Awwwww....Bob.....I like you too, even though we rarely agree and I often detest your position or means to an end.
I must give you credit for having the spine to voice your opinions knowing they'll be unpopular. I'm glad you stick around, this place could easily become an echo chamber without you and a few others. Your stances, if nothing else, are good fuel for spirited debate.

I can be swayed....but I admit even Sisyphus would grow weary in the effort in most cases. ;-)

I imagine there is some selective editing going. Or I hope so at least.

I've seen similar things done in Europe, but not even being able to mark your own country on a map is a level of ignorance I'm not sure can be surpassed elsewhere. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to see the world from a different point of view... right now I'm wondering what it must be like to be so ignorant you don't even have a point of view. I imagine the very occasional thoughts must echo.

Short of looking at the cbc's coverge yourself I'm not sure how I can do much more to represent them. Here's a link to a podcast series they ran:

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcasts/boushie/

The victim was Colten Boushie and the farmer was Gerald Stanley, googling that and grabbing the CBC results will show you pretty quickly what their coverage looked like overall.

The case ended with a not-guilty verdict and the farmer is home now. Now, the only witnesses that were sober that day were the farmer and his son. What's worse 3 of the witnesses all changed their stories in court from what they originally told police because they 'didn't want to get into trouble'. With such poor witness testimony and no other evidence of malicious intent on the farmers part it's not much of a surprise that the defence's characterisation of a robbery that led to a tragic and fatal accident was considered credible.

Despite that, Canada's Indigenous services minister responded immediately to the verdict saying;
"We all have more to do to improve justice & fairness for Indigenous Canadians."

And our justice minister tweeted:
"My thoughts are with the family of Colton Boushie tonight. I truly feel your pain and I hear all of your voices. As a country we can and must do better - I am committed to working everyday to ensure justice for all Canadians."

As though the outcome was somehow dictated by race. This victimhood mentality just ignore the underlying real problem of horrible conditions on reserve. The judicial system didn't racially undermine the case, the real problem is a lot more complex than that and is being ignored because it's easier and more popular to ignore the root causes and just echo platitudes about how everything bad that happens down the road is racial too.

100% agree with the first part.

"the internet is killing people's ability to be social"
Not so sure about that. Pre-internet incels definitely existed, but I don't think they would have "worked it out" any more than they would today. If anything, I think the internet can bring marginalised people together, for good or ill.

As you say, the problem is one of magnification or more specifically reinforcement.... the "echo chamber" effect.

OTOH, connecting with a marginalised group can be a positive. If there's no-one around you who has the same interests/desires/problems, the world can feel quite lonely. As usual, context matters.

I'm in the "who cares?" camp.

If you're gonna be mad about studio tricks, why even stop there?

How about multiplying vocals for harmonic effect, speeding up or slowing down the vocals, echoes, fades, etc etc etc?

And why stop at vocals? Instrumentation and arrangements are manipulated in tons of "unrealistic" ways as well.

Production is an art in itself. I consider is as one of the ingredients, together with the "organic" stuff," in the stew which is the final recordeding.

Yo-yo-yo-echo.
*quality *livemusic
Time to watch this epic classic again. Eastwood at his best.

I don't trust Uber Drivers to be properly insured - I can't see myself Flying Uber.

So fun fact, you all know Uber is owned by Jeff Bezos

You may know him as the owner of Amazon.
Well he owns Uber and he also owns Twitter, The Washington Post, Linden Labs (AKA Second Life), and more tech companies than I can list.

As of March 14, 2018, he has an estimated net worth of $130.5 billion.

He is creator of the Amazon Echo which is designed to sit in your home and monitor your every word. It databases everything you say in exchange for on-demand music and news, similar to Siri on your iPhone.

"Bezos recently disclosed that the company’s Web-services business is building a “private cloud” for the CIA to use for its data needs." For $6 Billion, he will be supplying the data for use by the CIA.


Just some information for everyone to play around with in their heads

Ok, I watched it, definitely self link, no one would choose this to post, it's recorded in an echo chamber and is totally impossible to understand.
*ban

Visually? Stunning.

Audio of echo-y voices from 2001: A Space Odyssey? Creepy as fuck.

That was a good description of why that form of argument is successful, but the proposed solution seems unsatisfying. I mean, if you just shut down all contrary views by deleting the posts, banning the posters or ignoring them, it makes it seem like you're just trying to build a comfortable echo chamber. I feel like you've got to preserve the willingness to consider that you might be wrong, even when confronted with trolls.

Not all pundits and polls. I saw many that echoed my theories (but it's true, many/most didn't).

Not sure what you mean with Sanders. He never had a chance at all, or was screwed out of his chance? I agree with the latter.

The DNC felt that Hillary was a land slide victory against Trump.
Heck all media pundits and polls echoed this bias.

The DNC just had to railroad Bernie out of the race.
Sanders truly did not have a chance to win the primary.

Answered, but ok...
Shared beliefs that the other is the source of their (and America's) problems...be that immigrants, lefty fanboys, inner city residents (blacks), other religions, etc. That's been the party and movement for at least a decade if not longer.

Goals: return to a white majority, returning to mostly white male leadership, removal of immigrants and minimizing immigration, codifying Christianity as the state religion, and freedom to discriminate against other groups (but not theirs).

I agree, racism is not only evil, but dumb.

Free market capitalism (not the entirety of the platform, btw)...as long as it works for them. If not, regulations are just fine....take solar, something the right still fights....or oil, a totally manipulated market. When free market capitalism isn't working, the right has no qualms tossing it.

Republicans, the right wing party, has grown government as much or more than the left/dems. They love to say "small government" but never work towards it (except by killing democrat enacted programs, replaced with larger, more expensive Republican programs.).

No, left wing political ideal is that the government should work for citizens, not corporations. Left wing ideals are personal/human freedom/rights (which includes safeguarding systems against abuses) before profits, not on the right. You've been watching too much Fox and Alex.

So, racism benefits from people working against it and trying to make it actionable (not addressing your incorrect description of the left's ideals.) I think it benefits more from racists and racist policy, live voter I'd laws.
I think you may be describing the ultra left, which is like describing all republicans as to the right of the clan/nazis and ignoring their condemnations of those groups and their methods.

The KKK, Nazis, and alt right all said clearly, it was Trump echoing their platform that brought them in, not the left decrying them.

You are insane if you think anything Obama or Clinton could have possibly done to attract these people, it was the derision of them as subhuman filth that they found appealing.

While I agree with the principal of the video, I find their methodology flawed.
It would be better to go outside of facebook/twitter/reddit altogether as these sites encourage echo-chambers as part of their functioanality.

@Jinx -- Whether in "meatspace" or on the internet, I think the difference is engaging with others vs being in the echo chamber.

A lot of "engaging" with others is going to be negative. Picket line meets picket line has about as much chance of being productive as reading the comments on a controversial YouTube video.

But even if the majority of the "engagement" is that, there are going to be some patient people who connect in a positive enough way to actually enlighten and persuade. Like the former-WBC lady's new husband.

And while that positive engagement seems to have the best shot at redeeming those that can be redeemed, it also might be the best way to show the true colors of those beyond redemption. The skinhead leader guy got maced by counter-protesters twice. That gives him a semi-legitimate provocation to respond in kind or with escalating violence (bloody knuckles, broken bones, whatever). But if he isn't provided with any such provocation and still resorts to violence, people can truly see his "idealogy" for what it is.

Hence Rosa Parks responding to the bus driver in Montgomery:
Driver - "If you don't stand up, I'm going to have to call the police and have you arrested."
Parks - "You may do that."


If I was there in Charlottesville in the heat of the moment, face to face with that kind of hate and bigotry, I'd have been one of the people chanting "fuck off nazis". I'd have cheered when somebody on "my side" maced chief-skinhead in the face, if I hadn't done it myself. ...But I recognize that we could sure use more people that react like Rosa Parks did, and less like I would have.