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Why does the Republican Party attract the uneducated?

This post is a response to a question initially posed on Quora and can also be accessed via “https://www.quora.com/Why-does-the-Republican-Party-attract-the-uneducated/answer/Antonio-Amaral-1“

They use slogans and soporifics to reinforce tribal associations and loyalties while motivating them to unite in solidarity over perceived common causes.

“Low taxes”
“Small government”
“Fiscally conservative”
“Save the unborn babies”

They use slogans to ignite passions driven by anger, envy, fear, and hatred to motivate them to act in solidarity against perceived enemies.

“Voter fraud”
“Nanny State”
“Migrant violence”
“Killing unborn babies”
“Immigrants stealing jobs”

As long as they can convey their ideas within a few syllables and tweak people’s emotions while doing so, they never have to bother with nuance, insight, context, complexity within grey areas, or even hypocrisy, for that matter.

None of their positions are consistent in any way. They can’t be, but it doesn’t matter to the uneducated because they don’t want to parse their slogans for meaning. They want to remember them well enough to hurl them as weapons, while the extent of their political arguments amounts to the level of a cheerleader for a sports team.

They hate the “nanny state” but demand draconian government measures to rule their lives.

They want a government that’s so small it fits inside every woman’s vagina and monitors everyone’s lives with Big Brother oversight without realizing how that bloats the government. They demand government expansion to incorporate unnecessary and paranoia-quelling functions that increase the problems that would otherwise not exist without their efforts to make issues manifest as problems.

Trans people pose no problem to society, but because they don’t fit preconceived notions of what is an acceptable definition of a human, they’re rendered as threats without any justification for the unimagined threat they allegedly are. Ask them how another’s marriage impacts them, and they immediately resort to abstractions rather than concrete reasons why their personal lives are threatened. Wisps of the imagination threaten them because that’s the natural consequence of ignorance.

They want low taxes and think it’s only fair to lower taxes on the wealthy. They believe the rich people they envy will trickle down their wealth to them and improve their lives because they both hate intelligence and revere what they interpret as intelligence in the accrual of riches. They can’t discern between the two because they can see wealthy people all around them who are just as intelligent and under-educated as they are. That prompts them to believe they’re smart enough to become just as successful. In this case, they’re not far from the truth but overlook variables like privilege, luck, and association as primary influences of wealth acquisition.

Fortunately, the primary solution to the problems they cause in society is already presented within the question. Education.

We can improve our education systems so that people are not intimidated by education simply by teaching them to love education.

It’s not that daunting a challenge.

Much of education is a process of rote remembering rather than teaching critical thinking skills.

Education should equip all learners with the appropriate attitude of education as a lifelong process. Once people understand and embrace the value of an education-oriented mind, they become less prone to being led around like lost sheep and begin to parse information in greater depth. Once one learns to love education, they also learn to love nuance because they appreciate the subtle shifts in perspective the mostly invisible aspects of communication convey.

For example, people are fascinated by and love learning how scams are set up to exploit the naive because the insights they get improve their sense of security. Once one knows how a grift works, one feels less intimidated and more secure when encountering a grifter.

Most people no longer fear Three-card Monty because they know how the game works and often partake for the sole pleasure of spotting the trick moment that swaps out the card to fool people.

The problems in today’s world are far more daunting than a simple game, and the complexities we have to deal with in modern living are overwhelming to the undereducated. Without bringing them up to speed, we’ll see an increasing division between those who are privileged enough to gain a proper education and those who resent them for being deprived of life skills they’re daunted by but innately understand are necessary advantages in today’s world.

They will often mistrust the educated because they can’t figure out the game being played, and the paranoia of being manipulated by someone whose education intimidates them drives them away from the potential assistance they can gain from them. It’s much easier for the under-educated to affiliate themselves with others who echo their struggles. It’s much easier for the under-educated to trust someone who speaks in the same simple language they do because it makes them feel like life hasn’t left them behind.

Until we improve our education systems such that education is universally viewed as a fundamental support for a stable nation and make it universally accessible at all levels, we will continue to struggle with the impact of our failure to equip our citizens with the skills necessary to develop a fully manifested democracy. As long as we continue to abandon the under-educated to the wolves, there will always be a political party seeking power through the exploitation of their ignorance.

What are the implications of a two-party system on democracy in the United States?

This post is a response to a question initially posed on Quora and can also be accessed via “https://donewiththebullshit.quora.com/What-are-the-implications-of-a-two-party-system-on-democracy-in-the-United-States-1”

Well, that’s simple… Gridlock.

You’ve been watching it in action for a couple of decades now.

Whatever one party initiates, the other dismantles.

The fine arts of negotiation and compromise no longer exist because one party views that as submission while the other regards that zero-sum game attitude toward cooperation as toxic and prone to counterproductive and even destructive initiatives that create problems without solving any.

For example, there is no rational justification for abortion restrictions. The entire issue is a non-issue stoked up to an irrationally unhinged fervour based on two misanthropic lies, that abortions are a lazy excuse for birth control by whores, and that they are acts of murdering babies. Neither perception resembles anything remotely true or anywhere near accurate renditions of reality.

They are lies stoked for the simple reason of creating political alignments on the vector of hating one’s fellow citizens. Since about 80% of the population is against abortion legislation, it’s been hijacked by the tyranny of a minority and leveraged as a power grab for a political party. The overblown abortion issue is a political wedge and a fundamental betrayal of a democratic system. This would not be possible in a multiparty system.

A two-party system is a recipe for conflict. In contrast, multiparty systems have been denigrated as being incapable of progress. The reality is that multiparty systems encourage negotiation and compromise among varying ideologies that more accurately reflect the expressions of individual beliefs than the aggregated pools of power occurring within a duopoly.

Another major disadvantage of a two-party system is that it limits the spread of investments the ownership class requires while choosing campaigns to finance. It’s a win-win system for them because it’s the cheapest way to hedge their bets. They can’t afford to spread their campaign investments to many parties in a multiparty system. So, their influence in politics is significantly diluted, and the will of the people is much more accurately represented by the diversity of ideological voices in Congress.

A further, much more subtle, and arguably the most profound impact on society is the homogenization of public thinking through aggregating issues into bundles. All nuance is bred out of each issue as it becomes incorporated into a party package to be accepted wholesale — like a cable deal where you can’t opt for individual strategies or solutions. It’s an all-or-nothing approach to addressing political issues that pressures the electorate to reduce the political process to the level of cheering for one’s party, like a sports team.

A two-party system cannot but lead a nation toward escalating internal strife as party positions become increasingly polarized. One party may successfully drag the other party into its ideology. However, that flexibility and willingness to accommodate the other can only go so far before the opposing party must run backwards in the opposite direction. That’s where the DNC is now, after decades of capitulating to a fascist rightwing leadership banking the complete corruption of a democratic system on the corruptibility of their opposition.

https://www.newyorker.com/cartoons/daily-cartoon/wednesday-september-23rd-meet-middle

BONUS — Reposted from Facebook

A Worthwhile Share, Given How Close D-Day is:

Stop Project 2025 Comic
Trump’s Project 2025 is a detailed plan to shut you up, and shut you out. Don’t let it do either. Read on, then vote.stopproject2025comic.org

Download the .pdf:

Click to access STOP_P2025_COMIC_BOOK.pdf

Can Kamala Harris prove she worked at McDonalds?

This post is a response to a question posed in its complete format: “https://www.quora.com/As-Donald-Trump-can-not-prove-his-accusation-that-Kamala-Harris-lied-about-working-at-McDonald-s-can-she-prove-she-has-and-should-she/answer/Antonio-Amaral-1”

Out of curiosity, do you not find it odd that Donald Trump is focused on this issue?

He is someone who has become well-known for breaking records for lying about so many things, ranging from relatively benign self-aggrandizement to malignant acts of manslaughter during a pandemic while encouraging people to dismiss the severity of a virus that killed millions worldwide.

His lies while in office killed hundreds of thousands of people, while his continued lies threaten even more lives.

Stack all of this up with one statement Kamala Harris has made about her experience as a teenager — a widespread experience for teenagers everywhere. A LOT of teenagers enter the world of work through the fast food industry. (Full disclosure — I worked for two years in a McDonalds restaurant from 15–16.)

It’s beyond a common experience and is the kind of experience that contributes absolutely nothing political toward one’s future beyond whatever one learns from the experience and money one earns. It may open some doors to other employment as a youth or young adult, but it contributes almost nothing tangible toward a long-term professional career — much less to politics.

Her claim is a one-off comment that shows how she can connect with average people living average lives. That’s about the extent of the impact that claim has.

“I’m normal. I’m like almost everyone else. I’m not weird like some people are.”

That’s the extent of the impact of her statement.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump tries to capitalize on his doubt that she had a “normal upbringing” without the privilege he’s benefited from his birth lottery. Nothing about her somewhat average background is a mystery to the public. Still, somehow, she’s being challenged, not only by Trump on this claim but also by his army of supporters who somehow believe this invalidates her candidacy.

Meanwhile, he tries to pass off a lie that he cares about ordinary, working-class people while selling cheap running shoes at horribly inflated prices or $100,000.00 watches that his contract says he has no obligation to deliver on. How exactly does that serve ordinary, working-class people? It doesn’t. It’s a money laundering scheme in which his buddy Vladimir can dump millions into his campaign war chest without tracing his collusion back to an enemy nation.

How exactly does the claim by Kamala Harris, even if it were a lie, stack up with lies told by a lifelong grifter hated by so many people worldwide for his destructive behaviour that he has stacked up a record number of lawsuits against him?

He brags about ripping people off, and somehow, people want to believe that Kamala Harris’ claim of working at McDonald’s as a teenager is enough to disqualify her as a candidate for a job in which the current administration she has been a part of has shown itself beyond capable of fixing the mess that Donald Trump left behind that will take decades to repair.

Ask yourself why people would care even if she did lie. It isn’t because such a lie is something they can’t tolerate because they tolerate life-destroying lies, so why would a benign lie like this matter in the least to people?

The problem here has nothing to do with Kamala Harris and everything to do with people who pretend to be patriots while behaving in the most treasonously hateful manner toward their fellow citizens every day.

Kamala Harris does not need to “prove” anything because she has already proven herself well beyond more capable than a lying grifter who has been deemed the worst president in American history.

What should be happening right now, if Americans have any self-respect and pride in their history and their status on the world stage, is for Donald Trump to be laughed off every stage he stands on instead of being entertained like drunk, old Uncle Fogarty. This embarrassing idiot decides, at a town hall, to play multiple versions of Ava Maria for 40 minutes instead of answering questions.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/wWwD5WBnqbwdvLeN/https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/trump-music-town-hall-1.7352277

After all of this, how can whatever job Kamala Harris did or did not do as a kid matter to anyone in the least?

The truth is that it doesn’t matter to anyone. They have to make a stink about something because the corrupt nature of politics today is that although it’s supposed to be about solving common problems, a significant proportion of the population treats politics as a war game against one’s fellow citizens.

Until (some) people learn to work together with their fellow citizens (as diverse and different from themselves as they may be) instead of demonizing their “honourable opposition,” the only direction the nation will head toward is another civil war.

I’m sure even these guys don’t want to be in a literal war with their fellow citizens.

What percentage of Kamala’s voters are actually just “anti-Trump” voters?

This post is a response to a question initially posed on Quora, and can also be accessed via “https://donewiththebullshit.quora.com/What-percentage-of-Kamalas-voters-are-actually-just-anti-Trump-voters-17” (complete with typos because the space it was posted in doesn’t permit edits — dang — and the reason I chose to “upgrade” this answer to a broader audience).

So, you’re trying to separate “anti-Trump” voters from “pro-Harris” voters as if that bears any relevance to this election.

You’re doing that because it’s easier for you to write off people with your go-to dismissal of “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

Do you recall how conservatives did the same thing with Bush when he lied to the American people and the world at large to justify invading Iraq and embroiling the nation in two costly wars?

“Bush Derangement Syndrome” was your go-to dismissal then.

That’s what conservatives do: invent a fake disease and accuse people of suffering from that “disease” to avoid having to deal with the very valid criticisms they have over the leaders you bend over backwards to protect. You don’t care in the least about examining, much less acknowledging, how utterly corrupt the actions or how incompetent the people you defend are.

For you, loyalty is everything… and you’re proud of your loyalty to such a degree you cannot fathom, much less accept how it’s precisely that sentiment being played against you.

You’ve been conditioned since childhood to value loyalty above all else and beyond reason.

This is not to say that your loyalty isn’t a precious sentiment. It is. It’s an essential ingredient for maintaining community cohesion. It isn’t, however, anything but a tool for people like this.

They don’t respect your loyalty or value it beyond how they can use it to benefit themselves.

The worst thing is that you don’t directly view your loyalty as loyalty to a convicted felon. You have convinced yourself to believe your loyalty is to your country. Why do you think he indulges in performative kisses of the flag if not to tweak your loyalty and use it against you?

The sad thing about your unwavering loyalty to this disloyal monster is that you’re the girlfriend in the stereotypical scenario played out by millions of teens throughout the decades.

You’re the girlfriend who’s being lied to so that he can get in your pants.

Once he’s done with you and decides there’s nothing more he can extract from you, then you’re his ex, and he treats you like he treats the memory of his ex-wife and mother of his children.

This is what you mean to him, yet you have convinced yourself that he won’t do the same thing to you. Do you know how many teenage girls follow that rationale to learn a powerful lesson in regret? Countless.

You’re so loyal that you’re willing to overlook the deaths of your fellow citizens while he generously shares equipment that would save American lives with the leader of an enemy nation.

… and while overlooking this betrayal of the American people, you still want to think of yourself as a loyal patriot of the nation you love.

You’re so lost in your team spirit haze that you want to believe the only reason he might lose the election is because your fellow citizens are suffering from an imaginary mental condition.

You have to think that way because the alternative is frightening.

If you can’t believe that “Trump Derangement Syndrome” is real, then you have to admit to yourself that you’ve been wrong about this monster for years.

You fell into a trap in which you liked what he had to say because he hates the same people you have struggled with that piss you off every day. After all, they don’t seem to respect what’s important to you.

The trouble is that they do, but they do so equally for everyone, not just the insiders or fellow team members. That’s what makes you struggle with being loyal to your team. You can’t ignore all your many reasons for doubting this man’s integrity. It nags at you from the back of your mind like a splinter.

He’s just given you too many reasons to wonder if maybe… just maybe, he doesn’t intend to deliver an America that serves your needs. He intends to deliver you like a pig on a roast to the nation’s enemies and destroy the Republic you believe yourself a patriot of.

You know what the truth is.

Everyone voting for Kamala is anti-Trump. It doesn’t matter if that’s the only reason to support her because that’s enough of a reason for millions of people who also think of themselves as patriots. You know they think of themselves as loyal patriots, too… right? Except they’re not loyal to a person but a country, a constitution, and the spirit upon which the nation was founded. Your brand of loyalty is called a “cult of personality.”

If your suspicions are correct, someone besides Trump would mean fewer votes for Kamala and a better chance for your team to win. Those anti-Trump people who can switch sides based on the quality of character representing the candidates are more loyal patriots than you are because they are patriots loyal to the country and not the personality.

Your loyalty is a fraud. It’s the same type of “loyalty” a teenage girl who is desperate to be loved will show the people they hope will love them back. Like you, she’s willing to believe anything a charming young boy with promise for a future will tell her.

Ask yourself this question: If Trump could return your loyalty, why has he done nothing to help the people who are in prison today on his behalf? Why did he not do something for the family of the supporter who was shot and killed during his first assassination attempt? Why did he not even contact the family to pass on his condolences if their loyalty meant anything to him?

The sad reality is that you’re just a box of Kleenex to him.

Once he’s done wiping himself with your sacrifice, then you’re just garbage.

Is your loyalty worth that little?

Do you know who gets a greater reward for that kind of sacrifice?

Saddam Rewards Suicide Bombers’ Families

That’s right… Islamic suicide bombers get better treatment for their sacrifice than Trump’s loyal supporters.

Are you okay with being treated with less respect than an Islamic suicide bomber?

Is your sacrifice worth the cost of destroying the nation you want to think of yourself as a patriot of?

Here’s another thought: The loyal patriots who hated what the Republicans did to embroil the U.S. in two pointless wars weren’t just temporarily reacting for the sake of team performance. They weren’t suffering from some temporary mania called “Bush Derangement Syndrome.” They believed strongly then and still believe those who sent the nation into that hellscape should be held accountable for their actions — even if they switch sides and cheer for the same team. They’re not let off the hook for the damage they did to the nation. To them, being loyal to principles matters more than team loyalty.

Loyalty to a country means holding monsters accountable for their actions, no matter how they switch gears later.

Dick Cheney announces support for Kamal Harris

That’s the difference between genuinely patriotic loyalty to a country and misguided loyalty to someone who’s using you like a teenage boy eager to get in your pants.

Is Elon Musk evil or corrupt?

This post is a response to a question posed in its full format as follows: “Is Elon Musk evil or corrupt? I tend to admire people that take their money and build something of value.”

Elon Musk is a typical human born into a life of privilege and who happened to be smart enough to leverage that privilege into such a degree of wealth that it allowed him to free up restraints on the ego that drove him to that wealth.

This phenomenon occurs because humanity has no overarching vision that unites us and that we all consciously strive toward in everything we do.

Far too many are still at the toddler stage of “I’ve got mine, eff you,” and our culture of wealth worshipping exaggerates the sort of narcissism we see running rampant everywhere.

Musk, Bezos, and an appalling list of etceteras got wealthy because that’s what they valued, not because they dreamed of using that wealth to better humanity. The people working on the betterment of society are mainly working on shoestring budgets while relying on closely-knit relationships with others who believe in the potential of what they’re doing.

Those are the invisible creators throughout society that people with privilege — the sharks among us love to feed on and claim credit for their creation. It is like a pattern Musk’s fanboys should be able to spot now due to their knowledge of him, but they somehow fail to see the obvious.

The consequence of this worship mentality is that we no longer view the wealthy as we view other human beings. The rich and powerful acquire, along with their materiality, a perception of superiority as a human who magically transcends human failings.

They don’t, but we see evidence of an analogy that money is like salt for food; it magnifies what was already there.

We haven’t come to grips with the implications for us as a species because of this particular blind spot we have cultivated through millennia of worshipping imaginary super/extra/meta humanoid beings as paternalistic avatars for our species.

We are groomed from childhood to worship, which comes naturally through trust between a parent and child. That depth of connection between humans is what defines humanity. For a species that has arisen from a history of barbarism, it’s not surprising to see relics of that bonding psychology in play to serve as the uniting vision for a culture we lack as a species.

This blind spot we have and this compulsion to worship wealth and power have been coming at a cost that nowhere near enough of us can yet see. Those who do are freaking out because of the eerie similarities the fawning behaviour he receives has with cult members. Being a fan is one thing, but abandoning all reason to avoid critical analysis and engage in a blind defence of antics that are blatantly self-serving nonsense only shows that it’s not Musk that’s a problem; it’s us.

We still haven’t gotten to that stage where we understand the meaning of “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” — however, if we don’t get our environmental issues under control, we won’t have a choice but to believe unlimited wealth in the hands of too few is too much of a threat to the future of our species to allow it to continue without ensuring it halts immediately via guillotine.

Those who still don’t get it should ponder the wisdom of establishing an entirely new industry catering to the wealthy that will be responsible for the most significant environmental damage from a single human activity than all others, and that’s the amount of carbon pumped into our atmosphere to lift a ship into our outer atmosphere for ego boosting junkets for the pampered class.

They’re already responsible for the lion’s share of lifestyle contributions to our environmental issues, and no one is crying foul about their latest space penis ventures.

They’re not necessarily “evil” (even though Bezos does a tremendous job of being convincing in that area); they’re just self-serving adults with power who have the emotional development of children.

The consequences of failing to restrain power will undoubtedly be considered “evil,” but all of us will evenly share the blame.

Is capitalism simply the human nature of “survival of the fittest”?

This post is a response to a question posed in its full format as follows: “Is capitalism simply “survival of the fittest” in humans, and just an explanation of human nature instead of an ideology?”

No. Capitalism is a system of exchange of value.

The toxic competitiveness that becomes defined as “survival of the fittest” is a human mental illness that perverts a life-saving, poverty-destroying system into a weapon of mass destruction serving their selfish whims.

Capitalism is not the problem, and the sooner we stop blaming abstractions, the sooner we can solve the issues that are being made worse with a tool like capitalism.

Capitalism is only one tool in a kit of corruption wielded by corrupt humans who destroy lives while seeking dominion over all others.

Another tool is our political system, and it’s being just as corrupted as capitalism.

Yet another tool being corrupted by vile creatures resembling humans is our justice system.

Our systems are corrupted by corrupt human beings seeking only one end: dominion.

The problems that have persisted throughout human history have always been the same: an evil obsession with power.

We are facing the threat we have always faced — power.

Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

The only way out of the mess we are creating is to attack power, to disempower consolidations of power.

The only solution to the threat of concentrated power is to spread power throughout the globe and all of society — to share in power as equally as possible.

This is why democracy exists today, in whatever hobbled form it does.

This is why democracy is necessary for our survival as a species.

We must always find concentrations of power as threats to our existence and properly distribute power throughout the masses.

Everywhere power is concentrated, it is an enemy of the people and of the progress toward achieving our potential as a species. Institutions, industries (particularly multinational), and organizations of all stripes must be converted into democratic institutions.

We cannot continue to allow autocratic institutions to increase their power because their endgame is always dominion.

Spreading power to create democracy everywhere and in all things necessitates equipping the unskilled, the undereducated, and the under-developed with the knowledge and capacity to handle their increased personal power properly.

For this reason, we must learn to value education on such a level that we view it as the lifeblood of our existence as a species. Without it, we die.

Human nature craves education, even among those who hold educational institutions in disdain, because no one is oblivious to the value of learning something that makes their life even better.

Anyone in a position of teaching others knows that education is the link in the chain of our human existence as we pass on what we have learned from others to a future that stands upon generations of shoulders before them.

The light of awareness glowing within the mind of someone who has just learned something valuable is the most priceless treasure one can experience while passing on the most priceless gift one can give another.

Capitalism is a tool that can and has lifted us out of poverty, and we, the people, must take back control of capitalism to shape our future for the betterment of all and not solely for the few.

We must wrench the wheel of capitalism from the hands of those corrupted by its power and return it to its rightful owners — we, the people.

What policy proposal could combat teen pregnancies by men over 21?

This post is a response to a question posed in its full format as follows: “66% of teen pregnancies are fathered by men over 21. Do you have a policy proposal for how to combat this?”

When I worked in community development as an “Educational Counsellor” (Residence Life Coordinator), part of my role involved developing programs to address common issues affecting college-age students. Since many were away from their rural homes for the first time in their young adult lives and often were from strict homes, they spread their wings and acted out in sometimes unhealthy ways.

The overconsumption of alcohol was one of the most common unhealthy coping mechanisms many adopted. This necessitated various strategies for mitigating the effects of over-consumption, which would develop into habits over time and become addictions if one was unable to free oneself from such a toxic dependency.

This role was how I encountered a drinking cessation strategy by Homewood Health Services in Canada that used a series of posters in one of their awareness campaigns.

All the posters were designed to provide uplifting and inspirational messaging with colourful imagery and a touch of humour to appeal to that demographic’s sensibilities. One specific poster prompted me to reply to this question. I looked for it briefly online, but it was a poster from about 40 years ago, so I unfortunately cannot see it.

A brief description in which you will have to imagine a brightly coloured illustration with a chalk pastel texture. It was an image of the back of a person’s head while propped over a toilet bowl. The image was intended to convey how unpleasant over-consumption can be. I don’t remember the caption, but I remember how popular it was.

Of the various posters available for students to pick from and post on their walls, this particular poster was far and away the most popular.

I didn’t realize at first why beyond the mockery it would generate because no one likes the experience of “driving the porcelain bus,” and everyone laughs at the people who over-indulge to such a degree.

As it turned out, the poster became a type of “scorecard” in the party apartments within the residence complex. Each time someone “chatted on the porcelain phone,” they signed the poster.

It was disheartening at first because the poster was having the opposite effect it was intended for. It’s not like it encouraged people to over-consume alcohol, but it was like a ledger keeping track of the number of times one went too far.

At the end of the academic year, as students packed up their belongings, I encountered a few as they packed up and took their posters. In each case, the expressions they conveyed were that it had been quite a year and that they had enjoyed a lot of memories from their parties, except for the experience they had with a night’s discussion with “Raaalf.” The number of times they had signed the poster was like a demerit to remind them of the unpleasant experience.

They expressed regret over how much they had over-imbibed, and when they returned for their next academic year, they were far more reserved in their behaviours. Those students went from high levels of over-consumption in their first year to being much more academically committed students in their second year who had learned to drink moderately. They still socialized in their second year but were far more responsible.

The poster had worked.

It took one full academic year, but signing the poster after a night of “hurling chunks” left an indelible impression in their minds.

That’s how an education program works, slowly and with far more spectacular results than the heavy hand of imposition. When people learn to choose a healthier alternative because they want it, the results impressively outperform any authoritarian strategy.

This is what anti-abortion people don’t understand and why they’re so disgusting when they barf up ignorantly abusive disparagements such as characterizing an oppositional view as “pro-abortion.”

No one is “pro” a bad situation.

No matter how one characterizes an abortion. Nothing about it can be considered desirable, mainly by those who feel that’s their last hope. This is also why anti-abortion people are so inhumanly disgusting. They’re stealing a final lifeline of hope for someone in desperate straights… even worse is that they force medical emergencies into becoming incidents of premeditated murder by their depraved indifference.

This is why the SCOTUS rejection of Biden’s attempt to compel the state of Texas to perform emergency abortions based on a life-saving medical procedure makes them entirely unfit to lead the nation in its laws. Their responsibility to society is to establish a higher morality that respects and preserves life.

Nothing about the alleged “pro-life” is anything but “anti-life,” and nothing can make that more accurate than the numerous horrors that have already presented themselves since they betrayed women across the country and the world by extension with their reversal of Roe v. Wade.

The only policy that will effectively address the issue of teen pregnancies by young adults above the age of 21 is the policy that creates the peer pressure necessary to make those young adults who have not managed to mature beyond an abysmal level of under-developed morals afraid of being ostracized by their peers.

Nothing works more effectively than peer pressure. Education and awareness programs are the only way to achieve that kind of pressure. The more people realize the consequences of destructive behaviour, the greater the likelihood of it being mitigated “on its own” over time.

Time and patience are required to realize the benefits, but they are permanent fixtures in an evolving society. Peer pressure is how we have managed to reduce incidents of drinking and driving.

The heavy hand of an authoritarian never works. If anything, the consequence of imposition is always to make the problem worse.

Should US healthcare be a business?

It should not be a business because it’s a public service, just like the military and the police… just like education should be.

When public services are operated with a profit-driven mindset, they deviate from their intended purpose, becoming corrupt and inefficient. This distortion invariably leads to their failure to serve the people.

Some things should never be run as businesses because their priorities are not profits but service, a value inherent to and critical for delivering effective public services.

It’s a fundamental truth that the primary goal of any business is profit. However, this profit-driven approach is incompatible with providing high-quality service. The two cannot coexist.

In business, one can choose only two out of three options between speed, price, and quality. It is a business mantra that recognizes you can only provide some of the three.

People who fail to understand business also fail to understand community development because you can’t provide a high-quality public service if profit is involved in any capacity. It is for this reason that all election campaigns should be publicly funded instead of privately financed for the profiteers who have corrupted the political landscape while transforming the nation into a fascist corporatocracy.

Restraining corruption within the political landscape demands a wall between business and state in the same fashion that a wall should exist between church and state. As institutions, they should not directly influence the other two’s nature, shape, or operation.

Corporations are medieval institutions based on authoritarian structures. Because of that, they cannot help but corrupt democracies, just like churches are also authoritarian structures capable only of corrupting the operations of a state.

The only efficient and effective way to operate a national healthcare system is to provide high quality at the lowest cost. The only way to achieve that goal is to pool all resources together and leverage a basic economic strategy called “economy of scale.”

As a citizen and a consumer, you apply that same strategy each time you buy something in bulk.

This isn’t rocket science, and the fact that the U.S. still can’t get its act together to do the right thing for its citizens is a testament to how badly corrupted by billionaires the nation has become.

The fact is that billionaires have invested a lot of money in programming people to believe the government is inefficient. The truth, however, is that all organizations become inefficient the larger they become.

The real solution to many problems the U.S. and the world are struggling with is acknowledging that “too big to fail” means “too big to exist.” No multinational corporation should exist today. No centibillionaires should exist today.

We’ve made a horrendous error in judgment by allowing power to be concentrated in the hands of the few. The consequence of that corruption is that a majority are now struggling needlessly when they were prospering only a few decades ago.

Community development is a service we provide for each other as part of the social contract.

There are plenty of opportunities outside of community service to make profits. There is no justification for turning every waking moment into a monetization opportunity — for anyone- and creating a culture in which that’s the expectation, which is a dysphoric consequence of a dysfunctional state of being that will sustain itself indefinitely.

As we have entered the late stages of capitalism, we can either adjust course toward a healthier and sustainable existence, or we will invite chaos into all our lives. We can stave that off by simply adjusting our biases. The first bias to change is acknowledging that healthcare is NOT a business.

Plenty of for-profit business opportunities exist within an endeavour as massive as healthcare. Like any non-profit enterprise working within a zero-based budget context, private industries are still free to operate on a for-profit basis. For a service as massive as a national healthcare system, that presents an incredible array of opportunities for innovation and competition by and between for-profit industries. The critical difference is that the decision-making body or board governing the healthcare operation isn’t distracted from providing essential services by a for-profit mandate.

There exists neither a need nor justification for basing the service provided to save lives on catering to a profit motive. It’s the worst way to serve a public with an inferior service at a cost that’s much more excessive than money because the price includes the lives of innocent people who are unfairly and unnecessarily made desperate to survive.

Why has the UK’s economy grown so slowly under the Tories?

This post is a response to a question initially posed on Quora.

lol… but not lol

It’s sad.

It’s frustrating.

It’s maddening.

It’s a bang your head against the wall to relieve the pain of blind ignorance kind of thing.

It seems that no matter where one travels on this tiny blue pearl adrift in a lightless ocean, one universal constant that science does not accommodate is the obliviousness demonstrated toward a long and less than venerated history of fiscal incompetence by those branding themselves as fiscally competent by virtue of their propensity for preservation.

As the old adage goes, “It takes money to make money,” while the CONs among us lack the spine to explore beyond their survival instincts, which favour hoarding among the favoured class.

It’s always the little people who get stuck with the honourable burden of austerity, never the luxury recliner class. They deserve their effetes, after all, because they are superior to the little people. That’s why they’re considered “royalty,” and by God’s good graces, they have a divine Reich to rule.

They should not be expected to lift heavy fingers to make manifest a reality catering to their sensibilities. That’s what the little people are for.

The little people are the beasts of burden by divine decree, and no one should ever question that wizdumb.

Conservatives are fiscally conservative, and that makes them better money managers than the swarthy class, which demands to be paid for the value they contribute to society and the luxuries of the pampered class.

If the uncouth class manages power, then debts and deficits will be deemed horrendous failures in leadership. If they hold the keys to the halls of power, then debts and deficits are a feature, not a bug.

If the tree-hugging barbarians wish to spread the wealth around to their peers, that’s a grievous violation of overreach for which they must be punished. The trillions in wealth generated by the sweat of hundreds of millions of brows rightfully belongs to their natural rulers.

When they Reichfully sit upon their thrones, then they are empowered by the lard almighty to share it with their peers, and if it so happens that one of them over-indulges, they are permitted to trickle down the excess to the wanton waifs beneath them. They must be careful, however, not to release too much of a flood because that would embarrass their peers by revealing the extent of their gluttonous obscenities.

They cannot afford that sort of smear to their optics because that would incite the little people into another of their tizzies to make heads literally roll.

No one wants any more cake. It’s too disruptive to their digestion.

At any rate, their inability to peer past their navels and acknowledge themselves as members of the same species as the rabble they exploit into early graves makes it impossible for them to notice opportunity when it knocks on their over-filled bladders.

They would rather piss into their chamber pots than allow any of their precious golden treasure to be used to elevate the lot of humanity.

If they did that, they would soon run out of heads to trod upon and lose track of who was a worthy peer by birth or an anomaly by self-made fortune.

If this seems a bit cynical, it’s because it is quite cynical toward a movement that has steadily reversed the course of capitalism to raise a world out of poverty by weaponizing it as a means of establishing power. The economy belongs to everyone while our systems undergo a consolidation of power that has historically been the cause of systemic collapse and widespread chaos.

In the words of economist Dean Baker,

The market is just a tool, and in fact a very useful one. It makes no more sense to lash out against markets than to lash out against the wheel. The reality is that conservatives have been quite actively using the power of the government to shape market outcomes in ways that redistribute income upward. However, conservatives have been clever enough to not own up to their role in this process, pretending all along that everything is just the natural working of the market. And, progressives have been foolish enough to go along with this view.

The economy should serve the social contract, not subjugate it while Conservative politics the world around have never quite accepted the reality that we are, all of us, in this together. A successful and prosperous future requires a mindset that accommodates all needs, not just those one can personally benefit from. The fundamental difference between the conservative “me” mentality versus the liberal “we” mentality is the cause of poor economic performance. It always has been and it always will be because it constitutes myopic and self-serving thinking favouring power to the few, and not the people at large.

Did JD Vance lie about never supporting a national abortion ban? (Bonus Post)

This post is a response to a question posed in its full format as follows: “JD Vance said in the debate that he has never supported a national ban on abortion. Does that mean that he was lying when he said (on tape) that he wanted a National Ban on abortion?”

I hadn’t intended on “upgrading” this answer to the level of a post, but the upvotes I’ve been getting suggest to me that perhaps fewer people are skilled in “reading between the lines” of what people say than should be the case with critical political issues that significantly impact people’s lives. What I’ve realized — and what prompted me to make this “bonus post” today- is that what appears blazingly obvious to me is not so for far too many others. Understanding the art of dialectics within the context of political leadership has never been a more crucial skill for people to develop as part of the critical thinking kit. Hence, my response to the question posed is below. (Plus, this is an opportunity to share a meme I created when J.D. accepted his invitation to serve as POTUS potentially.)

Does it really matter if he lied about something in one instance but not in the next?

How can you tell which is the lie and which is the truth?

How can anyone know what someone really means if you have to choose between multiple conflicting statements?

What’s the point of trying to parse them to determine their belief in an issue?

What they are saying by making conflicting statements is that they choose their words to appeal to whatever audience they are speaking to.

They practice “the art of telling people what they want to hear.”

They admit that they believe in nothing but achieving whatever goal they seek and care little about how much their actions might hurt others.

They admit they have no values beyond manipulating gullible people.

He has admitted to doing just that when he claimed to be justified in “creating stories” to get attention — even though innocent people have been put in jeopardy because of his “stories.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/15/jd-vance-lies-haitian-immigrants

The only valid conclusion any sane person can draw from that is they can’t be trusted because one should know that they will continue to lie to anyone and everyone they can to achieve whatever benefits they can for themselves.

It means that if he can personally benefit from a national abortion ban, he will support it.

It means he’s openly bargaining with the people who want a national abortion ban by telling them in public through his “hidden message” that if they grease his palms, he will support a national abortion ban because he doesn’t care who he will hurt in the process.