Rich and well known people typically end up LEADING it due to their experience but what STARTS it is usually unrest and dissatisfaction in the general populace.
While your entire country has been sleeping (and still is - don't think this article will change anything) your government has been ensuring they have the tools to infiltrate, spy on and destroy any such grass-roots movement.
- NSA - FBI - CIA - Homeland Security - National Guard - Militarised police forces - Autonomous drones
I know it will come as a great shock and surprise but there are some in the world (although it appears fewer every day) who believe that study, evidence and experimentation are required to ascertain the truth of things.
This is as opposed to "common sense", listening to talk-back radio, speaking at the TV from your armchair and talking shit with your mate over a beer.
Like yourself, I am sure it is a load of nonsense.
You are being naive in your definition of wealth and are in fact completely very wrong in this. But don't feel ashamed, many other middle/upper class around the world have this wrong also and that is why they vote republican (in the US) or for other neo-con parties that do not actually represent their interests in practice - despite their rhetoric. (studies showing that many in the middle classes believing they will be wealthy soon and thus voting as if they were)
You are talking about "upper class" and not the sort of wealthy they are talking about in this article.
The problem with the above mentality (i.e. "I've got mine, fuck you") is that neo-cons are NOT all that good for the upper class. They are only good for the super-wealthy, the finance companies/banks etc. Being well off you will avoid the worst of the symptoms of a country led by their dogma, but you will not be better off.
So such people are not just greedy, they are stupid and greedy - the two usually go together in my experience.
And the article is not a surprise to anyone who reads the news even badly.
"People do not have much of a chance against a system which forces them to operate by its rules."
They did, but that time is past. "They" dropped the ball and now it is in the corporate neighbours yard and they have a very big and mean dog guarding it. Its still their fault its there.
Also many of the PR techniques are transparent and the levels of ignorance display often times is rather wilful.
So I will not lay off them at all thank you very much.
And I have proposed countless ideas but this is not the forum and no one significant would pay attention anyway. (I am not rich enough for one...)
You already have a corporatocracy. Remember that there needs to be a PR/Marketing layer above this to hide this from the plebs - they would not like to overtly toil under such a system.
But as long as the common livestock never catch wind of it they will happy continue to graze, chew their cud and pick on of the two "different" options presented for their approval every 4 years and things will continue as they have done for decades now. While there ARE differences between the two options, as there must be to maintain the charade, the common ground is vast and contains the very corporatocracy you speak of.
You see my dear fellow, fascism does not work because even cattle can stampede and it is VERY expensive to maintain and not all that motivating. Far better to create the illusion of choice and achieve exactly the same ends (amassing as much of the wealth as possible) without having to pay a large overhead.
In this regard the US stands as the mjost efficient example of a corporatocracy the world has ever seen.
Dude, a delay IS change. Not the change you may have wanted but change nonetheless. And just because your political system has been so derailed by corporate interests it did not work long term does NOT mean that the process could not have been 100% successful in a more sensible ecosystem also - please try to remember that not every country is as corporate captured as yours.
And what this shows more than anything is that they can raise awareness of the livestock to the point where politicians start to give a fuck what they think again. Considering how infrequently this occurs this IS important.
Thanks for the explanation.:) I was honestly scratching my head over this bizarre meme.
BTW: The supreme court (i.e. the gaggle of mummified political cronies) does not get to change the meaning of words.
So to rephrase in a more harsh wat: Your supreme court legalised corruption and attempted to redefine the term free speech to include a tangential concept of bribery. The devastating results to your democracy are blatantly obvious to everyone around the world to see.
You arguments are waffling around the core point: corporate and other large donations undermine democracy and cause conflicts of interest and the appearance of corruption. Their intent is to override the will of the people and it has been EXTREMELY successful in your country.
Thus we have the exchange of money to vote/legislate against the will of the people.
THIS IS CORRUPTION.
You can dress it up and put lipstick on it as you have done above but the fact will not change. Even using your own logic a candidate is given significant advantage by these donations. So by your very own words the democratic process is being subverted by such.
Until you prove that this is not the case everything else around this is a distant second in importance. You have not and could not make this argument especially in the context of US politics.
There are many ways to fund a democracy they do not result in the above. Other countries use them. Corporations donate for a purpose. That purpose is to get face time, advance their legislation and influence votes. The only silly thing here is your lack of understanding of how the money-go-round that US politics works. The money is there to subvert the will of the people - EVERYBODY knows this, including you when you are being honest and not sticking your head in the sand.
And your argument weakly assumes that all this extra money helps in any way this process. It does not. Cold calls, robot calls, armies of lawyers and PR advisers, attack/PR adverts etc etc do NOTHING to advance democracy in your country. Not to mention if there was not so much easy money sloshing around people would naturally find other ways to achieve their ends as happens in other countries.
Donations of time, speech and ideas are NOT covered because these actions are part of the democratic process for god's sake! Being able to hire an army of lackies to make cold calls is not.
Your arguments are extremely weak and have nothing to do with making your democratic process stronger - which should really be the ONLY consideration when it comes to the democratic process.
It was not about "stupid Americans" - I was merely pondering where the meme has come from and whether it was an American meme.
From what I have seen so far your supreme court leaves a lot to be desired (e.g. their highly politically motivated appointments and lifetime membership) despite the fanatical devotion to what they have to say.
They most certainly do NOT get to redefine words to mean something completely tangential to their original meaning.
Because it undermines the democratic process and thus should be outlawed. QED. There are 100's of rules about what is and is not allowed when it comes to the democratic process (e.g. advertising) to stop it being undermined.
This obvious, insidious and blatant abuse of the democratic process should be
Before anybody even begins to stamp their foot and blubbering about being able to "do whatever they want" they will have to first conclusively argue how these "donations" are not hurting democracy and creating conflicts of interest.
You cannot make this argument because both the common sense and the evidence is the the contrary.
The sacked employees will be treated like all other sacked employees across the board over the last few years: they will be left to "free market forces" to deal with.
(i.e. Nothing will be done.)
But assuming this discussion was not so:
Retraining is more complicated than just telling all the sheep to herd in one direction. For example, how many tech jobs are in the same area as the coal mines and how many are able to relocate? Tech qualifications are expensive and since there is no way the govt will be paying for them (that would be socialism!!) how many coal miners can afford it? And of course how many want to sit in front of a computer being frustrated by somone else's shittily written code for 8-12 hours a day incl. weekends? (let's be honest folks, many programming jobs are like this)
But all that is irrelevant because, as I said, nothing significant will be done.
I have seen the term "free speech" used in a lost of stories lately and am horrified by the number of people who do not even understand the term. It appears that the term "free speech" is hijacked to mean whatever the hell the poster wants it to mean at the time.
It is truly staggering and I am at a loss as to why people make this huge mistake? It is honestly and very interesting social phenomenon to me.
Is this just an American thing? Has your schooling system and/or corporate media engrained some arbitrary and/or politically convenient (yet utterly incorrect) definition or something?
Freedom of Speech == right to convey almost any idea and opinion free of government interference. (with the exception of things like libel/slander/hate speech depending on the country)
How on EARTH is "donating" money to politicians ANYTHING to do with free speech?!
My god people: wake the fuck up. This is nothing more than legalised corruption. Plain and simple.
Regardless of whether or not you believe "donations" should be allowed (and all arguments I have seen to this end have been extremely weak) it has NOTHING to do with free speech and never has.
I am sorry have you actually listened to one? They are a waste of time. You would be far better off making sure safety equipment is standardised across airlines (if not already) and clearly labelled and its purpose obvious. You can leave the cards in the seats as people are bored on planes and will usually read them at least once.
The information in those demonstrations is trivial and hardly helpful once put to the test. People will panic and that means that little boring sermon will mean almost nothing where it counts.(as always happens) But of course authoritarians always see the solution to non-compliance as more enforcement, regardless of the evidence. Hence why they try to "enforce" the demonstration on everyone leading to people actively not listening in protest.
And it suffers from the old catch 22: The sort of person that is going to be an idiot during an emergency will be an idiot regardless - a boring safety message will not save them.
I understand what you are saying and why you are saying it but I completely disagree.
With the standardised app installer/manager, linux actually has FAAARR more capability in it than windows.
Windows comes with about the same amount of stuff as linux on a standard desktop install. A more complete linux install would have free versions of popular apps which windows dose not come with.
NB: I am talking about apps that the standard user would use here, not admin apps.
And all of that is irrelevant because EVERY application they use (YMMV) on there has to be downloaded separately on both systems so effectively they are the same.
Set up a "multimedia desktop" for my parents in their lounge. The desktop startup/response time of the OS is orders of magnitude faster than any other computer in our family and yet it is on the oldest and slowest hardware. Anything higher than windows XP ran like an absolute dog on this machine - in fact not really usable at all due to lack of memory etc.
Since it is only used for browsing and multimedia they don't even notice the subtle differences.
The fact that they are complete computer novices who would never try to tinker with any admin options actually works in their favour. Most of the apps use are essentially"platforms" in that the software works the same on both OS's.
Installation was also stupidly easy. The apps were free.
Pretty much the only "negative" was that I had to google some alternative apps for the ones I would use on windows as there was not a linux version - and that's just being picky.
This wont be the solution for everyone (due to app support etc) but I seriously suggest it to anyone with an XP machine that does not want to hope on the M$ upgrade train just for the sake of it.
I think this option will be overlooked by many due to historical difficulties - that PR baggage is hard to shake it seems.
In a metaphorical way you are 100% correct despite the intended pun.
The original sin? The tree of knowledge. Satan Snaky apple Salesman's grand plan?
And what is the internet if not the metaphorical "tree of knowledge"?
What I find amusing about this in reality is that exposure to information/knowledge/points of view appears to be a cure for religion for many if not most people.
I find that somewhat what comforting. Perhaps there is some small hope for the human race after all?
The article and yourself simply have not been paying attention.
It is very simple, so please keep up.
The only problem the ruling class has with ANY of this is that the plebs became aware it was happening. The goal now is a combination of appeasing the plebs with empty action and/or stalling long enough for them to forget (about 3 mins for most) and go back to chewing their cud.
That is it. That is all there is too it. It is no surprise.
The other mistake here is assuming that they were as surprised as you at the revelation.
Slashdot Mirror
I doubt it.
Rich and well known people typically end up LEADING it due to their experience but what STARTS it is usually unrest and dissatisfaction in the general populace.
Good luck with that.
While your entire country has been sleeping (and still is - don't think this article will change anything) your government has been ensuring they have the tools to infiltrate, spy on and destroy any such grass-roots movement.
- NSA
- FBI
- CIA
- Homeland Security
- National Guard
- Militarised police forces
- Autonomous drones
Like I said, good luck with that...
I know it will come as a great shock and surprise but there are some in the world (although it appears fewer every day) who believe that study, evidence and experimentation are required to ascertain the truth of things.
This is as opposed to "common sense", listening to talk-back radio, speaking at the TV from your armchair and talking shit with your mate over a beer.
Like yourself, I am sure it is a load of nonsense.
You are being naive in your definition of wealth and are in fact completely very wrong in this. But don't feel ashamed, many other middle/upper class around the world have this wrong also and that is why they vote republican (in the US) or for other neo-con parties that do not actually represent their interests in practice - despite their rhetoric. (studies showing that many in the middle classes believing they will be wealthy soon and thus voting as if they were)
You are talking about "upper class" and not the sort of wealthy they are talking about in this article.
The problem with the above mentality (i.e. "I've got mine, fuck you") is that neo-cons are NOT all that good for the upper class. They are only good for the super-wealthy, the finance companies/banks etc. Being well off you will avoid the worst of the symptoms of a country led by their dogma, but you will not be better off.
So such people are not just greedy, they are stupid and greedy - the two usually go together in my experience.
And the article is not a surprise to anyone who reads the news even badly.
Wrong.
The field of AI is not just about movie-style artificial humans.
If you don't mind I will leave it to the experts who spend years studying it and then devote their lives to it.
As opposed...say...to people who live near the ocean....
"People do not have much of a chance against a system which forces them to operate by its rules."
They did, but that time is past. "They" dropped the ball and now it is in the corporate neighbours yard and they have a very big and mean dog guarding it. Its still their fault its there.
Also many of the PR techniques are transparent and the levels of ignorance display often times is rather wilful.
So I will not lay off them at all thank you very much.
And I have proposed countless ideas but this is not the forum and no one significant would pay attention anyway. (I am not rich enough for one...)
You already have a corporatocracy. Remember that there needs to be a PR/Marketing layer above this to hide this from the plebs - they would not like to overtly toil under such a system.
But as long as the common livestock never catch wind of it they will happy continue to graze, chew their cud and pick on of the two "different" options presented for their approval every 4 years and things will continue as they have done for decades now. While there ARE differences between the two options, as there must be to maintain the charade, the common ground is vast and contains the very corporatocracy you speak of.
You see my dear fellow, fascism does not work because even cattle can stampede and it is VERY expensive to maintain and not all that motivating.
Far better to create the illusion of choice and achieve exactly the same ends (amassing as much of the wealth as possible) without having to pay a large overhead.
In this regard the US stands as the mjost efficient example of a corporatocracy the world has ever seen.
Dude, a delay IS change. Not the change you may have wanted but change nonetheless.
And just because your political system has been so derailed by corporate interests it did not work long term does NOT mean that the process could not have been 100% successful in a more sensible ecosystem also - please try to remember that not every country is as corporate captured as yours.
And what this shows more than anything is that they can raise awareness of the livestock to the point where politicians start to give a fuck what they think again. Considering how infrequently this occurs this IS important.
"Unless they are utterly ignorant bureaucrats"
and from the article
"...they haven't designed regulations to deal with situations like this, even though they've been working on it since 2007."
Seem a connection between those two statements yet??
What they do is place a deflated piece of plastic over their head and pretend pull on a cord.
That is hardly a live demonstration worth the effort.
Not all demonstrations are equal.
If you want people to remember you would do live drills. Nothing else really works.
Thanks for the explanation. :) I was honestly scratching my head over this bizarre meme.
;)
BTW: The supreme court (i.e. the gaggle of mummified political cronies) does not get to change the meaning of words.
So to rephrase in a more harsh wat: Your supreme court legalised corruption and attempted to redefine the term free speech to include a tangential concept of bribery. The devastating results to your democracy are blatantly obvious to everyone around the world to see.
Would that about cover it?
You arguments are waffling around the core point: corporate and other large donations undermine democracy and cause conflicts of interest and the appearance of corruption. Their intent is to override the will of the people and it has been EXTREMELY successful in your country.
Thus we have the exchange of money to vote/legislate against the will of the people.
THIS IS CORRUPTION.
You can dress it up and put lipstick on it as you have done above but the fact will not change. Even using your own logic a candidate is given significant advantage by these donations. So by your very own words the democratic process is being subverted by such.
Until you prove that this is not the case everything else around this is a distant second in importance. You have not and could not make this argument especially in the context of US politics.
There are many ways to fund a democracy they do not result in the above. Other countries use them.
Corporations donate for a purpose. That purpose is to get face time, advance their legislation and influence votes. The only silly thing here is your lack of understanding of how the money-go-round that US politics works.
The money is there to subvert the will of the people - EVERYBODY knows this, including you when you are being honest and not sticking your head in the sand.
And your argument weakly assumes that all this extra money helps in any way this process. It does not. Cold calls, robot calls, armies of lawyers and PR advisers, attack/PR adverts etc etc do NOTHING to advance democracy in your country.
Not to mention if there was not so much easy money sloshing around people would naturally find other ways to achieve their ends as happens in other countries.
Donations of time, speech and ideas are NOT covered because these actions are part of the democratic process for god's sake! Being able to hire an army of lackies to make cold calls is not.
Your arguments are extremely weak and have nothing to do with making your democratic process stronger - which should really be the ONLY consideration when it comes to the democratic process.
It was not about "stupid Americans" - I was merely pondering where the meme has come from and whether it was an American meme.
From what I have seen so far your supreme court leaves a lot to be desired (e.g. their highly politically motivated appointments and lifetime membership) despite the fanatical devotion to what they have to say.
They most certainly do NOT get to redefine words to mean something completely tangential to their original meaning.
Because it undermines the democratic process and thus should be outlawed. QED. There are 100's of rules about what is and is not allowed when it comes to the democratic process (e.g. advertising) to stop it being undermined.
This obvious, insidious and blatant abuse of the democratic process should be
Before anybody even begins to stamp their foot and blubbering about being able to "do whatever they want" they will have to first conclusively argue how these "donations" are not hurting democracy and creating conflicts of interest.
You cannot make this argument because both the common sense and the evidence is the the contrary.
His statements are irrelevant and facetious.
The sacked employees will be treated like all other sacked employees across the board over the last few years: they will be left to "free market forces" to deal with.
(i.e. Nothing will be done.)
But assuming this discussion was not so:
Retraining is more complicated than just telling all the sheep to herd in one direction.
For example, how many tech jobs are in the same area as the coal mines and how many are able to relocate?
Tech qualifications are expensive and since there is no way the govt will be paying for them (that would be socialism!!) how many coal miners can afford it?
And of course how many want to sit in front of a computer being frustrated by somone else's shittily written code for 8-12 hours a day incl. weekends? (let's be honest folks, many programming jobs are like this)
But all that is irrelevant because, as I said, nothing significant will be done.
I have seen the term "free speech" used in a lost of stories lately and am horrified by the number of people who do not even understand the term. It appears that the term "free speech" is hijacked to mean whatever the hell the poster wants it to mean at the time.
It is truly staggering and I am at a loss as to why people make this huge mistake? It is honestly and very interesting social phenomenon to me.
Is this just an American thing? Has your schooling system and/or corporate media engrained some arbitrary and/or politically convenient (yet utterly incorrect) definition or something?
Freedom of Speech == right to convey almost any idea and opinion free of government interference. (with the exception of things like libel/slander/hate speech depending on the country)
How on EARTH is "donating" money to politicians ANYTHING to do with free speech?!
My god people: wake the fuck up. This is nothing more than legalised corruption. Plain and simple.
Regardless of whether or not you believe "donations" should be allowed (and all arguments I have seen to this end have been extremely weak) it has NOTHING to do with free speech and never has.
I am sorry have you actually listened to one? They are a waste of time.
You would be far better off making sure safety equipment is standardised across airlines (if not already) and clearly labelled and its purpose obvious. You can leave the cards in the seats as people are bored on planes and will usually read them at least once.
The information in those demonstrations is trivial and hardly helpful once put to the test. People will panic and that means that little boring sermon will mean almost nothing where it counts.(as always happens)
But of course authoritarians always see the solution to non-compliance as more enforcement, regardless of the evidence. Hence why they try to "enforce" the demonstration on everyone leading to people actively not listening in protest.
And it suffers from the old catch 22: The sort of person that is going to be an idiot during an emergency will be an idiot regardless - a boring safety message will not save them.
That was not my experience. The lack of memory absolutely thrashed the HD and killed the computer's usability.
I understand what you are saying and why you are saying it but I completely disagree.
With the standardised app installer/manager, linux actually has FAAARR more capability in it than windows.
Windows comes with about the same amount of stuff as linux on a standard desktop install. A more complete linux install would have free versions of popular apps which windows dose not come with.
NB: I am talking about apps that the standard user would use here, not admin apps.
And all of that is irrelevant because EVERY application they use (YMMV) on there has to be downloaded separately on both systems so effectively they are the same.
Same experience here.
Set up a "multimedia desktop" for my parents in their lounge. The desktop startup/response time of the OS is orders of magnitude faster than any other computer in our family and yet it is on the oldest and slowest hardware. Anything higher than windows XP ran like an absolute dog on this machine - in fact not really usable at all due to lack of memory etc.
Since it is only used for browsing and multimedia they don't even notice the subtle differences.
The fact that they are complete computer novices who would never try to tinker with any admin options actually works in their favour. Most of the apps use are essentially"platforms" in that the software works the same on both OS's.
Installation was also stupidly easy. The apps were free.
Pretty much the only "negative" was that I had to google some alternative apps for the ones I would use on windows as there was not a linux version - and that's just being picky.
This wont be the solution for everyone (due to app support etc) but I seriously suggest it to anyone with an XP machine that does not want to hope on the M$ upgrade train just for the sake of it.
I think this option will be overlooked by many due to historical difficulties - that PR baggage is hard to shake it seems.
You vastly overestimate the importance of a comment made by someone who cannot spell "quarter".... ...or posts on slashdot for that matter. (haw haw)
In a metaphorical way you are 100% correct despite the intended pun.
The original sin? The tree of knowledge. Satan Snaky apple Salesman's grand plan?
And what is the internet if not the metaphorical "tree of knowledge"?
What I find amusing about this in reality is that exposure to information/knowledge/points of view appears to be a cure for religion for many if not most people.
I find that somewhat what comforting. Perhaps there is some small hope for the human race after all?
Nahhh.....
The article and yourself simply have not been paying attention.
It is very simple, so please keep up.
The only problem the ruling class has with ANY of this is that the plebs became aware it was happening. The goal now is a combination of appeasing the plebs with empty action and/or stalling long enough for them to forget (about 3 mins for most) and go back to chewing their cud.
That is it. That is all there is too it. It is no surprise.
The other mistake here is assuming that they were as surprised as you at the revelation.
This is true.
Also if you let it in at all it will be subverted and taught as an "alternative" also.
But hey, just because it has no supporting evidence and is demonstratively false does not mean it will not be taught in US schools, right?
Double negative for the win!