Liberal Geek

Our nation is rotten all the way through

The Scathing Atheist Episode 403 Diatribe by Noah Lugeons (2020-11-05): https://audioboom.com/posts/7722800

So normally I try to record my diatribe before dinner on Wednesday so I can get the show out early for Patrons and get to be done working before midnight. But this week I didn't even start writing the damn thing ... Read more...

Futurama quote about Evolution got me Facebook jailed for "Hate Speech"

I was put in Facebook jail this morning (can't post, can't comment, can't even use Messenger), because I supposedly posted "hate speech." What did I do? I referenced a quote from Futurama:

As a professor of science, I can assure you we did, in fact, evolve from filthy monkey-men."

I appealed the decision and FB said, "Nope, still hate speech." I appealed the decision again and FB allowed me to give an explanation and I did:

This is just about a quote from the cartoon "Futurama", not hate speech. This is part of a podcast group and every episode of the podcast opens up with a quote from the Farnsworth character who says, "As a professor of science, I can assure you we did indeed evolve from filthy monkey-men." This isn't an attack on men, it's just a quote from a cartoon that is used as the opening to the podcast. It's literally one of the security questions you have to answer to even be allowed to join the group so that the admins know that... Read more...

Is Sunlight the Best Disinfectant for Hate Speech?

Let's do away with this phrase: "Sunlight is the best disinfectant."

It's a great disinfectant, but you know what else does a great job even faster? Caustic chemicals.

But what if you aren't combating bacteria? What if the thing you're trying to disinfect is actually Poison Oak. Then sunlight is exactly what it wants.

I bring this up because throughout all of this bullshit with Milo people keep saying that he should be given a platform to spew his hateful bullshit because once people see his horrible ideas then he'll be destroyed... i.e. put him in the sunlight and he'll die.

But he didn't. Putting him in the sunlight gave him the energy he needed to grow. What killed him (or at least is killing him) was removing his platform and directly combating him... i.e. removing him the sunlight and pouring caustic chemicals on him.

If you understand that his hateful rhetoric is a weed and not a bacteria, then you'll suddenly understand why giving it sun... Read more...

What does Acceptance mean in this case?

I'm grieving over the loss of the America that I thought existed. I know America still struggles against problems with racism and sexism, but I thought we were getting better. I thought the long arc of history was bending toward justice. I thought American ideals were to accept the world's tired, the world's poor, the world's huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

But it's not. And it hasn't been.

So, I've been grieving. I've been switching back and forth between Anger and Depression and I've been talking to a therapist weekly. I can't watch political shows on TV (not even The Daily Show) because they enrage me when I hear about all of the shit going on and I don't have any kind of outlet for that rage. It doesn't make me feel better to yell at Trevor Noah or Rachel Maddow. Facebook has been a double-edged sword, because even though it gives me the ability to dump some of my rage, it is... Read more...

How to feel about America

I'm having real trouble tapping into hope at the moment. Not just about Tuesday, but America in general. Even if Clinton manages to barely squeeze out a win, I don't know how to feel anymore b/c I thought we were making progress. Before 2016, I was well aware that racism was still a problem in our nation and that we were, at least, TRYING to make things better. I thought we all collectively understood that racism was BAD even if we disagreed about what was an example OF racism... but not anymore. I keep talking to people who don't even think racism is a bad thing. Trump is going to get so many votes that he might get the majority... and that means America isn't what I perceived it to be. I know many conservatives just think certain types of institutional racism aren't "real racism," but that's not a defense in this election anymore because the racism is shown in full HD without any of the dog whistles or subtleties that allowed them to ignore it before. White Supremacy and Ant... Read more...

My California Proposition Choices

While I try not to lose my mind over the Presidential election, I also need to figure out how I'm voting on all of the California Propositions. Ballot.FYI is a really good site for breaking them down in easy to understand fashions. Here are my thoughts, I'm open to hearing yours. ... Read more...

Wikileaks: All Headline, No Scandal: Hillary's Instructions for Killing Chris Stevens in Benghazi

A friend of mine who doesn't really follow politics much, but who knows I'm a political junkie, contacted me about a scary headline he saw relating to Hillary Clinton's emails and asked me if it was true. He's awesome. Critical thought and skepticism are sorely lacking today and I give major credit to those who are willing to double-check information.

Here's the big scary headline:

Wikileaks: Hillary email found showing instructions for killing Chris Stevens

Chris Stevens was our Ambassador who was killed in Benghazi, Libya. If this headline were true, that would be an amazing bombshell... but you know what's coming next. First, let's make sure we understand the claim. They have three aspects of the claim that supposedly add up to "instructions for killing Chris Stevens."

Claim #1) Hillary Clinton was sending emails on her priv... Read more...

Wikileaks: All Headline, No Scandal: Algeria and the Terror Watch List

Yesterday, I wrote about how the Wikileaks email dumps aren't actually filled with tons of scandals, but they are just used to generate scandalous headlines. I keep challenging people on Twitter to provide me the big smoking gun. Show me the email that is the most damaging. Show me the email that will finally convince me of the horrible actions of Hillary Clinton.

Today's contestant was @GenMichelle. She suggested that I must not be able to read english and that denying the obvious lies shown in wikileaks was surreal. So I told her that if there were so many, it should be very easy to show me one. Just one. Any example of this supposedly damning evidence will do. She did what they all do, she dodged... Read more...

Wikileaks vs Clinton: All Headline, No Scandal

Take a moment to read this great article, Inside The Strange, Paranoid World Of Julian Assange, from James Ball who was a previous member of Wikileaks.

When Wikileaks was doing targeted releases and working with journalists to ensure the integrity of releases, I felt they were trying to achieve a good goal, even if it came with a price.

However, indiscriminately dumping 250,000+ cables from the State Dept or indiscriminately dumping 50,000 emails from the Clinton Campaign is not intended to achieve good results.

If there was a real story in the Wikileaks Clinton Campaign emails (aka Podesta emails), they would release the 10 or so relevant emails so that the media and the voters could be laser focused on the wrongdoing or whatever criminal actions were taken.

But that's not what Assange is doing. By dumping 50,000 emails in batches of 10,000, his goal is to gen... Read more...

Trump's Razor and the Sniffles

Ockham's Razor: The simplest explanation that fits the available facts is generally the correct one.

Trump's Razor: The DUMBEST FUCKING explanation that fits the available facts is generally the correct one.

Example: Trump is constantly sniffling throughout the debate.

Ockham's Razor: He probably had a cold.

Trump's Razor: I didn't sniffle. My mic was defective. The debate commission conspired to give me a bad mic to embarrass me. The sniffles that I just said never happened could only be heard because the debate commission gave me a mic that was so good it could pick up the tiny sound of the sniffles that, again, I said never happened.

This is just a silly example of how incredibly broken Trump's method of thinking is. Trump li... Read more...

Prop 51: Bonds to pay for Schools: Leaning towards No In general, I'm always in favor of more money for schools, but the fact that Gov Brown is against this one gives me pause. I think he does a pretty good job and he says the way this one works isn't good and doesn't get enough money and he's been working on getting it done properly. I've spoken to a teacher friend of mine and they are conflicted as well.