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George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

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Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#581
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm really confused by how impeachment works in the U.S. Impeachment requires a crime. Lying isn't usually a crime, and as best I can tell hasn't been one any of the times Trump has done it (.. yet?). It also hasn't been a crime any of the times Obama has done it. Failure to give up business interests is breaking precedent and confounding ethicists, but also doesn't seem to be illegal. When we come up with somethin…

I can't believe there are so many people here suggest DJT should totally give up his business. This is basically the same as saying no business person should run for the president, so just leave it only to career politicians. Gets lots of downvotes for no reason. The hates toward DJT are crazy.

>This is basically the same as saying no business person should run for the president, so just leave it only to career politicians.

Damn straight. We want business out of our government. The government belongs to everyone, not to billionaires.

Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#582
post #17

I must admit, I'm really confused by how impeachment works in the U.S.. Clinton was impeached for perjury and abuse of power because he took advantage of his position (and a political intern) and then lied about it. Now we have a president who is not giving up his business interests while in office and who has already told some absolute whoppers, including the release of official press releases that were nothing but…

Trump has been in office for 4 days. Conflict of interest laws do not apply to US Presidents, so the business interest argument is moot. We don't impeach Presidents because a loud group of people dislikes the fact that they lost an election. We impeach Presidents when they commit crimes, which he has not done and hasn't even been in office long enough to do.

> We don't impeach Presidents because a loud group of people dislikes the fact that they lost an election.

As a matter of fact, that's exactly why they impeached Clinton. Face it: America impeaches Presidents for being not-Republican, and empowers Presidents for being Republican. It's a one-party state.

Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#583
post #17

I must admit, I'm really confused by how impeachment works in the U.S.. Clinton was impeached for perjury and abuse of power because he took advantage of his position (and a political intern) and then lied about it. Now we have a president who is not giving up his business interests while in office and who has already told some absolute whoppers, including the release of official press releases that were nothing but…

He was voted in by the people, through a legitimate democratic process. Democracy works. Freedom of speech works. 1984 didn't get it right. It's not the government that needs to be feared. It isn't the big evil corporarions. It's the people. The mob. 4chan ran a more effective propaganda/misinformation campaign than any dark shadowy corporate entity. Our insitutions are less than stellar, but at least they are run by…

>He was voted in by the people, through a legitimate democratic process.

Every part of this is wrong. The people voted for Clinton by a plurality of 3 million votes. The Electoral College is a device for permanent Southern hegemony and, consequently, Republican supremacy -- there's nothing legitimate about it.

Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#584
post #480

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Popular vote doesn't matter for who becomes president, but neither does the presence or lack of a "landslide." But both can certainly be relevant when analyzing an election. Also, the "CA and NY would run the US" is an extremely weak argument. It's logically equivalent to saying that Texas and Oklahoma are currently running the US, since their electoral votes are sufficient to swap the winner from Trump to Clinton.

>Also, the "CA and NY would run the US" is an extremely weak argument. It's logically equivalent to saying that Texas and Oklahoma are currently running the US, since their electoral votes are sufficient to swap the winner from Trump to Clinton. Actually, I don't think it's equivalent, since basically no Congressional majority or Presidency has been won without the South for the past 50 or so years. You can actually…

I don't understand. It sounds like you're saying that the South "runs the country" in the wording of the original claim.

Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#585

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He has given no indication of encroaching on civil liberties You mean, except for that part where he mentioned that he wants to strengthen the [non-existent] libel laws, so that "press can't get away with lies about me"? Or his early remarks on Muslims? Surveillance etc? > A 'mild' social conservative totalitarian might roll back laws on gay marriage, abortion etc. - but Trump hasn't mentioned it at all. Now we're…

1) " he wants to strengthen the [non-existent] libel laws, so that "press can't get away with lies about me"?" The press has called him out for his lies - but they have also blatantly lied about him - and others. There is nothing 'totalitarian' about being able to sue someone for printing lies. 2) You're blaming me for having 'alternative facts' when you're inventing them? The video indicates that 'campaign trail' Tr…

>There is nothing 'totalitarian' about being able to sue someone for printing lies.

There is everything totalitarian about being able to sue people for printing anti-Republican lies, but not pro-Republican lies. If you could sue people for printing or broadcasting lies, we would have driven Fox News off the air years ago.

Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#586
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Will this awakening by introspective at all? Because punishing wrongthink seems to be endemic with third wave feminists and modern "progressive" groups.

Third wave feminism has absolutely nothing do to with equality, it's all about getting people to attack the people to the side rather than look above.

See comment below.

Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#587
post #584

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Also, the "CA and NY would run the US" is an extremely weak argument. It's logically equivalent to saying that Texas and Oklahoma are currently running the US, since their electoral votes are sufficient to swap the winner from Trump to Clinton. Actually, I don't think it's equivalent, since basically no Congressional majority or Presidency has been won without the South for the past 50 or so years. You can actually…

I don't understand. It sounds like you're saying that the South "runs the country" in the wording of the original claim.

That is what I'm saying. The South runs the country, and the rest of us are forced along for the ride, whether we want it or not.

Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#588

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Third wave feminism has absolutely nothing do to with equality, it's all about getting people to attack the people to the side rather than look above.

See comment below.

> So, have you ever noticed there's never any dialogue about encouraging men to be stay at home dads, or reducing the overall household number of hours worked per week?

Actually, I've noticed dialogue on both of these points, and even some modest, narrow policy progress (e.g., states that have adopted gender-neutral paid family leave, and some expansions in overtime coverage [0].) But, yes, it doesn't get enough focus.

[0] overtime rules mandate extra pay, but their fundamental purpose isn't to increase pay as much as to incentivize employers to limit the use of hours over the cap, and expand the size of the workforce in preference to longer hours where ongoing needs and available skills exist.)

Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#589
post #437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Third wave feminism has absolutely nothing do to with equality, it's all about getting people to attack the people to the side rather than look above.

Can you please elaborate on this? A major tenant of third wave feminism is intersectionallity, which is pretty much exactly the opposite of what your just said.

Definitely.

First off some context for this rant: a lot of people don't realize it but we are a lot closer to a post-scarcity world than the world would have you think. Check out this chart which shows GDP per capita since the 1950's. The productivity gains since the 1950's have been absolutely incredible, and the quality of life back then was pretty good. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/A939RX0Q048SBEA

So, have you ever noticed there's never any dialogue about encouraging men to be stay at home dads, or reducing the overall household number of hours worked per week? Never. The dialogue is always about the "wage gap" and "women have value too" and "rape culture" and "microaggressions". Men who are stay at home dads still get shamed just as much as they did during the 1950's. This is how you know it's a sham - there is never any serious dialogue about actual equality. Income has in no way, shape, or form, kept up the with the GDP per capita shown in the chart above. There's never any explorations of policies that would actually increase equality, like restricting the number of "investment properties" a man or woman can own, behavior which is clearly parasitic. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_productivity_and_...

It's not in corporate interests to have people have actual equality. Increasing the labor pool without discussions of actual equality makes it so that people can be kept in debt, wages go down and the nexus of power moves away from the family and towards the corporation, which is what is happening.

There's also the constant screaming of "women have value too". The implication here is that if you are not working for money you have no value. Despite common belief, in fact it IS possible to generate value outside of a money context. Many of the world's greatest achievements have occured outside a money context, eg. the discovery of calculus, wikipedia, linux, countless famous works of art, literature, and philosophy. By saying that you only have value if you earn money is throwing many of the world's most accomplished people under a bus. The reason why "money is the only form of value" is such a horrible mentality is that it leads to people like Mozart dying in poverty and being thrown into a ditch, which actually happened.

Check out charts of combined household numbers of hours worked, you'll see it's going way UP not down, despite the GDP per capita chart shown above. There is clearly something dark in that picture. http://www.bls.gov/opub/working/chart17.pdf

I don't think these are idle complaints - feminism in its current form (money above all) is an ideology that's on a direct collision course with the whole 'robots are about to take all the jobs' reality, which I think is going to come a lot sooner than we realize, and when these two phenoma collide, what's going to happen is that it's not going to be equality (sorry folks) it's going to be Brave New World, an immensely stratified society.

What's incredible to me is that someone predicted this nearly 100 years ago. Aldous Huxley, you are a genius.

I should just buy a ticket to Iceland already.

Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#590

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See comment below.

> So, have you ever noticed there's never any dialogue about encouraging men to be stay at home dads, or reducing the overall household number of hours worked per week? Actually, I've noticed dialogue on both of these points, and even some modest, narrow policy progress (e.g., states that have adopted gender-neutral paid family leave, and some expansions in overtime coverage [0].) But, yes, it doesn't get enough focu…

Sorry I clicked on the wrong 'reply' button, comment now moved to the right location, sorry again.
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