By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions. We in turn value your personal details in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
Please log in or register. Registered visitors get fewer ads.
I tend to think of a sjw as a Rick from the young ones sort of character, grotesquely over the top with immaturity, tears and stroppiness when they don't get their own way and the first line of defence is always to shout "fascist!"
Wouldn't lump ordinary rational folk who can hold a thoughtful debate into that category.
The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Rik Mayall was parodying a certain type of person 35 years ago because this isn't a new phenomenon. A militant, immature, childlike character fighting against any injustice he sees anywhere in a completely pathetic way. It's always been there, but now with the explosion of social media and the fact that any arsehole (us included) has a global platform to spout whatever bollocks he or she likes, the "Ricks" in society are amplified and magnified.
The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
"You can only argue against committed supporters of Trump. If they believe all Mexicans are rapists and Muslims terrorists, you cannot compromise without betraying your principles. Fair enough. But before you become self-righteous you must accept that the dominant faction on the western left uses language just as suggestive of collective punishment when they talk about their own white working class. Imagine how it must feel for a worker in Bruce Springsteen’s Youngstown to hear college-educated liberals condemn “white privilege” when he has a shit job and a miserable life. Or Google the number of times “straight white males” are denounced by public-school educated women in the liberal media and think how that sounds to an ex-miner coughing his guts up in a Yorkshire council flat."
The orthodox are always orthodox, regardless of the orthodoxy.
There have been many of these articles, all saying much the same thing (pretty much the best example of it is the Tom Walker sketch linked on here a day or so ago). But one of the key points they miss, in my view, is how anyone can fix the underlying problem.
Trump's support it seems came from three main sources. The rich, or aspirational rich, who believe that he will slash their taxes, and make them even richer (the people who are most like Trump himself), the people that are inherently 'anti other' - your actual racist, or homophobic, or anti immigrant voters, and then the people that the article is referencing - people that have done badly out of the march to globalisation, technical advance, movement of people around the world and so on and believe that Trump can solve their problems.
The problem with Trump (and Farage was the same), is that he has no intention of addressing the problems that actually cause or make worse the difficulties of the third group as it would hurt the people in the first group of which he is part.
So instead of tacking inequity in society, ensuring the richest pay their fair share of tax, that corporations pay less in dividends and more to the people that work for them, providing and maintaining a fair universal healthcare system, providing top quality state education, people like Trump and Farage create a bogey man culture instead. They don't try to improve the lives of the third group, they instead give them someone to blame. And they do it because it shifts people's focus away from the real people to blame - people like themselves.
So Farage blamed virtually everything on 'immigrants' and 'establishment'. The EU was the source of every problem according to him - up to and including traffic jams. Trump did it with Mexicans, or Moslems and 'the establishment'.
Easy targets. An easy message. Good for sound bites on the TV, or distilling into 140 characters on Twitter, or a catchy meme. And the people who actually hate others, the second group of supporters, help stir that up as it suits their own warped agenda.
But when people then point out that immigrants (for example) are not actually the problem, they get swept into this 'liberal lefty snowflake' type basket that all these articles have referred to.
The actual problem that I'm not sure how anyone solves, is how on earth the West is able to continue to provide the types of jobs people used to have, when either robots, or cheap global labour has taken over. Fine to say 'we'll build cars in America again'. But that still ignores the fact that no one builds cars with huge numbers of workers anymore - they all build them with only a few people and the rest is all automated. Make clothes in the US again - great. But no American worker will work for the pennies that are paid to people in China or Bangladesh to make this stuff, and equally no one, used to paying $10 for a sweatshirt, will now accept that they have to pay $50 for the same thing, so that they can be made in America again.
And Trump knows that as well as anyone. It's why he ships his manufacturing overseas (the great irony of all those MAGA caps being made in China as a tiny example). He imports his steel from China. He won't pay his fair share of taxes.
There could be a real conversation about how to provide mass employment in the West within the modern global economies that people like Trump have exploited. But that will hurt them and the people like them. So they deliberately divert attention. And everyone is left with the sight of two men being photographed against the golden backdrop of Trump Tower, utterly unaffected by the hate they've stirred up within significant portions of the populations that have been taken in by them. And those that try to criticise them are told we are libtards. Because that's easy too.
I must admit I read the article as more highlighting the absurdity of cultural Marxism as opposed to a plea for new economic strategy.
"Farage blamed virtually everything on immigrants and the establishment"
"But when people point out that immigrants (for example) are not actually the problem..."
I wouldn't be so sure they aren't. An establishment forcing high immigration becuase "it benefits the economy" (spoken like a robotic official from the ruling party in 1984) is very much the problem in my view.
I could win the lottery Saturday and it still would be. Most articles I've seen seem to think that tackling inequality would solve a multitude of problems but I think it's largely irrelevant and a smokescreen from having to debate far less comfortable issues.
Ironically those who denounced Thatcher as caring only about money and nothing about society are doing exactly the same.
Anyone with a brain and a heart should see an establishment hell bent on pumping the country with millions of immigrants regardless of the social issues as a very big problem indeed.
The orthodox are always orthodox, regardless of the orthodoxy.
Maybe the clue is in your post. 'An establishment forcing.' 'An establishment hell bent.'
An establishment that doesn't give one f*ck about you, me or our families and treats us as cattle/chattel/cash cows.
You're correct - anyone with a brain and a heart should see the establishment for what it is. Chuck some courage into the mix and maybe we'll finally see the man behind the curtain for the illusion he actually is.
[Post edited 13 Nov 2016 23:15]
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face--forever.
Donald Trump promised to "drain the swamp" in Washington DC, then proceeds to give the top positions in his office to Republican officials (e.g. new Chief of Staff is the former Replubilcan chair).
Rudy Guiliani is being touted as the the new attorney general, Chris Christie for trade secretary, Jeff Sessions as defense secretary. All current or former Republican officials.
There are many more examples, but I won't list them all.
So much for sticking it to the establishment then eh?!
That's a real quality post there from Lisa. I feel that a citizen's wage is what would help. At least in the short term anyway. Technology has eaten a lot of jobs, and it's only going to get worse. A new economic system is what is really needed, capitalism doesn't work, and I think the planet is getting to the point where it can no longer pick up the slack so to speak.
I know Ive said this many times before but the likes of Farage and trump have swooped in to fill the gaping vacuum that is the immigration debate. For the last 20+ years anyone who has even suggested controls has been labelled a disgusting hateful bigot and the discussion has been shut down. That vacuum could have been plugged years ago and these people wouldn't have this special niche in politics that they currently enjoy.
A sensible immigration system is in everyone's best interests, including the people coming in. I have no idea why it has taken so long.
The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Couple that with a genuine annoyance of being preached to and of thought policing, and it seem the dam finally broke for a lot of people. Keep treating/talking to people as if they are children/idiots, and you see this happening, thise who don't wish to be treated that way start to push back, and those who have been babied throughout throw their toys out of the pram , a response usual of a child finally being told "no more".
Obviously I'm not an economist, but I just don't see a system dependant on growth (as far as I understand it) is reconcilable with a finite planet [in the past new continents have been discovered or new markets emerged but that wont go on forever].
Well the capitalist system has creaked and in some cases collapsed at various times in history. But, has it been successful in getting millions of people out of poverty? Absolutely.
It has facilitated the progress of human kind. It also presents a pretty unique threat (greed, hoarding of resources leading to conflict etc), but communism isn't immune to those flaws in its own way either.
Woah, that wasn't me calling for global communism there. More me saying that the people who know a thing or two about economics ought to be looking at a new system, and I believe that there are people who are.
A little shameless bragging if I may: in spite of her association with the left-leaning Washington Post, my sister Karen got 30 minutes with the PEOTUS. Here is that exclusive interview.
Despite being a slogan often used by Bill Clinton during his 1992 campaign also. "Make America Great Again" has been used numerous times either side of the political divide, or derivatives of it.
A meaningless platitude said to instill a sense of pride of nation, and convince those in attendance that they are the nations best option.
I'm sure if you went back to ancient democratic civilizations, this statement, or a derivative of it, would have been employed throughout.
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.
, 1950 General Election Address, 3rd Feb 1950: