What the Democrats Never Seem to Learn

Politics and other such topical creams.
Dr. Medulla
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Re: What the Democrats Never Seem to Learn

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Heston wrote:
Dr. Medulla wrote:
eumaas wrote:oh shit, that's wednesday?

better get laid soon, we don't have long to live.
The beauty is that, unlike so many other end of the world scenarios, I would guess we'd never know what happened. It'd be as instantaneous as we're capable of perceiving.
No!
According to Bavarian chemist Otto Rossler:

"Nothing will happen for at least 4 years. Then someone will spot a light-ray coming out of the Indian Ocean.
"A few weeks later we will see a stream of particles coming out of the soil on the other side of the planet. Then we will know there's a quasar inside the planet.
"The weather will change completely, wiping out life. There will be a biblical armageddon.
"Scorpions will be the only survivors.
Olaf's uncle would promote Scorpions even in an apocalypse.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

BostonBeaneater
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Re: What the Democrats Never Seem to Learn

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I love you guys. We're screwed. The country and world are being run by an ever tightening cadre of Socialist Plutocrats who benefit from pitting human population against one another. They've got it so sorted out that any spill over of outrage and sanctimony is directed at subgroups with no real power.
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Dr. Medulla
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Re: What the Democrats Never Seem to Learn

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BostonBeaneater wrote:I love you guys. We're screwed. The country and world are being run by an ever tightening cadre of Socialist Plutocrats who benefit from pitting human population against one another. They've got it so sorted out that any spill over of outrage and sanctimony is directed at subgroups with no real power.
Socialist?

(For what it's worth, my fears for the future are less political/economic related than of climate. The latter will definitely drive the former, but it'll cause even more misery than a world run by Cheney clones.)
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

BostonBeaneater
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Re: What the Democrats Never Seem to Learn

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Dr. Medulla wrote:
BostonBeaneater wrote:I love you guys. We're screwed. The country and world are being run by an ever tightening cadre of Socialist Plutocrats who benefit from pitting human population against one another. They've got it so sorted out that any spill over of outrage and sanctimony is directed at subgroups with no real power.
Socialist?

(For what it's worth, my fears for the future are less political/economic related than of climate. The latter will definitely drive the former, but it'll cause even more misery than a world run by Cheney clones.)
Socialist for the guys in the club, not us.
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Dr. Medulla
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Re: What the Democrats Never Seem to Learn

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BostonBeaneater wrote:
Dr. Medulla wrote:
BostonBeaneater wrote:I love you guys. We're screwed. The country and world are being run by an ever tightening cadre of Socialist Plutocrats who benefit from pitting human population against one another. They've got it so sorted out that any spill over of outrage and sanctimony is directed at subgroups with no real power.
Socialist?

(For what it's worth, my fears for the future are less political/economic related than of climate. The latter will definitely drive the former, but it'll cause even more misery than a world run by Cheney clones.)
Socialist for the guys in the club, not us.
I suppose so many political labels have become inverted and splintered, why not socialist? Still, oligarch is probably still valid in this case.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

IkarisOne
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Re: What the Democrats Never Seem to Learn

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Feudalism. Which, if you look at the scope of history, seems to be human civilization's default setting.

eumaas
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Re: What the Democrats Never Seem to Learn

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Not really sure feudalism exists, myself.
I feel that there is a fascistic element, for example, in the Rolling Stones . . .
— Morton Feldman

I've studied the phenomenon of neo-provincialism in self-isolating online communities but this place takes the fucking cake.
— Clashy

Dr. Medulla
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Re: What the Democrats Never Seem to Learn

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Feudalism also has a certain reciprocity between the different social groups that our overlord wannabes would prefer to opt out on.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Spiff
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Re: What the Democrats Never Seem to Learn

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Dr. Medulla wrote:Every GOP campaign since Reagan has been about fearing bad people outside the US and within, amping up jingoism to punish those bad people, and to promote the idea that selfishness and greed are virtues. They've stolen the principles of populism and amped up the outrage and resentment against the phony targets (scientists, teachers, foreigners, the poor).
And thus the wisdom of Joseph Goebbels has passed on to a new generation:

"It is not propaganda’s task to be intelligent, its task is to lead to success."
Let fury have the hour, anger can be power
D'you know that you can use it?

-- There's no fairytale ending with cocaine.

Wolter
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Re: What the Democrats Never Seem to Learn

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Dr. Medulla wrote:Feudalism also has a certain reciprocity between the different social groups that our overlord wannabes would prefer to opt out on.
Actually, yeah. Facets of traditional Fuedalism may be applicable (and I think facets of any system can be found if you want to look for them).

Maybe one could define where we're heading (where we're at if you're more cynical) as a form of neo-Feudalism where the duties of the lord to his enfeoffed and "enserfed" (for want of a better term) have been negated. But I stll feel as if the term isn't quite applicable.

I'd say we're closer to moving into a Neo-Mercantilism via State Capitalism.
”INDER LOCK THE THE KISS THREAD IVE REALISED IM A PRZE IDOOT” - Thomas Jefferson

"But the gorilla thinks otherwise!"

Dr. Medulla
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Re: What the Democrats Never Seem to Learn

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It's worth noting that a lot of right wing ideologues and strategists (e.g., Grover Norquist, Richard Viguerie (sp?)) openly credit prominent Soviet communists (Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, Brezhnev) as inspiring their tactics and perspective of human nature. Chew on that, freedom spittlers …
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Wolter
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Re: What the Democrats Never Seem to Learn

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Dr. Medulla wrote:It's worth noting that a lot of right wing ideologues and strategists (e.g., Grover Norquist, Richard Viguerie (sp?)) openly credit Soviet leaders (Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, Brezhnev) as inspiring their tactics and perspective of human nature. Chew on that, freedom spittlers …
Very noticable among all of those ideologies and ideologues is a very dim view of what humans are capable of. Now I'm as distrustful and misanthropic as anyone I know (I put on a cheery face, though! :kiss: ), but I just can't look at the world like them (although I have to admit I have a fondness for Hobbes the man, not the theorist). Generally speaking (as conservatives like Ann King and George Will have publicly admitted), political conservatism goes hand in hand with a distrust of everyday people that is just as "elitist" as on the limousine Liberal end of the spectrum.

Contrast that with Jefferson, Paine, and a lot of the Left-leaning Libertarian thinkers of the 19th century. Almost to a man, they had a trust that the average person that was not desperately hungry, poorly educated, and/or restricted in his political freedoms would tend to be the best judge of his (I'll add "her" to address the fact that most of these men lived in a more sexist age) best interests, and would not (in an orderly society) revert to lawless savagery. Of course, there are outliers that will never follow societal rules and will be oppressors no matter what, but I think this view is no less naive (and indeed more nuanced) than what those haters of human dignity and human potential put forth as "pragmatic" and "realistic" assessments of human nature.

I apologize for all the parentheticals and the disjointed nature of this post. I'm trying to work AND contribute here at the same time.
”INDER LOCK THE THE KISS THREAD IVE REALISED IM A PRZE IDOOT” - Thomas Jefferson

"But the gorilla thinks otherwise!"

Dr. Medulla
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Re: What the Democrats Never Seem to Learn

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It's yet another reason why our traditional "spectrumed" sense of politics is so meaningless. Far too many dimensions to consider when figuring out one's politics, but the degree of contempt one feels for basic human nature is certainly a valid one. I'm still convinced of the basic decency of human nature, of our higher brain functions, but we're still too prone to defaulting to that reptilian part of our brain, and those of an authoritarian bent succeed by pushing those buttons.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Wolter
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Re: What the Democrats Never Seem to Learn

Post by Wolter »

Dr. Medulla wrote:It's yet another reason why our traditional "spectrumed" sense of politics is so meaningless. Far too many dimensions to consider when figuring out one's politics, but the degree of contempt one feels for basic human nature is certainly a valid one. I'm still convinced of the basic decency of human nature, of our higher brain functions, but we're still too prone to defaulting to that reptilian part of our brain, and those of an authoritarian bent succeed by pushing those buttons.
That's about where I'm at. I think most people are decent but capable of deep irrationality if made to feel threatened.

Which takes us full circle to the fact that almost every U.S. election (and probably most other ones) of the last 25-30 years has been won on the idea of keeping outside enemies from hurting us, whether those enemies are legitimate threats or not.
”INDER LOCK THE THE KISS THREAD IVE REALISED IM A PRZE IDOOT” - Thomas Jefferson

"But the gorilla thinks otherwise!"

Dr. Medulla
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Re: What the Democrats Never Seem to Learn

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Wolter wrote:
Dr. Medulla wrote:It's yet another reason why our traditional "spectrumed" sense of politics is so meaningless. Far too many dimensions to consider when figuring out one's politics, but the degree of contempt one feels for basic human nature is certainly a valid one. I'm still convinced of the basic decency of human nature, of our higher brain functions, but we're still too prone to defaulting to that reptilian part of our brain, and those of an authoritarian bent succeed by pushing those buttons.
That's about where I'm at. I think most people are decent but capable of deep irrationality if made to feel threatened.

Which takes us full circle to the fact that almost every U.S. election (and probably most other ones) of the last 25-30 years has been won on the idea of keeping outside enemies from hurting us, whether those enemies are legitimate threats or not.
And internal enemies—liberals, pinkos, homosexuals, Jews, nigras, drug dealers, Muslims, Catholics, illegal immigrants, atheists, abortion providers, etc ad nauseum. The essence of right wing politics in the post-WWII years is: "Something bad is out there. Evil. They want to kill you. They want to take your money. They want to ruin your life. We know best, so just let us protect you."
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

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