You may have noticed a distinct lack of return2ozma. This is due to their admitting, in a public comment, that their engagement here is in bad faith:
I’m sure there will be questions, let me see if I can address the most obvious ones:
- Can I still post negative stuff about Biden?
Absolutely! We have zero interest in running an echo chamber. However, if ALL you’re posting is negative, you may want to re-think your priorities. You get out of the world what you put into it and all that.
- Why now?
Presumption of innocence. It may be my own fault, but I do try to think the best of people, and even though they were posting negative articles, they weren’t necessarily WRONG. Biden’s poll numbers, particularly in minority demographics ARE in the shitter. They are starting to get better, but he still has a hell of a hill to climb.
- Why a 30 day temp ban and not a permanent ban?
The articles return2ozma shared weren’t bad, faked, or from some wing-nut bias site like “beforeitsnews.com”, they were legitimate articles from established and respected news agencies, pointing out the valid problems Biden faces.
The problem was ONLY posting the negatives, over and over and then openly admitting that dishonest enagement is their purpose.
Had they all been bullshit articles? It would not have taken anywhere near this much time to lay the ban and it would have been permanent.
30 days seems enough time for them to re-think their strategery and come back to engage honestly.
I think we’ve long passed the point where it’d productive to go back and forth about it. But sure, a little bit longer maybe.
No.
Again: Starting with the result (who will benefit, who will look good and bad because of the analysis), and then looking for news that serves that conclusion, is dishonest. To me, and apparently to the mod team (or jordanlund at least).
Starting with facts about the world, and arriving at the result (who looks good and who looks bad as determined by what is happening), is honest. Again, this is my definition. You might have a different one which might also be reasonable, sure.
What you’re describing is a little bit more like what happens in a courtroom, where it’s someone’s job to arrive at a particular conclusion, and they’re going to marshal whatever level of evidence they can find to try to support it. It’s also what’s expected from someone who works in politics who’s employed to support one particular interest no matter what. It’s not how normal people behave outside of that type of very specialized setting, and I would argue that letting people who operate that way into the sphere (paid interests to come into the climate change debate, paid shills into online political discourse, advertisers into journalism, and so on) is a bad development in that sphere.
I think I’ve said my piece on it. You can disagree with my feeling, it is fine. But that is my feeling.