I had a U.S. history high school teacher way, way, back in the 60’s. Yes I’m old. He talked at length about the growth of federalism here that started in the 1930s. He warned about the concentration of power as not a good thing. Great guy. He’s been gone for a while now but he’d shit his pants to see where we are today.
I am not sure why anyone would have a problem with protecting children from vaccine misinformation online, exposure to harmful and false views like sex is immutable, and hate speech that radicalizes them to believe that there isn’t a trans genocide happening and all white people aren’t racist…while meanwhile fighting tooth and nail to remove all limitations on their right to view, at any time and on any device, “gangbang Malaysian teen no legs” or— because we are old fashioned and erudite, some of us— the graphic novel version in our elementary school library that sensitively replaces the female in the video with a male to represent the marginalized homosexual community.
I agree with much of this except I think the ultimate locus of power is elsewhere; not so much the TIC as the TAMC (The Academia/Media Complex). Governments in the modern West have basically danced to its tune for 50 years and nowhere is this more true than in the UK with its especially weak-kneed 'Conservative Party'. https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/mrs-thatcher-and-the-good-life
But I think he’s in a bind with the EU’s DSA. If he openly disagrees with it, X either gets fined or thrown out of Europe. He had the same problem in Turkey
A warrior would tell them to fuck off. Trump would tell them to fuck off. They need big tech to be used and trusted by the people. If they banned twitter it might put a fire under people.
"Kvetching" has some utility -- most often in rallying the troops. But at some point you kind of have to "go over the parapets", so to speak. 😉🙂
Easier said than done of course, and it's not easy to "find a place to stand" -- as Archimedes noted some 2500 years ago. Though in your case one might suggest, at least as a start, rattling the cages of those supposedly in charge at the Northumberland Police department.
And, not to toot my own horn (much) but only to say I'm not suggesting anything I wouldn't do and haven't done myself, see my submission to Statistics Canada on their rather cretinous gender policies:
Linked in my "Statistics Departments Corrupted by Gender Ideology" post if you wanted some background and information on similar cases, including Britain's and New Zealand's:
I don’t know why people get fooled over and over. I never trusted Elon and Twitter and just look at him. He’s no champion. We will see.... him turn into a bigger git as the months draw on to election time. It’s like Ron Desantermonius. He’s such a slime ball Rhino and people fell for him hook line and stinker
I think in the long run he'll turn out to have a net benefit for humanity, it's just going to be a bumpy road and not clear yet exactly how we'll get from here to there.
Yep. Mind control. But what frustrates in the films is that Theoden is shown as being released from possession whereas in the book he is persuaded, spellbound into a sad state by Wormtongue's no doubt Saruman inspired words and released by Gandalf's clearing of his mind. It's more interesting than the film portrays.
The other thing missing, sadly, is the Scouring Of The Shire at the end where a few bullies with clubs have cowed the docile population. This uplifting resolution, inspiring the hobbits to fight back and win, shaking off their servitude, again freeing their minds, is essential to the whole piece, not an add-on.
"And maybe sometimes they deliberately make things go wonky in order to establish more severe control." Here you have summed up the entire covid situation in one sentence. Remains to be seen if it will work a second time.
What, you mean The Eagles aren't a metaphor for the US saving the brave english yeomen from the Kaiser?
Or if one prefers a semi-modern take; Sauron as Hitler and orcs as germans.
Or the post-modern take: orcs are negros and Sauron is the white man's fear of the teeming hordes of Africa, or something like that.
(I guess Ungoliant and Shelob and the Mirkwood spiders are different waves of feminism?)
Consider Glaurung, father of dragons: his power was in his voice, and his goal was that of his master and maker Morgoth Bauglir: perverting the natural course of things, family in particular.
My pick of a Tolkien tale, if one seek inspiration, is Beren and Luthien's.
For love they went into the Shadow, before the very throne of evil.
(Still can't read it without misting up when Huan dies.)
Rikard, if you haven't heard of the Eagle Squadrons (WWII RAF volunteers from N America early in the war, flying for the Brits), you should look them up. I think you would find them an apt allegory for Tolkien's eagles.
On another note:
The Beren and Luthien story is one of my favorites as well.
And Huan ... such a noble and long-suffering creature. Huan is to hounds as Shadowfax is to steeds.
Will do - I was shooting for the well-known yet strangely often ignored fact (ignored by present-day lit-majors of the liberal arts variety, that is) that what we call a definite metaphor, simile, analogy, what have you for something or other in an older work is more often than not us ourselves ascribing things not put there by the author.
Sometimes, metaphor can be obvious and intended and proven so by the author's own words (Lewis' 'Narnia'-suite f.e.), sometimes it's the modern reader seeing things that just aren't there (imagine if you will a feminist/freudian analysis of Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness'...).
I mean, if we wanted to, we could make an argument for why Luke Skywalker flying his X-wing against the Death Star is a pastiche on Eärendil going up against Ancalagon the Black... :)
Thank you. Neither here or there, but I'm thinking that maybe we'll see more fine tuned sarcasm (?) I have no idea if and how AI is able to deal with it. Kind of (prob wrongly) think it wouldn't be easy, either when sarcasm is spoken or written, since even some humans have difficulties to understand it.
I had a U.S. history high school teacher way, way, back in the 60’s. Yes I’m old. He talked at length about the growth of federalism here that started in the 1930s. He warned about the concentration of power as not a good thing. Great guy. He’s been gone for a while now but he’d shit his pants to see where we are today.
I am not sure why anyone would have a problem with protecting children from vaccine misinformation online, exposure to harmful and false views like sex is immutable, and hate speech that radicalizes them to believe that there isn’t a trans genocide happening and all white people aren’t racist…while meanwhile fighting tooth and nail to remove all limitations on their right to view, at any time and on any device, “gangbang Malaysian teen no legs” or— because we are old fashioned and erudite, some of us— the graphic novel version in our elementary school library that sensitively replaces the female in the video with a male to represent the marginalized homosexual community.
I know you're being entirely sarcastic here, Diana, but I fear some readers may not know you well enough to get it.
I don't know Diana, but I got it just fine. LoL and just posted comment about sarcasm 😅
I agree with much of this except I think the ultimate locus of power is elsewhere; not so much the TIC as the TAMC (The Academia/Media Complex). Governments in the modern West have basically danced to its tune for 50 years and nowhere is this more true than in the UK with its especially weak-kneed 'Conservative Party'. https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/mrs-thatcher-and-the-good-life
Nice analogy....thank you.
I think our present time is the LOTR...I think Tolkein saw far
farther than he admitted.
But I think he’s in a bind with the EU’s DSA. If he openly disagrees with it, X either gets fined or thrown out of Europe. He had the same problem in Turkey
A warrior would tell them to fuck off. Trump would tell them to fuck off. They need big tech to be used and trusted by the people. If they banned twitter it might put a fire under people.
"Kvetching" has some utility -- most often in rallying the troops. But at some point you kind of have to "go over the parapets", so to speak. 😉🙂
Easier said than done of course, and it's not easy to "find a place to stand" -- as Archimedes noted some 2500 years ago. Though in your case one might suggest, at least as a start, rattling the cages of those supposedly in charge at the Northumberland Police department.
And, not to toot my own horn (much) but only to say I'm not suggesting anything I wouldn't do and haven't done myself, see my submission to Statistics Canada on their rather cretinous gender policies:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kRIpfkx0sq8y0nC7HBK6GyMiI_SUv_zv/view?pli=1
Linked in my "Statistics Departments Corrupted by Gender Ideology" post if you wanted some background and information on similar cases, including Britain's and New Zealand's:
https://humanuseofhumanbeings.substack.com/p/statistics-departments-corrupted
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good [people] to do nothing. Edmund Burke"
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/edmund_burke_377528
Don’t give up on Elon just yet
He may be more Slinker than Stinker part of the time, but I don’t think freedom of speech is all that preciousss to either of them.
I don’t know why people get fooled over and over. I never trusted Elon and Twitter and just look at him. He’s no champion. We will see.... him turn into a bigger git as the months draw on to election time. It’s like Ron Desantermonius. He’s such a slime ball Rhino and people fell for him hook line and stinker
I think in the long run he'll turn out to have a net benefit for humanity, it's just going to be a bumpy road and not clear yet exactly how we'll get from here to there.
Yep. Mind control. But what frustrates in the films is that Theoden is shown as being released from possession whereas in the book he is persuaded, spellbound into a sad state by Wormtongue's no doubt Saruman inspired words and released by Gandalf's clearing of his mind. It's more interesting than the film portrays.
The other thing missing, sadly, is the Scouring Of The Shire at the end where a few bullies with clubs have cowed the docile population. This uplifting resolution, inspiring the hobbits to fight back and win, shaking off their servitude, again freeing their minds, is essential to the whole piece, not an add-on.
"And maybe sometimes they deliberately make things go wonky in order to establish more severe control." Here you have summed up the entire covid situation in one sentence. Remains to be seen if it will work a second time.
What, you mean The Eagles aren't a metaphor for the US saving the brave english yeomen from the Kaiser?
Or if one prefers a semi-modern take; Sauron as Hitler and orcs as germans.
Or the post-modern take: orcs are negros and Sauron is the white man's fear of the teeming hordes of Africa, or something like that.
(I guess Ungoliant and Shelob and the Mirkwood spiders are different waves of feminism?)
Consider Glaurung, father of dragons: his power was in his voice, and his goal was that of his master and maker Morgoth Bauglir: perverting the natural course of things, family in particular.
My pick of a Tolkien tale, if one seek inspiration, is Beren and Luthien's.
For love they went into the Shadow, before the very throne of evil.
(Still can't read it without misting up when Huan dies.)
Rikard, if you haven't heard of the Eagle Squadrons (WWII RAF volunteers from N America early in the war, flying for the Brits), you should look them up. I think you would find them an apt allegory for Tolkien's eagles.
On another note:
The Beren and Luthien story is one of my favorites as well.
And Huan ... such a noble and long-suffering creature. Huan is to hounds as Shadowfax is to steeds.
Will do - I was shooting for the well-known yet strangely often ignored fact (ignored by present-day lit-majors of the liberal arts variety, that is) that what we call a definite metaphor, simile, analogy, what have you for something or other in an older work is more often than not us ourselves ascribing things not put there by the author.
Sometimes, metaphor can be obvious and intended and proven so by the author's own words (Lewis' 'Narnia'-suite f.e.), sometimes it's the modern reader seeing things that just aren't there (imagine if you will a feminist/freudian analysis of Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness'...).
I mean, if we wanted to, we could make an argument for why Luke Skywalker flying his X-wing against the Death Star is a pastiche on Eärendil going up against Ancalagon the Black... :)
Thank you. Neither here or there, but I'm thinking that maybe we'll see more fine tuned sarcasm (?) I have no idea if and how AI is able to deal with it. Kind of (prob wrongly) think it wouldn't be easy, either when sarcasm is spoken or written, since even some humans have difficulties to understand it.