But what if they’re right? The media are most often accused of three things: bias, sensationalism and negativity.
Bias. Everyone leans a certain way politically. Ideally, that wouldn’t affect the way a reporter covered a city council meeting or a police news conference. But to tell the truth, I’ve probably worked with 10 times more liberal-leaning journalists than conservative-leaning journalists over the past three decades. The profession attracts people with an affinity for underdogs. That has to have some impact on the stories we choose to do and the ones we don’t.
Sensationalism. It depends how you define it. If we talk to the relatives of a murder victim, are we doing it to make money? I hope we’re there because we’re trying help the community grieve together. But let’s face it, that story is going to be well-read so maybe it will make more money in some click-based, page-view algorithm that I’ll never understand.
Negativity. We don’t make cars crash. We don’t bomb civilians. The world can be an ugly place and these things won’t stop if we ignore them. On the other hand, I haven’t met many reporters who would rather cover a parade than a murder trial. Darker stories seem, by their nature, more important. So maybe we are negative.
But I’ve already fallen into the trap of thinking in terms of “us” and “them.” There should be no distinction. It’s here where the media are their own worst enemies. We tend to think we’re infallible because we’re doing God’s work. But if we want more people on our side, we could do a much better job of showing the public what we do, why we do it and how we do it. We like to crow about open courts, but what about open newsrooms?
Maybe we should trust people enough to let them in on the process. To boil it down to one example, if the police shoot an Indigenous man and we decide to mention his race in coverage, we should tell people why we thought it was relevant and maybe admit that we agonize over such decisions. It might not stop the haters but it would at least give “them” a chance to understand “us.”
Cam Fuller, “Do people really hate us and if so, why?”, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, 2018-03-03.
June 3, 2020
QotD: From “the media’s” point of view
June 2, 2020
Who were the Hittites? The history of the Hittite Empire explained in 10 minutes
Epimetheus
Published 30 Nov 2018Who were the Hittites? (The Hittite Empire explained in 10 minutes) Animated history
Support new videos from Epimetheus on Patreon! π
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“Calling a modern ‘artist’ a poseur is like calling water wet β what could possibly be the point?”
Severian on modern “art” and its practitioners:
Picasso’s “Guernica” in mural form in the town of Guernica.
Photo by Papamanila via Wikimedia Commons.
Leszek Kolakowski, in his essay collection Is God Happy?, wrote several fascinating essays on Communism vs. other forms of Socialism, such as Fascism and generic Leftism. He notes that while Communism proper attracted lots of serious intellectuals and artists, who produced some works of real merit, generic “Leftism” had few, and Fascism almost none.
He also notes the degeneration of art on the Left. I don’t want / am not qualified to get deep into the weeds of art history, but let me use an example (mine, not Kolakowski’s): Pablo Picasso vs … oh, pick an artist, they’re all Lefties … let’s say Andy Warhol. Noting that “important” can be diametrically opposed to things like “good,” “aesthetically pleasing,” etc., we can all agree that both were important artists. Whatever else their differences, the most obvious one was:
Sincerity.
Picasso was a lifelong member of the Communist Party. He was also a sincere artist (which, again, can be miles away from “good;” I personally can’t stand Picasso’s art). Guernica is wildly overrated, and its sentiment jejune β we all agree that bombing civilians is bad, mmkay? β but at least it’s sincere. Warhol, on the other hand, never took a sincere breath in his life. Making your work superficial on purpose doesn’t absolve you from the sin of superficiality. Warhol (and Roy Lichtenstein, and the rest of the “Pop Art” crowd) gave wannabes permission to substitute “being ironic” for “having something to say,” and there’s your modern art in a nutshell. Calling a modern “artist” a poseur is like calling water wet β what could possibly be the point?
Which brings us back to Kolakowski. He notes that there are apostates aplenty from Communism, and they all seem compelled to write big long books full of critical self-examination. Cheering for the murder of millions would do that, one supposesβ¦ except that, as Kolakowski says, you can’t find one single ex-Leftist doing it. Hell, is there such a thing as an ex-Leftist, as opposed to an ex-Communist? Kolakowski couldn’t find one (as of 1995, I think), and I can’t think of one either. Every former radical I’m aware of was just that β a radical, a card-carrying Communist or at least a virulent fellow-traveler, e.g. David Horowitz. We probably all have heard of someone waking up one day (say, after 9/11) realizing that the Democratic Party they’d been knee-jerk voting for all their lives was out to lunch, but do you know of any True Believers seeing the light?
The Fall Of The Roman Empire With Tom Holland | History Hit LIVE on Timeline
Timeline – World History Documentaries
Published 29 May 2020The Roman Empire remains one of the most enduring and prolific civilisations of written history. Yet it, like all great civilisations, would eventually come to an end. Join Dan Snow as he speaks to historian Tom Holland about the many contributing factors that would bring this seismic and seemingly invincible empire to its knees.
#StayHome #WithMe #FallOfRome
Antifa
Arthur Chrenkoff welcomes the move to designate the Antifa movement as domestic terrorists:
“antifa 8973ag” by cantfightthetendies is licensed under CC BY 2.0
President Trump’s decision to designate Antifa as a terrorist organisation is long overdue.
Whether you call them a terrorist organisation or a criminal organisation β or both β the underlying facts are the same: Antifa is a network of groups committed to a violent revolution to overthrow the democratic system of government and replace it with some sort of a communist “dictatorship of proletariat”, whoever the current proletariat is supposed to be (which does not in the end matter very much, because it’s all about the party organisation rather than “the masses”). To effect such revolution, Antifa uses tactics of violence against people it considers enemies as well as destruction of property. Remember, these people are not Scandinavian social democrats or even Bernie and AOC-style “democratic socialists” who advocate and follow a democratic and peaceful path of transformation to achieve their objectives of building what they consider a better and more just society. Antifa are thugs who desire to tear down and destroy the current political and economic order and erect their utopia on its ashes. They want to abolish democracy, capitalism, liberalism and all the other existing institutions in favour of a Marxist-Leninist state — or just for the fun of it if they are more of an anarchist rather than communist frame of mind. Groups whose the entire modus operandi is based on breaking law and criminal activity have no legitimate place in a democratic society. Antifa are the political organised crime.
The label Antifa has been used and abused too long to muddy the waters and confuse people — many of whom, granted, want to be confused. Because fascism is objectively bad (and considers so by an overwhelming majority of people), calling themselves “anti-fascist”, Antifa seeks to claim the moral high ground and the role of the good guys who stand up to white supremacists, neo-Nazis and other extreme element. But you cannot simply judge people by who their enemies are, or who they say their enemies are — you also have to judge them by their intentions, actions and aims. In the Second World War, the United States and the United Kingdom and their Western allies were anti-fascist, but so was the Soviet Union. Stalin hated fascists (except for a period of two years in 1939-41 when he collaborated with them). This did not make him a good guy, even if for the Allies at the time it made him the lesser of the two evils. Coincidentally, for Stalin the label “fascist” was a very broad one, applying not just to German Nazis and their sympathisers but to anyone opposed to communism and the Soviet Union and so in turn opposed by them, including at times even social democrats and other non-revolutionary socialists {“social fascists” in the Stalinist nomenclature). And so it is for Antifa — we are all fascists, from the few skinheads at the political fringes to all the mainstream parties and ideologies of both the right and the left. Just as in Russia in 1917 onward and all the other communist countries in history, your position on the democratic political spectrum can never give you an ultimate immunity, it only determines the order in which you will be shot (left-wingers and anarchists last, because they can be used the longest by the forces of revolution).
Legends Summarized: The Journey To The West (Part IV)
Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published 19 Mar 2017JOURNEY TO THE WEST KAI, EPISODE 1: SKELE-FUN!
It’s the episode almost a year in the making! (sorry π) The saga of the monk Tripitaka, his bodyguard the Monkey King, and the rest of his merry band of pilgrims continues in this dramatic episode! Friendships are tested! Unlikely heroes rise to the occasion! Somebody throws a punch!
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QotD: Economic inequality
Steven Pinker, “Twenty Questions with Steven Pinker”, Times Literary Supplement, 2018-02-18.
June 1, 2020
How to be a Pirate π΄ββ οΈ
CGP Grey
Published 30 May 2020β£ Adapted largely from The Invisible Hook. It’s great, go read it: https://amzn.to/36PLKSE
β£ Thank you, my Patrons, for making this video possible: https://www.patreon.com/posts/37699725## Special Thanks
Peter T. Leeson for reviewing a draft of the script. Check out his newest book, WTF?!: An Economic Tour of the Weird: https://amzn.to/3eEMm09
## Crowdfunders
Steven Snow, Bob Kunz, John Buchan, Nevin Spoljaric, Donal Botkin, BN-12, Chris Chapin, Richard Jenkins, Phil Gardner, Martin, Ψ³ΩΩΩ Ψ§Ω Ψ§ΩΨΉΩΩ, Steven Grimm, Colin Millions, Saki Comandao, Jason Lewandowski, Andrea Di Biagio, David F Watson, Ben Schwab, Elliot Lepley, rictic, Bobby, Marco Arment, Shallon Brown, Shantanu Raj, emptymachine, George Lin, Henry Ng, Jeffrey Podis, Thunda Plum, Awoo, David Tyler, Derek Bonner, Derek Jackson, Fuesu, iulus, Jordan Earls, Joshua Jamison, Mikko, Nick Fish, Nick Gibson, Orbit_Junkie, Ron Bowes, TΓ³mas Γrni JΓ³nasson, Tyler Bryant, Zach Whittle, Oliver Steele, Kermit Norlund, Kevin Costello, Ben Delo, Arctic May, Bear, chrysilis, David Palomares, Emil, Erik Parasiuk, Esteban Santana Santana, Freddi HΓΈrlyck, Frederick The Great, John Rogers, ken mcfarlane, Leon, Maarten van der Blij, Peter Lomax, Rhys Parry, ShiroiYami, Tijmen van Dien, Tristan Watts-Willis, Veronica Peshterianu, Dag Viggo LokΓΈen, John Lee, Maxime Zielony, Bryan McLemore, Elizabeth Keathley, Alex Simonides, Felix Weis, Melvin Sowah, Giulio Bontadini, Paul Alom, Ryan Tripicchio, Scot Melville
## Music
David Rees: http://www.davidreesmusic.com
The true GOAT
Nigel Davies explains why even the greatest athletes and sportspersons of today are no match for the Greatest Of All Time – William the Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke:
Head of the effigy of William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke, in Temple Church, London.
Photo by Kjetil BjΓΈrnsrud via Wikimedia Commons.
William the Marshall is almost universally recognised as “the best knight that ever lived”, by all those who consider his extraordinary career as a fighter, warrior, war leader, political leader, guardian, and shining light of courtly and knightly achievements at the height of the chivalric and troubadouring shift (that moved culture from adoring thugs who hit hard, to adoring all round “renaissance men” who could dance, sing, write poetry, play chess, fight, and negotiate treaties that bought peace to generations). He was one of the men whom the word “paragon” — a person or thing regarded as a perfect example of a particular quality — was invented for.
But he was also the GOAT athlete and sportsman.
Tournament fighting and jousting were the Olympic Games of the medieval world, and — far from being an elitist sport, or an act of middle class pretention — tournament fighting in both its foot and horseback forms is a sport common to all classes from all cultures throughout most of human history … from the Olympics and gladiatorial combats, to the foot combat of Fencing and Kendo and Judo, to the horse archery of most of the nomadic tribes of Asia and Africa and even the American Indians: combat games are virtually the only universal human sport there has ever been.
William the Marshall was competing at a sport — armed combat — that is universal, worldwide, and largely classless. Admittedly he was competing at the most elite level (only the Samurai or Persian or Eastern Roman Cataphracts really come close to European kinghts for an equivalent dedication to a lifetime of training and specialist equipment and expense). But you can confidently say that here was a sport whose experts could face any other expert in any other combat sport in the world without confusion or fear.
And you could confidently predict that William the Marshall could defeat the equivalent character in any of those other combat sports … (As he apparently did when he fought Muslim horse archers or Mameluke foot soldiers in his brief years on Crusade.)
As a man whose prowess in his chosen field could adapt to all equivalent fields, he certainly outranks Muhammed Ali: who is the closest competitor on the above list to a world class showman and rough and tumble performer for the crowds.
As a person who statistically outperformed even Donald Bradman in comparison to his competition. He comes out in front there too.
As a winner above all others — his deathbed comment that he had bested more than 500 knights in hs career from all over Europe and the Middle East is not something that a squash player with 555 wins is likely to compare.
And as an athletic freak, even Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps — with their scant decade or so of dominance, could dream of competing with.
William the Marshall won his first international class tournaments in his teens, and was still winning them in his 60s. His unsurpassed competitiveness lasted not a few years, but several decades. He beat the GRANDCHILDREN of his previous conquests. And did so in a deadly serious full contact sport, not a namby pamby game like tennis or golf!
Buffalo Cauliflower Wings with Blue Cheese Dip – You Suck at Cooking
You Suck At Cooking
Published 5 Feb 2020Buffalo Cauliflower, also known as Buffalo Cauliflower Wings, is based on Buffalo Wings, which are Chicken Wings in Hot Sauce. Who knew that combining food with hot sauce would taste good? Nobody did.
YSAC Book and merch: http://yousuckatcooking.com
http://instagram.com/yousuckatcooking
https://twitter.com/yousuckatcookinRECIPE
β’ To make this Buffalo Cauliflower, you can start with a small or medium sized cauliflower.
Rip it apart while making loud grunting sounds.
β’ Combine two tablespoons of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of water, 2 teaspoons of garlic powder, and some salt in a bowl and wangjangle it until there’s no need for further wangjangling because you did a good job.
β’ Combine the pre-buffalish elixir to the cauliflower in a bigger bowl and gallop around the house. Alternatively, you could have made the elixir in that big bowl to begin with. Now you’re thinking
Throw that cauliflower onto a parchment papered pan and bake it at 450 for 15 minutes.
β’ Meanwhile, make the Buffalo sauce: two tablespoons of melted butter and Β½ cup of pepper sauce.
β’ Take that cauliflower out of the oven (unless you have an Automated Oven Sauce Dispenser), and put that sauce on the cauliflower in one way or another. You can brush it, spoon it, slather it, or whatever you want.
β’ Bake it for another 8 minutes or until it’s the texture you like. A bit less for more of the natural cauliflower crunch, a bit more to make it soggier. The choice is yours, even if you make a bad one.
QotD: The right to keep and bear arms
The bureaucrat in question is New York Police Department Commissioner James O’Neill, an individual who clearly believes that his thirty-five years spent plodding unspectacularly up the NYPD chain of command equips him better to tell you what your rights are, and what they are not, than the Founding Fathers of this country and the Framers of its unique social contract.
Well I’ve got news for you, Jimmy, there is no “allow”.
“Every man, woman, and responsible child has an unalienable individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon β rifle, shotgun, handgun, machine-gun, anything β any time, any place, without asking anyone’s permission.”* That’s the essential freight of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, the highest law of the land, which you and yours have been illegally suppressing since passage of the 1911 Sullivan Act, named for Tammany Hall’s Timothy Sullivan, perhaps the most corrupt, bigoted politician ever to occupy office in New York.
Since the ability to own and carry weapons unmolested by the State is a fundamental right, there can be no thought of any unit of that state “allowing” it or not “allowing” it. Any government employee who attempts to interfere with that right deserves a long stay in prison among those whose rights he’s violated. Note that I am not saying that peace and civil order are a bad thing, just that it has to be achieved within Constitutional parameters. The Founders put them there for a reason; they had seen the rule of law abused too often by arrogant and brutish British authorities.
* “The Atlanta Declaration”, L. Neil Smith, 1987
L Neil Smith, “There Is No ‘Allow’, Jimmy”, Libertarian Enterprise, 2018-02-18.
