I am ensconced deep in the Blue Bubble—is how I got my degree in cognitive dissonance🤣—and among the disturbing things I deal w constantly are:
1) the monumental tension and constant cognitive brain-twisting required for people to keep saying both We Must Defend Democracy! while at the same time saying, Everyone who disagrees with me is …
I am ensconced deep in the Blue Bubble—is how I got my degree in cognitive dissonance🤣—and among the disturbing things I deal w constantly are:
1) the monumental tension and constant cognitive brain-twisting required for people to keep saying both We Must Defend Democracy! while at the same time saying, Everyone who disagrees with me is an obvious bigot who needs re-education and all their political beliefs need to be denounced and erased—well, what the hell do you think Democracy is except negotiating w and compromising w people w very different beliefs!? You really think the purpose of Democracy is achieving uniformity of belief and of values!? (But explaining this to anyone still doesn't stop the bigotry accusations, modern liberals can't help themselves, it's how they've been programmed!)
2) but even more maddening is how with just a few sprinkles of civics and common sense so much of our modern madness could be defused. The people who work with their brains don't need to vilify and immiserate the people who pick their food, drive the trucks that deliver their food, who police their streets or who mine their coal—they are cutting off the limb they sit on! We could easily have a saner political situation if everyone recognized that as much as you think you may hate your political opponents, you'll miss them if in your hatred you kill off this thing called America. It shouldn't be too hard to agree that political decisions need to be made that are in the best interests of citizens and not of international capital flows.
But there are times when all the incentives pull toward division, vilification and the denunciation of what exists in the name of some imaginary utopia, whether past or future, and unfortunately it seems we're living through one of those times.
You're doing far better than the others in bubble-land. They're still pumped up on fear and class anxiety.
But be clear - things have never been better equality wise, which is at least a plausible fiction now, rather than an apostasy to be feared and condemned. The disastrous experiments with social perfectionism of the 20th century taught us a few things - curtail state power as much as possible. Killing the FISA bill was a good start - but in the end the deep state will have its way.
The first thing the French revolutionaries did after taking power was ensure that the rights of man would not extend to women and the poor. Protecting property rights (including slaves) and the right exploit others was at the top of their to-do list. France banned slavery and legalized divorce for about fifteen minutes. The ban on slavery lasted less than a decade and the practice continued until 1848. Then things got worse, in some respects. Divorce disappeared in 1816; women in France were still trying to claw back property rights in the 1970s. People should get out more.
Also see the Levellers - twas a dirty word almost up to the present. People don't want equality. How are we supposed to feel good if we can't look down on someone else - like the blue-red-pink bubbleheads, for example. Inter-racial marriage was a thing and an illegal thing in 1968. And things are getting worse? Reagan, Iran-Contra etc. etc. What we're experiencing is simple one chapter in a long history of exploitation which isn't likely to end anytime soon short of a meteor strike.
Re-read Matt's interview - Leo comes off like a grifter trying to make a buck off the screwed. Probably just me.
I am ensconced deep in the Blue Bubble—is how I got my degree in cognitive dissonance🤣—and among the disturbing things I deal w constantly are:
1) the monumental tension and constant cognitive brain-twisting required for people to keep saying both We Must Defend Democracy! while at the same time saying, Everyone who disagrees with me is an obvious bigot who needs re-education and all their political beliefs need to be denounced and erased—well, what the hell do you think Democracy is except negotiating w and compromising w people w very different beliefs!? You really think the purpose of Democracy is achieving uniformity of belief and of values!? (But explaining this to anyone still doesn't stop the bigotry accusations, modern liberals can't help themselves, it's how they've been programmed!)
2) but even more maddening is how with just a few sprinkles of civics and common sense so much of our modern madness could be defused. The people who work with their brains don't need to vilify and immiserate the people who pick their food, drive the trucks that deliver their food, who police their streets or who mine their coal—they are cutting off the limb they sit on! We could easily have a saner political situation if everyone recognized that as much as you think you may hate your political opponents, you'll miss them if in your hatred you kill off this thing called America. It shouldn't be too hard to agree that political decisions need to be made that are in the best interests of citizens and not of international capital flows.
But there are times when all the incentives pull toward division, vilification and the denunciation of what exists in the name of some imaginary utopia, whether past or future, and unfortunately it seems we're living through one of those times.
You're doing far better than the others in bubble-land. They're still pumped up on fear and class anxiety.
But be clear - things have never been better equality wise, which is at least a plausible fiction now, rather than an apostasy to be feared and condemned. The disastrous experiments with social perfectionism of the 20th century taught us a few things - curtail state power as much as possible. Killing the FISA bill was a good start - but in the end the deep state will have its way.
The first thing the French revolutionaries did after taking power was ensure that the rights of man would not extend to women and the poor. Protecting property rights (including slaves) and the right exploit others was at the top of their to-do list. France banned slavery and legalized divorce for about fifteen minutes. The ban on slavery lasted less than a decade and the practice continued until 1848. Then things got worse, in some respects. Divorce disappeared in 1816; women in France were still trying to claw back property rights in the 1970s. People should get out more.
Also see the Levellers - twas a dirty word almost up to the present. People don't want equality. How are we supposed to feel good if we can't look down on someone else - like the blue-red-pink bubbleheads, for example. Inter-racial marriage was a thing and an illegal thing in 1968. And things are getting worse? Reagan, Iran-Contra etc. etc. What we're experiencing is simple one chapter in a long history of exploitation which isn't likely to end anytime soon short of a meteor strike.
Re-read Matt's interview - Leo comes off like a grifter trying to make a buck off the screwed. Probably just me.
amen