Comments by "Ficus-lovin\x27 Capybara N\x27 pals • 🌟 • 25 yrs ago" (@YourCapybaraAmigo_17yrsago) on "Hakim"
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For some reason I am highly surprised to learn that there are/were "native" Scandinavian communities AND that they were even discriminated against.
I don't know why I find the hard to believe, but I guess I always thought it was more enlightened up there. And not only that..... How do I say this .... You're both WHITE, right??? There's no major ethnic difference between them and yourselves?? In the US it's always been white VS non-white (it still is, unfortunately, in some ways), so it's a strange thing for me to think of actual tensions and prejudice arising when there's no racial difference (I know, "race" isn't actually a scientific term, but I just use it here as shorthand).
Then again non-Jews and Jewish people in Germany were racially identical so, yeah, color isn't always the deciding factor where prejudice is involved.
I'm curious, what's the current status of relations with the Sami? And how were they treated in the past, are they still being treated wrongly today?
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Hakim I think you're great but life is complicated. The modern world is more complicated than ever. Economies are not simple things and are going to need a mixture of nationalization, private ownership and worker ownership, imo. This is going to sound cheesy but I think life is similar to golf in that there's not one golf club that works in every situation. I see something as complicated and multifaceted as a national or local economy as something that should be diverse and flexible in order to meet the needs of everyone. Even under private ownership, it doesn't mean Labor can't be protected and get their full profit shares, provided their rights are spelled out in the law.
That's where I'm at with it.
I think when we're younger it's easy to fall into a little bit of magical thinking "well what if ONLY we just had this" and I know how tempting that can be and I really appreciate the enthusiasm that young people bring, I mean it wasn't all that long ago for me I'm only 41, but you know when you do get a little older than you kind of realize okay, we have certain restraints on us just by the reality we live in, huge systems are already in place and they have their inertia and their protections, but that certainly doesn't mean we can't apply ourselves in the most efficient ways to try to achieve our desired outcomes.
Why don't we start by goals that we can achieve in our lifetime?? Full comprehensive labor rights under law. More welfare, for lack of a better word. Ethical tax reform. Comprehensive environmental safeguards. Green energy plus nuclear energy support. Justice issues, which will vary from country to country. (Do women even have anything approaching equal rights in the middle-east yet? I'm honestly asking- in the US it's gross racial issues)
I'm willing to hear criticisms of this approach but in reality, what else is there?? Anyhow for people who want to make real change we can always try. We got to try to come up through the existing system however. At least for now. Who knows where things will be in 20 years or 50 years, more options may be possible, but now we have to start where we're at. Meaning for me we have to try the political approach because really we don't have the means to force anything else- yet. That's just how I see it. I think a revolutionary agenda can be achieved more than one way.
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Or, and just hear me out my based friends, just be out, strong and proud. Don't EVER apologize for who you are.
Don't hide who you are to ANYONE. It's their problem if they can't realize that 95% of us are on the same page and want roughly the same things.
I say things like "to me socialism is simply humanism- it's putting people before greed" or 'its putting people and the planet FIRST" "naked greed by the top 5% and their servants in the power structure are rapidly making this planet uninhabitable" or "the US PPIC is savage and immoral in many ways" and then I go on to list a few.
You just have to learn how to speak in effective nutshells. Have videos and links ready to share if the discussion is online, or even if it's not. (You can always write something down for someone etc etc)
But don't be afraid of owning your righteously moral worldviews. Everywhere I go if I'm talking on serious issues the first thing I say is that I'm a marxist-leaning socialist and civil Libertarian. Then I go from there.
People who were too ignorant and reactionary weren't gonna be able to think Clearly enough to hear you out anyways. No sense being afraid to state without a shadow of a doubt who the fuck you are and what you believe in. If previous justice fighters could risk death or prison, some of whom are still being held, we can face down any ignorant or unaware person in front of us, in fact I say it's our moral duty to do so. It's easier to do online but we can just as easily do this in casual P2P conversations as well.
OWN YOURSELVES PEOPLE. IF SOMEONE DOESN'T LIKE IT, THEY CAN GO F7CK THEMSELVES OR POUND FUCKING SAND. FINITO. THE MOMENT ONE GETS AFRAID TO STAND STRONG IN WHO THEY REALLY ARE is the moment our ability to be efficient and effective starts to erode. Plus I just don't think we like how it feels. I know I don't.
STRENGTH, WHEN USED FOR GOOD, IS NEVER A MISTAKE.
Anything less than aggressive and uncompromising total ownership of who you are and what you believe in is only counterproductive in the end, imso.
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US-backed murderous extermination or suppression campaigns either on our own soil or around the world are just never talked about in the same breath as the supposed ugly massacres by "evil" or suppressive regimes abroad. Naturally this wouldn't be good for domestic propaganda. The average citizen here has never heard and likely will never hear about them.
I think its clear that this political entity known as "the US" or "federal interests" is the most violent, aka terroristic and bloodthirsty, in the world, on par with Israel, their favorite buddy and incest partner. Here, evil reigns supreme in the agendas of those with access to levers of control - and has since before independence in some ways; and one wonders how long this will last. Will this always be the case??? Destructive agendas winning out, hate winning out; psychopathy winning out.... I I often wonder when I think about these topics.
I have two theories, one scientific and one conjecture. I wonder if it's possibly a medical issue; ie, a genetically higher proportion of raging psychopathy distributed in our population; then many of these persons finding their way into positions of control and power ie; police, courts, government, etc. Or, amongst the unrepentant filth who do this dirty work (mindless murder, violence, etc), is it a spiritual issue, ie wanting to do evil for evil's sake? Due to influence of dark powers perhaps?? Guess it's hard to say. The former can at least be tested for, the other cannot.
So it's really hard to know what is behind all this. I don't know if we'll ever know and I don't know if it's ever going to end.
I mean I sure fucking hope so. There's plenty of ruthless non-violent domestic policy (let alone the acutely violent incidents) that's severely damaging lives here... ending some prematurely. Not everyone to be sure, but enough. Too many. Millions. That alone is discouraging. Few people hate the elite interests that dominate and control domestic US policy here on a local, regional, state and federal level more than me.
People keep voting for the same two parties made up the same kinds of filth that are responsible for all these realities and then wonder why nothing ever changes. To say it's maddening would be an understatement.
Guess it's near impossible to get anywhere near a halfway legitimate sincere organized and ferocious Left party going here. The ones we had before all petered out or were stamped out. But that was 50 years ago, what the FUCK are we doing today?? Where's the resurgence?
As for what I'm doing to be part of it, well, I'm getting there. Trying to work on it. Those red/blue scum are organized and monetized AF, and they are smart in the extreme. They know all the dirty tricks. But I'm not afraid of those filth, I just can't do it on my own.
Maybe the public is just too stupid to vote for their own basic interests here. It seems to be the case. I mean after 200 years we can't get an established legitimate viable third-party going??? Even a weakly Left party?? Something doesn't seem to add up.
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Just a word about the crazy dancing betsh at first- She does NOT have the right to confiscate the personal belongings/ personal property of her tenants EVER, regardless of what she thinks she's owed. No landlord does. That is THEFT. She has the right to pursue legal or personal measures to collect unpaid rent, but that is all. It is illegal to help yourself to the physical possessions of your tenant just because you feel they owe you. THAT IS EXTORTION and that is theft. Only if the apartment is deemed abandoned, or in the case of intentionally left behind property does a LL then have the right to take possession. We definitely need that to be codified into stricter law, even though it's already technically illegal, but LLs are scandalous and get away with illegal and crooked behavior all the time.
There are actually some very shameless for-profit car towing places here in the States that will try to pull the same shit. They will claim that they have the right to hold on to your personal property until you pay their bill. It's organized crime, it's extortion, it should be grossly illegal but it's not in most places (for car lots), and they get away with it because the local Pigs are always in on it (this is true everywhere. Local tow shops would go out of business if they didn't have the local Blue bangin' hoods and Pig gangsters collecting cars for them. It's a tag-team affair). Happened to me. I was willing to give up my vehicle (it was a hoopty, no big deal) and they STILL tried not to give my personal belongings back. Talk about about non-stop grand theft! But I kept on it, I wouldn't let it go and eventually they had to relent. I kept bugging the cops, I kept threatening to bring a lawsuit, I kept harassing the business, etc etc. They actually had the gall not to feel ashamed about what they were doing and acted like there was nothing wrong with it when we spoke. When I was told I would finally be allowed to get my property it was either a person at the police station or someone from the business that said "we've decided to make a one-time exception in your case" as if they were doing me a favor. These criminals.... Amazing. I was in a small town too so this shamelessness isn't always confined to a big city. People everywhere are crooked and thugged out. Money does pretty sorry things to people.
(BTW for my friends in the States, this was Medford OR. Watch out for those criminal Talent PD filth, they have nothing better to do than try to lie in wait and snatch you for doing nothing wrong. Once they got you pulled over then they'll try to take anything and everything from you they can. Street Pigs are the devils own servants but what can you do; you can't escape the filth, they're everywhere. The US is a goddamn rotten Police State, you can't even escape these thugs in a small town. I forget the name of one of the major car tow lots but they're the one who held my vehicle. They're located on a street corner. They are definitely criminals. Pretty sure they're the biggest car tow salvage ring in town. The local corrupt judge is most likely in on it, or at least one of them is. He won't help you. He didn't help me and I had a perfect case to have my car released without pay, a false stop and a violation of my fourth amendment rights. But then at the he lied like the dog that he was and said that the cop did nothing wrong, after already admitting I was making my case, and therefore couldn't release my vehicle. Lol... you gotta love it. These judges and Pigs ALWAYS got each other's backs in their theft rackets. It is amazing. They feel NO shame.)
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I don't think it's this simple. Euros had guns and germs, that's what it came down too. Now if you want to say the guns made them strong, I guess so, but I say it was the guns that were strong, the euro colonizers just carried them. Plus let's not ignore that in Africa and the New World, white diseases killed up to 90% of the natives.
So in reality, one could say the white viruses were strong, having evolved thru the black death and who knows what else.
Between killer germs and guns, native people were hardly on equal footing.
Still, could they not have banded together to use mass numbers to overthrow their occupiers??? It's a fair question. I'd wager there's a good answer to that altho I'm not fully informed right now on it.
Either way, we have a decision to make going forward - to work together as equal partners all over the world for the common good of everyone, or continue to allow exploitation of the global South i.e. economic racism???
Should we seek global fair trade en route to a goal of eliminating global poverty?? Well yes of course, if you ask me.
Fair trade empowers communities, but extractive capitalism only exploits them.
It comes down to a difference of values and principles.
I believe human beings are more important than a company's greed. I also know and believe we can manage the world's resources in an ethical and sustainable way that benefits everyone - but not under the current greed-first capitalist-only model.
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@BigBadWolframio you know, you brought up a few points that I hadn't even considered. I really appreciate you doing that. I was considering more of the idealized situation of a caring single woman who's not necessarily poor, and another couple seeking a child, here in the us. I'm sure it's not ideal even here. I don't know much about the state of surrogacy within the states, but I'm sure there are plenty of issues with how it's practiced here. But you bring up really good points about how poor women may be targeted by wealthier usually white couples, and pressured or end up feeling pressured into doing something she doesn't really wish to do other than for the fact, of her desperate financial situation. I could certainly see where the agreement could become exploitative in that case. I don't know if I would call it necessarily buying a baby, although I can certainly see why it could be seem that way, but my understanding is that the money that changes hands is just to ensure that the pregnancy is healthy and that the woman carrying the child has what she needs during the process.
I don't know how many wealthy people currently live on the island of cuba. It would be interesting to read the entire text of the provisions on surrogacy under the new law.
As long as it's fully consensual by the woman carrying the child I would consider her exploited and I'm not sure if it would really qualify as child trafficking, although I even though there's money involved since both parties were consented to the arrangement, and no one is losing a child here per se, or through abduction or other nefarious means.
But I agree that the details of each laws specific provisions are very important. I don't know exactly how to prevent wealthy Western couples from perhaps misusing their privilege, to manipulate a poorer more vulnerable person perhaps a POC into agreeing to a surrogacy arrangement. I'm just not sure how to really prevent something like that. Unfortunately there's no way to prevent all forms of unethical negotiations or arrangements. I wish I had a better answer than that though because I'm sure it happens. It seems quite common that privileged White westerners will adopt from poor countries believing they're doing a good deed and giving a desperate child a much better life than they might have otherwise. It seems on balance this is a good thing, but I can see how it might be seen by the host country as insulting or perhaps undesirable, as if local citizens of that country who might want to be prospective adoptive parents and happen to be financially stable aren't good enough.
Anytime we're dealing with family arrangements and family protections under the law, it's an extremely delicate and complicated issue. I'm sure most countries are probably not doing enough to protect vulnerable citizens from potential exploitation by privileged outsiders, regarding family arrangements or not, or have provided enough
Still come on balance, the entirety of this law seems to be quite progressive and one whose time has certainly come. I haven't seen the text of it so I don't know about the specifics but from what I gather it seems to be a great social advance and an acknowledgment that all families matter and all sexualities are human, and as human have the right to build their family.
But surrogacy is indeed a very unique and delicate subject and I'm sure there's not enough protections out there for those who might wish to abuse their position in order to fulfill their dreams of the perfect family. Thanks for your response. I didn't expect to get one.
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@chompythebeast ok. Yeah that's all true. You're right I probably shouldn't have said 'grow up' like that. It's a bit petty that's true. I guess some of us just have a gut feeling that there's more than just this life, and I sometimes assume everyone has that feeling but perhaps not. So that's why for me it's very natural to believe in a spiritual reality. That plus the plethora of personal reported experiences by multitudes of people through the years of various forms of contact was supposedly spiritual beings, claims being able to see other realities, of near death experiences, and so on. Now it stands to reason that not all of them are true, perhaps most of them are just misinterpretations of feelings, but I don't believe they're all false. I do think some of them are real. As to how many and which ones who knows? But I have heard some very compelling personal testimony that caused me to believe the person who was speaking
But yeah you're right I mean there's no scientific proof of anything non-physical obviously, at least not of an afterlife or spiritual matters. I just feel pretty convinced that there is a spiritual reality, that our awareness comes not just from the fact we are physically alive but there's something that goes beyond the brain that animates us. A consciousness or a soul if you will. Anyhow there's a material reality and for some of us there's an immaterial reality and I won't know until obviously I kick the bucket if any of my assumptions are correct. I've always believed in the non-physical, I've just always been one of those people. I've just always been comfortable believing in a higher power out there. It's impossible to prove but it's just what I think is true. I'm very comfortable believing that souls continue after the death of the physical body. As for how long I really don't know. A trillion years? Who can say? There's a lot we just don't know. For instance, what existed before the universe? I find that an unanswerable question. If there are higher powers, which religion is right? Another unanswerable question. If there are higher Powers why do they allow evil and traumatic experiences? Another unanswerable question. Different religions give their different answers. Yeah I mean it's a lot to think about for sure. I believe that ghosts may exist, and I do believe most of the reports I hear about NDEs. I look forward to seeing what's on the other side when this life has passed me by. I hope that people who do harm to others in this life who have awareness of what they are doing are held accountable on the other side. I also think there's a strong possibility that multiple lives may exist. I do wonder why, if there is a spiritual reality and our loved ones continue on, why don't they routinely come back and talk to us just to give us comfort and to let us know that they're still out there and that the love is still there? I think that's a really good question because most people have lost somebody that they've cared about and most don't report being able to communicate with them again, although I have heard some instances where people claim they have been able to. I actually find the spiritual/new age field very fascinating. I'm sure there's a lot of hucksterism in it but I try to be discerning and keep my BS meter up. But I do think there's something to it. It could all be nonsense I admit that but then again maybe its not. It's unsatisfying but I think we all have to admit that we just don't know. And since there's no way to really verify any of the claims from practitioners from the new age or spiritual or religous sector, I guess you just have to go with your gut when it comes to that stuff. So I do. I base a lot on my gut feelings and instincts. Which is not to say logical analysis doesn't matter but you know, both are important.
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@joshualfalken as I said I'm not totally against landlords but you have to understand, most rental contracts today are signed under what is essentially duress. People need a place to live more than a landlord usually needs someone to occupy their space, and most people do not make great money and therefore their choices are limited in some degree. So when faced with a contract with a bunch of stipulations that they don't want and don't prefer to agree to, they really don't feel like they have a choice to say no. Same for the obscene or excessive rent many people are getting charged today. High rent is very unfair to those who are in the middle, lower middle, or lower income bracket.
I want to be fair. If a landlord conducts himself responsibly I usually don't have a problem with them. However, acting like landlords and prospective tenants come together and equal ground is disingenuous. Usually that is not true (unless the tenants are well off).
So the solution is of course to have more tenant protections, more tenant rights, fairer rules in general, and the like, so that when tenants DO sign that contract they actually are signing it out of their own free will, not under a feeling of pressure or duress, and not signing to things that they do not want but feel they don't have a choice to refuse because they need a stable place to live.
I'm happy to sign a contract where my rights and my wants matter just as much as the other party's. A truly equal contract. Right now landlords are given all the power and all the control. As a landlord no doubt this is a great deal but obviously they're not the only ones who matter. So yes, as a current tenant I do have a problem with this and this is what needs to change.
Again I'm not against considerate and responsible landlords per se but I do not feel that tenant rights and wishes are adequately protected or respected under the law right now.
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Kamala Harris, like virtually everyone else in this govt at ANY level, is a sociopath. (I live in the US). Among other corrupt uses of her power, she's been accused of keeping an innocent man on death row, someone she knew full well was innocent. I don't know if this is true or not, but it wouldn't shock me. She's a cold-hearted b8tch, just wants the power and control- has zero empathy, less than zero if that's possible- but so do 99.2% of the rest of these sociopath-spectrum tyrants esp if the courts. Its my view that the vast majority of anyone with a slight bit of power or authority, within the courts or the govt, based on my observation, research, and some first-hand experience going back a good 20+ years, and studying my history are total utter socio/psychopaths and happy to be so.
As for the solution, I don't really know. Taking them all out one by one with a great piece of steel doesn't seem possible.... very sadly. In lieu of that I guess just try to build a viable hate Left party and run out own people..... If we could ever have a chance here considering the vast majority of voters are still dumb enough to willingly choose either the red or the Blue candidates, believing their words and not their actions or voting record. We got a really brainwashed electorate here, and it's going to try to be like moving mountains to make inroads into all that. It's gonna be like trying to cut thru ice with a butter knife.
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@@apsoypike1956 you're saying a private market can be a good thing and I agree with you, we definitely should continue to have the private sector, it would be far too cumbersome to do everything thru a public mode, however I find the presence of big business disturbing, not to mention their conduct. I want to see a hard limit in the size ANY private company can reach coupled with strict regulation of their behavior and ironclad Labor rights and protections including a guarantee of Labor Equality and Fair Profit sharing. I can give more details on that later. Also, the public sector, as in what the State provides, guarantees and manages, should be sharply increased. Together, in my opinion, this would fix everything and provide a guarantee for everyone.
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@YaBoiHakim hi Hakim! Big fan here. Yes they might be rolled back, but that's not a guarantee and that shouldn't be a reason that we don't push full speed ahead on getting UBI installed NOW. You can read my comment if you like. And then any complications can be dealt with later. I can't speak for outside the US, but the bottom half live in varying levels of insecurity, including having nothing at all.
for those who can't get all they need on a shitty private market, the State is the only other option.
I'm a practical person. You know the theory, I only know I'm fucking angry as hell. I'm a US vet non-combat, 9/11 era. I know the criminality of the sociopaths who pull the strings now. It's all so obvious lol.... Funny how I could never see it before.
15 years changes a lot in one's awareness and knowledge of the broader social issues, even a few years has changed my awareness significantly.
In a rich country, it's obvious to anyone with a moral sense that there's no excuse for avoidable poverty or homelessness.
IF we could it thru Congress right now which of course we can't, UBI would be a huge first step to use as a lever to start making other provisions, like jobs, healthcare and housing guaranteed provisions.
I feel it's too important a tool to wait. The FDR New Deal saved millions, I'm sure it should have been better but it was still very vital. I honestly have no idea what would have happened to the bottom 25-60% in the US at that time if not for that. And yes it's been eroded over time, you're quite right how Capital loves to do that, but that doesn't have to be permanent. One way or another, we can change that.
We can agitate to get a New New Deal (or a Green New Deal) domestically or wherever one happens to live, and then just do our best in the future, even under a bougie-dominated system, to keep those gains as unassailable as possible while working towards a more Socialistic future. That's what I think. Interested to hear your thoughts.
I think you know a lot more about the outside world than I do, but here in the US, we HAVE to try to win the election game.... there is no other way. We HAVE to try to beat the interests of big capital even tho 99.8% of our current electeds are wholly or significantly owned by them. Our military is sworn not to get involved in domestic affairs so as not to be a tool of anyone's attempted takeover (Trump found this out to his dismay), and neither they nor the national guards in all 50 States (mini armies), would only take their orders from their respective official chain of commands; there's no way any of them, even if they were personally left- leaning, would lend themselves to any cause of active armed struggle. There are private militias here but most are small and they are all made up of whyte supremacists- not exactly a fertile ground for Marxists or socialists.
It just couldn't happen here. Too many corresponding layers of armed State-affiliated police structures (State troopers, FBI, Federal marshals, national guards, plus the always excessive numbers of municipal cops from the big cities like LA, Chicago, etc).
But I believe if we get much more militant and organized we CAN win political power for the Left! I think I feel more optimistic than you. Thoughts?
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@Bobbias yeah. I'm not sure what that would be in US, maybe a little bit less?? Yeah I pay 1850 before anything else for a pretty not great simple 2 bdrm in North San Diego. The grounds are very nice and they fix things promptly but for this price the space size and contents of the kitchen and bathrooms should be much better. And my money is shit. So this is approx 60-70% of what I make rn, which is at least twice what I should have to pay, and I'm still much better off than those who are severely low-income. Yeah it has to end.
Among aggressive rent reform that socialists and Progessives should push for, is a baseline reg that stipulates that ANY household's rent cannot exceed 25% of their income, OR a rate specified by the owner, whichever is less. This would ensure private market housing serves everybody. Obviously, much more social housing and rental assistance programs should be made available. If these would pass, homelessness would virtually disappear. But until politicians on both sides (at least down here) stop serving Big Rental and the Big Banks, yep, that shit will keep being elusive, and record homelessness will continue. It's a gross system and it needs to end.
But hey congrats on going back to school and your gf for graduating. Programming seems like an interesting and fairly well-paid field. I'm late 30s and need to do the same. If I can get my other business in order I may be able to next year.
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Smart-keem,
Your eminent cogitations on the following: (a bit of a copy pasta to another online amigo-rade if you don't mind. It's US-based as that's where I live.)
"I don't think the answer is to have a State do everything. I think we have to find a way to better manage and regulate the private market in the interests of workers, communities, and the natural environment. I think most people on the Left are bright, and may think having a smart State micromanage is the answer, but it's not. I don't think we really want a State to manage everything, instead let's have a combination.
It's certainly possible.
Think of a nice small town. The small town city council doesn't manage everything, they probably don't do very much at all. Let's assume there are very little to any corporate interests in this community ergo most people's businesses are of a modest size or less. I'm not even against a bigger businesses but I do feel there should be a hard limit at some point. But for sake of discussion let's say in this small community of 20,000 persons there are only local businesses of medium size or less. Provided the standing Labor laws explicitly protects the rights of Labor and all workers, wages are set at a high enough level that anyone can support themselves working full-time even if they are unskilled, and no local business is intentionally polluting the environment, then for the most part, all is well. Businesses and services will run smoothly and customers will feel that they've paid a fair price for what they received. When it makes sense, ongoing price controls and rent controls can be implemented. This way, all non-luxury goods are affordable and rent is never more than someone can afford because it is based on a function of their income not some flat rate that everyone just has to arbitrarily meet. All the excess can be collected after a certain selling cycle, and instead of being simply dumped in the landfill to collect as waste year after year, they can be first sent to a local warehouse, where they can then be redistributed to discount shops and community donations as needed.
This is the ideal situation that we want. A State should certainly set better ground rules for private business, but as far as running them directly I think that's too cumbersome. I just don't think that would work. Enterprises can function well if they are managed by ethical people and if they're forced to comply with proper regulation.
Businesses should be free to manage themselves in the way they see fit provided they abide by these nonnegotiable ground rules. We can adapt regulations appropriately for smaller businesses as well, so that they're not harmed by being forced to comply with a standard that is too restrictive for them due to their overall income and lower profit margin.
We don't have any kinds of enforced proper regulations on the private sector right now and we do have a corporatocracy which does allow for unlimited accumulation and growth, and I don't agree with that at all. We do need rent controls and guarantees through the government that provide all basic tangible needs freely given for any member of society who needs them (not means tested per se but phased out based on household income with small co-pays only if necessary), so that no one has to worry about going bankrupt if anything in their life doesn't go perfectly. I think all of this is easily achieved, but not under a corporatography and certainly not with a corrupt super elite running everything. But I do think it's more or less easily achieved. We can nationalize certain industries, or parts of certain industries if that makes sense. We can put the individual citizen and the worker FIRST and that's what I want to see. That is certainly not the paradigm that those in our government operate from currently, absolutely not. So it's true we do need a major change but it's too cumbersome to expect a small central government to somehow manage all these different businesses and services, but that doesn't mean we can't settle on a degree of central planning that makes sense.
Market socialism is definitely the answer. All taxes can be placed on large businesses, individual households can be encouraged to contribute as they see fit but I certainly would not make the mandatory. If the central government already issues currency it could keep doing that, and print and mint whatever it needs. I believe government inflation doesn't exis- that it's a boogeyman. I believe a sovereign currency issuing Nation can print any amount of currency it wants or needs. So as for how to pay for all of these comprehensive social services to me that's a BS question because I think the answer should be obvious, and as stated.
We can provide responsible and accountable public safety without turning into an egregious and vicious Police State like the US right is right now. All these things are possible and easy, but NOT under a predatory corporatocracy. Not under a State which enjoys incarceration as its number one GROWTH industries. Not when corrupt and hateful sots make all the decisions on social and economic policy.
So yeah it's entirely possible, we can have direct democracy where all public policy is passed through public referenda which is how it should be and politicians, if they even exist anymore play only a minor role mostly figural and advisory. All these things are possible, I just don't know exactly how we're going to get there. Organizing into a viable Left third party is the first step. We can always try to get more Leftists into state by state legislatures to start making these changes at the state level. I don't know if it's going to happen in our lifetime but that's how we need to go if we want to try to force these changes through. We can have rent control and all other public guarantee tangibles that guarantee everyone a baseline of a dignified existence before they even step foot in the workplace, but only if Leftists are able to take over the government. And that's kind of a big challenge in the US but I won't go so far to say it's impossible. How can we force an elected Leftist takeover of our current government?
Only by getting millions more people to vote who typically don't vote, and that's most easily achieved by media presence, of which there is no mainstream Leftist media presence currently. I don't know how to suddenly motivate 30 million more people Nationwide to vote for a currently as yet non-viable Leftist political party but that would seem to be the only way to start electing a bunch of Leftists who will put better policies in place. I mean that's the electoral method. As far as doing some kind of armed revolution that just can't happen in the modern world. Not in this country. That's just not feasible. We don't have a secret army and between State Police and national guard it just wouldn't work. It would be over before it started.
It looks like we got a long road ahead of us if we want to try to do this the electoral route but I think it's very doable. I think if millions of people had a genuinely sincere and ethical party to vote for, then they would. So the first step is then, form a viable Left movement and translate that into a Left Unity party that can fight back against the current duopoly machine and then find a way to get our word out. Find a way to counter the massive corporate MSM with media blaring a leftist message 24/7.
If we can do that, then we got a chance. It's going to take legal battles too because the duopoly scumbags love to prevent third party challengers from even getting on the ballot. Every plan can be strategized and so long as it's well planned out, has an even chance of success."
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Hard truth and big facts. And if you speak out against it, oftentimes by other weirdos or let's just say, confused citizens, you're called unflattering names or penalized or attacked, or targeted by government.
Yes the draft is gone in the US now and I don't think it will be back- but back in the 60s and 70s plenty of Vietnam protesters were verbally attacked in the media and by average citizens. Those who took place and demonstrations were arrested and occasionally charged with symbolic felonies and misdemeanors.
IMAGINE THINKING THAT WE ARE ALL SUCH SLAVES AND NON-INDEPENDENT BEINGS THAT WE HAVE NO RIGHT TO DECIDE WHO WE SACRIFICE OUR VERY BODIES, MINDS AND LIVES TO. IMAGINE THINKING ONE DOESN'T HAVE THE **RIGHT** TO REFUSE TO PARTICIPATE IN ANY CONFLICT- IMAGINE THINKING ONE DOESN'T HAVE THE CHOICE OVER ONE'S OWN VERY LIFE!! That's how you know megalomaniacal wannabe dictators are in charge.
People who spoke out against Iraq and Afghanistan were often jeered at the same way. Service members who went and became disillusioned either had two choices, go AWOL or try to be separated as a conscientious objector; both difficult and some were penalized and charged with bogus crimes for trying. Lunacy.
As for ignorance citizens' response, I don't understand this inborn desire amongst these types to be a willing human sacrifice.... I mean if that's what you want for yourself by all means buddy go put YOUR ass on the line but I don't see how you feel you have the right to criticize someone else who has good reasons for opposing this latest armed conflict..... Fkg A
Look the next time my country is invaded and attacked by a stronger enemy I'll be the first one to volunteer and I mean that, but short of that, and short of actually being part of a moral liberationary force, no hell NO nO, I'm not going to throw my life and possibly my mental sanity away for empty if not deeply immoral reasons. HELL. FUCKING. NO!!
AND NEITHER SHOULD YOU!!
Neither should anyone.
Amazing how much some ignorant citizens seem to NOT want rights. Apparently not just for themselves but for thee and thou as well. amazing.
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Hard truth and big facts. And if you speak out against it, oftentimes by other weirdos or let's just say, confused citizens, you're called unflattering names or penalized or attacked, or targeted by gov groups.
Yes the draft is gone in the US now and I don't think it will be back- although they always leave the back door open via the "selective service "which I consider a violation of human rights which it is and all civil rights- but back in the 60s and 70s plenty of Vietnam protesters were attacked in the media and by average citizens. Those who took place and demonstrations were arrested and occasionally charged with BS felonies and misdemeanors.
IMAGINE THINKING THAT WE ARE ALL SUCH SLAVES AND NON-INDEPENDENT BEINGS THAT WE HAVE NO RIGHT TO DECIDE WHO WE SACRIFICE OUR VERY BODIES, MINDS AND LIVES TO. IMAGINE THINKING ONE DOESN'T HAVE THE **RIGHT** TO REFUSE TO PARTICIPATE IN ANY CONFLICT- IMAGINE THINKING ONE DOESN'T HAVE THE **CHOICE* OVER ONE'S OWN VERY LIFE!! That's how you know megalomaniacal wannabe dictators are in charge.
People who spoke out against Iraq and Afghanistan were often jeered at the same way. Service-members who went over and became disillusioned either had two choices, go AWOL or try to be separated as a conscientious objector; both difficult and some were penalized and charged with bogus crimes for trying. Lunacy.
As for ignorance citizen response, I don't understand this inborn desire amongst these types to be a willing human sacrifice.... I mean if that's what you want for yourself by all means buddy go put YOUR ass on the line but I don't see how you feel you have the right to criticize someone else who has good reasons for opposing this latest armed conflict.....
IMAGINE THINKING WE WERE BORN ONLY TO SERVE OUR OVERLORDS AS BULLET FODDER....
lunacy
Look, the next time this country is invaded and attacked by a stronger enemy (if it ever is) I'll be the first one to volunteer and I mean that, but short of that, and short of actually being part of a moral liberationary force (if it ever happens), no hell NO I'm NOT going to throw my life and possibly my mental sanity away for NOTHING!! for empty if not deeply immoral reasons. HELL. FUCKING. NO!!
AND NEITHER SHOULD YOU
Neither should anyone.
Amazing how much some ignorant citizens seem to NOT want rights! Apparently not just for themselves but for thee and thou as well. Rights even over one's own very life. As if I was born with some moral duty literally encoded into my DNA to be a willing SACRIFICE for any trivial conflict gobmint persons can come up with.
amazing.
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Those ultra libertarians make me blush. I think of myself as a left libertarian but come on, we don't want our mind so open that our brains fall out. I think a license to drive is fair however, it should not ever be used as a weapon by local government scum to extort you and even give you a short lock up in local county because you can't or won't pay those extortion fines, and/or as a crooked prelude to seize your only major asset that you rely on to get around, manage your life, and occasionally even live out of from economic necessity (guess who's talking from experience??).
But overall no I don't think that licensing and testing new and ongoing drivers is a bad thing, I would like them set at ten-year intervals, so long as the exams are reasonable and fair. A DL just shouldn't be ripped away from you for corrupt or criminal purposes the way literally every local municipality in this country does now. Because of bad luck I've had extreme headaches and major short-term and occasionally longer-term issues in every state that I've lived in which is been four so far, because they have a completely criminal extortion/ asset theft system set up and it all starts with entrapment and ballooning fines. They do the same thing to seize/take people's entire homes/land from them if you fall behind on your property taxes. I find it outrageous, shameful and criminal and I hope to lead the charge to change these kinds of ultra-crooked criminal racket-level policies in my lifetime.
This isnt a problem with the driver's license itself, its just how local government crooks and tyrants use them to fatten their pockets and keep the boot on the neck of the local poor.
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@ttmfndng201 maybe someday but not all business owners are bad. Some have worked hard to get to where they are, I can't ignore that. Sometimes they do provide a good idea or two. Some have real respect for their staff. We can't ignore that. It's not as simple as owners bad, workers good. Ofc workers are good, but not all owners are bad. You got small business, midrange local chains, small corps, and then the multinationals, who are indeed the enemy. The smaller players aren't all bad and many strive to run a fair business. Think of private preschools, doggy day cares and local furniture chains or eateries, the local photo store, the local glassworks studio, the local non-corporate market..... And etc. I have a big business problem - but I can't say I have a business problem period, bec that wouldn't make sense.
Do workers need profit share? Yes of course. Without a doubt. More guarantees and protections? Yes of course. All specified in exact detail in law.
I think there needs to be a limit on corporate business size, without a doubt, say 5000 persons, 100 locations. Not sure if this be done they legislation but I'm willing to try.
It's possible. Without a secret store of nukes we're stuck having to try to use the political process. I believe it's very possible to propagate legislation forward but it takes a long-term strategy. Ballot measures can help .... There are steep barriers yes, but that's why we need to organize and reorganize.... And organize again.
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@Ajente02 I appreciate your response. I find myself agreeing with most if not all of that, but I still don't see the harm in a well-managed private sector and FAIR trade agreements, not "free" trade per se.
I still want us, the workers, to have all necessary input and control, along with any owners. An equal partnership. I envision a vibrant private sector with hard upper limits on how large any individual business can grow as set by law. Taxation voluntary for all but the highest incomes and any private enterprise over a certain size.
State-provided material guarantees paid thru taxation and federal currency issuing.
Strong regulations on private enterprise to protect all consumers, smaller businesses, workers, animals, and the environment.
I do support most restrictions on IP being ended, but I think a few basic ones make sense.
I believe we're pretty close in vision, possibly I'm getting caught up in semantics.
Regardless, considering the death grip the ugly mega-capitalist class has on the rule of the US, I feel installing even a lukewarm social democracy here will be a Herculean task, one I hope to see completed in my lifetime and I feel it's unproductive to expect anything better than that in our lifetime- not that we shouldn't be embracing a more ideal end state, but we also need to be practical and focus as much on our tangible reality, real world capability, and the level of entrenched opposition forces as possible.
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Mutual aid is fantastic and makes a wonderful society however there will always be a place for some form of organized government
Taking care of a lot of the humdrum tasks and administration as well as the heavier issues like civil rights, justice, economic justice, and public safety.
When enough people get together in a group some form of a State even a very loose one always evolves. Some form of governance; some form of central or regional influence occurs. Even a loose structure naturally appears when humans congregate together- it's an impossibility not to. Even teams tend to have a team leader or "captain ". I'm not saying they control everything but they have a role.
Same thing with " public management " ie " government".
So all I'm saying is perfection in our management systems is impossible but improvement and accountability IS.
Right now it's clear we have megacorp rule- they set the agenda, they send out the dick tats, our state and federal level politicians comply. We've seen how their worldview operates, when they get what they want most of the rest of us lose. Some people do very well under the system, some do okay enough, and others lose out big....
Is there another system that is capable of protecting human rights, civil rights and providing a better quality of life for most if not all people all the time? Yes I believe there is - it's intelligently managed socialism/communism.
My values are human quality of life first and foremost and environmental integrity (the natural environment). THEN business but ONLY under strict guidelines. There's a wrong and a right way to do business- and most if not all corporations will always do it the wrong way.. we can prevent this with laws. The answer is hard limits, actually enforced , and favor given to small and independent businesses. Economic protections given to every average citizen- hard upper limits set on net worth and so forth. I'm fine with some wealth, but unlimited wealth is ridiculous... No one person or organization has the right to become ginormous and monopolize huge swathes of resources. NO WAY. No, by all means there should be strict limits for personal accumulation. I believe my limits would be very fair to all.
As for local state and federal authorities, well it's a tough situation because right now they're securely in the pocket of the Big Money they don't give an f about the rest of us..
I do think that can change but to be dead honest it's a very difficult problem. It's going to be a very hard push for sure. I do think eventually we can get there however.
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@Just_A_Goose1 I understand what may have been past problems, and I welcome all that information, we certainly should study history, but the future hasn't happened yet- we can't say for certain what would or wouldn't work under these unique conditions.
As far as taking over, that sounds great and all, and I'm not opposed to violence if it's necessary, but I don't see how that's actually possible here. You've got local and state police, plus the NG, and all that. I'm willing to hear Bob Avakian's thoughts on it- but I'm afraid I don't see the nuts and bolts path forward with that, at least yet. Besides, we'll never be able get more than a couple 1000 together at any one time, if that. I don't see that being enough.
Now if the majority just up and decided to stop paying their local county and city taxes (with the exception of property Bec that supports our schools), that would suddenly change matters. If we want to radically defund the police gangs and limit their function and reach, and we know most city councils are corrupt and literally set up for the cops, they clearly could give a fuck about anyone else, then just stop paying these fools. What if everyone did that??? JUST STOP BEING EXTORTED BY THIS SYSTEM. The courts can't arrest, steal from (sieze), or prosecute everyone now can they? I don't support mandatory taxation on private incomes below $400,000 anyways.
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Great points as usual Hakim. So... I live here, and that has its plusses and minuses. Some pluses, certainly, but a lot of minuses. And as anyone who's managed to put down the kool-aid can see, anytime the Pentagon and by extension their loyal lapdogs in Congress (usually a GOP jerkwad but not always) want to drum up public support for a new and shiny or ongoing foreign intervention (always a hostile one of course), they will have a "verified testifier" or group of persons ready to testify to how terrible said foreign country is. Of course the MSM them does their part and disseminates it, and suddenly it's the new narrative; and unless one digs or looks beyond those that's all anyone will hear. Very standard propaganda 101; manufactured consent, etc.
Even I'm starting to question the NK stories that I used to take as gospel just a relatively short while ago. It never occured to me that any of them would be falsified in any way to serve the US's political agenda, bec clearly life in NK "must" be that bad! It certainly was in line what I had always heard. Ofc now seems quite clear (at least to an extent) that that is exactly what's going on. And ofc, as you know, it wouldn't be the first time demonstrably false or misleading characterizations of "enemy" states are allowed to percolate and propagate through the American consciousness.
When the business of the US stops being war and mass death abroad, including sanctions, this may stop, but not until then. In order to always have an enemy, demonization of targets must continue. But now with social media I think more and more people in the West are able to sift thru all the Pentagon-sponsored agenda, and recognize it for what it is. Not that those who were determined couldn't do so before, but I'd definitely say it's easier now thanks to the online world.
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@aleklja9036 I mean, it all starts with exploring the issues and boning up on knowledge first. Then yes, let's get down to the nitty-gritty and make a plan. My plan rn is to conceptualize as many Dem-soc and Socialistic solutions to broader social issues as possible, then write them down in as much detail as possible. Take a page for every problem- then write down every improvement you want to see. Organize and adjust for clarity as necessary.
I also resolve to vote for the most progressive/Left candidates as I can find. I also resolve to join a local PSL or DSA or Greens or even Revkom chapters and continue brainstorming solutions, then decide where to begin our advocacy- local, county, or state level. Then, we just start advocating. We will go and make our proposals, make some presentations and demands, do some begging/ lobbying of the people in office, and see how far that gets us. Hopefully somewhere. If necessary we can always escalate things to lawsuits. One way to handle things is the ballot box, the other is the courts. The courts can often be infiltrated by shady, corrupt assholes in the judgeships, but we still have to try to give it our best, so at least we can say we did all we could to achieve XYZ.
Finally, some of us will have to be willing to run for public office.
It's important to always have a detailed plan on every issue, so that unlike most piss-ass politicians, we can point to tangible information when people ask us what do we stand for, what we want to see done, etc. And ofc all this can go up on our party or campaign websites.
Federal is almost hopeless and the hardest to affect, so I don't even worry about bothering with that at this juncture. Just keep calling our reps and pushing more real Progessives into office is the best we can do there rn I think.
So I mean, that's a plan anyone who's interested in making public change can get on board with.
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Yeah there's a lot of psychopathy in policy here. It's a real shame.
It's what happens when you get this many psychopaths and malignant narcopaths all together. I'd wager most people are very decent however the ones that rise up here are either corrupt or worse. And the Pigs?? I wouldn't say they're all raging psychopaths but I would say a fair number are and the rest are still more than willing to commit criminal or abusive acts. It's a rotten system.
It's ONE thing to provide a local municipal emergency response force, it's quite another to maintain a psychopathic steroid-raging hyper-militarized paramilitary Gestapo force.
I'm just waiting for this shit to hit an inflection point. Like when does it end???? That's all I want to know.
Unnecessary poverty is growing. Mass incarceration is STILL growing.
The US's two longest standing political prisoners are getting older, STILL on death row. Mumia and Peltier. 45 years and counting.
I'm exactly 40 years old so I have not seen anything get better in my lifetime when it comes to the macro issues. I really am hoping we hit an inflection point before I die.
Anything I can do to help on a local level I will try to do, I will try to even run for office. I will not hide who I am but watch me get only 3% of the votes. Part of the blame has to be put on the voters. They keep voting for the same clowns and criminals and sociopaths. If they don't vote for the good guys, what are we supposed to do???? We cannot force them to vote for us. The public refuses to make a better choice.
Everybody keeps voting for the red-blue uniparty grifters. Half the country doesn't vote and the other half chooses red or blue EVERY single time. Maybe 2% choose "other".
If the public refuses to vote for the alternative, and an armed takeover is not exactly possible, what exactly are the good guys supposed to do????
We know we need and deserve changes to public policy around here but it does start with the vote. Of course there are huge influences behind the scenes, but it does matter who gets voted in.
It's certainly possible to vote for people who can't be bought, who aren't neoliberal, but so far the American public refuses to do this.
So you guys tell me because I'm at a loss. I won't stop trying to provide a Left Socialist alternative, but will the American public embrace it? I mean, they haven't yet, so you guys tell me.
After while you get sick and tired of this same nonsense playing out over and over every single time.
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The only problem I see is this- so long as US politics and other major countries' politics are for sale to the highest bidder nothing will change. Those whom our sociopathic worthless trash political scum are happy to serve will always be the most ruthless, the most predatory, the wealthiest and have the biggest bribes to offer. Not only that, so long as the vast majority of the non-rich public continues to vote for the trash red-blue duopoly - blood-drinking leopards who eat their faces (and serve the megacorp order) - this won't change. This selfsame public doesn't have the intelligence or the rationality or the awareness to NOT cut their own throat, ergo we're stuck. Say a few racist or ignorant words and you have half the voters by the balls. As for Blue voters, idk- they're ignorant too. Some are privileged but many are middle or lower class yet still buy the propaganda that the Blue party is the " good guy" party. I certainly wish that were true.
So long as courts and cops bow down to EVERYTHING that issues from a politician's pen no matter how poisonous or unethical, we are stuck with this shithole pay-to-play system, enforced by low IQ robot-minded aggressors and (often) predatory DA's and judges.
This is my experience first- and secondhand in my country at least 🇺🇲
Perhaps in time with greater public awareness, greater public unity, or something else we can start to force cracks into this destructive system.
A violent and ruthless megacorporate dictatorship is NOT how I see our global society in any way, shape, or form.
Perfect communism is a completely unattainable myth however I see no reason why we can't have a more positive, moral, collaborative global society i see absolutely no reason at all.
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@duellinksantimeta7636 ok the follow-up as promised-
It's because I believe I know the facts of the situation. I believe in what Russia is doing right now. I don't believe it has anything to do with any kind of imperialist agenda- at least not primarily.
I watch The New Atlas for analysis on the developing situation and their analysis sounds believable to me. I have no way of verifying it obviously, I'm just an average nobody, but he sounds like he is telling the truth about it. You can go look for yourself and see what you think. The New Atlas with Brian Berletic is the ch____l.
Far right ultra-nationalist fascists who are self-proclaimed Nazis violently took over in 2014 thanks to tons of support and funding for two years from the US CIA, in a very bloody and violent coup, and they have embraced the US's agenda of NATO expansion towards Russia. The previous president who was democratically elected favored a peaceful neutral relationship with Russia and refused to agree to NATO expansion from the US. That is why he had to be removed and that is why the CIA supported a coup against him in 2014. These far right Azov battalions, who embrace a Nazi ideology, from what I understand, have been folded into the Ukraine's military structure, and apparently are now setting the agenda. Over the last 8 years, the Ukrainian eastern regions have been victims of sustained ethnic cleansing and attacks by the Ukrainian military, or parts of it.
Throughout these eight years the Russian government requested that the new Ukrainian government negotiate with them good faith and abide by the Minsk 1 and 2 accords which pursue a policy of neutrality and does not allow NATO expansion. The Kiev government agreed to abide by them but they never did.
Apparently as late as March, Zelensky was indicating he was willing sit down for peace talks with Russia, but the US and certain leaders from the EU basically ordered him not to and from what I understand he had severe pressure and threats from Nazis within his own administration and he complied. Shortly thereafter Putin began military operations.
So- the Russian govt tried for 8 years for a peaceful resolution to their differences which hinged on Zelinsky's inability to commit to refusing to allow NATO expansion through Ukraine all the way up to Russia's border. So that sounds reasonable to me and was a pretty sustained effort. Eventually when it seemed as there was a dead end and in no way a peaceful path forward he made a decision to take military action.
It's unfortunate that the matter is escalated, but I can't really blame him for that under these circumstances. I Iikely would have made the same decision in these circumstances. Sitting back passively and allowing NATO expansion right up to their border was an unacceptability to the Russian govt, and I certainly can't blame them for that. How many governments would just casually accept a hostile force amassing just outside its borders? As a side objective, the Russian military was able to come to the aid of the Donbass regions who, as I have already mentioned, have been under frequent shelling and assault over the past 8 years by Azov-controlled Ukrainian military forces.
To my understanding by now Russia has rescued most of these regions and has annexed parts of them into Russian territory WITH the full permission from the majority of the citizens parts of those regions, per a successful public referendum. Of course the US and some in the EU will claim the referendum was illegitimate but I don't believe that. I heard that Russia invited independent observers from the UN into the region to see for themselves. If they chose not to go or were pressured not to participate by the US, that's not Russia's fault.
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I think that there should be two groups of housing, the not-for-profit sector and the for-profit, tho it should be strictly regulated. But I think if we simply forced a large amount of the available housing a fall under the non-profit heading we could easily solve this issue.
The truth is there are always going to be businesses and people who want to profit off others. I don't see this ever going away. We're never going to have a pure world where we all just work for each other in harmony. That would be lovely but we have to face the reality that some people rightly or wrongly just aren't built like that. All they care about is that next dollar. I'm not saying I support that, I'm not saying that our government or our laws should be built around that at all... I consider myself very left but I do recognize that not everyone is the same as I and we do live in a diverse world.
I believe there's a place for the for-profit sector including a limited amount of for-profit housing. However the majority should be not-for-profit and government provided.
I believe the solutions to our housing issues are simple but diverse. I don't think there's a one-size-fits-all model. I think multiple approaches will ensure that everyone has safe comfortable desirable housing that they can afford.
Life isn't black and white. Sometimes there have to be a multiple multi-pronged attack to a problem to fully solve it.
Effective rent control, tenant protections, landlord licensing requirements, fairer rules for tenants, a sharp increase in public housing, housing with supportive services, limits on the maximum numbers of units a private or corporate landlord can own, and a sharp increase in private but not-for-profit housing will get us to a fully housed society IMO.
I have seen a lot of great private housing in my lifetime. The only issue with it where I live is rent. Obviously the cost of a basic necessity should not be allowed to increase to set an obscene level that it is in many places now in this country. Ergo, effective rent control is needed.
Also those other things I mentioned could stand to be sharply improved as well including eviction protections and distressed renter protections.
If we can get these measures passed, and in the US, and that's a giant IF, then I believe this problem will rapidly start resolving itself.
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@John Doe or simply just don't waste the excess. Managing and regulating the private sector solves many of the issues.
You don't have to centrally manage everything, that sounds like a lot of work and in my eyes isn't necessary or desirable, you just have to mandate that all the excess currently produced gets redistributed back to society, not the farking landfill. Common sense.
Unfortunately, we don't currently do this and that's a problem. Waste is the problem. We have more than enough production right now, but are the end products being needlessly wasted? And then some.
So step one is eliminate all waste of resources and stop what I call Resource Loss. All of it.
Provide a better baseline of tangible guarantees from the central govt, including actual welfare and safety net programs is next. More public goods in the form of education, childcare, medical care, public transit, infrastructure, housing, positive community enrichment programs, and so on. This means we need a better non-federal tax policy which I define elsewhere.
We don't need a totally communist economy, tho we do want a strong public sector. We just have to successfully regulate the private sector to stop the waste and to ensure fair resource distribution.
Poverty is completely unnecessary. It only exists because of criminal crooked unjust governments. It can be solved easily thru the methods I have outlined.
We can encourage the adoption of worker co-ops in the private sector while having better labor laws that mandate fair wages and more equal profit-sharing.
The public sector can continue as it has been, but expanded as necessary to provide more services, and hopefully given more oversight to ensure their functions are actually carried out with the public's welfare in mind.
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Zal-Zhurk🇷🇺 well, I don't know about that. We need shorthand terms. Most people have a basic understanding of of what left-right means in relation to politics. Even the normies can grasp it.
I guess you can say I'm a bit of a quasi-anarchist. Most of the State is unnecessary or vile, that much is clear. There's a need for some public management, and a limited amount of on-call security who's ONLY function is to assist citizens when requested or other genuine emergencies as necessary, and what I would call a limited number of humane facilities for proven actual offenders, mostly violent; but that's far from what I see around me where I live. Economically we need major shifts, to say the least.
The US govt body, in my current view from one who lives here, is nothing but a savage, sadistic, sociopath-filled corporatocratic oligarchy which delights in arbitrary domestic mass detention and maintains the only known currently functioning concentration camp in Guantanamo. These people ARE a WMD.
I hope we can make at least SOME inroads into dismantling that in my lifetime. I got 60 more years if I'm very lucky, probably more like 50.
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Zal-Zhurk🇮🇷 I agree the US has committed crimes there. That is beyond dispute. I'm sure they're planning more interference as we speak. You were probably right... . until your last sentence.
All islamists are extremists and filth who abuse and oppress women.
The vile Iranian Gestapo DID kill that one girl who was protesting the violation and degradation of her human rights. She's dead- her head bashed in. Her crime??? SHE REFUSED TO DENY HER HUMANITY AND RIGHT TO BE TREATED EQUALLY- SHE TOOK OFF HER HEADSCARF, A SYMPTOM OF OPPRESSION AND SUBJECTION- AND BURNED IT!!! BRAVO TO THIS BRAVE YOUNG GIRL, young enough to be my daughter. She said NO! NO MORE!!!! THAT'S courage. At her age I had no CLUE about protests- because I didn't have to. Yeah (govt and some people within) the US are evil for other reasons- but I have NEVER been oppressed or harmed here because of my GENDER. NEVER!!
You lack knowledge and awareness. Two wrong things could be happening at the same time. I hate my govt, but this one time, I won't criticize their efforts if it removes the hate-filled wackjob sick-minded Stone Age islamists.
IT IS BECAUSE OF THEM WOMEN HAVE NO RIGHTS IN IRAN AND CAN'T WEAR NORMAL CLOTHING!!!! ISLAMISTS HATE WOMEN AND SEE THEM AS LESS THAN HUMAN. THEY OBEY SATAN, AND DO EVERYTHING IN THEIR POWER TO MAKE WOMEN SLAVES.
THERE SHOULD BE NO RELIGION IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE. EVER! I have no problem with most religious beliefs, but to allow them to ever impact government is outrageous!! Without a light-years wide line between CHURCH and STATE, fundamentalists TYRANTS will never stop trying to destroy freedom, civilization, human rights and liberty but turning society into their own personal Handmaid's Tale or other theocratic hellhole- like what the Taliban did and ate doing again in Afghanistan right now. What the religious fundamentalist rat fucks are working overtime to do and to an extent are doing in half of this country and desperately trying to grab the other half.
Allowing religious would-be tyrant-filth to have ANY influence on public policy is a betrayal of EVERYTHING necessary to have a civilized society. FUNDAMENTALIST PSYCHOPATHS HAVE NO RIGHT TO INFLUENCE PUBLIC DIALOGUE!! ZERO!! They MUST be suppressed if not eliminated of they try to make inroads. They have NO right to subjugate others to their bizarre views!
I cannot believe to this day the islamists barbarians haven't been driven from the government. 43 years of dealing with these savages.
Well. We will help them then. Normally it's absolutely wrong to interfere in another nations affairs, esp for reasons Washington uses, my govt is scum too. They were wrong and amoral to do what they did in 1953 in Iran. But you know what??? Forty-three years of oppression and abrogation of human rights by these pieces of shit. I'd say enough is enough.
If and when they're gone, and hopefully sooner rather than later, perhaps then women will FINALLY get their human rights back that religious extremists stole 43 years ago. My govt is full of evildoers and they aren't getting involved for altruistic reasons. I know full well who they are, and their motives are always destructive. But in this case, even a no-good thug can do the right thing for the wrong reason. Think of a sex trafficker who lets his victims go; not because he's realized the evil of what he's done, but because he's worried about getting caught, or bec his contact didn't come through. He's still a psychopath, but that doesn't make the victims any less free. Sometimes the right thing can happen for the wrong reason.
Recently a young female protestor was brutally murdered by an animal who was part of the Orwellian 7th century monster who is part of the "morality police", and he did this for the great crime of protesting for her human rights and against the law requiring headscarves. She was brave and she did a hero. Now she will be a martyr for other freedom-fighters within Iran.
Islamists like the Iranian hardliners/extremists want the world to be savage, barbaric, like they are, violent to women, like the animals they are, and most of all, they want women to be SLAVES. They want to live in the Stone Age, like savages. It is up to the rest of US who are not savages to "educate" them as to their error. This is a battle of conscience, civilization and TRUE morality, one that recognizes the human rights of ALL people, against ANIMALS who hate the fact (for some irrational reason- maybe they're all repressed homos) that we live in a bi-gendered society!!
There are still some revolting ANIMALS on this planet that for some reason still deny they fact that we are ALL equal and every living human being on this PLANET deserves human motherfcking rights, and that really makes me sick!! So for whatever crimes the western imperialist forces are about to commit or are currently working on, that's wrong. But if that pushes the islamist scum out of power in that country once and for all, than that's a very very GOOD thing.
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For those of us ready to do more, we should be trying to get into local politics one way or the other. Jonathan is right. Everything else is nice, but won't change anything at the public policy level. Get involved in your local city or town management any way you can, or at least strive to.
Maybe you think you're too young for that but for anyone who's 35+, I would seriously advocate this. This is what I'm working on at the moment.
Start with writing out in extreme detail all of the very specific tangible changes you would like to see in public policy, even if some seem impossible to accomplish in our lifetime. Just organize these points and break them down into smaller and smaller pieces that if given the opportunity you believe you could take some small steps towards. (Examples, better urbanism, better social programs, rights for the homeless, better homeless services, public space rights, tax policy change, refunding our schools, homeowner protections, police reform and reduced funding, bans on all patrols (911 response is all they should be doing), decriminalization of drugs, criminal justice reform, food policy reform, rent control and housing reform, zero goods waste programs, local ubi, better healthcare services, community gardening initiatives, etc etc)
For anyone in or around LA I would highly recommend getting involved with the people's city council. They are an absolutely fantabulous alternative to their pretty much hypersociopathic and corrupt local "actual" council full of bought and paid for hyperdicks.
In short if you really want to change public policy in our cities, towns, or counties we have to get on the councils. This can be easier said than done because the police apparatus and the big business sector will always want to control these individuals by funding their campaigns and giving them favors. But it's not impossible. We have to try. As much as we may fantasize about some great noble movement bubbling up from the outside unfortunately at least in the US that is just not going to happen. We have to try to get ourselves into public office and even that's no guarantee we'll be able to get the changes we want because of course the red-blue machine controls pretty much everything but what I'm saying is if we don't try, it's definitely not going to happen. We can also try to force through ballot measures that we believe in. It will always be a steep uphill battle because we don't have the money to buy media advertising the way they do but like I said, we just have to try.
Here in CA I'd like to try reaching out to other outside parties in the areas that we agree on. The more hands on deck the better. It's a long-term process, but not entirely impossible.
Otherwise there are always many many private mutual aid organizations that do a lot of fine work and those are by no means unimportant. But if we do want to seek at least even modest political changes we're going to have to try to get into some of these offices ourselves. I know it won't be easy but if people from the Left or the outside never try, voters never get a chance to choose anything outside of the status quo of the red-blue paradigm.
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I don't have the time or discipline to read theory right now. It would be an utter waste of time. I don't need a book to tell me what I know to be right and wrong. I'm 40 and I'm behind on too many damn things as it is. Reading is for kids with no life that don't have any responsibilities or students. So on that fun note, let's cut to the chase.
Hakim I'm confused. Collective farms? What in God's fucking asshole is this shit? You're telling me people shouldn't be able to have their own small family farm? Im sorry but I CAN'T support that. I aspire myself to have have a small holistic family farm someday. I'm not saying people can't go in voluntarily with their neighbors or community, I think that's a beautiful thing when it's taken on as a community project voluntarily. Look I'm very Left but isn't it true that the forced collective farming killed thousands? How would you feel if you worked hard all your life on your family's farm and some State ghoul came along and said "this isn't yours anymore go be a farm slave with 200 other farm slaves on this State land over here"? Would you REALLY appreciate that?? God damnit PRIVATE PROPERTY MATTERS!!!!!
THIS IS NOT THE SAME THING AS BIG UNREGULATED UNFETTERED MONOPOLY BIG BUSINESS CAPITALISM I'M TALKING ABOUT AT THE FAMILY LEVEL AT THE COMMUNITY LEVEL AND AT THE PERSONAL LEVEL PRIVATE PROPERTY MATTERS GOD DAMMIT.
Are we all just to be drones for the State?? Because by God I don't want that anymore than I want to live in a dystopian ultra-capitalist hellscape.
Why do you state communists always have to take it too far?
Do you not see exactly where this plays into all of the anti-communist criticisms in the heated rhetoric from the center and the right?
I'm not saying we shouldn't have a more socialist economy and that everyone doesn't have the right to a basic standard of living. But people want something that is their OWN. Surely you can understand this. How are people supposed to live? In dormitories? Maybe we shouldn't have any private homes for families anymore everyone should just live with everyone else in dorm like conditions? Who needs privacy!? Maybe we shouldn't even have families anymore maybe we should just wait for big government to assign us a mate like in the handmaid's tale is this what you want??? Where does it end???? Who needs personal space or private property anymore??? Nobody gets a yard anymore, God forbid that's private!!
Having the State commit grand theft of small-scale farming communities is not exactly going to engender my respect for whatever it's supposed reformist agenda is.
The problem in the modern age is large-scale ginormous monopolistic big Capital aka Big Business and the big corporation. As for what existed back in 1917 in Russia yes it was mostly agrarian. I'm assuming the only elites was the small aristocracy at the time. It was a completely different universe. But without knowing more, forced collectivization sounds like a TERRIBLE dystopian thing and far from catalyzing support amongst the farming families I can only imagine it nurtured huge resentment and hatred for forcibly dispossessing them of their families' ancestral lands that they had put their blood sweat and tears into for generations! There IS such a thing as pride and ownership and I tell you this- if ANYONE from the government came to try to take my family's homestead and lands I would fight them to the death.
Really, we have to do better than this if we want the world to accept Leftist and communist principles.
Don't get me wrong Hakim I think you're great and if you think I have my facts misplaced on this one feel free to let me know but I can't agree with you on this point.
I'm sorry I have to draw a line I cannot follow you ultra-communists down this particular rabbit hole. There is a happy medium. People should be able to own their own property and land and, within fairly low limits, more than one home. People should be able to own their own farms for god's sake!!!!! It's not private ownership that's the problem it's unfettered corporatism. aw fuck what the fuck.
Go ahead please it's nothing personal explain to me why you think I'm wrong. You people just go way too far.
If you think the millions of average families want to live in a commune like summer camp you're wrong. Now I've got nothing against communes and communal living for those who want it. Do you guys not care at all about free will and consent for god sakes????? Oh tyranny is fine if it comes from the so-called Left? Have you guys even thought this one through at all or are you too lost in your own echo chamber? How far do you think your support amongst the general public would run if one of your first moves was to dispossess them of their private land holdings, not the corporations mind you, but private individual households. Don't you THINK we should greatly limit and expropriate the holdings of the corporate giants? The whole point is to take back what the corporations have stolen from us over the past 80 years. As for what individual households do or have that's immaterial. And if you kids can't see that then you're really getting lost in the weeds and missing the WHOLE fucking point from my perspective.
And what do you mean by commodity???? Basic consumer goods? So when your ideal society people shouldn't be able to go buy basic consumer goods like a kitchen mop, an area rug and some decorative plants from their favorite establishment? So what, the State's going to just magically be able to prevent provide all this? That's the height of nonsense.
Are you saying you don't want to have a private market at all? Because I'm going to tell you right now you're smoking a sugared dickstick if that's true.
Why do you absolute us always have to take it so God damn far why do you always have to be so goddamn extremist? Believe me I believe there should be strong controls on the market, I don't like large corporations and I would like something to be done about them, we need wedge controls, price controls rent controls all of that in spades and I'll be the first to demand it, but if you're to ask me should we just have no market whatsoever? When markets have existed from the times that humans have been alive- considering that from the earliest human organized existence they have traded with each other and markets spring up to facilitate this trade and eventually buying and selling, then I think you're living in a fantasy world!
Why in the fuck would I want to live in a society where I couldn't open up my own shop if I wanted to? Where I couldn't put my blood sweat and tears into an enterprise, build It up from nothing, and watch it grow? Not to become some giant dystopian nightmare but to become a respectable small or medium sized enterprise where I and the other workers were equal partners and we worked together; where we shared the profits and the responsibilities?? No I don't agree employers should be able to take the majority of the value that workers produce, but does that mean I don't believe in a private market, no it does not! That's like saying I recognize that SOME relationships are toxic and destructive does that mean I'm against the existence of intimate relationships? Of course not! You're throwing the baby out with the goddamn bath water!
How am I wrong????
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@jessl1934 bruh idek. It just seems like in an information world (DC freaks notwithstanding) provided we get our message out to enough people and get organized enough, enough awareness will be raised and honestly any kind of armed backlash from the fascists or the entrenched elite class will be obsolete. I just don't think it will work anymore.
You get enough groundswell with something and you're not going to be able to stop it I don't give a fuk how many nukes or bluepigs you have.
If we want to go hardcore where is our secret army??? Right now we're just a citizens movement and that's fine, that's where everything starts. But that's all we got, which I figure given enough time and organizations should be enough. If not we'll find out but in a new century with new technologies and a lot of new people sick of old bullshit, I think so.
After DC gets its ass kicked by Brics in 20 yrs because it won't leave them alone, I think most people, of those who are paying attention, are going to see just how ridiculous the feds are and are going to reject violence as acceptable means of solving our problems.
I mean I could be wrong but I think so.
Of those who can be induced to vote or have political opinions, I think more and more are going to realize that only leftism is the moral way forward because it puts the common good and the health of the planet first, and why should anything else be acceptable?? How can there be anything else that is sustainable? And I know I'm annoying some people with the follow but I'm also for business but I'm for regulated business, a big difference in my opinion, because not all business is bad- we live in a messy world and it would be too onerous to expect everything to be centrally managed.
If we can't get it done through slower political means that I'm not sure how we expect to. We don't have a secret army you know what I mean?
Organization, outreach, building a movement, using technology, yeah I think it's totally doable. Quantum computers are on the horizon and fusion technology possibly by 2100- Rosa Luxemburg couldn't have imagined this world and I don't know I just think a world this connected isn't going to always behave the exact same way as a world whose highest technology was the early internal combustion engine.
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RHH, yeah I don't think the answer is to have a State do everything. I think we have to find a way to better manage and regulate the private market in the interests of workers, communities, and the natural environment. I think most people on the Left are bright, and may think having a smart State micromanage is the answer, but it's not. I don't think we really want a State to manage everything, instead let's have a combination.
It's certainly possible.
Think of a nice small town. The small town city council doesn't manage everything, they probably don't do very much at all. Let's assume there are very little to any corporate interests in this community ergo most people's businesses are of a modest size or less. I'm not even against a bigger businesses but I do feel there should be a hard limit at some point. But for sake of discussion let's say in this small community of 20,000 persons there are only local businesses of medium size or less. Provided the standing Labor laws explicitly protects the rights of Labor and all workers, wages are set at a high enough level that anyone can support themselves working full-time even if they are unskilled, and no local business is intentionally polluting the environment, then for the most part, all is well. Businesses and services will run smoothly and customers will feel that they've paid a fair price for what they received. When it makes sense, ongoing price controls and rent controls can be implemented. This way, all non-luxury goods are affordable and rent is never more than someone can afford because it is based on a function of their income not some flat rate that everyone just has to arbitrarily meet. All the excess can be collected after a certain selling cycle, and instead of being simply dumped in the landfill to collect as waste year after year, they can be first sent to a local warehouse, where they can then be redistributed to discount shops and community donations as needed.
This is the ideal situation that we want. A State should certainly set better ground rules for private business, but as far as running them directly I think that's too cumbersome. I just don't think that would work. Enterprises can function well if they are managed by ethical people and if they're forced to comply with proper regulation.
Businesses should be free to manage themselves in the way they see fit provided they abide by these nonnegotiable ground rules. We can adapt regulations appropriately for smaller businesses as well, so that they're not harmed by being forced to comply with a standard that is too restrictive for them due to their overall income and lower profit margin.
We don't have any kinds of enforced proper regulations on the private sector right now and we do have a corporatocracy which does allow for unlimited accumulation and growth, and I don't agree with that at all. We do need rent controls and guarantees through the government that provide all basic tangible needs freely given for any member of society who needs them (not means tested per se but phased out based on household income with small co-pays only if necessary), so that no one has to worry about going bankrupt if anything in their life doesn't go perfectly. I think all of this is easily achieved, but not under a corporatography and certainly not with a corrupt super elite running everything. But I do think it's more or less easily achieved. We can nationalize certain industries, or parts of certain industries if that makes sense. We can put the individual citizen and the worker FIRST and that's what I want to see. That is certainly not the paradigm that those in our government operate from currently, absolutely not. So it's true we do need a major change but it's too cumbersome to expect a small central government to somehow manage all these different businesses and services, but that doesn't mean we can't settle on a degree of central planning that makes sense.
Market socialism is definitely the answer. All taxes can be placed on large businesses, individual households can be encouraged to contribute as they see fit but I certainly would not make the mandatory. If the central government already issues currency it could keep doing that, and print and mint whatever it needs. I believe government inflation doesn't exis- that it's a boogeyman. I believe a sovereign currency issuing Nation can print any amount of currency it wants or needs. So as for how to pay for all of these comprehensive social services to me that's a BS question because I think the answer should be obvious, and as stated.
We can provide responsible and accountable public safety without turning into an egregious and vicious Police State like the US right is right now. All these things are possible and easy, but NOT under a predatory corporatocracy. Not under a State which enjoys incarceration as its number one GROWTH industries. Not when corrupt and hateful sots make all the decisions on social and economic policy.
So yeah it's entirely possible, we can have direct democracy where all public policy is passed through public referenda which is how it should be and politicians, if they even exist anymore play only a minor role mostly figural and advisory. All these things are possible, I just don't know exactly how we're going to get there. Organizing into a viable Left third party is the first step. We can always try to get more Leftists into state by state legislatures to start making these changes at the state level. I don't know if it's going to happen in our lifetime but that's how we need to go if we want to try to force these changes through. We can have rent control and all other public guarantee tangibles that guarantee everyone a baseline of a dignified existence before they even step foot in the workplace, but only if Leftists are able to take over the government. And that's kind of a big challenge in the US but I won't go so far to say it's impossible. How can we force an elected Leftist takeover of our current government?
Only by getting millions more people to vote who typically don't vote, and that's most easily achieved by media presence, of which there is no mainstream Leftist media presence currently. I don't know how to suddenly motivate 30 million more people Nationwide to vote for a currently as yet non-viable Leftist political party but that would seem to be the only way to start electing a bunch of Leftists who will put better policies in place. I mean that's the electoral method. As far as doing some kind of armed revolution that just can't happen in the modern world. Not in this country. That's just not feasible. We don't have a secret army and between State Police and national guard it just wouldn't work. It would be over before it started.
It looks like we got a long road ahead of us if we want to try to do this the electoral route but I think it's very doable. I think if millions of people had a genuinely sincere and ethical party to vote for, then they would. So the first step is then, form a viable Left movement and translate that into a Left Unity party that can fight back against the current duopoly machine and then find a way to get our word out. Find a way to counter the massive corporate MSM with media blaring a leftist message 24/7.
If we can do that, then we got a chance. It's going to take legal battles too because the duopoly scumbags love to prevent third party challengers from even getting on the ballot. Every plan can be strategized and so long as it's well planned out, has an even chance of success.
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@sarahjames5176 I'm sure I support that, as I support all workers getting their fair share of the profits they help create, and I certainly support all collective bargaining for Labor and their representatives and that they should receive a say in the decisions regarding their particular company. This can be accomplished various ways, one of them being requiring that one or more worker representatives are always present in the boardroom with fill participatory say, and so on. So I think you and I are more or less on the same page in that regard.
Can you be more specific on how exactly how this collective ownership would be administered and look like? Is it the same as I've stated here or is there something else? Also can you be more specific on how we would get there and what laws would need to be passed in order to enumerate and protect that model?
I just get a little tired of all the constant generalities. If you can't provide a step-by-step distinct and well thought-out mature plan to achieve what you say you want, then all you're really doing is navel gazing. I'm pretty Left, and I'm pretty sure we want more or less the same things, but all I hear from most people on the online Left is vague terms, lots of complaining, and key words and tricky phrases. Ok fine- I feel the same way, but how is that a PLAN???
To force real change in the real world, an actionable plan will require concrete and mature thinking. If you haven't been willing to think anything through yet, you should ask yourself why? Are you just here to talk, to feel woke, or do you have an actual goal?? And if it's not to gain office with a viable Left third party then it seems to me you're living in la-la land. Armed takeover doesn't happen in the West and it's a pipe dream. So that only leaves politics.
If you disagree with anything I stayed in my post by all means tell me so and explain why your view differs.
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@sarahjames5176 I don't necessarily disagree with that, and you might be right, but I still maintain that just because something failed in the past doesn't mean the time won't be right for it to succeed in the future under different conditions. Attitudes change, technology changes, new factors come into play. There is always a first time for everything, etc.
Can you give me a small summary of your ideal view of a future society then, with as many specifics as possible, and how you think we can get there by 2200 with or without winning public office? Do you understand that in our lifetime in the US little will change, but that doesn't mean nothing will change, but our goals must be grounded in reality? We should shoot for the moon but let's understand that we may not get there in the next 50 years. I don't want a slow rate of change, but it may happen despite our best efforts.
Have you read my whole above post where I state specific details of the milestones I wish to see? Do you differ with those in whole or in part and if so, how?
In other words - what is your SPECIFIC end goal for the US and the world, and what is your specific plan to get closer to that, in whatever degree possible, by 2070?
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