The Off Topic Topic

[DGuller]

The funny thing is that they're typically posted/forwarded by people who are total losers.   I guess you would have to be if you're jealous of welfare people's handouts.

Maybe you're right about stuff being posted/forwarded, because that kind of stuff is invariably too extreme for people who are not complete nuts.  However, the sentiment is often shared by people who are not losers, and are just totally lacking in perspective. 

Some years ago I overheard a co-worker talking to another co-worker explaining how food stamps make it too easy for people to eat well.  I wanted to explain to him from my own experience what a plentiful and fulfilling diet that allowed our family to enjoy, because that guy being born in middle class and now getting a total compensation in six figures was probably not best-placed to judge, but I thought the better of it.  Politics should stay out of the workplace.

[merithyn]

I like to see how meri's posts expose insecure masculinity in some Languish posters.

Yeah, it's pretty funny. She's developed mom-like superpowers to piss off a huge swathe of the languish population with just a few words.

The odd thing is that I don't even have to say anything anymore. The assumption is made on what will and will not upset me, what I will or will not say, and responses are made without me even reading the thread. It's eerie, really. Like there's an alternate me out there running around posting invisible posts.

   

[merithyn]

Maybe you're right about stuff being posted/forwarded, because that kind of stuff is invariably too extreme for people who are not complete nuts.  However, the sentiment is often shared by people who are not losers, and are just totally lacking in perspective. 

Some years ago I overheard a co-worker talking to another co-worker explaining how food stamps make it too easy for people to eat well.  I wanted to explain to him from my own experience what a plentiful and fulfilling diet that allowed our family to enjoy, because that guy being born in middle class and now getting a total compensation in six figures was probably not best-placed to judge, but I thought the better of it.  Politics should stay out of the workplace.

I decided a long time ago that it's not worth getting into those kinds of conversations with people at work. At the same time, it does come in handy to know who thinks/talks like that.

[Syt]

I guess you would have to be if you're jealous of welfare people's handouts.

She's a nurse and not getting any younger (she's 52), so sitting at home doing nothing must sound pretty terrific.

[Ideologue]

What I find interesting about that list is that it's so profoundly statist, and hence somewhat seductive.  It certainly isn't the usual Tea Party notion of a libertarian utopia where people starve in the streets and somehow unilaterally decide not to rob and kill the people who still have access to food and shelter (since there certainly won't be enough taxes to pay for the paramilitary police force that could maintain order in their wished-for world).

I'm not sure it really has a coherent political dimension at all; is sadism a political orientation?  I suppose "fascism" works well enough as a catchall given the desire to generate a permanent slave class.

Most of the ideas aren't thought through very well.  Like the assumption that building barracks is more cost effective than helping needy families rent existing structures (or assisting with their mortgages); not to mention the idea that such barracks would not become either a den of crime, if run loosely, or, if run rightly, a locus of abuse by capos.  Or the idea that the liquidation of assets in a forced sale will net the actual value of the assets or do anything but perpetuate poverty.

In any event, wouldn't it be so much better if we could just have a civil war?

[DGuller]

What I find interesting about that list is that it's so profoundly statist, and hence somewhat seductive.  It certainly isn't the usual Tea Party notion of a libertarian utopia where people starve in the streets and somehow unilaterally decide not to rob and kill the people who still have access to food and shelter (since there certainly won't be enough taxes to pay for the paramilitary police force that could maintain order in their wished-for world).

I'm not sure it really has a coherent political dimension at all; is sadism a political orientation?  I suppose "fascism" works well enough as a catchall given the desire to generate a permanent slave class.

Most of the ideas aren't thought through very well.  Like the assumption that building barracks is more cost effective than helping needy families rent existing structures (or assisting with their mortgages); not to mention the idea that such barracks would not become either a den of crime, if run loosely, or, if run rightly, a locus of abuse by capos.  Or the idea that the liquidation of assets in a forced sale will net the actual value of the assets or do anything but perpetuate poverty.

In any event, wouldn't it be so much better if we could just have a civil war?

Tea Party has always been pretty fascist, so that's entirely consistent.  It's libertarian only when it comes to the government functions it doesn't like, and the government functions it doesn't like tend to either limit the extent to which they can apply their fascist ideology on a local level, or tend to favor the undesirable elements of society.  Yes, the word "fascist" has been worn out as much as the word "socialist", but that doesn't meant that there aren't real fascists or real socialists out there.

[derspiess]

[Valmy]

I like to see how meri's posts expose insecure masculinity in some Languish posters.

Yeah, it's pretty funny. She's developed mom-like superpowers to piss off a huge swathe of the languish population with just a few words.

The odd thing is that I don't even have to say anything anymore. The assumption is made on what will and will not upset me, what I will or will not say, and responses are made without me even reading the thread. It's eerie, really. Like there's an alternate me out there running around posting invisible posts.

   

I am jealous of Meri's magical powers.

[Tamas]

The key about right-wing "libertarianism" is that they want all the liberties to their individual selves, and then the liberty to force everybody else to live like the "righteous" want them to. So they are not libertarian at all.

[derspiess]

The key about right-wing "libertarianism" is that they want all the liberties to their individual selves, and then the liberty to force everybody else to live like the "righteous" want them to. So they are not libertarian at all.

There are certain degrees of that, yes.  But there are also some honest libertarians who happen to have a few right-wing tendencies

[Tamas]

The key about right-wing "libertarianism" is that they want all the liberties to their individual selves, and then the liberty to force everybody else to live like the "righteous" want them to. So they are not libertarian at all.

There are certain degrees of that, yes.  But there are also some honest libertarians who happen to have a few right-wing tendencies

Yeah, no. You can`t believe in the supremacy of personal freedom AND enforce religious norms and the like.

[derspiess]

Purist

[Ideologue]

Ultimately, even pure libertarianism is a purely authoritarian ideology.  If you destroy democratic, accountable public tyranny, you are not left with freedom.  What remains is the utter nightmare of private tyranny.

[Malthus]

Ultimately, even pure libertarianism is a purely authoritarian ideology.  If you destroy democratic, accountable public tyranny, you are not left with freedom.  What remains is the utter nightmare of private tyranny.

You would like The Man Who Was Thursday. 

The author point out that the rich are more likely to favour anarchism, because it would remove any restraints from their behaviour.

[CountDeMoney]

Yeah, it's pretty funny. She's developed mom-like superpowers to piss off a huge swathe of the languish population with just a few words.

The odd thing is that I don't even have to say anything anymore. The assumption is made on what will and will not upset me, what I will or will not say, and responses are made without me even reading the thread. It's eerie, really. Like there's an alternate me out there running around posting invisible posts.

   

It's not that;  it's just that we've all had Moms already.