These aren’t funny at all.
Wonderella criticizes the media.
Mike Dawson’s initially inspirational comic has a lethal punchline.
Nope. Not laughing this morning.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
gosh, that first cartoon is harly criticism as recognition of how media paints valid arguments as always being at extreme ends of a long bar. They always disregard a reasonable argument opposed to an unreasonable one as bot extreme viewpoints.
let my bigotry say that this is another example of the saturated bigotry of our culture. One form is trying to avoid bigotry by prejudicially disreagrding the actual value of statements and calling them both bigoted. ack I’m overloading on bigotry. ack ack
re @1
edit: gosh, that first sentence is hardly Criticism. [dot] Actually, it was more Recognition of how the media … /edit
oops: [topyos kreep in when trying to correct typoes]
That first
sentencecartoon …The press feels like all sides deserve equal weight and the truth lies exactly halfway between the two.
I feel like some sides are more right than others, and that trying to split the difference between them is wrongheaded and gets bad results.
Let’s see: If I average those two viewpoints, the result is… huh. It’s still madness. Thought I had it this time.
like all lazy programmers, what started as a bug (“here’s an eazy, lazy way to indicate we’re practicing journalistic impartiality without bothering with research. We have 24 hours of programming to fill now that cable has been invented, so we gotta step up”) is now a feature (“all you have to do to control the terms of the debate is have loud people argue for something beyond what you actually want and simply slide the Overton window. Doing so, we act like we’re impartial while actually making an aggressive statement for a particular position”)
I honestly don’t know why it’s so much easier for the forces of evil to use this. You’d think Bernie advocates could have proposed giving everyone an Xbox and make single payer health care look reasonable, but that doesn’t play out, while advocating genocide so that apartheid policies seem “reasonable” seems to work?
The first comic more or less sums up why I don’t watch broadcast news anymore. I’m sick and tired of Don Lemon or Jake Tapper bringing on 3 actual established political analysts and one pro-Trump goon that does noting but spout the party line and gish gallop inane bullshit, and then act like this is some kind of equally valid standpoint.
Sure once in a blue moon they’ll go “Pardon me but that’s ridiculous.”, but not nearly enough. News should report the truth and fact-check claims, not maintain absolute neutrality on everything in order to avoid alienating conservative viewers.
The thing that gets me about the Golden mean fallacy is there are somethings the media will not apply it to. You’ll never see them discuss the economy with the head of the Reserve/Treasurer/etc. and then watch them cross to the head of the Communist party.
gijoel
really? I am shocked I tell you shocked !!
uncle frogy
Well, despite some rather tough talk from me, I’m really not into harming any other creature that isn’t game for the table (in season and with the appropriate license) or is already butchered meat for the table.
That said, if the individual was a certain orange candidate, I might introduce him to the fact that I do indeed own a grease gun and know quite intimately how to grease my car with it. Lacking grease fittings in a modern car, I’d feel free to grease the soles of his shoes.
Often.
With some luck, he’d then try to address a long stairwell.
On an actually serious note, this entire “campaign” has become something beyond mere embarrassment and damaging to the nation. Worse, fucked if I can figure out to not harm our nation and get away from it.
Even worse, were our orange candidate to suffer a gunshot wound to his cranium, it’d be a mere flesh wound and his support would further increase!
Perhaps, the ancient Athenians had the right of it, only property owners that had a proper education were permitted to vote…
Or maybe, Starship Troopers (the book, not the moron milk suckling movie version) had the right of it, only veterans should be allowed the vote.
No, as a veteran, lousy idea…
Not only do I not trust my former peers, frankly, I don’t trust myself. Hence, my incessant asking my wife’s opinion on every major decision.
And I actually declined membership in MENSA, due to a fundamental disagreement of one item in the charter.
I’m not a dummy, I only play one on the intertubes – to be underestimated. Although, a relatively recently discovered illness has made me more convincingly portray one… :/
But then, life sucks, but it sure beats the hell out of the alternative.
15% by September 1: That’s what it will take to get Jill Stein into the presidential debates. (So what do the Democrats and Republicans have to be afraid of?) (Hillary and Donald should welcome the chance to make mincemeat out of that dumb Doctor.) Heck, 40,000,000 Americans (that’s right, 40 million, with six zero’s, afflicted by usurious student loans) would be enough to win Jill Stein and the Greens this election (if they were able to wake up and get their disorganized disillusionment’s together).
Indeed, it’s time for everyone in America (and around the world) who believes in “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness,” to wake up! (Including the “Silent Majority.) And in fact, everyone let down by Bernie (everyone who got “Berned”) can think they have to switch to Hillary but they would be wrong! (And two wrongs do not make a right!) (It isn’t smart and it isn’t helpful to just worry about Donald…he’s a “known” entity.) (It’s Hillary who has so many fooled!)
If it’s a woman you want (or someone smarter and better than both Donald and Hillary put together or hung separately) then don’t fret or follow Bernie’s lead anymore (he’s lost his way) embrace the only hope there is left for all of us: Jill Stein and the Greens! Give her 15% by September 1…and give her a listen (if you dare) what she has to say about our two party system in America: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NjkCfjU-FY
@10
Sorry, I don’t vote for anti-science cranks. Even if I was going to throw my vote away to make an ideological stand, it wouldn’t be for the fucking green party.
Stop dogwhistling to win over anti-vaxxers/homeopaths/anti-GMO kooks and maybe I’ll be interested. Manage to get a substantial amount of congressional seats and maybe I’ll even vote for you.
Another Green Party pretender. Stein is presently polling at 1%!.
The Greens won’t be doing anything come November, except counting their percentage of the votes on one hand, with digits left over.
A bit of reality. Eugene Debs, Socialist, ran for president 5 times, with a max percentage of 5.99% in 1912. The rest were less than 5%. When you are on the fringes, like the Green Party, this is your expectation.
In similar news, the latest edition of Squirrel Girl to hit the digital shelves, issue #10 of the current series, and the couple of issues that preceded it, took a pretty decent swing at all that friendzone shit. Squirrel Girl rocks.
(By the way, is anyone else not receiving mails about new comments? Or is that just me?)
@9 wzrd1
Sincerely hope your illness is nothing bad, wzrd1. A speedy recovery to you. I can sympathize, Was pretty seriously ill last year and it was scary. Fortunately I’ve had a complete recovery. No need to publish details, you probably shouldn’t, just know someone out there is wishing you well.
@11 Vivec
I definitely agree with your sentiments about this. I was interested in Jill Stein due to her stated positions (as stated on her website). Then she started all this anti-vaccine shit. True, I haven’t been keeping track of her very well, so she could have been saying that all along and it’s just not on her website.
On the other hand, I would likely tell any pollsters that I am interested in voting for Jill Stein for the express purpose of having another (hopefully) reasonable viewpoint on the debate stage to help make Trump seem even more insane. Then again, she may be even more insane in a different direction.
I’m fed up with this only having two choices thing in American politics. There are more than two sides to everything, and our politics should reflect that. Of course, a plurality of parties doesn’t guarantee that things will be better (look at Britain and the current Brexit fiasco), but at least there would be an illusion of choice, I guess.
Sometimes I’m optimistic about it, but politics in the US would probably still be a horrible shit show anyways. I also have my pessimistic times, too.
As for those comics, I really like both of them, and read through all 5 of Mike Dawson’s comics posted on that site. They’re all pretty good, and they resonate with me. I have not read all of Wonderella, but it seems very good and resonates in a different way.
I’d like to have more than two parties to pick from as well. Two things stops me from considering most of our major contenders for alternative parties.
For one, the ideological divide is massive. Half of them are weird “too conservative for the republican party” parties, which I obviously have zero interest in making an ideological stand.
The rest all have weird bullshit as part of the party or their candidate’s platforms. The Greens dogwhistle anti-science kookery, Peace and Freedom keep nominating and promoting TERFs, the various socialist-leaning parties toy with supporting NAMBLA and other fucked up groups, and the Libertarian party is largely just a dumping ground for upset conservatives and Paulbots
Even if one of these parties was ideologically compatible, the other problem is that even if Stein, or Johnson, or fucking Roseanne Barr won the general election, they’d have zero support in the states or in congress, because people seem to want to cause a political shift from the top down. If you thought Obama got stonewalled by congress, I’d love to see Jill Stein try to pass anything, ever.
(By the way, is anyone else receiving a terrifying mass of mails about new comments? Or is that just me?)
I will never comment on this again, I swear, just… please… oh god, oh god, my inbox… oh god….
Athywren, you’re not alone. After a recent bout of severe constipation, my Pharyngula emails arrived in a sudden flood yesterday afternoon. Perils of irregularity, I suppose.
@Vivec, I do agree. Additional choices should be presented.
Indeed, I’ve been searching for a specific match grade round for my rifle, only to find supply fully depleted, along with specific combat rounds, which were also substitute match grade rounds.
People are arming up, even more than the usual paranoia would lead them to.
Normally, I’d be annoyed by panic buying after a mass shooting, however, the specialty of one specific match grade ammunition is concerning, along with chatter that friends monitor on “militia” channels.
To be brutally honest, which is one thing commanders enjoyed, back when I was wearing tree appearing clothing, I’m gravely concerned.
Shitheads are arming up, by a lot. They’re also quite ready to take on whateverinhell that they think is a “threat”.
That “threat” being anything different from them.
While I do normally retain a 300 round supply of loaded magazines for my competition weapon, I’m now forced to considering adding to that supply by another 200 rounds.
As that’s an unwelcome expense, that says a lot.
But, I’m also quite big on surviving, along with keeping my friends alive. Worse, I now do have to consider the paranoid fringe a genuine threat. It’s being stoked very, very, very well, as mailing lists that I subscribe to to monitor it have shown.
In short, I’m actually worried that a civil war may well be imminent.
The idiots will resupply my ammunition requirements, if things go that far sideways.
And that actually is my genuine worry. I actually might get called up to protect this nation, straight out of retirement.
If things go that sideways, I have a list of people who I’ll communicate with, to find safe haven on my own property. You’re on that list.
But, if it goes that badly sideways, there are other plans in place to ensure that we all survive longer than the other bastard. And those plans involve re-instituting the Constitution.
So, I’ll also “prep”, with more environmental control on associated buildings around the house. And food supplies.
On a bare bones view, learn to eat all of an MRE packet, lest you grow constipated. Badly.
I’m aiming toward just regular eating, we’ll see how things work out. Budget is of concern, my wife’s increasingly alarming illnesses are also of consideration, but surviving for the next few years is also of concern.
Yeah, that is my very real world worry, out of the few actual worries that I have. What I can’t control, isn’t a worry, what I can or mitigate is of concern.
And previously, I was paid reasonably well, considering military pay scale notions, on taking chances. I’m no longer paid to take chances, but I’m paid reasonably well on the civilian side, as an SME, to not take chances.
And honestly, the chatter is just that worrisome.
Stretching things, we can accommodate 20 or so people. We’d then have to find land to grow food.
Yeah, that’s how far my training and former occupation involved in preparing for various eventualities.
My very real desire is, not a lick of that potential eventualities would ever occur.
But then, I clearly remember civil defense plans that required cleaning out the toilet tank on a regular basis, to supply drinking water, along with filling a bathtub before a nuclear attack.
And far more recently, back in the ’90’s, reading an SOP that involved recruiting 12 year old kids to defend a nation, along with their mitigated training, just to get troops to an imaginary front line.*
*Yeah, people dream up all manner of possible events and how to keep a nation intact, at least as far as government is concerned. I can’t discuss more, as true nightmare scenarios are still classified and I have no desire to join Manning.