patrick.net
An Antidote to Corporate Media
1,188,950 comments by 13,845 users - Patrick, richwicks online now
You will think what you're told to think
invite response
2013 Jun 30, 11:54am 14,015 views 32 comments
Comments 1 - 32 of 32 Search these comments
Proof of the above: Thanking our troops who invaded Iraq for defedning our freedom. How, exactly, did they do that?
Bellingham Bill
2013 Jun 30, 3:24pm
yup, no "revolution" without "education" first.
Ideally, I'm a left-libertarian, but to get there from here is a very long road of reforms, not going to see any progress in my lifetime on that I'm sure.
The Truth is out there, but the puzzle pieces you need to find to assemble a coherent picture of it are very hard to find.
Everybody's right in some way, and everybody's wrong, too.
Dan8267
2013 Jul 1, 1:39am
You just had to write this post the day I watched They Live. Coincidence? I don't believe in coincidence.
The feeling is definitely there,
It’s a new morning in America,
The old cynicism is gone,
We have faith in our leaders,
We’re optimistic
As to what becomes of it all,
It really boils down to
our ability to accept.
There are no limits.
yup, no "revolution" without "education" first.
Ideally, I'm a left-libertarian, but to get there from here is a very long road of reforms, not going to see any progress in my lifetime on that I'm sure.
The Truth is out there, but the puzzle pieces you need to find to assemble a coherent picture of it are very hard to find.
Everybody's right in some way, and everybody's wrong, too.
If you are from left then u are even worst than all the wise words written above. I come from a country where left is the way of gov...... and is a hell( CUBA)
FortWayne
2013 Jul 1, 4:08am
That's the natural course, liberty to yield and big government to grow. Now they even use NSA technology to keep taps on dissenters I bet.
Whenever we give government power to do something anywhere, they'll eventually use it to control their own citizens/peasants. A lesson forgotten by several generations.
Thanks for the article Patrick.
Dan8267
2013 Jul 1, 4:12am
If you are from left then u are even worst than all the wise words written above. I come from a country where left is the way of gov...... and is a hell( CUBA)
The extreme left and the extreme right are both the exact same thing: centralized control of everything by a privileged few. Freedom exists where power is so thinly spread that no person can force his will upon another.
FuckTheMainstreamMedia
2013 Jul 1, 6:50am
If you are from left then u are even worst than all the wise words written above. I come from a country where left is the way of gov...... and is a hell( CUBA)
The extreme left and the extreme right are both the exact same thing: centralized control of everything by a privileged few. Freedom exists where power is so thinly spread that no person can force his will upon another.
If you actually believe what you just wrote, then one can only surmise that you despise freedom.
You're the biggest pro govt jockey on this site.
Dan8267
2013 Jul 1, 9:08am
You're the biggest pro govt jockey on this site.
The fact that you wrote that shows you clearly do not understand anything I've ever written.
FuckTheMainstreamMedia
2013 Jul 1, 11:05am
Oh no, I understand quite well. You've advocated government restrictions on free speech, possession of firearms, and government confiscating people's assets if they make too much money. You're a living breathing contradiction. I think, but quite possibly you're really like Bellingame Bill and you just forget/refuse to take your meds on occasion.
FNWGMOBDVZXDNW
2016 Feb 18, 5:54am
Where do the presidential candidates stand in regards to the original post?
I'd say that the anachronism that is Rand Paul agreed most strongly with respect to using national defense to drum up fear. Bernie probably agrees the most with the OP on the whole. Rand may have agreed about corporations, but did not speak out as much as Bernie. On corporations, Bernie has focused on them paying higher wages, doing better on the environment, and closing loopholes whereby Corps avoid paying their fair share, and those were the items discussed in the OP.
From what is left of the Repugnican team, Trump probably agrees the most, but that isn't saying much. They all are jockeying for position to be the toughest on ISIS - which translates to giving up freedoms, and paying through our noses (with lives and money) for our safety. They are all for lowering taxes and regulations (environmental, safety, and financial) on Corps and keeping the minimum wage on the floor. So, they are basically going to provide as much welfare to Corps as possible.
Patrick,
About 50 years ago an old man told me: "All you know is what you've been told."
Still enjoying the site because everything I know originated here. roflmao
Dan8267
2016 Feb 18, 12:05pm
You've advocated government restrictions on free speech, possession of firearms, and government confiscating people's assets if they make too much money.
Cite specific examples.
Dan8267
2016 Feb 18, 12:39pm
I didn't see his assertion three years ago. This thread was just recently resurrected. But if his assertion was correct he'd have no problem citing specific examples since everything is in writing.
So my demand stands. The fact that you object to it is just further indication that it's reasonable. Pretty much whatever opinion you express is shit.
Dan8267
2016 Feb 18, 12:49pm
This thread was just recently resurrected.
And you're the fucking idiot that responded to it as if it was new..
Priceless!!
I'm sorry, where the fuck is the rule that says one cannot respond to a reply that slip through the cracks years ago? The user who posted the accusation is still active. My posts from that time are still public. He's got three more years of evidence to scour through to find something to support his assertion.
I'm suppose to not respond because you, a worthless idiot, thinks some imaginary time limit ran out? Fuck you. Writing is permanent. It does not matter how much time has passed, a conversation in a resurrected thread can most certainly be resumed. In fact, that's the sole purpose of resurrecting a thread.
You just are grasping at straws to attack me because you could never find any legitimate complaint against me. You are a coward, a liar, a hypocrite, a racist, and an idiot. Your opinion on any subject matter does not count. In fact, you are a contrary indicator. A commendation from you would be like one from the KKK, not something anyone would want. Similarly, a condemnation from you is like one from the KKK, something to be proud of.
So keep jerking off behind that keyboard. You haven't won anything except the lifetime loser award.
NuttBoxer
2016 Feb 18, 1:12pm
Though many of us recognize the truth in this thread, we are still easily divided by topics who origins are either for that very purpose(divide and conquor), or an attempt to further consolidate power under the state. Why do we take sides supporting instruments of our own oppression, despite the fact that we recognize an ominous presence in our midst?
When Neo spars with Morpheous, after leaving the Matrix and seeing the real world, Morpheous still has to ask him "You think that's air your breathing?"
Unplugging isn't the goal, it's just the beginning...
Dan8267
2016 Feb 18, 2:28pm
Wait, you didn't reference sex with animals or incest in your short novel post.... come on, you're slipping!!
If that's the best argument you can make, you've already lost as usual.
David9
2016 Feb 18, 7:09pm
I just watched 'Angels and Demons' again. In one scene, the Top Cardinal Scowls "They will think what they are told to think !"
I think the points in the article are not new at all and the numerous tactics of control have been used for centuries.
Just today there was a humorous article about a 'Wheel of Fortune Fail'
The plump (too much high fructose corn syrup?) man first said 'Paris' is a country, then goes one to say 'Venice' is in France !
Gotta keep em dumb.
David9
2016 Feb 18, 7:17pm
Oh ! My Fabulous One Bedroom Loft Apartment I just rented ! (No, I don't want to start a new thread.)
I have been looking for a new place for years. I entertained buy and rent. This is what got me excited.
Okay, shoot me, it's not the thread topic..
David9
2016 Feb 18, 7:44pm
Pretty floors!
Yes, Thank you. The floors are hardwood, just finished installing yesterday.
turtledove
2016 Feb 18, 7:47pm
Wow, you did those yourself? What kind are they (nail, glue)? They look like the 3/4 nail down...
David9
2016 Feb 18, 7:54pm
Wow, you did those yourself?
No, I did not install the floors. Whoever owns the apartment complex hired someone to do the job.
turtledove
2016 Feb 18, 8:00pm
Well, they look beautiful. Enjoy them.
I have a strange fixation to woodwork. I love wood floors, of course, but I love trim work, too. When I first moved into my house, I replaced all the carpet with wood... then I trimmed out the windows and put up crowns (did this part myself... It's actually quite easy). Perhaps I spent too much time on the East coast. The walls just looked naked to me without the trim. Same with the windows. I know it's supposed to be a contemporary look when you don't have the trim...
I replaced all the carpet with wood.
Unfortunately, a very high percentage of houses in California built from the late 50's onwards seem to have carpet up until probably the early 2000s. Wood doesn't trap allergens like carpet and is worth it for that reason alone
FortWayne
2016 Feb 18, 9:37pm
I remember when I took a class back in the days on how to lay that kind of wood. Pieces used to be really small, was very time consuming to put them together. New laminate is much nicer these days, bigger pieces, some even look like real wood.
Seems like most muslims I know regarding religion, specifically that they think what they are told to think and do not question their religion critically. This is true in my anecdotal experiences with even more moderate types. As such, my friendships with such individuals is 'arms-length'.
Brilliant quote from http://www.mutualist.org/id4.html
IDEOLOGICAL HEGEMONY. Ideological hegemony is the process by which the exploited come to view the world through a conceptual framework provided to them by their exploiters. It acts first of all to conceal class conflict and exploitation behind a smokescreen of "national unity" or "general welfare." Those who point to the role of the state as guarantor of class privilege are denounced, in theatrical tones of moral outrage, for "class warfare." If anyone is so unpardonably "extremist" as to describe the massive foundation of state intervention and subsidy upon which corporate capitalism rests, he is sure to be rebuked for "Marxist class war rhetoric" (Bob Novak), or "robber baron rhetoric" (Treasury Secretary O'Neill).
The ideological framework of "national unity" is taken to the point that "this country," "society," or "our system of government" is set up as an object of gratitude for "the freedoms we enjoy." Only the most unpatriotic notice that our liberties, far from being granted to us by a generous and benevolent government, were won by past resistance against the state. Charters and bills of rights were not grants from the state, but were forced on the state from below.
If our liberties belong to us by right of birth, as a moral fact of nature, it follows that we owe the state no debt of gratitude for not violating them, any more than we owe our thanks to another individual for refraining from robbing or killing us. Simple logic implies that, rather than being grateful to "the freest country on earth," we should raise hell every time it infringes on our liberty. After all, thats how we got our liberty in the first place. When another individual puts his hand in our pocket to enrich himself at our expense, our natural instinct is to resist. But thanks to patriotism, the ruling class is able to transform their hand in our pocket into "society" or "our country."
The religion of national unity is most pathological in regard to "defense" and foreign policy. The manufacture of foreign crisis and war hysteria has been used since the beginning of history to suppress threats to class rule. The crooked politicians may work for the "special interests" domestically, but when those same politicians engineer a war it is a matter of loyalty to "our country."
The Chairman of the JCS, in discussing the "defense" posture, will refer with a straight face to "national security threats" faced by the U. S., and describe the armed forces of some official enemy like China as far beyond "legitimate defensive requirements." The quickest way to put oneself beyond the pale is to point out that all these "threats" involve what some country on the other side of the world is doing within a hundred miles of its own border. Another offense against fatherland worship is to judge the actions of the United States, in its global operations to keep the Third World safe for ITT and United Fruit Company, by the same standard of "legitimate defensive requirements" applied to China.
In the official ideology, America's wars by definition are always fought "for our liberties," to "defend our country," or in the smarmy world of Maudlin Albright, a selfless desire to promote "peace and freedom" in the world. To suggest that the real defenders of our liberties took up arms against the government, or that the national security state is a greater threat to our liberties than any foreign enemy we have ever faced, is unforgiveable. Above all, good Americans don't notice all those military advisers teaching death squads how to hack off the faces of union organizers and leave them in ditches, or to properly use pliers on a dissident's testicles. War crimes are only committed by defeated powers. (But as the Nazis learned in 1945, unemployed war criminals can usually find work with the new hegemonic power.)
After a century and a half of patriotic indoctrination by the statist education system, Americans have thoroughly internalized the "little red schoolhouse" version of American history. This authoritarian piety is so diametrically opposed to the beliefs of those who took up arms in the Revolution that the citizenry has largely forgotten what it means to be American. In fact, the authentic principles of Americanism have been stood on their head. Two hundred years ago, standing armies were feared as a threat to liberty and a breeding ground for authoritarian personalities; conscription was associated with the tyranny of Cromwell; wage labor was thought to be inconsistent with the independent spirit of a free citizen. Today, two hundred years later, Americans have been so Prussianized by sixty years of a garrison state and "wars" against one internal enemy or another, that they are conditioned to genuflect at the sight of a uniform. Draft dodgers are equivalent to child molesters. Most people work for some centralized corporate or state bureaucracy, where as a matter of course they are expected to obey orders from superiors, work under constant surveillance, and even piss in a cup on command.
During wartime, it becomes unpatriotic to criticize or question the government and dissent is identified with disloyalty. Absolute faith and obedience to authority is a litmus test of "Americanism." Foreign war is a very useful tool for manipulating the popular mind and keeping the domestic population under control. War is the easiest way to shift vast, unaccount- able new powers to the State. People are most uncritically obedient at the very time they need to be most vigilant.
The greatest irony is that, in a country founded by revolution, "Americanism" is defined as respecting authority and resisting "subversion." The Revolution was a revolution indeed, in which the domestic political institutions of the colonies were forcibly overthrown. It was, in many times and places, a civil war between classes. But as Voltairine de Cleyre wrote a century ago in "Anarchism and American Traditions," the version in the history books is a patriotic conflict between our "Founding Fathers" and a foreign enemy. Those who can still quote Jefferson on the right of revolution are relegated to the "extremist" fringe, to be rounded up in the next war hysteria or red scare.
This ideological construct of a unified "national interest" includes the fiction of a "neutral" set of laws, which conceals the exploitative nature of the system of power we live under. Under corporate capitalism the relationships of exploitation are mediated by the political system to an extent unknown under previous class systems. Under chattel slavery and feudalism, exploitation was concrete and personalized in the producer's relationship with his master. The slave and peasant knew exactly who was screwing them. The modern worker, on the other hand, feels a painful pounding sensation, but has only a vague idea where it is coming from.
Besides its function of masking the ruling class interests behind a facade of "general welfare," ideological hegemony also manufactures divisions between the ruled. Through campaigns against "welfare cheats" and "deadbeats," and demands to "get tough on crime," the ruling class is able to channel the hostility of the middle and working classes against the underclass.
Especially nauseating is the phenomenon of "billionaire populism." Calls for bankruptcy and welfare "reform," and for wars on crime, are dressed up in pseudo-populist rhetoric, identifying the underclass as the chief parasites who feed off the producers' labor. In their "aw, shucks" symbolic universe, you'd think America was a Readers Digest/Norman Rockwell world with nothing but hard-working small businessmen and family farmers, on the one hand, and welfare cheats, deadbeats, union bosses and bureaucrats on the other. From listening to them, you'd never suspect that multi- billionaires or global corporations even exist, let alone that they might stand to benefit from such "populism."
In the real world, corporations are the biggest clients of the welfare state, the biggest bankruptcies are corporate chapter eleven filings, and the worst crimes are committed in corporate suites rather than on the streets. The real robbery of the average producer consists of profit and usury, extorted only with the help of the state--the real "big government" on our backs. But as long as the working class and the underclass are busy fighting each other, they won't notice who is really robbing them.
As Stephen Biko said, "The oppressors most powerful weapon is the mind of the oppressed."
#crime