I just read this article too, and I think they are very complimentary: https://newmatilda.com/2015/08/19/truth-hurts-science-behind-why-people-dont-care-about-death-our-planet-and-democracy

It's long but well worth it, and offers a potential framing to counter apparent apathy about global warming (in an Australian context).

Tonight's (16th August ) Sounds Historical on Natrad dug a 41 year old interview with Bill Rowling out of the archives.

A bit discomforting listening to Rowling talk about inequality and how the haves should share more with the have nots.

Rowling talks about voters being more educated about…

I wonder how long before they start laying off workers and telling us that the recycling program is losing money and we have to expand the Ahipara landfill thus negating any savings and causing grief to the community.
They will, of…

We are in the FN often, we're seriously into recycling and have found the depots up there extremely well run.

26 years is a testament to sustainability....I wonder how long the new boys will last?

Is who are these arseholes, who are lining their pockets, screwing everyone else and inflating their own sense of self purpose? We dont need them! They shouldnt be in charge of a Weet bix packet.

No, we must continue to talk about income inequality

I think maybe we should stop talking and start acting.

Less hui, more dooey.

Very community minded of you, would SHG do anything like that ? could he & his ilk put others first?

Stolen? Yeah right.
It is an old thought game no need to get cynical on it, although the temptation is definitely there these days.

Which is kinda what Tracy was saying in 1988.

In a whisper.

IMHE those who happen to be favoured by dumb luck tend to see their situation as evidence of a functioning meritocracy.

Dumb luck is not a manifesto. America’s GI Bill and the German Soziale Marktwirtschaft are.

And will the wealth gap still be ‘not your problem’ if those on the wrong side of it decide the only way to close it is with AK47s, and one of them happens…

And who in their right mind would trust the wealthiest person in town with their sheep?

Stolen? Yeah right. Betcha I 'forgot' I sold 'em.

For goodness sakes...have they not heard the one about…

Nah dumb
How about you try this one.
You are the wealthiest person in a small group of people in community.
Everyone has animals though you have the most and are able to have a shelter to put them at night. No one else does, so let them…

(Is this my Lotto Ticket fluttering earthwards?)

DAY ONE: My three friends and I live in abject poverty.

DAY TWO: A lotto ticket falls from a passing aeroplane and I pluck it out of the air, and upon taking it to a Lotto shop I find that I have just won ten million dollars. Being…

Ignoring mass-energy conversion
(so, casting light aside, rather than behind),
the law of conservation of fecal matter entails that
someone who doesn’t give a shit must be full of it.

Ya can't take them anywhere...

Give 'em the cold light of crepuscular Lampyridae and they'll sense the order behind it all – a veritable Coleoptera Opera of…

“I am a little glow bug,
A glow bug’s never glum,
How can I be unhappy,
When the sun shines out my bum?”

Hoyle's handy when things get tense at the Samba table....but is there a rule book for how life is played?

Or are the rules set by those holding the power?

But then...in a democracy...…

As "an interested literate politically-aware correspondent", help me out here....

Being cryptic is all very well...but I thought the thread was about communication of ideas...

I think your linchpin ‘example’:
There is a…

The – or your – problem is you're auctioning your intellectual virginity and no-one's come anywhere near the reserve?

There is a clear inequality in the number of Grammys won between myself and Tracy Chapman. I have none; she has one. Inequality.

Do you care? If so, why?

If you don't care about…

Are you, or is anyone you know, on a benefit, minimum wage, or studying? Do you have a disability? Are you a sole parent, or on…

On the contrary, it's 100% apples to apples. There's a clear inequality but I don't give a shit about it. And I don't see why I SHOULD give a shit about it.

Seriously, this is the problem. I'm an interested literate politically-aware correspondent asking for a definition…

Apples and oranges. Modern inequality is being propped up by survivorship bias dogma that thinks anyone can be a CEO or a dropout tech tycoon.

Is a zero-tax, zero-government society worth it, if you have to live in a…

I uncharacteristically did one of those rather moronic "test your real age quizzes a few weeks ago.

I was doing ok until the "do you have financial worries?" and "are you caring for a family member with health and disability issues?"...gone...ten years off my lifespan.…

Easier to explain...

How about we generate a Kiwi version of this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKeepk1s13s

[sorry, digression]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TViBKtij5o

And nobody asked me ;)

You haven't yet told me why I should care about it. What sort of inequality?

Indeed...a mystery.

And yet the National government is presently polling higher than it was the month after the election that brought it to power:

http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/pollsjul15.png

I was only asking what to *name* those things.

The other day I was reading Rob Salmond’s post Buying a fight with democracy when I stumbled over the following:

But it becomes a big deal for people with low…

Why not ask a really hard question, Sacha?

You said....

insisting on smart thinking and competent governance rather than expensive polling and mystical foreign advisors......The results for all current and future New…

Remember when we had a Social Welfare department, back when that sounded like a good thing? Then when the government felt the need to apologise for alleviating poverty and hardship, we had Income Support, and then the euphemistic __Work…

got any suggestions for "approach for the next ten to twenty years" vs "plan for next 3 years"?

snap

If sticking by principles is not important to you, people notice that you can not be trusted. Who knew?

actions louder than words, yes.

The results were startling. When the virus metaphor was used, significantly more people offered systemic solutions – these responses were higher by 17%. Thanks to the power of one word!

Wrong. Thanks to…

You get a bit of that here too.

Absolutely. It's the bit that's "on the other hand" that I think the left suffers from more than the right, at the moment. It could be that the whole narrative surrounding the…

Some of us were begging for a worthwhile recipient for our vote.

I had hopes for 'cut the crap' Little, but I fear he is being groomed and finessed.

The centre right left will prevail.

Right there.

When Kirk says "adversarial"...my reaction (gut) is a courtroom, where although the point of the exercise is supposed to be arriving at the truth...it so often ends up that he who has the most wriggly-arsed lawyer wins.…

In this paper, we have reported four studies that comprise a follow-up study to Thibodeau and Boroditsky. In contrast to the original studies, we consistently found no effects of metaphorical frames on policy preference. Additionally, there was no difference between the two…

I see it as both, and other things besides. For example, this debate right here in this thread is a political discourse. But I'd…

In this article, we offer a critical view of Thibodeau and Boroditsky.... We argue that the design of the study has…

If I think Kirk has a strong point, it’s that we need to get over ourselves about this. Key has – he’s not too proud to spin in ways that make people of intellect think he must be mentally deficient, talking to…

Damn that man.

Or, dam his mouth?

It beggars belief that he is so effective.

In my dreams, I have a committed National/Key voter pinned down, explaining exactly why they voted the way they did.

What did they think they were going to…

Even used in the context of changing the narrative to try to get those who thoughtlessly vote to think differently...or even think at all...(and…

Framing and reframing sounds good to me – along the continuum of NLP, De Bono and also Chomsky’s transformational grammar.

Anything that directs people towards understanding and dealing with the causes and not symptoms of our…

Yes, I agree that framing is important, and so does having solutions – or the appearance of being able to create solutions – rather than what seems like constant grizzling about problems.…