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#541 Re: The Garden » Current Events Thread » 309 weeks ago
On the chat about tech and data, here's a take from a guy in tech (me):
Don't trust Chinese products. That means avoid Huawei/Xiaomi phones, don't use TikTok etc. Also don't use that FaceApp thing - run by a Russian company.
Do sites and apps from Western companies do a lot of shit with your data that you probably wouldn't like if you looked into it? - Yes. But, the regulations on what can be done with your data in the US and especially in the EU are way tougher than elsewhere in the world. They don't go far enough though. You're still being harvested and that data is being used to sell access to your eyes and mind to advertisers, academic researchers and even governments from all over the world.
If you want to get a sense of what Facebook do with your data read Mindfuck by Christopher Wylie. Great book, fascinating on the data science front which is covered in a really accessible manner and on the electioneering front. (tidbit: he was part of a company that was testing the phrases "Drain the swamp" and "Build the wall" in 2014. Their official client was the Cruz campaign, but Donald was an off the book private client). You folk who are totally skeptical on any Trump campaign shenanigans in 2016 involving dark money or Russians - you probably won't like parts of it but it's a firsthand account from someone who actually saw this stuff. Even if you read those parts and think it's all horseshit the rest is still interesting.
We all say advertising doesn't work on us - but if ads didn't demonstrably work companies wouldn't keep paying for them. Fact is they do, and when it goes beyond ads and becomes paid for awareness/disinformation campaigns that don't even run as ads but are run from posting manually in Facebook Groups, WhatsApp group chats, message boards etc. it becomes a lot harder to realise when you are being worked.
On an election related front - did you all see the thing about how the Trump campaign didn't organise buses back from a rally to the car park for his supporters. Many were left stranded out in the cold and had to go to hospital. Obviously not DT's fault, he wouldn't deal with that shit personally, but total shitshow from whoever does event management for his campaign.
#542 Re: The Garden » Current Events Thread » 309 weeks ago
So, this is gonna be the legal challenge, eh? Votes on election night should determine the winner, not anything afterward. Networks should just not declare any winners then. Only the media declares winners on election night.
States don't even start certifying results until Nov. 10. Some deadlines are in December. The electors don't even vote until Dec. 14. He's just shockingly ignorant of how elections work--or thinks we are.
Large portions of the public in most countries are ignorant of how their electoral systems work. They are then even more ignorant of how counting the votes work.
Total sidebar, not aimed at you bigbri:
As an outsider to this I find it the conversation about mail in voting being a major fraud risk totally bizarre. Most other countries have mail in voting and its fine - if the US mail in system is so screwed up that it can be scammed so easily, instead of demanding it not count why not demand it be fixed and propose how it be fixed.
#543 Re: The Garden » Covid 19 » 309 weeks ago
AtariLegend wrote:So that means the benefits of any possible vaccine are also going to quickly wane. At least one study said that 85% of those infected wore their masks all the time!
Not quite, immunity from infection is apparently never as strong as what you can get from a vaccine. Does suggest a vaccine that gives immunity forever is a long shot. This may be something like the flu shot where folk need to take it each year - potentially even more frequently.
Key thing is you can get the virus to almost die out if you cut off opportunities for it to spread. If you deployed enough vaccine and got +70% to be immune for a few months that would possibly be enough.
#544 Re: The Garden » Current Events Thread » 309 weeks ago
Wow, I think it's right, or at least not intentionally misleading. At least NBC says it is:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-e … in-results
If you filter the absentee ballots to returned, it has the information from Targetsmart.
That NBC tracker is pretty interesting, diving into the early vote returns for the battleground states. Looks like it will really come down to these undecided blocks - the picture doesn't look as bleak for Don in many of these states as polls suggest when comparing the registered party returns - but those undecided blocks in many states are sizeable.
Doesn't look like there are going to be many (if any) states flipped for Don, it's all about retention for him.
#545 Re: The Garden » Current Events Thread » 309 weeks ago
As documented as those academic studies you claim you have that prove there are 72 genders? I’ll keep waiting for you to produce those too. I’ll trust Mueller over conspiracy types on the net. “Collusion” was the entire crux of their conspiracy. It didn’t happen. But yes, Russia spent $100k on Facebook memes.
I know Buzzfeed must be credible in your eyes, but the rest of us recognize that the media is officially acting on behalf of the Biden campaign to shield him from hard questions. Feel free to pick any interview the past 4 months if you’re not sure.
You are clearly emotionally invested in all this Biden stuff being true and are really prickly and aggro about me asking for links. I even said what has supposedly been revealed the past 24 hours is disgusting if true. I just asked for someone to link me to stuff about this because all I am finding is folk talking on twitter and poorly written blogs.
Not sure where Buzzfeed came into this, I didn't mention them. Also not sure where I said there are "academic studies that prove there are 72 genders", you're being hyperbolic.
You keep talking about Mueller, his headline finding was that he could not find evidence of direct collusion and cooperation between the Russian state and the Trump campaign. The report itself documented many links between the campaign and the Russian state though.
Anyway, chill the fuck out dude. I just asked for some sourcing and instead got your defensive post where you dredged up a previous debate in this thread and went off on Buzzfeed. Take a walk or do whatever you do to relax (such as making a fake account to troll the politics section of a very quiet Guns N Roses fan forum).
#546 Re: The Garden » Current Events Thread » 309 weeks ago
The Russia links are well documented and are still being investigated. Whether there was “collusion” is unknown, there were definite attempts by the Russian state to cultivate relationships with people who orbit republican circles, as well as firms that were eventually used by the Trump campaign.
Has any of this been reported and verified by anywhere reputable? Like at all. All I see is dubious blog sites and folk on twitter talking about this.
Have these photos and videos been verified?
If any of this is true it’s disgusting. How Joe Biden is involved in it though I don’t understand, anyone care to bring me up to speed? This whole laptop story so far has seemed sketch, not just in what it is supposedly revealing but also in how it is playing out.
#547 Re: The Garden » Current Events Thread » 310 weeks ago
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/tr … ction-map/
Cool tool for picking your own map. They've run 40,000 simulations (and still are) whenever there is an update to polling that then goes through their model. As you make choices it discards any simulation that didn't include your pick for that state and then recalculates the odds with the remaining simulations. Is pretty neat.
Seems certain that Trump needs Florida, and even with Florida it could be tight for him to get a win.
#548 Re: The Garden » Current Events Thread » 310 weeks ago
Please don't impugn my motives because you're completely ignorant on the subject. Until you can provide a compelling answer otherwise, I'll continue to use the historical oxford definition of "gender".
Your ignorance is astounding. Go read.
Busy tonight, can't unpick everything you said right now. Will just leave this though.
I'll continue to use the historical oxford definition of "gender".
https://www.oed.com/viewdictionaryentry … this%20way.
The state of being male or female as expressed by social or cultural distinctions and differences, rather than biological ones; the collective attributes or traits associated with a particular sex, or determined as a result of one's sex. Also: a (male or female) group characterized in this way.
Also another Oxford definition: https://www.lexico.com/definition/gender
Either of the two sexes (male and female), especially when considered with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones. The term is also used more broadly to denote a range of identities that do not correspond to established ideas of male and female.
In short, go read. If you actually want to know about any of this stuff just google "how many genders are there?", "third gender", "gender netural" and read articles, academic writings, the associated wikis for these topics, etc.
#549 Re: The Garden » Current Events Thread » 310 weeks ago
Texas is a massive surprise. I agree trump all but takes it, but in 2016 & prior it was never a thought. Then in 2018, not saying he was a great candidate, but I think Beto Orourke had that surprise Senate run. Kinda shook the state up a little bit. Now this. It has to be concerning to Republicans as a whole for long term strategy. Going from a never lose to light red.
Arizona sorta makes sense to me, McCain had to be an icon there, Californians moving there. Immigration probably goes both ways but people there probably are closer to the rhetoric trump arose out of it. It's usually been a swing state I think, I'm surprise its in play for trump.
What shocks me is the southern states of NC, SC & GA. I think trump loses minimum of one of them.
One thing that probably deserves looking at in this election and future ones is demographic shifts - some stalwart red states may be up for grabs in the near future. It's been talked about for years growing that BAME communities and populations are growing and eventually if trends continue to the point where that M will be redundant as they won't be a minority.
It doesn't take for the balance to get to say 60/40 BAME to traditional white folk for that to have effects in elections. Something closer 40/60 (maybe less, maybe more) could be enough to flip some races, when the EC works on a winner takes all basis where all you need is 50.0001% to take all the votes - especially when one side deploys so much race-baiting rhetoric.
You toss in these demographic shifts along with Trump presidency gaffes, COVID mishandling etc. and you perhaps have a recipe for a Republican disaster. :shrug: will be interesting to see what happens in a couple weeks time.
#550 Re: The Garden » Current Events Thread » 310 weeks ago
Randall Flagg wrote:I elected science deniers? I've never voted for Trump (though I plan to in 3 weeks). Who is voting for the people who think men can become women, that men can have periods and that a woman can have a penis and testicles?
It's funny how nobody ANYWHERE wants to answer this.
I mean... they can. There's decades of writing and academic study on gender, how it isn't binary and isn't fixed after being assigned at conception birth - even hundreds of years ago there are examples of gender fluid ideas in Native American tribes. If you are referring to biological sex of a person then fine sure, that's just describing someone's physiology though.
Flagg, you say that trans peoples "deserve to be loved and find happiness" and that they should be treated with "dignity and respect"... but also write
It's been 3 weeks since SGT Barnes got her medication to keep her fabricated vagina from closing shut.
Hardly a respectful tone that treats trans people with any dignity. Frankly, at best I doubt you actually give a shit about them at all and at worst I actually see a bit of hatred in the way that you write about them.
Anyway in political news... any of you see the polling about Texas these past few days?! I expect Trump still takes it but why the fuck is that state polling so tightly. Surely a bad sign for the Trump campaign generally.... right? Also... why is Arizona in play?!
