Too bad Isreal doesn’t care, and will almost certainly indiscriminately bomb them anyways.

Multiple employees beat up a gay man after he had some PDA with his partner. No matter how you look at it the optics are horrible. Short of Mr. Dingus having a weapon or shouting slurs or something like that: there’s no justification for the employees to beat and attack him.

I feel like you’re jumping through several hoops to put the blame back on the person who was beaten by multiple people.

And then one of the men, pretty forcefully, like, pushed me out of the way on my shoulder,” Dingus said. “And then, you know, next thing I know, that kind of just, I think, sparked the rest of them. … They all just kind of started attacking me at that point, dragging me back through the floor and continuously punching me in my head.”

They essentially gang assaulted Mr. Dingus, and you believe it’s only because of some PDA? I highly doubt it, and believe fully that this is a case of homophobia. And almost certainly a hate crime too.

You’re such a fascist defending loser.

Fuck off fascist

The little fascist went to a counter protest with a rifle as an agitator. He was looking for a reason to use that gun, and definitely manufactured the exact thing he was looking for. Don’t be such an utter dipshit.

It’s not Occams Razor to point out the US’ complete bias towards Israel? It’s not Occams Razor to assume employers consistently act in bad faith in the US? I believe him when he says he was forced out, it wasn’t too long ago that a nurse was fired because she called out Palestinian genocide.You sound incredibly naive.

Did you also even read the article? There are literal emails referencing/heavily hinting at the removal of any reference to Palestinian mother’s starving. Something he was willing to do, but ultimately his whole slideshow was canceled. And right before the end of the conference he was at: he forced to resign. Yet you’d say it’s just a coincidence.

Well you’re making a whole lot of assumptions yourself. And mine are based on Occams Razor and the US governments consistent actions to stifle free speech that is critical of Israel. The US government has a vested interest in stopping people from revealing the horrors of Israel’s Genocide.

And that “contract ending” (firing) came about because of his views on Israel’s Genocide. Him being a government contractor is besides the point since there was almost certainly governmental pressure to remove him. Whether it was hard or soft pressure.

Late last week, Smith said he got a call from the company that contracted his position with USAID. He was told he could either resign or be terminated over “personality differences.”

Forcing someone to either resign or be fired is pretty much firing them.

There is no justification for the shooting. Failure to follow orders and shouting obscenities, even while carrying a weapon, doesn’t justify murder by police. This is another case of their blatant incompetence/malice when dealing with any tense situation.

In a just society, a cops job would be able to de-escalate and resolve the problem as cleanly as possible and with as little use of violence as possible. We don’t live in a just society though, so the cops just shot him and lied saying he aimed a gun at them to justify their murder. Meanwhile, white mass shooters are taken alive and given Burger King for their effort if they hurt the right people.

YouTube and Instagram have features that are in direct competition with TikTok. YouTube has even been more aggressive in promoting themselves as the TikTok alternative. On top of that the US government has an incentive to keep them (Google and Meta) happy; since the US routinely spies on its own (and other countries) citizens through these companies.

I’d love to see any evidence of TikTok acting on behalf of any country (especially China) as a hostile actor, or even any evidence of legitimate election interference. If anything banning TikTok is a significantly more hostile response from the US since it silences another forum for free speech.

Social media is a cancer, but this ban is such obvious propaganda. The only reason TikTok was banned because the US government doesn’t have free reign to spy on its users like it does with Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc.

If the US government truly cared about social media and it’s affects they would be regulating all of it. Instead they’re trying to ban TikTok while screaming their heads off about China every chance they get. And that’s before mentioning the extremely shady way they passed this; attaching it as a rider through a government ‘aid’ bill.

Its because the company literally paid shills to stump for them in person, call Congress, etc.

The way it was presented was that they paid average users to call Congress which is disingenuous. I’ll admit I was wrong when I came to the influencers being paid for in person events, but that’s only a smaller group of people and events. The vast majority were not paid and did so of their own volition.

Edit: Didn’t realize OP and the replier were different people. That’s also on me.

literally paid shills

No *one outside of some influencers were paid lmao. People contacted Congress but they weren’t paid, and a quick Google search brought up zero result of people being paid *outside of the influencers. So I’d love to see where you’re sourcing this from.

Edit: Correction - about 30 influencers were paid to visit events for Tik Tok. I’ll rescind saying that literally no one was paid: that’s point is wrong. My main point was that average users weren’t paid to call into Congress. And the vast majority that called in or have talked out against the ban did so of their own volition rather than being paid as implied by OP’s comment

I think at this point we may be in general agreement with disagreements on specifics. I don’t want to make a billion posts and be overly semantic; so I’ll say I can generally agree with that.

Harry Potter is a big enough IP for her to ride that fame and money for the rest of her life. A lot of people will only ever know her through that and continue to hold reverence for her. That’s more what I was referring to in terms of prolific.

And ultimately her drivel will go viral regardless of if we want it to or not. Some billionaires have a habit of soaking up as much attention as possible. In my opinion it’s better to speak against it and hope she eventually disappears permanently. The alternative is say nothing and let her words fester and possibly infect more minds.

But that’s exactly my point: She wasn’t cancelled. She continues to make hand over fist in cash while maintaining her status as a billionaire and prolific writer. All while using her money and reputation to ruin trans people’s lives while crying as the victim.

If you’re tired of hearing about JK Rowling that’s valid. If I never heard of her again I’d be more than happy. But the point is that she continues to gain coverage/attention in her fight against trans rights with startlingly effective results. So long as trans people are being persecuted then in my opinion we can’t leave these things be. Because silence will only embolden those with these ways of thinking.

I apologize if I’ve been short with you. The last OP kept acting like they knew me or have any context for why I feel the way that I do. I’m very opinionated on the subject; but the people I love are affected by issues like this so I have to be.

You can speak for yourself in that regard. I work with, hangout with, donate to, and live with trans people. The issue is a very deep and real one to me because transphobia affects every aspect of my loved ones lives. On top of that: defending tranphobes actively helps and emboldens the right.

The right want nothing more than the ability to say and do whatever they want with impunity. I will call out bigoted acts every time because that’s part of combatting them. Not placating these ideas as if they’re kids that don’t know better.

Again, JK Rowling has never engaged with the trans community in good faith. She deserves literally nothing; and unless she has a gargantuan reversal of thoughts and actions then she can fuck off forever.

Birds of a feather flock together, guess that’s why you’re defending JK Rowling. Cancel culture is a made up term used to place blame for someone’s bad actions on the victims/group calling it out. Before the made up term “cancel culture” it was just called consequences.

Cry all you want about something made up, JK Rowling deserves no sympathy and is an utter piece of shit. The fact that you’re so insistant on that tells me everything I need to know about your feelings towards trans people.