Listen to a reading of this article: In totalitarian regimes they have massacres and wars. In free democracies they have humanitarian interventions. In totalitarian regimes they use torture. In free democracies they use enhanced interrogation techniques.
In a very rough way your observation also applies to both of our useless political parties, where the democrats pretend to stand for things that will get them elected, but then yield power more or less like republicans.
Millions of Americans realize this and refuse to participate; our propagandists advertise this disgust as its opposite: apathy.
In totalitarian regimes the government controls the press and determines what information the public is allowed to have access to. In free democracies it is billionaires who do this.
The contrast is Orwellian, to say the least, which reminds me of Sheldon Wolin's inverted totalitarianism; hence, you could say that Caitlin's contrast is more like a contrast between naked totalitarianism and an inverted totalitarianism that declares itself as a "free democracy" only as a matter of propaganda to manufacture consent for its rule. Basically, it would rather have your consent and smile as you are being shafted, for it loves to believe what a benevolent totalitarianism it is, even to the point that it can say it is not totalitarian as all but a "free democracy" and truly believe it.
Okay, so America is an awful, imperialist oligarchy run from ivory towers on corporate campuses. What solutions are you offering? Many of us have been keenly aware of this for 50 years or more and resist it in many ways. Rather than armed insurrection, the hippies, queers and indigenous people have chosen to non-violently resist it any way we can and tune out the junk heap on the Potomac they call the Ship of State as best we can, participating in the legislative process with our local authorities to develop a community contract the people can all come to consensus to adopt.
Washington just distributes the cash. Local authorities decide how it's spent. The insurmountable problem for all of us since Dwight Eisenhower, is to convince the war toys manufacturers to unplug the perpetual war machine and retool for peacetime projections of American military technology for disaster relief and infrastructure construction in hostile environments , like outer space, undersea and difficult to inhabit surface regions. So long as they are allowed to go on exporting implements of mass murder, there will be armies to consume them.
No, you're not a weirdo, and your particular angle is relevant, but I'm not acquainted with it. You're right about short memories, though, and sometimes I feel I must be weird because I'm still stuck on the Vietnam War, and before that Korea, and after that the Middle East and then onward - or outward? to China and Russia. I try to free myself and fly away, but dang, it always ends up on another criminal pile of sh$t - and it is spelled with dollar signs. So I understand your tenacity. I'm not a big player economically, but I do use a charge card to pay electric and water bills, and I'm not prepared to do without these amenities. But I drive a 16 yr old car, (which I may be forced to give up for electric battery) I don't take holidays, and make clothing
etc., do for for a very long time. I'm also a thorn in the side of the right-wing, whenever possible. We do what we can.
It's soft fascism. And just a point on Hollywood propaganda which depicts "Dear Leader" as a set of boring, backward and stupid automatons, and Western leaders as endearingly flawed, intelligent, rugged individualists with character and - VISION.
In a very rough way your observation also applies to both of our useless political parties, where the democrats pretend to stand for things that will get them elected, but then yield power more or less like republicans.
Millions of Americans realize this and refuse to participate; our propagandists advertise this disgust as its opposite: apathy.
In totalitarian regimes they have no freedom. In free democracies they have a version of freedom invented by slave owners.
Funny and so true. Especially, e.g.:
In totalitarian regimes the government controls the press and determines what information the public is allowed to have access to. In free democracies it is billionaires who do this.
This is a country where the corporations control everything and that’s not freedom
Honest brutalism. Dishonest brutalism. Take your pick.
A very exact description of the two “alternatives”
1984 or Brave New World.. CHOOSE!!!!!
In democracies Freedom is Slavery, War is Peace, Ignorance is Strength.
The contrast is Orwellian, to say the least, which reminds me of Sheldon Wolin's inverted totalitarianism; hence, you could say that Caitlin's contrast is more like a contrast between naked totalitarianism and an inverted totalitarianism that declares itself as a "free democracy" only as a matter of propaganda to manufacture consent for its rule. Basically, it would rather have your consent and smile as you are being shafted, for it loves to believe what a benevolent totalitarianism it is, even to the point that it can say it is not totalitarian as all but a "free democracy" and truly believe it.
Okay, so America is an awful, imperialist oligarchy run from ivory towers on corporate campuses. What solutions are you offering? Many of us have been keenly aware of this for 50 years or more and resist it in many ways. Rather than armed insurrection, the hippies, queers and indigenous people have chosen to non-violently resist it any way we can and tune out the junk heap on the Potomac they call the Ship of State as best we can, participating in the legislative process with our local authorities to develop a community contract the people can all come to consensus to adopt.
Washington just distributes the cash. Local authorities decide how it's spent. The insurmountable problem for all of us since Dwight Eisenhower, is to convince the war toys manufacturers to unplug the perpetual war machine and retool for peacetime projections of American military technology for disaster relief and infrastructure construction in hostile environments , like outer space, undersea and difficult to inhabit surface regions. So long as they are allowed to go on exporting implements of mass murder, there will be armies to consume them.
No, you're not a weirdo, and your particular angle is relevant, but I'm not acquainted with it. You're right about short memories, though, and sometimes I feel I must be weird because I'm still stuck on the Vietnam War, and before that Korea, and after that the Middle East and then onward - or outward? to China and Russia. I try to free myself and fly away, but dang, it always ends up on another criminal pile of sh$t - and it is spelled with dollar signs. So I understand your tenacity. I'm not a big player economically, but I do use a charge card to pay electric and water bills, and I'm not prepared to do without these amenities. But I drive a 16 yr old car, (which I may be forced to give up for electric battery) I don't take holidays, and make clothing
etc., do for for a very long time. I'm also a thorn in the side of the right-wing, whenever possible. We do what we can.
6t
It's soft fascism. And just a point on Hollywood propaganda which depicts "Dear Leader" as a set of boring, backward and stupid automatons, and Western leaders as endearingly flawed, intelligent, rugged individualists with character and - VISION.
ABSOLUTELY LOVE your work!