Interesting stuff
WSL - Scoring
A literalMedia circus? How will this play out?
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/apr/24/ben-roberts-smith...
Does anyone remember a story by Paul Witzig that ran in Tracks mag sometime in 1977
Paul describing a funny session out at Big Sunset ..a humourous story [or was back then at least]
Getting asked by Ken Bradshaw 'What the fuck are you doing out here' and getting flogged by big sets ...nearly drowning..would have been Feb or March issue i reckon ?
Who's got a Tracks stash and can have a look ?
stu?
Yeah Udo had the copy but chucked out all the old tracks when moving.
In a world of carefully cultivated Instagram accounts, radically conformist hairstyles, and, for surfers, ostentatiously individual board choices, the question of what it means to be authentic looms large.
This Aeon article puts forward the idea that in such a highly commodified and surveilled culture such as ours, making an effort to be ourselves is one of the surest ways to be like everyone else.
It also posits that genuine authenticity requires both a resistance to self-absorption and also an acknowledgement of our dependency on others.
And according to the author, learning a craft (such as surfing) can teach us a lot about what exactly it is to actualise a self.
Interesting read.
https://aeon.co/essays/a-history-of-authenticity-from-jesus-to-self-help...
The inexorable progression of Science continues:
https://www.tag24.com/animals/cats/kids-science-project-explores-whether...
(cat owners may wish to scrutinise the conclusion)
velocityjohhno I would be more concerned about their mouths than their buttholes. I just ended up on an IV drip for 5 days with septicemia when our cat bit me on my finger trying to shove a worming tablet down it's throat.
Still got the cat gary?
Yes Guy but it doesn't know that it silently used one of it's lives in this instance.
WTF? "Woman gives birth to nine babies after expecting seven"
I didn't even know its was possible for humans to have more than 3 or 4 babies at the same time, and even crazier they all survived.
https://www.9news.com.au/world/woman-gives-birth-to-nine-babies-after-ex...
Apple. ACCC rules state that no supplier can set minimum retail prices.
Apple state that if a retailer sells for less than the minimum price they will no longer be supplied.
Guess who wins? Apple does, no tax, top dollar.
Good piece Blowy. Apple putting the 'i' in irony (but not in a good way).
I hate using the word woke but to me it just seems to walk hand in hand with hypocrisy. A man expresses his love and admiration for a strong, capable woman and then proceeds to have his career destroyed because people feel "unsafe". Maybe there's more to this story but on the surface, you have to feel for this bloke.
These days, maybe if you just shut up, nod and proceed to cut your balls off, you'll get on just fine.
that taibbi piece is depressing...
not least because the new moralising thought police are hollow self righteous, self serving, cultists, able to see evil everywhere, except in their own practices...
(a bit like the old moralising thought police cultists... but with twiter as a tool of shaming and damnation...)
but possibly worse, is they are making creativity, humour, and a witty line things of the past
what a bleak dull future lies ahead if these keyunts aren't nipped in the bud
...and, you know when the corporates are on board, it's probably an idea of movement that's long lost it's shine...
yet here we are, the spectrum tech. giants are the new god
it's just flat out bizarre the crew that will endeavour to defend their hypocrisy
again...
the language zen!!
'unsafe'
I also hate to use the term 'woke'
but hey, they started it...
In my most paranoid moments, l sometimes suspect that the whole woke thing is some giant Machiavellian headfuck, a psychological masterstroke whereby people are pitted against each other so as to neuter any opinion, and to make public discourse so bland and filled with fear that it's virtually meaningless.
The greatest diversion and smokescreen the world has ever seen.
And businesss as usual continues on.
Yeah I don't think it's been created as such, but as I've said before it certainly serves the pollies and the corporates and they're laughing their fat arses off.
Fuck it! Good article Blowin
Sounds like his book would be a good read.
Fucken wokesters...
Good, if depressing, piece.
Worst period I've lived through.
The woke stuff combines with a new facade for Wall St/Gov - ESG (environmental/social/governance) funds - basically a re-package of the current system (including the least savoury parts of it). Meet the new boss same as the old boss. The good thing is it presents opportunity and wokeness can be converted into profit (insert Cypher speech from the Matrix). Spreads on options on futures of an invisible gas - sign me up. Those at the top remain at the top and proclaim their virtue.
The wokeness plays on a facet of Western civilisation - the moral sense of right/wrong - and has precedents over the last few centuries (eg ending of slavery in British Empire 1833) and movements that have existed to "make things better". In fact you could say it goes all the way back to Aristotle vs Plato, with the latter's view of what an ideal society would be contrasting with the former's vision of quantified reality (A is A) and those best-fit ruling. This tension explains the continual reinvigoration of Western civilisation. The idealism gets bloody at times (eg John Brown at Harper's Ferry)- and having the foresight to avoid the great bloodshed by containing the idealists' extremism, can be useful.
This time, it could be pushed too far, and so far that every separate grouping in society eventually bands together with their own colour/gender/view and lobbies/etc against the others. If your childrens' future is put in danger because of policy targeting/denying them as of the colour of their skin/gender/views - then you join with others similar and then it's on.
‘Woke’ is just respecting and giving consideration to the needs and concerns of minority groups, particularly those with less political sway. It’s the same as we wanting local councils on surf coasts to be ‘woke’ to the concerns and priorities of surfers.
"‘Woke’ is just respecting and giving consideration to the needs and concerns of minority groups, particularly those with less political sway. "
It makes me deeply queasy that this consideration is being enforced by Big Tech, some of the most powerful corporations that have ever existed on Earth. It seems often to sway extremely closely to a sort of soft totalitarianism.
wally wrote:‘Woke’ is just respecting and giving consideration to the needs and concerns of minority groups, particularly those with less political sway. It’s the same as we wanting local councils on surf coasts to be ‘woke’ to the concerns and priorities of surfers.
It started out as that, but it's no longer that, it's morphed into something much different.
It's kind of hard to describe but I think wokeness is about something being pushed past a point of balance where it becomes unbalanced in the opposite direction and becomes irrational and illogical often damaging to the original aim too.
Cancel culture plays a big part in woke culture, i think cancel culture is all about seeking power over others and as pointed out above those that cancel are often worse than the ones who get cancelled.
Highly recommend listening to the following podcast, it discusses the "woke vs liberal" issue (as in, the real definition of liberal).
12.45 - the left-left divide
25.10 - general issue relates to a critique of structure and power
38.22 How woke tactics build compliance through intimidation
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/theminefield/is-cancel-cul...
Wouldn't really know nor do I care all that much in this "background of white noise" but I see weaponised terms like woke and cancel culture mostly used by the far right to attack the progressive side of politics. To me, if my premise is correct, these type of discussions in countries like the UK, US or here is so full of irony given the dominance of right to far right leaning media where the right's stationary view of the world is on daily rinse cycle. Heard the other day the UK only has two left leaning news outlets left and I get the sense that the US would be the same. Here, Murdoch dominates in WA, SA, Tas and Qld and 9News has most certainly changed the editorial direction of The Age and SMH. You really have to laugh at the right who love free speech but only their side of it. So, the cultural wars continue as they must to resist, retard or stop anything that threatens the status quo of privilege and inequity.
Definitely used by the right GS, they made the blueprints for virtue signalling and cancel culture.
Did you watch Craig McLachlan's story on Ch 7 last night? ABC and Fairfax used Weinstein's exposure to launch their own attack. They literally created a scenario where women were encouraged (and coached) to demonise McLachlan. So much for the progressive left media, they should hang their heads in shame.
Excellent podcast, Andy.
Resonates not just on a theoretical level, but I also see a lot of the strategies/tactics play out here on the forums like a real time case study.
My own pet peeve is somewhat similar to Wally's comment, but I hate seeing 'identity politics' used as a one-size-fits-all pejorative term for the parlous state of modern debate, in the process erasing the reason why identity politics is crucial to creating a more just society.
It's a story as old as time, but those who are marginalised or oppressed can only find power by grouping together. Ironically, many times the 'identities' have been foisted on them by the dominant group, not by themselves. Said Nick Giannopoulos from 'Wogs Out Of Work' after trying to assimilate, "they [Caucasian Aussies] called us wogs, so that's what we were". Similarly the gay and lesbian mardi gras arose from being persecuted by the dominant group, called fags or dykes so they began to own the terms.
Part of the reason IP has been pursued as much as it has is that, for some minorities, say for instance Aborigines, there are individuals who have been or are going through tertiary education and it's the very first time anyone has advocated for their group from an educational standpoint, new academic ground is being broken, and it's the nature of academia to promote and pursue new thought.
Doesn't mean it's right of course. Other academics will eventually come in and shave off the overreaches and the logical fallacies, though in the meantime they remain easy pickings for right wing shock jocks and anyone looking to grab one or two small points and use them to tear down the whole identity politics project.
And that's what it is, a project, there is an endpoint, which is social and economic equality I guess.
Reckon the better debate is not the value or otherwise of IP, but have those minorities who employ IP reached full equality? (and hence don't require it anymore)
I think another question would be those minorities who employ IP that have reached full equality have now actually surpassed it?
Gosh, that was poorly worded.
Hope you get the gist of it though.
poorly worded maybe zen... buy the gist is clear...
and that is the question that many want to ask
the question that irks so many, as 'the narrative' continues to bleat on so relentlessly...
I'd say many minorities have well and truly surpassed it, hence people like shaun micaleff making jokes one needs to brown or gay just to get a gig at places like the abc...
equality or equity stunet?
equality of opportunity, or equality of outcome?
the goalposts, ....'the narrative' ...has clearly changed / changing... at least in the US, which we sadly just seem to follow...
a result of decades of affirmative action like policies getting little result... which many now put down to limited class opportunities, through associated culture and networking, rather than any remnant discrimination
which comes back to blowin's point...
...and the wider agenda, which for decades has been quite elitist, not in a donald trump sense, but in terms of empowering and rewarding the best and brightest of minorities... starting in early education...
which arguably has been very successful, for the best and brightest. ...whilst also leaving a trail of despair in it's wake... a similar result that has manifested for the wider community, funnily enough...
This is kind of what I was getting at Sypkan. When the differing groupings realise/perceive a lack of opportunity baked into policy - those that do not benefit will withdraw into their own and only employ/promote their own. Anyone left in the middle of the equality will get surpassed by the policy, unless they are the intended recipient. I see fracturing.
Perhaps most important is an independent means of making a living. My 2c.
I don't fully understand the points you two are making?
- There has been oppression / marginalisation / discrimination.
- Oppressed groups naturally bunker together forming the rudiments of IP.
- Said groups use the collective power of their identity to advance the cause (the goal being equality with the dominant group)
- Arguably, at least here in Oz, many of those groups have acheived that goal.
- A problem is that it's not easy to disassemble the vehicle that provided said equality, thus we still find IP in places where it's not required.
- Which makes it easy pickings for right wing bloviators who've no knowledge nor curiousity about the good deeds that have arisen via IP now trying to discredit everything about it.
I think we only have to look at the modern history of homosexuality, say from 1977 when gays were being killed in significant numbers around Sydney's Eastern Suburbs and the first Mardi Gras kicked off, to now where the wider community largely don't care who you sleep with to appreciate the value of Identity Politics.
And just to throw some home chemistry into the mix....
When you have a young generation that are economically hobbled, who realise they'll never buy their own house, who see diminishing employment projects and increasing work insecurity, who feel ostracised from the 'Australia project' and unsurprisingly have more allegiance to corporations like Apple and Facebook because that's what parents and politicans have allowed, making them the first fully birthed products of the Great Neoliberal Project, then what power do thay have?
Their identity.
Their gender.
Things the state and society can't touch.
And they'll fight for them as fiercely as Boomer's will fight to negatively gear their investment properties.
".....negatively gear their investment properties".
Heard on the weekend a discussion on this year's federal budget along the lines that the LNP learnt from the Howard years that you can blow huge sums of taxpayers money on things like negative gearing, 1/2 CGT and all those other concessions to their base and get away with it, get away with locking in structural deficits by introducing ongoing programs initially funded by one-off or short-term gains. The discussion went on that while the economy did grow after Howard to at least pay for some of his largesse this time around the debt will be so great that future growth alone will not cover it ..... and that repayment will be forced upon the younger generations Stu refers to by (further) cuts to government services and/or increases in migration; note increasing taxes isn't in the mix on the contrary the LNP wants to further reduce tax. Surely we are fucked.
Fuck I hate that word...won't even use it.
No, I don't like it, don't like how far Identity Politics has come in some instances either, but I do appreciate what they arose out of, and the good they've done for creating a more just society. My point is that that should never be forgotten.
Like a lot of things, the pendulum has swung too far and a correction is in order, and I'm glad to see it happening right now - i.e the aforementioned letter with signatories from across the political spectrum.
Over here in NZ, it's far beyond "some instances". Everywhere and everything is IP, and if you dare question something aligned with intersectionality, you're a racist/misogynist/hate speaker/transphobe etc etc.
The papers have swallowed it whole, and all normal debate has been quashed. Every HR dept in every organisation is gleefully in on it, and are growing exponentially through it.
It's not fun, and not funny.
Have it cunts