> Yeah the only difference is that one person is right and the other person is wrong.
Says everyone. While there are clear examples where this is the case - e.g. SARS2 vaccines do not protect against infection nor do they protect against infecting others - there are many other situations where 'right' and 'wrong' are not so clearly defined. When someone claims a certain party or presidential candidate is a 'threat to democracy' there is no clear 'right' or 'wrong' as these are opinions, not facts.
Your following statements with regards to the 'current Republican-controlled senate' show where your bias lies and explains why you react the way you do. Now try to step outside your bubble for a while - and yes, you are in a bubble just like most others (myself included) are - and step in another one, say the bubble inhabited by a Russian or someone who supports the current Russian regime. That person would consider it 'patently obvious that Facebook (et al) are American operations. The messages can be intercepted by the operators who censor on behalf of the American regime.
If you are happy using platforms which are controlled by this or that government, fine. I prefer to be able to say what I want without either the American or Russian or French or Swedish or Dutch (etc.) governments interfering or censoring so I run my own services. This happens to be dead-easy and nearly maintenance-free.
> It's also telling that in a discussion about Telegram, we have arrived at covid vaccines
It is telling on the fact that the Biden/Harris regime pressured a number of companies to censor information related to SARS2 and the mandatory vaccination campaigns which I gave as an example, hence the mentioning of this subject.
> and you joined HN in 2023
I joined in 2013 but that account got shadowbanned during the pandemic when I suggested it was bad practice for the Twitter leadership to ban people who did not follow the desired narrative while they allowed Iran's Khamenei, the Taliban's Zabiullah Mujahid and other similar malcontents to spout propaganda on their site. I did this by linking to a post on Ben Shapiro's 'The Daily Wire' which seemed to be enough to get banned.
Do you now understand why it is important that services allow people to venture beyond the desired narrative?
A 'Vatnik' is a jingoistic follower of government propaganda, one who uncritically follows whatever the government pushes. I think this is quite fitting given the context of this discussion, probably not in the way you intended but fitting nevertheless.
Says everyone. While there are clear examples where this is the case - e.g. SARS2 vaccines do not protect against infection nor do they protect against infecting others - there are many other situations where 'right' and 'wrong' are not so clearly defined. When someone claims a certain party or presidential candidate is a 'threat to democracy' there is no clear 'right' or 'wrong' as these are opinions, not facts.
Your following statements with regards to the 'current Republican-controlled senate' show where your bias lies and explains why you react the way you do. Now try to step outside your bubble for a while - and yes, you are in a bubble just like most others (myself included) are - and step in another one, say the bubble inhabited by a Russian or someone who supports the current Russian regime. That person would consider it 'patently obvious that Facebook (et al) are American operations. The messages can be intercepted by the operators who censor on behalf of the American regime.
If you are happy using platforms which are controlled by this or that government, fine. I prefer to be able to say what I want without either the American or Russian or French or Swedish or Dutch (etc.) governments interfering or censoring so I run my own services. This happens to be dead-easy and nearly maintenance-free.