Let's all have a good laugh at the new Roseanne show

[mountain grammy]

that spanky loves while normalizing the tyanny that's happening right before our eyes... From NY magazine.

America Takes the Next Step Toward Tyranny

Every now and again, when I find myself buried in the latest blizzard of invariably disturbing news emanating from the Trump White House, I go back and remind myself of the core narrative. I read Plato’s Republic again, the prism through which I first raised the alarm about Donald Trump’s emergence. The prism is essentially how a late-stage democracy, dripping with decadence and corruption, with elites dedicated primarily to enriching themselves, and a people well past any kind of civic virtue, morphs so easily into tyranny.

When Plato’s tyrant first comes to power — on a wave of populist hatred of the existing elites — there is a period of relative calm when he just gives away stuff: at first he promises much “in private and public, and grant[s] freedom from debts and distribute[s] land to the people and those around himself” (or, say, a trillion-dollar unfunded tax cut). He aims to please. But then, as he accustoms himself to power, and feels more comfortable, “he suspects certain men of having free thoughts and not putting up with his ruling … Some of those who helped in setting him up and are in power — the manliest among them — speak frankly to him and to one another, criticizing what is happening … Then the tyrant must gradually do away with all of them, if he’s going to rule, until he has left neither friend nor enemy of any worth whatsoever.”

This is the second phase of tyranny, after the more benign settling-in: the purge. Any constraints that had been in place to moderate the tyrant’s whims are set aside; no advice that counters his own gut impulses can be tolerated. And so, over the last couple of weeks, we have seen the president fire Rex Tillerson and Andrew McCabe, two individuals who simply couldn’t capitulate to the demand that they obey only Trump, rather than the country as well.

more at link: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/03/america-takes-the-next-step-toward-tyranny.html

Americans might do well by reading Plato's Republic. Much better than watching TV sitcoms loved by the so called president. Personally, I automatically abhor anything this idiot praises or anyone who praises the idiot.

[hueymahl]

1. Damn, that is a good article

Thanks.

[mountain grammy]

2. You're welcome.

Last edited Thu Mar 29, 2018, 11:35 AM - Edit history (1)

[efhmc]

10. You are You're

nt

[mountain grammy]

16. You got me.. thanks.

[efhmc]

22. Easy to do. At least DU lets you edit, as opposed

to twitter. I have made what I felt was a very profound statement and sent it only to see an error but too late. It is wrong forever.

[LovingA2andMI]

27. Thank You For Posting This...

Amazing How We Got A Hand Slap For Pointing Out The Same Thing Here, Just 24 Hours Ago -- But It Was Before Drump (A Racist) Called Another Racist (Rosanne) to "Congratulate" Her...So...

[Hortensis]

24. I disagree. I hear this same dystopic thing from semiliterates

who never read anything but the channel lineup on TV. They don't talk about Plato or wrap their inability to see the world as it is in long, dense prose. But that's the main difference. It takes wisdom to look past the pervasive easy pessimism of ignorance and intellectual incompetence and dishonesty.

Pessimism is equated with moral seriousness. Optimism with fools. "Intellectuals know they can attain instant gravitas by pointing to an unsolved problem and theorizing the it is a symptom of a sick society." ~ Steven Pinker (a big favorite of President Obama)

Let's remember that the 1990s saw a huge explosion of democracies developing around the planet.

At this same time, a quadrupling of planetary wealth in the hands of good people was causing the rate of abject poverty to plummet, to currently around 10%. THIS is happening while since 1990 control of infectious diseases has saved the lives of over 100 million children. More children to feed, and yet -- incredibly less poverty.

Did you know the planetary AVERAGE expected life span at birth is now 71.5 years? How can that be?!!! Isn't everyone dying???

Well, it is. Yes, a few rapacious people, mostly conservatives and libertarians, who became fabulously wealthy during that period are working very hard to destroy government of, by and for the people. Every coin has a flip side. But there are a hell of a lot more of us than them, and we'll fix their asses when they finally push us into it.

But, I'll tell you, that pervasive moan about how the world's going to hell in a handbasket, or already has, is for those who can't count and don't search for truth. That may be most people,
but it doesn't have to be us. And fuck Rosanne. She's one of the many idiots who can't do anything but drag people down to their level, and I didn't and won't be watching her.

[hueymahl]

35. Did you read the article?

Or just the headline? Because your response is basically a non-sequitur. Either that, or you are just a lot smarter than me and I don't follow.

[underpants]

28. 👀

Will read later

[kentuck]

3. Interesting:

<snip>
This is the second phase of tyranny, after the more benign settling-in: the purge. Any constraints that had been in place to moderate the tyrant’s whims are set aside; no advice that counters his own gut impulses can be tolerated. And so, over the last couple of weeks, we have seen the president fire Rex Tillerson and Andrew McCabe, two individuals who simply couldn’t capitulate to the demand that they obey only Trump, rather than the country as well.

And because of this small gesture of defiance, they deserved especial public humiliation. Tillerson was warned of his impending doom while on the toilet — a nice, sadistic touch. McCabe was fired hours before his retirement, a public execution also fraught with venom. What kind of man is this? We have become numb to it, but we should never forget how our president is a man who revels in his own cruelty. Revenge is not a dish best served cold for him. It’s the reddest and rawest of meats.

[mountain grammy]

4. I know. It's right in front of us

and we all know this isn't normal behavior, and the mainstream media has to say it every day, but they won't.

[nature-lover]

25. Publicizing the fact that Tillerson was on the toilet was the epitome of "low class."

I am embarrassed for them since they do not have the integrity to be embarrassed for themselves. The sad part is, no one seemed to realize what this type of announcement does to our reputation on the world stage. I guess they just don't care.

[madaboutharry]

5. Andrew Sullivan often gets it right.

The rest of the article is worth reading.

[oasis]

6. A t.v. shit show created to normalize a colossal, real life, shit show.

Make America Great Again.

[Blue_Adept]

7. Yeah, that second episode focuses on gender fluidity of kids definitely normalizes Trump

[oasis]

8. My enjoyment of watching Roseanne scrape the egg off her face

after Trump's downfall, is almost worth putting up with her short term return to the spotlight.

[GoCubsGo]

13. You are giving it way too much credit.

It's just another in a long line of lame reboots of shows that were popular in the 1990s. The only difference from this and the reboot of "Full House" and "Murphy Brown" is that the star of this one is a nutjob Trumpanzee. Most of it didn't even talk about Trump. They vomited out the Trump crap early in the first episode, and that was pretty much it.

[oasis]

20. Could be a tiny attempt at validating the concerns of "Deplorables".

That kind of shit has a way of creeping in, and needs to be checked.

[christx30]

23. And Jackie looks like a caricature of liberals,

with her "nasty woman" shirt and pussy hat. That is them mocking the movement. In the old series, she was kind of an unhinged character. The kid's crazy Aunt Jackie.
You don't dress her up in those things if you're trying to pay a compliment to the marchers that were against Trump.

[oasis]

33. Those associated with this Roseanne "project" are only

concerned with the "almighty dollar". They could care less what's really at stake.

[christx30]

39. I agree with that. Except for Rosanne.

She's a Trump supporter. She's working to further his agenda. I won't watch.

[jrthin]

41. I find these supporting actors equally as objectionably

as people of color who play Aunt Jemima roles.

[GoCubsGo]

29. Nah.

It was more like a "Let's get this shit out of the way, and get to the actual show." I'm guessing they agreed to let her spew her shit in the opening episode in order to get her back for the reboot. I don't think that many of the other cast members would have agreed to come back had this show been "Roseanne Loves Donald."

It will be interesting to see how they handle things when the allegations of Trump's abuse and threats against women prove true, in light of how they dealt with Jackie and her abusive boyfriend in the original series.

[oasis]

36. Each cast member will have some tap dancing to do

when the horrible facts on Trump reach their peak. They will all be tainted by their association with Roseanne, a known Deplorable.

[GoCubsGo]

42. Oh, FFS.

Most of them have worked with this woman for decades. The only ones who will be seeing any "tainting" are the members of the DU echo chamber. Nobody else cares.

[oasis]

43. "DU echo chamber"

True that. 98% of DUers view Roseanne and what she represents with disgust.

[mountain grammy]

44. so are you refering to Roseanne

spewing her shit, because I thought you were talking about Jackie.

That said, I think this is a pile of shit, like most of TV and I can skip a show with a stupid trumper. Too many of them in real life.

[GoCubsGo]

45. I was talking about Roseanne.

The "Jackie" character was never exactly stable, either. But, she wasn't he one doing the shit-spewing.

I wasn't impressed with the show, either. I liked the original okay, but as I've said elsewhere, I thought the remake was lame, to put it nicely, politics aside.

[mountain grammy]

46. Good

I really started to overreact, then read your post a couple of times and had to ask.

[GoCubsGo]

48. Thank you for asking.

My posts are not always clear. Especially when I write them before the caffeine kicks in. I was actually disappointed over the way they handled Jackie, to be honest. It's one of several reasons why I won't likely tune in again.

[calimary]

9. The really telling thing will be how the NEXT episode does in the ratings.

We’ll have to see if this sustains, or if the curiosity factor was operating here, with people checking out the first episode. It’s if they come back next week and stay with it beyond that - which will be the real tell.

[Achilleaze]

11. KGOP republican TYRANTS pissing all over America

Plato would dislike Dirty Donny, the republican Draft-Dodger-in-Chief & Ignoble Tyrant.

[Baitball Blogger]

12. Let's see a show where Roseanne sees one of her best friends gets deported by ICE

because of Trump's immigration stance.

I suspect she's going to find issues that will allow her to be sympathetic to her racist core. I hear she's going to have a show on the opiod crisis. Yeah, a very white problem.

[mountain grammy]

14. Yes.. let's see the brutality of ICE in full view

Last edited Thu Mar 29, 2018, 12:34 PM - Edit history (1)

for all trumper viewing, like it should be on the nightly news. and the only reason there is any funding to combat the opiod crisis is because Democrats held the line, so will that be featured in the opiod episode?

[Baitball Blogger]

18. If Roseanne wants to be real cutting edge she needs a DU panel to hash out the issues

BEFORE they script the show.

[MountCleaners]

49. You can forget about that!

All TV is crap. I never watch it ever. In fact, I'm so pure I don't even own a television. When my family wants entertainment we sit around the fire with an acoustic guitar singing Woody Guthrie songs. Good luck getting me to join a panel to script something for a medium I so righteously despise.

[meadowlark5]

15. Her ratings won't stay that high

I tuned in out of curiosity but it's not a show that I will remember to remember to watch. I suspect that is the same for several other million viewers.

That's when she'll call Trump back and ask if she can write him into an episode.

[mountain grammy]

17. Yep, I can see that happening.. normalizing.

[DownriverDem]

34. Except

there are more of us. I will never go their way.

[Initech]

19. I won't watch anything that attempts to normalize tyranny.

Because I refuse to live under a tyrant.

[Kashkakat v.2.0]

21. NOT HAVING A TV anymore, I wait and view a series in its entirety - or not at all. Its an

investment of time, and I just dont want to bother unless I know its worth the commitment.

The exception is PBS streaming video - I just watch everything and anything as it comes along

[LovingA2andMI]

26. There Was A Brunch of DUers Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy About..

Watching This Show (Trashy Woman - Rosanne) Show -- And Then Drump Calls To Congratulate.

Any change...

[kimbutgar]

30. I doubt he watched it.

Someone told him Roseanne was a supporter and he tweeted his stupid comment.

[niyad]

31. k and r

[DownriverDem]

32. Will never watch it

Anything that promotes trump is not anything I will ever watch.

[ecstatic]

37. Yeah, the call will hurt ratings unless

deplorables tune in. I checked it out on demand, it was OK... nothing special. Now that trump has weighed in, I'm completely done. Interesting that he has time to make personal phone calls to RB but that asshole has nothing to say about Stephon Clark.

[Va Lefty]

38. Excellent analogy between Roman Senate and US Senate in article

No longer concerned with governing, just want to protect their positions of power and privilege.

[vkkv]

40. I want to throw up..

[poboy2]

47. r'd