North Korean film exposes Western Propaganda

blandz87 · 2012-05-26T09:14:18.311025+00:00

Western propaganda is more effective because it's not centrally planned. The Chomsky model is really just about journalists' biases affecting their reports, which might be completely and unintentional for some. It's pretty organic in that sense (but I'm sure it's intentional in many cases).

State propaganda is weaker because it is just so much more obvious to see.

Tarret · 2012-05-26T08:23:23.563166+00:00

...goes on a tangent about how it's my generation's job to "fix this country."

Was it more of a "it's your generation's job to fix this country because you are all responsible for the problems" or a "It's your generation's job to fix this country because people my age fucked it up, and people my age are too blind to see their errors so it's you or no one" kind of tangent?

Context is everything. Because if it's the latter, I'd call that a pretty realistic assessment.

Barry_McCockiner · 2012-05-26T02:37:55.805604+00:00

How they treat their teachers is no picnic either. I teach for their ESL division, 5 hours in the class per day (the average full-time public school teacher teaches 4). We get no sick days, no holiday pay (even though the students pay for this time), no paid vacation days, a ridiculous health insurance plan that I don't even subscribe to, and minimum wage for prep time. They lowered starting wages and froze our salaries for almost 2 years because of the "economic crisis". I put those words in quotes because our division wasn't at all affected by the recession; but our profits were going to help subsidize the rest of the Washington Post Company.

Their whole business model is to keep teachers at a "part-time" status so they don't legally have to give out benefits, all while demanding a high-level of excellence in our performance. They manage to get some talented people in there because they will make the hours flexible, which is good for someone finishing up a master's degree. Many people are there because they just can't find anything better for the moment. Bottom line is though we have a ridiculously high turnover, and they're just fine with that.

We're actually in the process of unionizing the 3 branches in my area at the moment, which has been really fucking interesting to say the least.

TommyCollins · 4 days

Which means that they may actually have to do something good for people.

Politics may be a cynical game, but there are plenty of people that got into it for all the right reasons.

TommyCollins · 5 days

You're right about there being no conspiracy. Things are pretty transparent.

However, I think you're grossly exaggerating the proportions in which the wealthy elite influence legislation over working-class voters. Yeah big-money doners are always going to have a leg up on the average person, but I think politicians are most definitely concerned with how their actions are looking to voters.

The problem with disproving your way of thinking however is that you most likely could find some corporate interest that has benefited from almost any piece of legislation...

Democracy is an attempt to subvert the de facto rule of wealth, but it does not work unless those exploited by the system unite against their rulers;

Democracy fails when there is a lack of oversight, and people get disenfranchised with the process. It doesn't matter how many parties you have.

it is in the profit-seeking interest of at least some of the wealthy to exert whatever power they have access to to divide labor as much as possible, which effectively hinders solidarity.

Yes, but are you saying this is why we have a two-party system, it's another exaggeration in my opinion. First, although it's a plausible scenario, it's a conspiracy theory. Second, although they may or may not be exploiting it, "the wealthy" didn't create the cultural divide we have in this country. There's always been one.

libervore · 5 days

I'm in the same boat as you, with a degree in Jazz Guitar Performance.

10% of me I wish I had studied something else, the other 90% wouldn't have it any other way.

libervore · 5 days

That's a pretty fatalistic view of the reality.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/10/26/pf/college/college_tuition_cost/index.htm

You're right and wrong about the 20k figure:

Right: "The sticker price of studying and living on campus at the average public university rose 5.4% for in-state students, or about $1,100, to $21,447 this fall, the College Board estimated."

Wrong: "Fewer than half of all public university students pay the full sticker price to attend. Federal surveys show at least 52% of all students at public four-year universities receive scholarships or grants. Aid, not counting loans or campus jobs, brought the net tuition paid by the average student at a typical public university to about $2,500, the College Board estimates. That brings the total average net cost of a year on campus (including dorm, books, travel and living expenses) to $11,400."

Plus, 10k to get through the summer break? (what is it again, 2-3 months?) Seems a bit high...plus there's always the options of going to back to your parent's house and/or getting some shit job...and working a part-time job through college can help you earn some bread.

The debt part is hard though, but the bright side is paying off my loans on time has earned me a ridiculously good credit rating.

davidreiss666 · 12 days

There's too much left to chance here. Many of those things might actually reduce the overall cost of healthcare, but I'm not sure it would make things cheap enough that every elderly person would get a $20,000 treatment comped.

rely entirely on their reputation for good testing,

That's a bit risky for me.

davidreiss666 · 13 days

Wow, very lax public nudity laws, is that the norm in Germany?

As for the open container laws in most US cities...while I disagree with this, I do understand it. We simply do not have the kind of culture to have people drinking in the streets.

Drinking in the streets leads to noise, trash, pissed neighbors, impromptu block parties, fights, and shootings (drive-by and walk-by).

So as long as you pour your beer into a different kind of container and just be low-key, cops aren't going to fuck with you.

davidreiss666 · 13 days

Informative! I never even considered the distinction...thank you sir or madam.

davidreiss666 · 13 days

All the ad hominem stuff here is unproductive in a debate.

So tell me this: How would the free market be superior to medicare in helping people 65+ who are basically uninsurable?

davidreiss666 · 13 days

The provision mandating people to carry insurance doesn't take effect until 2014.

magister0 · 13 days

I next to nothing about Malaysian politics, but my first instinct is that this political theater is designed to help the ruling party in some way.

It could be a way to distract people from other issues and/or a way to gain some international clout, which the people always like.

tiredbulliedgirl · 13 days

People are self centered and mean, and almost no one will recognise a good deed.

I don't think that's totally true.

I think people are generally good to people they know personally. I think the self-centered and mean side has a better chance to come out when you can make a choice that affects someone whom you'll never have to face.

Tellycat · 14 days

I like this quote about Tintinnabuli -

"Tintinnabuli is the mathematically exact connection from one line to another.....tintinnabuli is the rule where the melody and the accompaniment [accompanying voice]...is one. One plus one, it is one - it is not two. This is the secret of this technique."

southAfRknCraka · 17 days

I don't know why everyone else is being a dick and I discourage dickarry, but if you look at his reasons for wanting it in the title:

...so we can easily look at answers easily, and then discuss below in the comments.

We already have discussions about what we think, and if we can't have an honest debate with the system that's in place now, I don't think a poll will help.

n8quick · 17 days

Well let's compare it to alcohol and cigarettes...

Alcohol and cigarettes, while being arguable worse for one's health than marijuana, have enough users and popular support that outlawing them is impractical. These things couldn't be banned if they tried, because it would create far more problems than it solved.

Marijuana isn't quite there in terms of users and popular support, but it's certainly moving in that direction. And when it does, it will be legalized. Don't forget that marijuana has only recently began the process of shedding its taboos and misunderstandings within mainstream culture, while alcohol and cigarettes have been mainstream for years.

*Edit: Just to clarify: I'm not saying that this makes it a ban on marijuana correct or even incorrect, I'm just trying to give an honest answer to an honest question. Personally, I'd like to see it legal for people at least 21+.

Ultimativity · 17 days

http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/false_consensus.htm

Ultimativity · 17 days

finding work around the EU is simply a matter of learning your adopted nation's language (and why not, you'll start making money)

That doesn't seem so simple to me, but as an ESL teacher I'm intrigued by your opinion.

I lived in another country that spoke a language for close to two years. I had never really heard their native language before I arrived, and when I left I was nowhere near the level I'd need to be have a job as anything but an unskilled laborer.

I didn't take any classes in it, I was just picking up things as I went along, but that experience plus my teaching experiences have taught me just how hard it is to attain fluency in a second language.

shameshesafeminist · 18 days

I get colors from playing music, I wonder if this is a very mild form of synesthesia, or just some of association I've developed? According to the video posted somewhere near the top, 1 out of 23 people have some form of it.

I see colors mostly in terms of keys, but to a lesser degree in the notes themselves

C: Green, B: Blue, Bb: Dark Blue, A: Red, Ab: Rust, G: Brown, F#: Orange cream, F: Light Brown, E: White, Eb: Beige, D: Purple, Db: I can't discern this one, however playing in C# minor clearly gives me a bright green color.

Mekkins · 19 days

With pleasure

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2ywHT5Esps&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHDVTB0x8VI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qA5HzJ347HM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCyGBNKlrPI&feature=related

Tony_Snark · 20 days

Leahy was in that one too?

mikwow · 20 days

That's interesting, I'd never heard this.

This site says they didn't blow up the station though.

Mekkins · 20 days

FFS.

First, this recording is corny.

Second, Jazz is a combination of the blues with European harmonies, but it is first and foremost a blues-based music. Bach may be as important as anyone in the development of Western Tonality, but saying he "invented jazz" is like saying Alfred Nobel (the inventor of gunpowder) invented the AK-47.

eggplnt · 20 days

Yeah, I get that. Rain12913 already said it best though, so I'll just copy what he said:

He didn't say "I will argue...", he said "I would argue...", which expresses that he believes that "the 9th had more of an impact on following composes" and that, if he were to engage someone in discussion about this matter, he would present an argument for that position.

The whole point of this thread is to stimulate (friendly) discussion about Beethoven's music. eggpInt could have said, "Ok, why do you think that?", which would have generated a discussion.

But instead he wanted to be pedantic, and came off sounding like a dickhead.

silverwater

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silverwater

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