{"id":26932,"date":"2023-01-01T21:19:16","date_gmt":"2023-01-01T21:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2023\/01\/01\/funniest-most-insightful-comments-of-2022-at-techdirt\/"},"modified":"2023-01-01T21:19:16","modified_gmt":"2023-01-01T21:19:16","slug":"funniest-most-insightful-comments-of-2022-at-techdirt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2023\/01\/01\/funniest-most-insightful-comments-of-2022-at-techdirt\/","title":{"rendered":"Funniest\/Most Insightful Comments Of 2022 At Techdirt"},"content":{"rendered":"

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from the and-what-a-year-it-was<\/i> dept<\/h3>\n

Happy new year, everyone! 2022 has ended, and that means it\u2019s time for a look at the funniest and most insightful comments of the year<\/strong> at Techdirt. As usual, we\u2019ll be honoring the top three<\/strong> winners in both categories, as well as taking a rare look at the list of comments that performed best when the votes from both categories are combined. If you\u2019d like to see the winners for this week<\/strong> only, you can go check out first<\/a> and second<\/a> place for insightful, and first<\/a> and second<\/a> place for funny. Now, let\u2019s get started!<\/p>\n

The Most Insightful Comments Of 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, well, well\u2026 we\u2019ve got a clean sweep<\/strong> of the insightful category in 2022! So let\u2019s all take a moment and pay our respects to Stephen T. Stone<\/a>, a common fixture of the weekly winners and a constant source of comments that our audience deems insightful. Stephen took all three top spots<\/strong> in this year\u2019s rankings (though interestingly his comments don\u2019t appear anywhere else in the top ten). Thanks for keeping the comment section lively and full of insight, Stephen! Let\u2019s take a look at the winning comments.<\/p>\n

For the first place comment, we head all the way back to January, when some totally bogus DMCA takedowns from giant publishers managed to completely nuke an entire book review blog<\/a>. This happened amidst an unrelated right-wing freakout online, and Stephen racked up the insightful votes by connecting the two incidents<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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To everyone who thinks AT&T dropping OANN is \u201ccensorship\u201d: No, this<\/strong> is censorship.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The next two comments are also from earlier in the year, both coming in during the month of March. The second place winner is related to a tragically, maddeningly common incident: the cops killing a man who repeatedly told them he couldn\u2019t breathe<\/a>, after they pulled him over for driving under the influence. Predictably, some despicable cop apologists tried to blame the victim, Edward Bronstein, with one commenter flippantly saying \u201cmaybe don\u2019t drive under the influence\u201d. Stephen racked up the votes with the correct response to such nonsense<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Yes or no: Should drunk driving be a death penalty offense?<\/em><\/p>\n

Corollary: Should that sentence be carried out at the moment of arrest rather than after a proper trial, verdict, and appeals process?<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

For the third place winner, we head to our post about Russia beginning preparations for disconnecting from the global internet and creating a Russian splinternet<\/a>, during the early weeks of its invasion of Ukraine. Stephen\u2019s winning comment raised an important point that is applicable to most situations where regular people are caught up in the violence of global politics<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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A reminder:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The people most hurt by war always have the least to do with causing it.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And that\u2019s that for the insightful side. Before we move on, one more round of applause for Stephen T. Stone<\/a>! Now, the funny stuff\u2026<\/p>\n

The Funniest Comments Of 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n

No clean sweep on this side, but we kick things off with our first anonymous winner of the year. What\u2019s more, the anonymous first place comment also<\/em> racked up a lot of Insightful votes, elevating it to the top of the combined-vote leaderboard as well. This time, it\u2019s from a post back in February, about the LA Sheriff making defamation threats against the city council for calling his deputies gang members<\/a>. Our anonymous winner honed in on a specific comment from the Sheriff \u2014 \u201cMy personnel routinely place themselves in harm\u2019s way while serving our community and ask nothing in return, other than a paycheck and maybe a little respect for the tough job they perform\u201d<\/em> \u2014 and offered up a response deemed by our readers as very funny, and very insightful<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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You heard it here, folks!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sheriff Villanueva has made it clear: they only need a paycheck and a \u2018little respect.\u2019 Therefore, they no longer need:<\/em><\/p>\n