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Scientists are predicting the Perseid Meteor Shower will be extra-spectacular this year, with up to double the usual number of meteors – up to 200 per hour!
Arb and I are probably not going to get to see them: the forecast is for clouds and rain a good portion of the night. If any of our dear readers manage to take in the sight, I’d love to live vicariously through your reports!
From Counterpunch:
“Jill Stein, the Green Party’s nominee for president, has been the sudden target of attacks from all corners of online media since the official end of Bernie Sanders’ campaign at the Democratic National Convention. Outlets like the Washington Post, New York Magazine and Gizmodo have assaulted Stein by using out-of-context quotes to assail her, wrongly, for being anti-vaccination and anti-WiFi, which is a code for being “anti-science.” This allows us a unique opportunity to confirm the structural role of the media as hypothesized by Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman in Manufacturing Consent: that the media is a propaganda arm for the elite and powerful, and is used to condition us to accept the bounds of socio-political discourse as set by the ruling class. It also shows us the desperate need we have for an alternative media culture to counteract mainstream discourse.
The attack on Stein (and not, conveniently, on Gary Johnson), is linked to the need by the elite to de-legitimize A.) critics of neoliberal policies and B.) potential alternatives to the political status-quo. Trump and Clinton have had and will have no discussion about thirty years of neoliberalism and austerity. Sanders gave a voice to those within the Democrats who were willing to question, but since his defeat momentum on the left has shifted to Stein and the Green Party. It is, granted, still early, but the outpouring of support means there is a possibility the left could begin to regroup outside the Democratic Party. Real success for Stein could mean a permanent presence on the national stage for the left, to which a president Clinton or Trump would have to answer and which would be able to build an entirely different ideological discourse in the United States.”
The treatment of Jill Stein should be an interesting application of the propaganda model. What we’ve seen during the election cycle confirms much of what Herman and Chomsky hypothesized – issues that affect the public are not being discussed, there is an acceptable line of questions, answers, and responses that are allowed in the media – the rest are swept to the margins and actively ignored.
Is there any wonder left as to why the American people look so dimly on their Congressional representatives? They are supposed to speak for the people, yet strangely enough, once elected other interests seem to take precedence.
You can read about the Propaganda Model of Herman and Chomsky here.
The feminist tag in the wordpress reader keeps sending me these reality defying, stomach churning, polishing of turding, decidedly bad-will gifts. Aggrieved man children are now, during this very second, writing inspirational insipid posts about how terrible it is to be a man and how getting back to patriarchal standards is the *only* thing that will save society from degenerating….(to what state – egalitarianism? the horror). I can’t review the entire post, a tip of the hat to Talon’s Rest for making the notion of word diarrhea come to life, the fail is much too thick for that, let’s delimit our topic to one putrid subheading:
“The Birth of The Manosphere and Neomasculinity”
(Well since it is known that men cannot give birth, thus we can assume that the ‘birth’ of the Manosphere and Neomasculinity entered our world with a wet plop and we can now examine these floating nuggets of wisdom in the sombre light of day.)
“However as the body of Red Pill knowledge and thought expanded, Red Pill men started to explore issues beyond simple inter-gender dynamics to get success with women and realised that Red Pill truths had plenty of implications for everything from culture, to soceity, and eventually civillisation.”
(Fuck, I don’t know about you, but I’m breathless already. This is such an artful way of saying entitled dude shitlords got together for a whinge-festival about how fucking sad-pants they are that women are being treated less like fuck-toilets and more like human beings.)
“This led to a formative set of ideas that rose to encapsulate what we know today as Neomasculinity, an idealogical framework that combines Red Pill truths on biological human nature, traditional wisdom and masculinity […]”
(Biological human nature? What in heaven’s name is that? Are some dudes still fapping on about the giggle fest that is ‘classic’ sociobiological roles – man=hunter woman=gatherer – thus we should emulate primitive society because it’s right(?) type thinking. Sociologists have this other theory – socialization – that you may want to consult before wheeling out more ‘hard hitting” (un)truths.)
(Traditional wisdom and masculinity? OH! You mean patriarchy? The shit system we live under that both women and men suffer under? That is the traditional system you are referring to, you complete and utter lack-wit. Celebrating the oppression half the human race as the method of maintaining your position in the dominant class…way to go douche-canoe. )
“to aid men in making their way in the modern world where regressive progressivism has all but destroyed old-school patriarchal masculinity, seeking to help the masses of men left aimless and confused by it’s destruction.”
(Good old school patriarchal masculinity is shit. So is the current school of masculinity that is floating around. You see, my half-witted friend, masculinity is a condition that can only exist if there happens to be an inferior class to kick the shit out of, in this case femininity. Nothing says ritualized submission like femininity. To pine for a return where these values are more strongly codified makes you a horrible person, as in, Ebola just called and wants to talk about you about an image makeover. )
“Unlike the MGTOW who believe in opting out and giving in to the decline, the PUA who recede into nihilistic hedonism, and the MRA who futilely seek to reform an unreformable system,”
(Oh my stars! MRA’s wanting to reform the system…the lolz just keep coming!)
“Neomasculinists believe that the best way to go about giving the modern man a future is to build tribes of strong masculine men from the ground up,”
(What is up with putting caveman ethos on a pedestal? Building strong tribes works so amazingly great just look at the harmony in Syria, it’s a productive love fest for all involved and an example to be followed for the betterment of humanity. Sectarianism is actually good for us… (!))
“resisting the spread of degeneracy as social insurgents against the numerically superior regressives as first, and later as a dominant social force when the tide of strong masculine men finally reaches a critical mass.”
(You never define degeneracy. Moving toward a world without patriarchy means the end to the explicit and implicit oppression of women. We can give egalitarianism a chance instead its current status as ‘clueless liberal dude pipe-dream’. I cannot even fathom how you managed to make out the dissolution of patriarchy as degeneration. Or could it be that you’re scarred spit-less that your once iron-clad entitlement to the best of everything in society is under threat? Naw, couldn’t be that, the masters are always happy to give the slaves a helping hand up and share the wealth…)
“The aim is for masculine men is to be the best that they can be, and to slow, or even reverse the slow slide of their civillisation into degeneracy. If the slide cannot be reversed, these masculine men will then seek to gather their tribe to build a new one.”
(LoL. Shitlords must be shitlords to stop the corruption of a society moving toward a more egalitarian future. Hurrah! Bonus points for ‘reforming’ society after it all goes down trope . Who gets to be Mad Max – oh fuck bro, no can do anymore – the more important question now is who is Furiosa!)
“As a countercultural movement these ideas were largely found their place in the internet on blogs, chat forums and social media. This collectively became known as the Manosphere, a place where male interests and issues can be discussed by like-minded men.”
(In other words, arrogant man-babies gather to take the piss and moan about the evilz of women and their sooper-sekrit feminist movement that is hell-bent on the destruction of man. )
The manosphere – the gift of sad hilarity that keeps on giving.
Powerful stuff…thanks for finding it FT.
“I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops”
Why need feminism so darned much.
bleatmop
Mystro
The Arbourist
Dead Wild Roses 
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