i had to talk to a flat-earther the other day. i'm sure you know the type i mean, i coin that phrase in honor of the woman on 'the View' who, after saying she didn't believe in evolution and then asked about whether the world is flat, said; "i've never thought about it". no kidding? what a surprise. we can see that you literally never thought about it because even the most cursory faade of thought would tell you that, whatever it is you think, saying you "never thought about it" about whether the world is round or flat on national television may not be the best plan.
so; i was working on a temp labor job. you'd be surprised how often sophisticated political discussions happen on construction sites. a man i was working with claimed that President bush has not done anything illegal. i tried telling him about how the FISA disembowelment didn't come till 4 years after the spying started, that all (that is; ALL, as in EVERY SINGLE ONE) all of the claims made to the public and to congress about reasons to attack iraq have been shown false, that there are laws about keeping presidential records, and on and on and on... no matter, his mind was made up. ya gotta envy that kind of certainty. no sparkling wit or charming charisma. no amount of brilliant debate or preponderance of evidence will ever have an effect.
we (most of us) we know they were lying. we've always known. who doubts that the 30% off sale was preceded by a 50% price increase? who thinks that the price of the gasoline that's already in the underground tank at the gas station is affected by the broken pipe in asia? i mean, really, do they expect we think they'll look out for us? look how long it took for atm's to penetrate the market, versus how long it took to get airbags. now here we are at long last, dancing on the cliff edge of total annihilation. and they still want to call the fiddler's tune. and they're doing it too. and we're still dancing.
by "they" i mean the so-called captains of industry, or, more colorfully, the bosses. some bunches of folks had it right before. they were called populists, although they were pretty unpopular at the time. farmers who thought it was just a little more than an odd coincidence that the price of their truck came so near to exactly the amount they were forced to borrow to raise it. there were 'wives and mothers' who were so upset at the filthy working conditions that they wanted to sweep the streets clean, of scabs. then, most eloquent of all, (and most unpopular) was that one bunch that said; "The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of the working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life." http://www.iww.org/culture/official/preamble.shtml. the inexorable drive toward full citizenship.
then NAZI happened. nobody was thinking about much of anything else till that was over. (and rightly so) but everything got so fractured after that... women tossed on their NON-collective keisters. men returning to a new planet with a new condition that wasn't even called PTSD yet. the cocooning of america, while our captains and barons commanded their petty fiefdoms. Korea doesn't count for much because (politically) it was under the aegis of the United Nations. but we had ongoing strong-arming in the middle east and elsewhere in asia. as well as multiple 'chiquita-cheata' invasions in central america. it seems no one really noticed. until the 'Dirty Fuck'n Hippies were threatened with danger and inconvenience in Vietnam.
i am so GOD DAMNED tired of hearing about the DFH crowd. all their hoopla about 'paradigm shift'. and regardless, almost in spite of, the positive things that came of that time. what happened after? once the immediate threat of personal danger in southeast asia had passed. the DFH bunch forgot their paradigm entirely, and obediently took their places in the corporate hierarchy. even DURING the height of the protest era, they "couldn't strike every time a black student was killed". (i can't attribute that but i'm pretty sure its a quote.)
which brings me to the real subject of my rant; quotes. top to bottom front to back and on all sides the entire world is up and shouting about general betray-us, not the lies. not the skewed statistics. not the fact that he's become a patsy for the administration. everyone's yelling cause someone SAID he's lying, using false numbers, and acting as a patsy. i don't take the new york times, so it took me over a week to find someone who'd discuss what the moveon ad actually said. (nod@ cenk unger) it all seemed pretty spot-on to me. but it wasn't the substance of ad it was the headline that made such a stir. five words. and it wasn't even all that nasty. cute, eye catching, clever, if a bit sophomoric. but not particularly nasty.
i'll tell ya this camel's got an I-Bar spine. all the revile-i-cans pontificating on the dangers of hamhoSECKshuals, most of them talking with their mouths full. all the dramatic-rats whimpering and mewling. and tweety singing love songs to the aqua velva man. its a wonder we haven't broken the camel's LEGS by now. its long past time to be loud. like the kid at U of FL... whatever else, he was loud. do you remember the quaker who immolated outside macnamara's window? BURNED HIMSELF TO DEATH, to say "stop it". and we can't bring ourselves to say "gee whiz general sir, are you sure about those numbers?"
our brothers and sisters are being killed and maimed by conscienceless men. STOP IT
:mittens:
and welcome aboard, Word Weaver!
you might want to edit that and add some line breaks between paragraphs - it'll make it a LOT easier to read.
I like your venom towards quotes and little info-bytes. Years ago Newsweek (ironically) did an article about how we're becoming a Factoid nation. How news is reported in these simple, easy-to-digest sound bytes which leave little room for context or nuance. They're memetically sound because they're attention-getting, and our minds are better at processing and remembering little information packages then they are the whole story. But then you're missing the whole story!
Yeah, the "can't see the wood for the trees" mentality is one of the things that really bugs me. I mean, I'm no fan of overarching theorizing either, but when the lines joining a series of events are nearly tangible, yet people act as if its another "one-off", well something is really wrong there.
Welcome to the forums, too.
well it's kinda hard to follow everything, isn't it? i mean there's so much stuff going on everywhere, sometimes the history of which (another whole bunch more) sheds a whole new light on it than without it.
i'm not saying it isn't because i might also be a lazy slob sometimes to follow the news, but isn't also the sheer amount of news being out there happening something that triggers people's information-overload defense so they rather reach for soundbites to give them at least an artificial feeling of "being on top of things" ?
is there "more news" than, say, 15 years ago? are things speeding up?
(also, wordweaver, i didn't read your entire story yet, so i'm gonna comment on that later. i'm not a very quick reader)
Can someone indent this into a readable format so I can read it later please? :mrgreen:
i was gonna say "TL;DR" but then i read it anyway and it's actually pretty good.
Quote from: triple zero on September 24, 2007, 10:39:50 PM
well it's kinda hard to follow everything, isn't it? i mean there's so much stuff going on everywhere, sometimes the history of which (another whole bunch more) sheds a whole new light on it than without it.
i'm not saying it isn't because i might also be a lazy slob sometimes to follow the news, but isn't also the sheer amount of news being out there happening something that triggers people's information-overload defense so they rather reach for soundbites to give them at least an artificial feeling of "being on top of things" ?
is there "more news" than, say, 15 years ago? are things speeding up?
(also, wordweaver, i didn't read your entire story yet, so i'm gonna comment on that later. i'm not a very quick reader)
I limit myself to trustworthy sources, and it becomes much easier.
Of course, I watch the news much more than is reasonable to expect of the average person anyway...
Quote from: triple zero on September 24, 2007, 10:39:50 PM
is there "more news" than, say, 15 years ago? are things speeding up?
I dont think that there is more news then 15 years ago it's more a combination of two things.
Technology allows us to hear news from parts of the world we wouldn't otherwise care that much about.
and
The 24 hour news networks are competing for your advertising dollar, so they drum up shit you don't care about and isn't relevant to anyone except those immediately involved into a week long spectacle/crisis.
Quote from: Lysergic on September 24, 2007, 10:59:42 PM
Can someone indent this into a readable format so I can read it later please? :mrgreen:
is this easier? :lulz:
MUCH better :D
and i've just learned that the house is about to pass a resolution condemning moveon. go here to find your state's con-men/women.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/26/breaking-senate-passes-liebermankyl-amendment-house-vote-to-condemn-moveon/
Good thing the Senate have nothing important to do then, like prosecute three wars or try and resuscitate the economy.
I would like to point out that the quoted Tom Allen is from my state of Maine.
Of course, I should also point out that my senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snow voted in favor of the resolution.
BTW, Allen is running against Collins for her Senate Seat, this should be a fun election cycle.
Oh, and I'm giving McCain and Obama the benefit of the doubt that they were too busy campaigning to vote on this. Although, I think it is still kind of wussy of both of them to not be there for this one.
i don't have anything more to say, i just wanted to be comment #13
zomg! That was your fifth post. It's gonna start raining cheese now. :lulz:
I don't have anything to say, I just wanted to start a new page.