A new study blandly argues that attraction to tyranny is tied to a belief, usually misplaced, in direct personal benefit.
…society’s portrayal of strong leaders as tough, often masculine, figures willing to do the dirty work of protecting the group…
Portrayal is right.
This is like saying society portrays toddler rants as dirty work of protecting its family. A portrayal doesn’t automatically make something true or accurate.
For some people, due to their upbringing, life experiences and beliefs, following a tyrannical leader is a sincere and sensible choice for themselves and the group they belong to, especially if they view the world as a dangerous place.
Taking excessive casualties was not a consideration, he said. “We see how the Russians treat their mobilized men — they are not people,” said [Oleksiy Melnyk, a former Ukrainian Air Force lieutenant colonel].
That’s the hard reality of tyranny, regardless of society’s portrayals.
I get the report saying there are people sincere in dehumanization of themselves and others, but sensible? Was it sensible being a Nazi because false benefits were promised based on lies? Was it sensible murdering neighbors to move into their homes and wear their clothes, while falsely calling them the aggressor? Are we supposed to think of the upside to mob violence or even war crimes?
Raised for generations with the (legitimate) belief that theirs was a martyred nation, many Poles found it increasingly hard to accept that their victimhood did not automatically grant them the moral high ground when it came to their behavior…
These are dangerous games where everyone loses — society regresses into self-harm — fighting under a false belief that parts of itself are an “other”.
A raging toddler is neither capable of nor intending family protection, any more than a broken clock can tell time. To imply that relativity somehow makes it right, is dead wrong — a form of science denial.
The study and its recommendations could benefit from advising that people really should think about whether things happen to them, or they make things happen. I’m reminded of a post I wrote in 2006 on WWII Kamikaze logic and motivations.
Invariably groups focused more on “things happen to them” (and associated fears) want solutions that are easy, routine and minimal judgement. This predisposes them to the false attraction of tyranny, especially during times of disruption (e.g. industrialization) where fraud is harder to detect. The broken clock is broken, no matter what society portrays it as. And it certainly isn’t sensible to say a broken clock can tell time.
“We’ve dug into not just to the language, the rhetoric in these documents, but also the data. And I’d say in that sense, our analysis really seals the deal on ‘Exxon Knew,'” Supran said. It “gives us airtight evidence that Exxon Mobil accurately predicted global warming years before, then turned around and attacked the science underlying it.”
[…]
“It was clear that Exxon Mobil knew what was going on,” Wuebbles said. “The problem is at the same time they were paying people to put out misinformation. That’s the big issue.”
There’s a difference between the “hype and spin” that companies do to get you to buy a product or politicians do to get your vote and an “outright lie … misrepresenting factual information and that’s what Exxon did,” Oreskes said.
Is there really a difference? Exxon is using disinformation to get people to buy its products and put its politicians into office.
The outright lies maybe used to be different back in the WWI Propaganda Office days of Woodrow Wilson, but by the 1930s (e.g. the inexplicable rise of petroleum cars instead of electric at that time) surely it’s been the same thing.
Here’s a example from Texas of how roads become far less safe as more Tesla were introduced, necessitating expensive infrastructure upgrades to save lives.
When he reached Pierce Street, a Tesla turned the corner and drove into the bike lane. First, though, the vehicle hit the concrete barriers protecting the lane, bouncing over them, the force of the impact reduced before Fincham was hit and was thrust across the Tesla’s hood.
The crash broke Fincham’s ribs, badly bruised his body and left a permanent scar on his hand, but he made a full recovery.
“I’m walking around because of the infrastructure,” he told the editorial board recently.
That can’t be said for hundreds of other Houstonians, some of their deaths, and lives, memorialized by “ghost bikes” adorned solemnly on street corners throughout town.
I’m not exaggerating about Tesla. The company wouldn’t exist without fraud. It’s become a public nuisance.
In February of 2022 their latest “Full Self-Driving” was proven yet again to be the opposite of what was promised, soon almost crashing into a cyclist.
A video trying to highlight Tesla FSD’s safety benefits instead captures a scary near-miss with a cyclist.
You may remember a decade ago the crazy 2013 case, which now seems like ominous foreshadowing.
A 63 year-old retiree driving a new Tesla Model S last November crossed a double yellow line, drove up a hill, drove down a hill, and finally crashed into bicyclist Joshua Alper, killing him as a result. […] Jain has been charged with misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter in Alper’s death, and not a felony, because he “did not act in a reckless way” according to the report.
That driver wasn’t charged with a felony despite falling asleep at the wheel after… he claimed his Tesla had intoxicated him.
The Tesla CEO then tried to falsely cite this case as reason he created and promoted Autopilot as being safe for falling asleep, encouraging Jain-like intoxicated driving.
Source: Twitter
Think for a minute how incredibly deceitful and malicious Tesla’s CEO is — developing automation for harm while claiming it’s for safety. He claimed that one bicyclist death by a sleeping driver was his inspiration for Autopilot, which ever since has been implicated in drivers killing more and more people!
10 out of 10 “Driverless” Fatalities Were Caused by Tesla
He falsely promoted “Autopilot would have prevented cyclist killed”, despite people correctly sounding the alarm that his Autopilot was only a lane assist thus blind to cyclists sharing the lane.
Source: Twitter
That “idiot” was exactly right, Autopilot was a huge lie — intermittent lane assist is a nightmare for cyclists as I explained recently. It was truly tragic foreshadowing of the deaths ahead.
2021: Fell asleep (as instructed by the Tesla CEO) and, when approaching a curve, [Autopilot] crossed into the oncoming traffic lane and struck a pole on the opposite shoulder.
Tesla didn’t just do the opposite of what it shamelessly promoted, it did something even worse. Lately it has been proven to make drivers perform worse than if they drove other cars, not least of all because of a CEO repeatedly making false and misleading statements.
“Fred averaged 10,000 miles per year on his bike and with his wife by his side had cycled across America, Australia, Argentina, Chile, New Zealand, and a host of European countries in his retirement years,” [until a Tesla sharing the lane ran over him on a straight road].
The rider was cycling along 56th Avenue when a Tesla hit from behind.
Hit from behind? These avoidable deaths are a Tesla thing, apparently, part of their new design that removes safety features to increase car profits. A biker was killed July 7 and another on July 24 in 2022.
Michael Brooks, acting executive director of the nonprofit Center for Auto Safety, called on NHTSA to recall Tesla’s Autopilot because it is not recognizing motorcyclists, emergency vehicles or pedestrians. “It’s pretty clear to me, and it should be to a lot of Tesla owners by now, this stuff isn’t working properly and it’s not going to live up to the expectations, and it is putting innocent people in danger on the roads,” Brooks said.
Owners? Last but not least, in 2021 a surgeon used his Tesla as a weapon to murder a cyclist, spattering himself in blood:
Henkin, who turned 59 on Tuesday, told police the Model S was a loaner vehicle owned by Tesla and he was on his way to work. He said he believed he was traveling the speed limit, which he thought to be 35 or 40 mph, records say. [The posted limit was 20]. The next day, Tampa police Detective James Snell wrote up a warrant affidavit for Henkin’s arrest on a vehicular homicide charge. In an affidavit seeking a search warrant for the Tesla’s event data recorder, Snell wrote that he used a “time/distance analysis” of the video to determine the car was traveling in excess of 100 mph just prior to the crash. Data from the event recorder showed the car was moving about 83 mph a half-second before impact, records say.
…given the number of Model 3s you’re likely to see blasting down narrow side streets in the Heights these days, Tesla probably needs as many spare parts for its Houston customers as it can get.
Honestly I figured Texas would have gone that route (pun intended) with some kind of Tesla hunting license. It’s reached a point where non-gun-owning residents probably should apply for a permit to not own and operate a firearm.
On my last trip there, as I skinned a bloody buck from a successful hunting trip, I was told that we’re serving an obligation to kill deer because they’re a public nuisance.
It got me thinking that there definitely are too many Tesla, and their owners often intend harm if not just public nuisance…
So color me surprised that this state with the most guns is investing in public infrastructure instead, as if Texas wants to become a civilized society or something and protect people from Teslas.
Tesla Model 3 in 2021 crashed into a bicycle. Would stronger infrastructure have prevented injuries?
The “Moral Rating Agency” (MRA) isn’t impressed with companies driving through loopholes to profit on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
…Microsoft Corp… on the Moral Rating Agency’s ‘Hall of Shame’ of companies still allegedly involved in Russia, ranked according to the Agency’s “moral rating.”
Marketwatch says MRA was set up specifically to examine integrity of companies pledging to exit Russia, using a moral algorithm.
Its latest research argues Microsoft has dropped significantly from a 2022 “faint-hearted chicken” rating, now among the worst companies supporting Russian aggression.
In March, shortly after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, Microsoft announced the suspension of all new sales of products and services. In June the software giant said it is significantly scaling down its operations in Russia, but would fulfill its existing contractual obligations to customers in the country, according to Reuters.
To recap, Microsoft announced in September 2022 it was working with Russian officials to meet their requirements.
And soon after that Russian media thanked Microsoft for providing new software and support.
…at the end of 2022 and that as of this week, updates for at least Windows 11 could be downloaded and installed by folks in Russia. “As we shared previously, we have stopped all new product and services sales in Russia and are complying with sanctions from the EU, UK and US,” Microsoft told The Register in a statement. So, updates… are OK, then? Got it.
No new software sales. Only new software. That’s a curious loophole.
IBM’s Watson was instrumental to the Nazi Holocaust as he and his direct assistants worked with Adolf Hitler to help ensure genocide ran on IBM equipment.
IBM was so obsessive about these genocide contracts that it demanded the U.S. government ensure machines be retrieved from Germany and returned with full payment (from seized German funds) for services delivered to Hitler.
This shouldn’t be news to anyone, yet the fact that IBM could still name anything Watson is proof that it’s still news to everyone.
IBM maintained a customer site, known as the Hollerith Department, in virtually every concentration camp to sort or process punch cards and track prisoners. The codes show IBM’s numerical designation for various camps. Auschwitz was 001, Buchenwald was 002; Dachau was 003, and so on. Various prisoner types were reduced to IBM numbers, with 3 signifying homosexual, 9 for anti-social, and 12 for Gypsy. The IBM number 8 designated a Jew. Inmate death was also reduced to an IBM digit: 3 represented death by natural causes, 4 by execution, 5 by suicide, and code 6 designated “special treatment” in gas chambers. IBM engineers had to create Hollerith codes to differentiate between a Jew who had been worked to death and one who had been gassed, then print the cards, configure the machines, train the staff, and continuously maintain the fragile systems every two weeks on site in the concentration camps.
Are the “Gates” of hell what we should call Microsoft’s contractual obligations to Russia?
That should be straightforward enough for Microsoft to be investigated and held accountable… unlike IBM, which still uses the “Watson” brand after his exposed role in genocide.
Thomas Watson chose to tabulate the Nazi census, to accept Hitler’s medal, and to fight for control of Dehomag. And he made other equally indefensible choices in his years of doing a profitable business counting Jews for Hitler…
IBM’s decisions and role are indefensible.
Morality may be more complicated for Microsoft, in ways the MRA calculator above didn’t consider. Let’s suppose a software company today supplies backdoors and remote control into updates entering Russian territory.
After all, Russia itself demanded Microsoft treat the country uniquely. Request granted?
In that sense, every Russian system taking updates from Microsoft now may be totally compromised by American military intelligence. And at the same time Russian systems not taking updates from Microsoft also may be… compromised.
We’re taking about Microsoft, after all. And war. And everyone in Russia surely knows the danger of “using” Windows.
It’s complicated.
My money is on Microsoft aiding America with what it wants, by giving Russia what it doesn’t understand.
That algorithm seems beyond the MRA, obviously, but the real proof would be Microsoft pushing code that (even indirectly) stops Russia torturing abducted children, let alone prevents Russia’s wider war crimes and its constant bombing of civilians.
