Amentep

But, again, the situation you are commenting on didn't involve anyone in an empty room, metaphorically. CNN and Fox continued to carry the speech to my knowledge, so it was available if anyone wanted to hear it. The broadcast networks pulled away, yes, but they're not obligated to provide a free speech platform as they're not a part of the government. Also, IMO, tying a requirement for someone to listen to free speech has issues. I certainly want to be able to walk past the guy on the soapbox in the park shouting his thoughts at passersby, even if I support his ability to do same. Er...????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

I could agree with an argument of media bias that might be worth looking at, but not Freedom of Speech (with the caveat, perhaps, that no news will be able to cover everything, and given the commercial model, broadcast networks are going to have an incentive to not dusrupt programming schedules without ratings-drawing breaking news to keep advertisers happy).

We don't want the vote to represent the people who voted?

So your definition of Free Speech is that the government will protect your right to speak your mind, but your complaint was... ...in which no one prevented Trump giving a speech to speak his mind. Or are you saying that Freedom of Speech comes with a requirement to listen to Free Speech?

I already dread the political ads...

Yeah, dunno.🤷‍♂️

Isn't the cyanide in the seeds rather than the apple flesh?

If you abstain, is it a protest against the system, or laziness? At least if you write in some rando you've recorded your disatisfaction.

A vote for a random someone (or a fictional character) can be read in a lot of ways, so there's still meaning there regardless of the inability to 'win'. I think there's a history with celebrities (even when they didn't officially announce) garnering votes. But there's no way to distinguish an uncast vote. Was it uncast because no candidate was liked or the voter couldn't be bothered? Who can say?

Are there really people who think that consoles would make PCs obsolete (excluding PC gamers who don't understand why anyone would use a console so ascribe that motive to console gamers)?

This bugs me as well; I've never been fond of the attitude that you're trying to pick a winner, like we're all betting on a horse race rather than electing representatives to act on our collective behalf within the government. The only wasted vote is the one not cast.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/technology-54780460 Algorithm spots 'Covid cough' inaudible to humans

I have a mea culpa. A few months ago I blamed the 80s Star Trek for changing Vulcans to make them humans with control issues. Turns out its actually an episode of The Animated series, "Yesteryear", where its explicitly stated all Vulcans train to suppress their emotions for sociological reasons. Been awhile since I'd seen TAS, and had forgotten this point. Still think it was a bad move for Vulcans in ST as it seems to have made loosing control the only story you can tell with them (something originally unique to Spock), but I can't blame Sybok and TNG's portrayal of Sarek any longer. Meanwhile, just got into the Ro Lauren story on TNG.

So your answer is to give de facto control to the "small group of intolerant and ignorant extremists"?

Do you have freedom of speech if you are afraid to exercise same?

And a couple of teasers:

"What can change the nature of a dust mote?" - Ravel Puzzlewell, first draft of PST.

Well they're not hood ornaments, either... (iirc the etymology of sausage is from the curing process using salt, so an argument could be made that it shouldn't be called a sausage if its not salt cured)

"War. War never changes."

Green puppy born - https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54650901

^They show it in the film, but no clue if its the real place or a reconstruction. More trailers:

"In 2077, the storm of world war had come again. In two brief hours, most of the planet was reduced to cinders. And from the ashes of nuclear devastation, a new civilization would struggle to arise."