[Andrew999]

Cancel culture? Been there, done that.....

https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/when-connecticut-went-in-for-comic-book-burning/

[The Australian Panther]

What goes around comes around. Banning anything just makes it more desirable. You can ban whatever 'Thing' you like, Alcohol, Comics, Theatre, Jazz, RocknRoll, The Tango,  partying, Free Speech to name a few. Never works because banning things doesn't change Human Nature.

[Robb_K]

Cancel culture? Been there, done that.....

https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/when-connecticut-went-in-for-comic-book-burning/

[Jetstone]

Being from Richmond, Va I could write a book about this but will settle for 3 short examples. "They" tore down a beautiful monument dedicated to Maury who charted the oceans and was basically a cartographer/navigator. The Va Museum built a full size bronze replica of the Jeb Stuart monument they tore down, horse and all... except he had dreadlock braids and a American facial features, and a group of BLM activists who were meeting at a table next to me at a coffee house all stormed off in a huff when I asked a question of a friend walking by whether he was going to do his "hanging pumpkins this year" because he had grown a whole yard full of pumpkins by suspending them in the air by their stems.. evidently giving the pumpkin smooth rounded bottoms... a genuinely remarkable novelty. Parallels COLLOSSUS the FORBIN PROJECT  inasmuch as the internet provides a monitoring mechanism for opinions.

[Andrew999]

I love the sound of the hanging pumpkins (great name for a band too) - but on a more serious note, I don't understand how the Big Tech groups are allowed to censor opinion the way they do - isn't that against the Constitution or something - it's certainly anti-democratic (ironic that most censorship is to favour the Democrats, but irony seems lost on American politicians)?

Also, how is it, Big Tech has been allowed to monopolise their markets - isn't there a competition commission or something like that? I could also ask why the EU hasn't seeded a rival to Amazon, Google, Facebook etc to compete - do we no longer have an industrial policy in Europe (or the UK, which of course is no longer in Europe but in some form of Atlantic wormhole)?

So many questions, so few answers.....

[The Australian Panther]

how is it, Big Tech has been allowed to monopolise their markets - isn't there a competition commission or something like that? I could also ask why the EU hasn't seeded a rival to Amazon, Google, Facebook etc to compete 

You may ask why Australia or say, Canada or Brazil haven't done likewise. Russia and China are doing so, but with more censorship rather than less. Look into what Big Tech does with its money, that is what other businesses that Amazon, Facebook, Twitter own and what influences those businesses have, and you will begin to get an idea, It seems only yesterday that internet users [in the US] wanted the internet to be free of government regulation, now we see the result. Much of what big tech now does is unconstitiutional. However, its only Congress than can regulate to do something about it, and before the election in the US that's not going to happen.  And that might explain to you why Big Tech's behaviour at the moment would seem to favor the Democrats.

Oh, and by the way, there are rivals to Amazon, Facebook and Twitter but its like Ants taking on Elephants.
You have to go look for them but they are there.
Until significant numbers of people are prepared to give up Twitter, Amazon and Facebook, we are stuck with them. Enormous effort is made to keep people on those platforms. 
You want to buy a book on-line? Try Abebooks for one.       

[Jetstone]

You've got to wonder if policy discussions within let's say the DNC end up with a policy position advocating something other than the resulting concensus policies is then labeled as "hate".

I consider myself a social liberal, having hired nonwhites and gays and women when I was an employer, posed naked for the most flaming open gay teacher at my art college,( and receiving NO untoward advances ) I have lots of gay friends, black friends and draw caricatures for the universe. But I agree with William f. Buckley's definition of a "liberal" as one who "has a pleasant thought and makes it a law."

Government mandated remedial mechanisms as a first course when open discussion in an ever expanding POST WOODSTOCK world where universal harmony and love against entrenched bigotry was considered COOL among peers who spread the word.
Shallow minded egocentric torch bearers and self righteous finger pointing angsters really are convinced that everybody but themselves should have carte blanc to legislate behavior.

I always loathed Trump, but as soon as he pointed at the storm troopers for the enforcement of behavior and speech control activism (whose issues are all solvable among adaptive, open minded FREE individuals who handle it eventually amongst themselves with no draconian laws ) i.e. the extreme leftist media elite, he was suddenly presidential. It took guts to point out how little weight is given to the concept of large numbers of the population ALREADY GET IT  and don't need their interactions with other races legislated.
Now the open invitation to destroy at will for any adolescent notion, to punish ALL for the actions of a few, and to dumb down the legitimate points of discussion in a genuine reform intitiative has set an example that is so destructive that it has set back the progress of not only race relations, but the ability to communicate freely.
I have witnessed a cop killing... a hippy who was holding his hands behind his head waiting to be arrested was struck from behind in the neck with a rifle butt while a second cop beat him in the abdomen.. after a 35 mph car chase... and I also don't ever believe that somebody who dies when they went to jail overnight hasn't somehow been abused...it happens so often they ought to require video monitoring of all incarcerees.
I also believe blacks who cite a lifetime of getting pulled because of their color.
But the Leftist media elite have come to lust for a taste of gasoline pouring on the incitable population.. they did it for the Rodney King riots.. and then again posing the threat of it during the OJ trial... and they do it again and again... literally crying FIRE in a movie theater.

Should the French call for the Nelson statue to come down because of Trafalgar as if sentiments still lie for their massacre? I talked once with a guy who helped edit VICTORY AT SEA, and he said they had a lot of editing to do. I said, "you mean secret weapons?" and he said "No, Japanese atrocities towards prisoners" and yet I shed tears when Dario Francitti put Takuma Sato in the wall at Indy (boy did he pay later ) and I raelly have a deep affection for all things Japanese.. Pizzicato Five also evoked an emotional reaction from me when I saw them live.

[Jetstone]

should have said.."angsters believe that they should have carte blanc to legislate behavior enforcement laws on everybody but themselves."

[narfstar]

Progressives have abandoned the concept of free speech. Call what you don't like "hate speech" and boom there goes the First Amendment.

[Captain Audio]

Cancelling and /or rewriting history is a common practice of today's leftist.
I am a bit amused by some of their antics.
Once a member of another board claimed that cannibals eating missionaries was a myth, that there was no documented evidence of this ever having happened. I replied with a recent news story of a south seas tribe making a public apology to the descendants of a missionary their ancestors had killed and eaten. Looking further I found another similar case of four missionaries having been killed and eaten. Again the descendants of the killers had made public acknowledgment and apologized, in both cases the tribes believed they were living under a curse because of these acts.
Another claimed that Indians massacring wagon trains was a myth. I posted documented historical accounts of several such massacres.
Its unfortunate that so many young people have taken the egocentric ramblings of the likes of Howard Zinn and Ward Churchill as actual facts.

[paw broon]

I am a quite left of centre, in British politics terms.  I don't give a toss what colour anyone is.  I know fine well that Scotland played a part in slavery, long ago.  Our comic shop was based in The Virginia Galleries, in Glasgow. The balcony where the tobacco auctions took place was still there in our days. The whole place has been demolished, nothing to do with this weirdly named cancel culture, they needed space for an M&S warehouse.
There are statues to all sorts in Scotland.  Surprisingly few to women which is a glaring omission.
I don't feel I have to apologise to any person or race for what happened centuries ago. That way leads to everyone apologising for everything that anyone feels has been done to them.  Scotland, historically, suffered terribly during The Clearances.  I don't expect the English government or Sutherland's family to apologise to me.
As for Trump's new ad, prepare for socialism.  I don't think many Americans understand what socialism is. Ideally, it's a great system for running a country, compared to the greed and excesses of capitalism, and the extremes and restrictions of freedom that is communism. Unfortunately, like many things, people are fallible and socialism often suffers when put into practice.  A benevolent dictatorship anyone?

[narfstar]

Unfortunately there is a WOKE movement in the USA that seeks the cancel culture. I don't care what color anyone is and proclaim there is only one race HUMAN. To the left that makes me racist. It is actually the opposite of racist because I want true full equality. No apologizing for the past and using it for excuses. Make the future better. Democrats can not win in the USA without identity politics so keeping us separate makes them happy. Communism is a wonderful concept that can not work. Greed is real. It is the motivator that makes capitalism the most successful system. Not perfect by any means, but better than the alternatives. The government enacts socialism and they are more corrupt, or working hand in hand, with the corporate capitalists.

[The Australian Panther]

I once interviewed a Band, Australian and very famous, who considered themselves Socialists.
The Lead singer and composer of their most famous song, during the interview, quoted Lenin as having said,
'When it comes time to hang the Capitalists, they will sell us the rope.' That was quoted to me by University educated people 40 years ago.
It has proved to be true, I fear.       

[Captain Audio]

Socialism only works in smaller countries with small populations and with one or more huge deposits of valuable ore, petroleum or other natural resources.
Sweden for example has a population smaller than some American cities. Canada, which has a mixed socialist/capitalist economy, has a fairly small population and enormous tracts of unpopulated land with vast forests and mineral wealth.
The money rolling into those states comes from countries with capitalist economies buying their exported resources and products.

For Larger countries, like China and Russia, it required expansion into neighboring states in order to loot resources and place entire populations in virtual slave status to feed the machine.
There was no classless society since the party inner circles lived like kings. When times were hard the party never went hungry, they just seized the property of the farmers to distribute to their tame masses.
Russia developed many high tech weapons, but those creating those weapons didn't work with the possibility of profit as a motive, failure to produce meant Siberia or death.
Those who managed to produce while keeping a low profile were usually housed in cities set aside for the purpose, with plenty of comforts the average Russian citizen could only dream of, but could not leave or communicate with the outside world.
There were many "five year plans" that failed. When they failed the party just eliminated excess population while looting its neighboring states more vigorously.

[lyons]

We are watching the West collapse in real time.

[Captain Audio]

We are watching the West collapse in real time.

Heard that song before. The Soviet Union was very optimistic of a collapse of Western Democracy, till they were left in the dust of history.

[lyons]

"The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history."
George Orwell

[The Australian Panther]

The Soviet Union was very optimistic of a collapse of Western Democracy, till they were left in the dust of history.

Or so it seemed. Doesn't quite look like that now. 

[Captain Audio]

The Soviet Union was very optimistic of a collapse of Western Democracy, till they were left in the dust of history.

Or so it seemed. Doesn't quite look like that now.

The Soviet Union was left in the dust with a Federation that has a small fraction of that power taking its place.
Red China has grown in power only because it adopted a capitalist mind set so far as import and export went, though with typical communist fervor they built up their manufacturing base by openly using slave labor and importing skilled labor from neighboring countries that they have treated little better than those slaves.
China is the greatest polluter of the environment of any nation on Earth, with India running a close second. Neither of these nations has received even a tiny percentage of the blame they deserve from the media.

I spoke of "myths" earlier. I've seen leftists claim that the harvesting of organs of executed prisoners was a myth. I quickly found that a disgruntled CCP official had blown the lid off that many years ago. His motivation for revealing the traffic in human organs was his belief that these organs were not fairly distributed to Chinese citizens who need them the most, instead being sold on the black market for profit.
Condemned prisoners were shot in the neck to immobilize them then hustled into a van where medical technicians gutted them and removed all viable organs while the victim still lived.
The present genocidal campaign against the ethnic Muslim subjects is well known but little or nothing has been done by the World's leaders, not even a public denunciation.

The fear that the Media has displayed in recognizing that Red China was the origin of the Wuhan virus. The WHO seemed to be deep in Red China's pocket. They wouldn't even admit that the virus could be transmitted from human to human long after this was already a proven fact.

[The Australian Panther]

Captain, no argument with any of that. We are on the same page.

[Andrew999]

The Scots have a lot to apologise for - kilts, bagpipes, Irn Bru, deep fried Mars bars and Andy Stewart hogmanay specials to name but a few ;>

By the way, I once worked for a Sutherland who could trace his lineage back to you-know-whom. He was a right greedy b------ who tried to justify every evil thing he did with a self-righteous moral tone - for example, when sacking someone, he might say, "She wouldn't have been happy here."

I can imagine a Sutherland during the clearances saying something like, "It's for their own good. They'll be much happier in New Zealand - so many opportunities - I almost wish I could join them."

I moved on after three months.

[The Australian Panther]

Andrew not sure what you are on about here. I hope you are taking the yellow liquid.
More than one of us here has a wee drop in our back pages. 
Lets not judge a group of people by one individual.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNfyR5jAApc
Grant Morrison? 

And Bagpipes? Pakistan. 

[Robb_K]

Andrew not sure what you are on about here. I hope you are taking the yellow liquid.
More than one of us here has a wee drop in our back pages. 
Lets not judge a group of people by one individual.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNfyR5jAApc
Grant Morrison?    And Bagpipes? Pakistan.

WOW!!!!  Thanks for that fantastic special Broons 70-year anniversary celebration BBC broadcast!  It gives a lot of insight into what "The Broons" means to Scottish culture, to a foreigner who didn't grow up with it.  Now, I understand it a lot more, and can appreciate the strip, and special books, a lot more.

[Captain Audio]

Anyone else notice how much Maggie Broon looks like Kelly Bundy?

[Andrew999]

The first part is meant to be funny, Panther - though I obviously failed.

Perhaps you didn't see Paw's original post about the Clearances - a dreadful period of Scots history that you may not be so familiar with. The Sutherland family had a big hand in that - farmers driven from the land and then forced to emigrate, mostly to NZ, Canada and the southern states of the US - though others scattered further afield - the Falklands for example.

Paw knows I'm very fond of the Scots - so no worries there.