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An Antidote To Corporate Media


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2015 Feb 9, 7:43am   698,945 views  600 comments

by Patrick   ➕follow (59)   💰tip   ignore  




Patrick.net is an online forum, a bit like Twitter or Reddit, but with much more freedom of speech than either of those. Almost anything goes, but a few things don't, such as deliberately personally insulting another user, or deliberately misrepresenting what another user said.

I got the patrick.net domain name back in 1995 when I was one day too late for patrick.com. Missing the .com name turned out to be fine. I prefer the .net name now because life is all about human networks. This site was just my personal blog from 1995 to 2004.

In 2004 I started writing about the housing bubble, which catapulted the site to national fame for a while. I was interviewed on NPR, on Nightline on TV, and in other corporate media that I have since learned to recognize as poison. Here are my original the articles about the housing bubble (the dates on them are much later because I updated them):

https://patrick.net/post/1282720/2015-07-11-ten-reasons-it-s-a-terrible-time-to
https://patrick.net/post/1282721/2015-07-11-eight-groups-who-lie-about-the-housing
https://patrick.net/post/1282722/2015-07-11-37-bogus-arguments-about-housing

The big housing bubble popped in 2008, and traffic fell, since it was no longer controversial to assert that we really had had a housing bubble.

About then, I decided to just let the public discuss other topics with each other and wrote my own forum software. I'm a programmer, so that was fun. At first I was kind of disturbed at the number of conservatives on the site, but as I discussed things with them and saw San Francisco literally turn to shit under Democrat extremists, I changed my thinking.

And yet I didn't change my thinking all that much, because once again, I'm opposing corruption of government by the oligarchy. Before, my enemy was the NAR (National Association of Realtors) and I still think the NAR is nothing but institutionalized crime, but there are bigger fish to fry now, especially since the worldwide campaign to inject every human with a dangerous and ineffective genetic experiment, which was never approved by the FDA. (They approved "Comirnaty", which is not available, to deceive the public.)

https://tobyrogers.substack.com/p/thinking-points-september-21-2022


It’s like Pharma just backed a truck up to the Progressive Values Factory; stole everything; modified core values in order to maim people, make money, and implement global totalitarianism; and the left is just out there smoking a cigarette on the loading dock saying, “Sounds good to me.” What!? What the heck happened to the left? Is there no one remaining in that tribe who is capable of logic and reason!? Quite literally the worst industry in the world stole the left’s most cherished values and no one on the left is the slightest bit offended by this (even though they are offended by everything else)!? We live in the bizarro upside down world.




I could go on, but you'll get the idea by reading the site.



I have a platform of ideas for improving America: https://patrick.net/post/1303173/2017-02-19-patrick-s-platform

And an explanation for how we got to this point.

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There is a thread for each zip code in the US. You can have local discussions there about anything, or you can post things for sale, etc. To find the thread for a zip code, just do a search for the town name or zip code.

I also have a list of all US Congressmen as separate threads, where you are encouraged to comment on how good of a job you think they're doing:

https://patrick.net/post/1377838/2022-11-29-us-congressmen-lists


« First        Comments 341 - 380 of 600       Last »     Search these comments

341   mell   2018 Sep 23, 9:40am  

FortWayne says
Variety of restaurants isn’t our strength.

Other countries have that too, yet still shitholes.

Diversity exists in shithole nations just the same. There is no benefit. It’s just neutral for most part. And destructive when it gets out of hand.



Rocketmanjoe says
Patrick says
Diversity weakens a country


@patrick Do you ever go out to eat? Do you only go to American restaurants? Me and my wife we go out to eat, we eat at Korean, Chinese, Italian, Mexican ... We have many diverse types of food to choose from. Wouldn't it suck if we didn't have a diverse selection of restaurants to choose from?

So why does our diversity of restaurants make this country weak?

Next, shoes. Wouldn't it suck if the only shoes we could buy are NIKE? Luckily we are able to choose from a diverse selec...


Correct. Iceland doesn't have a large variety of ethnic food yet it's one of the safest countries due to very little ethnic diversity but relatively high intellect and education.
342   CBOEtrader   2018 Sep 23, 10:53am  

Rocketmanjoe says
@patrick Do you ever go out to eat? Do you only go to American restaurants? Me and my wife we go out to eat, we eat at Korean, Chinese, Italian, Mexican ...


Noone but the progressives, "You are appropriating other cultures' food", have a problem w exotic foods.
343   Patrick   2018 Sep 23, 12:36pm  

Rocketmanjoe says
patrick what diversity is it that you speak of that is tearing American apart?


@Rocketmanjoe Please read the article:

http://archive.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/08/05/the_downside_of_diversity/
344   CBOEtrader   2018 Sep 23, 3:00pm  

Aphroman says
Only if you pretend that business would pay higher wages to Americans if only we eliminated illegals.

As if the unemployed Americans would do those jobs, and as if business is ready to pay them more simply for being Americans.


"According to a former consultant to the bakery, MSI paid the black workers $14 an hour, versus the $10 an hour the Mexican workers were making through Labor Network."

https://chicago.suntimes.com/business/at-major-northwest-side-bakery-labor-issues-pit-blacks-vs-hispanics/

Ohhh idk is a 40% wage increase substantial? The factory is happy to employe $10 illegals. Crackdowns and a wall would result in enormous support for trump amongst all working class Americans. Blacks and latino american citizens will continue to get behind trump in huge numbers
345   LeonDurham   2018 Sep 24, 8:23am  

Yep-Trump's "tax cut" was about as big of a middle finger to the working class as I've ever seen.
346   WookieMan   2018 Sep 24, 8:57am  

Rocketmanjoe says
Politics have divided us. Keeping us from uniting as Americans. If people would just be honest and not just side with their team, speak up when they agree with someone not on their team, this would go along way to unite us. I'm pretty sure I've seen some do this here but few and far between. I agree that politics is what is dividing us but don't agree it is diversity.


I generally agree with what you're saying here and get your point of view, but did you go to college? That's not meant as an insult, serious question. And where? (Don't have to give exact school, maybe conference if it was a bigger school as my goal is to not dox anyone)

I went to UIC (University of IL Chicago). They were sooooooo proud of their diversity. You know what the campus looked like? The blacks had their group and would all hang. The whites would all hang out with the other whites. Asians with Asians, etc. Humans self segregate, for good or bad. It's just what we do. And in Chicago, many of these people have their own cultural "way of life" and they segregate themselves into their own large neighborhood or "micro" neighborhoods because that's what they WANT.

Diversity is forced and doesn't actually exist, which I think is what Patrick is somewhat getting at (tell me if I'm wrong). It's a social construct that is being forced on people to shame them for not hanging out with the black guy or the asian dude or the lesbian. My motto is hang out with who you want and everyone else that has a problem with that can go fuck themselves. Don't hate others, which there's no reason to, and we can all have a good time. Don't tell me though that I'm bad for not having a black or asian friend though, because that is what diversity has become. It's not about melting anything anymore.
347   MisdemeanorRebel   2018 Oct 22, 6:25pm  

Suggestion: GIlding posts with a donation to Patnet.
348   Patrick   2018 Oct 22, 7:18pm  

Thanks, would not be hard.

What would gilding do exactly? Make the post more prominent? Gold border?
349   CBOEtrader   2018 Oct 22, 7:34pm  

Patrick says
Thanks, would not be hard.

What would gilding do exactly? Make the post more prominent? Gold border?


I'd have it stick to the top of the page as one scrolls through, so that everyone must read the gilded post as context for any thread. Want a new gilded post? Just outbid the last guy
350   CBOEtrader   2018 Oct 22, 7:35pm  

And do it in pat.coins , new crypto
351   Patrick   2018 Oct 22, 8:23pm  

Dunno, seems like a violation of editorial integrity. I don't want to stoop anywhere near as low as, say, NPR or CNN, both of which are simply whores at this point.

I don't have much, but I still have my hymen, so to speak.
352   MisdemeanorRebel   2018 Oct 22, 8:28pm  

CBOEtrader says
I'd have it stick to the top of the page as one scrolls through, so that everyone must read the gilded post as context for any thread. Want a new gilded post? Just outbid the last guy


Something like this, but I was thinking more of a link to all the gold plated posts at the top of the page, maybe only the last one or two displaying.

Also, you could set a requirement that it have 3:1 Likes and a minimum of 10 likes to qualify, so it's not pure $$$.
353   Patrick   2018 Oct 22, 8:32pm  

I appreciate the ideas for monetization.

But why should anyone's post be granted a higher status just because they paid? Don't you want quality above all else?
354   MisdemeanorRebel   2018 Oct 22, 9:22pm  

Patrick says
But why should anyone's post be granted a higher status just because they paid? Don't you want quality above all else?



Definitely, so I suggest some kind of minimum upvotes, and/or a high upvote/downvote ratio.

We can gild the top rated posts?

Anything I can do to help with monetization, I'm willing to help out.
355   Patrick   2018 Oct 22, 9:26pm  

Does gilding work that way on Reddit?

Or what about letting users tip other users, so good writers can get paid a bit? (With a modest 10% commission on that tip going to the site.) I could keep score on the site, and pay out when a balance gets above $20 or so. Would I have to issue a 1099 MISC then?
356   CBOEtrader   2018 Oct 22, 11:32pm  

If we're just brainstorming than I'd like to see a steam-it type concept wherein likes, quotes, upvotes, shares, etc... all count towards point totals per user, but maybe this just works on huge sites like quora.

Gamification and in-community currencies, it worked for world of warcraft. Just spitballin
357   Patrick   2018 Oct 23, 7:21am  

I am grateful for the suggestions.
358   MrMagic   2018 Oct 28, 1:48pm  

Patrick says
Patrick.net is an uncensored anonymous forum.


How much longer do we play the "flag" game?
359   MisdemeanorRebel   2018 Oct 28, 1:56pm  

Patrick says
Or what about letting users tip other users, so good writers can get paid a bit? (With a modest 10% commission on that tip going to the site.) I could keep score on the site, and pay out when a balance gets above $20 or so. Would I have to issue a 1099 MISC then?


I wonder if we could make some post/area as a resource for various issues.

I've got several ideas for an Index of things, like tracking domestic terror attacks by cause or such like.

Then slap some ads on it or allow a tip jar, and you should make a big commission for hosting, 20%.
360   Patrick   2018 Oct 28, 4:37pm  

Tell me more about what you were thinking.

Several times I have linked a certain class of post to a sub-database. Once for housing, once for a list of all SF tech companies, and I think a few others.

So you're saying that the sub-database would be maintained by one user, and updates would all be posted to a specific thread, right?
361   MisdemeanorRebel   2018 Oct 28, 4:42pm  

Patrick says
Tell me more about what you were thinking.

Several times I have linked a certain class of post to a sub-database. Once for housing, once for a list of all SF tech companies, and I think a few others.

So you're saying that the sub-database would be maintained by one user, and updates would all be posted to a specific thread, right?


Something like that.

Because Curious2 is good at listing Islamic attacks in the "Islam" thread, there was one (Goran? TPB? You?) on Leftwing attacks, and I had a Hillary thread (and others) that correlate all the stories/incidences about a certain topic. Fake Hate Crimes, that kind of thing.

I remember documenting Terror Attacks by Cause also, but I can no longer find the thread.

Think of this as something like an "Anti-Snopes", but it could also contain Reasons why Buying is a Bad Idea and other list/indexes of events/ideas.

Only the author(s) could comment in the main thread but tips or gripes could be kept in other posts underneath the main thread.

This way the original post could be updated with new information as it comes in. Then we could share with The_Donald, Twitter, and other places to drive traffic.
362   Patrick   2018 Oct 28, 4:46pm  

TwoScoopsOfSpaceForce says
Only the author(s) could comment in the main thread but tips or gripes could be kept in other posts underneath the main thread.


So maybe the original post (which is what I think you mean by main thread) could itself have a little database that only the thread author could insert into, but everyone could search and read.

And tips or gripes would be comments as usual, below the original post.

Sound about right?
363   MisdemeanorRebel   2018 Oct 28, 5:54pm  

That's exactly right.

Without having endless stickies at the top of the forum which suck, kind of a "Reference Thread" with a link at the top on the right side of Active/Comments/New/etc.

And you should monetize it, both because I'd pay for a few threads, and then you can charge for ads or ask for donations also..
364   Patrick   2018 Oct 28, 6:13pm  

OK, it's plan.
365   Patrick   2018 Oct 30, 8:03pm  

@TwoScoopsOfSpaceForce I need to pin down exactly how this new feature would look and work.

Are you thinking of essentially an embedded spreadsheet in a post?
366   MisdemeanorRebel   2018 Oct 30, 8:51pm  

It could be. I was originally thinking more of a plain regular post

BUT

An embedded spreadsheet would be easier to keep updated and users could sort it by Place, Cause/Motive, etc. rather than just Date.
367   HappyGilmore   2018 Nov 1, 5:13pm  

personal
368   Goran_K   2018 Nov 1, 5:19pm  

You’re always welcome back. Calling someone a troll is going to always result in a flag though. Now or later.
369   MrMagic   2018 Nov 1, 7:13pm  

antiforum
370   MisdemeanorRebel   2018 Nov 1, 7:35pm  

Now that I see Mr. Magic's post was made her where it belongs, I think it should be approved, actually.

HappyGilmore, I don't know why you're @ing me. I only get the odd posts at odd hours. If it isn't blatantly insulting, I usually let it pass and only insist that posts complaining about pat.net get made here.

The fact is when Trump won many posters became toilet mouths full of invective. It used to be pretty much confined between Captain Shuddup and Dan and Iwog, but then it spread all over. That's why the change had to be made.
371   FuckTheMainstreamMedia   2018 Nov 1, 7:51pm  

HappyGilmore says
@Patrick @twoscoopsofspaceforce

OK. Goran has become a large enough troll that it's no longer fun to come here. So I guess he wins.

If this is what you want the site to be, have at it.

Take a look at the blue wave thread and tell me I'm wrong. Iwog was right all along that having him as a moderator will kill the site. I stayed much longer than I should have...


Which of your accounts will be leaving the site?
372   Goran_K   2018 Nov 1, 7:57pm  

CovfefeButDeadly says
HappyGilmore says
@Patrick @twoscoopsofspaceforce

OK. Goran has become a large enough troll that it's no longer fun to come here. So I guess he wins.

If this is what you want the site to be, have at it.

Take a look at the blue wave thread and tell me I'm wrong. Iwog was right all along that having him as a moderator will kill the site. I stayed much longer than I should have...


Which of your accounts will be leaving the site?


I’m glad someone said it. HappyGilmore is 99% someone’s sock account. I would bet $1,000 cash on it.
373   MrMagic   2018 Nov 1, 8:27pm  

TwoScoopsOfSpaceForce says
Now that I see Mr. Magic's post was made her where it belongs, I think it should be approved, actually.


I'd like to know why it wasn't approved too, it was posted under "Discuss Anything" since...

Patrick says
Patrick.net is an uncensored anonymous forum.


I posted a 100% true comment, if they aren't allowed to stay, what's left to discuss?
375   www365   2018 Nov 26, 2:44pm  

is a housing crash coming?
don't understand why people still buy houses at such insane price.
376   Patrick   2018 Nov 26, 6:04pm  

@www365 My own opinion is that Bay Area prices will decline for the next few years at least, but slowly.

One factor is that the new tax law limits the deductibility of interest for the rich. Also, I expect interest rates to rise.
377   Patrick   2019 Mar 3, 12:54pm  

There are still moderators, and you can still ignore anyone you want, even me.

You can actually discuss everything. You just can't shit on other users or the site itself.

I changed the site tagline and the title of this post to "Freedom to Offend".
378   MisdemeanorRebel   2019 Mar 3, 3:09pm  

Tarantula says
I'm genuinely curious. I used to read this site back then and it would be interesting to hear how it morphed from housing and economics into encouraging offensive language.



Trump got elected, against the absolute assurance of several popular prog/lib posters, and most of them got super beyond Butthurt to the max and couldn't make a post without personal insults.

Then they thought their freedom was taken away and flounced after Patrick tried to control insults after months of nasty behavior.

My favorite was a certain poster who agreed Trump-Russia was BS right up until the election results. Then not a week later was Mr. Trump-Russia-Collusion
379   MisdemeanorRebel   2019 Mar 3, 3:14pm  

I'm all for the melting pot.

I don't like the salad bowl because there's no way to get rid of the Islamist Croutons.
380   MisdemeanorRebel   2019 Mar 3, 3:23pm  

Tarantula says
None of that makes any much sense, but it sounds like you had an argument with someone once here. That's personal to YOU, but my question was really about why this site was refocused to protecting the "freedom to offend" over so many other potential choices. I'm genuinely curious.



I was probably one of the least involved in the Great Prog Butthurt.

Ironically, the same people who wanted to ban Capt Shuddup for years based on his behavior, were the ones demanding that banning personal insults was "Anti Free Speech".

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