What's in the news?

[Avalon29]

I’ve been closely following the story of Bibi the past few days. For those that don’t know the case, she is a Christian woman in Pakistan who was convicted and sentenced to death 8 years ago under Pakistan’s blasphemy law. She was accused of insulting Muhhamad by a pair of women who refused to drink from the same water container as a Christian woman. Fast forward to this week and on Wendsday she was aquitted by the supreme court. She was supposed to be released yesterday. Unfortunately that was delayed due to large protests blocking key roads and demanding her death and the reversal of her aquittal. There were also calls by one cleric to overthrow the government, and revolt against the general of their militairy. For now she remains in protective custody at a detention center until the protests can be resolved.

https://www.apnews.com/26bb3f6134fa433bbe8f2cca1dad718e

I apologize in advance for any mistakes made. Sending this from my phone at the moment.

[Beguile's Mistress]

Arraignment is a routine part of the judicial process. Most jurisdictions require arraignment very, very quickly after the arrest. A not-guilty plea here isn't indicative of anything; it can always be withdrawn later. Given the sensationalism of this case, I would be very surprised if the prosecutor has even discussed a plea agreement with Bowers' attorney.

Bowers has pleaded "not guilty" to the Pittsburgh shooting. I guess that's just part of the courtroom formalities - not sure how he might deny that he willfully killed those people? :(

There are rumors his defense team is looking into an insanity plea.  That is not unusual in a case like this.  They would be looking for a lifetime incarceration instead of the death penalty.  His plea of not guilty would play into this as it would demonstrate his inability to think reasonably or logically.

[Beguile's Mistress]

The above quotes should have been listed separately and since modifying is not an option we're stuck with my mistake.

[gaggedLouise]

The above quotes should have been listed separately and since modifying is not an option we're stuck with my mistake.

Noticed that Regina and myself got pulled together. :)

Over here, people sometimes try to build a case for lack of deliberate intent by saying "I can't remember any of it...I was so high", but I guess that's not a meaningful way of talking for Bowers. Saying that he doesn't remember 'this* deed would not be very convincing.   ::)

[Avis habilis]

... I know the process has been around for what like 40-50 years ...

Eighty. We're currently in a dark age thanks to the Nazis having destroyed the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft.

A process that Littlefinger & Commander Pence want to repeat.

[Callie Del Noire]

Eighty. We're currently in a dark age thanks to the Nazis having destroyed the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft.

A process that Littlefinger & Commander Pence want to repeat.

Yeah I thought it went further but I wasn’t sure.

[gaggedLouise]

And gays and lesbians are now accepted enough that they don't really make good targets.But us trans people are still rare enough and misunderstood enough to be a good target

Yes, we still have a kind of novelty value to the media and for political exploitation.

[Skynet]

I don’t get it. I know like at least 9 folks I real life that are trans or transitioning and I know the process has been around for what like 40-50 years and there has been damn little evidence of what is being put out as justification for these damn laws. One friend has had to leave the state because her transition came with death threats because she was a teacher (special needs)

On the surface it does look to be quite a pet issue to be worked up about. 0.3% of the US population which is predominantly poor does not exactly sound like a dominant political force. But it's more of what trans people's existence represents. It calls into question core assumptions about how society itself views sexuality, gender, and self-identity. Furthermore, it also causes more than a few insecure men to wrestle with their own sexuality in the fear of accidentally sleeping with a trans woman if said groups become accepted.

Although it's a lengthy watch, one of the points this YT video raised had a succinct explanation on such a rationale. By classifying trans identity as a delusion and trotting out high-school level biology, there cannot be a conversation about transgender and nonbinary rights when people are debating these people's existence in the first place.

Thus the reason to alter the legislation. Keep them out of sight and out of mind by making people ask if transgender as a concept is real. That way, insecure men don't have to fret about the fear of being tricked into sex with someone sharing the same chromosomes as them. That way, reactionaries and cultural regressives can more easily enshrine "innate biological truths" as immutable aspects of reality.

[Tolvo]

Yeah there is like a ton to unpack. And yeah that's what I meant when I brought up the Nazis was the Institut.

There are also a lot of factors influencing things outside of the right wing. Like in England for instance TERF's(Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists) have a very loud voice and have been elevated and given tons of articles and television time. They currently use the term Gender Critical, but usually identify as feminists who want to stop the "Evil trans cabal." They have a huge media presence, more so than trans people do. Their philosophies and beliefs are generally based on specific research from people like Blanchard, and especially Kenneth Zucker, the former leader of knowledge on trans people in the world(He was actually a pedophile and abusive monster who tortured transgender children until he was removed from his position of power). You may see a lot of these people cited in the news and it's kinda frustrating, they end up in The Guardian, New York Magazine, etc. There's actually not that many of them, they're a relatively small movement that just has a huge media presence. They're the kinds of people calling for transgender children to be registered by the government, etc. Mainstream feminism while not great about trans rights is actually way more progressive than these people.

Though I wonder if we should have a thread for that specifically, talking about trans people and things about us, how we're treated, viewed. But maybe it wouldn't see too much activity.

[Skynet]

Yeah there is like a ton to unpack. And yeah that's what I meant when I brought up the Nazis was the Institut.

There are also a lot of factors influencing things outside of the right wing. Like in England for instance TERF's(Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists) have a very loud voice and have been elevated and given tons of articles and television time. They currently use the term Gender Critical, but usually identify as feminists who want to stop the "Evil trans cabal." They have a huge media presence, more so than trans people do. Their philosophies and beliefs are generally based on specific research from people like Blanchard, and especially Kenneth Zucker, the former leader of knowledge on trans people in the world(He was actually a pedophile and abusive monster who tortured transgender children until he was removed from his position of power). You may see a lot of these people cited in the news and it's kinda frustrating, they end up in The Guardian, New York Magazine, etc. There's actually not that many of them, they're a relatively small movement that just has a huge media presence. They're the kinds of people calling for transgender children to be registered by the government, etc. Mainstream feminism while not great about trans rights is actually way more progressive than these people.

Though I wonder if we should have a thread for that specifically, talking about trans people and things about us, how we're treated, viewed. But maybe it wouldn't see too much activity.

That explains why Father Ted views gender pronouns as a huge civil rights violation.

[Skynet]

PS I am referencing Graham Linehan if nobody caught that.

https://medium.com/@scarlettvonx/is-graham-linehan-transphobic-or-not-ba07693a9018

https://medium.com/@AlexaEphemera/its-time-to-call-out-graham-linehan-s-ugly-transphobia-30b15be317a5

[legomaster00156]

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1058388700617498625 By the way I guess sanctions are coming November 5th.

http://time.com/5443319/trump-game-of-thrones-meme/

[Lustful Bride]

The US Army's own assessment of the Refugee Caravan contradicts Trump. If anything the army is more worried about unregulated psychotic militias that may try to act unlawfully in the area.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/army-assessment-of-migrant-caravans-undermines-trump’s-rhetoric/ar-BBPhoPf?ocid=spartanntp

[TheGlyphstone]

http://time.com/5443319/trump-game-of-thrones-meme/

Of all the things he's done, this one just makes me hurt. Old people trying to use memes to be 'hip' and appeal to the crowd always end horribly.

[RedRose]

Ex French President Hollande (yes, really, his name) warns that next President could be Bolsonaro or Trumplike.

[gaggedLouise]

Of all the things he's done, this one just makes me hurt. Old people trying to use memes to be 'hip' and appeal to the crowd always end horribly.

At least two of the stars of the show (both women) quickly replied on twitter. One of them using the recurrent GoT phrase: "Not today". :D

[gaggedLouise]

Ex French President Hollande (yes, really, his name) warns that next President could be Bolsonaro or Trumplike.

And his former wife, who competed with him for the presidential nomination of their party back in 2006: her surname is, of course, Royal. This in a country whose leaders once sent their ex-king and queen to the guillotine.  :)

[RedRose]

Ha yes dear ol' Ségolène lol. I had forgotten about her. She posted stuff about him on twitter "as a joke"...

[Sara Nilsson]

https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/414719-tallahassee-yoga-shooters-youtube-filled-with-misogynistic-racist?__twitter_impression=true

The yoga shooter had a youtube channel with several horrible videos, history of attacking women, self identified incel, and yet.. he was all for building a wall to keep america safe. From.. what? people like himself?

shesh...

[Tolvo]

That's fairly common with a lot of these types of people. Many of them have online presences where they basically outline they plan to do these things.

Hell that guy who was mailing bombs? When news outlets found his twitter and posted it before twitter deleted it, I thought it looked familiar. And I found out why. He was someone who regularly would tweet death threats at people I knew. For over a year, and twitter did nothing until it became news and made them look bad and they deleted it. And it wasn't just a few people, he was tweeting death threats at tons of people and talking about planning to kill people. There are tons of red flags all the time and these people are usually not investigated by the police. Hell, they're rarely even suspended from platforms, even though they often violate their TOS.

[Sara Nilsson]

yeah twitter, Facebook and reddit are all terrible at dealing with this. Too often I have reported things only to get the doesn't break our rules reply. But hey FB thanks for deleting my picture and giving me a warning for nudity.. cept you know.. you claimed you could see the breast when it was my fucking arm! But calling for the death of trans people? pfff totally fine, just block him. whats the problem?

*fumes* sorry..

[Lustful Bride]

That's fairly common with a lot of these types of people. Many of them have online presences where they basically outline they plan to do these things.

Hell that guy who was mailing bombs? When news outlets found his twitter and posted it before twitter deleted it, I thought it looked familiar. And I found out why. He was someone who regularly would tweet death threats at people I knew. For over a year, and twitter did nothing until it became news and made them look bad and they deleted it. And it wasn't just a few people, he was tweeting death threats at tons of people and talking about planning to kill people. There are tons of red flags all the time and these people are usually not investigated by the police. Hell, they're rarely even suspended from platforms, even though they often violate their TOS.

So many Mass shooters would have been stopped if people actually looked at the red flags they wave everywhere. But people just plug their ears or make up excuses.

yeah twitter, Facebook and reddit are all terrible at dealing with this. Too often I have reported things only to get the doesn't break our rules reply. But hey FB thanks for deleting my picture and giving me a warning for nudity.. cept you know.. you claimed you could see the breast when it was my fucking arm! But calling for the death of trans people? pfff totally fine, just block him. whats the problem?

*fumes* sorry..

This issue happens in so many places. When people do actual horrible things they either don't do anything but give them a slap on the wrist. And when someone does something small or that can be debated, they come down like a sledgehammer.

[Skynet]

https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/414719-tallahassee-yoga-shooters-youtube-filled-with-misogynistic-racist?__twitter_impression=true

The yoga shooter had a youtube channel with several horrible videos, history of attacking women, self identified incel, and yet.. he was all for building a wall to keep america safe. From.. what? people like himself?

shesh...

Self-projection.

Lots of incels and far-right ideologues want to do the very same things to white women they accuse Latinos and Middle Easterners of wanting to do to them.

Like fundamentalist Christians who decry Sharia law despite wanting to build statues of the Ten Commandments on government property.

[Tolvo]

Well a lot of these websites rely on those groups for traffic, at the cost of harming tons of their other users. On top of that their politics may end up aligning with said people. Like Jack, the guy who runs twitter, follows openly Nazi accounts and meets with a lot of hardcore right wing extremists and talks about how he feels they're marginalized and silenced in society and that he wants to elevate them on twitter. It is actually a huge problem for the company, because at times the board will say something then he'll just contradict it and make a terrible decision that they then are stuck with. I imagine a lot of them want him gone but can't easily get rid of him. It's a bit like Elon Musk with Tesla. Though he was so blatant he got in enough trouble.

Another factor is often how they design their algorithms. And what sort of things they put in as words to scan for when automatically suspending people. As well as relying on number of reports factoring. So if someone posts a photo of a hanging black person at another person, and one person reports it. Probably nothing. If you post a picture of a kitten, but 5,000 people report it? The kitten picture may get removed and you may get in trouble. Regarding what words they put in their databases, a pretty good example is this. If you use the word TERF(Trans exclusionary radical feminist) and a negative word, like punch or die, Twitter may outright ban you. Because TERF is a protected class of people to them. But if you say Kill and Woman, or Kill and Feminist, those aren't actually protected. So nothing will likely happen.

[Icelandic]

Welp, I'm finally diving deep into this section of the site because I just can't resist political going-ons, but either way, this should be relevant to the conversation above.

https://wcbs880.radio.com/articles/lawmakers-drafting-bill-would-allow-social-media-checks-gun-purchase?fbclid=IwAR21cTENTTCWxHg_Eh6AFAv9g3D0Q9Ikg4Qu_lguol1FetRUZ6eJs_EAhuM

I'm curious to know what Political-E thinks of this, in light of the recent shootings and what-not. For me it depends. If the bill only focused on searching for criminal behavior, then that would be fine for me, and would likely survive a constitutional challenge. But considering the lawmakers creating this bill identifies 'hate speech' as a criteria for potential disqualifications, I very highly doubt it could survive the same constitutional challenge.







Weeeeeew~ First political post!