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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?

#251

Post by ineedasername »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #220
meowface wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is in this case, Boris has been caught red-handed doing very similar sorts of "cunning disguised as idiocy" ploys before. For example, feigning forgetting speeches. It seems plausible that it was intentional. Both sides of the political aisle are certainly highly susceptible to conspiracy theories about the opposition, but this case seems pretty interesting. It may be a wolf-crying situation, too: since Bor…

> The thing is in this case, Boris has been caught red-handed doing very similar sorts of "cunning disguised as idiocy" ploys before. For example, feigning forgetting speeches. Seems hard to blame him for this. Compare https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/UnaccustomedAsIA... .

It's not that he's being blamed for creating the tactic, it's that he's using the tactic to present a false image, a deceptive topic.

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

#253

Post by DrScientist »

barry-cotter wrote: post #114
drbw wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe, but he's always been lazy and unwilling to do much actual work, apparently [1] his headmaster wrote to his father in 1982: Boris really has adopted a disgracefully cavalier attitude to his classical studies... Boris sometimes seems affronted when criticised for what amounts to a gross failure of responsibility (and surprised at the same time that he was not appointed Captain of the School for next half): I thi…

No one gets to be a Telegraph columnist without doing a ton of work, never mind Prime Minster of the UK. Being unwilling to do work purely on other people’s say so is a separate trait from being lazy. He also has a much better command of Ancient Greek than anyone unwilling to apply themselves could acquire however wonderful the teachers the were exposed to. This is quite apart from the question of whether he’s a buff…

I think that depends on how you define work/graft.

He has great energy and clearly finds writing and speaking easy, especially if he not constrained by effort required to check the facts ( opinion based columns ).

I suspect he is also very competitive under the bonhomie.

> ancient greek

He didn't get a first at Oxford, while Cameron did - he recently called Cameron a 'girly swot'. Suggests he didn't work as hard as he could have and still hasn't quite got over it.

I suspect for the stuff he doesn't want to do, or doesn't find comes naturally, the real hard graft, he isn't so great.

He has often had multiple jobs, as well as multiple private lives - so great energy, but that's not the same as being able to really graft.

So I'd agree he is not lazy, by any means.

However, would you trust him with a really important task, a task that needed someones undivided attention to succeed?

Like Brexit or being Primer Minister? - I'm not sure he will do the job to his best ability - never quite the focus to be first class.

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

#254

Post by ineedasername »

synt4x1k0 wrote: post #97
learnstats2 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hardly genius and it's hardly coming from Boris. His press team will have told him to drop in particular words or phrases repeatedly - if we hear it once, he has probably said it multiple times.

Is there evidence of this happening though? It just seems like this is a screenshot with some comments on it, and a lot of assumptions.

The evidence is the pattern of behavior. No, it's not conclusive of the fact, the accusation is based on circumstantial evidence, but it is still evidence.

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

#255

Post by [deleted] »

VBprogrammer wrote: post #137
scarygliders wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they voted for something very vague and ill defined Utter tosh. The consequences of a Leave vote were hammered out by Remain-supporting politicians for weeks and weeks before the referendum. The government spent 9 million GBP to publish a leaflet in support of Remain which went to every household in the UK, before the referendum. Claiming that no one knew what a Leave vote meant, is gaslighting in the extreme.

So what you are telling us is that the leave side knew what they were voting for because they saw through the lies from the leave side which said that everything the remain side was saying was "project fear". Do you honestly think you can claim that is democracy working as intended?

[deleted]

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

#256

Post by ineedasername »

vfc1 wrote: post #105

This sounds like another silly conspiracy theory to me, what is most likely happening is the exact opposite. These cheap news websites will take some term relating to Boris Johnson, like Bus or Model, and engineer articles that will get clicks in order to generate advertising revenue. It's the cheap websites doing SEO based on popular Boris Johnson terms, and not Boris Johnson's team. I mean the risk of someone in hi…

> One leak and his career would be over, I mean come on it does not make any sense

He's been credibly (if not definitively) accused of lying to the Queen. He's kept critical Brexit planning documents hidden. He's attempting to find any loophole he can to avoid parliamentary accountability and ignore public opinion on the most critical issue for the UK since WWII.

Manipulating SEO doesn't really compare to these. If a dozen people leaked emails talking about the practice the response could easily be "Sure, so what?" and things would move on.

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

#257

Post by icebraining »

VBprogrammer wrote: post #137
scarygliders wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they voted for something very vague and ill defined Utter tosh. The consequences of a Leave vote were hammered out by Remain-supporting politicians for weeks and weeks before the referendum. The government spent 9 million GBP to publish a leaflet in support of Remain which went to every household in the UK, before the referendum. Claiming that no one knew what a Leave vote meant, is gaslighting in the extreme.

So what you are telling us is that the leave side knew what they were voting for because they saw through the lies from the leave side which said that everything the remain side was saying was "project fear". Do you honestly think you can claim that is democracy working as intended?

Politicians lie, news at 11. Might as well not have elections if you're going to put the bar that high for them to count.

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

#258

Post by burtonator »

Boris Johnson is like the mesothelioma of UK politics. He just looks seems like the kind of guy who buys real estate while playing online gambling on viagra. He's only interested in fast cash. He desperately needs advice but isn't going to get my free consultation. Maybe he can use a gift certificate though. Hopefully he accepts credit cards for this limited time offer. Operators are standing by.

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

#259

Post by ineedasername »

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 path firmly on the side of "let's get a deal done the right way." Though with no majority agreeing on "the right way" is a problem, it's one for democratic compromise to solve, and that can take time.

2) Appealing to the 2016 will of the people ignores the fact that democracies don't vote one and never ever ever touch on the same topic again. In fact there are votes every few years so that, if people change their minds, that can be reflected in government. Personally I think going back on Brexit at this point would be bad for the UK as a society, if not so much as an economy, but there's nothing undemocratic about people saying, "I made a choice, I've since learned a little more about it and don't like it anymore. Let's vote to see if enough people feel the same way."

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

#260

Post by js8 »

hobolobo wrote: post #123
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.

As Ian Hislop put it: Boris Johnson, people always ask me the same question, they say, 'Is Boris a very very clever man pretending to be an idiot?' And I always say, 'No.'

Boris Johnson is a man of average intelligence pretending that he is an idiot, so in case when something goes wrong and he really looks like an idiot, people wouldn't be able to blame him, since obviously, from the start, he was an idiot!
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