A lot of times, hypocrisy is the only tribute that humans can make to virtue so I guess we should not talk trash about it.Justin Trudeau—Illegitimate Premier?
I would put more focus on the idea that increasingly the State’s only commonly accepted justification for existing rests on ever increasing material befits. It is a short jump from there to think that if I am doing poorly, the state is no longer legitimate.Protesters Are United by Something Other Than Politics
More amusing and sly then the headline suggests. I think it strongly overstates its case though and in general it does not seem like it is written by someone who is deeply familiar with the past: How single men and women are making politics more extreme
1. It is stories like the above that lead to socialism, communism, and other associated ideas having continued support in spite of their bad track record.
2. It is common for people who are good at something to think that they can therefore lead or manage a project that encompasses things that they are good at. But often, leadership skills don’t come with other strong skills. In particular, my own experience would lead me to believe that strongly artistic people are rarely good managers. A lot of Mr. Kern’s bad decisions as laid out in the above video strike me as a classic example of an artistic person let off the leash with no oversight. Computer gaming history is filled with similar stories of developers who were an integral part of strong teams but absolutely failed on their own in such spectacular fashion as to make you wonder if they were ever truly good at anything. In my judgement, the common thread in those tails of self-destruction is giving an artistic person a pot full of money with no controls.
3. It is common for people to exaggerate the evil nature of poor leaders and forgive the evil deeds of good leaders. That is to say the failure of leadership skill is often attributed to moral failings while successful leaders are forgiven moral lapses because they get things done. We all have moral failings and I am sure that Mr. Kern has more then his fair share. But I think a lot of what is laid out above is rooted above all else in lack of managerial talent and not some particularly black heart compared to other people in the same industry.
4. It is common for people to point out someone’s hypocrisy or other moral failings as if they demonstrate that that person does not have good points or sincerely held beliefs. A classic case of this is the attempts to delegitimize everything Winston Churchill did because he was a supporter of imperialism. In this case, nothing in the above video really has anything to do with Mark Kern’s points about China or the current management of Blizzard except to warn against turning Mr. Kern into some kind of hero.That is always a good warning to have, but no one should go in the opposite direction and think it demonstrates more then it does.
5. A broader hypocrisy of the west in general is the focus of things seen on TV instead of any kind of tangible yardsticks. For example, what has been done over the years in Tibet have been and continue to be far worse then anything currently going on in Hong Kong. And yet, Tibet has not developed into nearly as big of an issue as Hong Kong is becoming.
6. That said, I think it is truly alarming how determined China is to use its economic clout to regulate what is being said in other countries. It is one thing to control your own country’s internet. It is another thing to try to control what everyone else is saying all over the world. And that does seem to be what China is seeking to do. Imagine the outrage if the American government worked as hard as China has been working to get sport’s people fired for being critical of US policy.
Riots everywhere:Chile.Lebanon.Spain.Holland. And of course, Hong Kong.If they do this when the grass is green, what will they do when the real trouble starts?
My main thought reading this is why does anyone in this day and age still think it is a good idea to store nukes in Turkey? Seems like the US can destroy all the likely (and unlikely) targets just fine without them.Belated Realization: The Old World Order Is in Shambles
Possible Brexit deal is all in the news. Events are moving to fast for anyone to give any useful information but for what it is worth here is two non-US based perspectives.What’s new in this Brexit deal?andBrexit: madder and madder
The below video is a good if simplistic overview of China’s demographic issues. It is worth a watch if you don’t have time to read up on the issue as it is short and to the point. That said, it does have its issues. The biggest groaner comes when they are trying to pretend that there is a non-catastrophic way out for China at the end of the video and suggest that China might allow more immigration into the country. Where in the world do they think these people would come from in numbers great enough to make a difference to China?
