Tuesday, December 22, 2015




We like people who talk big.


And we don't like people who don't look like us.




















Deadthoreau said...

You know white working class suicide is at an all time high, overdoses of opiates is at an all time high, gun deaths rival auto accidents for cause of death, inequality is at a all time high and this has all transpired under Republican and Democratic rule. So I'm some working class white American living in a post industrial wasteland like Gary, Indiana, my life and my environment are in shambles. If I can get work it's at the dollar store or KFC where I've got to work for some idiot middle management drone who talks about making your work your passion, and I barely get by working 60 hours a week, soothing myself every night with opiates or booze. Just hanging on by my fingernails psychologically.Then this guy, who's rich, successful and anti establishment gets up on TV and tells me that he'll make America great again and by proxy my life great again. I'd vote for him.

The Mound of Sound said...

I do understand your point and that it's widely shared among 'working class' America. What had been the most robust middle class in the world has been transformed, engineered into what's now called the "precariat." It has become apparent that democracy has died a slow death in the U.S. replaced by oligarchy and transactional government. As Stiglitz powerfully demonstrates in "The Price of Inequality," modern inequality in America is neither merit nor market-driven. It is legislated. Your Congress has quite deliberately facilitated the unearned (but bought and paid for) transfer of both wealth and the political influence it carries out of the middle class to the most affluent. Even Warren Buffett openly states that America has already witnessed class warfare and his class won, noting that his cleaning lady pays a greater share of her income in taxes than he does.

The thing is, the guy who set this decline in motion is the guy who came to power on the promise of making America great again - Ronald Reagan. Every candidate since has echoed the same false mantra. They do it because it works. It's necessary to win office. Best of all, you're not punished when you ignore your promises because the public will accept a scapegoat, a whipping boy instead.

Sorry, amigo, but I don't think you'll find a way out of this absent some sort of public upheaval. Those who have usurped your democracy know that all too well and they're ready for you.

doconnor said...


Believing the correct thing for irrational reasons is still irrational.

The Mound of Sound said...

You have a point, DoC

Dana said...

The American Psychological Association (APA) oughtn't to be taken at face value on anything for a while. This was the only medical association that didn't refuse to assist the DoD in "interrogation techniques" remember.

The organization needs a time out. This report, complete with conclusions, could have been requested and paid for by just about anyone.