Writing's a fight and this boy needs a battle
News outlet.
Carole Cadwalladr reports in the The Observer “Parliament has used its legal powers to seize internal Facebook documents in an extraordinary attempt to hold the US social media giant to account after chief executive Mark Zuckerberg repeatedly refused to answer MPs’ questions”.
Another interesting piece in the unfolding puzzle that is the scandle surrounding Cambridge Analytica, Vote Leave, and Facebook.
The sub heading to this article, “men are too emotional, they don’t focus, they buy on trend and they’re just too risky” should actually read “men are too aggressive, chase the pack, and are obsessed with winning”.
Society teaches men to behave like this. Business wants aggressive team players. You only have to watch that woefully pitiful advertisement for capitalism The Apprentice to see what it wants. Even the women in the process adopt these aggressive “masculine” atributes. Perhaps we should rethink what we expect from men?
I find the ideas at the core of Joe Herbert’s article in The Conversation interesting.
The notion of “degrowth” is compelling, especially when you consider the predictions of Polly Toynbee’s hard-right revolution in my previous post.
What I find difficult to conceptualise, is the how?
Yes “the logic of infinite growth is driving ecosystem collapse and climate breakdown”. Yes the “heavily polluting countries of the global north – such as the UK – must undergo a phase of managed and socially equitable economic contraction”. Yes endless economic growth has “left our society overworked, over-stressed and plagued by extreme levels of inequality”. I agree “poverty and inequality could be tackled by implementing a universal basic income”.
The intellectual arguments are there, but as I said, what I don’t understand, is the how?
Those at the top of the pyramid will not give up their privilege, and will react with hostility at any attempt to redistribute wealth through taxation. Any attempt to seize their assets will be met with violence. The strengthening of right-wing economic policies has come with boots on the ground. Those soldiers will be mobilised, and will have to be fought.
The problem is wars are great for growth, so how do you degrow society without going to war?
I agree with Polly Toynbee’s assessment in The Guardian, and I find her conclusions deeply troubling.
Brexit is fast becoming (perhaps it has always been) a synonym for crisis capitalism. Anything that does not service the needs of the few will be ripped to shreds for profit. What is left is for the crows, and crows that will go hungry.
It is my opinion, this country will end up being a tax haven. Consequently anything funded by tax revenues will go. How long before we have favelas on Brixton Hill, a shanty towns in Hyde Park, or people dead because they can’t afford medicines?
“Dead Dog on the Left (2018) isn’t just a documentary about the use of ecstasy in treating PTSD, it’s a story of the lengths one former marine will go to for friendship.”
Fiona Harvey’s headline in The Guardian doesn’t actually get to the truth of the story. The headline should probably include the words “apocalyptic consequences”.
As Fiona Harvey points out antibiotics are used to prevent disease in farmed animals. What she doesn’t mention is that antibiotics are also used, especially in the United States, because antibiotics make animals gain weight.
Overuse of antibiotics in farming has put us in an “apocalyptic” situation where “farms are becoming a greater reservoir for antibiotic resistant bacteria”. While I think a ban on the overuse of antibiotics in UK farming is needed it will make little or no difference if the US is not brought into line. “Antibiotic use in US farming is six times higher per livestock unit than in the UK… and cattle in particular receive 13 times as much antibiotic medicine as in the UK.”
You could also give serious thought to switching to a plant based diet. It is healthier, does less harm to the environment, and reduces our need to use antibiotics in farming.
Please someone explain to me how, after this news, the “result” of the referendum can be allowed to stand?
It looks to me like the leave side cheated, enhancing their campaign like an athlete shooting steroids. An athletes caught cheating is stripped of their medal.
Why not the same for the leave campaign? At the very least there should be another referendum, another vote.
If you’re so sure you are right, and the people of this country really want to leave the European Union, have another vote. I dare you. I double-dare you.
You won’t because you know you’ll loose. You won by wilfully cheating. Where is your shame?
There is really in nothing more to say. Five deaths in a week, five people killed, and for why?
The Guardian: Press Association: London records fifth death from knife crime with a week
A sobering and depressing read that will be met with a choir of people sticking their fingers in their ears and chanting a chorus of “La, La, La, La, La, La, La, I can’t hear you”.
Another headline that says all you need to know about Brexit. Say it. Workers’ rights at risk. Workers’ rights at risk. Workers’ rights at risk. Now tell me how leaving the European Union is a good idea.
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