Diversity Makes Greatness
Hello goat,
You're right. You won't convince me that we are on the verge of a revolt. I think we are about as divided as we are going to get right now, and we may see the country begin pulling back together. United we stand. People can clearly see that division is not working. I have nothing personally against Trump supporters. I just think they made a poor choice. I also think most of them are basically good people who want the same things I want, a vibrant economy, the chance to succeed and a secure community to build a nice life in.Originally Posted by goat
Vaccines:
Interesting.
You don't think vaccines have had any effect on the coronavirus numbers precipitously dropping in the USA?
Personal Ignore Policy PIP: I like civil discourse. I will give you all the respect in the world if you respect me. Mouth off to me, or express overt racism, you will be PERMANENTLY Ignore Listed. Zero tolerance. No exceptions. I'll never read a word you write, even if quoted by another, nor respond to you, nor participate in your threads. ... Ignore the shallow. Cherish the thoughtful. Long Live Civil Discourse, Mutual Respect, and Good Debate! ps: Feel free to adopt my PIP. It works well.
Banned
No crisis goes to waste. Vaccines are already being used to control us by chipping away at more of our rights. We have yet to see how many vaccines will be enough to keep a job.
So far so good, eh. Btw, I'm funny too, so don't poof me yet.
Get Off My Lawn
That communist cunt will "poof" anyone who disagrees with her. I don't know why she's still here...
Common sense is not a gift, it's a punishment because you have to deal with everyone who doesn't have it.
Diversity Makes Greatness
Hello goat,
Humor is good. Everybody needs a laugh sometimes. So far I have no reason to poof you. Who knows? Maybe we could end up being friends... Political views don't matter in that. Respect does.
I don't really see how humankind can progress without a gradual loss of rights. The more computing power we develop, the more advanced our communications become, the more interconnected we become, the more of our individuality we give up. I don't really like it. I resist it. But to hold that back would be like trying to hold back a tornado. It's useless. It's coming on. It's going to go where it wants, and we are powerless to control it.
Have you heard about what China is doing? They have this patriotism app. Users get points for doing 'patriotic' things (as deemed by the government.) You tweet something good about the country, you get some points. Tweet something bad, you lose points. Make the right friends, get points. Have the wrong friends, lose points. Everybody gets a score. High scores get perks, better jobs, advancement. The lowest scores get arrested.
Talk about the government controlling your life, well there it is. Direct control. And they track everybody. Where is the phone going? Who is the individual associating with? There are cameras everywhere. Big brother knows what you are doing.
We're going in the same direction here. And we can't really hold it back. We are already tracked. It's not always the government doing it, but the government doesn't need to. We have capitalism to do that. The government can access the files any time it wants to. Just show reasonable cause and get a court order. Oh, sure, you can opt out. But if you do then you have to give up a lot of modern conveniences. Like having a phone or a car. Yes, the cars are now being tracked, too. A new car communicates with the auto-maker whether you want it to or not. It records everything you do. Where you go. How fast you went there. Whether or not you stopped at all the stop signs. How long you spent at your destination. Whether or not somebody was in the passenger seat.
I don't know whether to be more concerned about what our government is doing or our big corporations. And the corporations are just keeping up with one another. It's not like there is some big master plot or scheme. It's just where technology is leading us.
You could live in a cabin off grid, drop out of society if you want to opt out. But if you want to be a part of things, this is what you opt into.
Meanwhile, biology isn't just sitting around stagnant. This virus popped onto the scene and messed us all up, messed up our ability to mix and mingle, screwed up our lives. Killing us. We don't like that. We want it gone. Vaccines are how we do that. Anybody has a better idea, everyone wants to hear it. There's a lot of talk, but so far it's just talk. Miracle cures? If they are out there we would be using them. They don't exist. It's the vaccines or nothing.
So, we face this big challenge to get enough of us vaccinated. It won't work if we don't get enough participation. Everybody can't just opt out and let everybody else do it. It's time to step up and be a part of the solution. This is how we do it. We each have to take that chance.
Do we want our lives back or not.
This is how we do it.
And maybe, just maybe, we will find a bit of unity in all this. This is something that ties us all together. You know, besides all being of the same DNA and existing on the same tiny blue speck of a fragile planet in the vast expanse of emptiness known as the universe.
That would be cool. More unity. It could be a turning point.
Humanity could use that.
Last edited by PoliTalker; 05-08-2021 at 04:16 AM.
Personal Ignore Policy PIP: I like civil discourse. I will give you all the respect in the world if you respect me. Mouth off to me, or express overt racism, you will be PERMANENTLY Ignore Listed. Zero tolerance. No exceptions. I'll never read a word you write, even if quoted by another, nor respond to you, nor participate in your threads. ... Ignore the shallow. Cherish the thoughtful. Long Live Civil Discourse, Mutual Respect, and Good Debate! ps: Feel free to adopt my PIP. It works well.
Banned
I talk with people who deny our culture war all the time. Most refuse to accept that there's more than one culture in the US. Their house on a cul-de-sac and good paying job with a defense contractor causes illusory superiority. Take your vaccine and don't make waves so we can get back to pillaging every inch of the globe. They close their eyes to the destitute and despair right here in the wealthiest nation in history.
No one will ever accept responsibility for how we got here, even as they see the lack of opportunity for their children and grandchildren.
Retired Teacher
Step outside...you'll see we're all moving right along, safely, steadily, very smoothly....getting "our lives back".... Try it you might like it....
Banned
Apart from flying, my life hasn't changed. Again, forcing people to conform only creates more anarchists. The world is already turning to China for stability because the US has become a caricature of a Greek tragedy. I like your optimism but market analysts are predicting a systemic breakdown. I don't know if I could survive without wifi.
Diversity Makes Greatness
Hello goat,
Nazis forced people to do things. We give people choices. You want to do something? Abide by the rules. Rules change according to the needs of society. That's understandable.
Individuals are not allowed to force their views upon others. Individuals do not get to make up their own rules. I used to like flying back when flying was better. Now, I would be happier on a train. I now try to avoid flying at all.
Some market analysts are regularly predicting a systemic breakdown. And still the investments keep pouring in.
Personal Ignore Policy PIP: I like civil discourse. I will give you all the respect in the world if you respect me. Mouth off to me, or express overt racism, you will be PERMANENTLY Ignore Listed. Zero tolerance. No exceptions. I'll never read a word you write, even if quoted by another, nor respond to you, nor participate in your threads. ... Ignore the shallow. Cherish the thoughtful. Long Live Civil Discourse, Mutual Respect, and Good Debate! ps: Feel free to adopt my PIP. It works well.
Banned
democrats want to tell people how to live... sounds like Nazism to me
Banned
It's called Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media is a 1988 book by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky. It shows how our government owned media allows people to think they are making the choice to go to war or take a vaccine but in reality it's being forced on us by branding dissent as un-American. True patriots see the patriot act as a repeal of habeas corpus and the bill of rights.
Young folk are fed up with the lack of opportunity. The gig economy is coming to an end because zoomers want more out of life than driving a car to pay for the room they rent or share with a stranger. Can we agree that this is what we've become as a society?
Diversity Makes Greatness
Hello goat,
Thanks for turning me onto that book. Sounds like something I would be interested in reading. Although I noticed a discrepancy between the review I read and your take on it. The review said the mass media. It didn't mention anything about the 'government owned media,' whatever that is. For PBS and NPR, the government does not produce nor influence the content.
I am a regular PBS and NPR listener and do not recall any branding of anything as un-American. Can you cite an example?
I agree the Patriot Act was sort of the opposite of what the name implies.
Young people have a right to be frustrated with the lack of opportunity. I have been arguing for years that it is tougher to make it these days then it used to be. And it is still getting tougher as time passes. I fault improperly regulated capitalism for that. The goal of capitalism is to reward the owners of capital with as much wealth as possible by always seeking a greater ROI. This means eliminating labor costs. Jobs are downsized and menial tasks cut out to be done by machines or the lowest paid workers. The goal is to reduce the number of higher paid workers, and get the most profitable productivity out of them. The ideal capitalist venture would have no workers at all. That is actively being sought.
I don't see how we can continue to expand our population and reduce the number of well-paying jobs. That is logically going to lead to extreme wealth inequality. And that is precisely what is occurring. There is already an insufficient number of well-paying jobs.
It appears inevitable that we will one day be forced to institute a UBI, and we will tax the rich to pay for it. I think it may be time to start that up right now. But that idea is ahead of the curve as far as social acceptance goes. How do you tell someone who worked their butt off to get ahead that he needs to pay for free college for younger people after he worked his own way through college? And then try to tell him that after he has worked for decades to build a retirement that he should be taxed to pay for others to not work. Tough sell.
Personal Ignore Policy PIP: I like civil discourse. I will give you all the respect in the world if you respect me. Mouth off to me, or express overt racism, you will be PERMANENTLY Ignore Listed. Zero tolerance. No exceptions. I'll never read a word you write, even if quoted by another, nor respond to you, nor participate in your threads. ... Ignore the shallow. Cherish the thoughtful. Long Live Civil Discourse, Mutual Respect, and Good Debate! ps: Feel free to adopt my PIP. It works well.
goat (05-08-2021)
Banned
The review must be correct because I always have my own take on everything. GWB said something like either you are with us or you are with the terrorists. I can spend all day on this but it's easy to see there's no gray. The point is we are told to go with the flow or be branded unpatriotic.
This is a fun conversation.
Diversity Makes Greatness
Hello goat,
GWB was well criticized for saying that.
It's always difficult to have principles and be pressured to violate them.
Patriotic is something that is good for the country, not the individual. Ultimately it could mean dying for your country. That is extremely unlikely in the case of vaccines.
Agreed. Good conversation.
Personal Ignore Policy PIP: I like civil discourse. I will give you all the respect in the world if you respect me. Mouth off to me, or express overt racism, you will be PERMANENTLY Ignore Listed. Zero tolerance. No exceptions. I'll never read a word you write, even if quoted by another, nor respond to you, nor participate in your threads. ... Ignore the shallow. Cherish the thoughtful. Long Live Civil Discourse, Mutual Respect, and Good Debate! ps: Feel free to adopt my PIP. It works well.
Get Off My Lawn
Those who are responsible for how we got here and gone. If they could see where we're headed, would they have had the will to get us there?
Common sense is not a gift, it's a punishment because you have to deal with everyone who doesn't have it.
Banned
Because of my long goatee, I am constantly profiled by police who demand to see my ID -- even though there is no law requiring me to carry or show ID. A vaccine certificate is just another excuse for militarized police to stop law abiding citizens and demand to see their papers. There's a movement of young folk who instigate contact with police for the sole purpose of refusing to show their ID. They get beat up and arrested for daring to exercise their constitutional rights but it's all caught on video, so cops are being disciplined and cities are paying the lawsuits.
30 years ago, Chomsky was like a god to me but the older I get the more I realize he throws interference for the undemocratic party. He wants young folk to vote for Hillary and Biden and give up their push for a 3rd party. Like all great writers, Chomsky wants to preserve his legacy in government owned media at the cost of new generations laughing at him.
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