Erik Haugen @ech@qoto.org

@baslow You'd hope large instance runners would do this work, but alas I got booted from mstdn.social for fascist vitriol like "Flip side, though, libertarian extremist violence is extremely rare, you gotta admit" and "The state runs the schools, so of course it regulates history books. That's obviously true regardless of party."

You see, I dared suggest that lefty-idpol maybe doesn't have a monopoly on righteousness.

@chadloder If you're a journalist (or any writer trying to increase eyeballs), don't you syndicate wherever you can to get more views? fb, twitter, lefty mastodon, righty mastodon, whoever will host your content for free, why not?

I mean, some outlets have an answer to "why not?", like NPR's "why not?" is that it can't use the platform without the platform calling them government propaganda or however it was phrased; free publishing in that context was deemed not worth the reputation hit etc.

Surely using the platform is implied endorsement of all of the companies actions.

Maybe your point is: if one journalist gets off twitter then that will ever-so-slightly push consumers off twitter – there's less to read there.

But I kinda think that won't work. Who will get off? Exactly the people who agree with you anyway about Twitter's actions despite being on twitter already. Like what's the point of that.

@baslow again, well put!

@freemo I feel like the marketplace of algorithms would be nice. @masnick's "Protocols, Not Platforms" paper https://knightcolumbia.org/content/protocols-not-platforms-a-technological-approach-to-free-speech outlines this idea with some analysis.

Mastodon seems to have an algorithm, by default; just add /explore to the name of the server. (or click on # explore) But qoto has this disabled for reasons I can only guess at. AFAICT this algorithm is basically boost count?

@baslow I get blocked a lot for posting a contrary opinion as a reply, just as you describe. One funny thing I've noticed is that people almost always reply to me immediately before blocking me. I wonder what the thinking is there; is it a subconscious desire to have the last word?

@CherokeeSher worse, even, because it signals that you bought something worthless.

@rodhilton This pathological level of insecurity deserves our pity, not scorn.

@RethinkJeff "Choosing not to mask is choosing to kill people." This has always been true, of course. Probably what, like a million? people annually die from diseases that would maybe be squelched if everyone wore N95s (correctly!) at all times in public indoor places. Were you clamoring for masks 5 years ago? Are you going to wear an N95 for the rest of your life now that you have had this realization?

@RethinkJeff @jensimmons nah, not much, unless we're wearing n95s. (For maximum benefit you need to wear them properly; I don't even know how.) And once you start taking them off to eat at restaurants etc. we aren't really trying at that point, right?

Surgical and cloth masks are nearly useless; we've known this for years: https://www.kgw.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/face-masks/covid-variants-masks-protections/283-65f16fa6-abd2-45f9-9e9a-35f43a6b6317

@rik @dell probably the part where he divulged private information that had been gained via the sim-swap attack.

@iamschulz Indeed, but it's hard to talk about the real problem these days: "fascism" is used to describe people not wearing a mask or people on the other side of a quibble about what age some book is appropriate for.

I assert that is not helpful: what term do I use to describe League of the South or American Identity Movement?

I challenge you to come up with a term that doesn't currently mean "someone who wrongthinks about single-family housing policy"?

@jensimmons That's terrible; it's always been shocking to me that people are so offended one way or another by masks; to try to sabotage someone's career over mask usage is beyond the pale. I've seen videos of actual violence.

I don't wear masks generally – I mean, at some point we gotta move on, they don't help much (if at all), at least the vulnerable people close to me are vaccinated, etc. I've had it twice and I'm stocked up on tests and happy to test if anyone asks before I come over or whatever. If I come in a store I'm happy to wear one if the store provides it (I stopped carrying one around long ago) although I probably won't stay as long, and if the store ever didn't let me in as a result I'd totally understand.

But if you want to wear one, A+. You do you.

I was kind of hoping the idea of wearing masks when you're sick would catch on, but it seems like instead of that they just got weirdly political.

@iamschulz It's weird how carelessly the term is tossed around these days, isn't it. It has lost all meaning.

@philsherry from the article: “In India so far it’s [Arcturus] only causing mild illness."

How different do you think things are now vs. before the pandemic? If I had a vulnerable immune system, I simply would not have gone to conferences back then either. I went to a conference in October and I'm pretty sure I got the flu there; it was rough! If I had been immunocompromised it could have been a lot more serious.

@jensimmons Trump shut down travel pretty early on in addition to other mitigations, funded tests & vaccine research. There were many mistakes and I'm sure there's a lot he could have done differently, but I don't think you can make a case that he "hated" covid mitigations.

You seem to be right about kids in cages, though: we were doing that before Trump and continue to do it after him. So I guess Obama/Biden supporters also like kids in cages.

@CAnxiolytic I think more sense than extrajudicial shooting of suspected shoplifters, yes. Low bar here.

IMO getting maced doesn't justify shooting someone, so I hope the outcome of this investigation reflects that.

But I think the misreporting of stories like this is ultimately unhelpful.

@Wolf_Baginski @edbott I'll keep the cw but why is it a dangerous question? I'm missing something here. (I wonder in what context Ed's "loon" was bringing this up.)

Hans Frank – head of Nazi Poland – told this story during his trials in Nuremberg, right? (He did it possibly as a way to distance himself from Hitler; he was very anti-semitic of course.)

https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/study-suggests-adolf-hitler-was-a-quarter-jewish-597966 Hopefully we aren't suggesting jpost is problematically anti-semitic.

Interesting but ultimately not particularly consequential to anything.

@taur10 @Radical_EgoCom@kolektiva.social Looks like he got fired, yes.

I don't know about prison, she attacked him. In my opinion deadly force was not warranted, so I think he should go to prison or something.

@CAnxiolytic @Radical_EgoCom@kolektiva.social Nah, he shot her for macing him.

@kennykravitz I think they're blasé because most people have an ID and need to present it in a wide array of situations that all seem pretty reasonable, from the bank to getting pulled over in a car. Giving some evidence that you are who you say you are when you vote just *feels* reasonable. Normies really don't care.

In fact, by far most people want a voter id requirement. Most Democrats, most black people, most everyone wants it.

I don't think it does much good to have one, but doesn't seem to hurt in terms of turnout by race or party or anything.