Infidel Dog Posted May 13, 2021 Report Share Posted May 13, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, GrittyLeftist said: Please correct me if I'm misinterpreting you. Taxme had said, "All we the people want is to have lower taxes, less government, less rules and regulations and to keep our god given rights and freedoms." I was just pointing out that if we have less government we are creating a power vacuum and something else will fill that void. I am not aware of anything poised to fill that void in today's world besides corporations and oligarchs - it is possible there are factors I'm not aware of.[/quote] Nope. We both appear to talking about the same thing. However, I don't think Taxme is really talking about not enough government. Sounds more to me like he's talking about just enough. It's also possible to have too much. Mike and others seem to like that idea. Edited May 13, 2021 by Infidel Dog 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrittyLeftist Posted May 13, 2021 Report Share Posted May 13, 2021 5 minutes ago, Infidel Dog said: Nope. We both appear to talking about the same thing. However, I don't think Taxme is really talking about not enough government. Sounds more to me like he's talking about just enough. It's also possible to have too much. Mike and others seem to like that idea. Definitely agree that there is a balancing act necessary. When I'm talking to people about socialism, I often like to say, "Nobody is saying that fire departments should be privately owned and operated for profit, and nobody is saying that professional wrestling ought to be owned by the taxpayer and operated for the common good." Somewhere in the middle is the sweet spot, problem is I think the sweet spot is constantly changing as our circumstances and values change. JMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myata Posted May 13, 2021 Report Share Posted May 13, 2021 (edited) 18 hours ago, Michael Hardner said: In my lifetime I have seen giant changes that they used to call 'paradigm shifts'. A vastly improved society could be achieved pretty quickly. Interesting topics certainly. Of the very wide and long indeed general subject of democracy I specifically meant this country's, Canadian democracy. It has been frozen in time since creation of institutions in mid 19th century and has been extremely reluctant to change ever since. You are correct in that some meaningful change occurs outside of the system of governance. However, a system that never changes and would not change would inevitably grow inefficient and unable to fulfill the needs of the society. We are beginning to see that process already and the math says that it will accelerate. And it's up to the society to maintain and update its democratic institutions as and when necessary, not run away hide and delegate it somewhere else. And the most recent example. Today unelected Commissioner acquitted PM of wrongdoing in the We affair. If you asked a person in the street see this guy's dad got $,00,000 lecturing for the company and then the company got a multi-billion non-competitive contract is it a conflict of interest - how many and which answers would we get? At what point do you start asking, is the thing working for the society or for and mostly, itself? Edited May 14, 2021 by myata 1 Quote If it's you or them, the truth is equidistant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Army Guy Posted May 13, 2021 Report Share Posted May 13, 2021 On 5/8/2021 at 3:00 PM, Right To Left said: God must work at the CBC now then, judging by what they serve up as 'news'. CBC has always tried to play it down the middle, but they were never this accommodating to Trudeau senior back in the 70's! They again, I can't recall CBC being so pro-war or forcing out military critics from their organization until the past 20-25 years. Well you what they say you get what you pay for... I watched a few interviews with Mad max, and there was no playing in the middle there, it was down right hostile....for a news media site.... 1 Quote We, the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have now done so much for so long with so little, we are now capable of doing anything with nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackbird Posted May 14, 2021 Author Report Share Posted May 14, 2021 Another clear sign we are moving toward some kind of authoritarian Marxist / globalist state: Much of the former power cabinet ministers held has been removed from them and centralized in the PMO's unelected staff and Prime Minister himself. A clear example of this the SNC Lavalin/Jody Wilson Raybould issue and the Harjit Sajjan/ military sexual abuse problem. The minister of defence, Sajjan, refused to listen to a complaint against Vance and declined to take action, a clear sign he has little or no power to do anything. Gives the impression ministers are afraid to do anything for fear they will be shot down by the PMO or PM. This is a result of removing decision making from the elected and appointed cabinet ministers and centralizing it in the PMO, some of whom are unelected bureaucrats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myata Posted May 14, 2021 Report Share Posted May 14, 2021 (edited) 24 minutes ago, blackbird said: This is a result of removing decision making from the elected and appointed cabinet ministers and centralizing it in the PMO, some of whom are unelected bureaucrats. Primarily and ultimately, it is the result and in my view, quite inevitable one, of the indifference and complacency of the public. A democracy cannot prosper where it is not in demand, where people don't care, don't clean it, maintain it, don't discuss and seek necessary improvements and gave up the will and hope to implement them. Basically, where few care, and those who do mostly to talk it away. Edited May 14, 2021 by myata 1 2 Quote If it's you or them, the truth is equidistant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Right To Left Posted May 14, 2021 Report Share Posted May 14, 2021 On 5/13/2021 at 1:57 PM, GrittyLeftist said: The biggest single lesson I learned from Trumpers is that calling people stupid will not convince them of anything. Worth pointing out that being ignorant does not make a person dumb. This stuff is not taught in school and the media has been actively spreading misinformation for generations. I think the right often tries to paint the left as "lazy" and the left often tries to paint the right as "stupid." In my experience, the best way to find out how hard a person works is to go with them to do the things they want to do, and the best way to find out how smart a person is is to talk with them about the things that interest them. I think that "lazy" and "stupid" are not really helpful and keep the right and the left divided, angry and defensive. I believe that if we could get to the point where people can have respectful, informed conversations, the right and left will discover that we have a lot of the same political problems, and that those problems have a lot of the same causes, and that those problems have a lot of the same solutions. Well, that's my hope anyway, what do I know? ? I follow a lot of what you're saying here. I agree that many people have sincerely believed themselves to be "Communist" who were using violence because they had given up on conversation or because they believed the ends justified the means. For me, that's like a person who claims to value democracy while rigging elections, or a person who values freedom while instituting mandatory minimum sentences, building for-profit prisons and militarizing police. Those people exist, but they are not exemplars of their belief system, they are actively perverting the belief system they claim to follow. Violence is problematic - if you use it, you've lost moral authority, and if you don't use it you get to sit and watch while it is used unjustly by states and oligarchs against the helpless. Pacifism can reasonably be seen as ableism coming from the privileged and slow suicide coming from the downtrodden. I don't have a solution to that dilemna yet I am curious to find who are "our adversaries" whose ideological rhetoric is served by Chomsky's critique? From the context I'm guessing you mean the oligarchy, but I don't want to put words in your mouth. I am personally not trying to foment revolution, just to give people better information. If people knew what "leftist" actually means, no reasonable adults would think that, for example, Hollywood was leftist, or the media was leftist, or the government, or the CBC, or really any of our institutions except maybe unions. If we were more politically literate we could have more useful conversations with our fellow citizens and it would be harder for the forked-tounged rhetoricians of the world to jerk us around. Your point that Marx didn't really address the environment at all is a sound one. It seems he did not foresee that particular crisis. I like that you referenced indigenous philosophers, I think there is a lot of very useful stuff to be learned there, but it has been violently suppressed for so long that it's hard to find a good, undistorted source. Their emphasis on intergenerationality, in particular, is keenly missing in our society. I think if we saw ourselves as part of a community that comprised our ancestors, the living, and our descendants, we would make more responsible decisions. I want to get back to this later, but for now, when I say fake leftists, I'm talking about those who have been co-opted by the CIA and other agencies, which began directly in the 50's and 60's, as believe it or not, Gloria Steinem admitted in her confessional biography a few years ago that YES she had been a CIA informant back in the 60's when she and a few other grifters transformed the original 'Women's Liberation Movement' into a bland 'Feminist Movement' of wealthier professional women who no longer had any message on classism! Everything would be about sex and gender and why men are bad wherever they appear on political and economic spectrums. It was the same way that George Meany became the primary agent of destruction of organized labour when he became chairman of the AFL-CIO, and allowed the Taft-Hartley Act to make further union organizing more difficult, and told union leaders that they risked the continued welfare of unions and the labor movement if they didn't identify and remove communists from their memberships. In more recent times, the CIA and FBI have preferred the indirect route of setting up NGO's to be the go-betweens handing out the money to fake leftist media and organizations. Before the ISO was discovered to have been a fraud...because of their questionable positions on US sponsored wars, and being on the wrong side every time in Latin America (such as against the Sandinista Party in Nicaragua when the US was trying to sow unrest there) they had already been found out, and most of their members were making their way to the more useful DSA as an organizing tool. Chomsky, since this old fool is still taken as an ideological hero of the nebulous left, in spite of his dubious political advice....always lining up with the Democratic Party, regardless of whatever criticism he gives them, I am reminded that Chomps could never find a real revolutionary group he liked, or didn't support more than CIA-sponsored groups. I can't say he held malevolent intentions, but by being among the cheering section when the Wall fell in Berlin 30 years ago, he had long failed to mention that the old Soviet Union had been the only ones offering education and monetary assistance to revolutionary groups around the world for decades. With the Soviet Union gone, the US Empire has really been able to show its teeth in recent decades and unabashedly apply deadly military power for strategic and financial gain around the world. America's main industry today (which we are part of also) is WAR. It is the only significant industrial sector left in US manufacturing because it is the essential tool for an empire to maintain its power and exploit the weaker nations. If Chomsky, with alll of his education and credentials, wasn't aware of what might happen if you crawl into your anarchist shell and pretend the Soviets or Mao's China served no purpose for left movements in America, he only fooled himself and his followers! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrittyLeftist Posted May 14, 2021 Report Share Posted May 14, 2021 1 hour ago, Right To Left said: (trimmed for brevity) Thanks for your post, it contained a lot that I was unaware of. Was not familiar with Gloria Steinem, just wiki'd her. Gotta say, it's a bad look for a person who spent decades involved in federal politics to have been having secret involvement with the CIA. Makes her look bad, her causes look bad, American politics look bad, and the CIA... well, looking bad is sort of what they do best. That and assassinations, drug smuggling, election interference, etc etc etc. I also hadn't heard of George Meaney. Super weird to me that someone that virulently anticommunist ended up becoming the biggest figure in unions for decades in the US. Guess that's America for you. Read his wikipedia article, sounds like he played an important role in stamping out communism and, in the long run, weakening unions. Ironic because it sounds like weakening unions was not his intent. I know that America was hip-deep in "regime change" in Latin America for decades. I'm not an expert, but to the best of my knowledge, the general pattern was that a democratically elected left wing government would be removed and a hard right junta installed in its place, which committed enough atrocities against their own people that the people were unable to resist having their natural resources pillaged for pennies on the dollar by american corporations. For anybody who is unfamiliar - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_regime_change_in_Latin_America. Truly a shameful story. Regarding Chomsky, I see the world as made up of good people who sometimes do bad things and bad people who sometimes do good things. I see the difference between the two as being mostly a matter of time, circumstance, perspective and, of course, choice. I can appreciate some of the good Chomsky has done without needing to make him out to be a saint. In particular, the work he has done creating academic "proof" of many of America's misdeeds has IMO been very important. On a personal level, I am indebted to him for Manufacturing Consent (which was in collaboration with Edward Herman). It forever changed the way I view and consume information. I don't always agree with him, and I also don't always understand him (I haven't yet put the work in to figure out whatever he means by "anarcho-syndicalism" for instance). I think one important difference between America and the Soviet Union is that America did not find it necessary to murder Chomsky. I have no doubt that he would have been executed, sent to the Gulag, or simply "disappeared" had he lived in China or Russia. I've listened to interviews where people ask him why he was a fiercer critic of America than of the Soviet Union (I think the question has come up several times but can't remember which interviews). His response was that as an American, he is more responsible for America's crimes, and as an American, he is more able to do something about America's crimes. As much as I can criticize the Soviets and/or Chinese "Communist" governments for their authoritarianism, abuse of their citizenry and needless brutality, it is definitely worth bearing in mind that America is as, or even more, violent. The biggest difference I see is the scope and justification - the American war machine spread death and destruction on a much vaster scale, and the American propaganda machine is far more effective than the Soviets ever were. I guess America has committed fewer large scale atrocities against their own citizenry, so yay? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myata Posted May 14, 2021 Report Share Posted May 14, 2021 (edited) None of this is new though any human tribe from the dawn of intelligence used 1) force including violence and 2) rationalization and justification to 1) fulfill their needs and 2) prove that it's necessary and morally right thing to do. I'm just curious if now in the 21 century since who knows how many centuries there will be one, just one example how it could be done differently, and with any consistency. Edited May 14, 2021 by myata Quote If it's you or them, the truth is equidistant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bush_cheney2004 Posted May 14, 2021 Report Share Posted May 14, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, Right To Left said: It is the only significant industrial sector left in US manufacturing because it is the essential tool for an empire to maintain its power and exploit the weaker nations. This is patently false, as the U.S. automotive manufacturing sector is a larger percentage of U.S. GDP than defense manufacturing, which is only about 5% of total U.S. manufacturing output across all sectors. U.S. automotive manufacturing has far more impact on Canada than defense manufacturing, including domestic plants, suppliers, employment, and exports. This is why Trudeau and his globalist supporters pooped their pants when Trump threatened to shut down Ontario's auto industry with 25% tariffs (85% of Canada's automotive manufacturing is exported to a single country...the United States). Edited May 14, 2021 by bush_cheney2004 Quote Economics trumps Virtue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shady Posted May 14, 2021 Report Share Posted May 14, 2021 Not communist, but totalitarian. This is the federal government’s guidelines for the summer. Um, small outdoor gatherings without masks was last summer. They expect that with 75% of Canadians at one dose and 20% at two? Are they insane? They can go fuck themselves, especially that idiot Tam. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrittyLeftist Posted May 14, 2021 Report Share Posted May 14, 2021 4 minutes ago, Shady said: Not communist, but totalitarian. This is the federal government’s guidelines for the summer. Um, small outdoor gatherings without masks was last summer. They expect that with 75% of Canadians at one dose and 20% at two? Are they insane? They can go fuck themselves, especially that idiot Tam. I completely understand being frustrated by the covid situation, I am too. The government actually paid us for months to stay home, but a few of us weren't willing to do that. The government asked us not to travel internationally, and a few of us weren't willing to make that sacrifice. Then the government put in insufficient measures to protect us from each other, and some of us weren't willing to follow them. Now we are here. This problem is not caused by the government, it is caused by citizens who won't take responsibility for their beliefs and their actions. How have we reached a point where grown adults think their right to go get a haircut is more important than someone else's right to not die of the plague? How have we reached a point where the rest of us will just sit there and watch superspreaders ruin our economy and needlessly increase the death count? Where have all the grown-ups gone? I'm 40, barely old enough to remember when there were adults who talked about their responsibilities. Now all I hear are grown children demanding their rights. FWIW, if the government actually were totalitarian, they could invoke the Emergency Measures Act, which would allow them to temporarily suspend civil liberties. Those restrictions could be challenged in court but would stand in the interim. They could have suspended the right of the press to platform covid deniers, they could have suspended the rights of people to travel internationally and in between provinces, they could have suspended the rights of people to attend religious services in person, among other reasonable measures. They did not do any this. Personally, I wish they would have, because I value the right of people to not die of the plague above the aforementioned rights. Given they have let tens of thousands of Canadians die rather than restrict people's rights, it seems pretty silly to say this is a totalitarian government. I would, however, say that this is a government that values the rights of the privileged over the survival of everyone who isn't privileged. I would also say that the people holding the levers of power shouldn't be. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Right To Left Posted May 15, 2021 Report Share Posted May 15, 2021 On 5/13/2021 at 2:41 PM, GrittyLeftist said: It's worth remembering that humans invented Capitalism before we invented government regulation of Capitalists. England used to have an industrialized, Capitalist society that was wholly deregulated. The results were awful and can be read about in most Charles Dickens novels. Herbert Spencer Visits Pittsburgh - Existential Comics The problems alluded to in this strip were solved by government regulation. The 8 hour work day and 40 hour work week, minimum wage, safety regulations, laws against child labour and union breaking, taxation, environmental protections, and so much more, were all brought about by government regulation, and they were brought about to solve real problems that were plaguing society at the time. I agree that government is imperfect and that politics is inherently frustrating, but if we weaken our government it creates a power vacuum that will be filled by corporations and oligarchs. Respectfully, it seems to me that you are using "we the people" as though the views you are expressing are representative of all Canadians. I don't think Canadians as a whole agree on very many things. I also wonder if you've thought of who will be the guarantor of our rights and freedoms if we neuter the government. As things are now, if a person believes their rights have been violated, they go to the government for redress. If we defund and disempower our government, who will enforce our rights? That said, I totally agree with your points about how our democracy has become subverted. Politicians make promises, some of us believe them enough to vote, nearly half of the ballots we cast don't elect anyone, then our politicians go and do whatever they please with very little accountability to us, until the next election rolls around. The reason that this doesn't serve as adequate accountability is because the next election isn't a choice between what we want and what we have, it's a choice between several different, imperfect politicians. We make our choice and the whole cycle starts again with the same result. Being able to vote out the last liar doesn't help us if all the electable candidates will continue to lie. For me, the solution is for Canadians, as a whole, to come together and have a lot of respectful dialogue so that we can figure out what we stand for and why we stand for it. Then we can make effective plans for how we will hold our politicians to account. As long as it is only one group of Canadians out of many who are upset about any given problem, the ruling elite can play us off against each other instead of addressing our problems. Good point! First capitalism developed...or was invented as feudalism withered and decayed, and then government institutions had to regulate it or capitalism would have devolved into monopoly capitalism, and then everybody would have been working for Amazon or some other blood-sucking corporate vampire! The legend according to a later biography is that during the Depression, FDR read the riot act to his eastern elite brethren when he wanted to start the New Deal programs to build new public infrastructure and more controversial - fund make work projects for unemployed farmers, blue collar workers and even artists, on public works projects that the right spends so much time deriding and holding in contempt today. If legend is at all accurate, FDR said: I'm the only one in between you and the mobs out there who want to string you up and hang you.....or words to that effect! I recall that back in my younger days, the liberal reforms by FDR and the smaller scale versions by Mackenzie King up here were viewed through the prism of progress, and believed that they were permanent reforms and improvements made possible by a mixed economy of controlled capitalism. It was not suspected that the purveyors of pure, unadulterated capitalism had not given up and were just waiting for a time of turmoil (like the 1970's) when enough people would back an extreme rightwing economic prescription that the rich elite ruling classes who always felt entitled to rule through control of money, would rise again and gut the systems created to smooth off the rough edges of capitalism. And, here we are! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Right To Left Posted May 15, 2021 Report Share Posted May 15, 2021 (edited) 5 hours ago, bush_cheney2004 said: This is patently false, as the U.S. automotive manufacturing sector is a larger percentage of U.S. GDP than defense manufacturing, which is only about 5% of total U.S. manufacturing output across all sectors. U.S. automotive manufacturing has far more impact on Canada than defense manufacturing, including domestic plants, suppliers, employment, and exports. This is why Trudeau and his globalist supporters pooped their pants when Trump threatened to shut down Ontario's auto industry with 25% tariffs (85% of Canada's automotive manufacturing is exported to a single country...the United States). I notice you posted military mfg as a % of GDP but not automotive or any other sectors for some reason. Could it be because a rising US Dollar priced US auto manufacturing out of the game, while military procurements have one primary buyer - the US Government, where price is no object! So, to keep the money flowing in to build more ships, planes and missiles, most of the manufacturing has been kept within US boundaries and the large arms makers are smart and cagey enough to make sure they have some small branch plant in all of the lower 48 states. That way, any senator or House member who doesn't jump when they want more money stoked into the "Defense" spending fire will be singled out and even smeared by local media as 'being weak on defense' and 'not protecting jobs in our district.' That's usually quite enough to make any budget hawk fold! I don't know if you want to delve into the details further, but the reason why we still have an automotive industry up here in spite of NAFTA rigging favoring US manufacturing, was because our Dollar was always undervalued, so wages were comparatively lower, providing an advantage of saving jobs/though lower paid jobs, until the modern era when someone like Obama could get credited for saving jobs in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana by talking UAW leaders into signing the contract demanded by GM that cut starting wages in half! As for the misnamed "defense" spending, I wouldn't mind taking a peek under the hood to see if it includes production of ICBM's and nuclear hardware, which are squirreled away under the Energy Dept. to hide their impact on military spending bumping up close to the $Trillion mark now. And all of your attempts at hairsplitting don't hide the fact that by shifting the US economy from industry to supporting a petrodollar, and that makes the US an empire dependent on an overpowering military force needed to leverage using its overvalued currency as a reserve currency, able to continue extracting wealth from nations which supply resources and mfg goods to US consumers. If, or should I say WHEN this system that other nations are gradually breaking away from loses its dollar power completely, then the American empire turns into British empire of 50 years ago, with a devaluing currency, and a shrunken ability to hold on to colonial projects it had depended on for so much of its wealth. Difference is that the collapsing American empire will be a much more angry, aggressive and dangerous member of the global community now than the British empire was a half century ago during its decline! Edited May 15, 2021 by Right To Left Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bush_cheney2004 Posted May 15, 2021 Report Share Posted May 15, 2021 2 minutes ago, Right To Left said: ... Difference is that the collapsing American empire will be a much more angry, aggressive and dangerous member of the global community now than the British empire was a half century ago during its decline! Difference is that Canada knows all about collapsing empires, and is now dependent on the angry, aggressive, and dangerous U.S. economy and military instead of the British. 1 Quote Economics trumps Virtue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Right To Left Posted May 15, 2021 Report Share Posted May 15, 2021 2 minutes ago, bush_cheney2004 said: Difference is that Canada knows all about collapsing empires, and is now dependent on the angry, aggressive, and dangerous U.S. economy and military instead of the British. And your point is ??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bush_cheney2004 Posted May 15, 2021 Report Share Posted May 15, 2021 Just now, Right To Left said: And your point is ??? My point is obvious...over the past 100 years, Canada has seen its former imperialist empire wither away in purposeful favour of cozying up to the American bastards that Canada is now so dependent on. A "failed" American empire would just be a bigger version of what Canada became long ago....having also dropped out of the "middle power"ranks.... is life so bad in Canada these days ? Quote Economics trumps Virtue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Right To Left Posted May 15, 2021 Report Share Posted May 15, 2021 5 hours ago, GrittyLeftist said: My poiint on earlier generations of American leftists is that they were mostly deliberately or unintentionally coopted by malevolent forces, and whichever way it was, the end results were the same. Any movements they started up or pushed along, could not go very far before either collapsing or folding back into conventional liberal Democrat politics. Regarding Chomsky, my criticisms of him are that: first, he's an anarchist, not a practical socialist who might have some useful ideas on how to establish a socialist government. Anarchists, like the western Trotskyist followers are mainly impractical dreamers who live and work in academia, not on a factory floor/let alone a farm anywhere doing hard, blue collar work. So, the problem is that someone working in academia (though I can't say it's the same for the new breed of adjunct professors) are able to live easier lives and can ponder all of the ills of society without having to be part of a real struggle. As for Chomps: Quote On a personal level, I am indebted to him for Manufacturing Consent (which was in collaboration with Edward Herman). It forever changed the way I view and consume information. I don't always agree with him, and I also don't always understand him (I haven't yet put the work in to figure out whatever he means by "anarcho-syndicalism" for instance). Actually, Manufacturing Consent was primarily authored by Edward Herman, with assistance by Noam Chomsky! But, Chomsky has had his name associated with the book, and he gets all the credit today...mostly because of the gift of longevity. Quote I think one important difference between America and the Soviet Union is that America did not find it necessary to murder Chomsky. I have no doubt that he would have been executed, sent to the Gulag, or simply "disappeared" had he lived in China or Russia. I've listened to interviews where people ask him why he was a fiercer critic of America than of the Soviet Union (I think the question has come up several times but can't remember which interviews). His response was that as an American, he is more responsible for America's crimes, and as an American, he is more able to do something about America's crimes. As much as I can criticize the Soviets and/or Chinese "Communist" governments for their authoritarianism, abuse of their citizenry and needless brutality, it is definitely worth bearing in mind that America is as, or even more, violent. The biggest difference I see is the scope and justification - the American war machine spread death and destruction on a much vaster scale, and the American propaganda machine is far more effective than the Soviets ever were. I guess America has committed fewer large scale atrocities against their own citizenry, so yay? First of all, why would the American Empire murder Chomsky when he was a largely ineffective, but somewhat useful tool for their purposes? Read this editorial Chomsky wrote for The Nation a little over 31 years ago about the collapse of 'Bolshevism' and the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, and though I was not all that educated about these matters at the time, university intellectuals like him were supposed to know what was going on and what the stakes were! Failure to discern how the much wealthier US imperial forces were using the collapse of communism and about to rush in and try to plunder and devour assets in Eastern Europe..and Russia also if the buffoon Yeltsin hadn't died and an extreme nationalist like Putin took power, had left evidence all over about what was going to happen, and it wasn't going to be Chomsky's airy fairy dreams of " revival of libertarian socialist and radical democratic ideals " If Chomsky can be forgiven for conflating the harms that can be caused by ruthless capitalist oppression and socialist authoritarianism, it was still well known at the start of the 80's, that the Soviet Union had been outmaneuvered by the rising monetary and military power of capitalist authorities in Washington and Europe. Just as they allowed their Muslim theocrat fascists on the Arabian Peninsula to spawn Jihadi mercenaries to attack Arab governments that had fallen into disfavor in the west, the lingering Nazis and homegrown fascists who were simmering and waiting for their chances for revenge behind the Iron Curtain, were also being encouraged by Washington and NATO to step forward and take over government in Poland, Hungary, the Baltic States, Romania, and Bulgaria. East Germany was carved up and gifted to West German bankers and foreign business, but Neonazi fascists have their primary base of support in the former DDR and with the demise of Merkel, are set to take over as the dominant party when the next German elections are held. So, Chomsky couldn't see this possibility of a rightwing backlash after the fall of the Soviet Union? His blathering "both sides do it" rhetoric sure hasn't held the test of time! Once the Soviet Union had collapsed in upon itself and it appeared that Mao's China was following a similar transition from communism to pure, unadulterated capitalism, then we started seeing the true face of capitalist empire! And now, Russia is resisting the western alliance tryiing to overrun their country with a nationalist, but still capitalist government, which wouldn't have a chance of survival except for their huge wealth of resources and remaining military power to make any attempts of foreign invasion prohibitive. While China has been trying to run a hybrid communist/capitalist power, which is largely run by capitalist forces, except for being barred from rising up the chain of command in the military and the Communist Party rulership. It will be a hard task to keep money power from taking control as it has over here, but as it stands, at least China and Russia right now, represent an oppositional force to the global empire that wants to control everything! In the final analysis, he was either an idiot or a traitor, and I don't care which it is! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Right To Left Posted May 15, 2021 Report Share Posted May 15, 2021 36 minutes ago, bush_cheney2004 said: My point is obvious...over the past 100 years, Canada has seen its former imperialist empire wither away in purposeful favour of cozying up to the American bastards that Canada is now so dependent on. A "failed" American empire would just be a bigger version of what Canada became long ago....having also dropped out of the "middle power"ranks.... is life so bad in Canada these days ? My point was that Canada was set up as a colonial project extension of the British Empire, and later, as the American Empire gradually assumed control, shifted towards interlocking with the US Empire. I'm not prone to flag-waving appeals and nationalism of any form. I just want to stick with the facts and call it like it is! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yzermandius19 Posted May 15, 2021 Report Share Posted May 15, 2021 Canada isn't becoming a communist state Canada is a communist state and has been for a while Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bush_cheney2004 Posted May 15, 2021 Report Share Posted May 15, 2021 Just now, Right To Left said: My point was that Canada was set up as a colonial project extension of the British Empire, and later, as the American Empire gradually assumed control, shifted towards interlocking with the US Empire. I'm not prone to flag-waving appeals and nationalism of any form. I just want to stick with the facts and call it like it is! I don't care what you (or Canada) says in the way of globalism / post national statehood...I only care what Canada actually does (actions), and so far it is to cling tightly to the American economy and military, having previously stumbled with the downfall of the British. In that respect, Canada is still a colonial project (economically, militarily, culturally, etc.), with American interests owning 50% of the manufacturing base and a good portion of oil/bitumen production to go with American media domination. But unlike your previous posts imply, manufacturing (12% of U.S. GDP) is not as important to modern mixed economies anyway. Like Obama or Trump, Joe Biden can easily spook Canada with his "Buy American" policies, because Canadian interests believe they would be so harmful, whether it is or not. Quote Economics trumps Virtue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myata Posted May 15, 2021 Report Share Posted May 15, 2021 Another interesting parallel with authoritarian states is the need to create a narrative in the collective psyche, as opposed to creating own, distinct path and reality. Inclusiveness, egalitarianism, advancement and modern society, economic excellence all are self-created stories that are either in less than complete agreement, or in a stark disagreement with the reality. And the reality, what is it? Endless exploitation of resources, from beavers to oil sands making the country dependent on outside interests, exceptions and loopholes, outdated and self-absorbed bureaucracy, and inability, in three centuries or close to create own distinct story in the tapestry of the world. What we want to look is not necessarily how we're seen. Are we sure this is the right collection of tools and skills to prosper in this century? 1 Quote If it's you or them, the truth is equidistant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeitgeist Posted May 15, 2021 Report Share Posted May 15, 2021 (edited) 15 hours ago, Shady said: Not communist, but totalitarian. This is the federal government’s guidelines for the summer. Um, small outdoor gatherings without masks was last summer. They expect that with 75% of Canadians at one dose and 20% at two? Are they insane? They can go fuck themselves, especially that idiot Tam. You’re right. We are shifting from a policy focused on protecting the vulnerable from death and keeping the hospitalization and death rates to a level in keeping with other major illnesses to an absolutist policy of no freedom without eradicating Covid and Covid illness, which of course is impossible. Destroying businesses, mental health, socialization, education, and freedom of movement to meet an extreme standard of safety is unjustifiable. The lockdown in Ontario will reach the two month mark by early June. We will see 70% of the population vaccinated before the end of June. Case counts are diminishing. We must remove mandatory restrictions and shift to a policy of individual responsibility by summer. People aren’t sheep and should be trusted to make decisions about their own safety or we are no longer a free society. The vaccines will be universally available to all aged 12 and up who want them soon and they’re already available to them in the hotspots. If you haven’t had a vaccine yet or you don’t want a vaccine and are worried about getting Covid, stay home and mask up when you must go out. No one is making you socialize or travel. The vaccines have been available to vulnerable populations for some time. End the mass hysteria and the tyranny of the public health technocrats. Edited May 15, 2021 by Zeitgeist 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeitgeist Posted May 15, 2021 Report Share Posted May 15, 2021 (edited) 10 hours ago, bush_cheney2004 said: I don't care what you (or Canada) says in the way of globalism / post national statehood...I only care what Canada actually does (actions), and so far it is to cling tightly to the American economy and military, having previously stumbled with the downfall of the British. In that respect, Canada is still a colonial project (economically, militarily, culturally, etc.), with American interests owning 50% of the manufacturing base and a good portion of oil/bitumen production to go with American media domination. But unlike your previous posts imply, manufacturing (12% of U.S. GDP) is not as important to modern mixed economies anyway. Like Obama or Trump, Joe Biden can easily spook Canada with his "Buy American" policies, because Canadian interests believe they would be so harmful, whether it is or not. You’re right that Canadians pretend that Canada is more independent than it is. Canadians have continually refused to make the financial and other sacrifices that would make the country more independent, for example in vaccine and military equipment production or in diversifying trade. However, Canada is a relatively small country that can’t and shouldn’t try to do everything independently. Canada has built a more harmonious, safer society (in terms of social safety net and violence) than the US with much economic opportunity, though not as much individual economic opportunity, research and development, and national independence as the US The Loyalist roots in Canada served us well in the pandemic in terms of being more compliant with public health measures, but they also make it harder for us to make transformative demands of our government to acquire vaccines and end restrictions. Being so careful is a double-edged sword. Having a separate country called Canada seems like a lot of extra work and expense sometimes. Are we really charting our own course? Is it better than the American or British one? Our death rates from Covid are half those of these larger countries, but could we have done better? Not producing our own vaccines was a serious setback. We have tried to diversify trade with CETA and with South American and Asian trade deals. We talk about energy independence with our vast oil reserves, yet we can’t break through regulations and interprovincial barriers to build national pipelines. As a small country we rely heavily on foreign investment. Also, it’s too cold for too long. We need freedom of movement so we can get a break from the cold if we want it. In that regard our border keeps us hemmed in as much as it protects us. Nevertheless, people want to come here. 400,000 immigrants will be coming each year. Canada may have tried to shirk her post WW2 middle power status, but the excuses to not act independently are disappearing as Canada’s population and economy expand. Edited May 15, 2021 by Zeitgeist 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackbird Posted May 15, 2021 Author Report Share Posted May 15, 2021 13 hours ago, Right To Left said: "... and then everybody would have been working for Amazon or some other blood-sucking corporate vampire!" You need to look more at the good side of things. Amazon has grown into a fantastic service that allows people to easily order goods from an infinite variety of choices from the comfort of home and for a relatively small fee have it delivered to their front door within a few days. This has made life much easier, especially with the pandemic, by allowing people to cut down on going into busy department stores with people everywhere. It also saves time and gas and is an enormous convenience to millions of people. It also provides thousands, maybe tens of thousands of jobs to Amazon workers in various places. This is what innovation and private enterprise does that authoritarianism and Socialism fail to do. Sure maybe the jobs are not paying as well or don't have all the benefits that some government workers have who live off taxpayers with their government unions, but Amazon workers could unionize and time negotiate better benefits for their workers. This is far better than Socialism and inefficiency of government running things. With the government/bureaucratic, inefficient postal service it has always taken weeks to order something from somewhere and costs a fortune for shipping. Amazon is fantastic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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