Posts by Farmer Green
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Hard News: The fake news problem, in reply to andin,
And I’ll be as cryptic as I want, Thank you very much
As you should ; do what thou wilt . . .
I recall now your prior advice to me - "don't assume." -
"It’s time to pull all these observations together. We face a decade or more, during which three uniquely dangerous factors will be in play:
A sense among the mass of citizens that it is no longer possible to discern the truth of any single event or series of geopolitical moves: cynical spin, whoring media and complicated cultural situations have combined to place land-mines under every route through the quicksand….but there is quadrophonic disagreement about where the landmines are.
Western Establishments that live in (and act upon) the short term only….and remain blinded , by archaic ideology, to the realities of philosophical sea change.
The imminent impacts and after-shocks of the potentially greatest econo-fiscal disaster in recorded history.I have been trying in recent months to shift the emphasis of The Slog away from “news” (whatever that means any more) to an examination of the step-change in social organisation, sovereignty and economic motives that is already unfolding. That will inevitably mean a drop in popularity, because breaking stuff pulls readers in.
But I can’t cover news in any honest sense any more. First, the former army of contacts I had is either retired or dead; second, it takes so long today to prove or disprove the provenance of a story, by the time one feels confident about it, the news element has faded; and finally, I think the vast majority of it is a distraction from the massively threatened survival of citizen liberties and informed electorates.
Thank you for persevering with the length of this piece. Enjoy the rest of the weekend."
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Hard News: The fake news problem, in reply to Emma Hart,
Did you notice, at any point, that this was an address to writers?
Yes that was clear. It was the National Writers Forum.
” Of, y’know, books? ”
It never occurred to me that the word “writer” was being applied only to those who wrote “books”. The Bard wrote plays.” how can we, as writers of books, get through to them?”
If “getting through to them ” is your principal objective in writing , and they do not read books , then surely you will place your writing where it will be read by your “targets”.
Or you may choose some other art form to "get through to them", whatever you are meaning by that expression. -
Hard News: The fake news problem, in reply to andin,
You can go to harold yourself,
I don’t know this expression. Was it by way of illustrating the point that Chris Cleave was making in the quoted passage?
http://stevie-nicks.info/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/1973-fm-mystery-to-me-gatefold.jpg -
Hard News: The fake news problem, in reply to andin,
just taking the piss?
I did not think so.
“cogitating cows” ?
Ruminating surely. ?
I wondered who it was that was being described here :-
” . . .does not listen to reason, does not acknowledge science, does not defer to expertise or experience, does not doubt its own convictions, does not read books.”Who was this evil personified , or was it merely a mythical creature? My impresssion was that the writer had some person or persons in mind.
Not having read a book for a long time , I observed that I was not the only one of whom it could be said pejoratively “does not read books”.“Not very well, I might add.”
As I said it wasn’t the intention. And it was a first draft.
Imitating of the style of Marc Gallant , in his masterpiece “The Cow Book”, I sought to counter the accusation that someone who does not read books can be presumed to be evil. And presumed, as well, to hold the rest of the mentioned attributes of “evil personified” , whoever he is. It is so obviously nonsense.
But I will accept that it was a poor imitation. I'm working on it.
” cows offer any insight as to why, . . .?”
Browsing the full range of material on offer in the third millenium , rather than just that contained in books, did not seem to be so sinful to me. There will be people on this planet who have never, ever read a book. There could be reasons why someone “does not read books”.“and the deeper implications of said observations by their herd?”
That will require further rumination. And I noted that “does not read books” is altogether different from “has never read a book” or “ is incapable of reading a book ”.
I see from Simon g’s reply to you where you were going – the mythical Trump adorer. Something to tilt at perhaps? A focal point for venting a bit of spleen? A way of saying : – “I am not like those deplorable people”?
It just seemed like an exercise in name -calling and dismissal. -
Hard News: The fake news problem, in reply to Emma Hart,
does not read books.
Cows have noticed that people are reading fewer books these days , and even the weekly gossip mags are not exactly thriving.
Cows think that what might loosely be termed browsing is not an altogether bad thing. -
Hard News: #eqnz: Okay?, in reply to Farmer Green,
More instances of overtopping of wells have been seen. There are literally thousands of these bores in the immediate area, and a representative sample has had pressure testing in recent times ; there will be good data.
In the meantime, more "paleo" water will be dispersed to groundwater than previously , and eventually go down the rivers to the sea. It's very clean, hard water. -
Hard News: #eqnz: Okay?, in reply to Hilary Stace,
The 1855 one caused the huge uplift of land around Wellington,
It's clear that here in P.N. there has been a major shake-up well below us involving the 2 or 3 aquifers closest to the surface, so, from ground level down to about 80 metres.
Old artesian bores in the shallowest aquifer are now flowing impressively and lagoons are already forming. These old bores are uncapped , and have had a suction pipe inserted to draw water from the bore when artesian head pressures are low.
The porosity between the lowest -level higher-head aquifer, and the shallow aquifer that these old bore are tapping, has obviously increased considerably. -
Hard News: The fake news problem, in reply to Joe Wylie,
All the while entirely overlooking the inconvenient fact that lactose intolerance was widespread in the “target” population.
Since then the dairy output of NZ has more than doubled, and the price received has halved. Not to mention the “downstream” consequences.
Wendyl is bullshitting about the lactose which is a non-sweet sugar , and was not added because it was already unavoidably oversupplied . Skim milk powder is naturally 46% lactose. -
Hard News: The fake news problem, in reply to mark taslov,
uncharacteristically emotive,
I’ll take that on board.
My experience as a performer has been that when the audience and those on stage “lock on” at a purely emotional level, then the outcome is what is referred to as “a good gig ” or other similar expressions.
It was wrong of me to be thinking that politics is just theatre ; there are serious consequences. I fell into a trap there, extrapolating from a false premise that all media publications are bollocks.
The exhilaration of being freed from loading and feeding out two big wagons of silage EVERY day (amongst all the other chores) for the last ten months must have got to me. :-)
Sober reflection is called for.