Reparations: Taking money from people who never owned slaves and giving it to people who never were slaves
Harvard: where you can spend a lot of money
getting a shoddy education teaching hate and bigotry
The effort to justify the new fad of forcing all Americans today to pay blacks reparations for the evil of slavery that was eliminated a century and a half ago at the cost of more than 600K lives continues. A recent published study by two “Didn’t Earn It” (DEI) academic elites at the Harvard Kennedy School attempts to justify the distribution of reparations now by claiming that the U.S. has a long history of paying out money to harmed individuals. From the paper’s abstract:
[T]he United States has a long-standing social norm that if an individual or community has suffered a harm, it is considered right for the federal government to provide some measure of what we term “reparatory compensation.” In discussing this norm and its implications for Black American reparations, we first describe the scale, categories, and interlocking and compounding effects of discriminatory harms by introducing a taxonomy of illustrative racial harms from slavery to the present. We then reveal how the social norm, precedent, and federal programs operate to provide victims with reparatory compensation, reviewing federal programs that offer compensation, such as environmental disasters, market failures, and vaccine injuries. We conclude that the government already has the norm, precedent, expertise, and resources to provide reparations to Black Americans. [emphasis mine]
The highlighted word is key to understanding the fundamental intellectual dishonesty of these incompetent Harvard academics. In their paper they use numerous examples of cases where the government has provided compensation to actual individuals — such as veterans, individuals harmed by radiation from nuclear tests, and those who lost their pensions due to bankruptcy or mismanagement of their pension funds — and then claim this proves paying reparations to the community of blacks, based merely on their race and the past existence of slavery, is within traditional American jurisprudence.
This is all a lie. The American tradition of doling out government aid and compensation has always limited that aid only to people directly harmed by a specific circumstance or event. By law and traditional western values it has always been considered wrong to give aid to someone merely because of their skin color or the group they belong, for events that happened before they were even born.
First, slavery ended 150 years ago. No one in America has been a slave for generations. No one in America has owned slaves for generations. Second, most Americans today are not even descendents of either slaves or slave-owners. This applies even among blacks, since a large percentage of today’s black population are themselves immigrants who came here after slavery was abolished.
Third, even when slavery existed in the U.S., it was confined a few select states in the deep South prior to 1865. The rest of the country opposed it deeply, and when those slave states attempted to break away in order to continue the practice of enslaving blacks, the rest of the country rose up and fought a war to end slavery forever in those states.
California is a great example. It never had slaves and was always a free state. Yet, its legislature now wants to impose reparations on the modern generation, for something no one then or now had anything to do with. Similar proposals have been introduced in New York and Massachusetts, both of which were also free states that fought in the Civil War to end slavery.
I myself am personally enraged by this new effort to impose reparations for the slavery. I am Jewish. My ancestors did not even arrive in America until the turn of the last century, around 1900 give or take a decade. When the Civil War was being fought they were being oppressed by the Czar in Russia. Not only did they never participate in slavery or the slave trade, by religious and historical tradition Judaism has opposed all forms of slavery since the Romans kicked them out of Israel in the first two centuries after the birth of Jesus.
Essentially the modern movement to impose reparations is a power game, attempting to take money from people who never owned slaves and give it to people who never were slaves. And the purpose is to weaken the former while empowering the latter. In fact, it is simply another DEI program, giving preferential treatment to blacks based on their race.
Linda Bilmes
As for the authors of this paper, I call them “Didn’t Earn It” academics based on their writing and their own history. Linda Bilmes, the lead author, is clearly a partisan Democrat political operative, working in academia, based on her own profile posted on Harvard’s webpage. Her work is rift with typical DEI gobbly-gook pushing the leftist agenda. The obtuse language in the abstract above illustrates this quite well.
She has also repeatedly appeared on cable news outlets and other news programs pushing leftist political ideas and policies, under the guise of a “scholar”. The shallowness and partisan nature of her thinking is especially illustrated by how she describes her primary research goal:
Natural Capital accounting, and studying the economic value created by nature, open spaces, and the environment.
An honest translation of this sentence tells me that her work is really trying to prove that bankrupting human beings is a good thing if it results in a wonderfully pure environment.
Cornell William Brooks
Cornell William Brooks is no different. His profile pushes what he calls “social justice” repeatedly, an agenda that always translates into communist policies that also routinely favors some people over others, solely due to their race. His own academic work is amazingly thin, apparently comprised solely of this one paper. Yet Harvard has made him the “Hauser Professor of the Practice of Nonprofit Organizations” and the “Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership and Social Justice.” The one course he teaches there endorses the advocacy of communist and terrorist bomber Angela Davis, and is apparently focused on training leftist activists who can then go out and riot, occupy buildings on college campuses, and maybe spray paint on priceless art.
But then, these two professors at Harvard are now par for the course for all the Ivy Leagues schools. The professors in all the soft sciences and liberal arts at these schools are all partisan Democrats with shallow academic creditentials, all aimed at pushing the Marxist agenda in all things.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Harvard: where you can spend a lot of money
getting a shoddy education teaching hate and bigotry
The effort to justify the new fad of forcing all Americans today to pay blacks reparations for the evil of slavery that was eliminated a century and a half ago at the cost of more than 600K lives continues. A recent published study by two “Didn’t Earn It” (DEI) academic elites at the Harvard Kennedy School attempts to justify the distribution of reparations now by claiming that the U.S. has a long history of paying out money to harmed individuals. From the paper’s abstract:
[T]he United States has a long-standing social norm that if an individual or community has suffered a harm, it is considered right for the federal government to provide some measure of what we term “reparatory compensation.” In discussing this norm and its implications for Black American reparations, we first describe the scale, categories, and interlocking and compounding effects of discriminatory harms by introducing a taxonomy of illustrative racial harms from slavery to the present. We then reveal how the social norm, precedent, and federal programs operate to provide victims with reparatory compensation, reviewing federal programs that offer compensation, such as environmental disasters, market failures, and vaccine injuries. We conclude that the government already has the norm, precedent, expertise, and resources to provide reparations to Black Americans. [emphasis mine]
The highlighted word is key to understanding the fundamental intellectual dishonesty of these incompetent Harvard academics. In their paper they use numerous examples of cases where the government has provided compensation to actual individuals — such as veterans, individuals harmed by radiation from nuclear tests, and those who lost their pensions due to bankruptcy or mismanagement of their pension funds — and then claim this proves paying reparations to the community of blacks, based merely on their race and the past existence of slavery, is within traditional American jurisprudence.
This is all a lie. The American tradition of doling out government aid and compensation has always limited that aid only to people directly harmed by a specific circumstance or event. By law and traditional western values it has always been considered wrong to give aid to someone merely because of their skin color or the group they belong, for events that happened before they were even born.
First, slavery ended 150 years ago. No one in America has been a slave for generations. No one in America has owned slaves for generations. Second, most Americans today are not even descendents of either slaves or slave-owners. This applies even among blacks, since a large percentage of today’s black population are themselves immigrants who came here after slavery was abolished.
Third, even when slavery existed in the U.S., it was confined a few select states in the deep South prior to 1865. The rest of the country opposed it deeply, and when those slave states attempted to break away in order to continue the practice of enslaving blacks, the rest of the country rose up and fought a war to end slavery forever in those states.
California is a great example. It never had slaves and was always a free state. Yet, its legislature now wants to impose reparations on the modern generation, for something no one then or now had anything to do with. Similar proposals have been introduced in New York and Massachusetts, both of which were also free states that fought in the Civil War to end slavery.
I myself am personally enraged by this new effort to impose reparations for the slavery. I am Jewish. My ancestors did not even arrive in America until the turn of the last century, around 1900 give or take a decade. When the Civil War was being fought they were being oppressed by the Czar in Russia. Not only did they never participate in slavery or the slave trade, by religious and historical tradition Judaism has opposed all forms of slavery since the Romans kicked them out of Israel in the first two centuries after the birth of Jesus.
Essentially the modern movement to impose reparations is a power game, attempting to take money from people who never owned slaves and give it to people who never were slaves. And the purpose is to weaken the former while empowering the latter. In fact, it is simply another DEI program, giving preferential treatment to blacks based on their race.
Linda Bilmes
As for the authors of this paper, I call them “Didn’t Earn It” academics based on their writing and their own history. Linda Bilmes, the lead author, is clearly a partisan Democrat political operative, working in academia, based on her own profile posted on Harvard’s webpage. Her work is rift with typical DEI gobbly-gook pushing the leftist agenda. The obtuse language in the abstract above illustrates this quite well.
She has also repeatedly appeared on cable news outlets and other news programs pushing leftist political ideas and policies, under the guise of a “scholar”. The shallowness and partisan nature of her thinking is especially illustrated by how she describes her primary research goal:
Natural Capital accounting, and studying the economic value created by nature, open spaces, and the environment.
An honest translation of this sentence tells me that her work is really trying to prove that bankrupting human beings is a good thing if it results in a wonderfully pure environment.
Cornell William Brooks
Cornell William Brooks is no different. His profile pushes what he calls “social justice” repeatedly, an agenda that always translates into communist policies that also routinely favors some people over others, solely due to their race. His own academic work is amazingly thin, apparently comprised solely of this one paper. Yet Harvard has made him the “Hauser Professor of the Practice of Nonprofit Organizations” and the “Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership and Social Justice.” The one course he teaches there endorses the advocacy of communist and terrorist bomber Angela Davis, and is apparently focused on training leftist activists who can then go out and riot, occupy buildings on college campuses, and maybe spray paint on priceless art.
But then, these two professors at Harvard are now par for the course for all the Ivy Leagues schools. The professors in all the soft sciences and liberal arts at these schools are all partisan Democrats with shallow academic creditentials, all aimed at pushing the Marxist agenda in all things.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Related:
“Who are the primary beaters of fares in the MTA’s transportation system that are costing the MTA the estimated $690 MILLION dollar short fall? Primarily young “oppressed” people and a number of career criminals or individuals who are mentally incompetent and potentially violent. ”
https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/how-government-works-ass-backwards
The natural tendency of our Liberally oriented government is to grow bigger and bigger until “ITS” tentacles are woven throughout every segment of the country, culture and society.
And thus, we are all in the end if this condition remains unchallenged, we are all essentially real and true slaves to it.
The reparations being pushed in America is just childish racist pandering to an increasingly manipulative segment of the minority black population. Just one more tool of political distraction, chaos and confusion.
Nothing more and nothing less.
Harvard academics are apparently incapable of using a search engine:
1865 Special Field Order No. 15 allowed freed slaves ‘forty acres and a mule’, but not enfranchisement. Order reversed by Andrew Jackson (Democrat) after Lincoln’s assassination, giving that property back to the original owners.
During Reconstruction, Congressional Republicans introduced a number of bills to award suffrage and cash payments to former slaves, all defeated by the Democratic Party. Look it up. You’ll be demonstrating more initiative, and curiosity, than a Harvard academic.
Blair,
I think you mean Andrew Johnson. Andrew Jackson died in 1837.
Robert Zimmerman wrote: “His profile pushes what he calls “social justice” repeatedly, …”
“Social justice” is the punishment of one person (or group, or community) that did no wrong, because the Social Justice Warrior (SJW) can associate him with someone (or group, etc) who may have done wrong to someone (or …) else. The punishment is not to the guilty — he may be centuries dead — but to the innocent, perhaps only because he happens to live where — or near — the guilty person lived at some time in the past.
“Social justice” may also include a reward or benefit to someone else, who was not harmed but the SJW can associate with a person who may have been wronged. Robert’s essay describes exactly this.
It is the worst kind of vigilantism. It isn’t just that an innocent is harmed, but an uninvolved is rewarded, giving incentive to continue the injustices over and over again and again.
It is the same thing that is happening on campuses and elsewhere all across America and around the world, where jewish students are prevented from attending classes or are chased off campuses because the self-appointed SJWs have associated them with a foreign government that they are convinced is doing wrong. These self-righteous, pro-terrorist, SJWs perform their own kind of vigilante justice. These bad guys are allowed to break laws and do harm with impunity, thinking of themselves as unsung heroes. Campus administrations, police departments, and justice systems have not held these SJWs to account for their vigilante acts performed illegally upon the innocent; these three groups would rather treat these unjust vigilante criminals as the heroes they aren’t.
Social justice is called social justice, rather than being called justice, because it is an injustice to everyone involved, except for the SJWs who break laws for their own selfish reasons. It is not justice; it is something entirely different, and adding a word to it should be the clue. Now we have SJWs in high positions attempting to impose similar vigilante actions, but this time using government authorization.
Punish the innocent, reward the uninvolved.
Don‘t forget that in 1942 the DEMOCRATS in the White House and the DEMOCRATS in the state of California “enslaved” 100,000 American citizens, stripping them of their lands, money & rights without any kind of trial! Reagan gave them $20,000 each (it should have been $200,000!). This was paid directly to those people who were harmed, not to their descendants.
Questions I have about reparations….
1. Do Beyonce, Jay Z, Michael Jordan, Oprah, etc qualify for all the goodies?
2. What are blacks going to say to Latinos and the non-native Native Americans(they came from Asia) when they are asked the question “What makes you so special?”. Important question considering that blacks are not the biggest minority group in the US.
These idiots should take up a VOLUNTARY collection. Whatever funds are contributed will be the total to be given away as so-called reparations.
Leave the sane citizens alone!
“Do Beyonce, Jay Z, Michael Jordan, Oprah, etc qualify for all the goodies?”
Good one. In the mid to late 60’s and even early 70’s we would go to great concerts around Baltimore, not stadium venues but clubs of various sorts: the Platters, the Four Tops, Jackie Wilson, Otis Redding, Solomon Burke, Aretha Franklin, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddly, etc. Good times. People of all makes dancing on the tables, hopping up on chairs, going home singing; Can’t forget Martha and the Vandella’s Dancing in the Streets: “Baltimore and DC now, can’t forget the Motor City.”
What Happened? WHO DID this, and WHO is doing it Now?
JS
I learned a long time ago.
There are different people in the world.
If you gave three people 10 dollars each on Monday, by Friday one would be broke, one will have twice the money and the third will have exactly what you gave him.
One person will spend everything they get, one person will work just enough to keep what they have and one will put in the extra time and effort to gather extra.
Apply this theory to the general population.
If you give a bunch of people a load of cash for doing nothing except being in a special group, what makes you think this will spring them out of poverty?
I am sorry to say it but if you have worked for 10 years and have nothing to show for your effort then I can bet that by handing you a load of cash you will end up the very same way. Broke.
Even the proponents of this idea know that handing everyone a stack of cash will never work.
There is not enough money to pay everyone at once.
So they actually are proposing small payments over years and alternate forms of payments like free medical and schooling.
I thought there was something in the UN about not holding children accountable for the crimes of their parents.
Ban blood guilt
Democrats supported slavery and post slavery racial segregation. Republicans freed the slaves and were vital to get civil rights legislation.
And in modern times it’s Democrats that support reparations.
So it would make sense to pass a law that Democrats must fund a reparation program.
It could be based on personal wealth – say each Democrat must give up 5% of their wealth to fund reparations.
There could be a grace period, say one month, to allow any Democrat who has “racist inclinations” to switch to the Republican party and avoid the payment.
Wonder how many Dems would make the switch?
I am making one of my very infrequent these days comments to say I actually agree with most of what is said above…. Otherwise I would be asking for reparations from Scandinavia for all the raping and pillaging the Vikings committed in England 1200 years ago.
I will always be left of centre, but idiocy has to be called out, wherever it arises.
Ponder what We would get for reparations. Will the social maladies observed in a segment of our society go away?
This paper and it’s gobbledygook language hides addition motivations I dare suggest: mischief and grift.
Just like all those supposed student loan pay offs. The people do not get the cast but instead the banks who gave those loans do. Who lobbied Biden, the students or the banks?
Who is lobbying for reparations. The black community or the lending institutions who will be handing out all those new home and car loans they hope to get when the checks go out?
And lets not forget the drug cartels who would love to see all those poor drug addicts get a huge check all at once and what do you think those addicts will spend it on?
Right of course it will be spent on rehab facilities. Of course not they will spend every dime on drugs.
@pzatchok
I think to a certain extent you are right… Who is lobbying for all this? Probably not the black community… More likely the white “woke” crazy left wingers bringing any left leaning politicians into disrepute.
As I have been saying for a decade now, the pendulum will swing back, and for your sins you are most likely to end up with Trump as your next president… Not because he is in any way a good leader, but because Biden is older and undoubtedly senile. What a choice you guys have!
Seriously… You guys over the pond really need to pick some politicians of an age that actually represent the voting public, rather than angry old men on either side…. It’s kinda embarrassing to watch your “greatest democracy on earth” being fought out between a geriatric and a convict.
Say what you want… Wear your Maga hats as much as you want,, but Trump and Biden will probably be dead before the next election .. they are both old men… Who will you vote for their replacement?
@Lee S
Re first comment: Good to hear from you again. Your perspective is very different from most in this forum. It’s good to hear even when I don’t agree, although I do in this case.
Re second comment: Old people tend to have more power than the young. The boomer generation has a lot of capital (both political and monetary) and they’re not dead, yet. It will be interesting to see what happens when they are. There is no retirement age for politicians. Normal people want to stop working. Politicians want to keep accumulating power.
Directly on-topic: Reparations are not going to happen. There is no money for it. We’re already buried in debt. As someone said above, it wouldn’t be a lump sum; it will be spread out. Even if something does happen, the money crunch (Social Security and Medicare/caid) will hit before the payout is complete.
MS:
“Directly on-topic: Reparations are not going to happen. There is no money for it. We’re already buried in debt. As someone said above, it wouldn’t be a lump sum; it will be spread out. Even if something does happen, the money crunch (Social Security and Medicare/caid) will hit before the payout is complete.”
You are treating “Reparations” as being a real thing, it is not a real thing.
Reparations is but one more tool of manipulation and pandering to the child like mentality that has been fostered in America that is used by race hustlers and the Marxist un and anti-American people who seek Americas destruction so we can all enjoy the wonders of Socialism.
It will never happen it is a race baiting race promoting head fake.
Like someone once said, reparations is: Taking money from people who never owned slaves and giving it to people who never were slaves.
The son is not guilty of the father’s offences.
Lee S wrote: “Who is lobbying for all this? Probably not the black community… More likely the white “woke” crazy left wingers bringing any left leaning politicians into disrepute.”
While one of the authors of this paper fits your description, the other is a black activist who headed the NAACP for years before being given this sweet teaching job at Harvard. In both cases these individuals are not simply “woke” crazy left wingers, they are very closely linked to all levels of the left, both politicallyand academically. They are part of this community, and what they are pushing is something the political left is eagerly embracing.
Your attempt to make believe the left is not part of this is simply your effort to deny reality, so you don’t have to deal with the fact that the left is the source of this craziness.
Lee S,
I would agree with you, but then we would both be wrong.
You wrote: “I will always be left of centre, but idiocy has to be called out, wherever it arises.”
So I will call it out.
You will always be left of centre because you refuse to admit to reality. You prefer your fantasy world where eighty-year-olds are only weeks from certain death. You see anyone to the right of yourself as someone who is not “in any way a good leader,” but somehow you cannot admit that a lefty that you called “undoubtedly senile” is a poor leader. That puts you far to the left of left of centre. It is part of Robert Zimmerman’s note that “you don’t have to deal with the fact that the left is the source of this craziness.”
Seriously… You guys over the pond really need to see reality when it is written on the wall. It is why y’all chose to feed the Russians with oil money, allowing them to become aggressors against your continent. Talk about not being in any way a good leader, your poor lefty leaders did this to you and to us. Europe got a little cheap oil, but at what cost? And now we Americans have to bail you guys out, once again.
You’re welcome.
Say what you want… at least Trump is not deluded, like modern American and European leftists. At least he can see, acknowledge, and react to reality, just like his fellow pre-2000 Democrats on this side of the pond could do. You cannot even see the reality that your dreaded Trump is left of centre, too, only the left has moved so much farther left that you guys think of him as a dreaded Reagan conservative. You all are seriously deluded. Trump derangement syndrome runs as deep in you guys as your leftism syndrome, and neither has a cure. Thus, you will always be far to the left of left of centre.
You wrote: “It’s kinda embarrassing to watch your ‘greatest democracy on earth’ being fought out between a geriatric and a convict.”
Well, you fell for that lefty trap, how embarrassing for you. You have been Grubered. A decade ago, Jonathan Gruber told a bunch of his fellow lefties that the Democrats relied upon the gullibility of their leftist followers.
You and many American leftists are gullible enough to not understand that Trump was accused of something no one thought he did until someone ran for public office on the platform that he would convict Trump of something to be determined later. In order to find a crime, however, he had to turn that non-crime into a crime by associating it with yet another crime that Trump was never convicted of, tried for, accused of, nor did he ever commit it. Even the jury that convicted Trump does not know what that second crime is.
All of this was done to Trump just so gullible lefties like you would say idiotic things like what you said.
Man! …. Even when I agree I still get attempts to shoot me down!
I can only conclude that the place I speak from makes some people uncomfortable. The very idea that perhaps the US democratic system is not the best in the world sends some folks into a feather spitting rage. That is what denial an comfortable truth can do to folks in denial.
Please do not consider me stupid, uneducated, uninformed or blinkered. I try and live my life by following the facts, and I have very much more “boots on the ground” experience of living in what you consider a socialist society than you guys do.
The reason I have stopped posting is at 53 years of age I do not want or need shouting at about why I am wrong by angry old far- lright wingers. You can all live in your little bubble and I will return to being a spectator.
Just don’t believe I am , or call, me stupid.. there are 2 sides to every coin, and anyone that doesn’t see this is the blinkered one
Lee S:
It is apparent that you are a well-meaning person but what is clear to me anyway is that you believe those who seek power over you have the same intension as you. And that is an idealized interpretation of how the world, politics and power operate.
So, by definition because you are unable to appreciate the very valid observations of “Old white right wingers” you in fact are living in the bubble you speak of.
I will just point out the conditions ongoing in Sweden that you consistently disregard and ignore.
This forced Liberal / Leftist mixing of cultures in the effort to end religion, end racism, end inequality is a naive and childish ideological attempt at redefining the nature of man and woman in regard to power and control.
The only end result of your version of existence is that there must be an authoritarian hegemon in the world and that hegemon is not America. And that with all of the warts that by design we are all able to plainly see due to the specific structure of America is exactly what you will by design not be getting with your authoritarian replacement, which is Socialism. Which is a precursor to Communism.
https://cps-static.rovicorp.com/2/Open/Disney/Bubble%20Boy/_derived_jpg_q90_600x800_m0/BubbleBoy-Still8.jpg?partner=allmovie_soap
And this is the difference in perspectives that you are unable to appreciate.
This is the ongoing result of the forced mixing of oil and water cultures: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66952421
And this will soon become ramped up in America.
In life you will be owned, or you will do whatever you can to be free. Choose one or the other while you can.
You no longer post here because you are incapable of properly defending your position, plain and simple.
Keep it simple.
Nice to see you Lee S.
I try not to insult your ideology but I do try to educate you or change your mind on a few things. I do not expect it to work but I try.
We come from two very different political and governmental ideologies. I grew up here and you there.
As for trump or Biden being to old to lead. No they are not too old. One though is showing definite signs of dementia and will very soon in my opinion need constant medical care.
My father is 85 years old, still works a part time job just for something to do and in fact until 2 years ago dated. His last girlfriend is now in a nursing home going through the stages of dementia. He visits her every other day even though she often doesn’t even know who he is.
My mother is 82 and still volunteers for two organizations just to keep active. It used to be three but she can no longer swing a hammer and put up drywall for Habitat for Humanity. She quit that at 80.
Just because someone is “old” 80 plus, is not a reason to disqualify them from work.
Lee S,
You wrote: ““Man! …. Even when I agree I still get attempts to shoot me down!”
No one shot you down for the part where you agreed. It was the second comment where you went on the attack that drew people’s ire. Thus, your conclusion and additional attacks are fallacious. Yet another reality that you failed or refused to see or acknowledge.
If you are going to try to live your life by following the facts, you may want to consider finding the facts, rather than rely upon the bogus drivel that your fellow leftists feed you, relying upon your gullibility and inability to see reality, even when it is written in the post and comments right in front of you.
“I do not want or need shouting at about why I am wrong by angry old far- lright wingers.”
We haven’t shouted at you, but we have corrected you. Such shouting is a fantasy of yours, one you choose in order to rationalize not holding an intelligent discussion based upon facts rather than fantasy.
Of course, we don’t expect a reasoned discussion with you (reasoned discussions with leftists is rare, but very nice when they happen), as your fantasy world is indefensible, which is why you attack others rather than defend your indefensible fantasy-based opinions. However, some still hope (almost certainly in vain) to get you to see a different point of view.
Sorry I’m a bit late in responding… I am currently on semester, and have spent the last week fishing and enjoying the great weather we are having.
Bob, you kinda missed the point when I referred to the “loony” woke far left wingers. They are not in any way connected to the left I belong to. I belong to the reasonable left, of which there are far more of than the loonies, at least over here. I have always condemned the “woke” brigade, and always tried to point out that there is a different form of government that actually works…. Yes, higher taxes, but also better benifits for the citizens… Healthcare, education, free daycare for infants ( so the parents can work and pay their taxes ) , clean and safe public spaces.. the list goes on and on. I live this life, and it works.
Everyone else ;) … I didn’t mean that all older people are incompetent… My father also worked a part time job into his late 70s, but I called out Biden as being a geriatric…. ( Remember he is left of centre, but I am honest enough to speak the truth…) , and I must admit to some bias against Trump… I dislike the man on many levels, I think he is very clever, actually very funny, and he never started a war while in office, but I consider him to be dishonest and very self serving… Not great traits for a leader.
I understand that the intentions of the rants against my political position come from a good place, but until anyone of you come and experience Scandinavia, and THEN argue about its flaws your position is invalid. Don’t believe everything you read or watch on YouTube… I am actually living in Sweden, and life is pretty good!
( On a side note… The UK has had a right wing government for something like 15 years, and the country is broken… Poverty, libraries closed, museums closed, dirt and crime polluting the streets….. But the population have finally realised there is a better way, and Labour are due to win by a landslide in the election next week… )
Blah, blah blah.
Lee S: What do you think about the Lefts mantra:
“Destroy the Patriarchy?”.
What do you think that means? I don’t say it, they, the Left, the Left that you proclaim you are a part of, they are clearly saying it.
And after the patriarchy is destroyed what is the next “Archey” model that will replace it? MUST replace it?
Again, you are not seeing past your temporarily bubble wrapped good life in Sweden that is in transformation before your very eyes due to the Lefts, which you by your own words are a part of and their clearly stated agenda and refuse to see or recognize it.
The only way that the Left can attain their dream in “destroying the patriarchy” is to reject the progress of the last 10,000 years of violence, warfare and abuse of power that wound up in a document crafted by those very same “Rich, White, Patriarchal, Slave Owners” that counterbalances all that bloody mess as best as can be attained. Civilization in other words. It is not something that you pull from your anus and say, this is the new reality!
There is a deadly, bloody and abusive trail that must be walked for a long while in order to change a paradigm in governance and civilization.
The only model to install the Lefts agenda, which you are a part of, is through authoritarian do as you are told, or you will be cancelled jailed or set upon by our street thugs for daring to actually be free rule. There is no other model that can be effective.
And again, to my point, you are a nice guy. BUT nice guys enjoying their nice life in a country that they fled to because the Leftist government transforming their native country into a Royal Patriarchal mess of Leftist agendas and who is now intending to further flee that country because of the progressive Leftist agenda that is in the process of destroying IT!
And I understand that you cannot honestly see those facts as being facts. Why? Because it is YOU who live in your own private Idaho.
“Your Own Private Idaho” is a phrase taken directly from the 1980 dance pop song by the B-52’s1. It means “living inside an Idaho potato”, or a very small space1. The term may have been coined when Idaho and the surrounding states came into U.S. possession. The area was thought as a major growth area, so lifelong dreams could be supported there. “.
I know, it’s a heavy lift, but I am always hopeful that individuals can realize at some point that they must at least make an effort to change their world perspective. At some point. But I know plenty who will never.
And I am almost sorry to have to be so strong with you on this subject.
ALMOST.
There will be change, change is a rule of the universe. But when you pull the change out of your anus and call it good, then all you will have is change, in your pocket. And of course, you will be living under the authoritarian thumb of your new owners.
See, we are right back to slavery, right where we started.
Lee-
Question– Of which Country are you a legal citizen?
And I continue:
One might ask: Well then isn’t the “destroy the patriarchy” model the next natural step in the evolution of those last 10,000 years of a bloody mess in history?
And when you ask that question, you must also ask the next question which is: Are the other forms of governance on planet earth also in that anti patriarchy mode?
And the answer would be absolutely NO.
The CCP Chinese and the Russians among several other countries on planet earth do NOT subscribe to this feminized turn away from “the patriarchy” model and are patiently waiting to pick over the bones of the Wests civilization as it confuses like children itself with the leaning into the
“Matriarchy”? The “Gaytriarchy”? The Minorityarchy”? The “Equityarchy”?
Which are all based in the overarching protections of what brings the strength and the power for the luxury thought that is provided by the “Patriarchy”.
Kind of counter intuitive, no?
The existing “patriarchy” and its strength, freedom and prosperity provided by those “rich, white, patriarchal slave owners” that freed and made prosperous the most numbers of human beings in human history provides the ability of those listed above to think in a luxury manner that is submissive to the other patriarchies of the world who will without doubt take over and consume the warm and fuzzy “Equity” based “NEW” “Matriarchy? Gaytriarchy? Minorityarchy?
Yeah, now that is a smart way to go.
Taylor Swift proclaims: “XXXX The Patriarchy!”. Taylor Swift who uses her $80 million dollar private jet like a taxi to be where ever she pleases on the planet whenever she wants. She and her success, and I love her success, is provided by what? Lee S you may be able to figure this one out.
And she takes a picture with………………. the next in line in the prime “Patriarchy” on the planet.
https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/gqru592xyaagjux.jpg?q=w_1110,c_fill/f_webp
More counter intuitive and confusing moves by those who are confused, you know, the Left, the Liberal, the radical Leftists, the “progressives”.
All provided their luxury to think and be as they please by, you know what?
Lee S, are you processing all of this?
Wayne’s governor just bankrupted her government again in Michigan, free schooling favoring minorities?
“In the end, the approved $23.4 billion school aid budget will provide free community college for all and free preschool for most.”
https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2024-06-27/michigan-lawmakers-pass-budget-overnight-after-disagreements-in-funding-for-schools
I was listening to the radio while working, they were discussing a Michigan proposal to pay 6000 more for minority students. “An equity thing.” Openly discouraging white, Chinese, Jewish students.
Although it’s “for the children”… This is the state’s way to publicly support the educational system and the teacher unions.
With free education, (you get what you pay for) no one will care if the students show up, or if the teachers show up. It just became a welfare source guaranteed income. Education may occur by accident.
We have to remember that the European Left are different than the American left.
Though now that both groups are being funded bu the same international people and groups they are getting closer and closer in all ideologies.
Lee S,
Thank you for being a paragon of what, for years, I have been saying leftists want: a government to be the parents they wish they didn’t have to leave. Rather than a government that does only the three things that the institution of government was invented to do, you want government to take care of you from prenatal to grave.
Government was invented to do only three things:
1. Defend its citizens from all enemies, foreign and domestic,
2. Provide an indifferent third party to peaceably resolve disputes, and
3. Stay out of the people’s way
The left, however, does not like that third purpose. The left has people who crave power and control and are willing to be dictatorial and tyrannical over other people, as though they are possessions. The rest of the left is like you, wanting the security of parents, who make sure that they are well cared for and will always be there to correct their mistakes. For the left, individual failure is not an option, so few risks are taken to improve life.
Instead, Lee, Scandinavians rely on the kindness of other countries to keep it safe and to keep its costs down. As you noted, years ago, your insulin is inexpensive because your taxes pay for it, and as we here at BTB noted, your insulin is inexpensive because U.S. law requires our medications be sold to other nations at cost, meaning that most of your medicines are developed with American money, not your own. You have yet to thank us for our generosity, but once again: you’re welcome.
You may like your lifestyle, but you don’t pay the full cost. That is why you like it so much. It is cheap for you. We Americans are paying dearly for your comfort; it is expensive for us. You’re welcome.
By your own logic: Until you live your lifestyle at its full cost to yourself, your position is invalid.
Oh my….. So very much BLAH BLAH BLAH….
The only comment here is from pzatchok,
Yes, the European left seems to be VERY different from the US left.
Just to throw a few points out before I pack my bags for a family holiday to Portugal…
The purpose of government here is to collect taxes , in an open and transparent manner, and to redistribute the money to ensure that there is a social safety net, so no one gets left behind, there is a good standard of education so the population can be productive ( Sweden punches VERY much above its weight in the IT industry, and also in pop music…. Strange but true! ), and to ensure that …. Well … Life is good for the population. Higher taxes, higher standards of living. I am a slave to no one, it’s just that we live under different systems.
Just as you guys complain that you can’t change my mind, I feel exactly the same way about you. The difference is I live in a generally socialist country, and I have visited the US , the real US… North Carolina and West Virginia, and I see the standards of living are so very much better here than over there. You genuinely get what you pay for. When you have visited Scandinavia, and see for yourself it’s genuinely not some commie hell hole… Then we can talk.
“The purpose of government here is to collect taxes…”
Well, there you have it.
@ Edward… Quote..
“As you noted, years ago, your insulin is inexpensive because your taxes pay for it, and as we here at BTB noted, your insulin is inexpensive because U.S. law requires our medications be sold to other nations at cost, meaning that most of your medicines are developed with American money, not your own. You have yet to thank us for our generosity, but once again: you’re welcome.”
My insulin is produced in Sweden, by Astrazeneca, a company formed by the merger of a Swedish company and a UK company in the 90’s….. They have invested a hell of a lot in US facilities, bringing many, many jobs to the US, and are one of the biggest pharma companies in the world. Your welcome.
Oh, and we don’t charge massive profit mark ups on life saving drugs here in Sweden, but then again we have a functional healthcare system.
I have duel citizenship, UK and Swedish, as my kids do… Mainly to make travel easier… I don’t really care… I am a citizen of the world man!
As I get older I am getting less tolerant of being lectured by people who actually have no idea what they are speaking of, of people who believe the world ends on the east and west coast of the US, and are so blinkered they cannot realise that there are other systems of governance which work perfectly well, indeed perhaps (Gasp) better than the US.
One final point…. Just a reminder that democracy was not invented in the US… Yes you guys invented your “special” form of democracy, but it has been around for over 2500 years, started in what is now Europe. It might behove those that don’t know the history of democracy to do a google search or 2.
Anyways, as normal I came for the space and ended up arguing the politics … ( I told you Biden was geriatric… He’s an embarrassment to the “left” )…. But this time on Monday I will be sitting on the dock of a bay in Portugal, with my kids, rods in hand, bait in the water and a cold beer by me and my lads side… And caring not a jot about this conversation. Please try to take in little of my “boots on the ground” viewpoint, but even if it proves impossible…. Have a great weekend!
Oh my, I just can’t stop…. It must be my holiday mood,
@Edward,
Like I mentioned, the pharma industry is huge here…. We commies return much more to the US than you do to us. ( I’m not including NATO, I voted against joining… But that is a whole different conversation)
And as for not paying the full cost…. I pay 33% income tax, when my children were, well, children, I was probably a net taker from the system… Child support, housing rebate etc… now they are all grown up I am a net giver… Fine by me… It’s all swings and roundabouts…. And at the end of the summer I will be paying a little over $8000 for my son’s distance learning course in IT…. He will also be working so he can pay rent… It doesn’t just fall into your lap wherever you are.
Lee S: Make believe I did not ask the question:
What do you think about the Lefts mantra: “Destroy the Patriarchy?”.
And to Waynes point:
“The purpose of government here is to collect taxes…” Well, there you have it.”
You just do not fundamentally get it.
You believe that government fundamentally owns you and you exist to serve it. Bass ackwards. Government is necessary, but it is a necessary evil.
I have many confused friends just like you.
I love them, I tolerate them, and they understand that when they want real answers to real questions as they wrestle with themselves to understand the treacherous politics of the day that I am here for them to help them come to some real-world understanding. But it is a heavy lift.
Most all are idealistic and are like deer in the head lights, just like you.
I understand.
“Don’t Mention the War..”
Fawlty Towers
https://youtu.be/Tms0yk9kqVM
3:08
An example for Lee S to consider:
“Siding 6-3 with the fishermen, the Supreme Court reversed its 1984 landmark case, Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, which lower courts relied on to uphold NOAA’s rule forcing companies to doll out $700 per day — around 20% of their revenue — to pay the salaries of federally mandated on-board observers. The principle of Chevron deference, rooted in the landmark case, instructed courts to defer to reasonable agency interpretations of statutes when the language is ambiguous.”
Let’s put aside in the conversation the conservation issue for the moment and just focus on the mandated government “Observer” on board the fishing boat at the cost of $700 per day!
Oy!
The administrative state knows no limits.
@cotour… Quote…
“What do you think about the Lefts mantra: “Destroy the Patriarchy?”.
I honestly have never heard that phrase before this thread…. Certainly not a “thing” here in Sweden…. It is most certainly an artifact of your “Loony left” , nothing to do with my left, which is trying to destroy nothing, apart from perhaps the worship of capitalism and money at the expense of life, love and happiness.
You keep banging on about me not realising I’m a slave to my communist government, yet don’t see how many of your citizens are wage slaves, earning minimum wage while the fat cat leaders fill their bank accounts…. I’m not sure the correct term for this dissidence, but I’m sure, if you think about it long enough you might get where I’m coming from.
And I was stupid enough to just say one of the duties of government is to collect taxes without explaining…. Their job is to collect taxes, and redistribute the money in a clear and transparent manner, to the greater good of the greater numbers….. And it also seems you don’t really understand we also have democracy over here… If we are unhappy with the work of the government, we can vote them out.
We also have more than 2 political parties… ( Non of which are run by geriatrics), so people can vote for parties who support the issues they care about, then a coalition is negotiated, and a government is formed which genuinely represents the will of the people. From where I am sitting, this seems more like a genuine democracy than you guys have. I know the truth hurts sometimes, but yes … Give it a long hard think, and you might realise there ARE different systems which work perfectly well in different countries to your own.
(Iceland is a pretty socialist country, and has had democracy 1000+ years longer than the US has even existed….. ) Think on gentlemen…. I’m off fishing! Hugs and commie kisses :-x
And again:
“And I was stupid enough to just say one of the duties of government is to collect taxes without explaining…. Their job is to collect taxes, and redistribute the money in a clear and transparent manner, to the greater good of the greater numbers…”
Fundamentally: When the people become sooo dependent on government to redistribute other people’s money to them for their existence you no longer have a “Democracy” you have parasitism. And that is the culture of dependency that government always seeks to foster and grow. The entity government (All government) wants more and more dependency. That is the business they are in.
A direct Democracy is actually authoritarianism by definition, 51 percent of the population tells the other 49 percent of the population how they must live..
“The politics of Sweden take place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic constitutional monarchy. Executive power is exercised by the government, led by the prime minister of Sweden.”.
And Sweden is entirely on board with the Globalist “Destroy the Patriarchy” model which you are unconscious of and promoted by the radical Left. What do you think the illegal invasion of your country as is the current authoritarian in the White House and his / their radical agenda flooding the country with illegals is based on and all about?
https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/newscms/2014_44/746251/ss-141031-halloween-night-tease.jpg
TREASON in other words.
Another thing that you are unconscious to. Oy!
I just realized related to the theme of the Zmans post:
“Taking money from people who never owned slave and giving it to people who never were slaves”.
To which Lee S responded: “I am making one of my very infrequent these days comments to say I actually agree with most of what is said above…”
But you are totally on board with government confiscating peoples hard earned money and deciding who gets it and when they redistribute it and how much.
Seems like you would be right on board with the “destroy the patriarchy” reparation’s agenda.
Taking money from people who have nothing to do with slavery being made to pay others who were never slaves damages.
Seems like very much the same thing, it just apparently depends on how you justify the confiscation and redistribution?
Fundamentally not understanding.
Lee S
You proved my point. You believe government, not the citizen, has responsibility for his lifestyle, just like a parent has responsibility over his children — thus government may demand control over your life, just as a parent controls and is responsible for his children, so that it can guarantee your selfish lifestyle.
You proved another point: Your insulin comes from a Swedish company that used the U.S. to develop your inexpensive insulin (but you probably do not realize you admitted that).
“Higher taxes, higher standards of living. I am a slave to no one, it’s just that we live under different systems.”
One system emphasizes freedom, yours emphasizes caretaking.
Although I did not say you are a slave, you do not realize that taxes means that for that percentage of your work-time you work for the government that taxes you, and you are happy that your government takes care of your lifestyle, subsidized by we Americans.
“… I have visited the US , the real US… North Carolina and West Virginia, …”
Two of the smaller and poorer states constitute “the real US?” And visiting is now the same as living the lifestyle? And yet, those same North Carolinians and West Virginians help pay for your opulent lifestyle. No wonder you prefer your own over your benefactor’s.
Why do you think that the rest of the U.S. is not part of the “real” U.S.? Apparently, you have gotten the wrong impression of America. You have not really visited America yourself, thus by your own words, “your position is invalid.”
“You genuinely get what you pay for.”
Yet you ungratefully get what we pay for.
“Oh, and we don’t charge massive profit mark ups on life saving drugs here in Sweden”
You don’t have to tell me; I’m the one who told you that, Lee S. The massive markups here in the U.S. are in place so that lifesaving drugs used around the world are sold to the world at cost, not including development costs or the profits required to continue the investment in the companies that develop your lifesaving drugs.
“As I get older I am getting less tolerant of being lectured by people who actually have no idea what they are speaking of,”
But you are more willing to lecture people about things you have absolutely no idea what you lecture about. Without realizing it, you even gave away that your insulin was developed in the U.S. at U.S. citizens’ cost, and made for cheap in your own country, taking jobs away from the very same Americans who paid for its development in the first place. A huge pharmaceutical industry based upon making cheap drugs that Americans paid to develop. You get the rewards, we pay the price, and you gloat over how you screw us so hard that your vacations are superior to ours.
Then you have the gall to think we should be thanking you for your greed.
Speaking of greed, your drug company gets to make a profit on selling your insulin to you, but a U.S. company is forbidden to do so.
“Just a reminder that democracy was not invented in the US…”
You had better believe it! We are not a democracy, we are a republic, which we also didn’t invent. Democracies tend toward voting themselves more and more benefits that they get by taking from other people. Which is what your favored country does, explaining why you like it so much, over there.
“Anyways, as normal I came for the space and ended up arguing the politics … ”
The post’s topic was not about space, it was about politics, and you got the argument that you wanted, just so you could complain about being in the argument. When your comment agreeing with us failed to kick up the argument you expected, you poked at us, as normal, and now you complain that you get to complain.
Geez, Lee S, we learn more about you with each of your comments.
“But this time on Monday I will be sitting on the dock of a bay in Portugal, with my kids, rods in hand, bait in the water and a cold beer by me and my lads side… ”
Which our generosity has helped you to afford. You just cannot help but rub it into our faces that our generosity helps you to have better vacations than ours.
“I pay 33% income tax, ”
Look at that. Your taxes are lower than ours, too. 22% federal, 10% state, 7.62% payroll (and I should add in my employer’s contribution, because I could be paid that much more, or he could hire 7-5/8% more employees — the second use of which is why I don’t add it in). Yes, that makes me 40% slave to my own governments (plus sales taxes at 10%, and property taxes at 2% of a property that is apparently highly valued*). Then there is Obamacare, which won approval with the Supreme Court of the land only because it, too, is a tax. Plus there are the taxes on gasoline, various taxes on the many utilities, taxes for going to the theatre, taxes for landing at an airport, even a tax on buying a newspaper. There are many more taxes, but the list is longer than I want on this already too-long comment. No wonder my vacations are in-state; I cannot afford the travel.
NATO is part of this whole lifestyle conversation, because Biden lets you get away with paying less than your fair share. No wonder you don’t want Trump back — he will make you pay your fair share on that particular issue.
“It doesn’t just fall into your lap wherever you are.”
I didn’t say that you paid nothing, just that we subsidize your lifestyle. And we do. You just don’t see it, because if you did, you would feel guilty.
Or maybe not. You are just fine with the concept of stealing from the rich to give to the poor, even when they are countries, not just individuals.
“… earning minimum wage while the fat cat leaders fill their bank accounts…. ”
Minimum wage is supposed to be a starter wage for high school students, not a living wage for heads of households. It is people like you, who have conflated the two concepts, that make our minimum wage so terribly high that no one wants to hire the unskilled high schoolers anymore. Getting into the workforce in America has become very difficult. It is a catch 22, where no one will hire you without experience, but you can’t get experience until someone hires you.
And speaking of fat cats, you certainly have managed to fill your bank account enough to have one hell of a nice foreign vacation with your kids, whose housing you can afford to pay for. How many of those same North Carolinians and West Virginians — you know, the “real Americans” — can afford to fly thousands of miles to a foreign country just for a fishing trip or can afford to pay for their children’s housing? Or are their fishing trips to their local streams, lakes, and rivers?
So, every time you think of your poor North Carolina and West Virginia friends, remember that you are part of the reason that they are poor. Did you thank them when you were there? I didn’t think so.
“to the greater good of the greater numbers….. ”
Oh. My. God! “The greater good.“. How many people have died in the name of “the greater good?” In the 20th century alone, Marxists killed at least a hundred million.
Who decides what is the greater good, and who protects the rights of the minority that is screwed. Or murdered? Why is it fair to be unfair to that screwed (or murdered) minority? A billion Europeans screw a third of a billion Americans, and to you that is fair.
_______________
* The rule of thumb for buying a home in America is to buy one that is four times your annual income (depending upon the current interest rate). This means that property taxes start off at 8% of income. As property values increase, the tax can become much greater than this percentage.
Lee-
Just consider one thing:
None of your political rulers, have your best interests at heart.
They just don’t.
As I comprehend our political system here (usa) the OEM specs call for the dispersion of power and keeping things small and as localized as feasible, so there is LESS TO STEAL from the People.
People that want to be in charge, can’t be trusted, so they need a short leash.
But once you contrive to steal from one person and give it to another person, under threat of violence, and claim it’s “just,” I get off that train.
wayne,
That is a very good point. I have said that leftists and marxists have a desire for someone to care for them or a desire to be the caretakers, “just like a parent has responsibility over his children.” No stranger, such as a politician or bureaucrat can care for his citizens like a parent can care for his child. For one, politicians and bureaucrats don’t know each citizen well enough to know what is in his best interest. At best he can assume that a specific citizen is like an “average” citizen.
Second, the politician and the bureaucrat both have their own best interests at heart. That is human nature.
Lee S‘s adopted government takes advantage of American policies, and resources flow from what Lee S calls “the real US… North Carolina and West Virginia” to his country. He favors stealing not just from the rich but from the poor, too.
He wrote: “The purpose of government here is to collect taxes , in an open and transparent manner, and to redistribute the money to ensure that there is a social safety net, … and to ensure that … Life is good for the population. … Just as you guys complain that you can’t change my mind, I feel exactly the same way about you. The difference is I live in a generally socialist country, and I have visited the US , the real US… North Carolina and West Virginia, and I see the standards of living are so very much better here than over there.”
I gave him three purposes of government:
“Government was invented to do only three things:
“1. Defend its citizens from all enemies, foreign and domestic,
“2. Provide an indifferent third party to peaceably resolve disputes, and
“3. Stay out of the people’s way”
Lee rejected all three. For him, Swedish government provides no defense against enemies. (Why would they bother, when there is the U.S. to do that for them?) No resolution of disputes. (That is unexpected, and seems like some sort of fantasy world, as I am fairly sure that the courts in Sweden are government owned and run.) Rather than staying out of the way, Lee believes the one purpose — “the purpose,” the only purpose — of Sweden’s government is to redistribute money. Presumably taken from those who earned it and given to those who did not. No meritocracy is Sweden!
Instead of reward for merit, where he lives government has only one purpose, the opposite of my third purpose: To collect taxes and to redistribute the money — to interfere in everyone’s life, not stay out of their way. It is exactly like taking money from people who never owned slaves and giving it to people who never were slaves.
Since less work for the same money is a measure of higher standard of living, being on the receiving end of that redistribution is tilted toward a better standard of living than being on the giving end.
His standard of living is because of his favored philosophy “to redistribute the money,” where some of that money is redistributed from “the real US” through American development of the drugs his country’s companies profit from and through America providing defense of his country that his country does not pay for. In the past, he complained that the standard of living in North Carolina and West Virginia was very poor, yet as he gets older he is “getting less tolerant of being lectured by people who actually have no idea what they are speaking of,” defined as people who don’t agree with him. Obviously, Lee would feel we knew what we were speaking of only if we agreed with him.
How can he be wrong? He is a marxist, therefore he must be right by virtue of marxist virtue. No thinking required on his part, he is right naturally. His standard of living is all that matters to him, and if his friends in North Carolina and West Virginia have to suffer for his standard of living, well, Lee feels that he deserves that higher standard of living, just for being a virtuous marxist. As he said: “it’s just that we live under different systems.” In his system: “Higher taxes, higher standards of living..” For him, “less to steal from the people” means lower taxes, means lower standard of living. What kind of standard of living would he have if he were taxed 100%, and why doesn’t he demand that level of taxation and that greatest of all levels of standard of living?
After all, if it taxed even more money, his government would be able to take care of him even better. Right?
Why can’t he change our minds? Because we have thought about all this long ago, and leftists like him constantly require us to review our thinking, resulting in refining or reinforcing our conclusions. Lee even provides me with new information that supports my reasoning and conclusions. Critical thinking is in our nature.
Why can’t we change his mind? Because he enjoys the advantages we provide for him under the current systems and national relationships, and he needs to rationalize that it is OK for his countries to be parasitic on other countries. His beliefs change easily when leftist doctrine changes. Wishful thinking is in leftist’s nature.
He feels happy that his government ensures a good life for him and his fellow population, that he sees “the standards of living are so very much better [in Sweden] than [in the real U.S.].” To admit the reality of the cost to others, especially the cost to his “real US” friends, would change that good feeling. In his fantasy world, to use his exact words, “We commies return much more to the US than you do to us. ( I’m not including NATO …“) But he considers an example of returning more to the US than the Swedes took from us is Sweden freely taking and manufacturing pharmaceuticals that were developed in the US, paid for by US citizens through the significantly higher costs to us for the exact same drug — Lee is so proud that they are so much cheaper in Sweden than the US. Nothing was returned to us; only that we paid for the development of his pharmaceutical. He sees a net loss to us as a net gain to us, but then only a proud marxist could have so little understanding of economics, free markets, or capitalism. Or greed, for that matter.
Lee suggested: “Give it a long hard think, and [we conservative] might realise there ARE different systems which work perfectly well in different countries to [our] own.” These different systems that also work so perfectly well in different countries must explain why millions of people are pouring over their borders just to get to live in those other different systems. I have spent the past few days, while Lee vacationed on our dime, giving it a long hard think to count those different countries, but it only gave me a headache. I came up with no country whose system is so good that ten million people, or so, over the past three and a half years, were so desperate to enter that different country’s different system that they sneaked in completely lacking any benefit of legal entry. Except for the U.S.’s different system, which did attract that many. But no socialist or communist systems were attracting many at all. “[T]he truth hurts sometimes,” you know, and my headache did just that.
Perhaps some people prefer a merit-based system over a parasite-based system. The people receiving the redistributed taxes are parasites on their hosts, the people earning the taxed money. Naturally, the parasites are the ones who are happier with their system and are the ones who prefer the parasite-based system.
“Reality betrays us all.” — Benjamin Hoffman, the movie Hoffman
Right now, reality is betraying Lee S.
Edward,
you’ve been busy!
Remy: Rich Men North of Richmond (Federal Employee Version)
Reason TV (August 2023)
https://youtu.be/ihRPNAXVJG8
(2:21)
This is all Lee S has to understand:
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/07/europe/france-election-results-gamble-analysis-intl-hnk/index.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-39056786
“The claim: Many young male migrants arrived in Sweden over the past few years, when the country accepted unprecedented numbers of refugees, and there has been a huge rise in sexual crime in Sweden especially in the southern port city of Malmo.
Reality Check verdict: Malmo, along with other urban centres in Sweden, has one of the highest levels of reported rapes in proportion to population in the EU, mainly due to the strictness of Swedish laws and how rape is recorded in the country.”
And this is what is being incrementally installed due to the treason of the current Democrat party and the effects of the Obama infiltration machine in America.
The key word in my sentence above? “UNDERSTAND”