Prelude to the Apocalypse

[Jonathan Ingram]

Lol, I've always vomited commies as much as nazis, and your attempt at a moralist tirade for a joke sig is hilarious after the insane amount disgusting extremist/far-right opinions this thread has been filled with.

Well, even in spite of your strong opinion on the matter, I still think taking up reading Gramsci (and generally not shunning historical figures an order of magnitude smarter than you are) might do you a lot of good. Gramsci's writings on the mechanisms of propaganda dispersion in a socially-stratified society, the importance of cultural superstructure in perpetuating economic relations and the way its multiple assets are utilized to create consent among the targeted social groups make him one of the most relevant thinkers today. Who knows, you might even stop coming off as a dimwitted chauvinist who's never laid his eyes on anything more complex than a hi-score table in his entire life and who makes a fool out of himself every time he posts. Think about it.

[EmperorIng]

Xyga forgets that Jonathan is about as Marxist and anti-national (or rather, l'internationale) as they come.

[Xyga]

Nah not buying that, at heart he's just pissed because I'm insuting his country.
Fair-enough.

[Durandal]

And now news flash for those about a decade years late! Putin's pouring money into every European far-right, religious fundamentalist, anti-EU parties and organizations he can.

Since when election candidates haven't been receiving money from private support ? That's perfectly normal, in particular in the US where they don't even make efforts to hide the fact, but of course it's a plot ! it's called politics. Anyone who just dicovers that fact today is just a kid.

Problem ? Your master Putin is financing flat-out fucking nazis/fascists, and that makes a whole world of differences. He even dare call others nazis, typical Russian tactics: 'all the shit you do yourself, blame your enemy for it! even if it's fake that will confuse a lot of them for a period lololol'.

The idea at the base of the EU was precisely to never again fall into the fascist/nazism Hell, and Russia is precisely doing everything they can to destroy our efforts, the values we've carried, everything we've built to finally say goodbye to that shitty past.

While corporations in the USA are lobbying for more laws which increase profits at the cost of taxes and the human element while tightening their grip over Congress, Russia is funding right-wing extremist parties in Europe in order to destroy Europe from the inside out for the lulz? Most people already seem to deem it plausible enough that Russia is bombing civilians in Aleppo because everyone (rightfully?) thinks Russia is led by a bunch of one-dimensional bad guys, though I find that hard to believe, even if I cannot imagine what drives the Russian mind.

Though I feel that's overstating the danger of what amounts to the mirrored version of a bunch of SJWs, while I can understand how that seems like a big deal coming from whatever it is that you do in France (for comparison, I think video games are a big fucking deal because I spend most of my time in video game forums, it's natural that Americans who live in the southern states think immigration is a big deal, it's natural for people who go to college to think that an overbearing liberal bias is a big deal, and so on. To us those might seem like insignificant issues, but what do you and I know?). Most so-called right-wing extremists aren't even hardcore neo-nazis, a large part of people who vote for said right-wing parties consist largely of concerned senior citizens (brainwashed by Putinist agendas?) who aren't all that happy with letting around 1.2 million NEETs roam around Europe without arranging them a proper job or any kind of responsibilities, let alone any kind of education. God knows there's nothing more unpredictable than bored men living off welfare who can't get laid or can't get a job.

[Xyga]

While corporations in the USA are lobbying for more laws which increase profits at the cost of taxes and the human element while tightening their grip over Congress, Russia is funding right-wing extremist parties in Europe in order to destroy Europe from the inside out for the lulz? Most people already seem to deem it plausible enough that Russia is bombing civilians in Aleppo because everyone (rightfully?) thinks Russia is led by a bunch of one-dimensional bad guys, though I find that hard to believe, even if I cannot imagine what drives the Russian mind.

For the lulz ? You seem to have missed that all the flashy, crafty and dangerous stuff Russia has done these past years has been in response to the EU and/or US whom in various ways have been working sneakily to absorb several territories within their respective spheres of influence, territories that despite no-longer being the USSR, Russia was still considering belonging to their own sphere of influence. Russia just found itself surrounded.
Understandable reasons to respond firmly to that pressure, okay, but they've taken incresingly dangerous and now absolutely unbearable measures that have escalated the whole affair into pre-world-war state. They went too far period, I'm not saying they've overeacted like gangsters would as a joke, it's because this is how they did it.
Do you realize how much the invasion of Crimea and part of the Ukraine has been a shock to Europeans and to what magnitude that event destroyed Russia's image ? We thought we were done with that kind of shit, they gave us a stark reminder that they were not; if we step on their feet, where they consider is their turf, they respond with arms. And yes that happened at our doorstep, not yours.

Though I feel that's overstating the danger of what amounts to the mirrored version of a bunch of SJWs, while I can understand how that seems like a big deal coming from whatever it is that you do in France (for comparison, I think video games are a big fucking deal because I spend most of my time in video game forums, it's natural that Americans who live in the southern states think immigration is a big deal, it's natural for people who go to college to think that an overbearing liberal bias is a big deal, and so on. To us those might seem like insignificant issues, but what do you and I know?). Most so-called right-wing extremists aren't even hardcore neo-nazis, a large part of people who vote for said right-wing parties consist largely of concerned senior citizens (brainwashed by Putinist agendas?) who aren't all that happy with letting around 1.2 million NEETs roam around Europe without arranging them a proper job or any kind of responsibilities, let alone any kind of education. God knows there's nothing more unpredictable than bored men living off welfare who can't get laid or can't get a job.

Trying to find excuses and toning down the thinking behind those far-right movements and the people who support them just means either:
1. agreeing with their ideology fully like a basic racist nazi in mind, and in public trying with semantics to cover as much as possible for them and their unspeakable real beliefs, helping to make them appear more acceptable candidates to power for a democracy (when they're absolutely not)
2. being completely clueless about the dephts of imbecility and danger to freedom and democracy those people actually represent
3. being a GOP (or foreign equivalent) supporter only thinking about how to win in polls and how you should fucking never let lefties win in any case, so completely blind and deaf to the unacceptable assholes your party has been hosting by interest for so long that they're now the majority and basically snatched power from the old-farting elephants.

No matter how disappointed, even enraged one can be about how globalization and politics crap and fuck the people around the world, it isn't an acceptable reason to desire the destruction of democracy, human rights and individual freedom (and no cynism about that ffs, because as flawed/challenged as they have become in the US and EU, anyone not completely screwed in his head should know that we're fucking way more free than the people living under genuine autocratic/despotic regimes)
No good reasons exist that justify dictatorships. We all have the power to either vote or kick our leaders in the nuts if we really want to, and then we fix problems because we have to, when they become shit it's just the healthy thing to do... but going as far as wanting fascism ? that's the fucking dumbest thing, a spit in the face of human intelligence and civilization, and the surest way to have us fucking mass-murder each other in the near future, all over again like we're incapable of learning.

[BryanM]

I remember Thomas Sankara, the mythical "benevolent dictator". He lasted four whole years before the foreign banks put a bullet into his head - a world record for staying power, perhaps?

[orange808]

While corporations in the USA are lobbying for more laws which increase profits at the cost of taxes and the human element while tightening their grip over Congress, Russia is funding right-wing extremist parties in Europe in order to destroy Europe from the inside out for the lulz? Most people already seem to deem it plausible enough that Russia is bombing civilians in Aleppo because everyone (rightfully?) thinks Russia is led by a bunch of one-dimensional bad guys, though I find that hard to believe, even if I cannot imagine what drives the Russian mind.

For the lulz ? You seem to have missed that all the flashy, crafty and dangerous stuff Russia has done these past years has been in response to the EU and/or US whom in various ways have been working sneakily to absorb several territories within their respective spheres of influence, territories that despite no-longer being the USSR, Russia was still considering belonging to their own sphere of influence. Russia just found itself surrounded.
Understandable reasons to respond firmly to that pressure, okay, but they've taken incresingly dangerous and now absolutely unbearable measures that have escalated the whole affair into pre-world-war state. They went too far period, I'm not saying they've overeacted like gangsters would as a joke, it's because this is how they did it.
Do you realize how much the invasion of Crimea and part of the Ukraine has been a shock to Europeans and to what magnitude that event destroyed Russia's image ? We thought we were done with that kind of shit, they gave us a stark reminder that they were not; if we step on their feet, where they consider is their turf, they respond with arms. And yes that happened at our doorstep, not yours.

Though I feel that's overstating the danger of what amounts to the mirrored version of a bunch of SJWs, while I can understand how that seems like a big deal coming from whatever it is that you do in France (for comparison, I think video games are a big fucking deal because I spend most of my time in video game forums, it's natural that Americans who live in the southern states think immigration is a big deal, it's natural for people who go to college to think that an overbearing liberal bias is a big deal, and so on. To us those might seem like insignificant issues, but what do you and I know?). Most so-called right-wing extremists aren't even hardcore neo-nazis, a large part of people who vote for said right-wing parties consist largely of concerned senior citizens (brainwashed by Putinist agendas?) who aren't all that happy with letting around 1.2 million NEETs roam around Europe without arranging them a proper job or any kind of responsibilities, let alone any kind of education. God knows there's nothing more unpredictable than bored men living off welfare who can't get laid or can't get a job.

Trying to find excuses and toning down the thinking behind those far-right movements and the people who support them just means either:
1. agreeing with their ideology fully like a basic racist nazi in mind, and in public trying with semantics to cover as much as possible for them and their unspeakable real beliefs, helping to make them appear more acceptable candidates to power for a democracy (when they're absolutely not)
2. being completely clueless about the dephts of imbecility and danger to freedom and democracy those people actually represent
3. being a GOP (or foreign equivalent) supporter only thinking about how to win in polls and how you should fucking never let lefties win in any case, so completely blind and deaf to the unacceptable assholes your party has been hosting by interest for so long that they're now the majority and basically snatched power from the old-farting elephants.

No matter how disappointed, even enraged one can be about how globalization and politics crap and fuck the people around the world, it isn't an acceptable reason to desire the destruction of democracy, human rights and individual freedom (and no cynism about that ffs, because as flawed/challenged as they have become in the US and EU, anyone not completely screwed in his head should know that we're fucking way more free than the people living under genuine autocratic/despotic regimes)
No good reasons exist that justify dictatorships. We all have the power to either vote or kick our leaders in the nuts if we really want to, and then we fix problems because we have to, when they become shit it's just the healthy thing to do... but going as far as wanting fascism ? that's the fucking dumbest thing, a spit in the face of human intelligence and civilization, and the surest way to have us fucking mass-murder each other in the near future, all over again like we're incapable of learning.

"The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy!" - HL Mencken

[quash]

Who knows, you might even stop coming off as a dimwitted chauvinist who's never laid his eyes on anything more complex than a hi-score table in his entire life and who makes a fool out of himself every time he posts. Think about it.

I'm afraid I have to agree with this prognosis. The only window to the outside world Xyga gets is the state funded media he puts on between hours of playing videogames, which becomes all the more apparent the more he talks about things he doesn't understand.

He just wants to be left alone and allowed to live his life the way he did before. Unfortunately for him, Pandora's Box was opened in Syria years ago, and there's no way for anyone to go back to what had been considered normal prior to. Little does he want to acknowledge that his country is far from innocent in their corroborating with the US over there; but to hell with that, he has a reputation to uphold as the resident nose thumbing individualist who can't refute an argument past tying it to Putin.

[Durandal]

Trying to find excuses and toning down the thinking behind those far-right movements and the people who support them just means either:
1. agreeing with their ideology fully like a basic racist nazi in mind, and in public trying with semantics to cover as much as possible for them and their unspeakable real beliefs, helping to make them appear more acceptable candidates to power for a democracy (when they're absolutely not)
2. being completely clueless about the dephts of imbecility and danger to freedom and democracy those people actually represent
3. being a GOP (or foreign equivalent) supporter only thinking about how to win in polls and how you should fucking never let lefties win in any case, so completely blind and deaf to the unacceptable assholes your party has been hosting by interest for so long that they're now the majority and basically snatched power from the old-farting elephants.

Ah, that's no fair, you black 'n white McCarthyist authoritarian Zeon Clinton lapdog, you.

No matter how disappointed, even enraged one can be about how globalization and politics crap and fuck the people around the world, it isn't an acceptable reason to desire the destruction of democracy, human rights and individual freedom (and no cynism about that ffs, because as flawed/challenged as they have become in the US and EU, anyone not completely screwed in his head should know that we're fucking way more free than the people living under genuine autocratic/despotic regimes)
No good reasons exist that justify dictatorships. We all have the power to either vote or kick our leaders in the nuts if we really want to, and then we fix problems because we have to, when they become shit it's just the healthy thing to do... but going as far as wanting fascism ? that's the fucking dumbest thing, a spit in the face of human intelligence and civilization, and the surest way to have us fucking mass-murder each other in the near future, all over again like we're incapable of learning.

From what I understood, the general message of these right-wingers tends to include ideas such as 'fuck minorities', 'fuck immigrants', 'fuck the media', 'fuck jews', 'fuck corporations', 'fuck globalists', 'fuck Soros', 'fuck Merkel', 'fuck leftards', 'fuck SJWs', 'fuck John Oliver' and so on, but 'fuck democracy' wasn't one of them. I mean, shitting on democracy is the most undemocratic thing ever, man. Even if all hope seems lost, we can always trust in democracy. It's the universal standard of moral justice which needs to be spread across the universe. Who will garner any popular support if they shit on our beloved democracy? Even among the refugee-hating misfits, people who believe Hitler did nothing wrong and want fascism/national socialism reinstated are a fringe of a fringe (unless you're taking /pol/ seriously). Even if they are as infectious as a virus, it's going to take at least 10-20 years before the government starts handing out health pamphlets about whether your children have contracted neo-nazism. This constant cycle of reactionary backlashes seems more of a byproduct of the ongoing polarization in Western society where the smallest problems are suddenly everyone's business, as battles are fought through voting and propaganda like with Brexit. Voting is the only semblance of power the sheeple feel like they have, gotta make 'em feel like they can make a difference.

Since you've already identified the Ultimate True Final Nemesis of Democracy, I wish you good luck with leading your countrymen on one last invasion towards the evil Russian Empire. Just mind the winter cold. Meanwhile I'll be fighting my own battles on the internet by trolling the evil feminist SJWs who seek to oppress us by pussifying white men and destroying free speech.

[Bitter Almonds]

The irony is that $hilltards will then turn around and vote for the same shit they just ranted against.

[Xyga]

That's all you got quash and John ? which is: nothing of course, your records in this thread speak volumes about your stinking minds and that's all we need.
But please go on, use your time to write an essay in which you smear shit on me, my country, whatever.
Submit it, then see if I care.

Zeon

Everything but that, please. >>

From what I understood, the general message of these right-wingers tends to include ideas such as 'fuck minorities', 'fuck immigrants', 'fuck the media', 'fuck jews', 'fuck corporations', 'fuck globalists', 'fuck Soros', 'fuck Merkel', 'fuck leftards', 'fuck SJWs', 'fuck John Oliver' and so on, but 'fuck democracy' wasn't one of them. I mean, shitting on democracy is the most undemocratic thing ever, man. Even if all hope seems lost, we can always trust in democracy. It's the universal standard of moral justice which needs to be spread across the universe. Who will garner any popular support if they shit on our beloved democracy? Even among the refugee-hating misfits, people who believe Hitler did nothing wrong and want fascism/national socialism reinstated are a fringe of a fringe (unless you're taking /pol/ seriously). Even if they are as infectious as a virus, it's going to take at least 10-20 years before the government starts handing out health pamphlets about whether your children have contracted neo-nazism. This constant cycle of reactionary backlashes seems more of a byproduct of the ongoing polarization in Western society where the smallest problems are suddenly everyone's business, as battles are fought through voting and propaganda like with Brexit. Voting is the only semblance of power the sheeple feel like they have, gotta make 'em feel like they can make a difference.

Since you've already identified the Ultimate True Final Nemesis of Democracy, I wish you good luck with leading your countrymen on one last invasion towards the evil Russian Empire. Just mind the winter cold. Meanwhile I'll be fighting my own battles on the internet by trolling the evil feminist SJWs who seek to oppress us by pussifying white men and destroying free speech.

Are you seriously reading yourself ? How do you think you 'fuck' all those hated people without stripping them of their rights ?
(ask any of those despots, alive or dead if you can afford a necromancer, they'll actually give you a hint that really doing that is the only way to actually get rid of them)

Also last time I checked Trump was the one who said he wouldn't accept the results if Clinton won, how's that for trusting democracy ?
Oh yes what about the constant threats to jail his political opponent ? In what kind of regimes do we see similar ideas, hm ?
But you're right, let's strip the people from their useless right to choose other leaders every few years or to decide fundamental changes by themselves, that way we'll finally have 'presidents' for life and everything will be alright again!

And it's the 'lefties' who are called the pussies who can't handle the challenges of this world, lol. From my perspective it's that ever-raging more and more radical right that looks like a bunch of angry grown men-children pissed that they can't crush and burn everything that challenges/disturbs their narcissistic desire for a perfect, strong, unquestioned self living in a world without any noisy nor scary surprises, no ripples, because their limited perspective can't handle novelty nor dissatisfaction/opposition.

In a way that odd hybrid planetary conflict and dispute is a kind of clash not between civilizations, but between the fundamental conceptions of every individual, their relationship to the world, society, and even down to every other individuals.
Thanks O glorious Internet for being the medium humanity needed to trigger the entire planet. We like where this is going.

[ED-057]

Do you realize how much the invasion of Crimea and part of the Ukraine has been a shock to Europeans and to what magnitude that event destroyed Russia's image

Maybe if they'd stop believing obvious lies then they could stop being so shocked.

The majority of Crimeans voted for Yanukovich. They didn't support the coup government in Kiev. If Putin hadn't had the balls to retake Crimea, they would have had bombs falling on their heads just like the people in Donbass.

According to US propaganda, Assad is a bad dude because he is attacking "his own people." In a country where ISIS and Al Qaeda (toting US weapons) are running wild. But US propaganda also says that it's ok for Kiev (toting US weapons) to bomb Ukrainians because they are just "terrorists." Funny how these terrorists magically appeared in Ukraine at the same time that the elected government was overthrown (with US backing).

This kind of self-contradictory BS coming from Western media and politicians easily proves who the biggest liars are on the world stage.

[Xyga]

EDIT: you go to give it to Trump that he's right about Putin being way smarter, it's not given to anyone to manage large scale brainwashing and conditioning that efficient. It's even beyond fanatical faith, almost like a brainchip!

[quash]

That's all you got quash and John ? which is: nothing of course

You're the one that's said nothing you braindead faggot. You have not refuted a single thing I've said.

Bryan called out the one lie I told in this thread, which I did for a reason, and left it at that. You have been huffing and puffing about "exposing my lies", without actually doing it (or even trying to).

your records in this thread speak volumes about your stinking minds and that's all we need.

Yeah, my record has been terrible. I've only called Syria leading to a major conflict, Trump backing down from the wall, etc. Things that nobody here even cared to talk about before the television started telling them they should.

But please go on, use your time to write an essay in which you smear shit on me, my country, whatever.
Submit it, then see if I care.

You don't care about anything, that much you have made clear. People like you are the first to die in a revolution.

[Ikaruga11]

Xyga btfo

[ED-057]

EDIT: you go to give it to Trump that he's right about Putin being way smarter, it's not given to anyone to manage large scale brainwashing and conditioning that efficient. It's even beyond fanatical faith, almost like a brainchip!

Does this mean that you've run out of talking points?

[Durandal]

Are you seriously reading yourself ? How do you think you 'fuck' all those hated people without stripping them of their rights ?
(ask any of those despots, alive or dead if you can afford a necromancer, they'll actually give you a hint that really doing that is the only way to actually get rid of them)

Elect populist politicians who make a lot of promises to do something about it? It doesn't seem like those KKK nasties have any better plan other than to get Trump elected.

And it's the 'lefties' who are called the pussies who can't handle the challenges of this world, lol. From my perspective it's that ever-raging more and more radical right that looks like a bunch of angry grown men-children pissed that they can't crush and burn everything that challenges/disturbs their narcissistic desire for a perfect, strong, unquestioned self living in a world without any noisy nor scary surprises, no ripples, because their limited perspective can't handle novelty nor dissatisfaction/opposition.

The right is fucked then, innit? Thankfully being the tolerant people that we are, we'll be the superior men by just ignoring those fascists and their rising numbers as a result of Russian propaganda being spread across Europe, or do we take up arms?
By the way, are we talking about these kind of radical rightists? My perspective as couch potato might be skewering my view on reality.

[Skykid]

chauvinist

Where the fuck did that come from?

[Squire Grooktook]

Yeah I was thinking the same thing. I don't think he's even commented on gender politics, let alone said anything "chauvinist" on the subject.

[Jonathan Ingram]

Where the fuck did that come from?

Militant European exceptionalism. Constant hysterics about the imperiled "European values". Obscene amount of fearmongering pertaining to the subject(including calls to build a sky-high wall along the European Union's eastern perimeter to ward off what he perceives as an existential threat to it). Generalizing people, opinions and political affiliations based on nationality and region. Being an unrepentant mooncalf who makes his willful ignorance a point of pride. Okay, the last part is not directly related to his views(but definitely causative of them).

Yeah I was thinking the same thing. I don't think he's even commented on gender politics, let alone said anything "chauvinist" on the subject.

A quick googling of the term would tell you that chauvinism, among other things, means "blindly and enthusiastically believing in the superiority of his cause or people".

[Mischief Maker]

I for one am happy the Libertarian party will not become a viable third party this campaign, what with being the literal sockpuppets of the Koch brothers and all.

Now it's looking like even Libertarian VP Bill Weld is having a crisis of conscience toward any role they might play in spoiling the campaign in Trump's favor. He delivered a statement on Tuesday strongly urging against Trump. After the usual common-sense talk about how Trump clearly lacks the attention span or self-control necessary to handle the pressures of being president (BORING!) he concludes:

In the final days of this very close race, every citizen must be aware of the power and responsibility of each individual vote. This is not the time to cast a jocular or feel-good vote for a man whom you may have briefly found entertaining. Donald Trump should not, cannot, and must not be elected President of the United States.

(emphasis added)

Given all the uber-right sites that have been linked these last couple days, can I be forgiven for linking a short clip by Thom Hartmann that takes some of the sting out of settling for Hillary?

[BryanM]

On the other hand, Thom is a bit of a kook and also we're supposed to believe RT is evil russian propaganda. Hillary says the fuckin' reds are evil according to her own words, ipso calypso, therefore Trump. All roads lead to trump.

I for one am happy the Libertarian party will not become a viable third party this campaign

You're happy Republicans have a non zero chance to win... why?

what with being the literal sockpuppets of the Koch brothers and all.

That's... different from the republicans or Koch-endorsed Hillary Clinton, ...how?

[Mischief Maker]

On the other hand, Thom is a bit of a kook and also we're supposed to believe RT is evil russian propaganda. Hillary says the fuckin' reds are evil according to her own words, ipso calypso, therefore Trump. All roads lead to trump.

Thom's purported kookiness does not make the facts he cites false.

I for one am happy the Libertarian party will not become a viable third party this campaign

You're happy Republicans have a non zero chance to win... why?

Because the Libertarians are worse.

They're every bit as evil as the Republicans but have better optics. Hey, dude! Who likes legal pot? Nevermind my history as governor of massive prison privatization and then packing them full of potheads like sardines to maximize profit. And isn't everyone sick of crony capitalism? Nevermind the multi-million dollar no-bid contract I gave to a Koch industry subsidiary for New Mexico's highway system. Like, take a bong hit and think about how eventually the sun will encompass the Earth in a couple billion years, so why bother fighting climate change with government regulation, dude? Just have a bake sale to scrape together the funds to sue a fortune 500 company and you can fight climate change all by yourself!

The low-information chunk of Bernie-or-Bust has fucking Johnson supporters in it! Even though he's the antithesis of Bernie's agenda. Republicans on the other hand at least embody the racism and class warfare inherent in the libertarian party's fine print so low-info lefties can see them coming.

[BryanM]

Republicans on the other hand at least embody the racism and class warfare inherent in the libertarian party's fine print so low-info lefties can see them coming.

But... the blatant racism and tribalism is the only reason why anyone ever votes republican. Nobody likes the economic shit. Tell'em Trump wants to raise the minimum wage and is all for single payer; they're gungho for it.

The libertarian party can never reach a point where it has power. It'd only sap life out the GOP's share of the vote. It's like you're afraid of fairies and leprechauns getting into congress. We're only allowed one of those.

[BulletMagnet]

Any party, large or small, which makes it a matter of pride that it sticks its tongue even farther up the backside of the all-consuming house of horrors that is contemporary corporate America than its competition, deserves every last debasement it gets and many more after that.

[system11]

I don't see how you can distinguish them on that basis.

Anyone who wants TTIP/CETA needs to be burned at the stake.

[BulletMagnet]

Heaven knows I'd like all of Washington to finally grow a pair and drag the plutocrats back down to Earth where the rest of us reside, but the simple fact of the matter is that the farther to the economic right you go the more you (claim to) believe that the free market is perfect and [*chortle*] incorruptible, and that rich and poor alike have sealed their fates completely via their own willpower to succeed or lack thereof; the government's sole purpose, therefore, is to make things even easier for the peerless paragons among the former and to heap additional "tough love" on the lazy, worthless latter.

To wit, Republicans attempt to explain away widening income inequality in the face of decades of near-uninterrupted upper-end tax cuts and deregulation as "well, obviously we need even more of those to finally get us over the hump and get the trickle-down good times a-rollin', but dag nab it, those silly liberals just keep getting in the way"; Libertarians, on the other hand, have full-on embraced an "it's not a bug, it's a feature, now shut up and quit being such a societal parasite" attitude.

The Dems are nowhere near as far removed from that golden cesspit as they should be, no doubt about that, but at the very least they acknowledge that government has a place filling in societal gaps that the private sector either can't or won't, instead of simply discounting the concept entirely and telling everyone we might as well privatize the whole damn thing and throw ourselves upon the tender mercies of the Martin Shkrelis of the world.

[BryanM]

The democrats exist solely to serve long term capitalism. They know if they take too much too openly it could create a backlash, so they do it quietly. The end goal and result is largely the same, minus the starving serfs with pitchforks.

Martin Shkreli

This guy is great. #1 Bernie Sanders supporter.

The whole point of being a rich overlord is to be anonymous and faceless. A distant power (unlike those Mexicans, who're right next door because there's more than 20 of them in the country); out of sight out of mind. Martin want on a TV tour to promote how much of an asshole people really are.

The whole Committee of 300 conspiracy theory is implausible because 300 people controlling the world seems like massive hyperbole. It's really only closer to around 80, tops.

[atheistgod1999]

You know, about three weeks ago in my US History class, we were reading the Declaration of Independence, and it said that if the government is corrupt, the people have the right to overthrow it and make a new one. I wonder if we're now at that point.

My history teacher is Hillary voter, by the way, and he even dismissed me when I said that she's lied before by saying that of course she'd contradict herself a little at some point, and some website with the sole purpose of exposing her will point it out (at least I didn't get in trouble). Bashing Trump is acceptable, though.

[BryanM]

if the government is corrupt, the people have the right to overthrow it and make a new one. I wonder if we're now at that point.

As the video I linked to earlier stated, this would accomplish jack and shit. The politicians have no power. The people who place them into government are the ones with the power.

Try to overthrow them with force, you'll die in a fire. The projectile will come from miles away.

Try to overthrow them at the ballot, silly fool, they control the ballot.

Try to overthrow them with internet thoughtcrimes, software will track you down.

That is the problem with being powerless. If you don't have power, you can't take the power.