Badenoch's (Lack Of) Vision Quest

[icowden]

Own up - you've been reading Provate Eye again, haven't you.

Busted!

 

[briantrumpet]

Badenoch is planning a reshuffle, based on shadow ministers' being able to articulate their principles clearly, and on their understanding of policy priorities and the arguments around them.

Nah, that'd be silly. "Ms Badenoch has ranked MPs based on how well they are performing on X, Facebook and LinkedIn."

https://bsky.app/profile/cjayanetti.bsky.social/post/3mgld22zhdc23

 

[TailWindHome]

Incredible stuff altogether

 

[briantrumpet]

And here, in a nutshell, is why politics is so screwed, while Labour and Tories think that the metric of success is how it plays on a website run by a white supremacist that is overtly skewed towards the fascist nutters, and that allows CSAM produced by Grok.

 

[midlandsgrimpeur]

And here, in a nutshell, is why politics is so screwed, while Labour and Tories think that the metric of success is how it plays on a website run by a white supremacist that is overtly skewed towards the fascist nutters, and that allows CSAM produced by Grok.

View attachment 13771

The annoying thing is, it is really not that hard to engage with the real world. They are MP's FFS, they have real life constituencies which they should be visiting and speaking to constituents about their actual lives and problems. I can only assume the fact that most do not seem to be doing this and placing such relevance on social media, is that they don't want to do it. Far easier to hide behind a SM account where people largely agree with you than sit opposite a constituent who wants you to actively get off your arse and improve their lives.

 

[secretsqirrel]

Is this just an example of out of touch the middle age/class trying to be cool with the kids?

 

[briantrumpet]

The annoying thing is, it is really not that hard to engage with the real world. They are MP's FFS, they have real life constituencies which they should be visiting and speaking to constituents about their actual lives and problems. I can only assume the fact that most do not seem to be doing this and placing such relevance on social media, is that they don't want to do it. Far easier to hide behind a SM account where people largely agree with you than sit opposite a constituent who wants you to actively get off your arse and improve their lives.

I'm not sure that it's the case that they aren't dealing with constituency matters: if Ian Dunt's book is to believed, they do actually have a shedload of cases to deal with, but ones that should be being handled at local government level, but because everything's been hollowed out so much, people end up going to their MP as they've lost all faith in anything getting done through normal channels.

If that is true, you can kind of see why the 'easy fix' of sticking stuff on social media is attractive to give the appearance of actually doing national politics. But the toxicity of political discourse on X, Facebook, Threads and Tiktok, and the measure of SM 'success' being 'engagement at all costs' is playing a huge part in the degradation of political discourse, and hence the shallowness of political thought. (I realise that 'political thought' might be even more oxymoronic than 'military intelligence'.)

 

[briantrumpet]

Is this just an example of out of touch the middle age/class trying to be cool with the kids?

More a case of trying to be cool with the fascists.

 

[BoldonLad]

I'm not sure that it's the case that they aren't dealing with constituency matters: if Ian Dunt's book is to believed, they do actually have a shedload of cases to deal with, but ones that should be being handled at local government level, but because everything's been hollowed out so much, people end up going to their MP as they've lost all faith in anything getting done through normal channels.

If that is true, you can kind of see why the 'easy fix' of sticking stuff on social media is attractive to give the appearance of actually doing national politics. But the toxicity of political discourse on X, Facebook, Threads and Tiktok, and the measure of SM 'success' being 'engagement at all costs' is playing a huge part in the degradation of political discourse, and hence the shallowness of political thought. (I realise that 'political thought' might be even more oxymoronic than 'military intelligence'.)

1. I have only once “engaged” the help of my MP. The problem was resolved, and quickly, but, all of my “interaction” was with his staff, not him.

2. IMHO toxicity on Social Media is universal, ie, not confined to Politics, or, any particular group.

3. I have twice engaged with local councillor ( both times on behalf of a third party). Both times, a rapid satisfactory outcome resulted.

 

[midlandsgrimpeur]

I'm not sure that it's the case that they aren't dealing with constituency matters: if Ian Dunt's book is to believed, they do actually have a shedload of cases to deal with, but ones that should be being handled at local government level, but because everything's been hollowed out so much, people end up going to their MP as they've lost all faith in anything getting done through normal channels.

If that is true, you can kind of see why the 'easy fix' of sticking stuff on social media is attractive to give the appearance of actually doing national politics. But the toxicity of political discourse on X, Facebook, Threads and Tiktok, and the measure of SM 'success' being 'engagement at all costs' is playing a huge part in the degradation of political discourse, and hence the shallowness of political thought. (I realise that 'political thought' might be even more oxymoronic than 'military intelligence'.)

Fair enough, perhaps I am being harsh. In that case, I see even less of a reason for them to place so much emphasis on it, unless as you say, it gives the (false) impression of engagement and 'authority' at a national political level.

 

[briantrumpet]

1. I have only once “engaged” the help of my MP. The problem was resolved, and quickly, but, all of my “interaction” was with his staff, not him.

2. IMHO toxicity on Social Media is universal, ie, not confined to Politics, or, any particular group.

Re 2. Thanks to how I use SM, I avoid most of the toxicity day-to-day, but if I ever open the shutters I've erected to keep out all the unpleasant stuff, to have a little peek, it's pretty terrifying how unrelenting the negativity and personal attacks are in the algorithmic feeds.

BTW, for people using Facebook, if you use https://www.facebook.com/?sk=h_chr as your access, you bypass the worst of the algorithm and get an old-fashioned feed by time/date of posting, newest first. Put in a decent adblocker or two, and it's like Facebook of old: friends and groups you are friends with/member of.

And if I find any of the groups I'm in prioritising engagement over keeping things civil, then I leave them. There's too much shit going on in the world to have my social media experience/usage ruined by it.

 

[Pblakeney]

Re 2. Thanks to how I use SM, I avoid most of the toxicity day-to-day, but if I ever open the shutters I've erected to keep out all the unpleasant stuff, to have a little peek, it's pretty terrifying how unrelenting the negativity and personal attacks are in the algorithmic feeds.

BTW, for people using Facebook, if you use https://www.facebook.com/?sk=h_chr as your access, you bypass the worst of the algorithm and get an old-fashioned feed by time/date of posting, newest first. Put in a decent adblocker or two, and it's like Facebook of old: friends and groups you are friends with/member of.

And if I find any of the groups I'm in prioritising engagement over keeping things civil, then I leave them. There's too much shit going on in the world to have my social media experience/usage ruined by it.

That's the FB method that I use. Not without flaws, but an improvement.

 

[briantrumpet]

Fair enough, perhaps I am being harsh. In that case, I see even less of a reason for them to place so much emphasis on it, unless as you say, it gives the (false) impression of engagement and 'authority' at a national political level.

That's exactly it, I think. X is particularly to blame for that: full of bots, the 'engagement' stats pile up, but mostly they are not genuine, or just trolls spreading hate. I suspect most politicians don't even look at the comments, let alone respond, as responses that are even mildly non-fascist only provoke a pile-on. You can see why MPs are hesitant about leaving a high follower count, but they won't grasp the nettle that the count doesn't translate into meaningful or constructive engagement, and meanwhile skews their perception of what normal people are thinking, rather than the nutters.

 

[briantrumpet]

That's the FB method that I use. Not without flaws, but an improvement.

And it's 100x than Instagram, which is all about scrolling through pointless videos and torrents of adverts. I suffered it for over 3 months during my FB exile, but it's just like a really really shit version of Facebook, with a tenth of the functionality and ten times the intrusion of crap.

 

[First Aspect]

That's exactly it, I think. X is particularly to blame for that: full of bots, the 'engagement' stats pile up, but mostly they are not genuine, or just trolls spreading hate. I suspect most politicians don't even look at the comments, let alone respond, as responses that are even mildly non-fascist only provoke a pile-on. You can see why MPs are hesitant about leaving a high follower count, but they won't grasp the nettle that the count doesn't translate into meaningful or constructive engagement, and meanwhile skews their perception of what normal people are thinking, rather than the nutters.

Exactly. That's why it is so easy to accidentally post a video of African Americans as apes.