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BANNED USER: /comment/21314

Minotaur

Si vis pacem, fac bellum

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joined 2022 September 04 19:20:22 UTC

White, right-wing, male.


				

User ID: 101

Banned by: @ZorbaTHut

BANNED USER: /comment/21314

Minotaur

Si vis pacem, fac bellum

1 follower   follows 0 users   joined 2022 September 04 19:20:22 UTC

					

White, right-wing, male.


					

User ID: 101

Banned by: @ZorbaTHut

The moment Cloudflare started defending its actions, it was clear to me they were about to capitulate. Those who are steadfast in their principles do not bother justifying it; principle stands on its own two feet. Cloudflare is best understood as another tentacle of Left, Inc., with all that entails, and any protestations otherwise are a thin veneer of impartiality that will not be backed up by action.

This is the fatal flaw of centralization of power, regardless of the form that power takes; the internet is small now. Far too small.

I don't think that makes sense. You don't flaunt libertarian values as a progressive. A progressive response would have included a litany about "harms", "marginalised folx" etc.

You do when you're trying to pretend at being an impartial platform and a core element of critical internet infrastructure. Cloudflare's rhetoric grasps at libertarian values while their actual actions appease progressives. What you need to understand -- in my view -- is that Cloudflare is wearing libertarianism as a skin-suit. That ethos dominated the Old Internet, and there's still an impulse to talk it up in these corporate hearts.

But it's not real. These are partisan groups pretending they're not partisan groups. The sooner you acknowledge that the sooner you'll gain reliable predictive power over their actions.

Once upon a time they did. The mask eventually fell off, and it will with Cloudflare, too.

The common wisdom these days is that Clinton was a uniquely awful candidate so of course she lost; this is obviously wrong, Clinton was a very strong candidate, with access to immense funds, a social network of insiders at every level of politics and business, Clinton name recognition, and the full force of Girl Power and the media behind her. Similarly, the common wisdom now is that of course Biden won, he was a return to normalcy and proof that Trump was widely hated.

This ignores, of course, that Trump received the second largest number of votes of any candidate, ever, even if you accept the election was on the up and up, which I find to be a dubious proposition at best, and more than he did the first go around, and this was even with the media uniformly against him and the political machines of both parties loathing him with every fiber of their being.

The real takeaway is that the electorate is roughly but not perfectly split, and that elections come down to random fluctuations. Run Biden v. Trump again, and it's not at all unlikely Trump wins, especially if election laws are actually followed this time. Run Clinton v. Trump again, and it's entirely possible Clinton wins.

The nation is a house divided and it stands by inertia alone.

In all honesty, I don't care why they changed, nor do I think it's possible to dig deep into their minds and figure out. I personally avoid getting bogged down in wondering why someone is my enemy; it is enough to know they are.

I find your explanation plausible but impossible to verify, so it's beyond my concern. In practice, it means that these organizations were once X, and they are now Not-X, with any lingering trace of X being deceit.

Cute gimmick. Gonna get real old real fast.

Moldbug is an elf, so his ideas of what constitutes a valid and useful response to elves should not be taken seriously. I can say no more on that subject. As for learning the enemy's tactics and plans, of course that's useful, and I did not say otherwise.

If that is what you believe I will not try to dissuade you. I will only say I knew Cloudflare would capitulate and many others did not; I consider my worldview more valid than theirs and yours.

You described a thought process revolving around public relations and fooling the audience with rhetoric while you take action to undermine the very ideals you speak of. Forgive me if I continue to think that does, in fact, imply not principled.

A refusal to make a statement indicates a disconnect with the very mealy-mouthed manipulative PR culture I'm railing against. If you take the backfoot with the mob, it is an immediate and undeniable sign that the mob can beat you.

I'm not meaning to act like an internet tough guy here, but I have been the subject of smear campaigns and online harassment in the past. My response never amounted to more than "fuck you" when people brought it up, and it worked very well.

I have no particularly well-known handles on The Motte or SSC. For disclosure's sake, I was banned multiple times and evaded bans multiple times through alternate accounts and IPs whenever I felt the urge to post; that urge was uncommon, with gaps of months and sometimes years, but it did happen.

I am endeavoring to follow the rules here, though I do hope being removed from Reddit's iron clutch will see the mods lighten up a bit and permit a broader range of discourse and perspectives. I have long wanted to make an effortpost justifying political violence, for instance, but never have.

ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ノ

I do not believe there's a sincere desire in the masses to reconcile, nor do I believe there's a practical way to do so. The tribal divisions may once have been small and manageable; but, like a cancerous tumor, they have swollen to terrible splendor, and insinuated themselves into every facet of life great and small. We are not one people who disagree on some things; we are, at a minimum, two completely antagonistic populations forced to occupy the same space.

There cannot be one nation ruled by two tribes. We will divorce or we will come to blows, eventually. One will become two or two will become one.

I nominate some sort of adorable bovine. Bulls are nature's best animals, after all.

Indeed, it's perfectly natural that after various poll watchers in key areas were removed, Biden had a surge of unfalsifiable support coincidentally in tandem with a startling drop in ballot rejection rates. This was indeed heavily predicted.

Do not take the dogpill.

I have less than zero interest in the legal ineptitude of Trump's legal team; Trump selects for loyalty, not competence, which is understandable but has predictable consequences. The various factors I've mentioned have long been confirmed, regardless of Team Trump's (in)ability to navigate hostile systems.

They're not the only source. This has been debated for two years now, and the information is available; I'm genuinely not going to bother rearguing it with you here.

The divisions are not worse than those during the Civil War, but that is only because the Civil War is as bad as it can get. Because then you have a civil war. Being better than the absolute worst possible does not mean you're good.

If I say 'no' there is no force on heaven or earth that can change my mind.

The culture of this forum, and the forums it descends from, dislike brevity; it may be the soul of wit, but it is the bane of rationalists, whose idols are all infamous for taking a thousand words to say a hundred-word idea. That is not to say that the best posts and favorite posters have nothing interesting to say, merely that the shapers of the culture did not know how to speak succinctly, and it has colored the perspective of everyone drawn to these spaces.

The ideal post is interesting and high-quality, but undeniably you look better if your posts are longer. I greatly dislike this, but I get it; it's not perfect, but the effort to write out an essay is often incompatible with low-effort shitposting.

I sincerely hope this can change. If a sentence gets the point across, a paragraph is wasted time for everyone.

If you have any investment in your culture, in your people, in your society, do not tolerate those who subvert it; as he says, boycott people who hate you. Wield whatever power you have, small or great, against people who want to crush you and scatter your values to the wind. There is only ever one losing move: acceptance.

Intolerance is a virtue.

The_Donald's spin-off, patriots.win, has been happily chugging along.

I don't expect us to have a second Civil War. Organizing into armies and marching is a surefire way to have the power of the state come down on your head. What I am expecting within the decade is escalation to targeted terrorism, Troubles-style. The US does not have competing armies anymore, but it can easily have competing terrorists.

I don't believe Clinton's messaging was good, but I'm not a Democrat, and would be unlikely to find Democrat messaging powerful even in the best of circumstances. I agree Clinton was imperfect: her campaign choices were questionable, and the sheer disdain she radiated surely turned off portions of middle America, but nevertheless I assert she had a lot going for her.

I remember that performance, too. She-Trump was quite magnetic.