#anyway abolish the jury

[kakastravakaianapoda]

[missanathea]

You know I could understand that for years the audience didn’t vote for the non-English songs. It’s harder to get into a song you don’t understand or in a language that’s just gibberish to your brain. But I’ve always considered that the jury was here to restore that balance. But the fact that they never do, and this year that they have actually ruined this, this celebration of diversity, by promoting two basic pop songs, that really shows that they don’t serve any purpose.

[the-illegal-wizard-council]

Welcome to the Illegal Wizard Council.

We are but a multi-bodied single-minded council entity out on a mission to bring crime to your everyday life. We are very good at our job.

We use a plural they/them as we have many bodies, and may be referred to as any variation of the illegal council.

Our agenda:

-We want to fully restore Wizard Taxes, so that you're able to commit Wizard Tax Evasion. We oppose the Wizard Councils who want to abolish Wizard Taxes, as that leaves less crime for us to do.

-We think that EVERY spell should be illegal. We also think that you should cast them anyway, cause fuck 'em.

-We also advocate for you to commit as many crimes as possible, so that the amount of crime in the world is maximalized. We strive to make breaking the law as efficient as possible.

-We support the @familiars-union, and want every familiar to unionize.

Tags we use:

#wizard crime tips - asks

#council members - anything involving our council members

#wizard duel - wizards beat each other's asses

#wizard feud - other wizards are wrong and we're very vocal about it

#wizard jury duty - decisions decisions

#wizard gay sex - self explanatory.

Members of the council:

@evil-lizard-wizard - Scitterius the Cold-Blooded - Lord of Lizardry, head of Alternative Spells of Harming

@yourlocalbreadenthusiast, she/they - Corvius The Plagued - head of Necromancy, Experimental Spells, Potions And Such

@wizard-intern - Intern - Wizard Intern

@the-necrobotanist, he/they - Nero The Necrobotanist - Head Necrobotanist and Ketamine Bear Researcher

@vivisection-and-vampyrism, he/they/it - Hart the Vivisector

@irrumabo-ego-solem, he/him - Fless Roicaff of the Stocky Jasmine - Chief Privateer

@the-druid-wizard, they/it - Aster Sage the Druid Wizard - Head of Nature Crimes

@number-crimes-wizard, he/him - The Wizard Accountant

@renegade4-13, any - Ryder The Revengeful

@greyhound-with-a-mega-wizard-hat, she/her - Hatt the Hattest - Fastest Runner

@wozardpostingforwizards, he/it/they - Tavvy the Wozard

@not-wizard-council-aristocrat, he/they - not a wizard council aristocrat

(details to be changed upon requests)

If you wish to join the council, please refer here.

also we're gay. trans too.

[podcastbrainrotdad]

Look, I'm not the biggest fan of cha cha cha, but for God's sake, JURY, Loreen did not need this win. The song wasn't that good, and it was definitely not euphoria.

Yeah yeah ABBA anniversary n all.

Really hope this will be a first step in abolishing the jury.

Anyway, Mama and B&G are currently in my playlist . Goodnight, try not to start a war over a song contest. Kisses.

[elldritch-horror]

I find myself wondering if Loreen even wanted to compete again this year? She looked miserable the whole time, like, to the extent that I was genuinely worried for her well-being when they announced she was the winner. She looked tired and flat and like she just wanted to go to bed.

I hope she doesn’t catch backlash from the (justified) jury haters. It must have been horrid sitting there listening to 7000 people chant cha cha cha and boo when she got points.

Lots of people saying this year was rigged due to the Abba thing. I don’t think it was a deliberate conspiracy? But I think that a lot of the juries are unengaged and don’t even bother properly watching the acts half the time, and are obsessed with a very boring idea of artistic merit which favours bland ballads sung with exaggerated heartfeltness in English, and the Abba anniversary plus the nostalgia of Loreen being back made it really easy for them all to pick her as this year’s designated easy vote.

Anyway, I guess I’m saying I feel no mean spirit towards Loreen. I mostly hope that she gets some rest and to be left alone for a while because she looked drained last night.

Fuck the juries though. Abolish that BS

[summergirl2408]

Every reasonable eurovision fan for years: let's abolish the juries alltogether their opinions are usually shit anyways

German national final: ok so hear me out, what if 50% of the votes for the song we send to eurovision came from international juries from 8 different european countries so they can just full on sabotage us cause well they are gonna be up against us in eurovision after all 🤡

[levbolton]

This is my last esc post this year, I promise

im still bitter and feel disgusted about Moldova's scoring last year

they got 14 (fourteen) points from the jury. 14.

meanwhile the public gave them 239.

Yeah i'm hella mad for Kaarija (beloved) this year, but why didn't anyone point this out last year?! A song in native language about history, culture, that's fun to listen, good live voice, a combination of rock and folk, there isn't anyone out there that does this (there's folk x metal, but no one does rock and folk). Not to mention that Zdob si Zdub went to Eurovision 3 times, and not even once they brought a flop song, go look at "boonika bate toba" and "so lucky" and tell me this aint the spirit we want at esc.

All of this wasted on the ears of western jury. (and everyone that misunderstood the song as about trains when it's waaaay deeper than that but anyway you do you)

anyway, in conclusion, abolish the jury.

[dumspirovaniloquor]

why is the human centipede at eurovision...who let this happen

I think you're referring to this wonderful green human being

with one of the most catchy and dancable songs to come out of this year that actually won the shitty classist hypocritical competition by popular vote but istead the jUrIeS wanted to have Sweden host the next year so they gave her a ridiculously unfair advantage, stealing the prise from this king. no I'm not mad *grating my teeth* not at all. anyway I think we should abolish the juries and have them burn in hell as a treat for all the wins they've stole from artists this way

[dreamy-demons]

Okay, I have one final thing to say about Eurovision this year.

I don't want sanitized 'professional' acts!!!!!

Obviously everyone's been arguing about abolishing the jury, and those that believe in the jury keep saying 'the jury makes sure the most polished and professional acts win'

I DON'T WANT THAT! I DON'T WANT ARTISTS TO PLAY IT SAFE TO PLEASE THE JURY! I LOVE ACTS THAT DO SOMETHING RISKY, EVEN IF THEY SUCK I STILL RESPECT THE HELL OUT OF THEM FOR IT! PERSONALLY CROATIA DIDN'T DO IT FOR ME THIS YEAR BUT THEY WENT NUTS AND I WAS THERE FOR IT ANYWAY! LIKE HELL YEAH OLD GUYS GET IN YOUR UNDERWEAR ON THE WORLD STAGE LETS GO!!!!

I'd take decent execution of a batshit unique idea over a good execution of something generic. I think that's what makes Eurovision fun. The worst crime an act could commit in my eyes is being boring.

And this might be a long shot, but I wonder if the genres of music you like outside of evsc impacts this. Like, my favourite genres are punk and new wave and stuff like that. I wonder how someone whose main interests are pop or jazz or rap or opera or whatever other genres feel about this. Whether Eurovision or just regular music, is there a correlation between what genres you like and how messy you like or are willing to accept your music?

(And for the record I feel that way about most things. Like the MET Gala, a celebrity shows up in something weird and ugly and everyone makes fun of them but I say at least it wasn't a black suit. At least they tried, even if it came out bad. Same with movies. Same with anything really)

[joanna-olson]

I was thinking about Eurovision like non-stop for the last two days and I'm still a bit mad, but you know, it's getting better. I've been thinking a lot about the jury and the voting system. And I've seen quite a few takes on that, so here is mine.

I can absolutely see why people want to abolish the juries and honestly it worked before, so why wouldn't it work again? Especially now in a world where we are more connected and not so dependend on individual music markets. I'm not the biggest fan of the juries myself.

On the other hand, I can see why there would be a jury in a music competition. It kinda depends on what you want Eurovision to be, but that's not the point I wanna make.

I've said before, a jury suggests a level of objectivity. I've also heard the juries being called impartial. So let's make sure they are objective and impartial, shall we? Set up different categories that the jury have to rate the acts in. Let every juror give them points in each category and then add the points together with the other jurors and form the jury rating like that. And give them multiple, pretty strict categories from the EBU, so everybody has the same criterias. Set up the criterias in a way that personal preference can't influence the result as much. And then submit the whole evluation and not just the results to the EBU or whoever is responsible. AND THEN (no I'm not done) release the whole evaluation of every jury member to the public. Maybe make them anonymous, that's fine, but releasing it is so important. That gives the whole thing more transparency. Oh and maybe don't do 50/50 with the public vote. Maybe 25/75, after all the public vote is one main marketing point, so make it weigh more. After all we pay for voting.

Maybe something like this already happens, but I couldn't find much on the jury proceedings. Maybe someone knows more than me. I want to see the actual criterias for the jury. All I found was the Eurovision rules where the jury proceedings are mentioned, but I couldn't find more. And I only found the end results from every jury released and that is not enough in my opinion. We need accountability from the jury, otherwise they can go.

Anyway, I've thought about this a lot today, so I wanted to throw in my two cents. If anybody knows more about the rules and all that for the jury, please point me in that direction.

[zevranunderstander]

i think the esc is so... hm. because on the one hand it's a shitty colonialist and imperialist festival that is trying to rebrand colonizers into quirky modern nations and is so performative in all political messages and their collaboration with israel is literally unforgivable and its literally just nations giving each other points bc they want to politically appeal to them in the weirdest and most pathetic way ever etc.

but also. a lot of the culture of the organizers is in direct opposition to what the fans really watch for? like, macron or whomever isnt watching and personally taking notes on which of his neighboring countries voted for france, but the juries act like all politicians do this, and they use their time hosting as this massive branding and propaganda campaign, and they try to come across as kind of "modern and relatable", but don't want to be the "weird" entry, like. for westerners, this is kind of about "prestige", while at the same time they are refusing to send any compelling candidates?

and i think to the countries and organizers and the politics behind the esc this event is about showing a politically favorable image of their country that seems modern and prestigious, while the actual appeal of the show is to find artists that usually arent found on the international market and give a stage for more camp and artsy performances, and the people watching want an entertaining time, where they see songs that actually stand out and are fun to watch and listen to, whereas the juries just vote for an entirely different set of entries.

so like, a lot of people are watching it for the camp and queer and "unique" entries, while it's actually a show made for the boring ballads and shitty pop songs, because all the jury and the esc care about is, what is gonna sell and what isnt (this might take a new interesting turn, now that tiktok also has a big say in which songs become popular and which ones dont, but right now they know that generic pop has more sales than "too quirky" entries)

this is all ignoring that the thing was soooo obviously rigged this year so that they can do the "50th anniversary of ABBA" next year in Sweden, and that the jury almost always seems to tend to give points based on politics and not on music, and that i genuinely think that they are even manipulating the audience votes occasionally so that certain entries that win arent "ridiculed" because they got like, 21 points from the audience and 360 points from the jury.

and its like. probably 60% of the audience are queer people or people who are watching to see fun & campy and queer entertainment, and the showrunners know this, so all their bits are queer, they have queer hosts, they use their show break for drag performances and talk about "the first gay kiss of eurovision" and there's pride flags, and the iconic "quirky" entries make reappearances with new songs, while the boring ones almost never get a big re-invite. but they do all of this as a sort of fake promise, like, "yes our show is so gay and so camp and so fun and legendary for the fun entries hahahaha, anyways the jury vote goes to some guy pretending to be Imagine Dragons and none of the interesting entries because we cannot widely market homosexuality", and only when the audience vote is so truly overwhelmingly for one entry that they can overpower the juries, it promises marketability.

they will never abolish the juries because the juries exist so that marketable songs win that bring the ESC a lot of money, the type of hosting and their internal politics will never change because this is a contest that they can use to generate sympathies to a country. this whole thing is a fucking colonialist's PR campaign, like, "yeah, israel has a bad rep, but look at how cool all of these places in israel look and how fun and modern and #feminist and #gay our entries are! how could we possibly be an imperialist force who is actively commiting genocide?"

the esc is inherity tied to nationalism and imperialist propaganda, and while it pretends to care about international music in people's native tongue and artists that usually wouldnt be on a international stage and queer entries of all kinds, it really only cares about money and promoting one's own image as a country and that is never going to change.

and i don't think you can't at all watch the event, but it is literally insane how few people who watch it are aware of any of the politics happening within the event and who call it the "gay event of the year" or whatever with no idea that they are being sold and pandered to so that they spend more money on a product (votes and tickets), and give their undivided viewing time to a program that you can only call a continent-wide propaganda event. i hope i make sense

[lostinthefrigginwoods]

I don't know if something was wrong with my phone or if I'm about to go full conspiracy theorist for other reasons but my vote literally wouldn't go through no matter how many times I tried. I think I tried like 10 times to send the damn text but it just. Wouldn't. And it makes me pissed off.

Anyway abolish the jury there is a whole petition for it on change.orf

[fangirlandiknowit101]

The eurovision results have upset me and I'll be honest it didn't even surprise me but I've never hated sweden winning before. If they do the show in Stockholm next year maybe I should just go on a weekend trip to finland instead. The outtakes here in sweden were so clearly rigged to make loreen represent us in eurovision and now she won with the most boring song in a long time. I can't even be happy about the abba 50 year anniversary next year i wish finland had won and not mentioned abba a single time when hosting.

Anyway I'll be turning off the radio anytime they play loreen and listen to käärijä instead 💚💚💚💚💚💚💚 amazing to see the good taste of the public with second highest score ever now abolish the juries pls

[spazzcat]

Abolish jury voting. Let the contestants live or die by the will of the public and thereby reclaim the jesters’ bells they’ve cast aside to appease people who have no fucking taste anyway.

[americanredragger]

Here's a fun take that ought to get some lively opinions and that I will almost certainly regret expressing at some point in the near and VERY predictable future:

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD REGULAR PATROL COPS BE ARMED WITH LETHAL WEAPONRY SUCH AS FIREARMS. IT IS NOT THEIR DUTY TO BE JUDGE, JURY, OR EXECUTIONER.

Those jobs belong to, believe it or not, Judges, Juries, and Executioners.

Now, if Police have the guts to actually respond in a timely and out-of-characterly professional manner to a situation where a threat to the life of the officers involved can be confidently anticipated? Fine, bring some pew pew sticks for your own defense.

But regular beat cops and patrol officers should never be so armed, because their duty is to capture and detain criminals for trial — aka, the part with the judge and the jury and which may or may not lead to involving an executioner at a later date, depending on a large and semi-fascinating variety of factors — and that literally only works if the person being detained is, you know, still alive.

Moving the burden from being able to simply claim "well I feared for my life", a passive and emotive statement that cannot reasonably be disproven empirically, to having to demonstrate how they anticipated their life WOULD be in danger, a process grounded in documentable reasoning and evidence, would save SO MANY LIVES.

Does this put police potentially in danger if they respond to a situation that turns out to be beyond the scope of their tools at hand?

Yes.

But by becoming a Police Officer, you acknowledged and accepted that risk. You've signed that waiver. Risk is part of the game if you wanna wear that badge. That involves accepting that you may die in the line of service. It is a thing that happens, and you were well warned and took the job anyway.

Now, are the Police the truncheon held by the arm of the Capitalist Class? Absolutely. Do they need to be either massively recontextualized for the good of society via significant partial defunding (and diverting those funds to other agencies that are more specialized and better qualified for their tasks, such as EMTs, Firemen, mental health professionals, and social workers), or outright abolished and something else put in their place to ensure and protect the common good? Oh fuck yes. Will taking guns from everyday cops completely eliminate killings resulting from police brutality? Hell no.

But it's a start.

It's doable.

And it reduces harm to communities all over this struggling country immediately.

You want a job with guns? Join the National Guard.

Be part of the "Well Regulated Militia" that is "necessary to the security of a free State" according to the Second Amendment.

Don't become a Cop.

[starberrywander]

(CW: Rant. Ramble. Long post. Frustration. Anti-capitalism.)

I was on an alt account so I don't have the post but I saw this post by a pro-capitalism blog that really bugged me and I wanna talk about it. I'm paraphrasing here so bear with me.

They were responding to a tweet (I think) where someone said something to the effect of, "why can't we have guaranteed housing and food (or maybe it was healthcare)?" And basically they were just being generally frustrated with capitalism which, mood.

Anyway this capitalism enjoyer responded basically, "We can't have free things because that means no one is getting paid for it and that's just slavery."

And I mean, bro. Two things. One; when people suggest this they are usually saying that they want these services to be funded with tax money, their tax money (Not that you can choose where only your tax money goes. Every choice of tax spending has to include everyone's money because, idk, someone decided that's how it was supposed to work I guess.). The people providing these services wouldn't be "slaves" any more than teachers are "slaves." They would be government employees and they would be paid with tax money. It's "free" not in the sense that no one is paying for it but in the sense that its not coming out of your pockets. Free in the same way that toll-free roads and public K-12 schools and libraries and parks are free. I mean, its coming out of your paycheck but that was gonna happen anyway because taxes are required. If you are required to pay taxes as your obligatory contribution to society, why is it so absurd to want those taxes to go toward things that are important to you? Toward things that would benefit you? Like, y'know, a guaranteed standard of living? Isn't that the entire purpose of having a society in the first place?

And two; Hypothetically, in a society that functioned differently, guaranteed standard of living would be a form of compensation. Like, money is not the only way to reward contributions. If, hypothetically, we treated the jobs necessary to societal functioning (Construction, food production, public safety & security, education, etc) the way we treat jury duty where you can just be called in to complete a task and contribute, would that be so bad? It would eliminate the need for taxes in many ways. We may even be able to abolish them altogether. And the compensation would be the guarantee to access everything you need to survive. I personally would prefer it that way. Of course this comes with the assumption of a few structural things around it:

This system is voluntary. If you don't want to do these jobs you are not forced to. It is simply a prerequisite for accessing the guaranteed standard of living for yourself and your household. If you choose not to participate you cannot access these services and will have to be self-sufficient, either living in the woods or on a farm (as capitalists often suggest people do if they don't like the system) or survive in a capitalist system like we already have except probably with less regulations and more of the free market that many capitalists want, because there are already systems to account for people's needs. In other words, there is a guaranteed standard of living but if you want to access it you need to contribute your labor to the tasks needed to sustain said standards of living. Otherwise, you just go back to the competitive, profit-driven, capitalist market. That makes both systems fully voluntary and gives people an actual choice (something that realistically doesn't exist in capitalism, despite capitalist claims to the contrary).

It comes with explicit rights and protections such as not being required to work more than a certain amount of hours per week (40, probably), having a consistent work schedule or knowing when you have to work a certain amount ahead of time, not having your access revoked due to circumstances out of your control (such as injury or illness), and the guarantee that household members who cannot work (such as children, the elderly, and the disabled) can access the resources they need through your contributions. And anything else necessary to make sure it isn't abused and that people aren't being treated like slaves (obviously). I mean, aside from the fact that they can leave at any time without punishment.

It comes with a guarantee or goal to access any available automation technology to lighten the workload. This would likely be done either through volunteers manufacturing the technology or through contracts with production companies in the capitalist side of things. Maybe things such as producing extra crops for a few years to give to the company to use for free in exchange for the technology, or volunteering to test and gather data for new automation technologies to give to the company in exchange for keeping the tool when they are done. The exact details would depend on the specific situation, but there would be some method to implement automation. The goal of this, ideally, is to get to a point where the only required job is technological maintenance and being called in is rare, so everyone in society is guaranteed a standard of living with very little contribution needed, giving them more freedom to pursue their passions or spend time with family.

This system provides the basics of living. Any luxuries such as movies, video games, amusement parks, social media access, etc. would still require you to pay for them. You would have to participate in the capitalist economy to access more than basic needs, unless someone in your community was super passionate about, like, creating music and played their pieces for people in their free time. Or something like that.

And yeah, I know this almost certainly has flaws that would need to be worked though. Some that could be addressed simply though people voicing their concerns and problem solving around them, and others that we wouldn't really know about until they happen which is, y'know, normal and expected for any new thing that happens ever. We can just course correct and tweak things to solve problems that arise. Unfortunately people today (Well, maybe always. idk.) are really bad at respectful and constructive conversation so I guarantee if someone does disagree their response will be a slew of condescending insults and mockery rather than anything genuinely constructive or open to mature conversation.

And like I get that capitalists would probably hate these suggestions for various reasons but this sounds like a dream to me. I want to live in that world. I would gladly work 40 hours a week or more for literally $0 just to guarantee that me and my family's needs are met without the stress of budgeting and without having to worry about recessions or theft or debt or anything of that sort. That is all the payment I need.

And I recognize that not everyone is okay with that which is why I am imagining a world where people's precious capitalism remains intact and people have the choice to participate in whichever way is most fulfilling to them. Some people are passionate about their jobs and feel fulfilled by the capitalist system and y'know what good for them. I'm glad they're happy. I don't wanna take that away if I can help it.

But for me its miserable. I feel trapped and depressed and even though you could argue that technically I don't have to participate, "technically" isn't reality or practicality and I want an actual choice. I know not everyone on this site is American but for those who are; isn't this country supposed to be all about freedom? Why do I not even have the freedom to choose what economic system to live in? Why is capitalism being forced on me when I want nothing to do with it? Why can't those of us who are currently unwilling participants in capitalism have the space to do things our way? Why has this system been set up in such a way that the only way to escape the grasp of capitalism is to destroy it?

Because that's the thing, I don't care if capitalism exists as long as its participants are making the choice to stay and they have an alternative option. You do you. There's nothing wrong with liking it. The problem is when it is forced onto other people. That is the only reason I want to destroy it; it will not give us the fucking space to live differently. It does not allow people to live outside of it and when you're trapped by that against your will of-fucking-course you'd want to destroy it. If capitalism would give people the damn space to have other economic systems in peace I would have no problem with its existence. I wouldn't want to destroy it. It would be live and let live. But capitalism is writing its own death sentence by forcing itself onto people who are becoming increasingly fed up with its bullshit every generation.

When the only way to have a choice is to destroy you, sooner or later you will be destroyed. If the only way to be free to live as you like is to overthrow you, sooner or later you will be overthrown. If you keep stepping on people's toes and refuse to stop, sooner or later they will snap and you will get what's coming to you. That's how I feel about capitalism right now. Suffocated. At the mercy of the whims of people I will never know and who will never know me. Sick and tired and ready to lose my shit on this damn system. I feel so helpless and the only way I can feel any semblance of liberation and freedom is by getting as far away from capitalism as possible, which is usually illegal because of course it is and I don't wanna spend my life in a cell being treated like worthless trash.

I don't wanna be lazy, I wanna work hard on my own terms; for and in a community of people I care about. A community where we treat each other like family and support each other. I want to spend my days supporting, producing for, and working with my loved ones. I don't want to spend 40 hours a damn week working for the benefit of someone I will never know to create results I will barely see while me and my loved ones are barely scraping by. Even the system I suggested above isn't ideal, but at least its better than what we got now.

Like, I come from a long line of farmers on both sides of my family and hearing both my dad and my grandparents describe farm life just sounds like a dream to me. Like yeah, you're working basically the whole day but you're doing it for yourself, on your own terms, with the people you love. What could be better than that? I know its not everyone's cup of tea but damn if only I could have that. Farming isn't even like that anymore in many cases. You can't just dedicate your life to surviving off the land and all your own food because you have to pay fucking taxes just to be allowed use the land and probably deal with bs regulations depending on where you are. Which means you are going to have to worry about making not just enough to sustain yourself but enough to make a profit so you can pay the bills that you can't get out of even if you aren't participating in the damn society.

And yeah, its doable. I intend to live as close to that life as possible as soon as possible. But damn its irritating as hell and it feels like bullshit. Because capitalism has to stick its grubby little fingers into everyone's business and I can't just live in peace.

I did not consent to this. I am not okay with this. I want my freedom. REAL freedom. And if you think I'm being whiny and dramatic, too bad. I have a right to express my opinion and my feelings and these are my feelings. Yes, I can technically live a decent life and I can find ways to meet all of my needs and I can get by but that's not the issue. But the issue is not whether or not I can survive like this or be physically okay under capitalism, because I very much can and I am aware of this. The problem is whether or not I am okay with being subjected to this system. Which I am not. I can survive, yes, but I cannot get any fulfillment or joy from this life. Maybe its something about how I was raised or maybe its in my nature, but regardless I am not built for this type of life. I am strong. I am tough. I am hardworking. But I am also miserable. It feels like this is eating away at me and no amount of optimism or material gain can ever change that. I am not okay with this. That is the problem.

There is no one size fits all solution and this size certainly doesn't fit me. Its so damn inflexible and demanding. We need choices, choices that capitalism does not offer. I hate it here. No amount of force, no amount of advice demands to "work harder" or "suck it up," and no amount of willpower and optimism will ever change that.