I am a misanthrope. Although I can get on well with a person one-on-one, I don’t generally do well in groups. I have a disdain for the human race. That doesn’t mean I don’t try. I’ve been trying all my life to fit in, but in general, people do not respond well to me – unless I fake it. To be successful in a job, I have to put on a constant face. I have to act nice to people who I don’t really like. I put up with friends who rarely show me respect. I keep all my anger bundled up inside of me as to not cause offence. This is the life of a hidden misanthrope. MY GEAR Samson Meteor USB Microphone: https://amzn.to/2LJVbtN FIND US ON FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/DailyRantAustralia/ #misanthrope #misanthropy #humanitywasamistake ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qd_SWTvTEg

In this re-uploaded video (due to copyright), we take a look at a couple of jokes by British-Irish comedian Jimmy Carr from his Netflix Special, “His Dark Material”. WARNING: They are pretty offensive. Cancel Culture on eBay ▶ https://ebay.us/n1zsjk In his own defence, he said he thought the first joke was “f**king funny”, “edgy as hell” and had an “educational value”. “It’s a joke about the worst thing that’s ever happened in human history, and people say ‘never forget’, well this is how I remember. There is an educational quality. Like everyone in the room knows 6 million Jewish people lost their lives to the Nazis during the second world war. But a lot of people don’t know, because it’s not really taught in our schools, that the Nazis also killed, in their thousands, Gypsies, homosexuals, disabled people and Jehovah’s Witnesses”. My opinion is this: I don’t like Jimmy’s jokes. I think they’re pretty offensive. However, I’d prefer to live in a world where I get offended from time to time than one where someone tells us what we can or cannot say. I think it’s pretty straightforward. If you don’t like his jokes, good, don’t watch him – that’s what I’m planning to do. What about yourself? Should Jimmy Carr be making jokes about genocide and vaccination? Should he be cancelled? MUSIC The Empty Moons of Jupiter by DivKid #jimmycarr #jokes #cancelculture ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iow49hB99Mk

Even if you don’t use Twitter, you probably know that the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, bought Twitter for a staggering $US44 billion. Personally, I think it was a waste of money, but what do I know? I’m not a billionaire. Musk has stated that Twitter is losing more than $4 million a day, so he had no other option but to cut staff. So if it’s losing money, why did Musk buy Twitter? Well, in his own words, “The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilisation to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence”. Okay, so from a philosophical standpoint, I agree with that. Censorship has become pretty bad on social media of late and it sounds like Musk is trying to taper it. But ultimately, when it comes to censorship, who decides what’s allowed and who decides what isn’t? Somebody has to decide what is okay, right? Musk said it himself, “That said, Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!”. Obviously, this means censorship will still exist under Musk. It has to, otherwise any horrible thing could be said, and any horrible picture or video could be posted without any consequences. Musk talks about Twitter as being a digital town square, but is that what it is? Is that what Twitter has become? I don’t really think so. A town square, in a free society at least, allows people to say what’s on their mind, to discuss topics, and to participate in rigorous debate. The platform allows it. But I would argue that Twitter due to its online limitations, character limits, and anonymity and so on, even with Musk in control, has turned into 1. An Echo Chamber, that is, a place where people only encounter beliefs or opinions that coincide with their own, which reinforces their existing views, while alternative ideas are not considered. I’ll show some examples of this soon; 2. A Political Slanging Match, basically, just a place where people use angry uncontrolled language and throw insults at each other; and 3. Not a Place for Reasoned Debate. I would argue it doesn’t matter who’s in control, this is what Twitter has become. Let’s look at some real-life examples. “Democrats are good at creating jobs. No modern Democrat has been better than Joe Biden. Republicans are bad at creating jobs. No modern Republican has been worse than Donald Trump”. I think he must think people are pretty stupid. The first thing that came to mind is that over the last few years there’s been a pandemic and lots of people lost their jobs due to lockdowns and so on. I would argue that allowing people to go back to work after a pandemic is not creating jobs, but according to this guy, Biden’s magically created these jobs? It sounds a bit misleading to me. Anyway, of course, people who support the Democratic Party will love this Tweet. People on the other side of politics will either not see this Tweet as they would never follow this man, or if they do see it, they would either ignore it or write some angry comment. I certainly don’t see this Tweet as changing anybody’s mind. On the other side of politics, “Donald Trump is the greatest President in US History. Ron DeSantis is America’s favourite Governor. Republicans should NOT be forced to pick either — we want both! Trump 2024. DeSantis 2028 & 2032”. Okay, so obviously Trump supporters would love this Tweet: “How lucky are we to be alive at the same time as the greatest leader in world history, Donald J. Trump!”; “Trump should have DeSantis as his Vice President and vice versa. That would be an awesome duo!”; Democrats, on the other hand, will either never look at this account, or reply angrily or with an insult. One person (or bot) just replied with an image: “Moron-o-meter rates this Tweet: Dumbest thing ever said!”. Others wrote: “Trump will be in an orange jump suit and slippers before 2024”; “You should go back to your country. Take fat boy with you... Juan 2 3”; “If trump wins in 24 there won’t be an election in 28. He already tried to become a dictator and the republicans will make it happen for real”. The point is, these Tweets are just echos in a chamber. They’re not changing anybody’s minds. Reasoned debate is simply not occurring on Twitter. Okay, so you get the idea. This is the real Twitter, at least, in my experience. Nobody is convincing anybody of anything. One side of the political spectrum is shouting at the other side. Neither are convincing either of anything. Considered and rigorous debate simply isn’t occurring. It’s just become a slanging match and an echo chamber, and I don’t think Elon can change this. Buying Twitter is like paying $44 billion to buy a class of kindergarteners. “I stuck a crayon up my nose!”. “You smell funny!”. “I’ll fart where I want to!”. “Methane’s bad for the planet!”. I think Elon’s realised he’s bought himself a very expensive dud. MUSIC Melancholia by Godmode ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcU-Lz7jJ2Y

This is more of a curiosity than anything else, but why do Zebras have stripes? It used to be thought that it was due to camouflage, but that’s since been proven to be incorrect. The next hypothesis was to do with social interaction and individual recognition, but that’s not true either. Next, it was said that the stripes aided thermoregulation, with stripes setting up convection currents along the animal's back. Nope! Not that either. So what is the purpose of a zebra’s stripes? Apparently, it’s to do with preventing horse fly attacks. You see, African horse flies can carry diseases such as trypanosomiasis. This can cause fever, headaches, joint pains and itching, and can also cause behavioural changes, confusion and poor coordination. Horse flies can also spread African horse sickness, which causes wasting, eventually leading to the horse’s death. So it’s in the best interests of Zebras not to get bitten by horse flies. Behavioural ecologist, Tim Caro, of the University of California, Davis, said that only the fly-attack hypothesis stands up to scrutiny. He stated, “We showed that horse flies approach zebras and uniformly coloured horses at similar rates but that they fail to land on zebras — or striped horse coats — because they fail to decelerate properly, and fly past them or literally bump into them and bounce off. Most biologists involved with research on mammal coloration accept that this is the reason that zebras have stripes.” In one experiment, researchers put striped cloth coats on horses and observed that fewer horse flies landed on them than when the same horses wore single-coloured coats. They also videoed horse flies as they tried to prey on captive zebras and domestic horses at a livery in North Somerset in England. The stripes did not deter flies from a distance as they circled horses and zebras at similar rates. But the flies were only able to land on zebras less than a quarter as often. Mr Caro went on and said, “In addition to stripes that prevent controlled landings by horse flies, zebras are constantly swishing their tail and may run off if horse flies do land successfully, so they are also using behavioural means to prevent flies probing for blood.” So there you go. That’s why zebras haves stripes. Maybe people can learn something from zebras and wear striped clothes to their next BBQ, or picnic. Or, you can just use some Aerogard? FIND US ON FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/DailyRantAustralia/ EXTERNAL LINKS Tim Caro Information https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Caro http://wfcb.ucdavis.edu/people/faculty/caro-tim IMAGE RIGHTS Where’s Wally World Record By William Murphy from Dublin, Ireland [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)] Zebra in Mikumi By Sajjad Fazel ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLPzs9dLVFg