For help, advice and discussion about stuff not related to aviation. Play nice: no religion, no politics and no axe grinding please.
#1678926
johnm wrote:
eltonioni wrote:So we can see what we should be aspiring to, could you point to one such successful complex political and social system.
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None without fault as you might expect, funnily enough the EU has many of these characteristics as do many member states and USA, none has the full set yet sadly.

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I'd add Canada, which has made a pretty good job of resisting its inherently fissiparous undercurrents since BNA in 1867. It has stayed effectively bilingual at Federal level, trilingual or more in parts; has resisted armed insurrection (Riel in 19th c, FLQ in 1960s), armed invasion (from US in 1812 - military - and US-harboured 'Fenian raids' in late 19th c) and further threats thereof (notably during US Civil War and Prohibition); it has coped peacefully with major territorial adjustments which could have been destabilising shocks (legacy of Oregon Treaty 1846, incorporation on N&L in 1949, creating Nunavut in 1999). Meanwhile, it has largely honoured its legacy (pre-1867) and later Treaties including sovereign Reserve rights with its First Nations, effectively welcomes and absorbed and Canadianised immigrants from all over the world, and contributed (and bled) far beyond its weight in war (voluntarily joining larger alliances in a cause perceived to be just) and peace-keeping.

Much to be proud of .. :thumright:
Last edited by kanga on Mon Mar 04, 2019 6:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
johnm, Flyin'Dutch', Newfy liked this
#1690276
Interesting take on conspiracy theories here in The New Yorker

During the 2016 Presidential election, Zeynep Tufekci was watching tapes of Trump rallies when she noticed something odd. Tufekci, an associate at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society and a self-described techno-sociologist, found that YouTube began cuing up for her videos filled with racist diatribes and Holocaust denials. She wondered what was going on, so she created another account and began watching clips of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. This time, she found herself directed to what she later described in the Times as “videos of a leftish conspiratorial cast,” including some that argued that the U.S. government was responsible for the attacks of September 11th.

Tufekci concluded that YouTube had decided that the best way to hold viewers’ attention was to push them toward more and more sensational material. The motive wasn’t political; it was commercial. And probably the scheme wasn’t the work of a cabal, or even a person, but of an algorithm. “What we are witnessing is the computational exploitation of a natural human desire: to look ‘behind the curtain,’ ” Tufekci wrote.


https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019 ... y-theories
johnm liked this
#1690296
Unless we decide that state regulated (controlled?) media is a good idea we're going to have to suck it up in general, picking off the actual, rather than perceived or wished for dangers along the way.
By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1690302
The problem is that credulous folk love having their prejudices fed, which is why people still read junk like the Sun, Express and Mail. Facebook, Twitter and the like just make that orders of magnitude worse.

Getting mechanisms to limit the impact is not a small task and they never have been and I rather think never will be wholly effective.
KeithM liked this
By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1690304
eltonioni wrote:Unless we decide that state regulated (controlled?) media is a good idea we're going to have to suck it up in general, picking off the actual, rather than perceived or wished for dangers along the way.


We're already seeing this to some degree with the BBC pandering to vested interests for fear of losing funding and the widespread use of D notices on dubious grounds, which is why leakers and whistleblowers are growing in numbers and need protection.
#1690307
It's time that the BBC replaced the gaps between programs with customer advertisements rather than it's own advertisements. That would go some way to alleviating that specific problem as well as the TV license and all the bad things it causes.
By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1690334
eltonioni wrote:It's time that the BBC replaced the gaps between programs with customer advertisements rather than it's own advertisements. That would go some way to alleviating that specific problem as well as the TV license and all the bad things it causes.


I'm inclined to sympathise it really has lost its way in all sorts of areas :-(
#1690707
Was there ever a bigger, longer running, or more risible conspiracy committed than the one perpetuated by the BBC? It would be funny it wasn't criminalising and imprisoning thousands of people.

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