Rhodesâ(TM)s war room did its work on Capitol Hill and with reporters. In the spring of last year, legions of arms-control experts began popping up at think tanks and on social media, and then became key sources for hundreds of often-clueless reporters. âoeWe created an echo chamber,â he admitted, when I asked him to explain the onslaught of freshly minted experts cheerleading for the deal. âoeThey were saying things that validated what we had given them to say.â
When I suggested that all this dark metafictional play seemed a bit removed from rational debate over Americaâ(TM)s future role in the world, Rhodes nodded. âoeIn the absence of rational discourse, we are going to discourse the [expletive] out of this,â he said. âoeWe had test drives to know who was going to be able to carry our message effectively, and how to use outside groups like Ploughshares, the Iran Project and whomever else. So we knew the tactics that worked.â He is proud of the way he sold the Iran deal. âoeWe drove them crazy,â he said of the dealâ(TM)s opponents.
The Presidency played the Press like a fiddle and they fell for it hook, line and sinker. They lied, lied, and lied some more and no reporter bothered to investigate. THAT is more destructive to democracy than a lawsuit against clear Press misconduct.
Years ago, I started reading deadspin.com because it seemed cool, it had all this behind-the-scenes information about sports, it was a good way to avoid work for a few minutes. But I soon became aware there was a real nasty streak in the website. They didn't just report things that happened, they went out of their way to hurt people and say vicious things. Even when it wasn't warranted...sometimes it was warranted because some sports figures are real human trash. But every day there was this nasty, hurtful personality of the site, just ready to put the hooks into anyone who got in their way. I eventually had to stop reading because I was afraid this kind of thing was going to rub off on me. When you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares into you, that sort of thing.
In the years since, I have come to know that pretty much every website Gawker has is the same way. They are petty, cutting, severely biased, and often wrong. It's their bias and hurtful nature that leads them to make so many factual mistakes, they are so ready to unload on anyone. Even good people who mean well...especially good people who mean well, they get the extra treatment.
Can someone explain the mentality of the people who work for these websites? I just don't get it. How can journalists heartily enjoy such blackhearted behavior? Hulk Hogan is no hero but what they did to him was clearly wrong and clearly deserved a vicious legal smackdown. What turns these journalists into such lowlife scum, even more than the typical journalist?
Nobody will be speaking Mandarin. It is a horrible language with way too many homophones and an impossible writing system. The only way to the language can be beautiful is an incomprehensible system (classical Chinese) which is a foreign language to native Mandarin speakers. Hell, Mandarin is only predominant in China because the government oppresses the hundreds of other languages that people speak on a daily basis.
Basically, America is a trust-based society. People can say things, and other people can generally assume that they're telling the truth. Other societies are not trust-based. For example, China. When someone tells you something, it's probably a lie and you'd better check first. There are tons and tons of negative externalities that apply to non-trust-based societies. Basically nobody trusts each other, and for good reason, and this makes the society suck to live in.
So, what happens when someone from a non-trust-based society comes to live in a place like America? Either they're impressed and want to be a part of it, or they think all these idiots are totally stupid for not protecting their stuff better. I mean, there are just these big treasure boxes lying around called stores, they don't even have any security! Huge amounts of scrap metal just lying around waiting to be cashed in - Americans call them manhole covers, but people know better. And likewise crap like this. It's ruthlessly taking advantage of a trust-based society because you've got to be an idiot to trust people. Previously all Americans were pretty much on the same page when it came to being trust-based, but that's changing quickly. People like these hoaxers think it's totally stupid nobody defends against them, and they think it's hilarious to attack the bonds of trust that hold society together. Yeah, well, if you want to live in a society like China, life is going to suck. Good job, assholes.
There it is AGAIN. A leftist, making excuses for Islamists, and trying to deflect the blame and say the whole thing is the West's fault for being so kind and admitting these people. How many Syrian refugees have Islamic countries taken in? How about a word about them? What is *with* the left-wing alliance with Islamists? Why is there always one to jump right up and defend them? You know they execute homosexuals and legally allow spouse abuse?
He freely admits that he did so by manipulating a select group of reporters that he and staff think are idiots and molded them into his own personal echo chamber. "They literally know nothing."
Oh, my, the frowning voice of "the rest of the world" looking down on us Americans. Gosh, that hasn't happened for several hours now, I suppose it's time again. Yaknow, when international groups like Cirque du Soliel cancel their trip to Carolina and don't cancel the one to the Middle East where they use these wonderful tools of execution on gays, it kind of cuts the moral ground out from under you. It makes you look like a barking hypocrite. Here's an idea: work on your own societies until they're fixed, and then you can come around to looking down on the Americans again. Oh, but you won't because it's too satisfying. Carry on, then!
The page's editors would be notified? You mean everyone?
Half the problem with Wikipedia is the idea that people can "own" articles. Some articles are "yours" and anything you don't approve of is reverted. That's why I quit editing Wikipedia long ago despite being an expert of a very narrow subject. The page I'm an expert on is full of inaccurate and out of date information.
The solution, obviously, is to roll your own email server. Don't put it anywhere secure, someone's closet is OK. Read all your work-related emails on it, even the classified ones. It's a secret so it won't be hacked. If anyone finds out about it, try to laugh it off and claim partisanship is making other people persecute you. Heartily enjoy the warm feeling that comes from knowing you're above the law.
The word you're looking for is "misogynist". We're not dealing with reasonable people here.
"If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labeled a radical 60 years ago, a liberal 30 years ago and a racist today."
Yes, but a constant stream of bad news is necessary to drive positive social change. Climate change is the #1 issue driving us towards a bright future of leftism and one world government. If everyone stopped reporting imminent doom, change couldn't occur. So it's necessary.
So, when installing a new machine, how do you choose to open zip files? Winzip has that irritating registration screen, Windows native zip opening lacks features, 7zip sucks too, so what do people use these days that's free and downloadable?
You discriminate, all right. You just do it and then lie to yourselves about it. I usually describe this as: "Do as I say, not as I do." It invariably creates a blind spot for the "invisible" activity, but also undermines the ability of the mind to see the truth in general because the mind has become used to lying to itself so it won't see the things it is not supposed to see. Obviously, at this point, the mind itself cannot detect truth and falsity, because the mind would have to see itself lying. A problem with highly intelligent people like this, is that they assume that their opinions are facts.
A lack of political diversity in psychology is said to lead to a number of pernicious outcomes, including biased research and active discrimination against conservatives. The authors of this study surveyed a large number (combined N = 800) of social and personality psychologists and discovered several interesting facts. First, although only 6% described themselves as conservative "overall," there was more diversity of political opinion on economic issues and foreign policy. Second, respondents significantly underestimated the proportion of conservatives among their colleagues. Third, conservatives fear negative consequences of revealing their political beliefs to their colleagues. Finally, they are right to do so: In decisions ranging from paper reviews to hiring, many social and personality psychologists said that they would discriminate against openly conservative colleagues. The more liberal respondents were, the more they said they would discriminate.
Composite scores of perceived hostile climate for conservatives (! =.85) were significantly correlated with political orientation, r(263) =.28, p less than.0001: The more liberal respondents were, the less they believed that conservatives faced a hostile climate. This correlation was driven entirely by more conservative respondents' greater personal experience of a hostile climate: Controlling for personal experience, the relationship disappeared (r = â'.01), suggesting that the hostile climate reported by conservatives is invisible to those who do not experience it themselves.
At the end of our surveys, we gave room for comments. Many respondents wrote that they could not believe that anyone in the field would ever deliberately discriminate against conservatives. Yet at the same time we found clear examples of discrimination. One participant described how a colleague was denied tenure because of his political beliefs. Another wrote that if the department "could figure out who was a conservative they would be sure not to hire them."
There are plenty of hilly areas unsuitable for development and empty of anything but wildlife. Have you ever been there? It IS rural by urbanite standards.
Nope! Mandarin is increasingly spoken in Hong Kong as reunification proceeds. In another decade or two, HK will be just another Chinese coastal city. It's no surprise the low-paid jobs go to Mandarin speakers from the mainland.
Don't you hate it when you try to pull some educated-sounding fact out to make someone else look like a fool and it turns out it used to be true a long time ago and you're actually the fool? Doh!
The government needs this revenue. Cutting it off will only cause problems. The missing money must be made up for from somewhere else. New Yorkers well-off enough to drive cars in the Big Apple can well afford these parking tickets.
...and yet, there are many, many people who label themselves as you are and want to control everyone. I think maybe you don't expose yourself to a wide enough range of opinions. Leftists are the worst at wanting to control others, because they are convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are sincerely doing it for the victim's own benefit. Seriously, you need to discover just how horrifying your movement looks from the outside. Try an experiment: adopt a psudeonym, and start stating non-controversial middle-of-the-road American political opinions on your usual websites. You'll see what I mean quite quickly.
The U.S. government does not need more money. It has plenty. It takes a huge, huge amount of the entire U.S. economy to pay for itself. The last thing it needs is more money.
Increasing the amount of money the government has will never stop government employees from being hired away by private industry. What WILL stop it is strong anti-corruption laws. This revolving door is well-known and well-appreciated by the DC elite. Obama - the man who has repeatedly pledged to crack down on Wall Street wrongdoing - picked as one of his top financial cops a figure who has spent much of the last decade defending senior bankers.
And yet, not a word against this practice, but a slur against ordinary Americans who groan under the burden of supporting ever-expanding government spending. Faux outrage indeed. Go fuck yourself.
Yeah, because those intellectuals have done such a *great* job running our American economy. If I didn't know better, I might think they despised ordinary Americans and wanted to oppress them, all the while making loads of cash from moving everything overseas.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, this relies on the Press being free enough to criticize the government, and be clever enough to realize when they government is lying to them and investigate to reveal the truth. Suing the media for lying isn't nearly the same level of problem, particularly when the media is 100% in the wrong as in the Hulk Hogan case.
The Presidency played the Press like a fiddle and they fell for it hook, line and sinker. They lied, lied, and lied some more and no reporter bothered to investigate. THAT is more destructive to democracy than a lawsuit against clear Press misconduct.
Years ago, I started reading deadspin.com because it seemed cool, it had all this behind-the-scenes information about sports, it was a good way to avoid work for a few minutes. But I soon became aware there was a real nasty streak in the website. They didn't just report things that happened, they went out of their way to hurt people and say vicious things. Even when it wasn't warranted...sometimes it was warranted because some sports figures are real human trash. But every day there was this nasty, hurtful personality of the site, just ready to put the hooks into anyone who got in their way. I eventually had to stop reading because I was afraid this kind of thing was going to rub off on me. When you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares into you, that sort of thing.
In the years since, I have come to know that pretty much every website Gawker has is the same way. They are petty, cutting, severely biased, and often wrong. It's their bias and hurtful nature that leads them to make so many factual mistakes, they are so ready to unload on anyone. Even good people who mean well...especially good people who mean well, they get the extra treatment.
Can someone explain the mentality of the people who work for these websites? I just don't get it. How can journalists heartily enjoy such blackhearted behavior? Hulk Hogan is no hero but what they did to him was clearly wrong and clearly deserved a vicious legal smackdown. What turns these journalists into such lowlife scum, even more than the typical journalist?
Wow, attacking a union. Way to go, strikebreaker. Stay on the good guys' side. What an asshole.
Nobody will be speaking Mandarin. It is a horrible language with way too many homophones and an impossible writing system. The only way to the language can be beautiful is an incomprehensible system (classical Chinese) which is a foreign language to native Mandarin speakers. Hell, Mandarin is only predominant in China because the government oppresses the hundreds of other languages that people speak on a daily basis.
How do you know you waited for half a day in line to get off the ship if you left in the middle of it?
Basically, America is a trust-based society. People can say things, and other people can generally assume that they're telling the truth. Other societies are not trust-based. For example, China. When someone tells you something, it's probably a lie and you'd better check first. There are tons and tons of negative externalities that apply to non-trust-based societies. Basically nobody trusts each other, and for good reason, and this makes the society suck to live in.
So, what happens when someone from a non-trust-based society comes to live in a place like America? Either they're impressed and want to be a part of it, or they think all these idiots are totally stupid for not protecting their stuff better. I mean, there are just these big treasure boxes lying around called stores, they don't even have any security! Huge amounts of scrap metal just lying around waiting to be cashed in - Americans call them manhole covers, but people know better. And likewise crap like this. It's ruthlessly taking advantage of a trust-based society because you've got to be an idiot to trust people. Previously all Americans were pretty much on the same page when it came to being trust-based, but that's changing quickly. People like these hoaxers think it's totally stupid nobody defends against them, and they think it's hilarious to attack the bonds of trust that hold society together. Yeah, well, if you want to live in a society like China, life is going to suck. Good job, assholes.
There it is AGAIN. A leftist, making excuses for Islamists, and trying to deflect the blame and say the whole thing is the West's fault for being so kind and admitting these people. How many Syrian refugees have Islamic countries taken in? How about a word about them? What is *with* the left-wing alliance with Islamists? Why is there always one to jump right up and defend them? You know they execute homosexuals and legally allow spouse abuse?
Oh, my, the frowning voice of "the rest of the world" looking down on us Americans. Gosh, that hasn't happened for several hours now, I suppose it's time again. Yaknow, when international groups like Cirque du Soliel cancel their trip to Carolina and don't cancel the one to the Middle East where they use these wonderful tools of execution on gays, it kind of cuts the moral ground out from under you. It makes you look like a barking hypocrite. Here's an idea: work on your own societies until they're fixed, and then you can come around to looking down on the Americans again. Oh, but you won't because it's too satisfying. Carry on, then!
The page's editors would be notified? You mean everyone?
Half the problem with Wikipedia is the idea that people can "own" articles. Some articles are "yours" and anything you don't approve of is reverted. That's why I quit editing Wikipedia long ago despite being an expert of a very narrow subject. The page I'm an expert on is full of inaccurate and out of date information.
The solution, obviously, is to roll your own email server. Don't put it anywhere secure, someone's closet is OK. Read all your work-related emails on it, even the classified ones. It's a secret so it won't be hacked. If anyone finds out about it, try to laugh it off and claim partisanship is making other people persecute you. Heartily enjoy the warm feeling that comes from knowing you're above the law.
-- Thomas Sowell
Obama could put an end to this anytime he wanted. But he'd rather spend the DoJ's time on letting men into the women's toilets. Sad but true.
Yes, but a constant stream of bad news is necessary to drive positive social change. Climate change is the #1 issue driving us towards a bright future of leftism and one world government. If everyone stopped reporting imminent doom, change couldn't occur. So it's necessary.
So, when installing a new machine, how do you choose to open zip files? Winzip has that irritating registration screen, Windows native zip opening lacks features, 7zip sucks too, so what do people use these days that's free and downloadable?
It's a collective punishment of all men. It has nothing to do with you personally, you're just a man and therefore guilty.
There are plenty of hilly areas unsuitable for development and empty of anything but wildlife. Have you ever been there? It IS rural by urbanite standards.
...said no one ever.
Seriously, you've invented a very specific kind of fake person for your argument.
Nope! Mandarin is increasingly spoken in Hong Kong as reunification proceeds. In another decade or two, HK will be just another Chinese coastal city. It's no surprise the low-paid jobs go to Mandarin speakers from the mainland.
Don't you hate it when you try to pull some educated-sounding fact out to make someone else look like a fool and it turns out it used to be true a long time ago and you're actually the fool? Doh!
The government needs this revenue. Cutting it off will only cause problems. The missing money must be made up for from somewhere else. New Yorkers well-off enough to drive cars in the Big Apple can well afford these parking tickets.
...and yet, there are many, many people who label themselves as you are and want to control everyone. I think maybe you don't expose yourself to a wide enough range of opinions. Leftists are the worst at wanting to control others, because they are convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are sincerely doing it for the victim's own benefit. Seriously, you need to discover just how horrifying your movement looks from the outside. Try an experiment: adopt a psudeonym, and start stating non-controversial middle-of-the-road American political opinions on your usual websites. You'll see what I mean quite quickly.
Congratulations, you win the "condescending asshole Eurotrash" award of the day. Now, off to the PEGIDA rally, comrade!
The U.S. government does not need more money. It has plenty. It takes a huge, huge amount of the entire U.S. economy to pay for itself. The last thing it needs is more money.
Increasing the amount of money the government has will never stop government employees from being hired away by private industry. What WILL stop it is strong anti-corruption laws. This revolving door is well-known and well-appreciated by the DC elite. Obama - the man who has repeatedly pledged to crack down on Wall Street wrongdoing - picked as one of his top financial cops a figure who has spent much of the last decade defending senior bankers.
And yet, not a word against this practice, but a slur against ordinary Americans who groan under the burden of supporting ever-expanding government spending. Faux outrage indeed. Go fuck yourself.
Yeah, because those intellectuals have done such a *great* job running our American economy. If I didn't know better, I might think they despised ordinary Americans and wanted to oppress them, all the while making loads of cash from moving everything overseas.