Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Democrats are back in array!

ha ha ha! Nice try weird people.

It looks like winning debates is a black job!

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

The new republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

Trump makes a mockery of the legal system and cowardly judges just sit back and let him.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

In my day, never was longer.

I’m more Christian than these people and I’m an atheist.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

There’s always a light at the end of the frog.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / I Wish This Would Happen To More People

I Wish This Would Happen To More People

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Went over to my friend Walt’s house to hang out for a little bit, and we sat on his screened in porch overlooking the creek, passed a bottle of wild turkey, and I smoked a Marlboro red that made me dizzy and sweat and think I was going to throw up. At any rate, he mentioned he watched a Bill Moyers episode, and Moyers had a guest on who “spoke to his heart.” He said that he was talking about the need for a new American revolution and for a need to overthrow corporate power, and that he was such a powerful guest that Walt immediately ordered his book.

Without missing a beat, I said- “the guest was Chris Hedges.” I tried to explain to him that while Hedges is viewed as the extreme fringe by our establishment media, if his message were not fully embargoed, more than half the country would agree with it. I didn’t want to be too pessimistic, because Walt was so hopeful, but I knew the reality of the situation.

At any rate, it just seemed to me, despite my pessimism, to be a very positive thing. If my pretty much apolitical friend can find value in Hedges and see the logic in his message, maybe more will, too.

Reader Interactions

38Comments

  4. 4.

    jwb

    Old-style Marxist rhetoric is often surprisingly effective these days as well. You can sometimes cut through to the lizard brain with that in a way that you’ll never be able to with policy arguments.

  7. 7.

    The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of compassion

    Additionally, I think we forget this at our peril. People are always figuring things out. There will always be some people who wake up at some point in their political evolution and go “I don’t believe this anymore.” Our gracious host is a sterling example of the many ways people wake up to their own and the national interest. We often talk about the political divide in this country as if it were a basic fact of geology, without giving Grace room to work. I think our failure to give human beings credit for being able to figure things out eventually often makes our situation appear darker than it may actually be. Or I could just be high.

  8. 8.

    amk

    Unbridled capitalism has met the end of the road just like any other ism. With ‘free trade’, – you can’t re-bottle that genie anymore, former slave wage countries aren’t willing to put up with ‘let them eat cake’ mentality of western world anymore because they now have the technology edge which the west has been milking fully for nearly a century. Wage levels will find a sorta near equilibrium all over the world in may be two decades. By which time, every one will be working for shitty pennies. Yay, for middle class for they can now go anywhere they want to and work for pittance.

  10. 10.

    Jager

    Re: Prop 13, when people in California learn the burden of property taxes has shifted from commercial property to residential because of Prop 13 they are stunned. The backside of 13 was a gift to developers. There are high rise office buildings on Wilshire Blvd in LA and shopping centers all over SoCal that pay a fraction in property tax compared to what the building is worth. Prop 13 was sold by Howard Jarvis and his developer cronies as a plan to “keep grandma in her home”. Total bullshit. Ca is the only state in the country where the developers are still in deals decades after the property has been developed.

  11. 11.

    James E. Powell

    I’ve spent the last few years trying to convince my friends and acquaintances to listen to or read Hedges. “Just try it,” I say, “Forget what you already know or believe.” It’s almost impossible. I really appreciate Moyers having him on because Moyers is like tote-bagger mainstream. I guess we can hope.

    I saw the show and have to say I share Hedges’s pessimism about the ability of our society to make changes.

  12. 12.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    @Jager: My mom pays a fraction of the property tax her next door neighbors do, when the houses are comparable, and the same age. The difference? My mom’s owned the house since 1967, the neighbors bought it after Prop 13 was passed.

  13. 13.

    Jager

    @The prophet Nostradumbass:

    The developer’s have the same deal, stay in for a tiny per centage and the buyer gets the old rate. Your Mom is a rarity, my house was built in ’87, I’m the 5th owner. Nobody in my area has owned any of the the houses since they were new in the mid to late 80’s.

  14. 14.

    Spaghetti Lee

    I do think, although sometimes I can’t tell if it’s based on demonstrable evidence or to keep myself from going insane, that there are more of “us”, or at least people who would side with us given the choice between us and the Tea Party. I understand the feeling that we’re irrevocably surrounded by idiots, assholes, and psychos. There are a lot of them, but they’re also just louder than average and are backed by lots and lots of money. Most people don’t think that people without health insurance should die, most people don’t think that Wall Street financiers are the most noble people in America, most people don’t think that Barack Obama is a communist-these are just the beliefs of the hard right’s long tail that’s scrabbled and grabbed onto more power than it should.

    As long as we’re talking about mass consciousness raising, I think the active contempt towards moderates here has to stop, both for practical reasons-you’re not going to win a fight with only people who are naturally drawn to and instinctively understand social liberalism-but also because I think it’s self-defeating. It seems to me that some liberals that the whole idea of political centrism is some kind of scam, a group of double agents tasked with running interference for conservatives. Well, maybe on the opinion pages of the NYT or the WaPo, sure, but most moderates you meet in real life don’t belong to that group. Help them. Show them the right books, the right thinkers, the right data. Most people are not beyond reach.

  16. 16.

    Mnemosyne

    @Jager:

    Yep. I’m sure that the Giant Evil Corporation I work for pays a ridiculously tiny amount of their income in property tax, because they’ve owned big chunks of Burbank/Glendale and Anaheim since well before Prop 13 passed.

    Prop 13 was a HUGE giveaway to commercial property owners and people are still completely oblivious to that aspect of it.

  18. 18.

    Brachiator

    @The prophet Nostradumbass:

    My mom pays a fraction of the property tax her next door neighbors do, when the houses are comparable, and the same age. The difference? My mom’s owned the house since 1967, the neighbors bought it after Prop 13 was passed.

    And so, you want your mother’s taxes increased to the same level as your neighbors?

    He said that he was talking about the need for a new American revolution and for a need to overthrow corporate power

    I’m down with the overthrow of corporate power thing. But what do you want to replace it with?

  21. 21.

    Citizen_X

    Yes, we need revolutions–worldwide–against unrestrained corporate power. (And no, they don’t have to be violent.) I’ve been thinking that for a while now.

    @Brachiator:

    what do you want to replace it with?

    Government of the people, for the people, and by the people.

  22. 22.

    Cain

    I posted this in another thread:

    healthcare

    It talks about a die hard conservative learning the joys of universal healthcare. Her background though is really interesting as she comes from some fundie christian background that sounds like the christian version of wahabism.

  23. 23.

    Jewish Steel

    and I smoked a Marlboro red that made me dizzy and sweat and think I was going to throw up

    I went out with a friend tonight and we had no cigarettes and agreed that was probably a good thing that we had no cigarettes but goddamn nicotine addiction is a hellofathing, no?

    J Steel +3 (which is 2 more than J Steel can handle in his dotage)

  24. 24.

    Nancy Irving

    I just checked Hedges’ book on Amazon, and it’s currently at #8.

    Sounds like it’s getting through to some people.

  25. 25.

    wasabi gasp

    Boooiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnggggg!!

    Best to bring some Dramamine (and a ceiling tile) when messing with the Moyer’s bump.

  26. 26.

    Joey Maloney

    @The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of compassion: No, California is a special case. The Republican party’s problem there has less to do with them being greedheaded, obsessed and pathological, than being greedheaded, obsessed and pathological and unable to get their shit together. The various factions spend all their efforts on making each other look ridiculous, rather than uniting to fight a common enemy.

  28. 28.

    handsmile

    As it’s been more than four hours since the previous comment here, this thread has all but unspooled. However, having recommended the work of Chris Hedges a number of times on this blog, I’m pleased to learn that John Cole and a few other commenters are enthusiastic about his writings and activism.

    Hedges was a prominent voice during the Occupy Wall Street protests in NYC last year (and was arrested on at least one occasion there). Regrettably, there was a later dust-up between him and other intellectual leaders of the movement (e.g., David Graeber ) on the efficacy of “black bloc” (direct action) protests.

    Here are my two foremost recommendations among Hedges’ books:

    The Death of the Liberal Class (2010)
    A potent and insightful examination of what DougJ refers to as “totebaggers”

    War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning (2002)
    A must-read book; one of the seminal non-fiction works of the past decade

    There are a number of good links, including public addresses by Hedges, if you do a Google search of either title.

    ETA: Ah, I see my friend from the GREAT state of Maine has snuck in a comment as I was typing up the above. Congratulations and keep strong, redshirt!

  29. 29.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    I believe that no matter the outcome this fall, the Richie Riches have won. They own enough of everything that America has become the “Company Town”. You’re either one of them or you aren’t, there will be no middle ground. Most of our lower level politicians are owned by them and through them they control pretty much everything else. They have divided and conquered our country and nothing short of a bloody revolution will change that. It sounds bleak but IMO that’s the reality of it. I’m more than happy to cheer on people who want to change the mess we are in but they are fighting a losing battle. By the time people figure out that they’ve been lied to it will be too late to change anything.

    Reality may have a well known liberal bias but reality doesn’t matter any more.

  30. 30.

    muddy

    Most people who know me would say I quit smoking 15 years ago (gave up 2 pk/day habit). I say I have not quit at all. I like the very occasional one, adds up to about a pack a year, generally much less. You get really high off it, it’s like being 12 years old again (I don’t get the nausea John got, obvs that would not be a fun high).

    The thing is, if you “cut down” and only smoke 1 butt, then people say, “Good for you!” If you quit, and only smoke 1 butt, then people scold you for it.

  31. 31.

    Havaan

    I was a lil disappointed when he made very reactionary attacks on some more radical elements within American politics, while supporting similar actions taken in Europe.

  32. 32.

    Leeds man

    @Odie Hugh Manatee: They have divided and conquered our country and nothing short of a bloody revolution will change that.

    As bleak as things are, I share Hedges’ flickering glimmer of optimism that the Occupy Movement was just the first intimation of something bigger, which might just lead to enough non-violent civil disobedience to change the status quo. If enough people are willing to get arrested or beaten up, just maybe…

    Also like Hedges, I’m not holding my breath, but listening to him makes me a bit more willing to get out there.

  35. 35.

    HyperIon

    Hedges is a treasure IMO. But most people are not going to listen to him because he is a RADICAL. And not just a political radical. He says lots of things that many people (even LIBERALS) are not going to be comfortable hearing.

    He gave at talk at Seattle’s Town Hall several years ago called “Our Dying Society” that was devastating. Sadly it is no longer linked to on his wiki page.

    He has gazed into the void that is the USA today and it’s a very ugly sight. Ultimately he believes that we need spiritual reform….even less likely that tax reform, school reform, etc. He is talking about a personal revolution as well as a political. I doubt this is acceptable to most folks…even lefties.

    But yes, he always speaks to my heart as well.

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