Reply #244: right [View All]

[William Z. Foster]

And people were not born with the mentality in their brain that leads to scapegoating and punishing people as the only method to consider for solving social issues and problems, either. They CHOOSE to spread that poisonous and dangerous anti-social thinking, it took years of brainwashing by the Reagan bootstrap crowd to implant those ideas into their heads.

You were not born with a computer in front of you either, and a case can easily be made that using a computer is voluntary and not a necessity, and that the manufacture and disposal of computers is a far greater environmental hazard than tobacco is, so let's put a $10,000 flat tax a year on computer use - we can use that money to clean up the environment. Then let's argue that it isn't a regressive tax.

Oh, so what you choose to do - regardless of the environmental hazard - is OK, but what others choose to do it not? here is an idea - tax computer use - hey if you can't afford it, well then too bad - don't use the computer! Problem solved! - and then use that money to pay for treatment programs to help smokers quit! Are people here who are so worked up about smoking willing to put their money where their mouth is? Probably not, because this is about scapegoating and persecuting people, not about protecting anyone's health or well being. This is happening in a social climate of escalating persecution and targeting of scapegoats. That makes it an important issue, since the dangers from this growing public mood are far, far greater than the dangers from tobacco could ever be.

Notice that no one is denying that people are being scapegoated and persecuted - not merely on this issue, but in the debates on every social policy issue - rather they are vehemently arguing that "those people" SHOULD be made into scapegoats and persecuted, and that anyone saying otherwise is also a legitimate target for attack. That is a witch hunt mentality, and once it is out of the box it is very viticulture to contain or control. It is already spreading into the debate about dozens of issues, and is making rational and intellectual thinking and discussion on those issues more and more difficult.