The Daily Blog Open Mic – Sunday – 19th April 2020

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Announce protest actions, general chit chat or give your opinion on issues we haven’t covered for the day.

Moderation rules are more lenient for this section, but try and play nicely.

EDITORS NOTE: – By the way, here’s a list of shit that will get your comment dumped. Sexist language, homophobic language, racist language, anti-muslim hate, transphobic language, Chemtrails, 9/11 truthers, climate deniers, anti-fluoride fanatics, anti-vaxxer lunatics and ANYONE that links to fucking infowar.

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12 COMMENTS

  2. The Standard have chosen not to give me right of reply to my banning by the transphobe Presland. I hope that this will prove educational to those who might be thinking of dipping their toes into that sadly tainted pool, that I have; in previous years, enjoyed having a swim around.

    Firstly, for context, here is the post that got me banned for the ultimate sin of both; criticising a moderator, whilst also wasting moderators time. I had already decided that I would be unlikely to continue commenting there unless I received an explanation &/ or apology, so it is fairly long. As I knew before pushing the publish button; that there was unlikely to be a chance to edit, or clarify, any points that I flubbed, I threw in everything but the kitchen sink:

    Forget now6
    18 April 2020 at 9:53 am

    I will not post my unpublished reply in full, as it is again fairly long (for the same reason); if anyone here has any questions, I trust that I will have the opportunity to answer them. Here are some excerts though:

    “…However, I will note that The Standard’s policies have in practice changed markedly over the years. When identifying as male, I led a two week comment strike against what I perceived as abuse of moderation powers, and was not banned. Today; while identifying as Nonbinary, I am instabanned for having the temerity to hope for the minimal dignity of having my gender identity respected.
    Comment:Open mike 30/03/2015
    9:13 am, March 30th, 2015

    “…Also, I may have been in error about the definition of “bigot”, which I then believed meant; “one who stubbornly refuses to consider information that may contradict their assumptions”, but this may be science-jargon usage now I look up the conventional definition in a dictionary. Would have been better to go with; “Is MS Transphobic?”, in retrospect. Not intentionally transphobic; I can’t see him going on queer-bashing expeditions, more; is MS of the generation and living circumstances that inclines them to believe that misgendering nonbinary and other trans people is not a big deal, and they should get over it because he doesn’t mean any harm?

    “That question was answered for me by MS’s decision to again misgender me by using the clearly masculine term “bucko” in their ban notes. It doesn’t matter whether they read and understood my pronoun request of yesterday at that point, this to me is a clear pattern of behaviour with which I have no desire to be associated. Which is a bit sad, but at least I know now before wasting any more of my time and effort.

    “I had thought that when Weka first said that; moderators were busy so had limited patience, she meant over Easter and with the level 4 lockdown. Sadly, with her Fight Clubesque rules for commenting it seems that the bunker mentality is permanent. I don’t care if I make trouble, and may not play well with others, but; the truth is what is important, more than the road to it. Or to quote Carl Sagan:

    “That which can be destroyed by the truth, should be.”…”

  3. I can’t help comparing your open mike with one post so far (two now) to that of the Standard open mike with 164 posts. With respect, your seems to be tucked away in an obscure place whereas the standard’s is immediately visible and accessible. Maybe its a deliberate policy. Perhaps you have specific topics that have high priority. Not being critical- just wondering.

    • My problem with commenting here is that it is very laggy, so that you might be waiting an hour for a comment to appear. That really spoils the conversational give and take that TS sometimes permits.
      Also there is no editing possible once you post. So say; like above, one forgets to replace placeholder text with actual links, then you won’t realise until much later.

      Still, the absence of moderator transphobia makes it a better fit for myself.

    • I noticed that Rodel. But I think that Open Mike being at the end of the Latest Blogs headlines actually is a good idea as Martyn and other authors take the trouble of writing joined-up thoughts with facts, unlike some that comment and we should see what new stuff they are showing, critiquing or reviewing.

      And I have been visiting The Standard for a decade I think, and it has passed through various phases and some really good writers found they have better things to do. It was originally set up I think at the request of Lynn’s female relative who felt that some straightforward home truths needed to be aired about issues for women, I think, or the gay community. That has a tail of determined women who would protest about even graphic plumbing terms., ie male and female fittings screwing into each other. But as bad are the regular right-wingers with their eternal deliberate naivety and questions, their mud-slinging at any seemingly leftie policies, and their determination to catch commenters out on trivialities.. Then though it is supposed to be robust, disagreeing with the moderator and being stood down or chastised, spoils the flow of thought too often. The comment numbers get inflated as right wingers can start a thread about nothing that just builds on itself and ends up with twenty replies including hassles between other commenters.

      There is too much time spent on pettiness while the slow world war goes on in the distance. There is too much identity argument too; what is gender etc, while the thinkers amongst us wonder how we are going to classify humans? How can we hang on to our annoying, endearing side and keep saying : “To err is human, to forgive divine” which helps us to understand each other? Alexander Pope wrote that ages ago, but young people nowadays only see what is new on their devices, and seem to want to merge with them. We are already being run by algorithm – help do we committed humans have to form a circle with our pencils sharpened and ready, pointing outwards at the Tripods?

      • Hi Greywarbler; long time since I’ve seen your words! Back when I was Pasupial, and you Greywarshark…
        This thread does seem a little quiet – is that just the weekend (though who can tell the difference these days with the lockdown), or is it always like this?
        Gender issues do seem a mite more pressing when walking down the wrong road and the wrong time can leave you bleeding in the gutter. Walk a mile in these heels, before dismissing it as a total distraction is all I am saying.

        • Hi Parsupial i didn’t forget now. Perhaps you would like to keep coming here and we can get some conversations going about the blogs. I have the feeling that Martyn would like it.. But wouldn’t like gender stuff.

          But one cheery thought, back in the 60s-70s women getting together achieved a lot which seemed to mostly go to the middle-class. Perhaps we can repeat concerted action with women at the forefront, this time to conserve the middle-class AND give better conditions and short educational courses to the strugglers, encouraging them to widen their horizons and skills, and get a bit of comfort and stability.

  5. Kneala,
    Our thoughts here;

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/121110699/coronavirus-a-man-got-covid19-three-times-should-we-be-worried-about-reinfection

    “Coronavirus: A man got Covid-19 three times. Should we be worried about reinfection?
    Liam Mannix07:19, Apr 19 2020
    Scientists don’t know why coronavirus immunity fades over time.
    Scientists told The Age that probably meant people who had fallen sick enjoyed a period of immunity, just as with other similar viruses.
    The cases of reinfection – like the 68-year-old – were probably false positives, they said.
    “Reinfection can’t be ruled out, but it’s possible the test is picking up lingering viral material in the cells, even after the virus has been killed,” said Professor Jamie Triccas, head of infectious diseases and immunology at the University of Sydney.
    The big question then remains how long that immunity lasts for.
    In SARS and MERS, it tends to wane slowly over several years. Triccas suspects – although we have no evidence of this yet – that immunity to SARS-CoV-2 behaves in a similar way.
    “It could only be a matter of years. It’s probably not life-long,” Triccas said.

    We ask; Perhaps we should consider those with ‘weak immune systems can lose our immunity?

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