Posts by Kumara Republic
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Speaker: The Government you Deserve, in reply to Nick Russell,
Because we don't have social class in NZ?
At least they admit it in Britain...NZ does have a class system, but not in the formalised British sense. What we have in NZ is more like the informal Nouveau Riche-driven class structures of America and other former New World colonies. And while Britain still retains the old class structures, the Nouveau Riche has made inroads into it. And strangely enough:
Today, one of the few things US politicians on the right and the left agree on is social mobility in their country has calcified. It is actually lower than in Britain, as the New York Times noted last year.
From my own experiences, it's too easy to slip a few rungs on the ladder if you hail from an affluent family but have a disability and/or mental illness. It speaks true of some of my friends too. It's also made me realise that the Nouveau Riche thing is deep down an exercise in cherry-picking, dumb luck and survivorship bias.
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Speaker: A Disorderly Brexit, in reply to Matthew Hooton,
How does that explain Labour voters voting Remain and Tories voting Leave?
It transcends party politics. The UK Tories were visibly divided, and not just because former Bullingdon Club buddies David and Boris went on a collision course over the Brexit issue. By the same token, roughly a third of UK Labour supporters are believed to have voted Leave.
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Brexit appears to be a symptom of collective anger at trickle-down economics breaking its promise to share the gains. However, it does matter who the anger is directed at. It's all too easy to scapegoat foreigners and 'bludgers' instead of the rentier class, which caused much of the fiscal mess in the first place and likely set everyone else below them against each other.
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Hard News: Media Take: Three decades on…, in reply to Sacha,
I really do not understand how some bigots are so scared of the world and the diversity of human experience in it. Yet they so clearly and harmfully do.
Some of them have repackaged themselves as "defenders" of gay & womens' rights against "feral people of colour". On any other day, they'll still bang on about gays and feminists "undermining Western society from within". There's a fallacy for this sort of thing - isn't it called 'pinkwashing'?. I suspect still other extremists are overloading logical circuits over whether Muslims or gays are the bigger threat of the two.
Thankfully the likes of Laurie Penny are calling bollocks on it, despite threats of violence against her, and name-calling to the effect of "cultural Marxist traitor".
http://www.newstatesman.com/world/2016/05/new-chauvinists-try-defend-women-who-will-defend-us-them
http://www.newstatesman.com/2016/06/love-wins-laurie-penny-soho-vigil-orlando-shooting-victims -
Polity: Custard, in reply to Tristan,
sorry went away for a few days. let me be clear I think he opposition is right to hold Bennett to the fire and Soper is a dick I was just lamenting that even when the opposition is right they still get flack
I'm wondering if Soper, Watkins, Trevett, Gower et al are a wider symptom of credentialism brought about by labour market deregulation. In the case of journalism, kids fresh out of high school can no longer approach the local paper for a cadetship, and that they now need tertiary degrees to get into what is now an industry that's gone downmarket to survive. The end result is "poshification" of the talent pool.
As for party politics as a whole, I know exactly who I'm voting for, and it's whoever believes that ladders of opportunity are a human right and not a privilege for rentiers and other winners of the social lottery.
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Speaker: Are we seeing the end of MSM,…, in reply to Sacha,
They had a story based on that or Gunn’s original facebook post last night. Lasted about half an hour before it got lawyered.
That is, if Hosking can sue the Internet itself. I've saved it to WebArchive as a line of defence.
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My visual take on the Orlando tragedy. I can’t help but think of Mahatma Gandhi’s wisdom: “An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.”
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Hard News: Hate and guns, in reply to Russell Brown,
One thing this is not looking like is a man actually directed by ISIS, or a part of a conspiracy. This is quite unlike the Paris attacks.
A bit of Jared Loughner, Man Haron Manis, Clayton Weatherston, Andrew Cunanan... who else would Omar Mateen have taken after?
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Southerly: I Fell Down, in reply to Paul Campbell,
It may take another 100 years or so but I see this as a step towards a more equitable and safer world, and yes those of us in the West will not end up financially better off, we can ameliorate that if we do something about all that capital going to the 1% .... let's start with a capital gains tax - you shouldn't pay less tax on flipping a house than digging a ditch
Globalisation and mechanisation in themselves aren't the problem, it's the bulk of the gains from the aforementioned going to the rentier hyperclass.
Sadly, the rentier hyperclass have basically opted out of civil society by hiding behind gated communities, and hiding their hoard in places like the Caymans or Panama. And sadder still, it may take another Great Depression or WW2-grade crisis to shake the existing orthodoxy.
Another factor weakening living standards in the West, especially English-speaking ones, is the rentierisation of many public goods and utilities. Is it any wonder that those angry at being left out of the gains have been warming to the likes of Trump, Sanders, Farage and Corbyn?
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And most importantly of all, be wary of illiberal homophobes and misogynists who claim to be born-again LGBT and womens' rights activists against the 'filthy mud races'... because they're still illiberal bigots to the core. Laurie Penny says it better than I can.
