*promote the master!
welcome back @blankfist
ya'all need to start taking notes.

this guy was super entertaining,i thought he was gonna have an embolism at the halfway mark.

hiiiiilarious!!!

look,no matter which direction you approach this situation the REAL dynamic is simply:power vs powerlessness.

we also should establish which form of libertarianism we are speaking.cultofdusty criticizes the bastardized american version and this dude come from a more classic libertarian (sans the unbridled capitalism).so there should be no surprise they are at odds in their opinion.this man is defending a libertarianism that cultofdusty may not even be aware of at all.

libertarianism has little or nothing in common with the republican party.

so when this dude posits that the corporation is the fault of government,while not entirely accurate,it is also not entirely wrong.corporations in the distant past were temporary alliances of companies,with the blessing of the people (government) to achieve a specific job or project and once that project was complete,the corporation was dissolved.

it was a cadre of clever lawyers,representing powerful interests who convinced the supreme court that corporations were people and hence began the long road leading us to where we are now.

so it was partly the government that fascillitated the birth of the corporation.

i do take issue with this mans assessment of public education.his commentary is the height of ignorance.while i would agree that what we have now can hardly be called 'education".his blanket and broad statements in regards to public education TOTALLY ignores the incredible benefits that come from an educated public.he ignores the history of public education,as if this system has been unchanging for 100 years.

that is just flat out...stupid..or more likely just lazy,regurgitating the maniacal rants of his heroes without ever once giving that 100 years some critical study.

so let me point to the the late 50's and 60's here in the USA where our public education was bar-none the best in the world.what were the consequences of this stellar public education?
well,...civil rights marches,anti-war movement,womens rights movement and a whole generation that not only questioned authority and the entrenched power structures but openly DEFIED those structures.

this absolutely petrified the powered elite.
during the height of the anti-war movement nixon was forced to baricade the white house with school buses and was quoted as saying to kissinger " henry,they are coming for me".

again,the fundamental premise is,and has always been -power vs powerlessness.

so over the nest few decades public education was manipulated and transformed into a subtle indoctrination to teach young minds to tacitly submit to authority.

which this man addresses and i agree,i just disagree with his overly generalized non-historically accurate puke-vomit.

my final point,and its always the point where libertarians lose their shit on me like an offended westboro baptist acolyte (its actually two points) is this:
1.if we can blame the government for much of the problems in regards to concentrated power and the abuse that goes with that power,then we MUST also address the abusive (and corrosive) power of the corporation.many libertarians i discuss with seem to be under the impression that if we take away the symbiotic relationship between corporations and government that somehow..miraculously..the corporation will all of a sudden become the benign and productive member of society.

this is utter fiction.
this is magical thinking.
many corporations have a larger GDP than many nation states.this is about POWER and there is ZERO evidence any corporation will be willing to relinquish that power just because there is no government to influence,manipulate or corrupt.

which brings me to point number 2:
my libertarian friends.
you live in a thing called a society.
a community where other people also live.
so please stop with this rabid individualism as somehow being the pinnacle of human endeavour.im all for personal responsibility but nobody lives in a vacuum and nobody rides this train alone.the world does not revolve around YOU.

but i do understand,and agree,that the heart of the libertarian argument is more power to the people.i also understand their arguments against governments,which directly and oftimes indirectly disempowers people.

i get that.its a good argument..
BUT...for fucks sake please admit that the corporation in its current state has GOT TO FUCKING GO!

because if you dont then ultimately you are trading one tyrant for another and in my humble opinion,ill stick with the one i can at least vote on or protest.

there aint nothing democratic about a multi-national corporation.they are,by design,dictatorships.

so i will agree to wittle the government down and restrict its powers to defense (NOT war),law and fraud police,if you agree to dismantle and restructure the seven headed leviathan that is todays corporation.

deal?

ooooh shit.nice one @ChaosEngine!
since many here have already pointed out some nice perspective and historical context,allow to just add two points to this fine thread:

1.the real question has little to do with race.that is a canard that is shoved down our throats constantly and while many still buy into that bullshit,many of us are waking up to the fact we are having are chains jerked.the problems do not lie with race or culture but rather between the powerful and the powerless.

2.i hate to break to those folks who identify with the term "white" but that term is just a politically manufactured term created in the mid the late 1600's,that term had never been used before...ever.the term was politically created to manipulate poor european indentured servants to identify more with their much more privileged and wealthy european plantation owners,in order to dominate and control a growing african slave population.

thats a lil tidbit they tended to leave out in american history but without it the civil war doesnt make a whole lot of sense.

i mean think about it:we were taught that the civil war was basically about states rights.
yes..the states right to have and keep slaves and continue into the newly appropriated land (actual STOLEN,from mexico).

so how do you get a poor,penniless white person to go fight a war so their wealthy counterparts can keep their slaves?which would directly affect their employment options and henceforth keep them jobless and penniless.

you convince them the color of their skin is what matters most!
a political ploy that worked brilliantly.

Oh Bob. It's better to remain silent and let people think you an idiot than to open your mouth and prove it.
97% is not the same thing as 97. Also, the correct number is really closer to 99.9% of all published climatologists, if not higher. Those who know, know. Those who believe don't know jack.
There are many ways to differentiate human produced CO2 from naturally occurring CO2, and therefore prove the rise is due to man. This has been done repeatedly and conclusively. The simplest way is to simply look at the graph of the rise and compare it to our use of fossil fuels, they are exactly the same curve at exactly the same time, with exactly the same dips and bumps. It's certainly not the only method, but is a simple to understand one.
It's ridiculous to state that to live 'green' you must live as if in a 3rd world country. That is simply BS stated by unreasonable men without any knowledge (and usually with a financial incentive to be anti-green/pro-fossil fuel).
It's also ridiculously ignorant to state that being 'green' is not cost effective. As someone who has had a solar system for 7+ years, I can tell you it's paid for itself already (with an estimated 13 more years before needing serious upkeep), has kept me away from the 40-50% rate raises that have happened to others in that time, it heats my house, my shower, and my hot tub and keeps the lights, TV, washer/drier, dishwasher, and fridge on when the grid goes down. It's not at all the expensive, powerless, sacrifice forcing technology you seem to think it is. It saves money even in the short term, and significant amounts in the long term AND has many other benefits. You've been listening to the wrong people about this issue, people who either totally don't know what they're talking about or are bold faced liars. I speak from actual experience.
Cost effective 'green' technologies have existed for well over a decade. You are simply wrong about your estimations.

@newtboy
while appreciate the sentiment and ideology behind your commentary,i just do not see it play out in reality.

i was going to post links to convey just how broken our democracy is,and those links are legion.the data is incontrovertible and to be quite honest...depressing.

i tire of people making this about libs/repubs.
that is NOT the argument,though it IS the argument that is presented to all of us.
no.
the REAL argument is about POWER and POWERLESSNESS.

the only true power the people have is they,themselves and the ability to form associations,to group up and put pressure on those who wield power.to create institutions which force..by sheer numbers..those in the ivory tower to hear the voices of the common folk.

but those institutions and associations have been dismantled and the people marginalized.

would you like scumbag A or dirtbag B?
and maybe a possible third party candidate,which leads to the inevitable "lesser of two evils" argument you are alluding to.

all of that does not change the fact we are getting our clock cleaned by the elites who only seek to further their own interests.

we lost.plain and simple.

but i cannot ignore the optimism in your post.
i just wished i shared it.
in my opinion the only path we have left is mass uprising.
to grind the gears of the machine to a halt and force those in the ivory tower to come to the bargaining table.

i do not share you enthusiasm and trust in a totally (in my opinion) broken political system that threw us all overboard 40 years ago.

that is playing THEIR game by THEIR rules.
and that game is rigged and in their favor.

i think the evidence of that has become abundantly clear to anybody who has been paying attention.

its like gambling in vegas.
yes..there are a few who win big but the majority lose their shirts but the illusion that maybe...juuust maybe..you too might win big keeps people coming back to the table.

they have stacked the odds in their favor and to play the political system is no different.
either way..the house always wins.

so why play a rigged game?
why play by rules that have been instituted to benefit the elites and fuck us all over?

the time has come to change the game and create new rules.

i apologize for the lengthy rant.
i truly wish i could share in your optimism newt.
i do realize there are those who are doing their best to fight this inequity and corruption.
so there is hope....a tiny..slim..sliver of hope.

and on that note i hope right along with them.

I'm not your son, little one.

...and I ain't your buddy, pal
....nor am I your pal, friend
...and I'm not your friend, buddy.
Keep spouting angry drunken spittle laced vitriol, it's a helpful reminder of your incessantly insipid mannerism.
your tired, scripted labels son, an insipid sack of programmed faux-newspeak designed for one simple purpose: to garner any attention for the unpopular ineffectual and powerless attention whores that can't get positive attention for their ideas or comments so they troll for negative attention, the only kind they can get.
And the thing you (as per your MO) misquoted was "Teabagger wannabe ex-patriots", which are the idiots that whine about how awful America is 'now' and that they're going to leave the country because a socialist Kenyan is president and he's ruining the country (but they never follow through, to my chagrin)...not 'Teabagger wannabes', who just want to suck my balls....again, your comprehension has proven to be low.

''Teabagger wannabes"-your tired, scripted labels son, an insipid bag of programmed newspeak designed for one simple purpose: To keep you and the minions like yourself as ineffectual and powerless as possible in order to continue feeding human fuel to the power plant as dutiful, helpless Energizer bunnies.

So...you admit to intentionally and improperly changing the embed codes "artistically", but can't fathom why you were stripped of that power? Think about that.
The admins 'hobbled the problem person here', yet they have no balls? What does that make the 'problem person' then, if they are so powerless against the ball-less?
I'm sure you'll blame this hobbling on me...even though I had nothing to do with it whatsoever. I only call you out on your constant vulgarity and attack posts, and otherwise do my best to ignore you.
Can you guess my vote? I bet not.
As an aside to all those that voted for "Reinstate powers after a period of time-out", how would you vote if the user in question has been banned, hobbled, and put on 'double secret probation' repeatedly for inappropriate behavior on the site? Would it change your vote, knowing that temporary 'time out's' had been tried repeatedly with little or no effect? How many 'time out's', bans, and hobbles should a single user get before a permanent I.P. hammer ban is reasonable? 3 strikes and you're out?

Well, the issue is that the only way we measure contribution is with video posts and "quality comments". Both of those two tend to be very binary, in that either they give you a point or they don't.

I would like to see a more gradual approach to putting a value on a user - stack overflow uses an interesting system, which I'm sure videosift is also inspired by.

I think, for instance, comments should give more, but not if they're negative or 0 votes - as soon as they've been upvotes, they should give something - maybe even on a increasing scale: 1 vote, 1 point, 2 votes 3 points, 3 votes 6.5 points etc something in that vein. Yes, this would mean that each person would get many more points, but the star thresholds should be adjusted accordingly.

Same with videos - a video with 4 votes, should still give you something in the form of value; lets say it gives 10 times the amount as a comment. Then the video posters are still the most valuable players, but commenters aren't completely powerless.

Sift talk posts could also give something, using special powers in a positive way could give something.

Maybe a heated discussion in a single thread could trigger something; each award could also result in a certain amount of points.

I would make videosift much more of a game.

@lantern53

ah my friend.
you seem to have fallen into the propaganda trap.
allow enoch to chat with you for a bit.

are you comfy? need a drink? coffee? a beer?

ok,then let us begin

this is not a political ideology.
this is not right nor left.(seriously limiting terms anyways).

this is about the full picture.

so let us discuss WHAT propaganda actual is,rather than what we are TOLD it is.
propaganda is simply manipulated information presented in a way to appeal to our irrational and emotional response rather than our rational and reasonable.

when i use the term "manipulated" i am not inferring or implying an outright conspiracy (though often-times it may possibly be a conspiracy) but rather a set goal to illicit the desired response.

and there is always an element of truth in propaganda but the truth being presented is controlled and manipulated.which is apparent in your commentary.

corporations use this tactic and we call it mass marketing but the first usage was that of the state to control its own citizenry.america being the major and first to pioneer this tactic.see:edward bernaise and the council of propaganda (later changed to the council of public relations).

so let us break down your examples which i assume are an attempt by you to discredit the assertions in dr wasfi's speech in this video.

1.to point out the crimes against humanity is a straw man argument.
it is irrelevant.
it is a last ditch effort by the american government to excuse and/or validate an illegal war of aggression:
a.no weapons of mass destruction
b.no connection to al qaeda
c.almost 1 trillion lost (literally,they cant account for that money)

so the american government points to the atrocities of saddam hussein and says "look! look at what a bad person he is"!

SQUIRREL!

which brings us to your next point.

2.the atrocities you are referring to were well know when saddam was a paid participant by multiple government agencies.
let me say that again for you:
saddams atrocities were WELL known and was on the american government payroll.
did saddam gas the kurds?------yes
who sold him the gas components?---we did.

so when my government,in a last ditch effort to absolve its complicity in the wreckage that is iraq by pointing to the awful and horrific acts saddam perpetrated on his own people as somehow making the invasion of iraq a righteous act is utter..and complete..hypocrisy.

they KNEW what he was doing and did nothing because it was politically expedient for them to do so.they wished to corral iran and the ends justified the means.see:Zbigniew Brzezinski-the grand chessboard

there are many MANY accounts where the american government turned a blind eye to the suffering of other nation-states citizens because it did not align with our interests.

i find the whole situation morally repugnant and it angers me even further when i see the propaganda twisting my fellow countrymen into believing this is somehow a morally just way to deal with despots,tyrants,zealots.

when it was MY country who put them in power in the first place!

the rationalizations are so deeply cynical and hypocritical that it creates an almost vacuum of cognitive dissonance.

and this is my main point in regards to your commentary.
it is a rationalization given to you by those who wish to continue to oppress,dominate and control those who are powerless.

it gives a semblance of morality where there is none.

because if we took your commentary to its logical conclusion:that sometimes war is necessary to rid the world of "evil" (an arbitrary term based on perspective),then why are we not in those countries that ALSO oppress,kill,maim,torture and immiserate their citizens?

answer:because it does not serve the interests of this government.

so the only usage of emotional heart string pulling is to give americans a sense of moral superiority,while not dealing with the actual reality.

you are being manipulated my friend.
and they have given you a convenient myth to hold onto.

by my commentary i am not dismissing the great works of my country nor am i saying that my country is inherently evil.
i served my country and did my duty.

but i also will not turn a blind eye to the reality on the ground just because i find that information..uncomfortable.

many times the truth is uncomfortable and it takes courage to look at it with clear eyes and a critical mind.

i always stick to the axiom:governments lie

as for your nazi reference,
i invoke godwins law.
the death camps were not even a known reality till the war was almost over and were not the reasons for the war in the first place.
so the context is irrelevant.

as always,
eyes open...
and stay sharp.

@lantern53 keepin it frosty since 1982.stay awesome my man

Except there's only one referee to a game, they have absolute authority, everything they see is in public and calling interference on a fellow referee will not see them ostracized and potentially harmed by another ref who, let's not forget, has the ability to call fake interference on them

I get what you're saying. Of all the people they deal with, cops should be most watchful for illegal activity in other cops. In an ideal world, they would be (hell, in an ideal world, we wouldn't need cops).

But in the real world, policing is a tough job. I don't know how it is in the US, but in NZ the pay is crap, the hours are long and most people inherently distrust you. It's not surprising that when you spend your days dealing with the worst of society you form an "us vs them" mentality. Not to mention the politicking and other bullshit you have to deal with.

I think most cops are like most normal people; most of them are fundamentally decent, and just trying to get by and do their job as best they can. Maybe they're not happy about certain things in their job, but they feel powerless to do anything about it for fear of retribution.

Obviously the difference is that the stakes are higher. If I fail to point out an uncomfortable truth to my boss, some software doesn't work as well as it could. They're dealing with peoples lives.

I don't know the answer. Cops absolutely should be held to a high moral standard. They are a necessary aspect of modern society. But I don't think the answer is this kind of black and white thinking of "all cops have turned a blind eye to something, therefore they're all complicit". The world is more complex than that.

Gee, @Yogi. Did you expect the state to work on your behalf?
That's not what the state does! The state is a tool that those who control it can use to impose upon those who don't. I suspect that you don't control much of it at all. So you don't get to impose. You get imposed upon. That's how it works. The first lady (who you seem to think is somehow being mistreated) on the other hand, is being handsomely rewarded, if her tax returns are any indication... but whatever. Believe what you want. However much you rant against it, you won't change the intrinsic nature of the state.

You can't do anything about those who control it, so you seem to feel like you have to take it out on me, as if what I post made any difference whatsoever...

If you want Australia's healthcare system, why not take your issue to your "representative," or to the President, and see if they care about what you want.

(But somehow, I think you realize how powerless you are, and so you're trying to get some satisfaction from complaining about what I post. You'll "destroy" etc. But, honestly, what can you really do that has any impact?)

"the point is that RICH FUCKS fund politicians and fuck us over."

Like this one?

You do realize that saying that you're "destroying" something is not the same as actually destroying anything, right? I mean, whatever you may think.

It is true that Obamacare is a failure for those who thought they'd get anything else from Obama. It's a success for those it is intended to benefit. Just like all state programs.

Anyway, good luck with your Videosift punditry.. venting your powerlessness over irrelevant media always seems like a pointless strategy to me.. But, hey, knock yourself out.

...and those programmed to be left-leaning are as distracted by bread and circuses as the worst of the clueless right-The real power comes for the left if gears change and the focus becomes financial institutions and political lackeys who fool you into thinking your power is in a vote or a cause-They hook you with bleeding-heart pet-causes and the distraction continues-

There is no stopping the insanity of a world controlled by a hi-jacked economy and you are powerless unless this becomes the focus of all activism. The FBI is untouchable today, as well as the surveillance infrastructure. All these pieces of the puzzle become powerless when you stop paying attention to the farcical slave-economy and the coming world police state.

The real success of programming shagen, comes from each generation becoming thicker, stupider, and programmed to be slaves for shit-tickets to buy more 'stuff' with.

All you need is food and love babies, and they have almost cornered the market on edibles that are not toxic for body, mind, and soul.

The shit they are capable of today makes Cointelpro look like a kindergarten spelling test.


Wholly disagree with the idea that the exposure of Coinitelpro caused the government to "reign-in" a GODDAMN thing. They simply do what all failing or exposed nefarious empires do when their shit starts to stink to everyone....They go into hiding or became instantly more sophisticated then provided a suitable distraction with money and television bullshitting.

Hardly much more sophisticated, the fucking president a year later used his own intelligence resources to break-into the Watergate hotel-A lot of sleepy motherfuckers on this sight should wake the fuck up and stop smelling their own farts long enough to realize that the 'left' and 'right' are the same fucking illusion.

Humans are easily-programmable units and universities are a perfect place to begin a new era of bullshit.

The program has never changed, and these fucks hold all cards except the mind and soul cards.

"I see a connection between this feeling of powerlessness and the "stop and frisk" laws."

If we were science-minded, we'd demand statistics to confirm that hypothesis. And we'd look for data showing that removing "stop and frisk" reduces crime. But it's likely the opposite... "stop and frisk" works, and removing it increases crime.

The reason there's a correlation between cities with "stop and frisk" and the "knockout game" is because these cities passed "stop and frisk" in response to their unhinged urban youth violence.

These kids feel powerless because their academic scores are the level of third-worlders. Fix that, and everything else will fix itself.

I've been watching a lot about the knockout game as of late. It really does seem to be a hate crime (It's also called Polar Bearing, because it's victims tend to be white). It's caused quite a stir in the black community, as those who know better seem to be cringing and distancing themselves from the attacks as well as possible.

Ultimately, it's the fault of a few individuals who feel powerless enough in their own lives to try to take it out on others. I see a connection between this feeling of powerlessness and the "stop and frisk" laws passed in many of the cities where the knockout game first became popular.

I think the solution to this kind of violence is improving police relations with the affected communities. The first step is getting rid of "stop and frisk", the second removal of police arrest quotas, the third would be reducing the black prison population's non-violent offenders.