Fun fact: conservatives in Tennessee privatised their fire department, with predictable results: people’s houses just burnt down.
A man whose house is on fire will say anything to a guy with the means to put the fire out — best not to trust him, unless you can get it in writing.
Even funner fact: libertarians took over a government in Grafton, New Hampshire, and then the bears moved in.
A couple of choice quotes:
The bears, for their part, were left to navigate the mixed messages sent by humans who alternately threw firecrackers and pastries at them. Such are the paradoxes of Freedom. Some people just “don’t get the responsibility side of being libertarians,” Rosalie Babiarz tells Hongoltz-Hetling, which is certainly one way of framing the problem.
Meanwhile, the dreams of numerous libertarians came to ends variously dramatic and quiet. A real estate development venture known as Grafton Gulch, in homage to the dissident enclave in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, went belly-up. After losing a last-ditch effort to secure tax exemption, a financially ruined Connell found himself unable to keep the heat on at the Meetinghouse; in the midst of a brutal winter, he waxed apocalyptic and then died in a fire.
Turns out public services are – shocker! – for the public good, and taxes aren’t theft. Who knew public works and social programs actually help communities? Crazy, I know.
Ok I went down the rabbit hole on this and I must share this except from the New Republic piece
There’s Richard Angell, an anti-circumcision activist known as “Dick Angel.”
Stopped clocks and all that.
It really is a fun rabbit hole, though. It’s positively rife with quotables (e and nominative determinism).
I dunno... communities sounds suspiciously close to communism...
And society sounds suspiciously close to socialism. They’re brainwashing us! Quick, buy something so we can inoculate ourselves with capitalism!
No, wait, that sounds like vaccination – where’d I put the horse paste?
@LillyPip @octopus_ink Gangs of New York depicted similar situations.
Most Americans don't know the meanings of socialism, communism, marxism, libertarianism, fascism or nazism.
Socialism, communism, and Marxism are when the government
*government run by party i personally didn’t vote for. Ftfy
And fascism and nazism are things I don’t like. Taxes, pronouns, and high prices, things like that. Or the bad guys in my vidya games.
Do I get a cookie?
Well yeah, 'social' means 'gathering of people', it doesn't even take brains made of moss to understand that. Just like Antifa means anti fascist, and therefore a good message to support. The proof is in the very language used.
national socialism, democratic people's republic of korea...
Is this /s?
If not, you may be too new to this subject to have a real conversation about it.
Names are often used to mislead or disguise. Most countries that call themselves republics are republics. But, if they call themselves "democratic republic", they're almost certainly not democratic. Even worse, if they have both "people's" and "democratic" they're almost guaranteed to be communist countries with no meaningful voting: "People's Republic of China", "Democratic People's Republic of Korea", etc.
It's why the UK renamed the War Office to the Ministry of Defense, and the US Department of War was renamed to the Department of Defense.
Sometimes you can trust names. Antifa really is an anti fascist group. But, the "Active Club" groups are racist groups that were specifically named so that they'd seem innocuous. On the whole, it's probably safest not to trust that the name a group uses truly represents what they believe.
Sam Reich's dad should consider going into politics 😛
TIL they're related!
And he's been here the whole time!
As long as Sam's third son doesn't goes into politic we be safe.
Rich people took over the government. Then they proceeded to break the government to make themselves richer. They chose to make themselves richer by taking from those without. They took their unions, consumer protections, rights in court, cut social programs, pensions, and so much more.
But this is America. You get to be a rugged individual and fight corporations worth 100’s of Billions all by yourself.
edit - whoops, wrong billionaires image. This is the one I meant to use!
Rich have always had control over the government. They didn't break anything. They shored up the defenses of their systemic power after a brief period of working class revolt during the early-to-mid 90s that forced them to make concessions in favor of workers.
Heard someone call the Fire Department socialist the other day; thoughts on that one?
Yep! And they have their capitalist equivalent... private fire services
Well, they very much are. Just like the military.
Allowing the people to choose their leaders is also socialism. This is why you have the electoral college and FPTP instead.
That man speaks the tru
Safety nets are everything but socialism lmao 🤣
Huh?
