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The Final Speech from The Great Dictator (1940)

charliechaplin.com

201–210 of 412 posts

Re: The Final Speech from The Great Dictator (1940)

#201
post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are effectively describing an appeal to emotions, not reason.

Every ideology appeals to emotions—liberalism, democracy, fascism, communism, etc. This is why we seldom see academic professors, who deliver lectures on TV, winning elections based solely on their lectures. Ideologies aim to harness people's emotions to gain support. Democracy, fascism, and communism all possess underlying logic. By analyzing these ideologies dispassionately, without moral judgments, one can discern…

Every ideology appeals to emotions...

I can't find the source right now, but someone said that believing in democracy is like believing in the metric system.

And there's another (Churchill's?) one saying that it's the worst government system, except all the others. Not very exciting definitions, more like cynics' choice.

Re: The Final Speech from The Great Dictator (1940)

#202
post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly, it's true in some cases. Most notably Rupert Murdoch- while I do not wish death on the man, it's certainly true that he has a grip on the hearts and minds of people and often uses his media empire to convince people to go against their own interests. He will be replaced by someone similar, but seldom are people as effective as their predecessors.

>uses his media empire to convince people to go against their own interests Well, yes, that’s his job. Do you think that news media exists to inform you?

The fact that you would even make this joke shows how absurdly far we have fallen.

Obviously they exist for that purpose, studying the foundations of news media and journalism... for even a day... shows concisely that it was painfully created for this reason.

Re: The Final Speech from The Great Dictator (1940)

#203
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s easy to focus on philanthropy and feelings after your monolithic megacorp has ground your competition into dust.

Hi, hello, I work here, google is down the street, as is microsoft. I can assure you they are not dust. All amazon has done is build more data centers, they havent taken some kind of hostile action towards the competition. The money was on the table, those companies didnt want to spend the time or take the risk, so amazon will gladly hoover it up.

Amazon !== AWS, I think what's being referred to is smaller retailers, not other FAANGs.

My brother's store is slowly folding, largely due specifically to Amazon selling cheaper than he can purchase wholesale.

Re: The Final Speech from The Great Dictator (1940)

#204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a thought experiment, is there anything Bezos could do or say that wouldn't merit a hostile and snide comment in response? Is he unforgivable?

If he actually changed Amazon's behavior so that it wasn't a horrible place to work for? If he donated an actual, significant portion of his wealth that required real sacrifice on his part? Basically, if he did something that had a positive effect on the world that also had real consequences for him. Something that actually shows he _means_ it, actually _wants_ the world to be better even if it hurts himself. If Bezo…

You do realize there's people who want to be homeless?

Re: The Final Speech from The Great Dictator (1940)

#205
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that's just ad absurdum considering we don't have straight answers when it comes to socio-political issues.

We do though, We've had them since the first time a group of farming monkeys decided to post day/night guards on the granary. Those posts have been filled around the clock ever since. To my knowledge the first ones to formalize this were Locke, Hobbes and Rousseau but, in all cases, very little has changed since. To me, that's as straight an answer as you're ever going to get

Since then a single farmer feeds thousands of people. We are producing more and with much less effort than we did before we have started farming and had to post the guards.

Yet the guards remain and insist that they are still needed.

Re: The Final Speech from The Great Dictator (1940)

#206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.c-span.org/amp/video/?c5098439 He was talking about illegal immigrants. You can disagree with that of course, but why leave that out?

At some point, the dogwhistles become so loud that the only ones claiming not to hear them are either intentionally plugging their ears or simply concealing their delight.

Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus

Re: The Final Speech from The Great Dictator (1940)

#207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

… I mean, you’re describing, er, maybe North Korea? Not sure anywhere else has those policies. Maybe the Soviet Union in the Stalinist period (substitute gulags for execution). I’m… not sure that these policies are proven to make most peoples’ lives better. Where are you getting that? Historically, places which pursue these sorts of extremely draconian policies tend to be very, very nasty places to live.

Singapore is a really nice place to live.

Re: The Final Speech from The Great Dictator (1940)

#209
post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We do though, We've had them since the first time a group of farming monkeys decided to post day/night guards on the granary. Those posts have been filled around the clock ever since. To my knowledge the first ones to formalize this were Locke, Hobbes and Rousseau but, in all cases, very little has changed since. To me, that's as straight an answer as you're ever going to get

Since then a single farmer feeds thousands of people. We are producing more and with much less effort than we did before we have started farming and had to post the guards. Yet the guards remain and insist that they are still needed.

By my understanding, the definition of granary has changed since.

Re: The Final Speech from The Great Dictator (1940)

#210
This part is very interesting. "Even now my voice is reaching millions"

Chaplin knew this message was for future generations. When he says "even now" it means, hey im long dead but this message is finally being herd around the world.

Chaplin & Nikola Tesla were friends. Tesla told Chaplin what was to come down the line like the internet, what he called "the transmission of intelligence" I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Tesla himself didn't write this speech.

"The scientific man does not aim at an immediate result. He does not expect that his advanced ideas will be readily taken up. His work is like that of the planter — for the future. His duty is to lay the foundation for those who are to come, and point the way." - Nikola Tesla

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