General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIt IS 80%-20% in America, but not for the reasons some say.
Keep your eye on the ball, the ball of limited wealth and resources that is. Not the shiny bouncy ball of political gamesmanship that you can never catch -that ball is being thrown about, in fact, by the 1%.
Bonobo
(29,257 posts)With 80% controlling just 7% of the financial wealth, why does THAT 80% have an easy time finding political representation in a democracy?
80% should be a cake walk in an election -all things being equal at the voting booth.
80-20!! 80-20!! I think I'll make it my new sig-line!
rrneck
(17,671 posts)Bonobo
(29,257 posts)Which is not to say the issues themselves are not important. They are in many cases.
But the way they are seized upon smells entirely like brand identity and tend to lack the whiff of intellectual honesty, usually, on both sides.
Anansi1171
(793 posts)People call each other names. Proselytize. Condescend. Impugn each others motives. Don't listen. Talk past and at others. And engage in cliquishness, as if this was high school. We cannot even share ideas, in good faith, much less common ground. We in the 80% are as divided as ever.
Bonobo
(29,257 posts)God forbid the masses of people getting screwed should realize they are in it together.
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
H. L. Mencken
Newest Reality
(12,712 posts)I would suggest that more people here watch the BBC documentary, The Century of the Self.
While it is by no means exhaustive, there is no hidden conspiracy about the fact that, as Chomsky states, and no matter how it might appear to the contrary, consent is manufactured, opinions are heavily manipulated, perception is subject to propaganda the skillful use of appeals to emotion and of deliberate logical fallacies.
The medium IS the massage/message, as well.
When we look at that chart and contemplate its implications, how is possible to feel "free" or reasonably consider yourself a citizen of a "democracy" when it has come to the point that, if money walks, we are becoming nothing more than renters on our home planet owned by a small handful of people.
We are on the verge of being the equivalent of owned livestock for the few who's "manifest destiny" has given them enough money, power and technology to not only do as they please, but to assure you that you and your progeny will do as they are compelled to, eventually.
No conspiracy necessary. It is more obvious as this goes on in various ways and to different degrees.
Bonobo
(29,257 posts)Like animals subjected to evolutionary pressure, among the forms of manipulation that "manufacture consent", it is the successful ones which survive and thrive.
It has always seemed obviously fraudulent that there are two political parties with roughly equal numbers of votes ALWAYS. A suspicious person (or a person with half a brain even) would quickly come to the conclusion that there is manipulation and collusion behind making it so.
Imagine two contractors in a small town, both competing for all the building projects in that town. Do they beat each other over the head senseless and risk that THEY will be the one that winds up with nothing? Or do they grab the phone and make a call, coming to some agreed upon method of sharing the more-than-plenty of business? Occam was no idiot.
madinmaryland
(64,920 posts)Hillary45 thread!
Bonobo
(29,257 posts)Facts vs. wild speculation.
Data vs. bullshit.
Meat vs. salad.
Actually I prefer word salad!! But then again, it might just be someone who is 4 anything!