Comments by "Tony Wilson" (@tonywilson4713) on "The Hill" channel.

  1. Yeah I hated my high school teachers who made me study Orwell. We did both Animal Farm and 1984. It was difficult and borderline a cruel thing to do to teenagers. Then Trump came along and justified it. Here's some more quotes I have collected in recent months. Enjoy “There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” ― Isaac Asimov, News Week, 1980. And few more: "When stupidity is considered patriotism, it is unsafe to be intelligent." ― Isaac Asimov “Logic is an enemy and truth is a menace.” ― Rod Sterling in his introduction to the Twilight episode “The Obsolete Man” originally aired on June 2, 1961 on CBS. “Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” ― Voltaire “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” ― Aldous Huxley “Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.” ― Mark Twain “Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche “I think it would be very, very, I think we’d have a very, very solid, we would continue what we’re doing, we’d solidify what we’ve done, and we have other things on our plate that we want to get done” ― Donald Trump answering the NY Times on his 2nd term agenda. August 2020. And a classic I recently re-discovered. “Nobody can get the truth out of me because even I don’t know what it is. I keep myself in a state of utter confusion.” ― Colonel Flagg of the CIA From the TV Show MASH sometime in the 1970s.
    31
  2. 10
  3. 8
  4. 7
  5. 6
  6. 6
  7. 6
  8. 5
  9. 5
  10. 5
  11. 5
  12. 5
  13.  @Wolfsheim23  I'm Australian but went to college in America. I did engineering but a bunch of my frat brothers were pre-law and loved arguing the amendments with me because I came form a different background with different views. The 1st and free speech around the world is a hot topic and has been long before social media. The question is one of "where do you draw the line and make someone accountable for what they say" For Americans there is that question that most never have to ask. And that is WHY was it so important that free speech was the 1st. Why wasn't a fair trial the 1st or anything else. The answer is actually in American history which almost no other modern country has. Americans had to fight for their independence and one thing the British officers did to the colonials was try and shut them up. If they spoke out against an injustice the British officers used Sedition and Treason laws and simply hanged people. The film last of the Mohicans with Daniel Day Lewis has a good example of it. Because of the American Revolution Australia, Canada and others never had to fight for independence and we never had to deal with that and we never really have. Most Australians don't know that we actually have much tighter restrictions on what we can say. We have many freedoms but they are not in our constitution as a basic right like America does. I actually think the US Constitution is one of the great achievements of human history. But it has 1 major flaw. The founding fathers never considered or predicted that people like Mitch McConnell would undermine 1 of the basic functions (checks and balances). They never expected groups like the Federalist Society would seek to influence and control ALL Federal Court appointees. The problem now is that America has all these "special interest groups" who twist the gift the founding fathers left to suit what they want without caring about consequences to others. Its basic selfishness mostly.
    5
  14. 4
  15. 4
  16. 4
  17. 4
  18. 4
  19. 4
  20. 4
  21. 4
  22. 4
  23. 3
  24. 3
  25. 3
  26.  @virtuerse  I'm actually Australian, but went to college in America. I did engineering but a bunch of my frat brothers were pre-law and gave me an interesting education in the US Constitution. We used to argue endlessly over what system was better. 30 years later I am convinced they were right and that's not easy to admit. I honestly believe the the US Constitution is one of the greatest achievements in human history and Donald Trump just proved it. Every attack he made, every lie he told and every attempt to undermine it and HE STILL LOST - the system might be battered and bruised but it survived. BUT (and here is the real issue) America is not yet out of trouble. In engineering we do a thing called Root Cause Analysis (RCA). Its where we don't jus accept something failed but work out what was the thing started the process off that eventually lead to the failure. In the simplest way America right now has 2 huge problems - the money in politics and a dysfunctional congress. The Wall St issue is well known, but the dysfunction of congress is way more subtle. As an outsider (with some knowledge) the real problem is Mitch McConnell. Wall St. is obvious there's too much money on politics and that's not an American thing that's rampant across the Western World, its just America has (like COVID) got it worse than the rest of us. McConnell is the bigger problem. My frat brothers argued that America could never be undermined or be taken over by a dictator because of the system of checks and balances." The Senate is what it is with 2 from each state for the very reason *its not there for policy. Its there to assure every state that they have equal rights and that nobody can get to big that they lord it over the rest. But neither my frat brothers or the founding fathers anticipated Mitch McConnell. He has flipped the Senate from a body that checks the Presidents Appointments are sound and capable people, that checks the House have written sound and fair laws and perverted it into his own power palace where he dictates policy. Lets not forget how Mitch stifled the Impeachment trial or how he pushed through Amy Barrett. Those people appointed to the FCC, EPA, Education and other places were all approved of by McConnell. But most of all lets not ignore that the SCOTUS he stacked gave America "Citizens United" that basically let Wall St. have free reign over American politics. Its called "Root Cause Analysis" and it leads straight back to Mitch McConnell and the power structure around him. Worse what he has done stacking the courts can't be easily undone. Just know one thing - the American people do have friends in the world and we do want to see you get back on you feet. Those of us with brains realise that we can't deal with many of the issues we face without America functioning as a responsible nation.
    3
  27. 3
  28. 3
  29. 3
  30. 3
  31. 3
  32. 3
  33. 3
  34. 3
  35. “There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” ― Isaac Asimov, News Week, 1980. And few more: "When stupidity is considered patriotism, it is unsafe to be intelligent." ― Isaac Asimov “Logic is an enemy and truth is a menace.” ― Rod Sterling in his introduction to the Twilight episode “The Obsolete Man” originally aired on June 2, 1961 on CBS. “Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” ― Voltaire “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” ― Aldous Huxley “Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.” ― Mark Twain “Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche “I think it would be very, very, I think we’d have a very, very solid, we would continue what we’re doing, we’d solidify what we’ve done, and we have other things on our plate that we want to get done” ― Donald Trump answering the NY Times on his 2nd term agenda. August 2020. And a classic I recently re-discovered. “Nobody can get the truth out of me because even I don’t know what it is. I keep myself in a state of utter confusion.” ― Colonel Flagg of the CIA From the TV Show MASH sometime in the 1970s.
    3
  36. 2
  37. 2
  38. 2
  39. 2
  40. 2
  41. 2
  42. 2
  43. 2
  44. 2
  45. 2
  46. 2
  47. 2
  48. 2
  49. 2
  50. 2
  51. 2
  52. 2
  53. 2
  54. 2
  55. 2
  56. 2
  57. 2
  58. 2
  59. 2
  60. 2
  61. 2
  62. 2
  63. 2
  64. 2
  65. 2
  66. 2
  67. 2
  68. 1
  69. 1
  70. 1
  71. 1
  72. 1
  73. 1
  74. 1
  75. 1
  76. 1
  77. 1
  78. 1
  79. 1
  80. 1
  81. 1
  82. 1
  83. 1
  84. 1
  85. 1
  86. 1
  87. 1
  88. 1
  89. 1
  90. 1
  91. 1
  92. 1
  93. 1
  94. 1
  95. 1
  96.  @YoungSandyGray  Absolutely there is hypocrisy on the left just as there is hypocrisy in every corner of politics. BUT there is a difference in that at least some politicians (on both sides) get embarrassed when they get caught. What most American do not realise is that it DOESN'T have a left and right it has 2 tribal partisanships ruled by oligarchs with insanity and hypocrisy on both sides. Its just one side is occasionally embarrassed and they other shoves it in your face. Lindsay "use my words against me" Graham is a good example. He flatly denied Merrick Garland a SCOTUS hearing as REQUIRED by the constitution and 4 years later BROKE his own rules to rush through Amy Barrett who doesn't have a single day as a trial judge and only limited time as an appellate judge. Sure the Dems have their hypocrisy but the shit people like Graham & McConnell have done is just disgusting. And to be truthful America does not have a real left side of politics and NEVER has. The Dems were for most of the last 200 years further right than the GOP. They were the party of the South that started the civil war and supported slavery. Its staggering Obama was the POTUS for the party that helped create the KKK. Its only since Reagan that the GOP trekked to the radical right and by any relevant standard the GOP are now so far to the right they are almost unrecognizable. Most of that has happened because people like the Koch brothers dragged it there. One of those Koch brothers actually ran against Reagan on the Libertarian ticket because he thought Reagan was "too far to the left". The Kochs are just part of a gaggle of hyper conservative billionaires who truly believe government is the problem that they need to control. And they just don't exert pressure in America they do it across the globe. The Kochs support and fund over 90 Think Tanks across the world and they have changed how Universities teach. Charles Koch was interviewed recently and he straight out said he expected politicians to do as he wanted if he helped get them elected. He was actually upset if a politician did something out of good conscience. Go watch the Axios interview its f--king scary. Americans DOESN'T have a left and right. It has 2 tribal partisanships ruled by oligarchs with insanity and hypocrisy on both sides. Its just one side is occasionally embarrassed and they other shoves it in your face.
    1
  97. 1
  98. 1
  99. 1
  100. 1
  101. 1
  102. 1
  103. 1
  104. 1
  105. 1
  106. 1
  107. 1
  108. 1
  109. 1
  110. 1
  111. 1
  112. 1
  113. 1
  114. 1
  115. 1
  116. 1
  117. Its the saddest part of Western Society the loss of our public information system. Thomas Jefferson famously hated journalists and newspapers but also recognized how important they are to a fair and free society. I'm Australian and even I know about that. Here's 3 that are incredibly relevant Jefferson quotes to todays issues. On the first one you can easily swap out the words "reads nothing but newspapers" for "watches nothing but opinion TV." That applies to ALL of them, FOX, MSNBC, CNN,....etc. As for the second note what he says about being capable of reading which implies being educated enough to have some discernment. The 3rd is important, because physically pounding FOX, MSNBC, WaPo, NYT or any of the other opinion mutts isn't a solution even though many of them deserve an ass kicking. "The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers." "The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them." "I am… for freedom of the press, and against all violations of the Constitution to silence by force and not by reason the complaints or criticisms, just or unjust, of our citizens against the conduct of their agents."
    1
  118. 1
  119. 1
  120. 1
  121. 1
  122. 1
  123. 1
  124. 1
  125. 1
  126. 1
  127. 1
  128. 1
  129. 1
  130. 1
  131. 1
  132. 1