An acuaintance posted this on Facebook
Posted by coaldigger 8 years, 5 months ago to Politics
I don't know what "The Guardian" represents but this is a very slick way of presenting an opposing view to the world I prefer to live in. One of the problems that "my" side has is that they are so sure that we are right that they do not put enough thought into presenting the ideas to others. I am afraid that we will lose the battle of ideas unless we improve on our presentations to the masses.
This is one thing that I think Trump is doing. He is saying things in a way that the man in the street understands. The real meaning of his words is unknown but if he tried to give details they would nit-pick him to death. Romney had a way of saying things that turned off the masses (ie the 47% statement). Trump likely thinks pretty much the same thing but does not bother with saying it even though "Making America Great Again" would mean getting a lot of people off of the gravy train and working for a living.
I have always liked George Will and think he is incredibly smart but his insistence on a perfect score on the "Conservative Test" led to his tepid support of Romney and absolute rejection of Trump. I do not think candidates should lie to us but they need to carefully craft their messages and to simplify them to get them accepted.
This is one thing that I think Trump is doing. He is saying things in a way that the man in the street understands. The real meaning of his words is unknown but if he tried to give details they would nit-pick him to death. Romney had a way of saying things that turned off the masses (ie the 47% statement). Trump likely thinks pretty much the same thing but does not bother with saying it even though "Making America Great Again" would mean getting a lot of people off of the gravy train and working for a living.
I have always liked George Will and think he is incredibly smart but his insistence on a perfect score on the "Conservative Test" led to his tepid support of Romney and absolute rejection of Trump. I do not think candidates should lie to us but they need to carefully craft their messages and to simplify them to get them accepted.
In this case, I found the speaker's analysis about 50% correct. Pirates of the Caribbean made the British East India Company the bad guys. Global capitalism ("neo-liberalism") is a target of the post-modernists. On many issues that concern me, the post-modernists are aligned with conservatives. My case in point is the privatization of security. Some of the best research has been published by post-modernist criminologists who are worried about the decline of the nation-states they (as "progressives") once worried about the power of. But they hate corporations more, as so some libertarians.
The speaker in the video was 100% correct in pointing out that demogogues such as Donald Trump make scapegoats of convenient minorities while the actual evil-doers go unidentified.
But we do identify the cronies. Not all capitalists are created equal. Indeed, we deny the honor of the "capitalist" soubriquet to the cronies.
More to the point, perhaps, is the complex demography of the "Syrian refugees." Generally, these were the productive middle class. That is why they have $5,000... $50,000.... to pay to smugglers. Generally, they are not rabble. Ideally, they could go home soon. Unfortunately for them, they are about to become Europe's newest citizens.
Rightwing populists decry the "Islamification" of Europe. In her denunciations of conservatism, Ayn Rand pointed out that they granted the moral high ground to the communist. In her day, the communists were allowed to assert that they advocated a rational society based on science while conservatives had only tradition and religion to offer. Similarly, in our time, the Islamophobes have no confidence that Western values of individualism, achievement, and reason will appeal to children who are being brought into the West by their nominally westernized parents. The conservative fear of Islam grants the moral high ground to tradition and religion... which is understandable, given the conservative frame of reference. Once you accept Original Sin, it is an easy consequence that Islam will be a more powerful force than Christianity... and reason? Heck, don't even mention it.
Myself, I look at the historically demonstrated power of assimilation.
Just over a year ago, I found a bargain at Half Price Books, a dictionary of Akkadian. Akkadian may be the oldest written Semitic language. In it, I found roots that I know from Arabic and Hebrew. But Akkadian was the second language of Mesopotamia. When the Semites conquered Sumeria, they adopted the culture. The same is true when the Vandals occupied Roman Spain. The same is true when first the Kitai ("Cathay") and then the Manchus occupied China. And when you played Cowboy and Indian, was it not better to be an Indian? Here in Texas, we have "Tex-Mex" radio stations where the DJs go back and forth even within the same sentence.
But... the rightwing populists, accepting Original Sin, fear that the masses will be seduced by evil. And they may well be, but do the masses make history?
Mysticism in any form repulses me but mysticism that wants me dead is something that I have little tolerance for.
Just their mysticism alone, nevermind their laws and politics prevents them from becoming "Conscious Human Beings" Their Stuck in the meme of bicameral's and taught to lie and harm others...109 times as of my count.
Are there those that don't fall for this barbaric crap? I'm sure but then again...they are taught to lie. We cannot take the chance. Simply thinking they will assimilate into conscious value producers and creators is false assumption that will ultimately make an ass out of you and me. They themselves must reform, awaken...we can't do for them. Until then, their society, 180 degrees opposed to ours, should just stay where they are.
As for trump? I don't know, I will not vote for any of them...but in trumps case, I hope I'm wrong; but that's my story and I'm stickin to it.