What's so f***ing terrible about socialism, anyway?
The subject title says it all. To listen to some GOP'ers talk, you'd think socialism was Communism.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Tom Sarbeck on -
If I understand the language I've used my entire life, you make a case against democracy too.
"I'd be really leery of handing over control of absolutely everything to democratic vote."
Taking certain decisions away from majorities is the chief function of the Bill of Rights.
I understand your words as saying you want you to decide for everyone. Lots of people for lots of centuries have done that. They have been less than successful; many were assassinated. World War Two ended the attempts of a few.
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Permalink Reply by Unseen on -
If responding to 9/11 had been in the hands of the public in the days after the event, the response would probably have been nuclear. How much democracy do we want. The idea (though granted it doesn't seem to work according to theory) is that we elect representatives and administrators who take the time to understand and select among the options that the general public hasn't the time or inclination to do.
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Permalink Reply by Tom Sarbeck on
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Unseen, please consider changing your screen name to one that suggests you have much to learn about politics.
I've been doing politics for forty years, some of it best described as hardball (or economics-in-action) in which politicians contact employers of activists and these activists find themselves suddenly unemployed. In a more extreme case, an Arizona newspaper I knew was killed by a bomb placed under his car because he was reporting on political corruption. I have yet to see evidence that democratic nations go to war as quickly as top-down forms of government.
BTW, America's founders created a top-down government, an oligarchy not a democracy, and in December of 1941 the Japanese caught us by surprise.
Got lots of money? Want favorable laws passed?
Then finance the elections of your elected representatives. This kind of bribery is how politics in the USofA has long worked. If you are a legislator you can extort money from people or organizations with money. It works best if you chair a legislative committee or are a leader in a legislative body.
Lots of active and voting citizens can beat the money, but it requires much hard and unsalaried work.
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Permalink Reply by Tom Sarbeck on
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Arcus, I don't use such words.
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Permalink Reply by Tom Sarbeck on
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That's right; I don't use words that conceal so much and often result in endless equivocation because even dictionaries differ.
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Permalink Reply by Unseen on
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An aside:
A behaviorist gets on an elevator at the ground floor. On the third floor, a colleague who happens also to be a behaviorist gets on. The first behaviorist turns to the second behaviorist and says, "You're fine. How am I?"
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Permalink Reply by Unseen on
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I've been doing politics for forty years, some of it best described as hardball (or economics-in-action) in which politicians contact employers of activists and these activists find themselves suddenly unemployed. In a more extreme case, an Arizona newspaper I knew was killed by a bomb placed under his car because he was reporting on political corruption. I have yet to see evidence that democratic nations go to war as quickly as top-down forms of government.
Are you proud of putting people out of work as punishment for their politics? As for the car bomb case, you've got to be kidding to imply that somehow that was done as a result of some political policy, which is what you are implying. Most likely it was a desperate act by some individual fearful of his/her misdeeds being discovered.
So...I'm wondering what the point was that you thought you were making.
But of course, I don't have 40 years of hardball politics behind me, some of it involving ethically questionable actions like the one you described.
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Permalink Reply by Tom Sarbeck on
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Unseen, you drew a wrong conclusion.
I wasn't putting people out of work. I'm the only one of seven activists who survived attempt on our employment. I survived because ,my immediate manager at Honeywell botched the job so badly that I had grounds for a lawsuit. The lawyer I spoke with told me to call him if Honeywell lets me go. I contrived to let Honeywell management know and they suddenly started treating me well. A Congressman wrote me an apology for the attempt on my job by another Congressman.
The car bombing resulted in a trial that sent the bomber to prison for years. It was all over the Arizona newspapers and even some national newspapers.
Google Don Bolles for part of the story. The mafia connection is wrong; a county attorney said country club people were involved in the reporter's murder. I have relevant newspaper stories.
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Permalink Reply by Unseen on
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The way you wrote it up made it appear you were on giving end of the putting people out of work thing, or at least made it possible to read it that way.
As for the car bombing, individual people were responsible for it. It wasn't the policy of an oppressive government.
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Permalink Reply by SteveInCO on -
I understand your words as saying you want you to decide for everyone.
Then you misunderstand me perfectly. What I want is for people to be in charge of their own lives, rather than letting society assume control, or for that matter letting me assume control--as you seem to be accusing me of wanting to do. But that does require people to take responsibility for their own lives as well.
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