What's up with Alex Jones/Bill Hicks?

[Shoblongoo]

4 hours ago, NinjaMonkey said:

That would be because the Ace Attorney series is a satire of the Japanese legal system, not the American one.

*any legal system.

10 hours ago, eclipse said:

EDIT: @Shoblongoo the irony is that I dislike the Phoenix Wright series because it looks nothing like a lawyer's job.

^^^
I played operation when I was a kid. Someone tell Rezzy I'm qualified to perform surgery. 

 

18 hours ago, Johann said:

Mainstream news sources are withholding the truth due to an agenda

...this might be the least colorful of the bunch, but this to me is the one that stands out as the most harmful and egregious; the damage that's done to civic institutions and political discourse when this one catches on. And its getting worse. 

I think the issue here is that in the past 25 years, there's been this explosion of new information technology (Blogging. Social Media. Forums such as this one). And the ability of average persons to sort out fact from fiction and think critically about the credibility of what flashes across their screen has not kept pace with the sheer volume of information, disinformation, and channels of communication that the current generation today for the first time has access to. 

Its gotten to the point now that anyone--no matter what they believe and no matter what body of fact supports or fails to support their position--can find an outlet to insulate themselves in a bubble of group think and convince themselves that their ideas are objective; any media outlet that fails to recognize their truth and report accordingly is biased and is not credible. 
 

• You're a Nazi? You can go to Stormfront. You can surround yourself with white supremacists. You can inundate yourself with Nazi news feeds and debate Nazi ideas, and converse pleasantly with your fellow Nazis about the finer points of Zionist plots to control public opinion and "Antidiscrimination=White Genocide." You can thoroughly convince yourself that any media outlet failing to report the zionist plots and the white genocide is not credible; only the sources on your blog talking about the signs of the coming race war are well-researched and reliable. 
           
• You believe the current state of the world is a sign of the End Times? You can go to WorldNetDaily. You can surround yourself with doomsayers. You can inundate yourself with "christian science" news feeds and debate interpretations of End Times prophecy, and converse pleasantly with your fellow congregants about how the Prophets predicted Darwinism, the Holocaust, 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the legalization of abortion and gay marriage, and Russian intervention in Syria . You can thoroughly convince yourself that any any media outlet failing to report the imminent signs of the rapture is not credible; only the sources on your blog talking about how the theory of evolution is part of the "gay agenda" are well-researched and credible.    

• You're a deep state conspiracy theorist? You can go to infowars. You can go to Breitbart. Hell--at this point, you can just watch FOX News. 

It started with Rush Limbaugh back in the 90s. He was the first modern figure (I'll use the term "modern" here to refer to the age of the internet boom and mass social media)  to realize there was a commercial market for this stuff; that "the news" could be regarded as a business rather than as a public service. That you can make millions and millions of dollars in "the business" if business is good. That whats good for business isn't telling people the truth; its telling people what they want to hear. And that whats BEST for business is telling people on the fringes what they want to hear, because those are people who aren't hearing what they want to hear from anyone else and who will be fanatically loyal to YOU for being the one who gives voice to their ideas. 

Alex Jones. Sean Hannity. Ann Coulter.  Then over on the left...ass-hats like Michael Moore and "The Young Turk." (yes--the left does it too)

These are all figures that sprang up after Rush Limbaugh proved that if you describe mainstream media reports as drive-by shootings and feminists as Nazis and tell persons protesting the treatment of blacks in america to take the bone out of their nose and go rob a liquor store, with enough gusto, you get an 8-figure salary and a celebrity net worth of half a billion dollars. 

(Rush Limbaugh is worth $550 million dollars. Read that sentence as many times as you can before breaking breaking your computer in uncontrollable range)   

Its a shame really. The most potent information technology that's ever existed in the history of the world is in our hands today. I mean just stop and think about the concept of "the internet." What that technology represents and what that means.  

We have an electronic repository for the sum total of all human knowledge and experience--that's fucking amazing. We could do so many incredible things if we used that technology wisely.  

...or we could...





^^^
People go to this site. For news. 

 

[Charmeleonbrah]

His appearance on Piers Morgan is still one of the funniest things I've ever seen.  Taking his content at face value is obviously insane, but he's an amusing character.  Alex Jones memes are great.  WE'RE BREAKING THE CONDITIONING!

 

[Johann]

@Shoblongoo This is why, generally speaking, one of the strongest ways to thwart Nazis, White supremacists, etc is to deny them a platform. Can't even engage them in debate because their methods and argument are disingenuous.

[NinjaMonkey]

16 hours ago, eclipse said:

EDIT: @Shoblongoo the irony is that I dislike the Phoenix Wright series because it looks nothing like a lawyer's job.

Fire Emblem looks nothing like actual medieval warfare, but you like that.

@Shoblongoo No, it's specifically the Japanese one. The vast majority of other legal systems aren't heavily rigged in the prosecutions favour.

[Charmeleonbrah]

@AlmondJuice

I'm requesting this topic title be changed to "What's up with Bill Hicks?"

[indigoasis]

59 minutes ago, Charmeleonbrah said:

I'm requesting this topic title be changed to "What's up with Bill Hicks?"

The original question was about Alex Jones, but I'll compromise and add the name on. We can add more as we go.

[Charmeleonbrah]

2 hours ago, AlmondJuice said:

The original question was about Alex Jones, but I'll compromise and add the name on. We can add more as we go.

 

Well, the thing is he IS Bill Hicks.  That's what I was trying to get at.

[indigoasis]

4 minutes ago, Charmeleonbrah said:

Well, the thing is he IS Bill Hicks.  That's what I was trying to get at.

Oh, whoops. My bad. I'll change it again.

[Charmeleonbrah]

3 minutes ago, AlmondJuice said:

Oh, whoops. My bad. I'll change it again.

What's up with Alex Jones/Bill Hicks is the type of compromise that could work for both of us.

[Lord Raven]

Bill Hicks is a dead stand-up comedian. That youtube video is just conspiracy bullshit. You pretty much fell for the bait.

[Excellen Browning]

I for one appreciate the allusion to a conspiracy within the thread title.

[Dark Holy Elf]

18 hours ago, NinjaMonkey said:

Fire Emblem looks nothing like actual medieval warfare, but you like that.

@Shoblongoo No, it's specifically the Japanese one. The vast majority of other legal systems aren't heavily rigged in the prosecutions favour.

It's closer to the Japanese systems but takes a huge amount of liberties with it, so it's fair to say it doesn't resemble any legal system that closely. One of the most striking conceits of the AA legal system is that an accused is presumed guilty unless someone else is proven to have done the crime, which bears no resemblance to any legal system ever as far as I'm aware.

(You probably also know this, but it has to be emphasised that there have absolutely been various "legal systems" which are even more heavilly rigged in favour of the prosecution. Witch trials for an obvious example. Or the USSR during the height of the gulag system. If you've played Spirit of Justice, THAT system is actually closer to ones which have existed in history - except that in real life, Phoenix would have lost no matter what arguments he made.)

[SuperIb]

 

On 4/20/2018 at 12:08 PM, Shoblongoo said:

• You're a Nazi? You can go to Stormfront. You can surround yourself with white supremacists. You can inundate yourself with Nazi news feeds and debate Nazi ideas, and converse pleasantly with your fellow Nazis about the finer points of Zionist plots to control public opinion and "Antidiscrimination=White Genocide." You can thoroughly convince yourself that any media outlet failing to report the zionist plots and the white genocide is not credible; only the sources on your blog talking about the signs of the coming race war are well-researched and reliable. 
• You believe the current state of the world is a sign of the End Times? You can go to WorldNetDaily. You can surround yourself with doomsayers. You can inundate yourself with "christian science" news feeds and debate interpretations of End Times prophecy, and converse pleasantly with your fellow congregants about how the Prophets predicted Darwinism, the Holocaust, 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the legalization of abortion and gay marriage, and Russian intervention in Syria . You can thoroughly convince yourself that any any media outlet failing to report the imminent signs of the rapture is not credible; only the sources on your blog talking about how the theory of evolution is part of the "gay agenda" are well-researched and credible.    
• You're a deep state conspiracy theorist? You can go to infowars. You can go to Breitbart. Hell--at this point, you can just watch FOX News. 

This is why if I'm curious about something or want to form some sort of opinion (like most sane people), I look at multiple sources. I question why (seemingly) many people only look to one information outlet to create their opinions and what-not. Do people do that just so that they can feel that they're "right", or what? I've never really understood those who don't want to learn more or to be more well-informed. *shudders at the thought of people who only use Alex Jones as their news-source*

[Charmeleonbrah]

Trump going on Infowars for an interview with Alex Jones during the election season was legit wild.  He not only opened the Overton Window, he destroyed it with the Fury (3) of a thousand (Thunder's) Fists (see what I did there?).  

Edited April 21, 2018 by Charmeleonbrah

[Phoenix Wright]

10 hours ago, SuperIb said:

 

This is why if I'm curious about something or want to form some sort of opinion (like most sane people), I look at multiple sources. I question why (seemingly) many people only look to one information outlet to create their opinions and what-not. Do people do that just so that they can feel that they're "right", or what? I've never really understood those who don't want to learn more or to be more well-informed. *shudders at the thought of people who only use Alex Jones as their news-source*

wanting to feel right is partly it, i think. but it's multi-faceted, right? sad to say, but most people do not know how to critically think, nor do they understand scientific evidence (even many scientists--eg, those that disagree with climate change). so, a single source, no matter the origin, that parrots a deeply held belief is simply good enough. people are unequipped to understand complex viewpoints that might disagree with a simple baseline belief. why seek out, then, what you know to be wrong in the first place? also, people are generally apathetic when it comes to politics and other worldly affairs. it's a vicious cycle.

[Slumber]

21 hours ago, Lord Raven said:

Bill Hicks is a dead stand-up comedian. That youtube video is just conspiracy bullshit. You pretty much fell for the bait.

I think there's a certain comedy that there's a conspiracy theory around the US's #1 conspiracy theory nut.

The idea that anybody would believe it makes it funnier. Bill Hicks and Alex Jones being basically the exact opposite of each other makes it even better.

"What if Bill Hicks went from far left crazy comic to far right crazy commentator?"

[Stercus]

On ‎2018‎-‎04‎-‎20 at 1:08 PM, Shoblongoo said:

Its gotten to the point now that anyone--no matter what they believe and no matter what body of fact supports or fails to support their position--can find an outlet to insulate themselves in a bubble of group think and convince themselves that their ideas are objective; any media outlet that fails to recognize their truth and report accordingly is biased and is not credible. 

Or to summarize it all into a single, handy little gif...

There's really not a whole lot else I think I can offer to the discussion that isn't just parroting the same talking points with my own spin on them. I studied to be a journalist for two years, and it's honestly astonishing how many people are content to just "one and done" their information, as far as sources go. And even then, it's extremely common for people to read the title, maybe the first couple sentences of an article and then be done with it. That's one of the reasons why "clickbait" titles are so common in this day and age, in an era where a majority of people are just going to take their information straight from the headlines, you need to do something -anything, in some cases - to make sure at least some of those people look beyond that.

It's totally unrelated that I wound up dropping out of the program due to depression.

[Shoblongoo]

2 minutes ago, Stercus said:

I studied to be a journalist for two years, and it's honestly astonishing how many people are content to just "one and done" their information, as far as sources go. And even then, it's extremely common for people to read the title, maybe the first couple sentences of an article and then be done with it. That's one of the reasons why "clickbait" titles are so common in this day and age, in an era where a majority of people are just going to take their information straight from the headlines, you need to do something -anything, in some cases - to make sure at least some of those people look beyond that.

It's totally unrelated that I wound up dropping out of the program due to depression.

That's--legitimately depressing.

Though my take on it is that in the age of ShitLords, its all the more important to have upstanding persons going into these professions for the right reasons and bringing good work to the table. All the more important to tighten the headband, bite the bullet, and plow forward if you're trying to do good work. 

Just my way of taking all the negativity that's out there and turning into something positive. A force of motivation, of sorts. 

You ever think about giving it another try?

[Tryhard]

12 minutes ago, Stercus said:

It's totally unrelated that I wound up dropping out of the program due to depression.

Sounds like Fake News! to me

considering the public consumption of media these days perhaps it was for the best

[Stercus]

6 minutes ago, Shoblongoo said:

That's--legitimately depressing.

Though my take on it is that in the age of ShitLords, its all the more important to have upstanding persons going into these professions for the right reasons and bringing good work to the table. All the more important to tighten the headband, bite the bullet, and plow forward if you're trying to do good work. 

Just my way of taking all the negativity that's out there and turning into something positive. A force of motivation, of sorts. 

You ever think about giving it another try?

Most every day, actually. Don't get me wrong, I actually quite enjoyed the work and most aspects of the career. But I was going through a particularly dark time in my life at the time and the constant negativity certainly didn't do anything to help. There was also the fact that it felt hard for me to maintain passion when doing stories that didn't interest me, personally. I was able to do the work and I was able to put on an enthusiastic front, but I couldn't help but feel like I wasn't doing the story the justice it deserved. Of course, that was probably depression talking still.

All things considered I'm willing to give it another try and get back in the saddle, but it'll be a while before that happens. I have a lot more irl issues that need my immediate attention before I even considering going back to college again. Of course, one thing I learned in my time in the program is that a college degree isn't something you necessarily need to be a journalist. I could do freelance work on local events and such, see if I can get my name noticed.

But that's a discussion for somewhere else. We're supposed to be talking about other people grossly unqualified to give the news!

[Shoblongoo]

FUN FACT: Alex Jones is actually King of the Hill's Bill Dauterive 

Edited May 3, 2018 by Shoblongoo

[indigoasis]

1 minute ago, Shoblongoo said:

FUN FACT: Alex Jones is actually an alter ego of Bill Dauterive 

Makes me wonder if I can peel Jones' hair off....

[Karimlan]

On ‎4‎/‎22‎/‎2018 at 12:36 AM, Slumber said:

 

"What if Bill Hicks went from far left crazy comic to far right crazy commentator?"

You mean a level like Hannity's/O'Reilly's, or Colbert's? One of them is decidedly satire, and we needn't guess..

[Life]

Alex Jones is hilarious if you don't actually take him seriously. Hence my signature.

[Tryhard]

Sure, conspiracy meme man is funny and all that and I do think he's a performance artist to some degree, but people do take him seriously considering how popular he is for whatever reason, and I'm more frightened about them than anything else when they parrot that Sandy Hook is a hoax and that Pizzagate is real and someone goes to fire guns there.

And because he's taken seriously he's allowed to be legitimised. Even Ben Shapiro had a massive spat with him a while back even when he should just immediately conclude that Jones is not worth any of your time. I think he did eventually come to that position.

He seems to be more deranged coinciding with growing that beard recently.

Edited July 11, 2018 by Edgelord