Tag Archives: ethics

Censorship

Posted on by
Reply

Jack Dorsey is expanding his censorship function, this time under the guise of something he’s euphemistically calling “Birdwatch.”

The project, which is called Birdwatch, will be available to users on a first-come, first-served basis. It will allow users to write notes that provide context to tweets they believe require additional information to be digested by the public responsibly.

First come, first served—so no pretense of an actual cross-section of the speaking or political spectrums. And birders’ definition of “public responsibility,” not posters’ or readers’ definition(s). Can’t have that.

Then there’s Keith Coleman, Twitter Vice President Product:

Birdwatch allows people to identify information in Tweets they believe is misleading or false, and write notes that provide informative context. We believe this approach has the potential to respond quickly when misleading information spreads, adding context that people trust and find valuable[.]

Never mind that, for the foreseeable future, “Birdwatch” will exist separately from the Twitter timeline so that Twitter users won’t be able to see this…contextualizing…commentary.

Here’s the kicker, though:

“Birdwatch” users will be allowed to rate the notes of other Birdwatch users, an attempt to prevent bad-faith individuals from undermining the goal of the system.

Gotta keep those censors contextualizers contextualizing from the right slant, after all.

Discovery

Posted on by
Reply

…can be fun. I’ve often said that in a variety of other venues. Here’s an example of the fun that can be afforded by discovery. Of course, what I’m talking about is the legal process that kicks off most any legal proceeding, a stage during which all parties to a litigation are required to show to all the other parties, voluntarily or under subpoena, everything they have that bears on the matter being litigated.

Dominion Voting Systems has filed, in the DC District, a $1.3 billion lawsuit against lawyer Rudy Giuliani over the latter’s claims regarding Dominion’s varied failures to perform during the just concluded national elections. (Aside: the amount being demanded by Dominion should be a clue to the degree of irrationality of the company’s case.)

The existence of Dominion’s suit now allows Giuliani and his team to investigate the company’s history, finances and practices fully. Here’s Giuliani re the suit:

We get to see the machines that are crooked, the ballots that are fraudulent, and if we’re wrong, we will be made fools of. But if we’re right, a lot of them will go to jail. So, let’s have a trial by combat.

Critically related to that is the fact that Giuliani and his team will have access to all of Dominion’s machines and software that were used in the elections, and those machines and that software must be intact, including all election-related matters as they existed on those machines during the elections and during the ballot-counting on Election Day and the ensuing days.  [T]he actual machines used on 11/3 AND they have to be unwiped — still containing the results from that day, as radio talk show host Joe Pagliarulo put it.

A Teachers Union Rebellion

Posted on by
Reply

The Chicago Pubic Schools district intends to reopen kindergarten through 8th grade for in-class schooling and in-person teaching on 1 February. To that end, the teachers were required to show up for work last Monday to prepare for the reopening.

The Chicago Teachers Union refused.

The union’s excuse was their holding of

the clear and present danger that [in-person classes and teaching] poses to the health of our families and school communities.

This, of course, is nothing more than an exercise in power for power’s sake and a preliminary round leading to demands for more money. The “clear and present danger” has long since been debunked. Children are the least likely to get sick from the Wuhan Virus, both in relative terms and in absolute, and those that do carry the virus are extremely unlikely to spread it, either among themselves or to adults.

The CTU badly wants decertification and the rebellious teachers fired for cause.

The only question is whether Chicago’s management has the moral courage to do so. Sadly for the kids, that’s doubtful.

Contempt

Posted on by
Reply

Here’s an empirical example of the contempt in which Progressive-Democrats hold us ordinary Americans, this one from California.

California leaders are now saying key data on the virus is not being made public because it would “mislead” the public.

And

With no end in sight, 98% of the state’s population was recently under stay-at-home orders, when the governor decided to lift restrictions on some areas, yet unable to explain why.

Department of Public Health spokeswoman Ali Bay:

At the moment the projections are not being shared publicly.
These fluid, on-the-ground conditions cannot be boiled down to a single data point—and to do so would mislead and create greater uncertainty for Californians[.]

So why not pass along all the data and let California’s citizens evaluate and decide for themselves? Because they, the rest of us in the eyes of our Betters, are just too grindingly stupid to be trusted with thinking for themselves, ourselves.

We must have our Betters do for us.

DPH has now, post hoc, released some of those data. But they still refuse to explain how those data influenced, much less informed, their decisions. Apparently California citizens remain too unutterably stupid to be able to do their own evaluations.

Rules for Thee-In-Chief

Posted on by
Reply

Recall that President Joe Biden “one day one,” or thereabouts, issued an Executive Order requiring all personnel—no exceptions or caveats contained in his EO—to wear masks at all times on Federal property (among other locations).

Recall, further, that just hours after he signed that EO, Biden was maskless at the Lincoln Memorial along with daughter Ashley and “older grandchildren,” who also were maskless.

Asked about that, White House Press Secretary Jennifer Psaki said that Biden has “bigger issues” to worry about than following his own rule about wearing a face mask on federal property, including, apparently, “celebrating” a “historic day in our country.”

Psaki concluded her answer with the mask mandate had “sent a message” to the public.

Indeed, it has.

Rules are for the little people. Progressive-Democrats and their doings are too important for such petty things.