Posts by Rich Lock
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Hard News: The next four years, in reply to BenWilson,
This is more like a Berlusconi style despotism. Corrupt, nepotistic. But not really outright fascist. It's not a good place to be, admittedly.
Well, history never plays out exactly the same way twice. I'm not, by and large, thinking that it's an inevitability, but I do think the system/checks and balances are less robust than people assume, and it would be easier to reach the tipping point than is generally thought.
I read Richard J Evan's three-volume magnum opus a few years ago. One of the minor points that has stuck in my head was how, having come to power, the high officials of the Nazi Party essentially looted Germany to make themselves fantastically weathy, confiscating huge tracts of land and directing the economy towards further filling of their own personal coffers. This basically completely destroyed any recovery, and essentially put Germany in the position of having to go to war, in order to gain enough external resource to stop absolutely everything grinding to a halt.
Obviously, taking a few steps down a certain path doesn't necessarily lead to an inevitable outcome, but the signs are, at the very least, extremely troubling.
It's like a house of cards: it takes hours or days to painstakingly build it and make progress, but an out-of-control toddler can flatten it in seconds. It took decades to get to the (piss-weak) paris agreement. All Trump has to do is wake up one morning and go 'nah', and we're another decade or so away from making any meaningful progress whatsoever.
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Hard News: The next four years, in reply to mark taslov,
I may have misinterpreted, but is “So fucking what?” a response to this more palatable form of white supremacy? I’m not being facetious, it’s a serious question, because being genuinely concerned about card carrying white supremacists and yet nonplussed by actual white supremacy itself strikes me as a dangerous contradiction.
In my opinion, making the distinction is crucial.
On one hand we have political and economic systems which inherently advantage one group (in this case, straight white males) over anyone else who isn't in that group, and which are generally (generally) that way for cultural/historical reasons rather than any in-built design.
On the other, we have an ideology that literally believes that certain groups are less than human because of quirks of their DNA.
One thing that comes across from interviews with Trump voters (such as for example mrs tattoed and employed from this article) is that they consider certain things to be settled: "[the womans march] was the stupidest thing ever because some were saying they’re being treated unequally. Women can stand up and go after what they want. Men aren’t standing in the way ”.
This type of argument comes up repeatedly: 'why are black peple still protesting? We're all equal now. Why are women still protesting? They have the same opportunities as men. Why are gay people moaning about which bathroom they have to use? They can get married now'.
The crucial point is that by and large, very few people in the general population are arguing that women shouldn't have the same opportunities, that black and hispanic people shouldn't have the same opportunities, etc. On a philosphical level, those battles have to a large extent been won. They aren't arguing that those things shouldn't exist, they think they're already there and they can't understand why people are still complaining. That makes them persuadable - there's a good chance they'd be relatively open to a decent argument and facts about inherent bias, privilege, patriachy, yadda yadda.
On the other hand, how do you even start to talk to someone who is A-OK with genocide?
It absolutely suits someone like Bannon to blur the distinction, because it keeps the people that could be swayed, from hearing the arguments that might change their minds (it's all just liberal lefty PC-gone-mad crap, innit? Why is this guy calling me a nazi? I'm not a nazi, you dumb libtard, some of my best friends are black, etc. I'll vote for mr straight-talker), and that allows people such as him who want to watch the world burn, to get their hands on gasoline and matches.
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Hard News: The next four years, in reply to mark taslov,
I see white supremacy everywhere I look.
Within the context of this particular thread, dealing as it is with:
1) the current administation of the USA.
2) the fact one of the President's closest advisors is a White Supremacist (a phrase that has a specific meaning completely separate from issues of systematic in-built inequalities and white privilege, especially as those relate to a small pacific island country 10,000 Km from the continental US).
Your comment does rather beg the question: So fucking what?
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Hard News: The next four years, in reply to mark taslov,
I’ve been staggered by the number of threads Godwinned recently,
Trump has an inner circle of advistors that, among others with (to put it mildly) somewhat dubious views, includes a literal white supremacist.
Does that not cause you any concern at all? Or are you all 'she'll be right, mate. Long way away. Nothing to do with me'? It's The Kiwi Way, after all
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Hard News: The next four years, in reply to BenWilson,
The white supremacist elephant in the room that you haven't addressed in your reply is Bannon. Trump is to a certain extent a sideshow clown, a magician's assistant to help with the misdirection. Bannon, and four or five others of a very tight inner circle, are the ones setting the policy and driving things. And they are far more focussed and ideologically nastier than Trump is.
The much vaunted checks and balances are being put under quite a bit of pressure, and are to a certain extent looking a bit toothless when an entire government deprtment can simply shrug and ignore a federal court order if they don't like it much.
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Hard News: The next four years, in reply to Alfie,
Here’s an excellent piece from Google engineer Yonatan Zunger asking if the muslim ban is effectively a trial run for a coup.
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Hard News: The next four years, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
You do you, Donald, but why should anyone sign shit with the United States when, in the end, one party isn't coming to the table in good faith and the end result isn't worth the paper it's written on?
Excellent advice. Which hasn't stopped a number of prominent UK politicians tripping over one another in their efforts to reach Washington in order to show that a public school education gives one a particular insight into 'special relationships', and fully equips them to provide the best rimjob he's ever had.
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Up Front: Walk This Way, in reply to mark taslov,
As I very carefully qualified, it needs to be combined with a certain amount of rabid anger.
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So pleased to see all these bigly marches all over the world. Am spending a relaxing Sunday morning giggling at the imaginative placards.
And as someone pointed out on a comments thread I was reading, nary a spelling or grammar error to be seen.
Now, I'm not saying you can get a pretty good indication of political leanings by assessing the amount of mouth-foam in combination with they're propensity for noting that your a moran, but.....