America: The Farewell Tour

[Leo Gura]

Really good stuff:

 

[Leo Gura]

One more:

 

[Free Mind]

why you so political lately

[roar]

@Free Mind Probably because he is discovering the truth about the mirage of America.

[Nak Khid]

So in what American time period, according to Chris Hedges does the best America  exist?

[Gidiot]

@Nak Khid not that I agree completely because culturally we weren’t very fair or equal but he did say Eisenhower taxed people at 91% marginal rate.

[Lindsay]

https://youtu.be/hzv--Be0eFs

[Lindsay]

On 7/27/2020 at 6:52 AM, Free Mind said:

why you so political lately

I’m so happy that he’s being political lately. Our system is going to implode if nothing is done about it. All the intellectuals who spoke out about the corporate corruption were demonized starting in the 1960s. That demonization got steadily stronger throughout the years with propaganda. Now people like Chompsky are called a “socialist” and there for everything he says is dismissed because the people are led to believe it’s evil and leads to communism. People don’t want to challenge their beliefs. People don’t want to think for themselves. They just hold on to their ideology and limit their sources to just Fox News and other right wing propaganda. 

[outlandish]

Nice post. I'm a big fan of Chris Hedges. He's extremely cynical, but there's a hope in that cynicism, and a vision for a better world. He's the kind of guy that we all need to listen to in order to make this world a better place. He doesn't whitewash anything, and he has a very clear morality.

His book "War is a Force that Gives us Meaning" is a very insightful (and short) read, recommended.

 

[outlandish]

Some nuggets from that first video:

 

Quote

We shifted from an empire of production to an empire of consumption, meaning that we [are] borrowing to maintain both an empire, and a lifestyle we [can] no longer afford.

Ooof..

 

Quote

What I fear is that our economic system is not sustainable. I've covered (in the 20 years I was a foreign correspondent) disintegrating societies, I know what the warning signs look like. Once that stability is eradicated ..  whether it will be another financial collapse, or the day the dollar is dropped as the world's reserve currency. At that moment everything implodes, and you've created fertile ground for the kind of scapegoating, demonizing and violence. And we already have a president who incites violence rhetorically. You've created fertile ground for the rise of an American fascism. Our only response now, is sustained mass acts of civil disobedience. That's it.

And the state will be vicious.. 

Pay attention folks.

 

Quote

The only way to save ourselves from this christianized fascism ... is to re-integrate these people into the economy. You can't argue them out of believing that every living being including the dinosaurs was created in 6 days because the book of genesis says it's so.

Mhm.

 

Quote

Revolution is what I'm calling for, I'm calling for the overthrow of the corporate state. Through nonviolence.

No revolution succeeds unless a certain segment of the ruling apparatus defects. The good draws to it the good. And nobody knows how rotten, corrupt and decayed this system is better than the people that manage it.

I don't fight fascists because I will win, I fight fascists because they are fascists.

 

[Annoynymous]

@outlandish i am terrified about the way he drops word bombs... It's overwhelming me for the last couple of days... 

[outlandish]

@Annoynymous it's good to balance his perspective with a different and much more optimistic outlook.

You could check out Steven Pinker. He points out that we are extremely lucky to be living in the golden age of humanity. Never have so few people died from murder, war, disease, malnutrition. We have the longest lifespans of any humans in history, human rights and freedoms are at an all time high. Access to information and entertainment has never been better. We enjoy the greatest health of any of our ancestors, the greatest rights of sexual expression, gender equality, racial equality - and of course we can see that we also have so far to go with all of these things.

It could be so, so much better. And the same time, we really do stand to loose it all, or stagnate. Which is where Chris Hedges comes in. 

We didn't get human rights by being sitting around and being nice, it's because people fought hard for things like the right for women to vote, workers rights, the end of tyrannical monarchies, the end of apartheid, colonial control etc etc. If we sit around in complacency, we'll end up in the corporate fascist dystopia that Chris Hedges forsees.

Chris Hedges is right, Steven Pinker is right. Whenever I get bummed out listening to a guy like Hedges, I remember how much shittier it was in the past, and how lucky we are to live at this moment in time. I really want it to be even better for my kids.

[Leo Gura]

His talk of revolution is very problematic.

[Annoynymous]

@outlandish that's a very nice way to put it

After hearing chris hedges, i feel like a war is coming, as big as world war. It may not be the case, but if you look at the human history, you see a war on a big scale pretty much in every century.

Another way to describe it as whenever the world is in transition ( generally speaking), we saw major wars. Like in the ww2, it was between fascism and democracy. 

Right now, we are seeing the tension between stage blue/orange with high orange/green. The tension may or may not end in a nonviolent way.

It's just my assumption. It may not be the case. 

[outlandish]

19 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

His talk of revolution is very problematic.

Do you think that revolution isn't the right way to go? I tend to agree with this position, revolution in the violent sense rarely turns out well. I think incremental steps are the way to go, revolution just invites power vacuums and even worse abuses of power tend to fill them. But sometimes I do think it's good to keep the oligarchy in check by rattling the guillotines and pitchforks.

@Annoynymous personally I don't think a world war (in the traditional sense of war) is coming. I think the battle field of the 21st century is our minds, our economies, and the digital space. Blatant military world wars are too distasteful, obliterating, and expensive for the modern age.

[Leo Gura]

16 minutes ago, outlandish said:

Do you think that revolution isn't the right way to go?

I guess that depends on how you define revolution.

I think a soft revolution is more realistic. A sort of collective awakening to the limits of capitalism.

But a hard revolution should not be something anyone of us wants, as it will devolve into devilry.

[outlandish]

@Leo Gura I totally agree

[Nak Khid]

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

His talk of revolution is very problematic.

You are speaking of Hedges or Pinker? 

[Leo Gura]

Hedges

Pinker is a neoliberal as far as I know.

Hedges is a socialist.