________  ________  ________
   2017-08-24                                   /        \/        \/    /   \
                                               /       __/         /_       _/
   I had  a  big  ol'  rant  rattling around  /        _/         /         /
about free  speech  and  how no one  has the  \_______/_\___/____/\___/____/_
right to take away or limit others' right to    /        \/        \/    /   \
it for what they  perceive is  wrongthink or   /        _/         /_       _/
thought  crimes or whatever but fuck it, who  /-        /        _/         /
cares. I do find it funny though that people  \________/\________/\___/____/
will  rally  for  net neutrality but  at the
same time  celebrate  companies willingly eschewing it for  some  embarrassing
brownie points.

   You can't have it both ways, dudes.

   It really  feels  like there's been a  sickening  level of  entitlement  on
display  lately, particularly around free speech.  So many people are behaving
like  they're  righteous  and  without  fault  but  covering  their  ears  and
screeching as  soon as anyone  has an even slightly differing opinion and it's
really starting to get ridiculous. When you see  people hounding TOR to censor
"white supremacists", completely uninterested  in all  the actual,  legitimate
illegal and horrible shit that goes on (or is  rumored to go  on) within those
walls it's like... what the fuck? People like this are not proponents of  real
change and they're not even trying to pretend anymore, they're proudly  cause-
of-the-week slactivists who don't even actually know what they're fighting for
or why.

   Hell,  they weren't even asking for TOR to censor white  supremacists, they
were asking them to censor The Daily  Stormer specifically because that's what
the TV and social media clowns were howling about so it's  literally the  only
thing they know. It's like a parrot yelling "Polly wants a  cracker," it's not
saying it  wants  a  cracker, it's not saying  anything,  it's  just repeating
sounds it's heard.

   I remember last  year  we had  an episode  locally  where  the  perpetually
outraged went hard on  a restaurant  for having a giant mural of a rapper  and
some other Americana in  their  restaurant. They laid into the  head chef with
all kinds of abuse, calling him racist and accusing him of appropriating black
culture and demanding he change the restaurant  to  meet their demands and  on
and on.

   Except it  wasn't the head  chef,  it was  the  head  chef of a  completely
unrelated  restaurant on the  other  side  of  town. No one  bothered to check
because  no one  bothered to take half  a second to think about what they were
doing or  why, they  just heard the  social  justice  vigilante dog whistle on
Facebook and Twitter and came running.

   It'd be funny if it  wasn't so  common.  You just  have  to roll  up to any
protest or rally in this city, look at the mess  of unrelated signs and listen
to the confusing grab-bag  of "woke"  chants  to  know  that the  people there
aren't there for a cause. They have no conviction or cause, they're just there
to protest for the sake of protesting.



EOF