Maggie's Farm

I am yet to be convinced that it exists

Not convinced that celiac disease exists?

Marxism

You can trash marxism, but that's beating a dead horse, and I know it makes people feel good to dance on its grave, but that's just a huge deflection.

The harder question is why mass revolutionary movements like this are so popular. The better policy is to correct social inequalities before people take to the streets with rocks, spears or rifles. But that requires the system and its elites to take a hard look at themselves, and the system does its best to prevent that.

Marxism is dead, but so what? Marxism wasn't the problem.

yes. social inequalities. people tend to riot when things get past a tipping point. you're fixated on marxism because you have a myopic world view, but revolutions and rebellions have occurred throughout history for these reasons.

marx wrote right after the revolutions of 1848, which had nothing to do with marxism and were among the worst in history, and, of course, put down by troops with tens of thousands of casualties. that had everything to do with inequalities and nothing to do with communism. cf, french revolutions, wat tyler, and the hundred or so other revolts that preceded communism.

communism is failed bullshit, no doubt about that, but you can't pretend that our economic system(s) doesn't (don't) create conditions that historically and periodically result in mass uprisings. 80% of the commentary on this forum (compared to 90% elsewhere) falls for the easy finger pointing and scapegoating. Commies are bad. duh. cuber, laos, cambodia, north korea are cesspools, but so what, are you afraid of that??? and don't tell me that russia and china are communist, they have the business ethics of 1890s american capitalists.

all this blindness, this preaching to the choir, is going to wreck the conservative movement.

How about making the system peacefully end feudalism (revolutions of 1848), peacefully end slavery (Civil War), peacefully end child labor, peacefully end 60 hour work weeks, peacefully end egregiously dangerous work conditions, peacefully end racially restrictive voting laws, without the need for revolts, revolutions, civil wars, strikes and riots? Fix those problems when you become aware there are problems and commie agitation will fall on deaf ears, Little Barry and the Clintons would never become presidents.

Prediction: concerning American inequalities, the thought of fixing these problems never, not once, occurred to you because you've been trained to condemn the unemployable schlub collecting welfare (an easy target* as opposed to the middle class kids collecting guaranteed student loans which is an acceptable form of welfare for the middle class) instead of questioning the conditions that created him. As a corollary, you've been told to believe the American Way is sacrosanct, beyond reproach or question.

That a US governor can scream "segregation now, segregation forever" doesn't strike you as the system being badly screwed and not the result of lazy minorities digging into your pocket? The situation is so badly screwed up that a combat division had to be sent to escort nine year old girls to school. Does that sound like a healthy society? Step out of yourself and for 15 seconds pretend you're a black woman too tired to give up a seat on the bus and then tell me that prior to that moment she was the "master of her destiny".

Or (and this is entirely plausible) do you honestly think history is just one after another welfare queen gaming the system?




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you should wonder why you've been trained to hate these people.

I thought about your argument all during my first scotch break of the morning, and I agree. there is no social inequality in America.

I must have been too sober when I wrote up 6.1.1.1.1 last night.

Its not a bandwagon for people suffering form it. That's not even a valid argument you're making.

how on earth are these connected? would it make your cilantro intolerance better if gluten-free products were taken off the menu?

I get that you've got an allergy to cilantro. but slagging those who are or think they might be gluten intolerant is completely pointless.

re: No matter what the boss says about flextime, get to work early

I work to the job, not the clock, and professional staff never arrives before 10.00 as a matter of routine, so coming in early wouldn't matter. Staying late is expected.

Except at one firm, on Wed mornings. I worked in a small law office that allowed attorneys who'd been duck shooting (that being a traditional day) to arrive late if they didn't have court or an appointment in the morning and had been shooting ducks. Visiting gun dogs (almost always black or chocolate labs) were common. To first office hunt I was invited to (on a private club on the Salton Sea owned by one of the partners) I brought my A-5 auto-loader, which was taken away and replaced with a side-by-side.