On the topic of guillotines and false equivalencies

Yes, the reason that people who say (from the highest position of elected power) that that the press is the “enemy of the state”, or the people who put a noose on the office desk of a black co-worker, are taken seriously is that it tracks to actual harm.

It’s about imbalances in power and opportunity to cause harm.

If he doesn’t like guillotine gifs here, he can flag them. Who is flagging the bigots on the rest of the internet? Or the world?

12 Likes

And even if there is flagging, platforms like Facebook and Twitter run by yet more “moderate centrists” actively choose to ignore them (at least when the comment being flagged is by a right-wing populist).

11 Likes

Do you think many Trump supporters read this forum? If not, why do you think complaining about that video here is going to do any good? I replied to something a person here, on this forum, wrote, and I disagreed with, which IMHO is more useful.

Do you think b00fh was right when he wrote: “We don’t counter it; we embrace it. Start working on these guillotine gifs already!”, or do we have to wait until someone follows his advice and make something as violent as that Trump video before we decide if it is a good idea or not?

Remember this video?

What kind of slippery slope bs is this?

Did you flag it? Are you arguing that making a comment about the possibility of guillotine gifs is in any way similarly harmful to Trump’s video, but actually you realise you’re complaining about something unimportant?

Remember this video?

No, actually, because 1. They probably got in trouble for it, and 2. Environmentalists aren’t connected to murder the way white supremacists are.

11 Likes

When the opposition constantly operates in obvious bad faith (as fascists are wont to do), one is no longer obliged to engage them with civility and politeness.

It’s taken almost a quarter century for the Dem establishment to grasp that in regard to the modern GOP.

9 Likes

It is a perfectly reasonable question. If you disagree with with what b00fh wrote, then why do you complain so much about me disagreing as well? If you agree with it, why are you so unwilling to say so?

The comment in itself isn’t harmful, and I didn’t flag it. Actually doing as b00fh suggested is going to cause a backlash, which I though worth pointing out. Apparently there is a group here who disagree, so I suggest you go ahead and make a video comparable to the one with Trump and see what reaction you get.

Oh, goody; this tired-ass, concern trolling topic, yet again.

I guess that compels me to reiterate once again, for the people all the way in the back:

Don't start no shit, and there won't be no shit.

22 Likes

I hear you. But the nerf guillotines just don’t have the same rhetorical bite.

Maybe if they used nice fluffy pillows. The non-hypoallergenic kind should put the fear of of nothing into them.

13 Likes

16 Likes

Or maybe the comfy chair!

image

16 Likes

13 Likes

Shall we use Piketty instead?

Expert analysis will never put an end to the violent political conflict that inequality inevitably instigates.

Capital in the Twenty-first Century

13 Likes

I wasn’t expecting any of this.

14 Likes

No, and judging by his one (count 'em: one) Like over the past day most of the community here doesn’t think he was right, either. And yet no-one here except you is clutching their pearls over the comment, either.

10 Likes

Obligs:

11 Likes

It’ll be fine.

8 Likes

Gilliam was more a behind-the-scenes and animation guy, but his performance as Cardinal Fang shows he could more than hold his own with the other Pythons.

5 Likes

You did a little more than just disagree with @b00fh in your reply:

This comes across as really close to the calls for civility that only end up silencing the oppressed.

This implies a causal connection and a short progression of events between people posting pictures of guillotines and a nation-breaking war.


There are good and valid reasons to have problems with these statements, even if one doesn’t support the original comment. It is possible to disagree with two people who disagree with each other.

13 Likes

Again, real allies do not deign to tell the oppressed how, why & when they “should be” fighting their own battles.

13 Likes

If people don’t think b00fh was right, why this obsession with complaining how awful it was of me to disagree with him? Why the obsession to misrepresent what I say?

Why don’t anyone think of the poor oppressed corporate media and congressmen? (Who were the ones targetted by the video) And, of course, I made it clear in a follow up that this wasn’t what I meant either, but that never stops people from repeating the same accusations.