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Happy Belated Winter Solstice, everyone!!
May your 2021 be incredible, healthy, happy and safe!
And may we all get to watch the Rams win the Super Bowl!!
I’m not worried about a handful of window breakers in Portland. I am worried about the continued lies coming from the MSM regarding “anarchists,” where they literally get everything wrong about the philosophy possible, and just aid and abet Trump and his fellow fascists
I’m appalled that so many Americans fall for these lies, and ignore the fact that far-right groups overwhelm them in number, and are protected by the police.
Here’s an article about a photographer for the MAGA rallies talking about how the police never arrest the Proud Boys, and they and their fellow fascists may now be half the crowd at Trump rallies:
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/11/donald-trump-rally-photographer-interview.html
“Anarchists” get arrested for just existing. They’ve even been executed under Trump’s orders. No trial. Just executed. Proud Boys and company get a wink and a nod and are increasingly emboldened to commit violence in the streets and send death threats to health officials, people counting election votes, etc. etc.
The focus on “anarchists” is bullshit.
Not sure I have the background to respond to you other than in very simplistic terms. Yes Capitalism by its nature, in theory, affords people the freedom of gathering for themselves at the expense of others. No other political systems gives one as much freedom to do good and do bad. There is no perfect economic system be it capitalism, socialism, or communism. The theory of capitalism , at least as I understand it, is that private ownership allows the development of ideas, the fuel for growth, and without growth, by its nature capitalism will die. So there must be innovation which can be accomplished better with freedom to make both gains and losses at one’s own expense. The problem arises when it becomes totally free without governance because human nature kicks in and the more I get the more I want; the the more I got the more I need prevent others from getting what I got. (I love that sentence precisely because of its grammar)And that leaves others behind-further and further behind. Private ownership simply cannot be unfettered otherwise we reduce ourselves to selfish robots. And I think we’ve been headed that way too long. We seem to care less and less about those less fortunate. Perhaps someday this direction will reverse itself simply because we want it to. Maybe it won’t. I don’t know.
The thing is, as you know, capitalism is an economic system/theory, not a political system/theory. It can be matched with various political systems, but it isn’t one on its own. The best match, I think we’d all agree, is democracy, but I’d argue that the autocratic, anti-democratic nature of capitalism itself cancels out most of the benefits of that match, which is why I advocate for economic democracy as well as political.
Currently reading a really good book by Jonathan Israel, The Revolution of the Mind. He’s arguably the foremost historian of the Enlightenment, and his book focuses primarily on the split between the Radical and Moderate wings. Almost finished with the section that talks about laissez faire economic theorists, supported, with few exceptions, by the Moderates, and rejected, with even fewer exceptions, by the Radicals. That focus is primarily in the late 1700s, and even then, there was recognition of the illogic of just letting “providence” or “the markets” decide.
My take is that this would only have a snowball’s chance of working if we started off in a world of equality, already. But we obviously don’t. So any system that allows “freedom” of this kind just multiplies and expands the privileges and advantages already in place, which can’t help but widen the gaps.
Diderot, Baron D’Holbach, Hevetius and Thomas Paine are some of the major figures in the Radical camp, arguing for true democracy, an end to all privilege, rank, churchly powers, etc. etc. . . . with Hobbes, Hume, Voltaire and others in the Moderate camp, trying to hang on to some of those privileges.
Worth a read, W.
Anyway, IMO, capitalism is just incompatible with the kind of society you’re talking about. We’re bombarded 24/7 with messages of me me me, instant personal gratification, and endless scaremongering about how ghastly it would apparently be if we actually shared the planet with each other.
Again, I find the entire capitalist mindset to be a form of mass delusion and amnesia. It’s also killing the planet.
Well, what exactly are Democrats supposed to do? Trump is taking cases to court. Courts will decide them.
w
vSirota is arguing that the Democrats should be out there controlling Spin as well. He’s right. They do a very poor job of framing issues. They should be out there using language like “Coup, unAmerican, Democracy” Whatever. Call them out for what they are doing.
I think they need to do more than just counter the narrative, but that is essential. I think they need to bring counter-suits, alleging voter suppression by the GOP. They can easily show evidence of Trump and GOP efforts to jam up voting via the Postal Service, purging voter rolls, reducing polling places in areas dominated by Dem voters, etc.
They can’t count on the courts to rule in their favor. The system is far too political and partisan for that.
Trump and the GOP have shown that reality can be overturned by unified, relentless, unwavering lies. He would have been booted from office already if that hadn’t been surprisingly successful. They created an alternative reality, which means we have a duel.
If one side doesn’t even show up, the lies and the alternative reality win.
I’m a ‘little’ worried. But not a ‘lot’ worried.
Mainly because i think the System is fine with Biden. The CIA, NSA, Pentagon, Military, etc. If Bernie had won….i dunno.
w
vYou may be right, WV. But I think Trump has, ironically, proved that his own conception of the supposedly awesome power of the Deep State is nonsense, and that the Greenwalds of this world were wrong to cast it as a monolith. It if were all powerful, Trump never would have survived the Mueller probe, which we’ve recently learned, was purposely limited and truncated up front . . . nor would he have survived the impeachment process.
No president has been this systematic in his takeover of the Executive branch, with a combination of angry threats, intimidation, and firings, especially of Inspector Generals, which once was unheard of.
You can blunt the impact of an entrenched bureaucracy by killing off the watchdogs, appointing loyalists to manage it, and scaring everyone to death about their own futures. When you have the full support of half the duopoly, and a fanatical cult, egged on by a well-heeled mediaverse, it’s even easier.
I’m getting worried, and I fear the Dems will be all too passive, as is their wont.
WWDJD* in their place? The Dems don’t have that in their DNA.
*What would Deacon Jones do
