2k18 /pol/

bandit · Post by **bandit** » Fri Jan 05, 2018 1:19 pm #371042

Bottom post of the previous page:

CosmicScientist wrote:I want to say if Trump didn't take this seriously, no-one would take the book seriously.

But people take Trump seriously.

Nothing much to report on this side of the pond except brexit rubbish. So life's fine.

the streisand effect is a hell of a thing

Anonmare · Post by **Anonmare** » Fri Jan 05, 2018 8:44 pm #371115

Fact-checking and verifying sources is for squares, Old Man! Hip young news journalists like me don't need to check cus we're kewl and far too busy for that

XSI · Post by **XSI** » Fri Jan 05, 2018 10:13 pm #371215

That seems to be the consensus

Anonmare · Post by **Anonmare** » Fri Jan 05, 2018 10:15 pm #371217

I don't really bother with keeping up with the news any more since it's fed through so many filters, and may even be incorrect.

Grazyn · Post by **Grazyn** » Sat Jan 06, 2018 10:39 am #371366

I'll never understand those who say "Don't trust journalists and the MSM, always do your own research to find out the truth".

Like, if western media says "Russian planes bombed a hospital in Syria" and Russian state media says "No we didn't" how are you going to verify that on your own? You can't trust journalists because they have their own agenda, are you going to fly to Syria and check for yourself? Actually, even if you could do that it won't help because usually even videos of the thing made by locals get discredited as well in those situations. And this applies to a lot of other things that are just too complex or too difficult for the common joe to verify on his own, not unless you make it a full-time job and at that point Bingo! you've become a journalist yourself.

That's why I just assume that those who say that sentence actually mean "Don't trust *that media*, trust *that other media*". If you are so convinced that journalists are barking buffoons you should just accept that sometimes you cannot and will never know the actual truth, instead of getting conned by other barking buffoons who want to sell their own "truth".

DemonFiren · Post by **DemonFiren** » Sat Jan 06, 2018 3:24 pm #371399

>planes within planes

Anonmare · Post by **Anonmare** » Sat Jan 06, 2018 4:03 pm #371403

Metaplane?
Extraplanar travel?
Intraplanar travel?

ShadowDimentio · Sat Jan 06, 2018 5:21 pm

Grazyn wrote:I'll never understand those who say "Don't trust journalists and the MSM, always do your own research to find out the truth".

Like, if western media says "Russian planes bombed a hospital in Syria" and Russian state media says "No we didn't" how are you going to verify that on your own?

By researching. There's nothing really stopping Joe Averageman from researching to his heart's content for most any issue besides his own apathy.

XSI · Post by **XSI** » Sat Jan 06, 2018 8:43 pm #371438

Grazyn wrote:I'll never understand those who say "Don't trust journalists and the MSM, always do your own research to find out the truth".

Like, if western media says "Russian planes bombed a hospital in Syria" and Russian state media says "No we didn't" how are you going to verify that on your own? You can't trust journalists because they have their own agenda, are you going to fly to Syria and check for yourself? Actually, even if you could do that it won't help because usually even videos of the thing made by locals get discredited as well in those situations. And this applies to a lot of other things that are just too complex or too difficult for the common joe to verify on his own, not unless you make it a full-time job and at that point Bingo! you've become a journalist yourself.

That's why I just assume that those who say that sentence actually mean "Don't trust *that media*, trust *that other media*". If you are so convinced that journalists are barking buffoons you should just accept that sometimes you cannot and will never know the actual truth, instead of getting conned by other barking buffoons who want to sell their own "truth".

/pol/ has several times investigated 'Syrian artillery attacks' on residential neighbourhoods, then checked pictures to find out from the shadows, sky and impact markings that the shells would have come from rebel or ISIS held areas. Or maybe the Syrian army has artillery shells that can change direction mid-air.
An attack may have happened. The western news may have reported it as best they could find, but that doesn't neccesarily mean they're right about it. And it doesn't mean they're not being fed this information by someone who does have an agenda and is fine with twisting facts either. But they do try and for many things they are right or at least have enough information to consider checking them out.

When I say "Don't trust the MSM", what I mean is "People are fallible and you should find multiple sources and try to work out a reasonable idea of what happened by connecting likely truths together in ways that are consistent at least. Find the truth of the matter such as 'Residential distract was shelled, 4 casualties', not the emotional appeal of 'Assad bombed a children's playground and kills four!'."
And of course, be aware of emotional language in news articles. That's always a sure sign that they're trying to steer your opinions rather than inform you of something that happened

I don't expect random people to figure out what was is north/south in a picture by the shadows and from there identify impact craters to determine the shells' origin. But I do expect them to ask "How are you sure that it was the Syrian military that did this and not ISIS who is also active in this area?"
And from there, I expect the MSM to have an answer that is something other than "Our rebel-aligned source says it was Assad, so it's probably Assad"

DemonFiren · Post by **DemonFiren** » Sat Jan 06, 2018 8:55 pm #371439

>trusting /pol/

Malkevin · Post by **Malkevin** » Mon Jan 08, 2018 5:05 pm #371724

Black Liz the first... What?

I wonder how much work she puts in compared to the guy up top

I hate salaries, they're a way to disguise the lowest common denominator: the hourly rate

I looked at being a cable and broadband fitter for virgin, 28k salary
Sounds.nice until you see its six day weeks totalling 48 hours - fuck that

cedarbridge · Post by **cedarbridge** » Mon Jan 08, 2018 7:43 pm #371756

The "wage gap" is another of the invisible demons of modern feminism. The sun rises in the morning. More men are awake than women in the morning, therefore, men are making the sun rise before women are awake to steal the warmth from the sun.

The flight attendant/stewardess thing kinda bugs me too. There's something that just pisses me off about the double standard involved. The airline feels obligated to "encourage" and seek out female pilots not because there is a legitimate non-press need for female pilots. They are not seeking them out because adding female pilots to their staff would improve piloting generally across the company in a tangible way. They're doing it because pilots are paid more than other positions and by adding female pilots they can say they're giving more money to women that they would otherwise have given to icky men.

Anonmare · Post by **Anonmare** » Mon Jan 08, 2018 7:45 pm #371757

Is it taking into account things like maternity leave?

cedarbridge · Post by **cedarbridge** » Mon Jan 08, 2018 8:01 pm #371761

Anonmare wrote:Is it taking into account things like maternity leave?

http://www.businessinsider.com/companie ... ave-2017-3

Incomptinence · Tue Jan 09, 2018 8:13 am

The only "solution" would be a percentage increase to women's hourly wage to compensate for less hours worked (own volition) different position (own volition).

They would never put this into practice, status quo support won't really cover unequal wages for the same work along gender lines and women would probably be fired en masse to save money.

cedarbridge · Post by **cedarbridge** » Tue Jan 09, 2018 6:37 pm #372028

Incomptinence wrote:The only "solution" would be a percentage increase to women's hourly wage to compensate for less hours worked (own volition) different position (own volition).

They would never put this into practice, status quo support won't really cover unequal wages for the same work along gender lines and women would probably be fired en masse to save money.

In the airline case (and the stats used to invent the "gap" in the first place) we're never talking about "unequal wages for the same work." Flight attendants are not pilots. This is not the same job with the same duties, qualifications, requirements, and working demands.

What is sought here is equality of outcome over equality of opportunity. Women want to work less hours and be paid the same as somebody who works more hours without interruption to their work schedule as though they had kept working and accruing valuable experience. When feminists start demanding more positions for high-steel construction and oil roughnecking for women, I'll start giving a shit about "unequal pay."

FantasticFwoosh · Tue Jan 09, 2018 6:59 pm

BOOM BOOM SHAKE THE ROOM, Drumpf is turning up the bass on North Korea Worst Korea with reported missile strike, just whispers surrounding bright lights and intense rumbling nearby south easternly Russia, which shares a minute but noticable border with North Korea (or least it used to during the Korean war, but thats border politics i can't remember)

I wish i knew where the Russkies are hiding their giant fridge magnet to attract the bi-monthly meteor strikes that happen out there.

ShadowDimentio · Tue Jan 09, 2018 7:07 pm

When you're the biggest country in the world you're bound to get hit by more random falling crap than anyone else

Grazyn · Post by **Grazyn** » Tue Jan 09, 2018 7:24 pm #372041

The Russian-NK border is pure Stalker-porn if you go take a look around it in Google Street view

Ricotez · Post by **Ricotez** » Wed Jan 10, 2018 7:31 pm #372292

Fox is trying to credit Trump with the economic recovery that the USA is going through, which set in while Obama was in office

they also tried to blame Obama for the recession, which set in while Bush was in office

meanwhile Trump tries to credit himself with that nobody died in plane crashes in the USA this year...?

Super Aggro Crag · Wed Jan 10, 2018 9:55 pm

Obama bad president

XSI · Post by **XSI** » Thu Jan 11, 2018 12:01 am #372386

>Implying anything the president can do truly effects the economy

At best they can hope really hard, but the economy will do what it wants anyway

Anonmare · Post by **Anonmare** » Thu Jan 11, 2018 8:50 pm #372628

To be honest, immigration is only good for the economy in that it drives wages down. More workers means more competition for jobs and employers can lower wages because they know somebody else will still do it. I've gotten a little lucky in that I had inside info to be able to get signed on with a company's training course and I'll finish it before the shutdowns start.

Don't get me started on China, they singlehandedly have killed most of the world's manufacturing industry by flooding the market with cheap, low-quality products and making it so that it's still cheaper to refine their shitty stuff than to do it all ourselves. And the only reason they are so cheap is that they don't care about quality control or pay workers nearly as much as they would be in a first-world country or have to comply with health & safety or child labour laws.

XSI · Post by **XSI** » Thu Jan 11, 2018 9:23 pm #372635

Or any laws for that matter

They dont have to bother with copyright etc either

cedarbridge · Post by **cedarbridge** » Thu Jan 11, 2018 9:24 pm #372636

If we're talking specifically about market prices and the surging DOW, that's easily attributable to the sitting President because market prices ebb and surge with the news cycles. Investor confidence is worth way more on the stock market than any portfolio or shareholder statement. Stock purchases and sells are almost always several years ahead rather than several years behind. Brokers are not waiting around to see a drop before they sell and they aren't waiting around to see a surge happen before they buy. If you're waiting to see the raise or fall you're late and you're losing money.

XSI · Post by **XSI** » Thu Jan 11, 2018 11:15 pm #372678

cedarbridge wrote:If we're talking specifically about market prices and the surging DOW, that's easily attributable to the sitting President because market prices ebb and surge with the news cycles. Investor confidence is worth way more on the stock market than any portfolio or shareholder statement. Stock purchases and sells are almost always several years ahead rather than several years behind. Brokers are not waiting around to see a drop before they sell and they aren't waiting around to see a surge happen before they buy. If you're waiting to see the raise or fall you're late and you're losing money.

And because a lot of people are selling, everyone else sells too. Or if a lot are buying, everyone else wants to buy too. This turns any sort of big transaction into a self-fulfilling prophecy as long as it's backed by someone rich enough
Funny how that works

Drynwyn · Post by **Drynwyn** » Fri Jan 12, 2018 4:51 am #372731

XSI wrote:
cedarbridge wrote:If we're talking specifically about market prices and the surging DOW, that's easily attributable to the sitting President because market prices ebb and surge with the news cycles. Investor confidence is worth way more on the stock market than any portfolio or shareholder statement. Stock purchases and sells are almost always several years ahead rather than several years behind. Brokers are not waiting around to see a drop before they sell and they aren't waiting around to see a surge happen before they buy. If you're waiting to see the raise or fall you're late and you're losing money.
And because a lot of people are selling, everyone else sells too. Or if a lot are buying, everyone else wants to buy too. This turns any sort of big transaction into a self-fulfilling prophecy as long as it's backed by someone rich enough
Funny how that works

solution: restructure the economy so it doesn't require wall street (surprise: this is actually quite easy), then glass the financial district

cedarbridge · Post by **cedarbridge** » Fri Jan 12, 2018 7:23 am #372738

Drynwyn wrote:
XSI wrote:
cedarbridge wrote:If we're talking specifically about market prices and the surging DOW, that's easily attributable to the sitting President because market prices ebb and surge with the news cycles. Investor confidence is worth way more on the stock market than any portfolio or shareholder statement. Stock purchases and sells are almost always several years ahead rather than several years behind. Brokers are not waiting around to see a drop before they sell and they aren't waiting around to see a surge happen before they buy. If you're waiting to see the raise or fall you're late and you're losing money.
And because a lot of people are selling, everyone else sells too. Or if a lot are buying, everyone else wants to buy too. This turns any sort of big transaction into a self-fulfilling prophecy as long as it's backed by someone rich enough
Funny how that works
solution: restructure the economy so it doesn't require wall street (surprise: this is actually quite easy), then glass the financial district

Commies go home

XSI · Post by **XSI** » Fri Jan 12, 2018 10:56 am #372747

The hard part is getting wall street to not use their shitloads of money to stop that sort of change

Jazaen · Post by **Jazaen** » Fri Jan 12, 2018 11:45 am #372748

To expand what XSI pointed out above, this is actually happening. As per Citizens United vs FEC, in the US political spending is a form of first amendment-protected speech, and thus government can't forbid corporations (or unions, for that matter) from spending money on usual election shenanigans.

calzilla1 · Post by **calzilla1** » Fri Jan 12, 2018 1:32 pm #372758

So Trump called a bunch of African countries shitholes. In other news, Trump also said the sky is blue and the sun is made up of hydrogen and helium.

cedarbridge · Post by **cedarbridge** » Fri Jan 12, 2018 5:11 pm #372786

calzilla1 wrote:So Trump called a bunch of African countries shitholes. In other news, Trump also said the sky is blue and the sun is made up of hydrogen and helium.

We wouldn't want to piss off those paleolithic African shitholes.

ShadowDimentio · Fri Jan 12, 2018 5:17 pm

calzilla1 wrote:So Trump called a bunch of African countries shitholes. In other news, Trump also said the sky is blue and the sun is made up of hydrogen and helium.

All true statements. Africa fucking blows on every level.

Super Aggro Crag · Fri Jan 12, 2018 5:32 pm

Haiti isn't in Africa dumbasses

ShadowDimentio · Fri Jan 12, 2018 5:39 pm

It still blows after getting nuked by those earthquakes.

ColonicAcid · Post by **ColonicAcid** » Fri Jan 12, 2018 5:42 pm #372793

All-American Hero

Anonmare · Post by **Anonmare** » Fri Jan 12, 2018 7:43 pm #372825

I feel like racism has become a Gotcha! game and any meaning the word ever had has been devolved to the point that it's effectively toothless.

Incomptinence · Fri Jan 12, 2018 8:16 pm

Not only are all people made equal so are all nations.

Especially if they are locked in some variety of civil war that just makes them at least twice as good as a peaceful nation as two or more nations are there!

Anonmare · Post by **Anonmare** » Fri Jan 12, 2018 8:27 pm #372838

Nations are becoming less and less relevant in an age of megacorporations. After all, it was the corporations that pushed for globalism and it is they who have the influence and motivation to be the movers and shakers of the next world.

Anonmare · Post by **Anonmare** » Sat Jan 13, 2018 1:07 am #372903

Go Starship Troopers and make citizenship require military service

Malkevin · Post by **Malkevin** » Sat Jan 13, 2018 1:57 am #372909

Anonmare wrote:Go Starship Troopers and make citizenship require militarycivil service

XSI · Post by **XSI** » Sat Jan 13, 2018 4:41 am #372938

The first question is a bit of a mess considering everyone is different and every situation is a bit different
But the second will be solved soon enough with gene tech

Remove the hiccup genes and combine the best of you and your partner, every kid will be born with a strong metabolism that actively resists getting fat, grows muscles more easily, ever increasing IQ with every generation, natural beauty of the highest order and perfect genetic health
There won't be any flaws once that gets going. Until someone fucks up with the tech, in which case that's a pretty big problem that we'll get to when it happens

Grazyn · Post by **Grazyn** » Sat Jan 13, 2018 7:17 am #372961

CosmicScientist wrote:Solve the problems of citizenship, that of people not liking others getting it and people wanting everyone to have it, by removing citizenship.

Non-citizens don't get rights. Non-citizens will do the work you tell them to.

Political office requires citizenship. Citizenship costs money. Get working.

You mean like Qatar or Saudi Arabia?

Incomptinence · Sat Jan 13, 2018 7:34 am

Malkevin wrote:
Anonmare wrote:Go Starship Troopers and make citizenship require militarycivil military service

WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW MORE?

Malkevin · Post by **Malkevin** » Sat Jan 13, 2018 12:05 pm #373002

I always got the shakes before the drop, it isn't fear, it isn't anything important — it's just like the trembling of an eager race horse in the starting gate. I couldn't say about that; I've never been a race horse.

XSI · Post by **XSI** » Sat Jan 13, 2018 5:33 pm #373059

As for the first question then, doesn't really matter what I think, now does it?
The people who do the least good for the world will be the first to get real life extension tech. And the people who do good tend to be the ones who won't get any
I'd say until their quality of life fails, but they'll be the one to decide when that is. If they stop wanting to be alive, it's probably okay to let things end normally

Designer babies are prototype stuff right now. It's technically possible and being tested on animals, but not yet at the point where we use it for people

DemonFiren · Post by **DemonFiren** » Sat Jan 13, 2018 6:17 pm #373069

Just wake me up when I can be a ligger IRL or something.

XSI · Post by **XSI** » Sat Jan 13, 2018 7:16 pm #373079

What is Britain's obsession with the US?

They're independent, you don't have to parent them anymore

Drynwyn · Post by **Drynwyn** » Sat Jan 13, 2018 7:25 pm #373083

cedarbridge wrote:
Drynwyn wrote:
XSI wrote:
cedarbridge wrote:If we're talking specifically about market prices and the surging DOW, that's easily attributable to the sitting President because market prices ebb and surge with the news cycles. Investor confidence is worth way more on the stock market than any portfolio or shareholder statement. Stock purchases and sells are almost always several years ahead rather than several years behind. Brokers are not waiting around to see a drop before they sell and they aren't waiting around to see a surge happen before they buy. If you're waiting to see the raise or fall you're late and you're losing money.
And because a lot of people are selling, everyone else sells too. Or if a lot are buying, everyone else wants to buy too. This turns any sort of big transaction into a self-fulfilling prophecy as long as it's backed by someone rich enough
Funny how that works
solution: restructure the economy so it doesn't require wall street (surprise: this is actually quite easy), then glass the financial district
Commies go home

Nothing about a market economy requires a bloated cadaver of a "financial industry" dangling off of it and occasionally releasing a plume of foul-smelling corpse gas that tanks everything else despite the same amount of goods and services actually being produced.
(Now, personally, I support far-left, labor-favoring viewpoints, but saying that the statements "the financial industry is a parasitic leech on the economy" and "workers should own the means of production" are the same is disingenuous.)

Super Aggro Crag · Sat Jan 13, 2018 9:31 pm

Farming

cedarbridge · Sat Jan 13, 2018 10:13 pm

Drynwyn wrote:
cedarbridge wrote:
Drynwyn wrote:
XSI wrote:
cedarbridge wrote:If we're talking specifically about market prices and the surging DOW, that's easily attributable to the sitting President because market prices ebb and surge with the news cycles. Investor confidence is worth way more on the stock market than any portfolio or shareholder statement. Stock purchases and sells are almost always several years ahead rather than several years behind. Brokers are not waiting around to see a drop before they sell and they aren't waiting around to see a surge happen before they buy. If you're waiting to see the raise or fall you're late and you're losing money.
And because a lot of people are selling, everyone else sells too. Or if a lot are buying, everyone else wants to buy too. This turns any sort of big transaction into a self-fulfilling prophecy as long as it's backed by someone rich enough
Funny how that works
solution: restructure the economy so it doesn't require wall street (surprise: this is actually quite easy), then glass the financial district
Commies go home
Nothing about a market economy requires a bloated cadaver of a "financial industry" dangling off of it and occasionally releasing a plume of foul-smelling corpse gas that tanks everything else despite the same amount of goods and services actually being produced.
(Now, personally, I support far-left, labor-favoring viewpoints, but saying that the statements "the financial industry is a parasitic leech on the economy" and "workers should own the means of production" are the same is disingenuous.)

"Bloated cadaver"
"Dangling"
"foul-smelling corpse gas"
"parasitic leech"

You understand this convinces literally only people who agree with your viewpoint and advances no other argument right?