Listen to the rhetoric. And realize, these are the people who were standing side by side with union bosses and Wisconsin protesters — the people who stand side by side with this administration (and who this administration continues to shield and protect at the expense of the actual middle class).
The top 1% contribute nothing, says Brian Becker. They are essentially vermin.
Honestly. Would it be so bad if they were, you know, disappeared?
Arm yourselves. I no longer think we can avoid bloodshed. The left has decided to go all in. So we have to be prepared to get over our disbelief that it actually can happen here — and shed the left’s years’ long attempts to convince us that defending ourselves or our liberty (or to even think we have the right to do so, clinging to our guns and our flawed documents) is somehow gauche and bespeaks low intelligence and racist fear — and be prepared to defend liberty.
I know. This sounds like crazy talk. Which is precisely what the establishment wants.
But I’m no going to get caught unaware. You?
Murder the kulaks!
gas station activism see here:
http://disruptthenarrative.wordpress.com/2011/04/24/gas-pump-activism/
So really, what is it with this bunch of educated idiots. Didn’t they have to study history as part of their degree courses? Don’t they realize how all this worked out for the Soviets? That they are part and parcel of a subterfuge the Soviets planted in American society? Don’t they recall Kruschev talking about converting us from within?
This is another thing that the GOP Presidential field has to talk up in order to force coverage of it. And that we all need to point out in our own individual circles when the subject presents itself.
And buy more bullets…
Saddam recruited children too.
So did Hitler, and Stalin…
Just sayin’.
Dear Mr. Becker,
So do this thought experiment with me … what would you be doing today if Bill Gates and Steve Jobs had never been born?
man the barricades
link
I exploded some heads on another website by asking that same question with Bill Gates and Mother Teresa, which absence would affect you more?
I have come to the conclusion that the most important thing we could do right now is teach people, especially young people, what money is, because if you understand that money is nothing buy a unit of value and that the way you ultimately accrue it is by doing more things of value for society than you pay to have done for you, statements like the top 1% contribute nothing can be seen for the absurdity it is.
I watched Waiting for Superman the other day (thanks Netflix!). The fact that was done by the same documentary filmmaker who did An Inconveinent Truth is amazing. The teacher unions take a bulk of the blame on why public schools suck (and rightly so). And he even makes the case that public schools have declined since 1970s while spending has increased (adjusted for inflation) 100% per student. The United States went from one of the best school systems in the world to (at best) mediocre and in terms of poor kids downright horrible. Most inner city schools are “dropout factories.”
The heroes of that film are the charter schools*, run by really good teachers trying to make a difference. They are taking the position that all kids can get an education and get results starting with that premise. It is a scathing indictment of the pandering by the Democratic Party, by a guy who is not right wing partisan (I am sure Davis Guggenhiem is a liberal).
But not everyone liked the film:
Yes, he is the brother of Bill Ayers. Imagine that.
*not to take away from homeschooling or parochial schools, those alternatives were not the main focus of this film.
The Ayers are big on education. They want to train their followers in the schools, using your taxes, hence the reason they hate schools that might, ahhmmmm, actually educate kids to think for themselves.
Indoctrination is not the same as education.
B Moe
The self-delusion of Leftists shouldn’t surprise me anymore, but it still does. It’s as if all the things around us … the iPhone we carry, the personal computer we use at home, digital cameras, flatscreen televisions … for heaven’s sake, having grocery stores full with summer fruits in the wintertime! … just magically appear like wildflowers after a spring rain.
I want to scream.
And when the top 1% has been eliminated?
What do you know…there’s still a top 1%! And what to do with them?
That pesky top 1 percent never goes away somehow.
And comrade Becker has a fools face…and lady shoulders. What is it with socialists and the lady shoulders? This guy doesn’t look like he’s hammered a single nail in his life.
I remember seeing this as an ABC Afterschool Special in high school. A name and a slogan for this heroic children’s crusade come to mind.
It is the more basic truth I am concerned about.
You earn money by doing things for other people, you spend money by paying other people to do things for you. If you are accumulating money, you are generally doing more things for other people than you are asking to be done for you, so you are more than pulling your “fair share”. If you are constantly broke, it is generally because you are asking to have more done for you than you are doing for others, you are a bum.
People like Mother Teresa, however noble and holy some may see her, is not contributing a damn thing to society, she is asking for hand outs so she can help the nonproductive. Those wealthy people everybody hates got wealthy by contributing far more to society than they asked in return.
Some pinheaded troll starts bleating about OMG TEH PARES HILOTNS!!!!!111111!!!!!! in 3, 2, 1…
And no philosophy is still a philosophy.
If the SCOTUS would yet rule secular humanism a religion, which it is indistinguishable from, entire swaths of the socialist, hyper-moralistic federal empire could be erased.
Theoretically.
#8 Joe,
I see Billy’s brother Ricky is a much of a credentialed idiot as his more infamous sibling.
Paris Hilton has done far more for society than these socialist parasites. Her shows and and fashion crap and magazine covers and “oops you saw my panties” episodes actually provide income and employment for probably dozens if not hundreds of people. They may be kinda sucky people but still, they buy shit with their money and so on…
Strange as that may seem.
she is asking for hand outs
Well that puts her head and shoulders over the pols who are trying to “nudge” you through taxes/regulations/fees, etc.
#12 eleven
Don’t forget the “compassionate head tilt”!
Manual labor is for the proletariat, who cannot accomplish anything without lady-shouldered, head-tilting Socialist Leaders™, like Comrade Becker.
http://theothermccain.com/2011/04/25/why-arent-you-homeschooling-yet/
I completely agree BMoe that education is not indoctrination. But the Ayers family are big on blurring that distinction in meaning.
In related news: King seeks answers on why DOJ declined to seek indictments against Muslim groups for terrorist financing
Let me help you out, Rep King. They’re on the same side.
If bloodshed is unavoidable, and it’s lookimg more and more that way, what is your idea of a “tripwire”? In other words, what is the line in the sand you will draw?
I imagine we won’t know what the line was until it has already been crossed for a while.
I’m not saying it has been crossed yet, I’m saying we probably won’t know it when it happens. Enough people will say “enough” after a while.
Color me unconvinced that there will be any widespread violence.
Remember who we’re dealing with here.
more gas pump activism:
http://holycoast.blogspot.com/2011/04/gas-pump-activism.html
I suspect it will be widespread, but brief.
Yeah, the lefties talk a good game, but they would fold very quickly. They do their best work when no one contradicts them, and for the most part cannot handle contrarians.
I’d wager , Pablo, it’d be confined to the larger cities, and perpetrated by the ones who haven’t learned not to shit where you eat.
Just don’t see things going viral.
The tripwire, for me, is when the usual suspects realize that the State will no longer hold a metaphorical gun to my head and force me to turn over my money, and so decide that they will arrange the exchange by more direct means.
As others have said: I don’t think their chances are very good.
bottom up, top down, inside out cont.
link
Squid, in the rural area we live in, the idea of someone(s)expropriating property in that manner is the very definition of misguided.
Very good people, but any sharing is done voluntarily.
Don’t they realize how all this worked out for the Soviets?
That’s what they’re counting on! The Soviet Communist Party ruled for DECADES, living like the very czars they deposed while starving the Ukranians to death. AND NOBODY REPORTED IT!
I don’t know that this will come to armed resistance quite yet: I think the states will start telling the federal government to step off, and when the fed tries to clamp down, they’ll find the armed forces on the side of the states.
Union thugs against everyone from the National Guard to the Marines? I know where I’ll bet the farm.
evil and stupid working bipartisanly:
link
Some of these fools are caught up in the glamour and romance of “revolution”. History shows that the reality of revolution and it’s aftermath, is seldom glamorous or romantic.
It’s as if all the things around us … the iPhone we carry, the personal computer we use at home, digital cameras, flatscreen televisions … for heaven’s sake, having grocery stores full with summer fruits in the wintertime! … just magically appear like wildflowers after a spring rain.
You’re still assuming that they see technological progress as good. They are perfectly capable of framing it as Corrupt Consumerist Capitalism that is destroying both our souls and the earth.
Grocery stores full of fresh fruit! Do you know how much petroleum was burned to transport that stuff northward, how many slave-laborers were exploited to harvest it? The big thing now among Leftists is Localism, where you eat only what’s grown locally.
Also known as subsistence-level farming, and I don’t know what they expect us to harvest in February (or April for that matter). Will we all be eating Canada Geese and White-tailed deer?
The flat-screen TVs and other media are corrupting influences that only fill the pockets of the rich. Prevents people fron engaging in performance art and poetry slams.
Don’t you see that they hate American wealth? This is the root of much of their neurosis: they know that they are among the most privileged people ever to walk the earth, and they feel so guilty they can’t stand it.
So they’re determined to tear down that wealth to assuage their narcissistic guilt. If the United States is poor and suffering, there’s nothing to feel guilty about, dontchaknow. And it it makes the narcissist feel better, then it’s worth it, you ignorant racist wingers.
Malignant narcissists only see a crisis that they can leverage to put themselves in power lovely power. SOCIALISM DOES TOO WORK; IT WORKS JUST FINE FOR THE RULING CLASS.
It still astounds me how so many here at PW keep saying, “Don’t they know that [x]?” as if the Left were operating from ignorance.
They. Are. Not.
The bastards know exactly what they are doing, and they want the dystopia that they’re bringing on, BECAUSE IT SATISFIES THEIR NARCISSISM.
That’s reason enough: narcissists will pursue the impossible satisfaction of their narcissism to the ends of the earth, even unto its destruction, because if the current societal order can’t satisfy the narcissist, then the current societal order MUST GO.
The rest of us? Just props in their magnificent psychodrama. Get used to it.
Some of these fools are caught up in the glamour and romance of “revolution”. History shows that the reality of revolution and its aftermath, is seldom glamorous or romantic.
They know that the revolution eats its own, but they’re certain that they’re the ones who will do the eating. They’ll be Stalin; the other guy is Trotsky.
Narcissists can’t see it any other way.
Oh look: http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2011/apr/25/um-union-violence-lectures-grab-attention/
Union leaders advocate violence openly, and distinguigh between terrorism and a revolution as a matter of who wins.
I suspect this might be teh smart, by my limited understanding of history anyways.
They don’t hate the wealth, they hate those who have it. They want the wealth. They’ll be proper stewards, dontcha know.
“They’ll be proper stewards, dontcha know.”
because in the middle of no where you don’t want diesel engines polluting a village 70 miles away!
they know that they are among the most privileged people ever to walk the earth, and they feel so guilty they can’t stand it.
I think we’re talking about at least two different groups: those who want the wealth and control for themselves and those who take pleasure in assuaging their guilt about being wealthy. The latter group constitutes the useful idiot contingent for the former.
“those who take pleasure in assuaging their guilt about being wealthy.”
cuba,haiti, zimbabwe it is just a plane ride away
That little pansy Poofter best never get within a hundred yards of my children.
Even in the absolute absence of people such as this I’d still be armed and ready to rumble for essential liberty.
You never know what tomorrow may bring, best to be prepared.
I have a feeling your kids would give that dude a wedgie and stuff him into a locker, JD.
REVOLUTION NOW!!!
The political is the personal is the insane.
Word I just learned from that site, Geoff: WEALTHfare.
Bh – K would yell BAD TOUCH and kick him in the ding ding, assuming he does not have it duct taped down to prove that he is down with the struggle of the GLAAD transtesticled crowd.
Not giving themselves, mind you. But getting over people to give. By force. Not to be confused with taking. Which they’re against.
That is the most finely tuned unmitigated bullshit I’ve ever seen, geoffb. What polish, what verbal hooks. What baldfaced lies.
That garbage must come from the White house. The stakes are being raised.
over=other
Heck of a false dichotomy the left has built itself: Having established that corporate America has indeed run roughshod over the Constitution via its lackeys in DC, the left doubles down on stealing the “rich” blind, deaf, and dead.
Nice job, you malignant sociopaths. Burn the city down because it’ll stop the economic engines. Wise and oh so satisfying.
ENVY! GREED! THEFT! JUSTICE!
There are undoubtedly other organizations out there. Camp Obama diaper babies. That is just one I happened across a couple days ago.
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN LIVES!!!!!!!!
“Burn the city down because it’ll stop the economic engines.”
1st detroit next the nation then the world
“The 2008 Democratic Primary showed us that there is a force of Progressives in the middle of this country struggling for their voice to be heard. ”
vote kloppenburger thing 2011
Oddly enough, so does the inflation he championed.
59 for 56.
THE WORKERS WILL NOT BE CRUCIFIED ON YOUR CROSS OF GOLD YOU RUNNING DOG CAPITALIST STOOGES!!!!!!
a tea party dude?
“In the intensely fought 1896 and 1900 elections, he was defeated by William McKinley but retained control of the Democratic Party. With over 500 speeches in 1896, Bryan invented the national stumping tour, in an era when other presidential candidates stayed home. In his three presidential bids, he promoted Free Silver in 1896, anti-imperialism in 1900, and trust-busting in 1908, calling on Democrats to fight the trusts (big corporations) and big banks, and embrace anti-elitist ideals of republicanism. ”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Jennings_Bryan
Progressives are upset when people disagree with them openly. That’s all it is.
Those peasant farmers would have been happy if you had never shown them the was more to life than raising beans for the socialists.
If Mike Hucksterbee is your idea of a tea partier, then sure.
Heh, yeah, that’s the speech, Ernst. I do like to get the occasional bimetallism thread going.
Not really but there are the occasional overlaps, nr. But, dude served in Wilson’s cabinet and hated business.
As Kurtz showed in his book there has always been this internal tension on the Left. One not over the ends or even, to be precise, the means but over timing. The agrument over at what point in time it will be best to drop the mask, the pretenses, and lunge for the goaline in full socialist garb. Obama is getting them to believe that now is the time.
“If Mike Hucksterbee is your idea of a tea partier”
yea well i think that going after: goldman sachs, ge is good. the “and embrace anti-elitist ideals of republicanism” is good thing too. though in your view perhaps not. not all of mr. bryan’s talk is verboten from a small gov’t view.
“But, dude served in Wilson’s cabinet and hated business.”
the crony capitalism of the republicans?
William Jennings Bryan, “Cross of Gold Speech” (1896)
Why do we have to share the same country, I ask? Remember all those divorce proposals that give the Left the coasts and Detroit and we take the rest?
Though come to think of it, it would totally rock if we took Detroit and turned it back into a thriving city.
JD posted on 4/25 @ 6:09 pm
That little pansy Poofter best never get within a hundred yards of my children.
……
That’s along similar lines of my thinking. Although I’d almost relish kicking his ass,
if you will only legislate to make the well-to-do prosperous
How about de-legislating and getting the hell out of our way?
Like a blind pig, they do find the occasional acorn. George Washington was never referred to as “Father of his Country” in Lord Cornwallis’ officers mess.
If we are going to actually defend ourselves from these thugs, the names they call us need to be the last thing we worry about.
I hear your angle but not really, nr. His singular issue was that he basically wanted to expand the money supply (cross of gold, silver, bimetallism) so that debtors could cheat creditors. Much like Obama. If you want to put him into context.
He’s an odd figure for us to think about now though. He wasn’t so much against crony capitalism as people paying their debts if they’d vote for him. He’d surely ignore anything he was paid to ignore.
At his best he’d be like Teddy Roosevelt meets Huey Long meets that crazy guy from the subway.
How about de-legislating and getting the hell out of our way?
If they did that, how would the political class get its …er… EGO stroked?
In ways it is hard to translate the ideas/ideals of 1896 into the present time as the things which they saw as answers to the burning questions are now not answers anymore but the problems which threaten to extinguish freedom in this time and place.
“There are two ideas of government.”
nice straw man for him. my point was that the crony stuff he pointed to was real then and now. the large “trusts” today are public sector unions. the big banks the fed. the man did have legitimate issues as far as the soundness of the dollar.
Carin – good idea.
Mr Becker – please comity to indoctrinate my children. I need a new use for this walking cast.
At his best he’d be like Teddy Roosevelt meets Huey Long meets that crazy guy from the subway.
And besides, he’s the bad-guy in Inherit the Wind.
A book. “The First Battle: A story of the campaign of 1896″
Comity = come try. Fucking spellcheck.
“I hear your angle but not really, nr. ”
oh just contemplating the start of the big dc crowd aka proggs getting started in their mischievous. me meat ax the fed gov’t. start with epa. i don’t count sheep these days only departments to cut. epa regulating diesel engines 70 miles from a village – CUT. et al
the man did have legitimate issues as far as the soundness of the dollar.
Yeah. It was too sound.
As for the crony capitalism stuff, my guess is that it’s the usual complaint that business was cronying up to the evil Republicans when they should have been cronying up to the virtuous Democrats.
William Jennings Bryan: wanted silver.
ben the bernie wants electrons. the saudis want gold.
It’s not that particular pansy poofter who’d be the problem, but the multiple union thugs who teach our schools and follow his lead who’d be troubling, just as are those who followed Alinksy and Ayers (and their star pupil BHO). Napoleon was just a midget, but he commandeered almost all of Europe for quite some time.
Obama had emboldened these dirty socialist rats to come out in daylight. At least we can see ’em now. Forewarned and all of that.
‘had’ transforms to ‘has’ if you look closely enough…
“it’s the usual complaint that business was cronying up to the evil Republicans when they should have been cronying up to the virtuous Democrats.”
i don’t know. around this time the “forgotten man” was brought on stage A & B decide what C gives to D. the gov’t became a shake down. i think a smaller gov’t has less of that activity.
You’d ‘comity’ Becker right upside the left testicle, eh, JD? That is, if it were even there.
Detroit was a thriving city, before the unions and their kindred leftists wrung it dry.
There’s still good a few good places in Michigan. I’ve kin living near Kalamazoo, and mostly there you’ll find good people.
“Detroit was a thriving city, before the unions and their kindred leftists wrung it dry. ”
the libertarians go to “white” places like nh or vermont. they don’t want to do battle on “black ” turf.
You’d ‘comity’ Becker right upside the left testicle, eh, JD? That is, if it were even there.
I would kick him in the nuts so hard his shriveled tiny furry ball sack would come out of his mouth.
Like a blind pig, they do find the occasional acorn. George Washington was never referred to as “Father of his Country” in Lord Cornwallis’ officers mess.
IIRC, Washington never randomly slaughtered civilians in London to scare the British into giving us independence but rather met the British soldiers in the field of battle. You also wouldn’t call Washington a terrorist from the British PoV–rebel, trouble-maker, traitor, maybe–but not terrorist. Likewise, the Confederate army met the Union army on the field of battle, in uniform. They didn’t engage in random acts of violence among civilians to force the North to grant their independence.
And now you historians will come up with incidents during both wars that might qualify as terrorist acts. Fair enough. But the fact remains that the wars were waged primarily between uniformed soldiers, away from populated areas, and the wars were settled when one army surrendered to the other: not when a government gave in to the demands of a randomly violent minority.
Kazoo is just west of me. Lived there from 2000 to 2005.
Why do we have to share the same country, I ask? Remember all those divorce proposals that give the Left the coasts and Detroit and we take the rest?
For the same reason Lincoln had to fight the Civil War: To preserve the Union.
From Michael Knox Beran.
In other words, Democrats, like all small children, must learn to share and also to take turns.
Kazoo is just west of me. Lived there from 2000 to 2005.
Small world. I was there from ’94-’98.
I agree with you as far as limited government goes. But I suspect that WJB was too much of a believer in the power of government, properly utilized by enlightened progressives such as himself, to effect positive change and protect the little guy from giant corporations and greedy capitalists, to agree with you himself.
JD
Those peasant farmers would have been happy if you had never shown them the was more to life than raising beans for the socialists.
Heh
Here’s the pic of my 3x great grandfather.
#48 geoffb,
The fuck…? That whole piece is one mighty load of Projection. And this:
“But I suspect that WJB was too much of a believer in the power of government, properly utilized by enlightened progressives such as himself, to effect positive change and protect the little guy from giant corporations and greedy capitalists, to agree with you himself.”
the progggs of 19th century amerikkka updated to van jones. me i yawn at luddites. the entire left luddites. put that in your windmill and smoke it in a non smoking venue.
Darleen,
A Kentuckean! I have Kendall and Menifee ancestors in Kentucky.
to es
baracky: a pyromaniac in a field of straw men-ryan
what is the line in the sand you will draw?
We are dealing with some very sophisticated opponents who never let a line be drawn that they are not going to win. They blur lines, they ever so slowly shift the line (Earth Day 1970, Please Pick up Your Trash, to Earth Day 2011 – You’ll take the Mercury Bulb and Like It), they train the people who teach other people how to tell where the line is drawn, they convince your children that you are racist for even believing in the concept of a “line”.
Let’s win big in 2012, ’cause 2016 is too late.
dicentra, you really need to read some of the accounts, on both sides, of what happened in the Revolution. The “field of battle” was pretty much everywhere. Or do you think that tarring and feathering was a painless process? that supporters on both sides didn’t have their houses burned and families slaughtered? “War is cruelty; you cannot refine it.” Sherman was expressing an eternal truth.
In any case, your point is irrelevant to the one I’m making. George Washington didn’t become the Father of his Country until he won. Before that, he and the rest of the Founding Fathers were called traitors and worse, because that’s precisely what they were. And they recognized this; that’s the reason the Declaration refers to their “sacred honor” as part of what they were willing to sacrifice for liberty. If they had been concerned with the label applied to them, they never would have fought.
And that idea that what our enemies domestic call us should be of any concern is one we will have to get over, or else get measured for the chains.
“Will we all be eating Canada Geese and White-tailed deer?”
I’m thinking squirrel. But, yeah.
I remember as a child watching The Beverly Hillbillies my Grandfather didn’t laugh at the jokes about eating possum. One of the other adults knowingly chided him about this, and it was revealed that he had eaten plenty of possum, as well as groundhog and raccoon during the Depression. When we kids asked him why he didn’t just eat deer or rabbit, he explained that there weren’t any. First deer, then rabbit, and finally squirrels were very rapidly hunted to effective extinction. This was in very sparsely populated West Virginia.
If anything like the Great Depression were to happen in this country now, as much more heavily populated and unselfsufficient as it is, it would be like a Biblical plague.
This asshat up there… We were talking at dinner last night about what the rising gas prices are going to do this summer. Michigan has a lot of boating communities. Last time (2008) the gas prices got this high, NO ONE took their boat out. People didn’t even drop them in the water.
So, those riches 1% – yes, even them – will curtail such activity. They didn’t necessarily get rich by wasting their cash. Areas such as St Claire shores, with marina after marina and restaurants on the water – they’ll be dead. all those middle class folks living in that area will have that trickle-down depression.
One final note. Our big truck deliveries (longer trips) – diesel is up $700 PER trip. We’re just now starting to change prices. They haven’t even hit the market yet. I’m sure most small businesses are similar.
I’m wondering if we can survive 17 more months of this.
Worst. President. Ever.
Well, okay… possum, then.
Urban hipsters and academics hardest hit. Rednecks become the Chosen Ones.
Urban hipsters and academics hardest hit. Rednecks become the Chosen Ones.
How about us urban redneck hipsters?
Is your real name Snake Plissken?
I think it comes down to the left hating “producers” because many realize they are not producers themselves. Yes, they want to be rich but realize being rich usually takes alot of work and self discipline. To leftists, it doesn’t make any sense that a CEO makes a million dollars whereas a college professor does not- that college professor, teaching woman’s studies !!, is just as important as the CEO of a multi million dollar company, though the professor produces nothing.
Urban living has made me too soft to be Snake Plissken. I don’t even keep any of the fish I catch anymore. But someone’s gotta man up on the island of doom when the time comes. Might as well be me.
Joe so happy to hear how much you liked Waiting for Superman, everything you need to know about this BS that Hollywood is all about the coin and “if you want to send a message use Western Union” comes out with this story. A fantastic, important issue, told brilliantly by an Academy Award winning documentarian, buried by the Hollywood Left.
And Abe the line at this point is “Don’t call me Snake”.
And now you historians will come up with incidents during both wars that might qualify as terrorist acts. Fair enough.
Well, it’s a question of degrees.
But the fact remains that the wars were waged primarily between uniformed soldiers, away from populated areas, and the wars were settled when one army surrendered to the other: not when a government gave in to the demands of a randomly violent minority.
I’m not sure that’s a fact.
It fits the confederates better than the patriots, for certain. But that bit about ‘away from populated areas’ isn’t remotely true in either case – you fight where you can win.
Which, for guys like Washington and Greene and Morgan, turned out to be having a bunch of guys who didn’t have uniforms charge out of a bush, fire into the british and then run away.
As for the wars ending with surrender.. the set-piece military battles certainly ended when the army surrendered, but you’ve got your Ku Klux Klans and your Jesse James/Unger gangs and John Wilkes Booth.
Or in the revolutionary war, driving all the loyalists who weren’t killed into Canada and generally siezing up whatever shit they had they couldn’t take with em.
Plus the War of 1812.
Also,
not when a government gave in to the demands of a randomly violent minority.
I’ve been repeatedly making the argument that that’s exactly what they did in the revolution.
The spirit of the government was that of one formed by a mob of violent libertarians who insisted upon leaving you alone. It wasn’t decided by consensus toward revolt or popularity. Something like 20% of the overall population felt froggy and went for it.
To even get to that point took years of agitation by others like Sam Adams, who, at that point with about 2% of the population on board for revolution, were quite enthusiastically mongering and trying to provoke war for decades before the Shot Heard Round the World was fired.
Really, I think this is a conceptual point that, although simple enough, needs to be more properly understood and applied to broader thinking more generally.
If you have an insurrection, rebellion, or revolutionary movement that is 5% of your population, you have a serious and dangerous movement that at the least, will cause bloodshed and strife and loss of civil order.
If you have an armed resistance movement that is 10% of your population, you have a very credible existential threat to the government.
If you have an armed movement that is whole heartedly supported by 20-30% of the population, in most circumstances, you’re government is fucking toast. Grab the nice china and flee to exile abroad.
55%? Seriously … you never get that because it ends before you have the chance.
How much trouble did we have in Iraq or Afghanistan? The ones that will actually take pot shots at marines are what percent of the population, 7%? 11%?
Meanwhile, as a portion of the overall population of the country they’re currently basically ruling (at least, they are the ones with the force behind it), what percentage of Iraq is US armed forces servicemen?
Those ‘sans cullottes’ that fueled the Reign of Terror were probably 1% of France, 5% of Paris or something.
The Bolsheviks, etc. etc. Everything. History has nothing but nations being ruled by groups that made up 5-30% of them.
When and where conflicts get really hot, you see 15% fighting another 15% while the remainder mostly hide from the stray bullets.
Having 6 out of 10 people does not decide the course of history. Having 2 or 3 out of 10 people who are fucking crazy does. Numbers alone mean nothing. Relatively small but disproportionately passionate groups are the authors of political history.
How about us urban redneck hipsters?
What the hell do you guys wear? Abercrombie & Cabelas?
I’m wondering if we can survive 17 more months of this.
I often think the same thing. I look at my children and get depressed over their future.
Focusing on getting Dick Durban out of office keeps my mind occupied.
Gander Mountain meets Urban Outfitters.
Abercrombie & Cabelas?
Perfect.
A wise man once said that 99% of success is showing up.
Carhartt, but ironically.
#120
That reminds me I need waders with bigger feet before next duck season.
Now now. That Womyn’s Studies Professor doesn’t produce nothing. (S)he produces something of value to teh Womyns and Professors and other assorted academic types –and for so doing is compensated commensurately.
Not really. (S)he’s actually way overcompensated, but good luck explaining why, you sexist you!
Somebody needs to talk Breitbart or Roger Simon into making a film short. We could call it A Day Without “The Rich”. Perhaps the Koch brothers could produce it, or maybe Rupert Murdoch, or Richard Mellon Scaife.
When does the political situation become dire enough for you to be willing to shoot a fellow American?
When they tax the bread out of your childrens’ mouths
Define “fellow American.”
Would you shoot a fellow American if you caught him trying to steal your car? Trying to break into your house?
How about stealing all the money you had saved for retirement?
Only if I thought I could get away with it.
Ironpacker, it’s been obvious since the 60s that there’s a segment of the population who are not bearing true faith and allegiance to America. Those aren’t fellow Americans, they’re a fifth column.
SDN, I agree.
A fifth column? I suppose so. Actually, they’re puppets of the Zombie Soviet Union.
When
doesdid the political situation become dire enough for you to be willing to shoot a fellow American?Back when they elected teh won.
If and when said Americans have lost the ability to control their actions (because of starvation, desperation or rage) and then only if it’s desperately necessary.
Yup.
“Deserve’s got nothin’ to do with it.” – William Munny
Somehow seems relevant.
Nobody with an ounce of sense would want exactly what he deserves.
It’s times like this that I’m a tiny bit envious of our British cousins across the pond.
Take the Prince of Wales for example. Now, you and I know there’s no way that a self-declared aspiring tampon ought to ascend the throne. But whether he does or does not, it won’t be because the people voted to elect him.
Exactly so, McGehee. In life, if we’re lucky, we get neither what we think we deserve nor what we actually deserve. A good life generally happens in the in-between.
As my father had said a few times, “I’m not looking for justice, I want mercy.”
Probably because he is a guilty old white oppressor.
D’uh!