Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Da Geezer]

I don't know who did it, and I feel no need to speculate or twist myself into silly intellectual knots along the way, but I do know what caused it.

I'm just pointing out left-wing fascism. I completely understand your not wanting to discuss it.

I just think that, at some point, you are going to have to confront inconsistencies in your beliefs. For example, you think having an urban-centered Democrat party would be a winning idea. But wherever urban Democrats have actually elected governments, we see chaos, violence, and lack of basic government services. It is an objective fact that urban Democrats have failed to effectively govern. I understand your wanting power for its own sake, but what about hellholes like Detroit over the last 30-40 years.

That's only one example. You are Jewish. Certainly you can see that the tipping of headstones is directly connected to the denigration of all things Jewish during the last 8 years. Shoot, your party just came close to electing an avowed anti-semite to lead the party. The left howls about a Muslim Ban, but your President agreed to protect Iran from Israel while allowing Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon within 9 years. Again, look at the reality, not the hypothetical. These are not small things.

[hack]

Kapuscinski/three plagues. I've posted it before, but here's the passage in its entirety.

Three plagues, three contagions, threaten the world.
The first is the plague of nationalism.
The second is the plague of racism.
The third is the plague of religious fundamentalism.
All three share one trait, a common denominator - an agressive, all-powerful, total irrationality.
Anyone stricken with one of these plagues is beyond reason.
In his head burns a sacred pyre that awaits only its sacrificial victims.
Every attempt to calm conversation will fail. He doesn't want a conversation, but a declaration that you agree with him, admit that he is right, join the cause. Otherwise you have no significance in his eyes, you do not exist, for you count only if you are a tool, an instrument, a weapon.
There are no people - there is only the cause.
A mind touched by such a contagion is a closed mind, one dimensional, monothematic, spinning round one subject only - its enemy.
Thinking about our enemy sustains us, allows us to exist.
That is why enemy is always present, is always with us.

Now that we've got it posted, we don't need to refer to it again directly. I can just refer to Kapuscinski and save time.

[crashcourse]

the forth plague is greed--the all powerful urge to make as much as possible -leading to a state where the 0.1% of the population control 90% of the wealth leading to the financially destitute to revolt. Probably brought down more civilizations and societies then any other reason. we the working class waiting for payouts from our lord talent while he parlays our earnings into financial capital gain for his own manor. or blows it on wine women and song

[iam416]

No need for the disjunctive, crash.

[hack]

In Political Science classes the left right spectrum isn't actually a straight line, more like a circle where radical reactionarry and radical revolutionary nearly touch.

Yes, agree completely. As you add authoritarianism the left-right distinction fades into irrelevance.

I haven't really thought this through but increasingly I kinda wonder about the value of political theory. Filtering history by labeling things is ripe for the kind of abuse of terminology we see now, and the ensuing confusion. Rather than applying old theories to now, maybe just study the history and catalog outcomes. Here's a thing that's been tried, and this is what happened some/all/most of the time. Here's another, and here's what happened. I'd prioritize knowing the outcomes over time rather than knowing what a guy in the xxth century posited would happen.

[Da Geezer]

11th consecutive day for a record high close for the DJIA.

[Hannibal]

Kapuscinski/three plagues. I've posted it before, but here's the passage in its entirety.

Three plagues, three contagions, threaten the world.
The first is the plague of nationalism.
The second is the plague of racism
The third is the plague of religious fundamentalism.

LMAO

[Hannibal]

Fortunately we invented a cure for those three plagues -- Bolshevism. The force ultimately responsible for more human suffering and mass murders in the 20th Century than all of those other three forces combined.

[Da Geezer]

I haven't really thought this through but increasingly I kinda wonder about the value of political theory... Rather than applying old theories to now, maybe just study the history and catalog outcomes. Here's a thing that's been tried, and this is what happened some/all/most of the time. Here's another, and here's what happened.

Correct idea. But remember that economics used to be known as "political economy" and that economics and politics are inextricably linked. Remember too that in order for a policy to be implemented, a theoretical outcome is generally sought.

That is what I call the predictive element in policy recommendations; what happened in the past when we did this or that. What happened in China when Mao instituted the Great Leap Forward (pure communism)? Terror by the Red Guards. What happened when China began allowing a market economy for its citizens? (economic growth). What has happened every time the US has passed a significant tax cut? (more revenue to the treasury because of the increase in economic activity).

But keep in mind that Mart Laars (YES! that MART LAARS) could not have instituted free market capitalism in Estonia without Free to Choose. As I said when I posted about your hope for an urban Democrat party, look at the historical results of the Democrat rule of urban areas.

[hack]

Fortunately we invented a cure for those three plagues -- Bolshevism. The force ultimately responsible for more human suffering and mass murders in the 20th Century than all of those other three forces combined.

You may wish to inquire as to the source, and read it. No need to do so here. Easy to Google.

[Hannibal]

You may wish to inquire as to the source, and read it. No need to do so here. Easy to Google.

I'd prefer to judge ideas based on their merit rather than have appointed authority figures and "elites" tell me what to think. I guess that this is where we disagree.

[SeattleLionsFan]

I'm just pointing out left-wing fascism. I completely understand your not wanting to discuss it.

I just think that, at some point, you are going to have to confront inconsistencies in your beliefs. For example, you think having an urban-centered Democrat party would be a winning idea. But wherever urban Democrats have actually elected governments, we see chaos, violence, and lack of basic government services. It is an objective fact that urban Democrats have failed to effectively govern. I understand your wanting power for its own sake, but what about hellholes like Detroit over the last 30-40 years.

That's only one example. You are Jewish. Certainly you can see that the tipping of headstones is directly connected to the denigration of all things Jewish during the last 8 years. Shoot, your party just came close to electing an avowed anti-semite to lead the party. The left howls about a Muslim Ban, but your President agreed to protect Iran from Israel while allowing Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon within 9 years. Again, look at the reality, not the hypothetical. These are not small things.

I think your statements about"Urban hellholes" are grounded in deep ignorance of the real world.

[hack]

I'd prefer to judge ideas based on their merit rather than have appointed authority figures and "elites" tell me what to think. I guess that this is where we disagree.

What elites?

[iam416]

Oddly, Hanni, it's a quote from a book about the dissolution of the USSR. I haven't read that particular book, but I do like Shadows in the Sun.

Anywho, I agree about taking the quote on the merits. It seems, at best, an incomplete thought.

[iam416]

Oddly, Hanni, it's a quote from a book about the dissolution of the USSR. I haven't read that particular book, but I do like Shadows in the Sun.

Anywho, I agree about taking the quote on the merits. It seems, at best, an incomplete thought.