Saturday, January 23, 2021
Tech billionaires preach ‘democracy’ while censoring it, study shows
An academic study carried out by researchers in the US and Germany has concluded that tech elites are completely isolated from ordinary people. “We find that the 100 richest members of the tech world reveal distinctive attitudes that set them apart both from the general population and from other wealthy elites,” the study noted.
The authors of the study from two German universities and the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies in New York analyzed the language used in some 50 000 tweets and online statements by 100 of the richest tech-elites as listed by Forbes.
The researchers concluded that people such as Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates do not see their wealth as a source of their influence but believe their innate abilities helped them to achieve power.
The elites constantly talk about democracy and philanthropy. “Yet their position in a democratic system is contradictory – as a result of their enormous wealth, they have disproportionate influence over how discretionary income is spent,” the researchers pointed out.
These types regularly use words such as ‘merit’, ‘distinct’, ‘excellent’, ‘value’, ‘virtue’, ‘advantage’, ‘superiority’, ‘worth’, ‘perfect’, ‘important’ and ‘significant’. They never use the actual words related to democracy such as ‘republic’, ‘self-determination’, ‘autonomy’, ‘sovereignty’, ‘republican’, ‘represent’, ‘rallies’ and ‘gathering’.
Curiously, tech billionaires denied the pivotal connection between the US democratic system and money, a belief not shared by ordinary people.
They were also prone to disruption and displayed a strong sense of temporality – i.e. existing within time – compared with the average person. In reality, they were inclined to censor and de-platform anyone with views at odds with their own peculiar self-inflated world view.
‘They [tech leaders] have an inconsistent understanding and relationship with...
The Radical Muslim Religious Transformation of French Schools
- In France, a low-intensity war is bubbling, aimed at radicalizing education.
- At the Pierre Mendès France School in Saumur, a student told his teacher, "My father will behead you". It has become impossible even to make a precise list of these incidents. They occur every day in France.
- "Faced with Islamist intimidation, what should the free world do?" — Title of Robert Redeker's column in Le Figaro in 2006. A few days later, he began receiving death threats.
- If extremists have managed to intimidate France's schools and universities, why should they not be able to subdue all of society?
"Unlike you, Colonel, and so many others, Mila will never submit", wrote the French teenager's father to her school's principal in a letter published by Le Point. On January 18, 2020 Mila O., then 16 years old, made insulting comments about Islam during her Instagram livestream.
"During her livestream, a Muslim boy asked her out in the comments, but she turned him down because she is gay. He responded by accusing her of racism and calling her a 'dirty lesbian'. In an angry follow-up video, streamed immediately after she was insulted, Mila responded by saying that she 'hates religion'".
Mila continued: "The Koran is a religion of hatred; there is only hatred in it... Islam is sh*t..." Since then, she has received approximately 50,000 messages and letters that contain threats to rape her, slit her throat, torture and behead her. She has had to keep moving from one school to another.
Once again, Mila has found herself without a high school. On a social network, she accidentally gave the name of her new military school. Its management promptly excluded her for being a potential threat to the students' security. "Devastated by so much cowardice", Mila's father wrote. "Even the army cannot protect her and allow her to continue her education, what can we do, us, her parents? This observation is for us a horror film".
Even the French army cannot protect her? "She is 17 years old and now lives like the staff of Charlie Hebdo, in a bunker; it is unbearable!" Mila's lawyer, Richard Malka, said.
A few days later, "Caroline L.", a professor at the Faculty of Law of Aix-Marseille University, received countless death threats, accusing her of being "Islamophobic". The Aix-en-Provence prosecutor opened an investigation for "public insults for belonging to religion". Her "crime"? The professor had explained to her students there:
"There is no freedom of conscience in Islam. If you were born to a Muslim father, you are a Muslim for life. A kind of sexually transmitted religion. One of the biggest problems we have with Islam, and unfortunately it is not the only one, is that Islam does not recognize freedom of conscience. It is absolutely terrifying".
The Pierre Joël Bonté High School in Riom (Puy-de-Dôme) was closed on January 11 due to "insults and death threats" targeting teachers. "We have decided to close the school following insults and death threats to protect students and staff", a spokesperson of the school explained. A few hours later, a teacher in Toulouse, Fatiha Boudjahlat, asked for police protection after receiving significant threats.
In 2015, Islamic State announced that French schools must be attacked and invited its followers to "kill the teachers". According to Gilles Kepel, an expert on Islamism, "The school, for the supporters of political Islam, has become a citadel to...
Chief Justice Roberts wants out of the impeachment trial, Dems want Kamala to preside – not satire
According to the Constitution, Chief Justice John Roberts must preside over President Trump’s impeachment trial. However, Politico reports he wants out.
Multiple Republican and Democratic sources have reportedly told Politico that Roberts is seeking a way to avoid the job because of how things played out when he oversaw Trump’s first impeachment trial last year. Roberts, Politico notes, has worked hard to keep the Supreme Court apolitical during his tenure, so he was reportedly displeased that he “became a top target of the left” during the proceedings. “He wants no further part of this,” one source told Politico, although there’s been no official word from Roberts’ camp about what he’ll ultimately do.
Democrats have now decided they don’t need him. Kamala Harris can preside.
Huh?
That would be fair and she’s perfectly unbiased enough to do that [sarcasm].
The Constitution says that the “Chief Justice” is the one who presides over presidential impeachment trials.
Democrats really want to burn down the Constitution. This entire procedure is nuts. The first Impeachment was nuts, and this is nuts. Roberts knows it’s nuts and wants out. There is no provision for a replacement.
The GOP should end this outright. It’s unconstitutional. Democrats are making up things as they...
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