Opinion Insults / Modding / Free speech / etc / etc

[76woodenspooners]

I just despair sometimes

Haha, that’s a creative way of answering the question

Being an ideologue (of any colour) generally leads to despair

 

[Baltimore Jack]

Haha, that’s a creative way of answering the question

Being an ideologue (or any colour) generally leads to despair

Hey, I'm still coming to terms with Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito running democratic governments, its going to take me some time to get my head around that

 

[76woodenspooners]

Hey, I'm still coming to terms with Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito running democratic governments, its going to take me some time to get my head around that

Hitler was democratically elected. Mussolini and Hirohito were not.

 

[Baltimore Jack]

Hitler was democratically elected. Mussolini and Hirohito were not.

But you said WW2 was a war between democratically elected governments....you did say that didn't you?

 

[Baltimore Jack]

 

[ZEV]

IS that the results from the 32 or 33 election?

 

[BringouttheGimp]

Gimp to the rescue again.

We're not living in a democracy.. it's an oligarchy re.. we elect cobs into parliament.. they then have the power to make the decisions. Ancient Greek Democracy is the only purest form of democracy.. yes they elected cobs.. generals and s**t.. but citizens voted on most things.. majority rule.. law passed re.

Glad to help.

 

[Scritchyscroony]

This is your interpretation of Orwell's book, and a perfectly reasonable one; however, Orwell viewed himself as a socialist and claims he wrote it as a criticism of Soviet Politics. He didn't intend it to suggest it was inevitable for all forms of Government.

When comprehending texts, we all bring a lot of meaning from our own experiences and attitudes. Our meaning isn't wrong, we own the text just as much as the original author and it's meaning to us may be very different than what was originally sent. The big issue with the PC debate is the refusal to acknowledge that one interpretation isn't the only interpretation and when our interpretation is a negative one, we as a society have started to assume sinister intent without giving the benefit of the doubt.

Having said that, the Herald Sun's decision to reprint that cartoon was appalling. It was made very clear to them why it caused offense. They should have apologised for the offense that it caused and Knight should have redrawn the cartoon, taking out the elements that were racially offensive and made it simply about Serena's behaviour. That's what they should have printed. It would have still caused a massive stir, but it would have been coming from a defensible perspective. Meanwhile Serena should have simply apologised for being abusive and offensive towards the umpire and making personal allegations that assume guilt when there is no evidence to support Ramos's guilt. Unfortunately though, both sides want to be 100% right and continue to argue their entitlement to be offensive and abusive.

That's my final 20 cents on the topic.

That was a direct statement from Orwell. It was not my personal interpretation of the meaning of Animal Farm; which was just one part of his body of work on political philosophy. Animal farm was not about just the Russian revolution; but also the French revolution and Cromwell, Spanish civil war, rise of fascism etc etc. It was about what happens with revolutions per se... the psychology of it, the mechanics of it and the inevitable patterns they all seem to take.

Orwell was a very committed communist for good chunk of his life and fought for the Communists in the Spanish civil war. Orwell loathed our capitalist democracies and saw them as sham facades controlled by and serving the interests of the rich and privileged. He became embittered with communism through his direct experience in the mechanics of how it interacts with human nature in the real world; in the same way he had become embittered with capitalist democracy.

Orwell did not, as cold war tainted interpretations like to lend, have any particular grievance with communism/marxism as a political and social basis...In fact he much preferred it to capitalism. He was really just pointing out the inevitability of it's failure due to human nature. Similar misinterpretation is given to 1984. It was not just a vision of a future under Soviet systems; it applied to capitalism and national socialism. During ww2 Orwell worked for British propaganda. That is where he got much of the insight into how governments control and manipulate populations and how they understand and use targeted group psychology... so insights he gave us in 1984 came from his experience in the inner workings of a capitalist democracy... the oldest and finest no less.

I agree with the bolded paragraph. Political debate is at an all time low point imv. With that in mind......... sorry I really can't give a flying F*Ck about commenting on the appropriateness of the size of Serena Williams lips in a newspaper cartoon.

 

[Chameleon75]

I cringe when I hear footballers refer to matches as war, but sometimes there’s some truth.

Enter the 1969 football wars.

For the upcoming World Cup Honduras and El Salvador played a series of qualifiers. The first match Honduras won 1-0, resulting in your standard soccer hooliganism, but the second match won by El Salvador 3-0 resulted in riots lasting 10 days driving out 12,000 Salvadorans from Honduras.

Of course there were underlying issues, Honduras was predominantly owned by multinationals and large corporations. The United Fruit Company rallied other large landholders to form an industry association to lobby government. The Honduras government then implemented land reforms to drive off peasants from land claimed by the corporates irrespective of ownership claims. With 20% of the peasantry being Salvadoran the rioters were effectively implementing the land reforms for them and the government sat back and let it unfold.

In response El Salvador withdrew from the remaining match and invaded Honduras a few days later. The war only lasted 100 hours and El Salvador eventually withdrew, but in that time 3,000 people were killed and 300,000 Salvadorans displaced.

Many of the displaced settled in El Salvador, both the internally displaced and refugees from Honduras received no assistance from the El Salvador government leading to tensions that contributed to the bloody 12 year civil war.

Only can a soccer match spark a war, ethnic cleansing and regional destabilisation.

So next time I hear a soccer player saying they’re going to war, I might take them a little more seriously.

 

[76woodenspooners]

But you said WW2 was a war between democratically elected governments....you did say that didn't you?

Indeed I did, and apologies, I should have been specific and mentioned the war in Europe.

If you want to be pedantic and claim that Italy under Mussolini was something more than a bumbling casting extra in the war in Europe, then I’m not going to argue with you.

 

[deltablues]

Danke

Bitte schön.

 

[deltablues]

Hitler was democratically elected, but Germany wasn’t that much of a democracy under him.

Democracy can lead to mob rule, which is one reason why the USA is a Constitutional Republic.

So far...

 

[deltablues]

Get your eyes checked. I have had both of mine done recently, work well.

Blonde tips are blond tips and do not signify blonde hair, you should try it might suit you.
View attachment 558342

I saw the snap of that shot taken from the back, which showed all blonde from that angle.

But from your shot she's [on game day, which was my point] not 100% blonde, so call it deuce.

PS I was born with white hair and still have it - blond tips might not suit. But for the finals maybe black tips. The old black and white...

 

[deltablues]

Maybe that is what you would like to think, but I don't see the caricature as ape-like but rather an exaggeration of her natural features, particularly when she totally loses her cool as she did on this occasion.

Perhaps a case of Art imitating Life, as it were...

 

[deltablues]

Labor did not support the second Iraq war. There was a long debate in the parliament (for show) that was split down party lines.

1 Million Australian citizens (around 5% of the total population) marched in heavy opposition to Australia’s participation before war started. That was probably the largest act of civil opposition our democracy has ever engaged in. And that was even before we knew the WMD thing was a total furphy.

Sure, it made no difference, Howard went to war anyway ... but our government was behaving more like a totalitarian regime and acting against the will of its people.

At a macro level I think it was more to do with Realpolitik, being seen to support the USA [as did Australia England before swapping horses].

Before, during and after Desert Storm 1, 1 was living in the M/E [Kuwait and Abu Dhabi], and had Saddam stopped at Kuwait chances are he could have kept it. But as soon as he tried to cross into Saudi he was toast. Saudi was/is too strategic for the USA.

But Desert Storm 2 was different, and as a result we have a tripartite shambles. Similarly Libya, where I lived for 3 years pre-Ghaddafi murder and which was a stable, relatively secular country with the highest standard of living in Africa - including South Africa.

The neo-cons have a lot to answer for. Which is one reason many folk voted for Trump - to keep us out of wars.