@Trulymadlyme: They already do. A friend of mine who does employment law says a search of social networking sites for parties in the case is the first thing they do when they get a new case.
Back when I was idealistic and young, I used to think things like:
"If only The People could make their voices heard over the din of corporate-controlled media."
"Soon, the democratication of media will give everyone a voice."
Then the internet happened and I realized that the Vox Populi is actually the sound of your embarassing, racist, maybe retarded uncle, after he's had about ten beers too many. The Voice of the People is really, really dumb.
@lionel-mandrake: The voice of some of the people is dumb, because some people are dumb. It's not surprising that in the state in which he was elected to office, the guy's views are held by a large number of people. What's hopeful is that they're not the majority. In the past, only his views would have been heard -- not those of the greater number of people who think he's an idiot.
@lionel-mandrake: Truth be told, the filters through which we perceive information are skewed, at best. The anti-war rallies I attended in San Francisco in 2003 were humongous and had a huge media presence, but they got very little print or broadcast coverage, except on Indymedia outlets and the European press.
We may be manipulated into believing the racist morons are the majority of Americans, and this may be true in smaller population centers. However, the energy and authenticity of the 2003 rallies was enough to sustain my belief that in urban areas, rational intelligence still reigns.
@MissNormaDesmond: @lionel-mandrake: Considering that Bush managed to get elected twice, I think the percentage of the population that is dumb is teetering on the edge of being the majority.
@ostartero: You did notice the last election, right? Did you also notice the incredibly lousy campaigns run by both Gore and Kerry? When a Democrat finally ran a campaign that wasn't pathetically half-assed, he won. That's not to say that voting for Bush was ever the smart choice, but a lot of people either stayed home or voted for third-party candidates in both campaigns who would have voted Democrat if they'd had a candidate worth caring about. People seem to love Gore now, but Gore in 2000 chose Lieberman as his running mate. I think that says everything about him and his ineptitude in that campaign that needs to be said.
I am a pretty politically active person, but I find that Facebook is better served by my rants about society's foibles and the latest Mark Trail comic strip rather than politics.
If you spout about Obama being muslin anti americkuhn- then you get hidden and I will not trade any of my animals with you on Farmville.
But with the mainstream GOP more than willing to rile up the nuts if it means a little fundraising cash and a higher media profile, lord knows where this ends.
Pot, meet Kettle, though I do believe you're already well acquainted.
@Swifter: Produce five examples of elected Democratic officials spouting uninformed, belligerent hatred on their Facebook or Twitter pages from the last six months. When you can, I might take your, "The Democrats are just as bad as the Republicans" bullshit a little more seriously. Though, actually, probably not.
@Go Like Hell Machine: Seriously, I think we might be misunderstanding who Swifter is referring to as the pot and the kettle, because he/she certainly can't think that elected Democrats have done anything like this. This is far beyond anyone calling Bush an idiot (and I doubt elected Democrats have ever posted that on their facebooks).
@ParahSalin: Not to worry. His star seems to have made him 235% more retarded than he was when he confidently predicted that the choice of Sarah Palin was going to bring a landslide victory for Johnny "Five Jets" McCain, because his racist fucking neighbor lady said so.
@Mediahohoho: "In short, he's a moron's moron."I think that's what bugs me about his star status. His total "contribution" to the board is "Democrats are just as bad as Republicans." Well, sure we are, other than that we don't wreck the economy, persecute minorities, force our religion down other people's throats, let corporate America run amok, push family values when we are abject moral failures, turn the rest of the world against us, practice voodoo economics, preach against having "elitists" (aka smart people) run the country, etc... Yeah, I could see how he'd see the two parties as similar.
Is the fear that not criticizing this kind of idiocy normalizes it? Otherwise I think that focusing on racism displayed on Facebook misses out on the fact that the Internet has long been a haven for hate an extremism (just as it breeds weird porn).
@Lysergic Asset: I'm sure the best solution will be to wait it out. In shorter time than you imagine, such vicious and ignorant individuals will migrate to (much like a seething, racist flock of geese), congregate in, and come to reside at locations of easy containment, softened food, pharmaceutical requisites, and weekly "Bingo" meetings ... otherwise known as "Adult Communities"
@Lysergic Asset: The most tragic thing is that I feel that I will live to see either my children's generation, or my grandchildren's generation finally allow such a thing as Gay Marriage. But those who have been fighting for it the longest (many of whom are the same who fought for Gay rights in the 70s and 80s, and survived the initial onslaught of AIDs) won't live to see that shining day
@AmendmentForOne: Dr. King didn't live to see President Obama inaugurated either, and still... he was everywhere. (King wasn't far off, either - in an interview in the 1964, he said he thought the U.S. would see a black President in 20-25 years.) [news.bbc.co.uk]
@Lysergic Asset: But it's not. It makes news, so it gets talked about, but please, please note that the majority of people responding to that poll think he's a dick. It's Tennessee, so the majority isn't as large as we'd expect to see elsewhere, but it's a majority. These people are losing ground, not gaining it. That's why their flailing has become so energetic.
@MissNormaDesmond: You're exactly correct. That means they're going to get more and more energetic as they continue to lose influence. You know where that road ends and it's scary.
@XeroKillswitch: The road ends with their becoming ineffective, powerless trolls. Will there be some ugliness along the way? Most likely. But I remember when mentality was not only in the ascendancy, it went largely unchallenged. This is better.
@Lysergic Asset: If you lived in the South you'd know it already is normal. I took my mother's car to get some work done on it, and when the salesman came over to me I told him "don't bother, I can't afford a car." He started ranting about how the Obamas were the only ones who had any money left. Ummm, yeah, I guess the Bushs and McCains are barely able to scrape two nickels together.
@Lysergic Asset: Being from Birmingham, I have certainly mulled it over. Instead, I choose to make other asshole southerners' lives as miserable as possible. It is fun and really easy to do!
Lysergic Asset promoted this comment
Edited by PrissyCatheadBiscuit at 12/05/09 10:50 AM
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@PrissyCatheadBiscuit: In all seriousness, I celebrate each blessed day that all you liberal southerners were born! (Having to see stuff like this on a regular basis would make my eyes bleed!)
@Lysergic Asset: Too funny! I plan to use this to piss off my Facebook "friends" later on today...after they tear themselves away from the fucking football games : )
@PrissyCatheadBiscuit: I seriously would like to hear more about your tactics. They sound deviously wonderful, and all for a good cause (sanity).
When confronted with abject ignorance, stupidity, prejudice and/or bigotry, I usually just click my heels together three times and say silently to myself, "The meek shall inherit the earth..."
@Lysergic Asset My tactics are very simple. I can almost, without fail, size up any southern wingnut by car, clothing, area of town and of course, interests. In my experience, this profiling is 98 percent foolproof. Once I know what prejudice said wingnut holds dear, it is just a matter of subtly and innocently inserting the offensive matter into their lives. It could be music, a piece of jewelry.. whatever. Just something that they HAVE to look or experience and then I just add on and on until it drives them mad...yet their "good southern manners" prevent any type of confrontation. Works especially well with religion, racial and, my personal fave, gay issues. You would not BELIEVE the office war I started with a simple "Queer As Folk" mousepad. I have turned it into an art, though no one here really appreciates it. That is why I love you guys!
So, the insurance companies are the rip-offs but Big Pharma--who have been inside the White House since late February/March--they're ok. They're NOT rip-offs and we're therefore not going to regulate their 4,000% profits or anything like that.
Things I thought he was that he's turning out not to be:
Eloquent
Hardworking
Intelligent
Independent
Different
Friend to Middle and Lower class
Transparent
Responsible
Decisive...
@Novaload: As someone who works in medical research I am growing tired of hearing all of the attacks on Big Pharma lately. The overhead for drug development is HUGE. Society has a lot to benefit from new therapeutics being introduced to the market, but the amount of financial risk these companies must take in order to conduct proper clinical trials that meet FDA standards is unprecedented in any other industry. If we cut out half of the bureaucracy we have at the FDA and adopted a more European system for drug approval, then Big Pharma wouldn't have to charge exorbitant amounts for new drugs. But then we'd have more disasters like Vioxx. It's an unfortunate Catch 22.
@SurlyDuck: Yes, to some extent, but these are the same people who are pricing drugs out of anyone but the richest people's reach. I work with drug companies too, in several areas. They get tax write-offs for development costs, too. They are in it for the patent and the bucks.
@SurlyDuck: Err, except over 70% of their cutting edge research is trying to figure out baldness treatments, schwing firmness enhancements and lusher eyelashes.
Meanwhile vaccines The Third World Poors get are ignored because, while they'll save millions of lives, they can only be sold for pennies.
Whoops.
@Novaload: I'm glad they're in it for the bucks. Instead of not being in it at all.
The insurance system is set up in such a way right now that the consumer is getting plowed.
But that doesn't mean we should be against people making money, which is basically the incentive for nearly everything you have, including that suave computer you type your comments out on.
How oppressed are these gypsies, really? And what are they going to do, put a curse on the President so that no matter what he eats, he just keeps getting thinner?
@Lysergic Asset: Pretty fucking oppressed. Come to the Czech Republic where Roma children are sent to "special" schools, Neo-nazis burn down Roma housing communities and "ethnic" Czechs refuse to hire the roma. Or visit Lety, the former Roma labor camp that now pays respect and honor to the people who suffered at the hands of Nazis in the form of a...pig farm. Discrimination against the Roma is a huge problem in Europe, and thought it may not translate to US, it doesn't make the word gypsy or it's derivatives any less offensive.
I don't know if it's a slur, all i know is the last time i asked my insurance company if a needed surgery was covered, they said they wouldn't tell me until I passed silver over their palm.
As crazy as all these Right-wingers may be, they're crafty as well. News outlets will now focus on Obama's "gaffe" and likely report little to nothing on the topic of the speech.
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I say post away! Idiots.
12/04/09
12/04/09
"If only The People could make their voices heard over the din of corporate-controlled media."
"Soon, the democratication of media will give everyone a voice."
Then the internet happened and I realized that the Vox Populi is actually the sound of your embarassing, racist, maybe retarded uncle, after he's had about ten beers too many. The Voice of the People is really, really dumb.
12/04/09
12/04/09
We may be manipulated into believing the racist morons are the majority of Americans, and this may be true in smaller population centers. However, the energy and authenticity of the 2003 rallies was enough to sustain my belief that in urban areas, rational intelligence still reigns.
12/04/09
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12/04/09
If you spout about Obama being muslin anti americkuhn- then you get hidden and I will not trade any of my animals with you on Farmville.
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Pot, meet Kettle, though I do believe you're already well acquainted.
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In short, he's a moron's moron.
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Yay for dumbasses!!
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When confronted with abject ignorance, stupidity, prejudice and/or bigotry, I usually just click my heels together three times and say silently to myself, "The meek shall inherit the earth..."
12/05/09
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12/04/09
"Gyppo", on the other hand, I knew all along was dead wrong.
12/04/09
Things I thought he was that he's turning out not to be:
Eloquent
Hardworking
Intelligent
Independent
Different
Friend to Middle and Lower class
Transparent
Responsible
Decisive...
12/04/09
12/04/09
12/04/09
12/04/09
12/05/09
Meanwhile vaccines The Third World Poors get are ignored because, while they'll save millions of lives, they can only be sold for pennies.
Whoops.
12/05/09
The insurance system is set up in such a way right now that the consumer is getting plowed.
But that doesn't mean we should be against people making money, which is basically the incentive for nearly everything you have, including that suave computer you type your comments out on.
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At least you didn't get the beating I did!
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They're just not that warm and cuddly a people.
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I will never joke about oppression in any form ever again.
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:-)
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