Who Is IOZ?: CONscience

Thursday, January 19, 2012

CONscience

98 comments:

Paul Alexander said...: Perfect; 10:41 AM
Anonymous said...: Are you saying we should grant Afghans the franchise?; 10:44 AM
Leonard said...: Are you saying we should grant Afghans the franchise?

No person is illegal. Afghans are stakeholders. As you can see thanks to Monsier, they are debating the important issues of the American election. Why shouldn't they be able to vote here?; 10:55 AM
Anonymous said...: I did not know that thing about Romney and his dog on the roof. Now I totally can't vote for him!!; 10:57 AM
Anonymous said...: yeah, i'd rather vote for mike vick than that dog killer romney; 11:04 AM
Anonymous said...: and did you hear? NEWT WANTED AN OPEN MARRIAGE!; 11:04 AM
Picador said...: This is funny.

And yes, I care about stopping the US steamroller in the middle east more than I care about SOPA.

That being said, SOPA is not a trivial issue. State/corporate control of information is a key component of the imperial apparatus. When I listed the fruits of the free software / free culture / open Internet movement yesterday, I left off Wikileaks. Not surprisingly, freedom of information is important in the struggle for freedom from violence. We have the opportunity to see these images -- and IOZ has the opportunity to mash them up and repost them -- because of the battles fought by activists at the Free Software Foundation, the EFF, the ACLU, and countless other groups and individuals who devoted their time to fighting for freedom of information.

Do I think that Windows 8 Secure Boot Mode is a bigger atrocity than a kid getting blown up by a cluster bomb? To ask the question is to descend into absurdity. While I appreciate IOZ's satire, to take this comic seriously is to declare that anybody who ever talks about anything other than dead Iraqi kids is a monster. Equating anti-SOPA activism with the Republican-Democrat horse race -- and setting them both up in opposition to dead Iraqi kids -- is actually kind of lame. What, IOZ, you couldn't find any Holocaust photos? I can make your next ten comics for you this afternoon, if you like, with the caption "6 million Jews died and you're complaining about [thing people care about]??!!" Reliable lulz + biting satire every time, bra.; 11:09 AM
Jim Belushi said...: Picador, thanks for taking this up with why-oh-zee. He's really among the best of the web, but i don't understand why he's been so hilariously offbase on this one; he's almost like the obama supporters he always makes fun of - forget this, forget that, just focus on WAGES OF EMPIRE.

Well, IOZ, let me tell you another thing aside from your "zomg-SOPA-won't-let-me-steal" line, part and parcel of the wages of empire are international treaties that enforce copyright, encourage "piracy" from the public domain on the part of big US capital (eg brazilian trees, indian medicine, guatemalan jeans), encourages horrible labor laws like NAFTA, etc.

i ain't saying patent/copyright is the only issue in the world, but jeez, trolling us like this is pretty sad, especially if you are concerned with empire and capital like you seem to be.; 11:14 AM
yonders said...: Picador isn't wrong, but there is something fundamentally nuts about a media-sphere in which SOPA etc gets vastly more play & protest than eternal imperial war. This is not to say you can't care about both.

Also strange is the way in which tumblr Google etc are mobilizing protest. You gotta ask, why? In other words: cui bono? I'd wager they aren't doing it for our sake.; 11:16 AM
Professor Coldheart said...: Men have lived and died and worms have eaten them, but not for love.

Anyhow, IOZ, your "eat good food, drink good wine and screw" platform will be a lot harder if I can't curl up with the torrented S1 of Downton Abbey. FOCUS ON THE ISSUES, MAN.; 11:18 AM
Jim Belushi said...: s02e05 of IOZ was ripped better by other groups in the scene, Perfessor.; 11:33 AM
Anonymous said...: The sad thing is Osama bin Laden can't cut a campaign ad for this election.; 11:35 AM
Joe said...: Eternal imperial war is off-limits for debate, but, for now, we're still allowed to believe that we have a say in whether something like SOPA gets passed.

Still, though, you could have at least included a pic of a legless Afghani saying, "Can you believe internet search engines create profiles on us?!"; 11:48 AM
Jack Crow said...: Joe has the measure of it. None of this whimbling is going to stop the Senate from making its treaty with the media conglomerates.

Adapt and move on.

Fighting over inevitable laws is cat scratching for vomit scraps.

Figure out how to break them. Communicate how to smuggle through their inevitable loopholes and gaps.; 11:53 AM
davidly said...: So. Picador thinks this is funny. Then goes on to explain how SOPA is not a trivial issue.; 12:13 PM
IOZ said...: It is interesting to me how certain folk have confused a topic of interest and importance (information freedom) with an issue (i.e., a political construct) and then reduced the latter to a few pieces of corporate legislation in the Congress and reacted hysterically to any suggestion that those few pieces of corporate legislation are a fucking circus sideshow. I hear there's this weird pseudonymous blogger who likes to make fun of that shit. I wonder what he'd have to say.; 12:28 PM
Enron said...: I miss Flowchart Fridays.; 12:36 PM
Leonard said...: I wonder what he'd have to say.

I supposed he'd have to talk about how he's talking about what he's talking about.; 12:41 PM
IOZ's brain said...: I made a picture; 12:45 PM
Professor Coldheart said...: Oh, for pity's sake, man. You act like we're talking about voting or something really gauche.

Look: you remember when you flew back into the States and that TSA guy seized two of your fancy wines? And how none of us thought that you were in danger of voting Libertarian or forwarding some Glenn Beck links or joining a protest or some shit, but we all recognized what you were doing: complaining about a new policy that was making your life genuinely, immediately shittier? That. This is that.

Yes, the law is not the process, any more than the map is not the territory; if Eric Holder really gets it into his head to force Comcast, Earthlink and Roadrunner to block PirateBay on the DNS level, he'll do it, SOPA or no-PA. But, as with Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party (which I recall you expressing some mild but unfeigned sympathy for lo these many months ago), there is good in dissent. There is value in just saying, "No, fuck this shit." In fact, one might assert that there's more value in mere dissent than there is in active protest, in that the latter bolsters one faction over another while the former is personal.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to stockpile some Zoe Voss vids before the Internet blacks out again.; 12:51 PM
Gabe Ruth said...: That thread was surreal. But I gotta say, I don't really understand what all the yelling was about. Does anyone support SOPA? Does anyone think defeating it is the most important thing in the world?

No, the questions are whether it matters at all, and whether it can be prevented from becoming law (in one form or another). Given that IOZ has not yet converted the entire world to political nihilism, people will disagree on these, and I don't think either side can really call the other insane.; 12:52 PM
IOZ's brain said...: I'm mad about stuff, but I don't wanna do stuff about it... it's all cold outside; 12:56 PM
Jack Crow said...: What will "prevent[ing it] from becoming law" accomplish?; 1:07 PM
Anonymous said...: As long as any law exists, it is exactly like every single person getting raped all the time by a billion Holocausts!; 1:12 PM
IOZ's brain said...: I should quote a movie or something, but I don't have the energy; 1:13 PM
IOZ's brain said...: I'll just put a link up to IMDB; 1:14 PM
IOZ said...: Prof, you're not wrong, exactly, but the whole SOPA thing ain't hardly Occupy. Like, I don't recall MSR, Timberland, and North Face sending their corpcommunications department down to Zuccotti . . . nor the Occupiers inviting them.; 1:14 PM
Anonymous said...: I think we can all agree: if a bad law also incidentally happens to negatively impact a giant corporation, and that giant corporation happens to lobby against that law, it is incumbent upon us to do nothing whatsoever to attempt to stop the passage of that law, based on the principle of PLLLLLLLBBBBBBTHHHH.; 1:22 PM
Professor Coldheart said...: I don't recall MSR, Timberland, and North Face sending their corpcommunications department down to Zuccotti

You forgot Rocawear, playa. But, anyhow, yes: any issue that has enough volume to get a giant corporation behind it is worthy of at least a second glance. And yet, since any freedom we enjoy is eked out between the huge legs of colossi, I'm not going to feel silly about whose legs I walk under.

(Wow, that allusion went from Shakespearean to gay faster than usual); 1:24 PM
Montag said...: Jack @ 11:53 +1; 1:24 PM
IOZ said...: I have to admit my brain is pretty fucking funny.; 1:28 PM
IOZ's brain said...: I like opera - it's like musicals, but for dead people; 1:30 PM
la Rana said...: I can't go give him a bill!; 1:36 PM
Happy Jack said...: Your nihilism has got the best of you. In a SOPA world, you wouldn't be allowed to steal gruesome images of mangled children from the front page of the NT Times for your collage.; 1:37 PM
IOZ said...: This other Jeffery Lebowski. The millionaire!; 1:39 PM
Anonymous said...: IOZ makes the same argument as corporate PR flacks: why focus on this when other issues are so much more important? Not to mention Zionists asking why people pay so much attention to Israel when country X is obviously so much worse. "Facile" would be a compliment for this tripe.

(Cue dismissive non-sequitur by which IOZ pretends he's too kewl to care, while obsessively preparing another post...); 1:45 PM
IOZ's real brain said...: You can tell it's not your real brain because it doesn't punctuate. IOZ's real brain punctuates.; 1:46 PM
IOZ's ass said...: Time to pull another posting out.; 1:48 PM
Picador said...: What the Professor said. And IOZ, your follow up about "if a corporation likes it it must be irredeemable" is lame. Lots of moneyed interests in the US opposed chattel slavery; that didn't make the issue a sideshow, and it didn't mean that John Brown and Sojourner Truth were corporate stooges.

Perhaps we can dig up pamphlets from 1853 featuring the woodcuts of some proto-IOZ: pictures of the Iroquois being cut down by the US Army with the caption, "I declare, it is a nuisance to work in these cotton fields without being paid a daily wage!"

(And yeah, for the record: chattel slavery was also worse than SOPA. That doesn't make it a bad analogy.); 2:02 PM
Mr.Fundamental said...: I think we can all agree: if a bad law also incidentally happens to negatively impact a giant corporation, and that giant corporation happens to lobby against that law, it is incumbent upon us to do nothing whatsoever to attempt to stop the passage of that law, because your vote and voice doan mean sheet.

the trickle down economics of google advertising. . .people that balked when gmail came out because of security issues, then went iPhone crazy. . .(have you ever tried getting gmail adverts for such topics as "death to America" or "September 11th wasn't so bad"??? - is mad lulz). . .not only are ya'll played for fools by giant mega-corporations with this SOPA bullshit, IOZ is having his fun, too. #WINNING; 2:05 PM
Justin said...: Maybe we can raze enough awareness to stop the next war.; 2:06 PM
Anonymous said...: "because your vote and voice doan mean sheet."

True, very true. I can only assume the ruling class gave us the weekend, the minimum wage, child labor laws, etc. of their own accord and out of the goodness of their heart, not because anybody got off their ass and did anything about it.; 2:18 PM
IOZ's brain said...: I was starting to type a response but the keyboard is so far away; 2:22 PM
IOZ's brain said...: My next post will be a post about "anarchy," where "anarchy" doesn't mean anarchy as much as it means "reasons for me not to give a shit." Also I might toss some French or Latin stuff in there and a reference to some Roman dudes to pad out the length; 2:26 PM
Mr.Fundamental said...: oh yes, awash we are in all the spoils of the labor movement. LULZ.; 2:33 PM
Anonymous said...: And by "LULZ," you mean "this is what I write to indicate that I have no cogent explanation for how it came about that twelve-year-olds in the US stopped working in factories for eight cents an hour."; 3:34 PM
moose said...: Scratch a web-narchist, find an ignoramus with a keyboard.; 3:35 PM
Mr.Fundamental said...: NOW THEY GO TO SCHOOL OR THEIR PARENTS GO TO JAIL

LULZUS!

IOZ YOU ARE RIGHT - DUDEZ R MAD! this is too much fun.; 3:39 PM
El Serracho! said...: we really ought to replace IOZ with IOZ's Brain for a week, make this shit democratic and whatnot like Sweden's twitter account.; 3:50 PM
Mr.Fundamental said...: IMDABES; 4:07 PM
Justin said...: And by "LULZ," you mean "this is what I write to indicate that I have no cogent explanation for how it came about that twelve-year-olds in the US stopped working in factories for eight cents an hour."
I think it actually would be useful if you (or someone) gave a thumbnail description of how that happened and how it relates to the situation under discussion.; 4:22 PM
Anonymous said...: It is comforting to know we live in a world where government is constrained by their own laws. For example, the Constitution does not grant the federal government the power to make marijuana illegal (without an amendment, like was done for alcohol).; 4:24 PM
Karl Franz Ochstradt said...: And by "LULZ," you mean "this is what I write to indicate that I have no cogent explanation for how it came about that twelve-year-olds in the US stopped working in factories for eight cents an hour."

This prompts a decade-old cliche of BWAAAAAH HAH HAH HAH and a rejoinder that I bet you thought racists stopped treating Blacks poorly because of the 1965 Civil Rights Act.; 6:00 PM
rob payne said...: Save the pencil erasers! The only time the slaves get upset is when they think they are affected. Otherwise they are willing slaves. Oh save me, slave me, great white government! The fellow who has asses on the brain is upset because someone doesn’t think the way the fellow with asses on the brain wants them to think. How terrible. Time to get on your belly and pound the floor with hands and feet and have a temper tantrum like I once saw a three year old had.; 6:30 PM
roy payne's brain said...: me monkey mad!; 6:38 PM
rob payne said...: Goo-goo, ga-ga; 6:59 PM
NutellaonToast said...: Child labor was bad, but so is school so why bother. I can't tell the difference between the two. Homework and not-too-infrequent dismemberment by the cotton loom, I forget which we have now.; 7:17 PM
rob payne said...: What we have now is a government that can do whatever it wants whenever it wants including throwing you in jail without charges forever or just greasing you if it feels the need -- or the urge.; 8:23 PM
Anonymous said...: I'm getting confused ... So if we stop dopa (lol) then racism wikl end?????; 8:24 PM
Mr.Fundamental said...: lolyes because the cotton looms haven't moved off-shore to where child labor isn't frowned upon lol! ! !butyes racism is ovah, cuz President Barack Obama! ! !THE FINAL NAIL IN THAT COFFIN

what the fuck were we talking about; 8:34 PM
Anonymous said...: This posting is right on target cuz there's definitely nobody who protested against both U.S. aggression *and* SOPA.; 8:37 PM
Anonymous said...: I think we were talkin bout teh interwebzzz. I wonder what the rethink canidatez will say about dopa in tonight important debate lol; 8:49 PM
Anonymous said...: Cuntfuck .... I meant rethugs; 8:50 PM
KH said...: Arthur Silber weighs in... http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2012/01/its-end-of-world-again-and-again-and.html; 9:35 PM
NutellaonToast said...: Dur hur, Mr Fun, as if I haven't brought up that very point myself recently. See, the dumb shittary that comes yinz here is not your point of view, which is fairly valid, it's the retardedly haughty certainty with which y'all present it - as if you decided at 18 that maturing was overrated and you were fine just right where you were, tyvm.

Cause the fact that it used to be the entire planet had to deal with that child labor thing and now we've managed to remove it from North America (you fucking know Mexico doesn't count), Australia and Europe is an actual victory. You could argue from there, but dismissing any gains from populist movements entirely just because it didn't happen worldwide, all at once, is somehow even more retarded and simplistic than your "STOP ENFORCING STUPID SHIT" thing (or was that some other sycophant?)

We've had these fun conversations before, though, and I've also just recently told someone to stop repeating themselves. MOTHERFUCKING CIRCLE OF LIFE.

That's what always gets me about this blog. So fascistically anti-fascistic. I bet IOZ even has the little stash, wearing it all ironically like a good little hipster.; 9:51 PM
NutellaonToast said...: Or, if you're a TL;DR type, I'll talk like you.

Hur hur, yer right. we shud jus legalize child labur again hear in amerika; 10:07 PM
Jack Crow said...: Nutella,

The presence or lack of formal statute prohibiting or permitting the employment of children under conditions of hard labor has little to nothing to do with the actual employment of children under conditions of hard labor.

If you have any doubt of this, take yourself to a California latifundia - say garlic, or strawberries - come harvest time.

If you have no recourse to California, middle northern Maine during blueberry season or the Atlantic coast from Rockport to Plum Island in summer will do just fine.; 1:40 AM
rowan said...: This is so confusing. On the one hand, I want to make fun of the newborn internet activists who are getting that first rush of adrenaline from the vague success of supporting anti-SOPA causes. They're doing it wrong, yelling at everyone else for not conforming to the proper, most radical form of protest.

But then I see IOZ, and he's making fun of those people, but I think he's doing it wrong too.

I guess I'll just maintain my smug superiority on my own.; 4:29 AM
High Arka said...: Beautifully, horridly done, IOZ. Contrary to popular opinion, expressing ultimate disgust at one relative level of hypocrisy can be done simultaneously to standing firmly on another. When the nuances of absolutist Anglo-Germanic languages are surpassed, one realizes that "ultimate" need not be exclusive, nor "perfect" "unique."

Picture shared. Smug American entitlement warrants no end to reminder of such. The great shock over "us" losing "our" internet is absolutely fucking nothing compared to a single child being turned into spaghetti bolognese. If you'll call your Senator over SOPA, why won't you break out the pitchfork over that Iraqi two-year-old?

If you're not willing to do more than pick up the phone, at least be honest about it. Scratch your ass, say "d'oh!" and turn the teevee back on. You don't have to feel bad about it if you're honest with yourself (really!).; 4:38 AM
Pied Cow said...: I must admit that I was surprised that the people in the photographs would express such opinions. I guess I was fooled, but they don't even look like they're Americans!; 5:35 AM
Unknown said...: As the SOPA/PIPA internet tantrum was progressing I found myself thinking exactly the same thing, although in a vague, imprecise form. You expressed it elegantly here, IOZ.

Several things :

1) There is a danger in seeing an argument solely in terms of hypocrisy - and that is, it can apply to everyone, and every argument ever made, and thus basically spirals out into an endless nonsense (why aren't you writing about DR Congo? After all, more people are dying there... etc.). One must choose one's battles, though you can say it's a question of priority, and there are battles more worth fighting than others (this is rather subjective) - but the fact that one battle is more urgent does NOT invalidate all others ; on the contrary, they should complement each other. You cannot totally isolate the issues of free speech, dissent, war crimes, oppressive government, they are inextricably linked.

2) This is not so much about censorship, as it is about another power grab by big industry and the government wanting to limit creativity and production of ordinary people, so that they remain passive consumers of information and content - instead of thinking, feeling creators of content with actual opinions and points of view. As such, it should be opposed vehemently.

3) There may be a kind of solipsism phenomenon occurring with respect to SOPA/PIPA, as we saw that those protesting were mostly centered around the internet, and we therefore have an impression that the populace is up in arms about it only because we keep hearing about it - I'd be curious to see how much the general population really cares about this, I don't know.

4) The fact that this has created such an uproar as opposed to the constant depredations of the war machine DOES tell us a lot about the general intellectual community in America, and it's not pretty - but then again, it never has been, this is really nothing new. What we've seen here is that these bad laws being drafted have offended powerful people in the intellectual community (the one that matters), and therefore there was a pushback. Powerful factions in the US do not care, on the contrary, about dead Pakistani children - and those who do care are not likely to end up in a position of power in the first place.; 7:10 AM
mistah charley, ph.d. said...: 1)I'm glad I read to the end of these comments - the one immediately preceding this one, by Unknown, is one of the best.

2)Speaking of "the best", I really enjoyed the IMDABES video linked to by Mr. Fundamental.

3)In particular, in that video the use of the "light saber" was a shining moment. And the self-referential satirical irony of the entire production reminded me very much (albeit in a very different medium) of the literary work we produce here, as a self-organized collective commentariat chez IOZ.

4)Unknown had four points, and so does this comment - but I'm going to make my next substantive remark on the currently active thread.; 8:04 AM
Justin said...: This is not so much about censorship, as it is about another power grab by big industry and the government wanting to limit creativity and production of ordinary people, so that they remain passive consumers of information and content - instead of thinking, feeling creators of content with actual opinions and points of view.

I have another interpretation, big industry and government doesn't care about limiting the creativity and production of ordinary people, they care about figuring out how to profit from the creativity and production of ordinary people.

This is America, no one gives a shit what you think or say.; 8:17 AM
Mr.Fundamental said...: censoring things in the name of censorship. . .lulz

hey newteller, ask a young hopper how dangerous his job is! lulz.; 8:42 AM
Gabe Ruth said...: Nutty T, that was touching, but you're either a Marxist or you're not, and I think we can all see which side of the class struggle you're on.; 8:52 AM
High Arka said...: @Unknown: the "choosing" of battles is an illusion, tantamount to choosing between Gore/Bush/Obama/Smith. It's all the same battle. Once aboard the asylum wagon, any stick in the spokes is justified.

In this case, our host Sacha's picture is right-on.

@Justin, profiting from too much creativity results in the destruction of the extractive apparatus, ergo any middle manager worth his wingtips knows actual creativity must be stifled, lest the pension fund go broke in twenty years. "It's all about money" is the lesser evil of explanations for evil.; 11:20 AM
Justin said...: High Arka,
profiting from too much creativity results in the destruction of the extractive apparatus
I am trying to understand what you mean by this and relate it to a real case scenario. You have to dumb it down some for me, this is too far over my head to grasp what you are saying.

What is the extractive apparatus, or the parts that you mean? What do you mean by profiting from too much creativity (how could one profit from too little creativity)? And by what mechanism does profiting from too much creativity destroy the apparatus?; 12:55 PM
Anonymous said...: Well, at least a slightly more relevant distraction than the silly Affaire Sanduski.

Capt'n Obvious; 3:36 PM
Anonymous said...: @817 Justin.

Testify, Brother!

Capt'n Obvious; 3:41 PM
High Arka said...: Justin, are you sure you're not a murderer, a Communist or somebody who thinks McDonald's hamburgers taste like masking tape?

More of a response than you wanted at this one's home.; 12:17 AM
The Biotic Baking Brigade said...: We bake our own bread. We ride bicycles to work. And tho' our penetrating x-ray vision shows us the clear futility of it all, we care so deeply about poor dead Arab kids. WE CARE A LOT.; 4:59 PM
Anonymous said...: @459 BBB

Hey, shouldn't you be pestering dissenters from the party line on Affaire Sanduski instead?

Capt'n Obvious; 7:28 PM
The Biotic Baking Brigade said...: Keep trying, Cap. One of these days you're bound to come off like less of a dull sycophant and possibly even say something witty.; 7:41 PM
Anonymous said...: @741 BBB

No? Ok, then.

One only gets so much propaganda milage from any given outrage, I guess. But for a moment, it was beautiful how all public opinion was marching in lockstep.

Capt'n Obvious; 9:19 PM
Justin said...: High Arka,

I didn't intend any sarcasm or smart assery, I literally did not understand what you meant by that and just wanted a more elaborate explanation because it sounded interesting. When I said it was over my head, that wasn't meant to be ironic or sarcastic, just the truth.; 10:55 PM
High Arka said...: Justin, this one's response wasn't an upset one, and no offense was taken. The rhetorical question was provided as a segue into the post you inspired, which quotation you'll understand if you pursue it.

Smilies. :); 11:25 PM
Error403 said...: "Dissenters" is one way to put it, I suppose. Kinda sounds principled and righteous, which seems odd for a group of people who make a fetish out of heavy-handed moralizing about THE WAGES OF EMPIRE while simultaneously, and equally heavy-handedly, jeering anyone who spends their time doing something besides whacking off and bemoaning how VANITY VANITY ALL IS VANITY. I mean, when I put myself in the mindset of an IOZ or a Mr. Fun, I'm hard-pressed to follow the logic to a conclusion that there's any reason to give a toot about dead foreigners that I never met.; 8:59 AM
Anonymous said...: Yeah, how dare the likes of Monsieur, Mr., all the way down to that dull sycophant, Capt'n O', diss the distraction that our overlords so painstaikingly prepared for us? How dare they complain about the splattered guts in the background?

How dare they complain of POTUS' assassinatorial powers when college coaches are sodomizing boy chilluns' IN THE ANUS?

Buncha Ingrates, if you ask me!

The Dull Sycophant (FKA Capt'n Obvious); 10:23 AM
Anonymous said...: Yeah, exactly. "Complain." Equally as useless as pwoggie naivete and even more tiresome to listen to. This echo chamber is like an insufferable version of Hudson from Aliens ~ "THAT'S IT, MAN, GAME OVER, MAN, GAME OVER!!!" I'm sure those dead foreigners were cheered in knowing that a bunch of office drones took a break from snorting lines and congratulating themselves for their superior powers of discernment to FEEL REALLY BAD about the evil global gulag.

Look, sad sacks, if nothing is ever worth doing because THE STATE OMG A BOOT STOMPING ON A HUMAN FACE FOREVER, then take that final step, make like the Jains, and just starve yourselves to death so as not to contribute any more to the sum total of misery in the world.; 12:13 PM
Anonymous said...: @1213

That's a rather extreme non-sequitur...

The Dull Sycophant (fka Capt'n Obvious); 3:47 PM
Anonymous said...: Complaining is utterly useless, is that simple enough for you? Are you really that pathetic that you find some kind of moral pride in *bitching* about how we're all fucked and it's all hopeless? If we're all just sitting around waiting for the state to collapse of its own accord, because there's nothing we can do, action is futile, well, then, for Christ's sake, why not talk about something interesting then? Who the fuck pays this much attention to politics when there's music, art, film and culinary conversations to be had?

Honestly, what's the significant difference between you guys and the Stewart/Colbert audience? "Ha ha ha, look at all these stupid dicks doing stupid dick things. Not us, though, we're savvy and sophisticated."; 5:59 PM
High Arka said...: @5:59 Anonymous, that's a very good point, but there is (hopefully!) a difference. This one may be giving IOZ too much credit, but what makes the traditional Stewart/Colbert audience so awful is that they rather smugly believe that their vaguely "leftish" solution is either 1) the best available, or 2) actually good. They also fail to understand a great many real truths about the desires and viewpoints of those they mock.

Again--perhaps speaking too highly of IOZ, but--what seems to set IOZ apart is the lack of the failures inherent in Stewart/Colbert, which are also the same failures (with different associated buzzwords) of the Republicans they mock. There is a value in recognizing truth, and even though many of us here realize that the elites are never going to let go, and are going to continue to try (and possibly succeed) to kill all of us, we whine and moan, rather than taking up AKs and getting shot by guards outside the Pentagon.

The failure to take up the pitchfork is not necessarily hypocritical, and there remains a value in recognizing the truth. A single point about SOPA, as in the case of IOZ's cartoon, is not meant to be all-encompassing: it's just a single beautiful piece of truth amidst the grand picture. When Paris/Sacha has her/his wine confiscated at the airport and whines about it, it's still funny, despite the photoshop job, yet at the same time, the worth of the photoshop job is not negated by "IOZ" complaining about the wine on the blog.

If this isn't being teased out enough, the essential point is that what makes IOZ different is that s/he does not claim to have all the answers. Jon Stewart wouldn't admit to that, either, but the message behind he and his watchers is that various PC bungee-fads will actually provide them, once the red-staters get enough education.

This one does have such a cogent, complete philosophy, but that does not require IOZ to have one. Critique alone--of the most laughing, mocking kind--is a very deserved medication for human societies now, as long as it is not paired with an incorrect self-righteousness.

So, go IOZ.; 8:56 PM
Anonymous said...: @559

Why the fixation on usefullness? Too many Thomas the "Really Useful" Tank Engine videos?

The Dull Sycophant; 9:08 PM
Mr.Fundamental said...: and I ask, what has blogging on the internet done for you lately? lulz

ya'll forgot about Monsieur's Big Daddy Trust Fund.; 12:00 PM
High Arka said...: Hey! That trust fund has allowed IOZ to be the loftily cynical creature that amuses us all. Don't knock on the trust fund!; 4:46 PM
Montag said...: i thot is was the coke.; 11:21 PM
Anonymous said...: as long as it is not paired with an incorrect self-righteousness.

Except it is. "Oh, gee, y'all are selfishly focusing on such TRIVIAL issues, while CHILDREN ARE DYING and I AM POSTING PICTURES OF THEM, and if you were more spiritually evolved you'd be like me." This is the self-righteousness of the posturing spoiled teenager who stands to lose nothing and therefore knows nothing and cares for nothing. The teenager just stands on the sidelines and feels superior about it, a sneering parasite who believes he has won something because he cares the least.

Most of us grow out of it. Some of us don't, and turn into "anarchist" (ha) bloggers.; 10:03 AM
Mr.Fundamental said...: IOZ is gooo0od agitprop, sucka at 10:03am. he is eating it up right now, the frothy lather you've worked up.

you're right though, IOZ is no Phillip Berrigan! lolz. oh wait, you mean you'd rather we "vote" or "protest SOPA on facebook" than actually go out and protest and break shit, pound on warheads, get arrested?

it's funny but your entire snitfit in comments could have been avoided had you read this post. and possibly even this one. but still, you're entertaining.; 10:20 AM

Thursday, January 19, 2012

CONscience

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