i just want to point out that "blm" means "bureau of land management" and not "black lives matter". that initially confused me...
Sunday, December 6, 2015
this is going viral.
i just want to point out that "blm" means "bureau of land management" and not "black lives matter". that initially confused me...
i just want to point out that "blm" means "bureau of land management" and not "black lives matter". that initially confused me...
at
18:55
Location:
Windsor, ON, Canada
i believe that the technical term for this is the vulcan nerve pinch.
at
18:33
Location:
Windsor, ON, Canada
see, i think you're confused about what a police officer is though.
i need to be clear, though. i've made thousands of youtube, facebook and other media posts. all over the place. this is the first time i've typed the words "fuck the police". i know that they're mostly union stiffs, and they're mostly doing their job.
the problem is that their job requires that they go through training that teaches them to treat people differently based on their ethnic background - and that what their job is is to protect the property of the wealthy from the masses, through whatever means possible.
getting mad and breaking stuff doesn't solve anything. it just gives them an excuse to put you in a cage and enslave you. nowadays, chances are you're getting a stint working for some big company like nike. yes, even in america. they're just laughing at you.
but, this logic is fuzzy. the police cannot be treated as an independent and identically distributed random variable. they are paid to oppress people. that is their job.
fwiw, i'll gladly bite on the anarchist question, but only if i'm poked. i've had this argument far too many times.
i don't entirely agree with the argument i'm about to present, but i do think there's some truth to it. i really think there has to be some kind of psychological damage worked into desiring to go to work every day, pick up a gun and tell people what to do. something went wrong there, in that person's childhood. it's the same basic mentality that leads to mass shootings, it's just manifested differently.
but, there was a film released about ten yeas ago called the corporation in which the thesis was presented that corporations fit the clinical definition of psychopathy. if my memory serves correctly - and i have some doubt, but i'm pretty sure - there were various academics in that film (one was chomsky...) that pointed out that the role one plays as a ceo is not necessarily going to be the same that the role one plays as private citizen.
so, you could have a ceo that, in his private life gives tons of money to greenpeace and volunteers with planting trees, but, in his public life, facilitates the production of massive levels of pollution. as an individual, this person may strongly disagree with the actions of the company. but, he is both bound by his job responsibilities - and in fact by law - to do whatever maximizes profit, regardless of consequence. and, if he were to quit, somebody else would do it.
i think that something similar can be applied to police officers. they may be nice people, in their private lives. they may join anti-racist marches. they may be members of the aclu. but, in their job requirements, they have no option but to apply the principles of racial profiling that they've been taught. and, if they quit they can be replaced.
what that means is that focusing on the individual police is obscuring the issue. the racism is systemic. it comes from the department. and, it comes from lawmakers, too. meaning it comes via mandate from the dwindling white majority.
but, recognizing that reality doesn't change what a police officer is. and, what that is is not something that should be rationalized or romanticized. it's a social function that is designed to implement violence along class and ethnic lines to maintain the status quo of extreme inequality.
useful reading:
http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/17505/police_and_poor_people
i need to be clear, though. i've made thousands of youtube, facebook and other media posts. all over the place. this is the first time i've typed the words "fuck the police". i know that they're mostly union stiffs, and they're mostly doing their job.
the problem is that their job requires that they go through training that teaches them to treat people differently based on their ethnic background - and that what their job is is to protect the property of the wealthy from the masses, through whatever means possible.
getting mad and breaking stuff doesn't solve anything. it just gives them an excuse to put you in a cage and enslave you. nowadays, chances are you're getting a stint working for some big company like nike. yes, even in america. they're just laughing at you.
but, this logic is fuzzy. the police cannot be treated as an independent and identically distributed random variable. they are paid to oppress people. that is their job.
fwiw, i'll gladly bite on the anarchist question, but only if i'm poked. i've had this argument far too many times.
i don't entirely agree with the argument i'm about to present, but i do think there's some truth to it. i really think there has to be some kind of psychological damage worked into desiring to go to work every day, pick up a gun and tell people what to do. something went wrong there, in that person's childhood. it's the same basic mentality that leads to mass shootings, it's just manifested differently.
but, there was a film released about ten yeas ago called the corporation in which the thesis was presented that corporations fit the clinical definition of psychopathy. if my memory serves correctly - and i have some doubt, but i'm pretty sure - there were various academics in that film (one was chomsky...) that pointed out that the role one plays as a ceo is not necessarily going to be the same that the role one plays as private citizen.
so, you could have a ceo that, in his private life gives tons of money to greenpeace and volunteers with planting trees, but, in his public life, facilitates the production of massive levels of pollution. as an individual, this person may strongly disagree with the actions of the company. but, he is both bound by his job responsibilities - and in fact by law - to do whatever maximizes profit, regardless of consequence. and, if he were to quit, somebody else would do it.
i think that something similar can be applied to police officers. they may be nice people, in their private lives. they may join anti-racist marches. they may be members of the aclu. but, in their job requirements, they have no option but to apply the principles of racial profiling that they've been taught. and, if they quit they can be replaced.
what that means is that focusing on the individual police is obscuring the issue. the racism is systemic. it comes from the department. and, it comes from lawmakers, too. meaning it comes via mandate from the dwindling white majority.
but, recognizing that reality doesn't change what a police officer is. and, what that is is not something that should be rationalized or romanticized. it's a social function that is designed to implement violence along class and ethnic lines to maintain the status quo of extreme inequality.
useful reading:
http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/17505/police_and_poor_people
at
18:08
Location:
Windsor, ON, Canada
in a thousand years from now, if people still remember hockey a thousand years from now, few people will believe gretzky's stats.
various theories will appear to explain how it could be possible. a minority opinion may conclude it had to do with expansion, but it will no doubt be broadly overlooked with arguments such as...
there is no empirical evidence that expansion inflates scoring records
"it's unscientific", they will claim.
other theories will develop, that attempt to take into account occam's razor. some will no doubt argue that it was an honest transcription error that occurred when records were shifted from manual record keeping to digital record keeping, or perhaps that it was some kind of error in binary. are these numbers truly meant to be interpreted in base 10?
others will claim that they were exaggerations by the canadian government to intimidate the russians. cold war propaganda. attempts will be made to compare canadian accounts with russian accounts, and attempt to derive contradictions.
still others will claim that he never existed at all.
the few people that believe the historical record will be written off as lunatics, but will nonetheless angrily hit back at the academics. revisionists! ahistoricisms! it's written clearly in the sources....
various theories will appear to explain how it could be possible. a minority opinion may conclude it had to do with expansion, but it will no doubt be broadly overlooked with arguments such as...
there is no empirical evidence that expansion inflates scoring records
"it's unscientific", they will claim.
other theories will develop, that attempt to take into account occam's razor. some will no doubt argue that it was an honest transcription error that occurred when records were shifted from manual record keeping to digital record keeping, or perhaps that it was some kind of error in binary. are these numbers truly meant to be interpreted in base 10?
others will claim that they were exaggerations by the canadian government to intimidate the russians. cold war propaganda. attempts will be made to compare canadian accounts with russian accounts, and attempt to derive contradictions.
still others will claim that he never existed at all.
the few people that believe the historical record will be written off as lunatics, but will nonetheless angrily hit back at the academics. revisionists! ahistoricisms! it's written clearly in the sources....
at
17:42
Location:
Windsor, ON, Canada
applause.
this is the right way to criticize religion.
of course, muslims view the koran as a kind of "third testament" to begin with. it's an addition to the bible. same god. so, you should expect very large overlaps.
i know that my own story is that religion isn't something i thought about much until i was about 10 or so. and, when i started thinking about it, i took the initiative to pick the book up and actually read it. and, i did read it - from genesis through to revelation. i had to take the first part of it pretty skeptically, even at that age, but i'd heard the argument of non-literalism so i knew how to do that intelligently (seven days need not literally mean seven days). it was the book of job where i started to really recoil. by the end of it, i was convinced it was utter nonsense. if this god actually exists, it should be struggled against. but, it struck me as most likely that it can't exist at all. the level of assholery was just too much. if this god existed, it would have had to have already destroyed itself.
something that defined the era of christianity before the reformation was actually a restriction on reading the bible. you'd be in a lot of trouble if the monks caught you reading the verses - excommunication, and perhaps even a death sentence. only official church representatives were permitted to read it. as you can see, there's reasons for this: the threat of heresy through independent interpretation, the threat of people finding contradictions and the threat of simple revulsion of it's contents.
if there's a difference across cultures in today's world, it isn't that muslims are less educated. it's that most westerners are entirely clueless as to the nature of our own history. we have a year zero set at 1945. nothing relevant happened before that date. and, so we can't place anything in context.
this is the right way to criticize religion.
of course, muslims view the koran as a kind of "third testament" to begin with. it's an addition to the bible. same god. so, you should expect very large overlaps.
i know that my own story is that religion isn't something i thought about much until i was about 10 or so. and, when i started thinking about it, i took the initiative to pick the book up and actually read it. and, i did read it - from genesis through to revelation. i had to take the first part of it pretty skeptically, even at that age, but i'd heard the argument of non-literalism so i knew how to do that intelligently (seven days need not literally mean seven days). it was the book of job where i started to really recoil. by the end of it, i was convinced it was utter nonsense. if this god actually exists, it should be struggled against. but, it struck me as most likely that it can't exist at all. the level of assholery was just too much. if this god existed, it would have had to have already destroyed itself.
something that defined the era of christianity before the reformation was actually a restriction on reading the bible. you'd be in a lot of trouble if the monks caught you reading the verses - excommunication, and perhaps even a death sentence. only official church representatives were permitted to read it. as you can see, there's reasons for this: the threat of heresy through independent interpretation, the threat of people finding contradictions and the threat of simple revulsion of it's contents.
if there's a difference across cultures in today's world, it isn't that muslims are less educated. it's that most westerners are entirely clueless as to the nature of our own history. we have a year zero set at 1945. nothing relevant happened before that date. and, so we can't place anything in context.
at
17:21
Location:
Windsor, ON, Canada
isn't this exactly the same as his other songs?
regarding the issue over the view count, i think i'm more amused by how seriously youtube takes the sanctity of it's view count than anything else.
youtube actually seriously thinks this is a battle worth fighting in real time.
get your head around this.
regarding the issue over the view count, i think i'm more amused by how seriously youtube takes the sanctity of it's view count than anything else.
youtube actually seriously thinks this is a battle worth fighting in real time.
get your head around this.
at
16:42
Location:
Windsor, ON, Canada
the reality is that nothing can come from talking to a bunch of students *besides* a photo op.
the liberals are going to need some pressure, here. no doubt. we need the kids to keep this up.
but, ask yourself this question: if you're serious about this, do you spend your time negotiating with the capp and other emissions producing bodies, or do you spend your time hanging out and talking with kids? which approach would suggest this is serious, and which approach would suggest it's just politics?
www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cop21-paris-canada-youth-delegation-1.3352246
the liberals are going to need some pressure, here. no doubt. we need the kids to keep this up.
but, ask yourself this question: if you're serious about this, do you spend your time negotiating with the capp and other emissions producing bodies, or do you spend your time hanging out and talking with kids? which approach would suggest this is serious, and which approach would suggest it's just politics?
www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cop21-paris-canada-youth-delegation-1.3352246
at
15:24
Location:
Windsor, ON, Canada
this is actually a relatively useful point to make. the simple truth is that it's very cold, here.
if you take a survey of western canada, you'll notice something very interesting that most canadians are actually unaware of: there's a large percentage of toponyms that are of northern and north-eastern european background. finnish, norwegian, swedish, ukrainian. it was by specifically attracting settlers from these northern countries that we were able to settle the west and prevent american expansion. my maternal grandmother's mother's parents came here in the early part of the last century from finland and norway and settled in saskatchewan under this program of targeted immigration from northern europe.
somewhere along the way, the cold war seems to have gotten in the way. it would have been hard to migrate from russia or ukraine during those years. and, today, the scandinavian countries have comparable or higher living standards than we do.
but, if we really need the population increases (i don't think that's clear, actually...), perhaps we should be looking at attracting migrants from countries that are used to cold winters. it worked in the past.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/no-surprise-here-canada-a-turnoff-for-some-refugees/article27600848/
if you take a survey of western canada, you'll notice something very interesting that most canadians are actually unaware of: there's a large percentage of toponyms that are of northern and north-eastern european background. finnish, norwegian, swedish, ukrainian. it was by specifically attracting settlers from these northern countries that we were able to settle the west and prevent american expansion. my maternal grandmother's mother's parents came here in the early part of the last century from finland and norway and settled in saskatchewan under this program of targeted immigration from northern europe.
somewhere along the way, the cold war seems to have gotten in the way. it would have been hard to migrate from russia or ukraine during those years. and, today, the scandinavian countries have comparable or higher living standards than we do.
but, if we really need the population increases (i don't think that's clear, actually...), perhaps we should be looking at attracting migrants from countries that are used to cold winters. it worked in the past.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/no-surprise-here-canada-a-turnoff-for-some-refugees/article27600848/
at
15:03
Location:
Windsor, ON, Canada
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