domain:felipec.substack.com
Background
The /r/drama subreddit has a long history of being the less politically correct version of /r/subredditdrama. The history of the community in the early days is not really necessary but provides some context to set the stage. As reddit became more and more censorious /r/drama tended to be one of the first places admins would try out their new restrictions, one of the biggest examples was removing the ability to 'ping' users like '/u/skoomadentist' so that they'd get a reddit notification that people were talking about them and wander into the sub to be generally fucked with. This came after a previous moratorium on following links into reddit threads to directly mess with the dramatic happenings(referred to as raiding or brigading) and it later became against to rules to even link directly to other reddit threads on /r/drama.
Eventually dramanaughts had enough of the oppression and founded rdrama.net using and developing the very source code that this site is running.
Event
Fast forward around a year and to most people's surprise the rdrama offsite is actually thriving and has a new mascot Marsey, the orange cat originally from a telegram sticker pack but extended to include thousand of variations by talented dramartists. Reddit holds their /r/place event and dramanaughts snap into action to do a little trolling and get the brand of the site out there. The whole operation is described well in this recap post. The troll is a little meta in that there shouldn't be anything offensive about the cat itself but overly online giga moderators and a couple low laying admins, most notable /u/chtorrr that were most involved in the general censoring of the old /r/drama were very aware of the icon and even though it wasn't explicitly against the rules made a point to try to prevent the icon from forming. In addition to the ability to post pixels without the normal five minute cooldown they deployed some account wide permanent unappealable fingerpriny/ip address bans to people caught placing orange pixels on the dramacat. I was one of those guilty people.
Rex
1yr ago
Galadriel is a Mary Sue, but I guess she is in the books too. We'll see how her story develops.
I heard an interesting take on this. She is a universally loved character in the books and movies. Some say that RoP is changing her characterization into a standard victim narrative so that they can show her overcoming her oppression. People seem very offended by this since she’s coming off like a huge bitch in the first few episodes. Some sort of character assassination to further the modern feminist narrative.
What do you think?
RococoBasilica
Actually a Quality Retribution
1yr ago
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.
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.
But I really do not understand what made them cave this hard, this fast if they decided to spend at least some of their reputation points on handwringing about free speech just moments prior. It's also not like this is their first rodeo, given that they did this exact song and dance before. So they must have known what kind of firepower prog twitter would be able to bring to the battle and must have factored that into their initial decision not to budge. What changed? What kind of pressure did they apply they didn't apply the last time around?
SkoomaDentist
1yr ago
they deployed some account wide permanent unappealable fingerpriny/ip address bans to people caught placing orange pixels on the dramacat.
Man, I've seen people do some petty stuff but that really takes the cake.
RococoBasilica
Actually a Quality Retribution
1yr ago
Could we have the Bare Links Repository back? Pretty please? :)
Rex
1yr ago
If anyone has not read Null’s Zerohedge article, I think it’s worth a look. Keeping KF up an running has given him an unique perspective on censorship and the internet. And the nuts and bolts of keeping a controversial site up. I won’t try to sum it up as I wouldn’t do it justice.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2021-10-28/where-sidewalk-ends-death-internet
JulianRota
1yr ago
So they must have known what kind of firepower prog twitter would be able to bring to the battle and must have factored that into their initial decision not to budge. What changed? What kind of pressure did they apply they didn't apply the last time around?
That's the interesting question here and what's still unclear. It seems likely that the real force is some combination of big customers, investors, and silicon valley insiders that they're afraid to defy.
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
1yr ago
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.
This woke plague kind of ruined many themes and tropes, and by extension many pieces of media that perhaps didn't deserve it, at least for me. My inner critic is always on alert, looking out for wokeness, ready to dismiss anything that sets off enough alarms.
I might exaggerate a bit, but it's at least partly true for me. Maybe that's my flaw, but the general instinct to use heuristics like that for quick judgement is sound and useful. So there's an ironic dimension to it - overflow of wokeness and focus on quantity, instead of quality of woke propaganda likely keeps a lot of people from treating it seriously. Well, I guess it's better than the alternative.
Exotic_cetacean
Aesthetics over ethics
1yr ago
I think that makes sense, we could use it to raise activity, at least until this forum is more stable
aqouta
1yr ago
For the same reason we outlived most wrong think subs on reddit we're fairly safe. We just aren't a big enough community for the media to bother with and if the media isn't going to bother then the pressure can only be so great. We can get pushed off reddit because the enemies of open discussions were deeply entrenched in the moderation and admin levels of reddit and they were already doing housekeeping of wrong think bastions at which point all that our enemies need to do is keep reminding the admins of our existence. The wider nets is much more decentralized.
hydroacetylene
1yr ago
This might be a topic better suited for the culture war roundup thread, but here goes:
The red tribe largely considers AR-15's a status symbol. In part this is because building/customizing AR-15's is a popular hobby for high IQ red tribers with a bit of disposable income, and no doubt this plays a role in the way both side talk about assault weapon bans.
So, what's the blue tribe equivalent of that phenomena? I'd say it's travel, except travel doesn't seem to be any kind of culture war flashpoint. I'd also say pet ownership, except that high IQ hobbies associated with pet ownership(dog training, for example) are probably associated with the red tribe more than the blue tribe. The closest thing I can think of is what I'd call fruity literature- novels or short stories with lots of superfluous gay stuff shoved in or outright centered around homosexual themes.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
1yr ago
I am disheartened by all this. Not because I disagree, but because I had really hoped my fears wouldn't be realized.
I am an embarrassingly full-on movie buff, and I have two young sons so I do a lot of casual watching of old favorites by way of indoctrinating them into my tastes, though it's true they have pushed movies on me that I wouldn't have chosen but I enjoyed (the MCU for example). And in watching WandaVision--finally--a month or so ago when I was quarantined, I had a frustrating feeling that the show really shoehorned subliminal and wholly unnecessary messages in, when it was otherwise brilliant. No white male was allowed any leadership role based on goodness, wisdom, or strength. It's to the point where if you do see a white male in a main role you can assume he will become an antagonist to one or all of the female leads (exactly what occurred).
The one exception was the character Vision, played with disarming non-campiness by Paul Bettany, who was nevertheless at best second fiddle to Wanda, though I could accept that based on the premise of the show.
Just a mild rant. But I can't see this going anywhere good. Building confidence in viewers or positive self-esteem or whatever they're calling it these days A)should not be the domain or primary role of film/TV; 2) is not a zero-sum proposition where one sex/race must be degraded to "build up" or empower the others, and D) has a fanbase that will, if time is any teacher, eventually turn on the concept viciously, leaving a lot of works parodied and reviled instead of held as beloved classics.
RococoBasilica
Actually a Quality Retribution
1yr ago
Lots of companies successfully pretend being an impartial platform while being anything but (google, facebook), and they don't usually pay lip service to libertarian values. At least not to the degree cloudflare does. I still think it is very odd.
aqouta
1yr ago
I'm a big blockchain/decentralization fan for reasons like this. Of course there are still system wide attack vectors. What happens when ethereum becomes the chain of dissidents and progchain gets buy in by all the respectable power centers?
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
1yr ago
Once upon a time they did. The mask eventually fell off, and it will with Cloudflare, too.
RococoBasilica
Actually a Quality Retribution
1yr ago
I am looking for a good spy thriller / political thriller. I loved Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy. The Minority Report series was also ok. I have no stomach for woke lecturing, so that must be absent. Any suggestions?
EvanTh
1yr ago
This's a noble dream, but it's the same dream I've heard about from boosters of self-driving cars. What advantage do the tunnels add? They'll help prevent congestion aboveground, but the whole mechanism for making them cheap is making them narrow - so a two-lane road aboveground will be just as useful as a two-lane tunnel underground.
(And that's if the tunnel can be made cheap, which I seriously doubt.)
Still on my second reading of Moby Dick, but made little progress. Not the book's fault. Also watched the 1956 movie, which was a pleasant surprise. Obviously it severely cut down the source material to fit within two hours, but it deviated very little and even lifted most of its dialogue verbatim from the book. They even let Ishmael do some narrating, rather than to cut the narrator and try to do without as most films-of-books do. The acting was decent, though somewhat unlifelike. Though the movie was entertaining overall, I gained absolutely nothing from it but I am pleased by the faithfulness of the adaptation.
Edit: This post had an image attached to it via CTRL+V, but it's not showing up. Trying again.
IGI-111
1yr ago
We're already seeing some lines being drawn over the Tornado Cash incident. But I have much belief in the ability of markets to build coalitions of limited interests out of disorganized people.
Besides, the whole point of cypherpunk is that you don't need permission or assent from power. It doesn't matter how much they disapprove if they can't stop you.
Southkraut
Rise, ramble, rest, repeat.
1yr ago
Blood Meridian Or The Evening Redness In The West, by Cormarc McCarthy.
Best book I ever read.
It's just really boring. The dialogue is wooden and the actors don't help. They recite lines like "this place is so evil the torches give no heat". The peasants sit in bars and are racist against the black elf. I assume this is so we can learn a Very Important Lesson later on. The action scenes look like video game cutscenes. The elf soldiers wear identical uniforms and bitch about regulations like they're 19th century conscripts instead of immortal warrior aristocrats.
It's not so much that anything about it is actively terrible, it's that there's also nothing good about it. Not because it's not faithful to Tolkien but because the writers failed on their own terms.
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