Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield (Post 523477)

If you don't see the ironic use of "pilates instructor" or "hairdresser," I'd advocate some DMT. See the mechanical elves... let them carry you away from angry-and-righteous-pants land.

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski (Post 523468)

I can not watch Maher. In fact, I can cancel HBO. I just can't tie the two, or threaten the second if they don't take Maher off. I got all that, and since I don't want to be low, I will behave accordingly.

My fear though, is what if an HBO rep calls me and asks why I cancelled?

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield (Post 523475)

An angry reaction by a number of people which gets the attention of HBO execs and causes them to fire Maher is fine. That's an organic process ending in a business decision. An angry reaction by a number of people demanding that Maher lose his job and pushing for that result is not within the marketplace of ideas. It's not a response to an idea at all. I'll explain by example:

Maher made a dumb racially insensitive joke a few months ago.

In response, normal people said, "That was a foul. Bad joke, bad idea. Bad Bill. Don't do something like that again." Other normal people, like Ice Cube, came on his show and took him to the woodshed about his bad judgment in making the joke.

That is the marketplace of ideas at work. Maher offered an idea -- that it was okay for him to make that joke, and that the joke was funny. The marketplace said, "Nope, Bill. That joke is not okay. It sucks and it's offensive. Bad fucking idea."

Bill lost. If his idea, or his joke, were a company, it'd have failed. If it were a stock, it'd have gone to zero. And consequently, everyone learned a lesson about boundaries. And Maher, whose program showcases important issues and important guests (climate change almost every week, to name one of many) remains a source of useful and enlightening entertainment (for a TV crowd).

But... If the Twitter mob had its way, much as dipshit right wingers threw Maher off of HBO in 2001 for telling the truth (that the 9/11 hijackers were not cowards by any stretch of the imagination), Maher and his show would have ended. This is not a competition of ideas. This is retribution. It's childish anger -- and it's the low seeking to take down their betters. It's a bully with a Twitter feed seeking to preclude the competition of Maher's dumb joke and the public's view of it within the marketplace of ideas. It's seeking to attack not the idea, but the source of it. It's also weak. It suggests that the idea might not fail or be sufficiently rejected on its own.

I find many opinions and ideas repugnant and stupid and offensive. But should I seek to silence their speakers in reply to them? Or should I seek to express why and how such views are flawed and stupid and offensive? Clearly, for the thinking person, the smart and evolved person, the latter is the preferred course. (It's not even up for debate.)

If you say something I don't like, I've the right to tell your boss to fire you for it. But I would hope, and I trust this would be the case, that your boss would say, "Fuck you" to me in response. But as you correctly note, if the mob gets large enough and loud enough, in many instances, a board will fire the offending comic or pundit regardless of whether the mob has asked for that redress. That's unfortunate. But I don't blame the mob for that. Should the mob demand the offender be fired, however, fuck that mob. Fuck that deeply un-American mob and its childish, thuggish behavior. And yes, they are low. He who defies the spirit of free speech in that regard - and that defies it - is low.

Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall (Post 523481)

Dude, you already fucked up by telling us you're going to cancel HBO. I'm going to do it too now, which makes you the head of a boycott mob.

TM

Originally Posted by Adder (Post 523483)

So, the President was accused of rape (again) and it's sorta not a thing. That's depressing.

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield (Post 523485)

Kavanaugh/Avenatti Effect.

Fire at the bear, kill it. Otherwise...

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski (Post 523486)

https://www.google.com/amp/freewilli...last-night/amp

Sort of on point- Brooklyn Bazaar, which is a midsize (900) venue, rented the space to someone putting on a show. The promoter/renter booked Louis CK, without advertising the fact (a festival). Louis came out and the crowd reacted, surprised, happy maybe? 900 people; some had to be pissed?

BK small press not happy. The venue distanced itself really quickly.

Is it weird that a venue had to worry about being seen as a place that would book him? Louis and his bad acts hit members of the NYC comedy/improv community so maybe it’s understandable?

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski (Post 523484)

I’m the top of the low? Deal!!!

Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall (Post 523489)

McConnell, acting through the Supreme Court, has just destroyed democracy.

TM

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield (Post 523490)

Not necessarily. Look to the state constitution instead: https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news...-20180207.html

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield (Post 523490)

Not necessarily. Look to the state constitution instead: https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news...-20180207.html

Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall (Post 523492)

You're insane. You think Texas (and every single Republican state) isn't going to immediately gerrymander the fuck out of themselves with computer programs and algorithms to make sure they never ever turn blue? These state decisions will be few and far between.

This country is being fucked in the ass dry. And Republicans are doing the fucking.

TM

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield (Post 523493)

If the state constitution has a free and equal voting clause like PA’s, a state Supreme Court would be hard pressed not to do as PA’s did. And PA is insanely corrupt, and its courts very political.

You’ll win some, you’ll lose some. But SCOTUS is not the final word here in every state.