Bard spotting thread 03 July 2024

e.w. niedermeyer (@niedermeyer.io):

FYI: Ari Emanuel is also best pals with Elon Musk. He's the guy hosing down a pasty, bloated Elon on his yacht in those horrifying pictures from two summers ago. Maybe that context matters to you, maybe it doesn't, just putting it out there.

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

"The lifeblood of a campaign is money"

For local offices, sure. Congress, sure. POTUS in 2020 going forward, so long as the GOP exists — the lifeblood of the Democratic campaign is a razorkeen awareness that the Republicans are violent terrorists. Biden doesn't need cash.

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

Despite media and the polls saying Trump is a contender — he isn't. Trump is an albatross around the neck of the GOP. His ego and treason and crimes and the craven bigotry of his cadre have already decided the 2024 election.

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

Biden could spend $0.00 on a campaign going forward and still he would win.

Because the alternative is unacceptable.

Kiraculous Once and Future Cyborg🏳️⚧️ (@kiraculous.net):

a fart so good you c*m

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

World Peace

Erin Fogg (@criminalerin.bsky.social):

I feel like a fool, a real rube, for having not previously predicted cops demanding free OnlyFans access

arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...

Jonathan (@jginsburg.bsky.social):

Well, today I learned onlyfans isn't immediately giving into cop demands, kind of pleasant surprise

atreides nuts (@afivegantenna.bsky.social):

normal companies that arent amazon require a subpoena for customer data!!

Jonathan (@jginsburg.bsky.social):

Google and cell carriers will give it up without a proper warrant

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

At the turn of the millennium I worked for a telecomms equipment corp that found it easier to get their network intrusion incidents taken seriously by the FBI, if the FBI didn't always need warrants. There was an understanding.

Adrian Chadd (@erikarn.bsky.social):

Everyone else: "FBI needs warrants for carriers"

NSA: "All fibre interconnects via this room please tyvm"

FBI: "backdoor for taps are now in all cisco HW, you must deploy it, tyvm"

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

Back when the Snowden papers dropped, I remember someone posting a redacted parts manifest that showed that a major semiconductor manufacturer's SSL accelerator silicon had a hardcoded backdoor for US LEO intercept.

The content is undoubtedly in a Utah warehouse - they only want probable cause

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

Perspective:

Reddit, Inc. used to have the position that "Hate is hard", that bouncing hatred out of subreddits was best handled at the subreddit, volunteer mod level.

That changed the summer of 2020.

It might happen here.

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

Reddit's situation was compounded by five+ years of accomodating violent extremists and hosting the largest extremist groups on the Internet, as well as unlimited sockpuppet accounts.

Bluesky isn't hosting the likes of G*merGaters or The_Donald, but that could easily change.

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

One reason Reddit Inc didn't tackle the problem centrally at the time was because, honestly, decoding whether a speech act is hate requires expertise - the Perspective expert system filled that need. It doesn't make the decisions but it validates and triages.

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

Tackling hate at the system level here will require a revenue stream to support it.

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

Not just one newspaper, either.

Fox News posted 40 articles about it over three days, and I'm not going to mention how many on-air segments they ran — almost every time the channel gets flipped past Fox News, the chyron has been "BIDEN DROP…"

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

I want a world where Fox News and XChan and everyone else trying to empower the party of ending America, collapse into the pit they dug, and no one has to hear from them ever again

QT 🔞 (@forbiddenqt.bsky.social):

On reflection it might have been better to stay and kill the dragon on this one

QT 🔞 (@forbiddenqt.bsky.social):

This trick told me he's always wished he could be a girl, been married twice, owned multiple businesses, hated his second wife, had had sexual fantasies about his own fricking kids, hated his body, almost started crying twice, and then ended the session by telling me he loved me. WHAT THE FRICK.

QT 🔞 (@forbiddenqt.bsky.social):

I was holding his hand in mine when he said he'd tried to initiate s*x with his own daughters and son before, and my reflexive, instant impulse was to snap his thumb my shoving it back until it was flush with his wrist. Like, I don't wanna know that!!! Jesus Christ!!! Frick!!!!!

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

Time to shred that messaging account, phone number, and anything else he knows about jfc

C." Support Our Poops" Andrysiak (@cadencecivet.bsky.social):

Okay I'm watching groupchats try to take 'news' from Ian Miles Cheong seriously and I think the plot is so fricking lost not even GPS can save it

olive consumer (@machete.gay):

If Hitler said the sky is blue, he could be right, but that is not equivalent to agreeing with him.

A test a lot of people consistently fail.

C." Support Our Poops" Andrysiak (@cadencecivet.bsky.social):

"Michelle Obama is going to run!!!" Says avowed Malaysian political analyst and basement dweller IMC

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

The only appropriate response to "Hey didja hear what IMC said …" is "… what the everliving frick is wrong with you, that you spend time carrying stillgray's water. Don't bring me that shit."

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

<vine girl="" voice=""> walk a way-huh-ha-way-huh-ha-waaaay</vine>

robywar in r/modnews:

And if the banned person, in fact, broke no written rules?

Reply by Bardfinn in r/modnews:

The hypothesis that "Mods of large, high volume subreddits spend their (precious) time maliciously banning users that never broke a subreddit rule or sitewide rule" is far outweighed, in both reason and in historic evidence, by the alternative hypothesis that "Banned user doesn't understand the rules, or does, and won't admit fault".

I did a study on subreddit bans to find out the truth, and mods do make mistakes and accidentally ban people, but almost always reverse it when they see it. And almost all mods (save mods without modmail privileges) see ban appeals.

glitter_splat in r/ContraPoints:

Agreed, and I have a feeling that some of the anti-electoral echo chamber are AI bots. Just putting that out there.

Reply by Bardfinn in r/ContraPoints:

Some, yes. Many, no.

There's a significant amount of very real human beings who believe that rehabilitation of Kim Jong Un / North Korea is worthwhile political thought and action, who read Marx and thought "If only … but wait, we can still accomplish this", never thinking through that the world and where the levers of power are, are very different today. It doesn't matter if 50%+ of Americans under 30 decide that both Democratic and Republican policies are untenable, they're still not going to adopt Communism - because the failures and crimes of Lenin, Mao, and many other Communist states are historical facts & stand as warnings, and because a mass prole revolt then would and did work, but today would be met with cell towers & lastmile isp cable being switched off & the revolutionary mob being dronestriked. And would then be used by the GOP to class "antifa" legally as terrorists. And they'd get away with it this time, too.

vortex egg, MLIS (@vortexegg.regretfully.online):

The post-debate "Biden replacement theory" has all the vibes of a top-down bottom-up participatory disinformation campaign/conspiracism bubble reality

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

something something the emotional contagion nexus

Seth Cotlar (@sethcotlar.bsky.social):

Seeking recommendations for an essay (appropriate for undergrads) that makes the case that it's inappropriate to use the word "fascism" to describe Trumpism. I don't agree with that position, but I want to give students an argument to engage with from that perspective that's as strong as possible.

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

Best I have is Robert Paxton circa Jan 6 2021 acceding that Trumpism is fascism & that the coup attempt is what put the movement over the line, & that prior to, he had resisted to apply the label. www.newsweek.com/robert-paxto... (He links in his prior writing)

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

Everyone who owes Trump a favour or whom Trump knows where their skeletons are buried are pulling out all the stops.

Beyond just "Trump should step down from his campaign", all the elites running interference for him should resign. Media, institutional, corporate.

I hope he loses and sings forever

Faine Greenwood (@faineg.bsky.social):

Notice how everyone is somehow talking about Biden Too Old right now, and NOT about how the Supreme Court just legalized Trump being a dictator for life and gutted the administrative state, and how the Heritage Foundation is now issuing terrorist threats?

Think that might not be an accident?

[deleted] in r/conservativeterrorism:

[removed]

Reply by Bardfinn (moderator) in r/conservativeterrorism:

Use the Report button, please.

[deleted] in r/modnews:

[removed]

Reply by Bardfinn in r/modnews:

I try to avoid anything with current Twitter screenshots. My position is that Twitter is now a Chan board & was made that way on purpose to manipulate 2024 elections.

robywar in r/modnews:

What should happen when a mod bans you from a popular sub, but refuses to tell you which, if any, rule you broke and mutes you when you ask for an appeal or explanation? Like the mods of /r/worldnews, for example?

Reply by Bardfinn in r/modnews:

In this hypothetical, the banned person _should_ take the time during the mute to read and understand the rules of the subreddit, and the sitewide rules, and apply those themselves to the content they submitted to the subreddit (and to their behaviour outside of that subreddit), and honestly evaluate where and how they violated those rules.

If they believe that they can amend their ways and still want to participate in the subreddit, when the mute has expired, they _should_ write a modmail that clearly states that they're appealing the ban, that they read and applied the subreddit and sitewide rules to their conduct in (and if applicable, outside of) the subreddit, and that they are sorry for having violated those rules, and will not break them again, and want to rejoin the community.

In the potential case of having been banned for participating in a subreddit that has a legacy of community interference with the operations of the subreddit from which they were banned, they _should_ cease participating in the interfering subreddit.

This ban appeal's apology _should_ be sincere.

And throughout, the banned person _should_ set their expectation that the moderators have no obligation to lift the ban — absolutely none.

Sarah ⚧ ✡︎ (@sarahkorse.bsky.social):

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:kfdpph6ygisslpmiyh5dsm7m/bafkreiee2zpd7m72jcghnhzqu2wuqpythubjagu5wshz5kssftq5modcpa@jpeg

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

morally ambiguous gay space lizard is later revealed to have gruesomely murdered 27 of his former colleagues to get the bomb planted, but they had all been responsible for him being waterboarded for weeks before he escaped that prison, & besides, they would all likely have perished in the uprising

fighterace00 in r/modnews:

That's blatantly false. The user agreement stated mods were expected to follow the modguide. It was an unfortunate name for the document and reason they had to revamp the whole thing. Lack of admin enforcement is a separate and ongoing issue.

Reply by Bardfinn in r/modnews:

The User Agreement did, in fact, state that the administration had an _expectation_ that moderators were to follow the Moderator Guidelines.

The language of "expectation" and calling them Moderator Guidelines instead of making them a set of MUST conditions is because of the implications of the AOL Community Leaders program, _Mavrix Photography LLC v LiveJournal Inc._, and other applicable case law which make clear and necessary that volunteer moderators are third parties, at arm's length, and not employed by Reddit.

Reddit can't issue specific written instructions to volunteer moderators, collectively or severally, as to how they must carry out moderation in their communities. If they did, those volunteer moderators would be converted to employees, and Reddit could be sued.

Reddit can have a content policy / acceptable use policy that covers all user content and platform behaviour, however — and formulate a moderator code of conduct that elucidates historical examples of how people have abused moderator privileges to violate the AUP, the User Agreement, applicable law, and the rights of other people to use the platform / have a business relationship with Reddit.

Everything the moderator code of conduct covers is a simplification and distillation of violative behaviours that moderator-privileged bad actors have previously carried out, and for which have had their mod privileges revoked, their user accounts suspended, their communities closed.

The moderator code of conduct isn't a "new" thing. It doesn't introduce any new principles or policies. It's a collection of accessible language that warns people off of doing things that have always* been disallowed.

* since about 2015 when the current boilerplate format of User Agreement was adopted

potz(er)🏳️⚧️🐉🦝 (@feral-bear.bsky.social):

extremely blink 182 voice

WORK SUCKS!

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

leaves u 🌹🌹🥀

Kiraculous Once and Future Cyborg🏳️⚧️ (@kiraculous.net):

you forgot the "by the stairs" part and that took me a long time to get that you were leaving roses

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

Oh wow you are so sweet because I totally missed that I had effectively written

leaves u

Phwoar, yes,

BY THE STAIRS

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

For the past 24 hours, Carly Simon's 1988 smash hit "Let the River Run" (written for the NYC-set "Working Girl") has been stuck in my head, whilst the exvangelical part of my brain rehearses the segments of the books of Isaiah and Revelation its lyrical figures are taken from

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

Super catchy pop hit '80's song for a movie about Manhattan yuppies also not-so-secretly a song about a 2-million-square-mile cubic UFO descending on the Middle East

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

Extremely esoteric "Giant Meteor 2024"

On Bluesky

Kiraculous Once and Future Cyborg🏳️⚧️ (@kiraculous.net):

wagon wednesday

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

😛 gosh your tush is whoo

On Bluesky

potz(er)🏳️⚧️🐉🦝 (@feral-bear.bsky.social):

extremely blink 182 voice

WORK SUCKS!

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

leaves u 🌹🌹🥀

Kiraculous Once and Future Cyborg🏳️⚧️ (@kiraculous.net):

you forgot the "by the stairs" part and that took me a long time to get that you were leaving roses

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

🥰

On Bluesky

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

Synthesised voices are not exiting the uncanny valley.

On Reddit in r/AntiTrumpAlliance

Limping_Pirate:

Until the Supreme Court decides that it is.

Reply by Bardfinn:

The Supreme Court decision on Trump v US specified that SCOTUS wasn't deciding that, it was up to lower courts (and by extension, Congress) to decide that.

On Reddit in r/modnews

Ghigs:

I disagree with you but thank you for finding that post you linked.

Reply by Bardfinn:

Thank you for respectfully disagreeing.

On Reddit in r/modnews

VexingRaven:

Great, now will you actually enforce these consistently? I have reported several times a subreddit whose mods are actively approving spam and silencing all discussion of subreddit moderation despite no rule saying so, and there's never been any action taken.

Reply by Bardfinn:

Are they "silencing all diacussion" or are they keeping the subreddit on-tooic instead of devolving into a spiral of metadiscussion?

Concerns about moderation are best done by modmail, not by middle-of-the-night "the mods here suck" gripe posts, no matter how sophisticated and genteely they're worded.

On Bluesky

https://bsky.app/profile/skywitches.net:

@bskyttrpg.bsky.social stats

On Reddit in r/reddit

zenethics:

I just want people on the left who feel like they're winning to consider a world where Elon Musk directs Twitter to consider misgendering (in his worldview, calling someone by a gender that you know mismatches their biological s*x) as hate speech and forbidden or where Vivek Ramaswamy starts a conglomerate to buy shares in Reddit similar to how he has done with Buzzfeed and starts demoting socialist content (or something).

That is, you have to understand that there is a whole world of people who disagree on every topic and that this only works if there are actual choices people can make to use other platforms.

Politics swings back and forth over the decades and if you don't think we're about a decade away from cultural consensus being firmly in the other camp... well, pay attention to this upcoming election I guess, I don't know what to tell you.

We are now in a world where the very rich get to decide what we can say and it's not clear that this is better. Suppression: coming soon to an opinion near you.

Reply by Bardfinn:

Misgendering is hate speech. Transphobia is fascism.

On Bluesky

@skywitches.net:

I segued from tracking down climate change denialism on Reddit to tracking down extremist hate groups on Reddit, organically;

Like advance-fee / 419 scam frontmen, AGW deniers scout out vulnerable marks & groom them into an alternative narrative, then introduce them to "friends".

@skywitches.net:

People with worthwhile things to do don't stick around, and people who are aimless and unguarded linger. And get radicalised.

Same recruitment techniques for confidence scammers, AGW deniers, and hate groups.

On Bluesky

@starshine.bsky.social:

Sorry wouldn't normally put her on the timeline but this might be the most insane thing j k rowlings ever written

@skywitches.net:

in the literature since Freud

Dear J. - we are in the 21st century, and Freud is considered a fossil even by erstwhile Freudian psychoanalysts. Please join us in this century instead of pounding desks in Victorian times.

On Bluesky

@machete.gay:

I don't know how you all are doing, and I don't really care, but for my part I am sating my dark passenger (Texas style) with a Dr Pepper and barbecue chips.

@skywitches.net:

It's so easy to tell I wasn't born in Texas, I can't stand Dr Pepper. I have an unshakeable faith that being born south of the Mason Dixon is a requirement for enjoying that … /warrior's drink/

On Bluesky

@chymerajade.bsky.social:

Has the discourse about fireworks started already?

@skywitches.net:

Last night, as "ugh" and "oh no" from my sweeties who don't need to be fireworked

On Bluesky

skywitches.net:

Trump wanted to shoot peaceful protestors. Not with rubber bullets - with live rounds.

He was only deflected from this by a short attention span and someone waving a shiny in front of him.

If he's re-elected, America is over.

On Bluesky

skywitches.net:

The anticipation is killing meeeee

On Bluesky

nora.zone:

i honestly feel like shit about this but it's been a huge fricking waste of mental energy keeping myself going while simultaneously having to pretend to be okay because if i point out the simultaneous fascism crisis/genocide/climate change y'all treat me like i'm fricking nuts

skywitches.net:

Right there with ya. It's tiring

On Bluesky

rincewind.run:

when we say a second Trump term will be the end of meaningful elections in America, we mean it

On Bluesky

hypercubexl.bsky.social:

worth a rewatch anytime, pure entertainment

skywitches.net:

The look on his face as he moves the probe off the trace and then twigs onto what just happened, then probes back on it and the coherent pattern is reflected in his glasses

Just perfect

On Bluesky

faineg.bsky.social:

Sadly, RFK being a male feminist is something that you need to spend 0 seconds convincing me he did - look at him! - but the actually eating a dog with photographic evidence thing was at least surprising

skywitches.net:

I need 0 seconds after "testified to diminished capacity due to brain worm"

He could Charleston in blackface and a Nazi uniform and he's still equally unfit for office. The border's miles behind him.

On Bluesky

alexbnewhouse.bsky.social:

cringe is good

skywitches.net:

Glurge, even.

Don't discount the Facebook Chain Letter Meme Power of glurge.

On Bluesky

joshuafoust.com:

The mainstream's collective refusal to respond to Heritage inciting anti-queer violence last summer showed them that they have free rein to threaten and commit violence.

We've had so many chances to stop this but so many people didn't bother to notice because the first victims were queer.

skywitches.net:

Social media that did nothing about inciting anti-queer violence through 2015-2020, the hesitancy to address the "groomer" libel, etc.

On Bluesky

livfreeorcry.gay:

yeah i think buddy's just never seen silence of the lambs and has no idea what happens in it.

skywitches.net:

It's M Night "What a twist!" Shyamalan

No bets

livfreeorcry.gay:

ah so you're suggesting that the twist is that the daughter is the killer and also trans?

skywitches.net:

WHAT A TWEEST

On Bluesky

kiraculous.net:

frick that was a weird dream. i had a bunch of rocks and gravel inside me that i had to squeeze out and everytime i coeared one pocket of rocks i'd fibd anouther one

skywitches.net:

Happy Halloween! Hehehe

kiraculous.net:

the weirdest part is i'd rip them put of me and no one else could see them

skywitches.net:

Cis molecules