FtttG
User ID: 1175
Anyway, I don't engage with people engage in "strawmanning," which means ascribing exaggerated positions to others as a way of making them seem less reasonable.
The nerve of you. On the basis of my using a photo of Good which had already been used by numerous outlets beforehand, you made a snap decision about what my opinions of this case were and what I was attempting to do by using said photo. When in reality, I suspect that our opinions of this case are quite similar. And you dare to accuse me of misrepresenting and strawmanning you?
And, of course, no comment on the fact that that notorious bastion of open borders propaganda, FOX News, used exactly the same photo of Good in their coverage. Because that would explode your preposterous claim that anyone using this photo for illustrative purposes is trying to make Good look as sympathetic as possible.
Looks to me like you are experiencing cognitive dissonance
No, I'm not. You're being obnoxious, condescending, hostile, and ascribing intentions and ulterior motives that I don't possess. And now armchair psychologising me to boot.
you wrote a blog post complaining about irrelevant and unflattering evidence regarding Renee Good while at the same time pushing irrelevant evidence that does the opposite.
No, I didn't. I used the first photo of Good that Google images returned. I didn't spend paragraph after paragraph gushing about the poetry she'd composed or what a good mother she was. I used a photo of her which was already in widespread circulation.
No jury is going to be on the fence about whether to convict Ross, see this photo, and immediately think "oh my God! I didn't know Renee Good once set foot on a beach! Send him to the chair!" I cannot believe you are getting this bent out of shape and ascribing such sinister Machiavellian intent about my choice to use a mildly flattering photo of the deceased, up to and including demanding that I change it because my choice of photo might hypothetically bias some prospective jurors ruling on Ross's case who are reading my blog post for some reason. Prospective jurors who have doubtless already seen this photo because it's already been used in much higher-profile articles by numerous media outlets, including a conservative outlet which is supportive of ICE's mission and unsympathetic to Good and her fellow activists.
I suppose next you'll tell me that FOX News used this photo to curry favour for Good, and cast Ross and ICE in as negative a light as possible?
Seriously, dude, give it a rest. This jumping at shadows is tiresome.
FtttG
4hr ago
Why? I mean, you say that you don't think there's a big difference. If there's not a big difference, you shouldn't have a problem substituting one for the other.
I don't have a problem with substituting the photo because I think there's a big difference between the two photos. I have a problem with it because it's my blog, and you don't get to dictate what I post on it, especially not when you don't even claim that I made a factual error, especially not when you're going about it in such an obnoxious and condescending manner.
I find your hostility all the more baffling because, to me, the video evidence strongly suggests that Good did strike Ross with her car, and that the shooting was justified. A few days ago I posted a comment to that effect on Substack (also pointing out that just because Ross walked away from the incident, doesn't mean he wasn't injured, citing several anecdotal examples of people I know who were severely injured but didn't notice because of shock and adrenaline), and several people quickly accused me of being an ICE apologist. I guess if I'm simultaneously being accused of being an ICE apologist and an anti-ICE apologist, I've done a decent job of being even-handed.
Regardless, this sort of paranoid mind-reading:
We both know why you (and the mainstream media) are using the smiling femme beach photo of Renee Good
is not why I come to this space, and I don't think it's in keeping with the established ethos.
What about the Floyd situation did I misunderstand?
Chauvin got railroaded on vibes for performing a maneuver that was expressly taught to him by the police force, and one that doesn't lead to positional asphyxiation unless the victim happens to be having a drug overdose despite having horrible optics.
Given that Floyd was having a drug overdose, you realize you basically just admitted that Chauvin shouldn't have used that manoeuvre, and hence that the jury of his peers was right to convict him of murder? That's one hell of a "railroading".
FtttG
5hr ago
So you concede it's totally irrelevant to Ross' guilt or innocence?
I don't understand the question you're asking me. "Is this photo of Good irrelevant to her guilt or innocence?" Yes, did I ever suggest otherwise?
In your view, is there a big difference between the two photos?
No, I don't think there's a big difference between the two. I used the photo I did because numerous news outlets were using that photo.
If you think there isn't a big difference, would you mind swapping in the second photo on your blog post?
Yes, I would mind.
FtttG
6hr ago
you simultaneously include pro-Good evidence which would likely be inadmissible at trial. One example is the photo at the top. Another example is Good's intentions. (" if so, did she do so intentionally, or through negligence? ")
I'm open to the idea that the photo of Good used by many publications wouldn't be admissible in a criminal trial, although I think you're being a bit melodramatic regarding how "flattering" the photo in question is. It's just a photo of her standing on a beach and smiling: it's not like she's volunteering at a soup kitchen or treating malarial children or something. And please explain to me how the question "if Good struck Ross, did she do so intentionally or through negligence?" would be inadmissible in a criminal trial. By definition, a question is not "evidence".
FtttG
9hr ago
Yes, I agree that in the second photo she looks more like a stereotypical angry aggressive lesbian. But she doesn't look much like a stereotypical angry aggressive lesbian, and I think your phrasing was a bit weaselly. For any two photos of Beyoncé, she will look "more" like a stereotypical angry aggressive lesbian in one of them than the other: that doesn't imply that she particularly looks like a stereotypical angry aggressive lesbian in either of them.
Which of the two pictures is more flattering? Which of the two pictures is more relevant to the subject matter under discussion?
Of course the first one is more flattering. But I don't think it's remotely indicative of media bias that most outlets chose to use a nice photo of Good when reporting about her, rather than a still frame extracted from a video taken seconds before her death. Even the New York Times used a very flattering photo of Charlie Kirk in their obituary for him, and not, say a photo of him immediately after or immediately prior to him being shot, which would have been "more relevant to the subject matter under discussion".
FtttG
9hr ago
If the cops unjustifiably kill some random law-abiding productive citizen with a family and community, that's much worse.
Agreed, but that wasn't the comparison I was making. I was comparing an unjustified killing of someone with forty previous felonies with a justified killing of an erstwhile law-abiding citizen.
FtttG
12hr ago
On the day of the shooting, she looked much more like a stereotypical angry aggressive lesbian.
At this point, I have to ask if we watched the same video. Good's partner was the one loudly berating and mocking the ICE agents, while Good herself was, for the most part, sitting in her car and smirking. She was being obnoxious, but I can't say I saw anything "aggressive" in her demeanour, prior to her pressing the accelerator.
As to "looking" like a lesbian: she was dressed appropriately for the Minnesota climate.
FtttG
12hr ago
I'll admit that I may have phrased my argument poorly (as I said in the wellness thread, I was under pressure to meet my self-imposed deadline). The argument I was trying to make is that, in the hypothetical world in which it could be established that Ross's shooting was justified beyond reasonable doubt, it wouldn't matter if Good had been a scrupulously law-abiding citizen prior to the altercation. Conversely, in the hypothetical world in which it could be established that Ross's shooting wasn't justified, it wouldn't matter if Good had had numerous criminal convictions beforehand. I probably shouldn't have bothered getting into the weeds of what either of these hypothetical worlds might look like, as they weren't relevant to my argument.
FtttG
22hr ago
Happy to help! FYI if you want to tag a user, just put an @ before their username.
On QTCritique, the feedback on the latest draft of my query has been fairly positive. Over on /r/pubtips, it's been very harsh, with people coming away saying they have no idea what my novel is even about. I was tempted to dismiss this as just typical Reddit behaviour; on the other hand, many of the users and mods of that subreddit are (or at least claim to be) published writers and other people working in the publishing industry, which suggests that their feedback ought to carry more weight than the feedback from my fellow unpublished novelists over at qtCritique.
Given that a consistent criticism is that my novel is too long (even after chopping out a good 20k words from the first draft), I reckon I have no choice but to create a fourth draft, aiming for it to be at least 8k words shorter than the third.
slam poetry (but not the irritating kind)
Such a thing exists?
FtttG
22hr ago
I can play the rhythm guitar part for "This Mortal Coil" pretty much perfectly.
Next up is "Phobophile" by Cryptopsy.
I got a score of 13 when compared to an average of 27. Interestingly, I correctly anticipated which of my responses it would say were in tension with each other. Obviously, I'm now required to pedantically justify myself as to why my responses are not really in tension with one another.
I agree these are slightly in tension with one another. To justify myself, I would argue that many
I feel on much firmer footing with this one.
FtttG
1d ago
It's pretty nifty, and my day job involves SQL-based databases so it's nice to get some direct experience with the tool itself.
FtttG
1d ago
I always felt that the idea that Australia, with its relatively small population and relative isolation from Europe and America, could be invaded and completely conquered in such a short period
If innumerable games of Risk have taught me anything, it's this.
FtttG
1d ago
There are so many Wings and Wongs in China that every time you Wing you get the Wong number.
haha
FtttG
1d ago
New Year's resolutions check-in:
- Posted my second blog post of the year on Monday (right down to the wire, it went up at 11 p.m.), about a particularly pernicious reaction to the Minneapolis shooting which seems to recur whenever a member of the opposing political tribe is killed or disgraced.
- Went to the gym three times last week. Couldn't bring myself to go on Monday, so went yesterday afternoon instead. Can deadlift 1.73x my bodyweight for 6 reps, squat .88x for 10 reps and bench press .7x for 9 reps.
- Have not consumed any alcohol, fast food, fizzy drinks or pornography since waking up on January 1st, although I have snacked between meals quite a bit.
- Have completed five of 11 modules in the SQL course.
- Have practised guitar for roughly one hour every day since January 1st.
How goes it, @thejdizzler?
FtttG
2d ago
I like it as a title, but couldn't begin to fathom how it relates to the content of the book it adorns.
Would you mind explaining your rebuttal?
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