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> Basically, authoritarianism rears its ugly head in the US once again, across corporate, national, state, and local levels. The same general kind of gaming of

> Basically, authoritarianism rears its ugly head in the US once again, across corporate, national, state, and local levels. The same general kind of gaming of the system which resulted in interstates dividing white from non-white neighborhoods is now maintaining the media status quo. On one side, it's the corporatism and Crony Capitalism the left traditionally complains about, now wielded by the Far Left as a non-governmental form of censorship. On the other side, it's legal and regulatory blocking of progress to maintain the status quo for old media and to use as leverage against the tech giants. Except this is a GOP agenda or predominantly Red/GOP local governments in the South and Midwest would be resisting it. They are the ones perpetuating it and at the State level they are preempting local ISPs in a variety of ways. You are just accusing anything involving regulations as "Leftist" without acknowledging it is the standard banners of your own party that enable it.

stcredzero 9y ago
Except this is a GOP agenda...You are just accusing anything involving regulations as "Leftist" without acknowledging it is the standard banners of your own party that enable it. I am not a Republican. I've always voted Democrat. When your expectations are 180-deg out of whack, it's time to re-visit your world view and assumptions.
- jessaustin 9y ago
  Are Democrats and Republicans really 180° apart? From where I sit they seem to waver between 9° and 10° apart... sometimes as much as 12° apart? Much less, of course, when there is a ruinous foreign war to pitch.
  - stcredzero 9y ago
    Where I'm sitting, authoritarians all look alike to me.
    - jessaustin 9y ago
      Then why have you always voted for one particular flavor of authoritarian?
      - stcredzero 9y ago
        Because I was still naive. Because I bought into a narrative I no longer buy into. (Note to the reader: Which narrative do you think I buy into right now? Your answer is data on your biases.)
        jessaustin 9y ago
        Since you brought up voting in the first place, I'd guess that you're still hooked on the narrative that claims "Voting is important!" Meaningless gestures don't gain meaning just because we wish it were so.
        stcredzero 9y ago
        Since you brought up voting in the first place, I'd guess that you're still hooked on the narrative that claims "Voting is important!" That's not a good inference. Before I answer, let me ask you: Do you think the election of Trump is at all significant? Meaningless gestures don't gain meaning just because we wish it were so. The subject of discussion was my political affiliation, not whether my votes were significant. So your sentence is a bit of a non-sequitur.
        jessaustin 9y ago
        Of course not. Trump is Obama II, or perhaps we should say Bush Jr. III. Even the dim hopes some naive souls harbored that somehow he would be less militarist than his predecessors have evaporated by now. The significance of Trump's election, if any can be said to exist, is that from now on all of our chief executives will be reality TV stars. Is that progress? You think you're being clever, asking all these questions before making any firm statement. The downvoters seem to have seen through the mask?
- AFNobody 9y ago
  So your argument now is Republicans are "Leftists"?
  - stcredzero 9y ago
    No. I certainly don't disagree that Republicans also finagle with laws and regulations for their own interests, to the detriment of the public. Perhaps this is the source of your confusion. The Far-Left is the group which currently has enough power to attempt the silencing of others to the detriment of free speech, and get away with it on a widespread basis. It does so on a daily basis, with the help of corporate power.
    - AFNobody 9y ago
      And what do you call refusing to run special elections illegally and passing anti-speech laws at the state level exactly? The GOP does that as well and pretending its only one side is absurd on many levels.
      - stcredzero 9y ago
        And what do you call refusing to run special elections illegally Election shenanigans, not Free Speech per se. and passing anti-speech laws at the state level exactly? Those should also be fought, no matter who is doing it. The GOP does that as well and pretending its only one side is absurd on many levels. The lion's share of the mainstream media is biased to the left, and even at first many in the mainstream media gave a free pass to even to Antifa. It's well known that the GOP has an advantage in local politics. No one is pretending this isn't the case. However, the widespread conceit that the mainstream news is anywhere near unbiased still needs debunking. Badly. As in, society's survival is at stake levels of badly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qmiPWgCYb4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qmiPWgCYb4
        dragonwriter 9y ago
        > The lion's share of the mainstream media is biased to the left, No, it's not. The lions share of media workers may have left-of-center leanings, but media firms aren't coops, so that doesn't actually matter; old media corporations are not owned and run by leftists, or even left-of-center-ists. The mainstream media may be getting increasingly distant from the Republican Party by standing still (or, at least, moving to the right more slowly), politically, while the Republican Party continues the sprint to the far right that it's been doing since the moment the Democratic Party, led—dragged, really—by Bill Clinton, itself shifted right to form the center-right neoliberal consensus of the early 1990s. (I call this response an “Overton Slingshot”, because while the tactical move to the right by Dems may have had short term electoral benefits for those left of center in getting slightly less conservative Democrats elected over Republicans—though whether it had any tactical value is itself highly debatable—it definitely was a long term disaster for them in the way it shifted the Overton Window.)

stcredzero 9y ago

Except this is a GOP agenda...You are just accusing anything involving regulations as "Leftist" without acknowledging it is the standard banners of your own party that enable it. I am not a Republican. I've always voted Democrat. When your expectations are 180-deg out of whack, it's time to re-visit your world view and assumptions.

jessaustin 9y ago
Are Democrats and Republicans really 180° apart? From where I sit they seem to waver between 9° and 10° apart... sometimes as much as 12° apart? Much less, of course, when there is a ruinous foreign war to pitch.
- stcredzero 9y ago
  Where I'm sitting, authoritarians all look alike to me.
  - jessaustin 9y ago
    Then why have you always voted for one particular flavor of authoritarian?
    - stcredzero 9y ago
      Because I was still naive. Because I bought into a narrative I no longer buy into. (Note to the reader: Which narrative do you think I buy into right now? Your answer is data on your biases.)
      - jessaustin 9y ago
        Since you brought up voting in the first place, I'd guess that you're still hooked on the narrative that claims "Voting is important!" Meaningless gestures don't gain meaning just because we wish it were so.
        stcredzero 9y ago
        Since you brought up voting in the first place, I'd guess that you're still hooked on the narrative that claims "Voting is important!" That's not a good inference. Before I answer, let me ask you: Do you think the election of Trump is at all significant? Meaningless gestures don't gain meaning just because we wish it were so. The subject of discussion was my political affiliation, not whether my votes were significant. So your sentence is a bit of a non-sequitur.
        jessaustin 9y ago
        Of course not. Trump is Obama II, or perhaps we should say Bush Jr. III. Even the dim hopes some naive souls harbored that somehow he would be less militarist than his predecessors have evaporated by now. The significance of Trump's election, if any can be said to exist, is that from now on all of our chief executives will be reality TV stars. Is that progress? You think you're being clever, asking all these questions before making any firm statement. The downvoters seem to have seen through the mask?
AFNobody 9y ago
So your argument now is Republicans are "Leftists"?
- stcredzero 9y ago
  No. I certainly don't disagree that Republicans also finagle with laws and regulations for their own interests, to the detriment of the public. Perhaps this is the source of your confusion. The Far-Left is the group which currently has enough power to attempt the silencing of others to the detriment of free speech, and get away with it on a widespread basis. It does so on a daily basis, with the help of corporate power.
  - AFNobody 9y ago
    And what do you call refusing to run special elections illegally and passing anti-speech laws at the state level exactly? The GOP does that as well and pretending its only one side is absurd on many levels.
    - stcredzero 9y ago
      And what do you call refusing to run special elections illegally Election shenanigans, not Free Speech per se. and passing anti-speech laws at the state level exactly? Those should also be fought, no matter who is doing it. The GOP does that as well and pretending its only one side is absurd on many levels. The lion's share of the mainstream media is biased to the left, and even at first many in the mainstream media gave a free pass to even to Antifa. It's well known that the GOP has an advantage in local politics. No one is pretending this isn't the case. However, the widespread conceit that the mainstream news is anywhere near unbiased still needs debunking. Badly. As in, society's survival is at stake levels of badly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qmiPWgCYb4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qmiPWgCYb4
      - dragonwriter 9y ago
        > The lion's share of the mainstream media is biased to the left, No, it's not. The lions share of media workers may have left-of-center leanings, but media firms aren't coops, so that doesn't actually matter; old media corporations are not owned and run by leftists, or even left-of-center-ists. The mainstream media may be getting increasingly distant from the Republican Party by standing still (or, at least, moving to the right more slowly), politically, while the Republican Party continues the sprint to the far right that it's been doing since the moment the Democratic Party, led—dragged, really—by Bill Clinton, itself shifted right to form the center-right neoliberal consensus of the early 1990s. (I call this response an “Overton Slingshot”, because while the tactical move to the right by Dems may have had short term electoral benefits for those left of center in getting slightly less conservative Democrats elected over Republicans—though whether it had any tactical value is itself highly debatable—it definitely was a long term disaster for them in the way it shifted the Overton Window.)