News/Current Affairs thread

[LaGoosh]

The Onion on point as always.

[The Gaffer]

There's been some good posts here which have given me an unexpected amount to hyperfocus on when I should be doing other menial work. Some of us are sincere in our approach to trying to make sense of this. We all carry different attitudes, beliefs and neurological makeups into the world with us and invariably apply them to situations like this. It's fine to challenge that - fine to challenge ideologically naivety - I just hope it doesn't descend into discrediting and belittling the intentionality amongst decent people trying to feel their way around in the fog. 

My own initial reaction - I should clarify - wasn't rooted in any sort of posthumous sympathy for Charlie Kirk, Former Child. That doesn't track with me on an existential level. I don't believe you get to his position of influence with some serious graft, conniving and sincerity of will to the societal torment you are attempting to normalise and even mandate. He as good as put the bullet in his neck. To that end, I'm also not heartless enough to see how the cosmic irony and just desserts of it all can tickle. 

I have reservations in terms of wondering if America is still at the tipping point - an atrocious, vicious tipping point - where something like this will do more harm than good for rhetoric and repeat/response violence. Something innocent lives will invariably be caught in the crossfire of. I completely take the point that it might have gone over that tipping point already and that I may not be fully appreciating this, what with my neck rarely coming above the parapet in terms of exposing myself to the news cycle. I also take the point that should not be sugar coated. 

I honestly just find it difficult to quantify and to sell to myself that this will produce more good than harm. Some posts here are baking my noodle with that, which I appreciate. The overriding thought I have now is that it looks bleak as a tipping point but it can, might (and - as I'm learning - possibly should) look so much worse on the other side, in ways we have not seen yet. 

[LaGoosh]

Another way to look at it is that extremist far right figures have been saying and doing horrendous things for ages with complete impunity because they believe that they will face zero consequences for it. Maybe now some of them might wind it down a bit if they think someone might put a hole through them.

Probably not but you never know.

[Gus Mears]

If I ever feel sad about my age, I just remember that I was 7 when Peter Mandelson first got fired from government in ignominy and he's still getting fired today.

[Jazzy G]

Nobody deserves to die in that way. He leaves a family behind. Yes, he was an awful person, but it's an awful way to go. 

That Trump video is weird. 

It was either a heck of a lucky shot, or a heck of a good shot. Whether they shooter survives or not when they're found will be telling. I can't help but feel somebody wanted to create a martyr or distract the public away from something else, but that's enough tinfoil hat shenanigans. Hopefully we'll find out more in the long run. They still won't introduce gun control though. 

Who'd have thought Peter Mandelson would be a bit of a wrong 'un? Colour me surprised. 

 

[deathrey]

10 minutes ago, Jazzy G said:

Nobody deserves to die in that way.

This is not aimed at you Jazzy even though I have quoted you, it was just convenient. The thing that I find difficult in this case with that idea is that he was pretty happy for other people - literally me and you, other people's children in schools, other people posting on this board - to die that way. He quite openly espoused that it was a sacrifice he was happy to make so I honestly don't feel that someone who promotes for it being ok for others to die that way deserves a better death. He deserves what he put out there.

Edited September 11, 2025 by deathrey

[wandshogun09]

Just seen this. Two tweets, same day. Hating Jews is bad but the gays, trans and blacks? Fill your boots apparently. Back-to-back tweets. ‘Hate is bad…well except here’. 

[Jazzy G]

Yeah. It's a disgusting attitude for him or anybody to have. I agree with that part. Hate twists people. I don't have time for them. I don't feel bad that he's gone. I never knew him, but I do worry about what the fallout from it will be. 

Still won't be stricter gun laws though. 

[Merzbow]

I'm not sure I buy that any fallout wouldn't have happened anyway, there's the possibility of it being accelerated but American fascists don't need an excuse any longer and have already proven they can get away with anything. Trump will just pardon you for being a serial nonce or anything at this point, as long as you're an asset to him.

[Carbomb]

Should also be pointed out he is on record as an antisemite - but because it was against liberal and left-wing Jews, they were happy to paper over it.

Based on the vast majority of statements and behaviour anyone can see from the right, it's clear that right-wing Gentiles do not give a fuck about Jews. Antisemitism is simply a useful tool to beat the left with. 

EDIT: Regarding Kirk.

Edited September 11, 2025 by Carbomb
Kevin Gallen

[BomberPat]

32 minutes ago, Jazzy G said:

It was either a heck of a lucky shot, or a heck of a good shot

I'd be surprised if the shooter specifically aimed for the neck - that in particular would be a very lucky shot, but I'm seeing an increasing amount of posts trying to argue that this was some kind of borderline impossible shot that would have required an expert marksman, which is just trying to turn this into JFK conspiracy nonsense. The BBC are reporting that the building the shooter is believed to have fired from is about 150 yards away; that's about a medium length firing range. 

3 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

I'm not sure I buy that any fallout wouldn't have happened anyway, there's the possibility of it being accelerated but American fascists don't need an excuse any longer and have already proven they can get away with anything. Trump will just pardon you for being a serial nonce or anything at this point, as long as you're an asset to him.

That's where I'm at with it. I don't blame anyone being scared or anxious by what might come of this, but when people are concerned about the normalisation of political violence and how Trump might use it as an excuse for restricting freedoms, and targeting political opponents, I just want to say "where have you been?". Maybe he'll have an unaccountable masked paramilitary kidnapping people off the street, or he'll be threatening to send the National Guard into Democrat-run cities. Could you imagine?

[Scratch]

I genuinely fear that the political temperature won’t be turned down, certainly not any time soon.

Most of us are old enough to remember how politics used to work, where regardless of a politician’s views and how much they differed from another’s, there was always a foundation of respect - no matter how small. That respect has almost entirely vanished in a world where anyone can be a politician with a platform, making a name for themselves by shouting louder than the next person about things that grab more attention.

We do a lot of research at work about a person’s attention potential, as one’s attention has never been so competed for as it is right now. It affects how we design things, how we describe them, how we market them, how we cost them and so forth. In a world as passionate and partisan as politics, every quick win is taken - many that are quite extreme. If it’s not, you lose.

For me, there are two considerations.

First, with an ever-increasing need to be faster, firmer, louder, more outrageous, how does one remain credible, being able to hold up against scrutiny?  Scrutiny is a key foundation of democracy, but as I’m sure we’ve all seen, there’s now far too much to scrutinise and even when it is, everyone else has either moved on to something else, or no longer cares - last week’s scandal is old news now.

Proving someone to be wrong is getting so hard (some, maybe many, just won’t believe or have the right reaction even if you can) so efforts are better spent trying to get ahead of your opponent the next time. In short, every single piece of news or information has an incredibly small amount of value, and so it doesn’t matter if someone calls bullshit - nothing happens.

Secondly, we just aren’t capable as human beings to process the sheer amount of information that’s competing for our attention in the mobile digital age. I genuinely believe human evolution lends us to naturally gravitating to whatever feels more comfortable to us. For centuries, those that are deeply religious would never have changed their feelings around faith, regardless of how much compelling evidence there may be to suggest it’s all a load of nonsense.  We’re all born wanting to feel comfortable, and nothing makes us feel more uncomfortable than being told we’re wrong. As more and more noise is telling us we’re wrong, It means the roots grow deeper and deeper as we cling to what makes us feel better; we in effect lose the ability or will to scrutinise - it’ll either compromise our comfort or be met with denial should we try to remove someone else’s.

In Kirk’s case, he clearly saw an opportunity to make something of himself by making good use of his skills that would see him gain a following online. In 2025, that brings fame, perceived intelligence and of course, money.

Before the internet, the closest someone could come might be through a newspaper column that may appeal to many individuals, none of whom would validate their beliefs and comforts by knowing thousands of others “like” this too. In many ways, that wasn’t such a bad safety net in preventing radical ideas from growing out of control. 

Given that mix, I’m certain, albeit regrettably, that political arenas will just keep growing whilst becoming more extreme in their diversity and methods. That’s a horrendously pessimistic view, and I’d love to be proven wrong of course - but I don’t see it being any different.

In short, the internet gave us a tool that would finally allow an entire planet to understand one another. But once again, humans found it was far more comfortable in using it as a tool of proving ourselves to be right, and everyone else to be wrong.

[BomberPat]

one thing I will say is that kids at university don't deserve to be traumatised by something like this, and my heart goes out to them. Particularly as they would be far less likely to have wound up traumatised if the government hadn't made it legal to openly carry guns on a university campus in the state of Utah, thanks largely to the efforts of the likes of Charlie Kirk and the political projects he supports - a law which was changed less than two months ago.

Sandy Hook was the tipping point for violence in America. When the political class could collectively decide that the death of twenty primary school children wasn't enough to meaningfully move the needle on gun control, it was obvious that there was no going back. Maybe it will turn out this shooter was an angry leftist, but the chances are far higher that they will have the confused grab bag of conspiracist delusions and internet-poisoned beliefs of most mass shooters; done for a vague sense of notoriety and escalation than for any easy to pin down political motivation. And that's just the nature of America now. There was a school shooting yesterday, and the BBC haven't even reported on it, as far as I can tell. As of yesterday, there were 47 school shootings in America this year. It's horrible enough that the term "school shooting" is just common parlance, that it doesn't need explaining or defining. It's far worse that they have long since ceased to even be newsworthy.

[Chest Rockwell]

It is genuinely unfathomable that there is any action that could be taken from even the right to cool the political temperature. If any of them tried now to be the voice of reason they would be disavowed by the movement.

Edit: as a side note, one of them unironically comparing it to the Reichstag fire is hilarious.

Edited September 11, 2025 by Chest Rockwell

[Cousin Jim Bob]

The shooter could turn out to be a Republican voter, like the one with Trump last year. And I still don't think it would calm the right wing down. It would still somehow be the Democrats/Biden/Obama's fault.