“Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.”
― H.L. Mencken, Prejudices: First Series
There are two reprehensible things about the photo heading this article. The first is that Zuck is wearing a spread collar like his great-great-great-great-great-grandfather fought against Cromwell or something. The second is what Angela Merkel is actually saying to him.
It’s as simple as this. Germany is being flooded by “refugees”. I don’t pretend to have enough geopolitical savvy to know what percentage of them are actually refugees and what percentage are opportunists and what percentage are ISIS infiltrators. I do, however, know that no responsible government allows this massive of a change in the demography and identity of a nation without having a thorough and detailed conversation with its existing residents on the topic. Germany has eighty million residents. There are as many as four million Syrians who are trying to get to Germany. I don’t care what you think of the refugees, but ordinary Germans should have a say in what happens next.
Many of them are already criticizing Angela Merkel’s actions. In a free democracy, forthright speech on both sides would be valued and protected. But in the capitalist-consumer pseudo-democracies of the West, criticizing the prevailing opinion of one’s betters is “hate speech”. And Ms. Merkel expects that Zuck will censor it. And Zuck, being a little toad of a human being, is going to give her what she wants. It’s just a technical problem for him, really; developing programs that will scan for unpopular or unacceptable opinions and censor them automatically, the same way Facebook’s algorithms can detect certain pornographic images. Ethics don’t enter into it for Zuck.
And they never have:
You can say that Facebook censorship doesn’t violate the First Amendment, but when the government can convince the social media companies to self-censor, isn’t that exactly the same as the government doing it themselves? Or is the First Amendment just designed to protect the Centrifugal PornoTron Bumblepuppy that makes your evenings bearable?
Diversity
Multiculturalism
Will atone for European colonialism of the past
Or so they think
Europe, wracked with guilt, will now commit suicide to atone.
Dark Ages II: coming to a planet near you.
If you want to see how it plays out, maybe have a look at a Novel written back in 1973 by a French guy named Jean Raspail. It was called The Camp of the Saints (Le Camp des Saints), and it is an apocalyptic story about mass immigration to Europe. It does not end well for any body from the west, the US included.
I’ve been waiting to see how this all works out .
-Nate
I recently read that a group of mayors from a couple dozen different cities requested that the US government send them MORE middle east refugees. WTF? Is the influx of illegals from the south not enough of a drain on the resources of this country? The face of the country is changing in front of our eyes, and most folks could give a flying flip, as long as Facebook and Twitter are still functioning. And these same SJW’s bemoan the fact that “boomers are greedy selfish bastids”, while gladly availing themselves of any government benefit they can get. Well you myopic little pinhead, where the hell is all that tax money going to come from for these programs, when the working folks finally say; screw this, I’m gonna get some of that gubmint cheese?
I’m glad I’m getting on in years, and won’t see this once great country become a welfare/prison state.
“requested that the US government send them MORE middle east refugees.”
The ponzi scheme of entitlements won’t work without more suckers for the bottom of the pyramid.
The spread collar gives a dignified look to a very undignified man.
This is why freedom of speech and freedom not to be hurt by words must never be conflated.
The US is a bastion of speech freedom, from a legal perspective. It’s very important that *unpopular speech* never be confused with genuine hate speech, or you’ll never get that slippery slope back.
This is one of those times that I am happy your judicial branch is immune from bully rhetoric and popular opinion.
As for Facebook? Who gives a fuck? The faster they can make poor decisions that turn it into the next myspace, the better.
Fifth Column
We (America) created the complete unraveling of the middle east, with civil war upon civil war spreading from Iraq to Libya to Yemen to Afghanistan to Syria, now threatening Jordan, Lebanon, and even Gulf Oil States, with George W. Bush’s/Dick Cheney’s dumb, motherfucking invasion of Iraq in 2003.
We created ISIS/ISIL, and many other chain reactions.
George W. Bush is one dumb motherfucker, who was easily manipulated by Cheney, Wolfowitz, Perle, Feith and the rest of the resolute PNAC neocon clan.
This tsunami set in motion was one of the worst foreign policy catastrophes ever perpetuated by an American Government, and we will be adversely impacted by it for many, many decades to come, as will the rest of the world, unfortunately.
I think you missed calling Bush = Hitler, and maybe throw a mention about the Republican war on women. I’d hate for that to get missed. Otherwise, well done. Now please self-medicate.
Both major political parties are the puppets of special, corporate interests - not the American People - and the Citizens United case will go down as one of the worst in SCOTUS history.
We have have achieved full, legislative, regulatory agency, (near) executive branch, and (near) judicial capture in the Crony Comrade United Corporation of America, Inc.
George W. Bush’s presidency was a disaster of historic proportions, both on the domestic and foreign policy fronts, and I believe the last very honorable president we had was Eisenhower, who actually warned the American People about capture (MIC, although add Wall Street/Finance and Big Pharma to the mix, now) of their government in his farewell address.
By the way, Bill Clinton shot the middle class right in the heart when he bestowed Most Favored Nation trade status on China and NAFTA (which Bush Senior lined up for him).
DW, that’s very convenient ignorance of history to make GW seems like the worst president evah!
1. Attacks of 9/11 validated that we could no longer be isolationists wrt Islamic terrorism
2. UN process was given a chance - Hans Blix came back saying Saddam is playing games and we can’t verify his weapons arsenal - see UN resolution 1441 and Iraq failure to comply
3. US Congress passed Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 with large majorities
4. Shock and awe worked but the provisional government faltered leading to a civil war
5. The US troop surge and change in strategy of 2007 worked to created the ‘awakening’ to Iraqi tribes to fight Al Qaida in Iraq.
6. Iraqi waving purple fingers after a first democratic vote in ages.
7. The US military and intelligence apparatus was a well oiled machine that could hunt down an asshole leader anywhere in Iraq with Predator strike precision.
8. Enter Obama - he dismantles our presence there - now assholes don’t worry about Predator strikes and can freely build training camps once again.
Was pulling out of Iraq after a military victory a smart thing to do? Yes for political expediency and a re-election bid - no if you look at a historical perspective of how to secure peace.
Germany - win - US military still there
Japan - win - US military still there
Korea - draw - US military still there
Vietnam - military win / political loss - US military withdrawn
Iraq - military win / political loss - US military withdrawn
Afghanistan - win - US military still there
Attacks of 9/11 validated that we could no longer be isolationists wrt Islamic terrorism
there’s a difference between “no longer being isolationists wrt islamic terrorism” and “invading a country which didn’t have a single fucking thing to do with 9/11.”
Was pulling out of Iraq after a military victory a smart thing to do? Yes for political expediency and a re-election bid – no if you look at a historical perspective of how to secure peace.
we never should have gone in there in the first place.
See, I’m truly independent, hating both Democrats & Republicans equally, as they’re both captured, illusory “representatives,” despite the fact that they try to project differences by using social wedge issues (e.g. gay marriage, school prayer, abortion, etc.) that they deploy to stir their respective bases, but that for the most part, they realize the judiciary is ultimately set to rule/decide upon, and they unite on the really material issues that are devastating the middle class, as they’re both captured entities of the Military-Banking-WallStreet-Industrial-RealEstate-Finance-Pharma Complex.
And here you and I are in total agreement regarding the complete insanity (or purposeful malicious deceit) involved in marching towards a disastrous war of choice upon Iraq, which as you’ve accurately stated, had nothing to do with 9/11.
To be precise, three events and/or passages of legislation of the last 40 years doomed the American Middle Class. Three of these involved Republican majorities in Congress during the Reagan and Clinton Presidency, while two involved George W. Bush.
1) The Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 (CFMA) is United States federal legislation that officially ensured modernized regulation[1] of financial products known as over-the-counter derivatives. It was signed into law on December 21, 2000 by President Bill Clinton. It clarified the law so that most over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives transactions between “sophisticated parties” would not be regulated as “futures” under the Commodity Exchange Act of 1936 (CEA) or as “securities” under the federal securities laws. Instead, the major dealers of those products (banks and securities firms) would continue to have their dealings in OTC derivatives supervised by their federal regulators under general “safety and soundness” standards.
2) Bill Clinton and a Republican majority in the House & Senate passed NAFTA in 1993 (went into effect in 1994).*
3) Reagan first extend most favored nation trade status (de facto) to China in the 1980s, and Clinton and Bush II made this permanent in 2000 and 2001.**
*The House of Representatives passed the North American Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act on November 17, 1993, 234-200. The agreement’s supporters included 132 Republicans and 102 Democrats. The bill passed the Senate on November 20, 1993, 61-38.[6] Senate supporters were 34 Republicans and 27 Democrats. Clinton signed it into law on December 8, 1993; the agreement went into effect on January 1, 1994.[7][8] Clinton, while signing the NAFTA bill, stated that “NAFTA means jobs. American jobs, and good-paying American jobs. If I didn’t believe that, I wouldn’t support this agreement.”[9]a
**MFN/NTR status for China, a non-market economy, which had been originally suspended in 1951, was restored in 1980 and was continued in effect through subsequent annual Presidential extensions…Congress agreed to permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) status in P.L. 106-286, President Clinton signed into law on October 10, 2000.[8] …China’s MFN status was made permanent on December 27, 2001.
I’d say the tech world is trying to do more harm than any of those to the “working class”; if they have it their way, humans would be out of a job and they’d have all the money.
I smell a war coming soon (well, 15-20 years from now) which should bring everything back down again.
the tech sector is a good example of what the world would be like if adolescent boys ran everything:
1) Everything we do is awesome and has never been done in the history of the world,
2) everything we see belongs to us because we deserve it, and if you don’t give it to us we’ll either just take it or fuck it up so you can’t have it,
3) girls need to shut up and sit in the corner until we want to fuck them.
“We think the best solutions to dealing with people who make racist and xenophobic comments can be found when service providers, government and civil society all work together to address this common challenge.”
They make it sound so sanitary.
“Together we will work to SHUT YOU THE FUCK UP”.
Isn’t that the point of Orwell’s 1984? Passive speech as political speech.