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Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza

theguardian.com

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Re: Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza

#111

Post by rixed »

hliyan wrote: post #28

I'm starting to realize, very belatedly in life, that we suffer from an end-of-history illusion in politics and political economy. I used to think we live in a golden age because a hundred years ago, democracy broadly replaced monarchies, market economies replaced feudalism and other coercive systems, and with it went many of the old, indirect mechanisms of subjugating large populations (e.g. moral imperatives throug…

What is this "end of history illusion", if not the belief that there is a "decent end state"?

There will always be reasons to oppose any current equilibrium for improvements, and that's ok.

Re: Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza

#112

Post by dmix »

molteanu wrote: post #93
engine_y wrote: post #25

I read the article but not sure which pro Israeli editorials the BBC has published. My experience is quite the opposite with BBC having a clear anti war stance.

It's about the careful wording, about who gets to be on the spotlight, about who gets to call the other side a tyrant, an evil state, about saying things like "regime change" and no-one batting an eye. Slowly, but surely, you form an opinion as to who the bad actor is as you've seen or read about its bad behaviour (but not of the behavior of the other party) Most interestingly, it's about who holds the microphone and…

In a meta sense, yes, but in practice it’s mostly just a large collection of journalists and editors, real humans, working in a chaotic information space where there’s a large variety of angles and sources being put out at all times depending on the context.

It’s equally easy to cherry pick this sort of thing to build a narrative of some ulterior agenda. Especially given the high pace that news demands in the social media age.

What gets covered could simply be who a journalist happened to talked to the past week or what is trending on social media that will get clicks.

Re: Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza

#113

Post by ToucanLoucan »

cantor_S_drug wrote: post #54
hliyan wrote: post #28

I'm starting to realize, very belatedly in life, that we suffer from an end-of-history illusion in politics and political economy. I used to think we live in a golden age because a hundred years ago, democracy broadly replaced monarchies, market economies replaced feudalism and other coercive systems, and with it went many of the old, indirect mechanisms of subjugating large populations (e.g. moral imperatives throug…

The problem is you can't even point a finger or single out people responsible for the current state of things. Unless we collectively accept there is a problem, the solution will not get implemented.

I can think of numerous people who while not solely responsible for the state of things, have certainly fanned the flames to attain great personal prosperity at the expense of our collective psyche. Those people have names and addresses and they are not as they may believe immune from retribution.

I don’t want to live through any more historical times but I increasingly believe we’re on a precipice of incredible amounts of political violence, both against people who don’t deserve it, and people who do. And those people would be wise to pump the brakes a little.

Re: Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza

#114

Post by yieldcrv »

When some of my more privileged Jewish friends are feeling glee, they proudly say their people do control the news

Feels kind of gaslighty when we can all perceive that there is a disproportionate overrepresentation of exactly that, but if us gentiles say it is called an “antisemitic trope”

not every observation is based on wanting a hurtful outcome against jewish people, but every reaction to that observation seems like thats the assumption. doesnt seem productive though, counterproductive and self fulfilling is what it seems like

Re: Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza

#115

Post by Aeolun »

jaek wrote: post #5

Sadly it seems like this is indicative of a broader trend in Public Broadcast in the west. In Australia we've seen similar internal criticism of the ABC of an anti-palestinian bias in reporting[1]. It's deeply concerning that these publicly funded media outlets are being co-opted and manipulated by a foreign power. [1] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/26/australias-abc-staf...

How is it possible they influence so much of what happens in western politics, or at least how whole nations respond to their genocidal war anyway?

Re: Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza

#116

Post by troad »

forgotoldacc wrote: post #77
YZF wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Wasn't it calling for death to a military force leading a campaign of total war, and not a death call against Israelis in general? Like nobody would say "death to the Khmer Rouge" is a death call against Cambodians. It technically would be, since it was Cambodians in the Khmer Rouge who were killing innocent children, but it's a specific subset of Cambodians (the Khmer Rouge) and only those who were actually doing th…

Yes, the coverage of this has been a weird one to watch.

How does this remark differ from what the Israeli government regularly says about the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, just as much an official body in Iran as the IDF is in Israel? No one, to my knowledge, would consider calling for the demise of the IRGC to be hate speech against Iranians. No one has ever shut off a live transmission of a Netanyahu speech because he advocated for violence against the IRGC.

(Not defending the IRGC here, they are ghouls. Just noting the intellectual dishonesty.)

Re: Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza

#117

Post by joules77 »

hliyan wrote: post #28

I'm starting to realize, very belatedly in life, that we suffer from an end-of-history illusion in politics and political economy. I used to think we live in a golden age because a hundred years ago, democracy broadly replaced monarchies, market economies replaced feudalism and other coercive systems, and with it went many of the old, indirect mechanisms of subjugating large populations (e.g. moral imperatives throug…

Thats called illusion of control. Just look at your family and friends.

Some will always want much more than others. Some will always take paths that are easy. Some will have no problem taking advantage of the weak.

Keeping all those traits in check is a full time job. Its not free. It eats into limited time and energy. Sooner or later compromises are made.

Therefore parasites and predators always find space in any ecosystem you look at. You might be able to turn off/keep in check behavior of a few. But never all.

Re: Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza

#120

Post by [deleted] »

djkivi wrote: post #103
Avicebron wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could just be cyclic? 1776->1861 (romanticism leading into civil war), 1861->1940 (modernism leading into WWII), [weird cold war baby boomer era of prosperity] 1970->2025 (post-modernism leading into..)

See the Fourth Turning!

[deleted]
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