Modern distrust or government really started to get legitimized with famous leaks like the Pentagon Papers, right? Taking a look at what's behind the veil.. so what else could they be doing? Spying on our every phone call, listening for key words and putting us on secret lists? Bingo, they actually were doing that all along, from a massive, secret data center.

Whatever we believed, in the 80s, were urban legends about the government, mostly turned out to be true. Once we got the internet and could verify sources and determine true facts, most urban legends focused on a nefarious government quietly phased into being real things that definitely happened.

"The CIA pushed crack cocaine into the ghettos," was an appealing myth, but could it be true? Some investigative reporting on the topic was getting lots of press, unfortunately the reporter committed suicide by shooting himself in the head, twice. The Panama Papers showed mountains of proof, of things that weren't surprising to anyone. Then the reporter got car bombed, which wasn't surprising to anyone.

People who leak the truth become enemies of the state, thrown in the slammer or hiding out in foreign countries, for the crime of casting aspersions against a moral authority who holds the monopoly on justified violence.

Some people know too much. Epstein, you know, "hangs himself" and nobody is surprised. He had lots of friends.

You can't trust 'em, and they won't even make an effort to protect you from a clear an present danger, not even when you're begging for your life. They'll throw you right into the sausage grinder. Whatever track record of doing good deeds they've ever had, it's been wiped-- by their indifference, recklessness, and frankly outright malice We're fighting over the culture wars that elections are marketed towards, while the pro-business stranglehold on our democratic government has quietly and completely ruined any chance of competition. The deck is so stacked that when someone says the deck is stacked, they stack the deck against them and then stack the deck so that nobody can even say it anymore.

Also, you know, the human-habitable world is 100% doomed and we're doing jack sh!t. Well, we are doing something-- ramping up anti-immigrant measures, as a practice run for the inevitable wave of climate migrants.
 

Last edited by Flint (1/19/2022 8:32 pm)

The Government saying cigarettes are a health risk is the Government being evil would only be said by someone with a financial stake in the tobacco industry. That's a problem I called out in my post, tw.

the pro-business stranglehold on our democratic government has quietly and completely ruined any chance of competition

It's about money. When the government regulates something in a way that someone might lose money, the anti-government propaganda machine stirs up a big hullabaloo that gullible cranks fall for.

I'd have thought a logical person could use critical thinking to spot the difference between fake conspiracies and real ones (proven to be true, e.g. the government is spying on private citizens)
 

Last edited by Flint (1/20/2022 1:12 pm)

Undertoad wrote:

through modern adult logic we now know that distrust of government produces Fascism

and blindly believing the government is correct produces Liberalism
 

And then we have the patriotic Americans.  They learn facts long before making a conclusion.  Who do not use a penis mentality (also called the brain of a child) to know what is good or righteous.  Adult logic exist in moderates.  Not in left and right wing 'adults who are still children'.

 

Flint wrote:

What? 

Only an extremist would ignore massive deficits created by lying extremist using tax cuts.  And extremist logic: Reagan proved that deficits don't matter.  Only extremists would massacre 5000 American servicemen for no purpose.  And then both suffer and deny military defeats as a result.

Many paragraphs are necessary to understand reality.  Too complicated for extremists.  Who cannot even post a grammatically correct sentence.  Let alone ask an honest question.
 

The problem with our system is congress sees widget makers and sellers abusing people.
Congress passes a law creating the Federal Bureau of Widget Education and Widget Emancipation. 
They vote to fund FB-WEWE, congratulate each other on a job well done and take two weeks off.
During that two weeks 69 widget lobbyists move into the city, immediately working on getting unelected widget friendly bureaucrats appointed to the group who write the actual widget rules.
Rules the congress critters never see become law.
To administer the Widget justice regional and branch offices established and staffed with hundreds, maybe thousands of people.
AT the Northeast region branch office in Boston, Melvyn goes into get a Widget permit for his 4 generation family business to continue.
Chaz behind the counter says No, while thinking to himself fuck you melvyn you took the girl I was secretly in love with to the Jr Prom.
Petty, but that No carries the weight of Federal Law (genuflect).
Clueless Melvyn walks out muttering about the goddamn government.
People are people and will always bring their personal feelings, religion, and social status baggage to the job.
The career clerk who won't issue a marriage licence because of her religious values.
These offices are often little fiefdoms and when they're dealing with manufacturers and distributors we the people aren't even aware of them.
Meanwhile the congress critters are bragging how they fixed the problem by creating FBWEWE.
 

with apologies to Aesop...

the house dog and the wolf

(a house dog and wolf, havin' become friendly some time earlier, occasionally cross paths...)

hey, guy...how goes it?

oh, wolf, good to see you...it goes not so well...you?

i'm good...it's winter, it's cold, and meat is scarce...it is what it is...even so, I'm good...now what's goin' on with you?

well, my leash is too tight, my chain too short, my master is being stingy with the table scraps, and the hearth is cold too many nights

well, listen, guy...you're not on the leash now...come with me into the woods

and do what?

live, hunt, be free

I'll die out there!

no offense, guy, but you're dead right now

moral: the worst slavery is the one you refuse to end when the opportunity arises

another moral: to accept a certain slavery for fear of an uncertain freedom is a self-imposed death sentence

as I say: to accept a certain slavery for fear of an uncertain freedom is a self-imposed death sentence

here's a 🌹for your grave

to own the Libs

I'm sorry but you, er, I mean, they don't mean anything to me

that left vs right bullshit: that's your tumor, not mine

-----

being eaten alive

everything dies: you wanna linger, no matter the price, get et slow-like

as you like: ain't no skin offa my scrotum

Undertoad wrote:

renegotiation starts on the first bite, when the deal reveals itself

but once you're being et, there is no renegotiation. the deal is complete
 

 
too highfalutin for me: house dog thinkin'

I'll stick to the woods