Forum Replies Created
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The thinking is, which goes back at least to Locke’s, that land that has not been “improved” — as in, made profitable — doesn’t really belong to anyone — yet. It belongs to the first person who makes it profitable. And it’s somehow righteous to take that land away from people or tribes or a nation that doesn’t try to “improve” it. It’s righteous to demand that it be handed over to virtuous men and women who will turn it into profit, through development and/or exchange.
If it’s just sitting there, for all Americans to, you know, look at and enjoy, then no one really owns it and it’s ripe for the taking. Because nothing has any “value” if it can’t yield profits or be sold for profits — or both.
A truly destructive mindset, and one that the American ruling class has perfected, based on the English ruling class’s model, primarily.
What the conceal-carry folks don’t ever want people to know is this: The vast majority of the time that someone pulls a gun in “self-defense,” there never would have been any escalation into deadly violence in the first place if not for guns.
99 times out of 100, you’d get a scuffle, a fist-fight, then everyone goes home, alive. Sore, perhaps, with bloody lips. But they get to go home and live to fight another day.
Conceal carry culture, however, says, no to all of that. It says, “Let’s skip the fist-fights and just go straight to DEFCON 1 and kill each other.”
This is what happened with Tayvon Martin and George Zimmerman. If no gun, they both go home alive. Zimmerman goes home after getting his butt kicked by a sixteen-year-old, and that sixteen-year-old gets to live to go to his prom, graduate, maybe go on to college, get married and so on. But because Zimmerman had a gun, he doesn’t. He’s dead.
I was a bouncer when young. I broke up numerous drunken brawls. Today, now that 50 states have conceal carry, and some even allow guns in bars, those brawls may soon become a thing of the past. Quaint, even. Folks won’t throw fists at each other. They’ll just go straight to semi-automatics and gun each other down.
It’s time to radically reverse all of the deadly business of the gun cultists and the gun industry they work for. All of it.
ZN,
Your plant with the big bad teeth pic bothered me a great deal. If I had some power here, I would have accidentally obliterated that thread, just to get rid of that pic. I vote for no more human-eating plant pics, regardless, and I think I’m going to start a social justice campaign just to make sure you don’t do it again. Kinda like this one:
Nittany,
From your description of his stance versus people like Dawkins, whom I’ve read (The God Delusion), I’d side with Myers. Atheism should definitely be a part of the “social justice” movement, and embrace feminism and be against Islamophobia, etc. Seems like a slam dunk to me.
Or to put that different, there is absolutely no case in our history wherein tax cuts for the rich have resulted in growth in jobs and wages.
The wealthy invest money to make money off of money.
This fantasy that they use it to invest or propel the economy is an old belief ranking right up there with fear of witches.
Very true. Again, if they could make their money without hiring a single worker, they would. They’ve been pushing for that dream since the Industrial Revolution and the first assembly lines. A lot of people never really think about it, but more people were employed before capitalism became economic hegemon. Almost everyone was their own boss, too. Capitalism came along and with automation, assembly lines and new technologies, could use ten people to do the work thousands once did, in their own local, separate, autonomous markets.
The inevitable math of capitalism has always been to radically reduce jobs by getting more and more work out of each individual worker, along with automating their work out of existence. And capitalists always want the largest possible army of the unemployed, to suppress wages and kill leverage for workers. They buy political systems to ensure this as well.
Where was the massive jobs program when the world economy collapsed in 2008? It never happened. Primarily because that would have given far too much leverage and power back to workers.
Trump represents the interests of Capital. He couldn’t care less about workers.
But why, bnw, would you think Trump has any intention of helping working people? He has absolutely no history of doing so. None. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. He’s made his fortune from screwing them over, and outsources the vast majority of his own manufacturing jobs.
He calls for steep tax cuts on the rich, which means he will make a fortune from his own government policies. He will personally be enriched by his actions. He calls for a top rate of 25%, which will net him millions of extra dollars a year. Plus, no more estate tax, which will net his children tens of millions extra.
There is no evidence in the history of American economics whereby tax cuts for the rich have ever — and I mean ever — helped working people. The rich have always just kept that money and increased the gap between themselves and their workers. There is absolutely no case in our history wherein tax cuts for the rich have resulted in a decrease in the gap between rich and poor.
Seriously, why do you have such faith in him? What has he ever done to earn your trust?
But it is possible we were put here for a purpose…just like it’s possible that 9/11 was carried out by Amish insurgents despite no evidence to support it and a ton of evidence to suggest otherwise. 🙂
Are you sure there isn’t any evidence?
Ohio Amish beard-cutting gang faces unfamiliar life behind bars
In the novel, Dune, Paul repeats, “Fear is the mind killer.” The full Bene Gesserit litany being:
“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
One could also substitute “absolute certainty” for “fear.” If we were certain we knew all, we’d stop using a goodly bit of our minds. This is true for both the religious and the scientific. The best scientists don’t go for absolute certainty, and love mysteries. They know it gives them endless projects to work on. And the best religious minds, like Pascal and Kierkegaard, thought absolute certainty was a delusion. They struggled with their faith on a daily basis, and drew strength from that struggle.
ZN,
Thanks. I already knew I could just copy and paste and that would work somewhat. Was hoping, however, to use code to shrink it down to fit the space given, and maintain the (original) height/width ratio.
On my own site, I can do that — because I’m, well, god there. In the universal settings, and in individual posts. It’s difficult being a mere mortal sometimes.
;>)
PA,
I’m looking forward to it. I think it hits HBO in October.
Here’s another one about the future, robots, genetic manipulation and such. Very good film.
