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Boris Johnson uses search terms in interviews to hide negative articles?

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Re: Boris Johnson uses search terms in interviews to hide negative articles?

#191

Post by Someone1234 »

rebolek wrote: post #188

Just a reminder that Boris Johnson is not an elected leader.

You're simply "reminding" people of how a parliamentary democracy works.

Plus it is inaccurate, he was elected, against Jeremy Hunt, Michael Gove, and other candidates in the Conservative Party Leadership race. Voted on by MPs who the public themselves feel were qualified to represent them in a representative democracy.

I have no love for Boris Johnson (nor the Conservative Party itself). But this kind of "not a democratic leader!" line is simply spreading misinformation about how the UK's system of government works. You vote for MPs, MPs vote for stuff on your behalf, and in this case they voted for the leader of their party (and now the government).

It should also be noted that the UK doesn't have a ruling king and it doesn't have a president. The PMs power is a lot more curtailed than some other countries that do, and they need to go back to Parliament to accomplish much of their agenda (and are equally subject to the law). If they lose their voting majority, they're hugely neutered.

Re: Boris Johnson uses search terms in interviews to hide negative articles?

#192

Post by phatfish »

kmlx wrote: post #46
SmellyGeekBoy wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. The "lovable bumbling fool" image he puts across is a very conscious choice on his part. Despite what you think about his politics (and I'm personally not a fan) you can't deny that Johnson is much smarter than he wants us to think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k448JqQyj8 yes, he is much smarter than he looks.

Hopefully anyone that completed a degree in that focused on Ancient Greece/Classics could muster a reasonable performance in a debate like this, even if they couldn't manage a first ;)

If anything his public speaking is above average, and the inflated ego and confidence that goes with attending Eton certainly helps with that.

Nothing here shows any great intelligence, maybe marginally more than he likes to let on though.

Re: Boris Johnson uses search terms in interviews to hide negative articles?

#193

Post by PhasmaFelis »

sincerely wrote: post #3

This is actually fascinating (even if it may not be the behavior we expect from our elected leaders). He did the same thing in June where he gave a completely baffling interview [1] about how his hobby was painting models of buses out of used fruit crates. But people suspected [2] then that it might be a similar strategy, to monopolize the results for "boris johnson bus" searches. I wonder why nobody else is willing…

Searching "boris johnson bus" still comes up with a dozen pictures of the Brexit bus, with the "model bus" rambling not 'til below the fold. So it doesn't work all that well.

Re: Boris Johnson uses search terms in interviews to hide negative articles?

#194

Post by stochastic_monk »

jnty wrote: post #168
sacado2 wrote: post #127

At first I read it backwards, I thought he had had sex with a model just to hide a scandal about a "model of restraint" and thought " wow, that guy is really doing all he can to hide the scandal". And then I remembered it was not France and having an affair could be a scandal, and I'm a little disappointed because I preferred my version.

To be fair, the affair is only the scandal because it may have caused a conflict of interest. Boris has had plenty of them in the past, to the point where nobody knows for certain how many children he has.

Correct. It's the corruption that has his critics seeing blood in the water. Visiting your affair's home during work hours while funneling money into her business and taking her on trips she has no reason to be on to boost her career is what's the problem, not the affair.

The fact that the affair has been admitted matters only because it bolsters corruption allegations.

Re: Boris Johnson uses search terms in interviews to hide negative articles?

#195

Post by duxut_staglatz »

vonmoltke wrote: post #178
duxut_staglatz wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Describing the ENA as a university is misleading [0]: its does no research and does grant degrees [1]. All "students" are civil servant in training that have been hired through the civil service examinations and will go on to their jobs. They spend more than half of their "studies" working already to learn on the job. It's like saying Parris Island is a university. [0] In my opinion, this characterization as universi…

> it's like wondering why so many US Army officers come form West Point - well, that's because West Point is there to produce US Army officers US service academies and War Colleges are actually degree-granting institutions, though.

This is indeed a limit of my analogy. A closer equivalent would be bootcamp for enlisted personel.

Re: Boris Johnson uses search terms in interviews to hide negative articles?

#196

Post by repolfx »

dalbasal wrote: post #145

I'm skeptical. (a)When I search "Boris Johnson model," I still get the Jennifer Arcuri results and (b) even if working perfectly, this kind of SEO spamming would be pretty marginal. People are exposed to the "model" story via so many avenues: TV, radio, news sites, FB feed, other search terms... It just doesn't seem worth it. At best it takes like 10% of the heat off him for a day. Null hypothesis is that Boris just…

But using the word "model" to mean "a model of good behaviour" which is what it meant in that context is totally normal English. And Boris has been associated with buses for ages, in his time as London mayor a revamp of the buses became known as literally "Boris Buses". The idea he might have an eccentric hobby involving buses is entirely plausible.

I don't think Boris says random baffling shit. I think the null hypothesis is that a whole lot of Brexit-haters have fully immersed themselves in conspiracy theories, to the extent that normal English words used in interviews is now being described as SEO. It looks comparable to how in America a whole lot of Hillary Clinton supporters ended up believing in a conspiracy theory that said their president was a Russian spy. Any even slightly conservative leader seems to bring this out in some people ... it's a need to see evil plots to explain the phenomenon of people who disagree.

Re: Boris Johnson uses search terms in interviews to hide negative articles?

#197

Post by Wowfunhappy »

ganzuul wrote: post #177
JshWright wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no rule that says you can only reply to the primary point of a comment. Personally I found the clarification interesting, and learned something from it. Why do you think that detracts from the point about the potential motivation behind the rebranding? It's possible to learn more than one thing...

"Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents."

The full paragraph in the guidelines is:

> Eschew flamebait. Don't introduce flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents.

In other words, if someone posts a story about the new iPhone, don't comment "Did you hear the rumor that Tim Cook likes killing puppies?"

Re: Boris Johnson uses search terms in interviews to hide negative articles?

#198

Post by pierrebai »

Someone1234 wrote: post #191
rebolek wrote: post #188

Just a reminder that Boris Johnson is not an elected leader.

You're simply "reminding" people of how a parliamentary democracy works. Plus it is inaccurate, he was elected, against Jeremy Hunt, Michael Gove, and other candidates in the Conservative Party Leadership race. Voted on by MPs who the public themselves feel were qualified to represent them in a representative democracy. I have no love for Boris Johnson (nor the Conservative Party itself). But this kind of "not a demo…

A large proprotion of people vote for the parties or the leaders of parties, not the individual who happens to be the MP in the circumscription. I certainly do put more weigh on the party's program than on a choice of a local shmuck among multiple local smucks.

Re: Boris Johnson uses search terms in interviews to hide negative articles?

#199

Post by wastedhours »

ncmncm wrote: post #174
wastedhours wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you can't deny that Johnson is much smarter than he wants us to think. In playing the political game at least, definitely so. Lots of reports from coworkers (especially from the Foreign Office) that he is genuinely as clueless as he comes across when it comes to other elements of his job.

Perhaps you and he disagree about the nature of his job. He seems to be doing well at his version. He is just not doing what you (and many others, but not enough) wish he were doing.

I'm not even getting into Brexit, if you look at the comments made by senior diplomats when he worked at the Foreign Office (along with the very obvious gaffs including getting a British woman an extended sentence in Iran...) which has a reasonably clear remit.

His front-bench roles even before becoming PM, and his previous roles, where he was fired from being a journalist for lying, for example, show he's just bad at anything other than playing the political game. And even then, you look at the advisers he has around him in order to be adept at even that.

Re: Boris Johnson uses search terms in interviews to hide negative articles?

#200

Post by rmc »

sincerely wrote: post #3

This is actually fascinating (even if it may not be the behavior we expect from our elected leaders). He did the same thing in June where he gave a completely baffling interview [1] about how his hobby was painting models of buses out of used fruit crates. But people suspected [2] then that it might be a similar strategy, to monopolize the results for "boris johnson bus" searches. I wonder why nobody else is willing…

I think other British politicians do it. What do you think websearching for "Jacob Rees-Moog lying" will get you now?
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