The Current Events Thread

[Syobon]

BBC cut off a Rage Against The Machine song for singing "Fuck you I won't do what you told me". Their reasoning? "We asked them not to do that".

[Turbro]

The irony is delicious. I can't eat another bite.

[BurntToShreds]

Can anybody living in the UK give me a rundown on if it is as much as a police state as media makes it out to be?

[The Idiotic Oracle]

[Kamak]

BBC cut off a Rage Against The Machine song for singing "Fuck you I won't do what you told me". Their reasoning? "We asked them not to do that".

Here's the thing though, like most places, certain words have the be censored at certain times of the day (or for some words, they're banned at pretty much any time). It's the broadcasting law/standards/practices, whether you like it or not, and whether the government/broadcasters agree with it in every case.

So while it seems "unnecessary" and "proves their point", the BBC had to do it to stay within the lines of the law (and probably prevent lawsuits from disgruntled parents).

Similarly, I could say "I bet the proletariats are going to be dicks and ban me for advertizing."

If the proletariats ban me, then by my reasoning, they're dicks for doing it, even though they're doing their job. If they don't do anything, they're not following the rules.

It's funny in the context, but if people are actually getting upset over this for "POLICE STATE!" reasons, that's pretty silly.

[BurntToShreds]

I'm not getting mad over it like that, honestly. It just reminded me that I've been meaning to ask a British person about the way the government runs things. You always hear and read about street cameras, but does Britain/The UK have anything more police state-y than that?

[Syobon]

No, it's funny because this is what happens when the anti-establishment music get's absorbed into the capitalist machine. It's both parties fault for not realising they weren't exactly ideal business partners.

As far as I know the UK is less of a police state then the US is.

[Syobon]

Hey, someone finally subbed this. Not really current, but let's see what you guys think of this Dutch television show

[BurntToShreds]

A panda cub died the other day. In all honesty I don't see how people are so shocked. There are animals that die during infancy all the time. I just want to know how much time and cheddar went into trying to get the parents to have the cub in the first place; trying to keep this species alive is such a waste.

[Reyo]

Well, given that preserving as much diversity as possible is ideal, I can see where they come from with this, but at the same time when you think about how many species have been wiped off the face of this planet it's really REALLY insignificant to freak out over this one freaken panda. Besides, I think it's more to preserve the sanity of our own species, which is to blame for most of the extinctions that have happened within our own lifetimes. Maybe if we save this one panda species, we can keep telling ourselves that we're not neglectful dicks.

It's the same reason someone will give at collection during mass after denying a homeless guy a buck on the street corner.

[Dire]

I think this topic came up recently. I agree with the whole - pandas are useless thing but it makes sense to make an effort for them because they are the cuddly wuddly face of preservation. There are a lot of bird species that are threatened but there aren't as many people who feel empathetic towards birds as they do mammals, and again not as many people who care about mammals in general as they do the cute mammals.
The panda might waste a lot of cheddar, but ideally it's bringing cheddar in too.

[BurntToShreds]

Preserving the panda for diversity is wrong as we are artificially preserving the species with no hope of pandas ever being re-released into the wild. There just isn't enough habitat left in the wild to sustain them. Let the pandas die out and get another cute mascot. Maybe one that actually contributes to its ecosystem, like the tiger or the killer whale. It just makes me sick that we're wasting a large amount of cheddar on this species when all of that cheddar could go into preserving a species that actually has a fighting chance.

[Syobon]

I don't remember the exact number but multiple species a day go extinct. We should work on preserving ecosystems instead of focusing on singular species, as the latter will be accomplished through the former.

[BurntToShreds]

That makes a lot more sense.

[Tetrunes]

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