Politics over Religion at MD&D

[_Symmachus]

Just shows the amazing power of the sinister deep state. Amirite?

[_Jesse Pinkman]

Just shows the amazing power of the sinister deep state. Amirite?

LOL!! I love this!

[_Kishkumen]

I suspect Uncle Ed is a phony. If his views are not a product of far-right conspiracy news sites (which he denies), then he is seriously unhinged. In either case, it should be clear by now that he hasn't the slightest clue what he's talking about. It's not just that his theories are unmoored from facts; it's that, even if they were true, they don't even explain the reality he imagines himself to inhabit. His claim about Obama's appointments to the judiciary are just pure lunacy. Not only were there just a handful of controversies but in fact most of his 330 or so appointments were approved with huge margins, unanimously, or with a voice vote. How could did this fascist/socialist/liberal co-opt the conservative Republican caucus for 300+ appointments!? They must be fascist/socialist/liberals too!

Phony or real, Ed’s writing epitomizes the intellectual rot of populist conservatism today.

[Guest]

Phony or real, Ed’s writing epitomizes the intellectual rot of populist conservatism today.

Could be. How does one distinguish a sewer if one is born into it and lives in it his entire life?

Have any of you ever entertained the notion that Earth is the insane asylum of the Universe?

Here's what I woke up with this morning (more of my writing, for your amusement):

Awake between three and four o'clock, got up to answer "nature", went back to bed and thought about "socialists" and "fascists", and why it is that after all these years I still cannot give a distinct definition of either to distinguish one from the other: and I decided that it's because I am not "supposed" to be able to. The enemies of individual liberty and the capitalism that powers our material lives - based in its "purest" form on private ownership and control of property - want everyone to be brought down to depend on "the state": which "they" portray as the combined cooperation of "the people", with nobody owning anything above that of another, with everyone participating in his or her role agreeably and cheerfully, and everyone receiving equal share in the wealth of all, etc. and etc. and etc. A state we denigrate with the word "utopian": a condition of bastardized "paradise", thrown up in the place of individualism and private property: which "they" assert is evil because it turns people into a socially stratified class system of the rich and the poor; which "they" say is the ultimate evil: there should be no rich and no poor, but only "the people", equal in all things. If "fascism" or "socialism" will move toward that goal it doesn't matter what those two words really mean. If either of those two words are viewed in the public eye as negative, then the demagogues railing against the state will use other words to disguise their intent: like "anti-fascists" or "anti-socialists" or even "conservatives" and "liberals"; to paint themselves and to attack their rivals; they will resort to facile broad classifications such as "the Left" or "the Right"; and to further divide, they will insert "alternate left" or "alternate right" to point to extremism as the enemy. Newly resurrected words will further the cause of confusion and division, such as "populist" or "nationalist", even "white-nationalist", etc. "They" will call evil good and good evil, all with the intent to sow confusion and increase discord.

"They" have their vision: of obedient, controlled group mentality (and rights). And I have mine: the polar opposite, where the poor will always be with us, and also the rich and everyone in between: and the materialism created by the rich is available to the poor alike as they labor for it: and there is enough and plenty to spare because free people who work to improve their personal lives and situations with the real hope of a better off tomorrow CREATE their own material wealth. The Rich put up the factories and industries, and the common people work in them and take money home, to a better house tomorrow than they live in today. And life goes on swimmingly, with hitches in our collective, shared "gitalong". And the rich get richer and keep their wealth. And the poor get less poor as time moves on. Because the State leaves us alone as individuals, to obtain according to our willingness and capacity to work, and because we obtain our slice of the material pie (that grows over time into a massive surplus) we are happy enough and realistic enough to accept that "this is as good as it gets".

Only those who hate rich people, those who appear to be "better off", and envy their materialism and cliques and elitism, seek to pull them down and take what they have for themselves: they disguise these feelings and goals behind a faked altruism called "socialism" or "fascism". They will even fight against the rich by pursuing a State partial takeover of the private enterprise: "for the common good", to make sure that it distributes its products according to "rights" and "needs", etc: Only "partial control", according to Necessity, to obtain "fairness" and "equality", etc. All with the intent to overthrow the status quo and establish themselves in possession of it. To achieve this takeover requires that the heedless masses of working people be pitted against, divided against, each other. So various phrases and epithets of a hostile nature are created and applied to groups of people according to race and beliefs and anything else which can be used with facility to divide up the people and disunite them against each other. Then each of these groups receives its own agitators to whip up feelings against "the others". With discord breaking out into "protests" and eventually destructive rioting, the public peace is taxed and overpowered. The government is eroded as the people lose confidence in its ability or desire to maintain peace. The divided camps look to their own and anarchy ensues.

Out of the chaos a "strong man" will arise and take control, blessed in name and status by the people, now desperate for an end to the violence and destruction. And of course, the "strong man" has rivals and enemies, and the war of control never ends: but coup follows coup as each "strong man" is brought down by a stronger. And all the while, the people have no liberty or security, because they (in their fearful ignorance) have sold their individual freedom to obtain "security" and now have neither liberty or security. And with its disappearance, so too vanishes away the vast engine of material prosperity: because an unfree working class works as little as it has to in order to get by: nobody wants to work to support others, when the others are not working to support him, but rather are shirkers and freeloaders and parasites on the backs of their fellow working poor. All combined in misery and with decreasing wealth and material goods to share around, the people groan in poverty and filth and starvation. The rich continue as always, far fewer in numbers as conditions worsen, but always with us. The vaunted "equality" preached by the demagogues of "socialism" and "fascism" is a lie. Only the rich have enough, and they guard it with the sword: and only they have swords, for the people may not possess weapons of any facile sort with which to rise up and fight to take back what is theirs by natural right.

(I send this stuff to my kids. Quiver in dread and loathing, that Americans all around you think much the same way, and elected The Donald to rescue us, you included, from the looming dangers of the slavery just described.)

[_Chap]

About another utterance, an ex-president said (and I quote from memory) "That sure was some weird crap".

But it has some relevance to what we have just seen posted, I think.

[_Morley]

I send this stuff to my kids.

I'm sure they take it as a sign that Dad's off his medication, again.

[_Morley]

A man should never step a foot into the field,
But have his weapons to hand:
He knows not when he may need arms,
Or what menace meet on the road. - Hávamál 38

Man's joy is in Man. - Hávamál 47

Ah, Asatru, the religion of choice for the modern, 'with it' white supremacist.

[_Res Ipsa]

A toxic stew comprised of equal parts BS and paranoia.

[_Kishkumen]

Only those who hate rich people, those who appear to be "better off", and envy their materialism and cliques and elitism, seek to pull them down and take what they have for themselves: they disguise these feelings and goals behind a faked altruism called "socialism" or "fascism". They will even fight against the rich by pursuing a State partial takeover of the private enterprise: "for the common good", to make sure that it distributes its products according to "rights" and "needs", etc: Only "partial control", according to Necessity, to obtain "fairness" and "equality", etc. All with the intent to overthrow the status quo and establish themselves in possession of it.

Out of that mess of bizarreness, I pull this out. Most every politician and voter in this country is looking for a capitalism that is tweaked for it to work in order to lift all boats. The language of the Democratic Party these days is a level playing field and universal opportunity. To do what? To compete. To work hard. To attain education. To innovate. To build businesses. Not even Bernie Sanders is interested in state owned enterprise. If you think that anything you have written above is in any way relevant to our current political discussion, outside the tiny circles of Jill Stein followers, perhaps, then you are swallowing BS, pure and simple. You are one of those people who doubtless believes that Obamacare, which was a form of regulation of the healthcare system, was socialist healthcare, as if insurance companies and healthcare companies had been robbed of the opportunity to earn profits because the government had taken over healthcare. The government did not.

Adam Smith believed in the importance of regulated markets. Regulation and freedom are not opposed to each other. Striking the right balance in the amount of regulation is important, but Adam Smith would not have believed in unregulated markets. The economic libertines of the Right these days push for dangerously spare regulation on the ludicrous argument, which anyone who as a lick of common sense would not buy into, that companies will regulate themselves. Self-regulation in the market is no regulation of the market, and thus an invitation to disaster, such as we have seen in the recent past. In such disasters the poorer will bear the brunt of the suffering, while the wealthy will by and large skate out with the help of the government they have bought and paid for (read GOP).

The fact that you even bring up socialism, as though this were a real thing these days, shows me just how far off the map of reality you are.

[_Uncle Ed]

A man should never step a foot into the field,
But have his weapons to hand:
He knows not when he may need arms,
Or what menace meet on the road. - Hávamál 38

Man's joy is in Man. - Hávamál 47

Ah, Asatru, the religion of choice for the modern, 'with it' white supremacist.

I thought it was only called Hávamál. "They" can have their "with it" religion. To me it is just good wisdom from a very, very old source. I am a "white" Scandinavian boy, though. And so were the Founders, of course, for the most part; "white", that is.