Is it essential...

[rowan]

Ok, so you imagine your knowledge of Turkey is vastly superior to the knowledge of a trained journalist who has been living there for 12 years, speaks the language, watches and reads the news in Turkish (as well as English, etc), and has written for local press here on various topics - including politics - from time to time. I mean, we could continue this conversation in Turkish, if you'd prefer. Tugrul Turkes'in idam cezasi fikirler hakkinda, ne dusunuyorsunuz, Digby abi? Benim icin idam cezasi kocaman bir sorun degil ancak geriye donuk olarak kullanmak olmaz, galiba hukumetimiz sadece askeri darbe icin idam cezasi geri getirmek istiyor, degil mi?

[Donny osmond]

Ok, so you imagine your knowledge of Turkey is vastly superior to the knowledge of a trained journalist who has been living there for 12 years, speaks the language, watches and reads the news in Turkish (as well as English, etc), and has written for local press here on various topics - including politics - from time to time. I mean, we could continue this conversation in Turkish, if you'd prefer. Tugrul Turkes'in idam cezasi fikirler hakkinda, ne dusunuyorsunuz, Digby abi? Benim icin idam cezasi kocaman bir sorun degil ancak geriye donuk olarak kullanmak olmaz, galiba hukumetimiz sadece askeri darbe icin idam cezasi geri getirmek istiyor, degil mi?

You realize no one has actually claimed to have a greater knowledge of turkish affairs?

[rowan]

You realise they effectively have. That's why I stopped bothering to go into depth on the issue and merely post links so you can read for yourself what is going on here, if only at surface level. To get an in depth understanding you would certainly need to learn the language and read about these issues in Turkish, I think. You would also need to be here talking to the people on a daily basis, and living and working in this environment. Otherwise you're only spouting what you're learning from your distant propaganda agents...

[Digby]

Ok, so you imagine your knowledge of Turkey is vastly superior to the knowledge of a trained journalist who has been living there for 12 years, speaks the language, watches and reads the news in Turkish (as well as English, etc), and has written for local press here on various topics - including politics - from time to time. I mean, we could continue this conversation in Turkish, if you'd prefer. Tugrul Turkes'in idam cezasi fikirler hakkinda, ne dusunuyorsunuz, Digby abi? Benim icin idam cezasi kocaman bir sorun degil ancak geriye donuk olarak kullanmak olmaz, galiba hukumetimiz sadece askeri darbe icin idam cezasi geri getirmek istiyor, degil mi?

Knowledge no, analysis or conclusions drawn however yes. This would be part based on the nonsense you post here, and part on the still loopier stuff you've posted elsewhere, essentially I'd break your content down into two groups, worthless and didn't even bother to read, though I do grant sometimes it'll make me chortle.

[rowan]

No, that's just your narrow-minded response to someone who does not share your apologist view of NATO's countless war crimes in the Middle East. You have absolutely no insight into what is going on in Turkey, reject the views of someone who has been living there long term and speaks the language, and then dismiss as nonsense any links you disagree with while basing your perspective on far away propaganda agencies. Just as one recent example, the implications of the president's comments about this country's real mission in Syria - to remove Assad - were clearly not understood here in the slightest. I'm reading about this daily in the local language as well as English. But since my comments on the topic were immediately dismissed, I didn't bother continuing with it. I realized it just wasn't worth the effort.

[canta_brian]

mmmmm turkey.

[Edinburgh in Exile]

You realise they effectively have. That's why I stopped bothering to go into depth on the issue and merely post links so you can read for yourself what is going on here, if only at surface level. To get an in depth understanding you would certainly need to learn the language and read about these issues in Turkish, I think. You would also need to be here talking to the people on a daily basis, and living and working in this environment. Otherwise you're only spouting what you're learning from your distant propaganda agents...

Careful you don't get hoisted with your own petard there.

[rowan]

You realise they effectively have. That's why I stopped bothering to go into depth on the issue and merely post links so you can read for yourself what is going on here, if only at surface level. To get an in depth understanding you would certainly need to learn the language and read about these issues in Turkish, I think. You would also need to be here talking to the people on a daily basis, and living and working in this environment. Otherwise you're only spouting what you're learning from your distant propaganda agents...

Careful you don't get hoisted with your own petard there.

Not a very apt quote for this situation, I'm afraid, but full marks for effort. Perhaps you can find another to try and sound witty with...

[SerjeantWildgoose]

Was it Stalin who said - It's not who votes in an election that matters, but who counts the votes.

Oh for feck sake!!!!

Its not who votes in an election that counts, but who counts the votes!

Ye dozy Count!

[jared_7]

So turns out these graphs are hugely misleading.

They asked people to say how important they thought a democracy was on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being unnecessary and 10 being extremely important. They then only plotted the people who said 10, and treated everyone else as the same - I'm assuming to grab headlines. If you said 9, they lumped you in the same group as those who said 1. Shameful from the NYT.

Here is an analysis and the actual trends, which are obviously much more subtle.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/mon ... 92c92b3aed

[morepork]

Are entities like Google and FaceFuk complicit in the restriction of access to information, or even the dissemination of disinformation in these sorts of scenarios?

I don't much like the power wielded by grown boys that wear T-shirts to work.

They wield immense power. As to exactly how they wield it only those who know how the algorithm actually works know.

OK, so here we go with fake news and policy by Twitter.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38231532

Note the cock balls who did this is the son of one of the recently picked national security advisor. Some category 5 nepotism going down under the Trumpet.

[Mikey Brown]

Am I too late to slag off Digby for not being able to speak Turkish?

[Digby]

Am I too late to slag off Digby for not being able to speak Turkish?

We did have a Turkish au pair, when I was a kid not as an adult. I'm sure I must have learnt the odd word though nothing comes to mind.

I do recall she didn't want to go back to Turkey, hers being a family which expected certain duties of its daughters and she wasn't keen on the arranged marriage part to say the least. Beyond that I also recall the improbable levels of salt and sugar consumption.

[morepork]

Who edited Sarge's magnificent outburst?