Random Rant Thread

[miscmisc]

Jan 18, 2021 8:47:11 GMT 1 K1power said:

Jan 17, 2021 17:45:39 GMT 1 miscmisc said:

They should stop using the term "Covid skeptics" and "Covid skepticism."

People who make shit up and cling to discredited claims based clearly on motivated reasoning aren't any kind of "skeptics"; They are actively trying to fabricate a reality. That totally goes against the definition of "skeptics."

This kind of people are called, even at white-washing best, "advocates" in the English language. Take that "I'm just asking" weasel attitude away from them.

I have some acquaintances in my friends list on Facebook who seem to be drinking the 'COVID IS A LIE' Kool-Aid by the gallon and it's definitely not 'skepticism'.

When you're posting videos titled 'This 80 Year Old Doctor Tells The Truth About COVID!', 'This Nurse Shares What's REALLY Happening At Hospitals!' and applaud news stories about restaurants 'just opening their doors' I don't know what to tell you.

These people are actually basing reality on their opinion, rather than basing their opinion on reality. I guess that's what happens when the truth is inconvenient (no pun intended lol).

Like I touched upon in an earlier post, it doesn't help that there are so many assholes with a PhD who supply these weak minded people with more than enough bricks to build their walls of denial.

That said, I can't bring myself to unfollow/unfriend them. They're actually nice people that are frustrated and, unfortunately, dangerously out-of-touch with reality.

What's truly dangerous is that this Covid=elaborate hoax narrative can easily be the gateway drug to the broader world of conspiracy theories for many people. Once you "realize" that the "governments" and "media" and "feds" and "academia" and whatnot in tandem are capable of enacting such an extensive global campaign of disinformation, you tend to lose the psychological anchor that you used to have.

We still don't know the extent to which it has silently radicalized countless people globally, many of whom aren't even aware that their brain circuit has been altered to become a lot more receptive to conspiratorial ideas in general.

[miscmisc]

This is a scene from a psychological horror movie.

We will get closer to the abyss this way. One step at a time.

[miscmisc]

Speaking of conspiracy theories, do people genuinely not know Garry Kasparov's beliefs, or do know them but not care?

Is he a good mainstream guy now because he stopped talking shit about Obama and has been critical of Donald Trump? Is that it?

That guy believes in the New Chronology. Yes, Anatoly Fomenko's New Chronology theory.

You should look it up if you've never heard of it. It's one of the wildest, elaborate conspiracy theories out there.

[miscmisc]

This British (far-right) woman is 45. Even more shocking than Alex Jones being only 46.

[miscmisc]

Unless the UK government is hiding something from me, I don't see how the whole Brexit chaos is just a temporary bureaucratic hiccup. It very clearly is a fundamental problem that many British businesses will have to deal with.

It seems that many exporters and small importers will be wiped out. There will be a forced "restructure" in these sectors, and the result will be a substantial net loss for the country.

[mzn]

Jan 17, 2021 10:02:22 GMT 1 miscmisc said:

As for the scandal in the Netherlands, I suppose it actually goes deeper than what has been reported in non-Dutch media (e.g. anti-immigrant bias?), but a typical reaction from an American for example would be, "Er, that's it? The government 'resigns' for THAT?"

A huuuuuuuuge number of EITC recipients are wrongly accused of fraud every year in the US, but no one cares.

The parliamentary system is superior (the government would just "apologize" and move on in Japan, though).

Well, I don't know how it was portrayed in non-Dutch media. I didn't keep track of it all that well in Dutch media because it's so cringe worthy to me.

The anti-immigrant bias of the scandal was because of the daycare agencies that were suspected and targeted mostly had a type of clientèle being immigrants. Just by being a customer of those agencies, people were labelled as fraudsters even if they weren't or couldn't be aware of it. In some cases daycare agencies were wrongfully accused based op on way too little proof.

What also made the scandal bigger was the poor handling of it. If years ago the government had recognized the situation, rectified it and rehabilitated all the civilians involved, maybe it wouldn't have turned in to the big deal it did. The government as a whole was too slow, too cumbersome, too stubborn to recognize it's mistake.

Being in the business I recognize this ongoing pattern:

The government creates a benefit or an allowance of some sort. Surveys show that people aren't innate fraudsters. So getting the money is based upon trust and not too much of control and or checks.

Some journalist finds out there are signs of large scale fraud.

The general public is outraged by the idea of their taxes being wasted.

The government downplays it.

More articles, more outrage

Grudgingly the government starts an investigation and puts a taskforce on it.

The taskforce cracks down heavily on the supposed fraudsters.

The 'fraudsters' appeal to the fines and the clawbacks of the money.

The decisions to do so are upheld by judges because they are within the rules set for the combat on fraud.

More outrage but now about the victims of the governments anti-fraud policies.

The government realizes they went overboard. Act quickly and you can move on. Do nothing, or percist and: Councils are called in to question the parties involved. Large scale errors are discovered a devastating report is written. Ministers have to step down or even the entire cabinet.

And start from the beginning.

|

[miscmisc]

Thanks for the summary. I see. The government took the all-too-familiar path of social welfare mismanagement, and the details seem a tad worse than I thought.

And it does seem that the resignation is largely, if not entirely, for a show, and it was probably the best timing for the cabinet given the Covid situation and all. The resignation feels more like a half-time break.

Still, there's still some semblance of accountability. In most other countries, you'd only get crickets.

[miscmisc]

I seriously suspect that this was written by a right-wing Dartmouth sophomore student.

It says nothing but the intellectual decline of the US right-wing world. It's not just that this crap is full of historical inaccuracies, but that it's an excruciatingly bad, boring read. I used to grade hundreds of student papers/exams. I couldn't read this one through.

Can't write, can't argue in any coherent way, can't come up with anything remotely close to a semi-original thought, can't entertain anyone, can't even fucking offend me.

No wonder what's left in that world are Pepe the Frog, Twitter trolls and fantasies about China, Venezuela, Italy, Cuba and Serbia stealing the election from Trump.

What a fucking dead end. 

[miscmisc]

Flood, sand, water table extremely close to the ground, karst limestone, etc.

So, nope.

[miscmisc]

This is underrated.

[miscmisc]

Elon should invest in the pillow business pronto and destroy this moron instead of trolling about tunnels in fucking Miami of all places. He could do that in a month.

[miscmisc]

Ah, forget about it, Elon, not necessary anymore.

[miscmisc]

I know two people who have slept with this awful woman (neither of whom are the Idiot Son or Gavin Newsom, so don't worry, lol), and you wouldn't believe how much of a fucking freakshow she is.

[miscmisc]

He's right.

[miscmisc]

There's going to be a civil war inside the Republican Party. Burn, the GOP, burn. They deserve nothing less.