Posts by TracyMac
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Hard News: If this was ever funny, it's…, in reply to Sacha,
That's exactly right re the "fake news" mantra - early on there was a tweet or two from Trump on the theme of "I'm not fake news YOU'RE fake news nyah nyah".
Within a week or so of that was a speech (I caught the excerpts on Full Frontal - Sam Bee is fantastic), where Trump was chanting "fake news" with the cadence of "Brutus is an honorable man". That's when it was obvious it was a coordinated strategy.
The technique goes all the way back to the co-option of the leftie joke about "political correctness" - redefine term X for your own purposes and beat the opposition over the head with it. Term X originated with that opposition, so there is already a link in the public's minds - the attackers just need to reverse the polarity of the meaning and rely on ignorance, lack of critical thinking and lack of fact-finding.
But this example was indeed very slick and very quick - "fake news" just starts to hit the public consciousness, and it's turned around within a month.
It has blatantly become a propaganda war, and the left is losing. Do I think we should tell gratuitous lies like they do? No. But how do you make truth "sexier" than lies that align with a large chunk of the public's confirmation bias AND actually provide positive answers for some of the underlying actual concerns.
No-one much beyond real nutbag racists and Winnie would give much of a shit about immigration, for example, if it wasn't associated with resource contention - e.g. the rise in marginal, poorly-paid employment, the lack of affordable housing, etc.
-
Goddamit, I am destined never to be in the same country as Pitch Black when they perform. Last time was in London in around 2002 - queue at Cargo went around the block - I simply turned around and waited for the bus back to Lewisham.
Last time I saw Mr Free perform live was as part of Mesh - pure serendipity of walking down High St as they did Hummingbird. Was that ever released? I have not been able to track it down.
-
Hard News: Public Address and PressPatron, in reply to Kevin McCready,
Er, why would a private blogger feel obliged to produce reports to the public on their profits, or even their revenue, full stop.
Or are you referring to "back end" features that will make the product more useful from an accounting perspective, particularly for websites with multiple authors and/or which is owned by a business?
-
Derail done, I feel pretty damn disheartened as well. I'll be going along to the march in Canberra on Monday, but I think the whole thing is going to be pretty futile. Maybe it'll kick off a rolling series of protests, like Occupy, but that did nothing concrete either.
:-/ Eh, I'm pretty depressed in general - work is kicking me in the guts already this year, with no end in sight. Doing something, symbolic as it is on this side of the world (and there as well), is better than nothing.
-
Up Front: Walk This Way, in reply to mark taslov,
Frankly, this is the first I heard of Steinem being involved in the US march. And since she is still the most recognisable feminist in the country, it'd actually be odd if she weren't a "prominent figure" involved in it. And she is certainly not an organiser of the thing as a whole. She still represents many second wave and mainstream feminist views.
Regarding her views, she wrote an essay on her evolving views on transpeople several years ago, and wholeheartedly apologised for the hurt her earlier views caused. For the Maher thing, she clarified and apologised the day after for being seen to imply younger women are not politically engaged.
Perhaps if you had such an interest in Ms Steinem's career and views as you purported to, you'd know these things. I don't follow the doings of second-wave American feminists that closely, and yet I knew of these mitigating factors.
No-one's perfect, and she is a feminist of her generation, with some of her views not perhaps as nuanced as we'd like even now, but she is certainly not broadcasting the kind of trans hated these days as you seem to imply. You need to look at arseholes like Sheila Jeffreys for that kind of thing.
Anyway, it's a shame that the association of Steinem's name with the US event (in an honorary role), despite all the other awesome women who have put their names to it, has so put you off attending an NZ march as you so obviously planned to. Perhaps you'll reconsider.
-
If I never see NounMcNounface again, I will be exceedingly happy.
I'm glad to have made my contribution to the winner, and I'm sad that one of my alternate choices, "skux", didn't quite make it.
-
Oh, and I wouldn't bother with paid sites. Modern apps are cheaper if OKC isn't good enough.
As for old-fashioned live dating services, I had an ex (of dubious ethics, thus the "ex") who ran one of those many years ago.
If a male punter wasn't getting any dates, and was starting to arc up about paying the subscription fees, she simply hired a pro to go on a "date" with the guy. Naturally the fees he'd already paid more than offset the expense. And he'd pay more, since obviously he was getting some "success".
-
Up Front: The Up Front Guide to Internet…, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
OKC has been around way way way longer than Grindr et al. My impression was that Tinder is the equivalent for straights, naturally with somewhat less emphasis on the immediate hookup thing.
Those questionnaire things on OKC are very revealing, and also make you wonder how desperate you must be to try and make contact with someone whose life is basically the antithesis of your own. I made one of those fun quizzes a number of years ago - must log on (if I can find the creds) and see how it's going.
As for Fetlife, I get a few messages from time to time (excepting those of the "I want to be your slave, master" ilk, and those are always from purported women who haven't noticed I'm also one), which is in stark contrast to the complete lack of responses I got on OKC - being a butch dyke is more acceptable in kink land.
Also, I have a fair amount of privilege due to my presentation in that I have not once been addressed as "honey" or similar, nor received a dick pic.
My hint (after hearing about it at length, ahem, from friends) for anyone tempted to send a dick pic: assess if there's interest FIRST, ask, and check out Critique My Dick Pic for dos and don'ts before sending it.
-
I'm pretty entertained by the Aussie word (phrase) of the year: democracy sausage.
That is, from the sausage sizzle at the more evolved voting stations - the convention is to have your sausage AFTER you vote, I am given to understand.
It's a pretty recent term in Oz, although the sausage sizzles on election day have been around forever.
At least that's one cheerful association with elections on this side of the world, although thankfully the central Europeans seem to be doing ok in terms of not electing more so-called "populist" (dog-whistling) right-wing "personalities".
On a closer to home front (and even more of a tangent), from reading the Herald, you'd expect National to have sewn up Mt Roskill. Shock-horror, a Labour rep who is actually visible in the community got in by a landslide, and not on Goff's coattails. Very satisfying result.
-
The Fairfax archives is an appalling story, but aerial mapping as well? Wow.
One thing the US does well is the fact that all govt archives are public domain. Obviously it doesn't solve the issue of improper archiving, but because the information is freely accessible, and heavily used in all manner of applications, the public interest aspect of storing it properly is self-evident.
The fact that a private organisation is responsible for this, and a purpose-built building can't be funded is unbelievable.
I'm afraid the argument about "increased seismic activity" in Wellington is a bit rich, coming from Christchurch. I think the lesson is that severe earthquakes can pop up almost anywhere (or volcanos in Auckland), so geographically-dispersed collections makes good sense, and standards for any building storing such collections must include planning for "1000 year" quakes or other natural phenomena. Of course it needs to be properly funded, hah.
As for the state of the archive premises now, how is the "temporary accommodation"? Good on you for ringing the alarm bell now - hopefully this will stir up some action.