The theofascists are hellbent on ushering in their version of Gilead. I think you can be reasonably certain they will just do it at the state level like TN did with their adoption mess - remember the Jewish couple who were not allowed to adopt because they were not christian... If tRump gets back in then the USA as we know it is over with.
If their religion is so great why do they need to force on others? The arrogance in thinking that everyone needs to be salvaged and non-christians are going to h*ll is unbelievable! The saddest, pathetic part is that, this is all about grabbing $$$ and nothing to do with religion.
They've been at it since Theodosius I made Nicene Christianity the state religion of Rome. People are still resisting their unwanted advances. The religion is quite obviously not all it's cracked up to be.
This is good. But Biden is still nowhere near what we should have. That being said, it is still better to have a center right corporatist than a far right christofascist dictator wannabe.
You can give a cat a fish and he will eat for day. Or you can teach a cat to fish, and he will sit in his boat, pouting all day because no one gave him another fish.
How "center right"? His administration has attempted to expand access to education. He supports federal pro-choice laws. His tax packages seek to expand taxation of the wealthy to help pay for programs for the poor. He's arguably more pro-union than either Obama or Clinton were. His support of LGBT rights actually pushed the Democrats to the left during the Obama administration, from 'civil unions' (pre-Biden TV gaffe) to 'full marriage equality' (post-gaffe).
The dude is not a progressive (well, outside of gay marriage, where he was ahead of the curve), but his positions fit firmly within the Democratic platform as it has been since probably at least the 1990s. Yes, on foreign policy he's a neo-liberal and hawkish on US intervention to oppose expansion of authoritarian regimes. But those have been the policies of both parties since at least Carter got walloped by Reagan, and maybe much longer. It is, ironically, Trump whose foreign policy most resembles the pre-WWII Democratic positions. In any event, Biden's foreign policies are not accurately considered 'center right' due to the fact that his position has been common to both the left and the right for at least 40 years.
Sweden became an official member of the alliance today; Finland signed on last year. Neither was even considering it before Vlad decided to get his murder on in Ukraine. Congratulations on the self-own, you fucking vampire.
I feel like this is an enormous problem in groups that might not be covered by these laws, for example: Christian-based halfway houses for diversion programs in county and state courts. It's been my personal bugbear for a long time how little oversight goes into these groups nationwide and how often they seem to skirt the entire separation of church and state issue entirely. If you decline to enter the only treatment offered to you, on the grounds that it impinges on your beliefs (or more accurately your lack of belief) in the majority of instances you aren't offered a different option, because none exists. You can either serve your sentence and get no help, or you can enter treatment and end up working with AA or NA and then be placed in a halfway house that's likely to require prayer and have Christianity based rules. The entire 12 step process and whether it's actually especially effective is never addressed either. But for atheists the structure is totally illogical. The way various groups tend to tell atheists to practice the 12 steps makes clear how they lack awareness of what atheism means, but it's been allowed to continue for decades.
There was a case mentioned in this blog about an atheist who needed to follow a substance abuse program and was discriminated against. Secular options were available but were refused by his state department of correction. And since he "refused" to follow the religious substance abuse program endorsed by the state, he was denied parole several times. He finally sued with the help of (FFRF ?) and won.
Yes, I can't say with 100% certainty that there's no county in my state that offers an alternative to 12 step treatment, just 90% certain that if it's not in my county, where the largest city is, then it's unlikely. Lexington does surprise me sometimes and is surpassing Louisville in livability lately.
Yes, especially in poor states they are always going to try to get the services at the lowest price. There never seems to be much investigation into whether the service is actually helpful, or how it operates.
I agree, but that's "socialism" and so highly unpopular with 30, 40% of the voting public. More importantly, it's highly unpopular or opposed by the representatives of half or more of our very gerrymandered districts, regardless of what a "popular vote" on the matter might turn out.
Well naturally, and these are the same people who tend to vote against harm reduction strategies being implemented because drug users need to stop falling "prey to sin". Never a word from them about maybe taking down the dystopian hellscape vibes a few notches so perhaps sobriety might seem less goddamn awful to folks. Until of course one of their kids ODs then we have a suddenly aware conservative acting like this shit has never happened to another family before.
Also they're loathe to mention that at least temporarily, drugs are effective at least initially. That's really the issue. Drugs work better at making people mind their lives less than either parties policies and if they actually made policies as effective as drugs then it's possible no one would try drugs. Less people certainly.
Mixing religion and government is the same terrible idea it has always been. When religious groups provide social services, it almost always comes with strings attached.
In my experience, there are entirely too many Christians who will, with zero evidence to support it, insist that Christians are wonderful people who don't need oversight, since they do the 'right' thing most of the time. Also in my experience, that statement just isn't the case; and I would submit that the news media has reported problems in various financial, business, and personal dealings by Christian leaders to entirely debunk the idea that Christians act more morally on a regular basis than other groups.
With that out of the way, I would like to point out that even if Christians were, in fact, more morally upright than other groups they would then welcome oversight with open arms, not start looking for attorneys to file litigation to protect their religious rights. The honest man probably doesn't care if his neighbor puts up a fence - he's honest, so that fence means nothing to him. What concerns me is the number of times we have seen various Christian groups angry and screaming persecution 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑏𝑦 𝑎 𝑔𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑢𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑦. Oversight should be a good thing for everyone; it provides for standards that everyone is expected to adhere to, it means cutting through some of that she said/he said type garbage, it means that the public knows what is going on. And yet, every time some 'charitable' Christian organization falls into government oversight, the cries of persecution commence.
I'm sick of this 'rules for thee, but not for me!' game we've been seeing out of the Christian establishment for the last 25+ years. By the declining attendance numbers, it's not just me, either; good riddance to bad rubbish.
Yes. It's called "Working the refs" or "gaming the system" Republicans do it constantly to create a false narrative. Like that so-called'conservatives' are 'censored' on social media, when in fact they were merely held to the terms of service, and were being abusive.
The current administration needs to defund, atleast pass some laws, to curtail the unlimited power of the fake abortions centers, run by religious zealots who are tormenting the women who are in dire need of help at the most vulnerable time.
This one million times. These "Crisis Pregnancy Centers" get federal funding AND state funding, are not covered by HIPAA and somehow get to perform ultrasounds without licensing. This is also fucking infuriating. Where I live if you didn't know there are no actual clinics performing abortions you could very easily be diverted to the crisis pregnancy center that's next door to the for lease space where the state's last clinic was. There an unqualified person will perform a transvaginal ultrasound (possibly using expired gel as a bonus) then tell you you are either more or less pregnant than you are, to further delay and obfuscate whether you are still in the time frame to receive legal medical or surgical abortion services in Ohio. And of course they're not going to be telling you anything about legal abortion services anywhere.
I read a complete report, believe by Propublica, (one of the best source) on these "crisis" centers. Pathetic reality is even some of the third 🙄 world nations women can have legal, safe and affordable abortions.
They are practicing medicine without a license, or properly trained help. I had to go to specialized school, to learn how to be a Surgical Assistant for years, and they just get volunteers from their local fundy church, who lie to desperate teenagers and women.
Sue the hell out of them! and cut off all federal funds (they have been funneling money to them from TANF funds that are supposed to go to needy families! That is obscene!
EXACTLY. I already hated them but obviously I have never been naive enough to get taken in by their fairly obvious lies. I don't blame the girls and women who end up there for making a mistake. There's no easy way to undo a lifetime of conditioning at the time when they're feeling panicked, ashamed, and terrified. I don't understand why if they are going to continue to allow them to practice medicine they can't enforce the rules and laws that healthcare facilities have to follow including HIPAA. If they are going to not require them to follow HIPAA because they AREN'T healthcare providers then they need to stop letting them use ultrasound equipment like it's a toy. Especially transvaginal ultrasound wands because honestly that is beyond disgusting and invasive (the pretend healthcare workers using transvaginal probes, not transvaginal ultrasound in general). With the TRAP laws they had the clinic here going through (you wouldn't believe, just onerous bullshit) and next door it's a fucking unregulated circus and THAT'S the place getting our taxpayer funding. Makes me want to punch them in the throat. I spit on that place every time I walk by. But I don't walk by much.
Yes, they should all be shuttered as a health hazard. And I agree, no blame to their victims, I want to protect them. And get them the real professional care they deserve.
Forcing people to engage in religious activities in order to get needed services is not only wrong, it does nothing for the religious group making it necessary. I guess religionists don't care whether someone is being sincere or just paying lip service. Maybe they think a non-believer mouthing a prayer earns them points with the Big Guy.
I suspect they think that if they can force you to attend their religious activities you will give them money when they pass the hat during said services.
Yet the right will still continue to whine about President Biden's age while ignoring the fact that Trump is losing his marbles in front of his Bund rallies.
OT- Just got done watching this... it's a long video (~ an hour and a half), and only part 1 of what is apparently going to be a series, but... trans youtuber Dead Domain went undercover in MAGA drag at CPAC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0WFA6zswnY
Half-empty convention halls, Nazis openly mingling with prominent right-wing media personalities, a certain befuddled pillow salesman doing photo-ops, grifters aplenty, naked bigotry, contradictory talking points... and the mic-drop sequel hook for the next part: "𝘐'𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘰𝘯 𝘎𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘳 𝘢𝘵 𝘊𝘗𝘈𝘊 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦." I can't decide whether this is the funniest or the scariest thing I've seen this week. Probably both.
So, these rules will help prevent Christians from abusing and mistreating the most desperate and vulnerable members of society? My question is why do you hate baby Jesus so much?
Just about everyone in the commentariat, from day one.
I think it could have succeeded, but... the site always felt like it put readers who'd followed the various authors over from Patheos and elsewhere second, moderation focused too much on naughty words and not enough on dealing with trolls, and the whole place was just poorly organized. I mean, it launched without an option to view the latest articles first, FFS; how do you launch something with aspirations of being a news site without putting 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘸𝘴 on the front page? Nevermind the multitude of issues with the comment system, which made Substack look like a paragon of user-friendliness by comparison...
Waste of potential. Still... not one of the times I'm glad I was right. Hope everyone left at the end lands on their feet.
Major problem ... people didn't write regularly or often. Everyone who posted there had Sikivu Hutchinson as someone they followed ... she wrote twice at most. I sorta gave up except for Clark, Lee, and Pearce. End of story.
𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 reich-wing shitpit was one of the advertising partners? Damn, I knew things were bad with the advertisers when they created the Taboo section and started paywalling stuff, but I had no idea they were 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 desperate.
Not partners per se. They used an add service and didn't vet, or maybe didn't care about what ads appeared. I also remember ones for a razor company ran by a right wing dude bro.
"Good! It couldn't happen to a more incompetent site. From day one you treated your readers like 💩. The commenting system Viafoura was pure 💩, and we told you hundreds of times. Rather than admit it was a mistake, you blamed us for it. When criticized, you threatened to ban your critics permanently."
If you remember I was the one who started calling them Viashit and Onlyshit.
Are you doing good because it is the right thing to do? Or because it's an advertising gimmick?
For too many religious groups, it is the latter.
For the religious groups, the “right thing” costs money.
Advertising gimmicks give them money.
The theofascists are hellbent on ushering in their version of Gilead. I think you can be reasonably certain they will just do it at the state level like TN did with their adoption mess - remember the Jewish couple who were not allowed to adopt because they were not christian... If tRump gets back in then the USA as we know it is over with.
But...but..."President Trump" promised he would only be dictator for a day.
And if you believe that, he has a bridge in Brooklyn he'd like to talk to you about.
From the forthcoming musical comedy, Dictator for a Day: https://sweatingthesmallstuff.substack.com/p/dictator-for-a-day
But a day is like a thousand years
a day with trump as president certainly feels that way
A “day” like in the millions of years it took for planet earth to form?
If their religion is so great why do they need to force on others? The arrogance in thinking that everyone needs to be salvaged and non-christians are going to h*ll is unbelievable! The saddest, pathetic part is that, this is all about grabbing $$$ and nothing to do with religion.
They've been at it since Theodosius I made Nicene Christianity the state religion of Rome. People are still resisting their unwanted advances. The religion is quite obviously not all it's cracked up to be.
Thanks Joe!! #VoteBlue
This is good. But Biden is still nowhere near what we should have. That being said, it is still better to have a center right corporatist than a far right christofascist dictator wannabe.
"If wishes were horses, beggars would ride."
My mom used to tell me that every time I said I wanted a horse for Christmas. ;)
"If wishes were fishes, we'd all cast nets." - G. Halleck
You can give a cat a fish and he will eat for day. Or you can teach a cat to fish, and he will sit in his boat, pouting all day because no one gave him another fish.
Give a man a fire and he will be warm for a day.
Set him on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life.
LOL! That's awful!
How "center right"? His administration has attempted to expand access to education. He supports federal pro-choice laws. His tax packages seek to expand taxation of the wealthy to help pay for programs for the poor. He's arguably more pro-union than either Obama or Clinton were. His support of LGBT rights actually pushed the Democrats to the left during the Obama administration, from 'civil unions' (pre-Biden TV gaffe) to 'full marriage equality' (post-gaffe).
The dude is not a progressive (well, outside of gay marriage, where he was ahead of the curve), but his positions fit firmly within the Democratic platform as it has been since probably at least the 1990s. Yes, on foreign policy he's a neo-liberal and hawkish on US intervention to oppose expansion of authoritarian regimes. But those have been the policies of both parties since at least Carter got walloped by Reagan, and maybe much longer. It is, ironically, Trump whose foreign policy most resembles the pre-WWII Democratic positions. In any event, Biden's foreign policies are not accurately considered 'center right' due to the fact that his position has been common to both the left and the right for at least 40 years.
Center right as compared to the rest of the developed world.
OT- Putin sought to prevent 𝘰𝘯𝘦 country from joining NATO... well, as of today, he's succeeded in getting 𝘵𝘸𝘰 countries to join NATO: https://apnews.com/article/sweden-nato-us-russia-ukraine-8372bc866c8ddcf42d2b8209fa5cd2b1
Sweden became an official member of the alliance today; Finland signed on last year. Neither was even considering it before Vlad decided to get his murder on in Ukraine. Congratulations on the self-own, you fucking vampire.
I feel like this is an enormous problem in groups that might not be covered by these laws, for example: Christian-based halfway houses for diversion programs in county and state courts. It's been my personal bugbear for a long time how little oversight goes into these groups nationwide and how often they seem to skirt the entire separation of church and state issue entirely. If you decline to enter the only treatment offered to you, on the grounds that it impinges on your beliefs (or more accurately your lack of belief) in the majority of instances you aren't offered a different option, because none exists. You can either serve your sentence and get no help, or you can enter treatment and end up working with AA or NA and then be placed in a halfway house that's likely to require prayer and have Christianity based rules. The entire 12 step process and whether it's actually especially effective is never addressed either. But for atheists the structure is totally illogical. The way various groups tend to tell atheists to practice the 12 steps makes clear how they lack awareness of what atheism means, but it's been allowed to continue for decades.
There was a case mentioned in this blog about an atheist who needed to follow a substance abuse program and was discriminated against. Secular options were available but were refused by his state department of correction. And since he "refused" to follow the religious substance abuse program endorsed by the state, he was denied parole several times. He finally sued with the help of (FFRF ?) and won.
I believe that was in West Virginia, one of the few states that makes my shit hole red state feel better about itself.
Yes, I can't say with 100% certainty that there's no county in my state that offers an alternative to 12 step treatment, just 90% certain that if it's not in my county, where the largest city is, then it's unlikely. Lexington does surprise me sometimes and is surpassing Louisville in livability lately.
Yes, especially in poor states they are always going to try to get the services at the lowest price. There never seems to be much investigation into whether the service is actually helpful, or how it operates.
I agree, but that's "socialism" and so highly unpopular with 30, 40% of the voting public. More importantly, it's highly unpopular or opposed by the representatives of half or more of our very gerrymandered districts, regardless of what a "popular vote" on the matter might turn out.
Well naturally, and these are the same people who tend to vote against harm reduction strategies being implemented because drug users need to stop falling "prey to sin". Never a word from them about maybe taking down the dystopian hellscape vibes a few notches so perhaps sobriety might seem less goddamn awful to folks. Until of course one of their kids ODs then we have a suddenly aware conservative acting like this shit has never happened to another family before.
Also they're loathe to mention that at least temporarily, drugs are effective at least initially. That's really the issue. Drugs work better at making people mind their lives less than either parties policies and if they actually made policies as effective as drugs then it's possible no one would try drugs. Less people certainly.
"the final rule didn’t take into consideration the potential harms the changes would cause."
Hemant, are you so sure about that ? Like you pointed numerous times, the cruelty and the forcing of their views on others are the point.
My thought too.
Mixing religion and government is the same terrible idea it has always been. When religious groups provide social services, it almost always comes with strings attached.
And those strings are almost always either a noose or bondage wraps.
🎯🎯🎯Bullseye! They just want to steal the sweet federal money, so it can't go to anyone else where it might help!
In my experience, there are entirely too many Christians who will, with zero evidence to support it, insist that Christians are wonderful people who don't need oversight, since they do the 'right' thing most of the time. Also in my experience, that statement just isn't the case; and I would submit that the news media has reported problems in various financial, business, and personal dealings by Christian leaders to entirely debunk the idea that Christians act more morally on a regular basis than other groups.
With that out of the way, I would like to point out that even if Christians were, in fact, more morally upright than other groups they would then welcome oversight with open arms, not start looking for attorneys to file litigation to protect their religious rights. The honest man probably doesn't care if his neighbor puts up a fence - he's honest, so that fence means nothing to him. What concerns me is the number of times we have seen various Christian groups angry and screaming persecution 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑏𝑦 𝑎 𝑔𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑢𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑦. Oversight should be a good thing for everyone; it provides for standards that everyone is expected to adhere to, it means cutting through some of that she said/he said type garbage, it means that the public knows what is going on. And yet, every time some 'charitable' Christian organization falls into government oversight, the cries of persecution commence.
I'm sick of this 'rules for thee, but not for me!' game we've been seeing out of the Christian establishment for the last 25+ years. By the declining attendance numbers, it's not just me, either; good riddance to bad rubbish.
Sometime in the last century, their line of thought changed from "We're White because we're Good" to "We're Good because we're White".
The pope says HATRED is the right thing, and watching SOTU kkkkons love their godly hatred as espoused by the kkkaliker "church."
Any religion/belief system that teaches to hate is a cult.
Yes. It's called "Working the refs" or "gaming the system" Republicans do it constantly to create a false narrative. Like that so-called'conservatives' are 'censored' on social media, when in fact they were merely held to the terms of service, and were being abusive.
The current administration needs to defund, atleast pass some laws, to curtail the unlimited power of the fake abortions centers, run by religious zealots who are tormenting the women who are in dire need of help at the most vulnerable time.
This one million times. These "Crisis Pregnancy Centers" get federal funding AND state funding, are not covered by HIPAA and somehow get to perform ultrasounds without licensing. This is also fucking infuriating. Where I live if you didn't know there are no actual clinics performing abortions you could very easily be diverted to the crisis pregnancy center that's next door to the for lease space where the state's last clinic was. There an unqualified person will perform a transvaginal ultrasound (possibly using expired gel as a bonus) then tell you you are either more or less pregnant than you are, to further delay and obfuscate whether you are still in the time frame to receive legal medical or surgical abortion services in Ohio. And of course they're not going to be telling you anything about legal abortion services anywhere.
I read a complete report, believe by Propublica, (one of the best source) on these "crisis" centers. Pathetic reality is even some of the third 🙄 world nations women can have legal, safe and affordable abortions.
Yes, the one with the expired gel? That was our local one.
Didn't some women get iinfections, because the volunteer didn't know enough to clean the wand properly?
🎯🎯🎯
They are practicing medicine without a license, or properly trained help. I had to go to specialized school, to learn how to be a Surgical Assistant for years, and they just get volunteers from their local fundy church, who lie to desperate teenagers and women.
Sue the hell out of them! and cut off all federal funds (they have been funneling money to them from TANF funds that are supposed to go to needy families! That is obscene!
EXACTLY. I already hated them but obviously I have never been naive enough to get taken in by their fairly obvious lies. I don't blame the girls and women who end up there for making a mistake. There's no easy way to undo a lifetime of conditioning at the time when they're feeling panicked, ashamed, and terrified. I don't understand why if they are going to continue to allow them to practice medicine they can't enforce the rules and laws that healthcare facilities have to follow including HIPAA. If they are going to not require them to follow HIPAA because they AREN'T healthcare providers then they need to stop letting them use ultrasound equipment like it's a toy. Especially transvaginal ultrasound wands because honestly that is beyond disgusting and invasive (the pretend healthcare workers using transvaginal probes, not transvaginal ultrasound in general). With the TRAP laws they had the clinic here going through (you wouldn't believe, just onerous bullshit) and next door it's a fucking unregulated circus and THAT'S the place getting our taxpayer funding. Makes me want to punch them in the throat. I spit on that place every time I walk by. But I don't walk by much.
Yes, they should all be shuttered as a health hazard. And I agree, no blame to their victims, I want to protect them. And get them the real professional care they deserve.
Forcing people to engage in religious activities in order to get needed services is not only wrong, it does nothing for the religious group making it necessary. I guess religionists don't care whether someone is being sincere or just paying lip service. Maybe they think a non-believer mouthing a prayer earns them points with the Big Guy.
I suspect they think that if they can force you to attend their religious activities you will give them money when they pass the hat during said services.
It is not only wrong, it is highly immoral. But the piety peddlers label nonbelievers immoral.
I am so glad to hear this. It is long overdue. It scares me that Trump could get back into office, and if so we are all in trouble.
The accomplishments of the Biden/Harris administration:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/therecord/
Yet the right will still continue to whine about President Biden's age while ignoring the fact that Trump is losing his marbles in front of his Bund rallies.
OT- Just got done watching this... it's a long video (~ an hour and a half), and only part 1 of what is apparently going to be a series, but... trans youtuber Dead Domain went undercover in MAGA drag at CPAC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0WFA6zswnY
Half-empty convention halls, Nazis openly mingling with prominent right-wing media personalities, a certain befuddled pillow salesman doing photo-ops, grifters aplenty, naked bigotry, contradictory talking points... and the mic-drop sequel hook for the next part: "𝘐'𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘰𝘯 𝘎𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘳 𝘢𝘵 𝘊𝘗𝘈𝘊 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦." I can't decide whether this is the funniest or the scariest thing I've seen this week. Probably both.
So, these rules will help prevent Christians from abusing and mistreating the most desperate and vulnerable members of society? My question is why do you hate baby Jesus so much?
Because he was a Jew and not a good christain ?
He's a whiner.
OT: The sky is falling!
https://onlysky.media/onlyskymedia/the-end-of-onlysky-an-experiment-in-secular-news-and-storytelling/
How many of us here called it?
Just about everyone in the commentariat, from day one.
I think it could have succeeded, but... the site always felt like it put readers who'd followed the various authors over from Patheos and elsewhere second, moderation focused too much on naughty words and not enough on dealing with trolls, and the whole place was just poorly organized. I mean, it launched without an option to view the latest articles first, FFS; how do you launch something with aspirations of being a news site without putting 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘸𝘴 on the front page? Nevermind the multitude of issues with the comment system, which made Substack look like a paragon of user-friendliness by comparison...
Waste of potential. Still... not one of the times I'm glad I was right. Hope everyone left at the end lands on their feet.
Remember the AI moderator they used?
The nannybot was named Al? : )
Weird Al?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq-gYOrU8bA
Major problem ... people didn't write regularly or often. Everyone who posted there had Sikivu Hutchinson as someone they followed ... she wrote twice at most. I sorta gave up except for Clark, Lee, and Pearce. End of story.
Who ?
I guess the ad revenue from Hillsdale College wasn't enough to keep them afloat.
I don’t know why but I get actual mail from Hillsdale.
Send it back postage due, with junk mail in it!
𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 reich-wing shitpit was one of the advertising partners? Damn, I knew things were bad with the advertisers when they created the Taboo section and started paywalling stuff, but I had no idea they were 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 desperate.
Not partners per se. They used an add service and didn't vet, or maybe didn't care about what ads appeared. I also remember ones for a razor company ran by a right wing dude bro.
And some people wonder why ad blockers are so popular...
Left a comment to that effect ... sorta.
I see troll thumb made sure he got to fap his ignorance again. You took him down without breaking a sweat.
I left this:
"Good! It couldn't happen to a more incompetent site. From day one you treated your readers like 💩. The commenting system Viafoura was pure 💩, and we told you hundreds of times. Rather than admit it was a mistake, you blamed us for it. When criticized, you threatened to ban your critics permanently."
If you remember I was the one who started calling them Viashit and Onlyshit.
It was not a threat. Mad Dog was banned.
I tried to upvote you over there but I'm no longer automatically logged in. I'll give you two here. : )
I fervently wished for it.
Good riddance. Fucking incompetent morons.