volkris @volkris@qoto.org

@Andii

There's a very important reason why this is no meer semantic distinction: it's not that the authority is telling those within its purview not to carry a book, it's that carrying the book is an option of the authority.

And that's exactly why we should push for independent libraries that are separate from the authority altogether.

So long as the authority gets to decide what books are and aren't carried, well, we are relying on the authority to make those editorial decisions for the public. I don't think that's healthy.

So let's be clear that this is not a book ban. This is us giving that authority to a political structure and then trusting the structure to do the right thing, complaining when it doesn't.

We should stop doing that. Since it's not a book ban that means we don't have to. We can instead look to other parts of civil society to provide these resources.

@axios

@TildeGartenzaun I think it's important to be clear that Fediverse does even less to protect your data.

If you are posting content here under the impression that it's safer, then you are unfortunately putting that content at risk.

@usernamepending Yes it is.

You can grab the source code from their repository.

@TildeGartenzaun

@GW@newsie.social except their tactics have actively opposed that sort of thing, as they took steps to avoid eliminating Palestinians.

Israel has enough firepower that they could have eliminated Palestinians already if that's what they really wanted to do. But they didn't. So that must not be their plan.

@clintruin

Should we contact the FAA about a politician promising to waive his arms and fly around the room?

These are politicians making empty promises that are not possible to keep. They are either liars or they are too damn stupid to know how the government works.

Why not call them out for being incompetent instead of promoting it as a serious promise, that also helps gain them more support from their base in the process?

Yes, this is crying wolf. They weren't able to fulfill those promises last time, because they were impossible given the way the US government works, and they won't be able to fulfill those promises next time, because again that's not how the government works.

The more we take this seriously the more we play into their hands and the more we increase their chances of getting elected.

Call them out for lying to their supporters. That's the best way to counter this stuff.

@lovelylovely

@Andii but they aren't bans at all.

To take your analogy, it's not that people are being banned from the bar, but that the bar is choosing not to carry a certain brand of beer.

They're not banning the beer. They're just not supplying it.

And you're right, you can go get that beer in another pub, but that's neither here nor there.

@axios

@AnthonyFStevens

I criticize people engaging in personal mudslinging instead of looking at the actual arguments in rulings, and what do you come back with? Personal mudslinging instead of looking at actual arguments in rullings.

@DavidBruchmann

@clintruin

Believe it or not, sometimes politicians make promises that they can't keep, sometimes because they're dishonest and sometimes because they're too damn stupid to know what they're talking about.

Many conservatives fall for this kind of stuff. That doesn't mean we should too.

@lovelylovely

@GW@newsie.social anybody who thinks this level of persecution of civilians appears to be genocide either doesn't know what genocide is or is being seriously misinformed by sensationalized, or agenda pushing, reporting.

But it goes back to what you said before, where you were equating things that are not the same, occupation versus wiping from the map.

There is plenty to be critical of Israel over, but we can't criticize what they're actually doing if we're too busy attacking strawman and confusing the facts on the ground.

Heck, that tends to actually stand in the way of accountability, distracting from actually countering what they're actually doing.

@squared99@mastodon.coffee Well I don't identify that way so I don't want to speak and put words in other people's mouths.

I'm only saying that people do identify that way.

I personally have a rather negative view of the perspectives of people that identify that way, so that's even more reason that I shouldn't inject my personal feelings into an answer to your question.

@squared99@mastodon.coffee It is, although I also see a lot of video tape and radio interviews of people who identify that way as well.

It's definitely a thing.

I have no idea how many people identify that way, but there's plenty of tape out there to show that a significant portion exists.

@mvario which just brings up the complaint that #mediamatters misled the public with their reporting.

Yeah, it's bad for X, but it's also bad for the general public when such an outlet puts out misleading information for their own benefit.

@squared99@mastodon.coffee Oh I know a bunch of people personally who identify that way.

Yeah there's a lot of people out there who identify as pro-Palestinian.

@whereami so I'm noticing that you are engaging in exactly the thing I was calling out, ignoring users' abilities to shape their experience the way they want.

@squared99@mastodon.coffee sure, that's probably true too, but the reason it's in the headlines is that so many are identifying that way.

@rberger that is literally not what even this article said.

Yes, people take risks and Republicans tend to respect agency and reject authoritarian impositions.

No, allowing people to make those choices does not equate to literally killing Americans.

It's just silly to frame it that way.

Responsibly, we should have these discussions about where to find balance, but this framing does not support that element of good governance.

@Zee@social.coop I think it's noteworthy how all of this discussion avoids mentioning actual competency of the board members.

@squared99@mastodon.coffee I don't think they're the same.

An awful lot of people are out there right now self-identifying as pro-Palestinian as they are protesting.