All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[Tendrin]

When Experts and Evidence are so reviled it's hard to prove when Lies and Misinformation are spread, and I wonder who benefits the most from that? Could it be the people who proudly champion the right to lie with no consequences and commit violence on those they disagree with?

What an excellent question! Definitely not the guy who's already expressed his lack of issue with political violence on this very board.

[Dalak]

What an excellent question! Definitely not the guy who's already expressed his lack of issue with political violence on this very board.

Well for someone advocating violence, choosing to engage in it is far easier as long as they can lie and thus escape consequences afterwards. People who are the biggest liars and/or bullies are the ones that do their best to avoid any and all responsibility for the negative things in their life (Especially the ones they cause) regardless of the mental gymnastics it takes. They also seem to respect those who can get away with these things with impunity as they must be 'better' because of it, which in-part explains the sick fascination with Trump.

[Xheight]

When Experts and Evidence are so reviled it's hard to prove when Lies and Misinformation are spread, and I wonder who benefits the most from that? Could it be the people who proudly champion the right to lie with no consequences and commit violence on those they disagree with?

You should really look into that book I recommended to Tina about The Revolt of the Public - Authority and Authoritarian is what you are favoring. We live in an information age while you are grasping for a begone era of newspapers.

The thesis of The Revolt of the Public is that traditional centralized powers are losing — have lost — authority, in large part because of the demystifying effect of the Internet. The information explosion undermined the elite monopoly on truth, exposing long-concealed flaws. Many analysts had noted the disruptive power of the Internet, but what made Gurri unique is that he also predicted with depressingly humorous accuracy how traditional hierarchies would respond to this challenge: in a delusional, ham-fisted, authoritarian manner that would only confirm the worst suspicions of the public, accelerating the inevitable throw-the-bums-out campaigns. This assessment of the motive for rising public intransigence was not exactly welcomed, but either way, as Kling wrote, “Martin Gurri saw it coming.”

Gurri also noted that public revolts would likely arrive unattached to coherent plans, pushing society into interminable cycles of zero-sum clashes between myopic authorities and their increasingly furious subjects. He called this a “paralysis of distrust,” where outsiders can “neutralize but not replace the center” and “networks can protest and overthrow, but never govern.” With a nod to Yeats, Gurri summed up: “The center cannot hold, and the border has no clue what to do about it.”

The Revolt of the Public became a cult classic in the Trump years for a variety of reasons, resonating with audiences spanning the political spectrum, from left to right to in between, everywhere except the traditional media consensus. It describes a basic problem of authority in the digital age and for that reason will continue to have relevance into the future. But its most striking feature is how completely it nailed the coming Trump era.

https://taibbi.substack.com/p/the-pr...-trump-era-255

What is funny is watching that play out with some kind of phony psychologizing of the enemies of authority. Why not just come out and say that people should just know who their betters are and follow.

[Xheight]

What an excellent question! Definitely not the guy who's already expressed his lack of issue with political violence on this very board.

At the outset, it’s worth dealing with the objection that political violence is always wrong. This is almost certainly incorrect. It’s useful to think of a distinction Hannah Arendt made between legitimacy and justification. Violence can never be legitimate – it cannot be intrinsically right – but it can be justified. If we are committed to a present state of affairs – such as the enfranchisement of women – then we cannot completely dismiss the way that that state of affairs was brought about. The difficulty is in determining the “ends” that justify violence and whether those ends can be attained. It’s a near impossible task to weigh the consequences of violence after the fact, let alone beforehand and, as Arendt added, the further the ends recede into the future, the less justified violence becomes.

https://***************.com/is-throw...lls-us-117627/

Defrauding the Election of the President may be just such a justification

[Dalak]

And we have a troll literally advocating that the ends justify the means in regards to violence on the board now.

[Gray Lensman]

And we have a troll literally advocating that the ends justify the means in regards to violence on the board now.

Eventually the only way to force others to accept a fantasy as reality is through the threat of violence.

[Tami]

And we have a troll literally advocating that the ends justify the means in regards to violence on the board now.

Trolls show up in the most unexpected places.

[Xheight]

And we have a troll literally advocating that the ends justify the means in regards to violence on the board now.

Troll? Violence is entirely a debatable point - A friend of mine whose kid goes to a Quaker School told me his Kids could not go to Halloween as Superheroes because they resolved conflict through violence. Justification is the center of direct action

https://thehill.com/policy/national-...e-is-necessary

[Xheight]

Trolls show up in the most unexpected places.

A comic book message board that deals with fictional violence is not a place to discuss political violence? Did you read Marvel's Civil War?

http://dadofdivas-reviews.blogspot.c...ro-ethics.html
https://www.comicsprofessor.com/2018...xt-spring.html

[Dalak]

Eventually the only way to force others to accept a fantasy as reality is through the threat of violence.

That's the world we live in today, with these sorts emboldened and empowered to be their worst selves.

Trolls show up in the most unexpected places.

Yup, spotting them isn't hard. They give themselves away with every post.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

https://***************.com/is-throw...lls-us-117627/

Defrauding the Election of the President may be just such a justification

Advocating violence, based on a flat out LIE told by a mentally unbalanced sociopath too consumed by his bloated ego to ever accept any sort of defeat. Alrighty then. Tell me something, and be honest (if possible), do you REALLY believe all the nonsense you spew? With each new post, you reveal yourself as being just as demented as all the other right wing trolls who shamelessly prostrate themselves at the altar of Donald Trump.

[Kirby101]

[Xheight]

That's the world we live in today, with these sorts emboldened and empowered to be their worst selves.

Yup, spotting them isn't hard. They give themselves away with every post.

Better than thou dodge you mean - political violence is still the open question. Harassment of Officials Okay, punching skinheads, hitting someone with a Skateboard?

[babyblob]

Trolls show up in the most unexpected places.

Its almost as if he is feeding on the attention he gets.

[Panfoot]

Remember, just don't look