It's interesting to me

[67454f14a8adefox]

In that context, I also want to remind everyone of the ongoing installation of an "allseeing" scoring system by the Chinese government to judge their citizens. -> http://www.wired.co.uk/article/chinese-government-social-credit-score-privacy-invasion

Yeah, this is scary!

[67454f14a8c74Kolya]

Yeah, but you only say that because you will never get more than 2 MeowMeowBeenz!

[67454f14a8d6bfox]

"Mark Zuckerberg is Fidel Castro in flipflops. MeowMeowBeenz is gonna make East Berlin look like Woodstock. You take my word for it."

[67454f14a8fbaKolya]

I'm currently watching the Netflix documentary Wild Wild Country which is about the Rajneesh movement who in the early 1980s moved from India to Oregon to build a city for several thousand people in the middle of nowhere. The whole thing is just utterly crazy. And the movement quickly gets into an ever escalating conflict with the local populace, who use land use rights to barely veil their xenophobia and get rid of the cult.
At the center of the conflict on the other side is one Indian woman, Ma Anand Sheela, who acts as the personal secretary of a guru who decides to stop speaking publicly for most of 4 years. She therefore becomes the heart of the movement herself, which exists under a constant threat of eviction. Her ways to deal with this are initially quite creative and often amusing (she's an excellent speaker). But when the pressure rises she takes a few increasingly dark turns to save her commune. 
The documentary makes it easy to sympathize with both sides to a certain degree and see the faults in each as well.

Further reading: http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2018/03/read_the_oregonians_original_2.html

[67454f14a90d3fox]

Ah, Rolls Royce-Osho & the Food Poiseners!

mapquest.com: "The tale of a nitrous huffing cult leader and his 93 Rolls Royces"

[67454f14a92d4Kolya]

haha, that's the one. The article you linked is funny, but not very accurate. For example he left India in a tax fraud move by all other accounts. And they didn't start buying houses in Antelope because they had no infrastructure on their ranch (they had) but because they had a lot of enemies there which they solved by becoming the majority in this tiny (40 souls) town.

And of course the youtube video is falsely labelled. The so called "dynamic meditation" depicted in it is in my opinion simply a way to get high without drugs due to hyperventilation and self-hypnosis. But it doesn't explain why so many people willingly submitted themselves to a "master", gave up their money and their identity to become part of this cult.

We talked a bit in the chat about this before and I think the main reason is an an alienation with the normal world that felt emotionally vacuous to these people. They were hardly the first nor the last to feel that way. And when offered the opportunity to live and work with a few thousand others who all expressly love each other in a city without crime while feeling enlightened through meditation, that sense of community and working towards a communal goal made it easy to glorify the obvious greed of their master and other dark shenanigans going on.

[67454f14a9413fox]

Revealed: Cambridge Analytica data on thousands of Facebook users still not deleted
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MepM_YXZdYg

Cambridge Analytica: The Mexico allegations
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vM16nRAkmaU

[67454f14a9539Kolya]

Yeah, I noticed that Mark Zuckerberg lately changed his ethical status to: "It's complicated."


(This joke stolen from BBC Friday Night Comedy from Radio 4: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0623tzj)

[67454f14a9657fox]

Hehe

buzzfeed.com: "Growth At Any Cost: Top Facebook Executive Defended Data Collection In 2016 Memo — And Warned That Facebook Could Get People Killed"

[67454f14a98aficemann]

Well all this had to happen eventually. FB's been giving away user data for years via countless surveys, add on apps etc etc.

For it to all be now primarily taken issue with due to election voter influencing, I find amusing. People seem to be looking for numerous scapegoat reasons for why Trump got elected. I don't see the point behind that (though them chasing FB for giving away user data is certainly worthwhile), as it's not really going to change anything. Though sure it will help ensure that no propaganda style voter influencing does not happen next time round.

Problem being that apparently Obama's campaign made use of similar tactics, and yet no'one seems to have any issue at all with that. Why? Because the majority of people like him.

Trump got in for clear cut reasons. We all may not like what he's turned out to be and done since then, but that doesn't change the circumstances that were at that point in time. From a non us-citizen / outsider's perspective, it looks to me, like some are trying to find some way to get him booted out of office. First the Russia stuff + sexual harassment, then this and the claims by the porn star. It wont get him booted out, but still they try.

Going to be a fun next few years.

[67454f14a99cffox]

You can be sure that there's always people trying to push whoever is currently in charge out - sometimes more then others. To me the Trump/Obama-aspect is totally secondary - this story goes far beyond and calls into question the entire democratic process (and then some).

[67454f14a9d88Kolya]

Obama certainly had help by younger people making him popular online, but that's not the same as psycho-analyzing millions of people through their social media profiles and then using this data to push their buttons. That's what Cambridge Analytica did for Trump.

Anyway, I finished watching Wild Wild Country (here's a good Reddit discussion about it) and the thing that still strikes me the most is how happy these people obviously were...
I'm reminded of that line (from a NOFX song): "His hopes may be false, but his happiness is real."

When I was a teenager I used to listen to that and think: "Yeah, it would be a lot easier to be able to believe in something." and then sort of revel in that fake-pain of being too smart for religion. But as I get older I'm beginning to really feel the pang of the fact, that there is nothing else but your own level of happiness to this ride of life. And I can't help but envy these people, because whatever they saw in this movement, it made them happy in a way that they are still glowing when they talk about it to this day. None of them seems to feel as if they had been scammed, even years later. And that makes me think that they must have found something in their commune. Despite the misuse of power and money that was going on. And what they found was so compelling, that they would have killed or died for it. And the question I keep asking myself is: What if it was worth it?

I've looked into some of Osho's writings and I've seen nothing in it that would justify the worship he received. It seems to be rambling thoughts - well meaning, but often misguided and very much tangled up in the mindset of his era. He has some interesting perspectives. But there's nothing in it that would make me think this guy was onto something big.
It fits with my perception that he was merely a guy who enabled others to have a good experience, not so much by his own (rather selfish) being, but because those people actively sought this experience. It was all inside of them from the start and they just needed an excuse and space to start acting differently.

Which means the world they had found around them didn't give them much chance to do so before. Because the assumption that everyone was basically good and worth being loved is too easily abused. A few egoistic people can ruin it for everyone. And so we assume that anyone might be an asshole and treat everyone as such, to protect ourselves. But we end up being that asshole.

[67454f14a9e9efox]

There are also old Nazis who are still glowing when they talk about Hitler to this day. I don't think that says much about the quality of his "teachings" per se. But yeah, there were/are certainly more ill-spirited cult leaders around.

[67454f14aa016Kolya]

Well I'm more interested in that commune experience anyway and not in their leader, although he seems to have been tremendously important to them. So much that they dissolved when he left.

The creators of the series have said in interviews that they also created a segment which just showed the daily life in Rajneeshpuram but couldn't fit that into the episodes but they are still hoping to release it in some way. That I would like to see.

[67454f14aa14cfox]

otaquest.com: "There's an AI Running for the Mayoral Role of Tama City, Tokyo"

It may have lost some voters over the years but Tokyo is still a strong contender for the capital of Cyberpunk, it seems.

[67454f14aa2e0voodoo47]

why not - I mean, a goat would do a better job than 99% of politicians, so I really don't see how an AI could do any worse.

[67454f14aa408fox]

Heh, let's talk about bio degradability then. Goat wins! Not sure about the carbon footprint. Depends on what you feed it.

[67454f14aa551JosiahJack]

Even an AI should only serve one term. Re-elect no-one.

[67454f14aa6c0voodoo47]

also, an AI (or a goat, for that matter) is guaranteed to not drop coke live on TV, so think about that!

[67454f14aa7c3fox]

Yeah but goats are known to be teetotalers too, depending on what you feed them - again. So far, the only real disadvantage for the goat is body odor, as far as I am concerned.

[67454f14aa91dKolya]

Boys unearth the treasure of the Viking king Harald Bluetooth on the German island of Rügen.
Archeologists think it had been lost due to a poor connection.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/16/treasure-of-legendary-danish-king-bluetooth-unearthed-in-germany

[67454f14aaa63fox]

Bluetooth’s lasting legacy is found today in smartphones and laptops – the wireless Bluetooth technology is named after him, and the symbol is composed of the two runes spelling out his initials HB.

Heh, the more you know...

[67454f14aabc1Kolya]

I knew that! Fricking viking runes are on our puters because the guy who designed the protocol was reading a historical viking novel ("The Long Ships") at the time.

I hope one day Bluetooth is going to get replaced by a higher bandwidth protocol named Forkbeard. Partly because that's the name of Bluetooth's son, but also because it's so much fun to say. Forkbeard.

[67454f14ab281Kolya]

You don’t have a right to believe whatever you want to

https://aeon.co/ideas/you-dont-have-a-right-to-believe-whatever-you-want-to