Jeremy Clarkson attacks democracy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119603346#Comment_119603346

Clarkson has much wider influence than you credit him with. His reach is into an audience that might not really engage with politics.

I’m going to lie down again now. I thought of another comedian who did crossover. Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy (born 25 January 1978), also transliterated as Zelensky or Zelenskiy, is a Ukrainian politician and former comedian and actor who has served as the sixth and current president of Ukraine since 2019.

Loafing Oaf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119603396#Comment_119603396

Okay I'll concede that, I don't know enough about Clarkson's following to dispute it. But what I am sure about is he doesn't mean this stuff literally himself

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/nov/30/jeremy-clarkson-one-show-apology

Do you think he was seriously advocating this?

donegal_man

Clarkson is just a provocateur looking for reactions. Every time I hear about one of his rants I'm reminded of what he said to Alistair Campbell on Top Gear. "I don't believe what I write any more than you believe what you say." Said as a throw away jokey comment but I reckon more accurate than many of fans or detractors like to admit.

Munstersrebel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119602566#Comment_119602566

there is no such thing... unless you are benefitting from the rule

FoxForce5

Atatürk from 1919 to 1938 springs to mind plenty of examples out there

mollser

Serious sense of humor deficit on this thread, which is generally noticeable with the cancel crowd. If you bothered to read the article you'll see Clarkson has a fair point, especially when you take time to look at the absolute state of politics these days, aided and abetted by social media nonsense. He can't help but rip the pi$$ while he's doing it, which has completely wooshed over your head.

Good article!

ancapailldorcha

Clarkson's not much more than an embarassing relic at this stage. He's like that great uncle who says racist things. A few people find him amusing but to most he's just another elitist bigot with a column in a declining rag.

Potential-Monke

Different people like different things shocker....

"People are idiots - except me of course".

https://youtu.be/MwiE9-tKGcE

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119602963#Comment_119602963

Why wouldn't they? Although they're not at all Clarkson equivalents.

Akrasia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119602566#Comment_119602566

Benign for who?

Akrasia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119602595#Comment_119602595

Macron and 'terrifyingly Biden"

Who wakes up in the middle of the night in cold sweat because of Biden?

Maybe people who care about climate change who worry he won't do enough to combat it, but that's hardly where Clarkson is coming from

billyhead

There's definitely a herd mentality in this country. Oh look Sinn Fein will be the saviours of the housing and welfare problems in this country as they keep promising so let's all vote for them without scrutinizing there overall policy in other areas like Education, Crime and Climate Change or let's simply get rid of the current establishment. People blindly follow what other people are doing when it comes to elections.

It's easy for the "He's right" lot to say when it's not happening. They'd change their tune if it became a reality.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119603860#Comment_119603860

Yeah but there's also clowns here taking him seriously and saying he's right.

quokula

People realise he's just playing a character and makes a lot of tongue in cheek comments to gets a rise out of people saying this stuff without actually believing it right?

He's on record saying he doesn't believe what he writes, he campaigned for remain during the Brexit vote, he's endorsed the Labour party. Another example if you ever watch his car shows is that he'll make typical petrol-head climate denying type statements to get a reaction but there have been plenty of times when they've done travel segments where he's seen the effects of climate change in person and made much more sincere statements that show what he really believes.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119602699#Comment_119602699

It's terrifying that the best alternative to Trump is a very old man with obvious dementia.

The US is a two party state, and literally anyone could be elected, no matter how bad.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119602963#Comment_119602963

The OP wouldn't like what Churchill said about Democracy.

saabsaab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119605774#Comment_119605774

Democracy is a very poor way of running things but it's the best option we have so far.

MrMusician18

We've come a long way from people chanting his name at Glastonbury

Thinkingaboutit

Some of those he named are plebiscite dictators, Erdogan is a prime example. Yet despite raging inflation (at 80.2 far higher than anything here even if the official rate was doubled) and his 1k room palace in Ankara he does have passionate supporters. Duterte the drug addicted rabble rouser is hopefully discredited in the Philippines. Macron is odd one out there. Although very much one for the old French gloire, hence hard against Islamists and other political head the balls, his policies are utterly in the Euro mainstream. Jeremy Clarkson lost a fair bit of his old support with insults for Brexiteers like 'coffin dodging idiots' and his planning travails will hardly restore his name with them.

Yurt2

As other posters have alluded to the problem is never democracy, it's low-information voters who allow their minds to be hijacked by boors like Clarkson who prime and condition voters to vote for blockheads like Bojo.

Top Gear is sh*te btw. Catnip for middle-aged men in dead marriages with ED who think mocking other cultures and homeless people is good sport.

Here's a little journalistic secret nobody in the media is going to tell you: a ghost writer usually rings up these "celeb" columnists like Jezza a couple of days before deadline, jots down the contents of his verbal diarrhoea or whatever prejudice he thought of in the shower that day, and the poor soul has about 48 hours to turn the tirade into an article while Jez takes the money.

Clarkson is probably semi-literate, and anyone who thinks he's an actual "journalist" that puts pen to paper is akin to a kid in the early 90s who thought the Ultimate Warrior could beat up Mike Tyson.

Low information voters also come about if information is suppressed and censored which is happening far too frequently, i.e. New York Times’ Alex Berenson.

Speaking critically of democracy is not attacking it, censoring other’s political opinions is.

Manic Moran

I recall a story, I believe by Asimov, in which President of the World was selected by computer, on the basis that anyone who actually wanted to become President was automatically considered to be unsuitable for the position.

I think the idea has a whole hell of a lot of merit, actually, if we could come to an accord on the programming. If nothing else, we'll no longer have political families, and we could save ourselves no end of money on pulling down election posters.

Yurt2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119606023#Comment_119606023

I'm not calling for anyone to censor Clarkson, merely pointing out that he's an oaf that plays on people's prejudices and is part of the spinning wheel that manufactures dumbed down voters.

Berenson is a flat-out anti-vaxxer crank. God knows what malfunctioned in his bird-box, but he was not trying to get "suppressed information" into the public, he was pumping out lies in an international health emergency that required mass vaccine uptake and was trying to get people not to take it based on huckster lies.

He's another fool, and nobody should lose any sleep that Twitter banhammered him. The global economy and millions of lives were at stake. And no, I don't really give a crap that the Biden administration asked the question of Twitter as to why he was present on the platform deleriously trying to undermine the vaccine uptake campaign. That's them doing their jobs.

A bit like Russian disinformation trolls, free speech has a wide bandwidth as it should, but it can not abide bad faith actors or flat out idiots using those rights to circulate sh*te designed to obfuscate verifiable truth and poison channels of speech.

xxxxxxl

Pick people at random from bus stops till you have enough to fill the Dail. They then vote on who gets what ministers roll. Can't be any worse than now. My big one would be if a member of your framily pick a cut off has been in the dail or the seanad you can't stand for election for 5 years. Make it illegal for sitting councillors to employ family members basic stuff. Also ban Constituency offices once they are elected. You want to chat to your td call them or email it's the 21st century. They should be working in the Dail not on local non issues.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119606029#Comment_119606029

Even twitter has apologized and reinstated Berenson after the lawsuit, what do you know that we don’t? What exactly went wrong in his head and what evidence have you for that?

You can’t be in favour of free speech and also support the Biden administration telling who social media should kick off their platform, especially when they get it so wrong.

Sortition was practiced in Ancient Greece.

xxxxxxl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119606039#Comment_119606039

All these platforms need to have a large warning on the front page when you log in a banner saying "Private website We will only allow conversations that we agree with and or follow our ethics" See how long they last then. And one beneath that stating "All of you data picures text will be retained and sold" There should absolutely be no grey area. They cannot use were a kind of Journalism/new site to hide then censor. I clearly am not wanting Gov involvement as that would be terrible. But a kind of office like the GDPR commissioner. Set up in each area they supply content in.

Edit also fines for Bias should be tied into what shareholders receive in dividends. Say 25% of that.

Rosahane

He has a point. Unfortunately democracy allows idiots have an equal say. Consider how many people voted for Mick Wallace!