Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => Politics => Topic started by: Ben on May 09, 2010, 12:44:27 PM
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I found this interesting, since Obama's the one who insisted on Blackberries in the Whitehouse. He's also really pushed Facebook and Twitter. I don't know about the rest of you in the fed.gov, but I get mass emails from the Administrator of my agency at least twice a week insisting I check out our Facebook and Twitter sites. In fact she sent one email out telling us all we had to become her "Facebook fans". If I went to these sites as often as they tell me (I don't go to either in work or personal life), I would literally spend 20 hours a week reading our propaganda.
Seems like Obama bemoans the part of the Internet that says things that "aren't the truth" at least as far as he sees the truth.
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hcoyG-Ck3-VwZB7fqpUFXbffoObg
Obama bemoans 'diversions' of IPod, Xbox era
(AFP) – 1 hour ago
HAMPTON, Virginia — US President Barack Obama lamented Sunday that in the iPad and Xbox era, information had become a diversion that was imposing new strains on democracy, in his latest critique of modern media.
Obama, who often chides journalists and cable news outlets for obsessing with political horse race coverage rather than serious issues, told a class of graduating university students that education was the key to progress.
"You're coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don't always rank all that high on the truth meter," Obama said at Hampton University, Virginia.
"With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations, -- none of which I know how to work -- information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation," Obama said.
He bemoaned the fact that "some of the craziest claims can quickly claim traction," in the clamor of certain blogs and talk radio outlets.
"All of this is not only putting new pressures on you, it is putting new pressures on our country and on our democracy."
Obama, who uses the handful of Commencement addresses that he delivers each year to meditate on societal developments broader than the minutiae of everyday politics, warned the world was at a moment of "breathtaking change."
"We can't stop these changes... but we can adapt to them," Obama said, adding that US workers were in a battle with well-educated foreign workers.
"Education... can fortify you, as it did earlier generations, to meet the tests of your own time," he said.
Hampton University is a historically black college, and Obama noted the huge disparity in educational achievement between African Americans and other racial groups in the United States and the world.
But he urged the graduates to take inspiration from the example of Dorothy Height, a civil and women's rights icon who died, aged 98, last month, who fought racial prejudice to secure a college education.
"A black woman, in 1929, refusing to be denied her dream of a college education," Obama said, reprising Height's life story.
"Refusing to be denied her rights, refusing to be denied her dignity, refusing to be denied... her piece of America's promise."
Obama argued that from the days of the pioneer politicians who founded the United States, until the modern day, education and knowledge had been the key to progress and US democracy.
He drew a line between Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, and today's challenges.
"What Jefferson recognized... that in the long run, their improbable experiment -- called America -- wouldn't work if its citizens were uninformed, if its citizens were apathetic, if its citizens checked out, and left democracy to those who didn't have the best interests of all the people at heart.
"It could only work if each of us stayed informed and engaged, if we held our government accountable, if we fulfilled the obligations of citizenship."
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does this sound like friendly e-reeducation camps to anyone else?
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does this sound like friendly e-reeducation camps to anyone else?
Sounds like he doesn't want anyone reading/listening to anything not according to the Party Line :police:
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does this sound like friendly e-reeducation camps to anyone else?
Sounds more like .gov filters on the interweb like they have china.
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sorry, i hit the wrong button, and lost Ben's quote. this is what i meant. :facepalm: guess it pays to click through, and look at what i really posted.
but I get mass emails from the Administrator of my agency at least twice a week insisting I check out our Facebook and Twitter sites. In fact she sent one email out telling us all we had to become her "Facebook fans". If I went to these sites as often as they tell me (I don't go to either in work or personal life), I would literally spend 20 hours a week reading our propaganda.
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"With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations, -- none of which I know how to work -- information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation," Obama said.
What kind of information is he getting off of an iPod or Xbox?
I don't know about the rest of you in the fed.gov, but I get mass emails from the Administrator of my agency at least twice a week insisting I check out our Facebook and Twitter sites. In fact she sent one email out telling us all we had to become her "Facebook fans". If I went to these sites as often as they tell me (I don't go to either in work or personal life), I would literally spend 20 hours a week reading our propaganda.
I get almost daily emails from Janet Napolitano about stuff I don't care about. Like "Employee Resiliance Training". [barf]
Not only do these emails clog up my inbox and waste my time (I wish I could auto delete them) DHS agencies now all use the same home page which is absolutely devoid of any information. :facepalm: The CG had to send out a mass email with the link to our old homepage so that you could use the links and stuff that were on the page.
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What kind of information is he getting off of an iPod or Xbox?
I don't know how to work those things, either, but you can download "podcasts" of a lot of talk right wing hate radio shows. And I thought Xbox could be used to read web pages. No?
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Wait... didn't he give the queen of England an iPod? Or am I misremembering?
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with the greatest deception possible. it was loaded with his speeches.(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwebpages.charter.net%2Fjet776%2Fbarf_smiley3l.gif&hash=4ff2616118e8199144fca2320b148a8df3117a29)it's a miracle we didn't end up in a war over it.
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My wife listens to an iPod while on the treadmill at the gym. I knew it wasn't just music she was listening to. Now I'll have to turn her in to DHS.
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He likes modern technology when it raises campaign money for him, here and abroad.
He'll probably love the chip implant, when that comes...
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"I voted for technology before I voted against it."
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He drew a line between Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, and today's challenges.
"What Jefferson recognized... that in the long run, their improbable experiment -- called America -- wouldn't work if its citizens were uninformed, if its citizens were apathetic, if its citizens checked out, and left democracy to those who didn't have the best interests of all the people at heart.
Notice he tries to use Jefferson's name without ACTUALLY quoting the man, to add supposed legitimacy to his own personal argument?
I get a cold chill up my spine at the idea of him attempting to hijack any saying from Thomas Jefferson. :'(
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does this sound like friendly e-reeducation camps to anyone else?
It sounds like another meme to justify regulation of content on the net.
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This confirms what I've always suspected: barry is actually a Zune guy. :O
However ... 475 days down, 986 days to go. 32.5%
Will the Republic survive ? ???
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"With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations, -- none of which I know how to work -- information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation," Obama said.
There goes the youth vote, Mr. President.
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Correct me if I misremember, but wasn't Obama touted during the campaign as potentially the most tech-savvy President, and wasn't tech-ignorance used as a knock against McCain? Doublespeak indeed.
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He likes pods, not iPods.
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"With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations, -- none of which I know how to work
Correct me if I misremember, but wasn't Obama touted during the campaign as potentially the most tech-savvy President, and wasn't tech-ignorance used as a knock against McCain? Doublespeak indeed.
Indeed, the fact that he used an iPod was touted, as I recall, as part of that tech-savviness; to include fawning articles about "What's on Obama's iPod playlist?" (http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/1023479,obamaipod062508.article). And now he doesn't know how to use one? Huh....
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"What Jefferson recognized... that in the long run, their improbable experiment -- called America -- wouldn't work if its citizens were uninformed, if its citizens were apathetic, if its citizens checked out, and left democracy to those who didn't have the best interests of all the people at heart.
I think the needle on my irony meter just got bent.
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In a few years we'll all have OPods, all programmed by Obama. >:D
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In a few years we'll all have OPods, all programmed by Obama. >:D
Why wait? If the Queen of England gets an oPod, we should get them, too. =)
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Well, the solution is simple: a mandatory waiting period on all electronic-device purchases, tweets, and forum posts.
It seems to me that the administration may be getting a tad bit frustrated at being caught pants-down so many times by "new media" types.
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the real next step is the "O" chip, it's implanted in your head. and you can't see or hear anything that hasn't been approved. [tinfoil] on the other hand it's supposed be readable by rfid scanners, so no need to carry a credit card any more.