This is insane:
“I know many people are upset that we’ve left the President’s posts up,” Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post.
Trump’s posts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter read, “These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!”Within two-and-a-half hours of the post, Twitter had placed a warning label on it saying it glorified violence.
Facebook, by contrast, remained silent on the matter for 18 hours until Zuckerberg’s post appeared.
Justifying leaving the posts on Facebook and Instagram, Zuckerberg wrote, “We looked very closely at the post that discussed the protests in Minnesota to evaluate whether it violated our policies. Although the post had a troubling historical reference, we decided to leave it up because the National Guard references meant we read it as a warning about state action, and we think people need to know if the government is planning to deploy force. Our policy around incitement of violence allows discussion around state use of force, although I think today’s situation raises important questions about what potential limits of that discussion should be.”
Testifying before Congress in October, Zuckerberg said, “If anyone, including a politician, is saying things that can cause, that is calling for violence or could risk imminent physical harm … we will take that content down.” He was answering questions from Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez when he made the claim.
In case you need that interpreted, what it means is if you or I say “Kill the Jews,” it’s no bueno. But if we’re talking about a state policy of killing the Jews, well then that’s just a reasonable discussion.
I remembered giggling the first time I played CIV VI and one of the endgame government options was Corporate Libertarianism. I think about that a lot and it scares the hell out of me now.
dr. bloor
You might be looking for Zuck’s spine, but he most certainly has no interest in it. Being a corporate invertebrate is far more profitable.
patrick II
I think the distance between corporate libertarianism and Fascism is a very small one.
grumbles
No, this isn’t about being spineless, this is about finding plausible deniability for an in-kind donation.
Gin & Tonic
@dr. bloor: Yup. Exhibiting spine may cost him money. Can’t have that.
Baud
Elizabeth Warren should post about the use of state force against Facebook….for science!
Roger Moore
@grumbles:
This. Zuckerberg isn’t covering for Trump because he’s afraid; he’s covering for Trump because he wants Trump to win.
Feathers
I knit and a lot of my feed is designers and other fiber people. I ranted the other day that I don’t want to hear anything about solidarity with black women and POC while they have shops on Facebook. Everyone tsk-tsks about IBM and the Holocaust. Our grandchildren* will judge us the same way about Facebook.
Political speech was always assumed to have a public element to it. If it is a TV or print ad, everyone can see it. These Facebook ads, which no one but the intended recipient can see, are a dangerous change to that. In a democracy, political actors need to stand behind their words and be judged for them.
*I have no kids, so I’m using the royal us on our grandchildren. And, yeah, Twitter’s not so hot. But it does seem to realize there is a problem and is starting to take action. They need to get rid of the bots while they are at it. And the Nazi’s, Republicans be damned. Maybe tag the blue ticks, “We would have removed this for being a Nazi, but they are an elected official/Journalist.
TheOtherHank
Several years ago I worked in Palo Alto in a building that was next door to the building Facebook was in at that time (they hadn’t moved to their current giant campus yet). One day as I was pulling out of the parking lot Zuck walked right in front of my car. I had to put on the brakes to keep from running him down.
I think about the moment quite often.
Martin
Dude, you need to choose Gandhi + Democracy to get a reasonable outcome in Civ. Everyone knows this.
Villago Delenda Est
Even the fucking Nazis knew better than to say they were killing the Jews. They used euphemisms such as “resettlement in the East” and “the final solution to the Jewish question”.
Donald has no such sensibility. Nor does Zuck.
dexwood
@TheOtherHank: When opportunity knocks…
Martin
@Roger Moore: Policy is hard, and most people aren’t up to it. He may think Trump will allow him to keep ducking it, but Trump will turn on him as well.
Villago Delenda Est
@Martin: The only problem with Gandhi is that he’s obsessed with nukes.
RepubAnon
@patrick II:
There’s a difference between corporate libertarianism and fascism?
raven
Man this lady on tv in the walker is one tough cookie.
Martin
@Villago Delenda Est: Go read Trumps Twitter feed and tell me again that’s a problem.
Dorothy A. Winsor
The tiny Iowa town of Storm Lake has a newspaper that won a Pulitzer a couple of years ago. Here’s their take on the protests.
patrick II
@RepubAnon:
Mussolini was bald.
Eric U.
I think the Democrats need to go after facebook for owning Instagram and their relentless pursuit of aggregating every piece of information about us that they can get their hands on. Speech issues are too tricky.
Feathers
@RepubAnon: The corporate libertarians think so. Or at least they did until they realized fascism was an option.
TS (the original)
What a perfect heading – 10,000 updings
bluehill
First they came for Twitter and I did not speak out –
because I wanted to get rid of Twitter too.
Wapiti
I want the Ds to give us a way to opt out of social media platforms like Facebook, requiring the company to delete any record of the opt-outs.
Fair Economist
@grumbles:
Yep, Zuckerberg has plenty of spine. Ask anybody who’s done business with him. This is about helping the fascists win.
Jeffro
Here’s a line that any D at any level could use: “remember, until trumpov…we didn’t even have to have these debates about whether or not the president* lying was free speech or should be removed or should have a warning label or whatever. Remember?”
Follow-on lines: “And remember, we were amply warned by many people from both parties (cue videos of Lindsey Graham, Jeb Bush, etc, plus Hillz) that electing trumpov would be a disaster for our country. They were right. Isn’t it time to end the abuse?”
Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)
I use Facebook every day, and I don’t know if it’s quit right to say I like it; it’s more like I find that I need to use it to keep up with people and speak my mind about what’s happening in this country. And more and more, I find myself thinking that the country would be better off of Zuckerberg dropped dead tomorrow. He really doesn’t give a shit about anybody or anything beyond his own company. Nothing matters to this guy but making sure that his company can do whatever the fuck it wants, anywhere, any time, for any reason it wants or no reason at all.
Mathguy
I like this item from The Chaser:
“Social media should not fact check posts” says child molester Mark Zuckerberg.
Sebastian
He lied under oath to Congress then?
O. Felix Culpa
Zuckerberg is a money-grubbing amoral fuck. Spine or lack thereof has nothing to do with it.
Mathguy
@Dorothy A. Winsor: The editorial is just about perfect.
Duane
@Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.): Zuckerberg said this week they had no obligation to fact-check because they weren’t the media. They obviously are, but only if it suits him. Otherwise it’s too bad losers, you’re not my boss.
kindness
Obviously the answer with Facebook is to hack Trump’s posts and put a nipple in them. Facebook will take it down in minutes.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Watching the Louisville riots on TV. If my office building doesn’t burn down or get looted tonight, I’ll be amazed – they’re swarming that area.
I collected my cash out of my lockbox drawer this morning, locked what I could and backed up the equipment on idrive, but that’s about all I can do.
It’ll be a pain in the ass, but I understand why.
evodevo
@kindness: You don’t even need to do that…they took several of my posts down because there was a cartoon of covid protesters with a nazi flag (swastika) in one and the word Nazi in another…so….
BigJimSlade
Reminds me of Snow Crash
Duane
@Mathguy: That’s the quote I was referring to. One thing Zuckerberg does have is nerve. He’s seriously in need of a humility lesson.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Fuck. I’m watching a friend’s office burn with no police presence. They’ve lit fires in the street about 60 feet from my office window.
kindness
It’s funny how billions of dollars totally changes their perception of right and wrong. Gee, I wonder what it could be? The jump from laissez faire libertarianism to fascist is a short one.
James E Powell
@RepubAnon:
Fascists are more into large public gatherings and wearing matching clothes.
satby
@Mathguy: There’s a whole thing on FB right now calling Zuckerberg a lot of stuff like that with people sharing them. I’ve shared that one and a couple more. One accused him of goat copulation, as it noted that he didn’t feel FB should be in the business of fact checking.
Jay
frosty
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Oh, shit. Not much else to say.
SiubhanDuinne
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
That’s powerful. Thank you for the link
Jay
satby
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I’m sorry. Hope your office is unscathed when it’s over.
Eric U.
I kinda like the idea of the 3rd precinct in Minneapolis being run out of trailers when all of this is over. Other offices maybe not so much
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@frosty:
I’m a little teary, to be honest. I love that location, find it attractive, and feel for the Indian family that runs the trashed Subway that I use frequently. My bank is trashed, too, The marks in the buildings and streets, the broken windows all bother me – I lay it all at the feet of the misconduct and incompetence of the LMPD and their political enablers.
Zelma
Look, I joined Facebook because I wanted to follow Charlie Pierce’s comments. I mostly like it because my FB “friends” post lots of neat anti-Trump stuff. But every time I hear Zuckerberg, I ask myself why I still subscribe. Then I figure that one lone unsubscriber wouldn’t matter so I don’t bother. (There is the additional fact that I’m not sure I can figure out how to unsubscribe.)
What would make a difference to Zuckerberg? Would it matter if millions of liberal leaning people left the site? Would that just cede it to the crazies and make things worse? I am legitimately puzzled about how we can fight this cancer.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Eric U.: Yeah, that would be appropriate. Fuck their morale and their precious blue feels.
Duane
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: That’s some kind of reality TV you’re watching. I admire your outlook on the situation.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Duane:
I knew this morning that it was going to turn bad.
Now it’s moved to a bar and entertainment corridor.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
On the good side, they’re burning a big Confederate flag. On the bad side, they’re fucking with bourbon barrels and my favorite Brazilian steakhouse.
Barbara
@Zelma: It would make a difference. I am not judging, but FB is nothing more than a bulletin board with the technical skills to collect information and sell it. Without inputs it’s nothing.
Mike in NC
It was a happy day a year or two ago when I shitcanned my Facebook account. Social media is a sewer and like the mainstream media is wired for Republicans.
Achrachno
@RepubAnon: I always thought corporate libertarianism is a lot like plain old feudalism. Rights all reside in property ownership and us serfs don’t really get to own much property, except by sufferance of the aristocracy. I admit to being hazy on how feudalism is different from fascism at a fundamental level. In fascism power is seized rather than being inherited?
HumboldtBlue
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot ain’t got no fucking time for Trump.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
On another bad side, youngest daughter has shut down some roads in Cincinnati tonight, and has disappeared from contact.
And the protest has expanded to a second bar/entertainment corridor.
Flashbangs next to my office – trash fires all over.
Jackie
@Zelma: I use FB to keep up with long distance family. My “friends” are family and extended family, so I don’t get all the BS everyone complains about. My daughter is wonderful about posting scads of pics and everyday life re her family, so both long-distance grandparents can deal with the long distances a bit better. I am especially grateful for FB and FT during this time.
Jeffro
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: WHAT??
People, come ON!
j/k
On another topic, I guess we’ll hear from the FPers about the release of the Flynn transcripts at some point this weekend. Looks like #Obamagate just went circling down the drain. Flynn’s a complete traitor, just like we always said he was.
Duane
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Steaks and bourbon. Tonight we dine well.
Jeffro
@Mike in NC: I’m trying to figure out how to wean myself off FB/put my account on ‘pause’, as in quit posting anything, but check it once or twice a week for messages from friends old and new.
It’d be nice if one of these big ol’ rich liberal billionaires dropped a couple mil on developing a site that didn’t mine your data and also bend the knee to trumpov (or is there already a preferred progressive alternative to FB?)
Jeffro
@Zelma:
As with any boycott, it only has an effect if – in addition to boycotting/leaving – you make sure to tell the business why you’re no longer patronizing their “place”. And then try to tell everyone you know, in-person or via social media or an op-ed or whatever, what you did and why you did it.
Just leaving does nothing. Leaving and telling the business why and encouraging others to do the same is powerful.
Kent
I think they just don’t give a shit and see themselves as above both Trump and Biden. They just don’t want to have to deal with actually doing content moderation because it will be immensely expensive and open up a giant can of worms. And if they start doing it for the US then they’ll have to do it for 100 other nations. FB probably doesn’t even derive a majority of its revenue from the US anymore.
Yutsano
And the CNN building in downtown Atlanta is being overrun…because it shares office space with a precinct of the Atlanta police department. And right Twitter is all aflutter that CNN is getting attacked. Except of course they aren’t.
Jeffro
@Kent: There’s the cost, and there’s also the glibertarian ideology aspect. I suspect that at this point, Zuck and Co are so rich, they don’t really care about the cost all that much as they do about having to actually take responsibility for what’s on their platform, make decisions, etc. It’s all been fun and games so far.
Zelma
@Barbara:
One single person? Would anyone even notice? And, of course, I’d be denying myself the pleasure of all those anti-Trump posts and occasional picture of my grand-dogs.
I mean, I decided years ago not to buy any Koch products. I passed on some nice carpet and flooring and even at the heights of the paper product crisis, I refused to buy Brawny or their tp brand whose name I forget. (My lamentable memory!). And I tell all my liberal friends to abstain.
I try to be a responsible consumer. (OK, I did buy a My Pillow but that was long before it was obvious that the owner was an asshole. Also, not a great pillow.) If I am told that a product supports Fox News or Rush Limbaugh, I cross it off my list.
But other than giving me a momentary sense of satisfaction, I am not sure what difference it makes or, indeed, if anyone cares.
Jeffro
@Zelma: It can make a difference…see above at #62 ;)
HumboldtBlue
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Fucking brilliant. All the best and thanks for the reminder that a lot of people stand to lose a lot and still stand for the good guys. Keeps us assholes on point.
@Jeffro:
I still consider him with deep skepticism and wonder if he’s sincere just like with all never-Trumpers, but there may be something to Walsh.
Kent
@Jeffro: I think a lot of is it also, if they can stand up to Trump and the American politicians then they can stand up to the Iranian mullahs and Merkel and whoever else wants them to do something different regarding content regulation.
Once they start implementing special programs to regulate US political speech they open a GIANT can of worms in every other country in the world that will want the same treatment.
I’m sympathetic to that point of view. But the way they do their algorithms makes things worse. the quid pro quo of no censorship would be that they abandon their algorithms that drives traffic to similar sites. So if you are a white supremacist you don’t keep getting fed more and more of that filth like now.
If they want to be content neutral then they should be required to be content neutral across the board and not feed people stuff that matches what they are already reading.
Jeffro
Joe Walsh, tweeting a couple hours ago:
I’ll take “battlefield conversions” or something like that for $400, Alex…
Jeffro
@Kent: I really don’t know the answer there, other than what Zuck is proposing (or not-proposing) won’t work. He can’t have it both ways, and it’s past time to both accept some responsibility and understand that there will be costs.
He might have to settle for only $1Gazillion net worth by the time this is through, instead of $2G or $150G. It’s long overdue for people like him to both consider the actual consequences of what they have wrought and as part of that, be willing to have one less Scrooge McDuck moneybin to swim around in all day.
NotMax
@Zelma
Consumer brands of TP: Soft ‘n Gentle, Quilted Northern, Angel Soft
Institutional brands of TP: Envision, Coronet, SCA, Tork and Fort James
European brands of TP:
Colhoga
Delica
Demak’Up
Inversoft
Kitten Soft
Lotus
Moltonel
Nouvelle
Okay
Tenderly
Tutto
The Moar You Know
Facebook is like booze; you’ve either quit it or you haven’t.
They’ve been wrecking society for over a decade and I knew the whole time. Kept using it. Been a wonderful promotional vehicle for the band. Because of the microtargeting. You wouldn’t believe what you can get away with on Facebook. Pick your group and start posting, tailor your posts so that they’ll do what you want.
But now we’re locked down, no gigs for what may be a really long time, and I figured, now was the time. Because it’s been wrecking me too. Nobody gets away. You play with Zuckerberg’s fire and you will get burned.
Didn’t even save off my pictures. Just quit. Fuck Facebook for ruining our society.
Every quit counts.
Gravenstone
@Martin: Just don’t let Ghandi get too cozy with anyone. Otherwise he runs around nuking shit.
The Moar You Know
@Kent:
Twitter: 300 million users
US population: 350 million people more or less
Facebook subscriber count: 2.3 billion
Suspect you’re right.
Gravenstone
@Yutsano:
Let me guess, they’re jealous that they’re not the ones leading the charge?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Jeffro: Sure that’s not the “Life’s Been Good to Me So Far”, Joe Walsh?
James E Powell
@Zelma:
I think millions of liberal leaning people leaving facebook would be worth a try. It’s possible. What I’m sure of is that continuing as we are will not produce any changes in facebook or other social media or the NYT. (Sorry, I always have to throw that in.)
Do you remember during the Occupy Wall Street protest, when the Masters of the Universe went out on their balconies with champagne and laughed? That’s what facebook and the NYT do when we complain about them.
LeftCoastYankee
Facebook’s business model is the user is the product. Spying on you and selling that information to “advertisers” (aka their real and actual customers) is the point.
The spying part of their technology they’re good at, monetizing it is problematic. The dumbest idea on the internet is “everything is free”, and “we have can pay for it with our awesome advertising tech”.
Most of the so-called advertising algorithms that are being pimped by the tech companies really suck in terms of getting people to actually buy things. How many times have you seen an ad for the clothes you just bought or the product you just looked up?
What this technology does well is amplify the “wait, what?” images you so frequently see in the margins of most websites.
When you realize most small businesses who use Facebook to reach customers are users (and not advertisers either), the bulk of their revenue stream is from “content” from the hucksters and grifters.
And Facebook has probably cooked the numbers on how well that works as well. Seems pretty natural they’d need Republicans with this model.
I may be way off but I think they realize the iceberg is closer than the public knows.
CaseyL
I quit FB a year (?) ago and don’t miss it one bit. But I don’t have a career or side-gig that depends on the kind of marketing FB enables; I can’t speak to people who depend on FB for their business – other than, they won’t find me there.
Yutsano
@Gravenstone: More like they’re convinced CNN brought it on themselves for “lying” all these years. It’s beyond disingenuous.
Ruckus
@Zelma:
If it’s one person, no it doesn’t matter overall. If it’s many people, yes it does matter. Now for about 3 yrs I haven’t gone on FB more than once every six months and no it hasn’t made any difference in my life. So I’m deleting my account. It takes effort to delete your account and there is a reason for that. Zuckershit sells your info. He didn’t get rich by being a web host, he makes it by selling you.
Calouste
The Guardian reports that the wife of the cop who murdered George Floyd is filing for divorce.
Gravenstone
@Yutsano: Yeah, clicked through and read the twit in question. Still think they’re jealous that they can’t be beating down the doors of the hated “leftist media”.
Gravenstone
@Calouste: Is she like just learning that he’s an abusive asshole? Or has she known it for years, but didn’t think he might actually hurt her too? Until, ya know seeing it on video that he’s perfectly capable of murder.
As an aside, at least another of his buddies needs to be rotting in the adjacent cell. Because another surveillance video shows two more officers kneeling on Floyd. And the one was kneeling on his back – which sure as shit contributed to his inability to breath.
Calouste
@Gravenstone:
The statement that the woman’s lawyer released says that she has children, but not from her current marriage. So they might not have been married very long.
Origuy
I was posting events on my club’s Facebook page; it’s a cheap way to reach people who might be interested in an activity they’ve never heard of before. We started paying Facebook to “boost” the posts. For about $30 you can get up to 1000 views in a small area. For national events, you need to spend $50-60 at least. For the type of event we were doing, any more wasn’t really effective. I stopped doing it partly because of Zuckerberg and partly because it didn’t seem to be bringing in new people. Now, of course, we haven’t had any events since early March.
debbie
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Reposting from earlier: The Columbus (OH) Dispatch is anything but liberal, which makes this op-ed cartoon pretty remarkable.
I wish the SPLC or some other organization would publish the stats of the rise of racism in 2019 compared with earlier years, like the ADL did for anti-Semitism.
Ruckus
On top of everything else going on, my shitty knee just started acting up again. I went through over 6 months of therapy 25 yrs ago to see if I could get away with not replacing it because of my age. My ortho doc said it needed to be replaced but at my age then he did not want to do it unless nothing else worked. It’s been pretty good for all that time since I finished some fairly comprehensive therapy. It just signaled me that it’s not happy, with a pretty big fuck you pain as I walked into the kitchen to make dinner. I’m icing it down, hopefully that will help, I really, really, really do not want to have to go through that right now. And I’m pretty sure that the VA would not want to replace it now.
Martin
Oh, not even close. Revenue per user is highest in the US, but there’s so many FB users outside of the US that it swamps US revenues.
But this is true across tech. Apple’s China revenues are on par with their US revenue. Writ large, tech is a huge export economy for the US, that we don’t really acknowledge because they aren’t filling container ships with stuff. Higher education is another.
Trump is going to war with both.
debbie
Second night of protests in Columbus. I fell asleep and missed the local news, but rocks have been thrown and cops injured.
Mike in NC
In about three or four months we should expect Fat Bastard to arrange for a race riot in some southern city to stir up the deplorables. Jennifer Rubin’s latest WaPo column noted his dependence on racism and xenophobia.
Ruckus
@debbie:
It shouldn’t amaze me but it sort of does, that the local and state governments think that the cops cracking down hard will make things better. It’s insane to see that they have no understanding of the dislike/hate that people have of the trump whatever you want to call it but it isn’t administration. The virus, the shitforbrains show, the George Floyd disaster, now the crackdowns on all the protests, what do they expect to happen? Everyone is going to go along all peaceful and docile? They are as out of control as shitforbrains is and it will as some point be a full scale disaster for the entire country. Are they trying to make it so that shitforbrains declares martial law and they can just shoot people? What do they think will happen at that point?
Felanius Kootea
@Calouste: I did wonder how he treated his wife. It’s not implausible that he was abusive at home and she saw an opportunity to get away once he was arrested. Who knows.
dopey-o
Anyone who has been a money-teat for Zuckerberg and Facebook is simply a proud member of the sheeple flock.
Don’t apologize for it, don’t say you didn’t know FB’s revenue model. Just say “It was free so i didnt want to think about it.”
I don’t care if you can’t figure out how to market your awesome start-up, i don’t care if you need to share videos of your cute cat or your cute grandchildren. I don’t care if you can’t be bothered to pick up the phone and talk to your friends.
Facebook is a soulless machine, and it drips corrosive acid everywhere it goes. Why are so many Americans putting more and more money into Facebook’s coffers? More and more power in Zuckerberg’s hands? More and more votes into the Trump column?
Does Facebook need to change their slogan to “Death to America!” before Americans open their eyes?
Jinchi
Leaving Facebook is easy. Post under a pseudonym and then report yourself. They’ll lock you out immediately.
Of course, they’re going to keep ownership of everything you’ve ever posted. There’s no way you’re getting that back.
different-church-lady
OMFG, HE THINKS WE’RE STUPID!
different-church-lady
Once again I am proud to have seen the creepiness oozing out of the entire thing when it was first getting going back in the… how the hell long ago was it? 15 years now? Some people could sense it right off the get-go but far far far too many others liked the high they got off his mental cigarettes.
James E Powell
I’ve been watching protests all night. I’m surprised at the number of cities. Bakersfield!
Why do you think this time is different?
Thor Heyerdahl
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Thank you for a news source that I had no idea about.
Kattails
@debbie: Wow. I mean, yes, we know this, but I could hand this image to anyone, ever, who says anything about taking a knee. Like I could tack it to their forehead.
@Ruckus: Oh no, that sucks. I hope it eases up for you. I have a very good friend who did the knee replacement and for him it was a stinker to get through, even though he’s in good physical shape and was diligent about physical therapy. (He’s late 60’s) Yet he talked with others who had a much easier time. Way better now though.
The one thing I’d do would be to get a very thorough checkup before hand, top to bottom, because the stress can trigger other latent stuff. This is not to be creepy/scary, but there was a real issue that arose later. Hopefully none of this will apply anyway.
ltelf
@Calouste: I’m thinking that this woman picked the perfect time to make a clean getaway. He’ll find it much harder to stalk or harass her with all eyes on him.
different-church-lady
@James E Powell: An overall zeitgeist of death will shorten fuses.
Ruckus
@Kattails:
Thanks. I iced it down and it’s calmed down. I’m afraid it’s going to be like it was after the accident that tore it up in the first place which was not a lot of fun. But I don’t want to spend any more time in a hospital than I have to right now.
Calouste
@ltelf: He’ll find it pretty hard at the moment because he is in jail. And unlikely to get out on bond because Minneapolis doesn’t want to throw more oil on the fire.
Citizen Alan
@TheOtherHank:
I know the feeling. I have told anyone this (and only am now b/c of too much win before bed. But I have been continually haunted for twenty years by the fact that in March of 2000, I was at a law school reception for Antonin Scalia, and I was close enough to touch him. Looking back, I think the security was minimal. It was nine months before Bush v. Gore. And ever since, whenever something awful happened that can be traced back to that evil decision, I have occasionally found myself grappling with the bizarre hypothetical of “what would I do if I had an out-of-body time travel experience that caused me to possess my own body on the morning of that luncheon?” Probably nothing useful, of course, since I’ve never killed anything larger than a spider, but it hasn’t stopped me from brooding over it often enough that it was a factor in my asking my doctor for a Klonopin prescription.
Citizen Alan
@RepubAnon:
I assume it’s possible to be a corporate libertarian without being a nationalist. Probable even, since corporate owners in general see themselves more closely allied with their fellow billionaires in other countries than with their less wealthy countrymen.
Besides that, both philosophies are equally and utterly evil, of course.
debbie
@Kattails:
Exactly.
way2blue
Facebook’s policy is premised on the assertion that the President of the United States does not have available a multitude of venues for expressing himself and *his policies*. If his gaslighting or his dangerous, hateful rhetoric are banned from social media outlets, he can always get his face in front of a camera to vent. And someone will broadcast it… Surely threats about government-sponsored violence merit a more formal venue than a tweet or a Facebook post.
In my opinion, social media platforms need to establish & adhere to uniform policies regarding acceptable communications. (Including. Perhaps. An appeal process.) For everyone. No special treatment for the big shots or the bullies.
Bill Arnold
@Jeffro:
Re social media tracking, been playing with social media tracker blockers. (in addition to a middling paranoid loadout, just tried “Disconnect”, which seems OK if they’re not secretly feeding 5-Eyes or something.) (What I’d really like is a tracker blocker that blocks but also anonymously DDoSes tracker urls (disconnected; users make shit lists; anonymous “volunteers” act on them). This might(would) not be legal, sadly.)
But what really matters, as has been said, is letting companies know that they’re being punished for egregious behavior.
Facebook is hard because it’s about constructing and maintaining user profiles and using them to enable selling (sometimes highly) targeted advertisements. So boycotts around it, excepting boycotting FB itself, can be difficult.