Controversial Political Opinions

[Eric the Green]

(07-14-2022, 10:27 AM)David Horn Wrote:

(07-13-2022, 10:49 PM)JasonBlack Wrote: I've gone over this a few times, but trying to cast all power as either having or lacking character isn't particularly useful. I am currently poor, and have lived among several subcultures of poor people. The individuals I've seen range from
- disabled people
- rapists
- orphans
- falsely accused who never got their record cleared
- mentally retarded people
- other sex offenders (ranging from as horrific as violently molesting children to as trivial as public urination)
- veterans with PTSD
- violent psychopaths
- single mothers with children from 5 different dads
- mothers who were single because their husband died and left them supporting multiple children
- liberals who work retail
- conservatives who work retail
- farmers
- start up entrepreneurs

....as you can see, you can't lump such a varied collection of people into one set of good/bad values.

Your list is sad and yet incomplete.  Failure to flourish has far too many causes, and an inital failure can be so devasting in the long run that, regardless of who or what is at fault, it's career ending.  This is the single greatest fallacy of the neoliberal 'hard work yields great rewards' argument.  It's certainly true that it can, given a structure to support the striver or just great luck, but failure is more likely and catastrophic failure more than possible.  

Ours is a needlessly cruel system that doesn't even get optimum results.  Then again, it does reward the already rewarded and only punishes the 'least of these' -- just as it's designed to do.  In short, it's the worst of the GIGO systems acceptable in polite company.  The argument for that is always the same: we can't reward bad behavior.  If it was only that simple.

Well said. It is so sad that USA voters and pundits can't seem to get this. They can't seem to get a whole lot. They vote for "rich cocksuckers who don't give a fuck about them" as George Carlin "nicely" put it. Voters in Maine could not grasp that voting for Susan Collins would condemn us to 5 degrees of global warming that might ruin their own state. They can't grasp that voting for Susan Collins would condemn us to several more times more mass shootings and more police shootings of innocent black people. They can't grasp that voting for Susan Collins means condeming us to an undemocratic, bought-and-paid-for, gerrymandered, racist voting system. They can't grasp that voting for Susan Collins means condemning the middle class to further decline. They can't grasp that voting for Susan Collins would mean a supreme court that takes away our rights, even after Trump's nominees falsely promised to her that they would not repeal Roe v Wade, and any conscious person could have seen that they would not keep their promise. They think she is a nice moderate. But Susan Collins is no moderate in the effect of her votes in the Senate. She is a reactionary. SHAME on the horrible people of Maine for condeming us to this destroyed society and world!