From the WSJ:
China Is Now Sending Twitter Users to Prison for Posts Most Chinese Can’t See
Two of the most restrictive groups censorship wise are going at each other here to ban information that was made to be published, go figure. Note: It refers to the CCP government, not the Chinese people.
Both are paranoid and neither are really helping anyone get better. My advice, leave both.
“Nothing can be so amusingly arrogant as a young person who has just discovered an old idea and thinks it is their own.” – Sidney J. Harris
I don’t mind them going through this as a right of passage because I know I knew everything at one point. The only thing that is tough to take is someone who can look something up on a phone and thinks they know everything. That is not learning.
Learning involves a lot of failing and mistakes to hone a craft. We all learn best by learning what not to do before mastering any skill.
I make them put their phones away to prove their point and it takes all the bullets out of their guns.
Eliminating as much social media from my life as possible has made it much better. Sooner or later, even your bestie is going to post something that pisses you off and down the toilet we go.
Now, you can spy on your neighbor like the Stasi and report your neighbor. As for me, I’m getting rid of as much hate as I can, and that started with Twitter. Their latest to shut down free speech isn’t helping anyone.
The Tweeter is recruiting volunteer truth interrupters’ to crack down on misinformation they say is running rampant across their site. The site announced the launch of “Birdwatchers” on Monday to empowering certain users to flag misleading tweets. So-called Birdwatchers will discuss what’s misleading about a flagged tweet and then be able to rank those comments, with the goal of allowing seemingly unpaid users to take a hands-on approach to combating your lies and falsities.
The Official Tweeter Support Account posted the announcement with a video of an failed attempt at humor of an egregious example of a necessary flagging of falsehood: “Whales are not real. They’re robots funded by the government to watch us.” Now, you don’t have to read between the lines to understand the mentality that came up with this idea.
At first, Birdwatch will only be open to a few users who apply to join the program, traditional fact-checkers and other high-profile people. Birdwatch replies to tweets will meanwhile only be visible on a separate section of the site. But eventually Twitter hopes to include the replies on the regular site, building a Wikipedia-style system of relying on users to combat misinformed and blatantly false tweets.
IP’s, User Names and Locations would surely not be cataloged. *wink wink*
Brandy Zadrozny of NBC News, said the program has “promise,” but cautioned that Twitter doesn’t seem to have a plan to prevent retaliation against Birdwatchers. Twitter said it’ll adapt the program based on user feedback before debuting it on the whole site.https://platform.twitter.com/embed/index.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=true&id=1353769252784926720&lang=en&origin=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.diogenesmiddlefinger.com%2F2021%2F01%2Fyou-too-can-sign-up-for-dorseys-truth.html&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ed20a2b%3A1601588405575&width=550px
My big concern — which I expressed many times to Twitter — is for the safety of these contributors. What happens when a high-ranking Birdwatcher whose note does well on a Ted Cruz tweet is featured on Tucker Carlson? They say user safety is top of mind but … you know.— Brandy Zadrozny (@BrandyZadrozny) January 25, 2021
The cancel culture has come to a stalemate. Michael Jordan said a long time ago that republicans by sneakers also and wouldn’t take sides. If others were only that smart.
In the effort not to piss off half the country, the corporations are now cowards, afraid to take a stance for fear of SJW and the cancel culture. I noted that it works both ways though. The country is divided. We were last united on 9/11, but shortly after that it’s gone to hell.
“A growing number of big-name advertisers, including Coke and Hyundai, are skipping the Super Bowl this year for fear of not striking the right tone amid America’s contentious political landscape.
“Several companies have decided not to buy Super Bowl time, some for the first time in over a decade.
“The reason? According to the New York Post, the talk from insiders is that members of multiple boardrooms are finally coming to realize that they’re going to infuriate half the country no matter what they do.
“In recent years, advertisers were thrilled to push the Black Lives Matter and Antifa ideologies or to push transgenderism and the #MeToo movement. But this year, not so much.” Offending half the country is OK, except in this case, they offended the half that actually buys their products.
I point out trends and patterns. This surely is one. A Superbowl commercial is top dollar and the networks will hurt from this. Their newsrooms are where the flames of this cancel culture got stoked. I point the finger at them.
Hopefully it will be a good game. A good football game with no politics or social statements made. It’s a child’s game, not a national election.
This advertisement was brought to you by those seeking to disrupt normal relations in the USA by violence, force and dissembling statements. Stop it. We are tired of it and want to get back to our lives.
The older I get, the more I don’t want to do stuff with others. I like them, but my ability to want to hang with people grows shorter every day.
Just leave me alone. I promise I’ll leave you alone.
If I want to talk, I promise you’ll know. If I want to know something from you, I’ll ask.
I enjoy being alone more than with crowds. I’ve had a lifetime full of that and have never felt the need to be a part of one. That includes standing in lines for something (like Disney) or wanting to be accepted in someone’s social circle (that has stupid clique rules).
A year or so ago, I opted out of a neighborhood birthday party because I couldn’t go home early or take another car. I drove for 3.5 hours to a vacation home while they thought I was getting the house fixed. I knew it wasn’t going to happen that trip, but that’s how far I’ll go to not have to go to a social event where I know no one.
No one missed me and I didn’t have to go. I enjoyed my days off and we all were happy.
FWIW, my name is John, and I don’t give a fuck.
“I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.”
I guess I don’t have much to add after this last election. I’ll leave it to Will
“Mediocre men often have the most acquired knowledge.”
I’ve noticed how smart people are when they have a phone to look up the answer to anything, without learning how to do something. I’m not advocating a life of mistakes to learn, but most of us learn more by having to re-do something than breezing through it.
I also noticed that the most insane arguments on the Internet are by those partially informed, yet willing to show their ignorance or lack of IQ in public. As usual, it is most often done in the cesspool that is Twitter or Facebook.
Please stop it so the rest of us can enjoy it again.
Yes, I’d rather post the I have a dream, but politicians won’t let us make it come true.
Instead, this is a lesser known quote, but there has been a lot of hate and darkness (Twitter, Facebook, the elections, need I go on?). I for one am tired of it.
For today, I’m letting the Reverend point out what the problem is. He also gave us the answer, if anyone will listen. I hope I”m not alone.
I like people that are informed and right most of the time. Friedman was both. He was an economist. I take it for what it is. I suppose there are political overtones if you want to read into it, but I am trying to stay out of that pool so don’t.
There is a lot of things that can hold us hostage like addiction, debt, lying….you recognize them.
See a couple of posts below on office speak. I heard one that said under promise and over deliver. That will make you look good once, but if you do the job right every time, you will be far more respected and trusted.
CNN announced that after 30 years of boring us to tears is pulling out of it’s contract with Airports around the world and will stop broadcasting what they determine to be the news. I actively avoid the noise anyway so I haven’t looked at the screens now other than departing flights for any of those 30 years.
Jeff Zucker has notified CNN staff that “the CNN Airport Network will end operations as of March 31.”
“The steep decline in airport traffic because of COVID-19, coupled with all the new ways that people are consuming content on their personal devices, has lessened the need…” pic.twitter.com/9se3oCw1gr
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) January 12, 2021
As Covid-19 protected us from the constant noise from CNN, we won’t have to listen to this anymore. Maybe they can play sports, local news or perhaps nothing. We have earbuds in anyway so no one is listening anymore anyway.
Most stopped believing CNN after a year of Malaysia flight 370 that went nowhere. The election cycle seems to have turned everyone away from any of the news anyway. Regardless of the channel, it’s hard to find the truth on TV.
My advice is just like social media. Stay away from it and your life will be better with a lot more free time.
Activate:
To make carbons and add more names to the email.
Advanced Design:
Beyond the comprehension of the ad agency’s copywriters.
All New:
Parts not interchangeable with existing models.
Approved:
Needs revising
Automatic:
That which you cannot repair yourself.
Channels:
The trails left by interoffice emails.
Clarify:
To fill in the background with so many details that the foreground goes underground.
Conference:
A place where conversation is substituted for the loneliness of thought and the dreariness of labor.
Consultant:
Someone who borrows your watch to tell you what time it is and then walks away with the watch.
Forwarded For Your Consideration:
You hold the bag for a while.
FYI:
Found yesterday, interested?
In Conference:
Nobody can find him/her.
Let’s Get Together On This:
I’m assuming you’re as confused as I.
Note & Initial:
I’m not taking the fall for this myself.
Policy:
We can hide behind this.
Please See Me:
Come down to my office. I’m lonely.
Top Priority:
It may be stupid but the boss wants it.
We Are Taking A Survey:
We need more time to think of an answer or we can’t find anyone willing to be responsible for this.
Will Advise In Due Course:
If we figure it out, we’ll let you know.
That’s right, tomorrow is not guaranteed, neither is later today.
I always advise to think eternally, rather than temporally. You may need that.
With what went on in 2020, I wake up and wonder what could be next?
Equal opportunity is possible. Equal outcome doesn’t depend on the Government, it depends on what the people make of the opportunity.
#9 Death is the number 1 killer in the world.
#8 Life is sexually transmitted.
#7 Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.
#6 Men have two motivations: hunger and hanky-panky, and they can’t tell them apart. If you see a gleam in his eyes, make him a sandwich.
#5 Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day. Teach a person to use the Internet and they won’t bother you for weeks, months, maybe years.
#4 Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in the hospital, dying of nothing.
#3 All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.
#2 In the 60’s, people took LSD to make the world weird. Now the world is weird, and people take Prozac to make it normal
#1 Life is like a jar of jalapeño peppers. What you do today may be a burning issue tomorrow.
“The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is at all comprehensible.” – Albert Einstein
Even I have a hard time comprehending everything that is going on. We haven’t been told the truth about everything that is going on (or the full truth) from the election, to the virus to the vaccine for the virus to what China knew…..and so forth.
I like to lean on those who are more learned than me or have more experience. They can usually provide guidance to figure out what is going on or at least how to survive.
Behind the mountains are more mountains – unknown, but supposedly an old Haitian saying
My mom told me you are either facing a problem/hurdle, in the middle of it or have just overcome it. If you overcame it, there is always another mountain.
She also told me that we were made to overcome obstacles. We get the most satisfaction from solving and defeating them.
Don’t shy away. From Thinkr:
Will-strengthening obstacles are often the most painful, but the lessons they teach also go the deepest if we allow them to instruct us. To strengthen the will, we must always expect more difficult times to lie ahead.
It was first reported a year ago today, but as we have come to find out, it was probably on the loose well before it was reported, certainly in China.
It has lead to a big change in our lives and possibly affected the outcome of the election, but who knows. I wonder when history is uncovered what the true story really was, if we could ever find out.
Here is a snippet of the story linked to above:
Wuhan and its roughly 11 million residents were abruptly locked down on 23 January after weeks of being told that the virus was controllable, preventable and not contagious. The aim was to limit greater spread of the disease that has since become known as Covid-19, and that has spread around the world and killed almost 2 million people.
In Wuhan, many people are still guarded about what they can and cannot say about what happened a year ago and the lessons they learned.
In April, after 76 days, Wuhan emerged from lockdown. Aided by thousands of local volunteers who delivered and distributed scarce PPE and food supplies and drove ill people to hospitals; by doctors and nurses working until collapse or until the virus overtook them; by workers who built temporary hospitals in a matter of days to relieve inundated facilities, Wuhan made it through.
The memory the Chinese Communist party wants people to keep, though, is of the larger national effort to control the outbreak. The inrush of medical staff and People’s Liberation Army soldiers from provinces across China and the emergency response from the central government after 23 January get key billing.
Wuhan and its roughly 11 million residents were abruptly locked down on 23 January after weeks of being told that the virus was controllable, preventable and not contagious. The aim was to limit greater spread of the disease that has since become known as Covid-19, and that has spread around the world and killed almost 2 million people.
In Wuhan, many people are still guarded about what they can and cannot say about what happened a year ago and the lessons they learned.
The memory the Chinese Communist party wants people to keep, though, is of the larger national effort to control the outbreak. The inrush of medical staff and People’s Liberation Army soldiers from provinces across China and the emergency response from the central government after 23 January get key billing.
A three-month exhibition showcasing China’s coronavirus response, nearing its end in Wuhan, captures all this and more. It paints a China triumphant over the virus, with inconvenient narratives left out.
I trust that the vaccine’s being distributed and will help stop the China/Wuhan/Corona/Covid/Whatever virus and stop the deaths. I like old people, they are full of wisdom. We need that right now.
The other good news is that deaths from global warming are also down. As I say later, I think the climate is changing. Not wanting to play God, I don’t know how and it’s not for me to decide, but i believe that there are a lot of things who contribute to it together.
I’m just happy for good news.
On the plus side:
at the end of 2020 shows that climate related deaths are now approaching zero. The data spans 100 years of “global warming” back to 1920 and shows “climate related” deaths are now approaching zero.
Below is an update of the graph in the 2020 peer-reviewed article by Bjørn Lomborg: Welfare in the 21st century: Increasing development, reducing inequality, the impact of climate change, and the cost of climate policies
“Back in the 1920s, the death count from climate-related disasters was 485,000 on average every year. In the last full decade, 2010-2019, the average was 18,357 dead per year or 96% lower. In the first year of the new decade, 2020, the preliminary number of dead was even lower at 8,086 — 98% lower than the 1920s average.
But because the world’s population also quadrupled at the same time, the climate-related *death risk* has dropped even faster. The death risk is the probability of you dying in any one year. In the 1920s, it was 243 out of a million people that would die from climate-related disasters.
In the 2010s, the risk was just 2.5 per million people — a drop of 99%. Now, in 2020, the preliminary number is 1 per million — 99.6% lower.”
This is clearly the opposite of what climate alarmists have been screaming about, but that is because we’re been exposed to a constant stream of “disaster TV” on cable news and Internet news outlets telling us daily about yet another new disaster, which invariably gets blamed on “climate change”.
There’s an important distinction that must be made: increased reports does not equal increased death risk.
HOW ACCURATE WERE THE CLIMATE CHANGE RISKS?
Here is documentation of 10 climate predictions and their outcome/result, like no snow on Mt. Kilimanjaro:
The disappearance of South Florida:
I don’t have anything against climate change and as I said, I think it is happening. I also think that the climate alarmists used it to get rich off of an unfounded scare, documented here and here.
I’m just glad for a Vaccine and that climate deaths are not killing off the Senior Citizens. So whether they get rich off of scare tactics or not is not important to me.
Here’s a picture of the parade, if you look real carefully, you won’t see me.
Here is a good link to the 4 reasons the world needs an Introvert day. I just need the day off to recharge.
It won’t get as much coverage as other Pride parades or whatever day’s. I’ll bet people don’t know how many introverts there really are in the world. They just don’t need to tell everyone about it, like the vegans.
Delusions of Adequacy 