Not really I. I wish Greta and XR every thriving in its aims - even if it is an astroturf racket - Archived Message
Posted by Rhisiart Gwilym on April 27, 2019, 9:43 am, in reply to "changed your tune pretty quick there, rhis! (nm)"
because of course the overall aims seem pretty worthy. It's just that I smell the stench of gas-lighting and astroturfing everywhere these days, as the gics learn ways to bring the internet under the same control as they exercise over all the other public communications media - all the way back to Gutenberg. I observe that it's possible to extract some actually good and honourable results out of astroturfing rackets, despite their underlying nefarious purpose. Avaaz, for example, provided some space for lots of us plebs to publicise what we wanted to say, before it showed its true colours by supporting an attack on Syria; and before the IDs of some of the key players in Avaaz were outed, and their funding traced out. (Always an absolutely-critical inquiry, of course!) These are bad times. Just about everything seems to be tainted with sewage, metaphorically speaking. In such a sea of shite, you have to use whatever half-way handy instrument comes to hand. With that in mind, I say Go well, XR! Do some good ASAP. God knows we need it. But - er - folks, don't be too astonished if it turns out eventually that there are feet of clay. Just do what you can with what you've got. But the material linked in this thread does suggest that - as with absolutely everything - the people behind XR need to be able to withstand examination, of themselves, of their funding sources, and above all of any undisclosed deeper purposes which may begin to show up. That just can't be ignored. Still passionately behind what XR is pushing, though. And still inclined to accept that Greta herself is sincere, and really pushing for her stated aims, even if she is being used by gic-forces. Hope that clarifies what I mean, Ian. Hwyl/Cheers!
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