Why YOU Should Boycott TED Talks

[Britethorn]

You can read the full text of the speech here:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-01/raise-taxes-on-the-rich-to-reward-job-creators-commentary-by-nick-hanauer.html

[tridim]

1. Here's the TED video..

#!

[Merlot]

6. This is an EXCELLENT video - simplifies complicated issues and blows holes through the retoric

Everyone should see this.

Maybe Nick should run for office...

[jerseyjack]

3. Who "owns" TED?

Why would they care if I didn't download their guests' presentations?

[U of M Dem]

4. This...

might explain it.

http://tedchris.posterous.com/131417405

[Britethorn]

5. Thanks for the Update

It seems that the situation is a bit more complicated than it first appeared. Having viewed the talk, I still don't get why the TED people are wringing their hands over this. I've seen a number of talks on their site which were far less interesting. And many, many of their talks are more controversial since they attack problems from new directions.

[Merlot]

7. I"m finding this a little hard to believe:

"At TED this year, an attendee pitched a 3-minute audience talk on inequality. The talk tapped into a really important and timely issue. But it framed the issue in a way that was explicitly partisan. And it included a number of arguments that were unconvincing, even to those of us who supported his overall stance. The audience at TED who heard it live (and who are often accused of being overly enthusiastic about left-leaning ideas) gave it, on average, mediocre ratings."

Which ones were the "unconvincing arguments?" where was the "explicitly partisan" part? Because this IS a repub talking point which they are happy to repeat on faux news, it's and actual truth to them and therefore deserves to be analyzed with fact and figures. Nothing partisan in those charts.

The whole blog post strikes me as rater defensive and condescending, especially this:

"I wrote him and tried gently to explain in detail why I thought his talk was flawed."

[Raster]

9. Actually, in my opinion, it does no such thing.

This response to Chris' "explanation" from Dave is golden:

After I watched Hanauer's video and read your post, I watched the Wilkinson video that you offered as proof that you are not tip-toeing around the issue of rising inequality.

The Hanauer video is a much more effective presentation. The Wilkinson video is an unsatisfying synopsis of a book- a lot of charts without numbers or footnotes.

You insinuate that Hanauer's video is "needlessly partisan in tone." If ridiculing the ridiculous ("job creators&quot is partisan, you have a point. For what it's worth, Wilkinson lists "more progressive taxation" as part of a proposed solution to the problem of excessive inequality. Of course, this "partisan" chestnut is buried in a list of 7 or 8 items that appears onscreen for a few seconds in the last minute of the video.

Hanauer's video is punchy enough to actually encourage some people to think about the garbage they are force-fed on a daily basis. Wilkinson's video will disappear into comfortable irrelevance.

[Merlot]

8. TED is to boring to boycott

They have a lot of pro-business and self-help talks. I thought of looking into their "technology" section, but it has a picture of bill gates face on it, so lost interest in that as well.

Except for a few talks about the arts and music, I haven't found much deep intellectual challenge or thought provoking material.