#41
Post rating: +

Synergy posted:

There have been plenty of marketing campaigns based on partial or complete fabrications and it's hard for me to believe they don't know what they're doing on some level. Happy in the moment perhaps but I imagine they still wonder at times whether their actions are contributing to climate change.


When given a choice between self deception and admitting that you're a bad person, only the recklessly brave or the deeply depressed will choose the latter (guess which one tends to post here!) As the severity of the crimes and the deepness of the contradiction increases, the drive to self justify and hide from it keeps up the pace. It's easy.

It kind of reminds me of that balance corporate/government elites have to wield between promoting neoliberal propaganda and sharing accurate data about the world since they still need to be informed to make important decisions.


I think the doomed Clinton campaign, among other things, has demonstrated pretty well which way that balance tips when you put pressure on it.

#42
mt.real
Post rating: +

Synergy posted:

Happy in the moment perhaps but I imagine they still wonder at times whether their actions are contributing to climate change.

It kind of reminds me of that balance corporate/government elites have to wield between promoting neoliberal propaganda and sharing accurate data about the world since they still need to be informed to make important decisions.



you don't have to share the data. e.g. the conservative govt in canada (2006-2015) shut down a bunch of publication of climate data, and media conversations with any public scientists had to go through the prime minister's office (and were always denied). and that's a public organization. seems pretty unlikely that private megacorps like Shell don't have tons and tons and tons of private data on the future of the climate, both to predict markets and predict possible new extraction opportunities (in the arctic etc). it can be kept private under the pretense that it gives them a trading edge over other megacorps.

hell there are a ton of service companies in alberta whose only product is surveys and predicted yields and etc of the canadian north, provided to those companies privately.

#43
Post rating: +

swampman posted:

Aspie_Muslim_Economist_ posted:

I don't know that it's always been this way--my hunch is that things were different in the past--but contemporary capitalists really are sincerely committed to sustainability, corporate social responsibility, etc., while at the same time ruthlessly leveraging these tools of manipulation. There are no Straussian elites standing above the ideology--the elites are the ones who believe it most deeply. I'd go so far as to say that the ability to maintain this cognitive dissonance--to drink your own koolaid while retaining the ability to function as if you didn't--is one the most highly valued traits in the managerial class.

Well yeah it's always been this way, the phrases "white man's burden" and "manifest destiny" weren't written in cynicism. It's easy to maintain hypocrisy because the ideology is so amorphous - "sincerely committed to sustainability" means different things as needed. This view of social responsibility is what we expect from narcissists. Unflappable self-promoters, heroes of their own lives, of course the character they play would support Responsibility. Just a reminder that the sopranos was a really great tv show.
#44
Post rating: +
imo the primary function of ideology is to provide ways of thinking that translate into action towards some goal in a specific, comprehensible way. the reason consultants/experts/etc coming out of the top schools are so valuable to the bourgeoisie is that they provide ways of thinking for the ruling class that can convincingly serve this function, explaining what necessary things the bourgeoisie must do in order to maintain a stable cycle of capital (and their own reproduction, and with it the coherent reproduction of capitalist society). that is to say, people who study marketing are simultaneously learning how their niche is necessary for the reproduction of bourgeois society and how to perform that function effectively. ideally that comes in one coherent package, which is the goal of the various cadres of experts. this is also sort of how i understand the continuous cycle of pundits who make names of themselves serving this purpose until they inevitably become burdensome with their attachments to ideological elements that can no longer be understood to function in the way necessary for bourgeois social reproduction.
#45
Post rating: +
i think the best example of this is the current tack the dems are on. the primary goal of their blitz about russia and trump being "unfit" for the presidency is to convince the highest echelons of bourgeois society of these things and to convince them to act on it. regardless of whether or not they believe this is what they are doing, this is what they are doing in effect, more or less because the way they have to understand media and mass communication has to work in this way (that is, to lobby the most influential bourgeoisie) in order to be effective at accomplishing their goals.
#46
[account deactivated]
#47
Post rating: ~
Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era
#48
Post rating: +
Belt and Road update: was at a meeting with the UK's Chief Austerity Ginger from Cameron's cabinet today. After getting kicked out by SNP, Osborne got him a sinecure as the VP of the AIIB--China's answer to the Word Bank and ADB and the other prong of China's International trade and development agenda.

After seeing him try to sell an Asian audience on the AIIB, I've gotta say I'm not very optimistic about it. It's very much pitched as a WB for Asia or an ADB with China pulling the strings rather than Japan/US. He was specifically asked about how the AIIB would avoid the exploitation WB an IMF are known for and his answer was that they'll only do projects the host country approves (as opposed to what? lol) and that they'll follow regulations and have Good Governance(TM). No attempt to pitch the AIIB as a non-exploitative alternative.
#49
mt.real
Post rating: ~

Aspie_Muslim_Economist_ posted:

Belt and Road update: was at a meeting with the UK's Chief Austerity Ginger from Cameron's cabinet today. After getting kicked out by SNP, Osborne got him a sinecure as the VP of the AIIB--China's answer to the Word Bank and ADB and the other prong of China's International trade and development agenda.

After seeing him try to sell an Asian audience on the AIIB, I've gotta say I'm not very optimistic about it. It's very much pitched as a WB for Asia or an ADB with China pulling the strings rather than Japan/US. He was specifically asked about how the AIIB would avoid the exploitation WB an IMF are known for and his answer was that they'll only do projects the host country approves (as opposed to what? lol) and that they'll follow regulations and have Good Governance(TM). No attempt to pitch the AIIB as a non-exploitative alternative.


surprise!!!

#50
Post rating: +
Honestly, it was to me. There's widespread suspicion of development banks in the poor countries the AIIB wants to serve, so I expected him to at least pay lip service to non-exploitative lending. The actual goals of the AIIB are one thing, but pitching your product to your audience is just good business.

It wouldn't have cost him anything to say something like "previous development banks were created to serve developing countries, but were primarily governed by rich countries. Because of that, the interests of these banks sometimes diverged from the interests of their borrowers. The AIIB is the first development bank for and by developing countries. The countries with the largest ownership stakes in the AIIB have been on the receiving end of traditional development loans themselves, and are committed to replacing the old, sometimes antagonistic model of development lending with a new framework where borrowers and lenders collaborate as peers. An important part of our mandate is ensuring that we only provide loans when they're actually helpful, not whenever we can convince someone to accept them, and that they are in the public interest of the countries we work with, not just the interests of small interest groups."

The fact that the number two at the bank didn't make any such effort to assuage those concerns suggests these issues aren't even on their radar, which is pretty depressing.
#51
Black Belt
Post rating: +
if the pitchman isnt familiar with the concerns of his audience hes gonna whiff. probably shouldnt have hired a brit
#52
Post rating: +
https://docs.google.com/document/d/16iw83noTdWvDiECaITX83rGhP_lros8QdBTrNnCoe6c/mobilebasic
#53
mt.real
Post rating: +

JohnBeige posted:

if the pitchman isnt familiar with the concerns of his audience hes gonna whiff. probably shouldnt have hired a brit


these englishmen... won't even dress up the crushing of the working class in good, proven, liberal smarm!! what's the world coming to? where's justin trudeau when you need him

#54
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#55
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#56
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#57
Black Belt
Post rating: ~

drwhat posted:

JohnBeige posted:

if the pitchman isnt familiar with the concerns of his audience hes gonna whiff. probably shouldnt have hired a brit

these englishmen... won't even dress up the crushing of the working class in good, proven, liberal smarm!! what's the world coming to? where's justin trudeau when you need him



This is an awful hostile reading of the belt and road. it is opening up development in areas and that does introduce capitalists into the area, but these are largely going to be people under the lead of the communist party of china. a party with its own contradictions of course, but a party that does seem to be hopping back onto the communist road.

#58
Post rating: ~
i appreciated the own on justin trudeau.
#59
Post rating: +++++
tHE rHizzonE is wild about fighting oppression, building communism, and the emerging multilateral trade possibilities offered by China's One Belt and One Road Initiative, as evinced in its five key pillars of policy coordination, facilities connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial integration, and people-to-people bonds
#60
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I don't pretend to be an expert on the belt and road policy or china itself for that matter, but i think they're being pretty open about what they're trying to achieve and to me it seems Good. I am concerned about them jumping into bed with satan in the form of erik prince, but maybe this is the price that needs to be paid to keep the CIA on a leash in those "corridors".
#61
Post rating: +
they've been dealing with the devil for decades. i trust them not to make that kind of colossal error since they've gotten this far
#62
Post rating: +
the whole story of china's reform period is becoming indispensable to the world economy while developing in a way that builds its influence and sovereignty. maintaining good relationships with the worst countries on the planet is part of that compromise. if the end result of that strategy is a poverty-free china (on track by 2020, and more on the way to the prc centenary in 2049) i'd say the ends justify the means
#63
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i had a visceral reaction to the video in the op which is why i immediately thought of "kill the poor" by the dead kennedys. i heretofore apologize to China for my error.
#64
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soz
#65
Post rating: +
#66
Post rating: ~

xipe posted:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/16iw83noTdWvDiECaITX83rGhP_lros8QdBTrNnCoe6c/mobilebasic


Thanks!!!