How not to be stupid about politics

[MorkandMindy]

Everyone could understand politics if everyone - especially the 'Think Tanks' - would stop lying.


For example Neoliberalism was sold to the public on the basis that it would reduce prices. That it would do so by moving production out of the country and we would therefore be sending a lot of money out of the country wasn't very well covered (just look at our Current Account).

As for the American workers the Think Tanks had a good barrage of nonsense and smoke and mirrors.

They said that the increased money the owners got by not paying American workers would 'trickle down' to the workers anyway. So how would the company owners get rich if they paid Chinese workers and continued to have as much or more money 'trickle down' to their recently unemployed Americans?

 

[mala]

Everyone could understand politics if everyone - especially the 'Think Tanks' - would stop lying.


For example Neoliberalism was sold to the public on the basis that it would reduce prices. That it would do so by moving production out of the country and we would therefore be sending a lot of money out of the country wasn't very well covered (just look at our Current Account).

As for the American workers the Think Tanks had a good barrage of nonsense and smoke and mirrors.

They said that the increased money the owners got by not paying American workers would 'trickle down' to the workers anyway. So how would the company owners get rich if they paid Chinese workers and continued to have as much or more money 'trickle down' to their recently unemployed Americans?

the title of the thread and the contents there in are ironic.

 

[ilovejcsog]

Stay out of it completely works.

 

[FaithLife1]

Don't watch CNN, they are the media arm of the Democratic Party and it's amazing how many falsehoods that they put out there.

 

[Moral Orel]

Don't watch Fox News, they are the media arm of the Republican Party and it's amazing how many falsehoods that they put out there.

 

[MorkandMindy]

The so-called 'Think Tanks' etc. (I once had a pointless discussion with the head of a Think Tank) are I would suggest the originators of some of the most powerful misleading phrases.

The consequences ricochet right through society as people hear and believe different statements made by these influencers of opinion.

Americans are intelligent and loyal, yet somehow these influencers get us, a nation with many who have laid down their lives for their countrymen, to fight against each other.

 

[PeachyKeane]

...

Anyway...

 

[timothyu]

Well... as many here claim to be Christian, theirs is not the governance of man but the governance of God so world politics should not matter. No worldly political side or ideal represents the will of God so it is irrelevant.

 

[Richard T]

The think tanks are mere researchers that are often directed by their benefactors. Power emulates from the most faithful elite and permeates through their influential representatives in media, business, education, politics and law. It is tough to row against any current that they want. This is one reason they typically hate Trump and demonize him whenever possible. The trade issues you elude to, are based on quite a bit of misinformation. Some 98% of economists lean that direction and there are few dissenters. The average guy that is opposed to trade likely has not faced the free trade indoctrination that is common in colleges.

 

[MorkandMindy]

Think Tanks /brain trusts, maybe I don't really have the right term for them, work for the banks and for the owners of large corporations.

So consider the output of the speech writers (?) and the beneficiaries and it becomes easier to understand why things happen the way they do, as many crime novel plots have shown -> follow the money.

Neoliberalism might have been hard to sell on the basic points: close factories here & send money to another country and give the work to them, but they cost less so our corporations will have higher incomes and our factory workers will lose their jobs and get jobs that pay less and overall as well as investors getting more money, consumers will save a bit here and there too.

 

[MorkandMindy]

Where Neoliberalism is bringing competition from lower paid workers overseas, economic immigration is when it is difficult to move the work out of the country so cheap labor is brought in.

The statement 'We are a nation of immigrants ... ' and the conclusion that we are being hypocrites if we say others can not do what we did ourselves, is another of those influential statements intended to make the rich richer and the working class poorer, oh, and increase the National Debt and so make the banks richer.

 

[timothyu]

What is the Neo-Cons part? Just oil and wars?

 

[MorkandMindy]

'We are a nation of immigrants' The backing of the media and the nation's largest political party gives the statement enough credence so a lot of people won't think about it, but it is seriously flawed on many levels.

First there is a little sleight of hand because we are not a nation of immigrants. Many of us do have immigrant parents or grandparents or perhaps further back, but then also they were legal immigrants in most cases.

Why do we have restrictions on immigrants now when they didn't exist in the past? When didn't they?

So a few got through in the distant past without meeting various requirements, not an obvious and convincing argument anymore.

But it gets worse. The argument is claimed to be A-priori, based on simple logic and not requiring data to support it. It could support immigration of 900,000 a year as at present or an unlimited number as a number of the more socialist European countries have decided.

 

[PeachyKeane]

Which economic model are you advocating for then?

 

[MorkandMindy]

What is the Neo-Cons part? Just oil and wars?

I think so, read The Project for the New American Century, but don't overlook the role of the banks in controlling the countries they already have a lot of influence in over waging their wars, and wars like the ones their stooge Hillary waged, to destroy countries that refused the banks' control.

 

[MorkandMindy]

Basically what I'm advocating in this thread is that we must beware of the lies politicians and the media tell us because that is what is building walls of misunderstanding between us.

If we could clear out those lies we would get a lot further.

 

[GoldenBoy89]

Don't watch Fox News, they are the media arm of the Republican Party and it's amazing how many falsehoods that they put out there.

Worse than that. They're the media arm of the executive branch of the federal government. They are literally state propaganda and not much else.

CNN at least had Anthony Bourdain until he couldn't bear to live any longer in this world.

 

[timothyu]

we must beware of the lies politicians and the media tell us because that is what is building walls of misunderstanding between us.

The walls of misunderstanding are a ruse as both sides work for the same principalities. Everything goes on as usual regardless of who is in power but the division gives the illusion that you still operate as a republic. It was taken over by finance a hundred years ago.

 

[PeachyKeane]

Basically what I'm advocating in this thread is that we must beware of the lies politicians and the media tell us because that is what is building walls of misunderstanding between us.

If we could clear out those lies we would get a lot further.

Ah. Okay. Lying is bad.

 

[GOD Shines Forth!]

Americans are intelligent and loyal, yet somehow these influencers get us, a nation with many who have laid down their lives for their countrymen, to fight against each other.

This I can agree with and lament over.