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Mikie

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Or go back to the Articles of Confederation. Clearly the idea is that being taxed is "confiscation of property," an old idea. In an ideal world, we wo...
August 02, 2021 at 23:50
It's not a pejorative, it's a description of fact. Working for a wage is renting yourself -- your brains and muscles, time and effort -- for money. So...
August 02, 2021 at 23:40
It fluctuates in time. No one decides. It's cultural and historical. But I also sense that the female body has always been more alluring to males by t...
August 01, 2021 at 23:54
Can't argue with any of that. They bring their voters with them in their media, then when the voters get too insane, they're left with a dilemma: eith...
August 01, 2021 at 23:25
In fact we know it doesn't. The quickest way to destroy anything is to privatize it. We know that from our healthcare system. The pattern is always th...
August 01, 2021 at 23:16
I've seen no evidence of that whatsoever. I say it is. I guess that evens out. Declaring it isn't so isn't an argument. The relationship between maste...
August 01, 2021 at 23:09
There’s a bit of epistemic and deontic elements in both the state and in religions. I’d argue that capitalism is a religion, in many respects. Nationa...
August 01, 2021 at 04:24
Again, because you don’t listen — either consciously refusing or unconsciously. Given your age, it’s likely unconscious. But who knows. “Wage slavery”...
August 01, 2021 at 04:10
The problem is that those in power believe they are putting principles into action, but really serving themselves and their constituents. Corbyn was a...
August 01, 2021 at 03:45
:sweat: Just call me Mike.
July 31, 2021 at 04:31
Yes. In many ways. First and foremost: “I’m just following orders.” They’re doing what comes “naturally” within a capitalist system: make profits, rai...
July 31, 2021 at 04:15
Wage slavery. I’m not talking about chattel slavery. Selling yourself and renting yourself. That’s the difference. Because you’re a heavily indoctrina...
July 31, 2021 at 04:07
Yes -- check out Golden Rule: The Investment Theory of Party Competition and the Logic of Money-driven Political Systems by Thomas Ferguson. Lays it o...
July 30, 2021 at 20:45
It's as if you don't realize you're describing CORPORATIONS, not "states." This is the structure of corporations. They're the great system of exploita...
July 30, 2021 at 20:44
There are far more people in government that act to serve the population than there are CEOs and board chairs that do. By far. Why? Because the state ...
July 30, 2021 at 20:34
The bourgeois, in Marx’s language. The 1% in ours. This is who the state represents. This is why when people choose business (corporations) I think th...
July 30, 2021 at 14:11
No those are called capitalists. They’re also destroying the prospects for human life. But keep worshiping them by all means.
July 30, 2021 at 14:07
Perhaps try reading what you quoted. Apparently you missed the “in the sense of dogma” part. I’m not referring to the Catholic church or Christianity ...
July 30, 2021 at 14:00
https://grist.org/cities/tampa-wanted-renewable-energy-resolution-florida-lawmakers-made-sure-it-couldnt-gas-ban-preemption/?utm_source=newsletter&utm...
July 30, 2021 at 13:56
True, but this is the current state of affairs. The bourgeois have won, and have brought with this win their worldview.
July 30, 2021 at 03:27
No, they can’t. That’s like saying the Pope can choose not to be Catholic. It’s possible, I suppose — but the point is that he wouldn’t be Pope if tha...
July 30, 2021 at 03:20
Liberalism pre-dates Darwin, but regardless: I’d argue social Darwinism is a dogma. Reasonable. Power isn’t only brute force, though.
July 30, 2021 at 02:59
Never figured you for a communist. Good to see you’ve had a change in heart.
July 30, 2021 at 02:51
Tough shit. Then you have the freedom to starve to death. That’s NOS’s ideal world, anyway. Government is the problem, free markets are the solution. ...
July 29, 2021 at 21:41
An important point. The void gets filled with varying sects of the church of nihilism: capitalism, scientism, etc. Nietzsche is good on this. Put anot...
July 29, 2021 at 21:39
You’re dealing with someone who voted for and continues to defend Donald Trump, and whose economic beliefs come straight out of Friedman and Ayn Rand....
July 29, 2021 at 21:35
Yes, but I’m using “church” as basically a synonym for ideology — or dogma, in any case. But even if we use religion (say represented by Catholicism),...
July 29, 2021 at 21:30
I don’t disagree, but given the parameters I established I offer two points in response. 1) I’m defining “church” as dogma/ideology/system of beliefs,...
July 29, 2021 at 20:55
Nietzsche has interesting things to say about this. Let us say: the overman is the meaning of the earth, and the highest goal. I personally like that....
July 29, 2021 at 03:15
If the choice was between destroying capitalism or destroying earth, given the time frame we’d have no shot. Capitalism — the form we have — will stay...
July 27, 2021 at 03:15
Right now there’s smoke all over New England, from the wildfires in the west and Canada. Never seen anything quite like this — maybe once when there w...
July 27, 2021 at 03:06
We hand $700 billion a year in discretionary spending to defense. It’s true that contributes to the deficit, but that’s a choice. No reason it has to ...
July 27, 2021 at 03:03
But it isn’t the world currency. There are many currencies in the world even today, but certainly in the 40s before the Euro. It’s true that with Mars...
July 25, 2021 at 19:04
The misunderstood genius with the magic (capitalist) solution to climate change, who goes around calling people "commies," is now leaving the discussi...
July 21, 2021 at 13:28
You're even too stupid to see that you leaving is a desirable outcome. Take your inflated ego, your magma pipe-dreams, your capitalism worship, and yo...
July 20, 2021 at 21:03
One has to assume deficits when one keeps saying the stupidest things imaginable, all with the utmost confidence.
July 20, 2021 at 15:13
There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do no...
July 20, 2021 at 02:25
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qxP2TzYcNw&t=403s
July 20, 2021 at 01:33
I don't consider this my thread, in this case. Just a general discussion. If he wants to make a fool of himself, that's his business.
July 20, 2021 at 01:30
Terrible coincidence -- I hadn't even seen your post. Apologies.
July 20, 2021 at 01:11
Wind, solar, hydro, nuclear. All excellent options, all getting easier and cheaper and more efficient as time goes on. Solar and wind are now cheaper ...
July 20, 2021 at 01:07
Good god you're an imbecile.
July 19, 2021 at 21:13
Yeah, that's what's happening.
July 19, 2021 at 20:33
Capitalism has personal traits now -- like knowledge and skill.
July 19, 2021 at 20:23
The only appropriate response to a deluded individual who listens to no one and has no ideas. You don't know what you're talking about. But it's nice ...
July 19, 2021 at 20:00
This is well said— and wasted on the utter buffoon you’re talking to. Still I applaud you. You’re forgetting a simple principle: capitalism is anythin...
July 19, 2021 at 17:31
No, it isn’t. Assert it a million times— doesn’t make it so. Science grew up with capitalism, and has been appropriated for profit, usually at the exp...
July 19, 2021 at 17:23
Capitalism is an ideology. It’s the religious belief in the free market and the primacy of profit— all else is externality. Capitalism doesn’t exclude...
July 19, 2021 at 12:07
They’re state capitalist systems as well.
July 19, 2021 at 04:41
No it doesn’t. Not on this level.
July 19, 2021 at 03:23