PhilipTheBucket

It might be worth letting them know.

I am extremely convinced that bad actors have become pretty good at taking over subreddits, and I know there are companies that will sell services where they will do this sort of stuff ("reputation management") if you want the internet as a whole to have a better impression of your company, or overall control the narrative. I don't really know anything at all about carrotcypher specifically, but it sounds a lot like this person might be doing something at least similar to that. So assembling something that's well-documented and organized enough that it's hard to dismiss and then sharing it with any people who are giving carrotcypher a position of authority, sounds like a really good idea. I can help with it in any way if you want me to (although like I say I have no idea about this person specifically beyond suspicious things like this that people have brought up).

The fediverse is very vulnerable to this kind of stuff I think, just like Reddit is, because there's always such a shortage of people who are really willing to put in the time and effort it takes to do behind-the-scenes work like moderation. I think we should definitely be vigilant about calling it out if it seems like someone is doing stuff that's sketchy.

Don’t hesitate. Don’t show fear. Don’t weigh. That’s a huge part of why all this bullshit that Trump does works, is because that’s how he does it because he’s too stupid to make it work any other way. I mean I’m happy if this guy wants to hold someone in contempt now, and I get wanting to think it through because no takes backsies if you escalate something further than you meant to… but. From my comfortable non expert safety position, I feel like it should have been:

Judge: “what’s up with these deportation flights after my order”

Trump lawyer a week ago: “well we’re not going to discuss that today”

Judge a week ago: “Okay sounds good 3 days for contempt, bailiffs if you can take him into custody. Do you have someone you want who can take your wallet, or do you just want it to go into jail property?”

It’s not fully that simple. A lot of food plants were artificially created through selective breeding in the distant past. A lot of the reason the world is even able to sustain the level of agriculture that it currently does is through the desperate application of research and massive effort to keep it going, to make sure everyone gets fed.

I mean it’s not wrong, the same people giving you the credit score aren’t doing a damn thing to keep any of that going and in fact are actively working against the people who do keep it going. But the cushy type of agriculturally supported life we get to enjoy was a product of bigger scale organization and massive day-to-day effort, it wasn’t a casualty of it.

It’s shocking that Congress is on the verge of forcing Americans to rely on the same workarounds that internet users in authoritarian regimes

Buddy… I’m 100% on your side here, both as far as this bill and in general, but I think your training data needs a refresh

Yeah. I can see plenty of reasons why some reasonable person might disagree with me about all kinds of things that I say, but this is 100% just objectively someone trying real hard to pretend I am saying something I'm not so they can have a made-up freakout about it. I don't even know. Lemmy needs some sort of catchphrase like "tumblr reading comprehension" to apply to that behavior, because it sure is a popular thing to do here.

Lol yeah fuck that guy

Yeah, I get that. It's definitely not harmless. I was just trying to contrast it against all the illegal or directly overly violent stuff that they're doing, maybe I was a little too quick in the way I was trying to say it.

I know, I know. You're just happy you found someone you can pretend is an enemy, and you don't want to lose it. Certain types of people really love that, it's their favorite thing.

Since you don't want to read a novel, let me call your attention to:

So yes, this stuff is dangerous. I’m saying no one was physically or financially or in any other way directly harmed when Elon did the Nazi salute, unlike some of the other activities they like to do. I’m not saying that the overall symbology that it forms a part of is harmless.

Even his facial expressions while he was doing it were painfully awkward.

It is okay to be a dweeb. You can just be a dweeb and do dweeb stuff, it is fine. The trouble comes in when you are a dweeb at heart, and decide you need to put on a big imitation of something else, and commit to it so hard that it starts to cause a rift deep within you. I think that is part of what is going on with Elon and why he has gone so hard into this strange darkness.

Miyamoto Musashi talked about this in the Book of Five Rings. I can't find it in the text right now for some weird reason, so maybe I hallucinated all of this, but regardless here is my memory of what he said, paraphrased:

You need to be in accordance with your heart. Even if you feel that you are on a good and right path, if it is not in agreement with your heart in any respect, then over time that tiny deviation will widen and become a giant chasm in you. If the deviation is not corrected (and early is better), then ultimately it will destroy you.

Yeah. I think in keeping with his making the dumbest possible decision at all times, he's more or less just thinking "Well I want to be with the right gang, Trump's the right gang, he did me a favor so I'll do him a favor by not being with his enemy gang."

On the other hand, I think the chances of him getting reelected in an honest election were tiny anyway, so it doesn't really matter. He's probably positioning himself to be installed as something other than NYC mayor, and being in Trump's good graces is probably a good strategy for that, since with the voters he's cooked regardless.

really? are you really going to stand by that statement? hate symbols, when used in their intended way, cause a great deal of fucking hurt.

Oh come on, you know what I mean, you're just taking the opportunity to have a performative holier-than-thou "gotcha" moment.

Yes, words and symbols are incredibly powerful. Tim Snyder talked about the underappreciated role of symbols in extending the reach of fascism into people's day-to-day lives. Stickers in German shop windows, yellow stars, Nazi pins. Trump flags and red hats are obvious extensions, but then a lot more interesting I think is the role face masks started to play in defining an obvious "with us or against us" sign that people have to decide which side of they want to be on, and engaging the everyday rank and file in the actions of enforcing "you're with us or you're going to get yelled at or maybe even physically attacked" as a new model for society. It's very dangerous. It's what forms and strengthens the linkage between what the leaders say, far away, on TV or the internet or distantly one time at a rally, with what people's day-to-day actions are in enforcing the dictates of the leader within the community.

I do think there's a small, small contingent of people who will be rallied to the cause by overtly Nazi symbolism. I think the main danger, though, is in normalizing overtly evil symbology within the discourse, and breaking in the pathways of enforcement at an individual level. It starts with "well of course you won't complain when I use racial slurs or advocate violent immigration policies RIGHT? RIGHT?" and then getting physically menacing. Once that precedent is established, they can continue into flexing their special-category-of-person nature by showing Nazi signs, or advocating for rape, or otherwise daring people to disagree with the terrible things they're saying, but knowing that they risk being placed in the "other" category and open themselves to attack if they do.

So yes, this stuff is dangerous. I'm saying no one was physically or financially or in any other way directly harmed when Elon did the Nazi salute, unlike some of the other activities they like to do. I'm not saying that the overall symbology that it forms a part of is harmless. Hopefully now we're on the same page. Yes?

Overthinking is sometimes a good thing. If you understand what's going on, you're in a better position to react to it. I more or less agree with your initial statements. He's just trolling. Probably in his mind that's how he interprets it also. But I'm saying the reasons why that is an effective thing for him to do are worth some thinking about.

I don’t really know, but I feel like stuff like deliberately doing a Nazi salute is specifically to solicit people to call him a Nazi so that then he can say they’re crazy because the accusation is so outlandish.

It also takes attention away from the more substantive things he’s done. It’s not illegal and doesn’t really hurt anybody to do a Nazi salute, so in one way it’s a perfect thing to get people jabbering about.