Mayor Rob Ford recording: drunken, sexist, racist, homophobic, abusive rant

I hope that’s true, and that it results in a cessation of coverage of the mayor here at BB. I for one am sick of seeing articles about this guy. I mean, I get it, he’s an asshole and has a serious drug and alcohol problem, but do we really need to read about it every time he hits the pipe? Aren’t there more important things to be talking about? A quick scan shows that there have been a dozen or more articles published here in 2014. How many about the missing 200 Nigerian girls? One. Okay, not a fair comparison because the girls were abducted a month ago and Rob Ford has been an addict and an asshole for a lot longer, but factoring in the comparative evil scale, I’d say that there a notable imbalance. If BB wants to cast aspersions about other news networks failing to cover serious stories, maybe they should take a look at their own editorial policy.

3 Likes

If you think that then you haven’t been paying attention to the last two years. He’s just going to drop out of the lime lite until this all blows over and will go back to campaigning and the same people who supported him before will go back to supporting him again.

3 Likes

Of course the most stunning fact about the whole Ford saga, is that despite all of problems and coke-liquor benders, he’s STILL head and shoulders above the rest of what passes for local politicians in Toronto…

1 Like

“Bye-bye you no-talent assclown.”

Nothing like starting off the day with a little schadenfreude over other peoples substance abuse problems, eh?

1 Like

This guy is Doctorow’s pet project, so you’ll have to bear with BB until he feels satisfied with Ford’s public demise.

We should recognize by now that it’s about moralizing, about creeping into the private life of a public figure so that fingers can be pointed at their private behavior. It’s an American pastime.

Jordan Lanier, who has room to talk about this given his background, has criticized the internet for this kind of obsessive behavior:

And here’s where Lanier says something remarkable and ominous about the potential dangers of anonymity.

“This is the thing that continues to scare me. You see in history the capacity of people to congeal—like social lasers of cruelty. That capacity is constant.”

“Social lasers of cruelty?” I repeat.
“I just made that up,” Lanier says. “Where everybody coheres into this cruelty beam…Look what we’re setting up here in the world today. We have economic fear combined with everybody joined together on these instant twitchy social networks which are designed to create mass action. What does it sound like to you? It sounds to me like the prequel to potential social catastrophe. I’d rather take the risk of being wrong than not be talking about that.”

While Cory’s not anonymous in this case, he can rile up an anonymous fan base to get OUTRAGED! at this bumbling idiot. That way, they can ignore things like those missing girls.

5 Likes

You want compassion?

If Rob ford is re-elected with his current addiction problems, he will be more than likely be dead or seriously ill before the next election. If you really cared, you would be asking him to step down, go into rehab wiithout the stresses of office and come back for the next election as a healthier man.

I bet you won’t though, your tax cuts are more important than his health.

5 Likes

He’s seriously ill now. Find any footage of him in the last few months, look at his complexion - he looks like he’s just run a marathon, even when he’s been sitting still for the last hour.

If he’s re-elected, he’ll quite likely have a heart attack, yes. Losing the election will be no guarantee he’ll get well, but I expect it would improve his odds.

Cory’s from Toronto. He cares about the state of his home town. You are free to ignore anything he posts.

10 Likes

How so?

1 Like

I’d rather see Ford defeated at the ballot box than by the media coverage. It doesn’t bring me any comfort to see him suffering because I know there is another populist right-wing hack waiting to fill his shoes. There is a large segment of the GTA (~30%) who would vote for him no matter what. Not because of who he is, but what he represents.

I’m routinely impressed by the bravery of the noble blogger.

Although you are not making the argument, I’d like to point out for the many who will that being elected is not tantamount to being lifted up in the Hand of God & Anointed as His Word and Instrument. He can and should be able to lose his elected office for conduct unbecoming or criminal activity. That it is taking so long for that to occur is a reflection of both the best and worst of that system.

Many do make that argument for him, even some few among that 30% that know that the argument displays a baffling lack of knowledge as to how elective office/governance operates.

2 Likes

You express yourself better in print than I’d expect for a member of the Ford Nation…

1 Like

Yep. He’ll disappear for a month (or a few) and then come back, suitably publicly ashamed of his past behaviour, and just make his stint in rehab part of his “nobody’s perfect” re-election campaign.

If he were a US politician, Ford would have publicly found Jesus by now and swept back to power on a wave of evangelical support. Although maybe he’d need to be caught in a seedy motel with a rent boy first. I can never remember what the precise etiquette is in these cases.

3 Likes

minus the rehab.

Crackheads stick together.

All query into his private life was precipitated by public occurrences related to same especially where these intersected with his holding of public office.

He’s free to be a criminal but it is quite clear he needs to be a much better criminal if he does not like how he is treated for it being known.

Nothing that a public figure does has the expectation of privacy.

I thought I made it pretty clear that I’m specifically in disagreement with the preponderance of coverage, the faux-outrage, the calls of “THIS (INSERT ACT HERE) IS PREPOSTEROUS!!!”.

The scandal is, by any measure, over. Posting yet another video where Rob Ford is smoking crack, being a racist, a homophobe, an idiot, after he suspended his campaign, is nothing more than tabloid click baiting. It’s disappointing, especially when there’s actual news to be covered.

1 Like

Obviously there’s nothing “faux” about Cory’s outrage; calling it that is gibberish.
Really, your attempt to change the subject (“The problem isn’t Rob Ford, it’s Cory Doctorow!”) is pretty transparent.
Rob Ford is the subject here, and he’s a powerful man. Speeding him out of office is a worthy goal.

1 Like