The Political Thread

[The Legendary Shark]

What the drokk is Joe doing to Donald??

[Frank]

In the Times today;

Metal shin guards and dangling belt fasteners? This is what happens when you google 'Judge Dredd + bike' for reference images and end up with Le Juge Dredd:




Image by Sebastien Grenier. Pete Wells's excellent blog on Le Case Files au Francais

[TordelBack]

What the drokk is Joe doing to Donald??

Not half of what the Donald is doing to the Law.

[The Legendary Shark]

Numpty Trumpty built a great wall,
Numpty Trumpty thought Muslims were small,
His bazinging Tweets and his feverish pen,
Showed only how needed was his examen.

[Hawkmumbler]

What the drokk is Joe doing to Donald??

It's a trap!

[Theblazeuk]

Yes, ordering a person to commit a crime is bad but not as bad as committing the crime because of orders.

I didn't suggest that being ordered to do something reprehensible absolves the person carrying out that act of responsibility. I was saying that ordering people to do monstrous things makes the person issuing the order a monster, not that the people carrying out those orders aren't.

(Edit: I know Shark won't see this, but I feel it's important to clarify my position given that I think he's mis-characterising what I said. Also: the suggestion that I would somehow lay a 'trap' in order to claim that someone, anyone, supported Hitler is one to which I take particular exception.)

Yes all round.

[Modern Panther]

the suggestion that I would somehow lay a 'trap' in order to claim that someone, anyone, supported Hitler is one to which I take particular exception.

Only a terrible person would do such a thing...

[Hawkmumbler]

the suggestion that I would somehow lay a 'trap' in order to claim that someone, anyone, supported Hitler is one to which I take particular exception.

Only a terrible person would do such a thing...

Alternative emotions.

[TordelBack]

Oh look Milo, all those poisonous seeds you sowed have sprouted and started expressing themselves.  Eat up your greens now, snowflake.

[NapalmKev]

Oh look Milo, all those poisonous seeds you sowed have sprouted and started expressing themselves.  Eat up your greens now, snowflake.

He certainly is an odious clown with abhorrent views. My only concern, and touching on what I said the other day, is that he is now in a position to play the victim. He, and his ilk, will use this as a way of defending their views!

I still think the best way of dealing with people like that is to tell them that their views are bigoted and have no place in society. Convince them they are wrong*

Cheers

*some people won't ever listen but some will. Additionally: violence can be contagious, like a virus. People can end up doing things they would normally find reprehensible.

[Prodigal2]

Oh look Milo, all those poisonous seeds you sowed have sprouted and started expressing themselves.  Eat up your greens now, snowflake.

He certainly is an odious clown with abhorrent views. My only concern, and touching on what I said the other day, is that he is now in a position to play the victim. He, and his ilk, will use this as a way of defending their views!

I still think the best way of dealing with people like that is to tell them that their views are bigoted and have no place in society. Convince them they are wrong*

Cheers

*some people won't ever listen but some will. Additionally: violence can be contagious, like a virus. People can end up doing things they would normally find reprehensible.

This.

[The Legendary Shark]

I had to Google Milo Yiannopoulos as I'd never heard of him. Reading through some of the news reports of what went on at U.C. Berkeley, it seems a small group of masked, black-clad "demonstrators" kicked off the violence in an otherwise peaceful protest - as seems to happen rather a lot. (Meanwhile, largely unreported, militarized police, armoured cars, sound cannons and the National Guard moved in on protesters at Standing Rock. The crimes of government once again ignored in favour of the crimes of a handful of protesters - go figure.)

I wouldn't be surprised if this apparently odious man's appearances are being used as deliberate flashpoints for those who are working towards a police state in the U.S. He should perhaps change his name to Milo Reichstag and be done with it.

One wonders if the deep state has some more authoritarian legislation ready to go and is just aching for an excuse to roll it out. Former Counter Terrorism Czar Richard Clarke told Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig: "After 9/11 the government drew up the Patriot Act within 20 days and it was passed.

"The Patriot Act is huge and I remember someone asking a Justice Department official how did they write such a large statute so quickly, and of course the answer was that it has been sitting in the drawers of the Justice Department for the last 20 years waiting for the event where they would pull it out."

Trump, and the extreme reactions surrounding his election, seem to me like one big hyperReichstagclusterfuck bursting to be used as an excuse for martial law.

Whether the above speculations are true, untrue, semi-true, alt-true or pseudo-false aside, the U.S. seems to be in a very dangerous place at the moment. Americans, and the rest of the world, can only demand that cooler heads will prevail.

Also, what Tordels and Kev said.

[Hawkmumbler]

Oh look Milo, all those poisonous seeds you sowed have sprouted and started expressing themselves.  Eat up your greens now, snowflake.

He certainly is an odious clown with abhorrent views. My only concern, and touching on what I said the other day, is that he is now in a position to play the victim. He, and his ilk, will use this as a way of defending their views!

I still think the best way of dealing with people like that is to tell them that their views are bigoted and have no place in society. Convince them they are wrong*

Cheers

*some people won't ever listen but some will. Additionally: violence can be contagious, like a virus. People can end up doing things they would normally find reprehensible.

With all due respect mind, it never works. Bigots don't operate on a rational level and will find any means to justify their ideals, no matter how observably wrong they are.

[The Legendary Shark]

With all due respect, that's treating all people with bigoted views the same way. There are always some who can be convinced to change just as there are always some who cannot. To dismiss the idea of dialogue from the outset drastically curtails our options.

I grew up in the 70s when bigotry was rife, not because of any real animosity but simply because it was "the done thing," learned behaviour or "just a bit of harmless fun." I've seen many of my contemporaries change their views over the years and very few indeed who have not.

[NapalmKev]

Oh look Milo, all those poisonous seeds you sowed have sprouted and started expressing themselves.  Eat up your greens now, snowflake.

He certainly is an odious clown with abhorrent views. My only concern, and touching on what I said the other day, is that he is now in a position to play the victim. He, and his ilk, will use this as a way of defending their views!

I still think the best way of dealing with people like that is to tell them that their views are bigoted and have no place in society. Convince them they are wrong*

Cheers

*some people won't ever listen but some will. Additionally: violence can be contagious, like a virus. People can end up doing things they would normally find reprehensible.

With all due respect mind, it never works. Bigots don't operate on a rational level and will find any means to justify their ideals, no matter how observably wrong they are.

Admittedly you won't convince everyone but it's worth noting that some bigots have only ever been surrounded by other bigots. When presented with irrefutable facts some have, and will, change their mind.

By Prodigal's own admission he had a dalliance with the far-right and was convinced by others that his beliefs were wrong.

On the other hand some people will never change but I like to think such closed minded thinking is dying out. Wishful thinking on my part perhaps.

Cheers