rrcatto

[rrcatto]

This was sent to me by a friend. Twitter locked his account for tweeting the above and forced him to delete it. He is on timeout now because Twitter won’t allow anyone to tweet “Islam sux”.

Twitter sucks. Facebook also sucks for the same reason - irrational moderation policies which limit speech that is not hateful by any stretch of the imagination.

We are well within our rights, and within the bounds of free speech that is not hateful to express our opposition to any religion. Can you imagine shutting down a comic like the late great George Carlin?

We need laws to regulate how website owners are permitted to moderate speech, because they have become the guardians of public speech online. They are where the public congregates and it’s no longer okay to grant them carte blanche to moderate speech as they see fit. They must be subject to the Constitution and be forced to uphold freedom of speech on pain of severe punishment.

We cannot allow these business people who make money off our participation to turn around and impose arbitrary limits on what we are allowed to say.

[rrcatto]

My life is like an onion

My life is like an onion, as I strip away the layers, the emotions flood out of me, and I am left bereft, of all that was once part of me.

All that is left is my inner core, the most resilient part of me, which has carried me thus far, through the swirling mists of time.

I will grow new layers, I will be whole again, because I am a survivor, I stand against them all.

When next you see me, you will not recognise, the person I have become, because you never believed in me, despite all that I have done.

[rrcatto]

The last time I kissed her

the last time I kissed her, the last time we made love, the last time I saw her, has already happened.

and I am torn apart from longing, knowing I will never see her again, no matter what I do, I cannot get back to her.

and my heart is filled with longing, for just one more time with her, but you see, my friend, it is quite impossible, for I am already dead.

my flesh and bone have been burned, and my ashes float on the winds, and settle like petals, on the grassy lands, where once we walked, hand in hand.

[rrcatto]

I have had the same experience of running smack bang into online haters.

No company can afford to associate itself with those who publish bigoted opinions online. It is bad for business.

The trolls who stir up hatred and directed abuse at this woman and her family must be hunted down and prosecuted. What they are doing is highly destructive and they merit lengthy periods of incarceration.

Anyone who attempts to block the rights of LGBT people, even for religious reasons, is not doing a good thing at all. They are discriminating and hateful. They are bigots.

You cannot hide your bigotry behind religion. That does not fly.

[rrcatto]

The Myth of the Afrikaner genocide

Afriforum & other racist orgs & people, including Steve Hofmeyr have long had their pet theory of the Afrikaner genocide debunked.

This myth has been liberally & loudly propagated online by right wingers with a racist agenda to promote.

It is essential to perform due diligence on the information you consume to verify it and fact check it before you decide to believe it. Don't assume that others have done this for you and only published verified facts.

There is a growing pile of misinformation & disinformation accumulating online, mostly on low quality wordpress & blogger blogs.

WordPress & Google refuse to clean up this crap even when asked using "free speech" as their go to excuse. This is a irrational stance for them to adopt especially amidst growing pressure for providers to remove low quality or false information from their servers.

Google has long ago deviated from their so-called policy of "do no evil" in favour of doing the expedient thing. Google has been caught out many times running their adverts next to very low quality content and also publishing ads of very poor quality, some of them outright money making scams.

The message of this post is beware what information you consume & believe. The people you may think are watching out for you, are not actually doing anything to clean up the crap.

It falls to us to become activists for truth and to pressure these corporates to clean up their act and remove low quality content which serves only to deceive & inflame.

[rrcatto]

Toxic & paranoid attitudes towards men

Something happened today to remind me how some women have adopted a toxic & paranoid stance towards men, and are quick to see benign & friendly approaches in a negative & sinister light.

It's a serious internal bias to believe the worst of us.

You know some women complain about abusive relationships where they feel they have to walk on eggshells around men lest they provoke an angry / violent outburst from them, but the reverse is also true. I find myself having to walk on eggshells around some women lest I find myself getting branded with a stalker or creep label or some other nefarious term.

Men are expected to tolerate all kinds of sass and cutting remarks from women, but if we give them back a blunt response, then we get painted as the bad guy.

And then there's the continual hate speech directed at men by women. The #MenAreTrash label was liberally applied to all men. I believe that these negative messages about men have the effect of programming women's minds to regard men in a very negative light before even knowing who the guy is, what he means and what his intentions are.

We're not all bad, you know. Some of us genuinely love and care for women and we want to have women as friends for the sake of friendship and nothing else, no ulterior motives.

What has to stop is the hate speech directed at men. Most of us are decent people who will go out of way to help a woman in need, without asking anything in return.

[rrcatto]

This article basically says that the creatives are not responsible for the success of most companies, but rather the educated people who put in the long hours to do the grunt work that is necessary to complete projects on time etc.

I see their point. I know a lot of creative work is done which has no real function. The nihilism of it all is seen in events like AfrikaBurn where everything is burnt at the end. Beautiful structures are created and then destroyed at the conclusion, leaving nothing behind. This philosophy flies in the face of human history where the ancients erected temples, buildings, pyramids etc. and left them behind for us to see and appreciate millennia later.

The modern hippy culture of live for today only and never mind what happens later seems rather pointless and self serving.

I gain immense personal satisfaction from coding computer software that serves a purpose and adds value. And yes, creativity and innovation is involved, but also hard work and attention to detail plus logical thinking. This is the space I inhabit.

[rrcatto]

Cannabis Sativa was banned in South Africa by the colonial powers in 1922. At that time, it was widely used, so they thought, only by non-white people. Alcohol was not banned, even though it causes more harm, because it was the drug of choice of white colonials.

The entire war against drugs has its root in racism.

[rrcatto]

1. US government pressured the UK government not to decriminalise Cannabis Sativa when British scientists were recommending it be reclassified.

2. The UK government fired Prof David Nutt in 2010 for telling the truth about ecstasy that using it was safer than riding a horse.

3. Neither the US nor UK governments are interested in the science of drugs - their prohibition is based purely on political whim.

[rrcatto]

I’m going to try this service at my earliest convenience.

https://www.afristay.com/

I had a very bad experience with my last stay with a total arsehole AirBNB host.

[rrcatto]

GoDaddy finally pulls its stupid head out of its ass and bans The Daily Stormer, a totally fascist blog devoted to propagating hate speech.

I’m tired of American ISPs tolerating sites that they describe as “tasteless” and “ignorant”. The internet does not benefit from being crammed full of hate speech blogs. It’s a net drain on society.

I’m so sorry that Heather Heyer was murdered by a vile disgusting fascist pig. This is what happens when you tolerate their hate - good people get killed.

[rrcatto]

I’m a very romantic and sentimental person, so I like this story of a gold wedding ring, slowly floating back into the astronaut’s hand. After looking for his lost love diligently for days, all of a sudden, when least expected, it popped right up, seemed to slip away, only for it to slowly return to the place it was always meant to be.

True love is never lost. It always finds its way home. I take comfort in that. I believe it.

[rrcatto]

The Smog Free Tower installed in a Rotterdam park purifies air by ionising particles which get attracted to an anode. Smog free air is released through vents in the sides of the tower.

[rrcatto]

The ignorant and the stupid anti-drug protesters gave into their frustrations and behaved aggressively and violently towards those who support the legalisation of Cannabis Sativa in South Africa.

The Emergency Rooms of hospitals around South Africa are filled with the victims of violent alcohol abusers. And the one thing they have in common is they come from the lowest income groups. You don’t find the wealthy and middle class stabbing each other after enjoying some expensive brandy.

These people have no class, no upbringing, no sense of common decency and when they become intoxicated, all the filth that is within them comes out of their mouths as they become abusive to those around them. Then they progress to violence with deadly weapons.

Basically, don’t make YOUR problems, our problems. We, the middle class, for the most part, don’t have the problems that you have. We generally do not resort to crime or go on sprees of violence. It is the exception rather than the rule when something like that occurs.

So why should ALL South Africans be deprived of alcohol, drugs etc. because certain communities can’t get their shit together?

If you can’t handle your drink or your drugs, that’s your problem, not mine.

Don’t make your problem, mine. I have enough problems of my own and I don’t come begging to you for help.

You’re on your own. Sink or swim. I really don’t care which you choose.

[rrcatto]

The word marijuana was used to associate Cannabis Sativa with Mexicans. The propaganda against cannabis use was a wholly racist campaign composed entirely of fallacy, simply to force through an agenda by a deeply racist white American, Harry Anslinger, whose Prohibition against Alcohol had failed so spectacularly.

[rrcatto]

Uber is not just a threat for metered taxis, it is also taking business away from car rental companies.

Disruptive business models continue to rule our rapidly changing economies.

The next big thing is cryptocurrencies. They are going to upend the banking model and sideline national fiat currencies. It’s quite possible that within the next 10 - 20 years, a cryptocurrency will achieve a market capitalisation in excess of all nations wealth.

[rrcatto]

As much as I would like to see the back of the ANC, I don’t see any advantage in calling for an early election.

It seems more useful to give the ANC more rope and time to hang themselves with. Give their poor governance more time to hurt the poorest segment of their voter block - let them feel the pain of their poor voting choice for the full measure of time. Let them really hurt, and if they are brought to their knees, they will be finally able to acknowledge that the only way out is to switch their vote.

Right now, they are not on their knees yet. They are still full of defiance. Wait them out. Wait until the whole country agrees that the ANC must go, and then hold the general election.

An early general election would most likely just hand the ANC a mandate to fuck things up for another 5 years.