(08-04-2024, 11:35 PM)Mark A Becker Wrote:  I continue to be surprised that so many of our voters, of either persuasion, seem to enjoy government as reality TV, and certain politicians seem to love 'performance politics' (an oxymoron if ever there was one).

And there you have the answer. People today are dumber than before, thanks to social media algorithms. 
The four horsemen of the apocalypse will be Facebook/Insta, Twitter, Tiktok, and Youtube, with Whatsapp fanning the flames.

Yeah, but we here aren't dumb.

We are just insecure.

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We are in Harold Bloom's agon between poets.
Bang!!!!!

How the first laws came about

'Hey bill you really should stop killing all the villagers, they're family and community and important '

'I don't see any rules against it'

Sets up rule, don't kill anyone

'Hey bill, we're glad you stopped killing people directly but now your getting them wasted and putting them in precarious situations to where they will probably die'

'I don't see any rules against it'

I hate politics. Everyone deserves a chance

Returning to comment on a post that rowens made that I must've missed previously:

(07-29-2024, 10:42 AM)rowens Wrote:  ...it makes no sense to talk about the Gay or Black or Hispanic bloc while expecting everyone to be intermingled.

Well, rowens, that statement really made me think.

How can we expect the States to be United when folks are constantly divided into 'voting blocs' (as if such 'blocs' vote the same)?

It will be interesting moving forward to see how America reacts to a female, multi-racial candidate, who is married to a non-christian, and whose step-children are of another race. Will that be the focus, or will we try to think beyond those 'blocs', and focus on policy?

Propaganda is part of the political process. That's why the system is so complex and not straightforward and honest. Politics is a game that has to be won. And to do that you have to play on people. That's the point of speechwriters and fundraising. Money is a powerful symbol, and giving someone money adds to your connection with them. Speechwriters and ad campaigns are shamanism for our culture. Communication Technology make these symbols intimate and addictive. Everyone complains about politics, because while everyone knows that dishonesty is simply the way the game is played, they take a smart mark approach and go along for the ride with a confident sense of being in on it.
So people will expect the rules of the game to focus on all those individual/group markers. Smart markers. Even Beckers.

(08-05-2024, 11:12 PM)rowens Wrote:  Smart markers. Even Beckers.

Hey rowens-
I resemble that remark! You missed a great opportunity to say "Smart Marks. Even Beckers". That would've been funnier.

Subtlety.
Don't you know?
I mentioned smart marks.
I mentioned Group Markers.

I combined the two into smart markers, and rhymed that with Beckers, which, Becker, doesn't have an 's' at the end.


You dig?

Or are you f-ing with me? re-Mark?

(08-05-2024, 08:00 AM)rowens Wrote:  I'm a creative artist.

<snip>

dukealien, all my neighbors are you. Yet you are so much more.


Tell us about yourself, dukealien, busker would like to know.


Most (so-called) rightwing Trump supporters, are not here writing poetry.


Me and, I'm sure, busker, wants to know about you.

I'm odd.

You're odd.


Why are you a rightwing Trump guy and a sensitive semilefty like most of us gays?

Well, I'm sure not even...

The problem with self-doxxing (pushing personal info) is that while it boosts the perceived authenticity of what you say, it also provides certified excuses for disregarding you.  Moreover, it prevents presenting yourself as different people to different people... which can be amusing as well as oddly authentic.  Am I the dragon or the knight today?  Well, to whom am I talking?  I'm a libertarian to conservatives, and a conservative to libertarians - without any of us being inconsistent.  (And a nightmare to progressives.)  I read a lot, and believe some of what I see.  As we dive deeper into the electronified age, we get better and better at ignoring the ads and propaganda that frame the part of the screen we're interested in following.  Some of what we follow is false, and little of the frame is true or relevant.  But the inside edge of the frame is the Bubble, and the Bubble is bad.

That's what I wanted you to say.

Continue . . .

(08-06-2024, 04:24 AM)rowens Wrote:  You dig? I do.

Or are you f-ing with me? re-Mark? Who? Me?

(08-05-2024, 11:12 PM)rowens Wrote:  ... take a smart mark approach and go along for the ride with a confident sense of being in on it.

Not so much in on it as I am on to it. That doesn't make me a Smart Mark, just another mark with average awareness.

Sometimes I think I'd be good at writing snappy political slogans, for either side, but then I lose interest.

Well, I only used your name, being Mark, for humor purposes.


I was using the language more than I was using what you as an individual said.


That's part of humor.

(08-06-2024, 07:26 AM)dukealien Wrote:  ... the Bubble is bad.

Especially a Bubble with an echo inside it.

I find that I have an annoying knack for being able to argue a position, and then turn around and argue an opposing position. Drives people nuts, but keeps me from going 'all-in' with a single side of murky topics: there's always more than one side to any story. I know I'm thinking fairly clearly if somebone asks me who's side I'm on. I usually reply,"the side without all the answers."

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(08-06-2024, 07:51 AM)rowens Wrote:  Well, I only used your name, being Mark, for humor purposes.

I was using the language more than I was using what you as an individual said.

That's part of humor.

I am certainly not offended, rowens. I know how to take a joke- I got used to people calling me pecker instead of Becker way, way back. It was especially funny when they'd repeat it over and over, like they'd just figured out a new comedy routine, and didn't realize how stupid they really sounded. It also brought plenty of pretty young girls to my defense when I was in junior high, and that would really piss off the wanna be comedians.

(08-06-2024, 10:41 AM)rowens Wrote:  That's the way I like to feel all the time. Like in a bar where everybody's kinda f'd up, but it's ok.
When I was in Boston, I was in a madhouse, because I was f'd up.
Everybody in the madhouse was f'd up, but nobody was ok.


Kind of like politics.

Which makes me wonder:


Who here would ever consider running for office. And what would your platform, I mean, what would you say?

Boston has a cool "Cheers" bar, that is the most miserable place, ever. 

But, you asked an interesting question (for once—you seem to talk garbled nonsense usually, as a self-defence mechanism. God forbid you expose yourself as the mediocre person you obviously are. You're the mad prophet that no one understands because you are so deep—and I know this is the part that you are going to reply to with gibberish... or not)... "Who here would ever consider running for office. And what would your platform, I mean, what would you say?"

If I were considering running for office, I would say "everything is generally working quite well. We might need to tax the billionaires a bit more because, they won't miss it and it'll help out. We also think that health care should be free for everyone. Which is cool because the billionaires are paying a little more tax. And, yeah, the middle classes are going to pay slightly more tax, too... but we are decriminalising weed and putting that money back into drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs which will ultimately improve the standard of living for every American. We will also stop fixating on immigration as if it is the rout of all America's evil—it is not. We will, likewise, not fixate of the definition of woman or "pronouns". If you identify as a woman, we will call you "she/her". However, if you have gone through male puberty and have male gametes, you cannot be a female boxer. It's okay, we'll figure it out on a case by case basis—the middle class and billionaires have given us the resources. We will pay reporations to decedents of black slaves. We will focus on art. Art is America. It's the only good thing about America. And finally, we will make Pamala Anderson president for 8 years.