Off Topic Politics Thread

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Le Tissier's Laces said:
In fairness to Greg, it’s a gaming term that has been co-opted by people like Andrew Tate to describe people he thinks aren’t relevant. It’s certainly not *just* a gaming term these days. Sadly.
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Understandable, but for it to be co-opted it needs to perpetuated by all sides, which, as evidenced it clearly is..

I went to uni with an edge-lord guy who told me that making these gestures and memes become "right wing" tropes in the eyes of their culture war opponents was basically a great big joke to them. For whatever reason they get a kick out of trolling.

But it absolutely works and gets people properly riled up.

I was happy being a gamer but my stupid references are now political.

It's like the circle game from Malcolm in the middle all over again. One minute it was a stupid game I've played since childhood. Next minute it's a symbol of white power.

It's just getting ridiculous now.
 
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EasyBreezer said:
Understandable, but for it to be co-opted it needs to perpetuated by all sides, which, as evidenced it clearly is..

I went to uni with an edge-lord guy who told me that making these gestures and memes become "right wing" tropes in the eyes of their culture war opponents was basically a great big joke to them. For whatever reason they get a kick out of trolling culture.

But it absolutely works and gets people properly riled up.

I was happy being a gamer but my stupid references are now political.

It's like the circle game from Malcolm in the middle all over again. One minute it was a stupid game I've played since childhood. Next minute it's a symbol of white power.

It's just getting ridiculous now.
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Agreed. As I say, it’s all very unfortunate, and a sign of our times.
 
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EasyBreezer said:
Understandable, but for it to be co-opted it needs to perpetuated by all sides, which, as evidenced it clearly is..
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Not really. Many symbols or concepts get co-opted by a single group, vastly changing their meaning.

Another one co-opted by the extreme right: Boogaloo. The etymology is this: Boogaloo was a style of music. Then there was an objectively silly movie in the 80s titled "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo". For a good two decades, this led to jokes about "_______ 2: Electric Boogaloo", where the ______ could be literally anything.

And then a specific subset of the extreme right -- accelerationists -- started talking about Civil War 2: Electric Boogaloo. And then adopted it as central to an accelerationist political movement, that refers to itself as the Boogaloo Boys. And then the Boogaloo Boys killed several people and tried to kidnap and murder a governor and participated in the January 6th coup.

That particular framing of a stupid internet joke was purely single-sided. It didn't come because it was perpetuated by all sides: in fact, the bit where it was a meme within a meme (which then spawned the Big Igloo Boys and other memes within a meme within meme) that was comprehensible only to people within the movement was one of the attractions. If you hear someone talking about 'starting the Boogaloo" or something similar, there is a 100% chance you are listening to a white nationalist talking about accelerating the race war that they both desire and believe that they need to win to shape the United States to their preference.
 
Schad said:
Not really. Many symbols or concepts get co-opted by a single group, vastly changing their meaning.

Another one co-opted by the extreme right: Boogaloo. The etymology is this: Boogaloo was a style of music. Then there was an objectively silly movie in the 80s titled "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo". For a good two decades, this led to jokes about "_______ 2: Electric Boogaloo", where the ______ could be literally anything.

And then a specific subset of the extreme right -- accelerationists -- started talking about Civil War 2: Electric Boogaloo. And then adopted it as central to an accelerationist political movement, that refers to itself as the Boogaloo Boys. And then the Boogaloo Boys killed several people and tried to kidnap and murder a governor and participated in the January 6th coup.

That particular framing of a stupid internet joke was purely single-sided. It didn't come because it was perpetuated by all sides: in fact, the bit where it was a meme within a meme (which then spawned the Big Igloo Boys and other memes within a meme within meme) that was comprehensible only to people within the movement was one of the attractions. If you hear someone talking about 'starting the Boogaloo" or something similar, there is a 100% chance you are listening to a white nationalist talking about accelerating the race war that they both desire and believe that they need to win to shape the United States to their preference.
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I see almost every single aspect of your comment as both sides perpetuating the change in phrase...

I can now add ______ 2: electric boogaloo, to completely innocuous things I know I have said jovially that some dafty will assume makes me a white supremacist despite the fact I have never heard of it being used in anything other than a jovial way.

Importing the culture war from the US is one of the daftest things about modern British culture.
 
EasyBreezer said:
I see almost every single aspect of your comment as both sides perpetuating the change in phrase...

I can now add ______ 2: electric boogaloo, to completely innocuous things I know I have said jovially that some dafty will assume makes me a white supremacist despite the fact I have never heard of it being used in anything other than a jovial way.

Importing the culture war from the US is one of the daftest things about modern British culture.
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I certainly wouldn't suggest that you're a white supremacist. I don't see how white supremacists co-opting completely benign cultural artifacts makes this a 'both sides' issue, however. Nazis co-opted a perfectly benign good luck symbol from the subcontinent; no one really talks about how both sides perpetuated the change from that into the avatar of racial hatred, because it's a totally one-sided thing.
 
Censorship in line with 1930s Germany?
Suella Braverman allows policy friendly media only on Rwanda trip.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...verman-rwanda-visit-asylum-deal-b2302468.html
"The home secretary will be departing for Kigali on Friday evening, accompanied by media representatives from outlets including GB News, the Daily Mail and The Daily Telegraph. The BBC, The Independent, The Guardian, Daily Mirror and i newspaper were not invited."

https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2...luded-from-uk-home-secretarys-trip-to-rwanda/
 
A link to information about ID that is acceptable for voting, with a further link to apply for documentation allowing you to vote, if you don’t have one of those listed.
Local elections are coming up, so it is very important that this type of information is highlighted to everyone, but especially to those who don’t have the correct type of ID.
I went through the process, as if I didn’t have the relevant ID and it is pretty straightforward, stopping when it got to the point of asking for personal information.
You need a digital photo (there is a link to what is acceptable) and your NI number.

https://www.southampton.gov.uk/coun...medium=email&utm_name=&utm_source=govdelivery
 
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Le Tissier's Laces said:
In fairness to Greg, it’s a gaming term that has been co-opted by people like Andrew Tate to describe people he thinks aren’t relevant. It’s certainly not *just* a gaming term these days. Sadly.
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True, it does derive from a gaming term. I meant it as in he’s intellectually lazy and only regurgitates whatever he’s told to think. He outsources all of his opinions. I can pick up any news paper in the country and his opinions match exactly what he’s told to think. (For example his last post that the banking crisis is over and there’s nothing to worry about). The government and media put out a message; and that’s it. There’s zero critical thinking and then if he accuses those that don’t share his opinions of being crazy.

No nuance, no room for questioning the narrative. For people like him, government has replaced the role of God as some all seeing, all powerful entity that can never be questioned.

Just trust in big Daddy state to protect and look after you - they’d never lie about a war! All their other decisions are so competent, how could they be wrong about the Ukraine conflict, lockdowns or the economy?!

A lot of people seemingly haven’t studied enough history to understand that the biggest threat to most societies is the expansion of governments and the misuse of those powers.
 
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San Tejón said:
A link to information about ID that is acceptable for voting, with a further link to apply for documentation allowing you to vote, if you don’t have one of those listed.
Local elections are coming up, so it is very important that this type of information is highlighted to everyone, but especially to those who don’t have the correct type of ID.
I went through the process, as if I didn’t have the relevant ID and it is pretty straightforward, stopping when it got to the point of asking for personal information.
You need a digital photo (there is a link to what is acceptable) and your NI number.

https://www.southampton.gov.uk/coun...medium=email&utm_name=&utm_source=govdelivery
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Needs widespread media coverage encouraging people to get their ID and vote. It really is an attempt to restrict voting to those more likely to vote conservative. Big waste of money voter fraud is virtually non-existent..
 
I am 100% with this guy, only I would go further.
It pisses me off that a political party, that is known to be racist towards people of colour, has promoted people of colour into positions to do their bidding with regards to delivering a racist and draconian anti migrant agenda, that would receive even more attention if the key people driving it were white.
Which they are, in reality, because it is being driven to satisfy the upper echelons of the Tory party members, who are predominantly white and male.

https://youtube.com/shorts/ZpDjsenT578?feature=share
 
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Schad said:
I certainly wouldn't suggest that you're a white supremacist. I don't see how white supremacists co-opting completely benign cultural artifacts makes this a 'both sides' issue, however. Nazis co-opted a perfectly benign good luck symbol from the subcontinent; no one really talks about how both sides perpetuated the change from that into the avatar of racial hatred, because it's a totally one-sided thing.
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I thought we were discussing reasonably innocuous modern symbols that culture warriors are insisting are representative of right wingers. I'm sure there is a reasonably large difference between the phrase NPC, electric boogaloo, the circle game and a swastika.

I better not state this is internet 101 again, but we appear to have once more ended up on the Nazis...
 
San Tejón said:
I am 100% with this guy, only I would go further.
It pisses me off that a political party, that is known to be racist towards people of colour, has promoted people of colour into positions to do their bidding with regards to delivering a racist and draconian anti migrant agenda, that would receive even more attention if the key people driving it were white.
Which they are, in reality, because it is being driven to satisfy the upper echelons of the Tory party members, who are predominantly white and male.

https://youtube.com/shorts/ZpDjsenT578?feature=share
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Give the Tories their due; so long as you worship money and hate poor people, they genuinely don’t care what colour your skin is or what sex or religion you are.
 
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EasyBreezer said:
You said there was no connection between them, then duly proceed to explain a connection... I wasn't quoting anyone with my initial comment with regards to Q, that was my own loose conclusion based on the comments that preceded it.

So, you reckon because a few right wing people have used the gaming term NPC, it will remain a trope that can help identify right wingers until a left wing person says it.

**** me identity politics is tedious.

It's a gaming term.
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No I didn’t say that. Not at all. It is quite baffling that you would say that given what I said is written above and you quoted it. No mention of “connection” just like Onionman didn’t mention the phrase “NPC” at all. Which is what I actually said. Because that is another person you claimed said something that they absolutely did not.

And you talk about to things being tedious. If people are just going to make up what other people have said and then criticise them for it then the any discussion is pointless. I know some people do that more than other including people who either straw man or use massive projection in every post they make. But if everyone is going to do it then things will get daft
 
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EasyBreezer said:
I see almost every single aspect of your comment as both sides perpetuating the change in phrase...

I can now add ______ 2: electric boogaloo, to completely innocuous things I know I have said jovially that some dafty will assume makes me a white supremacist despite the fact I have never heard of it being used in anything other than a jovial way.

Importing the culture war from the US is one of the daftest things about modern British culture.
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Absolutely agree on the last point. We seem to have always kind of inherited things from the US but usually with more of a delay. But the culture thing really doesn’t make sense just because we are both majority white Anglophile countries. We have very different cultures and the attempts to stoke certain culture way elements here (from both sides) come across very awkward in the case of some
 
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