Domingo Halliburton
Handmade in USA
so detaining americans endlessly without trial, drone strikes, cracking down on state legal marijuana, patriot act aren't some bullshyt to be fearful over?
A Thomas Jefferson quote saying more than it meant to:
- Thread starter Zapp Brannigan
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"When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny." - Thomas Jefferson
I saw a conservative from the country-ass town I grew up in post this as his status just now.
Here's how I'm interpreting it. Dude may honestly fear his government because he has an unreasonable fear of Barack Obama. However, Barack Obama isn't where is fear should be placed because knowing what I know about this guy, Obama is not going to do anything to keep the guy who posted from living his life the way that he wants to.
That isn't to say that there shouldn't be any fear to be had at all, though. There are plenty of people to fear that aren't actually officially with the government. These people are global financiers, special operations mercenaries, and propagandists that want nothing more than to distort his view of the world in order to make him easier to brainwash.
The issue isn't whether something has the official label of "government" on it or not, the matter is if there is an intense power disparity between different parties when it comes to who makes the decisions in a society. Ron Paul fans often miss this one. They say, "WE HATE BIG GOVERNMENT!!" because they think that helping the poor hurts their freedom, but in all honesty it just doesn't affect them.
In this case, the fear of government is the result of tyranny, but in an unexpected way. Government, when working properly, serves as a foil to extremely powerful private interests that could run the risk of violating the rights of its people. Government hasn't been doing this because of deregulation over the last 30-something years, so now the powerful private interests are creating a social climate that causes people to hate and fear their own government in order to be able to accrue even more wealth and power while at the same time stamping out their final rise to the top.
There is fear of the government, and there is arguably tyranny that goes hand in hand with it. However, the tyranny is coming from the powerful moneyed interests, and unfortunately because of the fear of the government to empower itself to counter these interests, the tyranny has fertile room to grow.
The tide is turning against them, however, which is why the rich and powerful moneyed interests are acting the way that they are.
Now I know that people are going to respond with the American government doing various violent excursions overseas, but even to this I'd argue that this was because the American government wasn't powerful enough to stand up to the moneyed interests that fueled those wars because of the way that our election system works.
Am I wrong? If I am, please let me know.
Its amazing how pandering to viciousness can allow for the space of acceptance of propagandized language and behavior. Republcans banked on a scary high school psychological calculation --- make the public idealize wealth and "success", like they idealized the cool kids in high school.
So while we funnel trillions to big banks in the form of emergency lending, quantitative easing, no interest lending, etc, somehow cats like Romney, who endorse this economic machinery, can pivot w/ this irresponsible "free stuff" for poor people talk, because of the built in ability to play to the instincts of the populous who think the worst of minorities because of racist cultural capital. Fcked up.
Patrick Kane
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Zapp Brannigan
Captain of the Nimbus
Right. That's exactly why many poor white folks join the Republicans in the first place. They feel like they are "in league" with the extremely rich and powerful society people who are the power players on Wall Street and spend Labor Day in the Hamptons. Video Related:
This is what many Republican think of themselves. They think that they themselves are on the same level in terms of power as the people that effectively control them. Then they turn around and call liberals the "useful idiots" to the Democratic party because they've listened to the Glenn Beck propaganda aligning all liberalism with Stalin's Russia.
Conservatives have this issue where they think that helping poor people is what "hurts freedom" while violent enforcement of draconian laws helps it somehow. Such a vast disconnect... the only freedoms I can see them really valuing is the freedom to fetishize the flag or to fukk over consumers as business people or to buy tons of guns. Pretty meaningless and harmful freedoms, seeing as how they can so easily encroach on the freedoms of others.
- give gigantic banks gigantic amounts of bailout money and the ability to gamble with money that isn't theirs? WHOOO FREEDOM!!! Surely these rich and powerful people won't screw us over!
- Help a struggling family that's seen its provider's job shipped overseas due to Bain capital??? THAT HURTS MUH FREEDUMS U STOOPIT LIB'RUHL!!!
Conservative Logic
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They're like bandwagon fans of the Lakers
Zapp Brannigan
Captain of the Nimbus
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I'd argue that although the private wealthy interests have bought and paid for politicians, it still needs the "charade" of government not to tip off the population that their interests are being marginalized for the interests of a few. The government is still the force that polices and applies the law.
Cannabis is a good example. There is not logical, medical, or rational reason it should be classified the way it is. There is overwhelming evidence that alcohol and tobacco is exponentially worse. There is evidence that cannabis has many medical uses.
So, why is it illegal? All you have to do if follow the money trail and lobbying.
To me, that is a form of tyranny, especially in impoverished minority neighborhoods.
See, I dont by the "charade" angle. That to me is an under-socialized analysis of how the average American is oriented towards a certain value system. Obama and other politicians have acknowledged the need for "redistribution", and the dangers of wealth centralization and alla that. This has been met with the requisite screeching from the right w/ charges of socialism...etc, but its the populous that has picked up on and adopted the rights cues that gives the govt. its agency to cement or further this economic environment.
The average american worker, possessing a basic collection of facts understands how vertical our economic distribution is, but they have bought into the idea thats the way the world should work and operate. Bottom line is that our govt. reflects the values of the majority --- its a feedback loop.