Shock Doctrine (Naomi Klein) If you have not read it. You need to.

[onecaliberal]

What right-wing governments are doing is manufacturing crisis and creating a pretext for even greater austerity. The shredding of the safety net, the erosion of institutional expertise, the destruction of natural capital: it's all part of a systematic effort to privatise what is left of commons and turn us all into serfs dependent on hostile overlords.
This is the shock doctrine. Make things bad intentionally and then say There Is No Alternative
https://mastodon.nz/@phil_stevens/112146643576723465

[MOMFUDSKI]

1. Read it

years ago. Thanks

[onecaliberal]

2. Same but so many things in that book were quite prescient.

Going to read again.

[alwaysinasnit]

3. k&r

[ProfessorPlum]

4. agree, it is one ofTHE most important books for understanding the world

and how cruelty is perpetrated in it. And possibly, how to stop/survive it.

[JustAnotherGen]

5. Also suggesting - Minority Rule

By Ari Berman.

A must read for every single person who intends to vote third party or or sit out of the election.

We cannot reach Republicans who are wed to Trump. Not going to happen.

But the protesters in support of Gaza? They need to read this book. Their lives depend on it.

[Marcus IM]

6. She points out that it's not only RW govt's. It's capitalism. n/t

[onecaliberal]

8. Yes!

[mdmc]

18. r

[2naSalit]

7. I never forgot...

I have been advocating that more people read the book so they can see what's going on now and where it came from.

[onecaliberal]

9. I never forgot either. But, I'm going to read again.

[erronis]

10. Wikipedia entry - worth a read (better than Cliff Notes)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shock_Doctrine

[PatSeg]

12. Thank you

[RandomNumbers]

17. Thanks for that. Nice list of examples there. They need to update the list with Oct. 7 Hamas attack +

Israeli brutal retaliation (depressingly predictable given Netanyahu).

[Wounded Bear]

11. The most chilling aspect of the book is mentioned in the OP...

Sure, corporations and politicians take advantage of natural disasters all the time. Huge opportunities for the unscrupulous to cash in on other people's woes.

But, politicians especially will create crises where there didn't need to be one, just to propagandize and take advantage of "popular" anger over situations, and with the RW these days having such big and so many megaphones in the media and social plaftorms, its easy to create the anger and dissatisfaction that they thrive on.

[peppertree]

15. And nowhere is this more true than in Argentina - long a 'canary in the coal mine' for neo-con nation wreckers

Argentina was chosen because it's a) irrelevant; and b) geographically, climatologically, ethnically, culturally and (albeit far less advanced) economically similar to the U.S.

As much as a marginal, far-away country could be anyway.

Moreover, they have a predatory, self-hating and (of course) fascist-leaning elite that will gladly go along - so long as their freedom to stash everything away in the U.S. or Caribbean is guaranteed (which is where the IMF comes in, to finance said offshoring).

Perfect setting for a large-scale socio-economic experiment in just how quickly you can wreck a country without people, and what's left of the institutions, realizing what's actually happening - and getting in the way.

But because the experiment is always interrupted (the Argentines they pick to inflict these things are mostly idiots), they have to keep coming back to try again.

And are they ever!

https://www.democraticunderground.com/111698027

[Haggard Celine]

16. They say, "never let a good crisis go to waste."

All of the shady real estate acquisitions going on after Katrina was enough to make me sick. Speculators picked up properties for much less than they were worth so they could turn around and sell them to casinos for much more. Those are the kinds of people who move in when there's any kind of war or disaster. Modern day carpetbaggers.

[Auggie]

13. Read it when it came out. Highly recommend.

I pass along the warnings of the manufactured crisis synopsis every change I get.

[surfered]

14. It's been their business model for some time.