I want to add; while it is true political issues are complex, and the solutions are even more so, the actual rhetoric and political strategies are simple to deconstruct and understand.
Focusing in on this portion of the “info-meme.”
Over simplified “single issue”
Abortion is the obvious example. The rights strategy is to paint every who one isn’t staunchly against abortion as, “murderers.” This emotionally charged argument allows zealotry to infest all discussion around the topic and gives every member of the GOP a platform. If you can’t decide your stance on abortion isn’t it easier to just error on the side of caution and say there is truth to the anti-choice peoples argument? The problem here is you never actually formed an opinion and in siding with the right you’ve rubber stamped all their horrible policy agendas that fly directly in the face of being “pro-life.”
“The economy” misdirection
Arguments about the economy is another example of you giving up agency because you are being emotionally manipulated. Financial burden is something most, if not all Americans, people, struggle with. So when a politician invokes “the economy” it brings up emotions people are very sensitive about. Except, all this discussion about the economy, doesn’t actually address the economic struggles the ordinary person goes through. Instead what happens is you link these bad emotions or good emotions to some period in time when you were told the economy was good or the economy was bad but never actually evaluate what about the economy was affecting your daily life.
“Keep us safe” revisionist history
This is straight fear mongering. Never have I felt particularly safe with a republican or democrat in charge. Corporations don’t worry about it either because no matter what the police exist solely to protect property and the value associated with that property. So when a politicain wants to say anything about your physical well being it should always be taken as a threat, like some mafioso, extorting you for your tax dollars.
Dismantling of worker protections
As of late, worker protections are the sacrificial lamb to the omnipotent “ecomnomy.” Guarnteed, no sitting politician puts more effort into their daily labor then that of the lowest earners while being rewarded orders more in income and benefits. When a CEO can make more money then could ever be spent through conventional means in a thousand thousand life times you know the restrictions placed on businesses are not what’s effecting their profit margins and workers take home pay.
Defending social programs
One of the easiest ways to retain power is to split the electorate into factions and pit them against each other. With a military budget that exceeds all other nations military budgets combined you can assume social programs are not what’s failing you. Greed is having the power of the American economy and coveting it as your own. The money we put into society is there to make society better. Your neighbors struggles are as real as your own and for you to pass judgement on them must mean you are willing to undergo undue suffering for the sake of holding someone else down.
Tax breaks and bailouts for the rich
To big to fail, is an incomplete sentence. To big to fail for you to win re-election, maybe? To big to fail to prevent human suffering, possibly? It begs the question, who would really suffer? Say instead of bailing out the bank you took that money and bailed out the people who would lose their income due to bank going under? If these monolithe are always “too big to fail” there would be no way of knowing. We, as a country, took on a global pandemic. The government handed out money left and right. Is the human suffering we experienced then more impactful then any of the human suffering we’ve experienced over the last 30 years? I’d guess, not.
Shrink the middle class, cap salaries
We are heading down a road. It’s a well beaten path. It exists all over in different parts of the world. Caste systems, apartheid, authoritians, dictators, monarchys, etc. all are still there. Why, would any good person, who has experienced the watered down taste of real American freedom, ask for something more laced with actual shit?
This one is far, far more complex than people imagine. It’s nearly impossible to overstate how complicated it is. Economy good/economy bad barely even touches on how it affects individual people. Like, sure, the economy is doing really well right now, employment is at near historic lows, real incomes are, on average, much higher than they were just a few years ago, but I’m still feeling economic stress.
To[o] big to fail, is an incomplete sentence.
It is, but mostly because people don’t understand what that means. Let’s take, for instance, General Motors. There are 167,000 people that work directly for GM. If GM hadn’t been bailed out by Obama’s administration, that would have been >150,000 out of jobs immediately. But that’s not where it would have stopped; it would have been the first in a very large chain of dominoes. For instance, GM spun Delphi off about 20 years ago (and it’s gone through numerous restructurings, etc. since); Delphi was one of GM’s largest suppliers. No GM means no Delphi, and that’s another 20,000 jobs. Look at all the companies the sell products and services to GM; when GM dies, large parts of those companies’ business also goes, leading to more job losses. And what about all the businesses that those individual employees patronize? Like, say, the restaurant just outside of the GM plant in Bay City, MI? When GM closes, there goes 95% of their business, and now the 20 employees of that restaurant are out of work and can’t make their mortgage payments.
When politicians say, “too big to fail”, that’s what they mean; failure of certain single companies and banks would have such a disastrous effect on the country as a whole that it’s better for everyone if the gov’t saves their ass. (And, BTW, I believe that all of the car companies ended up repaying the gov’t after they were bailed out.)
If they are too big to fail there should be a plan to split them up. There is no reason thay a single entity should be allowed to exist with the power to plung the entire country into turmoil.
200,000 jobs sure does sound like a lot but you are completely discrediting Americans ability to rebound. Ffs for all we know the vacuum created by such a draw could fast track decades worth of innovation.
America has the ability to support this entire country getting its entire lights knocked out and we proved it with the pandemic.
I want to add; while it is true political issues are complex, and the solutions are even more so, the actual rhetoric and political strategies are simple to deconstruct and understand.
Focusing in on this portion of the “info-meme.”
Abortion is the obvious example. The rights strategy is to paint every who one isn’t staunchly against abortion as, “murderers.” This emotionally charged argument allows zealotry to infest all discussion around the topic and gives every member of the GOP a platform. If you can’t decide your stance on abortion isn’t it easier to just error on the side of caution and say there is truth to the anti-choice peoples argument? The problem here is you never actually formed an opinion and in siding with the right you’ve rubber stamped all their horrible policy agendas that fly directly in the face of being “pro-life.”
Arguments about the economy is another example of you giving up agency because you are being emotionally manipulated. Financial burden is something most, if not all Americans, people, struggle with. So when a politician invokes “the economy” it brings up emotions people are very sensitive about. Except, all this discussion about the economy, doesn’t actually address the economic struggles the ordinary person goes through. Instead what happens is you link these bad emotions or good emotions to some period in time when you were told the economy was good or the economy was bad but never actually evaluate what about the economy was affecting your daily life.
This is straight fear mongering. Never have I felt particularly safe with a republican or democrat in charge. Corporations don’t worry about it either because no matter what the police exist solely to protect property and the value associated with that property. So when a politicain wants to say anything about your physical well being it should always be taken as a threat, like some mafioso, extorting you for your tax dollars.
As of late, worker protections are the sacrificial lamb to the omnipotent “ecomnomy.” Guarnteed, no sitting politician puts more effort into their daily labor then that of the lowest earners while being rewarded orders more in income and benefits. When a CEO can make more money then could ever be spent through conventional means in a thousand thousand life times you know the restrictions placed on businesses are not what’s effecting their profit margins and workers take home pay.
One of the easiest ways to retain power is to split the electorate into factions and pit them against each other. With a military budget that exceeds all other nations military budgets combined you can assume social programs are not what’s failing you. Greed is having the power of the American economy and coveting it as your own. The money we put into society is there to make society better. Your neighbors struggles are as real as your own and for you to pass judgement on them must mean you are willing to undergo undue suffering for the sake of holding someone else down.
To big to fail, is an incomplete sentence. To big to fail for you to win re-election, maybe? To big to fail to prevent human suffering, possibly? It begs the question, who would really suffer? Say instead of bailing out the bank you took that money and bailed out the people who would lose their income due to bank going under? If these monolithe are always “too big to fail” there would be no way of knowing. We, as a country, took on a global pandemic. The government handed out money left and right. Is the human suffering we experienced then more impactful then any of the human suffering we’ve experienced over the last 30 years? I’d guess, not.
We are heading down a road. It’s a well beaten path. It exists all over in different parts of the world. Caste systems, apartheid, authoritians, dictators, monarchys, etc. all are still there. Why, would any good person, who has experienced the watered down taste of real American freedom, ask for something more laced with actual shit?
Holy wall of text. Well explained :)
Pretty good. There is more nuance for some bits, but overall I agree with everything said.
This one is far, far more complex than people imagine. It’s nearly impossible to overstate how complicated it is. Economy good/economy bad barely even touches on how it affects individual people. Like, sure, the economy is doing really well right now, employment is at near historic lows, real incomes are, on average, much higher than they were just a few years ago, but I’m still feeling economic stress.
It is, but mostly because people don’t understand what that means. Let’s take, for instance, General Motors. There are 167,000 people that work directly for GM. If GM hadn’t been bailed out by Obama’s administration, that would have been >150,000 out of jobs immediately. But that’s not where it would have stopped; it would have been the first in a very large chain of dominoes. For instance, GM spun Delphi off about 20 years ago (and it’s gone through numerous restructurings, etc. since); Delphi was one of GM’s largest suppliers. No GM means no Delphi, and that’s another 20,000 jobs. Look at all the companies the sell products and services to GM; when GM dies, large parts of those companies’ business also goes, leading to more job losses. And what about all the businesses that those individual employees patronize? Like, say, the restaurant just outside of the GM plant in Bay City, MI? When GM closes, there goes 95% of their business, and now the 20 employees of that restaurant are out of work and can’t make their mortgage payments.
When politicians say, “too big to fail”, that’s what they mean; failure of certain single companies and banks would have such a disastrous effect on the country as a whole that it’s better for everyone if the gov’t saves their ass. (And, BTW, I believe that all of the car companies ended up repaying the gov’t after they were bailed out.)
If they are too big to fail there should be a plan to split them up. There is no reason thay a single entity should be allowed to exist with the power to plung the entire country into turmoil.
200,000 jobs sure does sound like a lot but you are completely discrediting Americans ability to rebound. Ffs for all we know the vacuum created by such a draw could fast track decades worth of innovation.
America has the ability to support this entire country getting its entire lights knocked out and we proved it with the pandemic.