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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?

#281

Post by peteretep »

wastedhours wrote: post #202
peteretep wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He got a scholarship to Eton and then one to Oxford. They don’t give those out with the papers, even to rich kids. We can say he is very bright without any qualification.

We can say he leveraged his privilege well, and I think that's different than offering someone blanket praise of being "bright". And again, I'm not necessarily making judgement on his academic credentials - I made the point about his jobs . Of which a classical education is evidently rather worthless. With the exception of being a player of politics and narratives.

> I made the point about his jobs

The guy who was editor of the Spectator, and a wildly successful columnist and speaker?

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

#282

Post by mendelmaleh »

joncrane wrote: post #244
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.

This means he's also meta-smart. He focuses his limited mental energy on the things that lead to success in the areas he wants (he's been elected PM, that's the peak of success by any measure). The fact that he has gotten away with being "dumb" on some details is a fault of the system. Same goes for the USA POTUS. At some point you have to say "don't hate the player, hate the game."

the United States of America President of the United States?

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

#283

Post by concordDance »

HenryBemis wrote: post #279
concordDance wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You deserve the downvotes given nonsense like "Oompa Loompa". Hackernews may have declined, but we haven't fallen far enough to ket that kind of bullshit slide.

If you see any other comment I make (and I don't expect anyone to spend 1 second on seeing my other opinions) I am always positive an open minded. Right now this snake is threatening my well being, my income, my life balance. I don't take that lightly. This snake is also being reckless with a neighboring country, Ireland, and with his dangerous and careless actions he is risking to throw them to another decade of Tro…

> My negativity hurt your eyes.

That's uncharitable. I believe your rhetoric hurts the culture and quality of discussion of hackernews.

I have seen quite a number of places degenerate into partisan (I don't strictly mean USA Dems vs Reps, but Culture War sides) namecalling, normally shortly before one side completely drives out the other and degenerates into a virtue-signalling circle jerk. While that may be hackernews' inevitable fate I want to put it off as long as possible.

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

#284

Post by gutta-percha »

verbify wrote: post #56
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.

The news story that really made me believe that the bumbling fool shtick is real and not just an act was when he went to a buddhist temple in Myanmar and started reciting a colonial-era Kipling poem about a British soldier reminiscing about a Burmese girl that he kissed - until the ambassador intervened and told him it wasn't appropriate. If he understood the context of the poem (a lack of sensitivity to the three wa…

This might change your mind:

https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/06/my-boris-story/

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

#285

Post by verbify »

gutta-percha wrote: post #284
verbify wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The news story that really made me believe that the bumbling fool shtick is real and not just an act was when he went to a buddhist temple in Myanmar and started reciting a colonial-era Kipling poem about a British soldier reminiscing about a Burmese girl that he kissed - until the ambassador intervened and told him it wasn't appropriate. If he understood the context of the poem (a lack of sensitivity to the three wa…

This might change your mind: https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/06/my-boris-story/

I've read that story. I understand that his clownish behaviour is a performance - it's more the gaffes that I don't think are calculated.

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

#286

Post by VBprogrammer »

lonelappde wrote: post #274
VBprogrammer wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've just realised that another example of this was his momentary diversion on building a bridge between Northern Ireland and Scotland. This reeks of an attempt to divert attention from his failed garden bridge project as London Major. Googling "boris johnson bridge" is filled with articles about he former for me at least. The thing is, it doesn't have to be completely successful for it to be worth his while doing. I…

This is insane. He's been a politician for many years. What could he possibly say that doesn't have any nouns in common with some other issue? Busses, models, bridges, what else is Johnson now banned from life for mentioning?

I'm not a big believer in conspiracy theories and I'm the first to admit that this could be entirely coincidental.

However, my gut feeling is that that some of these statements were so unusually phrased or just plain strange that I'm leaning more towards this being a deliberate effort to obscure some unfavourable stories.

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

#287

Post by NikkiA »

gowld wrote: post #227
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…

Boris Johnson has been painting red busses since before I had is own Brexit bus. The Brexit bus wasn't a secret, it was his campaign vehicle. "red busses" only seem obscure to you because you don't live in the UK which is ... full of red busses. It's insane that people are obsesses with calling "conspiracy!" on Johnson for making an easily verifiable true statement about himself.

> you don't live in the UK which is ... full of red busses.

Well, London certainly is, the rest of the country tends to be mixed between green (arriva) and white/purple (first) these days.

In the days before deregulation, red was indeed the most common colour country-wide, but even then there were abhorrations such as west yorkshire's green and cream - there's another conversation to be had about 1950s and 1960s liveries composed of 'and cream' combinations that probably started with BR (well, the BTC then, which would have been the parent 'company' for most local bus services) 'crimson and cream' carriage livery - known colloquially as 'Blood and Custard'.

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

#288

Post by mlang23 »

ineedasername wrote: post #259
mlang23 wrote: post #181

I don't care. I want BREXIT now, since the british voted for it. All these delays are poison for democracy. Hard brexit yesterday. And if the pro EU people want to join again, they can apply in 5 years if they manage to find a majority. And now, let the downvotes come.

People voted for Brexit, sure, but two problems come to mind when trying to use that fact as support for crashing out of the UK: 1) People did not, when voting, stipulate what sort or Brexit they wanted, but they were promised an orderly exit with a great deal that would preserve the benefits of EU membership. And in polls since then, they have overwhelmingly said they do not want no-deal. This places the democratic…

Oh, thats so british. "we want brexit, but we want a deal with all the benefits". Another reason to want a hard brexit yesterday. The british play this pick and choose game since they joined the EU. When push comes to shove, they end up siding the the US, not even caring about EU policy. And the EUR was also never really interesting to these classy brits. Sorry, but its time to end this, fast.

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

#289

Post by sincerely »

gowld wrote: post #227
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…

Boris Johnson has been painting red busses since before I had is own Brexit bus. The Brexit bus wasn't a secret, it was his campaign vehicle. "red busses" only seem obscure to you because you don't live in the UK which is ... full of red busses. It's insane that people are obsesses with calling "conspiracy!" on Johnson for making an easily verifiable true statement about himself.

What? I think you're misunderstanding.

The weird part isn't that the bus he describes himself painting is red, or that his campaign bus was red, it's that his hobby is apparently painting buses out of empty wine boxes and it sounds like he's making it up on the spot.

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

#290

Post by biffosmitho »

Might explain something. I raised a petition to use Sunday Voting to beat the Tories & DUP (it gives 15-20% bigger turnouts - nearly all left of centre). On the very next week Johnson came up with a change to the election day to a Monday (the first change since 1931) and almost immediately it was rejected for "religious reasons" - That sounds very fishy to me. Fight back and sign: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/263133
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