MyPillow guy has to pay $5 million as promised

[Bootstrap]

The MyPillow guy said he would pay 5 million dollars to anyone who could prove his claims were wrong. The guy who disproved his claims is a Republican who voted for Trump twice. Read about it here.

So now he has to pay. He tried to wiggle out of it, but couldn't.

Mike Lindell, the MyPillow founder and Trump ally who has been a leading voice in pushing conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election, must pay $5 million to a software forensics expert who debunked a series of false claims as part of a “Prove Mike Wrong” contest, an arbitration panel said on Wednesday.

Mr. Lindell had issued the challenge at a “cyber symposium” in South Dakota in 2021, saying he had data that would support his claims that there was Chinese interference in the election and offering the seven-figure prize to anyone who could prove the data had no connection to the 2020 election.

And because the software expert, Robert Zeidman, successfully did so, Mr. Lindell would have to pay up, ordered the panel, which was composed of three members of the American Arbitration Association.

“Almost everyone there was pro-Trump and everyone said, ‘This data is nonsense,’” Mr. Zeidman said in an interview on Thursday, identifying himself as a Republican who voted twice for former President Donald J. Trump. “A false narrative about election fraud is just really damaging to this country.”

[Josh]

Speak up for the truth and you get sued. It’s pretty sad.

Boot, this is going to have a very chilling effect on free speech. I’m saddened you think the global elites punishing anyone who dares to disagree with them is something worth celebrating.

[ohio jones]

Speak up for the truth and you get sued. It’s pretty sad.

The OP says nothing about anyone getting sued.

However, the linked article quotes Lindell: “It’s going to end up in court.” So apparently he's going to sue the guy who spoke up for the truth after analyzing the data Lindell provided him. Yes, that is sad.

[Franklin]

The internet has become so corrupt that I think finding truth on the internet is a hopeless task. So I have no idea who is right on this issue, and on most issues outside of my house. The one thing that I am sure of is that decent people should get off the internet (except for business) in the next few years as AI takes it over and makes it 100% corrupt.

[Bootstrap]

Speak up for the truth and you get sued. It’s pretty sad.

Nope.

Truth involves facts. This guy looked at the facts, in a contest, and won the contest. He told the truth.

Lindell said he had proof, and said he would give 5 million to anyone who could prove him wrong. So this guy looked at his data and realized that Lindell had misrepresented what was there, it simply was not what Lindell had claimed - not even close. If you promise 5 million dollars to anyone who can prove you wrong, and they do that, you might have to pay up.

Is that sad? That you have to keep your promises? I don't think so.

Boot, this is going to have a very chilling effect on free speech. I’m saddened you think the global elites punishing anyone who dares to disagree with them is something worth celebrating.

Global elites? This guy who looked at Lindell's data went to an event that Lindell organized, looked at Lindell's data, and did what Lindell said he should do to collect 5 million dollars. How does that make him a global elite?

I think this will have a chilling effect for people who make big 5 million dollar claims to promote lies. And maybe that's not a bad thing.

[ohio jones]

Boot, this is going to have a very chilling effect on free speech. I’m saddened you think the global elites punishing anyone who dares to disagree with them is something worth celebrating.

Global elites? This guy who looked at Lindell's data went to an event that Lindell organized, looked at Lindell's data, and did what Lindell said he should do to collect 5 million dollars. How does that make him a global elite?

In this scenario, Lindell is the global elite.

[Bootstrap]

Boot, this is going to have a very chilling effect on free speech. I’m saddened you think the global elites punishing anyone who dares to disagree with them is something worth celebrating.

Global elites? This guy who looked at Lindell's data went to an event that Lindell organized, looked at Lindell's data, and did what Lindell said he should do to collect 5 million dollars. How does that make him a global elite?

In this scenario, Lindell is the global elite.

Lindell is probably richer and certainly better connected to politicians and to the rich and powerful.

But Robert Zeidmann is a very smart guy who specializes in tracking this kind of thing down. So it's not surprising that he decided to examine the data when Lindell posed the challenge.

[Szdfan]

Boot, this is going to have a very chilling effect on free speech. I’m saddened you think the global elites punishing anyone who dares to disagree with them is something worth celebrating.

Global elites? This guy who looked at Lindell's data went to an event that Lindell organized, looked at Lindell's data, and did what Lindell said he should do to collect 5 million dollars. How does that make him a global elite?

In this scenario, Lindell is the global elite.

This global elite rhetoric is bizarre. Apparently, anyone who doesn't have bonkers conspiracy theories is part of the global elite. Lindell is worth $174 million. Yeah, real salt of the earth.

[Bootstrap]

This global elite rhetoric is bizarre. Apparently, anyone who doesn't have bonkers conspiracy theories is part of the global elite. Lindell is worth $174 million. Yeah, real salt of the earth.

It's a game of making emotional labels stick. Often by making them mean the opposite of what the words actually mean. It's precisely what George Orwell meant by Doublethink.

For example:

If you are a billionaire who was president of the United States, and you do business with lots of wealthy oligarchs from corrupt authoritarian countries, you are not a global elite. If you expose unpleasant truths about that billionaire or the lies told to support him, you are a global elite.

Another example:

If you look carefully at the facts, you are not interested in the truth. If you throw emotional labels around, the same labels, in the same way, no matter what the topic, you are a champion of the truth.

Another example:

If you reframe most questions in terms of liberal versus conservative political factions, threatening dire consequences if your favorite faction does not win, you are not partisan and not tribal. If someone else focuses on the facts behind a particular issue, that person is tribal and partisan.

Got it?

The facts unearthed in the Dominion vs. Fox case make it really obvious that they are doing this on purpose. And unless we decide to look this straight in the eye, they are very good at manipulating us. Especially if we're so, so sure that we cannot be manipulated.

The only way to think straight in all of this gaslighting is to remember what words mean. Care about the truth? Focus on the facts. Want to fight tribalism? Don't pick fights along partisan lines. Care about the little guy? Stop championing the riches and most powerful. Want to root out corruption? Then accountability and investigations and the courts are your friend. Care about democracy? Don't undermine elections.

Care about the Kingdom of God? Want to seek it first? Let's have a lot more conversations that focus on that ...

[Josh]

“Look carefully at the facts”?

Boot, the “facts” seem to only matter when it supports a certain political position. Here are some “facts” which seem to be conveniently ignored:

- Six feet social distancing rules were not based on any facts

- Turns out Covid really was a lab leak, but that “fact” got you labelled by people like Szdfan as a believing in “bonkers conspiracy theories”

- Tunes out Covid vaccines were not effective, yet they were forced on millions of people if they wanted to keep their jobs

- Cloth masks and paper masks were not effective at stopping the spread of Covid-19

- Stopping schooling for a year or longer is extremely harmful to children

- A man can’t turn himself into a woman or vice versa, yet we are forced to accept this

- Mail-in voting invited massive wholesale fraud. The way American elections was completely turned upside down in 2020. Yet daring to speak up against this meant losing your fortune and being blackballed from society.

Boot, the freedom needs to exist to say the emperor has no clothes. Sometimes the mainstream consensus is wrong. The lab leak theory is a very good example of this.