The Political Thread

[Professor Bear]

Aren't most affordable PCs made here in the UK oh wait now I see what you're doing - well played, that man.

[IndigoPrime]

I CONNECT TO THE INTERNET WITH A ZX SPECTRUM

(Possibly a lie.)

[Jock Savage]

There was a protest of some sort outside my local Tesco last night.  I thought it might be about Tesco using forced labor in the UK through workfare, or their buying seafood harvested by slaves in Thailand, but what really got people motivated to be political was that Tesco bought eggs laid by chickens that weren't kept in big enough cages.

You'd be singing a different song if it was DOGS Tesco were keeping in small cages. You wouldn't buy an egg laid by a dog.

[Tiplodocus]

Oh, but I buy free range eggs and... , so my conscience is clear.

Well, that's what the producers of free range eggs would like you to think. But trust me, it isn't like they make out in those Happy Hen Farm commercials and there's still the thing where they kill hundreds of thousands of male chicks because they aren't any use to them...  but we had that debate a few months back.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Let's just make all our protests abuot 'Bad things people do' from now on and be done with it 

[Professor Bear]

and there's still the thing where they kill hundreds of thousands of male chicks because they aren't any use to them...

Did I mention the time I worked in a poultry slaughterhouse and saw the chicks that some chickens were hiding?  I suppose they must have hidden and then hatched eggs in their coops, then kept their chicks hidden under their wings all the way to the slaughterhouse.  It's kind of touching, really.
The bit after the chicks get found in the slaughterhouse and stamped on not so much.

[The Legendary Shark]

Biggest crime you've never heard of: when US and UK killed half a million children.

[Jimmy Baker's Assistant]

Okay, I clicked on that link. It's about UN sanctions. I found it highly unconvincing, because it takes a good point about the unintended consequences of peaceful measures against pariah regimes, and transmogrifies it into a genocide accusation. I don't buy it.

[The Legendary Shark]

Yes, it's much more comforting to kill 500,000 children by mistake than on purpose. Sanctions hardly ever hurt regimes but always hurt innocents.

[Jimmy Baker's Assistant]

Yes, it's much more comforting to kill 500,000 children by mistake than on purpose. Sanctions hardly ever hurt regimes but always hurt innocents.

Because the alternatives of unilateral military intervention and isolationism have been such tremendous successes, I can see there is a strong argument against the enforcement of UN resolutions.

[The Legendary Shark]

To see the efficacy of UN resolutions, just look at Israel.
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If a dictator is starving his/her people, why don't we (for example) use our fantastic air forces to drop seeds, spades, ploughs and suchlike on the victims? Also, it might be an idea for us to stop selling weapons to anyone with a thick enough wad and allowing international private banks to deal with the 'bad guys.'

[Jimmy Baker's Assistant]

The counter argument is look at Iran.

In any case, how do you propose to do anything about Israel? Write them a stern PS at the bottom of a letter explaining to Netanyahu how they don't need money or government?

Your suggestion of love-bombing has its merits, although it would have the side-effect of to strengthening the targeted regime rather than weakening them.

[Professor Bear]

If charity towards captive populations suffering at the hands of tyrants was any kind of effective tactic, food banks wouldn't have made the Tories stronger, yet here we are.

If a dictator is starving his/her people, why don't we (for example) use our fantastic air forces to drop seeds, spades, ploughs and suchlike on the victims?

Because Monsanto wouldn't let governments enable the creation of motivated farming collectives somewhere they couldn't monopolise the seed supply?  You can't let poor people provide for themselves without corporations getting their cut - it sends the wrong message.

[IAMTHESYSTEM]

Here yah go. A super entity of 147 companies run the world. The Cyper Punks were right after all! 

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228354.500-revealed--the-capitalist-network-that-runs-the-world.html#.VWm53c9VhBc

[The Legendary Shark]

I don't know the answer, JBA - I wish I did. I do think that the solution begins at home, though. I've said I can't change the world so many times now I'm sure you're as sick of reading it as I am sick of typing it. All I can reasonably do is refuse to support anyone (including "my government") who wants to sow death and destruction. I can't stop them but I can stop helping them willingly. That means not voting, not forking over money to them and not listening to their stupid rhetoric.
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To quote Babylon 5, all I have to do is say "no I won't" one more time than they can say "yes you will." They can try to force me; take away my home, my property, my liberty or even my life but those consequences are all on me. To vote for anyone is to shift those consequences onto other people, people in different countries who I do not and will never know.
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I know most people think my views are stupid and ineffective, and maybe they are, but non-compliance on a personal level really is the only way I can think of to make any kind of difference, no matter how tiny, in the face of all this madness threatening to drown our species in its own blood.