Biden’s DHS Is Accused Of Being Weaponized Against Online Speech

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

I guess I am missing your point.

There is no true anonymity on the internet.

No worries. I'll try again. I actually think we probably agree 99%.

The thread is about the Biden administration targeting conservatives by paying private organizations to go after them. You later seemed to say (and I'll admit upon a re-read it doesn't quite say what I interpreted it as saying earlier) that anonymity is bad for the internet because it enables people to behave in ways they wouldn't in real life. I saw that as advocating for less anonymity, which I oppose.

Yes, I understand there is no true anonymity on the internet. But to some degree there is anonymity from other users of the net.

Does the government know who I am? Absolutely. Does my local school board or business or employer or church? Not so much.

And yes I understand we are all vulnerable to bad actors, but that wasn't the point I was making.

In any event, it's a narrow point.

The house is on fire, and we are discussing the placement of the coach. 

I understand.

The problem here is that we are trying to close the barn door after the critters have already left the building.

The history of the world wide web started with the government and it will likely end there, unless we opt out. Unfortunately the internet has become such a major part of our lives that we will have a hard time controlling it. Right now it is well on its way to completely controlling us.

Almost every internet site is a data harvester. We sign agreements that are 10+ pages long, and never read a single word. So we should not be surprised that they have control of us in the virtual world. And it should be no surprise that it bleeds over unto the real world.

I do not agree with this. I try to avoid giving permission where I can. Sometimes, I sign off on agreements that I don't completely agree with but I have learned to pick my cyber battles.



We have to makes decisions, accepting that we are responsible for the choices we make.

[Ninurta]

I feel a sadness for anyone that cannot speak their mind unless behind a cloak of anonymity. I can sort of understand their predicament, but I cannot identify with it.

In the Real World, locally, I'm no different than I am here. I speak my mind when and where I want, right there in front of God and everybody. I pull no punches. Some folks here love me, and some hate me, but few who know me are indifferent... and they all accept the way I am, and respect it, even if grudgingly.

It must be a terrible feeling to live in fear of simply speaking your mind. Fear or reprisals, or fear of what someone might think... or whatever other fear would motivate a person to hide in the shadows to do their sniping at mere social constructs.

I feel sadness for them, but at the same time I think that if that is what it takes for them to speak their mind and be counted, then some shadow should be afforded to them to allow them to express themselves and be counted.

Whatever it takes is what they need, and I'll do what I can to help them stand up. No voivce should be silenced out of fear.


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[loam]

I feel a sadness for anyone that cannot speak their mind unless behind a cloak of anonymity. I can sort of understand their predicament, but I cannot identify with it.

In the Real World, locally, I'm no different than I am here. I speak my mind when and where I want, right there in front of God and everybody. I pull no punches. Some folks here love me, and some hate me, but few who know me are indifferent... and they all accept the way I am, and respect it, even if grudgingly.

It must be a terrible feeling to live in fear of simply speaking your mind. Fear or reprisals, or fear of what someone might think... or whatever other fear would motivate a person to hide in the shadows to do their sniping at mere social constructs.

I feel sadness for them, but at the same time I think that if that is what it takes for them to speak their mind and be counted, then some shadow should be afforded to them to allow them to express themselves and be counted.

Whatever it takes is what they need, and I'll do what I can to help them stand up. No voivce should be silenced out of fear.


.

I'm fortunate in that I have been some what insulated from that predicament for many years now. That wasn't always the case.

There were points in my career where even a loose association with a site like TOS or this one would have been career ending...or dare I say it, even MSM news. I'll say no more there. But just the simple association would have been enough to crucify me. (And no, I'm not a government spook.)

It must be a terrible feeling to live in fear of simply speaking your mind.

A part of the human condition since the dawn of time.

If we hadn't been phoning it in with respect to the constitution these past several decades (perhaps longer), things might be different. But I guess that's like complaining water is wet. It is what it is.

[Ninurta]

I'm fortunate in that I have been some what insulated from that predicament for many years now. That wasn't always the case.

There were points in my career where even a loose association with a site like TOS or this one would have been career ending...or dare I say it, even MSM news. I'll say no more there. But just the simple association would have been enough to crucify me. (And no, I'm not a government spook.)

It wouldn't bother me if you were - you wouldn't be the first one I've known, and I speak my mind to them as well. Life is too short to beat around the bushes unnecessarily, and people are just people, government spooks included.

Of course, I never went into a career where diplomacy was a necessity, so I reckon you could say I've insulated myself from that need. As far as jobs went, I always had the attitude that I was already looking for one when I found whatever one I had, and I could look again if necessary and I just walked away from whatever one I was doing at the time, so I never felt a need to be overly diplomatic there, either.

What I do know about you is that you are a thinker and a writer, and that's really all I need to know.

If we hadn't been phoning it in with respect to the constitution these past several decades (perhaps longer), things might be different. But I guess that's like complaining water is wet. It is what it is.

Politicians started selectively ignoring the Constitution about the time of the Civil War, so it's been getting increasingly ignored for roughly 160 years now. I'm surprised they even still pay lip service or try to keep up pretenses any more.

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[loam]

I'm surprised they even still pay lip service or try to keep up pretenses any more.

In the last few years, I'm not sure they even do that anymore.

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

The house is on fire, and we are discussing the placement of the coach. 

It puzzles me that we can be so aware of the ills of the society that we live in, yet not even attempt to correct them.

Even worse that we will ostracize those that dare speak against those ills, reject them when they point out that the ermine stole the king has convinced the masses he is wearing is wishful thinking, and that the king is naked.

Our greatest enemy and weaknesses, is that we lack conviction and we believe we are weak and helpless. We seal our fate by expecting and waiting to be rescued.

I fully understand that this is a normal human response, and that I am the odd woman, out. I have been called odd, recalcitrant, rabble rouser, stupid, troublemaker, and a whole list of other words, my entire life. I will admit that even at this old age, I am not going to be the one the keeps quiet if I am faced with something that I believe to be wrong, and I will stand against it.

My only solace is that dead is dead, whether you go out on your feet or on your knees.

[Ninurta]

My only solace is that dead is dead, whether you go out on your feet or on your knees.

Death is just the awakening from a dream of having lived.


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[Ninurta]

I'm surprised they even still pay lip service or try to keep up pretenses any more.

In the last few years, I'm not sure they even do that anymore.

Currently, the allegedly Republican governor of Virginia, Glen Youngkin, is paying lip service to the Second Amendment, saying he's some kind of 2A guy, yet doing absolutely NOTHING to uphold or defend it from the opposition onslaughts. As a matter of fact, there are those who believe he sent the order out to the speaker of the house in VA, one Todd Gilbert, to execute a "pocket veto" of a measure proposed to remove that diabolical "Red Flag" law, so ripe for abuse, and a "Constitutional Carry" measure that had been introduced... so now we are still in the same limbo the Democrats put us in, but now courtesy of alleged Republicans.

It's been speculated that he did that to further a run for US president, marching to a "centrist" tune. We don't need "centrists", which are just Marxist Lite, we need people in power who will vigorously defend the Constitution, as they promise to do when they take the Oath of Office, and then consistently fail to do after the oath is administered and they are cushily ensconced in their new job.

For that reason, I cannot support Youngkin in any bid for any office from here on out, unless and until he actually DOES something to uphold the Constitution, rather than just pay lip-service to it.

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