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[Yoink]

UK deploys spying garbage bins. They track you for adds

The name's Bin. James Bin.

[Max White]

Why not just turn off the wireless functions of your phone when not in use?

[penguinofhonor]

I don't know about your phone, but in my phone that option is tucked away behind a few menus. If there was a quick way to turn wireless on/off (example: the 3DS has a little switch on the side) then I assume a lot of people would do it.

[PatriotSaint]

Speaking of Elysium, it's nice to know people are showing their concern for the "ignorant masses", and to show the evils of being a capitalist by writing a movie attacking everything they are and stand for from the safety, comfort, and luxury of their multi-million-dollar Hollywood Hills houses as they chortle about how intellectual the message of their big-budget film.

"Hardeh hurdeh, this'll stick it to those lame, old-fashioned conservatives. Oh, and trust me, there's no political message or bias in this movie at all. Duh. I'm Matt Damon. Now where's my royalties?"

To quote some of you guys, "CAPITALISM, LAAAWLLZZ" *ahem, "ho"*

Well, at least they're eternally guilty for it on the inside in their tiny consciousnesses. I'm glad they keep their guilt/hypocrisy diaries next to their Saul Alinsky books (tastefully dedicated to "Satan, the first rebel and stuff, yay"), instead of being praised on the AlterNet or some other pathetic polical tabloid. (Well, who knows...)

And it's the (group)thought that counts, not the nonexistent action, after all.

[Owlbread]

To quote some of you guys, "CAPITALISM, LAAAWLLZZ" *ahem, "ho"*

Snarky little bits like that don't exactly do political debate on these forums or yourself much good, PatriotSaint.

[SalmonGod]

Wow.....

Anyway.....

To be fair, while a lot of producers, directors, actors, etc are fairly rich in Hollywood, they're not obscenely rich.  I don't actually have a problem with multi-millionaires.  Not until you get up into the multiple hundreds of millions, anyway.  And according to this list, there are only a handful of those in showbiz.  Yeah, they're quite rich.  They enjoy more luxurious lives than most people can ever hope for.  But that in itself isn't really harmful to anyone else.

It's billionaires and fucking multi-billionaires that I have a problem with.  That .001% of the population that has hoarded so much wealth, they could end a good number of the world's problems if they cared to.  People so rich that every one of them could be accused of single-handedly impoverishing millions of others.  And those aren't even the reasons I have a problem with them.  I have a problem with them because they abuse the hell out of their influence to constantly make the world a shittier place.  They kick people out of their homes for no reason, destroy the environment, dismantle civil rights, poison the media, push for war, and flaunt their immunity to the law.

Compared to the likes of the Wal-Mart family, even the richest people in Hollywood are hardly anything.  Millionaires may enjoy a comfortable life as citizens on Elysium, but the billionaire class are like the Armadyne corporation responsible for creating that city and its dominance over everyone else.  I don't think there's anything wrong with someone who happens to be privileged, but isn't primarily responsible for creating and maintaining the nature of that privilege, to be critical of it.  I'm privileged compared to many people in the world, but giving it up isn't going to help them.  In fact, it would only hinder my ability to do anything meaningful about it.

Having said that, I don't think the movie is making such a statement because they actually mean it.  I think they just recognize that it's a popular theme right now that's easy to cash in on.

[PatriotSaint]

Dunno, I agree with most of what you said above (common sense is refreshing)m you don't really think Bill Gates and Friends holds meetings with the agenda:

"It Is Our Duty To Set Out To:

1. Evict people for fun.

2. Celebrate Pollution!

3. Immunity! Yaaaaaahhh! (Strangely similar to government leaders)

4. Other Assorted Evil Stuff


@ Owlbread

In that case, I'm not sure why this snarky comment from this particular person is worth singling out above all others.

By the apparent criteria, isn't "capitalism, ho!" (And plenty of other wonderful punchlines) itself worthy of a blown whistle and a forum bandaid?

I was wondering what reaction I would get from that... 

[Max White]

I don't know, Gates himself gives out a lot of money and is pretty much personally responsible for wiping out a third world illness or two... The most criticism you will find is that people also want a piece of the pie going to their charity of choice. Maybe I'm wrong, but he seems alright.

The difference between a movie star and a corporate CEO is that the star made money from using a skill, while the CEO is making money exploiting workers. Yes they are both rich, but how they got there is important.

[penguinofhonor]

To quote some of you guys, "CAPITALISM, LAAAWLLZZ" *ahem, "ho"*

PatriotSaint, calm down a bit.

[Loud Whispers]

Patriot, it's more along the lines of:

• We want money.
• Lower costs at all times possible. Maximize profits at all times possible.

And once corporations realize they can just lobby themselves more money, control consumer spending to attain more money, cut every corner off a circle to get more money, destroy the opposition to monopolize the money etc. you end up where America is at now. Glorious United States of Coca Cola.

Capitalism is not corporatism.

[PatriotSaint]

Patriot, it's more along the lines of:

• We want money.
• Lower costs at all times possible. Maximize profits at all times possible.

And once corporations realize they can just lobby themselves more money, control consumer spending to attain more money, cut every corner off a circle to get more money, destroy the opposition to monopolize the money etc. you end up where America is at now. Glorious United States of Coca Cola.

Capitalism is not corporatism.

Huh?

Oh, I wasn't talking about capitalism vs. corporatism, I was talking about the nefarious agenda of the League of Billionaires.

On that note, it's worth noting how everything reliably stayed downhill during and after the Progressive Era (yes, including the Great Depression, because it's all Wilson's fault, 'cause he wasn't a Progressive at all, right? Right? *cough*

[PatriotSaint]

I don't know, Gates himself gives out a lot of money and is pretty much personally responsible for wiping out a third world illness or two... The most criticism you will find is that people also want a piece of the pie going to their charity of choice. Maybe I'm wrong, but he seems alright.

The difference between a movie star and a corporate CEO is that the star made money from using a skill, while the CEO is making money exploiting workers. Yes they are both rich, but how they got there is important.

But Bill Gates is a corporate executive, or at least was, for that matter.

A paradox, ain't it?

Anyway;

In other words, one group makes their fortune by pretending to be people they aren't and devolving into acting and being exactly like the idiots they often play, and literally being actors, not as a job, but a lonely lifestyle, and the other makes their fortune by exploiting workers, just like Good ol' Bill.

[Descan]

I'm pretty sure we aren't as single-minded as you seem to think. Pointin at a few good-acting billionaires and saying "Ha! See! Some of them are okay!" isn't going to get more than a shrug and a "Yeah, so?" from most of us.

[Max White]

If Gates was your typical rich guy, he wouldn't have made a full time job out of convincing other rich guys to give away more money. They would just do it themselves... There will always be good people, doesn't change the fact that Starbucks doesn't pay tax.

[alexandertnt]

*stuff*

People with alot of power tend to want more money/power. And while people are not going out to do evil per se, the negative consequences of their actions taken whilst aquiring more money/power may outweigh any positives gained for people other then themselves.