BBC Censors Speech

No Trump Derangement syndrome here.

I've got to pass this on since it's something which needs to get publicity:

The BBC has decided to censor the opening lecture of a series they invited Rutger Bregman to deliver.  They removed the sentence in which he describes Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” This line was taken out of a lecture they commissioned, reviewed through the full editorial process, and recorded four weeks ago in front of 500 people in the BBC Radio Theatre. He was told the decision came from the highest levels within the BBC.

This has happened against his wishes, and he's deeply troubled by it. Not because people can’t disagree with his words, but because self-censorship driven by fear (Trump is threatening to sue the BBC) should concern all of us.

This needs to get out there for a lot of reasons. 

I used to like to think that Auntie was trustworthy, but she ain't.

Oligarchies are also totaliaraian states.

While someone may not like "collectivist" belief such as socialism or communism, they should start to realise that monopoly capitalism and Oligarchic societies are just as dangerous a proposition. In this case, I am referring to "Big Tech".

I left Fesses de Bouc in late July because I was getting tired of its attempts to control my opinions. I have long disliked Microsoft and Google for various reasons, mostly due to their poor quality products.

Yes, there is an alternative, but I'm not really happy with Ubuntu 20.04. The misspellings this time are due to the fact that the mouse is out of whack in this iteration of Ubuntu. That means the zoom is also.

I am writing on a nearly microscopic screen.

But, that's an aside.

Youtube is censoring various news sources, usually right wing ones. I may not agree with Skynews Australia on most points, but it's one of the only places to get dissenting opinions about the Biden Administration. They have been shutdown from posting for the last few days by Youtube, which is part of Google's empire.

The concept of Free Speech is to allow for dissenting opinions in the marketplace of ideas. Shutting down dissenting opinions, especially ones which aren't commonly held is dangerous to society.

Creepy Joe and Horrible Harris probably wouldn't be in charge of the show had the dirt on them been aired early on. Now, it's looking like there will be a republican party landslide. "Another 1994".

Update: Sky News was banned by Youtube for alleged violation of its Covid-19 policies.
https://www.6pr.com.au/disgusting-sky-news-australia-banned-from-youtube-over-covid-19-misinformation/

Je Suis Charlie!

Charlie Hebdo was an equal opportunity satirical journal in that they attacked pretty much everybody.  In fact, they had more run ins with Christians than Muslims, but that has gotten lost because they were attacked by "mooslims".  Some people are willing to distance themselves from Charlie Hebdo because of its outspokeness in its satire.
Unfortunately, I have to say that I can side with Charlie Hebdo for wanting to be deliberately offensive in order to try and make a point. 

I know that some people would like to imply that I am racist for my Dred Scott post, but that misses the point. I would have liked to have it so that "Dixie" played badly on an out of tune banjo played when one landed on this post. It was meant to point out the attitude toward blacks when Dred Scott was posted. Alas, I didn't know about Somersett's case when I wrote originally wrote that post or it would have been a different post.  However, one has to point out that slavery was accepted in the US and some still defend that institution.

Then, there are also the posts on Meleanie Hain, who was the pro-gun pinup who managed to get herself killed by a gun, even though she had a gun for protection.  Alas, Meleanie is one of far too many people who have died from pro-gun bullshit.

In fact, there is a serious problem with trying to satirise the pro-gun (and many other of the reality challenged right's positions) in that without some clue that it is satire, it's hard to tell the satire from the real thing.  This is something called Poe's Law.  Thus, someone who may be deadly serious in their blogging actually comes off as a sick parody of their positions.

It's a scary world when it is hard to satirise the crazies around us.

And harder to have a serious debate on the issues.