Links - 15th October 2019 (1)

No, Jonathan Haidt is Not Like a Slavery Apologist - "Eve Fairbanks, in an essay for the Washington Post, argues that many of the writers on the so-called “reasonable right,” a group that includes such seemingly benign figures as Bari Weiss and Jonathan Haidt, are making many of the same arguments and using much the same language as proslavery advocates in the American South... In one sense, the argument is too silly to merit a serious response. The fact that defenders of slavery have in the past appealed to reason and civility no more discredits anyone who appeals to those values than the Nazis’ love of calisthenics discredits anyone who exercises. But the essay does raise, in an absurd, wrong-headed way, an interesting question about the fate of civility and free speech in a society that no longer operates on shared moral premises. Free speech principles were often at stake in the antebellum controversy over slavery. In every case, proslavery advocates took the offensive in seeking to suppress the rights of their adversaries. Abolitionists attacked slavery as an institution, but they never seriously questioned the right to advocate on its behalf. Slaveholders, by contrast, fought to suppress free speech whenever they had a plausible chance of doing so... The resilience of any free society is revealed by its tolerance for dissent. This was the proud boast of the North and an unavoidable embarrassment to the South... While traveling in the antebellum South, the journalist and Irish immigrant E.L. Godkin explained why Southerners preferred to rely on mobs rather than laws...
'As long as it is only ‘the mob’ or ‘the public’ that maltreat a man for free speech, the credit of the state is saved…'
The emperor of Austria, Godkin continued, could only dream of angry mobs willing to do his dirty work for him, gratis. How that Emperor would have swooned at the glorious potential of Twitter! Here then is a contrast worth pondering, as we all tend to assume that the primary threat to free speech comes from the state. Judged purely by their toleration of dissent, Abraham Lincoln’s administration was far more despotic than that of Jefferson Davis. The conclusion is absurd, but it suggests an unsettling reality. Pro-Confederate editors in the North faced possible imprisonment; any pro-Union editors in the South were murdered or otherwise silenced well before President Davis could be bothered with their existence. A truly illiberal society does not require the government to suppress dissent."

Meme - *"Joke" pie lands on man's face*
Woman: "Hah!"
*"Joke" pie lands on man's face*
Woman: "Hah hah!"
*"Joke" pie lands on woman's face*
Woman's article: "When comedy becomes offensive and disrespectful"

Segments of Random Thoughts - Posts - "-Mother and her lesbian lover take son from father
-Psychologically torments son for being boy
-Escapes child protective services
-Performs makeshift reassignment on boy, 8
-Boy in constant pain
-Boy stabbed to death in sleep at 9 years old"

Missing Chinese teen found with Polynesian family - "A Chinese teenager on the police missing persons list told a Polynesian family his name was "Bob" and lived happily with them for nearly three weeks as police combed the streets of south Auckland for him.Sixteen-year-old Chunji Gao, also known as Gary, was last seen leaving his home in suburban Botany on April 16.Police said they had growing fears for his safety because he spoke limited English and took no clothing, possessions or his wallet.However, he was found yesterday with the Polynesian family in the south Auckland suburb of Otara, where he had been living happily for several weeks, Sergeant Brett Meale of Otara police said.Mr Meale said he slept in a park for three nights before one of the children of the family befriended him... "They provided him with clothing and food and he is learning to eat taro"... His father was relieved his son had been found, but the boy wanted to stay with the Polynesian family."

Lucas Lynch - Perhaps one of the most interesting things I... - "Perhaps one of the most interesting things I experienced yesterday as part of MINDS IRL Ending Racism, Violence and Authoritarianism was going to an after party that had already had threats phoned in from antifa. As a result the police had to block off the street where the venue for the after party was, and then we had to be escorted by police through the back entrance.Nobody showed up and no violence occurred, but I would be lying if I said this wasn't still slightly jarring. It would have been the height of irony if they had shown up, given that the keynote speaker was Darrell Davis, the African-American blues musician who has personally gotten countless members of the Ku Klux Klan to leave white supremacy after befriending them."

No genocide, colonialism in Turkey’s history: FM Çavuşoğlu - "Turks are proud of their history because they have not committed any genocide or partaken in colonialism, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has said, vowing the Turkish government will not stay silent against “some countries trying to lecture Turkey on history,” in reference to France and Italy’s recognition of the 1915 killings of Armenians as genocide."
Hahahahaha. Apparently the Ottoman Empire got everyone to volunteer to be part of it

Why does a private clinic charge less for consultation than the unsubsidised cost of the same at a public polyclinic? - "the receipt on the left from a National Healthcare Group Polyclinic shows a final bill of S$13.20 after deducting the government subsidy of S$34.90. That means the total price for a consultation before subsidisation is actually S$48.10.On the right is the consultation fee incurred when visiting a private clinic with no subsidies – S$29.90. That’s about 38% lower that the full cost of a consultation at a so-called public healthcare facility. While the final total is much lower after the subsidy, the initial fee is much higher at the polyclinic. This means that healthcare cost at the polyclinic is in fact much higher than in the private sector. Why is that?Also, the doctors you see at polyclinics tend to be junior doctors. Many are also from foreign countries. On the other hand, private clinics are usually run by senior doctors with decades of experience. Given this disparity in experience, aren’t polyclinics simply overcharging their patients and/or the government with their high costs?"
What happens when you need to illustrate a fake subsidy through creative accounting

Facebook Built Tool to Monitor Zuckerberg Memes: Report - "Stormchaser has been used by Facebook employees since 2016 to track viral content involving everything from “Delete Facebook” campaigns to claims that Zuckerberg is an alien (big if true). In some cases, the company reportedly targeted sharers of such content with specialized messages to debunk bogus claims, including memes and those dumb “copy and paste” posts people still love to share for some inexplicable reason. A spokesperson told the outlet it stopped using Stormchaser to track memes midway through last year. Night’s Watch, meanwhile, reportedly allowed Facebook staffers to see how information about Facebook spread on the platform and its other products like WhatsApp. In the case of WhatsApp, because messages are end-to-end encrypted, the company allegedly cross-referenced how some users cited information from WhatsApp on Facebook to gauge virality. It might be assumed that any company, particularly a social media product, would utilize its own tools to ascertain public perception. But these alleged initiatives to control the narrative may have come at the cost of combating other forms of misinformation on the platform... Optics-wise, this doesn’t look especially great for a company with a serious misinformation problem linked to everything from election interference to genocide."

How to Always Get Someone to Let You Use Their Power Outlet at the Airport - "The idea comes from a man who asked me if he could use a power outlet I was currently using at an airport during a layover. As he asked, he produced a small three-outlet plug from his bag. Three outlets that meant I could keep charging my phone, and he could charge his laptop at the same time.It’s brilliant, cheap, and I’m angry I hadn’t thought of it sooner."

Woman orders iPhone 7 online, gets an iPhone 3, iPhone 4 and a Yu-Gi-Oh fusion card in the mail instead

Andrew Doyle on Twitter - "Members of the woke cult like to claim that they are progressive and compassionate. So why it is that, almost without exception, the most vile intolerant voices on Twitter come from those with pronouns in their bio? Serious question."

Porn pirating lawyer jailed for five years - "A US lawyer who uploaded pornography on to file-sharing sites then sued people who downloaded it, has been sentenced to five years in jail.John Steele co-founded a firm called Prenda Law that set up and ran the porn-trolling scheme... Prenda Law ran its porn-trolling con from 2010 to 2013 and it is believed to have netted the firm more than $6m (£4.8m).It accused people of pirating pornographic films it had uploaded to file-sharing sites.And many people preferred to pay several thousand dollars to Prenda rather than challenge the accusation in the courts.Federal investigators began probing Prenda in 2012 after it sued two large US ISPs it accused of helping subscribers pirate pornographic films.This investigation discovered Prenda had been uploading the pornographic films, to which it owned the copyright, to file-sharing sites itself - to encourage people to pirate them."

Brexit: Man stopped from entering a pub in Union Jack suit and people are fiercely divided - "A man who walked into a pub dressed top to toe in a Union Jack suit was told to leave... a man who took a video of the incident claimed it was because of what he was wearing... Off camera, a woman can be heard saying, “it’s disgusting.” The video clip has been viewed over 300,000 times and people are split, with some arguing that wearing a union jack is a political statement and, as it has been linked to racism, is offensive... Would Geri Halliwell have been rejected?"
Presumably pride in your country's flag means you're a fascist

Morrissey hasn’t turned right: our establishment has turned insane | Spectator USA - "The Guardian’s sentencing of Morrissey proves that the Western cultural atmosphere has become so restrictive and authoritarian, that even bog-standard patriotism is a no-go. The crimes of which the Guardian convicts Morrissey include him ‘wrapping himself up in the Union Jack’ on stage, and having ‘flirted with the far right and fascist imagery.’... ‘Does the Guardian really care about objective journalism? Or care about journalism at all? Are they just desperate to get eyeballs on stories to save their dwindling advertising income?’ asked Katsis. ‘And by the way… did Morrissey stop being a provocateur? When was that exactly?’... ‘It’s very Third Reich, isn’t it?’ Morrissey observed after posters advertising his new album California Son were removed from Liverpool’s Merseyrail due to a single commuter’s complaint over the singer’s support for Anne Marie Waters.‘In today’s culture wars, Morrissey has clearly chosen his side — and there have been consequences,’ proclaimed the Guardian, ominously adding Morrissey to the blacklist, and warning others against associating with him."
Is it fair to say that the Guardian hates the UK, since the article called wrapping yourself in the Union Jack far right and fascist
More evidence liberals hate their countries

Now Chris Pratt Is a Racist Because He Wore a 'Don't Tread on Me' Shirt? - "The purveyors of high morally-minded political correctness have called out Chris Pratt for wearing a t-shirt with a symbol that dates back to before the Revolutionary War.Yes, you read that right. The Christian actor was slammed for wearing a historic symbol known as the Gadsden flag on his shirt... That very symbol was used on a flag to rally unity when the American colonies were trying to win their independence from Britain during the Revolutionary War... The rattlesnake symbol was also adopted by the Continental Congress in 1778 for the official Seal of the War Office (now the US Department of Defense). The rattlesnake symbol has been used by the US Army for more than 236 years.The Gadsden flag is still flown in Charleston, SC, the city where Gen. Gadsden first presented the flag."
We are still told that liberals don't hate their countries

Civil servant ‘offended’ by portrait of Queen is paid £10,000 in compensation - "A civil servant in the Northern Ireland Office was paid £10,000 compensation because he was offended by having to walk past a portrait of the Queen each day, a peer has said.Lord Maginnis, a former Ulster Unionist Party MP, told the House of Lords on Wednesday that Lee Hegarty complained under human rights legislation he should not have to work in an office that featured paintings of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.After his complaint, the portraits were removed and replaced with photographs of the royals meeting people in Northern Ireland during official visits."