General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe greatest con ever played
The rich convincing the middle class that the poor and minorities are the ones taking all their money.
They are laughing all the way to the bank.
Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)Myrina
(12,296 posts)... the strategy hasn't changed one bit.
UtahLib
(3,179 posts)lpbk2713
(42,696 posts)The BushCo Crime Family got the vote even after it was obvious they stole the Y2K sElection
and after proving they were nothing but thieves and liars during that four year term.
totodeinhere
(13,037 posts)I just hope that we won't be adding 2014 to that list as well.
fasttense
(17,301 posts)The lovers of capitalism claim it makes everyone equal in the marketplace. They claimed it is efficient. They claim it works because it caters to man's greed. It overthrew an agrarian lifestyle because it was just so perfect.
And yet, in order to get children, women and men into the dirty and unsafe factories and mines, governments had to pass laws that made it so agrarian life would NOT bring the necessities to live. They severely restricted hunting, fishing, where and how you could farm while the capitalist polluted the land and waters. They restricted the sale of commodities and food from farms forcing farmers to buy elaborate equipment in order to meet safety and hygiene requirements. They rigged markets so that farmers could NOT get retail prices and had to be satisfied with cheap wholesale prices. They forced out ALL cottage industries, they monopolized local markets making it impossible to sell enough to survive.
Think about it. Today if you are an average farmer, you have nowhere to sell your produce. Supermarkets have contracts with huge factory farms, they buy their produce from other huge corporations like Tyson and huge torturous egg producers. A farmer today can't sell to schools, colleges or other large institution that feed people because the USDA forces those institutions to buy from them. And the USDA only buys from factory farms. Only factory farms can produce the quantities the USDA demands. In order to meet the USDA's quality requirements, farmers must use GMO, pesticides and petroleum based fertilizers. There are very few markets remaining for the individual small farmer.
Capitalism is one big hoax.
PowerToThePeople
(9,610 posts)AnotherMcIntosh
(11,064 posts)JNelson6563
(28,151 posts)NightWatcher
(39,343 posts)No need to get all riled up demand equality, justice, or anything else that would affect us, your feudal lords. Just pray in your shitty shacks and after you die you'll be rewarded. What a con.
1ProudAtheist
(346 posts)The LIE that is all religion is the ULTIMATE CON JOB ever. The idea that giving your money to a snake oil salesman will buy you everlasting absolution can only be pulled off when your target is those weak of mind absent of self confidence.
KansDem
(28,498 posts)Ian_rd
(2,124 posts)I image a French Revolution style mob, with torches and pitchforks, marching up to a banker's mansion. Except that it's Tea Partiers - the purest form of the duped working class. And they're chanting: "We are here! To cut your taxes! To loosen regulations on your activities that wrecked the economy! To let you ship more jobs overseas! To dismantle our ability to take you to court! To let you pour more poison into our waterways! We are PISSED and we're here to give you everything you WANT!
Inside the 1%ers are doubling over in laughter, spilling their brandy.
Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)Sure there's a few left in the middle but the rich have so skewed the field that what used to be middle, the teacher and tow truck driver, are getting closer and closer to the poverty level.
And still they manage to convince people to vote against their own self-interests.
When the President talks about saving the "Middle Class," I have to wonder who he's talking about. The new middle class is what used to be the upper middle class/lower upper class. Specialist doctors, Lawyers, etc. Everyone else is now in varying stages of working class to working poor to kicked out of the economy.
The problem is people think they can work their way out of their "temporarily embarrassed millionaire" state. More and more, that's becoming impossible.
Hydra
(14,459 posts)Is the bazaar fact that 20% of people think they are in the 1%, and another 20% think they'll be in the 1%. The middle class wants to be the rich assholes, which is why they don't realize the people they are idolizing are robbing them blind.
Me being at the bottom, I find this highly amusing. Everyone would be better off if we had a more in a more egalitarian society, but most of America would rather work their asses off to support the 1% for the illusory chance that they will get there someday.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)Ohio Joe
(21,656 posts)They just keep saying it over and over, and despite the fact that it is a plainly stupid lie, people believe it.
closeupready
(29,503 posts)closeupready
(29,503 posts)in order to argue that, for lack of a better word, "internationalism" is, bizarrely, patriotic.
Critical thinking is not an American strong point, I know, but still, it seems like such obvious bullshit, you can't help but wonder how they continue selling this off as gold.
JHB
(37,133 posts)Go to the bank? Please! That's what personal staff is for. And the bank can send reports to them.
The rich do their laughing on golf courses, tennis courts, yachts, exclusive boutiques, or anywhere they damn well please.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)bluesbassman
(19,310 posts)And the ratings are off the charts.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)What is the significance of the little hamster avatar guy? Does he have a special significance? I noticed a number of people have him now. He wants a grape.
barbiegeek
(1,140 posts)limpyhobbler
(8,244 posts)so true
WillyT
(72,631 posts)blackspade
(10,056 posts)clarice
(5,504 posts)pansypoo53219
(20,908 posts)Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)felix_numinous
(5,198 posts)and foreigners just give an excuse for proxy wars on groups that they cannot otherwise control.
Fundamentalism is a tool of authoritarian rule, fostering an army of true believer types who can be cannon fodder for their endless war of domination. Propaganda fills in the gaps to feed racism, homophobia and xenophobia. All to manufacture compliance.
We cannot reason with this paradigm, nor go head on. Reasoning with true believer types (explained in the book by Erich Hoffer) is futile, unless people break out by themselves, of seeking wisdom
outside of themselves. And so contained in this puzzle is its answer--self empowerment and awakening, cooperation, inclusivity and solidarity. I just hope that we go through this awakening process quickly.
We must find ways of putting our (relatively) small differences aside and unify to save our lands and lives from this plundering and robbery and stop buying the big lie that it is US who are out of control!
It is this authoritarian paradigm that fractures people, like horses being broken in, from their natural innate wisdom and instincts, causing the desired effect if destabilization that is necessary to rationalize further use of force. It is a psychological war first and foremost.
Peace~~Felix
dionysus
(26,467 posts)colsohlibgal
(5,275 posts)Some of it is still a remnant from 1964 and the Civil Rights Bill. Lots and lots of white blue collar democrats moved to the republican party, which has played them like a gong, with code words, since.
Some of has to do with social issues and that baffles me more - why would anyone care who anyone else is sleeping with, is it worth voting for a party who screws you over financially?
Then there is a TV station, Fox, that Goebbels would be proud of, mostly pure propaganda other than Shepard Smith, who must have compromising negatives on Ailes. My favorite is their penchant for changing an "R" to a "D" on the bottom info line when running a story about a republican in a scandal, like Vitter and the diaper issue. Since a lot of their viewers aren't the sharpest tools in the shed it likely is somewhat effective.
The sad thing now is that the democratic party is not the party I grew up with either, they sell out too. We must go to public funding to stop this legalized bribery known as lobbying, repeal "Citizens United", and get real about elections - as opposed to the coup of 2000 and other such ridiculous stuff. I know we'd be a lot less in debt, thousands would be alive rather than dead and whole rather than handicapped. It shouldn't have happened but it did - and Al Gore did his part by his eagerness to give up ASAP election night.
duffyduff
(3,251 posts)It describes the situation clearly and in the fewest possible words.
Locrian
(4,522 posts)Easy trick.
You know that people w/o power are angry
You know they want to be associated with winners (ie the ones with power)
You direct them to those 'below' them as the reason they have no power
Lather, rinse, repeat....
If some gain power - or have some power - you throw them a tiny bone and they think they are making headway.
I'm not blaming people - it's human nature to survive. It's only when we don't play that game, and side together that we can all win. It's the classic prisoners dilemma.
libodem
(19,288 posts)Bastards have to come with something at those million dollar, Heritage, think tanks. They have nothing else to contribute to Society.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)DontTreadOnMe
(2,442 posts)Now if we can just get everyone on DU to rally against this... instead of x, y and Chelsea.
Jake2413
(226 posts)pacalo
(24,721 posts)that social security, Medicare, Medicaid, or any other program needed by the less fortunate were too much for the federal budget. After all, the government has been secretly funding the NSA with billions & billions of dollars to spy on us all. It's the government's logic that we are to be kept safe while we have to choose whether to eat or pay our bills. (And we weren't supposed to know how "safe" we are -- it was top secret & the person who blabbed it is to be regarded as a...gasp...traitor.)
HughBeaumont
(24,461 posts)It's how Reagan/Bewsh The Smarter/Bewsh The Dumber happened.
It's how the narrative gets pushed further to the right every year.
It's why the parties get pushed further to the right every decade.
It's why Fox News and CNBC exist and all the others follow their lead.
Capitalists, rope, hang, self.
Yarp.