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Open mike 05/01/2023

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, January 5th, 2023 - 28 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:


Open mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Step up to the mike …

28 comments on “Open mike 05/01/2023 ”

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    • weka 1.1
      5 January 2023 at 9:42 am

      anti-vaxxer and incel are terms that now get applied broadly beyond their technical meaning. Not all of those people act like abusers. It's not so much about being kind to the people in the groups we attach those labels to, it's about being able to differentiate based on what individuals are doing and then respond appropriately.

      Ostracising whole classes of people based on internet generated ideas about major social problems destroys community. It's easy to do on twitter, but in real life, we still have to live with people who hold these views. It's possible to hold people to account for their behaviour and not push them all into more radical positions by treating them like shit.

      Not everyone of course, some people are do far gone they need serious boundaries put in place. But too much of the response atm treats all the people perceived in a certain way as haters and wreckers as if we can hate them into changing. Ostracisation is a heavy duty social tool that needs to be used more wisely.

      In the tweet the idea is that abusive people need to learn empathy and that focusing on their feelings inhibits this. It doesn't however present solutions. It's one of the failings of left and liberal politics currently. We think about what 'should' be happening, often in the negative, rather than imagining and creating the change we prefer.

      • Sacha 1.1.1
        5 January 2023 at 9:52 am

        How is empathising with Covid denialists and suchlike going for us?

        I do not mind what words we use to describe those who are unconcerned about harming others. The people who are harmed need their feelings amplified instead, is the point I took. Old-fashioned left solidarity with the disadvantaged, in other words. And heeding Karl Popper about not tolerating the intolerant.

        Very little public coverage of what life is like for people who are no longer free to leave their homes because some angry snowflakes resent wearing a mask, for instance.

        • weka 1.1.1.1
          5 January 2023 at 10:17 am

          How is empathising with Covid denialists and suchlike going for us?

          What empathy? I've seen nearly three years of ostracisation and ridicule. Be specific with some examples please.

          I do not mind what words we use to describe those who are unconcerned about harming others.

          Neither do I so long as we are using the language accurately. My point wasn't the words are wrong, but that those two words are now used much less discriminately.

          The people who are harmed need their feelings amplified instead, is the point I took.

          Old-fashioned left solidarity with the disadvantaged, in other words.

          …

          Very little public coverage of what life is like for people who are no longer free to leave their homes because some angry snowflakes resent wearing a mask, for instance.

          I agree with this. Is the left/liberal people amplifying the realities of those people? I haven't seen that, but there's a lot I miss. Obviously the government is shit at it. What are the MSM doing?

          And heeding Karl Popper about not tolerating the intolerant.

          I don't know what it's like where you live, but as a person with a disability who lives in a small community with anti-vaxers and vax hesitant people, and people completely down the rabbit hole, the idea that we can just ostracise those people into 'right behaviour' puts me at risk. I'm still dependent on those people for a range of things. Many disabled people are.

          It's a shit situation, but reiterating, that it's not about tolerating the intolerant, it's about not turning them *all into radicals who hate the government and will act much worse against society if pushed hard against the wall.

          Very little public coverage of what life is like for people who are no longer free to leave their homes because some angry snowflakes resent wearing a mask, for instance.

          Along with Nact, who doesn't give a shit, and Labour, who don't know what to do, and NZ voters, including many on the left, who refuse to vote for parties that will actually try and shift us out the neoliberal hell hole we're descending into. This isn't solely on some anti-vaxers. Hardly anyone where I live wears a mask. This is about NZ as a whole.

  2. Peter 2
    5 January 2023 at 8:47 am

    Watching the goings on with the Republican Party and the election of the Speaker of the House reminds me of the old saying about organising a piss up in a brewery.

    The GOP family comes together to put the stamp on the thousands of times in recent years utterances have come from them about 'unity' and 'division.'

    It's sort of like the All Blacks playing the All Blacks in a match and the All Blacks failing to win.

  3. weka 3
    5 January 2023 at 10:48 am

    As some of us have been saying, new misogyny same as the old misogyny. Gender identity activists, come and get your people.

    https://twitter.com/salltweets/status/1610742673652211712

  5. joe90 5
    5 January 2023 at 12:24 pm

    Not to gloat but I doubt the possibility of a mild winter featured in Poots' plan to freeze Europe into submission.

    /

    Natural gas prices in Europe fell back to pre-war levels, as a bout of mild weather reduced demand and eased fears of a prolonged supply crunch.

    Benchmark futures fell as much as 11% as a warm spell curbs heating demand and blustery conditions cut use of gas in power generation. Mild weather has spread across the region, with temperatures breaking monthly records in several locations at the start of January.

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-04/europe-gas-slumps-to-lowest-since-2021-as-mild-weather-cuts-use

  7. Mike the Lefty 7
    5 January 2023 at 9:36 pm

    Ford Transit designed for comfort?!

    Excuse me while I laugh.