The Political Thread

[The Legendary Shark]

No, most of our dead bodies, at least in the overdeveloped western world, are selfishly and expensively burned.

[Professor Bear]

So are plants not part of the food chain? Are humans not consumed by other animals?

Only if opportunity arises, and not because of specific evolutionary traits which allow the hunting, killing and consumption of humans in their own habitat.  I don't discount that there might be large predators where you live that regularly hunt and kill people in their homes, but if that's the case, it doesn't mean that this is how the food chain works in relation to humans, it means you need to move.

[Hawkmumbler]

Erm....bacteria? Fungi? Even in ash's we contribute to the food cycle. Humans are not some magical creature that exists separately from the rest of the world.

[Frank]

Are humans not consumed by other animals?

None of the things you think eat humans actually prey upon humans. Worms certainly eventually eat humans, but otherwise, no. None of the animals humans eat are part of the food chain either, since we've taken them out of the food chain and bred them exclusively for a closed system where all the travel is in one direction.

It's a question of proportion too. The occasional shark makes off with someone's leg, but humans slaughter 190 MILLION * animals for food every single day:

Louis CK on the food chain: https://youtu.be/uur0e7zbRGU



* 14 minutes 10 seconds here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05w8dnj

[Hawkmumbler]

I was never refering to anything other than worms and other small organisms.

[Famous Mortimer]

So are plants not part of the food chain? Are humans not consumed by other animals?

Okay? But it doesn't really advance the argument to make a point like that. Yes, a few humans are occasionally consumed by worms or bacteria. What next?

[Hawkmumbler]

Thats it. Even a few and where are still objectifly a part of the world food chain. Humans are animals, all animals are part of the food chain. We have an intake (plant amtter, fungi, other animal matter) and a waste peoducts (fecal matter, waist food, our corpses). Thats's it. What are you all trying to get at?

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

You sound a bit like Mufasa from Disney's Hamlet The Lion King

[Professor Bear]

For humans, the food chain is less an overview of an interdependent biological ecosystem and more of a menu.

[Hawkmumbler]

Brilliant video in the link by Bernie Sanders as to why apothetic non-voters are actually helping the government they are supposedly objecting to.

http://www.salon.com/2015/05/09/bernie_sanders_perfectly_sum_up_why_elites_love_apathetic_voters_partner/

[JayzusB.Christ]

Brilliant video in the link by Bernie Sanders as to why apothetic non-voters are actually helping the government they are supposedly objecting to.

http://www.salon.com/2015/05/09/bernie_sanders_perfectly_sum_up_why_elites_love_apathetic_voters_partner/

Good stuff.  As I've always said, at least you can stop the worst of the pricks from running your country.  And I'd say Russell Brand's stance has done the Tories' cause no harm whatsoever.

[CrazyFoxMachine]

......after the march in London I've found a lot of my deeply apathetic FB friends popping out of the woodwork

If I see the phrase "champagne socialist" again I'm going to pop a bollock. I hate it.

It implies that if you're in any position of power or wealth like the biggest names at the march yesterday Brand, Church, etc. You have no right to be talking about Austerity or social issues.

So... who should? People in actual social positions of influence have no right to. OK. Not politicians they're hypocrites. Middle class? No. No, you're a weekend socialist. You're simply dallying in ethical thought to pass the time before your next relatively big paycheck.

But the people who use the phrase think they're being so fucking witty like "AH HAH. That'll learn you - now get back to punching the poor like everyone who isn't poor should be doing. Vote? No I didn't, no one represents me mate. I represent myself. And my champagne importing business"

[/rant]

[Famous Mortimer]

That line of reasoning is such bollocks. If rich people shouldn't have the right to decide on what happens to poor people, then that's the entire Tory cabinet and most of their MPs shit out of luck (millionaires one and all).

[Professor Bear]

If you're poor and you hate poverty, they call you bitter or jealous.  If you're rich and hate poverty they call you a champagne socialist or a hypocrite.  If you're young and you hate poverty, they call you naive.  If you're old and you hate poverty, they call you a dinosaur.  If you're a politician and you hate poverty they call you out of touch.
They are the problem.

The upshot is that doing nothing isn't really an option for them any more than it is for us, because if you create a palpable divide between classes of people and then let one of those classes have all the perks that society has to offer while the other gets fuck all, what follows - as proved time and again down throughout human history - is not mass resignation to the situation but extremism and last I checked, there's a lot more of us than there is of them.  Austerity protests act like a sort of release valve for building tensions, so if anything, all the Daily Mail readers should be grateful they're happening - the alternative is riots and those murders I keep joking about.

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

I prefer prosecco myself.