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John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

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Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#151

Post by oneloop »

coderdude wrote: post #27
sethbannon wrote: post #18

I'm not aware of any other show that so seamlessly combines rip-roaringly funny comedy with essential insight into the way our society and system of government is deeply flawed. And on top of that, he even manages to direct action to fix the issues he draws attention to -- taking down the FCC website being one example[1]. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/03/john-oliv...

It's a good show (he's funny and you learn stuff) but it's way too preachy. He gets just a little too excited about things that are basically impossible for anyone to get excited about. Clearly pandering to the young, left crowd. I'm sure it makes some people feel very warm at night but it gives me a bad taste in my mouth after binge watching.

It was really heart breaking for me an interview with him that I watched where the interviewer asked him something like "You combine comedy with high quality in-depth journalism. Do you consider yourself a comedian or a journalist?" to which he said "I'm obviously a comedian. I'm not a journalist."

Sorry to disappoint you John Oliver, you're not a good comedian, you're just not funny enough. However you're extremely entertaining. Better start telling people that you're a journalist who uses comedy to get the attention of people into important subjects that they wouldn't otherwise pay attention to.

Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#152

Post by 67726e »

sergiotapia wrote: post #24

I don't get how an insurance won't cover something. Isn't that the point of Obama forcing you to buy insurance these days?

Corporate welfare at its finest. The cheapest plan I can find is about $250 per month and has something like a $10K limit. It's a fucking joke. Two years ago I was able to get a reasonable plan that actually covered part of my doctor visit and prescriptions for less than $100/month. Mots of the insurance companies in my state have been run out of business leaving you with basically one giant provider and a no-name company that isn't accepted anywhere.

Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#153

Post by cableshaft »

efa wrote: post #73
sergiotapia wrote: post #24

I don't get how an insurance won't cover something. Isn't that the point of Obama forcing you to buy insurance these days?

Yes you are supposed to buy insurance (though many just take the penalty). Many Obamacare plans are pretty crappy with low max pay outs. It drives me crazy when people don't read the plans they are buying. My plan has a huge deductible (10k) but no max pay out. So basically I pay 100% for everything but if I ever need some serious hospital time I'd only be out 10k. (And it's very expensive).

I was pretty sure the Obamacare plans had OOP Maximums (out of pocket maximums), i.e. after a certain amount, your insurance pays for 100% of your medical expenses for the year. It might have been kind of high, but I was pretty sure it had it. (I had to have Obamacare for a few months in between jobs).

Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#154

Post by jerf »

forrestthewoods wrote: post #121
jerf wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, yes, the "reality has a distinct $IDEOLOGY bias" line. No. I've been on the opposite side of some of his rants. You do not get the best counter-arguments. It's just another media spin show where you get the weakest arguments, pre-digested and cued up with the best media management possible for you to laugh at them. He can do a decent job of substantiating his points, but you are not getting anything like the whol…

Where have you been on the other side? I stopped watching after several episodes in a row felt exceptionally biased and unfair. Alas I did not write down the topics so I've always had trouble describing to people why I don't like John Oliver.

Honestly, the whole "pre-biasing you to laugh at the scarecrow of the opposition we're about to show you" is enough on its own to turn me off. I've become more sensitive to this over the years. A lot of political clickbait comes out like that too; you get three paragraphs explaining how stupid the thing the opposition just said is, then a quoted snippet of the worst three sentences in the piece (probably ripped out of context), then another three paragraphs encouraging you to show your tribal affiliation by laughing at how stupid that one snippet was. Bonus points for not giving an easy, clear link back to the original, where you might actually see something that changes your mind.

And before you say "Well, yeah, the other side does that, but thank goodness my side doesn't do that", I would challenge you that as you read your next couple of political articles, click, pull them up, maybe zoom your browser until the entire article fits on the screen, then just sort of defocus your eyes for a moment and just look at the pattern of text and quotes on the screen. Do you already have a pretty good idea what the paragraphs are? Do they fit the description I just gave you? I won't claim to read a completely balanced media diet, I have opinions too, but I do at least sample a lot of things, and this pattern is universally used.

It's a cognitively-hazardous way to consume arguments even before we discuss its addictiveness. Putting it in video form is probably even worse.

Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#155

Post by lujim »

0xfeba wrote: post #125
lujim wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure what your last sentence means. I get the gist but neurostatic precepts is new to me. Just because data supports global warming doesn't mean everyone agrees how to solve it or likes being berated and shamed because don't drive an electric car or ride a bike to work. Not everyone agrees we should shut off the US economy to slow down global warming. This is where partisan politics gets messy and people start me…

> Just because data supports global warming doesn't mean everyone agrees how to solve it But that's just it--large swaths of people think it's some higher order conspiracy. That it is all just made up. > or likes being berated and shamed because don't drive an electric car or ride a bike to work. Not everyone agrees we should shut off the US economy to slow down global warming. This is where partisan politics gets me…

You zero sum straw manned me. "Large swaths of people believe A" , but "no serious group does B". Not saying anything you said is wrong, just find that humorous.

Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#156

Post by efaref »

efa wrote: post #73
sergiotapia wrote: post #24

I don't get how an insurance won't cover something. Isn't that the point of Obama forcing you to buy insurance these days?

Yes you are supposed to buy insurance (though many just take the penalty). Many Obamacare plans are pretty crappy with low max pay outs. It drives me crazy when people don't read the plans they are buying. My plan has a huge deductible (10k) but no max pay out. So basically I pay 100% for everything but if I ever need some serious hospital time I'd only be out 10k. (And it's very expensive).

I'm really going to miss the NHS when the tories have finished dismantling it. :(

Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#157

Post by ashitlerferad »

sethbannon wrote: post #18

I'm not aware of any other show that so seamlessly combines rip-roaringly funny comedy with essential insight into the way our society and system of government is deeply flawed. And on top of that, he even manages to direct action to fix the issues he draws attention to -- taking down the FCC website being one example[1]. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/03/john-oliv...

It seems to me this show is all about native advertising.

Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#158

Post by [deleted] »

bko wrote: post #66
coderdude wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a good show (he's funny and you learn stuff) but it's way too preachy. He gets just a little too excited about things that are basically impossible for anyone to get excited about. Clearly pandering to the young, left crowd. I'm sure it makes some people feel very warm at night but it gives me a bad taste in my mouth after binge watching.

My main problem with John Oliver is that he often chimes in on subjects he doesn't know anything about with folksy common sense logic that is often wrong. I remember him mocking some system for using tapes for storage on the belief that a technology that is so old cannot possibly be useful in modern technologies. In his latest clip, he mocks information being passed by Excel. How does he think things happen? Some mag…

[deleted]

Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#159

Post by azaxacavaba »

coderdude wrote: post #27
sethbannon wrote: post #18

I'm not aware of any other show that so seamlessly combines rip-roaringly funny comedy with essential insight into the way our society and system of government is deeply flawed. And on top of that, he even manages to direct action to fix the issues he draws attention to -- taking down the FCC website being one example[1]. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/03/john-oliv...

It's a good show (he's funny and you learn stuff) but it's way too preachy. He gets just a little too excited about things that are basically impossible for anyone to get excited about. Clearly pandering to the young, left crowd. I'm sure it makes some people feel very warm at night but it gives me a bad taste in my mouth after binge watching.

There is a lot of ranting in this thread which is very unlike HC without any example of where he was biased/opinionated or where he was wrong. I am genuinely interested in knowing if he was ever wrong on any of his 'main stories'. I personally think his team is doing pretty good work in putting together very interesting real issues that do not have a lot of visibility otherwise. I will be happy to be corrected.

Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#160

Post by iheartmemcache »

bko wrote: post #66
coderdude wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a good show (he's funny and you learn stuff) but it's way too preachy. He gets just a little too excited about things that are basically impossible for anyone to get excited about. Clearly pandering to the young, left crowd. I'm sure it makes some people feel very warm at night but it gives me a bad taste in my mouth after binge watching.

My main problem with John Oliver is that he often chimes in on subjects he doesn't know anything about with folksy common sense logic that is often wrong. I remember him mocking some system for using tapes for storage on the belief that a technology that is so old cannot possibly be useful in modern technologies. In his latest clip, he mocks information being passed by Excel. How does he think things happen? Some mag…

Tape as backups are arguably still valuable, but any important information being passed by Excel is a travesty. I've worked on the quant side of things and trading securities has standard protocols (primarily FIX, but more esoteric protocols are used by some MM's). I've worked with insurance conglomerates - health information has HL7 for EHR. Purchase orders between Walmart and their suppliers use EDI. All of these aren't 'magical' but they sure are global standards which are transparent and relatively perfect (you have XML schemas to validate against). Those are just the industries I've worked in professionally (I'm sure any other industry - oil, heavy machinery use something similar.)
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