Shit I just got a book by Piketty from the library. Haven't started it yet but it was recommended by a few people. Why do you say he is a pop economist? Is it not even worth reading?This is why 'soft left' pop economists like Piketty, Kelton, or Mazzucato are so de jour right now. — StreetlightX
What happens to all the profit? Where does this money go? This should be the question for anyone working for a major corporation. — Xtrix
Also, John McMannis, what do you think of being a supporter of a person who ruins lives? — Xtrix
It is absolutely a crappy position. But it is one engineered by the parties themselves. I'm not offering easy solutions. I don't think there are. People are going to get hurt. People are getting hurt. But I do think that what needs to not be done is to continue letting these parties put people in crappy positions. — StreetlightX
It's an absolutely trivial point that a 10 year old can understand. Provided they haven't spent years reading Zizek and other intellectual frauds, living in an idealist fantasy world. — Xtrix
Not just voting. I think both parties ought to be actively opposed and called out at every point. I'm not against voting. Vote how you like. But be aware of what it is you're voting for, and the effects it will have. I'm about dispelling illusions that people like to tell themselves. — StreetlightX
I guess those who hold jobs support capitalism, as well. — Xtrix
I can't get him to say anything bad about the Trump (used to be Republican) Party. So far it's been all "Democrats bad. Democrats help Republicans." — James Riley
The different being that he feels both parties are two sides of the same coin, and I think that's silly and based on a very, very shallow understanding of reality -- which is why I mentioned courts, which is one significant example of how one party's rise to power has very damaging effects to progress indeed -- for decades. — Xtrix
He doesn't like me because I've outed him and exposed his cover. — James Riley
Yeah, pretty basic stuff. Now try explaining this to your buddy. — Xtrix
Right -- we should all prevent the worst from happening, at minimum. It takes almost no time. Then we should get back to the real work. I understand the pessimism, but that shouldn't be a preventative for fighting. Not fighting guarantees the worst. — Xtrix
But the reality is we live in a two-party system that won’t change in our lifetime. Unfortunately we have to vote against one or the other. Republicans want to drill more and deny climate change is real— that’s worth voting against. Very simple stuff, and says absolutely nothing about being in favor of the Democratic Party. — Xtrix
I find it hard because I don't know who exactly to trust. Once I get down the rabbit hole I bounce from one opinion to the next, and both are convincing, and both claim to be fighting for the workers and the 'little people" and stuff. But I guess "they" want everyone confused.It's very frustrating when alll you hear is how journalists are objective and seeking truth.That's fair! It's both confusing and not, in that if you do a little digging, it's not too hard to figure out where things stand with everyone. But alot of mainstream sources are not very good, and keep the important issues out of the limelight, which makes that "digging" a far tougher exercise than it ought to be. — StreetlightX
It is alot harder. And it's been made so it is that way. But it's also alot more effective! Check out what is happening with the John Deere strikers atm - their industrial action secured almost double the way raises they were being offered, and they're still striking for more. Or else look at the successes of the Chicago teacher's strike. Hard work in, good results out. — StreetlightX
Obviously not everyone is in the position to take industrial action. And the very fact that industrial action is mass action speaks to how hard it is for any one person, alone, to get things done. Alot of the work involves preparation and getting your principles in order so that when occasions arise, you do make the right choices. That seemingly 'wild' ideas like striking dont't seem so wild, if it ever comes to that. And cultivating solidarity and class consciousness with others like yourself in your community. You won't change the world by yourself. And that's OK. To find joy in a world geared towards making you miserable is a radical act. Joy and self-care is radical. Moreso if its shared. Also, it took literal centuries to end Feudalism. We will win because our timescales are geographic! — StreetlightX
Become an activist. Educate yourself and others, organize with others. Identify programs you want and push for them. This is done all the time, if you look around. It was especially prevalent in the 60s, and much of the progress we see today comes from exactly those movements. — Xtrix
The point is to continuously create and push for programs you want, on the national, state, and local level. Anyone who wants to deny activism as the essential part of progress should simply be ignored. — Xtrix
This does make sense to me. In other words just vote against Trump or people like him but don't make a big deal about it and don't pretend that joe biden is so great? That's kind of where I am at in how I feel about them but yet pretty pessimistic about anything big changing in my life.As for voting: there are two political parties in the United States. As Noam Chomsky has mentioned, and I agree with, an activist should take two minutes to see which candidate is worse, and vote against that candidate -- then get back to the important work of educating and organizing. Voting is important, but hardly any more important than those two minutes. You should do it, then move on. Not voting, or voting third party in a swing state, is helping the worse candidate succeed -- period. That's just arithmetic. Idealists and purists simply cannot understand this, so there's no use arguing over it. But the choice is a simple one. It's not an endorsement of the Democratic party, or Joe Biden. It's a vote against the Republican party, who are even worse. Those who want to claim the Republicans and Democrats are the same are, likewise, deluding themselves. — Xtrix
Most importantly is to talk with other people. It's next to impossible to do it all yourself, especially when there are plenty of other responsibilities one has in life. This idea of individualism is foisted upon us to keep us isolated. This is why there's such a sense of hopelessness, because even though people recognize the problems they feel they can't do anything about it, being just one person. This is by design. The most powerful people on earth are not individualists, they're socialists. They coordinate with their class all the time to maintain their power, and they always look after each other. The middle and working classes have been conditioned to fear and hate their own members, but they can do the same. Don't let yourself be pulled into this demonizing of collectivism, nor be fooled by the illusion of connection pushed by social media companies. There's a real world out there, with real people, and it's worth joining. — Xtrix
If you ever come across someone pretending to be non-partisan in regards to a two-party fight, and yet they claim one of the parties is a shill for the other, that person is a shill for the party they did not attack. — James Riley
What to do? Break that cycle, and more importantly, break it from the left (the democrats are not a left party - they are a conservative party, just FYI). If that means not voting, so be it. People like Xtrix will try to hold you hostage and gaslight you: if you don't vote for the democrats, the republicans will come into power. But it's farce. If you vote for the democrats, the republicans will come into power anyway, because the function of the democratic party is defuse left energy (which the republican party can't do), and then, one that's done, actively pave the way for republican victories after that. That's their objective role in American political life. They're the rear-guard of republican political power. — StreetlightX
Far more interesting that anything the Democrats have been doing is workers strikes all over the US. Capitalism is a wage relation, and it is over wages and workplace rights that anything will be won. — StreetlightX
Discuss your wages with your fellow workers. Join your union. Build networks of worker solidarity. Never hate on the poor or the uneducated, not matter how silly their antics can be. Power is always the enemy. Know that bosses are not your friends. Keep yourself informed. Refuse, at all costs, the fake distinction between liberal and conservative. Educate yourself, and, just casually, those around you when the opportunity arises. — StreetlightX
Also for the love of God never call yourself an activist. An activist is someone too non-committal and pussy to call themselves a socialist outright. Hitler's brownshirts were activists. 'Activism' is liberal code for: ineffective tinkerer of the status quo. — StreetlightX
Maybe pick a couple of books - Thomas Frank's Listen, Liberal! is probably one of the better antidotes to Blue MAGA people like Xtrix. Or even something like Red State Revolt, which shows how worker movements can and do flourish in so-called red states. Or even Chris Hedges, who is a nice popular writer on these topics: https://www.amazon.com/America-Farewell-Tour-Chris-Hedges/dp/1501152688/ — StreetlightX
Good quote thanks. This seems like a big reason for a lot of the controversy. Maybe I'm missing something.“A lie can travel around the world and back again while the truth is lacing up its boots.”—Mark Twain. — James Riley
Philosophical investigations — Wittgenstein
I pose the argument that everything humans do is for their personal gain and that 'love' doesn't exist. — obscurelaunting
That's the context I like to think of when trying to answer these questions. To summarize:
(1) We're human beings, and we sometimes think.
(2) Sometimes this thinking is concerned with universal questions.
(3) These questions are called philosophical.
(4) So philosophy is a kind of thinking -- a kind that asks universal questions. — Xtrix
The only thing that exists is the individual. Anything else is communism. — Xtrix
I think it’s the funds rate, or the interest rate of money the Fed lends to banks to cover a certain legal minimum (to prevent bank runs). Banks can also loan excess money to other banks who are low on funds, etc. This trickles down to the interest rates you and I can receive from banks for homes, cars, credit cards, etc. That’s my understanding— happy to be corrected. — Xtrix
This was spurred on, in part, by Frontline’s excellent program about the Fed.] — Xtrix