Overwhelming optimism...

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Happy New Year!

'The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.' 

'I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.' [LINK]

I really enjoyed James Delingpole's six point plan for 2019 at Breitbart London. He wasn't even too hard on the wankerati (that wonderful term he himself coined a few years back): from Truth (Trump) to Candour to Integrity to Optimism to Sexism.




I agree with every word and stand up and applaud some of it, tongue in cheek besides, what he writes is 100% true: "I’m not suggesting that the mighty, wise and funny God Emperor Trump is without flaws. (Though I can’t immediately think of any). What I am saying is that if any of his predecessors – Obama especially – had been held to the same standards by the media establishment, half of them would have been impeached and Obama would now be in Gitmo."



Anyway, in a few weeks it will be the Year of the Pig, so a third Winston Churchill quote:

"I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals."

Overwhelming optimism...

---

Happy New Year!

'The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.' 

'I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.' [LINK]

I really enjoyed James Delingpole's six point plan for 2019 at Breitbart London. He wasn't even too hard on the wankerati (that wonderful term he himself coined a few years back): from Truth (Trump) to Candour to Integrity to Optimism to Sexism.

I agree with every word and stand up and applaud some of it, tongue in cheek besides, what he writes is 100% true: "I’m not suggesting that the mighty, wise and funny God Emperor Trump is without flaws. (Though I can’t immediately think of any). What I am saying is that if any of his predecessors – Obama especially – had been held to the same standards by the media establishment, half of them would have been impeached and Obama would now be in Gitmo."

Anyway, in a few weeks it will be the Year of the Pig, so a third Winston Churchill quote:

"I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals."

Orwellian operants...

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Operant conditioning: "behavior (as bar pressing by a rat to obtain food) that operates on the environment to produce rewarding and reinforcing effects" i.e. the strength of a behavior is modified by the behavior's consequences, such as reward or punishment or the behavior is controlled by antecedents called "discriminative stimuli" which come to signal those consequences. Or quite simply it is classical conditioning (paid-for classical conditioning). Or it is their Two Minutes Hate ("1984 eerily reminds one of today’s social media induced ejaculations of anger."). To be honest I think it is scary the number of people who are so willfully blind, who protest without reading, without listening, without understanding. Some are paid...they have a reason, they are fulfilling a contract or at least a promise to protest for payment. Others, many (most?) are just so fucking stupid it makes me write swear words in a blog post; they are not just silly...or innocently mistaken...but common or garden fucked up stupid...the streets are becoming accustomed. FFS!

Orwellian operants...

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Operant conditioning: "behavior (as bar pressing by a rat to obtain food) that operates on the environment to produce rewarding and reinforcing effects" i.e. the strength of a behavior is modified by the behavior's consequences, such as reward or punishment or the behavior is controlled by antecedents called "discriminative stimuli" which come to signal those consequences. Or quite simply it is classical conditioning (paid-for classical conditioning). Or it is their Two Minutes Hate ("1984 eerily reminds one of today’s social media induced ejaculations of anger."). To be honest I think it is scary the number of people who are so willfully blind, who protest without reading, without listening, without understanding. Some are paid...they have a reason, they are fulfilling a contract or at least a promise to protest for payment. Others, many (most?) are just so fucking stupid it makes me write swear words in a blog post; they are not just silly...or innocently mistaken...but common or garden fucked up stupid...the streets are becoming accustomed. FFS!

Oratio obliqua of opiparous opuscule...

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It is very rare to read an article where you agree with every single word! James Delingpole has managed to do just that, today in Breitbart London:

I call them the "Wankerati" [...] But this isn’t about talent – or lack of – it’s about personal politics. Everyone on that list ranges in outlook from the nauseatingly bien-pensant to the rabidly left-wing, to the point where you could fairly confidently predict their position on any number of topics from Nigel Farage, Israel/Palestine and global warming all the way through to mildly racist jokes, foxhunting, bankers, positive discrimination and the European Union. Oh, and Jeremy Clarkson, of course." [...] 

This isn’t really about Clarkson. It never was about Jeremy Clarkson the man. It’s about the things he represents: puerile humour, laddish banter, irresponsibility, political incorrectness, smoking, drinking, driving fast cars and enjoying them, admiring the military, kind of half wishing you could be in a war so you could test your mettle, practical jokes, taking the piss, saying things you’re not supposed to say, public school, bad hair cuts, not worrying about fashion, thinking Margaret Thatcher was great, thinking foreigners are funny, “racist” stereotypes, chauvinism, and so on.

Lots of people still think that way, even though they’re not supposed to. Now Clarkson’s gone there’s no one at the BBC – literally NO ONE, for the BBC has always been good at purging such people or making sure they never get a look-in in the first place – to speak for them."

Superb.

Oratio obliqua of opiparous opuscule...

---

It is very rare to read an article where you agree with every single word! James Delingpole has managed to do just that, today in Breitbart London:

I call them the "Wankerati" [...] But this isn’t about talent – or lack of – it’s about personal politics. Everyone on that list ranges in outlook from the nauseatingly bien-pensant to the rabidly left-wing, to the point where you could fairly confidently predict their position on any number of topics from Nigel Farage, Israel/Palestine and global warming all the way through to mildly racist jokes, foxhunting, bankers, positive discrimination and the European Union. Oh, and Jeremy Clarkson, of course." [...] 

This isn’t really about Clarkson. It never was about Jeremy Clarkson the man. It’s about the things he represents: puerile humour, laddish banter, irresponsibility, political incorrectness, smoking, drinking, driving fast cars and enjoying them, admiring the military, kind of half wishing you could be in a war so you could test your mettle, practical jokes, taking the piss, saying things you’re not supposed to say, public school, bad hair cuts, not worrying about fashion, thinking Margaret Thatcher was great, thinking foreigners are funny, “racist” stereotypes, chauvinism, and so on. Lots of people still think that way, even though they’re not supposed to. Now Clarkson’s gone there’s no one at the BBC – literally NO ONE, for the BBC has always been good at purging such people or making sure they never get a look-in in the first place – to speak for them."

Superb.