frezik

joined 1 month ago
[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 28 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Capitalism is creating a level of censorship that exceeded what the US government was ever able to do after the Warren court. Parts of this have been there for a long time. You can drop f-bombs on cable TV all you like; the FCC can't do anything about it since it's not over public airwaves. They generally don't do that, because advertisers don't like it. Capitalism set the rule, not the government.

YouTube has put this idea into overdrive. You can't make a straightforward, monetized video about the Holocaust anymore, because the language you would have to use would violate YouTube's written and unwritten rules. Meanwhile, actual fucking Nazis have had little issue using YouTube to spread their bullshit.

Credit card companies have had issues with porn sites in terms of fraud reporting. Not necessarily because of actual fraud--if the site you use is under CCbill, it's fine--but because some guy's spouse sees the card transactions, asks what this particular line is for, and he lies and says it's probably fraud and he'll call it in. Get more than a few of those, and the processor will always be flagged for review.

They do outright stop some of the more fringe porn. Bree Mills (of Adulttime) has said that they get limited by the credit card industry far more than the government. All the faux-incest videos go out of their way to mention in dialog that everyone is a step family and over 18. You won't find scat on Kink.com, again because their payment processor won't allow it.

That's been the situation for a few decades, but it has gone beyond that in the last few years. They tried it on OnlyFans, and the company maneuvered things to show why that's an incredibly bad idea, and then the card companies backed down. But they're trying again elsewhere, and they're starting to be successful. I severely doubt they had any significant fraud issues on Steam or itch.io, NSFW items or otherwise.

Ultimately, this stuff is a tiny slice of their revenue. If they want to shut it all down on a moral crusade, they will barely notice the hit to their numbers.

On a side note, I'd like the advocate that you should pay for porn if it's within your means. You'll often find better quality stuff at sites that properly run their sets with consent. If you like queer porn or unconventional body types, there are a lot of sites for that which just don't show up on PornHub.

[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 2 weeks ago

His job is impossible. This isn't to defend him; just the opposite.

His job is to make the military into a force that will do Trump's bidding and then declare martial law. This is impossible, because the US military doesn't work the way fascists think it does. To do it, they would spend more than a decade purging the current leadership and building up a new one. Trump does not have a decade of life left in him.

They can find another guy to do it, but it won't change the fundamentals.

[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Good idea!

Hey, Canada, we need all your dirt.

[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Wasn't much chance of it happening. They went ahead with it for performative reasons.

[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

If JD manages to become President, it'll be two weeks before an intern finds him sobbing in a closet.

[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 2 weeks ago

I checked, and Alex Jones has brought her up. Yes, she is on their radar.

[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 2 weeks ago

His sycophants are not capable of taking over from him. That's not how these things ever work.

[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 18 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

They won't because there are almost certainly big Democratic donors on that list. And Bill. Both parties slow walked this whole thing for decades.

The AOC and Bernie types don't care about that, but they don't serve on the Oversight Committee. Still, just getting Maxwell there should stoke the fires.

[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 63 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (6 children)

I mean, they could try. It would toss nitroglycerin into the MAGA rage that's already forming. So yeah, go right ahead.

She could still be subpoena'd by Congress--House Oversight Committee already has--and I don't think she could plead the fifth on anything if she's already pardoned. So yeah, go ahead and do that.

[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Try reading again. I didn't say he was smart. I said he was the smartest in the room. Which he is. It's not that hard to be the smartest when you're surrounded by idiots.

[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 34 points 2 weeks ago

They legit had no clue Trump was involved. That's how much of an echo chamber they had. Now the faction that cared the most about the Epstein files is clashing with the rest.

There are almost certainly high level donors to the Democrats in there, too, and probably Bill Clinton and a few other politicians. Naturally, the left in the US is happy to have them released, anyway, but MAGA doesn't think in those terms. They think everyone to the left of Hillary is brainwashed into supporting Democrats, and would never support releasing the files. That's why they were able to pretend it had nothing to do with their side.

[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

It matters a ton, and I wish people would stop saying otherwise.

Every dictator needs support among the people. They cannot function without it. Trump is starting to lose a chunk of his own MAGA base over Epstein. Not all of it, but the core MAGA support is not that big. He can't lose much of it before things turn against him fast.

And it may happen very fast. Nobody thought the Soviet Union was going to dissolve right up to the second that it actually did.

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