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For extra fun, choose the ACLU or the EFF or ProPublica as your Amazon Smile charity so they get the donation boost.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N39W2DI/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
there you go, this is their bible.
one of the top comments:
> One of my political science professors pointed out that the Nazi party was a right wing creation. I raised my hand and asked how this could be the case if they identified themselves as socialists. My professor shut down the conversation by telling me I hadn't paid close enough attention to the reading and refused to discuss it further. Now, thirty years later, that conversation finally makes sense.
Someone has apparently never heard of the Streisand Effect. I was on the fence about getting this book, but seeing a few new articles about it this morning pushed me over the edge. Amazon link for those interested.
>But but but libertarians tell me if there were no laws they would be double super honest! After all if the laws are already ineffective surely having none would be soooo much better...
No libertarians don't actually think that. They just think having a strong central government makes it easier for companies to do their bullshit, not harder. Just continuing to use the US as an example, as a dishonest corp you have to just bribe one central entity and they have vast powers to re-write laws to favor you and eliminate competition so you can do whatever you want. By contrast if you have a weak central government there isn't a strong entity to corrupt and you have a vast array of different groups to corrupt to get your unfettered access, such as the various independent organizations covering things like standards, ratings, reputation, credit, mediation, security, etc. And none of them have a monopoly they can be easily replaced by more reliable entities. Just as a real world example of what such groups look like see things such as UL (Electricity standards), ISO, ANSI, credit bureaus, etc.
Continuing with real world examples, with the EU parliament getting stronger every day, you can expect those consumer protections start to erode. It's much easier to bribe some MEPs than it is to bribe every legislature from every separate country in Europe. Article 13's just a preview of things to come. All countries naturally gravitate toward more government power and less freedom as seizing a nation's capital to remain in power as long as possible is the end goal of all politicians.
I'm not going to put details on the internet, but buy this book, read it, and understand that there are genuinely evil people in the world who will use these tactics against you: 48 Laws of Power. You cannot defend yourself against those people if you don't understand their tactics yourself.
Here's a summary of the laws: https://www.tke.org/files/file/The_48_Laws_of_Power.pdf
If you really want to read it today you can grab the kindle version from Amazon
From the Amazon product page:
> This item will be released on January 5th at 9:00 A.M. Eastern
That is fucking brilliant. "You don't want us to publish it? Ok, we'll publish it sooner!"
White's only deeds used to be common. The effects are still in force in Philadelphia, even if the deeds are not.
The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein is an excellent intro to the topic. It is a very engaging book, meaty not dry, utterly fascinating and depressing.
>I said nothing about race. Your comment is nothing but racial. There are industrious individuals that are black, white, and brown profiting from revitalizing neglected areas. I love it. Success knows no color, but green.
There are certainly people of all backgrounds doing their best to make it in this world.
At least in an American context, it ABSOLUTELY makes sense to bring up race, as the tools that made the Black Community overwhelming poor and overwhelmingly shut-out of home ownership were based on racial public and private policy.
If you're up for a read or list, The Color of Law goes into great detail as to how this came to be the case.
This may make or break the Iranian government.
The world we live in is one where free, democratic counties are stable, a powerful, authoritarian dictatorships are stable. Dictators that try to become benevolent rulers and cross this gap often fall to revolutions.
​
Iran is precariously in the middle. Their citizens are much richer than citizens in dictatorships, they have a (semi) democratic parliament and President with considerable power within the government, and citizens have access to considerable rights and freedoms over many citizens all over the world. However, compared to many democracies, they lack many personal freedoms many of us in Democracies are accustomed to, and enjoy.
If protestors are successful, it could open the floodgates for reforms and a total collapse of control the Iranian government maintains. The government is in a Catch-22 situation, in trying to maintain stability, squashing protests only adds more fuel to the fire, while giving into protestors can open the floodgates of reforms that could destroy the government, lead to more protests, all which could lead to a revolution.
However, only time will tell.
​
Relevant CGP Grey video and the book it was adapted from, 'The Dictator's Handbook'
>I was talking about the market not being some perfect infallible thing which it isn't.
First you need to define what do you mean by "thing" and perfect at what? the market is close to perfect at allocating economical resources. But you dont state what is your idea of what a free market should do.
The free market goal is to allocate economical resources in the most efficent way, and it surely is the best method we have now. Whatever goal you think the market is failing at, you need to define it and answer if the market is actually designated to that whatever thing you are trying to fullfill
> The government is helpful.
In 90% of cases it does more harm than good.
> I know you need a lot of wealth to become a social democracy. The market by itself still doesn't cut it.
It does, rich countries became rich investing hard on industrializing and trading a lot. They didnt become rich by using any social democracy policy.
>I didn't say anything about the regulations in those countries. How about when FDR implemented the new deal in the USA after the great depression?
You need to learn about economy history, but theres no point of discusing this if you dont even know the most basics aspects of economics.
If you are really interested read Basic economics by Thomas Sowell, extremely easy book to read and learn the most basic things of economy. Then you can truly understand economic history of any country you decide to read about.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00L4FSSTA?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_RKXE2AP83F54QHXQDGXT
Check out The Dictators handbook, fascinating and depressing take on how this works. Rewarding the minumum coalition you need, Trump was just more obvious about it
> Part of the strategy of authoritarians is to make your political opponents seem like they're some unified and shadowy organization
Republicans that aren't even MAGA did this themselves. There are several books about unified, shadowy organizations fund Republican candidates and illiberal policies.. A perfect example is Dark Money.
> Second, once you make them a threat it gives you carte Blanche to tie said opponents to those you refer to, in this case especially, as traitors, extremists, and terrorists
Only MAGA Republicans are terrorizing the FBI just for doing their jobs; harassing poll workers for doing their jobs; harassing teachers for doing their jobs; harassing regular, working class people for trying to support their families with an honest day's labor.
Traitors that may not be (that word has a specific definition), they are extremists and borderline domestic terrorists. And they've only themselves to blame for that characterization.
We’re in the middle of something called the Fourth Turning. In a nut shell, society constantly goes through a series turnings: highs, awakenings, unravellings, and crises. We’re in the middle of a crisis now which began around 2008. Here’s the book: https://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Turning-History-Americas-Rendezvous-ebook/dp/B001RKFU4I
when liberal will only support good policies when dragged kicking and screaming by the more leftist members of the party, and then when left to their own devices go ahead and construct massive state-led segregation and poverty-increasing policies... well maybe the frustration becomes more clear
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M8IWJT2/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?\_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
IMO idpol is not bad on its own. I think what happens is that (especially on the big crappy anonymous internet), people who are open-minded and want to learn about other peoples' experiences and find common ground are often indescernable from bigoted bad actors who pretend to be "just asking questions" in bad faith. This is by design on the part of the latter.
The end result is that the marginalized people see both good-faith and bad-faith outsiders as the same (as a defense mechanism), which can turn off potential allies with dismissiveness and even aggressiveness.
Better education about concrete history and statistics and studies can help the non-marginalized allies be meat shields to help soak up fire from the bad actors. We can't relay lived personal experience, but we can understand history and sociological data.
c.f. books like this (an extremely great historical breakdown of the USA's systematic policy-level racism and segregation against black people, written by a jewish dude)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M8IWJT2/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?\_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
>Let's assume that's true... So what? What gives you the right to stop me from hearing the ideas of someone who is in favor of genocide?
You understand that genocide… is violent, right? Calling for violence is not protected speech. If you call for the extermination of an ethnic group, you are threatening those people with violence, and rallying other people who want to commit violence to join you.
>I might want to read Mein Kampf one day, who the fuck are you to stop me?
Nobody’s gonna stop you, in fact you can buy it on Amazon. You’re free to read that text all you want, because its very historically significant. The difference is when you organize with others, using the language and symbols of this genocidal group, and start spreading hate, intimidation, threats, and violence.
> The insider trading
Have not heard of this. Can you explain?
> The tax laws that benefit the rich
I can assure you that the left has known & actively worked against tax laws benefitting the rich. (Note that 'the left' is distinct from 'the Democrat party'.)
> the reason why border security was ignored
Which was?
> the women who were raped by Bill Clinton and threatened by Hillary
> the fake dossier paid for by the DNC and Hillary campaign
Yeah, that dossier was a massive joke. In total agreement there. Hillary being ruthlessly self-serving and corrupt is not news to me.
> the voter fraud
L-O-fuckin-L. Sorry but... yikes.
> the gain of function research created in the Wuhan lab that gave us COVID-19
Trump didn't expose this at all.
> the Hunter Biden laptop
Trump didn't expose this at all.
> and Biden's illegal dealings with China, Russia, and the Ukraine
Not familiar with those. Please let me know.
This is absolutely ridiculous.... I mean seriously, how legit could this meltdown be on the "trauma" of Matt Walsh's book, yet absolutely zero, I repeat ZERO, outrage or trauma from the same Amazon employees that have Hitler's Mein Kampf for sale..
https://www.amazon.com/Mein-Kampf-Adolf-Hitler-ebook/dp/B0024FA18K
For real. I… I think it may be for the best. The US should sanction him though (is that something we can do to citizens?) or something. They already tried sending a fascist strongman to jail, and it only served to empower his movement. He also wrote a book while he was there. You might’ve heard of it.
If anyone wants to go down the rabbit hole of funding flowing into extremism and cultural division in the US, I recommend Dark Money by Jane Mayer. Depressing but insightful read.
​
https://smile.amazon.com/Dark-Money-History-Billionaires-Radical-ebook/dp/B0180SU4OA
Varg? Nazi? Varg has been an avid supporter of the LGTBQ+ community and the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement. You should read his book https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0024FA18K/ref=cm_sw_r_awdo_ZJ67DGSANXNS8ZC7ZGJJ
Has anyone here read The Fourth Turning? These guys basically predicted this shit.
You can order Mein Kampf on amazon.
"Proceeds donated to Jewish Charities & Organizations
“In the pages of Mein Kampf Hitler presented the world with his dark vision for the future. Years would pass before he attained the power to realize that vision, but Mein Kampf’s existence denies the free world the excuse of ignorance. We dismissed him as a madman and we ignored his wretched book; the result was a tragedy of unprecedented proportions. This is yet another lesson to take from Mein Kampf: the lesson of vigilance and responsibility, of not closing our eyes to the evil around us.”—From the introduction by Abraham Foxman" https://www.amazon.com/Mein-Kampf-Adolf-Hitler-ebook/dp/B0024FA18K/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3Y2VT63YN9QJ&keywords=mein+kampf&qid=1643588976&sprefix=men+kampf%2Caps%2C547&sr=8-2
I understand that notion. But I find it utterly ridiculous. A film should be able to stand on its own merits; not be subject to kinder reviews because other films sucked worse.
Im not a fan of Dark Fate for a lot of reasons. But it did indeed hold up the fact that the Connors succeeded in their mission. I'm almost never a fan of soft rebooting, because it just transfers the load of the story of the originals into another cast and story. But at least it did it right. It didn't say, "hey, what you did was all for naught because the same exact war is happening regardless of what you do." It instead says, people learned their lesson at this point in time, but it was quickly forgotten and the next turning is one of a similar experience.
For the love of god, please take a basic urban history class. Highways, as opposed to most rivers, are entirely man made and are thus influenced by human decision making and policies. One of those policies, you ask? Route them through lower-income neighborhoods (most often minority), further declining property values, making it easier to acquire additional right-of-way for expansion. Rinse...repeat.
Ever heard of exclusionary zoning? Zoning polices that LITERALLY divided neighborhoods on racial lines. So yes, race and income absolutely drove, and continued to drive, urban development policies.
I recommend reading The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein.
Oddly, this reminds me of the concepts being espoused in the book The Forth Turning, which actually made some interest arguments.
https://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Turning-History-Americas-Rendezvous-ebook/dp/B001RKFU4I
I recommend you reading The Dictator's Handbook, which is summarized in this video. As a politician, you only have two options:
- be as good-hearted as you can, and lose all your power.
- keep your power by being corrupt. (Massive oversimplification. Bear with me)
Thus, all politicians with power will be corrupt (to an extent). Why then, do we sometimes have good things? It is either
- useful for corruption: Let's say Amazon is having road accidents when delivering their packages, which is costing them money. They'll loby with the senators and governors to improve the roads. The senators and governors will excuse this budget by saying "it's for the people."
- brings more votes
- social pressure
I do believe social pressure is the best way that citizens can persuade the government to do something. All politicans are merely puppets of the system and the corporations. Is social media the best option? Perhaps not. They should:
- send tons of emails and phone calls to their representatives
- organize and protest
- sign petitions etc
But I don't think they should run for office.
PS: Why are some politicans better than others? It's all about who their pupeteer is. If oil companies are behind them, they'll want to promote car transportation and wage war. If tech companies are behind them, they'll want to improve the average wage so that people can affort phones. Really, read the book
Here's an excellent collection of hard policy data: https://www.amazon.com/Color-Law-Forgotten-Government-Segregated-ebook/dp/B01M8IWJT2
You agreeing with the above poster seems like it contradicts your earlier point though -- I'm betting that evidence of systemic policy-based segregation (such as redlining, excluding black people from the GI bill, excluding black people from New Deal jobs, excluding black people from FHA-backed mortgages in neighborhoods close to jobs, etc) might not be enough for you, because some individuals were able to overcome that. But then "lived experience" also isn't enough for you because that's anecdotal? What else is there?