"It’s simply mindblowing that Israel is routinely massacring civilians in front of the whole world for openly racist reasons and the west is still chock full of liberals who act like this thing is just too compwicated for their poor widdle minds to take a stand on, goo goo ga ga."
There is precious little good to say about Trump, but were he to be president, liberals would suddenly discover human rights again.
For the record, I am not a Trumper. I did not vote for the imbecile in 2016 or in 2020. I have zero intent to vote for him in 2024. I did not vote for HRC or Biden either, nor have I any intent to vote for Biden in 2024.
Liberals were anti war during Bush, but once Obama continued the wars he inherited they went silent. Except for the ones who said that it was better for Obama to use drones that slaughtered civilians because it saved our soldier’s lives.
And instead of praising Trump for ending the afghan war they said that he was doing Putin’s bidding. Mush for brains shitlibs just root for what their team does and bitch when the other team does the same things. Gahh!
A "Liberal" is someone who theoretically focusses on Individual rights, fx freedom of speech, religion, assembly, and private wealth.
A "Progressive" is someone who does all that, but with the leftwing religiousness about it, and they'll wander away from the basic rights for whatever their current hobby horse is.
A "Conservative" is someone who focusses on hierachies, state (nationalism or military), or private corporation, summed up by "A place for everyone, and everyone in their place". Occasionally they even do conserve, although most self-defined "conservatives" have been watching Murdoch media and are more accurately called "Reactionaries". True Conservatives are as rare as true Liberals.
A "Nazi" is a Fascist (those who take Conservative ideology to religious levels), with racism on top. One can be a fascist and not racist, but one cannot be a Nazi and not racist.
TBF, these polsci terms have been DELIBERATELY obfuscated in and by the corporate media deliberately, so as to confuse people.
Down is often up, in their world.
But those are rough and ready definitions that you can stand by.
Oh - the Left, the one you left out, that is Communitarian, the belief the community should be able to override Individual rights, much as the Right believe that hierachies can override Individual liberties too.
Gnumeo.... Thanks for explaining the rhetoric... ie., liberal, progressive and conservative... and Nazi, but now I need to know what you mean by 'leftwing religiousness', 'Murdock media' 'Reactionaries' or 'TRUE' conservatives. I was once called a 'fascist' by someone in high places but still scratch my head as to the reasons why.... I think I should look it up which would probably help. ? 'polsci terms', and 'Communitarian' are both new to me, although even the 'Left' and 'Right' advocacy terms seem confusing.... Viva Darwin... simplicity was his strength, ....
Oh, "murdoch media" is the media empire of the reactionary Rupert Murdoch. Faux, Sky, theSun, and every rabid BS fascism-enabling media out there. Althogh TBH he has won his lifetime fight - now ALL the corporate media is reactionary and fascist.
I mean, when you are LITERALLY justfying actual racial genocide, as the ENTIRE corporate media are doing, they would also have supported Hitlers invasion of Poland with the same intent.
How mch further towards Fascism can you go when you are supporting genocides of "inferior races"??? o.O
Well, liberals tend to be secular, they listen to all sides, incl right and left, and understand that while a little may be good, a lot of the same may actually be bad. This is built-into being a "liberal". This is also why neither left nor right trust liberals, see the old song "Trust me, I'm a Liberal". As soon as the left or right get a good head of steam up, those Liberals come down and shit upon it.
"Leftwing religiousness" refers to this - both left and right do NOT grasp that if a little is good, a lot may be bad, it is in their DNA to always rush to the extreme as fast as they can. The extreme is where their power lies. I'm sure you know the hatred of liberalism by US conservatives - the traditional Left feel the same way about liberals too.
So it means instead of seeing it like an idea, good or bad, they start to take it as a religious imperative. The State must not run ANY industries, even obvious social monopolies like healthcare; or for the Left the State must run ALL industries, even those that would obviously benefit from private ownership.
There's no balance in them. They are taking ideology religiously.
A sane approach is to see a mixed economy as a blessing, providing essential services for free at point of need, while also giving lee-way for private individuals and companies to innovate and practice entreprenourialism.
Did that make sense to you? I suppose you could replace "religiousness" with "fanaticism", but that seemed stronger than I was trying to convey.
"I was once called a 'fascist' by someone in high places but still scratch my head as to the reasons why"
There's no-one in the World who hasn't been called a "Fascist" at some point, lollol. Or a "Commie". I've had both, - it doesn't keep me awake at night. ;)
I mean, perhaps you are, if you are in favour of Corporatism (Mussolini), Racial Lebensraum (Hitler, Nuttyahoo), or American Imperialism (Biden, Clinton). Those are all real fascists, so if you agree with them, then perhaps.
Polsci = Political Science, the formal study of Politics beyond the everyday media theatre of 'Punch n Judy'.
Communitarian - OK, you'll get this. Remember in your late teens / 20s, when you had a social circle of friends you regularly hung out with? (Perhaps still do). Well, how did you treat each other? Did one person decide they were permanently Boss, order everyone else around, and take their stuff if it wasn't nailed down? That is not friendship behavior that will last long.
That is a hierarchy.
Or compare it to too much Individalism in the group - sure, no-one orders anyone around, but they also won't go out of their way to help the friend group. It is 'transactional' - a market friendship.
So how DO friends groups behave? As a community. They share resources at need, perhaps one person has the car, another the money for fuel, and another the contact for the party to go to that night. If a friend is heavily down on their luck, the group is genuinely concerned and tries to help. Not because they might get something back, but because the group takes care of itself.
That's "communitarian" - the behavior of true friends towards each other.
Everything has a dark side however.
"left" and "right" have indeed become very confusing, because the corporate media are trying to bury the traditional Left under a tsunami of pretending liberal Identity Politics is "Leftwing".
It is not. Identity-politics is Liberalism, pure and simple.
Traditional Leftists, union leaders etc, were/are concerned over wages, working rights, incomes - not whether gay or trans people could get married, fx.
Liberals were concerned over gay rights, and reactionaries were concerned to keep them illegal.
So in some ways it IS simple - except it isn't. There are plenty of righties, lefties and liberals who will vehemently disagree with my definitions here. I don't care.
This is JUST a model, and recall the 60s adminition - "The map is not the territory".
This particular map works for me in most situations, and that's the most normal people, [non-Marxists] can expect from a model.
These terms largely describe ad hoc coalitions of interest groups at best, or patterns of consumption at worst. Marxists would look to the latter definition and comment that it pertains to one's relationship to the means of production.
Jazzine... like you, I have no idea what these words ............ 'liberal'. 'progressive', 'conservative'..... imply.... nazi maybe..... I guess I need to edumecate myself.
I can read the humor....although humor these days is not an easy fit into any political affiliation of hairless apes. Somehow Trump aficionados are partly symbolic of the greater species... and to experience 'brain rot', a brain must be present.
I believe Trump is a psyop to divide the country and distract from the real problems. They (our hidden rulers) put forth a personality so abhorrent to liberal ideals that of course this causes massive uproar and tribal behavior. Constant theatrics around Trump. We’re stupid sheep to believe this is real opposition to power. They go to the same parties
I can’t vote Jill either. I like a lot of her platform but there’s just too much central government growth implied and this has already gotten us into trouble. Giving our psychopaths more power is not a good idea right now. Strengthen balances of power, then talk about national healthcare and green policies. Right now those things are used to control and punish.
Right now those things are being used to give billionaires more profits in the military-industrial complex... You're looking at the picture upside down. The current people in power only use government as a tool to increase billionaires' profit margins. With grassroots democracy/Green Party leadership, the government becomes a tool or aid to the PEOPLE not the PROFITS of the billionaires. We won't be "punished" if our air, water and food are free of pollutants, will we? I think we'd all benefit from clean air and water and food and health care for all. Just look at how fewer deaths occurred in countries with national healthcare--there's been over a million COVID related deaths in the US. No other country with nationalized healthcare comes anywhere close to that percentage of the population. It's because the US of Israel is all about making the rich even richer. That's why we need the People, Planet and Peace focus of Jill Stein and the Green Party.
Sorry, I just find it hard to trust right now. We need an order to these things. She’s over promising. I’m very concerned about implementing top down policies that will be abused by corrupt politicians. Covid response was a complete cluster F and this was CLEARLY due to political agendas. People on both sides rallied around their version of truth. In retrospect, this was one of the worst infringements on our rights to decide our own medical care ever! And it appears it was all for big pharmaceutical profits. It DID NOT prevent the spread. The death figures are highly suspect. The avoidance of any accountability for vaccine injury is telling. The likelihood that our agencies contributed to this through gain of function research and a leak of an engineered product is a large reason why I’ve changed my mind about giving the federal government MORE power and control over our healthcare. I like RFKs platform better, let’s look at why we’re sick! Don’t just tax more so we can line pharma pockets! Oh and on the green deal, suddenly we’d have national lockdowns for ozone action days (but Walmart will be open and Amazon will thrive). No thank you
RFK is decidedly pro-genocide. I can’t trust an immoral person like that—if he’s okay with mass murdering Palestinians, then how can anyone trust him on ANY issue? And his daughter-in-law “ex”-CIA (is there anything really as an “ex-spook”?) is his campaign manager… and he takes AIPAC money to support Israeli interests. No thanks! I’ll stick with anti-genocide and pro-peace Jill Stein.
That's a good way of putting it. Until you get enough people to want to scrap the entire system of governance in the US, that's what you got to work with. But Greens want to junk the electoral college, make ranked choice voting nationwide, and outlaw money in politics (get rid of the Citizens United ruling with a new Amendment to the Constitution forbidding the likes of PACs such as AIPAC). Those three things alone would bring about a lot transparency to governing and involve the people directly in running things. We could amend and change things ourselves and junk the worse bits of the current set up. It's a lot to take in, but it is possible. But voting for the duopolists... leads to more of the same non-democracy. It's worth a chance to elect Greens and see what happens. It couldn't hurt, right? (At least we wouldn't be selling bombs to the Israelis anymore and we'd shut down those 800 US military bases worldwide.)
A big problem is that most Dems and libs are strictly binary thinkers, when they commit the mistake of thinking at all. It's impossible to get them to understand or accept as valid that refusing to vote for Biden, or any other corporate-owned Democrat, is not ipso facto a vote for Trump, or any other openly fascist Republican. I've voted exactly as you have, and I've done that since 1980.
I've never yet been able to convince any Democrat that my not voting for one of their big business shills is emphatically NOT a vote for the fucking Republican. They have no synapses to inform them about third party candidates except that they're "spoilers." They're rigidly committed to an eternal duopoly, or uniparty, electoral system, because Pelosi and Schumer won't permit anything else. Dialogue with these people is no different than dialogue between psycho-Zionists and anyone who isn't a psycho-Zionist.
Team D uses vote-shaming to get their partisans to vote for corporate imperialist muppets who are indistinguishable from the Team R variety, but for different idpol.
That said, what you are describing is a fundamentally *tribal* loyalty.
The value of Trump or someone like him shitlibs can never comprehend. Because they are not about anything good, they're about themselves only, like any partisan.
Let me hear his actually saying it - that's one. Secondly, since when anyone should care what he says. And thirdly, and finally - are you disputing that had Trump been doing what Biden is the reaction of the shitlibs would be different?
Who argues against they're both losers? The point is - if Trump were doing what Biden is, then shitlibs would be much more vocal thereby damaging the empire more. Hence, Trump helps exposing empire. What's so difficult to understand?
factoid of note : previous to WW2, the approximate ratio of soldiers-to-civilians killed in wars had remained pretty constant for millennia, 90% soldiers, 10% civilians...
after WW2, that ratio started quickly flipping until it is now approximately the opposite, 90% civilians, 10% soldiers...
um, wasn't the point of war to save civilians ? ? ?
Factoid of note- a factoid is either an untruth presented in the media as a truth or something that's assumed to be a truth through repetition or it is a brief or trivial fact.
i am using no numbers, i am recalling an article from a number of years ago which was making this argument... basically, WW2 was the turning point when war makers became Far Less concerned with "collateral damage"...
whether the percentages are accurate to X decimal places is irrelevant... THE point is, war making has flipped the stats, FAR more civilians than military are being killed in wars...
He is not using numbers in WW2. Before… and after. And, I’d guess that the ethnic cleansings that lapse into genocides between 1492 and WW2 are not included in “wars.”
1. not really interested in arguing how many angels can dance on the head of a pin...
2. just from title, it was looking at POST 9/11 wars ONLY, 'modern' ratios had already been established by then, so it will not have as stark a contrast to PRE WW2 figures... again, point is not really precise number to 3 decimal places, but the point of civilian casualties supplanting military casualties AT ALL! ! !
3. Without looking at the methodology, not sure how to judge the conclusions...
4. isn't modern, (oxymoron alert !) civilized warfare SUPPOSED to MINIMIZE civilian casualties, and yet the DIRECT OPPOSITE has happened...
gee, wonder why mediawhores NEVER bring up that unused option ?
frankly, i have a difficult time thinking any but really stupid or really huge propaganda victims join the military because they REALLY believe we are 'defending democracy', either there or here...
c'mon, HOW the hell can someone seriously argue that -overall- Empire's military might is a force for good for the world, and not the enforcement arm of elite's organized crime...
no, i bet most are joining out of economic desperation...
actually, quick mini-googling brought up wikipukia article which cited 90/10 ratio, but tried some whataboutery as far as not all wars are so bad, blah blah blah...
POINT IS, WHY has it flipped, regardless of whether it is 90%, 66% or 25%... disease and starvation are a direct result of the war, not counting them (as they are counted if military victims of starvation and disease) would be wrong...
Anyone who supports Israel in all this should spend a night in Gaza where the homeless and dispossessed will probably try to share their last morsel of food with you. They are wonderful people despite the sadism and carnage inflicted on them.
".....It’s simply mindblowing that Israel is routinely massacring civilians in front of the whole world for openly racist reasons and the west is still chock full of liberals who act like this thing is just too compwicated for their poor widdle minds to take a stand on...:"
It shouldn't not be mind-blowing. We are now in the THIRD straight decade of zionist-necon masterminded mass murder across the Middle East, Asia and Africa:
Connect the dots. This is not new. All these Stuart Seldowitzes, Blinkens and Nulands are what people have all the time been describing as liberal democrats. The hedge fund millionaires, the Hollywood moguls, also been misdescribed as "liberals" - they aint. Never were.
Get the clue now. None of them were EVER liberal. They are and always have been reactionaries. And that is why the US is a country that delivers nothing to it citizens except mass inequality, stress and flag waving. All the police shootings of minorities and poor people in the US, are done to make the fake-liberals "feel safer". Unequal schools systems? Done to make them "feel safer."
Actual liberals are a tiny minority and have never been in government or in leadership of the "Democratic" party there.
"Remember kids, Israel has to bomb hospitals and starve Gaza and incinerate children and shoot people waving white flags and assassinate doctors and journalists and commit daily massacres of civilians, because if it doesn’t do this" then that would mean we love Hamas
So, you're saying they had no other choice but to blow up all those doctors and journalists? And massacre those civilians? Those poor Israelis - if there was anything else they could have done!
I know. The poor things. We wouldn't want to think they love Hamas. We wouldn't even want to think they might want to negotiate with Hamas or anything at all that might suggest they were not the second coming of the Nazis.
The only way to accomplish anything right now is for more and more people to take to the streets and support our young ones. Make our Governments terrified.
New weapons being tested on Rafah so our governments can purchase them and use them against us.
Friendly reminder, anyone who doesn't support official narratives (eg. climate, fake pandemics etc.) will be branded a domestic terrorist. It's a Class War and Palestinians are on the brutal front lines.
Meanwhile, we have rabid Christian Zionists tacitly justifying slaughter of innocents (including Palestinian Christians) with biblical passages and old maps "Proving" the land was called Israel.
I have more respect for people who call themselves Satanists, at least they don't attribute their heinous beliefs and acts to "God's will."
They're only against you having an abortion. Once you give birth to the child, with no money and no material or emotional support, you're entirely on your own. Somehow they see that as being "compassionate" even you and your child end up on the streets starving to death. Reminds you of sociopaths from a certain ethnostate, doesn't it?
I’m unclear as to how Trump could be worse than Biden for the people of Gaza. Best case scenario they both have massive heart attacks soon, the Republicans and Democratic parties tear themselves apart in ensuing leadership contests, and a progressive third party comes up the middle. Mind you, the best outcome would have to have 90% of the Congress to suffer those heart attacks as well.
I admire your determination to highlight another error in the world's efforts re: Israel's slaughter of Gazans and the West's provocation of Russia re: Ukraine.
Apparently the world just does not care. Shame on us.
The Israeli apologists don't get it--they think bragging about their wholehearted acceptance of the "legally killed child" concept is perfectly fine with everyone else they'd care to associate with. And that's the problem. They only associate with fellow sociopaths who reinforce their ideas of a "noble genocide" and that all Palestinian children are born evil, so it's like putting down a sick animal if you dump bombs on top of them. Their lack of empathy and blatant sociopathy proves they have no intention of stopping unless we start treating them with the same contempt they treat others.
I've tried reasoning with Nazionist apologists. They simultaneously boast of supporting an en masse genocide in Gaza AND deny that Israel supporters are pro-genocide. And if you quote their own words to prove that Zionists are obviously pro-genocide, you're an aNtIsEmiTe, duh! (even then, you'd have to ignore the fact that white Ashkenazis have -- as various Jewish authors have admitted -- little-to-no Semitic ancestry)
After all, Palestinians are such antisemitic Jew-haters that they'd rather live peaceably in their homes than let a band of far-right ethnonationalist-Lebensraum terrorists steal their residencies.
Exactly: all the earliest Zionist leaders were secular/nationalist Ashkenazi elitists with practically zero connection to the religion of rabbinic/Talmudic Judaism. In Judaism, the Jews are defined on the basis of worshipping Jehovah and following His laws, statutes, and ordinances; in Zionism, "the Jews" are defined as just another ethnonationalist identity. It is no coincidence that Zionism prospered when rabbinic Judaism declined.
Well yes, both Wall Street and the Rothschilds are of the same Anglo-Jesuit fold in the service of an ultrareactionist agenda. Long story short, Zionism was the catalyst to drive a wedge between Jews and Arabs in the Middle East and manipulate both sides into -- "dualistically" -- serving the bidding of British Masonic interests. When European Jews in the 1920s-30s near-unanimously rejected Zionism as a perversion of Judaism, the Zionists sabotaged refugee efforts to force the (anti-Zionist) Jews to be trapped under Nazism so that the surviving remainder would be easily goaded after WWII into acquiescing to Zionist emigration demands. Jabotinsky, Wise, Weizmann, and Ben-Gurion (to name a few) will face quite the wrath on Final Judgment for insidiously betraying their Jewish brethren to the Nazis.
WWII was an example of Hegelian dialectic in effect. In the clash between Nazism (thesis) and Jews (antithesis), the end result was the culmination of Judeo-Nazism/Zionism as synthesis. The "State of Israel" exists solely because of the Holocaust, and the Zionist leaders knew exactly what they were doing when they colluded with the Third Reich and continuously blocked Jewish refugee rescue efforts.
The vast majority of European Jewry was anti-Zionist in the 1920s-30s and identified themselves patriotically with their respective countries. The Holocaust was a Nazi-Zionist joint conspiracy to slaughter the assimilated anti-Zionist European Jews until they were "broken" enough to finally cave into Zionist demands of emigration into Palestine. All the high-ranking Zionist leaders prioritized Jewish-emigration-to-Palestine over saving Jewish lives.
It's too bad no one ever learns about this in U.S. public schools.
When are feeble minded American and Western politicians, the cowards they are, going to quit blaming Russia for everything bad thing that happens in the world when in fact the USA is the most interventionist empire ever with endless blood on its hands and a long list of atrocities. They are a mimic of the British empire that also killed and starved millions.
We are seeing the apotheosis of white racism as they are so brazen and barbaric as to commit the atrocity with a world wide audience.
Yes, advanced weapons are being tested and a former Canadian prime minister is one of the suppliers. Canada like the US has close ties to the Israeli genocidists.
What’s so hard to understand about this? The struggle against oppression can’t be motivated by a desire to take control and exact ‘justice’ (vengeance). Like MLK said-We’re all being damaged by oppression, both sides suffer, because we’re missing out on lives based in truth. Oppression breeds hatred and violence. Neither the oppressor nor the resistance can hope to exterminate the opposition because there is no truth in hatred. Only those living in truth can prevail. So seek the truth. Find the truth. Live within truth, becoming one with truth. Or not. Choices and consequences. We get what we seek after.
I think this is very true but how will Russia and Chinese handle the complete disfunction in the west or will they let us implode which is what is happening now.
Our economies are imploding as we sanction and isolate ourselves away from where all the action is happening ie BRICS+.
NATO and our economies are being deleted by the war of attrition in Ukraine, by supporting Israel and when it goes off in Taiwan- yet more draining.
The US being a military economy is not investing in its people so further draining.
The growth of renewable energy, Chinese investment in green tech and countries like Georgia trying to limit foreign (ie US) NGOs influence will further lessen the US's dominance.
i don't think they'll be a big thing. Just a fading away and everyone getting on with their lives without the West.
I couldn't agree more. I have been running a series of podcast episodes about the end of the American empire and will upload another one to Substack and YouTube today under my Crann na beatha trademark. My commentary is a near mirror to what you just wrote here. Now if we could only get more people to pay attention to what's coming for them.
"It’s simply mindblowing that Israel is routinely massacring civilians in front of the whole world for openly racist reasons and the west is still chock full of liberals who act like this thing is just too compwicated for their poor widdle minds to take a stand on, goo goo ga ga."
There is precious little good to say about Trump, but were he to be president, liberals would suddenly discover human rights again.
For the record, I am not a Trumper. I did not vote for the imbecile in 2016 or in 2020. I have zero intent to vote for him in 2024. I did not vote for HRC or Biden either, nor have I any intent to vote for Biden in 2024.
"liberals would suddenly discover human rights again."
Argh, my brain just exploded. So true.
Liberals were anti war during Bush, but once Obama continued the wars he inherited they went silent. Except for the ones who said that it was better for Obama to use drones that slaughtered civilians because it saved our soldier’s lives.
And instead of praising Trump for ending the afghan war they said that he was doing Putin’s bidding. Mush for brains shitlibs just root for what their team does and bitch when the other team does the same things. Gahh!
Yes, I know!!
Please in this toppsy curvy world we life in I can't distinguish the dif: liberal, progressive, conservative, nazi
A "Liberal" is someone who theoretically focusses on Individual rights, fx freedom of speech, religion, assembly, and private wealth.
A "Progressive" is someone who does all that, but with the leftwing religiousness about it, and they'll wander away from the basic rights for whatever their current hobby horse is.
A "Conservative" is someone who focusses on hierachies, state (nationalism or military), or private corporation, summed up by "A place for everyone, and everyone in their place". Occasionally they even do conserve, although most self-defined "conservatives" have been watching Murdoch media and are more accurately called "Reactionaries". True Conservatives are as rare as true Liberals.
A "Nazi" is a Fascist (those who take Conservative ideology to religious levels), with racism on top. One can be a fascist and not racist, but one cannot be a Nazi and not racist.
TBF, these polsci terms have been DELIBERATELY obfuscated in and by the corporate media deliberately, so as to confuse people.
Down is often up, in their world.
But those are rough and ready definitions that you can stand by.
Oh - the Left, the one you left out, that is Communitarian, the belief the community should be able to override Individual rights, much as the Right believe that hierachies can override Individual liberties too.
Gnumeo.... Thanks for explaining the rhetoric... ie., liberal, progressive and conservative... and Nazi, but now I need to know what you mean by 'leftwing religiousness', 'Murdock media' 'Reactionaries' or 'TRUE' conservatives. I was once called a 'fascist' by someone in high places but still scratch my head as to the reasons why.... I think I should look it up which would probably help. ? 'polsci terms', and 'Communitarian' are both new to me, although even the 'Left' and 'Right' advocacy terms seem confusing.... Viva Darwin... simplicity was his strength, ....
Oh, "murdoch media" is the media empire of the reactionary Rupert Murdoch. Faux, Sky, theSun, and every rabid BS fascism-enabling media out there. Althogh TBH he has won his lifetime fight - now ALL the corporate media is reactionary and fascist.
I mean, when you are LITERALLY justfying actual racial genocide, as the ENTIRE corporate media are doing, they would also have supported Hitlers invasion of Poland with the same intent.
How mch further towards Fascism can you go when you are supporting genocides of "inferior races"??? o.O
Well, liberals tend to be secular, they listen to all sides, incl right and left, and understand that while a little may be good, a lot of the same may actually be bad. This is built-into being a "liberal". This is also why neither left nor right trust liberals, see the old song "Trust me, I'm a Liberal". As soon as the left or right get a good head of steam up, those Liberals come down and shit upon it.
"Leftwing religiousness" refers to this - both left and right do NOT grasp that if a little is good, a lot may be bad, it is in their DNA to always rush to the extreme as fast as they can. The extreme is where their power lies. I'm sure you know the hatred of liberalism by US conservatives - the traditional Left feel the same way about liberals too.
So it means instead of seeing it like an idea, good or bad, they start to take it as a religious imperative. The State must not run ANY industries, even obvious social monopolies like healthcare; or for the Left the State must run ALL industries, even those that would obviously benefit from private ownership.
There's no balance in them. They are taking ideology religiously.
A sane approach is to see a mixed economy as a blessing, providing essential services for free at point of need, while also giving lee-way for private individuals and companies to innovate and practice entreprenourialism.
Did that make sense to you? I suppose you could replace "religiousness" with "fanaticism", but that seemed stronger than I was trying to convey.
"I was once called a 'fascist' by someone in high places but still scratch my head as to the reasons why"
There's no-one in the World who hasn't been called a "Fascist" at some point, lollol. Or a "Commie". I've had both, - it doesn't keep me awake at night. ;)
I mean, perhaps you are, if you are in favour of Corporatism (Mussolini), Racial Lebensraum (Hitler, Nuttyahoo), or American Imperialism (Biden, Clinton). Those are all real fascists, so if you agree with them, then perhaps.
Polsci = Political Science, the formal study of Politics beyond the everyday media theatre of 'Punch n Judy'.
Communitarian - OK, you'll get this. Remember in your late teens / 20s, when you had a social circle of friends you regularly hung out with? (Perhaps still do). Well, how did you treat each other? Did one person decide they were permanently Boss, order everyone else around, and take their stuff if it wasn't nailed down? That is not friendship behavior that will last long.
That is a hierarchy.
Or compare it to too much Individalism in the group - sure, no-one orders anyone around, but they also won't go out of their way to help the friend group. It is 'transactional' - a market friendship.
So how DO friends groups behave? As a community. They share resources at need, perhaps one person has the car, another the money for fuel, and another the contact for the party to go to that night. If a friend is heavily down on their luck, the group is genuinely concerned and tries to help. Not because they might get something back, but because the group takes care of itself.
That's "communitarian" - the behavior of true friends towards each other.
Everything has a dark side however.
"left" and "right" have indeed become very confusing, because the corporate media are trying to bury the traditional Left under a tsunami of pretending liberal Identity Politics is "Leftwing".
It is not. Identity-politics is Liberalism, pure and simple.
Traditional Leftists, union leaders etc, were/are concerned over wages, working rights, incomes - not whether gay or trans people could get married, fx.
Liberals were concerned over gay rights, and reactionaries were concerned to keep them illegal.
So in some ways it IS simple - except it isn't. There are plenty of righties, lefties and liberals who will vehemently disagree with my definitions here. I don't care.
This is JUST a model, and recall the 60s adminition - "The map is not the territory".
This particular map works for me in most situations, and that's the most normal people, [non-Marxists] can expect from a model.
These terms largely describe ad hoc coalitions of interest groups at best, or patterns of consumption at worst. Marxists would look to the latter definition and comment that it pertains to one's relationship to the means of production.
Jazzine... like you, I have no idea what these words ............ 'liberal'. 'progressive', 'conservative'..... imply.... nazi maybe..... I guess I need to edumecate myself.
What are 'liberals'?
Usually, the bozos with Trump derangement syndrome brain rot.
I can read the humor....although humor these days is not an easy fit into any political affiliation of hairless apes. Somehow Trump aficionados are partly symbolic of the greater species... and to experience 'brain rot', a brain must be present.
Trump ‘aficionados’ can answer the question: “What is a woman?”
Maybe. What is consciousness?
I believe Trump is a psyop to divide the country and distract from the real problems. They (our hidden rulers) put forth a personality so abhorrent to liberal ideals that of course this causes massive uproar and tribal behavior. Constant theatrics around Trump. We’re stupid sheep to believe this is real opposition to power. They go to the same parties
They take the same corporate and billionaire money (and fuck the same young girls and boys).
I’ve always thought that Trump was a willing patsy. He continued many of Obama’s policies and now Biden is continuing Trump’s.
Theater.
Dr. Jill Stein, again? Me too.
Me too!
People
Planet
Peace
Vote Green
I can’t vote Jill either. I like a lot of her platform but there’s just too much central government growth implied and this has already gotten us into trouble. Giving our psychopaths more power is not a good idea right now. Strengthen balances of power, then talk about national healthcare and green policies. Right now those things are used to control and punish.
Right now those things are being used to give billionaires more profits in the military-industrial complex... You're looking at the picture upside down. The current people in power only use government as a tool to increase billionaires' profit margins. With grassroots democracy/Green Party leadership, the government becomes a tool or aid to the PEOPLE not the PROFITS of the billionaires. We won't be "punished" if our air, water and food are free of pollutants, will we? I think we'd all benefit from clean air and water and food and health care for all. Just look at how fewer deaths occurred in countries with national healthcare--there's been over a million COVID related deaths in the US. No other country with nationalized healthcare comes anywhere close to that percentage of the population. It's because the US of Israel is all about making the rich even richer. That's why we need the People, Planet and Peace focus of Jill Stein and the Green Party.
Sorry, I just find it hard to trust right now. We need an order to these things. She’s over promising. I’m very concerned about implementing top down policies that will be abused by corrupt politicians. Covid response was a complete cluster F and this was CLEARLY due to political agendas. People on both sides rallied around their version of truth. In retrospect, this was one of the worst infringements on our rights to decide our own medical care ever! And it appears it was all for big pharmaceutical profits. It DID NOT prevent the spread. The death figures are highly suspect. The avoidance of any accountability for vaccine injury is telling. The likelihood that our agencies contributed to this through gain of function research and a leak of an engineered product is a large reason why I’ve changed my mind about giving the federal government MORE power and control over our healthcare. I like RFKs platform better, let’s look at why we’re sick! Don’t just tax more so we can line pharma pockets! Oh and on the green deal, suddenly we’d have national lockdowns for ozone action days (but Walmart will be open and Amazon will thrive). No thank you
RFK is decidedly pro-genocide. I can’t trust an immoral person like that—if he’s okay with mass murdering Palestinians, then how can anyone trust him on ANY issue? And his daughter-in-law “ex”-CIA (is there anything really as an “ex-spook”?) is his campaign manager… and he takes AIPAC money to support Israeli interests. No thanks! I’ll stick with anti-genocide and pro-peace Jill Stein.
Yeah I know, I’m so disappointed by that and can’t vote for him either. So I guess I write in Denis Kucinich again
It's understandable.
When you realise you are in a prison, voting for a change in the prison leadership still leaves you in prison.
What the GP voters are saying is that we need to change the leadership so we are NOT in prison.
But that requires the same prison voting system, and we are forced to "trust" them to fulfill their word.
Which is literally what most politicians claim every single election anyway.
Cynicism is inevitable.
But what are the other choices? Vote for the two who openly say they'll strengthen the prison regime?
That's a good way of putting it. Until you get enough people to want to scrap the entire system of governance in the US, that's what you got to work with. But Greens want to junk the electoral college, make ranked choice voting nationwide, and outlaw money in politics (get rid of the Citizens United ruling with a new Amendment to the Constitution forbidding the likes of PACs such as AIPAC). Those three things alone would bring about a lot transparency to governing and involve the people directly in running things. We could amend and change things ourselves and junk the worse bits of the current set up. It's a lot to take in, but it is possible. But voting for the duopolists... leads to more of the same non-democracy. It's worth a chance to elect Greens and see what happens. It couldn't hurt, right? (At least we wouldn't be selling bombs to the Israelis anymore and we'd shut down those 800 US military bases worldwide.)
Since when are human rights applicable to the Goy too ??? ...🤔🤔🤔🤔
A big problem is that most Dems and libs are strictly binary thinkers, when they commit the mistake of thinking at all. It's impossible to get them to understand or accept as valid that refusing to vote for Biden, or any other corporate-owned Democrat, is not ipso facto a vote for Trump, or any other openly fascist Republican. I've voted exactly as you have, and I've done that since 1980.
I've never yet been able to convince any Democrat that my not voting for one of their big business shills is emphatically NOT a vote for the fucking Republican. They have no synapses to inform them about third party candidates except that they're "spoilers." They're rigidly committed to an eternal duopoly, or uniparty, electoral system, because Pelosi and Schumer won't permit anything else. Dialogue with these people is no different than dialogue between psycho-Zionists and anyone who isn't a psycho-Zionist.
Team D uses vote-shaming to get their partisans to vote for corporate imperialist muppets who are indistinguishable from the Team R variety, but for different idpol.
That said, what you are describing is a fundamentally *tribal* loyalty.
Yes, vote shaming is their preferred method. Tribal loyalty indeed, which also seems the same as membership in a cult.
The value of Trump or someone like him shitlibs can never comprehend. Because they are not about anything good, they're about themselves only, like any partisan.
https://www.rt.com/news/598373-trump-bomb-moscow-beijing/
Based on WaPost's "sources".
Let me hear his actually saying it - that's one. Secondly, since when anyone should care what he says. And thirdly, and finally - are you disputing that had Trump been doing what Biden is the reaction of the shitlibs would be different?
I am saying that on issues that matter, Trump and Biden are both losers. And worst yet, both are puppets of those in control.
Who argues against they're both losers? The point is - if Trump were doing what Biden is, then shitlibs would be much more vocal thereby damaging the empire more. Hence, Trump helps exposing empire. What's so difficult to understand?
"...Trump helps exposing empire."
Trump chose to surround himself with empire minions during his first term.
What's so difficult to understand?
factoid of note : previous to WW2, the approximate ratio of soldiers-to-civilians killed in wars had remained pretty constant for millennia, 90% soldiers, 10% civilians...
after WW2, that ratio started quickly flipping until it is now approximately the opposite, 90% civilians, 10% soldiers...
um, wasn't the point of war to save civilians ? ? ?
No, you’re wrong. The point is to justify governments, inculcate populations with jingoistic ideologies and keep the arms industry happy 😃
Factoid of note- a factoid is either an untruth presented in the media as a truth or something that's assumed to be a truth through repetition or it is a brief or trivial fact.
alex, i'm going with Brief And Trivial Facts for $400 !
8^)
Thanks Art. What numbers are you using for German and Russian civilians killed in WW2? Are you including Holocaust victims as killed civilians?
i am using no numbers, i am recalling an article from a number of years ago which was making this argument... basically, WW2 was the turning point when war makers became Far Less concerned with "collateral damage"...
whether the percentages are accurate to X decimal places is irrelevant... THE point is, war making has flipped the stats, FAR more civilians than military are being killed in wars...
Israelis never lie ever ...
He is not using numbers in WW2. Before… and after. And, I’d guess that the ethnic cleansings that lapse into genocides between 1492 and WW2 are not included in “wars.”
See the link below that Kudjoe on this thread provided showing about 1:1 if I read it right.
https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/figures/2021/WarDeathToll
1. not really interested in arguing how many angels can dance on the head of a pin...
2. just from title, it was looking at POST 9/11 wars ONLY, 'modern' ratios had already been established by then, so it will not have as stark a contrast to PRE WW2 figures... again, point is not really precise number to 3 decimal places, but the point of civilian casualties supplanting military casualties AT ALL! ! !
3. Without looking at the methodology, not sure how to judge the conclusions...
4. isn't modern, (oxymoron alert !) civilized warfare SUPPOSED to MINIMIZE civilian casualties, and yet the DIRECT OPPOSITE has happened...
WHY ? ? ?
Abolish war. Period. Would-be recruits should refuse en masse. Destroy all weapons. Negotiating is quite a bit more civilized, no?
negotiation is extinct as the dodo...
gee, wonder why mediawhores NEVER bring up that unused option ?
frankly, i have a difficult time thinking any but really stupid or really huge propaganda victims join the military because they REALLY believe we are 'defending democracy', either there or here...
c'mon, HOW the hell can someone seriously argue that -overall- Empire's military might is a force for good for the world, and not the enforcement arm of elite's organized crime...
no, i bet most are joining out of economic desperation...
No, since the American Civil War, the ration has been 2 civilians dead to 1 soldier...Most of the civilians dead from starvation or disease....
actually, quick mini-googling brought up wikipukia article which cited 90/10 ratio, but tried some whataboutery as far as not all wars are so bad, blah blah blah...
POINT IS, WHY has it flipped, regardless of whether it is 90%, 66% or 25%... disease and starvation are a direct result of the war, not counting them (as they are counted if military victims of starvation and disease) would be wrong...
https://lieber.westpoint.edu/collateral-damage-innocent-bystanders-war/
Basically if you are a civilian but in anyway contribute to the war effort ,you deem yourself a target
It might be greater than 2/1, but the longer the war, the more civilian deaths...
Anyone who supports Israel in all this should spend a night in Gaza where the homeless and dispossessed will probably try to share their last morsel of food with you. They are wonderful people despite the sadism and carnage inflicted on them.
".....It’s simply mindblowing that Israel is routinely massacring civilians in front of the whole world for openly racist reasons and the west is still chock full of liberals who act like this thing is just too compwicated for their poor widdle minds to take a stand on...:"
It shouldn't not be mind-blowing. We are now in the THIRD straight decade of zionist-necon masterminded mass murder across the Middle East, Asia and Africa:
https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/figures/2021/WarDeathToll
Connect the dots. This is not new. All these Stuart Seldowitzes, Blinkens and Nulands are what people have all the time been describing as liberal democrats. The hedge fund millionaires, the Hollywood moguls, also been misdescribed as "liberals" - they aint. Never were.
Get the clue now. None of them were EVER liberal. They are and always have been reactionaries. And that is why the US is a country that delivers nothing to it citizens except mass inequality, stress and flag waving. All the police shootings of minorities and poor people in the US, are done to make the fake-liberals "feel safer". Unequal schools systems? Done to make them "feel safer."
Actual liberals are a tiny minority and have never been in government or in leadership of the "Democratic" party there.
"delivers nothing to it citizens except mass inequality, stress and flag waving."
You left out sports, beer, NASCAR, tractor pulls, TeeVee, cheeseburgers, wings, country music, pickup trucks, guns, and porn
I like wings and cheezeburgers. Too many dogs in country music these days.
"Mommy what was the Holocaust?”
“It was a systematic extermination of Jewish people committed by the Nazis many years ago.”
“Oh! What did we do about it?”
“Well not much at the time because our country didn’t care, but we try to make up for it by helping Israel commit its own holocausts.”
Brilliant. Thanks.
No. There was no holocaust. It is a made up, by the Jews, narrative. It never happened.
The six million number is a complete fraud yes
Yes. "Complete fraud".
"Remember kids, Israel has to bomb hospitals and starve Gaza and incinerate children and shoot people waving white flags and assassinate doctors and journalists and commit daily massacres of civilians, because if it doesn’t do this" then that would mean we love Hamas
So, you're saying they had no other choice but to blow up all those doctors and journalists? And massacre those civilians? Those poor Israelis - if there was anything else they could have done!
I know. The poor things. We wouldn't want to think they love Hamas. We wouldn't even want to think they might want to negotiate with Hamas or anything at all that might suggest they were not the second coming of the Nazis.
The only way to accomplish anything right now is for more and more people to take to the streets and support our young ones. Make our Governments terrified.
This could be a revolution.
exactly. Shut it down.
Shutting Down The Bullies: https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com/p/shutting-down-the-bullies
If you need any inspiration or a roadmap, watch this classic movie:
Salt Of The Earth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE1oKQCwwo4
Do the Google on the backstory for this movie too.
New weapons being tested on Rafah so our governments can purchase them and use them against us.
Friendly reminder, anyone who doesn't support official narratives (eg. climate, fake pandemics etc.) will be branded a domestic terrorist. It's a Class War and Palestinians are on the brutal front lines.
Meanwhile, we have rabid Christian Zionists tacitly justifying slaughter of innocents (including Palestinian Christians) with biblical passages and old maps "Proving" the land was called Israel.
I have more respect for people who call themselves Satanists, at least they don't attribute their heinous beliefs and acts to "God's will."
Aren't these Christian Zionists the ones against abortion and baby killing?
They're only against you having an abortion. Once you give birth to the child, with no money and no material or emotional support, you're entirely on your own. Somehow they see that as being "compassionate" even you and your child end up on the streets starving to death. Reminds you of sociopaths from a certain ethnostate, doesn't it?
Good point!
Climate change denial AND Covid denial?
I’m unclear as to how Trump could be worse than Biden for the people of Gaza. Best case scenario they both have massive heart attacks soon, the Republicans and Democratic parties tear themselves apart in ensuing leadership contests, and a progressive third party comes up the middle. Mind you, the best outcome would have to have 90% of the Congress to suffer those heart attacks as well.
I admire your determination to highlight another error in the world's efforts re: Israel's slaughter of Gazans and the West's provocation of Russia re: Ukraine.
Apparently the world just does not care. Shame on us.
The Israeli apologists don't get it--they think bragging about their wholehearted acceptance of the "legally killed child" concept is perfectly fine with everyone else they'd care to associate with. And that's the problem. They only associate with fellow sociopaths who reinforce their ideas of a "noble genocide" and that all Palestinian children are born evil, so it's like putting down a sick animal if you dump bombs on top of them. Their lack of empathy and blatant sociopathy proves they have no intention of stopping unless we start treating them with the same contempt they treat others.
I've tried reasoning with Nazionist apologists. They simultaneously boast of supporting an en masse genocide in Gaza AND deny that Israel supporters are pro-genocide. And if you quote their own words to prove that Zionists are obviously pro-genocide, you're an aNtIsEmiTe, duh! (even then, you'd have to ignore the fact that white Ashkenazis have -- as various Jewish authors have admitted -- little-to-no Semitic ancestry)
After all, Palestinians are such antisemitic Jew-haters that they'd rather live peaceably in their homes than let a band of far-right ethnonationalist-Lebensraum terrorists steal their residencies.
Netanyahu's father came from Poland. He has no ownership rights.
Exactly: all the earliest Zionist leaders were secular/nationalist Ashkenazi elitists with practically zero connection to the religion of rabbinic/Talmudic Judaism. In Judaism, the Jews are defined on the basis of worshipping Jehovah and following His laws, statutes, and ordinances; in Zionism, "the Jews" are defined as just another ethnonationalist identity. It is no coincidence that Zionism prospered when rabbinic Judaism declined.
This was all planned by the banking elite years before WOII
Well yes, both Wall Street and the Rothschilds are of the same Anglo-Jesuit fold in the service of an ultrareactionist agenda. Long story short, Zionism was the catalyst to drive a wedge between Jews and Arabs in the Middle East and manipulate both sides into -- "dualistically" -- serving the bidding of British Masonic interests. When European Jews in the 1920s-30s near-unanimously rejected Zionism as a perversion of Judaism, the Zionists sabotaged refugee efforts to force the (anti-Zionist) Jews to be trapped under Nazism so that the surviving remainder would be easily goaded after WWII into acquiescing to Zionist emigration demands. Jabotinsky, Wise, Weizmann, and Ben-Gurion (to name a few) will face quite the wrath on Final Judgment for insidiously betraying their Jewish brethren to the Nazis.
Caitlin writes:
[“Mommy what was the Holocaust?”
“It was a systematic extermination of Jewish people committed by the Nazis many years ago.”
“Oh! What did we do about it?”
“Well not much at the time because our country didn’t care, but we try to make up for it by helping Israel commit its own holocausts.”]
I would love to see the above statement by Caitlin covering the FULL FRONT PAGE of the NYT, Washington Post, and every other rag in the US!
Well said Caitlin!!!
WWII was an example of Hegelian dialectic in effect. In the clash between Nazism (thesis) and Jews (antithesis), the end result was the culmination of Judeo-Nazism/Zionism as synthesis. The "State of Israel" exists solely because of the Holocaust, and the Zionist leaders knew exactly what they were doing when they colluded with the Third Reich and continuously blocked Jewish refugee rescue efforts.
The vast majority of European Jewry was anti-Zionist in the 1920s-30s and identified themselves patriotically with their respective countries. The Holocaust was a Nazi-Zionist joint conspiracy to slaughter the assimilated anti-Zionist European Jews until they were "broken" enough to finally cave into Zionist demands of emigration into Palestine. All the high-ranking Zionist leaders prioritized Jewish-emigration-to-Palestine over saving Jewish lives.
It's too bad no one ever learns about this in U.S. public schools.
When are feeble minded American and Western politicians, the cowards they are, going to quit blaming Russia for everything bad thing that happens in the world when in fact the USA is the most interventionist empire ever with endless blood on its hands and a long list of atrocities. They are a mimic of the British empire that also killed and starved millions.
We are seeing the apotheosis of white racism as they are so brazen and barbaric as to commit the atrocity with a world wide audience.
Yes, advanced weapons are being tested and a former Canadian prime minister is one of the suppliers. Canada like the US has close ties to the Israeli genocidists.
https://robert94015.substack.com/p/what-former-canadian-prime-ministers
What’s so hard to understand about this? The struggle against oppression can’t be motivated by a desire to take control and exact ‘justice’ (vengeance). Like MLK said-We’re all being damaged by oppression, both sides suffer, because we’re missing out on lives based in truth. Oppression breeds hatred and violence. Neither the oppressor nor the resistance can hope to exterminate the opposition because there is no truth in hatred. Only those living in truth can prevail. So seek the truth. Find the truth. Live within truth, becoming one with truth. Or not. Choices and consequences. We get what we seek after.
Well said.
The Western Empire will end. Russia and China have it, patiently and as safely as possible, well in hand.
It certainly won't happen because of the results of any US, UK, Oz nor EU election.
Nor by any protests against our governments.
But it will end. And the more politicians escalate; the sooner it will happen.
I think this is very true but how will Russia and Chinese handle the complete disfunction in the west or will they let us implode which is what is happening now.
Good question.
Our economies are imploding as we sanction and isolate ourselves away from where all the action is happening ie BRICS+.
NATO and our economies are being deleted by the war of attrition in Ukraine, by supporting Israel and when it goes off in Taiwan- yet more draining.
The US being a military economy is not investing in its people so further draining.
The growth of renewable energy, Chinese investment in green tech and countries like Georgia trying to limit foreign (ie US) NGOs influence will further lessen the US's dominance.
i don't think they'll be a big thing. Just a fading away and everyone getting on with their lives without the West.
I couldn't agree more. I have been running a series of podcast episodes about the end of the American empire and will upload another one to Substack and YouTube today under my Crann na beatha trademark. My commentary is a near mirror to what you just wrote here. Now if we could only get more people to pay attention to what's coming for them.
Nice one Terrance. 🙏🏽