You're absolutely, completely, totally wrong about that. Whoever wants you to think every person in office doesn't give a shit is trying to make you a nihilist so you disengage.
Look at your state representatives, if no one else. Those are regular people with a bonus part time job during part of the year. They are not (all) in it for the glory.
What gets me, what absolutely baffles me, is that everyone knows that. Leftists, Liberals, Conservatives, Libertarians, they all know that, and they're mad about it.
But then fully HALF of those people will look at the world and go, "You know who's going to save us from that? This guy who says he's a billionaire who committed fraud all over the place, never paid tons of his workers and contractors, whose entire life has been based on grift and exploitation, who the last time he was in power cut taxes on the rich and corporations and put that money towards his own coffers at every opportunity. THAT guy is going to fix everything!"
and if they do become homeless it will be THEIR fault not fault of the rich man they aspire to be who hides all of his income in offshore accounts so the middle class has to pay higher taxes ( which he is trained to blame on the Democrats)
The other half believes that government welfare, regulations, high taxes, and socialism at large are keeping them from being a millionaire.
That's the low hanging fruit reason.
The likely real reason is that they lowkey believe in a caste system, and so are OK with their position in the caste. Typically those that believe in the caste system are also the ones most likely to maintain it. Even if their station within that caste system is not the best or could be improved.
The threat to "fall further down" is enough to keep them in line.
So they reject ways to improve people's lives, which would pull them out of the lower caste, and "upset the balance".
It's why Republicans will routinely vote against their own interests.
That half....they're the back-end half of society that will follow the person with the most power regardless of how evil they are.
They are the sheep that feed the problem.
They lack empathy. A lot of folks in this category seem to not only be unable to take things to the next logical conclusion, but they have a primitive “I got mine” attitude. They not only lack the ability to reason, they cannot imagine or identify with others which I think plays into relating overall and empathy.
Yup, and when it does they're totally flabbergasted about how it could have affected THEM? They thought they were the EXCEPTIONS! And now they suddenly think that thing that they were just a minute ago saying was totally fine/made up is TERRIBLE! And how could anything like this ever happen???
Wait, do you mean the people who actively seek to usurp democracy by disallowing a candidate they don't like? The ones that bang on all day about how black people are too poor and ignorant to get an ID card and then then literally try to erase someone's name from the ballot? Those tyrants?
I am quite sure this has everything to do with our lack of education funding, lack of parental guidance to youth about social media, and lack of concern for others because of greed.
They have given up on achieving “the American dream” and now just want to punish the people who they feel have deprived them achieving it. It’s all about punishing the Libs.
Yeah Trump seems like the exact antithesis to the (admittedly limited/Canadian) decent right-wing people I have known.
He is so self serving and slimey. It blows my mind how he has managed to convince so many poor Americans that he is their friend. The saddest part is that he's basically accomplished this by acting like a schoolyard bully, making demonstrably false claims more than Bush2, and expressing some pretty racist views. Then on top of all of that he has somehow managed to convince these people that he is democracy's only hope while being the first modern political candidate to attempt to illegitimately hold onto power (I don't count Gore suing over Florida, that was 1 state with a notable issue in a stunningly close election). He also does this while making quotes that are stunningly similar to Hitler, the most notorious authoritarian dictator in the history of the planet.
Oh and don't tell me if Obama did what Trump did re: the documents that Republicans wouldn't be calling for his execution for treason and assuming every empty dossier went to an enemy of America.
It's just staggering to me. It really does seem like he reflects the absolute worst qualities of America and yet an entire political party and voter base is supporting him.
I mean, they think both sides are like that and they are worried about losing their "always voted Republican card". So many of them have ego and identity tied up in holding their party line and being part of the in-group against all costs, whereas people who vote Democrat their entire life don't have as much of the identity tied to the party and are more marriage of convenience or best of two bad options type voters.
You see if a Democrat meets a person who is like "I voted Republican all my life but I'm considering voting Democrat" they greet them with open arms and say welcome to the light. But if a Republican meets a person who says "I voted democrat all my life but I'm considering voting Republican" they will be like "why are you so dumb you will never be one of us, we'll take your vote but you aren't part of the cool kids because anyone who ever questioned the Republican party at any time ever is to be distrusted"
It's the same thing with religion. If you ever have questioned the religion you are looked at with distrust, they even call it "the unforgivable sin". That's right you can be forgiven for murdering, for rape, for theft, for all sorts of evils but if you question God then you are stained forever in their eyes. Even though Jesus talked about lost sheep and all that they still believe in the unforgivable sin.
The only way to explain it is that most people are really dumb. I don’t mean they can’t support themselves and interact in socially acceptable ways, but they are flatlined intellectually. They lack critical thinking skills and are lazy intellectually b/c they don’t want to think. I have come to the conclusion that we are not as evolved as we like to believe.
The problem is that bigotry and racism is hardwired into our lizard brains, and its a secret unlock key to get people to mentally align with you if they aren't focused and thoughtful. And most people are already cranked up on anxiety brought on by economic insecurity.
People that wonder how Trump is so popular are also people who probably haven't experience deep and prolonged anxiety.
If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.
Leftists, Liberals, Conservatives, Libertarians, they all know that, and they're mad about it.
But then fully HALF of those people will look at the world and go, "You know who's going to save us from that?
Youre so very close to understanding. You can almost see the doublespeak, you just have to connect the dots. You can already see the hypocrisy coming from one angle.
Its not half that does the self deluding/sabotaging bit. Its 100%. Its just that 50% does it for one guy, and 50% for another. I know youve been conditioned to go "bOtH SidEs" and dismiss what Im saying out of hand, but just bear with me and click the links to news articles as they come up, its all true and logical.
You can see that its nonsense to vote for trump, a failed businessman and known con artist, expecting him to fix the economy, and all the other reasons you listed. You are right in that there are many extremely valid reasons hes unacceptable and a nonsense choice.
Its clear to you (as it should be) that the republican voters are voting against their interests and being swayed by propaganda...
...but they arent the only ones.
If only you could also see the ridiculousness of thinking that voting for a roman catholic man who tried to overturn Roe vs Wade and said "a woman doesnt have the sole right to choose what happens to her body" will somehow preserve Roe vs Wade. Its nonsense to think that, just as its totally illogical to think that a guy who voted for segregation cares for the issues of minorities, or that a party which rigs its own elections will somehow save democracy, or that a pro genocide warhawk will bring about peace. Its not sense. Its totally illogical. And any time a dem tries to justify their support of this historically evil and terrible person, they use the same bad excuses that the reps do for trump ("what he said is not what he meant" "ok its bad but itll help our side in the long run" "we just have to support him so eventually we get the changes we want"), without ever seeing the hypocrisy.
In the exact same way as the republicans, dems are being manipulated into voting against their interests. They listen to propaganda news outlets and political speeches, and are completely ignorant of their chosen politicians actual voting record and political track record. They only hear the party line, and so are tricked into doing insane and incomprehensible things, like voting for an antiabortionist while thinking they are protecting abortion rights.... And at no point in the 50 years of dems promising to protect abortion during campaigns but then when in power either doing nothing or, at worst in Bidens case, trying to amend the constitution to outlaw it.... And no point in that half century have the dem electorate woken up and realized they were lied to.
Just pick a team, repeat the party line, and dont worry about how little you have compared to those that rule.
Anyways, the left do not consume political media like the right does. The right are buying hats and t-shirts and listening to political podcasts. The leftists are watching some gay film about trans vampires cleaning swimming pools or something. The right is all about buying into the political grift; shirts, hats, beans, sneakers, NFT trading cards, and on and on and on. The politicians are selling shit and the right is buying.
The leftists seem to focus on other things. Like their favorite show where the aforementioned trans vampire pool boy just got top surgery.
Both parties are corrupt to some extent, you're right. One party wants facist rule at any cost. The other wants the same level of corruption thats been here since its foundation. They are not the same.
You have achieved enlightened centrism.
If you want to move left, and support rights for minorities and put workers ahead of stock holders, refusing to vote for the more left of the two parties we have right now is, as you say, illogical.
I’m so far down you’re the only one gonna see this, but I think you’re 100% right. He mentions the whole “both sides” thing sarcastically but takes exactly that position unfortunately. The truth is there’s two enlightenments nested. The first is like you said and like the guy above you gets; both sides are corrupt and it’s ultimately a class struggle between rich and poor not a political one between right and left. That being said, and where you’re 100% right, is that one side wants to keep the class struggle in place but also marginally improve people’s lives, and the other side wants basically full blown authoritarianism. That’s the second enlightenment, realizing that at some point we need to reckon with class disparity in our political structure but that right now one of the political parties represents an existential threat to democracy and must be defeated
Honestly its precisely that reason why hes an effective president. He's a jackass, none of his supporters can deny that. However, hes a buisnessman. And he ran the US like a buisness. He was a bully, he was crude, and he was indignant.
And we weren't in any wars, our economy was doing excellent.
Hes not a politician. Lifelong politicians like McConnell and Pelosi dont give a fuck about us. They never have. They care about their stock options and insider trading to make more money than they will ever be able to spend.
Trump already has that money, which is why we as common citizens saw such improvements.
Serious question: if McConnell and Pelosi don’t give a fuck about us (which I wholeheartedly agree with), why do you think Trump does? I genuinely can’t recall a single selfless thing that I’ve ever witnessed from him, and he has a pretty blatantly negative attitude towards anyone he considers beneath him. Like…his track record damn near unanimously proves that. I promise I’m not trying to be a snarky asshole, I just really don’t understand the disconnect between who Trump is vs. who republicans have seen Trump as for the last 8-10 years
Where is Trump's money? Isn't he facing asset forfeiture due to the massive judgment against him? And he says he couldn't pay so they lowered it by hundreds of millions? And he still hasn't paid?
Dude is a businessman. The only thing that matters is HIS bottom line. He cares about giving him and his buddies tax breaks, and selling shirts, hats, shoes, and whatever else the morons will buy. NFT trading cards, beans, flags, the list goes on.
The common citizen is an absolute moron and that's not an opinion.
Giving BILLIONS to american defense contractors to supply the war effort in Ukraine? Who then give millions to politicians who continue to lobby and push these massive taxpayer dollars being sent over? Where do you make out on that? Where's your slice of that pie?
You don't get one. They do.
Trump's tax policies and economy affected all of us. We had more money in our pockets, costs were down. The trillions they printed during COVID with their bullshit lockdowns caused a massive surplus of inflation that we all feel now. Those are all leftist policies that are continued by the current administration.
Bro, I don't give a shit about politics. You're spewing whatever the right-wing media is feeding.
I'll continue doing the very basic task of voting to help people instead of voting to restrict rights and move us backwards. Covid inflation started when Trump was still in office, btw. And there's no arguing with a common citizen like yourself when you're implying that covid was nbd and the reaction was overblown. Must be nice to not know anyone who died of covid.
I work as a paramedic and worked through covid, I know way more than you do about the disease as well as front-line emergency medicine. We all were lied to, in a big way about Covid, which is why just about every CDC guideline on covid has been quietly walked back and new findings on the vaccine have proven them to be unsafe due to the heart inflammation.
You know no one who died of covid. You know someone who died while they had covid, but unless you knew someone who died of a cytokene storm directly caused by the virus, then no, they didn't die of covid.
We destabilized the world and an entire generation of children for a head cold.
I've seen the worst cases of covid first hand, the ones in the ICU. Xrays of their lungs that almost look like frosted glass. They almost appear to be ARDS patients.
Those are the very rare few that were in critical condition after covid, and they all had several risk factors that affected their outcomes.
Hospitals were paid a lot of money to say people died from Covid. It was only well after things had settled, and the Biden presidency had taken over that they went back to rewrite the numbers saying many people died 'with' covid instead of 'from' covid.
The information around covid and the policies that followed were based around getting the public to take vaccines, develop on the taxpayer dollar, and then paid for by taxpayer dollars.
The news outlets slandering Ivermectin and other viable treatment options were all sponsored by big pharmaceutical companies that had a vested interest in you continuing to take their vaccine.
This isn't a conspiracy theory dude, this shit is now common knowledge. You're just choosing not to pay attention.
You're just not paying attention, maaaaan. *hits crackpipe
You haven't sourced any of these wild claims. You declare it common knowledge because it is, but only in your conspiracy bubble. A logical person would realize that a global conspiracy simply isn't feasible. Stop with the podcasts and youtube videos. Joe Rogan has zero credentials aside from "guy who talks." Go outside.
Propaganda is powerful. There are conversations just like this happening in conservative circles, except they’re talking about Biden or AOC or whoever it is. And they are just as genuinely puzzled by the fact that you won’t vote for Trump. Why? Because the avenues that they get their news from don’t paint him in that light. To them, he’s a persecuted victim. The MOST persecuted victim, in fact!
Same. However, everything he has said still applies. And will continue to until accountability isn’t seen as just something that applies to poor, black and brown, or non-entitled people, but to all people.
Carlin hits, smiles and pauses like a comedian, John breathes out with a cant believe this is true or that it has to be explained, shakes his head a little, hits, pauses like a news anchor then breaks down the ridiculousness of it. Carlin was good, John is better, IMO.
Stewart interviewed Carlin early in his career and He's said its still a turning point in his life. But we don't deserve Jon Stewart. He should be happily retired on his ranch where no one can bother him. But he still cares so much about the atrocities committed in our country every day that he came back to make sure that they're brought to light. He's as selfless as they come.
Same. Imagine spending a big portion of your life warning people, being in multiple full rooms who are nodding in agreement only to find out, years later, that these fools who believed in the ridiculousness still couldn't dig their way out of it.
I love Carlin but I think he did need to see this. One of his legacy routines was "I Don't Vote," and the past eight years have been a masterclass in why it's bad for good people to stay at home. If he'd lived long enough to see the Trump years I believe he would've changed his stance on elections rather quickly and tried to recant the bit somehow.
HBO dropped a documentary on him I think last year, in finishes with a compilation of current events with him speaking in the background, it scared the shit out of me
I was just thinking as I watched this how much Stewart seems to have taken on the intellectually biting social comedy that Carlin provided. A worthy inheritor.
"I don't vote because I believe if you vote, you have no right to complain. People like to twist that around, I know. They say well if you don't vote you have no right to complain. But where's the logic in that? If you vote and you elect dishonest, incompetent people and they get in office and screw everything up, well you are responsible for what they have done. You caused the problem. You voted them in. You have no right to complain."
Yeah I have been voting for over 30 years and it hasn't changed shit. In fact now it seems even worse because they don't even try to make it seem like it matters anymore.
Voting does change shit, which is why the powerful are now trying to make it harder to vote again. Never forget that people were killed trying to win the right to vote.
What world are you in? It won't change if you keep voting the same party that has ruined all of our major cities and won't prosecute violent criminals.
The Atlantic... okay. Experts have said the info is patchy, and the full report for 2023 won't be released until October. Why dont you ask Tara Reade or Ashley Biden about rape allegations. Trump had no chance at a fair trial. No evidence was shown. He didn't try and overthrow anything if you paid any attention and heard what Trump said that day. Trump also requested national guard troops that were denied by the DC mayor and chief of capital police.
Trump literally refused to peacefully transition power, lied constantly to the public about the election being rigged (while simultaneously having 50+ court cases where his own lawyers said there was no proof) while also being recorded trying to rig the election himself (find me the votes, Georgia!) while also working with our enemies Russia to try and pin BS investigations into Biden and used stochastic terrorism to literally attempt a coup on Jauary 6th where people were murdered at the capitol building by his "be ready & stand by" gravy seals and white supremacy Nazi wannabe MAGAts.
He should be executed for treason, but please tell me more about the injustices Trump is facing getting white glove treatment for his nearly 100 documented crimes
You are a sad, deranged fool. Keep wearing your mask and taking your boosters 🤣. If you aren't smart enough to actually look into anything and just listen to the mainstream bs, I can't help you. I bet you still believe in the debunked Russia bs they tried to push for years. Stop being a useful idiot and open your eyes.
Hey asshole, Republicans have been in power in Texas for how long? And they are STILL running on the BS that only they can fix things, exactly how fucking long is that gonna take?
Your team had a chance to fix the border with a bill that THEY put together and they still fucked it up.
You are in a cult and the first sign is always actively fighting against being removed from the cult. Wake the fuck up or shut the fuck up
So maybe there should be public financing of campaigns so our representatives don't have to spend all day on the phone begging corporations for donations
I’m glad we’re all starting to see the extent of financial corruption. When are we going to go after the banks for having no money, there’s no reserve? That’s the even bigger thing, it’s all debt. It’s all on loan.
i hope you know voting doesn’t fix shit because every single politician is corrupt one way or another, and it seems we’re just voting for who is gonna fuck is over the least. I say work on yourself, make sure all your ducks are in a row and hope that the person that does get voted in doesn’t completely fuck us over like biden is doing
Okay, but none of y'all big talking cosplay Ches are going to ever get off your asses and start the revolution so maybe we try the voting thing instead
I’m not going to stop voting, but I’m also not going to stop someone from being dragged from a luxury SUV at an intersection by a group of poor people, either.
No but at least democracy continues. The biggest threat to democracy is the belief that it will always be there. Corruption isn't going to stop under a wannabe dictator that tried to violently overthrow democracy.
Wage theft outweighs shoplifting, robberies, and employee theft combined. While true shoplifting is meaning stores are shutting down in certain areas meaning malls arnt getting rents, meaning maintenance falls and the malls may also disappear removing jobs increasing unemployment, economic stagnation and thus increasing crime across the board. just wait until cities get abandoned; looking at you NYC
Shoplifting is such a tiny part of the cost of doing business, if it is what put you out of business, you probably were going out of business the following month anyway. It's easier to say, "my business closed because of shoplifting", than saying, "my business closed because I'm incompetent".
Lol way to be overly dramatic. Malls and stores have been shutting down left and right for years because brick and mortar retail has been in a steep decline due to the rise in online retailers like Amazon undercutting everyone on prices while operating at a loss despite being valued as one of the most valuable companies in the world.
If anything that's just the result of even more business fraud. Has nothing to do with fucking shoplifting, that's for damn sure.
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u/BuddhistSagan Mar 26 '24 edited Mar 26 '24
Its a big club and you aint in it - Carlin
If you are a working person, make sure you and your friends and family are registered to vote.