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- The10thMan : It's great to de-Kindle books into regular PDFs that don't require a special app nor limit how many words you can copypaste
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Context:
Per Wikipedia, Calibre is "a cross-platform free and open-source suite of e-book software. Calibre supports organizing existing e-books into virtual libraries, displaying, editing, creating and converting e-books, as well as syncing e-books with a variety of e-readers." As it's offline software, it doesn't discriminate between books that have been come by legally and illegally, which means that a fair amount of people are using Calibre mostly for managing their pirated books. However, the /r/Calibre subreddit explicitly bans discussions or threads about piracy. With many rule-breakers abound, the subreddit's sole moderator eventually creates this post:
Despite the community rules being pretty clear on the topic, it seems a reminder is needed that this sub has a strict "no piracy" rule. Every day there are numerous posts and even more comments that are either seeking info on how to pirate books, wanting help in making use of books they've pirated, or are people flat out encouraging others to pirate and listing off websites where they can do it. Up until now those posts have simply been deleted as they've been seen, but going forward any users found ignoring rule 4 will be banned from the Calibre sub.
Calibre is a platform that helps everyone organize their eBooks and if you want a book bad enough to read it, you should want the author who wrote it to receive compensation for the work they put into it. If you don't, then this community isn't the place for you to brazenly discuss that moral failure.
Thank you to those who wish to continue keeping this sub in good standing with Reddit and on the right side of copyright laws and basic human decency. If that's not you, feel free to head on out. Thanks.
This message, however, seems to have grinded some gears as they feel that they are being morally reprimanded unduly! Here are the hotspots of discussion, as picked and annotated by me:
PS: I have edited quotes within comments to be italicised for easier reading. Comments made by the moderator are bolded.
Seems like you might not be aware that moderators are humans. Is this a new idea for you? I can moderate the community and also be a human being with individual thoughts. Pardon me for being a tad bit tired of having to spend 95% of the time moderating this community solely on piracy related posts and comments.
How condescending of you.
For asking people not to blatantly steal? Seems like we found someone who this post was meant for.
No, for this:
Seems like you might not be aware that moderators are humans. Is this a new idea for you?
I can also say to you that I do not pirate my books.
So again, I'm confused - why is it bad to remind someone that being a moderator doesn't mean I'm some mindless emotionless bot with no opinions? If that is what you're expecting from moderators, you're in for a shock. Especially mods who offer up their time for free and are not employees of some large company that are acting in a customer service role. Being a mod isn't glorious, it isn't a feather in my cap that I love telling people about or makes me feel special. I do it in the communities I care about to make sure they don't become chaotic cesspools. My bad for having a response to people ignoring rules, whatever their feelings about them.
I would not describe your comment as reminding at all, but rather as accusatory. You have by all means been very confrontational, and I can only say that I am rather upset and bewildered by your inordinately aggressive responses. It seems that you may not be aware that the users whom you reply to are humans. Is this a new idea to you?
You have now accused both me and the original commenter, ibreti, of breaking the rules of this subreddit^(1,2). I certainly have never done so, and it seems to me, by perusal of his profile, that ibreti has not done so either. After initially making sweeping moral judgements, you have resorted to attacking disparagers ad hominem, even when they have not been in violation of any rules. Frankly, I think that this all is unbecoming for so professional a moderator as you!
As you have pointed out, your moderator labours are onerous and time-taking, so surely your precious time can be spent in a better way than quibbling with the morally failing.
^(1) 'Seems like we found someone who this post was meant for.'
^(2) 'My bad for having a response to people ignoring rules, whatever their feelings about them.'
An edit reveals that the above comment was later removed and the user banned for life.
Continuing onโฆ
I get the point with regards to fiction books, where authors actually get paid royalties for purchases, abd I agree with it.
However, for academic researchers, piracy genuinely is the only way researchers have access to certain books that only a few printed copies were made, and the authors receive no royalties from publishers like Brill and DeGruyter. Oftentimes, these books are only available at a small number of university libraries that academics, especially those in the Global South, simply have no access to. This has resulted in the common thing where academics will often encourage people to pirate their own books or articles they wrote or fully giving them a pdf of it themselves when asked because there simply is no other way for most people to read it. In these cases, the only entity being hurt is large publishers like Brill, especially as the author isn't being paid for any purchases that are made.
I fully get the need to not discuss those things because of legal reasons and being in good standing with reddit, but putting a moral judgement on people in the above case strongly comes off as elitist, especially towards those who work in the academic field or are graduate students in Global South countries.
That's not a bad point, but I'd counter by saying that of the literal thousands of posts I've had to remove from this sub for piracy reasons, not one has been the situation you've described. So while there are almost certainly exceptions to every rule, that doesn't mean the rule is bad when it covers 99.9% of the situations it was designed for.
It's the same as saying that use of racial slurs is vile, which it is, but then trying to twist that and say that it's not because sometimes it's for historical context or in a medium like a book or movie where that was the language used at the time or in that place. Sure, that's accurate, but does that mean using the slurs isn't vile? No. Obviously it doesn't.
I'm not arguing against the rule. It was the moral catch-all that anyone who is involved in piracy is a moral failure, when there are many thousands of researchers who are required to do so. That may not be the common situation on this sub, but it still exists.
Comparing this to racial slurs is also pretty wild. Especially as in the above case, the authors of said books are not being paid by purchases anyway and often encourage alternative distribution themselves. Racial slurs hurt people whether it was historically contingent or not. That comparison is bonkers.
The comparison is entirely apt so perhaps you just don't understand it. It's the exact same principle, just different topics.
That was a horrible comparison.
Maybe you shouldn't be a mod then? It's like if you can't handle the fire get out of the kitchen. Being human and a mod are two completely different things that don't correlate.
hahahaha You're insane. Mods can't be human? You are absolutely out of touch. If moderation didn't benefit from a human touch, a unique personality and perspective between people, then every community on every platform would have a single programmed bot with zero nuance and a flat tone for all interactions - which is what practically none have. Because that's awful.
I'm scrolling through this thread and this is at least the third commenter I've seen you gratuitously insult.
You're insane, he says, as he laughs like a madman.
isn't a good look on you as a moderator either.
I think it's a great look. iF BuYiNg IsN't OwNiNg... yada yada yada bullshit. Just say you are cheap and a parasite. The answer should be to bypass DRM not outright skip the payment step.
About time someone realizes piracy is only possible because other people aren't leeches.
This reminds me of the famous film, Parasite
Are you? A mod asked people to follow sub rules - why is that a problem for you?
Where did I say that it was a problem? Subreddits have rules, not surprising. But you seem very heated and are arguing with random commenters. So i am asking if you are okay
Reddit cares.
Nee-naw, wee-woo ๐จ๐จ
I'm not asking for your help and won't later either. No need to grandstand about why you disagree with the rule, all that's needed is to either follow it or post in a community that doesn't have it. Easy, everyone wins.
Ah yes, abstinence only education. Amazing coming from a resource managing something who's SOLE purpose in its creation was about spreading information and knowledge. The irony here is Pulitzer prize incredible. If you're looking for someone doing some grandstanding, maybe start with your own moral superiority regarding piracy in paragraph 2.
Maybe, instead of banning something outright, make a post about it an ask for input from the community, try to understand the problem instead of burying it
The vast majority of the community is fine with the rule, as evidenced by the fact that every time someone broke it I had multiple reports to flag it so it could be removed. This post is just surfacing all the people who want to whine about it.
Maybe the vast majority does agree, but the argument is so empirical lol.
Ehhhhhh....... looser argument. But I see where you're going with this.
I had to include that because I found it funny.
Good thing I saw this post and can now preemptively filter another usless sub out of my feed.
If the only thing you did here was pirate, your presence won't be missed. Nice attempt to grandstand with your flounce though.
scoffs nice flounce.
This entire thread is just reaffirming the stereotype about Reddit mods. Not a good look, man.
Yup, asking people to follow clearly defined rules is bad, and then responding when I'm berated by people who don't like the rule makes me a bad person. Sorry I didn't grovel at the feet of screaming redditors and backtrack the rule to make them happy.
Fricking redditors, am I right.
Insert eye roll here. Using a library or borrowing from a friend isn't piracy, just like a friend loaning you their car doesn't mean you stole it. But going out and just taking a car off the street that isn't yours and wasn't loaned to you by whoever does own it is stealing. It's not a tricky concept, but those who want to pirate are going to jump through hoops to make those who don't look stupid. The mental gymnastics are wild.
It isn't piracy, you're correct! But by your own standards, you should also consider those moral failings, as you said "if you want a book bad enough to read it, you should want the author who wrote it to receive compensation for the work they put into it. If you don't, then this community isn't the place for you to brazenly discuss that moral failure" and borrowing a book from a friend means you don't want the author to receive compensation for their hard work, or else you would have bought it instead of borrowing it. There is no mental gymnastics, I'm just going off of what you said.
lol That's not even remotely the same thing, but nice try.
What isn't the same thing lmao, I'm following what YOU established in your own post, you're disagreeing with yourself
If you think it's the same, you're an idiot. If I like chocolate bars and a friend shares theirs with me, that's fine. If I go into a store and steal one, that's not fine. Did the manufacturer make money off me getting a portion of my friend's? No. Do I have the same equal amount as my friend originally bought, doubling up without extra compensation? No. What was paid for is what was consumed. The same way if a friend loans you their book, you have the only copy and then you return it - that's fine. If they make 100 copies and pass them out to everyone to keep - that's not fine.
Deep down I hope you know this and you're just being a jerk of a troll because you think it's funny, but at the moment I just don't care anymore. Enough other people just like you have blown up a post that simply asked people to abide by the community rules with all the reasons you don't think you should have to or why the rule isn't right or fair or whatever else. Such a waste of time.
I lost IQ points and brain cells from following that argument.
People are having a lot of knee-jerk reactions to the moral part of this post.
Agreed. If I can't afford a Mercedes, I don't go out and steal one. If I can't afford to buy 100 books that I want to read, I don't just go steal them. It's simple. Everyone else can do what they're gonna do, but it shouldn't be a big deal for a community to say that discussing outright theft isn't allowed.
Discussions of theft aren't allowed? How oddly restrictive!
Once the dust settles, I'd love to. But I've been doing this for years and not once has anyone volunteered, and I've had to spend so much time moderating posts that violate rules that I don't get to truly enjoy participating in the community anymore, so I don't see the active users who are helpful and would be worth inviting.
Woe is moderator.
They seem to be spending most of their time here getting into ad hominem-flecked arguments against random commenters, so I'm not sure the quantity of moderators is the limiting factor here.
Again, everyone is ignoring the point of the post and focusing on mod's exasperation.
I'd say mod would be way more chill about this if they had someone helping, as they have very clearly stated in multiple comments that being the only one enforcing the rule and moderating has taken a toll on them.
Edit: or if fewer people broke the (simple) rule.
Additional context for these next comments:
Some plugins for Calibre can strip purchased ebooks of their DRM (Digital Rights Management). If you are a g*mer, you are probably familiar with this term; essentially, it's copyright protection. For example, an ebook purchased on Amazon can only be read on Amazon devices or applications, and so on for other ebook vendors, owing to DRM. Obviously this is an issue for most Calibre enthusiasts who want to consolidate their ebook library on Calibre, which is why so-called "de-DRMing" is widespread. But is it piracy? /r/Calibre discusses
I didn't say it wasn't and the rule doesn't either.
Yup,
But but you didn't said it was either.
Why would I? I also didn't post in here that the earth is round - that doesn't mean I'm saying it's not. This might be the most useless comment on here so far today.
Our mod has clearly had enough.
The point of Calibre is to allow you to neatly organise all the e-books you have and to export them safely on your device. Of course only if you paid for them, otherwise you're a criminal.
In the eyes of the law you are also a criminal if you remove DRM.
Yes! That is very true. I would never dare do such a thing.
He could go to prison!
You do realize removing drm is essentially the same thing, yeah? Skewed but whatever.
Removing DRM from a book you purchased is different than piracy.
It really isn't because those are the books on all these sites no ones allowed to post but okay lmao.
Seriously. There are subs for piracy and I'm ok with the no piracy rule here, I know my ways. But this is kind of funny, to pretend that deDRM isn't the same thing as piracy. If people don't understand by know that they are buying a license, not a book, I don't know what to say.
No those are people redistributing books. They aren't people's personal library that no one else gets. Big difference
While removing the DRM from novels is socially accepted (and to be clear, I remove DRM from all of my own purchased novels) doing so is illegal and an act of piracy. The DMCA expressly forbids circumvention of DRMs applied by copyright holders. When you remove a DRM, even if it's just for personal use, you are a pirate just the same as people who download books.
I understand what you're getting at but a pirate is stealing something that isn't yours and that you didn't pay for. When you pay and remove DRM as a backup I don't think that's really piracy. It may make you a lawbreaker in some countries but you're not stealing anything.
Also, DMCA is only applicable in the US.
I've heard that you'll be tariffed if you violate the DMCA outside of America.
That's why the rule is very specific about what is and isn't allowed. It shouldn't be a surprise. Removing DRM from owned content is one thing and outright stealing it is another.
Not to be pedantic, but you don't own any content that you can remove a DRM from. You purchase a license to view that content as long as the license holder allows you to. Removing DRM from that content to circumvent the agreement you made when you purchased the license is just as illegal as outright stealing. This is why moral grandstanding is pointless. If you're violating the agreement you made with your "purchase," you're doing something wrong. Just because one person's moral compass allows something yours won't allow doesn't mean you're morally superior.
That's why you should have just stuck to reiterating the rules and not pontificated on moral authority.
Not to argue but in the Kindle Store Terms of Use, it explcitly says:
Limitations. Unless specifically indicated otherwise, you may not sell, rent, lease, distribute, broadcast, sublicense, or otherwise assign any rights to the Kindle Content or any portion of it to any third party, and you may not remove or modify any proprietary notices or labels on the Kindle Content. In addition, you may not attempt to bypass, modify, defeat, or otherwise circumvent any digital rights management system or other content protection or features used as part of the Service.
So how is encouraging piracy bad but encouraging people to break terms of use permitted? It's two sides of the same coin.
When you purchase a book, the author gets paid. When you pirate a book, you're stealing content and the author doesn't get paid. Piracy is against the law, removing DRM is not.
So what if, theoretically, someone pirated a book but then paid the author directly through Patreon or other means. In that case, that person is even more morally superior than someone who just pays for it through Amazon. Which, obviously, is ridiculous.
You're still violating the terms of the agreement. You committed to this every time you purchase your books.
I love how morality is only measured in $ here. Morally, you shouldn't deny the author their due $, but morally, it's ok to break agreements as you see fit. I find it amusing how people justify this stuff.
You're welcome to that interpretation. It doesn't impact the community rules as they have existed or this post's reminder of them. Have a nice day.
Perhaps I was wrong about you, Sir Moderator, so courteous.
You do realize removing drm is essentially the same thing, yeah?
What an extremely bad take. One option supports the author and the other doesn't. If you think they are both equally bad you seriously lack critical thinking skills.
Morals dont just get rid of legality. And that right there is the skewed thinking you guys have.
And that's pretty much it. The post was locked at some point, which this postscript being added to the post body:
Well it's been a lovely day of people trying to argue that piracy is fine, or that removing DRM of books you own is just as much pirating as outright stealing a book you haven't paid for, but I've wasted more time than was worthwhile trying to reply to people. At the end of it all, rule 4 stands and this post was made to serve as a reminder of it and a warning of repercussions for ignoring it. That's it. To those who had civil discourse or expressed understanding of this, thank you.
Have a nice day and happy drama-diving
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Main Thread
Nintendo Switch 2 preorders will not start on April 15th, according to Nintendo
Comment Thread 1
"If you voted for him, this is your fault."
(Main OP)
"The impact of tariffs on the Switch 2 launch/price are the least of your worries.
The guy is a literal maniac."
(Comment)
Comment Thread 2
"Tariffs are good. Stop making it sound like they aren't. America deserves to get our jobs back."
(Main OP)
Comment Thread 3
"This is a political post. Surely that's not allowed here right?"
(Main OP)
"everything is politics you b-word"
(Comment)
Comment Thread 4
"Voted for Trump, I'll gladly pay the tariff increase. My job in manufacturing is already seeing MASSIVE booms in business as everyone is desperately trying to find domestic products opposed to foreign. There will be growing pains but overall it will help many Americans. I also work for a great company who has nearly doubled my starting income in roughly 6 years, and continue to give us cost of living raises every 3-6 months."
(Main OP)
Comment Thread 5
"Oh no we can't buy our video games made by child wage slaves in poor working conditions as soon as we thought ๐"
(Main OP)
Comment Thread 6
"You know what? Good. Everybody else has been taking advantage of us by tariffing American products. If they don't like that we tariffed them just the same they can stick it."
(Main OP)
Comment Thread 7
"Nintendo is not happy with the #droptheprice movement and wants to do damage control by putting out this statement in order to control what the media is writing about in order to drown out the annoyed consumers."
(Main OP)
Comment Thread 8
"FAFO moment for all Trump voting Nintendo fans."
(Main OP)
Hypermuscular Hindu Hridaysamrat 
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Remember these hoes. When Islam returns to Tajikistan they will receive their due public flogging.
โ Monzurul Alam (@BijoyMonzurul1) April 4, 2025
๐ฅฐ pic.twitter.com/nwRpIALFB2
โ Anahita SD (@Anahita_SD) April 2, 2025
Britain or Bangladesh
- plumpy : finger guns? curry took a shit on the cavs court in like 2015 iirc
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Source: https://old.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/1jrf8re/charania_the_nba_has_fined_memphis_ja_morant/
Context: Temetrious "Ja" Morant is the star player on the Memphis Grizzlies. In spite of his stable middle class upbringing, Ja enjoys cosplaying as a gangster, and after several incidents of him brandishing firearms in public (the most serious involving Ja and his entourage supposedly pointing firearms at the staff of another stadium), the NBA suspended him for 25 games. Two games ago, Ja mimed firing an assault rifle at the Warriors bench after the Grizzlies lost to the Warriors, and last game he mimed firing a gun, again.
HIGHLIGHTS
Because he has character issues that makes him unreliable. He's been suspended on more than one occasions for gun related incidents and henstill can't help himself.
His character issues don't make him unreliable. His body does.
His character issues absolutely make him unreliable. He had to miss 25 games last year for this stuff, that's a lot.
He missed 25 games for finger guns?
I think he's dumb for continuing to do the finger guns, and if it were someone close to me I'd tell them that it's not a good look given your history and it's doing you no favors with public perception.
However, I think that's very different than the NBA selectively punishing you based on something you've already served your punishment for. That is where I think this is ridiculo
Bullshit. He literally was told not to do it bc he decided to be an immature idiot and post stuff online. Now he just said "frick you" to the league. It's just not a good look for a supposed adult. He's a loser human being
Think whatever you want about him and I agree he's clearly an immature guy. Public perception is what it is and thats one thing. That's very different than enacting selective punishments for a rule that doesn't even exist based on vibes. Either the gesture is acceptable for everyone or it's acceptable for no one, the NBA needs to choose.
Not how it works in the real world when you've done what he has done. The NBA has chosen. He can't do it.
The actual guns on IG live was one thing but this is complete bullshit. Such a non story.
The warning was fricking stupid too.
Nah. You get flagged for that in the NFL and a fat fine the week after. Doing little pew pew guns is one thing but acting like you're aiming a whole butt machine gun or something is dumb. Just do a normal celebration.
WE'VE GOT THE FINGER GUN POLICE IN HERE HAHAHAHA
This is the problem. Memphis needs to get real. Ja barely plays basketball, then when he does, he's doing this. Yall gotta decide for yourselves what's important.
He literally got a warning before the game, he's lucky it isn't more.
So if someone gets fined for it, I guess that means no one can do them now And the fact that Ja was stupid enough to be on camera waving around a gun doesn't mean that the entire nba should be banned from finger guns, that's nonsense logic. But it's going to have to be that way
have any of those players had a history of brandishing guns in public?
My point is literally that its either an illegal gesture or it's not. You can't have a rule that a gesture is only illegal if you've done x in the past that would be nonsense.
nope. incorrect. context is everything.
There's no way they're going to be able to do selective enforcement of gestures, period. Thats why there are things like the players association. You're just plain wrong.
"He did something. The league told him not to." My point is that it only makes sense to tell him not to if they're making it a league-wide rule.?
do any of those players have a history of brandishing guns in public
The NBA issued a warning yesterday to both Hield and Morant. It said nothing about Morant having brandished guns, which makes sense because Hield hasn't brandished guns. Today's announcement of the fine also doesn't mention Morant's past gun suspension.
nope. incorrect. context is everything.
Habitual line stepper. I like it
You mean middle schoolers?
Lol what middle schoolers are you hanging out with and why? Edit: and what are they doing to you/are you safe?
This is why people hate redditors lmao
Green actually got suspended, though
shoulda been banned from playing ever again, assaulting someone isnt even in the same field as finger guns lmao. idgaf who ja is off the court cause if that shit mattered half the pro athletes would be in jail.
You sound stupid af
I bet you feel the exact same way about ads for violent video games, nerf guns, and every action movie ever. Get a fricking grip.
How ignorant are you lol
I'll take a little ignorance over the sanctimoneous horseshit people spew about Ja and guns. Not one person in these comments gives a dusty frick one way or the other about a finger gun celebration outside of Reddit.
It aint that deep lol Yall acting like this is some 1st amendment freedom fighter bs lol
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Most Based Comments
Basedness: ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐
You're the biker, aren't you, OP? (8142)
Basedness: ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐
tbh the biker, Billy Bob was justified, someone comes at you with their wheel in your face they deserve some grief. (706)
Basedness: ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐
that wasnt the right answer it seems (200)
Angriest Comments
Angriness: ๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก
deliberately riding dangerous while touching or hitting no one but an adult who assaulted a literal child is somehow not dangerous or breaking the law? you can't be serious lmao. so according to your lead poisoned brain dead take, riding a bike on a sidewalk and hitting no one is a worse offense than physically assaulting a minor? stop drinking that dumb frick juice pls, it's working too good (-2)
Angriness: ๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก
You shouldn't be weaving between people on the sidewalk on your bike. You found out it's dangerous. He shouldn't have pushed you over, but you shouldn't have been in a position for him to push you over. (248)
Angriness: ๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก
Biggest Lolcow: /u/DrCares
Score: ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฎ(+3๐ฎ)
Number of comments: 19
Average angriness: ๐๐๐๐๐
Maximum angriness: ๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก
Minimum angriness: ๐๐๐๐๐
NEW: Subscribe to /h/miners to see untapped drama veins, ripe for mining! 
autodrama: automating away the jobs of dramneurodivergents. 
Ping HeyMoon if there are any problems or you have a suggestion 
.webp?h=11)
COMMUNITY NOTED
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Let me explain this image.
Hax$ is a competative smash player who recently died from complications following a suicide attempt involving a train.
he was most known for
2. https://kiwifarms.net/threads/super-smash-bros-community.35026/post-2660859, a large "expose" during a feud with fellow smash guy Leffen in which he compares Leffen to Adolph Hitler multiple times with 0 irony. This is supremely cringe
3. Hax was banned from Melee events for years for being a sped who people didn't like
Only after his death many melee players who shunned him have decided to sing his praises now that they don't have to deal with him.
ZeRo is one a player who also happens to hate Leffen.
So Leffen:
โ ZeRo (@zerowondering) March 29, 2025
-banned in Sweden for awful behavior
-tried to ruin hbox and smear him
-tried to ruin m2k too
-profited off of ruining me publicly to then pretend heโs my friend while Iโm laying in a hospital bed
-the events with hax we all witnessed
When is enough, enough? https://t.co/ZEQSe1T9T8
Of course, being a Melee Brawl/WiiU smash pro player, ZeRo is a libertarian who likes sending peepee pics to 14 year old girls.
https://x.com/zerowondering/status/1905797767567458321/quotes
Most important tweet
feel like these replies are missing a key fact:
โ ShakeyD (@ShakeDrizzle) March 29, 2025
You are a Libertarian. This is often a loaded term on the internet, but you are a self-admitted Libertarian. No amount of steroids or tweeting about Hax will change the fact that you, Gonzalo โZeroโ Barrios, are a Libertarian.
Out of nowhere, Hax's account who is run by his mother now, has jumped in the ring to defend sexting 14 year old girls because it would have been acceptable in the 1960s?
OK we got it guys / contacting a 14 year old girl when youโre 25 or something is vile. Back in the day like in the 60โs this was normal behavior. My, how things have changed since the โ60โs when I grew up. It was a much better time.
โ Hax$ (@ssbmhax) April 4, 2025
You are literally making a big thing out of nothing ๐A libertarian is a person jailed for abusing children which ZeRo never did. You are making false accusations for something that never occurred. Grow up and smell the roses.
โ Hax$ (@ssbmhax) April 4, 2025
I wonder why Melee has a reputation?
Additional Context:
Gonzalo "ZeRo" Barrios is 29 years old. In 2020, when he was 24 years old, he was accused of, and subsequently admitted to, getting into a sexually suggestive conversation via Skype with an alleged 14 year old "Katie" in 2014, when he was 19, in which she alleges that he requested that she masturbate with ice.
https://i.imgur.com/a/screenshots-katies-twitlonger-bHQ6nwr
Helpful [3] Not Helpful [0]
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Some highlights:
You will work in a shoe factory and like it
Entering trade agreements doesn't confer most favored nation status so they import more apparently. Also something something diplomacy 96d chess. Its 2756d chess that he has managed to wipe out 10% of equities value in less than 80 days.
US should use trade treaties to push liberal values. Do chuds have absolutely no understanding of what dear orange leader supports?
Trump is magically going to fix 60 years of Indian politics so they are willing to enter a free trade agreement. TPP was the singular way to force that issue, you supported the wrong person in 2016 for that.
One of the things USIP did, before daddy shut them down, was sponsor trips for US veterans to help a jointly funded (USIP and Vietnamese government) local team discovering, cataloging and maintaining graves.
Edit: Don't want to create a whole other thread for this but https://scored.co/p/19Awy26ohM is also fun. Non-exec federal employees are capped at $195,200, exec at $225,700, with no ability for an agency to override.
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Q_Q
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Exclusive: British police are making more than 30 arrests a day over offensive posts on social media and other platforms
โ Charlie Parker (@charliehparker) April 4, 2025
Thousands of people are being detained and questioned for sending messages that cause โannoyanceโ, โinconvenienceโ or โanxietyโhttps://t.co/fFfBvIlFBX
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FoidBlaster
: It feels good being right over and over again.
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It turns out that Netanyahu's underlings had more motives for supporting Hamas' rise to power in Gaza than just weakening Fatah. Two of his top aides have been arrested for getting bribed by Qatar. This is a bit of a problem as there's an informal but close alliance among various powers related to the Muslim Brotherhood:
the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood itself
Hamas
Qatar
Turkey
the Tripoli-based faction in Libya
At the same time, he's been continuing his efforts to deflect blame for his own responsibility for October 7 onto the glowies. I've covered his attempts to blame Unit 8200 (their version of the NSA) three times:
Of course the glowies can't just come out and defend themselves in public so they're a perfect target, but enough evidence has come out to pretty well confirm my suspicions. The Netanyahu regime had good enough intelligence to have prevented October 7 if they had been cautious, but decided instead to pull their troops away from Gaza and send them into the West Bank to harass Fatah and the local civilian population. Allowing Qatar to bring in suitcases full of cash to Gaza to give to Hamas wasn't such a great idea in retrospect either. As I've been saying all this time, this was not a failure of intelligence. It was a failure of strategy.
Ronen Bar
Now he's blaming Shin Bet, the internal security service responsible for Israel and Palestine. (If you're American, think of the FBI except they don't do ordinary law enforcement.) Lately he's been in a political struggle trying to fire its head (Ronen Bar) and the Attorney General. Bar especially pissed him off by refusing to intervene on his behalf and stop his corruption trials, just like when Nixon asked the CIA to do the same for him in Watergate. Unfortunately for him, in Israel that's much more complicated and drawn out than just having Laura Loomer show up at your door with a list of people she doesn't like. After 3 decades of political maneuvering he seems to finally be cornered. The best excuse he can come up with now is "No, it wasn't my guys who got bribed by Qatar... Uhhh.... It was actually this one guy Ronen Bar who I don't like who got bribed by Qatar. Oh and he's responsible for October 7 too."
Which one do you think is telling the truth? Netanyahu or literally anybody else on Earth?
I wouldn't trust everything that the Jerusalem Post writes about this story tho. Is it because I don't trust Jews? Or I don't trust Zionists? No. It's because (you can't make this shit up 
) its editor-in-chief was bribed by Qatar to write propaganda for them!
One Israeli journ*list questioned in the case is Zvika Klein, the editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post, an English-language daily. According to a report this week in the Post, Klein visited Qatar at the invitation of its government last year and subsequently wrote a series of articles about his impressions, one of which laid out Qatar's case against Israeli claims that it backs the militant group.
Netanyahu's allegations were pretty r-slurred and easily refuted. He said that the Bar had been let into the skybox during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. What he failed to mention is that this wasn't during a game. He was there on official business organizing security for the Israelis attending and needed to meet with Qatari officials who happened to be in the skybox between games. This is such pathetic grasping at straws that I almost feel sorry for the guy.
No Tay Tay! What are you doing up there? Isn't this bribery?
Of course this being Netanyahu there has to be an American angle to it. The money was laundered through organized crime lobbying groups in the USA. One of the secrets to his political survival is that he's very familiar with both countries but doesn't care about either one so he's really good at pitting them against each other. His luck may have run out now though. The courts are cockblocking him from firing Bar. He's been doing job interviews for a replacement anyway, even picking one only to drop him a few hours later because apparently the guy actually prefers to live in a democracy.
Admiral Eli Sharvit - He got cockblocked out of his job before he even got to work. Even the Mooch lasted longer.
In other news, just as these scandals are building up, the IDF suddenly finds it needs to kill a bunch more people in Gaza and Lebanon. Poor guy. Every time he's busy dealing with a domestic corruption scandal those darn Arabs have to distract everyone by getting in the way of his bombs.
They've even got the Maronite Patriarch saying it's not the right time to disarm Hezbollah yet. How do you frick up the peace this bad?
- FreedomforChristmas : Chudmisia
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Good news, everyone, my 18-year-old says the economy is fine. He knows this because he owns some stocks. His mother, who works in finance, is NOT an expert and has no idea what she's talking about (despite talking about it being her job) so please calm down, he says all is well.
โ AlwaysAshley (@AshleyAlready) April 3, 2025
MFW I tell my parents a historical event 20 years before my birth was akshually not how they think it was
Burn it all down pilled
Based
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Bruh, I paid them $1k to have to spend 24/7 calming THIS spazzoid down?! For 14 days?!?! Consider my uppers stash done.... BRUH.
SEND SCANTILY CLOTHED BETA MALE OR OTHERWISE GENDERED PERSONAL ASSISTANTS, PLEASE 
- plumpy : thank you
Diversity Is Our Strength 
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!transphobes !chuds noooooooo you cannot study detransitioners noooo
@DWHITE___________DYNAMITE
look at /r/skeptic
https://old.reddit.com/r/skeptic/comments/1jqxfb0/trump_white_house_directs_nih_to_study_regret/
As the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) continues to defund nearly every research project on transgender health, the White House has directed the agency to focus on studying "regret" after a person transitions to align their body with their gender identity. Several NIH employees, who were granted anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the press, confirmed the directive to Nature.
Two weeks ago, Matthew Memoli, who was acting NIH director at the time, sent an e-mail to the directors of several NIH institutes. It said that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which is the NIH's parent agency, "has been directed to fund research on a few specific areas" related to what it calls "chemical and surgical mutilation" of children and adults --- a reference to gender-affirming care and surgery. "This is very important to the President and the Secretary" of the HHS, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the e-mail added.
Based on its priorities, the White House sometimes directs the NIH --- the world's largest public funder of biomedical science --- to study certain broad topics, such as cancer or women's health, but the latest directive's specificity, inflammatory language and focus on a hyper-polarizing topic are unprecedented, the NIH employees say. Although the White House can sometimes "push us on various different things, we normally get to chart out the approach", a staff member says.
Many scientists, reeling from the abrupt cancellation of more than US$180 million in NIH funding for research on transgender health, slammed the proposed studies as ideologically driven.
"It's really pigeonholing trans people into this medical lens where the only thing important to know about them is that they seek medical transition" and regret it, says Harry Barbee, who studies the health of people from gender and sexual minorities (LGBT+) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland, and identifies as non-binary and queer. "When ideology is prioritized over scientific merit, that threatens the entire scientific enterprise."
The NIH and the White House did not respond to Nature's queries about the new research priorities or scientists' concerns with their apparent ideological bent. The HHS said that the "NIH is prioritizing research that serves the best interests of public health, not ideological agendas, and will continue to support studies that provide clear, objective data --- particularly regarding the long-term effects of gender transitions."
Shifting focus
Estimates suggest that 1.6 million people in the United States identify as transgender, and about one-quarter of them obtain gender-affirming surgeries. Research suggests1 that access to these procedures can reduce anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation in transgender people.
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office on 20 January that directed the US government to stop acknowledging that gender can differ from s*x at birth. The cancellation of many trans-health research grants quickly followed, and now the agency seems to be shifting the type of research it funds. The e-mail from Memoli, obtained by Nature, specifies two areas of research that the Trump administration wishes to fund about "social transition", which is when a person changes how they express their gender to others --- for example, by changing their name or appearance.
These include "regret and detransition following social transition as well as chemical and surgical mutilation of children and adults" and "outcomes from children who have undergone social transition and/or chemical and surgical mutilation", the e-mail says.
More research on the experience of trans people --- including understanding reasons for dissatisfaction after transition --- is direly needed, Barbee says. But they worry that the sole focus on negative consequences is misplaced: fewer than 1% of transgender people who undergo gender-affirming surgery regret it, according to an analysis published by Barbee and their colleagues2. By comparison, 14.4% of the broader population reports regret after any kind of surgery3.
So far, about 187 NIH grants funding trans-health research have been terminated, according to an online effort to track the Trump team's research cuts by Brittany Charlton, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, who studies LGBT+ health, and her colleagues. In 2023, the NIH funded about 180 projects in this field, according to another NIH employee.
If these proposed studies move forwards, it will create a "a distorted research ecosystem where only politically favourable findings are permitted to exist" and an "evidence vacuum for clinicians who are trying to do right by their patients", Barbee says.
Inflammatory language
The e-mail requesting the new research focus mirrors language in another of Trump's executive orders about "protecting children from chemical and surgical mutilation", signed on 28 January. The order alleges that "medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child's s*x through a series of irreversible medical interventions".
The phrase 'chemical and surgical mutilation' is "scientifically unsound" and will "provoke fear and stigma" among the trans community, Barbee says.
If this language is used in such a solicitation, the NIH will probably struggle to find knowledgeable specialists to respond, Charlton says. (Charlton, who has had five grants that make up 95% of her centre's funding cancelled, sued the NIH and the HHS yesterday. The lawsuit alleges that the agencies have engaged in a "reckless and illegal purge to stamp out NIH-funded research that addresses topics and populations that they disfavor".)
NIH officials are still brainstorming how to fund this research, but Memoli made it clear in the e-mail that Trump and Kennedy want action within six months. Proposals range from creating a new funding-opportunity announcement for researchers around the country to developing or modifying existing contracts with research organizations, agency employees tell Nature.
This research focus was foreshadowed by Project 2025, a blueprint for the second Trump presidency, written in 2023 by the right-wing think-tank The Heritage Foundation in Washington DC: the NIH should "fund studies into the short-term and long-term negative effects of cross-s*x interventions", it said. Trump disavowed the initiative during his 2024 presidential campaign, saying that he had no knowledge of it, but his administration has since been implementing many of its policy proposals.
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Literally look at all the countries around them all of them are meme tier except for Netherlands and Belgium which I understand being centerpiece of EU economically. But vietnams a country of 105 million, a real country.
The tariffs are going to brutally grape them 
.webp?h=11)
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I have to go into an M&M board meeting Monday because patient expired 7 years after I treated them. I have to review years of pre and post treatment. I threw venetoclax at them from what I reviewed but now have dozens of doctors going in thinking I fricked up and could have done better. They died with CLL and now I have to defend the most basic treatment option given.
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https://t.co/mpm5mJlK6R pic.twitter.com/WoPSa9vrnK
โ skooks (@skooookum) April 4, 2025
for zoomcels and alphacels it never even began so they can't be let down
The charts for everything after millennials is just a flat zero or even sub-zero
It's over. Pizza is unfortunately right and the best way to live life is to eat frozen meat and nolife WoW.
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In half an hour I'll have woken up around 24 hours ago, what fun! 
Keep yourselves warm and fuggin comfy 
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yesterday soyjak.party admin froot decided to sell the schlog (blog.soyjak.st) because two r-slurs decided to date each other there (soyteen liker/kuzburger on kiwifarms and meursault/creasman on kiwifarms)
https://kiwifarms.st/threads/soyjak-party-the-sharty.145349/post-21006182
What do you mean by post proof? We haven't met irl yet but we're planning to over the Summer. We have 59 mentions of "i love you" in our dms so far but we'd have to censor our names and certain words ofc. @Creasman already confirmed we're dating.
"59 mentions of "I love you" in our dms"
OHNONONONONONOO
the schlog is so cancer i wanna delete it so bad, it doesnt even make any money either, its literally just the cancer tumor of the soysphere
The shlog is basically a daycare for neurodivergent teenagers, most of us will just go on groomercord or 4chan if you shut it down. And that would be sad.
now i want to delete it even more
This resulted in froot banning them then leaking both of their ips and putting the site for auction, which brings us back to @BooMetropolis who now wants to buy the schlog and made a gofundme
https://blog.soyjak.st/threads/help-moonmetropolis-save-soyjak-blog.20410/
I think @Aevann should buy it tbh
Darn it feels good to be a burger
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