Must see TV: John Oliver savages The Donald

[Rufus T. Firefly]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnpO_RTSNmQ

This should be mandatory viewing for every American citizen. It's absoulutely top-level political humour, although at times you don't know whether to laugh or cry.

 

[Oldfart]

That is absolutely brilliant television - and journalism. I fear, however, Mr. Oliver is but preaching to the choir.

 

[badbadboy]

Awesome show and Oilver always has that edgey humour.

I like how they got the drumf domain name and Chrome extension to change Trump to Drumf

 

[Equitable]

I have to agree with Oldfart here. While it was entertaining the delivery method is not going to sway the minds of trump supporters. Definitely worth a laugh though. I would love to see him do one on Clinton, Rubio, Cruz, and Sanders to even the playing field. Pretty sure he wouldn't be pissing on any democrats though.

Personally I think I would vote for the Donald over any of the other repubs, and Sanders over Clinton... but I'm an emboldened youth because Sanders message is invigorating to those of us who have been cynics of the political system since we first began to understand it.

 

[westwoody]

It was interesting hearing staunch supporters of Trump on CBC.
They would never watch that video. It is preaching to the choir, yes. That video does not addtess any of their issues. Basically Trump is selling himself as an outsider who will oppose the career politicians. A Trump vote is a protest against the status quo do nothing government.

 

[Lo-ki]

What ever he is selling for now...people are buying it...

 

[badbadboy]

Some food for thought

 

[summerbreeze]

trouble with Trump is that he is acting like a spoiled brat bully

no doubt a man of significant accomplishment but in order to push himself forward in politics, he has to put everyone else down

sad testament to the electoral process if this what it takes to win

 

[Oldfart]

Some food for thought

There are people alive today who remember when Hitler was just getting started in Germany. They remark that what Trump is doing now is very similar.

 

[vancity_cowboy]

when the hitler comparison comes out, you KNOW he's won! :fear:

 

[Equitable]

I think it relates to how Trudeau beat Harper... just on a much larger, much more televised scale, with some reality t.v. thrown in. I haven't been paying attention to US politics for that long but I feel the the debates and the MSM is so much more visible in their bias.

Has it always been so? or is it a mix of our ability to accurately keep track of peoples positions, stances, etc. Think about 50 years ago with no internet... no one would know about the power of big money in politics. I think that people are finally able to see how much of an influence these companies and corporations have been (unbeknownst to us) influencing our decisions and our bias towards bought politicians.

 

[Strataca]

Some food for thought

This is factually inaccurate, Hitler used promises to make Germany great again to rise to power, and ended up using his power to kill jews. If he even tried to rise to power on the promise to do what he eventually did, it would have failed.

All of the Trump support is a direct result of the left (illiberal leftists) using labels and defamatory tactics towards conservatives and shutting them out of the conversation. He is not qualified and shouldn't be president. This is a situation where the left in America has nobody else to blame but themselves for not playing fair on the free market of ideas.

 

[apl16]

Thanks. Very entertaining video. In the North American world today, humour seems to be the only way to see any taste of truth. Moliere and others using humour and stories to enlighten the masses when the official forms of information are being controlled by the elites.

 

[Strataca]

Actually Hitler failed in popular elections. His rise to power was being seen as a controllable compromise by the political establishment and being appointed as Chancellor during times of economic and social turmoil. He then changed the laws to concentrate power in his hands and suppressed all other voices through violence. Putin has followed a similar script.



Considering that the media in the USA is predominantly conservative and the congress is controlled at the moment by the conservatives, it is clear that conservative voices are far from being shut out from the conversation. Many Americans might argue with this, but the American political spectrum is skewed. The American "Left" is right wing compared with the political spectrum in all but a few countries in the world, thus in the USA the conversation is between the right and the far right with the left totally marginalized except in academia, especially the social sciences.

PeaceGuy dropping some facts. I am btw going off of what I see my friends and relatives say on social media. A lot of it is "racists" and then a bad infographic below. I think that social media generally has a stronger effect than traditional media does. I don't even have cable, all of my news is through social media and a few different news websites that I visit. Although I guess news sites are just a new incarnation of traditional media. But it's really the behavior of my friends and relatives that I just am so opposed to. And all of the crap we see coming out of universities in the US and the obvious attacks on free speech that make me think that they have been marginalized. I could be wrong.

 

[Equitable]

Speaking of media and the racism aspect etc... look at it being pushed here by msnbc and back firing...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nolbmguzvGk&feature=youtu.be

 

[Strataca]

Speaking of media and the racism aspect etc... look at it being pushed here by msnbc and back firing...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nolbmguzvGk&feature=youtu.be

That's exactly what I'm talking about. Trump is awful but so what if a racist is endorsing him. I'm more interested in what Trump is saying and what his policies are that make him a bad candidate.

 

[Strataca]

And your position thus vanishes. No individual controls all of social media.

I'm not sure what your point is here or how my position vanishes. It's still something I see a lot and it's something I'm opposed to. This isn't a generalized statement, these are specific cases in which people are ignorant of the facts in an effort to push their agenda. This does go for a few conservatives I know, but it's far more prominent with the liberals I know. The fact that there is a majority makes it difficult for people to express opposing opinions without being spoken down to or outright insulted. Twitter is a great example of this. They created the trust and safety council and they aren't focusing on harassment as much as they are silencing opposing view points. Conservatives and liberals opposed to this illiberal left dogma are being shadowbanned and having their accounts deleted without explanation. And this has started to happen with Facebook.

You seem to be saying that there needs to be a mechanism to force unpopular messages onto the masses in these open forum: an affirmative action program for minority political voices.

I want you to find the part of my comment that in any way suggests unpopular messages should be forced on to people. That isn't something I believe or said and you've just taken what I've said out of context.

If this os true for conservative message then, a greater effort also needs to be made for fascist messages, communist messages, racial supremacist messages etc. Or is there to be a tribunal to control the public sphere and decide which speech is to be encouraged and which is to be suppressed? Sort of a George Orwell take on free speech...

No, it's really simple. Everyone is welcome to express their ideas, no idea is above criticism. The free market of ideas.

 

[Strataca]

you complain that individual voices get lost amid voices expressing other ideas. You state you want a free market of ideas on one hand, but object to the operation of a free market of ideas that does not support the opinions you wish.

You're again taking what I've said out of context. Ideas should stand on their own merit in the free market of ideas. Calling someone a racist or bringing their character into question or just generally silencing them has nothing to do with the idea. This is what I oppose. The voices aren't expressing other ideas, they're telling people expressing their ideas to shut up.

A free market means that there is competition. The peddlers of ideas compete for the attention and the minds of others. If you cannot succeed in one marketplace create your own and attract customers. That is what Fox News did and is doing quite well. A parade through Harlem or Compton by the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan will probably not get its message accepted and there is a slight possibility of them being shouted down. Does that make the market square in those places closed markets for ideas or just the wrong market for some ideas?

I would say the KKK should be able to express it's ideas, but again no idea is above criticism and it would probably get discarded quite quickly on it's lack of merit. As for the parade, It might be obvious that it's inciting violence and that would probably get it shut down anyways. And yes I am fine with people not getting to express themselves if their goal is to incite violence.

I'll leave the rest because I honestly don't have a good response. The Twitter thing was a breitbart article here: http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/02/16/exclusive-twitter-shadowbanning-is-real-say-inside-sources/ Take it as you will, I'm sure it's a lot of half truths. I spotted the article here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR9dXU8MV0o And he has his sources in his comments.

To complain that because a certain idea is hard to find on twitter or some other forum is to say the market isn't free if you cannot buy an Big Mac in a Dairy Queen.

Really it's like I said earlier. It's not the scarcity of the idea, it's how people are shouted down and defamed in order to stop them from expressing their ideas. It would be more like being prevented from getting a blizzard at dairy queen just because the employee doesn't like making blizzards.

 

[westwoody]

Exactly, Trump is just a logical progression of the bullshit spouted by Reagan.

Everything dumbed down to quick sound bites, vague policy, truthiness instead of facts, and saying whatever polls say the herd wants to hear.