Slashdot Mirror
Google+ Unblocked In China; President Obama's Page Flooded With Comments
An anonymous reader writes "Google+ has recently been unblocked in China and Chinese netizens have found their way to President Obama's G+ page. The result is that topic after topic has hit the limit of 500 comments, most of them in Chinese. Some express political views, but many are just everyday banter or showing off."
What's more interesting is how little interest we have in our politics. At least, little interest in finding out for ourselves what's going on rather then blindly following our parties marching orders.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
The US now seems to treat politics like just another reality TV show.
What's even more interesting, is how little interest our politicians have in us.
As opposed to their own careers and their paymasters.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
I feel solidarity with these chinese people who wrote to Obama just to say "we need freedom"... (This theme is also relevant to me as I was born in another totalitarian regime, the soviet one, a year before it broke; now we still have to build our country and resurrect its culture, persisting against all the pro-soviet-russian forces (i'm from Ukraine.)
No mod points, so commenting, if anyone saw the debate yesterday you'd have realized how right Nerdfest is.
Did you point out that we're only give 2 choices every 4 years and those 2 choices are usually almost identical?
No, we care who wins reality TV shows. More people vote for American Idol then for their representatives.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
There are only 35 (give or take one or two, I can't count) states in America.
Was there another final debate?
After the final debate?
That followed the final debate?
That was really just childish bickering, pointing fingers, and attacks instead of an actual debate?
Force choices onto the electorate and make those choices bad. Many will quickly grow cynical and weary, finally giving up on the process. That leaves the few to rule, using the 'elected leaders' as front men who can easily be replaced due to their lack of credibility. Of course, that would never happen here.
Show me one other country in the world with the word "America" in its name and then you'll get some sympathy.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
In fairness, there are a number of eurocrats in Brussels, etc. who don't recognise this either.
Space game using normal deck of cards: http://BattleCards.org
Interesting. Half a billion people exercising free speech is indistinguishable from a denial-of-service attack.
Our society and the way we structure our conversations, both on the Net and off it, aren't really equipped to deal with the problem of billions of people trying to have a conversation in the same room. We need a new way to think about mass communication in a way that doesn't cause information overload. I wonder if self-moderating systems like Slashcode are part of the answer...