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An Antidote To Corporate Media


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2015 Feb 9, 7:43am   715,714 views  602 comments

by Patrick   ➕follow (60)   💰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 far-left 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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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 376 - 415 of 602       Last »     Search these comments

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".
381   Patrick   2019 Mar 3, 5:50pm  

Tarantula says
I'm not clear what this content on housing has to do with the freedom to be offensive? If the economics of housing is what put the site on the map, how did it evolve to a site focused on the freedom to be offensive?


I honestly believe that the rapidly growing suppression of free speech is a far greater problem than the cost of housing. The housing problem will solve itself eventually. The lack of free speech can lock us all into tyranny forever.
382   Patrick   2019 Mar 3, 6:02pm  

MisterLearnToCode says
Islamist Croutons


Lol, exactly. Everything else is pretty easy to eat, but those croutons really don't belong in the salad at all. Kinda like putting bits of wood or rocks in your salad.
383   HeadSet   2019 Mar 3, 7:22pm  

but those croutons really don't belong in the salad at all. Kinda like putting bits of wood or rocks in your salad.

Yep, and those who do eat the croutons annoy every one else when their loud chewing sounds like a rock crusher.
384   Bd6r   2019 Mar 3, 7:23pm  

HeadSet says
loud chewing sounds like a rock crusher.

one could even say that their teeth explode
385   ForcedTQ   2019 Mar 3, 9:08pm  

Tarantula says
Patrick says
the rapidly growing suppression of free speech


I couldn't disagree more strongly. Free speech is more proliferate at this moment than ever before in the history of mankind.

I think perhaps you are confusing free speech with lack of consequences. People can, and should be, held accountable for the consequences of their words.

In fact, I would go as far as to say that free speech without consequence is tyranny.


So you would believe that someone should be able to say something, and if someone else doesn't like it/agree with it/know it to be fact/etc. there should be consequences for the person that said it? Is not that Tyranny?
386   Patrick   2019 Mar 3, 9:16pm  

Tarantula says
I couldn't disagree more strongly. Free speech is more proliferate at this moment than ever before in the history of mankind.

I think perhaps you are confusing free speech with lack of consequences. People can, and should be, held accountable for the consequences of their words.


I'm talking about cases like James Damore at Google, who got fired for perfectly reasonable comments about why there are more male than female engineers.

Hint: it's not sexism.

Or how Larry Summers got fired from Harvard.
387   Bd6r   2019 Mar 4, 5:18am  

https://spectator.us/free-speech-threat/

Calm down! Your freedom of speech is not under threat
Anyone who has almost every aspect of their online life taken away from them is not ‘silenced’
Godfrey Elfwick

As usual, the tinfoil hat-wearing alt-right Nazis are crying out that free speech is under threat. This ridiculous overreaction always makes me laugh. These people have no idea what free speech is. They assume that freedom of speech means you are free to say whatever you want without severe consequences! Imagine that?! What kind of fascistic society would allow unfettered, non-regulated speech?

The companies listed above are all private companies. They are entitled to ban whomever they wish if they feel that their views or behavior are unpleasant. In fact, I would like to see this approach taken a step further. I cannot wait for the day utility companies start banning people from having access to vital services such as electricity, gas and running water. Nextra, Enel and Duke Energy are all perfectly within their rights to deny power to the homes of people whose views they deem problematic.

When it comes to the latest social media bans, I’ve seen cries of ‘Urr, they are trying to silence us!’ What utter rot! Anyone who has almost every aspect of their online life taken away from them is not ‘silenced’. They are still perfectly free to send letters and postcards to people (for now). There is absolutely nothing stopping them from using CB radio, or sending a telegraph. Nothing prevents them from tapping out messages in Morse code to their followers on an intricate system of underground pipes they could easily have built if they obtain the appropriate planning permission. With a little creativity, Alex Jones could communicate his vile thoughts via the medium of interpretive dance on any street corner he chooses. Tommy Robinson could scribble his racist views on scraps of paper, fold them up, insert them into bottles (not plastic) and hurl them into the sea for his fellow Islamophobes to discover while walking their pitbull terriers on the beach.
388   FortWayneAsNancyPelosiHaircut   2019 Mar 4, 6:53am  

Then go there and do left wing activist there. You’ll get banned in 5 seconds...

You don’t appreciate the fact that you are still posting here. Ungreatful and so entitled.

Tarantula says
In fact, there seems to be no shortage of websites that proffer the most unpalatable "politically incorrect" content imaginable:

White aryan resistance: https://www.resist.com/
Jew Watch: http://www.jewwatch.com/
Holocaust Deniers: https://codoh.com/

There is an infinitude of "offensive" material on the Internet, without even considering all the wierd porn. I don't really see how it needs protecting
389   FortWayneAsNancyPelosiHaircut   2019 Mar 4, 6:57am  

In CA most things said on this forum will get you fired for life. CA doesn’t support freedom of speech. But it supports freedom of speech that left wants... such as gender selection, having gays refer to you as cis gendered, etc...

CA liberals live on one way street pushing society into tyranny.
390   MisdemeanorRebel   2019 Mar 13, 10:46am  

We gotta lot of old sockpuppet accounts resurfacing today.
391   Shaman   2019 Mar 13, 10:52am  

Tarantula says
There is an infinitude of "offensive" material on the Internet, without even considering all the wierd porn. I don't really see how it needs protecting


Let’s start by banning anyone who talks like a Leftist. See how it works? Thought not. For a dude who is supposed to be educated, you aren’t displaying any wisdom.
392   MisdemeanorRebel   2019 Mar 13, 11:07am  

Elgatouno says
police your own this is why a one sided moderation policy is fucking stupid


Point me to another current user bringing up a sockpuppet in the recent past that you're complaining about, thanks.
393   CaltRightCrazy   2019 Mar 13, 11:19pm  

antiforum
395   MisdemeanorRebel   2019 Mar 15, 11:25pm  

MAGA_BOMBER says
offending is no great accomplishment, Offensive speech isolates people and undermines relationships permanently because all relationships are based on respect.


Respect is to be earned, not given away.

We can't ban offensive speech because then we'd be at the mercy of the most easily offended; the lowest common denominator, and wouldn't be able to discuss jack shit.

Some people are triggered by somebody saying "The Earth is a fucking oblate spheroid, not fucking flat."
396   MisdemeanorRebel   2019 Mar 15, 11:35pm  

MAGA_BOMBER says
Try talking that way to someone related to your employment.

BOOM

You have no worry about that particular problem?

BOOM



So what are you saying, in a democracy everybody should only talk like their boss is around?

Is that the ACLU's new stance on Free Speech: you can only talk as if you're at work on the boss' time and dime?

Sounds scary.
397   Patrick   2019 Mar 15, 11:50pm  

MisterLearnToCode says
We can't ban offensive speech because then we'd be at the mercy of the most easily offended; the lowest common denominator, and wouldn't be able to discuss jack shit.


Yes, exactly!
398   FortWayneAsNancyPelosiHaircut   2019 Mar 16, 8:20am  

MAGA_BOMBER says
offending is no great accomplishment, Offensive speech isolates people and undermines relationships permanently because all relationships are based on respect.


No one expects everything we say to be an accomplishment. Anything and everything is offensive, restricting speech based on how it offends someone is tyranny.
399   MisdemeanorRebel   2019 Mar 16, 11:03am  

Right, so if you say "Men and Women are fundamentally different." or "Humans have only has two sexes", there are a substantial number of people who claim that is Hate Speech.

This is why studies that showed that there were differences between boys and girls during gestation in the womb when culture cannot be a factor, they had to put in all kinds of soothing words and caveats and "please don't hit me" type language when they released it.
400   Patrick   2019 Mar 16, 11:08am  

Yes, and even worse than that, actual scientific research has been excised from journals because some found objective facts to be offensive.

For example, the research paper showing greater male variability across most species.

https://quillette.com/2018/09/07/academic-activists-send-a-published-paper-down-the-memory-hole/

First, the National Science Foundation wrote to Sergei requesting that acknowledgment of NSF funding be removed from our paper with immediate effect. I was astonished. I had never before heard of the NSF requesting removal of acknowledgement of funding for any reason. On the contrary, they are usually delighted to have public recognition of their support for science. ...

ut, that same day, the Mathematical Intelligencer’s editor-in-chief Marjorie Senechal notified us that, with “deep regret,” she was rescinding her previous acceptance of our paper. “Several colleagues,” she wrote, had warned her that publication would provoke “extremely strong reactions” and there existed a “very real possibility that the right-wing media may pick this up and hype it internationally.” For the second time in a single day I was left flabbergasted. Working mathematicians are usually thrilled if even five people in the world read our latest article. Now some progressive faction was worried that a fairly straightforward logical argument about male variability might encourage the conservative press to actually read and cite a science paper?
401   AD   2019 Mar 16, 11:24am  

MisterLearnToCode says
This is why studies that showed that there were differences between boys and girls during gestation in the womb when culture cannot be a factor, they had to put in all kinds of soothing words and caveats and "please don't hit me" type language when they released it.


402   rocketjoe79   2019 Mar 19, 11:01pm  

It's the same regarding IQ testing. I keep reminding people that 49% are below average, but no one believes me....
403   MrMagic   2019 Mar 25, 1:47pm  

antiforum
404   MrMagic   2019 Mar 26, 9:25pm  

antiforum
405   Goran_K   2019 Apr 11, 8:30am  

@Patrick, is there a way to submit entire threads into the queue? Right now, HEYYOU is on a spamming rage, perhaps there should be a way to prevent someone like him from just spamming threads?
406   Patrick   2019 Apr 11, 10:22am  

Yes, the only rule is no personal comments. Discuss ideas, not the other users.

OK, I do have a few other rules like not insulting the site itself (just leave if you don't like it), not posting commercial spam, and not breaking any laws.
407   FortWayneAsNancyPelosiHaircut   2019 Apr 11, 3:32pm  

Elgatouno says


Please keep your fantasies and fetishes out of this Elgatouno
408   Patrick   2019 Apr 11, 5:44pm  

HEYYOU says
Bet I couldn't say this on any other site,maybe once before being banned.


I'll take that as a compliment.
410   Patrick   2019 Apr 11, 6:07pm  

How can anyone still believe the Russia bullshit after it was so thoroughly discredited after more than two years of the most fanatical and partisan investigation in history?

It's just hate. And that's sad. Hate is suffering for the hater.

Give up hate, live happily.
411   Patrick   2019 Apr 11, 6:11pm  

Goran_K says
perhaps there should be a way to prevent someone like him from just spamming threads?


I was in fact thinking of limiting people to two or three comments in a thread in a row.

I don't want anyone to be able to drown out anyone else through excessive commenting.
412   Bd6r   2019 Apr 11, 6:24pm  

Patrick says
How can anyone still believe the Russia bullshit after it was so thoroughly discredited after more than two years of the most fanatical and partisan investigation in history?

Because they suffer from clinical TDS where FACTS! do not matter. It does not matter also that Russian puppet Trump killed 200-300 Russians in Syria, which is the largest number of Russian troops killed by Americans in one engagement ever, and it does not matter that Obama never challenged Russians in Syria.

And the sad part is that one can find a lot of stuff to criticize Trump, but it is easier not to think so lets trot out things that are false.
413   Patrick   2019 Apr 11, 9:28pm  

I wonder how much the media is to blame for the epidemic of TDS.

Their continuous spin and lies about Trump certainly seem to be a major factor in spreading this disease. They hyped the Russia lie for nearly 2 and a half years, and it was entirely bullshit.
414   Bd6r   2019 Apr 12, 8:29am  

Patrick says
Their continuous spin and lies about Trump certainly seem to be a major factor in spreading this disease. They hyped the Russia lie for nearly 2 and a half years, and it was entirely bullshit.

And it is counterproductive even from the point of TDS sufferers (other than them being able to achieve mental orgasms from bashing t-RUMP). Trump has a lot to be criticized about but they focus on emotionally satisfying issues that are either false or immaterial, thus destroying their and MSM already nonexistent credibility.
I blame our education system, where FACTS ARE VIOLENCE AND LOGIC IS WHITE HETERO-PATRIARCHAL OPPRESSION.
415   Patrick   2019 Apr 12, 8:40am  

achieve mental orgasms from bashing t-RUMP


Lol, that is the perfect way to put it.

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