The RedState brain trust has come up with some stunningly dumb ideas for activism over the years, including the brilliant notion to send bags of salt to Republican Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine (during winter! thanks, dudes!) to protest something or other. Then there was that time they proposed “Operation Leper” to punish any conservative who dared call stupid Sarah Palin “stupid.” But the tidal wave of stupid soon stranded RedStaters on their own virtual Molokai.
Today in own-goals, they’ve attempted to “parody” OkCupid’s protest of the Brendan Eich appointment as Mozilla CEO, but whoops! — they’ve stepped on their own dicks again! Here’s the OkCupid splash screen that greeted Firefox users for Eich’s days-long tenure:
And here’s RedState’s:
Notice anything different, aside from RedState’s Commodore 64-generated graphics? Well, RedState is lying! See, Firefox hasn’t banned users from visiting RedState. RedState is animating a very clumsily constructed strawman to tell its own visitors to piss off!
I’d sue the fuck out of them if I were Firefox. Or else just laugh at the dumb, dick-stepping bastards’ latest round of fail. Yeah, probably that.
ETA: Culture of Truth in comments brilliantly identified the True Spirit Name of this RedState campaign: OkStupid. Well played, CoT, well played!
Gin & Tonic
Odd. OKCupid suggests using another browser to visit their site. RedState says to go away and visit another site instead. Fine, I’ll go away and never darken your doorstep again.
Kylroy
@Gin & Tonic: Seriously. They can’t even get their parody protest right.
Of course, if they did, it would show that OKC is significant enough to make people pay attention when they pull a stunt like this, and RedState very much isn’t.
WereBear
Do. Not. Get.
/redstate
chopper
this is just childishly stupid. ‘go away, we don’t want your page clicks and subsequent ad revenue!’ well, okay then.
Woodrowfan
now that children are less exposed to lead paint, and lead was eliminated from gasoline many years ago, shouldn’t we be seeing less evidence of brain damage, specifically, fewer righties??
BGinCHI
There is just no way we can lose to these guys.
No way.
evolved beyond the fist mistermix
And, as usual, it’s bullshit. I just went to their site using Firefox and saw no pop-up or message of any kind. This stands to reason because otherwise their action might cost them page views.
ETA: Never mind, it was a one-day-only protest. Now there’s a solid commitment.
gogol's wife
@BGinCHI:
That’s what Jon Lovitz said.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Red State is still a thing? Huh. I assumed the brain trust over there that survived the purges had all killed themselves after the 2012 election. Oh well. A man can dream.
scav
It’s all about the announcement of a protest and the “reporting” of same thereafter. If Faux and other media with report from empty fields on the teaparty protests, and show up in greater force than the million mumble marchers, why go to the effort of actually showing up or doing anything? Runs the danger of inappropriate images getting into the wring streams. Announce, screen capture, tweet, and move on.
boatboy_srq
@chopper: Had they held fast, they would no doubt use the (hopefully drastically) decreased traffic (and thereby decreased revenues) as proof that unGawdly IslamoFascoSoshulist Liebrals are poisoning Free Speech™ and Free Markets™, and they’d have trumpeted that news the moment ALEC/Heritage sent them their
allowancegenerous donation so they could keep operating.kindness
How can they be ‘dick stepping’ when obviously they have extremely tiny dicks? You know, the point at an laugh kind.
Jay
Betty, I love your voice in this post. I can just hear a salty Southern woman drawling about the wingers who’ve ruined her part of the country (I mean, dick-stepping bastards!), so I’d like to raise my own (digital) voice for a Betty Cracker Podcast.
boatboy_srq
@Woodrowfan: Aren’t we? I seem to recall multiple polls suggesting that starting with Gen X and onward the incidence of wingnuttery decreases rapidly.
boatboy_srq
@kindness: Everyone’s got to have a talent.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Here’s a question: how many of you use Firefox? I don’t, no one in the family does, no one in the workplace does. Pretty much everyone uses Chrome or IE save for me – Opera forever, baby!
(and FWIW, I use Chrome and IE as well – use the right tool for the job I always say)
eldorado
@CONGRATULATIONS!: i use firefox as my secondary browser, but again, linux web dev etc
Mornington Crescent
Down with this sort of thing.
Pogonip
@BGinCHI: Wanna bet? They keep winning elections. There are a lot of angry people out there.
J.D. Rhoades
@BGinCHI:
You misunderestimate the staggering number of stupid people in this country.
Mnemosyne
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
I use Safari. It just seems less buggy right now.
TooManyJens
I use Firefox because I’ve customized the shit out of it with plugins and user styles and such, and switching would be a giant pain in the ass. One of these days using FF will itself be enough of a pain in the ass to make the switch worth it, but we haven’t hit that yet.
todwest
The best part is that they are encouraging people not to visit their silly little site.
Petorado
@CONGRATULATIONS!: Firefox is the preferred browser for one out of every four internet users. It’s rise to popularity was due in part to all the open source plugins that could really enhance the browser experience. Chrome’s had a meteoric rise to now over 50% of browser users. IE use has plummeted over the years, and for good reason because any web developer will spit on the ground at the mention of the confounding IE. Safari’s at about 4-ish %, and Opera has a fan club of under 2% of all web users.
Karen in GA
@Mornington Crescent: Ha! I swear this is something Dougal would do.
“Did you post the protest on the website, Dougal?”
“Yes, Ted.”
“Wonderful. So, what did you do?”
“I told them if they used Firefox, to leave our site, and never come back.”
“That’s good. You know, people these days are too — wait, you did what?”
“Told them to go away, and never come back. You know, because they’re gays who’ll make us gay.”
“DOUGAL! They’re not gay, and they’re not making us gay! That’s our site traffic! Our advertising revenue!”
“Oh. Right, Ted. Well, maybe they weren’t gay yet. You can never be too careful.”
And this is why I don’t write for a living.
Zifnab25
Wait… they’re saying Mozilla’s Firefox is blocking Red State by building a trigger into their own page that blots out their own content? Do they even know what they’re protesting?
I can’t tell if it’s bad grammar or bad web design. Either way, I’m sure Firefox will be receiving a bag full of 404s in the mail any minute now.
wasabi gasp
They’re currently brainstorming a plan to voice a protest through user agent strings.
Bill Arnold
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
I use firefox as primary, chrome as secondary, with a smattering of tertiary alts in no particular order (IE, midori, avant browser, flashpeak). Firefox because of the firebug extension and several other extensions/plug ins, and because lazy inertia. The Firefox crashes can be annoying but it recovers state pretty well, typically 30-40 windows and hundreds of tabs of context accumulated over weeks or months.
Roger Moore
@Kylroy:
I think it makes a big difference that OKC was doing this as an exception to their normal practice, while one more protest just gets lost in the noise at RedState. When you protest everything, you protest nothing.
Michael G
@CONGRATULATIONS!: You do know that Opera is the Ron Paul of web browsers, right?
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Michael G: @Michael G: Oh yeah. Holier-than-thou, protest value, dudebro cool…has it all, but I’ve been using it since it came out on BeOS in 2001 and I can’t quit the fucker. At least I never got into Ron Paul.
Yam
This scene plays in my head as I read this.
jenn
Hey Betty, in an earlier post you mentioned having a hard time breaking out of insomnia patterns. I periodically get that, and my never-yet-failed cure is to go camping for a couple of days. There are times I’ve put that off because I’m “too busy”, but getting my internal clock fixed makes me so much more productive that I always regret waiting! Anyway, thought I’d throw it out there.
mdblanche
@Mornington Crescent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gT9xuXQjxMM
Felonius Monk
Why would Firefox (Mozilla) want to sue? That would be like being sued by the guy that gave you the knife that you used to cut your dick off.
Laughter is the best medicine here.
The Other Chuck
@CONGRATULATIONS!: Firefox is my primary browser for one reason: Noscript. Chrome has ScriptSafe but it’s still not as nice.
Xecky Gilchrist
@Mornington Crescent: Ha, my first thought, too.
Eric U.
Chrome used to crash my linux system all the time so I switched back to firefox. I think it’s fine, I do have chrome on the laptop that is my best system though
Xantar
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
I use Safari because I actually do find it useful to sync open windows between my desktop, iPhone and iPad.
Technically, I suppose the browser I use most is Safari for iOS.
Culture of Truth
my response to RedState’s attempt at parody:
Ok, stupid.
ErrCanada
@kindness: They have very very very short legs.
schrodinger's cat
I use Firefox as my primary browser. Google is becoming the new Microsoft, so no Chrome for me. Although I do like the Chrome interface.
mdblanche
@CONGRATULATIONS!: I mostly used Firefox until last year when it got too glitchy for me and I switched to Chrome.
@Michael G: The only person I ever knew who used Opera was the guy who persuaded me to vote for Obama in the primaries. Make of that what you will.
Roger Moore
@Woodrowfan:
Look at the political preferences of the 18-30 crowd compared to their elders. The evidence is there!
Trollhattan
@Woodrowfan:
IIRC expended ammo is now the nation’s second greatest contributor of lead to the environment, so there’s an explanation for that outcome. (Not to mention all the coots who hoarded lead-based paint before it was completely gone–yeah, i knew a few of those.)
Trollhattan
@jenn:
It would have to be out of state. Can’t get no sleep having to keep one eye out for gators, pythons and Floridians all night. Stand your campground!
Hal
There was a back a forth on this issue between a couple of people on facebook today with the defender of religious liberty managing to throw in duck dynasty, paula deen and eich as martyrs and victims of religious persecution.
These people cannot comprehend that their homophobia is being tolerated less and less so they retreat behind a constitution they think only applies to fellow bigots. Welcome to the free market assholes.
wasabi gasp
Firefox, sometimes Safari. Chrome is installed, but I never warmed up to its UI.
Villago Delenda Est
The problem here is they’re not very bright at RedState. A 40 watt incandescent bulb shines more light on anything than the RedState, partickularly Fucktard Fucktardson.
NotMax
@CONGRATULATIONS!
Firefox as the primary (as others have said, customized with plug-ins). Last time Firefox crashed was so long ago that can’t pinpoint, but it was certainly before Obama took office.
Wouldn’t use IE for web browsing under any circumstances, ever.
(Keep a copy of Netscape 4.0 around, too. Not for browsing, but it is still handy for a quick first check for coding errors on pages I occasionally work on.)
MikeJ
@CONGRATULATIONS!: I use firefox as my primary. I like it because it’s easier to customise and I want to keep an open source browser in the marketplace (Chrome ain’t chromium).
Tone in DC
The Trike Force is at it again. Erick binErick is an even sillier rabbit than I thought.
http://bjkeefe.blogspot.com/2010/03/trike-force-2.html
MikeJ
@NotMax:
I use it for checking client sites to make sure stuff works, but that’s not really “using” it.
Roger Moore
I mostly use Firefox. It’s a mixture of inertia, having a setup that I like, and preferring a FOSS solution. The last is important because Firefox has been very good about supporting Linux for a long time, and I run Linux on my box at home. Some of the plugins are great, too; life would really suck without flashblock, for instance.
MomSense
@Culture of Truth:
FTW!!
Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937
RedState thinks ‘honesty’ is a French word, and they don’t do French.
raven
Is this premier league just peanuts or what? There were just 2 goals in less than a minute in the Man U Bayern Munich game. I would have thought Randinho would be on it.
MikeJ
@Roger Moore:
Isn’t click to play built into everything worth using these days?
I’ll agree with the previous comment about noscript. It’s very rare that I let any site run javascript. Youtube and a few others. It’s amazing how much less annoying the web is without it, and it’s nice to be able to allow just one site (and still disallow adnetworks, etc.)
Amir Khalid
@raven:
I miss Randinho. I always make sure to tell him that when he makes his now-rare appearances here, but real life is apparently still keeping him from resuming his football posts here.
ETA: That’s actually a UEFA Champions League match.
raven
@Amir Khalid: Oh, sorry, it does say that right on the screen!
Darkrose
@CONGRATULATIONS!: I use Firefox as my primary work browser, and Chrome for the important stuff like commenting on blogs.
Betty Cracker
@Culture of Truth: Brilliant and front-paged in an update!
NotMax
@MikeJ
Ditto. which is why I specified “web browsing.” Going offline to use IE to check a page’s display compatibility is something I do as well.
srv
Firefox for adblock until the toenail pics go away
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Darkrose: Chrome lost me when the scroll arrows disappeared and Google’s reaction to the complaints was “It’s an improvement! You’ll get used to it!”
Not that I’ve ever been a fan of tabs on top.
raven
@Amir Khalid: OK, so I know I don’t know much about this sport but isn’t the idea to KICK the ball in the goal? Why is this Rooney dude out there if he can’t do that?
IowaOldLady
Had a frustrating conversation at the Y this morning. The teacher is paid by the class and has gotten her health care through I-Care, Iowa Medicaid. As we waited for her this morning, one of the Rs in the class said the teacher was scheduled for some sort of treatment but had to postpone it because now she has Obamacare.
I can’t even imagine what that means. If she already had Medicaid, she surely didn’t even need to deal with the complicated system of expansion that the R governor put in place.
Calouste
And to show that Redstate doesn’t have an exclusive on stupidity:
PETA Won’t Be Turning Serial Killer’s House into Vegan Restaurant After All
Amir Khalid
And it’s over for Manchester United in this year’s Champion’s League: given their dreadful Premier League form — they are seventh, with no hope of finishing in the top four — they needed to win it this season to be in it next season. Bayern München have just scored a third goal tonight and lead them 4-2 on aggregate. That means they’re going out unless they can find two goals in the last five minutes.
Roger Moore
@Trollhattan:
Didn’t they read the label where it says “Not for beverage purposes”?
Luthe
@Petorado: I used Firefox until the updates were happening faster than my plug-ins could keep up. Now I use Chrome, where the add-ons continue to work no matter how many updates many.
Belafon
Not going to click on the link, but I’m sure this will set off some Newsmax readers:
boatboy_srq
@IowaOldLady: That just follows the Reichwing instant talking point model of “[person known to both speaker and listener] is having [specific medical issue totally unrelated to health insurance] because Obamacare.” It works for delayed procedures because the specialist overbooked/vacationed/retired/died, routine checkups that result in hospitalization for critical condition(s) discovered in the process, and bites from exotic pets suffered while at the veterinarian.
Amir Khalid
@raven:
Wayne Rooney is supposed to be a top striker for Manchester United. That’s why they pay him three hundred large a week in pounds sterling. But (a) he’s playing with a sore toe tonight, and (b) Man United have sucked ass this season under the new manager David Moyes.
jenn
@Trollhattan: Ok, this comment + drinking tea = dangerous :*)
Violet
@Amir Khalid: Oh, that’s not good for my family member who is a lifelong and diehard United fan. She grew up minutes from the stadium. Used to have season tickets until she moved from Manchester. She was sweating it out a few weeks ago. Looks like it’s not going to go well.
J.D. Rhoades
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
Been using Chrome for a while now, since FF got bloated and slow. Tell me why I might want to switch to Opera.
Violet
And give them all the attention that such a lawsuit would bring? Why bother?
Roger Moore
@Villago Delenda Est:
How dare you bring up the issue of light bulbs when the Obama administration is stepping on our right to waste power with incandescent lights!
MaryRC
Brietbart California was up to something similar today. Every second word was covered by a black bar in some kind of mock censorship protest. Was this some kind of wingnut meme making the rounds? Prevent-people-from-reading-our-site-cause-we’d-rather-pout Day?
Anyway, spectacular fail because (a) people will leave if they can’t read anything and (b) as you said, Betty, no-one is blocking them — they’re blocking themselves.
Trollhattan
@Roger Moore:
Wait, Obummer is doing Jewish weddings? What’s next, circumcisions? “Get a load of the new mohel!”
Amir Khalid
@Violet:
Despite being a Liverpool fan, I shall not gloat.
danielx
@Villago Delenda Est:
Forty watt bulb? A fucking glowworm would sneer at the amount of light emanating from RedState…
raven
@Amir Khalid: Well I knew he made a lot of dough. I still wouldn’t play him if he couldn’t cut it.
Roger Moore
@danielx:
The only thing that doesn’t is a black hole.
NotMax
@danielx
Any opportunity to link to the Mills Brothers is a good one.
Feel-good music.
Gorgon Zola
No Red State post is complete without the Trike Force image.
Villago Delenda Est
@Roger Moore: Whew, I was afraid no one would get the reference.
Villago Delenda Est
@MaryRC: They do have these “look at me, I’m a moran” days from time to time, and every single time, it inspires threads like this one where they’re mocked incessantly.
Barney
A protest saying ‘careful now!’ that treads on its own dick? Life imitates art, again:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gT9xuXQjxMM
ronin122
Don’t most Wingers use Internet Explorer anyway? Who is this going to turn away except us Libs who are just there to nut-pick and laugh at their expense? And even then, we just use this to…well, nut-pick and laugh.
xian
@eldorado: aka your pr0n browser
xian
@Hal: who knew Paula Deen’s racism was religious?
drug treatment
With every little thing that appears to be developing within this subject matter,
many of your opinions are relatively radical. Nevertheless, I beg your pardon, because I do
not subscribe to your whole suggestion, all be it exhilarating
none the less. It appears to everybody that your opinions are generally not completely validated and in reality you are generally yourself not really fully convinced of your assertion.
In any event I did take pleasure in looking at it.
I do enjoy the manner in which you have presented this specific