Jay Peterson - Blog

Georgia gonna Georgia

4/7/2021

I've said before that every time Georgia's gonna Georgia and some Hollywood rando starts blathering about boycotting, it's one of two reasons:
One, they never intended to work here but didn't want to waste an excuse to fire up the virtue signal.
Two, they're a grumpy Californian who's been looking for an excuse to say we're not a worthy state to practice the hallowed art of filmmaking since 2008 or so.
I still hold by that.
But I ran into a blog post that points out an interesting idea. Namely, that boycotts are effective locally, but rarely nationally and never internationally.
Which makes sense. I've seen a couple of eateries go down for good because enough people got cranky with them. But the only national boycott I can think of that was effective in the long term was Dick's after they destroyed their stock of AR's because reasons. Haven't looked at them lately but that move hurt them for at least a few quarters.
Internationally, on the other hand, the US may no longer a market that can do significant damage by its removal.
There are more moviegoers in China than there are people in America. India's not too far behind.
There are more NBA fans in China than there are Americans total. MLB is chasing that market segment too. NFL lags behind because American Football is culturally niche.
Cola drinkers, same deal.
And if any of these international companies annoy a segment of Americans, who cares?
Well, as Stacey pointed out, the people working for the internationals you're trying to boycott. A lot of whom probably agree with you, but don't have the luxury of dropping their meal ticket at the moment.

The storming of Capitol Hill

1/25/2021

I'm gonna have to set some ground rules here first.
First and foremost, I oppose political violence in all its forms.
Politics is supposed to be what happens when violence isn't the only option yet.
If you're going to make any manner of call to the tune of "But it's OK when it's OUR angry mobs!", feel free to shut up. Do so somewhere I don't control, if you must.
Moving on.
This is going to be more questions than answers, to be perfectly honest. I'm not a part of any team investigating the storming, nor am I actively talking to anyone who is. And I'm damn sure not about to teach some sort of build a better insurrection class. This is more or less going to be a collection of thoughts without conclusions.
Two things keep popping into my head as I look over the storming of capitol hill.
The first is a memory. In my younger days, when I still thought the security field was going to be my life's work, I had the chance to pick the brain of a veteran bodyguard. Once I'd gotten a couple of drinks in him, he told me that the ugly truth of executive protection is that there's really nothing you can do about a trained professional that doesn't care if they survive so long as they take out their target.
The silver lining of that ugly truth is that the vast majority of trained professionals prefer to live to spend their fee, and that the ones who don't care if they survive usually don't care to put in the needed training and experience either.
The second thing that came to mind is the learning curve of infantry leadership. Being a grunt isn't that difficult. While there's some physical rigor involved, most of the work involves maintaining skills and equipment. If you can play a team sport of any kind, you can figure out being a grunt.
The learning curve for LEADING grunts, on the other hand, is so steep it might as well be a cliff. By the time someone is effectively leading a dozen people, they're more or less a chess player's mind in a pro athlete's body. It's a big part of why most grunts muster out after their first enlistment or two.
And that's with time, resources, support, and sanctions. Trying to do so clandestinely with volunteers off the radar just makes it more difficult.
Put pins in both of those, they'll be important later.
The next thing that came to mind is that an event like the Storming of the Capitol has been building up for some time.
(Pay very close attention to discussing what the Storming WAS as opposed to what the storming COULD HAVE BEEN. People are already shuffling between them to suit their own narratives. I'll try to make the differences as blatant as possible).
I was overseas during the 2008 inauguration, but the SPLC's report shows a lot of scattered individual incidents of violence and crime around the country centered around hatred and/or opposition to President Obama.
Inauguration day of 2017, I mentioned news reports claiming that protests in D.C. alone had 200 arrested, 6 cops hospitalized, with a burning limo and smashed businesses on K street.
What with the Women's March being the day afterwards, further talk of damage was subsumed by the news cycle.
We all saw what happened this summer, starting with the death of George Floyd, so I'm not going to review that too much.
The current known damage from the Storming is 4 rioters (1 shot by an officer, 1 trampled by the crowd, 1 heart attack, and 1 stroke) and 1 police officer dead, 56 DC officers injured, and 60 Capitol officers injured, 15 of them hospitalized.
IED's were found on the Capitol grounds, DNC and RNC offices, and a case of Molotov cocktails were in one guy's truck.
Next, a brief (HA!) history of right-wing militias.
From a certain point of view, they really didn't come into prominence until federal law enforcement needed a new villain in the late 80's. Vietnam was over. The left-wing bombing campaigns of the 70's were over. The Iron curtain was crumbling. And these agencies, particularly the FBI and ATF, needed to justify their funding fast.
There's more to it than that, but in hindsight, it's not hard to see Ruby Ridge and Waco as tragic fuckups by feds too eager to justify their budgets and ROE's. Both Weaver and Koresh could have easily been arrested in nearby towns with no loss of life. Instead, sieges and unnecessary deaths happened.
Then the Oklahoma City bombing happened, and all the attention given to various militias now had the deadliest terror attack on US soil to justify it.
The weird thing about militias themselves is that although they may spawn lone wolves that go on to commit deadly attacks, a militia attacking as a group is rather unlikely. Since Oklahoma city (planned by 4 people, tops), the right-wing attacks that have successfully occurred have been by ones and twos as opposed to organized groups (The Rudolph bombings, the Charleston shooting, Charlottesville, the list goes on).
There have been a few standoffs with law enforcement (two by the Bundy family in Nevada and Oregon, once by the Montana Freemen back in the 90's) but nothing on the scale of Oklahoma City. Mostly for the same reason that we won't see another 9/11. For all the security theater, it's the exploited loopholes used by the attackers that are now forever closed that does the prevention. And no OIC wants to be in charge for the next Waco.
Another reason militias are unlikely to do much damage as groups is less obvious. While a lot of digital ink has been spilled lately about the white supremacist infiltration of law enforcement and the military, the reverse is also true. Right-wing movements are ridiculously easy to infiltrate. The FBI is a lot of things, but hurting for white dudes between 30 and 60 ain't one of them.
And infiltrate they do. The major reason we haven't heard about group attacks by militias is that they attract informants and get rolled up in the planning stages. it only hits the news a few times a year, and with no explosions or deaths to headline, they fade from memory quick.
Generally, any militia group bigger than a bowling team has at least one member reporting everything to the law. Hell, that's what got charges dropped against the Bundy family when they occupied a nature center in Oregon. When it came out that over a dozen members were federal informants, the judge threw it out. And I quote, "I am not presiding a conspiracy case with more informants than conspirators."
So, are militias capable of large-scale attacks?
Maybe.
But any wanting to encounters both the infiltration problem and the grunt leadership learning curve mentioned above.
FWIW, I do think there's some leaders at that level in right-wing militias somewhere. Some of them actively recruit veterans. And the Obama administration's downsizing of the military kicked a lot of career-minded NCO's to the curb.
But I don't think any have led or done major planning on an attack yet.
Which comes around to the storming of the capitol.
Without knowing what was planned, there's no idea of knowing what was successful.
Anything I can think of, from hostages to lynchings to electoral disruption, runs into two words:
Then What?
Remember the dilemmas above? Being good but not suicidal and a huge leadership learning curve?
I keep running into those whenever I think about what the plan was.
It's entirely possible that someone planned one of those things, and when they found their targets gone, just aborted the mission and vanished into the crowd.
But again, unless some informant was in on it and submits their knowledge as evidence in a trial, we're not going to know.
About the only thing I can say about the trials is to be ready for disappointment.
I get being furious that a pack of howling shitgibbons invaded congress, assaulted cops, and trashed the place. The disgust, the fear, the rage, I absolutely get it.
Unfortunately, we've been setting some uncomfortable precedents when it comes to prosecuting people who do such things in the context of a protest.
It doesn't help that both parties are playing for political advantage, and Trump's impeachment trial is wrapped around the entire thing.
So I expect to see a lot of wrist slaps, fines, probations, and suspended sentences when hours of video show Qboy Mcdinglenuts joining the crowd, wandering around the chamber, and then leaving.
I expect to see political system-gaming all around.
But for now I also don't expect to see a convoy of the 15th Igloo division attacking government buildings either.
And given all the rest of the bullshit that's still possible this year, I can't help but be grateful that looks to be off the table.
Take care of yourselves out there.

It feels like a doomsday device

1/20/2021

It feels like a doomsday device, which was about to explode in my face, instead got thrown off a cliff and exploded harmlessly in the canyon below.
I'm just starting to see the first trails of smoke rise up from the new crater, drawing pretty paths in the sky.
If I had a loved one at hand, I'd probably hug 'em hard enough that bruised ribs would be a potential hazard.
Instead, I've got a cigar in my pocket that I'm too tired to light.
That's what it feels like right now.

Tribes on my mind

1/8/2021

Humans are primates. Primates are social animals. We form tribes.
And tribes, across the planet and throughout history, have always had two major internal sins. Sins against the tribe itself.
I'm talking death or exile are the only answers to violators sins.
The first sin is betrayal.
In simple terms, it's choosing the success and well-being of an outsider over that of your tribe. Doesn't sound so bad today. But back in the day, this was "opening the castle gates for the enemy tribe" level shit.
Check out Romeo & Juliet. Two dumbass teenagers choosing the outsider over the tribe gets a half-dozen people slaughtered in days.
In lean years, bad years, famine years, the tribes that survived were the ones who were willing to kill the next tribe over and take their stuff. Everyone alive today, including you and me, are descended from them.
The betrayers? The ones who let the outsider in? They got killed and their stuff got taken.
The second sin has a couple of different meanings, so we'll have to work our way up to wrapping our heads around them.
The earliest term (and you socialist fucks are going to love this one) is loosely defined as "hoarding food away from the rest of the tribe."
Again, it is an act of taking away from your tribemates. Which can lead to their deaths, especially in harsh times.
But obviously we don't scream at people for specifically hoarding food from the tribe today. (toilet paper is a whole nother story)
I could call it unfairness, but that implies fair as a ground state of affairs.
We saw it in cultures that nobody would call fair as a baseline today.
Take feudalism. Nobody alive today would call this a fair society.
But even for what it was, this sin is more the realm of those who enjoy their granted rights but forsake their privileges.
Just being a feudal baron wouldn't be this sin.
But hiding in his castle and refusing to defend attacks to his vassals very much would be.
"Willful cheating in bad faith" is the closest term I can come up with that works today.
These two sins are baked into our DNA. These are the two biggest internal threats to the primitive tribes that we all descended from. And they are still what hits our emotional buttons HARD even when we try to intellectualize.
Unfortunately, tribal instincts don't upscale well. Nor do they account for nuance. the risk:reward ratio in either of those sins was so great that death or exile at the least were the most common punishments for them. Murder one person, rape one person, you MIGHT be allowed to live. But betrayal and cheating put the entire tribe at risk, and the risk of keeping the sinner alive was too great.
Keep that shit in your DNA for a couple millennia, and you can see it short-circuit your brain in real time.
When we find out someone close to us supports or voted for a cause or person we find repugnant, the BETRAYAL light kicks on in our brains. Someone in your "tribe" has chosen a dangerous and repugnant other, when they could have been supporting the tribe instead.
Why they did it doesn't matter.
Not ignorance, not focus on another issue entirely, not honest belief.
None of that compares to the BETRAYAL light kicking on.
Now, we don't live in a tribal society anymore, so death or exile usually aren't on the table.
But shunning? Easy. If you're not tied to someone by needed resources (a coworker you can't shut up in a job you can't quit, a roommate you can't afford to kick out, ect), shunning is easy.
As is ostracism. Doxxing. If you don't want to tell a betrayer how repugnant they are, there's a mob ready and willing to do it for you.
We have successfully outsourced tribal punishments.
But what about the big CHEATING light?
Well, as Americans, we have a baseline idea of what fair and just is.
And while we as a country have a certain admiration for cleverly exploiting loopholes, Willful Cheating In Bad Faith as I described above slams on that big red CHEATING light.
As sports fans, we get into fights in the stands when a referee makes a bad call.
Now scale that up.
Historically speaking, watching cops confront and kill people isn't all that significant. Part of the job since we turned the words "shire reeve" into "sheriff."
But if you keep seeing people who look like you being confronted and killed by cops while people who don't look like you keep walking away alive?
The big red CHEATING light flashes on.
Seeing the person you didn't vote for win on a procedural technicality?
The CHEATING light flashes on.
Watching people get away with shady shit that just happens to benefit them and fuck you?
The CHEATING light flashes on.
Watching people condemn you for getting violent, only to turn around a few months later and get violent themselves?
The CHEATING light flashes on.
Watching people get violent, then turn around and talk shit about you a few months later when you're getting violent?
The CHEATING light flashes on.
Bear in mind, absolutely nothing I've used as an example needs to be true for this to happen. It just needs to be presented that way just enough to flip that light on.
And then, any reasons, excuses, or circumstances face long uphill battles to get any sort of measured response.
Because our brains are back in the day when that light coming on means the person flipped it was going to get us and everyone we cared about killed.
With all that shit in mind, think back on the past few years.
No fucking wonder we're all exhausted, terrified, heartbroken, and pissed off all at once.
Those fucking lights have been going off on a regular basis for years.
I woke up this morning to find that a Capitol police officer died in the hospital. He was hit in the head with a fire extinguisher.
And all I could think of is that sometime in the future, an "unarmed" rioter is going to be shot and killed by a cop, and two people who used to like each other are going to see "BETRAYAL" going off on each other. And only one of them will remember that officer and that fire extinguisher.
So, how do we change this?
No idea.
Humanity sure as fuck hasn't tried changing these instincts.
We sure as hell know how to exploit them though.
They may not label them "BETRAYAL" and "CHEATING" or make the historical connection. But I guarantee you every political operator, rabble-rouser, PR guru and marketing suit knows how to flash those lights in a way to make people do what they want. And they're all playing everyone at once.
I mean, for fuck's sake, Among Us made a popular game out of making your character's personal "BETRAYAL!" light go off.
Knowing that it's happening only does so much. You and the person you're seeing the light on top of both have to recognize it and investigate it.
And we need to police our own tribes.
Tribes work together when leaders make subordinates behave around the other tribe.
AND when leaders in the other tribes stand back and LET THEIR OWN LEADERS DO IT.
Sitting back on your ass and insisting the other side do what you want only makes you look like someone too clueless to realize that they don't answer to you.
Romeo and Juliet again.
Act 1, scene 5. The party. For those who got distracted by the horny teenagers when that happened, it's a Capulet shindig, the Montague boys crash it. Tybalt goes to old man Capulet, asking for permission to throw hands.
And the Old Man shuts Tybalt the fuck down. Capulet makes it absolutely clear that, mortal enemies or no, they became guests the moment they walked in the door. Tybalt is NOT going to make the Old Man look like a bad host in his own house. And he's in for a world of hurt if he tries.
"Be quiet, or I'll make you quiet."
It's quite possibly one of the most peacekeeping moments in the entire show. The party didn't last forever, because tragedy. But it's clear that proper manners are extremely important when dealing with people you regularly try to kill in a place where doing so isn't ideal.
Fun side note: depending on staging, it's entirely possible the Montagues have no idea that this exchange is going on. Think about that the next time you don't see someone on the other side being told to behave.
Tribal conflicts suck.
But there are some big differences between tribal conflicts where everyone minds their manners and tribal conflicts that are complete free-for-alls.
TL:DR
Watch for your BETRAYAL and CHEATER lights going off.
And
Police your own.
Take care of yourselves out there.

Negligence vs Malice

12/17/2020

When it comes to gun rights, Trump vs. Biden has never, ever been a case of Good vs. Evil. It's much more akin to Negligence vs. Malice.

Trump doesn't give a tin shit about gun rights and never did. If he had, the city he's spent decades in and millions on wouldn't still be a festering shithole as far as personal freedoms go. But he doesn't give a shit. He's more than capable of getting a "may issue" permit in NYC for himself without even being so crude as to bribe a supervising officer for one. (Seriously, there's like 3 under indictment for that last I checked). You filthy peasants wanting the same recourse are SOL.

But Trump's legacy in gun control isn't any legislation he signed. It's in having the fucking audacity to CHANGE DEFINITIONS IN FEDERAL LAW TO SUIT HIS PURPOSES.

That's exactly what he did to bump stocks, folks. Holy fucking shit.

And there's grumblings that his ATF is chasing after pistol braces the same way.
I can't emphasize enough what a hideous level of executive overreach that was. And the Republicans let him do it to no discernible benefit outside of avoiding the wrath of his cultists.

(And cultists is the word. I have no idea how one gets that kind of power in ways that don't involve sacrificing fuckers in a bog somewhere.)

Nothing else proves the NRA's status as a bucket of sloppy uselessness than Trump's record on gun rights.

Biden?

So far I haven't heard anything from him that isn't Democrat boilerplate. Blah blah children, yadda yadda common sense, same stupid, long-debunked bullshit they've been spouting since the 90's.

The easiest and laziest way for a newly elected politician to prove to their base that they're doing something is to make a ban or a restriction.

With Democrats it's guns, with Republicans it's abortion.

Because doing so:
One, doesn't cost anything. No popular program has to be defunded, no donor sees their taxes raised for it.
Two, energizes your base.
Three, only pisses off people who weren't going to vote for you anyway.

Whatever you put forward doesn't have to have a chance at passing. You just have to put it up so you can say you tried. But those opposition so-and-so's just didn't want to work with you.

The real political capital is being spent on other things. Biden's inheriting a pandemic, a shit economy, a far-left chunk of his own party clamoring for bloody revenge (and pissed off at him for calling for unity), and a good-sized chunk of his opposition convinced he was elected under circumstances that were questionable at best (and telling him where he can put his unity).

(If it was Harris we were talking about, I would understand this. I know a gun owner in her old jurisdiction. Let's just say I never thought I'd ever learn new swear words from a zoomie and leave it at that.)

I haven't even mentioned the bare minimum 10 million (probably closer to 15M) of his constituents who armed themselves for the first time this year.

There's plenty of things to be worried about these days, people.

Incoming gun control laws are NOT high on the priority list.

Requiem for a photognome

11/29/2020

If you were a nerd of any stripe in the Atlanta area, sooner or later you would encounter the Photognome.
A squat, burly figure whose kilt and red beard could be recognized from a block away.
Soon you'd see the Camera and/or Guinness at hand regularly.
Almost as soon, you'd realized that barrel chest of his housed a massive heart.
I knew Joe Hunt well enough that he'd recognize me on sight as easily as I'd recognize him, which was close enough to be comfortable with a man who seemed as much a force of nature in his preferred stomping grounds. In places like that, it can feel that folks like yourself are a dime a dozen. Yet once he met you, he worked hard to never forget you, regardless of how generic a face in the crowd you could feel at times.
He was vibrant proof that one could be a bold, lusty gent, a quite masculine fellow, and a wonderful person, all at once. A state of being that seems endangered if not dying out in these troubled times.
For years now I've preached appreciation over objectification. I don't know if he ever read what I've written, but in the end he didn't need to. He lived it himself.
Where my words have been in my sword or at my keyboard, his were in his lenses. He had an uncanny eye for beauty, even in those who could not see it in themselves. In a world with objectifying guys with cameras by the score, he had nothing less than appreciation for the humanity of his subjects. He could see the sensual and the intimate alongside the sexual each on their own as well as intertwined, a rare gift in and of itself. And he celebrated them all. Years after I gave up the camera myself, I'd delight in by chance seeing the smiles he brought to his subjects, the looks of, "wow! that's me?"
Among scores of GWC's who merely collected what images they could harvest for their social media counts (or worse, their spank banks), he treasured those smiles.
I never saw him turned down when he asked to take pictures. But I have no doubt in my mind that he accepted declines as graciously as he stepped up to what permissions he was granted.
I told him once that he reminded me of Hans Holbein the younger, court artist to Henry VIII.
(That painting of Henry you always see in history books? It's a Holbein.)
I have no idea how close to history the incident was. But on the Tudors, Holbein was interrupted at his work on a nude portrait by Sir Robert Travistock, fiancee to his model (who was Henry's mistress at the time).
Sir Robert attacked Holbein, who threw him into a shelf for his trouble.
Convinced he would be dismissed from court for striking a nobleman, Holbein went to Henry to beg forgiveness.
Henry, finding the whole thing hilarious, convinced Holbein his position was safe.
When Sir Robert complained to Henry, Henry was singularly unimpressed, saying, "You have not to do with Master Holbein, but with me. I'll tell you frankly: if I had seven peasants, I could make seven lords. But if I had seven lords, I could not make ONE Holbein."
Give me an entire school of art, and I could not make a single Joe Hunt.
Goodnight, old friend.
You leave the worlds of both arts and men with much to live up to.
May they both strive to do so.

Gratitude

11/25/2020

Last of the pre-holiday work is done and the thanksgiving episodes are playing.
Gratitude.
There's been less death, destruction, and chaos than I thought there would be, this late in this wretched year. Not to say what did come was inconsequential. Just not as nasty as it could have. And for that, I'm grateful.
Over the years, I've spent this holiday in a war zone, in the gulf of Oman, and working late for minimum wage. This year I'm spending it with the other denizens of the Outpost, with family and loved ones available through any screen I care to use, instead of waiting in line with the dozen other fucks for old workstations still running on XP. And for that I'm grateful.
I'm fed, clothed, shoed, sheltered, entertained, and loved. And for that I'm grateful.
I live in a country full of third option seeking, loophole-exploiting, fuck-you-I-won't-do-what-you-tell-me-bellowing fuckers as compassionate and selfless as they are ambitious and audacious. Not exactly the kind of attitudes effective in mitigating the spread of a pandemic, but exactly the kinds of attitudes that will cause those who survive to recover to thrive. And for that I'm grateful.
I'm already auditioning again as well as writing my second book with more planned. And for that I'm grateful.
Celebrate safe, wear your masks if you need to be around people you don't live with, a clean test is no excuse to stop taking other precautions, and if a local authority wants you to narc on who's gathering, give the authoritarian stooge an extra fuck you from me.
You're still out there. And for that I'm grateful.

Hunkering down

11/2/2020

In the grand tradition of "If you can't do something useful, get the fuck out the way," I'm probably gonna go silent between tonight and whenever the loudest roaring dies down post-election day.
I'll still be available via messenger and whatnot. Just don't have much to say from my lawn chair with a drinking skull holder that won't get lost in the sauce.
In the meantime, as someone who's survived their share of truly wacky shit:
As long as you're still alive, you got more options than you think.
Take care of yourselves out there.

sighs, sips my morning Dr. Pepper

10/27/2020

I've given this advice three times this week and I'm getting sick of it.
If you're shopping for a gun, now, because you're worried about civil unrest and suchlike?
Stop.
If your home has never been within, oh, ten miles of a riot this year?
Civil unrest ain't coming for you anytime soon. Deal with it.
If your home is within that ten-mile radius?
Taking next week off and going somewhere else is easier, cheaper, and safer than anything you can possibly do as a new shooter with a new gun in that timeframe.
Wait till next year when Ollivander's guns, ammo, & pawn opens up and we'll see if we can hook you up then.
Oh, and if you're an antimasker AND trying to get your first gun now?
Just go fuck yourself.
With something wildly inappropriate.
Seriously, it's a free country.
Anything's a dildo if you got the courage.
This is the way!
*sighs, sips my morning Dr. Pepper.*

Some Points

10/15/2020

Point one: It's pretty much impossible for a non-government entity to commit censorship.
Point one-A: Coercive and intimidating self-censorship practices undertaken in a devil's deal to avoid legal censorship is absolutely possible and happens all the time (see the MPAA).
Point two: Both wings of American politics are pissed off at social media platforms for, essentially, suppressing what they like and allowing what they don't. Wrap it up in whatever wrapper you like: foreign interference, deep fake, lies, slander, what have you, it's all more or less the same when you open the box.
Point two-A: Getting the bulk of our news from a single platform run by a guy who looks like Data's stand-in on Star Trek stepped off the set for a smoke probably wasn't the best idea ever, but it was free, easy, and popular, and we're all about that.
Point three: Aforesaid platforms plan on still being here and still being privately controlled regardless of election results, preferably with as much freedom to do so as possible.
Point four: Social media corporate cultures lean at least somewhat left. Traditional media platforms lean by a significant majority left.
Point four-A: Traditional media overwhelmingly went for the Dems in 2016 and got massive levels of egg on their collective face thanks to Trump's win.
Point five: if Trump wins, about all he can do is bluster at media platforms the same way he has for the last few years. The right's already demonstrated that they're not willing to try messing with section 230. Because they know social media platforms are their best defense and counteroffense against traditional platforms. It's not the 90's anymore, falling back to talk radio isn't a viable option now.
Point six: if Biden wins, especially with one or both houses behind him, the stakes are potentially far higher. Payback for four years of "how dare you let that happen" could and would totally be on the agenda. Punishing social platforms for promoting wrongthink, whether that's my eliminating section 230 or other means, would be easily doable. As described in point one-A above, they don't have to repeal the first Amendment to punish platforms if it's arranged that they bleed legal fees defending the actions of their users in court.
Point seven: We're already years past when the ACLU stopped giving a shit about free speech. The left will gladly watch it go, secure in the knowledge that the only people silenced will be Nazis, haters, -ists, -phobes, and other undesirables. And they'll sleep soundly, secure in the knowledge that such things have no way of coming back to bite them in the ass later.
The poor fuckers.
Long story short, more people getting kicked off of more platforms, usually for being somewhere on the right and not keeping their mouth shut.
Ready for this wretched year to be over, but it's not cold enough to hibernate yet.
Take care of yourselves out there.