America & the World V: DOGE Business

[fishbowlhead]

No wonder the war isn't going well for Russia - look how clumsy the people in charge are:

Russian defence official dies after falling from St. Petersburg tower window

Suuuuuuure, “fell” makes sense in Russia.

[Lebowski]

Its getting to the point where they could start a charity appeal

"Can you give just five pounds a month to help educate Russian officials on the danger of windows"

[Asura]

"Can you give just five pounds a month to help educate Russian officials on the danger of windows"

Now there's a Mitchell & Webb sketch

[gunrock]

I feel one of the biggest problems that social media/the internet has created is how it's empowered that person.

Remember how, when we were kids, we surely all knew one - we all knew a kid where, if a house nearby was being demolished, the rest of us just thought it was being renovated, but this kid... They knew. They knew it was because someone was killed there, and no-one wanted to buy the house, so it stood empty until someone eventually had it knocked down. (this was not the real reason).

When one of your teachers left school, they knew it was really because they'd said something in front of the mayor that had got them sacked. (again, not the real reason).

Not the bull****ter kid. We probably all knew a bull****ter kid too, but their lies were more straightforward. They knew James Bond, their dad worked for Nintendo, etc.

No, this was the kid who always wanted to "know". Like they always wanted to look like they had "the inside track", like they had hidden knowledge. Whenever they were told something about a situation, they made up their own reason and would tell you it later, and say they heard it off someone else.

Most kids go through weird phases and I'm sure, like the bull****ter kid, most of them grew out of this, realising there's nothing smart in trying to look like you know the inside track without being able to back it up.

But it's really clear that many people don't and they still harbour this weird desire to pretend they're in the know. They take great pleasure in being the one who "knows" when everyone else just believes the commonly accepted reasoning.

They didn't want to wear masks because it made them look silly and they're a whiny pissbaby because they know. They know, apparently, that it's useless, that all the doctors and medical professionals are lying. They don't know like this individual knows.

Gawd... Some people really need a ****ing slap

This what I was trying to explain to my wife and twins, yesterday, about the Nicola Bulley case with all the amateur sleuths and influencers turning up at the scene, plus those sending DMs and trolling the family and boyfriend.

There is always some idiot at the pub or in the workplace/schoolyard spouting some vile ****, but pre-internet they were in Widness and you were in Woolwich, so you never heard about it. No harm done. With the Internet and social media, they poke their victims directly and bring an army of followers with them (or at the very least, act as a marker for others to coalesce and attack their victim).

It's simultaneously the best and worst thing about the internet, really. It allows you find like-minded others and form a community or it brings simple-minded idiots together to form a venomous, baying mob.

[Asura]

This what I was trying to explain to my wife and twins, yesterday, about the Nicola Bulley case with all the amateur sleuths and influencers turning up at the scene, plus those sending DMs and trolling the family and boyfriend.

There is always some idiot at the pub or in the workplace/schoolyard spouting some vile ****, but pre-internet they were in Widness and you were in Woolwich, so you never heard about it. No harm done. With the Internet and social media, they poke their victims directly and bring an army of followers with them (or at the very least, act as a marker for others to coalesce and attack their victim).

It's simultaneously the best and worst thing about the internet, really. It allows you find like-minded others and form a community or it brings simple-minded idiots together to form a venomous, baying mob.

That "weird bloke at the pub" thing is apt. In a small town, every pub probably used to have 1-2 of them.

But nationally that's literally thousands of people.

[wakka]

This what I was trying to explain to my wife and twins, yesterday, about the Nicola Bulley case with all the amateur sleuths and influencers turning up at the scene, plus those sending DMs and trolling the family and boyfriend.

There is always some idiot at the pub or in the workplace/schoolyard spouting some vile ****, but pre-internet they were in Widness and you were in Woolwich, so you never heard about it. No harm done. With the Internet and social media, they poke their victims directly and bring an army of followers with them (or at the very least, act as a marker for others to coalesce and attack their victim).

It's simultaneously the best and worst thing about the internet, really. It allows you find like-minded others and form a community or it brings simple-minded idiots together to form a venomous, baying mob.

The design of Reddit particularly fosters this. Because it's atomised into individual communities that then have the power to surface content (with upvotes) or hide it (with downvotes), it's a massive groupthink enabler.

It's at maybe its most damaging in a subreddit like r/gangstalking. Literally a subreddit of people with paranoid schizophrenia who think they're being systematically stalked every time they leave the house, and they're all constantly reinforcing each other's delusions. Really sad.

[QualityChimp]

It's a bit more nuanced than it first appears.

My understanding from my time as a teacher there (though others here may know more than I) was that the age of "don't pass go, go to prison" was/is 13. However, you could still get sent to prison for sexual acts with a young person up to 18 in various contexts; it was case-by-case. For instance, a doctor, who has a position of authority, would probably go to prison if the child was 16; but an 18-year-old builder might not, because their job has no position of authority over kids. We were always told (as teachers) to treat 19 as the age, if we were dating someone.

On the one hand, at one end of the scale, the idea of someone sleeping with a 13yo makes me feel ill. But a teacher I worked with defended the practice on the other end, saying that in the UK system, just having a line at 16 was weird to him, because it implies that if a person sleeps with a child who is 15-years-and-364-days old, they go to jail, but 16-years-and-1-day, legally the 16yo can consent.

Looked at that way, I can understand the idea of having a "soft criteria" as opposed to a line in the sand. However, the "low-end" side of it is still a stumbling block for me.

Japan has a complicated relationship with this, as Yakumo says.

Even in 2022; the OVA prequel chapter for the Fruits Basket anime released, which shows how the mother and father of the main character in the show first met. The father is ~25 years old and working as a student teacher, while the mother is a delinquent student in final year, which means she's freshly 15 years old. And this is framed as a romance.

Personally, I think this sliding scale of what's acceptable is particularly muddy, whereas a set age of consent makes things very clear for both parties.

Everybody knows what is illegal.

I know it sounds daft, but any age limit is, from smoking to drinking to gambling and voting, but it works and people know when they're breaking the law.

I do understand that it's a bit strange that one day you can't do something and the next day you can, but it's less skin-crawly than saying it's OK to have sexual relations with a 13-year-old in certain, vague circumstances.

I remember Emma Watson turned 18 and the paparazzi waited until she was leaving a party on that evening to start taking upskirt shots, so they didn't break the law (at the time). How chivalrous.

The Sun ran a countdown until a 15-year-old turned 16 so they could print her topless photos.

There was a BBC3 show called "Mongrels" that tackled this and it was brutal:
"Marion the cat falls for the beautiful kitten Lollipop. The trouble is, Lollipop is only three weeks and six days old... and as everyone but Marion knows, the legal age for dating is four weeks. All Marion has to do is stay alive for one more day so that Lollipop can be his soul mate. Which should be easy- a cat has nine lives..."
(Probably NSFW)

->Open Spoiler<-

[Neon Ignition]

The Sun ran a countdown until a 15-year-old turned 16 so they could print her topless photos.[/SPOILER]

How does that even work? If they suddenly turn 16 the photo's are still of an underaged 15 year old. The paper and photographer should be up then on predatory charges

[Blobcat]

I remember the whole hypocritical bile that was the newspaper article scandalising the paedogeddon episode of Brasseye whist simultaneously ogling Charlotte Church on how big her tits were at age 15.

[Neon Ignition]

Guess the party he's affiliated to

Embedded Tweet

[Neon Ignition]

China approves biggest expansion in new coal power plants since 2015, report finds | China | The Guardian

[Yakumo]

China approves biggest expansion in new coal power plants since 2015, report finds | China | The Guardian

But China are the world leader of Green Tech. Or so all the dumb arses would have you beleive.

[Neon Ignition]

Evan Rachel Wood denies pressuring woman into assault claims against Marilyn Manson | Marilyn Manson | The Guardian
After one of Marilyn Manson accusers withdraws their accusation, Evan Rachel Wood is forced to deny pressuring the woman into submitting the complaint in the first place

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.wesh.com/article/ultimate-cancel-act-florida-democratic-party/43125234

In Florida a bill might lead to the abolishment of the Democrat party in the state

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/mar/07/russia-ukraine-war-live-news-russian-invasion-zelenskiy-vows-to-defend-bakhmut-latest-update?page=with:block-6406c12c8f080f05b938d847#block-6406c12c8f080f05b938d847

China moves to go more in with Russia