It is perplexing, to the point of insanity, why any of the 99% vote for Republicans. An article in the NY Times details this insanity as people vote against their own interests: wanting candidates to cut government spending as they are more and more dependent on it. But in their reality they want the government to cut back on programs that will literally doom them.
These pages have written about Tea Party members who use social security checks to attend Tea Party functions to advocate against government spending. It is hard to not shake your head at the idiocy of the Americans.
Try not to conclude … America is Doomed.
Indeed, every political cycle proves more and more that credulous Americans have the government and corporate leadership they deserve.
It’s not even enough to say people are hanging themselves on the nooses handed to them. They’re hanging themselves while being grateful for being able to buy a cheaper noose from the same people who outsourced their noose-making job, which in turn was made with inferior materials so they end up not killing themselves but chronically injured so they can be put in debt with medical bills and put on disability so corporations can used them as a means of siphoning more money from the government. American society has literally become the theatre of the absurd.
Having said that, blaming the victims is even more insidious because those manipulating the 99% are the true perpetrators. For example, why is it that every time the rich are criticized (e.g. Buffet suggesting higher tax rates for the rich) the morality issue is raised as if they are the experts of right and wrong!?!? How about the empirical evidence as cited from Mr. Krugman’s blog:
“The key reason we can’t have a polite debate is that one side keeps putting out the old discredited arguments, again and again. Inequality hasn’t really increased, never mind the IRS data; we have huge social mobility, never mind the actual evidence; tax rates on the rich have gone up because they pay more taxes, never mind their soaring incomes; taxing the rich even slightly more has devastating effects on economic growth, never mind the Clinton boom and the Bush not-boom.”
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/09/jonathan-chait-is-mean/
The sheer hypocrisy is beyond absurd. It is cronyism and criminality the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the Nazi’s rise to power. History repeats itself as economic suffering leads to shifts to the extreme right (fascism) and extreme left (communism).
Neo — great to hear from you. Always enjoy your writings — you are so good at it. I have been remiss in posting recently. The Republicans are getting crazier and have pulled the country farther to the right. So much that Democrats represent classical Republicans and Republicans get more and more evil. Obama is closer to a Reagan Republican than an FDR.
Likewise, Admin. Your posting have been sorely missed. But then again our diatribes might as well be like yelling into a black hole since people seem to fall for the same obfuscations and prevarications again and again and again. Critical thinking is an anathema in our society as those perpetuating ignorance are rewarded while those that rationally criticize are marginalized and disenfranchised.
I completely concur about the shift of American politics to the right as politicians worry more about their political careers than they do about enacting good policies. I suspect Obama and Nixon would have gotten along swimmingly since they are both concerned more with proving themselves to the establishment than to the American people.
Hello folks. Its been awhile since I posted here. I have to say what really strikes me is the power of diminished expectations. It seems that Americans are slowly being conditioned to accept less and less and just take it. No fighting back no resistance. 12 years now…12 years of zero job growth and few people are ready yet to even concede something is wrong. So many people claim Its Just another business cycle. Good ole America and red white and blue will come through if you just pull yourself up by the bootstraps and all that standard propaganda that might have been true in the days of yore but guess what? times change right??
The Employed say to the unemployed:
Plenty of jobs out there its just that people are too lazy to work(look at all those jobs in the natural gas industry in north dakota..thousands of them!!!). Of course, the employed being such geniuses in areas like mathematics fail to explain how 15 million unemployed can be fitted into a few thousand jobs. All this is an excuse for the employed and those doing ok to continue to ignore the problems.The unemployed and poor though just get tossed away..disposable just like all the mass produced garbage made in china and sold in America. we are being taught and conditioned to live in our own bubbles and to not have concern for our neighbors. As long as its all about me then there is no organized popular resistance. Its exactly like Ben franklin said” we either all hang together or we all hang separetly”. Problem is most people are opting to hang separately..no concern for what’s happening to the country UNTIL it happens to them personally. Look at Egypt, Libya or Greece. These are models of societies that are bonding and fighting back. Societies not as willing to just bend over and take it as Americans are so fond of doing.
Sadly I think we will need another big economic burst..probably in the next three to five years..for people to finally wake up to the simple realization that the America of fairy tales:land of milk and honey, opportunity..and all that has been sold out by corporations and politicians and now serves as help for the 1% of wall street bankers and ceo’s.
Both sides have their delusions. Left has its everlasting other peoples money. Right it’s as you say, own throat cutting.
One test of one’s ideologies is a historical perspective. In that did we act like this in the good ole times, and if so, what is the difference.
Some know it but it is buried under ideologies and current best business practice. The root cause of the on-coming calamity is the separation of production from consumption. The globalization that has enabled this has achieved corporate profits never seen in recent history.
Fascism will never allow this to be changed. I am afraid that a second
American revolution is the only remedy.
Hello Rickc:
Love the Benjamin Franklin quote as it fits perfectly into the hanging motif.
Few thousand jobs for the millions of unemployed…I’m glad to hear there are still a few of us out there who understand the meaning of perspective.
I feel compelled to share the following story because it illustrates well how free-market capitalism cannot always be the panacea to civil societies’ needs and ills and people’s self-interest:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-town-clerk-20120220,0,7703450.story
To all you conservative bullshitters out there who’ve fallen for the propaganda, ask yourself the simple question: Do you really want your water privatized!?!? Imagine your home’s water supply run like the cable company…really bad idea.
On the other hand, a few of you out there may have heard about Jefferson County, Alabama having been the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. Any guesses on what project drove Jefferson county into more than $4 billion in debt?
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/story/2011-11-09/alabama-county-bankruptcy/51146416/1
Can anyone say government inefficiency, fraud, corruption and waste? To all you liberal bullshitters out there who’ve fallen for the propaganda, ask yourself the simple question: Do you really want spendthrift politicians controlling your town’s water system budget?