We're witnessing the symptoms of a culture going through the early stages of transition from democracy to oligarchy - it quite literally starts with “average people” randomly behaving like asses
And as long as the poorly educated can be mass manipulated by the oligarchs, things will continue to devolve. We have at least 74 million citizens who have learned to be bad at learning, and we’re not likely to change that. However, we can minimize the negative externalities of their criminally stupid decision-making if we take away the powers of corporate personhood from the oligarchs, for they are the ones who have the know-how and capital to weaponize our cognitively challenged citizens, and they do it a lot. Does Goldman have a sector fund yet that focuses on the hate-spawned insanities flaring up around the world, so it can predict who gets to profit from these disasters. They could call it the Cheney Fund.
I worked at industrial plants in the USA and internationally. I definitely preferred working internationally. There are just too many A**holes in the USA. Made the job much more difficult. People are more polite in other countries. Covid and Trump has brought out the worse in them. Trump has made them mainstream.
The "Ugly American" has come HOME. I'm not sure the ones we're seeing in this decade are any different than the mobs that attended the lynchings way back when. They too were politically connected with sheriffs, mayors, judges, congressional members and even governors. Were they more polite to the ladies? Perhaps they made way, so women could get closer to the lynching.
Despite the usual creeps, please still consider the effects of covid restrictions. People were confined to their houses yelling at the TV and, no doubt, their family or pet. Many are now losing it in public as well. I am grateful for the photographers and also media that show the footage. They get their 15 minutes of fame, but not in a good way.
President Biden just took it up a notch.....the heat is on. Thanks to Louise's awful experience, I know to ask about their vax-status when I first call. A doorbell camera is something to think about these days too. That jerk obviously was too ignorant to understand that he insulted someone that has a multi-national platform! Actually these days, if you capture someone really appalling, ANYONE can "make them famous".
I have always preferred democracy and political action and have so far dedicated my life to those ends. However, since my childhood I have wondered how things might have been different for the approximately 11,000,000 people who lost their lives in German oligarch-owned (think IG Farben and Auschwitz, among others in their portolio) concentration camps, and the many millions more who suffered horribly, had they been able to see where Nazism was leading, and had they had access to shotguns and ammunition via waterfowl hunting licenses. These would have been crude weapons against military hardware, but for those who sacrificed, how many lives might have been saved?
We do know, right now. We were given this vision from history and have watched it begin to repeat itself here and around the world. What sort of decision have we made?
If forced to protect myself, it would not be with anger or hate - but with sorrow. However, I cannot give someone with warped values and beliefs the right take my life without doing what I can to preserve it for the sake of others, though I know I must lose it in the end.
I know some of the lies that have gone deep into these pitiful souls - that Barack Obama has armed all Democrats for the purpose of going out to kill Republicans in their homes, based on one sentence in one of his campaign speeches about building up a Peace Corps style diplomatic organization that would be more powerful than the U.S. Army, which was twisted and endlessly harped upon by Rush Limbaugh to make even intelligent Republicans believe that the Democrats would eventually be going into their homes to kill them in their sleep, so they must therefore come to kill us first.
This I heard, with great disbelief at first, from my Republican clients, one a retired admiral, people I thought to be friends. No, I don't think they ever considered that I would have been swayed to do anything so heinous, but they clearly had been. I do not even think they would enter into the massacre or entertained the notion, but they are most certainly worried about it. but there are plenty of others, as Thom has pointed out, who are waiting only for the word to go into action.
I have made my decision. But if I stand alone, my life will have been lost in vain, no one will be saved because of what I did. However, if millions stood with me, defending ourselves in our homes if we must, with neither anger nor hate but with sorrow, how many millions of innocent people might live if we can stop, or even minimize, the rampage.
Just saw a good article, that calls them Hatriots.
And as long as the poorly educated can be mass manipulated by the oligarchs, things will continue to devolve. We have at least 74 million citizens who have learned to be bad at learning, and we’re not likely to change that. However, we can minimize the negative externalities of their criminally stupid decision-making if we take away the powers of corporate personhood from the oligarchs, for they are the ones who have the know-how and capital to weaponize our cognitively challenged citizens, and they do it a lot. Does Goldman have a sector fund yet that focuses on the hate-spawned insanities flaring up around the world, so it can predict who gets to profit from these disasters. They could call it the Cheney Fund.
I worked at industrial plants in the USA and internationally. I definitely preferred working internationally. There are just too many A**holes in the USA. Made the job much more difficult. People are more polite in other countries. Covid and Trump has brought out the worse in them. Trump has made them mainstream.
The "Ugly American" has come HOME. I'm not sure the ones we're seeing in this decade are any different than the mobs that attended the lynchings way back when. They too were politically connected with sheriffs, mayors, judges, congressional members and even governors. Were they more polite to the ladies? Perhaps they made way, so women could get closer to the lynching.
Despite the usual creeps, please still consider the effects of covid restrictions. People were confined to their houses yelling at the TV and, no doubt, their family or pet. Many are now losing it in public as well. I am grateful for the photographers and also media that show the footage. They get their 15 minutes of fame, but not in a good way.
President Biden just took it up a notch.....the heat is on. Thanks to Louise's awful experience, I know to ask about their vax-status when I first call. A doorbell camera is something to think about these days too. That jerk obviously was too ignorant to understand that he insulted someone that has a multi-national platform! Actually these days, if you capture someone really appalling, ANYONE can "make them famous".
This is spot on. But what are we supposed to do about it?
Fox News reports the news before it happens. Clairvoyant, Deja Vu or brainwashing. "The only way that Gavin Newsome will win in California is massive voter fraud". https://www.cnn.com/videos/media/2021/09/12/california-recall-election-media-voter-fraud-stelter-pkg-rs-vpx.cnn
I have always preferred democracy and political action and have so far dedicated my life to those ends. However, since my childhood I have wondered how things might have been different for the approximately 11,000,000 people who lost their lives in German oligarch-owned (think IG Farben and Auschwitz, among others in their portolio) concentration camps, and the many millions more who suffered horribly, had they been able to see where Nazism was leading, and had they had access to shotguns and ammunition via waterfowl hunting licenses. These would have been crude weapons against military hardware, but for those who sacrificed, how many lives might have been saved?
We do know, right now. We were given this vision from history and have watched it begin to repeat itself here and around the world. What sort of decision have we made?
If forced to protect myself, it would not be with anger or hate - but with sorrow. However, I cannot give someone with warped values and beliefs the right take my life without doing what I can to preserve it for the sake of others, though I know I must lose it in the end.
I know some of the lies that have gone deep into these pitiful souls - that Barack Obama has armed all Democrats for the purpose of going out to kill Republicans in their homes, based on one sentence in one of his campaign speeches about building up a Peace Corps style diplomatic organization that would be more powerful than the U.S. Army, which was twisted and endlessly harped upon by Rush Limbaugh to make even intelligent Republicans believe that the Democrats would eventually be going into their homes to kill them in their sleep, so they must therefore come to kill us first.
This I heard, with great disbelief at first, from my Republican clients, one a retired admiral, people I thought to be friends. No, I don't think they ever considered that I would have been swayed to do anything so heinous, but they clearly had been. I do not even think they would enter into the massacre or entertained the notion, but they are most certainly worried about it. but there are plenty of others, as Thom has pointed out, who are waiting only for the word to go into action.
I have made my decision. But if I stand alone, my life will have been lost in vain, no one will be saved because of what I did. However, if millions stood with me, defending ourselves in our homes if we must, with neither anger nor hate but with sorrow, how many millions of innocent people might live if we can stop, or even minimize, the rampage.
I will have to put this down as something that I do not understand. What has happened to our way of thinking? 1984? https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2021/08/13/social-media-fact-checks-orig.cnn-business