Someone sent up the Goldenmane Signal?
Nice to see you, Yeti-like person. It’s been a while.
And, yes, the assessment that maybe there’s only so many minutes in a day is accurate. But I wanted to at least drop by and say hi, given my current sporadic inclination to explore maybe just fucken throwing my hat into the ring.
At least two people here are already familiar with the cut of my obstreperous jib, so maybe I’d be a good fit. I’m open to ideas.
Hi there, lol, do you have a bat signal or something.
Sadly, yes. It was a bit of a joke, but it does exist.
Kinda appropriate, really.
Well, i’d say welcome but i’ve only been here five minutes myself so i’ll leave that to the senior members. Glad you’re here anyway.
A’hoy @Goldenmane Welcome aboard!
Years ago.
You too ya sweary fucker.
OMFSM! You’re here! I might faint.
OK, so this thread got pretty heated while I wasn’t watching.
It’s calmed down some, but I’ll ask everyone to not post while angry - take an hour or three, let the grumpy-chemicals in your brain dissipate. The other person will still be wrong when you come back 
Christ, don’t faint on my account.
Yeah. And I started it. But I think it was educational. For me anyway.
Nah. I’m over it now.
Have a look around. If you’ve got a question, just ask (no promise on answers).
G’day @AndrewDowning, and thanks for the welcome.
What the fuck is happening with me? Well, I finally figured it was time to step the fuck up and do a little more to make the world a better place. I’ve been an activist in various ways much of my life, mostly on a personal level rather than a party-political level for many reasons (one such being an intense disagreement with both major political parties).
Up until recently, I’ve not felt that affiliation with any particular party was in my wheelhouse. I’m constitutionally incapable of not being a mouthy cunt, and am deeply wary of “joining”, given the shit I saw my father go through in his life.
But, this goddamned resurgence of the authoritarian Right and the fucking corporatisation of everything has to be fought, and I’m only one bloke. A couple of respected colleagues of mine made the case for the Pirate Party, so I thought I’d check you out. I’ve read your platform and constitution, and it’s the closest fit to me I’ve ever come across, so I figured I’d chuck my lot in and see if I can’t help.
Well, I think you found the right place then.
My experience of the Pirate Party is that it’s mostly comprised of people who are ‘wary of “joining”’’.
This has its plusses and minuses.
Organising Pirate events often feels like herding cats, but there’s always plenty of independent thought being contributed.
Yeah, what do you think is going on there?
Personally, I think there’s a bit of a collectivist authoritarian thing going on across the spectrum, but it just emerges as more of an overt short term thing on the right. Easy to recognize.
Pirate Party leans libertarian left. Some people think that’s a contradiction, but I think we can make it work.
I visualise it as … maximize individual freedoms without losing sight of the way that the hierarchies we necessarily form to do the great things we do in modern civilization will inevitably, structurally leave a majority of people at the bottom who need representation on many levels.
This leads to stances like being generally pro-business, but strongly against rent seeking business practices.
That was a bit of a ramble, but hey, it’s Sunday morning and I didn’t get out of bed yet.
Aye, that’s the impression I get.
I’ll say right off the bat that I’m not great at being motivated to organise events. I mean, I can do it, having run film crews and such, but it’s not my greatest strength. That being said, I’ll do what I can.
Frankly, I think a certain degree of authoritarian leaning is woven into the human fabric. I’m no particular fan of evolutionary psychology (being as an awful lot of it consists of just-so stories) but in general I think a decent case could be made for humans tending toward hierarchical structures because at base we’re still just hominids geared toward surviving long enough to make babies.
In broad terms, we’re a eusocial ape, with all the behavioural characteristics and tics that one would expect our heritance to front-load us with. Deference to authority may well be (and probably is) weighted for. Bearing in mind that an is doesn’t make an ought, and that education (rather than indoctrination) tends to free the mind from such hidebound turpitude, I’ve just used three paragraphs to clumsily attempt to reach the point of saying this: It shows up on the Right more exaggeratedly because that’s what the Right is all about. Adherence to social norms. Keeping the proles in their place, and the powerful in theirs.
The authoritarian bent to the human mind is an easy exploit. Every robber-baron ever made landed gentry knows this, and so does the revolutionary, who can only overthrow the robber-barons with an army of people who have bestowed authority upon said revolutionary.
And that’s why I’m deeply wary of joining, and it’s why I joined the Pirates; because it seems to me that this mob are trying to actually empower the people for the sake of empowering the people, rather than empowering themselves - and they know the fucking difference, and are aware of the hazards involved.
To get back on point: education’s been getting progressively sold to the lowest fucking bidder across the world for a couple of decades now, in part because a conga-line of fucksticks bought the notion that government should turn a fucking profit. A notion shopped about by those who stood to make a fucking profit, mind you.
Ah, fuck it. Rant over. I’m not telling any of you anything you don’t know.