Current Events

[julian_doe]

Today should be the national day of mourning in the States

That is a sad truth :/

[curiouscharles]

http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/canada-europe-cheer-ceta-as-countermeasure-to-isolationism-1.3286091

Canada - EU free trade is now an inevitable reality.

Should be provisionally applied [90% of tariffs disappear, including those on apparel & footwear] by April 1st at the earliest.

Too late for SS17, but come FW17 Canadian stores will have the luxury of offering EU pricing.

[nvsnli]

Judging by his work so far (incl. cabinet appointments), seems like the hysteria was more than justified.

Havent paid attention to that but my point all along was to give the man a chance and judge after.
Also the discussion becomes somewhat polluted when opposite views get labeled racists and such.
I still think there was too bad options and the other one won.

I would have preferred Bernie myself.

[Faust]

Havent paid attention to that but my point all along was to give the man a chance and judge after.
Also the discussion becomes somewhat polluted when opposite views get labeled racists and such.
I still think there was too bad options and the other one won.

I would have preferred Bernie myself.

Please. Anyone who says that is either an idiot or a lunatic. I don't know which one you are, but now that your chosen one is embarrassing the entire country (surprise?), what's your verdict? And, anyway, what the fuck is this "give the man a chance" bullshit. The chance is running the most powerful country for four years. It's not a fucking coffee maker with a 30-day return policy.

[lowrey]

lol. The "give a chance" idea would maybe have been plausible before the inaguaration, though it was very obvious that he is unfit on every possible scale already then. But to say that now, after his irratic behaviour, dishonesty and lunacy has only escalated, I don't even know what to say... You are walking with your eyes closed, maybe you will wake up at some point or maybe not.

Also, the two bad choices argument, it's like having the option to chop off your fingers or your head and people chose the latter.

[mne]

Where do I start ..

[goldsamxo]

Where do I start ..

It always blows my mind, how something of this magnitude can slip through quality control - shit, probably multiple layers of people reviewing this...

[deadboy]

Stories about this ad are blowing up in my Facebook feed, even though it came out the same day as news of probably the most horrific attack on civilians, in the worst conflict of our time... an attack that should make a whole lot of people sit up and take notice, and consider what, if any role other nations should have or continue to have in said conflict. We now know it may change the course of U.S. foreign policy (I mean, who really knows with this President), which could open the country up to reprisal in the form of lone wolf terror attacks from those loyal to one side in the war, or even worse relations with another global superpower.

What I'm getting at is, yeah the Pepsi commercial is stupid, but people agreed it was stupid pretty much immediately, and I wish they'd moved on to more important things, instead of this fixation on social justice low hanging fruit and pop culture snark.

[mne]

goldsamxo - agreed. I wonder though, if they went with 'any publicity is good publicity' knowing it would create such outrage.

deadboy - very true. Every time stories like this blow up in the mainstream media is to divert people's attention from what's really going on. Seems like Pepsi had no choice this time but to move on as the ad was pulled shortly after its release.

[deadboy]

I don't know if it's so much to consciously divert attention as it is people loving to fuel the Social Media Outrage Machine.

Related: your country has just attacked the Russian-backed government of Syria.

[goldsamxo]

Related: your country has just attacked the Russian-backed government of Syria.

We're fucked and he hasn't even began 'building that wall' (insert inbred south New Jersey redneck accent)

[clamence]

The nature of popular (read: standardized) culture is exactly that, however! It is of course necessarily promulgated and funded as it is the sole distraction from the true horrors that may be going on in the world. It is insulation from reality, and it is an insulation so many must cling to dearly. It is culture broken up and force fed to people so as to make them forget, or at least lessen their concerns with the real world. If this is done, then the "real world" will be left to governments, institutions, and mechanical outputs of power and action take on behalf of a disengaged populace. Ignorance truly must be bliss, for what does a man who knows only of vacuous celebutantes know of the atrocities and true nature of war and terror? His concern is not for his living, but for his life and the various trappings of it, most of them simulated, and so few of them real. He is at leisure to worry about people in Hollywood more than in Damascus, and it may even be true that he does not know people in Damascus exist. They are real, and the people in Hollywood are so brilliantly, beautifully fake. Even if he does know of the Damascene people, our present era (post-, late-, whatever-modernity) has taught us the value of personal, insular expediency, which the simulated reality of Hollywood and celebrity present so god damn well. I am willing to bet that those who are so fixated upon the minute, constructed details of something as negligible as this advertisement are such people, as so many of us seem to be. It is shameful that the collective energy of society is so focused on personal simulacra, however, I suppose it is also to be expected.

In the face of all of this, what most offends and repulses me with regards to this advertisement, and this situation on a larger scale, is perhaps that she is wearing Vetements jeans.

[mne]

The nature of popular (read: standardized) culture is exactly that, however! It is of course necessarily promulgated and funded as it is the sole distraction from the true horrors that may be going on in the world. It is insulation from reality, and it is an insulation so many must cling to dearly. It is culture broken up and force fed to people so as to make them forget, or at least lessen their concerns with the real world. If this is done, then the "real world" will be left to governments, institutions, and mechanical outputs of power and action take on behalf of a disengaged populace. Ignorance truly must be bliss, for what does a man who knows only of vacuous celebutantes know of the atrocities and true nature of war and terror? His concern is not for his living, but for his life and the various trappings of it, most of them simulated, and so few of them real. He is at leisure to worry about people in Hollywood more than in Damascus, and it may even be true that he does not know people in Damascus exist. They are real, and the people in Hollywood are so brilliantly, beautifully fake. Even if he does know of the Damascene people, our present era (post-, late-, whatever-modernity) has taught us the value of personal, insular expediency, which the simulated reality of Hollywood and celebrity present so god damn well. I am willing to bet that those who are so fixated upon the minute, constructed details of something as negligible as this advertisement are such people, as so many of us seem to be. It is shameful that the collective energy of society is so focused on personal simulacra, however, I suppose it is also to be expected.

In the face of all of this, what most offends and repulses me with regards to this advertisement, and this situation on a larger scale, is perhaps that she is wearing Vetements jeans.

what a brilliant response! Might need to print it out and frame it !Thanks for this.

[mne]

We're fucked and he hasn't even began 'building that wall' (insert inbred south New Jersey redneck accent)

I'm not from States but in the light of such event it doesn't really matter where one is from.
He can build walls all he wants, if sh* hits the fan it will be from above his orange head.

[Faust]

It always blows my mind, how something of this magnitude can slip through quality control - shit, probably multiple layers of people reviewing this...

Right? I always say when shit like that happens that there must have been a bunch of people sitting around a table and they all agreed it's a good idea.