Posts: 10,465
Threads: 197
Joined: May 2016
Marxism-Leninism had its chances and it has been shown lacking. Capitalism saved itself by humanizing itself.
Capitalism fails in the short run when productivity overtakes consumption. It is usually the political system that saves capitalism.
Capitalism with a human face will be adequate for me.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
Posts: 10,465
Threads: 197
Joined: May 2016
08-01-2019, 07:37 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-01-2019, 07:41 PM by pbrower2a.)
![[Image: EA6v--JUcAAWHIK.jpg]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EA6v--JUcAAWHIK.jpg)
The nastiest image of Trump that I have seen so far that is not in some way indecent.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
Posts: 10,465
Threads: 197
Joined: May 2016
Here's what happens when you unfurl a Trump banner in an inapt place:
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
Posts: 10,465
Threads: 197
Joined: May 2016
[url=https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EBpLSL4XUAAPnZs?format=jpg&name=small][/url] ![[Image: EBpLSL4XUAAPnZs?format=jpg&name=small]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EBpLSL4XUAAPnZs?format=jpg&name=small)
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
Posts: 10,465
Threads: 197
Joined: May 2016
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
Posts: 10,465
Threads: 197
Joined: May 2016
LIMA, Peru (AP) — Two Americans used their medal-winning moments at the Pan American Games to draw attention to social issues back home that they feel are spiraling out of control.
During their medals ceremonies at the sports festival in Lima, fencer Race Imboden took a knee and hammer thrower Gwen Berry raised her fist. Both athletes could represent the U.S. less than a year from now at the Tokyo Olympics, where similar protests would be seen by a much wider audience.
“Racism, gun control, mistreatment of immigrants, and a president who spreads hate are at the top of a long list” of America’s problems, Imboden said in a tweet sent after his team’s foil medals ceremony. “I chose to sacrifice my moment today at the top of the podium to call attention to issues that I believe need to be addressed.
“I encourage others to please use your platforms for empowerment and change.”
Berry raised her fist as America’s national anthem was played to honor her win in the hammer throw. She called out injustice in America “and a president who’s making it worse.”
“It’s too important to not say something,” Berry told USA Today. “Something has to be said. If nothing is said, nothing will be done, and nothing will be fixed, and nothing will be changed.”
The history of high-profile protests at the Olympics dates to the 1968 Games in Mexico City, when sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists during the medals ceremony for the 200-meter dash.
The issues haven’t changed all that much in the ensuing 50 years.
Quarterback Colin Kaepernick has been out of a job since shortly after he started kneeling during the national anthem before 49ers games in 2016 to protest police brutality and social injustice in America.
Since then, athletes representing the U.S. have faced scrutiny about what, if any, signs of protest they might show if they land on the podium at an Olympics or other major event. Among the issues that have been fodder for possible protest have been race relations, the treatment of the LGBT community, social injustice and disagreements with President Donald Trump.
The actions by Berry and Imboden will test the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s resolve to enforce rules that restrict political protests.
The USOPC said in a statement on Sunday that its leadership is reviewing possible consequences. Berry is on the U.S. team that will head to the track and field world championships next month.
“Every athlete competing at the 2019 Pan American Games commits to terms of eligibility, including to refrain from demonstrations that are political in nature,” the statement said. “In these cases, the athletes didn’t adhere to the commitment they made to the organizing committee and the USOPC. We respect their rights to express their viewpoints, but we are disappointed that they chose not to honor their commitment.”
___
AP National Writer Eddie Pells in Denver contributed to this report.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/americans...06ace94620
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
Posts: 450
Threads: 17
Joined: May 2017
(07-27-2019, 08:55 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: Capitalism fails in the short run when productivity overtakes consumption.
Not the other way round?
Posts: 4,336
Threads: 7
Joined: Jul 2016
(08-14-2019, 09:23 AM)Hintergrund Wrote: (07-27-2019, 08:55 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: Capitalism fails in the short run when productivity overtakes consumption.
Not the other way round?
No. Excessive production triggers declining prices that trigger deflation if not stopped very early. Nothing in the economic sphere is worse than deflation, because it is self perpetuating. Spending drops to almost nothing when people know that anything they want will be cheaper tomorrow than today.
Intelligence is not knowledge and knowledge is not wisdom, but they all play well together.
Posts: 450
Threads: 17
Joined: May 2017
If the state had decided to buy up the surplus production... Suffering under the lack of something is worse than the opposite.
Posts: 4,336
Threads: 7
Joined: Jul 2016
(08-14-2019, 10:57 AM)Hintergrund Wrote: If the state had decided to buy up the surplus production... Suffering under the lack of something is worse than the opposite.
That only works under limited circumstances. Some of that occurred in the 1950s and 60s, when the government bought excess food and either stored it or shipped it overseas. They did the same with some manufactured goods too. Caterpillar was a prime example at the time. The difference: the trouble wasn't lack of demand. It was lack of wherewithal. When pay in the economy finally started to meet the needs of families, that process declined. Producing more than is needed is a different animal.
Intelligence is not knowledge and knowledge is not wisdom, but they all play well together.
Posts: 10,465
Threads: 197
Joined: May 2016
(08-14-2019, 10:57 AM)Hintergrund Wrote: If the state had decided to buy up the surplus production... Suffering under the lack of something is worse than the opposite.
That was the effective failure of the Soviet Union -- people produced a huge amount of stuff so shoddy that nobody could want it, and government entities got stuck with merchandise obsolete or worthless.
The market imposes a discipline of people caring about the customer's desires, and that is a good thing. Central planning can at best imitate successes losing relevance in market economies. Example: East germany was producing large quantities of electronics 20 years behind the West in technology.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
Posts: 10,465
Threads: 197
Joined: May 2016
as for racism...
![[Image: get?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.twimg.com%2Fme...=600&h=554]](https://a.disquscdn.com/get?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.twimg.com%2Fmedia%2FEB8tmzrXsAEO7uC.jpg&key=aJNJcO3UA9GIMcCzpwx6jQ&w=600&h=554)
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
Posts: 10,013
Threads: 103
Joined: May 2016
08-19-2019, 03:15 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-19-2019, 03:19 PM by Eric the Green.)
I love trucks. I never change, I still love trucks; I do. I am still 4 years old...
check out the check in on Trump trucks. I'm so amazed that I wrote that!
https://youtu.be/iv-bbacVAA0
Posts: 10,465
Threads: 197
Joined: May 2016
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
Posts: 10,465
Threads: 197
Joined: May 2016
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
Posts: 10,465
Threads: 197
Joined: May 2016
Talk about twisted logic -- at least this is entertaining.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
Posts: 450
Threads: 17
Joined: May 2017
...No it isn't. It's bullshit, and bullshit should never be tolerated.
Posts: 10,465
Threads: 197
Joined: May 2016
(09-01-2019, 01:14 AM)Hintergrund Wrote: ...No it isn't. It's bullshit, and bullshit should never be tolerated.
I'm not sure what post you consider "bullshit". Almost everything about Donald Trump is ethically and factually suspect.
Chicago is entertaining, even if depraved. It depicts a sick 3T with its celebrity circuses, amorality, and corruption. See also Cabaret, which succeeds as much as a horror show (what could be a bigger horror than the rise of Nazis?) A coarsened culture, a shabby economy, degradation of intellectual life, and mass hardship make a Hitler or even a Trump possible. (In both cases I speak of feature films, and not of stage plays).
I am not in the stage business, but if I were to stage Cabaret I would set most of the denizens of the story in a Nazi concentration camp in which the German characters (including the Jewish ones -- they are German as any others) recall the last gasp of freedom. The characters are inmates at a place resembling Theresienstadt, the showcase for 'privileged' inmates... but all the characters of the Cabaret except the emcee are in prison uniforms with badges signifying their offense to Nazis: "work-shy", "homosexual", and of course "Jewish". The original cabaret appears as flashbacks, with the emcee as the commandant of the camp. The British and American characters who got out appear only in the flashback scenes. In the end the emcee, the camp commandant, sends the characters of the cabaret show that he staged largely for his entertainment, along with the innocent Jewish characters (in the feature film, those are the only likable characters, but we all know what happens to Jews if they don't leave the Demonic Reich quickly enough)... to a genuine extermination camp such as Auschwitz. The emcee in the feature film (sorry about the spoiler) seems to exult in the rise of the Nazis, so such would be parallel.
But I digress. 3T ways of culture, business, and politics become increasingly depraved to the extent that people tolerate them; the success of a 4T depends upon the weaning people away from those ways. Freakish characters doing what normal people would never do themselves, and bad things happening to good people? Such is the essence of literary and cinematic horror.
So what is depraved about our time? Acceptance of homosexuality in the mainstream? Hardly -- that is one of the few things that we got right. I credit mainstream gays and lesbians with joining the rest of us in throwing the child-molesting perverts to the figurative bears, Big Cats, and crocodiles. Schlock entertainment such as talk shows in which trashy people expose themselves for what they are in front of a live TV audience? Yes. Superstition and pseudoscience? Of course. The every-man-for-himself ethos in which everyone gets hurt? Sure. Failure to stem economic inequality approaching the levels of fascist regimes and plantation societies? That is much of the pathology that we Americans have yet to undo.
We Americans are playing with forces that have destroyed democracy in other times and places. Those forces are best avoided.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
Posts: 450
Threads: 17
Joined: May 2017
I simply dislike bullshit so much, I even dislike it if it's used for pure entertainment. If these women were real, I'd have to say they had the same mindset like Trump and other narcissists in politics. "I'm always right, even if I'm wrong!"
Posts: 450
Threads: 17
Joined: May 2017
(09-01-2019, 04:44 AM)taramarie Wrote: (09-01-2019, 04:06 AM)Hintergrund Wrote: I simply dislike bullshit so much, I even dislike it if it's used for pure entertainment. If these women were real, I'd have to say they had the same mindset like Trump and other narcissists in politics. "I'm always right, even if I'm wrong!"
Sounds like my mother and my future mother in law. Good god I hate narcs so much. They are toxic to be around and destroy people's lives. I am with you on this.
I'm wishing you the best, taramarie.
|
![[Image: 14fe3163c735f350acea0c6c8feeedbf65942e85...pg?w=800&h]](https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/14fe3163c735f350acea0c6c8feeedbf65942e85d102fa453df667b52dffce50.jpg?w=800&h)
![[Image: 944258a4edd72bad561cb9aa5d31a5598984faf8...=800&h=660]](https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/944258a4edd72bad561cb9aa5d31a5598984faf842e6fc6b5d59f7a2383a5c70.jpg?w=800&h=660)
![[Image: get?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fk1tstf...XQ&w=600&h]](https://a.disquscdn.com/get?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fk1tstfoto0031.jpg&key=E1UteOX2aPYYZV8QMdbzXQ&w=600&h)