social media

Despotism Is the New Normal

Despotism has become our new normal. Digital tyranny, surveillance. Intolerance, cancel culture, censorship. Lockdowns, mandates, government overreach. Supply chain shortages, inflation. Police brutality, home invasions, martial law. The loss of bodily integrity, privacy, autonomy. These acts of tyranny by an authoritarian government have long since ceased to alarm or unnerve us. We have become desensitized […]

The left’s contempt for bodily autonomy during the pandemic is a gift to the right

When did parts of the left get so contemptuous of the principle of “bodily autonomy”? Answer: Just about the time they started fetishising vaccines as the only route out of the current pandemic. Only two years ago most people understood “bodily autonomy” to be a fundamental, unquestionable human right. Now it is being treated as […]

Gullibility and Poor Sportsmanship

Fool me once, shame on the trickster for resorting to trickery. Fool me twice, shame on me. When someone has earned the reputation of a trickster, one ought to be very skeptical of that trickster. Thus, to be fooled twice by the same trickster brings shame on the gullible person. The United States has been […]
The post Gullibility and Poor Sportsmanship first appeared on Dissident Voice.

The Alibi of Tyrants

Julien Charles “The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants, and it provides the further advantage of giving the servants of tyranny a good conscience.” Albert Camus On John Steppling’s Aesthetic Resistance podcast, guest Varun Mathur posited that we are witnessing – on a global scale – an event …

“Niche Marketing” (or The Algorithm of Closed Minds)

A very popular error: having the courage of one’s convictions; rather, it is a question of having the courage for an attack on one’s convictions!!! — Friedrich Nietzsche,  Critique of Religion and Philosophy, Walter A. Kaufmann, 1958, page 34 Is it necessary to say that this article is not about critical thinking and intellectual integrity […]
The post “Niche Marketing” (or The Algorithm of Closed Minds) first appeared on Dissident Voice.

Harnessing Social Media to Help Solve and Predict Crime”

On January 30, 2020, The Brennan Center for Justice sent a letter to the Los Angeles Police Department that began as such: This is a request under the California Public Records Act (“CPRA”), Cal. Gov’t Code §§ 6250-6270, on behalf of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law (“Brennan Center”). The Brennan […]
The post Harnessing Social Media to Help Solve and Predict Crime” first appeared on Dissident Voice.

Cleo Smith and The Lost Child Syndrome

In the twenty-four-hour news cycle, scraps of information become flecks of distracting gold.  Information sifters go through coverage with anorak enthusiasm.  Instead of good copy and measured consideration, journalists are encouraged to become manufacturers of news in the hope that what they produce lasts for posterity. For eighteen days, four-year old Cleo Smith could not […]

Meet the Nicaraguans Facebook Falsely Branded Bots and Censored Days Before Elections

Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter suspended hundreds of influential pro-Sandinista journalists and activists days before Nicaragua’s November 7 elections, falsely claiming they were government trolls. The Grayzone interviewed them to reveal the truth.
The post Meet the Nicaraguans Facebook Falsely Branded Bots and Censored Days Before Elections appeared first on MintPress News.