With Democrats like these who needs Republicans?

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/12/06/how-corporate-power-killed-democracy/

They bought BOTH sides, guys. The longer it takes you to figure out that Democrats are as responsible as the Republicans are for the rise of corporate power in America, the longer they have to cement their control over our system.

And they've already got a half century head start.

I know you hate anyone who tells you that you're just buying into their propaganda.

Cassandra wasn't popular, either. It didn't change the fact that she was right.
 

SneekyNinja

Well-Known Member
I volunteered for the army at 18. They wouldn't take me for medical reasons.

Not everyone has the option.

Worse, the notion that getting ahead means literally risking your life is somehow a way up in America says something about just how bankrupt our country is for most of us.
Let me guess, bone spurs?
 

Fogdog

Well-Known Member
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/12/06/how-corporate-power-killed-democracy/

They bought BOTH sides, guys. The longer it takes you to figure out that Democrats are as responsible as the Republicans are for the rise of corporate power in America, the longer they have to cement their control over our system.

And they've already got a half century head start.

I know you hate anyone who tells you that you're just buying into their propaganda.

Cassandra wasn't popular, either. It didn't change the fact that she was right.
counterpunch. Nope not going to read it. There are good places to go to get good information. This is not one of them.

Don’t link to CounterPunch
http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/2015/08/dont-link-to-counterpunch.html

In a staggering expose Elise Hendrick may make you think twice as she shows that white supremacist and racist authors far outweigh the odd Jeremy Scahill or Noam Chomsky piece. She convincingly argues that the website's history demonstrates that it is a far right 'entry' project. She says:
In writing for, and sharing articles published on, CP, Leftists are unwittingly helping to promote the agenda of the far right.

In addition to the authors relied on by CP for its left cred, ‘America’s best political newsletter’ also regularly publishes ‘independent investigative journalism’ by a wide variety of white supremacists, including Paul Craig Roberts, editor of the white nationalist website VDare, Ron Paul (who poses for photo ops with neo-Nazis and warns of ‘race war’), and Alison Weir, holocaust denier Israel Shamir, and that perennial saboteur of the Palestinian solidarity movement, Gilad Atzmon, author of the racist The Wandering Who.

Although there are some who have expressed concern on this problematic mix, when I have raised this issue in discussions with others in left activist circles, I have often found that it is dismissed as a triviality. In these discussions, the white supremacist contingent tends to be attributed to an unwillingness to bow to ‘political correctness’ or a mere desire to ‘piss off liberals’, and generally believed to be an insignificant deviation from an otherwise clear leftist editorial line, the sort of thing only an ‘ideological purist’ could get excited about.

My own research into the editorial practices at CounterPunch shows otherwise. Not only have white supremacist authors long been a fixture at CP; their ideology is shared by members of the editorial collective. All in all, it is entirely reasonable to say that the formation of a Querfront (an alliance between the far right and the left) is a longstanding project of the newsletter, consistently endorsed by the decisions taken by CP editors and their own stated positions. In the following, I will examine the relationship between the CP editors and the racist Right via individual case studies and several statistical investigations.
 

Fogdog

Well-Known Member
The tendency of the loony left to subscribe to false conspiracies has not gone unnoticed by the right. The misogyny, homophobia, antisemitism and racism evident in padarapers's and tyschtick's posts are all part of the phenomenon of the rise in false conspiracy theories. In some cases, fascists have used loony left conspiracists as tools.

Ironically, ttyschtick's proclaimed of "fighting for good" belies the fact that the conspiracy theories he espouses are actually harmful to the very democracy he claims he loves.


This is a long sucker, Conclusions begin on page 47. Needless to say, it won't fit into a you-tube vid, however, this is an example of real information, not the vid-propaganda crap that Choomer, tty and pad espouse.

CONSPIRACY THEORIES, DEMONIZATION , & SCAPEGOATING
Toxic to Democracy

https://www.politicalresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2012/11/Toxic-2D-all-rev-04.pdf

Opening statements:
This study challenges the validity of conspiracy theory as a form of political analysis, and traces the roots and dynamics of conspiracism through United States history.

Chip Berlet shows that the development of modern conspiracism is rooted in bigotry and that the conspiracist analytical model itself encourages demonization and scapegoating of blameless persons and groups. In so doing, conspiracism also serves to distract society and its would-be agents of change away from ongoing, structural causes of social and economic injustices.

The resurgence of conspiracy theories — on both the Right and the Left — since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and the tendency for antisemitic conspiracies to surge during times of financial crisis, makes the lessons of this study particularly urgent.

Ending statements:

We do not need conspiracism to challenge social injustice. With conspiracism, progressive analysis of race, class, and gender are almost always shoved aside. Political and economic policies are framed as controlled by a handful of powerful and wealthy secret elites manipulating elections, foreign and domestic policy, and the media. This sets the stage for resuscitating historic antisemitic claims of Jewish plots.

When there is already plentiful public evidence of abuses of power, progressives should help potential supporters to see them more clearly, rather than endlessly searching the shadows in the hopes of flushing out phantoms and claiming credit for fantastic revelations. Conspiracy theories spotlight lots of fascinating questions—but they seldom illuminate meaningful answers.

Conspiracist thinking and scapegoating on a mass scale are symptoms, not causes, of underlying societal tensions and while conspiracism needs to be opposed, the resolution of the grievances themselves is necessary to restore a healthy society. The spread of conspiracy theories across a society is perilous to ignore because conspiracist allegations can generate demonization and scapegoating; and these tools of fear are used by demagogues to mobilize a bigoted mass base.

Whether conspiracist claims are circulated by angry populists or anxious government officials, the dynamics generated by conspiracy theories are toxic to democracy.
 

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
Whether conspiracist claims are circulated by angry populists or anxious government officials, the dynamics generated by conspiracy theories are toxic to democracy.
don't have time to read the whole pdf right now but does it delve into what were some of the original conspiracy/scapegoat theories?

some obvious ones off the top of my head:
native americans were savages, jews were an inferior race, blacks were property, jfk assassination. almost all religions view other religions as not real religions in God's eye, etc.

really prevalent throughotu most of mankind i think. easier to blame others than to blame yourself kinda thing i think.
 

Fogdog

Well-Known Member
don't have time to read the whole pdf right now but does it delve into what were some of the original conspiracy/scapegoat theories?

some obvious ones off the top of my head:
native americans were savages, jews were an inferior race, blacks were property, jfk assassination. almost all religions view other religions as not real religions in God's eye, etc.

really prevalent throughotu most of mankind i think. easier to blame others than to blame yourself kinda thing i think.
It's a monster to read. I'm going to print the thing off and sit down with a cup of coffee. To me, this is information, not those you-tube thought guides our berners keep spamming us with. But I'm not hopeful that they will read this.

Page number 49 of the printed report (pdf file page number 54) contains a history of conspiracy theories. They don't go into Native Americans specifically but do talk about scapegoating as one outcome of conspiracy theories. Jfk assassination, antisemitism, are talked about specifically.

Another monster read but very topical to me is:
https://www.politicalresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Up-in-Arms_Report_PDF.pdf
The link takes you to a report by The Rural Project about the Patriot Movement in Oregon and how to deal with it when they start menacing communities in rural areas. It deals with Oregon specifically but I'm sure there is useful information for anybody who lives in the West.
 
Last edited:

SneekyNinja

Well-Known Member
People should also question the wisdom of studying useless fucking degrees that have absolutely no practical application in the world of 2017.

College: "Oh so you want a $150k degree in art history, eh?" *makes it rain*
Judging by some of the people who liked this, it was a shitty post I should never have made.
what kinda job didya get, padaraper?
Sucking off dudes at the rest-stop down on I-80.

Sad that he could only make $75 an hour doing it though.
 

twostrokenut

Well-Known Member
If you're lied to about the value of an investment, why should you be liable for paying for it?

Isn't that just fraud? People were lied to about the value of their mortgages, why should they be liable to cover the costs of a product they were legitimately sold on that turned out to be less valuable than they initially paid for? Same thing with student loans
so who lied about the value of the investment....public school teachers? the bank? the government?

and you can't just write off money created in the system, sure maybe for the borrower but everyone ends up paying it back through inflation.

I think fraud would only apply if the lender lied about the value of the investment and that would be a very weak case since they loaned on their valuation right?

about those rising costs.....funny how government raises the costs of all it's involved in eh? healthcare, education...autos ect..
 

Rob Roy

Well-Known Member
You, of all people, asshole taper, need to stfu about objectification. I was just going for a cheap joke at your expense.
Asshole taper ? Once while on business in South America a Tapir nearly trampled me in the jungle, now THAT was an Asshole Tapir.

 

see4

Well-Known Member
I want for you to be on the right side of things, and sometimes you are. But much of the time you aren't.

And what's with this Biden fetish as of late? This is like the 4th or 5th time I've seen you mention him. Are you already creating doubt in a potential 2020 election?

You should read the bill that he endorsed. He wants to not have bankruptcy eliminate student debt. How are you taking issue with that? The student attended the school knowing the price of tuition and agreed to pay at a later date for the education.

Don't be a Bernie baby and expect everything in life to be free.
 
Top