Wednesday, 14 March 2018
quote [ The Man Who Knew Too Little
The most ignorant man in America knows that Donald Trump is president — but that’s about it. ]
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lilmookieesquire said @ 3:09am GMT on 14th Mar
[Score:2 Informative]
because NYT has an article limit. also I like how they address that this guy is hella privileged. This reminds me of the guy that built a wilderness compound to "get away from it all" and be village level socialists. Like everyone was going to bring something to teach others... and eventually it got taken over by crazies. |
5th Earth said @ 12:21pm GMT on 14th Mar
[Score:1 Insightful]
You know what, I just made this point to HoZay but it's important enough to make a dedicated comment:
Fuck. This. Guy. The fact that he is even able to do this is exactly what "privilege" means. He doesn't have any relatives in a country affected by the travel ban. He doesn't know anyone involved with DACA. He's not worried about where his health care comes from or how he's going to pay for it. He's confident his children will receive a good education (assuming he has any). He won't notice if American manufacturing gets outsourced because steel is too expensive in this country. He's not concerned about not being able to a vote in the next election because he doesn't have the right ID. No, he just ignores all of it, and it doesn't affect him in any way. It doesn't matter. He can live a perfectly comfortable life and if the world goes to hell in a handbasket he won't even notice. *That's* what be privilege is. |
machpi said @ 3:18pm GMT on 14th Mar
OTOH: tapping out of the incessant news barrage is by no means something only somebody with his resources can do. It only takes not watching tv. Period. This guy is extreme, granted. Only a guy in his circumstances could do it. When you try to stay abreast of everything, all the time, you are staying abreast of not only the most up-to-the-minute news, you also expose yourself to the river of gossip and downright lies that is a part of that. Any news outlet that devotes itself to the 24hr news cycle necessarily will get many things wrong. Most of these outlets pay scant attention to keeping the record straight. They just move on to the next cresting news and report it as best they can before they move on to the *next* crest, and so on. The takeaway from this guy, AFAI am concerned, is to try to limit yourself to outlets that do *not* participate as freely in the accelerated news cycle. Those outlets that give themselves time to think about what's going on, to separate hearsay and gossip from what's real, and to report on and discuss that. So, yeah, fuck this guy. But fuck the people who don't even exist on this spectrum where he represents the extreme, which is most people today. They are the ones being emotionally and systematically led by the nose toward opinions they wouldn't hold if they just stepped back and thought about what was going on. |
HoZay said @ 4:55am GMT on 14th Mar
I don't really see why this guy is avoiding the news. He obviously doesn't give a fuck what happens to anybody else.
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5th Earth said @ 11:34am GMT on 14th Mar
This. The guy is basically a walking embodiment of so-called white privilege.
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Fish said @ 3:13am GMT on 15th Mar
This guy is a hero!
#TDS writ large! |
All in all, though, my life is much better since I gave up following the news cycle.