George Floyd

[luka]

Part of the problem is that although Leo says Twitter is not real life, it actually is. Young people never go outside. All their lives are lived online and nothing they say is ever forgotten. It's carved in solid rock and can be revisited at any time and reinterpreted in the light of changed values.

 

[luka]

Constant Escape refused to believe me when I told him about the sun. He said it was just a myth.

 

[luka]

This makes their lives very fraught. They can never get drunk cos they might say something naughty and get pilloried. They have to do the online walk of shame like Cersi in game of gnomes,

 

[shiels]

@shiels you went to goldsmiths, what's your experience of wokeness. Do you feel persecuted by it?

a necessary evil. i can feel caricatured and frustrated but not persecuted. I don't like the tone, i dont like sanctimony, people who think theyve arrived, i prefer it when people are open about their cuntishness and ignorance and i dont think the woke environment is conducive to that. or of it is its in a subtly self congratulatory way after the fact.

 

[yyaldrin]

what did you study shiels?

 

[Mr. Tea]

I do believe, know in fact, that there is a group of young, mostly white women who have fallen victim to some kind of moral hysteria and are consequently shrill and annoying.

My girlfriend has some horror stories from the world of... wait for it... knitting.

BTW, "shrill and annoying" is hate speech so you're now cancelled. Bye.

 

[Mr. Tea]

The video of some protesters haranguing a women sitting outside a restaurant for not raising her fist would maybe vindicate the idea being discussed here.

One has to wonder how she was conveying food to her mouth, in that case.

 

[WashYourHands]

My American uncle who has been marooned in New Zealand since the end of the '70s has always been like this. Saying stuff to annoy handwringing liberals who want to impose slave morality on the World-Hegemon. "Nuke 'em!" That's his catchphrase. It's pretty funny. But he dutifully votes labour/democrat every time.

 

[Leo]

Part of the problem is that although Leo says Twitter is not real life, it actually is. Young people never go outside. All their lives are lived online and nothing they say is ever forgotten. It's carved in solid rock and can be revisited at any time and reinterpreted in the light of changed values.

surely it's not that difficult make the real world your real life again, is it? and I'm being a bit hyperbolic when I talk about twitter, it's obviously got many good uses. but it's like owning a TV: just because it exists and you have it doesn't mean to have to get sucked into the shit programming. you can put it to better, more productive use.

 

[Leo]

Honestly, I don't know what what I mean by "young people". You are right, I am making lazy assumptions in that respect.

I am 22, and it feels like I am almost old and obsolete by the standards of the "young" - if my message got lost in that confusion, it is only my fault.

That is, I haven't poured my soul into my social media presence. Even "social media presence" betrays a kind of age myopia here, because what we call social media has completely surmounted everything that we would consider the backdrop for for our social lives.

I can't relate to that - I am too old. I don't use social media, and to that extent I am a hermit.

you're fine, @constant escape, and far more articulate and curious than I ever was at 22. life works in weird ways, everyone grapples with it regardless of age, no one has it sorted.

@shiels is the self-help guru around these parts, will let him take it from here.

 

[sus]

more immediately, I haven't followed this case as closely as others, but I wouldn't bet on their acquittal just yet

the motherfucker that shot Laquan McDonald was convicted of 2nd-degree murder. his sentencing (7 years) was a joke, but he was convicted.

Having read the transcript, and knowing from the autopsy what he had in his system, I'd be surprised if there wasn't sufficient room for reasonable doubt.

Attorney for Minneapolis police officer says he'll argue George Floyd died of an overdose and a heart condition

Despite powerful video evidence, a defense attorney contends that George Floyd died from a drug overdose and heart problems.

www.latimes.com

 

[linebaugh]

No way they get off without jail time. I don't now for how long, probably a joke sentence, but theres precedence that courts will bend with public opinion in avoidance of more dissent

 

[vimothy]

To us they seem completely mad don't they. But this way of thinking of not limited to the young. I know people in their 40s who also feel there is a vindictive spirit of 'wokeness' pursuing them every moment of their lives, like a tireless hell hound, or an extra vigilant hall monitor. And they form their politics in reaction to this maleficent spirit. They feel massively persecuted by this spirit.

what's the experience of woke politics like in america? I live in a peripheral shithole in the north of england where this sort of stuff is not even on most people's radar. on the other hand, at work, some of the younger people are very woke, and upper management try to position themselves (in quite a cynical way, probably) in woke terms.

 

[sus]

No way they get off without jail time. I don't now for how long, probably a joke sentence, but theres precedence that courts will bend with public opinion in avoidance of more dissent

It's a good point. Could be right... but see also the recent case with Yale; courts also sometimes try to send clear messages to a culture headed in a direction deemed less-than-constitutional...

 

[sus]

what's the experience of woke politics like in america? I live in a peripheral shithole in the north of england where this sort of stuff is not even on most people's radar. on the other hand, at work, some of the younger people are very woke, and upper management try to position themselves (in quite a cynical way, probably) in woke terms.

Everybody I know in the corporate or government world has undergone an implicit bias training in the last 6 months. This ranges from my parents, to my volunteering-in-town grandmother, to my college friends, to some family relatives.

 

[vimothy]

it's interesting how closely connected the rise of wokeism is to corporate power / adoption

 

[vimothy]

and ofc how this relates to the corporate takeover of the internet

 

[Leo]

more woke than they used to be, but seems like it's mostly the well-off, college educated, white collar crowd who yap about it on social media, and the companies that post statements and hold training (some sincere, some not). I know lots of other people outside that sphere who are the same they've always been and either don't know or don't give a shit about wokeness, for better or worse.

 

[Leo]

some (maybe lots) of the corporate aspect isn't exactly sincere, just internal PR. it's ticking a box, ok we've posted a statement on twitter or held training, bish bosh, move on.

 

[vimothy]

but is there a dynamic at work between the true-believers and the corporate box-tickers?