Off Topic Thread 5.0

stephen_n

Wonder did Jaco get a job writing for WWN.

jacothelad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118929653#Comment_118929653

That article is being far too nice and forgiving with regard to the putrid wankspangle. I'm surprised Clowning Street hasn't vomited him and the mini gargoyle Sunak into the nearest sewer in shame. Sunak was part of the hedge fund cartel that precipitated the 2008 crash while rewarding themselves with £100,000,000 in brown envelopes.

“Rishi Sunak was part of a small team of hedge fund bosses who shared nearly £100m after an audacious stock market bet that lit the touchpaper on the 2008 financial crisis.” Sunday Times

Johnson is an immoral, unethical bag of septic haemorrhoids but Sunak is a disgusting, pusladen wartweasle with absolute contempt for the rest of humanity. How many thousands of businesses did they destroy? How many people killed themselves over it? How many homes were lost over it? To describe the perpetrators of the crash as vermin does an injustice to vermin.

"Tell me Rishi, what first attracted you to your billionaire wife."

Dave_The_Sheep

No, Jaco, there's a war on - haven't you noticed? He's in the clear now. He's basically Churchill Mk II.

jacothelad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118930309#Comment_118930309

Churchill would have made good use of Johnson, lying on the floor with his mouth open to perform as a spitoon for all the phlegm and mucus Winston hawked up from his cigars and whiskey swilling activity.

Dave_The_Sheep

Whilst the image is ... colourful, it doesn't change that the **** has gotten a huge boost from it. He'll likely survive party-gate as as result. That's England for you though, they get to feel good about something (sending arms and expertise to Ukraine, even if most of it is bluster) for once thus Johnson will milk it for all it's worth.

jacothelad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118930364#Comment_118930364

Yes. It's shameful. Just don't get why people can't see him and the rest for what they are.

stephen_n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118930431#Comment_118930431

I think on the whole, people can see them for what they are. It’s just easier to accept that, than risk the unknown. “I’m not happy with how things are but what if the alternative is worse”.

hold my beer

The new Immigration policy of send them all to Rwanda is laughable. Shocking how these imbeciles got into power.

pickarooney

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118930715#Comment_118930715

If only France would think that way

stephen_n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118930838#Comment_118930838

French seem to love uncertainty and chaos lol

OldRio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118930792#Comment_118930792

Have a read about an idea Germany had about Madagascar in 1940. Inspiration to BJ.

Not to drift overly into politics but that Mail on Sunday article for anyone who has been following the news, appalling stuff, they really have absolutely no standards whatsoever.

kuang1

Musk buys twitter.

I'm a fan of his have to say. Interesting times ahead to say the least. If he's true to his word re: transparency etc, could be a v good thing.

Neil3030

I see people are rejoicing online like it's Robben Island in 1990. All because Twitter banned them from <checks notes> saying mean things to the transgender community?

Interested Observer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118977088#Comment_118977088

Personally I don't see how making Twitter even more of a free-for-all can result in anything good.

Podge_irl

Yeah, Twitter for all its faults, didn't ever really ban people for political opinions it didn't like etc. It banned people for being abusive assholes (for the most part at least, none of these things is perfect).

I suspect not much will change in reality. Many platforms have been launched with the concept of "absolute free speech" and none of them have worked for various reasons.

aloooof

Wonder will Trump be back...

kuang1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118977926#Comment_118977926

I expect he will despite the fact that he's hitched himself to his own platform. Which has been an absolute unfunctioning joke since its launch.

I'm reminded of this:

https://youtu.be/nOBtqhR91A8

Dave_The_Sheep

I also wouldn't trust a word out of Musk's mouth.

RichieRich_89

If the pro-censorship types don't like it couldn't they go and set up their own platform?

kuang1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118978073#Comment_118978073

Genuinely curious... Why?

Former Former Former

This is not going to result in anything good. I don't think "free speech" and "being able to say absolutely anything" are the same thing but it looks like the latter is what Musk is aiming for.

More hatred, more division, more extremism. These are the last days of liberal democracy.

Big fan of Tesla, big fan of space ex and enjoyed their recent documentary on netflix.

Not a fan of twitter, don't engage with it but I think it brings out the inner dickhead in a lot of people.

Don't know how I feel about censorship on the platform. I think stupidity, mendacity and mean spiritedness are infectious and the likes of twitter are the perfect delivery system for the masses. I think the standard of public representative is in extreme decline and whilst I'm not ready to call the decline of liberal democracy - I do think the brakes have been hit on progressive thinking and if you aren't moving forward you are going backwards as they say.

I think it's sad that people draw foolish political alignments over trivial issues blown out of proportion on the likes of twitter. I think it's sad that clear cut issues are muddied by vested interests using platforms like twitter to spread misinformation.

I've little interest in Musk's takeover as I don't use the platform, albeit if social media continues to undermine progress I guess we'll all have agency.

pickarooney

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118978338#Comment_118978338

First one was a typo - fixed.

Dubinusa

No fb or Twitter. No interest tbh. Venjur said there's a decline in public representation, I think the standards have been low forever. Social media brings this to light.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118977429#Comment_118977429

It already exists. It's called 4chan and it's a complete cess pool of misinformation, racists and neo-nazis. I don't think its a coincidence that the few acquaintances I have that like 4chan are also anti-vaxxer holocaust deniers.

Former Former Former

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118978726#Comment_118978726

Social media might bring more things to light but it has utterly done away with accountabililty, so bringing things to light doesn't matter nearly as much as it used to.

Like, when Trump was running for president, so many things came to light about him that would have buried any candidate ten or even five years previously. But he understood perfectly that you don't have to answer for your actions any more. You only have to create enough noise to confuse people long enough for them to lose interest.

Then when the scandals kept coming, what happened? An entirely fictitious scandal emerged which tainted Trump's opponent. Pizzagate would never have been published by any proper newspaper or TV channel, but tens of millions of people believed Hilary Clinton was a child sex trafficker because of social media. Thirty seconds of critical thinking would have told anyone it was bollocks, but social media is designed not to challenge your beliefs but affirm them, dragging you further and further down the rabbit hole. It is literally written into the code of Twitter and Facebook that if you read crazy conspiracy theory #1, then your timeline will now feature crazy conspiracy theory #2, 3 and 4.

People have always been manipulated by the media. However, back in the days of the Sun and the News of the World screaming pro-Tory headlines, it was very obvious, thus could be countered and there were rules by which everyone had to play. With social media, the rules are gone out the window and lies and disinformation keep morphing and resurrecting. At the same time, people have abandoned reputable news outlets and no longer have the attention span to really find out the truth.

We are in a very dangerous place right now and I don't see it improving. The worst thing is a lot of people will think the end of democracy will be a good thing.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118978726#Comment_118978726

If you take the worst politicians. People that will stoop to any low. People that are totally self interested and will do whatever it takes to get power.

"They're all like that" is exactly what they would want you to think.

There is a wide spectrum of standards in public office and I think the floor has fallen out of the bottom end of that.

There is no one way to spot the real charlatans, but they out themselves pretty quickly when in office.

Neil3030

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118979568#Comment_118979568

This is a truly excellent summary.