from the so-you-say dept

Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is MrWilson with a reply to another comment about the charges against the guy who just got 30 years in prison for moving a box of zines:

First I was just going to excoriate you for taking an FBI agent’s sworn testimony at face value because there is no reason to assume he is telling 100% truth over telling a story that serves to indict the defendants as per his job, but in just googling his name, I found articles pointing out that you’re citing a complaint that was not accurate and two superseding indictments were later filed which provide different details and trimmed some of the claims from the original.

The details shift, including the claim that there were two shooters and 20-30 rounds fired by the defendants.

Were the defendants making good decisions? Probably not. Would I expect a normal court and a normal jury in a non-authoritarian government to convict some of the defendants of crimes that would warrant some jail time? Sure. Did the defendants other than Song do anything more than what Proud Boys at a blue city protest have done while being tipped off by cops when to leave so they don’t get arrested…? Doesn’t seem like it. Hell, many of the charges read like something ICE did to protesters in Portland and Minnesota and elsewhere.

The problem is that the government isn’t normal. The prosecution, even if citing some facts, is politically motivated, regardless of the validity of some of the charges and claims. That doesn’t mean you have to exonerate every defendant, but you should be smart enough to assume that not every fact claimed by the government is true or, if factual, not every claim is being made for the purpose of transparency but to influence the very judgment you’re making without all the facts or greater context. No reasonable person would expect that they’re going to include exonerating evidence or context that contradicts their narrative in the indictment if such exists.

In second place, it’s eviltimmy with a comment about Elon Musk’s threats against Rep. Khanna for citing The Lancet:

To be clear, The Lancet has been publishing since 1823, and is one of the pillar journals of record for medical science, public health, and epidemiology. If they made a statement like this, it’s highly qualified and vetted, and certainly can’t be dismissed out of hand. Musk going after a sitting Congressperson with a well-sourced opinion is just asking for a vicious Streisanding directed at many of DOGE’s actions while he was(n’t?) running things.

For editor’s choice on the insightful side, we start out with a comment on that same story from Arianity, in response to someone raising the point that the lawsuit would be doomed to fail:

He doesn’t care about that. The censorship from the cost and the hassle is the point. It’s the Media Matters playbook.

Next, it’s zeiche with a comment about the KIDS Act and age verification online:

this concern for kids safety rings hollow when politicians are also cutting SNAP and Medicare.

Over on the funny side, our first place winner is Stephen T. Stone responding to a post that labelled Stephen Miller a “homunculus”:

Come on, man, there’s no need to insult homunculi like that.

In second place, it’s Heart of Dawn with a comment about the military’s whoopsie-daisy of rescinding flu vaccine requirements:

Hegseth said he wanted maximum lethality. He never said to whom.

For editor’s choice on the funny side, we start out with a comment from glenn about the administration’s culture war campaigns:

No one fights wokeness like Trump fights wokeness. At every meeting, at every event, he dozes off anytime he’s sitting for more than 10 minutes without having to make some rambling nonsensical speech.

Finally, things we’re a little slow on the funny side this week, so we’ll close out with a comment from Bloof about the reflecting pool fiasco that only really racked up insightful votes but is, nevertheless, kinda funny too:

Everything is terrorism, unless it’s right wingers doing it.

I can’t wait until he finds another cartoon mobster looking buddy to hire and ‘fix’ the green oxide coating on the statue of liberty for a hundred mil or so, and accidentally poisons masses of people with powdered verdigris after scouring it off with angle grinders. The green coating returning in a year or so would clearly be the work of lib terrorists.

That’s all for this week, folks!