These are the fuckwits we have to find a way to work with.
We really need a plague. Kill off the ignorant. How the hell else will we ever get back to a world where logic and reason are respected?
I haven't lived as long as you but when was the world a place where logic and reason were respected ? It seems more likely you are thinking of a time where stupid people weren't as easy to find. Like how people think the world used to be a safer place but really we just didn't hear it be reported on. Sorry to put a damper on your hopes and dreams.
I replied to rd about this same thing, but I'll do it here too: One has always been able to find the lunatic fringe, if you wanted to. The climate change deniers. The flat earthers. The trickle-down economics believers. The anti-vaxxers. They always existed, but were pretty much totally ineffectual at expanding their message and base of believers. It was always the same 9 loonies showing up and spouting the same weirdo beliefs or long-debunked "facts". The fact of the matter is that all the bitching and moaning about government regulation stifling business, and all that baseless bullshit, was proven universally to be wrong, and everyone knew it. We let them froth and fume and spout, but those of us who grew up in LA knew that we no longer have to check the news to see if the smog level is low enough that it is safe to play outside. We know that the acid rain that would burn your skin and kill plants and trees doesn't happen any more. We know that we - even in Flint, MI - have far better, healthier water coming into our homes that at any time in history. These are all simple, demonstrable facts, and the changes are directly due to the regulation of the industries that polluted our common resources. And during that time? The US economy has seen growth and innovation and stock values reach levels that we simply couldn't even conceive of previously. So we had data. We looked at the data, debated the methodology used to generate and analyze it, and made decisions based on that data. Now our government is being run by people who base their policy decisions on made up shit by an entertainment cable channel and a truly unhinged blogger.
You mean, like the Jim Crow era when black Americans needed a travel guide to tell them how to safely navigate the south so they don't get harassed, assaulted, or even potentially murdered? Or World War One where at the blow of a whistle hundreds of young men would be sent rushing out of the trenches only to be mowed down by opposing fire? Or are we talking about the peak of European colonialism? Where's that magical point in time when the world back then was more logical, fair, and just than it is today? If anything, the fact that things are slowly getting better over time and we're still striving to make things better should be encouraging, even if we take a step or two back from time to time. After all, I kind of wished people would remember Labor Day is about more than just barbecues and sweet sales at your local mattress store.How the hell else will we ever get back to a world where logic and reason are respected?
As little as two years ago, we were arguing about whether the methodology used to ascertain a specific number was the proper way to analyze a piece of data. Now we are debating whether unicorn shit really does affect pixies adversely. The last 18 months have seen a total repudiation of all science and reason, and the championing of unconsidered and unsourced opinion as the FACTS over all methods of analytical reasoning. Remember. Trump is not normal. None of this is normal. Six months ago we were debating HOW to measure the amount of global warming that has occurred, and some fringe loonies with little credibility or power were crowing about the earth being flat. Now the flat-earthers are in power. DO NOT allow yourself to be lulled into the Republican narrative that it's always been like this, because it hasn't.
Let me try again, without the hyperbole, because I know it's not helpful. Let's just look at voter rights. Slowly, but surely, we went from a country where only white, land owning men could vote to where we are today, where theoretically everyone can vote. There was some struggling here and there, and there's still some struggles now, but we're in a much better place than we used to be and a large number of us understand we still have a ways to go in regards too gerrymandering, voter supression, etc. Just because some people in some state were able to pull off some shifty maneuvers, it doesn't mean the world has gone backwards. If we took this a step further, we're now fighting for more granular rights for smaller groups of minorities. Do you think Trans Rights were a huge talking point in the '60s and '70s? Here we are now though, fighting for their rights because for the most part, the rights of minorities and women are pretty much one. Now we just gotta work on keeping them. This same logic applies to education, workers rights (though that's a terrifying realm right now), the environment, health, etc. A lot of these things are hard to lose once we have them. For example, for every vaccine denier you hear about, there's hundreds of people still giving their kids vaccines cause they know they're good and right. For every dumb proposal or law that is passed, there are organizations like the ACLU, EFF, and even our own courts to try and keep things in check. When we start to fall back too hard, too far, too fast, there's a counter response. Millions of women recently got together for their rights. Around the country town halls are being filled with people with real concerns about their healthcare, the environment, and other issues. I think I read somewhere there's a sum of about 1,000 scientists in America considering running for government positions. These times are far from normal, you're right. If they were, we wouldn't be seeing these reactions from people.
I think rd95's point is that nostalgia's a hell of a drug, and it's easy to get caught up in remembering a time that never really existed. Remember 8 years ago when the sky was falling, because Cheney still refused to let anyone see the list of the members of his energy taskforce? It's hilarious in its own way that we all feel kind of nostalgic for that quaint time. If Trump keeps his job for four years, I think the likeliest result will be a fracturing of the country. We lived through the Bush years; we can handle bad conservative policy. What we can't handle is deliberate assaults on our way of life. 85% of America's GDP comes from districts that voted Clinton. We all have the power to take Trump's tax cuts, say thank you very much, invest the money in our own communities, and continue to watch coal country meth itself to death. By then my last bit of compassion for them should be dried up enough that I won't even feel bad thinking that.
Off topic but in the last 24 hours it seems that my IP address has been blocked by Reddit and this Vox website I've never visited before as well as every 'brand' connected to it. Wtf is going here? In going to end up needing a proxy for every second web page I come across at this rate.
Welcome to hubski! Weird, blocked as in you can't connect to the site? Here's some things to try out (if you haven't already), maybe you can track down where the connection fails: - clear browser cache or reinstall browser - open in incognito mode (if it works there, it's probably one of your plugins) - open same link on another laptop / phone - flush DNS, assign new IP to device
Thanks for the info! I've tried incognito, using a different device, resetting my router. Following that blacklist check, turns out I am on one blacklist for some reason. I've requested to be removed and asked them to let me know why I'm suddenly on the list in the first place, now I guess I wait. When I thought it was only Reddit, that was fine because Reddit isn't Reddit anymore anyway. But finding that you're blocked by a whole lot of web pages is kinda depressing. I mean, I ended up following the chain all the way to Reddit's registrar (gandi.net) and I'm blocked by all of them, registrar included. Same thing with anything to do with CDC Global. Thanks again for the info, hope that this is sorted out easily.
Ug. The RBL is tough to get off of, because you have to prove yourself a "good actor". You probably got RBL'd because of a virus on your computer, a computer on your connection that has been hacked/virused and is sending out spam, or a higher-level issue with your ISP. Good luck diagnosing that one, but check with your ISP first. They may know about the issue, and be acting to fix it.
Do you have any suggestions of a tool to use to check if I've been infected? I'm currently using Malwarebytes, which tells me that my system is clean as a whistle but maybe it's missing something. Besides that, I reinstall OSes so often on my PC that I'm not sure if it would even be my PC. Would a mobile phone be capable of wreaking this havoc? I have been removed from the blacklist that I was on for 48 hours while they investigate (as per their protocol) and it hasn't made a difference to my browsing whatsoever, I'm still coming across more and more websites that I can only access with proxy, the latest being the NYTimes. I guess if all else fails then I have no option but to contact my ISP but I'm moving in a month and hoping to change to another provider while I'm at it so maybe I'll just leave it for the next poor sucker :P
There are more than one blacklist out there, and they feed off of each other. So getting listed on one means that - over the next day or so - you will get listed on 20 of them. Getting de-listed involves generally going through the dispute process on every individual blacklist. Anyway, it isn't your machine. It's your ISP that has been compromised. There was probably a PC that got infected in your IP range and was spamming as a part of a botnet while the owner of the PC was at work, or whatever, and so every IP in that mask was blocked at the ISP level. Still, the power is in your ISP's hands. An individual protesting an RBL listing is mostly going to be ineffective, because they block whole subnets, not usually individual IP addresses. Check with your ISP and ask them whats up.
Thanks for all the help. I seem to be unblocked from everything right now. Not sure how long it will last but hopefully it's an issue that my ISP has sorted out by themselves without needing to be pushed into motion like they normally do. I hope this lasts. Thanks again, dude.
Well yeah, Trump is white and Obama wasn't so there you have, racism veiled in concerns or lack thereof over travel.
While the CPAC specifically is a buncha loons, the positions they espouse, and their reasons for believing those things, are the same things that other less-loopy people are saying. "I heard it on Fox News." "I just don't believe the numbers in that story are true." (Well then, fuckstick, what DO you believe, and WHY? Alex Jones says a few unhinged words, and you believe him, but an accurate article with actual quantifiable numbers in it is not credible? -flips table- )