It looks like SUP changed course on censoring the most popular interests page. They aren't perfect, but they are learning and they are not inflexible. They are willing to change course. They recognizes that without the users, LiveJournal is nothing. Things may work out after all.

What the fuck?

As part of the current pattern of actions, this is quite alarming — it demonstrates that SUP/LJ now actively and openly disapproves of and targets specific groups.

What is widely seen as paranoia or laughable conspiracy theories can quickly transform into fact. Just take these recent news items:

Vaccines containing mercury can be linked to "autism-like symptoms" in children.

There are drugs in the water and this has kept secret from you for fear that you "might be unduly alarmed".

It's amazing. If a week ago I had said that were drugs in my tap water, I would have been labeled as schizophrenic. If I say the same thing today, I'm just someone who reads the news. However, I would have been just as right a week ago or even a year ago. It goes to show the truth in that old saying: "Just because your paranoid, doesn't mean they're not out to get you".

I took this picture in the fall. I haven't posted it until now because I've been so nervous about the amount of drama potential of posting it. Fear of being shouted down and demonized for a simple picture. I'm not pro-life, just thought this shot was interesting and had turned out well — but that I am required to explain myself and my reasoning for posting a photograph says something to me about the political climate and what it says isn't good.

This comment in the most recent post in lj_policy may be right on the money. If these censorship maneuvers by LiveJournal have been in response to behind the scenes legal action against them, then their lack of communication with users makes sense. If this is the case, it is likely going to effect any site that gains sufficient notoriety. A lot of these alternative sites may be able to get away with looser restrictions only because they're still flying under the radar screen.

I don't want to leave LiveJournal, but SUP has yet to even address the censored interest search fiasco and tags are still capped at 1000. I'm far from happy with things around here at LiveJournal right now. I'm not sure what to do.

Poll #1105617 departure poll
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

I should...

purpleglitter and I went to Kickass Cupcakes in Davis Square on our way to Haveli (in Inman Square) last night. purpleglitter had a lucky cupcake (a cupcake with a fortune) and I had a very rummy mojito. All I can say is: delicious! Paddington gobbled up the catnip and cheese cupcake we got for her when we got home — and promptly passed out in a drugged haze. She hopes to find more of those magic cupcakes lying about.

Paddington's cupcake even had an unsearchable goldfish cracker on top of hers.

So much for hoping things were going to get better under SUP. They've now started censoring what interests can be searched for. What is more, interests such as "spicy food" are no longer searchable simply because they happen to contain a banned string. Forget trying to find a community discussing the Armenian genocide. What the hell?!?!

Just for fun, I decided to look at the edits made from the United States Department of state using wikiscanner. I only looked at a fraction of the over 2,500 edits, but here are the ones I thought were interesting:

Laura Bush thinks Condi would be a great president

We're being invaded by Mexicans!!

"...the World Bank is one of the most highly-regarded financial institutions in the world..."

Tiawan is a pseudostate

"The statements about events in 2007 are clearly written by a Russian."

State Department predicts what issues will be contentious at the next Intergovernmental Conference of the European Union

The Department of State knows a lot about science and technology in China.

Somewhere in the world, humans can marry non-human animals

Delete – Who said the 2003 invasion of Iraq was illegal? No one said that

Delete – You can't say that the U.S. officials should have know that Bin Laden would turn his attention to the west after the Soviets were out of the way

Delete – Text on the United States Interests Section in Havana

Delete – A large chunk of the Missouri United States Senate election, 2006 article

Delete – Part of the discussion on the Agent Orange talk page

Poll #989414
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Due to it's graphic content, should sales of the Bible to those under 18 be banned or restricted?

More than 2,300 Hong Kong residents have lodged complaints about indecent and sexually explicit material in the Bible in a bizarre campaign to restrict sales of the Christian holy book. Hong Kong's publications watchdog has received an avalanche of complaints about tales of incest, rape, cannibalism and violence in the Bible since the website truthbible.net began urging people to file complaints. ... Now the website says it may raise the issue with Hong Kong's public ombudsman on the grounds that the "abnormal sex and violence" described in the Bible is at odds with the moral standards of people in the former British colony. If the campaign succeeds, the Bible could technically have its sales restricted in Hong Kong in the same way that pornographic magazines must be sold in sealed packages and to only those over age 18. The motive for the campaign is unclear. full article

I obviously don't believe the Bible should be censored, but it will be interesting to see how this plays out. At the very least it might be a lesson to the pro-censorship faction of Christians that their own words and logic can be used against them.

Poll #796565
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

The printing of deeply offensive cartoons depicting Muhammad should be...

The printing of deeply offensive cartoons depicting the Holocaust should be...

DOPA, or the "Deleting Online Predators Act" is one of the more horrifying and dangerous pieces of legislation in a long time. It would force libraries and schools to block access to "commercial Web sites that let users create web pages or profiles or offer communication with other users via forums, chat rooms, e-mail or instant messenging."

Essentially, DOPA would permit nothing that allows the user to publish or broadcast their views or tell stories. This bill does not target online predators, instead it censors those who are most likely to have negative views of the government. This bill would effectively silence large groups of disadvantaged children and adults whose only access to such online forums are schools and libraries.

The internet, especially blogging sites, threaten to break Marx's observation that "freedom of the press belongs to those who own one". The old monopoly on the press is being widdled away as more and more people are able to tell their stories. Those in power, while not acknowledging Marx's observation, have understood it to be true and have understood that it benefits them.

However, both Marx and the power brokers in Washington share the belief that information should be controlled. The only real difference between them was how this control is best administered. The internet offers a new world where information is controlled by no one. Where all are free to talk and tell our stories. We are still far from that world, but it is within our grasp.

The future is closer than we think, and what we do now will dramatically change what that future will be. We need to expand the press to everyone, not limit it to the few.

I attack my own words.

I'm trying to find that place where I know what I know.

The balance is hard to find.

I do not want to make myself seem more than I am.

At the same time I do not want to make myself seem less than I am.

I have strived for the most accurate depiction I can in my journal.

Of course, I am subjective, and my mindstate of the day will influence what I say.

I do not know where I fit in.

My view of that changes daily, or hourly.

Sometimes I feel I am very wise, and want to share what I see.

Sometimes I feel I am very foolish, and what I think I see is not what is.

Sometimes I feel very pioneering, and that I see things ahead of the curve.

Sometimes I feel very naive, and that I'm just figuring out things that everyone has already long gotten past.

Knots and loops and mirrors and pains.

I do not like this place.

A USC review of published research has found no evidence that early episodes of schizophrenia without medication result in long-term harm for patients, casting doubt on the practice to immediately medicate for a year. “The question is whether we should rush to treat early episodes with anti-psychotics, often before a clear diagnosis has become evident,” wrote John Bola in his study slated for publication in the April edition of Schizophrenia Bulletin. Bola said the findings are important because the drugs used to treat schizophrenia can have serious side effects in nearly half of patients, from severe weight gain and restlessness to involuntary movement and adult-onset diabetes ... “There is a lack of good-quality evidence to support a conclusion that long-term harm results from short-term postponement of medication in early episode schizophrenia,” Bola said. “A categorical prohibition against such research should be reconsidered.” full article

Antipsychotics, which are regularly prescribed to a wide range of patients they were never intended for, are often not even appropriate for the patients that they were intended for. A sizable percentage schizophrenics do not even need antipsychotics, and risk a multitude of dangerous side effect by taking them.

It should also be noted that the cult of psychiatry goes so far as to prohibit research that might further show that people can successfully live without psych drugs. Psychopharmacology is about as scientific as Intelligent Design.

I posted these two icons quite a while ago to creepy_icons and darkicons. I didn't post them here because I thought they might be too disturbing some of the readers of my journal. However, I have decided to go ahead and post.

    

Walgreens may be running afoul of community decency standards by selling this.

( Read more... )

Why is hate speech a problem in online forums? Why do I get upset about it? Why do I not tolerate it in any of the online forums I run? Because hate speech and attacks on specific individuals and on specific groups are often and regularly used to systematically exclude certain populations from the discussion. I guess people could just "suck it up", some people do, for a while at least. Most people of the selected groups however realize that participating in the forum is not worth the mental abuse and stress of the constant attacks. Even in the cases where a user stays for a while, the constant attacks, often lauded by others in the forum, eliminates any respect and impact the target's words may receive. They are effectively silenced. While many of these forums claim to be open, by allowing this sort of activity they are in fact not. They are closed forums that allow in prey occasionally.

I have noticed that only traditionally oppressed groups are expected to "suck it up" in these supposedly "open forums". Try saying anything negative about, for example, straight people, and you will instantly get a barrage of "reverse discrimination", "just as bad as any other form of prejudice" or "not all straight people are like that" from the very same people who are constantly telling you to "suck it up". They can dish it out, but they can't take it.

The people who frequent these "open forums" complain wildly about any forum that doesn't allow them to air their hate. They claim their free speech is violated because they cannot evict by harassment any groups they do not like. The very same people who state "if you don't like it, start your own forum" are the ones who will complain that your forum doesn't also exclude you. They will go to great lengths to try to harass the forums, making many have to moderate posts and screen people who want to join the forum. These actions alone result in a diminishing of both membership and post volume, further dampening the voices of those who need the forum.

On the rare occasion I venture into some of the notorious "open forums" here on LiveJournal, I use one of two "fake" accounts. In these "open forums" I cannot give any details about my life experience. Nor do I feel comfortable even being there, but at least I can say something when I feel it is very necessary. Essentially, as long as I am completely closeted about being bisexual, a female feminst, transgendered, mentally ill, and a rape victim I can participate in the community without being constantly bullied until I leave, because it's "open to everyone".