Topic: I think I'm actually going to boycott mainstream televised news - page 2. (Read 5681 times)

They better bring the cattle prods :-)

Thanks!  :-)

"Central command, we have a unit thinking on his own. Someone named Rudd-O. Shall I call the truck?" 

Great post!

I especially like the "What you see in observable reality" bit. (a) and (b) go hand in hand. This is why we have the mainstream news, to continuously convince (b) that they need (a).

My vice is going to news.google.com when I have nothing else to do for the next 30seconds to 2 minutes.  I am trying to give it up but it is hard.  It is like trying not to look at the car accident that you drive past.

...except everyone in your life who doesn't kill, rape or rob you, even when they could get away with it easily?

I get the feeling that this (rather common) counterargument -- aside from not really being an argument but rather an allegedly untested hypothesis according to their proponents -- stems from a very creationist / religious / Original Sin form of conceptualizing one's fellow man.

That is, the idea that without a government everyone turns into evil Motorcycling Mad Max in Mohawks, is really no different from the belief that roads will "instantly vanish" if "government disappears"

But then again, we've been telling religious people that for decades, and they still believe -- against all observable evidence -- that without the Bible, people will suddenly become evil.

Now, there's absolutely every reason to believe that a tiny minority of the populace will most definitely turn evil, because they already were evil and believe that committing evil doesn't matter, only getting caught does.  We call these people "psychopaths".  They're about like 5% of the people.  And it is a problem (for which theoretical and practical decentralized solutions exist).

Now, don't quote me on this, but even if we don't have a solution to the psychopath problem, I much prefer a system where a psychopath gets shot in the face while attempting to rape a little child, to a system where the same psychopath is worshipped by useful idiots and empowered to firebomb children, give syphilis to Negroes, or trigger nuclear bombs.  Democide, remember?


No, not really.  I don't think there are two opinions on each side here.  What is there, is an irrational belief about pervasive human malevolence rooted in Original Sin, being battled (and increasingly being proven wrong and conquered) by facts that demonstrate the ample majority of people are voluntaryists when left to their own devices, and only really resort to violence to defend themselves and their loved ones.

I mean, there's research proving this.  Even frigging soldiers won't fire into each other during war (a fact  that is described as a "serious problem" by the psychopaths who run these murderer gangs).  People, even strangers, even when they are children, help each other and have altruism.

I can show you videos of this shit.  The question really only is: will you believe your eyes, or will you reject it and believe what you were told about your Evil Cousin, Man?

lolz, I wonder if there's a study that shows a link between mainstream news and violent tendencies? It certainly seems to be very manipulative.

I've banned TV and Pub from my life as much as possible several years ago.. This was the best move I've never done    I feel a lot better, and I'm not a lesser human not knowing what TV tought is the actuality.. with the time passing by, learning a lot about anything, I came to a form of conclusion.. TV news are not centered on what really matters, they focus hard on stuff they think will bring audience, cause they have to sell pub, wich is  toxic for our mind.  Not being exposed to pub, made my life easier and simpler..  When de-intoxicated from the news/pub, we begin to have a much better view of the world, our live.

After few years, you will see that peoples around you exposed to those toxics are acting wierd on few levels, and have some strange value attached to things..

Thats a real nice move from you..

Lethn, you just begin to feel the benefit.. as the time goes, you will renforce your position and became much more against this brain washing machine named TV.

Happy for you

I don't want, and never wanted, to blame "governments".  They don't exist.  All there is, is people doing things.

I blame the belief in the virtue of a group who perpetrates organized aggression to parasitize everyone else.  People under the influence of this belief, whether members or victims of this group, are the ones who believe that governments exist.  Not me.

What you see in observable reality is nothing more than (a) a tiny minority of people telling you what to do and how much to pay so they will let you live unharmed (b) a gaggle of people who incorrectly believe that the first group are their saviors and protectors, and worship them as a result of this incorrect belief.

That is, to me, the essence of statism.  It is to recoil in horror when watching an aggressor murder another, then to watch the exact same scene with the aggressor in a blue costume, only to say "well, he had it coming".  It is to feel terrified about being robbed of half of what you have, but paying up every April 15th with an unease that is hard to explain away.  It is to talk shit about Halliburton while celebrating the paid murderers in green costumes.  It is to cry in awe as the President sheds tears for the death of 20 children, when he himself has ordered the firebombing of 2000.  It is that level of irrationallity.  That is statism.

The problem isn't "totalitarianism".  It never was, not in the slightest.  The problem really isn't "aggressive people using too much aggression".  The problem is the belief that a bunch of aggressive people are virtuous and protect you.  That very belief, that the aggressive people are authorized and righteous to use aggression, is precisely what enables the aggressive people to murder everyone else, with total impunity.

If you think for a second that you live in a human farm, where you're farmed for your labor, and suppressed if you become a problem for the farmers, then the distinction between "totalitarianism" and "democracy" becomes very easy to figure out: both are merely methods to organize the farm.

The belief that a human being is righteously authorized to murder, brutalize, or cage another human being, as punishment for peacefully resisting an order, is not a totalitarian belief -- it is a statist belief.  Democide is not caused by totalitarianism -- it is caused by statism.

All do to some degree. True, not equally, but all of them do to one degree or another.

lol now I've got to figure out what to do with all this free time maybe I'll finally start learning Japanese like I've been planning to for awhile now.

So the "statist" response to this (and really the point of that site) is that not all governments commit democide equally, but it is a function of how totalitarian the government is.


I mean you can't really blame the democratic/republican governments for the actions of the totalitarian ones. Really we need some estimate of how long it takes governments to either become totalitarian or fail due to whatever reason. Or perhaps those governments are totalitarian at the outset.

Even then the number of confounds will be huge, making any sort of real analysis (ie predictive) difficult. I think most westerner's agree that totalitarianism is bad. What we really want to know is whether or not there is a threshold that is crossed after which a state is very likely to become democidal. Maybe this is on that site somewhere.

...What he said.

Been there. A little misty. Prefer The Shivering Isles.

I cannot escape them No matter how I try They wait for me everywhere I cannot pass them by.

Driving down the street I see "Jesus Is Lord" And then immediately after I hear the word "FNORD!"

Innocuous sayings and parables And on the evening news I hear the word "FNORD!" And suddenly I'm confused

I sit alone in my room And I'm feeling rather bored I turn on the tube and guess what I hear the word "FNORD!"

"Don't see the fnords and they won't eat you" That's what I've heard the wisemen say But I can't get away from those beasties There's just no fucking way.

Fnord is toast without bread. Fnord is the source of all the zero bits in your computer.
Fnord is the echo of silence. Fnord is the parsley on the plate of life.
Fnord is the sales tax on happiness. Fnord is the donut hole.
Fnord is an annoying series of email messages. Fnord is the yin without yang.
Fnord is the color only blind people can see. Fnord is the Universe with decreasing entropy.

Good for you!
If you feel an overwhelming need for a "fix", then head over to RT.com, PressTV.ir or Euronews.com

English speaking news, free of ads, no commerical angle and a different side to the story if you live in a Western country.

Before you know it you'll actually start thinking for yourself and opening your eyes to what's really happening.

ON THIS DAY I GO TO SOVNGARDE!

If I can't see the what?  I think you accidentally a word there.

Just remember, if you don't see the Fnords! they can't hurt you.

For gauging the markets, I prefer clarkmoody.com :-D