tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3862216000300765627.post7366625970227297662..comments2024-01-16T03:42:46.705-05:00Comments on The Downward Spiral: The Continued Liberal Reluctance to Point the Finger of Blame Where it Really BelongsBill Hickshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17551954408189665078noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3862216000300765627.post-27177633835353665922015-03-25T16:08:50.884-04:002015-03-25T16:08:50.884-04:00Who are you calling an intellectual?
I really li...Who are you calling an intellectual? <br />I really liked the John Oliver comments, embarrassing as they were. <br />John Gatto's 'Dumbing Us Down' told the story, but did not reveal the machinations that accomplished the moronification of Murrica. I would like to understand how that happened, beyond just de-funding education.<br />Maybe we just did it to ourselves.centralscrewtinizerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03404913280254786506noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3862216000300765627.post-81743640782984509852015-03-24T08:08:51.932-04:002015-03-24T08:08:51.932-04:00It took 35+ years for many voters to realize our e...It took 35+ years for many voters to realize our elections are fraudulent play acting. The fact that the two candidates of the 2016 race are pretending to be a redneck idiot and a suburban hausfrau only serves to indicate that the few people gullible enough to take part in our quad-year election scam are redneck idiots and suburban hausfraus. Marketing and bullshit nostalgia keeps them chasing phantoms of political relevance when any influence citizens had on our nation's policies vanished before the smoke settled from WW II. Meanwhile our intellectual elites sugar coat what everyone already knows:<br /><br />"This does not mean that the average American always loses out," said Gilens, "because the affluent and ordinary citizens frequently want the same thing. But when they disagree - and they do disagree on many important matters - the affluent generally get their way. If democracy means that all citizens should have a say in shaping government policy, our findings cast doubt upon just how democratic U.S. policy making actually is." http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-04/puww-goc041014.php<br /><br />even when they're allowed to reveal their findings on obscure websites perused only by other intellectuals and the idly curious.AlanSmitheenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3862216000300765627.post-35926759463154482232015-03-23T17:41:44.294-04:002015-03-23T17:41:44.294-04:00Eh. It just took people a while to catch up with ...Eh. It just took people a while to catch up with reality. Nobody except the willfully ignorant or stubbornly partisan thinks voting is the answer to anything. http://www.opensecrets.org/bigpicture/reelect.phpAlanSmitheehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10528477810358216849noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3862216000300765627.post-46167957499743677732015-03-23T16:28:22.575-04:002015-03-23T16:28:22.575-04:00"Most people know our elections are rigged si..."Most people know our elections are rigged six-ways-of-Sunday."<br /><br />But why is that, exactly? Could we really argue that there was no "choice" in the Nixon-McGovern race in 1972, or Carter-Reagan in 1980? We didn't reach this point overnight. It took 35+ years of the average citizen becoming progressively less informed--and therefore abdicating their basic responsibilities as citizens--to get where we are today. <br /><br />Joe and Jane Voter are working two/three jobs as you say precisely BECAUSE they've spent two full generations voting against their economic interests. The base emotional appeals of the charlatan politicians who have done the oligarchy's bidding work precisely because the populace is so ill informed. <br /><br />It's no accident that the first formally announced candidate of the 2016 race is the most cretinous alleged human being in the Senate and that everything about him is a fake. Ted Cruz could only get elected to the Senate and then be considered a "serious" presidential candidate in a country where the vast majority of the citizenry are--let's face it--morons.Bill Hickshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17551954408189665078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3862216000300765627.post-53675954765661749652015-03-22T17:50:37.615-04:002015-03-22T17:50:37.615-04:00Blaming the voters doesn't cut it here, Bill. ...Blaming the voters doesn't cut it here, Bill. Most people know our elections are rigged six-ways-of-Sunday. If it isn't Republicans suppressing voters through Voter ID laws, it's Democrats fixing ballot lines through shenanigans like the California "Nonpartisan" primary system. Joe Voter, whose working two or three jobs for bullshit minimum wage figures "What's the fucking point." and he's right. It's not like his boss is going to let him off of work to go vote anyway.<br /><br />Shills like Engelhardt are another kettle of mendacity altogether. They've wrangled seats on the fauxgressive media gravy train by keeping the few left wingers gullible enough to still be in the Democratic Party inside the tent pissing out instead of, well, you get the idea. They can't point fingers because they'd be pointing politicians who work for the same people that sign their paychecks. Instead, the use the very real facts of electoral corruption to panic voters into supporting whatever fake reformer the DP designates every four years. (This year it's probably Warren. Or Sanders. Whoever.)<br /><br />Anyroad, add up all that voter suppression & ballot line fixing, throw in some jerrymandering and other electoral shenanigans, and it suddenly becomes easy to see why voter turnout is so low. It would have been the same in the Soviet Union if they hadn't made it compulsory.AlanSmitheenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3862216000300765627.post-79447972587200131542015-03-22T09:03:45.248-04:002015-03-22T09:03:45.248-04:00Yeah, well it would be great if we had an actual w...Yeah, well it would be great if we had an actual working democracy too. Look, as Obama's election has clearly shown - it doesn't matter who you elect, you're going to get the same agenda regardless. Obama campaigned as the second coming of JFK, only to morph into the third (and fourth) act of Bush the Second! Politics as it stands (with the Citizens United case allowing corporate money to buy members of the legislative branches through legal bribery) has cut out the common voter (and their issues) and the political machines of the two party system vet their candidates so that anyone who doesn't "play ball" (eg. Ralph Nader) can't even get on the ballot. After all that, we still haven't even mentioned gerrymandering districts (by the incumbents to assure they get re-elected) and the so-called Congressional Congress, that has had the capacity to overturn the popular vote all along. Elections are a charade to make the plebes feel like they have a choice when they clearly don't.<br /><br />None of this even matters any more with methane and nearly 4 dozen self-reinforcing feedback loops continuing to make climate change the driver of the 6th mass extinction that's underway and growing by the day. It's like worrying about what tune the band on the Titanic is playing as we're rearranging the deck chairs. Everyone will know within a few more years (let's say 5 to be safe) that it's over - like the people of Sao Paolo,many in CA, Vanuatu, and the Ebola-hit countries of Africa, to name a few who are already experiencing "the new normal."<br /><br />TomAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com