Bernie needs to directly address this false dichotomy of the right (and Hillary)
and he needs to point out that it is a false dichotomy. In fact, a very great deal of the Republican Party's platforms seem to me to be false dichotomies, things based on 'either/or' choices that are just not reflective of life.
This is a copy and paste from a long and rambling post on Facebook to my right wing cousin (who atually has made some concessions and I think is beginning to weaken, LOL). I wish someone who is succinct could summarize and present this to Bernie. This has to be done to win the election... or barring that, future elections, so as to re-empower the American people...
ON EDIT: My cousin presented me with an article once again saying that Bernie wants to nationalize the economy...an article in politico supposedly by a liberal... a liberal what, I don't know... a liberal conservative Republican...
Because as I have said before, there is a difference between democratic socialism and socialism, Herb.
The world is not comprised solely of dichotomies, of only either/or choices, only two choices. In this case, the two choices that the right falsely and constantly presents are:
(false in the sense that there are only two choices, and false in the sense that the impacts of these choices, especially the second one, are completely lied about):
1) a system as described in that quote, where the government nationalizes industry and does economic planning. This doesn't work, and has never worked, and is very destructive...because it isn't that different from the other false 'only' choice number two (total control by a small group of elites, just with different titles). Here's a wiki entry for you: "Nationalization is to be distinguished from "socialization", which refers to the process of restructuring the economic framework, organizational structure, and institutions of an economy on a socialist basis. By contrast, nationalization does not necessarily imply social ownership and the restructuring of the economic system. By itself, nationalization has nothing to do with socialism, having been historically carried out for various different purposes under a wide variety of different political systems and economic systems." Largely, though not exclusively, by communistic systems, which are NOT capitalist systems.
OR SECOND CHOICE IN THIS FALSE DICHOTOMY:
2) A mutated, deranged, and destructive form of 'capitalism' based upon monopolistic control by muti-national corporations (who under the TPP cannot merely choose to ignore all nation's laws, but also, make money off of ignoring them...penalize the countries who try to assert their right to control their own country's resources by making the countries pay FINES to the corporations when they insist any corporation stop dumping pollution in their waters or stop criminal activities or anything else they want to do that makes money...so rape the world, and then make them pay for your rape even more with fines which will be taxes to the little guys only), and a system that creates and requires an utterly disempowered labor force and disempowered consumers. This is nothing like 'free market capitalism' at all... but remember, we can only think in dichotomies here, and pretend that the only form of capitalism, is this deranged form, and so must be CALLED free market (for a lot of reasons)...ANY form of capitalism must be CALLED free market.... because in a world of dichotomies, it's only 'free market capitalism' or nationalistic communism, there is nothing else in this warped, restricted, and extremely low level of thinking. That is the line of goods being sold by the Republican Party, brought to you by the Koch Bros, Exxon, et al. And people buy this, because 'oh my brain hurts if it is more than two choices', I guess. Makes no sense to me. My brain can handle a lot of diversity in a lot of things. Just two of anything makes very little sense; it doesn't reflect real life. I don't understand it. Go ask those 'poorly educated voters' that Trump just loves...
a. Monolpolistic captalist elites: A mutated and deformed form of capitalism (sold as 'free market' but it is NOT NOT NOT) that is almost 100% totally in the control of an ever-shrinking number of super wealthy, monopolistic-functioning super corporations who yield to very little of law whenever possible and profitable..usually they don't have to yield, they just buy legislatures... . These are comprised of pyramid-structured stacks of corporations owning a group of corporations under the top one, then each of those corporations is another umbrella with more corporations under them, etc, on down the line. (I find it frightening that Philip Morris owns food companies, and that most people don't know that, either.) The result is that at the top of this pyramidic or umbrella-form of organization there are just a few boards of directors that control everything in a large subset of corporations. Off these small numbers of boards of directors, the same members serve on a number of these boards, so this top controlling group is even smaller than the total number of members of the boards. Because these groups control such a huge, huge, YUGE portion of the economy, they influence the workings of all of the other workings of the market, including general wage levels, benefits, and working conditions, as well as sales prices, quality of goods, and what goods are available at all. This is NOT the 'Free Market', but people WANT to believe it is....so they choose to do so... it feels better psychologically, makes one feel less impotent, and it's less work than dealing with reality. Not less painful, by any means, but less work upfront and requires a lower intelligence level to achieve...just buy the bill of goods the used car salesman told you, and drive off, smiling, to a future of constant break downs because there is sawdust in the engine to hide the leaks, etc. Because, hey, there are always only two choices in life; all is black or white; I'm not smart enough to think about anything except in dichotomous form. Ugh.
b. Ultimately disempowered labor force: Very important to this deformed concept sold, and bought! as 'free market capitalism', is that the worker must have NO voice, NO power, NO say, either through unions or government regulation or legal recourse, as regards general wage levels, numbers of hours worked, benefits, whether or not there is safety on the job, whether or not the environment is racked, destroyed, raped, and every other basic human right and need that is decimated wherever this is allowed. To enable this twisted, malformed, misrepresented and demented form of 'capitalism', Average Joe can't be allowed to know what is going on, of course! So, AS PART OF THE SALES JOB, HE IS BRAINWASHED INTO BELIEVING THAT EVERY SINGLE MEANS BY WHICH HE COULD ACTUALLY EXERT SOME CONTROL AND INFLUENCE ON THE JOBS MARKET, IS PRECISELY WHAT WILL DEPRIVE HIM OF POWER (unions, government regulation, the courts). (So, all that is left, or shortly would be left, are riots in the streets...so, just call in Brinks and shoot them all down... 1890s, here we are again). In Adam Smith's view, it was the JOINT efforts of the many consumers and laborers that made a difference, made things work well for all... but in this depraved and twisted and DEMENTED form of 'capitalism', that mechanism is not allowed to function.
BUT IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT AVERAGE JOE NOT SEE THAT. HE MUST BELIEVE HE DOES HAVE POWER, ALL BY HIMSELF, MUST FEEL ALL MACHO, AND BE DUMB ENOUGH TO SAY YES, I, ONE LITTLE MAN, CAN INFLUENCE MY OWN RATE OF PAY AND BENEFITS AGAINST THE WILL OF PEOPLE WHO OWN ALMOST ALL OF THE PLANET AND CONTROL THE WORLD ECONOMY. ALL BY MYSELF, I CAN TELL PHILLIP MORRIS WHAT THEY WILL PAY ME. I AM SO MACHO!!! I AM A RUGGED INDIVIDUALIST. IT'S ALL ON ME. 'MINE IS BIGGER THAN YOURS' THINKING. THAT WAY, HE WILL BEAT HIMSELF UP LIKE A MASOCHIST FOR BEING ABUSED...'HEY, JOHN, JUST GO GET ANOTHER JOB THAT PAYS MORE, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?' when those other jobs aren't there, because all wages, benefits, and working condition general levels are artificially suppressed and controlled by the monopolistic collusion of those who control the largest majority of all wealth and assets. The supply of jobs has been artificially controlled, and therefore, the market dynamics are different; this is NOT FREE MARKET CAPITALISM WITH SUPPLY AND DEMAND WORKING AS ADAM SMITH SAW IT.
BUT THE SUCKER BUYS IT, BECAUSE HE NEEDS TO BELIEVE HE HAS POWER, WHEN HE ACTUALLY DOESN'T. IT SEEMS THE LESS POWER PEOPLE HAVE, THE MORE THEY NEED TO BELIEVE THEY ACTUALLY DO. ( OR THEY GET A GUN AND GO ON A SHOOTING SPREE.) THE PSYCHOLOGICAL NEED TO FEEL IN CONTROL IS MORE IMPORTANT TO MILLIONS OF 'AVERAGE JOES' THAN AN INTELLIGENT ASSESSMENT OF WHAT HE TRULY DOES CONTROL....or more importantly, critically, what HE COULD CONTROL, WORKING IN UNISON WITH OTHER WORKERS and citizens. The entire focus on one political party is to attempt to not allow workers or consumers to have any real power whatsoever through any means whatsoever, and that party has been remarkably successful, and that's why we have the economy we now have. It is the economy that the wealthy elite paid our Congress to construct (or rather, deconstruct). A true assessment of the power of one little man standing up to multinational corporations to influence wages, prices, and quality of life and goods...I mean, really, how hard is that to figure out???...that assessment would allow the actual and fruitful application of effective efforts to actually improve his life and that of the rest of the populace..REAL empowerment, which in this system today, has been almost destroyed...except for the power of democracy, WHEN utilized, and when not manipulated. But given the basic temperament of too many Average Joes, it is easy to manipulate democracy: just buy ads and sell people a load of shit, which they will eat up and use to vote, rather than get off their butts and learn and read and check voting records, and real math statistics like what has ACTUALLY historically happened over half a century when minimum wage is raised, versus what happens when those at the top get huge tax breaks. It's not 'economic theory'; it is proven historical fact. It's just numbers, and just facts, and just history.. but our populace has no concept of math or history, or facts, so these are presented in rewritten and distorted form repeatedly by politicians, by used car salesmen. That's one reason the Koch Bros are so wealthy, because they know this, and do, precisely this..they sell a bill of goods and people buy it. This need of Average Joe to feel in control, above and beyond actually BEING in control, is like my grandson at age 3, when he would say "no", event to things he really, really wanted, because at those times, the ability to say no was more important to him than the actual results... a greater need to BELIEVE he was independent, than the need to get all else he wanted or needed. That seems to me to be the temperament of the Tea Party: I'm all big and macho and you can't tell ME what to do (ie, I refuse to eat my vegetables or to not bully the kid next door. In fact, I'm putting my fingers in my ears and yelling 'la la la la la' so I won't even HEAR the First Lady telling children to eat healthy...how DARE she insult my manhood???)
c. Impotent consumers: This deranged, mutated, and crippled form of 'capitalism' is a system where the consumer loses the capability and power to impact pricing (such as for medicines) and in the quality with which goods are created, and where those things are created, and how much of the Earth is blatantly raped and destroyed in creating these new, crappy, poorly performing items for consumption. In other words, Adam Smith's hand of the worker/consumer has been paralyzed. Adam Smith would not recognize this structure as anything other than feudalism, a pyramidic system of ultimate control of the populace for the benefit of an elite ruling group. The only difference is that that nowadays, instead of kings, these people hold business titles. But they are revered like kings were in days of old, as some mysterious, superior, almost-godly intellect...when really, they are just very good at selling a crock of shit and having the little guys eat it up, and they love both parts of this game: getting all the wealth for which they have no need, taking it from those who do need it, and most of all, enjoy that so much of the populace buys there lies. Power for the sake of power. This works because too many Average Joes crave strong 'leadership' so much, preferring to defer to others rather than stand up, have courage, and make their own decisions, that they would go straight to hell for the simple joy of following someone, anyone, who will just 'lead' them. I saw that as a younger worker in my career, and this amazed me, because I was raised to always step up to the plate, to analyze actual facts based on historical realities, to think and to make decisions, and then act upon that, and to always 'question authority'. I had an actual education that was worth a great deal. Too many do not. Large swaths of the population just want to be told where the plate is, how to stand on it, when to stand on it, and what to do while there, and then believe themselves to be independent and powerful while their true power shrinks, their ability to improve their lives disintegrates more and more over time, and more and more of our population is ultimately just losing it and going on shooting sprees...where the perception of impotence is often the reason driving their actions. All they need to do is have the courage and apply some effort to thinking instead of blindly following the sales pitches. Just look at facts, and learn how to do math. And have some basic knowledge of basic varieties of economies and what supply and demand are...almost everyone, has no concept of that at all. And so, they scream 'capitalism' and have no freaking clue what that means. None.
CAPITALISM THAT RENDERS THE WORKER AND CONSUMER IMPOTENT IS NOT THE ONLY FORM OF CAPITALISM. However, it is the form that has developed and has given us the economy we have today. IT'S A VERY BAD SYSTEM. It's SOLD as FREE MARKET CAPITALISM, BUT IT IS NOT NOT NOT. It is monopolistic capitalism, where those monopolies are NOT granted and regulated by any source whatsoever (ie, not a "Ma Bell" system). THIS ISN'T A SYSTEM WHERE THE LITTLE GUY WHO WANTS TO START HIS OWN BUSINESS IS SUPPORTED, BUT RATHER, ONE WHERE THE GAME IS TO CRUSH THE LITTLE BUSINESS GUYS, AS SOON AS THE BIG ONES CAN FIGURE OUT HOW TO DO SO...AND REALLY, JUST FOR THE SPORT OF CRUSHING PEOPLE. IT'S NOT BECAUSE MONEY OR POWER IS NEEDED AT THE TOP. IT'S JUST A DAMN GAME. One where the consumer, employee, and small business person gets what trickles downhill: pissed on.
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