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Please Lie to Me! I Want to Feel Superior!

5K views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  quychang 
#1 ·
This is a fascinating piece from the redoubtable Megan McArdle, who manages to bring a touch of balance to Michael Bloomberg's normally liberal business website.

[....]

[....] An exhaustive investigation by a Tampa Bay Times food critic reveals just how little of the food advertised as organic, locally sourced, non-GMO fare actually fits that description. [....] restaurant after restaurant sheepishly tries to cover for their, um, 'menu anomalies' by explaining that they totally used to buy some stuff from a local producer, then they forgot to change the chalkboard when they switched suppliers, and besides, the bus was late and the dog ate their homework. Some of these claims may even be true, but given the ubiquity of these 'anomalies,' it's hard to believe that there isn't considerable calculation behind these unidirectional mistakes.

And it's not hard to figure out why: Consumers don't really want to buy farm-to-table food. What they want to buy is the moral satisfaction of farm-to-table food.

[....]

The nice thing for the consumer is that this moral satisfaction can be bought cheap, because actual farm-to-table food has significant drawbacks. For one thing, eating locally sharply limits the variety of foods you can consume at one time. [....]

[....]

[....] Cheap, after all, is what makes it possible for us to spend so much money at restaurants; if we had to pay all the workers $20 an hour and ensure that all our meat and produce had been farmed in the latest and most approved 19th-century methods, few of us could afford to have weekly dining out in our budget. Restaurants might be more authentic, delicious, moral places. They would also be much emptier ones.

[....]
Posting a jeremiad on hypocrisy in food choices for diners may seem off balance for a gun-rights forum, but bear with me on this. The leftists hammer relentlessly on their message that "good" people abhor guns while "bad" people bitterly cling to them. The peculiar phenomenon of pretending to support "natural" foodstuffs in pursuit of the vague idea of huggling Mother Earth is just another exhibition of the amazingly common if perhaps morally degenerate practice of virtue-signaling. Ignoring or dismissing this practice is a mistake. Freedom-minded individuals would do well to fight back in kind. I will illustrate with simple passages from a hypothetical script for a short film meant to go viral on the Intertubes.

"See this man. He is armed. He will protect his family. He is a better person. See that man instead. He grovels at the feet of criminals. He doesn't do his part. He doesn't protect his family. He doesn't help protect you too. He is not such a good person. Be armed. Do your part. Help everyone and not just yourself."

"See this woman. She was raped. She feels bad. She wasn't armed. She couldn't fight back. See these politicians, Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton. They are happy. They like women to not be armed. Do you feel good about that? Do you want to be armed instead? Will you be a good person who can fight back?"

Yeah, I know the last bit was a bit ham-handed, but hey. I'm winging it to make my point. Do you see now why virtue signaling is a powerful tool in the hands of real people and not just giant phonies on the left?

The hard leftists love the Big Lie technique. Adolf Hitler was the original hard leftist. We, on the other hand, can employ the Big Truth technique. We can speak truth to power, and because truth always sounds more real than lies, the truth has a fighting chance to win. Sheer repetition counts. Say it, and say it, and say it again. Simple, clear words speak with the sound of thunder.
 
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#3 ·
bagpiper said:
Gun Control: The morally bankrupt belief that a woman found raped and strangled to death with her own pantyhose is somehow morally superior to the woman explaining to police how her assailant got the fatal bullet wounds.
While I can't argue with this, I follow some very progressive news that covered the 11 yo boy that shot at and hit a fleeing assailant after the home invasion. Believe it or not, while they had a minor quibble with someone that young having access to a gun, the only issue they really made was shooting when the guy was running away. We would have had the same issue. They were glad that no one was killed, thought the guy being hit in the leg was some degree of acceptable, and that they were glad the kid had been trained to handle the gun to protect himself.

I myself had two issues. One being that training should include some degree of marksmanship and that winging the assailant accidentally with the 12th round barely meets that test, and shooting at a fleeing assailant.

Otherwise they had no issue with a person defending themselves against imminent threat. These newscasters are blatant about thinking there are too many guns in the country, and that something needs to be done about mass shootings.

My point is, don't paint all anti gunners with the same brush, some are actually reasonable and will listen to other positions.

Mel
 
#4 ·
bumpylight said:
Do you see now why virtue-signaling is a powerful tool in the hands of real people and not just giant phonies on the left?
I haven't read the article, but I'm very happy to see "virtue-signaling" becoming more widely used, so I'm going to quote and repeat it. Yay!

And since I haven't read the article, I don't know if the safety factor is mentioned, but ask Chipotle about it:
http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2015-chipotle-food-safety-crisis/
 
#5 ·
quychang said:
My point is, don't paint all anti gunners with the same brush, some are actually reasonable and will listen to other positions.
Some individuals will. But the entire theory of gun control is pretty well summarized in that quote I posted.

And far too many of those who praised the child's actions in this case, will turn around tomorrow to advocate for laws that would make it effectively impossible for any other mature child to do likewise in the future: secure storage laws, bans on guns that can be fired by another other than the owner, bans on regular sized magazines, perhaps even bans on using deadly force to defend your home unless you've first tried to escape.

Charles
 
#6 ·
bagpiper said:
quychang said:
My point is, don't paint all anti gunners with the same brush, some are actually reasonable and will listen to other positions.
Some individuals will. But the entire theory of gun control is pretty well summarized in that quote I posted.

And far too many of those who praised the child's actions in this case, will turn around tomorrow to advocate for laws that would make it effectively impossible for any other mature child to do likewise in the future: secure storage laws, bans on guns that can be fired by another other than the owner, bans on regular sized magazines, perhaps even bans on using deadly force to defend your home unless you've first tried to escape.

Charles
If this were main stream media I would absolutely agree with you Charles. Because they work for networks and new outlets that are all owned by super wealthy corporations, or individuals that use those corporations for fronts. In this case I'm obviously talking about Rupert Murdock and Fox news. But in addition to their ownership they also take huge corporate donations in the form of advertisement. I know you are not naive enough to think those advertisers don't want a say in how things are reported. I'm not going to point out any recent stories, but I'll tell you that with this story, the only way it will ever be referenced again is if there is valid new points that come to light Or, possibly, if a member asks a question or points out something they obviously missed. Again, I'll tell you that individual opinions on the show are voiced, they feel it would be lying to the audience not to share how they feel about the subject. But they still report the news as it really happened and they tell both sides of the story.

I didn't intend for this to be a plug for them, but since I raved, I'd feel like I made a mystery out of something that I think should be common knowledge. The show can be viewed live on http://www.TYTnetwork.com TYT stands for The Young Turks. They've been around and growing for more than 10 years, starting as a pod cast from the main anchor's living room, and growing into a very real online network with lots of content. I would warn that because they are online and not bound by FCC regulations the language can be a bit rough around the edges sometimes. An f bomb is not rare, and the female anchors are no less likely to drop one than one of the guys. They are real. And that's why I like them. They do a two hour broadcast Mon.-Fri. from 4pm our time until 6pm local. And if you're a donating member, they include a 20-30 minute "After Party" where they discuss more personal issues or insider information about the show, etc. The minimum cost of membership is $10.00 a month. or $100 dollars a year. I listened to about half of the first hour of one episode and I subscribed. Towards the end of the summer my plan is to do the $100 donation and save the $20.00 a year. I haven't entirely decided where, but I plan to donate the saved $20.00 to some related cause or programming. It's also possible to donate to them through smile.amazon.com there's a link on their page that sets up the shortcut for you. You pay nothing extra at Amazon, but a small donation is made on every purchase.

I do not agree with all of their politics, though honestly they've affected my political leanings to some extent. But the real thing is, because of their format, no commercials, and 2 hours of mostly news, mixed with commentary they have a platform that doesn't force them into the 6 second sound bites that are pretty much standard for all the networks. They dig into a story, find the meat, and discuss it.

Not everyone has the time to spend 2 to 2 1/2 hours a day watching, especially at the time they broadcast. Members can download the episodes ranging from audio only to 720p quality. The shows are usually available for download withing an hour of the broadcast. I often miss the live broadcast and download the lowest quality video. Downloads are small, quality is acceptable.

Okay, back to your usual gun related stories....I apologize in advance for my verbosity and my obvious Fan Boy plug. I can't blame Charles for the subject matter, but he does bring out the worst of my easily triggered urge to write short novels instead of just quick posts...

Seriously Charles, you bring out both the best and the worst in me depending on the subject matter, but I always enjoy our discourse.

Mel
 
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