The Democratic Party in Trump's Fascist 2nd Term. Commentary, Ideas & Strategy (+ non Woketicism)

I ment those thesis.

 

There’s so much bad history here I don’t even care. Whatever man. You live in your world, I’ll live in mine.

 

Start with the facts, and then see if the concepts apply to them.
You're doing the opposite: you're starting with a concept (capitalism), and you're forcing the facts into it at all costs, even though there's no connection between them.

 

I suppose we can say it's more likely to happen when capitalism is allowed to run amok, with the rich being able to buy political influence without hindrance. But it can also happen when authoritarians on the left want to control people's behaviour, and there's no pushback.

 

I think it depends what we're talking about.

Minor corruption, (where people get preferential treatment not extended to others), is likely to happen in both communist AND capitalist societies. But the sort of massive corruption that we're seeing in the states now, with multi decade skewing of what's meant to be a democratic process... that's a lot more likely to happen in a capitalist one.

A mate of mine's dad was in the securiy services, (MI6), back in the mid 50's. He was 2nd desk in Moscow and he told his son that there were separate shops only available to the upper echelons of Russian society.

As he said, it meant they got better products and services. They had access to better restaurants and their kids got better schools. But it only really replicated many of the same sorts of things that happened in the west.

The sort of HUGE inequalities we've seen in many western societies and the corrupting of the political system at ALL levels that's happened in America is on another level.

Where western societies gained was in the levels of freedom they had. But if we're now being 'nudged' to do what the rich and powerful want and the vote is being effectively removed from us, (some more than others, of course), we haven't even got THAT argument anymore.

 

To be clear, the best forms of society are a mix of capitalism and 'communism', (at least in the sense of 'from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs'), with an open democracy as we have in most of Europe.

They're still not perfect, and even THEY can be subverted if we allow it. But they're the best of what's available atm.

 

Which is why this entire conversation of capitalism versus socialism is so, so stupid.

It's not either/or and we've got decades of global examples of how they can work together with good governance.

 

Sorry. That is NOT how the internet works.

 

Exactly. I’ve been telling him that for a couple of weeks now.

I also have a sneaking suspicion that his 15 paragraph opuses are either copied and pasted from other sources, or lightly edited from ChatGPT.

 

They are certainly ponderous enough

 

yeah? well you know, that's just like, your opinion man

 

I am still trying to process how much of the timely/Zeitgeisty nature of One Battle After Another is superficial (owed to the imagery of immigration camps and militarized law enforcement) and to what extent there is some real profundity there too.

I think there is at least one well-observed moment that I credit PTA for.

Linked to Steven Lockjaw's fate.

One Battle After Another spoilers (open) One Battle After Another spoilers (close)

After Lockjaw, a blunt instrument and lackey of powerful white supremacist forces, is brutally rejected by his masters in the most extreme way possible, he does not reject them or indeed seek revenge against them, which is what you might expect to see in a fictional story. Rather, all he is capable of doing is returning to them to be completely destroyed, instead of simply walking away from them and their destructive ideology. I believe there is something very true in that narrative choice in terms of the nature of useful idiots in this white supremacist Trump administration.

 

Hey Wanksey aka @Dr. Wankler does the gov pick to replace a Senator in PA or is it special election?

 

I think it’s an election, not an appointment.

 

I would make the argument that the information available to us in 2025 about how to craft those decisions is much higher. Were there problems with earlier socialist projects? Absolutely. Totalitarianism is bad and can pop up on both sides of the aisle. However these data points give us an ability to learn from the mistakes that were made. You all seem to conveniently ignore my assertions that Capitalism has sought to make Socialism not work. They've done this by assassinating leaders, economic embargos (Denying a society access to the markets certainly has nothing to do with system failing because of its principles. How many countries in a world that has developed with pronounced trade between countries can provide everything for its citizens on its own? If we sanctioned a Capitalistic island the same way we have sanctioned Cuba, how successful would it be? Chew on that one.), and in most cases direct sustained warfare.

Transition between human systems doesn't happen overnight. It takes some time. From a historical perspective? The New usually replaces the Old. Constantine adopts Christianity in 312, the Edict of Milan follows in 313, and then a few generations later in 380 it becomes the official religion of the Roman Empire, almost 350 years after Jesus dies. So for those saying that my history is bad? There is quite a bit more precedent that would support my argument that eventually Socialism will overtake Capitalism as the dominant mode of orienting economic activity from a historical perspective than you all seem to be willing to admit.

I would argue that the development of Capitalist principles is entirely based on what you are saying. Most of the land and wealth that Western Countries have was stolen from other societies and then Capitalist thought and principles were developed to create a justification for that theft. Instead of acknowledging the facts, once the wealth was gathered a system was put into place to make the theft appear to be justified or moral. The Mormons in Utah certainly didn't settle the land by free trade agreements. The United States Government signed hundreds of treaties with Native Americans and violated the terms of nearly every single one.

 

Picking up randomly five events (from the 30 Years War to WWII) each separated by more or less 80 years and seeing capitalist logic at work there is certainly not a valid historical method.

 

or Mexico.

 

I certainly did not invent the perspective of viewing history in cycles I promise you. Steve Bannon is a proponent of the idea. Like him or hate him, he's certainly been pretty influential and no one would say he's an idiot.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strauss–Howe_generational_theory

 

I'd say he is an idiot. A dangerous one on top of that.

 

He's not an idiot. He knows what he's doing in manipulating facts. That's also why he isn't a reputable source on anything.

He's a professional bulls****/propagandist.