Apple Replaces The Pistol Emoji With A Water Gun (cnn.com) 246
Apple has a announced a number of new emoji changes on Monday, but the most controversial new change is that the pistol emoji will be replaced with a green water gun emoji in the company's upcoming iOS 10 operating system: The water gun swap is not Apple's first foray into cartoon gun control. Earlier this year the governing body in charge of emojis nixed a proposed rifle emoji. It was one of a number of possible new additions, but Unicode Consortium members Apple and Microsoft argued against the Olympics-inspired gun, according to Buzzfeed. Last year, an organization called New Yorkers Against Gun Violence started a campaign to get Apple to replace its version of the pistol emoji. It launched a site, disarmtheiphone.com, and sent an open letter to remove the firearm emoji "as a symbolic gesture to limit gun accessibility." As it stands, Microsoft is the only major software company to use a toy gun emoji instead of a pistol emoji in Windows -- Google, Samsung, Facebook and Twitter all use realistic pistol emojis. Apple's iOS 10 will be released in fall, but you can download the iOS 10 public beta to be one of the first to wield the toy gun emoji.
Silicon Valley Companies are Liberal, more at 5! (Score:5, Insightful)
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..until someone realizes that is insensitive in a state facing a drought. Maybe a foam dart gun would be better.
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Re:Silicon Valley Companies are Liberal, more at 5 (Score:5, Insightful)
So grateful to not be hip. It seems hip is synonymous with stupid.
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Been wanting to use that somewhere in this thread since I read the first post in it.
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Seems like being conservative is being rather over-sensitive about everything. It's an emoji, a think you are supposed to hate anyway because those damn kids and their phones, and Apple took a position you disagree with. No need to get all indignant about it.
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Because the progressives don't make a big fuss over microaggressions, safe spaces, and trigger warnings.
The kook section sure does! And that is why I mentioned the RNC. Their fear is now codified as the position of the party.
Which is to say that the left wing kooks are a small portion of the Democrats. Noisy and obnoxious, acknowledged but not particularly powerful.
Which is to say the Right wing kooks now run the Republican party. Noisy and obnoxious, and in total control
Its why the Veterans of Foreign Wars are now your enemy, because a Gold Star mother is an acceptable target for your official kooki
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i for one won't be satisfied until they can force correct all mentions of inappropriate things, typed or otherwise.
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However there is being liberal than there is being crazy liberal.
The type of liberal where any idea that falls under the conservative category must be stopped.
Changing from a real gun to a water gun changes the meaning of the message. What if Apple changed the word "Samsung" to "Cheap 3rd party ripoff".
People are going to have different opinions and to many people a gun isn't an image of violence. But a tool and a symbol of freedom. To change that image to a water pistol is infringing on free speech.
I am n
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However there is being liberal than there is being crazy liberal.
The type of liberal where any idea that falls under the conservative category must be stopped.
Changing from a real gun to a water gun changes the meaning of the message.
Okay - you are correct, but also missing one important point. Liability. It isn't that difficult to get shot and killed here, whether it is from stand your ground laws, or traffic stops. Or from just pissing someone off. So in this land of litigation, it is well within the possibility that someone might see a pistol emoticon, decide they are under threat from the sender, and dispatch them with extreme prejudice.
And while a court case is likely to exonerate the killer, the resulting civil suits might find
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No it doesn't. It argues against changing existing emoticons after they have been released, and your attempt to claim otherwise reveals your true intentions.
Seriously, if this raises your blood pressure because your rights as stated in the constitution are being egregiously violated, you should either take Apple to court, or find more productive things to do with your life. Like just about anything including trimming your nose hair. My limit of interest is just about exhausted, other than to point out that we might move the conversation to how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. It's just about that important. But hey, feel free to sue Apple for infrin
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Honestly, what did you guys expect? Apple is an image based company and the image they portray is "hip". Currently in the largest population centers its hip to be super liberal.
Yeah, they're taking a bold stance against guns, except when guns make them money [apple.com].
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Honestly, what did you guys expect? Apple is an image based company and the image they portray is "hip". Currently in the largest population centers its hip to be super liberal.
Yeah, they're taking a bold stance against guns, except when guns make them money [apple.com].
Pssst..... everyone, it isn't "libtards against guns" - its liability. Sweet Jeebuz in a smartcar, when an emoticon becomes a second amendment flashpoint, perhaps it isn't the "libtards" that have a really big problem.
I love a nice firearm, but don't really care (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re: I love a nice firearm, but don't really care (Score:2)
Re: Bombbot is moot (Score:2)
Re: O'neill (Score:2)
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Well, it was probably just under a day's work for their font designers. And it probably didn't even warrant any news post for Apple. Except some third party noticed it and made a big deal about it.
There are probably dozens of things they're doing to "improve the product", but mo
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I don't really give a crap about emojis but it seems so asinine for them to waste thought and effort on something so totally meaningless. They're obsessed with triviality instead of actually doing something to improve their product.
It is neither trivial or meaningless. A gun emoji can be a liability issue in a civil suit. As far fetched as that might seem, we do live in the land 'o litigation.
It really isn't that far fetched either. Someone sends a text message to someone with a gun emoji, and the other person decides it was a threat, so they pre-emptively kill the first person. In stand your ground states, that becomes a test case, and as likely as not, the killer goes free. Then the civil suits start. And you can bet that a sympat
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It really isn't that far fetched either. Someone sends a text message to someone with a gun emoji, and the other person decides it was a threat, so they pre-emptively kill the first person. In stand your ground states, that becomes a test case, and as likely as not, the killer goes free.
No, this isn't a test case for SYG laws. There are some legitimate issues about misuse of SYG, but your scenario is not covered under any state's interpretation of it.
THat's why I wrote that it was a test case. All it takes is a lawyer to present it, and a judge saying they will allow it. If you killed someone who texted you a message and it had a pistol in it, you would use every defense you were allowed.
Sad (Score:5, Insightful)
>"Last year, an organization called New Yorkers Against Gun Violence started a campaign to get Apple to replace its version of the pistol emoji."
This is really just so sad.
Oh, there is an "explosion" emoji on my Android- I suppose that should go. And the bomb one too- that is far scarier than a gun. And the one of fire- fire is dangerous and bad. Better throw in the lighting one. Oops, just found one of a knife- that is a no-no. Snakes are scary, make that one a toy snake, somehow.... well, still scary, just make it go away. Wow, there is a syringe- oops, that could be drugs, that should go....
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To be fair though, kids murdering each other with bombs isn't really a thing. Shooting up their school/college with a gun is though. Aside from anything else, sending someone a gun emoji along with an angry message could be open to misinterpretation...
Could be interesting when someone with an iPhone sends a water pistol and the recipient see a handgun on their screen.
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To be fair though, kids murdering each other with bombs isn't really a thing.
Actually, yes it is [wikipedia.org].
Mars (Score:3)
There are people, who are making money, in non-profits and for-profit companies, to advocate/lobby this, implement this .. listen to this. ...
I'm done. Why are we not on Mars yet? We need a colony on there like thirty years ago. If we took half the effort all the people involved put into crap like this emoji bullshit, who knows .. maybe we'd have fully functional closed oxygen producing ecosystems by now? Technology to make sealed domes and keep out terrible solar radiation? Mars transport ships that can air-break and land?
I'd be the first to volunteer. Risking death on the journey to a new world would be better than having to read this bullshit every fucking day.
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Why are we not on Mars yet?
Because Mars doesn't currently have an open carry law.
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There is no law banning either open or concealed carry on Mars. In the absence of laws, everything is allowed.
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There are treaties against both, and nations are responsible for their citizens' actions under the treaty, whether state sponsored or not.
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I don't think a few emails and a web site will get us to Mars. Are you really comparing lobbying for changing a tiny graphic to the effort needed to put a human on Mars?
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Hobbes gets way too much bad rap for this. Mostly he just wanted to wage war on Calvin.
Wingdings, webdings, etc. (Score:5, Interesting)
Maybe I am old, but did people fight about the cartoons depicted in wingdings. Because as far as I am interested, it is a stupid font on my computer that has no use to me.
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Maybe I am old, but did people fight about the cartoons depicted in wingdings. Because as far as I am interested, it is a stupid font on my computer that has no use to me.
Um yes. Death to Jews in New York City.
not sure why this is being downvoted he is actually right here. there was controvery that the wingding char set when you type "NYC" was anti semetic
Mod GP up, the Wingdings "NYC" controversy was the first thing I thought of when I saw this. How young are the people on this site?
The word gun is in the headlines! (Score:2)
I need my safeplace! SOMEONE TAKE ME TO MY SAFEPLACE!
In all seriousness, I sincerely hope future historians look back on this time with a sense of amusement and incredulity.
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In all seriousness, I sincerely hope future historians look back on this time with a sense of amusement and incredulity.
Like we make fun of the Spanish Inquisition? Nobody expects a Trump Presidency.
what else gets replaced? (Score:2)
sooo.... are they going to replace all apple employees with dummies, next? oh wait....
Newspeak won't make this planet safer. (Score:5, Insightful)
In 1984 Orwell wrote of Newspeak, a language and culture designed to wipe out concepts that were unpopular.
Apple can remove gun emojis all day long. All that will mean is people's messages to each other won't contain gun emojis.
It won't change people being killed daily by rogue cops, crazy lunatics, terrorists, or others.
If Apple wanted to REALLY make a change in violence involving firearms (not to be confused with "gun violence" since guns by themselves aren't violent...) they should take some of their hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars and dedicate it to help stop crazy people from killing other crazy people.
Note 1: OJ Simpson did not kill Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman with a firearm. He used a kitchen knife -- Nicole's kitchen knife.
Note 2: The French suicide bomber killed lots of people with his vehicle. Vehicles are available to everyone.
Note 3: The Newtown school shooting was done by a guy who broke in and stole his mother's weapon (then killed her with it). He was not a "gun owner".
But yes, do let's remove the emoji. I'm sure we'll never see or hear guns discussed on the news, in the media, on FB, and everywhere else.
Because emojis or not, ISIS creates a new death every 84 hours. I'm sure the lack of emojis won't change that. http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/31/... [cnn.com]
E
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The Newtown school shooting was done by a guy who broke in and stole his mother's weapon (then killed her with it). He was not a "gun owner".
His mother was a "gun owner" once.
Once...
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The Newtown school shooting was done by a guy who broke in and stole his mother's weapon (then killed her with it). He was not a "gun owner".
He was provided access to a gun, and he legally acquired it, borrowing a gun from a family member, then going on a killing spree. The gun nuts make it sound like it was a home invasion of a stranger. The facts support it being a peaceful visit, until he took the gun he was given legal access to and shot his mother.
Because emojis or not, ISIS creates a new death every 84 hours.
One death every 84 hours is about the rate which US cops shoot an unarmed person. It's hard to get numbers, but in 2015, cops shot one person every 8 hours. Separating them into innocent and g
Re:wtf (Score:2)
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No, the timeline is that he was in his house, with access to firearms. Legally acquired one, and then shot his, probably sleeping, mother. He didn't "steal" it. It was unsecured in his home. Do you steal a cup from your wife every time you make coffee? No, objects in the family home are accessible to all, and not a crime to touch.
Adam Lanza broke no firearms laws in acuiring the firearms he went on the spree with.
Also note the OP's "broke in" phrasin
Re:wtf (Score:4, Informative)
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Just, no. I have not given my children permission to use my car -- in fact, it's prohibited in all cases except when I expressly allow it for a specific purpose and duration. Anything else is theft, and yes, I could press charges if I wanted to. It sounds like you're either a self-entitled child, or a very irresponsible adult.
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The Newtown school shooting was done by a guy who broke in and stole his mother's weapon (then killed her with it). He was not a "gun owner".
He was provided access to a gun, and he legally acquired it, borrowing a gun from a family member, then going on a killing spree. The gun nuts make it sound like it was a home invasion of a stranger. The facts support it being a peaceful visit, until he took the gun he was given legal access to and shot his mother.
Heck, let's pretend it was a home invasion of a stranger - she and all the other people were killed because she owned a gun that was easy to turn against her.
Also, the argument that everything was fine until the gun became "illegal" is disingenuous because it is so damn easy to turn a legal gun illegal, not to mention that the vast majority of illegal guns were in fact legal until such a simple turn occurred. Anyway, I'm still waiting for the explanation when exactly the gun used in this case became illega
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I doubt Apple expect this to prevent crime directly. More obviously and more likely, they are making a statement that they support more restrictions on guns and don't wish to include them in their operating system.
The more fascinating story here is how butthurt a lot of people are about this. Often they are the same people who hate emoji anyway. I mean, just look at how much you read into it that supported by anything in TFA or any statement made by Apple. I guess the summary kind of hinted at it, but you d
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Walkie Talkie? (Score:5, Funny)
Shouldn't it have changed to a large black early 80's walkie talkie?
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Ironically, federal agencies are buying huge quantities of ammunition, particularly agencies that have no use for it e.g. NOAA.
Remember, if you can't win, censor (Score:5, Insightful)
If you can't win, censor.
If you don't like reality, do what you can to disrupt the language.
If people lack the ability to communicate an idea, you've already won.
If emojis are meant to be speech, then this is ludicrous. If they are not, then this is petty and dumb. There's no excuse for this kind of shit.
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Dear Apple and other Safe Space Cadets, (Score:3)
Sincerely,
Every normal, well-adjusted, person with a mental age in the double digits.
E.T. shot first (Score:2)
3-letter-agents bear walkie-talkies.
Prediction (Score:2)
They changed the pistol to a water gun, and someone will still complain. Mark my words.
Pop tart (Score:2, Informative)
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I'm just waiting (Score:2)
for the Bill Clinton and blue dress jokes.
Is it politically incorrect (Score:2)
Ho-hum (Score:2)
OK, so this is news-worthy? As opposed to about a million items in technology and science that have more impact on our daily lives? Shall I post something about how I have grown a pumpkin in my garden by means of an amazing collection of technology called "garden tools"? It's bound to reverberate through the news media, no doubt about it.
I see communicaiton problems (Score:2)
A: You threatened me with death! (Pulls out his Samsung phone)
B: No, I didn't (Pulls out his ihphone)
It's the wrong way round! (Score:2)
If the image on the article is anything to go by, they're also pointing it in the other direction. That's going to screw up the meaning of my threatening emoji strings in two ways!
What a bunch of pussies. (Score:2)
Paper Planes (Score:2)
Now how the hell am I supposed to emoji the lyrics to paper planes?!?
"All I wanna do is [squirt] [squirt] [squirt] [squirt] and a $$" just doesn't have the same ring to it.
Sure it is (Score:2)
"the most controversial new change is that the pistol emoji will be replaced with a green water gun emoji"
In the US maybe, but no one else on the planet gives a crap.
Change history Commrade? Da or Nyet? (Score:5, Funny)
So when they make a font change like this I'm guessing it changes all past texts retroactively? Or do texts and e-mails embedd the image not the font? Doe they appear differently on different computers and OS? If they changed the the thumbs up emoji to a goatse would it change in all the e-mails I sent to my boss in the past?
Re:Change history Commrade? Da or Nyet? (Score:5, Funny)
So when they make a font change like this I'm guessing it changes all past texts retroactively? Or do texts and e-mails embedd the image not the font?
They can pry my previously texted pistol emojis from my cold dead hands.
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They can pry my previously texted pistol emojis from my cold dead hands.
Cold WET hands from now on. It is a water pistol.
On a side note, I wonder how long will it take for people to start describing it as a water pistol "full of acid" or "gasoline water pistol" or "pee-pistol".
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The next internet debate. Is that "water" blue or gold?
Re:Change history Commrade? Da or Nyet? (Score:5, Interesting)
Emoji are a system defined font basically. Apple, Google and Microsoft among others do not define the code numbers and meanings, but they do create the images and set a style for the appearance on their systems.
This means everyone you text that does not have iOS 10 still sees a pistol.
It means some foolish Apple user is going to send a water gun emoji to someone maybe saying "Let's take the kids to the park" and some non-Apple user is going to call the cops.
I can't wait to see how this communication breaking move has a real world effect.
(Hopefully nobody gets shot or swatted)
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Sure you can change it. But the point is if you change the emoji then you change what is being said.
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There really needs to a far more standardization on emoji. The as explained in this XKCD argument [xkcd.com] our speach and communication has been moved to more of a visual form. Our standard text (Much like this) is designed for more formal expression of ideas and knowledge. Where it recommends that people sit down read it, think about it for a bit and respond to it, learn from it, or flat out reject it. Emoji are part of the new mobile text communication. Short burst of communications meant to get attention expre
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I don't have an iDevice, but from googling around it appears that the answer is no. You can't even change the font, not that you can do that on Android either without additional software and root.
Re:Change history Commrade? Da or Nyet? (Score:5, Insightful)
Lets fix the real problem: the conditioning people've gone through that makes them think calling cops over a chat program image is rationally justified.
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Unicode itself does not define the rendering of any of its glyphs. For convenience, they provide example documentation on their site; but that is just convenience, it is not normative. This is most obvious with fonts and normal letters: whether it's Times New Roman or Comic Sans is not Unicode's problem; just that it's a "Latin Capital A".
Emoji fuck this up because they are shoehorned into the same glyph/rendering model; but unli
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Beyond that point, though, things descended into insanity. Unicode already has a nearly hopeless task(encode all the symbols used in natural langages, plus some other math, phonetic, etc. stuff? That is...ambitiou
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+1 Informative.
> but Unicode is not an image format,
You nit the nail on the head!
> They are these crazy standards that allow you to fairly precisely define exactly what you want the picture you are sending to look like, it's pretty cutting edge.
Unfortunately Unicode is slowly becoming hijacked where they start adding every image under the sun. If we're going down that route, then why not add every concept, noun, verb, to Unicode then?? I mean if it worked for hieroglyphics and partially for Chinese
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No, I fully agree. When you see someone using emoji, it only gives the impression that said person is a moron. Unless, of course, the person is using emoji ironically to mock the morons who use emoji without irony. But anyway, emoji is a cancer and simply should not exist.
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Well, in this case they tell you which OSes are toys and which are actually useful.
Re: Guns are a LEGAL PRODUCT (Score:2)
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Re:Guns are a LEGAL PRODUCT (Score:4, Interesting)
And the first person who sends a cute "I'm going to shoot you with my (water-gun emojii) tomorrow!" gets arrested for making a threat because the receiver doesn't have an iOS device will get to sue Apple for creating an incompatible standard which lead to legal issues.
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Don't worry about it. The police will shoot first whether or not that pistol emoji actually turns out to be a water gun emoji.
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Apps don't app people, appers do.
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Both Hillary and Trump are part of a world ruling class that believes that the people are completely incapable of learning to rule themselves and furthermore that any attempt must be undermined.
Assuming that's true (and I'm not arguing), maybe that notion is correct.
In the US, we had some pretty discriminatory laws not too long ago. However, in the very early years (which weren't all that long ago), the right to vote was restricted to land owners (and further restricted to white males, etc). The land owner restriction did have a good argument for existing - only those with a significantly invested interest could vote, and they were likely to be somewhat educated because they owned land, blah blah
Republic vs democracy???? (Score:2)
In the US, it's still not a democracy; we're a republic.
Why on fucking earth so many Americans insist on this idiotic claim that somehow democracy is the opposite of a republic?
The opposite of democracy is AUTOCRACY.
The opposite of a republic is MONARCHY.
That's why we can see:
- democratic monarchies: UK, Netherland, etc.
- democratic republics: France, USA, etc.
- autocratic monarchies: Saudi Arabia, Brunei, etc.
- autocratic republics: Syria, Sudan, etc.
Please stop spreading cretinous claims.
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I wish these gun fearing freaks...
If you mean people trained how to use firearms when in uniform and consider the idea of armed civilians worrying, you have my attention.
would go establish their own country.
Australia is a lot bigger than the US. The UK has been around a lot longer.
It wouldn't last long of course. It'd be too easy to invade with an unarmed population too fearful to stand up for themselves anyway.
People have been trying it for a long time now. Our last successful invader was William of Orange in 1689. That is when we got rid of the "Divine Right of Kings" and had a constitutional monarchy. The French and the Germans have tried since and failed. The Soviets thought we would have a revolut
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Why on fucking earth so many Americans insist on this idiotic claim that somehow democracy is the opposite of a republic?
Where the fuck did I say that it was the opposite?
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