Discussion Class Topics
- Friday the 18th of July -
(12pm)
- The Jeffery Epstein "coverup"? -
Jeffery Epstein was a convicted pedophile who died in prison a few years ago. The nature of how he died has been questioned. officially, it was ruled a suicide, but many say that it was suspicious and seems like he was killed. But why would he be killed? Well, the theory is that he might tell the government/authorities about all the celebrities and politicians who did incredibly bad things on his private island. The story is he had underaged girls brought to his private island to offer "massages" and other services to politicians, but that these actions were recorded on video, and then used for blackmail.
5-6 months ago, the incoming Trump team said they would release the Epstein files to the public, saying they had seen evidence of a coverup and had a client list showing names and times of people visiting Epstein's island on the infamous Lolita express plane, and that there would be arrests and convictions for these terrible actions. However, just last week, those exact same government officials have changed their tune and now say there is NO evidence of a coverup, Epstein DID kill himself, and that nothing nefarious happened.
So what changed? Did these government officials just see the facts and realised they were wrong? Or do you think, as many do, that they themselves were threatened to be quiet, and that's why they changed their tune?
Is this evidence of the "deep state" manipulating politics, politicians, and government in general?
Let's discuss this!
- Friday the 18th of July -
(8pm)
- Does anyone care about the SDGs? -
For the last 10 years, the UN has been promoting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), that are 17 goals. These include: No poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, decent work and economic growth, industry innovation and infrastructure, reduced inequality, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, climate action, life below water, life on land, peace justice and strong institutions, partnerships for the goals.
As you can see, some of these goals overlap with each other, and most of them generally sound quite vague.
But does anyone actually care about them? Personally, I had never even heard of the SDGs before I moved to Japan. No one talks about them. Except I hear many people In Japan talking about them, and putting signs up in their shops proudly displaying the SDGs logo...but their shops absolutely do no follow the SDGs goals, because they use a ton of plastic.
So what is the point? Is it just a kind of virtue signalling? Marketing to make your company look good? Or is it actually making a difference in the world?
Let's discuss this!
- Sunday the 20th of July -
(11am)
- Stop Killing Games -
Recently an EU petition to prevent video game companies from ending support for their products was signed by over a million people. This means that it will be quite likely that officials in the EU will not take a look at the petition and it may enact real change. "Specifically, the initiative seeks to prevent the remote disabling of videogames by the publishers, before providing reasonable means to continue functioning of said videogames without the involvement from the side of the publisher. The initiative does not seek to acquire ownership of said videogames, associated intellectual rights or monetization rights, neither does it expect the publisher to provide resources for the said videogame once they discontinue it while leaving it in a reasonably functional (playable) state." However, some video game organizations have expressed a dislike of this proposed legislation as it may create more red tape for these companies.
Do you agree with this petition? Will this petition be successful? Why has this petition garnered so much support compared to the enumerable petitions that ultimately go nowhere. Will a change in EU law inspire change, or only put EU video game companies at a disadvantage?
Let's discuss this!