what they're doing.

If War Is an Industry, How Can There Be Peace in a Capitalist World? by salvia_d in WorldPolitics

[–]Alduin 9 insightful - 3 fun9 insightful - 2 fun10 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

War may be an industry, but it is not a capitalist one. You cannot blame capitalism for anything paid for with tax dollars.

With all the reddit users coming over lately, I wanted to share something. This is what happened to Voat. by Alduin in propaganda

[–]Alduin[S] 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I agree 100% with this comment. I don't care that there are racists or others that I disagree with. In fact I support their right to express their opinion. It's when there's nothing else because they've chased all the normal people away that it's a problem.

Saidit is becoming an echo chamber by wizzwizz4 in SaidIt

[–]Alduin 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It's an intelligence/law enforcement agency tactic (not that it's necessarily them doing it). They basically flood a forum with undesirable content until the only real people left are people who agree with them (honeypot).

What I would suggest is a "block" or "ignore" button that works. If I have a user blocked, all of their content should be hidden from me. Then the racists and feds can go do their thing together and the rest of us can ignore them.

But first things first: Know thy enemy.

https://cryptome.org/2012/07/gent-forum-spies.htm

What is to stop saidit from writing a bot to copy every submission from say reddit /r/technology into saidit? by grobean in technology

[–]Alduin 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

That is a brilliant idea I think. All those threads that get removed when you're in the middle of a goddam conversation would be less of a problem if you can continue the conversation somewhere else.

Saidit keeps getting nonsense frontpage generalizations about liberals so I thought I'd help balance it out with some Conservative Paradise by EndlessSunflowers in conspiracy

[–]Alduin 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It's an interesting paradigm you've created here with the double upvote and no downvote buttons. It's like having a live audience where everyone can clap loudly but no one can boo. I'm expecting this to be less likely to become an echo chamber and have more opposing narratives. If that's true, then it will be the most extreme of those narratives that will get the most applause as they compete.

"Censorship of anything, at any time, in any place, on whatever pretense..." - Eugene Gladstone O'Neill [970x1000] by magnora7 in quotes

[–]Alduin 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Nah it's pretty much a first resort nowadays.

The Mother of all Big Brothers: The ADL is creating a Censorship Machine that is using Reddit posts and comments to train an A.I. Bot to seek out and Silence "Bad Think" and identify Enemies across the web by OMG_WTF_WOW in conspiracy

[–]Alduin 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Man, future internet is going to suck. I miss the wild west internet days.

CMV: It is a natural instinct to try to feel superior to others. by Alduin in changemyview

[–]Alduin[S] 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I don't think of it in terms of capitalist/marxist. I guess either one can have applicable examples...

What I was trying to say is, if we correlate the superiority of a person with their importance, some people are measurably more important than others. The president of the US is more important than his bodyguards, which is why it's literally their job to take a bullet for him if need be - just as an example.

But because there is this natural imbalance, people keep this in their minds and imagine themselves higher up in the hierarchy than they actually belong. "You don't matter, only I do." sort of mentality, even if they don't actually matter that much.

It's natural to see others, especially strangers, as not very important. But almost no one sees themselves that way.

(This post is more just an example of how to post in the sub. I maybe should have chosen a simpler topic as an example.)

Shills and Narratives by Jesus in SaidIt

[–]Alduin 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

those posts will eventually get noticed by radian 6 or whatever other algorithm intelligence agencies use, they will then create the desired reaction to engender the final solution

That's not quite the goal I think. Otherwise Voat would be shut down. It's a honeypot. And those agencies are probably the ones doing it.

Think how valuable it must be to have the IP addresses and times (which for the government means name and address) of all those racists on Voat. They don't even have to send any request to the admins, they just make some pop up image hosting server or fake news page, post it a few times and done.

Here's a fun little experiment. Ask one of them if you should be using TOR and encryption. You'll usually get something along the lines of "if the government wants to know who I am then they know. No point in hiding it." Which may be true, but the purpose behind the comment is to dissuade.

Watch what they want you to do. For example they often give search alternatives to DDG, often with some poorly cited allegation of corruption on the part of DDG, which is how you know to trust that search engine.

Trump Signs Bill Renewing NSA's Internet Surveillance Program by dcjogger in politics

[–]Alduin 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

To me this seems like a surefire way to identify a traitor. But it's bizarre and infuriating to look at a field of candidates and there's not a single one that wouldn't sign it. Except maybe Rand Paul.

Saidit, what if we showed who voted on everything? by magnora7 in AskSaidIt

[–]Alduin 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Sounds like something to try. Who knows if it will work as intended or have some kind of cobra effect? Just don't get too attached to ideas that don't work.

To me it sounds like a great idea.

Saidit is becoming an echo chamber by wizzwizz4 in SaidIt

[–]Alduin 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

So you're saying all the racism spam will still show up to new users, so only racist spammers will sign up for an account?

That might be true... It's a hypothetical though, and this problem goes a little further. Voat is a good example of what happens. I would say it's been one of the most successful attacks I've seen. What happens now if you get an account and say something that goes against the narrative, or even just say something that's normal and unrelated, you won't find a receptive audience. So there's NOTHING BUT racism and hate there.

I don't mind racism and hate. In fact I think those kinds of discussions are necessary. But what I do mind is when there's NOTHING BUT racism and hate.

Keep in mind the people who talk like that are probably less than 10% of people (and I think that's being generous). Most people who come here will be normal. Not Reddit normal (which has the same problem at the opposite end of the spectrum), but normal.

VOAT goats urged not to use Saidit: The leftist censorship shithole by VantaFount in MeanwhileOnVoat

[–]Alduin 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

No, I don't think the admins are doing a bad job and I don't mean to imply that. It's just that they are noticably less experienced, which should be expected. That's why the claim that Reddit admins are involved surprised me, although I guess controlled opposition is a thing too.

Wikipedia Censorship: They list ~300 Bilderberg participants, so I linked in the Wikispooks list of the 2853 members mentioned in the official guests lists. Guess what happened 18 minutes later... by Robin in censorship

[–]Alduin 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yeah I agree with the removal. Wikispooks is not a reliable source. It's just another wiki with more laxed requirements on sources for that.

Get the sources you used for wikispooks and see if that works. I suspect it won't, because if it did, you would do that in the first place. Obscuring your lack of evidence behind another layer of nonsense Wikipedia knockoffs does not make it more reliable.

Saidit keeps getting nonsense frontpage generalizations about liberals so I thought I'd help balance it out with some Conservative Paradise by EndlessSunflowers in conspiracy

[–]Alduin 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yeah that actually does sound more likely now that I think about it. I hope so, that sounds better. That may mean less politics as well, which would be amazing.

We'll just have to see I guess. Should be interesting.

Checkmate, squirrels. by ikidd in gifs

[–]Alduin 5 insightful - 3 fun5 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

Hey, the first post I've found that is both insightful AND funny! Time to go make some modifications to my bird feeder!

We are witnessing History by useless_aether in funny

[–]Alduin 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Is ANY of that actually true? Where's this tape with Trump ordering Russia around? That seems like the easiest thing to prove if true.

Choose Wisely by useless_aether in DepopulationWatch

[–]Alduin 5 insightful - 3 fun5 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

Yeah pretty much. I always assume any socialist is either stupid or evil. 99% of the time they're stupid, but more often than you would expect they're actually both.

Take for example wizzwizz here... "Oh TRUE socialism has never been implemented." Which is really another way of saying "If I were the benevolent dictator everything would have turned out much better." Because no system is ever going to be 100% true to any one economic philosophy, unless it's a tiny tiny group of people on a remote island somewhere.

Pressure mounts on Facebook and Google to stop anti-vax conspiracy theories - Repetition of information, even if false, can often be mistaken for accuracy. by [deleted] in ConspiracyHeadlines

[–]Alduin 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

So they want Facebook and Google to determine what's true and what isn't about the world around us, and shield us from non-compliant thinking. I can't possibly see any flaws in this plan.

Exclusive: Leading Brexit donors say Britain will reverse decision to leave EU by useless_aether in WorldPolitics

[–]Alduin 5 insightful - 5 fun5 insightful - 4 fun6 insightful - 5 fun -  (0 children)

That'll teach those Brits for thinking that they can actually vote on things that matter.

Hi everyone. Since all of us here are looking at SaidIt as "how Reddit should've been all along", how do you think a proper social media should be, and what features it should, and shouldn't have? by DR3DDL0CC in AskSaidIt

[–]Alduin 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Put as much control for personalization in the hands of users as possible. Being able to sub and unsub to things is nice, but how about being able to do that for users, like you can on Twitter? For that matter, how about being able to ignore users and subs?

There has to be better mechanical ways for people to do their own moderation for the content they see. Otherwise you get either the censorship of Reddit or the single-mindedness of Voat.

I'm all for free speech. People have a right to say what they want. But others have a right to walk away and ignore them. Mods or admins should not get a say in either one.

Say That Again by useless_aether in funny

[–]Alduin 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I don't believe it.

I'm going back to full time Piracy by Tblaze7 in piracy

[–]Alduin 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Where are all of the people that almost put Microsoft out of business the first time they tried that ? Does anyone recall that ?

Pepperidge Farm remembers. People used to have principles. The internet has brought all new ways to program us, and it's working.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is representing an anonymous Reddit commenter who is facing an abusive copyright claim from the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, a group that publishes doctrines for Jehovah’s Witnesses by useless_aether in privacy

[–]Alduin 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

So there's a link to the motion to quash. Is there a link to the actual subject content?

What do you miss most about being a child? by Jesus-Christ in AskSaidIt

[–]Alduin 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Having friends that you'd just go see without any real plans of what to do. Then you go find something to do together.

Actually come to think of it, being married is a little bit like that sometimes. Except she doesn't like all the same things I do.

Voat literally praises the mass murder, repeatedly calling him a hero. 90% of voat upvotes in agreement. by magnora7 in MeanwhileOnVoat

[–]Alduin 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

I'm not sure if I agree with the analysis of Voat as being a place taken over by Neo-Nazis

I don't think it was taken over by Nazis, but definitely made a safe harbor for Nazis by paid shills. There was no kindred spirit with these people back with the first wave of users flooded in with the banning of FPH and Niggers. Back then all they wanted was a place to speak freely. Then along came the shills, which were easy enough to spot - they made half the posts and called everyone who criticized them a shill. They simply flooded the site with Nazi content until the only users that stayed were Nazis. They also made clear to any new users that they were not welcome there. These are common intelligence/law enforcement tactics for creating a honeypot.

Bill seeks to outlaw dwarf-tossing at Washington bars, strip clubs by dcjogger in politics

[–]Alduin 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Can you imagine being a dwarf and being told by strangers that they're going to pass a law to ban you from an activity that they would consider embarrassing if they were in your shoes? To be told that you're so incapable of rational thought that you must be saved from the humiliation of your own poor decisions. And to have that process so far removed from you that it's going to pass or fail regardless of any input from you, simply because they're many and you're few, and the many need to pat themselves on the back for their self-righteous piety.

Sad thing is it happens all the time. Constantly, to one segment of the population at a time.

Human beats IBM's AI in debate competition by Vigte in technology

[–]Alduin 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

That's cool. Here's the actual debate in case anyone is interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3u-1yttrVw

Choose Wisely by useless_aether in DepopulationWatch

[–]Alduin 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Nope, we absolutely do not need the two "in balance". They are opposites. One is freedom and prosperity, the other is poverty and oppression. You can't say "oh we need a little bit of poverty and oppression to make the freedom and prosperity work". No. The freedom and prosperity works despite the evil machinations of people who want to control others, because it's a powerful idea that very apparently lifts everyone out of poverty, rich and poor alike. Everyone in the world can see that capitalism feeds the masses, socialism doesn't.

And to the extent they are mixed, socialism is the parasite. Not some complimentary tool in the kit. "Oh we just need a little socialism", is what stupid people who believe their enemies say. It inhibits everything it's supposed to help and more.

Now, I'm not saying there's no role for government. Build infrastructure, settle disputes, etc. But distributing largess from the public treasury and forcing people to pay for it down the road should not be part of their duties.

Saidit.net — Feb 13, 2019 — New Rule: Sub moderator logs are now publicly available by magnora7 in SaidIt

[–]Alduin 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Awesome, great job guys!

Shills and Narratives by Jesus in SaidIt

[–]Alduin 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Maybe you're right, I don't really know. All I know is I've seen lots of people whom I believe are shills (for unrelated reasons) that share the common trait of telling people not to use it. Almost always with a recommendation for something they would prefer you used.

PSA: We all fell for an obvious lie. by wizzwizz4 in SaidIt

[–]Alduin 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

We all need to do better.

Never gonna happen. If you're expecting to have the nonsense upvoted by no one at all then I submit that your expectations are unrealistic.

Hi, I'm sick of reddit by Darkri in Introductions

[–]Alduin 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

Hi Sick of Reddit. I'm Alduin!

Voat literally praises the mass murder, repeatedly calling him a hero. 90% of voat upvotes in agreement. by magnora7 in MeanwhileOnVoat

[–]Alduin 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

So if I just agree with you all the time, my content will be removed? How about if I'm just sharing news or memes or whatever and not engaging in debate at all?

I hope you can understand my point here. You're putting an awful lot of eggs in a basket of obscurity and limited use cases, in my opinion. This pyramid is only about debating. How that relates to extremist views still illudes me.

Voat literally praises the mass murder, repeatedly calling him a hero. 90% of voat upvotes in agreement. by magnora7 in MeanwhileOnVoat

[–]Alduin 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I've read this before I think from you, and I don't really understand what you mean. You are creating a space for non-extreme content, right? So first of all how do you define that? Secondly, with the content being user generated, what are you going to do if you have an extremist user or extremist sub?

Can you please go into more detail about specifically how you plan to make this site different?

Dr. Jill Stein: "Does Trump want #Venezuela to be another Syria? Civil war going on 8 years has killed 500K people & created over 5M refugees. US taxpayers paid 100s of millions for weapons that went to Al-Qaeda & ISIS. Few in US even know the atrocities we supported in Syria. #HandsOffVenezuela" by JasonCarswell in Venezuela

[–]Alduin 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I agree to stay out of Venezuela. But I also disagree with this false equivalency. The "Syrian rebels", as the media used to refer to them back when they were trying to get everyone to go along with this, were already REALLY bad guys. Same with Libya. There was a website, I think it got taken down, but it was like obamassyria.com or something that was up when this whole thing was first kicking off... It showed these guys on video doing horrific things, sawing off live people's heads with a knife, lots of executions, raping, etc.

In Venezuela, there are no significant terrorist groups (unless you count some pretty horrific acts by the government). Certainly there is crime, but that's done for money rather than bloodlust, and those people don't care who wins in any conflict that doesn't directly involve them.

But here's the thing, and this is why our involvement in Venezuela will not be like Syria. WE DO NOT ARM MODERATES. We will not be sending guns to people who aren't killers. We armed the Syrians BECAUSE of their violent proclivities, not despite them.

For Venezuela, the playbook would much more closely resemble Iraq (as in, invasion). But that's not going to happen under Trump I think. He seems to have a distaste for war, unlike his predecessors.

But no amount of aid or intervention is going to help the Venezuelans. To accept outside intervention is to surrender their fate to the will of their rescuers. What they need is a hard turn to capitalism through a sale of state assets and change of laws. And that's not going to happen until Maduro is gone, and Maduro is not leaving without intervention, so..... Assassination maybe? I don't know. It's really a sad situation.

Choose Wisely by useless_aether in DepopulationWatch

[–]Alduin 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

In doing some further research to define best for healthcare, I came across this from the World Health Organization, which is extremely dissappointing for defining quality of care. For example this:

People-centred. Providing care that takes into account the preferences and aspirations of individual service users and the culture of their community.

Really? That's on the same list as actual effectiveness? So if we had two communities - one where the people bathed in pig shit for good luck, and the healthcare tried to provide them the cleanest pig shit possible, that's the same quality of care as one where they tell people not to bathe in pig shit?

Choose Wisely by useless_aether in DepopulationWatch

[–]Alduin 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It's going to look like "Socialism obviously works well with roads and healthcare and the water and sewage lines, so let's do that for those. Capitalism obviously works best with food supply and consumer goods, so let's do that for those."

So with the exception of healthcare, you think socialism, where the workers control the means of production, works best when production is permanent (infrastructure), and capitalism works best when production needs to be continuous (food). Is that correct?

Also, are there any other exceptions besides healthcare? Maybe schooling? Banking?

Here's what I would do. Decide what's best. For example with healthcare we can look at what people want. Availability (higher is better), quality of care (higher is better), and expense (lower is better). Then we can start comparing countries and decide which does it best. If we can do that, I expect maybe both of us will learn something.

Choose Wisely by useless_aether in DepopulationWatch

[–]Alduin 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Alright. You seem genuine enough. Let's find the truth of this.

The obvious good solution is a mixture of capitalism and socialism, like almost every country in the world does in practice.

If every country in the world does it, then it's not obvious that it's best then is it?

To decide if it's best, we have to compare economic statistics of countries with more and less socialism and roughly the same amount of capitalism, as well as vise versa (more capitalism, same socialism). Would you say that's true?

And, if it is not true, what other solution do you propose that would help us decide if it's best or not?

Isn't it weird that Trump hasn't done a thing to help 40M Americans in poverty, 29M without health insurance, 500K living on the streets, or entire cities without clean water... but suddenly he cares so much about humanitarian aid to #Venezuela that he's willing to start a war? by EndlessSunflowers in conspiracy

[–]Alduin 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Gdp growth was slowing for the last few years of Obama and accelerated again as soon as Trump took office. Maybe that's got nothing to do with Trump. Who knows? But he certainly hasn't had a detrimental effect. And economic growth is the ONLY thing that helps with any of those problems. So let's stop with the sensationalism already.

The other side isn't evil. They just think you're wrong.

I should also point out that Trump hasn't gotten us involved in any new wars yet, whereas Obama and Bush got us involved in every war they could.

China’s CRISPR twins might have had their brains inadvertently enhanced ("inadvertently", uh huh... I told you so - I told everyone but oh no it's all "gene editing is good for humanity you conspiracy theorist!") by Vigte in WorldNews

[–]Alduin 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I've not yet heard a convincing argument that we shouldn't make genetically enhanced humans. Basically all comes down to "they'll be better than us and only the rich will be able to afford it". So not really different than any other technological or medical advancement.

11-year-old arrested after refusing to stand for Pledge of Allegiance by useless_aether in NotTheOnion

[–]Alduin 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Refused to stand... But also he was disruptive and threatening people. Clickbait headline.

What is to stop saidit from writing a bot to copy every submission from say reddit /r/technology into saidit? by grobean in technology

[–]Alduin 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I would think as long as it's not the actual saidit admin staff running the bot, it should be different. You're not responsible for what other people post, at least in the US. It might be different if saidit staff were just copying all the content.

Even then I question if it's illegal. Because like hooktube just copies all the YouTube vids and it's not a problem.

Edit: also IANAL, obviously.

CMV: It is a natural instinct to try to feel superior to others. by Alduin in changemyview

[–]Alduin[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I could certainly see that perspective. I think there are several factors that come together for racism to take root, and this is definitely one I had not considered. It may be even more central to the idea than the need to feel superior.

If we had bots to do deltas I would award a delta for this. But we don't so.. Thanks!

CMV: It is a natural instinct to try to feel superior to others. by Alduin in changemyview

[–]Alduin[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I haven't read The Denial of Death or listened to this particular podcast, but I'm reading here a bit about it.

The book’s basic premise is that human civilization is a defense mechanism against the knowledge that we will die.

and

People try to create or become part of something which they believe will last forever—art, music, literature, religion, nation-states, social and political movements, etc. Such connections, they believe, give their lives meaning.

So if I can broadly connect the dots here... Racism has roots in people wanting to preserve their heritage, which they equate with themselves, as a means to live on beyond death. Is that roughly correct?

CMV: It is a natural instinct to try to feel superior to others. by Alduin in changemyview

[–]Alduin[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I'm not talking about murdering anyone. I don't have any more of a right to take another person's life or property than anyone else. But if they do nothing with the life they're given, then I think it's worthless. If they do nothing but harm with the life they're given, then I think it's a liability. If they do good, then it has value and is worth preserving.

I don't understand the $20 bill analogy. The thing that gives the $20 bill value is what it can do (be traded for things), so in that way the pristine and the damaged bill are worth the same, being able to be used for the same purpose. But a person has neither the capability or the inclination to do the same thing as the next.

CMV: It is a natural instinct to try to feel superior to others. by Alduin in changemyview

[–]Alduin[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

So if the change a person's death causes could be better or worse, do you also think the value of a person's life could be positive or negative?

Or maybe a better question is, what do you think makes a life valuable?

Are the rules of police interactions fair and reasonable? by magnora7 in PoliceMisconduct

[–]Alduin 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

That's the thing that always gets me. People act like it's a super dangerous job when in reality it's about average for a blue collar job.

Saidit.net — Feb 13, 2019 — New Rule: Sub moderator logs are now publicly available by magnora7 in SaidIt

[–]Alduin 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Actually there are several of them. They all look really nice! I was just surprised to find pages of the modlogs filled with one thing.

Should we make the /subscribed page the main home page? by magnora7 in SaidItSurveys

[–]Alduin 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Are you still considering making the votes public? I think you should.

You have an Amalek problem here and he's going to make 100 usernames and trash the site, just like he did to Voat.

Open Your Mind / Shut Up! by JasonCarswell in Comics

[–]Alduin 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Know what? Go fuck yourself. I don't know if you're a troll or fed or genuinely stupid, but either way, I kinda hope your balls rot off so maybe we have to deal with less of this shit in the next generation.

I could not give less of a shit about whether everything we were told about WW2 is true. I suspect it probably wasn't. I don't care if the Nazis killed 10 million people in camps or 5 million or 500,000. They still had the camps and it's not okay.

"Ireland Passes Pro BDS Bill - Bans Israeli Goods" by The Jimmy Dore Show (2019-02-07) on YouTube by JasonCarswell in Israel

[–]Alduin 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

This whole thing confuses me. What does Israel even export that could be boycotted? The majority of Israeli exports are diamonds, pearls, and raw precious metals. None of that stuff is stamped "made in Israel". I couldn't boycott Israel if I tried.

New feature request: User flags. by Alduin in whatever

[–]Alduin[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Oh really? I wasn't aware. What's it called/where can I get it?

New feature request: User flags. by Alduin in whatever

[–]Alduin[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I guess user "tags" would have been a more appropriate term. This is very similar to the "tags" feature on RES for Reddit.

I believe these two features combined will make most shills stand out like a sore thumb.

Paper ballots are hack-proof. It's time to bring them back. by dcjogger in news

[–]Alduin 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I wouldn't say "hack-proof" but maybe more "hack-resistant". After midterms there were a lot of videos of Dems trucking in boxes of ballots in Broward county from who knows where. So you know, whether there's anything nefarious there, who's to say? But that kind of thing is certainly possible.

I favor a hybrid approach. All paper ballots and keep them for the record, but count and record them by machine to make sure the same paper isn't being passed around multiple polling locations.

In America, wage growth is getting wiped out entirely by inflation by dcjogger in news

[–]Alduin 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Buy precious metals and Bitcoin.

What should the limits be on sub moderators? by magnora7 in AskSaidIt

[–]Alduin 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

You have to come up with technical solutions, not subjective ones requiring admin involvement.

One suggestion might be to allow others (non-mods) to link alternative subs in the sidebar. Then if the moderation of that sub becomes a problem, the users will easily be able to find another place to go.

ISIS, Driving Toyota trucks made in Texas and attacking all over the world except for attacking your most hated enemy that you’re right next to “Israel”... does something not seem right or is it just me... by Jesus in conspiracy

[–]Alduin 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The US bought Toyota trucks and other supplies for ISIS back when the media used to call them "Syrian rebels".

CMV: It is a natural instinct to try to feel superior to others. by Alduin in changemyview

[–]Alduin[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

people that are in balance with themselves and others,

People who are superior in this way...^

do not feel that need.

.... are ignorant of their superiority? What makes you think they don't feel that need?

CMV: It is a natural instinct to try to feel superior to others. by Alduin in changemyview

[–]Alduin[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

And what if you're not smart? Say you're in the bottom half for intelligence and not particularly good at anything? People take pride in all sorts of superficial things that they have little to no control over. Sports teams, nationality, hometown, whatever. There's no reason to feel pride in these things but people do it because the pride itself (and also the community) is something they crave.

It could also be that pride is like an addiction. The more you get the more you want. So maybe, given the opportunity to take pride in both meaningful and superficial things, people will more often than not choose both.

I don't know if any of that is true or not. But there's an awful lot of unearned pride in the world so I'm just guessing as to the reason for it.

Why is my email address suddenly so important? by anescient in MeanwhileOnReddit

[–]Alduin 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

A different set of data, like a Facebook account. Which is linked to anything one of your friends may have entered as contact information for you in their phone. Which is your phone number, your work number, the cute little nickname your girlfriend uses for you...

r/ImGoingToHellForThis/ is back, with cat. by [deleted] in MeanwhileOnReddit

[–]Alduin 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It's a shell of it's former self. Should be called r/slightlybutnottooedgy.

Ooh I take that back. Literally nothing but pictures of cats. Yikes! It's really starting to suck over there.

What is a sub you're hoping to see over here on Saidit? by Starlight_Fire in SaidIt

[–]Alduin 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I made /s/changemyview here, that was always one of my favorite subreddits. Some of the moderation I thought was pretty subjective and arbitrary though, like most subreddits.

Bernie's Senior Advisor Crushes Fox & Friends by Evilphd666 in WayOfTheBern

[–]Alduin 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I don't sit through right or left wing commentary. If I don't see the actual subject content in the first few seconds, I'm out. It's too patronizing to be told what to think about something before I see it.

If you're interested, here are some in-depth interviews with participants of the Ontario Basic Income Pilot by Orangutan in BasicIncome

[–]Alduin 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I sort of skipped ahead about a dozen times, just trying to get the gist of what they were saying. They all wanted more money, being poor sucks, etc. What I wanna know is this - how many of them improved their station in life? They got free money for a few years, so how many of them went to college or learned a trade or got a better job? Was this in the video?

Bill seeks to outlaw dwarf-tossing at Washington bars, strip clubs by dcjogger in politics

[–]Alduin 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It was an interesting read, but heavy on the virtue signalling opinions and light on facts. I don't know if it's true, but for example, I am reading from other sources that it's far less dangerous than football. Never in my wildest dreams would I think to ban football, even over completely legitimate safety concerns.

Here's my basic sentiment. It very well may be dangerous, humiliating, and distasteful. But I would rather be injured and humiliated than to have my own agency removed so that I'm not allowed to injure or humiliate myself. We should start looking at our own agency as a solution (don't go to the event) rather than looking to remove the agency of others, and especially for such a self-righteous and condescending reason as "for their own safety".

Bill seeks to outlaw dwarf-tossing at Washington bars, strip clubs by dcjogger in politics

[–]Alduin 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Ah, well as long as we're also taking away their agency to make health decisions for themselves then it's not as bad.

Isn't it weird that Trump hasn't done a thing to help 40M Americans in poverty, 29M without health insurance, 500K living on the streets, or entire cities without clean water... but suddenly he cares so much about humanitarian aid to #Venezuela that he's willing to start a war? by EndlessSunflowers in conspiracy

[–]Alduin 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

So that's a different topic. I'm asking why you think it's bad, not why you don't think it's good. There are benefits beyond real wage increase, but let's try to stick to one thing.

Why is it bad? How does it negatively impact people?

Isn't it weird that Trump hasn't done a thing to help 40M Americans in poverty, 29M without health insurance, 500K living on the streets, or entire cities without clean water... but suddenly he cares so much about humanitarian aid to #Venezuela that he's willing to start a war? by EndlessSunflowers in conspiracy

[–]Alduin 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

A bad thing, but good for the rich... Would you mind explaining how it's bad for the non-rich please?

It is much better to be poor in a rich country than poor in a poor country.

After a reset, Curiosity Rover thought to be dead is now operating normally by magnora7 in space

[–]Alduin 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

What data needs to be released, and what conspiracy do you think is going on here?

We live in a society by Orangutan in WorldNews

[–]Alduin 2 insightful - 5 fun2 insightful - 4 fun3 insightful - 5 fun -  (0 children)

If there's one thing I think the US was missing, it's economic advice from someone making £250 a month.

“Nearly 25% of mothers go back to work within two weeks of giving birth. To give you a sense of where human mothers fall on the legal protection hierarchy, it’s illegal to separate a dog from her newborn pups before 8 weeks in several states.” The law protects dogs more than human women. by Orangutan in whatever

[–]Alduin 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It's illegal to separate a human from their parents in the same way (except in special cases where the child is in danger). The difference is dogs don't work.

"The strength of a civilization is not measured by its ability to fight wars, but rather by its ability to prevent them." - Gene Roddenberry by magnora7 in quotes

[–]Alduin 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Sounds like a nice ideal. I don't know how true it is... Most of the civilizations I consider to be historically the "strongest" were pretty damn good at fighting wars.

Saidit.net — Feb 13, 2019 — New Rule: Sub moderator logs are now publicly available by magnora7 in SaidIt

[–]Alduin 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Man that JasonCarswell guy sure does like to tweak the CSS of that one obscure sub.

Crimes of Britain - a platform that was set up in 2015 dedicated to monitoring British imperialism of the present day and revisiting it of the past. Britain is currently waging war on Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen. Rarely, if ever, does the British media report on these conflicts. by JasonCarswell in Crime

[–]Alduin 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

if that's what you're even trying to do

It isn't. This is Amalek, he's trying to turn the site into a honeypot.

Fun fact. One time he doxxed a kid and got him fired from his job at CVS for anti-Semitism because, to quote - "he went after me and I have a right to defend myself". The guy should be in jail.

Compilation of Holocaust denial arguments and how self-victimization strategy works. by HibikiBlack in C_S_T

[–]Alduin 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Don't miss the forest for the trees here. This is Amalek and he knows almost nobody is going to read this wall of text. This is for spamming, not information. He's trying to do exactly the same thing he did to Voat.

Open Your Mind / Shut Up! by JasonCarswell in Comics

[–]Alduin 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

That seems to be the goal. He did this same thing to Voat under about 100 different usernames, starting with "Amalek". He whined and whined about censorship because everyone was downvoting him at first. But through a sheer persistence and force of will that can only be described as "getting paid to do this shit", he spammed the shit out of every subverse with multiple posts every hour until everyone left but the Nazis.

He did some podcasts and seems absolutely off his rocker. At one point he claimed to be jewish himself so everyone should listen to him because he knows what he's talking about.

In the end he just wants to spam small forums with his trash so everyone leaves but the trashy people. I seriously doubt he even believes this stuff, he's just trying to herd everyone back to Reddit.

Former US President Carter: Venezuelan Electoral System “Best in the World” by fred_red_beans in Venezuela

[–]Alduin 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Article is from 2012. I would be interested to know 1) what he thinks now, and 2) what's the basis for the claim in the first place? Just his personal opinion? The article mentions a ranking system but the US ranked very low because of money in politics. While I personally agree this is a problem, a lot of people don't think it's a problem and have put up convincing arguments in favor of it. Regardless, it's a partisan issue and it shouldn't be a surprise that Jimmy Carter's foundation has such a problem with it, given his political views as well as personal history. So hopefully Carter used more than just that metric to form his opinion, but the article is not very clear on this.

What's your favorite game without killing? by [deleted] in Gaming

[–]Alduin 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I haven't finished it yet, but SOMA seems pretty good so far. It's like a first person horror/psychological thriller game.

Ron Paul on Claims the 9/11 Attacks Were an ISJ - "Now, wait, wait, wait, wait, don't go any further on that it's complete nonsense" - The truth is Jews perpetrated 911, now Ron Paul with his son United States Senator Rand Paul must be brought to trial as capital traitors against the United States by RoxannaHardbutt in conspiracy

[–]Alduin 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Article from 2012 but yeah, I agree with him. I've not seen one shred of credible evidence to the contrary. All this "9/11 truther" bullshit started with that fat liar Michael Moore and the entire low end of the bell curve just ran with it.

Very alarming that Trump said he's only withdrawing US troops from Syria because it's just worthless sand under their feet, as he's escalating troop numbers in Iraq—of which he has this to say: by salvia_d in WorldPolitics

[–]Alduin 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Well this is all just my opinion but I think you're very close to the answer there. If two sides both hate you and they start fighting each other, you want that fight to drag on for as long as possible. So you help the weakest group - not enough to make them win - just enough to keep it even. If they fight each other for long enough, maybe they'll even start to hate each other more than they hate you.

The same applies to the west. As long as the media can keep two sides fighting against each other, the establishment can do whatever they want.

Very alarming that Trump said he's only withdrawing US troops from Syria because it's just worthless sand under their feet, as he's escalating troop numbers in Iraq—of which he has this to say: by salvia_d in WorldPolitics

[–]Alduin 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I'd rather bring all the troops home and cut the military spending. But if somebody wants to pay us for protection, I'm okay with that too.

There's a problem now that if we do that, other countries will build up military and eventually there's going to be another world war. But if we don't do that then we're stuck paying the bill for world peace.

Newsom's budget calls for new tax on drinking water by dcjogger in politics

[–]Alduin 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Nobody is begging them to take more money. Politicians just tell everyone that poor people are begging them for more stuff (maybe they are maybe not), and that they need more money and power to do it. Sometimes they'll even skip the first part entirely and go straight to "no child should have to suffer..." arguments.

Congress should enact a No Presidential Wars statute by dcjogger in politics

[–]Alduin 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I agree. It's supposed to require a vote from Congress to go to war...

Say what you will about Trump, but just the fact that the establishment hates him so much might mean finally some real limitations on executive power. Though that might be the optimist in me and really they'll just do a 180 and let the next guy go hog wild again.

Rules of Engagement: Why is the military held to a higher standard than our own police? by magnora7 in PoliceMisconduct

[–]Alduin 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Military are held to a higher standard than anyone, including civilians, because they're the military. They're professional killers, not meter maids.

Politics and Religion by [deleted] in Memetics

[–]Alduin 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Just to clarify, you think a statement encouraging people to hold civil discussion about controversial topics is really secretly telling those people to "shut up and don't make waves"?

Sorry, you're going to need more than a nagging feeling you can't explain to make that connection I think.

Leaked Mueller Report Proves Barr Lied; Collusion Theorists Vindicated by salvia_d in conspiracy

[–]Alduin 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Oh my! Looks like u/Tom_Bombadil forgot to switch to their alt!

Well played. <clap, clap>

What the fuck, r/Games? by DR3DDL0CC in Games

[–]Alduin 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Whoever wrote that sure likes to list things in a single sentence.