Do you know anyone that is oblivious to the world affairs/domestic affairs outside of

paleoperson · 28-10-2020 6:40pm

ShatterAlan wrote: »

I would beg to differ. The US political system is completely rigged. Democrats and Republicans are two cheeks of the same arse. The president isn't elected there, he's selected. The two party system is effected to give the public the illusion of choice when in fact it is corporations that pull the strings for their own aggrandizement.

What matters to the American public:

Jobs
Affordable and Universal Health Coverage
Affordable and quality education.
Responsible gun law reform
Reining in military spending
Ending never-ending illegal foreign wars for profit
Regulation of the casino capitalism of Wall Street
Tackling climate change

These things matter to the majority of Americans left, right and centre yet neither party has done a damn thing about them since Kennedy. Instead the parties deflect and distract the public with non-issues like Roe v Wade or gay marriage or fcuking gender neutral toilets or non-existant caravans of rapists coming over the border to steal your daughter's virtue and your precious lettuce-picking job to the point where the public are at each others' throats calling one another "wingnuts" or "libtards" and that suits both parties just fine.

When that sums up your voting choice then what's the point?

Right. It's getting ridiculous how extreme they're portraying the differences between the Trump and Biden administrations when they're so utterly similar on most things. You're never going to have universal healthcare or free education - things most civilized countries take as a given. The FDA and EPA will always be a farce with their strings pulled by corporations. They're still going to **** all over climate requirements and environmental concerns whether it's Trump or Biden. It's all a distraction to the real issues.

saabsaab · 28-10-2020 6:41pm

Be right back wrote: »

I once worked with someone who had never heard of Auschwitz.

Denial?

Be right back · 28-10-2020 6:43pm

saabsaab wrote: »

Denial?

No, more like a lack of awareness.

saabsaab · 29-10-2020 1:18pm

Justin Credible Darts wrote: »

I had to google who this greta thomberg was.
There are multi millionaire musicians, celebrity, oscar winning actors I have never heard off

These things are not important to me.
But ask me the capital city of any country, almost anything on geography, ask me about history or the music I do like, ask me about dogs, gardening etc and can chat with anyone.

Its all about what you deem is important.

True enough we all have areas that we don't have interest in but there are some it seems that have no interest in hardly anything.

Justin Credible Darts · 29-10-2020 2:38pm

Remember as a kid hearing mentions of persian, tanganyika,zanzibar, ceylon etc and use to love look at atlas's and seeing what the new countries were now called

back then it was yugoslavia, czechoslovakia, ussr. All those break ups happened long after I had left school so I would read about them out of interest, loved learning about the national flags.

When i hear people like some of those mentioned earlier who think Italy is the capital of france, or have no idea where a certain country is, I think that is more unusual that not caring about say politics

29-10-2020 3:50pm

I dunno. I'm good at world geography and capitals etc. but it doesn't really add much to your knowledge of the world. Does it matter than I know where Ghana is and what its capital is.

Justin Credible Darts · 29-10-2020 3:58pm

Deleted User wrote: »

I dunno. I'm good at world geography and capitals etc. but it doesn't really add much to your knowledge of the world. Does it matter than I know where Ghana is and what its capital is.

I think you misunderstand me, I am saying geography knowledge of the world we live in should beat the very common knowledge.

I am not saying it trumps politics, those are all things you develop an interest in possibly when you get older, but not knowing where countries 5 and ten times the size of ireland are not on a map.....that says a lot about the education system.

Language, geography, basic arithmetic , and possibly history to a lesser extent is something every kid should have a comprehension of.

What "interests" they pursue after that as they get older is their choice, but geography should be a basic.

I remember camping with a guy years back and he did not know east from west ....when the sun was setting....these are basic things like knowing where the sun sets.

paleoperson · 29-10-2020 4:21pm

Justin Credible Darts wrote: »

but not knowing where countries 5 and ten times the size of ireland are not on a map.....

Ireland is a tiny country, I bet there are countries five times the size of Ireland you couldn't find on a map. Chad, Mali locations trivial to you?

Justin Credible Darts · 29-10-2020 4:27pm

paleoperson wrote: »

Ireland is a tiny country, I bet there are countries five times the size of Ireland you couldn't find on a map. Chad, Mali locations trivial to you?

really ?
Because you said so ?

I know where the countries are, maybe you should not be judging people by your own standards.

paleoperson · 29-10-2020 4:35pm

lmao, you seem unable to even understand how a conversation works, that's a lot more important than knowing where places are in the world.

29-10-2020 4:36pm

Justin Credible Darts wrote: »

I think you misunderstand me, I am saying geography knowledge of the world we live in should beat the very common knowledge.

I am not saying it trumps politics, those are all things you develop an interest in possibly when you get older, but not knowing where countries 5 and ten times the size of ireland are not on a map.....that says a lot about the education system.

Language, geography, basic arithmetic , and possibly history to a lesser extent is something every kid should have a comprehension of.

What "interests" they pursue after that as they get older is their choice, but geography should be a basic.

I remember camping with a guy years back and he did not know east from west ....when the sun was setting....these are basic things like knowing where the sun sets.

HBC08 · 29-10-2020 4:53pm

paleoperson wrote: »

Why are you trying to belittle the beliefs of Brexiteers and Trump supporters and acting like we all agree with you as fact that someone who was informed wouldn't vote for them? Plenty of highly informed, educated and intelligent people voted for them, a lot of the demographic were working class people because it helped them - or was projected to help them - a lot more economically.

Who shows a small bit of interest in what's happening in the world - so are you saying all those MAGA hat wearers don't care what's happening in the world? I mean you have to make sense, you can't just make things up as you fancy.

I don't like Trump or Brexit very much, but your sort of thinking is the biggest NPC farce of all. Your simplistic idea of very complex issues and legitimate choices.

An informed electorates might be able to tell the difference between the likely reality and something being "projected to help them".

completedit · 29-10-2020 5:14pm

It's honestly very difficult to stay abreast of political, social and economic developments. Like not only do you have to deal with the information itself but then the context of that information, veritability, bias, opinion, half truths, agendas and so on.

Like take the budget a few weeks ago. They mention a desire and commitment to climate change objectives while at the same time talking about economic growth. This dissonance is just head wrecking and you start to think are you just being cynical for the sake of it

Then you have that Mother and Baby home case and the discourse around it is just exhausting. "typical fianna fail and the Catholic Church" Its just tiring.

Justin Credible Darts · 29-10-2020 5:22pm

paleoperson wrote: »

lmao, you seem unable to even understand how a conversation works, that's a lot more important than knowing where places are in the world.

you spout nonsense like stating what I know or dont know, like it is some sort of fact.
You have absolutely no idea my level of geography and your claims of "I would bet" does not constitute fact nor proof but your ill informed opinion.

I am not even sure why my knowledge of geography upsets you, then you do seem to have issues with a lot of people, so rather than let the topic derail, i will bid you a good evening.

paleoperson · 29-10-2020 5:42pm

HBC08 wrote: »

An informed electorates might be able to tell the difference between the likely reality and something being "projected to help them".

It might, but it depends how you define inform. Sometimes people can have a very accurate idea of the reality with "low information" but it's the right sort of information and experiences over the years while someone else might have a masters in a similar subject and not have a clue.

There's also how being "informed" is never the discrete, yes/no entity the word makes it sound like. You can't just read a newspaper and consider yourself informed because others will say it's the wrong type of newspaper or you don't understand what they're talking about. You could read a book about it but then someone could pull out complicated tax structures and then say "what you don't know about that, I thought you said you were informed?". On the flipside you could be an expert in the minutiae of it yet have very little idea of how it's actually going to play out. So it's like an ever-shifting goalpost.

Nobody goes out voting saying well I don't have a clue of anything, people always think they are informed well enough.

Hangdogroad · 30-10-2020 10:08am

The oddest example was a guy I knew twenty years back. He was convinced the USA was a continent (think we were watching a quiz at the time). When I explained to him that it's a country and that it's part of North America he laughed at me as if I was the one being ridiculous. He thought Band Of Brothers was about the Vietnam war. Genuinely thought aids came about from Africans "riding monkeys" as he put it. He was a deeply strange chap in other regards but wont go into that as I'd be going off topic.

Do you know anyone that is oblivious to the world affairs/domestic affairs outside of

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