This is a hell of a paragraph:

[kpete]

Updated to add link:
https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/three-cheers-socialism

[kentuck]

1. Yes, it is.

Incontrovertible.

[pansypoo53219]

2. it is confounding howstupidmost americans are + how stupid white ones vote. media brainwashing

since vietnam. extra in 1980. its been voodoo since.

[enough]

3. Who wrote it? NT

[kentuck]

4. Farmer Jones?

[intheflow]

5. Right? I'd like to read this whole book/essay. n/t

[kpete]

7. Link & worth the read from earlier this year:

https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/three-cheers-socialism

[Auggie]

32. Thanks for the link

[intheflow]

34. Thanks, kpete!

[muriel_volestrangler]

47. David Bentley Hart

Theologian: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bentley_Hart

[peacebuzzard]

6. great description of the current U.S. state of affairs.

It is a complex web.
Great find and post, thank you.

[FakeNoose]

8. I reads like the secret modus operandi for Faux News

[jimlup]

9. yeah definitely some truth in those words...

We keep up the push. Eventually, those who need to understand the message will but it will take a long hard climb.

[bobbieinok]

10. Author of linked article has recently tranlated NewTestament. Scholars say it is excellent!

[Solly Mack]

11. K&R!

Yes! Yes! Yes!

[mountain grammy]

12. K & R

Says a lot.. Sad, so many Americans are so brainwashed .

[dameatball]

13. It certainly IS a hell of a paragraph. Sad part is very few Americans will ever see it. A smaller

percentage will actually read it. An even smaller percentage will take the time to understand it. Of those that remain, many will choose to ignore it. First sentence says it all.

[Martin Eden]

14. The truth hurts

Especially when so many fail to see or acknowledge the truth.

[ihas2stinkyfeet]

15. i used to feel bad about dropping out of college.

but lately i have come to the conclusion that the more time you spend in windowless rooms, being spewed at my some "expert", told to swallow, and expected to puke back the good bits on command, the dumber you get.

fortunately my 1st teacher, my amazing da, started teaching me as a little kid to learn on my feet. i was his apprentice in the garden, and i have a vivid recollection of a chemistry lesson he taught me at 5. we stood by the kitchen stove, and tossed shit in the flames. coins sat on the burner, and we poured on salt and baking soda.
years later i got a job in a metals lab. even i didnt get then that the reason i caught on to the whole thing in 3 days, instead of the 3 MONTHS they thought it would take was that long ago lesson. i mean, my 2 yrs studying science didnt hurt, but...

this is why i homeschool 4 of my 5 kids for 8 yrs. i sent the 1st one to a "magnet" school for gifted kids. the teachers were great, but the admins didnt seem to get that they werent shrunken adults, just cuz they talked like they were.
i got into a big hassle w them once over the fact that a boy who had a crush on my daughter was always bugging her on the bus. i was supposed to control how she reacted to his harassment. i said- arent you supposed to have an adult on that bus?
just the driver, they said. i guess you dont have to be an adult to drive a school bus.

[niyad]

16. KNR and bookmarking.

[ancianita]

17. Yes, it is.

Re the last sentence: there's none more tyrannical than the kleptocratic transition between democracy and fascism, a period during which citizens prefer to believe in their assigned role in a story of the "strong man" who promises greatness.

This is where America is right now.

A well traveled social critic, H.L. Mencken, said that Americans are not the only people conditioned (Farmer Jones says "trained" ) by design.




Anywhere there is a hoarding class, there is race, class gender and education hierarchy to reflect it. Unless their money is threatened, rich hoarders won't have society any other way.
The only difference between Americans and other countries is that they know this.

EDIT: I'd also beware of anonymous sources making sweeping statements about Americans right now. It would be good to know who "Farmer Jones" actually is.

[Enoki33]

18. Explains why Americans keep voting against their own best self interest.

[appalachiablue]

19. For this reason anti democratic regimes take over or

suppress the media, education and intellectuals, on every continent. These institutions are critical to people's awareness so controlling them along with voting works in their favor. It always has and always will.

Many Americans have become an over fed, over consuming and ignorant poplulace, by design.

[DarleenMB]

20. Propaganda

Edward Bernays had quite a bit to do with the current state of affairs. I'd never heard of him until I ran across a mention of him and his use of propaganda to sell political agendas decades ago. I always felt that a large part of our society was brainwashed and this is where it all started. I haven't read his book, cleverly titled "Propaganda," but it's on my to read list.

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

21. K & Freaking R...nt

[dalton99a]

22. Kick

[Auggie]

23. Another K&R

[karin_sj]

24. So true

And so depressing to read

[Lonestarblue]

25. Thanks for posting. The entire article is well worth reading.

I was not familiar with Commonweal Magazine, but I plan to explore more of the articles there. My reading list just keeps growing, and even in mostly pandemic isolation I can’t keep up!

[2naSalit]

26. K&R

[reACTIONary]

27. More than a little truth in those words....

.... especially the words "the," "and," and "in".

[DanieRains]

28. Pay Your Taxes

So the rich won't have to.

[calimary]

29. No kidding!!!

Tells a mighty sorry tale.

[sinkingfeeling]

30. A very true paragraph.

[young_at_heart]

31. Very depressing

Years ago, Jay Leno did a segment for his show called "Jaywalking" and he would ask people simple questions. I was amazed at how many people could not name the Vice-President.

[Normanart]

44. Jaywalking

I once asked a friend of mine that worked on Lenoʻs show how many people they had to interview to find the ones that were horribly uninformed. He replied, "Not that many." We are doomed.

[dlk]

33. Thought provoking article but assumes the nation, as a whole, thinks this way

However, it doesn’t give any room for those who are not taken in by this propaganda.

[Silver1]

55. Exactly, of which there are many.

There is a lot of good that has come out of this country, and it ain't finished yet.

[dlk]

61. America's goal has always been a more perfect union

We are a continuing work in progress.

[Dios Mio]

59. Yeah

Just because forty percent are unaware doesn’t mean the balance of society are not intelligent enough to understand our circumstances. If he has a solution, by all means share it. DUers will get to it right away. In the meantime we will occupy our time removing the shit stain in that big White House.

[Dios Mio]

60. Yeah

Just because forty percent are unaware doesn’t mean the balance of society are not intelligent enough to understand our circumstances. If he has a solution, by all means share it. DUers will get to it right away. In the meantime we will occupy our time removing the shit stain in that big White House.

[dlk]

62. The work of becoming a more perfect union continues

There will be much work to be done come January 2021.

[Silver1]

64. Yes there will!

And this "presidency" has brought the cockroaches out into the light. We know exactly where they are and what work needs to be done. I don't think there has ever been a point in recent history when so many of us were on board with the same mission!

[certainot]

35. largely the result of letting 1500 think tank coordinated radio stations

blast the country with coordinated propaganda

democrats and liberals have done NOTHING in response while blaming fox, money, deregulation and other symptoms of that unchallenged repetition, believing idiotic rw talking points that a 95% monopoly that spews lies and hate all day is somehow an expression of free speech and the 'market' demand of americans.

political talk radio is the ONLY major medium without challenge and alternatives a click or page-turn away. it is the only unique advantage republicans have

at $1000/hr 1200 radio stations doing 15 hrs/day are worth $90M/week and about $5BIL/YEAR FREE to our corporate masters.

the influence of the kremlin on RW radio has increased since 2008 at least

yet democrats and the left continue to ignore talk radio, analyzing politics and blaming symptoms as if studying fish without water

how fucking sad that the whole thing gets better when limbaugh croaks and the monopoly falls apart without its main rudder (the captains are probably in russia now) without the progressive orgs having never done anything to identify and challenge what's been kicking our ass for 30 fucking years, especially now that artificial intelligence would allow us to digitize and monitor a lot of the repetition and neutralize it before it can create the alternative realities that make it impossible for democracy and the national fact based debate that democracy depends on

[cayugafalls]

41. +1000

Great link. This needs to be addressed as soon as Joe is sworn in office. Without serious reforms, the seeds of the alt-right will not go away, they will just continue to grow and wait for the next opportunity.

There needs to be some fairness brought back into political discourse.

[calimary]

63. THIS. The toxic talk radio, voice of the wrong wing.

Few have done more damage to our country than limbaugh and his many clones and cheap-ass wannabes.

[Yeehah]

36. The truth hurts

The USA is far from being "the greatest nation on Earth." We spend more on our military than the next several nations combined, which means our infrastructure and health care suffer. We can't have nice things because Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, Raytheon, etc. are getting the bulk of our tax dollars.

[Blue Owl]

37. K&R

[Baked Potato]

38. I've mentioned repeatedly about Americans living in a cocoon.

[Marthe48]

39. How quickly we turned away from

being hawks or doves, fighting over sending troops to other lands.

Now, all that matters is if we are Democratic or republican. And our lives depend on the answer.

[Escurumbele]

40. This is the product of republicans weakening the education system

Public schools not teaching the arts, sports, only High Schools provide limited arts and sports, many elementary and middle schools do not have sports and provide very little arts education.

Kids do not read books anymore, they should have a required book every month they are in school, that would at least guarantee they read nine books in a year. All that kids do today is look at their Smartphones and play games.

The ignorance of the USA citizens is by design, politicians know they can manipulate people easier when they are ignorant, that is why trump loves "his uneducated" and that is why they cheer when insulted that way.

How many times has anyone heard "ignorance is bliss"? Or "who needs to learn another language"? It has been a concerted effort to dumb down the USA population, and ignorance is winning.

[renate]

42. That last sentence....

GOP voters have become the willing wage slaves of the ultrarich, and they're lining up saying "Please, Sir, may I have some more?"

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

43. Keep in mind that Joe Biden has been saying

he'll give more money to the military. Yeah, I'm absolutely going to vote for him, but I'm not at all happy about that, to say the least.

And I believe he's not crazy about Medicare for All, and I'm not entirely sure how he plans to get even a base level of medical care to all of us.

We are 16th century Spain, right before the Armada sails to England.

[Tommymac]

45. Great food for thought ... as an informed socialist/left wingnut/progressive,

I have been preaching these facts most of my adult life.

This is the best most concise explanation I have ever read.

Centrists - at the very least please read and think about it, ponder it for a few days or weeks. It is the Truth - you can deny parts of it just like Trumpers deny reality, (though you are definitely not trumpers, quite frankly sincerely glad to have you all in the Dem Party) but that does not make the whole any less true.

Above statements not meant as a flame or criticism against anyone - the points in the OP are just so misunderstood by the vast majority of Americans, left center and right.

Peace.

[BobTheSubgenius]

46. A hell of a paragraph indeed!

But even a lot of people solidly against the current regime would argue the merits and truth of it. Who wants to hear that your life is actually much worse than you think?

[3catwoman3]

48. The general ignorance of many Americans is...

...embarrassing and distressing.

The willful ignorance and the pride about it is even worse.

[ck4829]

49. Mother of God... this explains everything.

[Ferrets are Cool]

50. Most are happy living with their heads in the sand, then

bitch loudly when something bad happens to them that expose inadequacies of our system.

[PatrickforO]

51. I love it!

Absolutely true.

[JanMichael]

52. "at least we knew when we were being lied to, Americans are oblivious"

It was that and a version of "American Capitalism is the best propaganda machine in history. The USSR sucked at it"

From a former resident of the USSR in 1992 in southern Poland, in a bar, and sometime after 1am....

[ecstatic]

53. Why were things designed like this?

Our collective ignorance is well documented. But why were we set up this way?

[McKim]

58. Follow the Money!

Follow the money! The top 1% want it this way! Their greed knows no limits.

[zentrum]

54. Hell of a paragraph. Thanks!

[burrowowl]

56. Commonweal is a good mag!

[McKim]

57. Spread Far and Wide

This should be spread far and wide. This paragraph illustrates why it is so frustrating to live in this country. People are being impoverished even though they may work hard and given few rewards for their federal taxes. They passively accept this and are distracted mightily by popular culture, sports, celebrity worship and fake hate campaigns against “The Others”.