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Guest Post: Decline, Decay, Denial, Delusion, And Despair
Submitted by Jim Quinn of The Burning Platform blog,
The majority of Americans seem OK with just waddling through life, accepting the lies and misinformation blasted from the boob tube and their various iGadgets by their owners, gorging themselves to death on Twinkies and Cheetos, paying 15% interest on their $10,000 rolling credit card balance, and growing ever more dependent on the welfare/warfare state to provide and protect them from accepting personal responsibility for their lives. A minority of critical thinking people have chosen to question everything they see and hear being spewed at us by the propagandist mainstream media, the corporate fascist government, and the powerful banking cabal that has an iron grip upon our throats as they choke the life out of the global economy in their never ending desire for more riches and more power.
The decline of the Great American Empire cannot be attributed to one factor or one bogeyman. There are a multitude of factors, villains, and choices made by the American people that have led to our moral, civil, social, and economic decline. The kabuki theater that passes for our electoral process is little more than a diversion from our imminent fate. Neither candidate for President has any intention of changing the course of the U.S. Titanic. Our rendezvous with destiny has been charted, and there aren’t nearly enough lifeboats. Those who built the ship and recklessly navigated it into a sea of icebergs will be the 1st into the few lifeboats. The leaders we’ve chosen, the choices we’ve made, and our unwillingness to deal with facts and reality have set in motion a disaster that cannot be averted. It’s a shame the majority of Americans have the math aptitude of a 6th grader, because the unsustainability of our empire can be calculated quite easily. Math is hard for Americans, but denial and delusion are easy.
Oddly, a couple of late September days in Wildwood NJ were able to crystalize many of the aspects of our cultural and economic decline in my mind. I should have just enjoyed the 72 degree temperatures, a few beers, and the freedom to read a book on my deck. I wish I was just oblivious to my surroundings, but my weekend in Wildwood NJ was an eye opener.
Everywhere I turned I saw something that made me laugh, shake my head in disgust, or wonder how our government could have become so inane, incompetent and out of control. We all generalize based upon our preconceived beliefs, but sometimes what you see is what you get. The weekend started normally with a morning bike ride on the boardwalk with my wife and son to the Hereford lighthouse in North Wildwood. Along the way we passed the usual suspects on the boardwalk: the obese, the tattooed, the pierced, and the blue haired. I wish I was exaggerating, but I saw a dozen hoveround and rascal scooters carrying extremely obese Americans on par with this person:

If I wanted to be politically correct, I’d call the fat asses cruising on their “free” rascal scooters, the weight challenged disabled on their powered mobility enhancement vehicles. You know a trend has become a massive scam, when South Park dedicates an entire show to the shame of obesity and the scooter brigade. The majority of the scooter squad jamming up the boardwalk was less than 50 years old. They weren’t disabled. They were just too obese and lazy to wobble down the boardwalk to the next junk food joint. They were certainly in the right place. The Wildwood boardwalk is home to pizza topped with cheese fries, chocolate covered bacon, fried Oreos, funnel cake topped with powdered sugar, and 64 ounce sugar laced lemonade. The place would make Nanny Bloomberg’s head explode.

We’ve all seen the commercials for the Scooter store urging anyone on Medicare to rush in and get a power scooter or wheelchair “at little or no cost to you”. The entitlement “free shit” mentality permeates our culture. There is a cost and it is over $800 million per year, paid for by the 53% who pay Federal taxes. Records from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services show that the cost of motorized scooters and wheelchairs to the government health service for senior citizens rose 179% between 1999 and 2009, the last year for which full records are available. This data is fascinating as the number of Americans over the age of 65 only increased by 18% over this same time frame. The bill in 1999 was $259 million; in 2009 it was $723 million – and is surely over $1 billion today. This is another billion dollar scam being funded by your tax dollars, but there are no spending cuts possible according to our beloved Congressmen.
A recent report by Medicare’s inspector general also showed that 61% of the motorized wheelchairs provided to Medicare recipients in the first half of 2007 went to people who didn’t qualify for them. (Only people who cannot get around without one are supposed to be eligible.) The inspector general found that Medicare is billed an average of $4,018 for a motorized wheelchair that normally sells for $1,048. As a taxpayer, you will be shocked to find out that people are selling their “no cost” Rascal 600 B mobility scooters on eBay. I’m sure the keen eyed government drones working in the Health & Human Services agency are policing the resale of taxpayer paid for scooters. I find it amusing that scooters have various naming classes, just like BMW and Mercedes. The vast majority of people I see tooling around on their “mobility scooters” are just plain fat. They aren’t over 65 years old. On my Sunday bike ride I was flabbergasted and amused by the sight of a 350 pound woman on a Rascal with the pedal to the metal pulling a 275 pound man in a wheelchair attached by rope. The plague of slow metabolism is sweeping the countryside.

While I was relaxing on my deck reading and trying to blot out the nightmare visions of obese boomers in Rascal formation like German panzers invading Poland, a brand new SUV pulled into the parking lot across the street. After five minutes, the driver’s side door opened and out sidled a four foot five, two hundred and fifty pound female senior citizen in all her girth. She waddled to the back of the SUV and opened the hatch to extract her walker with wheels. She began berating the three hundred pound dude that got out of the passenger side to come and get his walker. Then she motored off towards Laura’s Fudge, while her hubby conserved his energy waiting by the SUV. Minutes later she scooted her way back hauling a sack of fudge. They then trundled off towards the boardwalk, most likely headed for Kohrs Bros for a double dipped fudge ice cream cone or some Boardwalk fries smothered in cheese.

Based upon my unscientific assessment of the people walking on the Wildwood boardwalk, I would conclude that 35% of the people are obese, 40% are overweight by 20 or 30 pounds (myself included), and 25% are in relatively good shape. After checking the government statistics, my assessment appears to be accurate. Who is to blame? The easy answer is to just blame the individual for their lack of self-restraint and inability to contain their impulses. But when you consider that 160 million out of 232 million adults in this country are either overweight or obese, along with 11 million adolescents, there must be something more sinister behind the phenomenon. There is no doubt that a major portion of the blame must be laid at the fat feet of those who could have exercised restraint over their cravings, but the words of master propagandist Edward Bernays provides another factor in the equation:
“If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without them knowing it.” – Edward Bernays
Bernays reveals a truth that is self-evident to those with critical thinking skills. Sadly, few Americans exhibit any thinking skills whatsoever. Our society has bifurcated into those who control and those who are controlled. The overlord Double Plus Alphas in our society consist of the Wall Street banker cabal, the executives of our mega-corporations, Federal Reserve governors, Washington DC politicians, Federal government apparatchiks, the propaganda experts in the mainstream corporate media, and the secretive billionaire set that manipulate and maneuver behind the scenes. The first step in controlling the Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons, as Aldous Huxley knew in 1931, was to indoctrinate them with propaganda in our government run schools. This mission has been accomplished. The vast majority of school children graduate from the government school system with no ability to think critically or question what has been spoon fed to them as facts. The fascist alliance of corporations and the state begin in the public schools, with product advertisements by corporations now subsidizing school budgets. The road to obesity is paved with chicken nuggets, fries and pizza dispensed by the government schools on a daily basis.
Just as in Huxley’s Brave New World, America has been built upon the principles of Henry Ford’s assembly line—mass production, homogeneity, predictability, and consumption of disposable consumer goods. In the dystopian novel, members of every class, from birth, are indoctrinated by recorded voices repeating slogans while they sleep. Huxley didn’t imagine the power of TV and other mass media outlets to do the same while we are awake. We are bombarded day and night by propaganda from mega-corporations to buy their products. Mass consumption of processed food sold by the likes of multi-billion dollar corporations Kraft, Pepsico, Coca Cola, General Mills, Nestle, and Unilever is the chief cause of the obesity epidemic in America. The few know how to manipulate the many through messaging, repetition and persistently molding the opinions of the feeble minded non-thinking masses. The billions spent by corporations on advertising to convince the masses that eating a Wendy’s Baconator, KFC extra crispy bucket, or Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese, washed down with a two liter Mountain Dew or Cherry Coke, is a tribute to the invisible government running the show. Huxley and Bernays had it all figured out eighty years ago:
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. …We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons…who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.”
– Edward Bernays, Propaganda, 1928
The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the masses by the invisible government Alphas has transmuted citizens into overweight, non-thinking, debt dependent, egocentric consumers. This was not a mistake. The powerful interests used their control over the banking system, media outlets, and political system to lure the willfully ignorant into a debt financed lifestyle through the Federal Reserve created inflation, Wall Street peddled credit cards, auto loans and “creative” mortgages. The manipulators convinced the manipulated that borrowing today to buy houses, cars, bling, tech gadgets, clothing, and fast food was preferable to what previous generations of Americans had done – save to buy things they wanted or needed. This behavior seems to be completely irrational as a people that once saved 12% of their income and carried a moderate amount of debt chose to reduce their savings to 0% and not worry about tomorrow.

It is easier to understand when you realize who benefitted from this purposeful shift in societal norms. The low debt, high savings, production era from 1950 through 1980 benefitted the working middle class, allowing millions to improve their standard of living. The rising debt, low savings, consumption era, from 1980 through today, benefits the 1% Alphas while impoverishing the middle class and sentencing the lower class to a lifetime of dependent servitude to the state. Who benefitted from debt fueled conspicuous consumption and continues to benefit today? The peddlers of consumer debt on Wall Street and the mega-corporations that convinced Americans they couldn’t live without that 5,500 square foot McMansion, BMW X5, stainless steel appliances, 84 inch 3D HDTV, iPhone 5, diamond encrusted Coach handbag, and thousands of other Chinese made trinkets that pile up in underwater homes across the land, benefitted tremendously. The proliferation of debt resulted in obscene profits for the financial sector, record profits for the mega-corporations that shipped production to Asia in order to take advantage of the slave labor, and three decades of wage stagnation and increasing debt for the average working middle class American.

The financialization of America was a conscious decision by the oligarchs. They controlled the issuance of credit. They controlled the currency and level of inflation inflicted upon the masses. They controlled the corporations selling consumer goods on credit. They controlled the Congress, courts, and government agencies with their deep pocket lobbying and buying of influence. Lastly, they controlled the media messages and molded the opinions and tastes of the masses through their Bernaysian propaganda techniques perfected over the decades. In one of the boldest and most blatant acts of audacity in world history, the Wall Street/K Street oligarchs wrecked the world economy in their insatiable thirst for profits, shifted their worthless debt onto the backs of taxpayers and unborn generations, threw senior citizens and savers under the bus by stealing $400 billion per year of interest from them, and enriched themselves with bubble level profits and bonus payouts. Meanwhile, median household income continues to fall, real GDP is stagnant, true unemployment exceeds 22%, and 47 million people are living on food stamps.

The propaganda being flogged by the oligarchs since 2009 is the supposed deleveraging by the American consumer and trying to convince the ignorant masses to resume borrowing and spending. It’s working. Consumer credit outstanding is at an all-time high of $2.73 trillion as the Federal government has dished out billions in student loans to 50,000 University of Phoenix MBA aspirants sitting in their basements quivering with anticipation of on-line graduation and future six figure job with Goldman Sachs. The Feds have also added the impetus to the “strong” auto sales through their 85% TARP ownership of Ally Financial by doling out 7 year 0% auto loans to subprime borrowers in urban enclaves around the country. The oligarchs aren’t worried about these loans being paid back, because they are reaping the profits today. The future losses will just be foisted onto the taxpayer, as always. Total credit market debt of $55 trillion now exceeds 350% of GDP. The National Debt of $16.2 trillion will exceed $20 trillion in 2015 no matter who wins the Presidency in November. The oligarchs adapt and control whoever occupies the White House. It is essential for our owners to keep debt growing at an exponential rate or the Ponzi scheme collapses.
Narrow minded ideologues want a simple answer to a complex interaction of generational, cultural, economic, political, and criminal factors that have conspired to put the country into a predicament that, at this point, will inevitably lead to economic collapse. The truth is the American people have learned to love their servitude. They have willfully chosen ignorance over truth. They’ve chosen to believe what their keepers have instructed them. They’ve chosen to trust the storylines generated by the corporate media rather than think critically and question everything. They’ve chosen obesity and sickness over health. They’ve chosen debt financed faux wealth over savings based real wealth. They’ve chosen safety and security over liberty. They’ve chosen dependency over self-reliance. These choices were aided, abetted and promoted by the Alphas through their ability to manipulate and control the unthinking masses. Huxley understood the power of propaganda and brainwashing decades before it was perfected by our owners.
“There will be, in the next generation or so, a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them, but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda or brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods. And this seems to be the final revolution.”
– Aldous Huxley
The saddest part of this episode of the Decline & Fall of the American Empire reality show is the continued delusion of the majority of the populace, as their desire for material goods and fair share of the entitlement pie outweighs their sense of obligation to their children and grandchildren. Their chosen ignorance is fulfilled through their attachment to their personal digital ignorance gadgets and supported by what passes for government education. The truth is obscured and hidden under waves of triviality, reality TV, and data manipulation by our government masters. The dystopian nightmare that engulfs our country has thus far resembled Huxley’s vision of a shallow populace easily distracted by consumerism, pleasure seeking, cultural trivialities, and a never ending ability to be distracted by meaningless minutia. Orwell’s darker vision of surveillance, captivity, information control, authoritarianism and pain will become the norm once the existing social order falls.
“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egotism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.” In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that our desire will ruin us.”
– Neil Postman – Amusing Ourselves to Death
I despair for my country that has chosen to eat, amuse and borrow itself to death. But my despair is deepest for my children and their future. The greed, corruption, myopia, selfishness, and disregard for the well-being of future generations by current and past generations has left a barren and bleak landscape for my children. The Huxley vision of America consuming and amusing itself to death is coming to a painful conclusion, as the limits of a fiat currency and debt based lifestyle become evident. Those in power are preparing the masses for a more Orwellian vision of America when they are forced to pull the plug on the existing paradigm. The Patriot Act, NDAA, military exercises in our cities, militarization of local police forces, warrantless surveillance of our communications, searches and seizures in our airports and train stations, purchase of millions of rounds of ammo by government agencies, implementation of drone technology, camera surveillance, attempts to control the internet, manipulation of economic data, and executive orders allowing the President to take over all commerce while imprisoning citizens indefinitely without charges, are the next step in our descent into a dictatorship of tears.
The question is whether we will stand idly by, fiddling with our gadgets, tweeting about Honey Boo Boo, or will we regain our sense of duty to the future generations of this country. The manipulators are powerful, rich, connected and FEW. Those being manipulated, controlled, and abused are MANY. There will be a revolution in this country whether you like it or not. The existing social order will dissolve during the next fifteen years. What replaces it is up to us. George Carlin described what our owners want.
“Politicians are put there to give you that idea that you have freedom of choice. You don’t. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land, they own and control the corporations, and they’ve long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the State Houses, and the City Halls. They’ve got the judges in their back pockets. And they own all the big media companies so they control just about all the news and information you get to hear.
They’ve got you by the balls.
They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want; they want more for themselves and less for everybody else. But I’ll tell you what they don’t want—they don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. That’s against their interest.”
What do “We the People” want?
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Agitprop?
History says we will fiddle with our gadgets
That one guy has a real bad case of "dickie doo"
Damn. At first read I realized how sad these people's lives must be. Then i realized that Americans verily are eating their iPads. And iPods. And iMacs...
That pizza with cheesy fries as a topping looks amazing. Two slices of that, however, requires about 10 hours of exercise and a shitton of real food to negate.
I n oticed there were bo OBESE BLACKS/HISPANICS/SAMOANS/BIKERS pictured. It's only safe to hate fat white people and perferably women, right.
Any way people want Loose shoes, tight pussy and a warm place to shit.
Woody Guthrie observed the more you eat the more you shit.
The larger question is, who really cares if someone is happy?
The majority here bitch about everyone from big business to government poking their snouts into an individuals affairs.
It disrupts their happiness.
What gives anyone the right to tell me how I can access my happiness?
As long as no one but myself is being hurt it's nobodies fucking business.
If I'm disinterested in what goes on around me, I've never heard Romneys voice or intentionally listened to Lady Gaga, that is m y choice.
This article is the flip side of nanny state politics.
Tyranny of the masses is just as bad as tyranny of the individual.
Ladies and gentlemen, I came here to avoid as much as possible treading on your corns. I had intended to deal only with the basic issue of economics that dictates our lives from the cradle to the grave, regardless of our religion or moral beliefs. I see now that it was a mistake. If one enters a battle, he cannot be squeamish about a few corns. Here, then, are my answers: I do not believe in God, because I believe in man. Whatever his mistakes, man has for thousands of years past been working to undo the botched job your God has made.
As to killing rulers, it depends entirely on the position of the ruler. If it is the Russian Czar, I most certainly believe in dispatching him to where he belongs. If the ruler is as ineffectual as an American President, it is hardly worth the effort. There are, however, some potentates I would kill by any and all means at my disposal. They are Ignorance, Superstition, and Bigotry — the most sinister and tyrannical rulers on earth. As for the gentleman who asked if free love would not build more houses of prostitution, my answer is: They will all be empty if the men of the future look like him.
cut and paste answers are not allowed on zero hedge---rule 6
derek_vineyard
It's a cut and paste quotation asshole.
I'm too smart/lazy to pick and peck the whole fucking thing out.
I have no problem with people who wish to eat themselves to an early grave....just don't require me to subsidize it!
Really? Aren't you just sick of having to look at these revolting lard asses everywhere you go?
Fuck no, I look at them and see someone who is not going to live as long as I do and I'm gettin' theirs.
The problem is the sick care industry will spend millions per person on all kinds of high margin drugs, medical equipment, and doctor, nurse, and home health aid labor trying to "save" them. So you are subsidizing it -- big time.
"What gives anyone the right to tell me how I can access my happiness?"
I agree as long as you will not use my tax dollars for 1) the necessary health care costs that will result from your poor decisions or 2) to support your self destructive lifestyle like needing a scooter to haul your fat ass from place to place.
"...because I believe in man."
You and I must be living on different planets.
self-control is the basis of good government (self governance)
stiler
That is part of the Buddhist Eightfold path.
Possibly the best Psychological approach to living ones life.
If that is true, then Gully
You'll be coming back, over and over, as a rat in a pharmaceutical animal lab.
If true, then it is game over for 'americans' and the rest of humanity.
'Americans' know only one limitation: no, cant do. If they can do, they will do.
So the only end to their consumption will be depletion of resources. When nothing is left to consume, then they wont consume.
'If it feels good do it and don't feel ashamed about it.'
Thank you, baby boomers. Thanks a lot.
The fourth turning's gonna be a bitch, bitchez.
Gene Parmesan
Like you would turn down a threesome at the Playboy mansion.
Or in an alley.
Rationalization is a helluva drug.
Bullshit. The plan to lay waste to America started before the baby boomer generation was out of high school.
On Jan. 17, 1961, President Dwight Eisenhower gave the nation a dire warning about what he described as a threat to democratic government. He called it the military-industrial complex, a formidable union of defense contractors and the armed forces.
http://www.h-net.org/~hst306/documents/indust.html
The MIC has little to do with what we're talking about here, but feel free to make excuses if it makes you feel better.
Don't feed the animals.
6% of the worlds population "consuming" 60% of the planets resources via credit expansion...nice. They are not weight challenged, they are fat fucks with no conscience, values or clue about anything outside their hand to mouth universe. I own a shoe store and each year I swear I've never seen so many slovenly fat females with painted nails and $200 hair-dos using their credit cards to buy ever more shit for their adornment. Most can't even see their fucking feet! We are done for. These people vote.
You have arrived to the moment of truth. Nothing that anyone can do about it. As long as people have money - regardless of source - they will do what pleased them. No amount of tilting at windmills will stop it.
The problem is that they are coddled, no matter what they do.
Otherwise, normal regulatory systems (biological, psychological, etc.) would deal with most of these excesses.
You arguing that the state should allow a relatively large amount of people to starve despite plentiful food? Completely moral bankrupty and a recipe that would include one for an unstable society which would require much more authorianian measures than we currently have to keep things in check.
PUD
Own a shoe store eh.
How often you do the upskirt peek?
What happens when you see a dick poking out from the panties? How do you hide the reaction of surprise that rushs across your face?
On other threads you come off with all this "holier-than-thou" crap, as if you are in the know about what is going on. You say you are "traveling light" and ready to go and others are full of shit.
And then you post that?
Really?!?
Did PUD do something to you? If not, that post is out there.
MsCreant
Clearly you don't understand me.
I don't come across as anything.
I am.
Do you truly not understand that being human is a collage of ideas many of which are at times inconsistent with each other?
Terry Pratchett described it as something like "where the falling angel meets the rising ape".
Foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.
( By the way the majority of men, and most women, check each other out. Why the fuck you think hidden upskirt videos exist? Keep that in mind the next time you wander in public.)
Share this pic. See what people notice first.
http://cdn.fd.uproxx.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/portman-clinton.jpg
We understand that you are a troll...
What else have you got for us..??
"See what people notice first."
Hillary is hittin' the Botox again.
And Natalie is perky.
Nobody likes you. Go away.
hey man , give the fatsoes a break .... they all have thyroid problems , just ask 'em !!! ;>)
Of course "these people vote". For whom to do you think that circus is perpetuated? You're right in with "these people" if you think voting matters.
gotta love yer bitching about the customers who buy your products - you bring it up often too, so obviously this chaps yer ass big time.
who da ho?
amrka, fuck yeah!
Wow! Just, WoW! Beautiful Essay!
@ " What do “We the People” want? "
.
control of the money system, aka "freedom and liberty".
.
there seems to be an inclination to idolize a
certain mentality at this time and place in
the ongoing evolution of memes of control,
influence and perceived personal power. a convergence
on the global scene between east and west, so where
is the common ground, the domain of the globalists,
and is it recognizable? where we could understand the
meaning of the word "smart"?
.
07 October 2012
Weekend Reading - Ode to Financial and Political Narcissists
.
http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2012/10/weekend-reading-ode-to-...
.
"..Power attracts certain personality types, and organizations that value power, or ruthless determination to achieve results at any cost, often end up being run by people with the mentality of predators. And the predatory environment can become self-reinforcing and self-sustaining given time." .. jca
.
" what is a psychopath? "
.
Thursday October 4 9:00am
public affairs, first voices indigenous radio.
http://archive.wbai.org/#ankor71
@ " What do “We the People” want?
control of the money system, aka "freedom and liberty".
Sadly, there is virtually no evidence to support the notion that anything approaching a majority of US voters - to say nothing of the general population - could even identify what "control of the money system" would mean in their daily lives, or (more damming) that they would want it even if they knew.
Nope - JQ's got this pretty much nailed. Keep "Survivor" and QVC on the tube, keep the GMO-rich foods flowing out of our Supermarkets and fast-"food" plants, make sure there's plenty of distractions and "free" sugar flowing from our elected "leaders", and all will continue to be "just fine, thank you very much" with the American Sheeple.
All I can do is try to make a difference with my own family and kids. Hey, at least my daughter is as terrified of "debt" (including, blessedly, student loans) as am I. Progress - one head-full-of-mush at a time.
in time things develop and then change
occurs.
it has happened before
Sorry ot but check this out.
Great.
http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2012/10/walter-block-declares-war-o...
Walter Block Declares War on the Left; Calls Krugman an Economic Illiterate Brainless CreepWow, Walter Block is about to enter the ring against leftist economists. He writes:
So what does he really think about Krugman. Check this out:
Unfortunately, Block is getting way too full of himself (it is he who now believes his irrational opinions are libertarian standards (google "evictionism" and Paulfest)), and this will only work to Krugman's advantage.
Case in point; starting out his article by calling Krugman a creep. True or not, it's no way to conduct an allegedly intellectual debate. It does nothing but to further taint Austrian Economics with the brush of irrationality.
I liked Block's "Defense of the Indefensible," but it seems that its success has inflated his ego, undermining all that he's ever accomplished.
Refraining from picking on the retarded among us takes class. I would say he's showing remarkable restraint given what people like Krugman have done to the minds of youth in this country.
Walter might do some fact checking. Paul "Freddie" Krugman is a professor at Princeton not Harvard. Given his first statement on critiquing the right, he's probably a lefty and has no need for factual accuracy.
"The question is whether we will stand idly by, fiddling with our gadgets, tweeting about Honey Boo Boo, or will we regain our sense of duty to the future generations of this country."
Nope, we're all fucked. No idea what a honey boo boo is either.
I belive Honey Boo Boo is a fat HFCS child that has trouble putting a sentence together.
The fact that her parents are not being criminally charged and instead have a teevee show tells you all you need to know about where USA is headed.
My kids wanted a funnel cake this weekend and I got it for them. They will be burning those cals off in swim practice (3X this week) and ballet. I think they have soccer, volleyball, and cross country too.
No fucking Wii or PS2's or itampex's loaded with games in the house.
Nothing to do? They get their asses kicked outside or a book put in front of them.
I'm probably labelled a terrorist by them and DHS.
Too bad.
A book? You mean tree-ware?
http://imgace.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/the-original-playstation1.jpg
A "revolution" by fat people? I think not.
However, I found the piece amusing as I thought about this very subject this past weekend at our yearly fair (Topsfield). Lots of scooters, and plenty of obesity all around.
They'll literally pile up in ER waiting rooms.
I've seen Honey Boo Boo mentioned a number of times, but no one says who (or what?) it is. What is a Honey Boo Boo?
Don't Google it, seriously you don't want to know...
It is the sign of the end times.
Nah, that was the Kardashians.
http://gawker.com/5933309/what-honey-boo-boo-child-is-and-why-you-should-care-a-guide-to-reality-tvs-trashiest-sensation
South Park ...... Honey Boo Boo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImCYh65m-Pw
Oh. My. God.
Understated yet succinct.
Me too! I googled. I can't tell if it is a fat woman or a fat blonde girl, it looks like it could be a "reality show" but I am not sure.
doesn't matter what it is, it's a meme, just mock it!!
When the bread and circuses end, we will really see how childish, selfish and self serving society has become. We will also see some real good folks stepping up. Got a feeling it is going to be a real "binary" sort of thing.
In the meantime, the squuueeeeezzzzeee is on big time. The water is approaching boiling and the people are starting to squirm. They are not okay with the status quo. The rat race is accelerating into oblivion and they are feeling it, one way or another. Without a better understanding of what is going on, the result is frustration... which leads to anger and violence.
This is why the sheeple won't fear the FEMA camps. They will see a hot meals, hot showers, and working TV sets and will forget about the barb wire, forced labor, and what freedom actually was.
I'm pretty sure this was the other half of Jim's nightmare in a wheelchair...
http://c.cslacker.com/1168l.jpg
(what the hell is the load capacity of these f'in things?)
Geez, I think those 2 are bigger than the cow!
That 1st pic reminded me of a big ol' gray dog tick. Decades before the Igadget, down on my grandmother's farm, my sole entertainment was to squash dog ticks with a rock on an anvil & watch tumble bugs roll turds into holes in the ground. If that lard ass had to expend as much energy growing what he had to eat, he wouldn't be in that shape. The last time I flew, I had to sit next to a blob like that. My arms were pinned to my sides & my face smashed against the window. Nowhere to go as the flight was full. The stewardess witnessing my distress as I could only use 1 finger to signal that I desperately needed a cocktail gave me one on the house. Under those conditions, they should have been dispensing morphine drips.
"Rouge" - French based word meaning red. Makeup women put on their face.
"Rogue" - Stealthy fighter.
You mock these people yet you are one, and are a good example of the illiterate American who fancies himself informed.
Could be a Commie, for all you know.
I'm aware of it my man and I do not mock "these people". I do mock the system that continues to give the craddle to grave safety nets for all who simply request (Us citizen or not) it while putting the rest of the country in a debt situation they will never be able to dig out of. Nice pick up though!
Rogueunderwriter email address was taken so I inverted.
200 years is the time line of US political system, which has known a major evolution in 1865.
Democracy is now a near hundred year tradition in the west, in countries like UK, France and USA on a continuous basis. We have had elections on a recurrent basis most of this past century. Its a sixty five year old trend in the rest of W Europe and a twenty year old tradition in E EUrope.
Nothing allows us to say that democracy will not survive over a period of 200 years. As what is announced in this post is true for ALL political systems in a much more acute way.
We have no better political system than the one today; if it were applied...
There is nothing fatalistic about this decline; thats my point, and there is no other place to go which offers a better system.
I'm not sure I agree - couldn't deafult on debt be the place we will end up at. Systematic failure could be at risk if there were a run on the banks or a debt default or extreme lack of confidence due to weakend credit. This cuold be caused by the present budgetary deficts that seem to be out of contorl. In the Bernanke book, he hinted we were less than days (it not hours away from this). If the economic system breaks with the democratic system follow. Civil unrest has a way of causing freedoms to be taken away and government rule to be put in place.
yes, thats the momentum of today's broken capitalist system that has "despotised" our democracy.
Once the greed frenzy subsides things will become clearer and the political system will go back to something simpler and more "normal" and hopefully more humble. After the hand wringing and the accountability.
But democracy and republic stay the framework...a framework we have lost and its NOT been through war but through internal decay; ironically in runaway hubris.
That makes sense however as the population ages and the stresses on the system become greater while the access to funds to do something about this via tax base or debt becomes less, you deplete the system to the point that it doesn't correct to something simple but turns into more totalitarian rule to stop civil unrestprotect the citizen and thwart rampant crime. The frame work gets lost when there are scarse resources and many more competing ends and you risk falling back to bondage again. In any event - I hope it never occurs. Good Chat - God Bless
The good news is that those people will be the first to be eaten when the ravenous hordes turn to cannibalism in the not-too-distant future.
Zombieland rule #1: Cardio
When that fails:
Zombieland rule #2: Double tap
Just saw it three nights ago.
Instant classic!
Blue faced man rides across the screen... demonstrably overweight, on a sccoter.
"They can take away your strife but they cannea take away your collagen!"
Jus what happens to the scooter bound when the power grid goes ?
The fridge and freezer are off too. Insulin goes bad 30 days after being opened. And nursing home staff can't / won't get to work. Minimum 10% population drop within 60 days.
Will be very unpleasant, but this problem will take care of itself.
Funny article, Jim Quinn cracks me up. And I thought I was pessimistic.
The problem isn't what any one person is doing. The problem is trying to "save" everyone and everything.
Just stop meddling! There should be no special accommodations or efforts to improve people. People who don't take care of their bodies should not expect free healthcare and endless drugs and procedures to keep them going.
If they want to live that way, let them, and don't expect the healthy and fit to sacrifice everything just to keep them living and consuming.
Skill testing question for Americans WITH a university degree:
Define "their" "there" and "they're"
80% can't do it, and these are the *smart* Americans.
We in other nations laugh heartily at the stupidest nation in the world that thinks it's the smartest.
They're not very good with your & you're either.
Their taking away our freedom.
There posts of leadership are facilitated by our collective ignorance.
They're is no hope my friends.
Thar she blows!
Our standard of living will continue to decline until a large enough percentage of Americans become concerned enough to put in the work required to sustain a free republic.
If people would spend the time watching what our elected representatives do instead of professional sports. So in regards to the point above, it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better.
Should they get wind of this, it might get their attention.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/your-right-to-resell-your-own-stuff-is-...
http://www.nationalmortgagenews.com/blogs/compliance/debtor-prisons-are-...
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/10/05/national-bank-of-canada-foreclosin...
You're wrong because we don't have enough people who even understand what you just said. And we keep importing more and more every year who don't give two shits about a "free republic" or whatever nonsense any thinking person banters on and on about and they wish you would just shut up already.
That's why the government and the media no longer bother to hide the truth from people--the majority simply either do not give a shit or aren't even smart enough to give a shit.
Seems akin to the stages of death - Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. Unfortunately most people seem to be at acceptance. "I can't fight it so will accept the outcome no matter what it is..."
crazy,I have already seen man on scooter chair on hwy 90 east of houma,la with case of beer in basket and drinking one,would that be considered a swi? scooting while intoxicated.
Virtually any form of transportation on a Public thoroughfare will result in a xWI charge(or could). There's even Youtube vids of "MUI's", Mowing Under the Influence. I was still in Philly when the first "BUI", bicycling under the influence was handed out...Ludicrous Speed to Planet Ludicrous...
Ha! I just forwarded this article to a friend because I figured those pictures were of NE philly residents driving their fat fucking faces around on their vacation (cuz it's cheaper than buying 2 plane tickets).
We all think we make decisions with facts and reason controling emotions, the rational brain separating us from the beasts. When it comes down to it tho, we use reason to explain are emotional choices. TPTB know how to exploit our flaws and will use it to their every advantage. Sure fat people should take responsability but they are going up against a well oiled machine.
A facinating read on the topic is "How we Decide" by Jonah Lehrer. It goes into neuroscience and how its changing the clasical approach to explaining how we make choices.
I read your note after I posted below. Good point on our "reason" controlled by our emotion.
Didn't that piece of shit in Aurora, CO study neuroscience? 'nuff said.
Any ever see Walle ? The first guy on the scooter reminds me of the people on the spaceship.
So, the "entitlement" peeps are mainly in red states. Makes sense, they're the ones who have been drinking the HFCS larded up koolaid for years! The corporations need them to chow down on what ever it is that drains the souls from their bodies.
Every single day I spend time trying to see a way through this that doesn't involve staggering and frightening change for every single member of society.
Still haven't seen it.
Same here. Been turning the dialogue inside out - searching various sites for different toughts, wisdom, etc. It all comes back to the same conclusion. That we are heading for something that in one way or another would be considered an "event" or series of events that unfold in a fairly short amount of time, comparatively speaking.
I agree ,I wish we would get on with it already...
A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it.
Ponder that quote from "Agent K" for a moment and maybe you'll come to the same conclusion I did about 2-years ago.
First step is to throw out the incumbents, starting with the hollow chocolate little Easter bunny that wants to be BMOC again. And his annoying slimmed down (for the Election cycle)
wife. He has presided over much of the police state preparations in the recent past, and he needs to held to account for that -- no matter what you might think about his opponent,
at least he didn't do that to us.
For those of you unfamiliar with the comic strip/cartoon The Boondocks they coined the term "The Itis" otherwise known as "Food Fatigue". It is the sleepiness one feels after a meal. So when one asks why more people aren't awake they need only think about "The Itis".
Intro - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBM2ahgnkbw
Full espisode - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7utfMqN3qkc
The restaurant in the episode is called "Itis" and it has beds instead of tables so diners can pass out after eating.
The irony is almost delicious. As I read this story and view that fat ass on the severely over taxed Little Rascal, I also view a banner ad for "Fitness Singles" of some chick with a firm and fit ass.
I would love to be in the Little Rascal engineering room sometime.
"Jim, dammit, I told you we need to go with the heavier sub frame and the Super Turbo 2000 electric motor, with 200:1 ratio gear reduction. Be damn sure it has high speed mode, otherwise they may go thru withdrawl between food stops!"
Funny how NJ is shaded in yellow. Guess all the fat people of NJ are concentrated along the coast.
"Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information."
Now think for a moment about the 'in vogue' trend of cloud computing where all your applications and data are stored in 'the cloud', in someone else's control, on someone else's server.
"Only the paranoid survive." - Andy Grove, Intel
Grow up.
I thought Obama made a very telling comment in the debate. His solution for the high cost of college education is to make loans cheaper. Talk about treating the symptom and not the disease.
Yeah, talk about being bought--every time I see some ad for a seminar on how to pay for college, it is related to "financing" college, in other words, borrowing fucking monopoly money to pay for it. Here's a great concept: Find a way to cut the cost!
the deal is....even with a 6th grade level math skill, you can calculate the budget. even with a 6th grade reading level, we grew a nation in the 1800's to become what we were in the 1920-1950's. we didnt do it because we were smarter than other societies. it was because we had a shared vision to make our lives better. the majority of the people....today, the majority are the victims the entitled the crooks and swindlers.
we will not be able to 'go back' to anything good at this point. get use to it. prepare....
Independent vision made America great. Shared vision is killing us.
we still had a shared vision of what was 'right'. we helped each other for the good of the community and nation. today's shared vision is wrong.
* let me restate this....we DO NOT have a shared vision today. it is every man for himself. the 'i got mine' mentality. i dont care if the system is in debt as long as i get my free money. the majority of people may feel this but this isnt the same as a 'shared vision'....
In the old days most folks let other folks live their own lives. That's the secret of a free and productive society. Harping on greed and the need to create a shared vision of rooting out and destroying that greed is what got us where we are today.
'In the old days most folks..." when you say most, that is a shared vision by a majority. get real, you are an idiot.
Is this such a mishmash of convulated garbage I don't even know where to start with half-truths and outright BS. Primary education didn't become common in the US from most children until after 1920 as most states started passing laws making primary education compulsory due to the Progressive era efforts started in the late 00s and early 10s. Large portions of our society were still excluded including Blacks and Indians and in the big cities in the North and Midwest you saw the rise of Catholic-based schools due to discrimination and difficulty that Catholic students had in public school system of that time (which were run by Protestants who weren't at all friendly to Catholics including Italians (Mexicans of their day) and Eastern Europeans.
This notion that there was ever some majority of what 'shared vision' to makes our lives better though is nonsense. American have been a radically changing society for several reasons (e.g., immigration, new terrority, etc).
- Aristotle right before he drank hemlock? Jim?
it was Socrates who drank the hemlock. He was more talkative than Aristotle but his words were never put on paper; except by others.
They killed him for "corrupting the youth of Athens." They "did it for the children."
thats the official version, the contrarian version is that he bugged them badly with his "there are no two types of justice, one for victors , one for vanquished "meme. That incensed the Athenian hegemonists who hated his independent, even handed, ethical and subversive thinking.
He was the original ZH type.
They never went after Alcibiade for having desecrated the Hermai; they blamed the mores of the age on his teacher!
Look on the bright side. If global warming which is a con of course continues, we can use these super human fat fuckers as super human sand bags.
Keep the water at bay you see. Think of all the poor sand we could save? Two super human fat cunts is the same as 200 sand bags. Now hows that for a money saving tip eh?
And all we have to do is shovel kentucky fried bigmacs down their disgusting throats.
Win win in my humble opinion
They are too buoyant.
"But my despair is deepest for my children and their future."
Fuck your kids. They wrote you off long ago as an uneducated, gold-lovin' burnout.
Let them learn about life what they need to learn about life the only way they possibly can learn about life - by having life shoved up their ass.
Tough love.
When primary wave 3 down hits, no one will be spared including the wealthy who finance the polticians into power.
http://bullandbearmash.com/chart/standard-poors-500-weekly-october-05-2012/
The problem is the government and their endless scams, schemes and kickbacks - after the become elected.
Very simply put: The pictures in this article illustrate what 5% of the world's population, consuming 25% of its resources looks like. Add to this, the fact that the majority of Americans produce nothing but debt and excrement and you get the above. It's not pretty.
5% of the world's population, consuming 25% of its resources...
Don't worry, the redistribution is already hard at work. I can imagine the multi-national conglomerates already buying US improved real estate structures and producing farmland at the discounted rate, (thanks to our mbs degradations) and shipping the goods directly back without the need of buying or selling in international markets. China can repartriate those trillions in timmy paper with the government's blessings.
The US government doesn't care, as long as the nominal taxes are maintained, foreclosure will never occur. The bis /imf tool, benny and the fed, can even pay those pesky taxes in new vaporous frn devices. The people of the US are content to allow their soil to be occupied and will even defend this perverse system to the death on other nation's soil.
Gotta love government education.
x% of the world is run by technology. The question is who should get all the wealth that is generated by that technology for (nearly) free? I think it should go to all of humanity. That means it is redistributed as welfare to every human just because he is alive and the world is so awesome after 5000 years of civilization.
Free wealth generated by technology? That makes the Skittles pooping unicorn sound realistic.
Sarcasm, I hope.
Who is this "we"? We have no sense of "we". Even Carlin asked, "Where are all the bright people of conscience? Where are all the bright, honest, intelligent Americans ready to save the nation and lead the way? We don't have people like that in this country. Everybody's at the mall. Picking his nose, scratching his ass, taking his credit card out of his fanny pack and buying a pair of sneakers with lights in them."
If there were a we, we wouldn't be stacking, we wouldn't be blogging, we wouldn't be prepping or rioting, we wouldn't be knee deep in hookers and blow to dull the pain, we would be solving the problems in ways we find more appropriate.
The paradox is that since we do not exist, therefore we are all fucked.
Obesity stats are 3 years old.
Why would the CDC stop monitoring that?
My personal favorite to watch out for when people wATCHING...fACIAL tATTOoS!!
They are not just for Mike Tyson anymore!!
There is always a 18-24 month lag on publication of National Health statistics due to the need to collect and analyze the data. It could be done a bit more quickly if more resources were allocated but this isn't a gov't conspiracy.
I live in New Port Richey, Fl.
A city real close to me (Hudson) has this guy w/a BARCODE tattooed on his forehead!
Amerikan Exceptionalism! Can we offshore tank asses?
You Southern folk like to criticize the rest of us, but the map above is priceless.
what happened to Chuck Norris and the Texas rangers?
Do they now ride Hummers?
Well six of those were considered southern states. It would be interesting to see what other correlations exist among those 12 states.
Americans should look in the mirror if they are looking for someone to blame.
While I could have some sympathy for over-eaters due to emotional problems or problems at work, or problems at home, or problams arising from over-eating I dont. These super human fat cunts deserve no quarter from us. When they become bed ridden who the fuck feeds them? Dont give me some bullshit about emotions and depresion. Been there and done that, and I never once thought that the problem was to eat my way out of it???
Just another group we can do without when the shit hits the fan. Good fucking god, that bloke in the picture with his gut below his knees is tantamount for a smack in the face. Grow some self-discipline people for fucks sake.
There is a lot to what Jim has to say. The degradation of the human spirit is clear to see. America has transformed into a nation of well conditioned drones. I do blame the media, the days when I was a little kid and sat with my parents and watched CBS evening news with full coverage of the days scandals and wars are over. It beggars words to turn on a CNN or anyother news source. pathetic.
We do have one bright spot, and that is the internet. In this case a site like ZH is a bright shining star that lights much of what is really going on. There are many others. This takes motivation to go to these sites to read them and to question.
I feel like an alien, I read a number of economics blogs and cruise foreign press and alternative news sites, get a head full of information then step out the door into zombie land. I swear to god, the last intelligent conversation I had with anyone was when I was last in Europe. Back home I am limited to acting like a 10 year old in conversation, because anything above that level goes over people's heads or they think YOU are crazy for having thoughts and knowledge like you do. Americans prefer you to stick to the 10 year old level, it is their comfort zone. So easily manipulated to war and into economic slavery. Hell, most don't even know anything is wrong with bombing 8 countries, and this by a Liberal Democratic President.
"Hell, most don't even know anything is wrong with bombing 8 countries, and this by a Liberal Democratic President."
Worse yet they will even excuse it if it is "their guy" doing the bombing ,or they will ignore it completely. It truly is maddenning.
Wow Jack! You are right. I feel the same way. People tell me I'm too intense and they have no idea what I 'm talking about. I avctually had one person last week start blocking their ears and they told me, "I don't want to know anything else I've heard enough..I know what I know and that is good enough for me.
It's difficult especially with someone who percieve to be intelligent and they have their head in the sand.
Then you'd really hate the typical university faculty!
It's great to have you around Jack.
I don't need motivation to read a site like zerohedge, I'm pretty much allergic to the MSM, and even most of what's on the net. Most of my life I've been increasingly rejecting everything this culture and society has foisted and assaulted my intelligence with. I saw through all of it quicker than anyone I knew. Which was pretty bad really because when I was younger I had close friends who were smart and alert to this brainwashing process of our sick cult-ure, but they all gradually give up and most turned to booze, cars, music and substances, to try and block it out, and to "come to terms" with a society that requires us to be lied to, and encouraged to not think about it.
But when good friends do that and you don't you're left with it all, because people who are aware and honest about the 'matrix'-like facade of our culture are not common, and meeting them and becoming friends is even rarer. It's rare sites like this one that finally let you be free to think and discuss, without the interference of that cognitive dissonance. Because when away from zh, and working or moving about I'm constantly having to shove aside the insane bullshit piling up around me all the time, just so that I can have my own mental space to enjoy things, and to be at peace--anywhere.
This fucked-up insane cult-ure is the enemy of that peace in people. It's poisonous to it and I'm poisonous right back to it. We are definitely at odds, and places like zh make such a difference with that. The reason people are abandoning the MSM is because it's driving them insane, with it's contradictions and impossible lies, and they can all feel this, even if they don't quite know what's wrong. They don't know what peace is, they don't ever feel it, but they do know they're missing something, and it hurts like hell.
Is that process mass-enlightenment, as a process?
Maybe it is. Maybe we have to get sick with lies, to the point it almost kills us, before it becomes less painful to not accept lies, and we can slowly begin to stand on our own feet? There is no relief or let-up from the endless attempts of the lie-machinery to sew confusion, stupidity and sickness in the world and our invaded 'mental space'. In the end we have to stand on our own feet, because no one else can really help us to process this situation in exactly the way that we need to process it, to find what we need. Which means the real answers to this are inside, not outside of us.
And that is probably the hardest thing for anyone to realize or discover, but it's also simultaneously the first and final step to what we need to put an end to that destructive cult-ural entrainment.
Yes, I have seen a lot of people I used to consider intelligent and well connected with what is really going on basically give up. Listen, as you get older, it starts to wear you down, back when the USA decided to invade Iraq on lies, and I watched people all around me get on board the war train, I simply withdrew from much social contact. It was unbearable to listen to the clap-trap coming out of people mouths. Many believed Iraq did 9/11, because media hinted at this.
Pretty hard to deal with it, but places like ZH and others at least let you know some people "get it"! That is why I believe government has taken to a complete and total spy system to record every key stoke at the new NSA data centers. THEY KNOW, they know this is the last bastion of free thought, and they want to know WHO is free thinking and what they think. When the time comes, they know who we are, where we live and what we have said, we will be the first ones they grab and disappear into their gulags. The internet is a scary thing to the Power That Be, some day an excuse will be found to control it. Most likley they will hand it over to commercial corporate interests to own and run for profit, then it can be controlled just like the MSM.
Nothing's really changed though, they have always done that, the Internet just gives them a greater insight, that is easier to capture, gather, automate and categorise information about us. They have been doing the same things all along though, so I don't see what we are experiencing now as all that different. We also all have cameras, we can all record audio and send it and text anywhere with ease.
The UN Declaration of Human Rights insists we have the right to do that, and to associate freely with anyone, using any medium, and across borders. We need to remind everyone of this, and never let Govt and their agencies and draconian 'laws' off the hook or be deferred to as more valid.
In the end, mass civil disobedience and strike can bring a system down without firing a shot, despite what zionist statists like Edward Luttwak assert. That's why countries keep trying to block and prevent free-association, suppressing protest, making strikes illegal, and cracking down on all forms of civil disobedience to dumb laws. The fact is, all that stuff works, really well, at getting rid of bad laws and political systems, and corrupt 'leaderships'.
They just want to build the illusion in us and around us that we can't take them down, that there's no way, and no hope.
But that also is their lie-machine at work. ;-)