Tuesday, February 21, 2023

The Latest Media Euphemism....'Guardrails'.



RegulateNothing
EnforceEvenLessVille



I don't know when, exactly, I noticed it.

But I do know that it now seems to be everywhere, whenever any disaster perpetrated by the greed heads comes to the fore.

Like when a monopoly runs amok and jacks cellular bills into the stratosphere.

Or when a tech giant tosses their workers in the dumpster to boost its stock price.

Or when a social media platform purposefully spreads disinformation that turns the work of cretins into conventional wisdom.

Or when a transportation behemoth runs roughshod over the railway ties and starts blowing stuff, including toxic stuff, up in small towns.

And then, when the soft-shoed media reports on the why's and wherefore's start to emerge, that's that's when you'll start to see and hear it.

The term 'guardrails' I mean.

As in...

"The lack of guardrails appear to have contributed to the resulting price jack/worker trampling/disinformation wurlitzering/explosion mongering etc, etc, etc, ad nauseam..."


No mention whatsoever, of course, of the longterm, big money-driven lobbying efforts to roll back regulations and all enforcement mechanisms that contribute to the resulting disasters.

If you get my drift.



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4 comments:

NVG said...

Is there a missing link for the quote?

Lew said...

Let us not forget that BC had an actual minister of state for deregulation, and he was the darling of business interests across this here land. They bestowed the “Golden Scissors Award” on him for his efforts. Many guardrails were permanently removed, but strangely no awards were forthcoming from consumers or worker bees.

That former minister of state for guardrail removal is currently the leader of the Official Opposition. No doubt he has those golden scissors tucked away in his tool kit. I’d like to think we’ll keep him from opening that kit for anything beyond taking the plates off his campaign bus.

I was reminded of his exploits just the other day when a lady was complaining on a radio program that supermarkets were tricking people in this inflationary climate, especially seniors, by putting a sign on a display of goods advertising a price in characters that could be read unaided from the moon, but indicating below in fine print barely discernible with binoculars that you had to buy multiples to obtain that unit price. That used to be illegal under the Consumer Protection Act. Minister of State for guardrail removal Kevin Falcon made it legal again. Any reasonable person can readily see that the only purpose for that practice would be to deceive. Mr. Falcon might be proud of his efforts in that regard (and removing labour regulations - which detrimentally affected people close to home), but in the words of Shania Twain, “That Don’t Impress Me Much.”

RossK said...

NVG--

The quote is completely made up (on purpose).

______

Lew--

'Minister of Guardrail Removal'...Now that's a good one, especially given that, at the core of the thing, it is so true!


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e.a.f. said...

good to know I wasn'the only one who noticed "guardrails" Thought it was just a new buzz word. An ethical corporation or person does not need "guardrails". They ought to know right from wrong.

If the rail comppany who ruined the lives of people in the small town in Ohio didn't have the current politicians on his case, that company would have just walked and let the people try to collect in court. I supect that is what they were going to do, but after a couple of days people started to get loud about their feelings and the federal governmet got busy.

Their Gov. is a Republican nd it was trump who deregulated a number of things whil ein office, which weren't put back in place as soon as the Democrats were in office.