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SomethingFishy

(4,876 posts)
24. George Carlin nailed it the best...
Tue Mar 11, 2014, 12:38 PM
Mar 2014

"The real owners are the big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians, they're an irrelevancy. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They've long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the statehouses, the city halls. They've got the judges in their back pockets. And they own all the big media companies, so that they control just about all of the news and information you hear. They've got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying ­ lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want; they want more for themselves and less for everybody else."

"But I'll tell you what they don't want. They don't want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don't want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking. They're not interested in that. That doesn't help them. That's against their interests. They don't want people who are smart enough to sit around the kitchen table and figure out how badly they're getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fucking years ago.

"You know what they want? Obedient workers ­ people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork but just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it. And, now, they're coming for your Social Security. They want your fucking retirement money. They want it back, so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And you know something? They'll get it. They'll get it all, sooner or later, because they own this fucking place. It's a big club, and you ain't in it. You and I are not in the big club."

"This country is finished."

RIP George, we miss you!

Recommendations

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Stupid people vote Republican AgingAmerican Mar 2014 #1
I so agree damnedifIknow Mar 2014 #3
this has been happening for a long time... MindMover Mar 2014 #2
I think I just got dumber hfojvt Mar 2014 #4
Facebook is a great example damnedifIknow Mar 2014 #10
I don't think that is "dumbing down", I think the masses have always been like that Victor_c3 Mar 2014 #11
it is the end result reddread Mar 2014 #12
They used to make John Wayne goes to war films. You call 12 Years a Slave 'miliatary Bluenorthwest Mar 2014 #16
I met John Wayne reddread Mar 2014 #19
Thank goodness, because his True Grit is almost unwatchably cartoonish. Orrex Mar 2014 #21
Shit all of his movies... My dad loved John Wayne SomethingFishy Mar 2014 #23
I agree completely (nt) Orrex Mar 2014 #25
John Wayne was a local, his kid went to school with me. His films were reactionary Bluenorthwest Mar 2014 #27
those would have to be your words reddread Mar 2014 #33
Why are you being rude? I don't agree with you that films 'used to be provocative' and are Bluenorthwest Mar 2014 #37
There are plenty of decent and provocative movies SomethingFishy Mar 2014 #22
Do you think THAT was different 30 years ago? hfojvt Mar 2014 #15
Education ISN'T job training. FSogol Mar 2014 #13
really? hfojvt Mar 2014 #14
an education is to open your mind, broaden your horizons, learn how to think, unblock Mar 2014 #29
none of those are really the result hfojvt Mar 2014 #38
wow, sorry you didn't get much out of your education. the rest of us do, for the most part. unblock Mar 2014 #39
what you got from your education hfojvt Mar 2014 #40
most of my career was as a computer programmer, based largely on skills i learned before college. unblock Mar 2014 #42
and yet hfojvt Mar 2014 #43
I've posited this same theory right here on DU Le Taz Hot Mar 2014 #5
Yes. Exactly. PCIntern Mar 2014 #7
I agree. woo me with science Mar 2014 #8
George Carlin nailed it the best... SomethingFishy Mar 2014 #24
+1 Auggie Mar 2014 #31
It is easily seen. easily. reddread Mar 2014 #6
Yeah, pining away for the bigoted past. Here is a great article about LGBT issues then. Bluenorthwest Mar 2014 #17
boy are you barking up the wrong trees. n/t reddread Mar 2014 #20
I offered you facts. You offered of the past as a superior time. I offered up another Bluenorthwest Mar 2014 #26
An Informed Public is neccessary for a democracy to function ... LisaLynne Mar 2014 #9
Not good damnedifIknow Mar 2014 #18
I don't necessarily disagree, but I had to comment on that graph.. X_Digger Mar 2014 #28
It's the downward trend in score that worries me damnedifIknow Mar 2014 #30
At the current pace of 3.5% over 40 years? X_Digger Mar 2014 #32
Down is down damnedifIknow Mar 2014 #34
Beware of the source, even though the interviewee's point is valid: alp227 Mar 2014 #35
yup and there's UglyGreed Mar 2014 #36
Attack the source and ignore the message damnedifIknow Mar 2014 #41
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