Play Nice Random Chat Thread: Episode III

[Kangaroos4eva]

Hmong in Laos. Most of them died trying to get to Thailand.

Most people can rattle off at least a couple, which is a sad reflection of US foreign realpolitik.

 

[Val Keating]

I know the stuff going on in the Middle East is front and centre, but Ghislaine Maxwell still hasn’t been found. What are the chances she’ll never be seen again?

 

[Val Keating]

Groin guru whats up with asking me a question and ignoring my answer?

 

[ferball]

Just one last question. In various moments in our conversation you talked about social media, calling it 'the social industry'. Your latest book, The Twittering Machine, is about that. Why is it that you consider this such an important issue?

First of all, the reason I call it 'the social industry' is that, to call it social media is a kind of propaganda: all media are social. It is akin to calling cigarettes 'friendship sticks': they can be used that way, but that's not what they are for. They are a delivery mechanism for cancer, based on an addictive mechanism. And that's what we are talking about. The industry is based upon, obviously, the extraction of data, as its raw material, which is extracted by a certain amount of free labour. If you think about it, globally, the average internet user spend 135 minutes a day on one of this apps. This is a lot of time. Take the figures with a pinch of salt, but they illustrate the scale of this. If you were to calculate that over a lifetime, the global average life expectancy of 71 years, that would be around 50,000 hours. I was talking about the good life earlier, imagine the sort of project that you might embark on with 50,000 hours. This industry has turned leisure time into its time. They offer it as a tool, or as leisure, so that you don't even notice the work.

Its the last question on the page.

Whole thing is worth a read. Dunno much about the people involved.

 

[ferball]

*en LoL Thanks for all the coke back in the 80s Ed.

 

[Snake_Baker]

I have no doubt whatsoever that Royal Dutch Shell and Monsanto are shipping in these people.

 

[Val Keating]

 

[Val Keating]

I have no doubt whatsoever that Royal Dutch Shell and Monsanto are shipping in these people.

The cause has merit, but the rent a crowd types just undermine them. It’s ****ed how the talk is about the actual protestors not what they’re fighting for.

 

[ferball]

The cause has merit, but the rent a crowd types just undermine them. It’s the same as always how the talk is about the actual protestors not what they’re fighting for.

EFA

 

[ferball]

JFC

Netanyahu warns against Turkey's ethnic cleansing of 'gallant Kurds'; vows to assist

***

www.haaretz.com

 

[iSmack]

Russia's military intervention into the Syrian civil war was the overwhelming force behind defeating ISIS.

48,000 Russian troops stationed in Syria and over 71,000 air strikes.

Prior to Russia's intervention in 2015, land controlled by the Kurds was minute and insignificant with the majority of north-eastern Syria (which the Kurds completely now control), firmly in the hands of ISIS.

The Turkish operation will largely be aimed at weakening but not destroying the Kurds.

The Syrian and Russian operation on the other hand will be brutal. Now that they have mopped up ISIS, they will look to regain Syrian territory that the Kurds have controlled.

Welcome to the middle east. The land of 100 proxy wars...

 

[Snake_Baker]

It’s f’ed how the talk is about the actual protestors not what they’re fighting for.

It's a familiar theme.

The Labor Party, feminism, environmentalism, etc.

They aren't going anywhere until they clean house and rid themselves of the freak show.

 

[Snake_Baker]

 

[Snake_Baker]

Yep, we don't already have enough humanities fruit loops in the world, let's get some more.

 

[The Warlord]

I know the stuff going on in the Middle East is front and centre, but Ghislaine Maxwell still hasn’t been found. What are the chances she’ll never be seen again?

You know much about her old man?

If its possible to have shiftier character than her boyfriend, her old man was it.

 

[The Warlord]

Russia's military intervention into the Syrian civil war was the overwhelming force behind defeating ISIS.

48,000 Russian troops stationed in Syria and over 71,000 air strikes.

Prior to Russia's intervention in 2015, land controlled by the Kurds was minute and insignificant with the majority of north-eastern Syria (which the Kurds completely now control), firmly in the hands of ISIS.

The Turkish operation will largely be aimed at weakening but not destroying the Kurds.

The Syrian and Russian operation on the other hand will be brutal. Now that they have mopped up ISIS, they will look to regain Syrian territory that the Kurds have controlled.

Welcome to the middle east. The land of 100 proxy wars...

Hmmmm, the Russians didn't do much fighting against ISIS.

 

[The Warlord]

JFC

Netanyahu warns against Turkey's ethnic cleansing of 'gallant Kurds'; vows to assist

***

www.haaretz.com

Kurds and Israelis been allied for a long time.

Also dawning on Israel that if Trump will sell out the Kurds on a whim, he'll probably sell them out for an Iranian deal (the way they see it) too.

 

[The Warlord]

One of my best mates won a BAFTA for a movie that had only white people in it.

Though they were Irish, I wonder if that counts as ethnic diversity lol.

 

[Snake_Baker]

Though they were Irish, I wonder if that counts as ethnic diversity lol.

LOL, the Irish were the first (N word).

 

[The Warlord]

LOL, the Irish were the first fellows.

This kind of thing shits me to tears. I'm all for having more stories in the popular culture that reflect real life.

But all this means is that the poshos who write most British TV and film will just wedge in token characters to get an award.

Its about breaking down the structures that mean actual working class people can't access the means of cultural production.

 

[Snake_Baker]

Its about breaking down the structures that mean actual working class people can't access the means of cultural production.

You only have to look at the detritus populating the contemporary left to see that it's still going on.

 

[Shermanator]

Yep, we don't already have enough humanities fruit loops in the world, let's get some more.

I could be wrong here, but didn’t her husband make the billions she’s giving away?..

 

[Snake_Baker]

I could be wrong here, but didn’t her husband make the billions she’s giving away?..

Yes, but he put money towards curing Malaria in the third world which is an heroic gesture in a world where big pharma must dedicate itself to profits.

He needs to have some stern words with his missus.

 

[The Warlord]

You only have to look at the detritus populating the contemporary left to see that it's still going on.

I dunno, I reckon the issue is you don't get actual working class people, you get the very well off upper middle class who see themselves as "left" or "progressive" self-selecting and thus controlling what gets made.

I think we agree that it is they who are the detritus of the contemporary cultural left.

 

[The Warlord]

I could be wrong here, but didn’t her husband make the billions she’s giving away?..

She's nobody's fool and she did raise their kids.