Right off the bat: sorry for this slightly OT post. There is stuff about discrimination/labeling in the linked video clip below, concerning the profound truth of "All men are rats", however. Higher standards, here we come!
On Tue, Jun 24, 2014 at 2:52 PM, Telmo Menezes <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > On Tue, Jun 24, 2014 at 2:28 PM, Platonist Guitar Cowboy < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> >> >> >> On Tue, Jun 24, 2014 at 1:35 PM, Telmo Menezes <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >>> I have to say, I find it a bit silly when people identify too much with >>> their nationality (or profession, or gender...) to the point that they get >>> offended when a generic remark is made. >>> >>> It is fairly obvious that Kim is not suggesting that Chris or Brent or >>> any other specific American in this list is a person of low intelligence. >>> The generalisation per se might be without merit, but even so it's perhaps >>> a good exercise in to learn to tolerate it. >>> >>> We have more in common with each other than with the average citizen of >>> any of our respective countries. >>> Why care so much about imaginary lines in the ground? >>> >> >> Because without it, opium for the masses like FIFA world cup makes less >> sense, and people would start to realize and have more time to ponder that >> they are getting shafted... and by whom. >> > > Yup. > > >> Also we need to get rid of those immigrants stealing all our jobs and >> vote hard right. At least that's what civilized Europe is doing >> increasingly. >> > > I want to believe that this is a passing fad of populism festering on the > economic recession. > Yes, same here. Grain of salt is: in Weimar Republic this reasoning was quite similar with intellectuals until it was too late. What is left/progressive in the states is somehow moderate business as usual in Europe, dead center... But this matters little as foe example the general state prosecutor in Germany finds "no concrete indication of spying" in the wake of Merkel scandal and snowden. Word is he styles himself as keeping peace in international relations, servant to German state interests. Of course we need measures to oversee ideological nutjobs activity/dangerous tech movements etc. But the manner in which this is conducted needs more scrutiny: if we can only keep ourselves secure by agreeing to do each others' dirty laundry, bypassing other sovereign nations' laws, so they may bypass our own, then I don't see why this isn't perceived as dangerous and cynical; and because of legal complexity times digital age, even counterproductive to security on all levels of democratic model (multiplying hacker warfare etc). If "everybody does it" justification would hold sway in courts the way it does here internationally... > > >> So you're saying this, but really, you are lamenting Portugal's >> performance ;-) PGC >> > > Eheh. Hey, Ronaldo had the best haircut though :) > By far! But through long hard work, if time is on our side, we'll naturally gravitate to better role models/exemplars. > > I can't resist sharing what my favourite comedian (American, btw) has to > say about nationalism and hating immigrants: > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsPDT5qHtZ4 > He has an indoor smoking permit? Unbelievable, you'd think that people would drop dead next to him due to passive inhalation! Gosh what chicken have we become when all jazz bars must be smokeless, no exceptions! While our pollution, all the threads this has spawned, Liz's thread with the pesticides...ok. In appreciation of Telmo's link, here's a recent one you might not have caught yet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXvJqiyiMqQ The "all men are rats" statement, its discriminatory impact, and the gender aspect finally receives thorough treatment there. PGC -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
