getfiscal posted:

one thing that really surprised me about being involved in politics was that people's opinions on stuff was mostly random. and most people just repeat sound bytes from television and such to make conversation. it's not really political even, it's just like pleasant conversation and a hobby. and this goes even to most members of a party. it's only the staffers that are hyper-aware of little deviations of narrative, and usually because it's like office politics to them, they see their colleagues fucking up or attacking each other through slight changes in voice.

anyway like... i'd talk to liberal party members who were old professionals and they'd be like yeah i hate bush, he detonated those buildings in new york to hide evidence of the bankers controlling the world... or they'd be in a party for like demographic reasons or something and be like... 'yeah i'm a conservative christian... it's a crying shame that seniors get so little money... we need to really expand pensions...' and you'd sort of notice they held policy positions on every single issue contrary to the party but they'd never think of leaving because they are a "conservative".

this is also why most politicians are so bland today i think and talk about being "beyond ideology"... things are so depoliticized and try to suppress class talk so much that politicians feel safe by selling themselves as a sort of generic representative that is good at their job regardless if you agree with them on policy issues. like staffers know they get way more traction and potential for agreement when they say something like "harper is corrupt" instead of like "harper is wrong to cut taxes".

i think one of the good things of like bernie's campaign is that he offers people those sort of simple soundbytes they can use with their friends or at work, like people can say oh yeah the system is rigged or Wall Street are a bunch of crooks. a lot of them probably say stuff like that all the time anyway. and it's good that people can be like yeah that guy is saying true things. i don't know if that's actually how radical left should work though, because it's still in this very limited representative way where you're like hey if bernie wins then things might get better, and the way to help is to help bernie. i don't think that produces the sort of results they'd want.

one thing that always bothers me is that everyone's opinion is a bland carbon copy of something they read, to the point where they'll just repeat the same things over and over again (because it's ethical or whatever to their politics I guess?). like I'll go into a room and a person will just go off and I'll be like, your read that in Salon don't even play like you those are your own thoughts. or on Facebook it's something dull about the oscars or whatever. i guess that's what most middle class lefty type people tend to do and it's kind of insane. but theyre a person not a PR outfit, so why not be your own weird person not the mouthpiece of a politics that barely exists and even when it does it's only a resume point for some joke of an essay writer?

animedad posted:

one thing that always bothers me is that everyone's opinion is a bland carbon copy of something they read, to the point where they'll just repeat the same things over and over again (because it's ethical or whatever to their politics I guess?). like I'll go into a room and a person will just go off and I'll be like, your read that in Salon don't even play like you those are your own thoughts. or on Facebook it's something dull about the oscars or whatever. i guess that's what most middle class lefty type people tend to do and it's kind of insane. but theyre a person not a PR outfit, so why not be your own weird person not the mouthpiece of a politics that barely exists and even when it does it's only a resume point for some joke of an essay writer?

because consuming quick and disposable quasi-left-wing-media at work doesn't make yu feel as guilty as playing flash games or watching tpaine's youtubes.

tpaine posted:

i'm dead fucking serious, no one has any kind of original thought process or even the ability to synthesize the information they take in because no one is ever taught to be their own person and to create their own worldview. it's true of most people here, even. just regurgitate a bunch of sources or dismissively tell someone to read this author or that one or get all huffy and act like you aren't privy to some kind of knowledge that, of course, everyone else regards as old news. everyone everywhere is undeserving of life because you non-people don't even know how to basically live it.

what's the alternative? even if you have a thought that's original to you and your experience it's not like someone else hasn't already had it. it might be a personal failing but it might just be a consequence of livig on a planet with 6 billion people. goes without sayin but what you're saying here sure as fuck doesn't escape that

tpaine posted:

what i'm saying is people here are the same as the average moron, they just happened upon the right information. but neither one can actually think for themselves

Maybe the limits of human expression make it hard to distinguish real individuality without actually becoming intimate with individuals, individually, in real life. Although what do I know, you're the one with the doctorate in facile misanthropy of the late 90s. You don't know how many endlessly unique, cowardly, greedy miserable mice are trapped behind those sweating propaganda mimicking office drones in their sweaty office livery.

Edited by swampman (Jan. 23, 2016 16:41:08)

tpaine posted:

thirdplace posted:

tpaine posted:

i'm dead fucking serious, no one has any kind of original thought process or even the ability to synthesize the information they take in because no one is ever taught to be their own person and to create their own worldview. it's true of most people here, even. just regurgitate a bunch of sources or dismissively tell someone to read this author or that one or get all huffy and act like you aren't privy to some kind of knowledge that, of course, everyone else regards as old news. everyone everywhere is undeserving of life because you non-people don't even know how to basically live it.

what's the alternative? even if you have a thought that's original to you and your experience it's not like someone else hasn't already had it. it might be a personal failing but it might just be a consequence of livig on a planet with 6 billion people. goes without sayin but what you're saying here sure as fuck doesn't escape that

yo, let me explode your brain for a second.

you can have an original thought even if it's been thought before if you come up with it yourself, independently of the previous thinker. simultaneously using your human brain to come up with a truth is better because it's evidence that such a thing should be obvious to everyone (that communism is correct) but has been thwarted by external factors (the capitalist system we're all born into). i'm not holding people to some insane standard, just asking that they think for themselves once in a awhile. but we can't even do that, and we're making this planet unlivable for everyone, rather than just for the third world. we're too stupid to even save ourselves when the answer is right in front of us. good riddance

haha just kidding.

did anyone read this though? can you summarize?

my friend who also teaches philosophy at the local community college keeps saying its literally about huffing farts i just want a second opinion

tpaine posted:

religion is the big one here but generally anything a marginalized group tends to favor, even if it's idiotic in the extreme and counter-revolutionary, will be defended in a really smarmy way.

Besides "the big one" which I dont recall anyone defending around here since 2014, can you give some examples of the smarmy defense of counter revolutionary something that is rife in this our bbs

tsinava posted:

did anyone read this though? can you summarize?

my friend who also teaches philosophy at the local community college keeps saying its literally about huffing farts i just want a second opinion

Some of it a while ago. The only thing that really draws me to it is that it seems to describe the influence of neoclassical economic theory on policy really well. After a certain point it just becomes representations without any reference to reality creating an artificial reality that becomes more real than reality itself if that makes any sense

tpaine posted:

which mst3k should i watch today

The one where they do a sketch that hilariously implies that somebody is gay or that communism is not the answer

tpaine posted:

to say nothing of the average american, a beast so far removed from what even the most generous of you would describe as intelligent that making a meaningful emotional or intellectual connection is essentially impossible. everyday it's like talking to cats. you go through the motions and sometimes you get a little head tilt or a seemingly approving meow or mlep if she's in the bath and partially submerged but overall there's nothing behind those eyes that's cogent or coherent. i mean, easily 90% of people are lucky to string together a worthy thought once a decade, and it's true that this isn't entirely their fault and we're all born into slavery, but it's not a lot to ask for someone to have occasional fealty to the truth

this is unfair to cats