11-26-2016, 02:07 PM
(11-26-2016, 12:10 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:(11-25-2016, 07:12 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote:(11-24-2016, 08:33 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: The outlawry of totalitarian movements hardly compromises democracy. Such Parties effectively become crime syndicates beyond any possibility of reform into something benign. I speak of among others the Nazi Party, Fascist Party, Ba'ath Party of Iraq, Parti Populaire Francais, Arrow Cross, Iron Guard, Imperial Rule Assistance League, and the Communist Party of Romania. If it is acceptable to outlaw criminal enterprises that exist largely for human trafficking, distribution of dangerous drugs, and financial scams, then why is it not acceptable to outlaw organizations that existed at one time to promote military aggression, slavery, or genocide?Funny, you don't see/recognize the obvious signs, obvious language, obvious beliefs, the obvious type of people who are more likely to go along and activities associated with totalitarian minded people, totalitarian group and totalitarian like movements and actions that is obviously more prevalent TODAY on the progressive left than the American right. If the crisis boils down to the American libertarian right vs the totalitarian left in a civil war as you are seeing a prelude and a glimpse of today right here, what you saw happening between people at the Trump rallies and saw happening to regular regular folks in the streets before and after the rallies and so on. Liberals ain't wise people. Liberals ain't very sharp people. Liberals ain't very sensible/practical people. Liberals ain't very instinctual people. Liberals ain't very American minded and pretty clueless when it comes to American nature.
I saw the people at Trump rallies on the videos and such, and boy, you guys are like a different species. Not too bright, all shrivelled up and filled with anger; I won't go any further; suffice to say not people I want to emulate, and Trump could have a field day if he wanted to insult his own people about their looks.
My solution to the Trump phenomenon is more formal liberal education, the sort that makes people less gullible, less one-dimensional, more capable of moral judgment, slower to anger, and more capable of finding happiness in life. More education cannot make people much smarter, although it can teach some habits good for putting a mind to use.
The people in charge in the media are even more clever at manipulating minds, and most people haven't caught up. We must catch up with those manipulators or we must abandon the Internet. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. As news media become increasingly bent on advocacy (who needs fact-checking?) and less on objective truth we get more partisan and special-interest propaganda. Politicians increasingly tell people what they hear (doesn't just about everyone?) but when personal freedom and prosperity are at stake, isn't it a good idea to be able to catch a liar?
Just so that we can use the Internet and not let its hustlers and hucksters use us, we need to be more knowledgeable about the media, adept at checking out weird claims of truth (if the media don't fact-check, then we must do so ourselves), and use logic and science to the detriment of those who use pseudoscience and irrationality against us. We need the ability to detect bias and manipulation.
The Internet may have forced as much change in the way we get information as the automobile changed the way that we get around. But like all revolutionary ways that change the way people do basic things, the Internet has its problems. Just think of how cars could make some of the worst tendencies in human nature, including criminality, much more dangerous.
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.