As disparate and fractured as US society is, I think that one good catastrophe could still unite us.

Politicians used 9/11 that way, and we actually did come together quite a bit. They turned that unity into terrible purposes, (unnecessary and idiotic wars, Patriot Act, torture programs, stomping on constitutional protections, mass surveillance, etc.) but a lot of stuff got done.

I'm more optimistic (if that is at all the right word) about the unifying power of a Trumptastrophe, AND optimistic about our ability to spin a reaction to a Trumptastrophe in a more positive direction than what happened after 9/11, but I can easily understand your reservations also.

@newtboy

so i finally got my point across?
thank god!
it only took me a novella.
jesus christ,you would think me being a poet would equate to a more economical verbiage.

man do i fail.

so yeah,we are arguing two separate points.
you are arguing this specific turdnugget and i am arguing the broader implications of abuse in the future.

i still stand by my stance that i do not think this turdnugget should have lost his job.i think there could have been a much better way to have handled this situation,but as you stated (and i agree) the company was within their rights to fire him.

if i was his boss,i would have used this situation to educate,because lets be honest..this man is pretty fucking ignorant.

he even admits to not knowing any black people and had only been exposed to 9,in his entire life,and then he proceeds to vomit the most repugnant,racial shit.

ignorance is curable.
stupid is not.

but it is not the companies job to cure this neanderthal of his ignorance,but i suspect losing his job will only exacerbate an already instilled racism.

so lost opportunity and ultimately:fail.

i also think we are becoming far to comfortable and complicit in our ever-increasingly surveilled,data mined and personal data collected state.

which i am just repeating my main point,but it does concern me.

@Asmo
i get what you are saying but i think you are missing the insidious implications that this new system of indoctrination represents.

i think @ChaosEngine's term 'stealth totalitarianism" is rather clever..and apt.

i agree with you on the points of peer pressure and how people can easily be manipulated.we are all,to varying degrees,subjected to a plethora of propaganda and targeted rhetoric,all meant to mold and shape our opinions in order to sustain the status quo while giving the impression that somehow our conclusions are an organic and natural response,when in reality we have been duped.

on that point we agree that this is not actually something new or novel but an old,tried and true method of social control.

what is new about this 'gaming" system,is that it is not taking the more subtle and passive approach of what current and supposedly "free" societies now implement to control public opinions and attitudes in order to either remain in power,sway the public into policies against their own interest,or create an atmosphere of fear to foment opposition.

this new system is actually aggressive.
this system will actively use its own population to do the oppressing,manipulating and controlling FOR them.

it is brilliant in it's simplicity.
it will use very human attributes we all possess in order to enact a better system of control,all the while having the appearance of being a harmless and innocuous social media competition.

but it is anything but harmless.
nor innocuous.
it will and can affect every facet of someones life.from their job to where they will be able to live,to even HOW they live.

think back to the times of east germany and the stasi,or the weimar republic,or even the soviet union of the 80's.

all used elements this new gaming system is representing,but those systems of control,while relying on the public to do much of its surveilling,all had one thing in common that they ALL relied heavily on:fear.

fear of reprisal.
fear of exposure.
fear and suspicion were the driving forces that kept those systems in power and the people in a perpetual state of paranoia.

the dread of the midnight knock.
of jackboots and black bags.

but those systems of control were fragile and once even a little resistance was exerted those systems crumbled incredibly fast.

this new system is far more subtle and devious in my opinion,because it removes the spectre of an imposing and oppressive government that will respond with violence and replaces it with the citizen to do the work for them.

the government does not have to do anything.
your neighbor will,and not because of some fear-based reason but rather for points to propel their own ambitions.their own selfish desires.

the wholesale implications are absolutely terrifying if you really think about it.

i would speculate that within a very short amount of time dissent and criticism of the chinese government will all but have vanished.replaced by a obedient and compliant population.

not because they are afraid of reprisal from the government but rather fueled by their own selfish desires for a better job,better living quarters,more privileges etc etc.

so a seemingly benign system utilizing social media will become of a self-propelled system,where those who do not tow the party line soon face joblessness,homelessness and ostracization.

not because the government strong armed them into submission,but rather their own neighbors.

so you are right.
there is nothing new here,but this system has taken the old forms of social control and brilliantly utilized one of humanities greatest weaknesses:selfishness.

it is the simplicity that makes this so brilliant and yet so horrifying at the same time.

Still looking for Christmas presents?

https://theintercept.com/surveillance-catalogue/

27 years after revealing Echelon, Duncan Campbell now has a piece out on PRESTON, a surveillance centre in your neck of the woods.

All cops on duty need to wear video cameras with audio. Surveillance is an effective deterrent to criminal activity and that applies equally to corrupt cops.

It's not only about the surveillance, but it's not NOT about surveillance, the television screens that watched everyone were part of it, as much as the rewriting of history by the ministry of truth and the rewriting of language that was newspeak.

People really seem to have taken to Jacob Levich's quote that 1984 was supposed to be a warning, not an instruction manual. I expect that the large number of people who have seen his quote on a t-shirt but haven't read the book will only increase the problem.

Finally, about time someone explained this properly, I also loathe how the term "Big Brother" is thrown around whenever there is talk of any kind of surveillance. Every time I'm like "THE BOOK IS NOT ABOUT FUCKING SURVEILLANCE YOU FUCKING MORON!!" in my head.

The Office of the Prosecutor General just notified the public that it has closed the investigation into Netzpolitik.org: neither were the published documents state secrets, nor did the journalists involved in this matter show any intent to harm the country.

Just like basically every non-hardliner said the moment this was made public. Pure intimidation, and possibly, if not probably, a pretty shady way to get legal permission to employ digital surveillance against those involved.

Edit: Guardian, NYT

"[Amazon]’s proposal carves out airspace from 200ft-400ft exclusively for autonomous drones, with a further 100ft above it declared a no-fly zone."

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/28/amazon-autonomous-drones-only-airspace-package-delivery

Delivery drone, delivery, delivery, surveillance, delivery, delivery, surveillance, neighbour's drone with a blowtorch attached hunting Amazon drone, delivery, surveillance, delivery, delivery, delivery, Reaper.

Yeah, how about a no-fly zone. Or do we have to roll out these puppies again...

I've worked with high grade surveillance cameras a bit better then that. Here is a product video of the company http://videosift.com/video/FLIR

So, now they're trying to claim those were all personal 'treats' the officers brought to the raid with them, and not the store's edibles they are discussing as they eat them. Jesus f*cking Christ! Are cops so stupid now that they think anyone will believe that insanity? It's clearly obvious they are eating products from the store, and sharing them with each other, discussing the taste and the strength, and reading the labels (after eating the treat) to see what they're eating.

They also say the officers will eventually be given drug tests for marijuana, but the raid was May 26. No drug tests have yet been given, and likely won't be for another 2 weeks so the officers have a chance to be clean (marijuana can be detected for around a month on most tests). At the very least, they've given them a chance to 'flush' their systems to try to beat the test by announcing that a drug test is likely coming for them soon. If the higher ups were interested in knowing the 'truth', every officer involved would have had a drug test the moment this video was made known to them....but they're still 'investigating', and probably won't be testing until that's done... in a few weeks.

Interesting that they have no excuse, and so completely ignore the (attempted) destruction of the surveillance system and the joking with each other about abusing a wheelchair bound, near blind woman, and the 'playing darts' while on the clock, supposedly doing an inventory and 'securing the property' (which is not supposed to mean securing it in their bellies).

These professionals are acting less and less professional daily, and their 'supervisors' are bending over backwards to let the decline continue....and escalate.

It's a "surveillance plane" which means spying. Spying doesn't need to be stealthy, it just has to be effective. The Russians knew the U2 and SR-71 were there, they just couldn't do anything about it.

Phil is going to move Silent Circle to Geneva to evade US mass surveillance:

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/may/25/philip-zimmermann-king-encryption-reveals-fears-privacy

Um, Yes, it is a right.
It certainly is my right, and to all that claim that right, it's their right not to be under surveillance of any kind.

"Privacy is a fundamental human right recognized in the UN Declaration of Human Rights, the International Convenant on Civil and Political Rights and in many other international and regional treaties. Privacy underpins human dignity and other key values such as freedom of association and freedom of speech. It has become one of the most important human rights issues of the modern age. "
-- http://gilc.org/privacy/survey/intro.html