Post by Deleted on Jan 14, 2018 21:49:41 GMT
Please share far and wide to those who you think would benefit.
From Jonathan Taplin
Director Emeritus, USC Annenberg Innovation Lab. Author, “Move Fast and Break Things”.
"What I am going to say to you now is this: “don’t make the mistake your parents did” of turning away from politics, like we did in 1968 after the murder of Bobby Kennedy. You need to engage in good old fashioned electoral politics. You are the largest numerical generation. Just imagine if 15 million more of your peers voted in 2018 and 20 million more voted in 2020. You could change American politics forever.The plutocrats and their paid for politicians take the apathy of many in your generation for granted. If you don’t engage in politics, the trajectory of this chart will condemn 90% of your generation to a life of constant economic struggle, while the top 1/10 of 1% controls your destiny."
So the question for America in the 2020 election will be to surrender to the plutocracy, or to make a radical adjustment and reject the free market religion that the Koch’s are selling. Know that Trump and his friends will not surrender power without an epic battle. The have shown the ability to motivate their Tea Party stalwarts in both violent and non-violent ways. The authoritarian values that Trump represents are part of what cognitive scientist George Lakoff calls “Strict Father Conservatism.”
The basic idea is that authority is justified by morality (the strict father version), and that, in a well-ordered world, there should be (and traditionally has been) a moral hierarchy in which those who have traditionally dominated should dominate. The hierarchy is: God above Man, Man above Nature, The Disciplined (Strong) above the Undisciplined (Weak), The Rich above the Poor, Employers above Employees, Adults above Children, Western culture above other cultures, Our Country above other countries. The hierarchy extends to: Men above women, Whites above Nonwhites, Christians above non-Christians, Straights above Gays....
This vision is perfectly reflected in comments Peter Thiel made to Wall Street Journal columnist Holman W. Jenkins: that only 2 percent of the populace — the scientists, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists — understand what is going on and “the other 98 percent don’t know anything. The rise of this libertarian techno-elite required a long process of destroying unions, eliminating business regulation and manipulating a large portion of the working class into identifying with their overlords. That latter task was the job of people like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity backed by the investments of men like Rupert Murdoch (Fox News) and Lawry Mays (Clear Channel Radio Networks). In 2016 Donald Trump ran a phony populist campaign to fight for the working class against the corrupt influence of Wall Street and Big Business and shrink our overseas military commitments. This big lie was supported by Fox News, talk radio and the Breitbart propaganda organ. But it was the greatest con job in the history of American politics because Trump is governing in the classic Republican plutocratic tradition....
Creating a political economy in which the wealthy minority rule over the middle and lower class majority is a hard task. It requires mechanisms that suppress voting and mechanisms for propaganda that convince working class voters that cultural divisions are more important than economic equality....
But to believe that resistance in the form of demonstrations and street politics will lead to real change, like my generation did, is a fools errand. Go find yourselves a political candidate that you can stand behind in the presidential election of 2020....
The plutocrats think they have won. They are sure you will sit out the 2018 and maybe even the 2020 election. You need to prove them wrong.”
medium.com/@jonathantaplin/triumph-of-the-reactionaries-20468de5c6b0
From Jonathan Taplin
Director Emeritus, USC Annenberg Innovation Lab. Author, “Move Fast and Break Things”.
"What I am going to say to you now is this: “don’t make the mistake your parents did” of turning away from politics, like we did in 1968 after the murder of Bobby Kennedy. You need to engage in good old fashioned electoral politics. You are the largest numerical generation. Just imagine if 15 million more of your peers voted in 2018 and 20 million more voted in 2020. You could change American politics forever.The plutocrats and their paid for politicians take the apathy of many in your generation for granted. If you don’t engage in politics, the trajectory of this chart will condemn 90% of your generation to a life of constant economic struggle, while the top 1/10 of 1% controls your destiny."
So the question for America in the 2020 election will be to surrender to the plutocracy, or to make a radical adjustment and reject the free market religion that the Koch’s are selling. Know that Trump and his friends will not surrender power without an epic battle. The have shown the ability to motivate their Tea Party stalwarts in both violent and non-violent ways. The authoritarian values that Trump represents are part of what cognitive scientist George Lakoff calls “Strict Father Conservatism.”
The basic idea is that authority is justified by morality (the strict father version), and that, in a well-ordered world, there should be (and traditionally has been) a moral hierarchy in which those who have traditionally dominated should dominate. The hierarchy is: God above Man, Man above Nature, The Disciplined (Strong) above the Undisciplined (Weak), The Rich above the Poor, Employers above Employees, Adults above Children, Western culture above other cultures, Our Country above other countries. The hierarchy extends to: Men above women, Whites above Nonwhites, Christians above non-Christians, Straights above Gays....
This vision is perfectly reflected in comments Peter Thiel made to Wall Street Journal columnist Holman W. Jenkins: that only 2 percent of the populace — the scientists, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists — understand what is going on and “the other 98 percent don’t know anything. The rise of this libertarian techno-elite required a long process of destroying unions, eliminating business regulation and manipulating a large portion of the working class into identifying with their overlords. That latter task was the job of people like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity backed by the investments of men like Rupert Murdoch (Fox News) and Lawry Mays (Clear Channel Radio Networks). In 2016 Donald Trump ran a phony populist campaign to fight for the working class against the corrupt influence of Wall Street and Big Business and shrink our overseas military commitments. This big lie was supported by Fox News, talk radio and the Breitbart propaganda organ. But it was the greatest con job in the history of American politics because Trump is governing in the classic Republican plutocratic tradition....
Creating a political economy in which the wealthy minority rule over the middle and lower class majority is a hard task. It requires mechanisms that suppress voting and mechanisms for propaganda that convince working class voters that cultural divisions are more important than economic equality....
But to believe that resistance in the form of demonstrations and street politics will lead to real change, like my generation did, is a fools errand. Go find yourselves a political candidate that you can stand behind in the presidential election of 2020....
The plutocrats think they have won. They are sure you will sit out the 2018 and maybe even the 2020 election. You need to prove them wrong.”
medium.com/@jonathantaplin/triumph-of-the-reactionaries-20468de5c6b0
