Public Address | Cafe | Hard News: LATE: From #Slacktivism to Activism https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/ en-us Copyright (c) 2026 Public Address linger https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=367281#post367281 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=367281#post367281 The Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry (Series 3, Episode 4, The Portly Problem, addressing your question about middle-aged spread). ]]> Sat, 15 Oct 2016 22:42:12 +1300 Dennis Frank https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365907#post365907 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365907#post365907 Of course not. It was just an oblique reference to the effect of postmodernism on younger generations. In particular, to how that culture makes it hard to discern what's real. I'm aware there are pros & cons to postmodern culture, so I'm just citing the relevant downside.

In respect of the…

]]> Fri, 02 Sep 2016 19:24:04 +1200 Bart Janssen https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365891#post365891 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365891#post365891 Just trying to make a nuanced point about the unacknowledged role blind faith plays in providing us with a social reality based on the supposedly sound basis of science.

Yup I do get that. I really do understand the role interpretation can play in conclusions drawn from observations and I'm…

]]> Fri, 02 Sep 2016 13:41:35 +1200 Dennis Frank https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365888#post365888 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365888#post365888 Fri, 02 Sep 2016 12:51:30 +1200 Bart Janssen https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365883#post365883 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365883#post365883 But was this information fact?

To quote Brian Cox

Yes

]]> Fri, 02 Sep 2016 11:39:09 +1200 Dennis Frank https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365875#post365875 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365875#post365875 Consider the origin of information: from the Latin verb informare, which means to give form, or to form an idea of. So it's the object of thought.

Merely opinion, then? Can a rumour inform us? Makes the scientific equation of information with data seem too reductionist, huh?

Activists are motivated…

]]> Thu, 01 Sep 2016 21:57:21 +1200 linger https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365859#post365859 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365859#post365859 get used to being wrong a LOTYes; and that’s one of the hardest things to learn. As I keep reminding my grad students: getting results you didn’t expect is a good thing. You’ve either just found a problem with your method, or else a limitation to the theory driving your… ]]> Thu, 01 Sep 2016 10:09:10 +1200 Bart Janssen https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365857#post365857 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365857#post365857 Information is not always drawn from data as such. Experiences and ideas can also be conveyed to drive action.

I do understand what you are saying but in my experience when people use experiences to drive activism without supporting those experiences with data then you end up with anecdote driven…

]]> Thu, 01 Sep 2016 09:51:14 +1200 Sacha https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365856#post365856 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365856#post365856 Thu, 01 Sep 2016 09:33:57 +1200 Bart Janssen https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365855#post365855 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365855#post365855 data and research and facts

information is broader than those things

Which is fine, but information (as you are defining it) that contradicts the observed data is simply a lie and that is the constant problem.

By all means add the nuances of culture and societal needs but the moment…

]]> Thu, 01 Sep 2016 09:07:51 +1200 Joe Wylie https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365853#post365853 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365853#post365853 Excellent, thank you.
Sounds a bit like Junk DNA.

]]> Wed, 31 Aug 2016 22:53:02 +1200 linger https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365851#post365851 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365851#post365851 Nine-tenths of the universe is the knowledge of the position and direction of everything in the other tenth […] It is unaccounted for because it is doing the accounting for the rest of it [….].
Nine-tenths of the universe, in fact, is the paperwork.—Terry Pratchett, Thief Of Time (p11)

]]> Wed, 31 Aug 2016 22:00:04 +1200 Joe Wylie https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365849#post365849 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365849#post365849 A growing number of scientists, Gleick writes, are beginning to wonder whether information "may be primary: more fundamental than matter itself."

Sounds like reification, that old pitfall for the academically inclined whose erudition exceeds their life experience: "Reification (Gestalt psychology), the perception of an object as having more spatial information…

]]> Wed, 31 Aug 2016 20:51:17 +1200 Russell Brown https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365847#post365847 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365847#post365847 data and research and facts

information is broader than those things

True, and that's often where nerd-advocacy falls down: helping ordinary people understand where they fit in, what their rights are. And probably more so for extraordinary (disabled) people. It's important to not let go of your issues as an…

]]> Wed, 31 Aug 2016 20:43:20 +1200 Ian Dalziel https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365846#post365846 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365846#post365846 information is broader than those things
then again perhaps...
A growing number of scientists, Gleick writes, are beginning to wonder whether information "may be primary: more fundamental than matter itself."
or not...
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/why-information-cant-be-the-basis-of-reality/

]]> Wed, 31 Aug 2016 20:30:40 +1200 Sacha https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365840#post365840 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365840#post365840 data and research and facts

information is broader than those things

]]> Wed, 31 Aug 2016 14:28:15 +1200 Rob Stowell https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365839#post365839 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365839#post365839 Maybe this will remind you…
https://www.facebook.com/thespinofftv/videos/vb.585595504882807/818024834973205/?type=2&theater

Watching this clip, I was struck that, despite editing, abbreviation, and hyperbole, the supposedly ignorant protesters were not so far off-target. What they said in the bits shown in Jose’s clip – loss of sovereignty, more power to corporations, and worry that one’s children…

]]> Wed, 31 Aug 2016 13:51:14 +1200 Russell Brown https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365810#post365810 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365810#post365810 I am surprised you take such a stance on the TTPA protests and didn’t recognise a media beat-up job when you see one.

Jose’s piece was on-point. But that doesn’t make it untrue that people had some very odd ideas about the TPP. My Facebook feed told me that, as…

]]> Tue, 30 Aug 2016 18:55:56 +1200 EE https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365808#post365808 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365808#post365808 Russell said "For all the efforts of researchers, protest vox-pops revealed that many of the people marching did not know a lot about what they were opposing, and believed some strange things about what the treaty portended. Is it enough to merely get people fired up?"

I am surprised you…

]]> Tue, 30 Aug 2016 18:34:42 +1200 Bart Janssen https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365804#post365804 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365804#post365804 information is at the heart of activism

Really?

Yeah there have been some cases where folks got data out there for the public to see and that spurred action. But there are many many other cases where folks have got very active based on no facts at all ... cough…

]]> Tue, 30 Aug 2016 17:12:39 +1200 Rich of Observationz https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365799#post365799 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365799#post365799 Also, Mr Greenpeace Nuclear tests won't aid security.

Kim Jong Il is alive and has his job. Saddam Hussein isn't and doesn't. I think the former is probably happy with his decision to make nukes. An unfortunate side effect of deciding that 'regime change' is a good idea.

]]> Tue, 30 Aug 2016 15:37:44 +1200 Rich of Observationz https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365797#post365797 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365797#post365797 Is it enough to merely get people fired up?

Sometimes its just easier (and the right have no qualms about getting their desired policies through using whatever means work).

E.g. whisper it not, but fracking doesn't cause (noticeable) earthquakes. However it's a Bad Thing because it enables more oil to…

]]> Tue, 30 Aug 2016 15:35:14 +1200 Rob Stowell https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365794#post365794 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365794#post365794 And on the other hand, I know I wasn’t the only one who had qualms about both the TPP and some of the crankery and conspiracy theorising in the broader campaign against it.
Can be a very awkward place. On the one hand, you don’t want to antagonise allies or…

]]> Tue, 30 Aug 2016 14:51:37 +1200 Public Address https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365793#post365793 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-late-from-slacktivism-to-activism/?p=365793#post365793 Discussion from blog post.

]]> Tue, 30 Aug 2016 14:51:37 +1200