The Political Thread

[Jimmy Baker's Assistant]

America is Behind ISIS: Washington Confesses to Backing "Questionable Actors" in Syria. Interesting article by Tony Cartalucci. What can't be controlled and exploited must be smashed then exploited?

No way I'm wasting any time by clicking on a link entitled "America is Behind ISIS", but points for not "jokingly" calling for people to be murdered.

[Professor Bear]

Who's joking?

ISIS is the result of the fragmentation of other extremist groups, alliances formed against the US presence in the Middle East, and a power vacuum caused partly by the recent US withdrawal from the region, so it's not much of a stretch to say the US is behind ISIS.  The sad fact is they left the region with a corrupt and unmotivated political and military system in place, and extremist nutters took advantage.

[Tjm86]

The sad fact is they left the region with a corrupt and unmotivated political [ ] system in place, and extremist nutters took advantage.

Sorry, are we still talking about the middle east or has the conversation shifted to this country?

[Professor Bear]

[Tjm86]

nuff said! 

[Professor Bear]

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.

[Tiplodocus]

We can be concerned about more than one thing at a time though, can't we?

[Professor Bear]

I question only if marginally less discomfort for chickens is more pressing a concern than kidnapping people and working them to death at gunpoint so that Tesco can pay marginally less than the wholesale price for prawns.
Kind of moot anyway, because Tesco don't give two fucks and a protest won't change anything.

[JayzusB.Christ]

We can be concerned about more than one thing at a time though, can't we?

This.

It's something that irritates me, I have to say, when a stance against something I perceive as unjust or detrimental is met with something like 'don't you even care about (insert other unjust or detrimental thing)?'.
Aren't you allowed to protest or lobby against something without having to include everything you don't like in one go?

[IndigoPrime]

I saw someone recently rally against people complaining about abortion law with something along the lines of: shouldn't we concentrate on more important matters, such as ending genocide in war-torn nations? And this was without irony. Clearly, the entire human race can only do a single thing at once.

[Professor Bear]

While I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that someone's priorities might be off if their greatest complaint about Hitler was that he burned some books and so they decide to only protest about that one thing, it isn't really an either/or situation.  You can protest about everything Tesco does rather than just that the cages in battery farms they buy eggs from could be a few centimeters bigger, and this protest was specifically - and only - about that issue.

Edit to add: I should probably admit I fucking hate Tesco and haven't shopped there in a while for some of the reasons mentioned, thus my reasoning faculties may be somewhat clouded.

[Banners]

Missing out on Clubcard points then.

[Professor Bear]

I know.  Now I'll have to pay full price for that tin of beans in six months' time.

[Jimmy Baker's Assistant]

I quite like Tesco. The Clubcard points come in handy.

Oh, but I buy free range eggs and I don't eat prawns, so my conscience is clear.

I hope Lesbian Seagull's forthcoming murderous rampage doesn't disrupt my weekly shop.

[COMMANDO FORCES]

Let us hope that none of the devices that we're using to post this stuff have been made in countries with a poor human rights records, or by firms that pay terrible wages!