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New statue in London, attributed to Banksy, of a suited man, blinded by a flag

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: New statue in London, attributed to Banksy, of a suited man, blinded by a flag

#541

Post by vkou »

usefulcat wrote: post #337
squigz wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ambiguity - that this could apply to anyone, that people are so caught up in their belief of choice - is part of the obviousness, at least to me. I would expect more people to be aware of this, than to actually believe that it's talking about, say, Americans in particular.

I do agree that it’s obvious in the way that you describe. But I still think it’s a point worth making—that it could apply to anyone. Because I don’t think that thought is likely to occur to a lot of people, regardless of their particular belief of choice. And that is a problem.

> But I still think it’s a point worth making—that it could apply to anyone.

... anyone who engages in this behaviour, yes. Not anyone nor everyone does.

Re: New statue in London, attributed to Banksy, of a suited man, blinded by a flag

#542

Post by [deleted] »

datsci_est_2015 wrote: post #510
boxed wrote: post #481

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm? Which is which? Is this one of those British things people from normal countries don't understand? Like the difference between United Kingdom and Great Britain.

Glad you asked! Perhaps I should have used the term “sovereign state”, as that’s more precise, even though when most people use the colloquial term “nation” (as in “nationalism”) they’re referring to a sovereign state. A sovereign state has borders they can enforce to their own discretion (political gridlock notwithstanding), a stable and well-defined (non-transient) population, a single recognized government (both i…

[deleted]

Re: New statue in London, attributed to Banksy, of a suited man, blinded by a flag

#543

Post by vkou »

rjinman wrote: post #401
zarzavat wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure the piece is a commentary on the recent phenomenon of people of a right-wing political orientation hanging up the England flag everywhere , to the consternation of local governments who have to spend money taking them down. From a British perspective there's no ambiguity, flag shagging is a right-wing activity.

Is it? Most people I know who have flags proudly displayed are left wing and their flags are usually one of: the Palestinian flag, the ukrainian flag, the LGBT rainbow flag, or the trans flag.

Allright, I'll bite. Could you tell me if there's any meaningful distinction between someone hanging a Ukranian flag and a... Russian Federation flag? Circa 2026, do those flags stand for something, when hanging outside of either of those countries?

If they do, what do they stand for, and what would someone hanging one, versus the other, be communicating?

Re: New statue in London, attributed to Banksy, of a suited man, blinded by a flag

#544

Post by mr-wendel »

Rather than try to score points for team X (or against team Y), I'll quote one of my favs. Please generalize as needed to suite your perspective.

  "I don't get all choked up about yellow ribbons and American flags. I see them as symbols, and I leave them to the symbol-minded." -George Carlin

Re: New statue in London, attributed to Banksy, of a suited man, blinded by a flag

#545

Post by mindslight »

something765478 wrote: post #526
spprashant wrote: post #504

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate? I happen to know nothing about Banksy's political views beyond perhaps he is slightly leaning to the left, maybe anti-capitalist?

> Authorities on Thursday placed safety barriers around the statue as growing crowds of onlookers gathered The fact that the statue was allowed to stay up means that the authorities approved it. So, Banksy isn't really counterculture, he's government approved counterculture.

Your assumption that government power will invariably be (ab)used to oppress messages the people in government do not like is a dynamic of fascism, not a universal truth.

Re: New statue in London, attributed to Banksy, of a suited man, blinded by a flag

#546

Post by armenarmen »

gopperl wrote: post #287
ninjagoo wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's no luck involved in the fact that you were born to your parents, as they were to theirs. Are you claiming to have controlled where and to whom you were born? You did not choose your parents, country, ancestry, class, era, genes, language, or inherited institutions. You may be inseparable from those facts, but you did not earn them. > There's no luck involved in the fact that you were born to your parents >…

[flagged]

You are encouraged to feel bad and apologize for things that you never did but people who look like you did in the past, or you’re a bad person.

You are forbidden from being proud of things you never did but that people who looked like you did in the past, or you’re a bad person. Doubly so on both if you’re of European ancestry. Get with the program.

Re: New statue in London, attributed to Banksy, of a suited man, blinded by a flag

#547

Post by ericmay »

haritha-j wrote: post #525
ericmay wrote: post #483

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I didn't. But I wouldn't claim that a referendum that was voted on by the people of the country to be the same thing as right-leaning groups being in control of the government of the UK.

Depends on who influenced them / paid for those buses.

No it doesn't. If the right was in charge of the government of the UK they wouldn't have needed to have a referendum or drum up support for it.

Here's perhaps a concrete example to help piece this together. I live in Ohio. Our state government is right-leaning, and controlled by the Republican Party. The Republican Party has an anti-abortion platform.

A couple of years ago, citizens got together, created, and then passed an amendment to the Ohio Constitution providing abortion access as a legal right.

The right is still in control of the government, and that is true regardless of who paid to support the referendum, or how it was voted.

Re: New statue in London, attributed to Banksy, of a suited man, blinded by a flag

#548

Post by Ralfp »

appreciatorBus wrote: post #474
pjc50 wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Teachers and doctors are blinded by trans ideology and its flag You're going to get a bunch of downvotes, but I'm also going to take the time to personally tell you how stupid this is as well.

I appreciate the extra time you invested to let me know. So to return the favor, I’ll add a couple of sentences too. A year ago I would never have made such a comment. My understanding about the issues boiled down to approximately: - queer theory is some sort of reasonably academic pursuit that has something to do with gay people - trans is just gay rights 2.0; clearly anyone who has any concerns is a raging bigot Ne…

Noting that you use exclusively gender critical sources (and some very poor ones to add, like Littman's "study") while also having history of blaming "wokism", I seriously doubt you have given this subject a fair consideration.

Interesingly, so called "gender critical" movement is increasingly pivoting to other conservative or plainly reactionary talking points. For example, the book you are recommending makes a thinly veilded point that "promoters of trans ideology" are rich jewish men, key figure among them being George Soros.

Kishwer Falkner who was big proponent of trans people segregation during her EHRC leadership recently turned to anti abortion activism. And plenty of LGB sans TQ people I've talked to are big fans of "we are normal gays who limit our orientation to the bedroom" talking points while also leaning conservative or reactionary themselves.

Re: New statue in London, attributed to Banksy, of a suited man, blinded by a flag

#549

Post by pydry »

foldr wrote: post #436
pydry wrote: post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reads more puerile and jealous than savage. It's got just the right mix of highbrow disdain, unironic self righteousness and naughty language to titillate the average guardian reader though.

Well yes, but so does Banksy :) (Also, if you're familiar with Charlie Brooker's output, he's not really a 'highbrow' type. He started out in games journalism.)

Im familiar with who he is. At the time his claim to fame was coming up with Nathan Barley, which is why I suspected there was more than a little jealousy there.

He got more famous and acclaimed since black mirror.

Re: New statue in London, attributed to Banksy, of a suited man, blinded by a flag

#550

Post by nickpeterson »

esjeon wrote: post #257
ninjagoo wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He's boldly marching into the void into the void, or off the edge? "off the edge" is a clear interpretation of the statue. "into the void" is a bit more of a stretch. IMHO. But that's art for you. Everyone has their own take on it.

I guess “void” here is a bit more like a place you can’t even see (because of the flag).

I always knew returning void was a bad idea
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