Random News not worthy of own thread

[Cpt.Jericho]

On the contrary. Now would be the best time reclaim Taiwan. NATO/West has hardly enough weapons and ammo to spare since everything is going to Ukraine - and we have seen where that led: The spring offensive has been postponed long enough to get everybody wait for a summer offensive instead. The only reason what could keep China to invade (is Taiwan actually a real country as in being represented in the UN?) would be some idiot lobbing nukes from the other side of the world.

[chew-ie]

What happened to the land of the free [speech]? Book banning marathon seems ~very odd~ book bans are sweeping us schools - a surprising new victim - the bible.

Seems like there is a whataboutism race going on which results in more and more books getting banned.

As a german I find that very troubling. It hasn't reached the findish level of burning books like my ancestors did, but it is creeping / evolving to the same result IMHO. Declare something "evil" and get rid of it. This can lead to a very dark place.

[Vertigo 7]

Yeah it did. Those Florida morons had a good ol' book burning meet n greet after that GOP jackass banned anything that didn't appeal to the straight, white, 'christian' types.

Thing about the bible bannings is its their own damn fault. They're claiming all these book bannings are to "protect the children" by removing access to anything that contains the slightest hint of sexual content, especially if there's even the slightest suggestion about a homosexual relationship. Yeah... bye bye bible.

[Observe]

What happened to the land of the free [speech]? Book banning marathon seems ~very odd~

Primarily, this is a backlash resulting from the transgender movement. Many people are fed up with gendered pronouns, bathroom use and the trans agenda in general being forced in schools. The idea is that such 'education' has no place in grades k-12.

As you probably know, there is a growing list of States who are banning puberty blockers and trans surgeries for young people under 18. This is not just in the United States. The UK, Sweden, Finland, Norway, France and others are hitting the breaks in this regard. Reason? Because there have been far too many horror stories of ruined young lives with butchered bodies and there is increasing evidence that the science does not support these practices in many/most cases. For some, this hearkens back to the days of lobotomies.

All of this is very disheartening for all involved. I've noticed a growing movement among the LGB population who are resentful about being lumped in with the TQ+ groups. This makes sense to me, because other than being human, lesbians, gays and bi's have little in common with trans.

The culture wars rage on...

[Vertigo 7]

Sorry, observe, there's far more to it than just transgender rights. Republicans are targeting anything that calls out slavery, police brutality, hints at homosexuality, anything that may remotely hint at systemic injustice, on an on. Basically they're going after anything that deflates white supremacist talking points while simultaneously replacing literature and school books with ones that promote their revisionist history.

[Observe]

Sorry, observe, there's far more to it than just transgender rights. Republicans are targeting anything that calls out slavery, police brutality, hints at homosexuality, anything that may remotely hint at systemic injustice, on an on.

Yes, we are seeing censorship on many issues, but it's not just the Republicans. Indeed, it may be that the Democrats/liberals are more guilty of this than their counterparts. Try questioning covid vaccine 'science', transgender rights, climate change responses, etc. and liberals will censor you into oblivion.

I've said before, I am opposed to censoring any legal discussion, whether from the left or the right. Democracy depends on free speech.

[mr.WHO]

Little Timmy wear a dress as a joke and now big pharma want to load him chalk full of hormones and chop off his weiner (for load of taxpayer hard cash), so we could save democracy.

Okay, noted.



BTW there is no (and never was) any Free Speech in School - simply "shut up and listen to parents/teacher/adults", that's why it's called school.
You wanna Free Speech? That's what Universities are for and sadly they start to morph into adult children schools, rather than Universities.

[Vertigo 7]

Yep, totally how that works, who... you're a keen observer of the human condition.

@observe you have any example of liberals censoring any of the things you mentioned? Cuz i'm pretty sure everything from that side has been open and transparent while the GOP has been intentionally fabricating information on all of those topics (like how Florida hid infection and mortality rates, or how faux news did... all the things they did... etc.)

[notaterran]

Now would be the best time reclaim Taiwan. NATO/West has hardly enough weapons and ammo to spare since everything is going to Ukraine [...]

Judging by China's inaction and empty threats, I'd say that the Chinese are not counting on Western stocks to be significantly depleted.

[matthewfarmery]

Had a feeling heads would roll, and now one has, CNN CEO Chris Licht has departed from the network. The Town Hall with Trump proved too controversial. I wonder what going to happen now? CNN is going to have to restructure itself, I wonder how many more heads will roll?

[Observe]

I wonder what going to happen now? CNN is going to have to restructure itself, I wonder how many more heads will roll?

Mainstream news media companies are becoming irrelevant. More young people are tuning into alternatives on the web as podcasts become more of a thing. Frankly, I personally wouldn't shed a tear if CNN vaporized into the ether, along with their corporate puppet masters.

[mr.WHO]

Mainstream news media companies are becoming irrelevant. More young people are tuning into alternatives on the web as podcasts become more of a thing. Frankly, I personally wouldn't shed a tear if CNN vaporized into the ether, along with their corporate puppet masters.

Sadly, for most young populace, MSN are not replace by in depth & discussion 1-3 hour podcasts, but with 30 second to 1 minute Tik Tok.
As bad and crappy CNN is, Tik Tok and YT Shorts are worse

[felter]

This has to be one of the greatest political weeks of all time, not just has Trump finally been indicted, but here in the UK Boris Johnson has quit as an MP before he was pushed out. This couldn't have happened to two more deserving (insert bad word here) as those two.

[chew-ie]

Indeed - a shame BoJo wasn't pushed out before ruining the country.

[felter]

PoliticsJOE the Goodfellows, a good send off for Johnson.

[Cpt.Jericho]

There's still good news in the world:
The four kids who survived a plane crash in Colombia were found after 40 days alone in the jungle.

[fiksal]

https://globalnews.ca/news/9754620/bobs ... -6-attack/

in other news,
actor from Bob's Burgers charged for Capitol attack.

I wonder what going to happen now? CNN is going to have to restructure itself, I wonder how many more heads will roll?

Mainstream news media companies are becoming irrelevant. More young people are tuning into alternatives on the web as podcasts become more of a thing. Frankly, I personally wouldn't shed a tear if CNN vaporized into the ether, along with their corporate puppet masters.

if one ditches media then one ends up with YouTube as news source. Which is neither news nor a source

just ask the recurring Russian guy who posts in the Ukraine war thread under different names


coincidentally that's also how you get Putin. Is that the goal?

[Chips]

Glad Boris has gone, jumped before pushed? I can only assume a chance for him to start his narrative and scapegoating (the old they've got it in for us) disinformation before it's published. Doubt it'll be the last we see or hear from him, but he can make a very comfortable future via dinner speeches, so maybe he's gone gone.

I wonder what going to happen now? CNN is going to have to restructure itself, I wonder how many more heads will roll?

Mainstream news media companies are becoming irrelevant. More young people are tuning into alternatives on the web as podcasts become more of a thing. Frankly, I personally wouldn't shed a tear if CNN vaporized into the ether, along with their corporate puppet masters.

Erm, what?

If *actual* news sources are becoming irrelevant to young people, then this is worrying. Mainstream news media companies *should* be reporting news, objectively and impartially, across a broad spectrum of local and world events and / or highlighting issues facing the world today.

In other words, saying what's happening/happened, not what they *think* about it. They have reporters around the world who investigate or attend, document, record, interview to achieve it. With the advent of cable and digital media it's apparent "news" channels (branded by the otherwise news media) offer more than news - so comment, opinion pieces etc which I would assume is where the lack of trust comes in. Or is it just "they only report..."

Basically news is what's going on both locally, nationally, internationally as well as items of assumed public interest, free from opinion and weighted towards the audience demographic (so domestic > other countries domestic).

CNN I'm guessing falls well short of it, or is it that their channel has news, interspersed with opinion pieces that aren't news, and it's hard to decipher which is what?

However - what podcast, youtube channel or tiktok account has the resources to "report the news"? Who are their reporters? who did they interview? what did they attend to find out what was said by whomever? I strongly suspect they are entirely opinion. Furthermore, their opinion is based on finding information from... well, news sources at best, or worse, other opinion sources that appeals to their opinion.

Main stream media and news broadcasters should have some form of charter or broadcasting license to adhere to; responsibilities to uphold, checks and balances on editorial content etc.

I'd urge significant caution about dismissing mainstream news and only trusting "other" sources - as it's way more likely the viewers bias is driving them to search for a source that'll match their opinion / viewpoint instead of searching for actual news. That's a huge slippery misinformation slope.

[alt3rn1ty]

Ref : BoJo
I wish Honourable gentlemen were what they used to be.
Even the opposition are rubbish.

[felter]

This political week just keeps on getting crazier as the ex-Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon has been arrested as part of the finance inquiry that is currently ongoing. To be honest, this one got me, I had not seen it coming, unlike Trump and Johnson.