Why are people afraid of "Class Warfare"?

[Stinky The Clown]

If the line is drawn at the line that divides the 98% from the 2%, what the hell is everyone afraid of?

I don't get it. Are you afraid some billionaire will get mad at you? Call you bad names? Vote Repubican?

What?

Less than 2% of the population is screwing the ever loving fuck out of the remaining 98% plus.

How is this anything but a no-brainer.

Is it a matter of language? Do we think that saying 'top earners' will cause some schlub earning over 60K to think we mean him?

Then say it clearly. Anyone who earns over a half million a year is going to get their asses taxed so they come down to the same level the rest of us inhabit. At the top of that level, probably. But taxed heavily.

So what if they get pissed off.

So fucking what?

[Stuart G]

1. Shit......that is what we are in..and have been in since..

the day Bush was sworn into office. Every single program, bar none, that supports the middle or poor class of people in this country has been cut. Every single one. Every single program favoring the rich, has been increased..so what do you call that/??

[FiveGoodMen]

2. They're afraid of offending their god (they've been taught to worship unbridled capitalism)

And I think the 2% have had a lot to do with teaching them that.

[mrcheerful]

12. Plus the fact that theres a vast number of people who still believe the Reagan

lie, hard work + long hours = you too will become one of the 2%. There lays the problem, you can't get it through their thick skulls that none of the 2% ever did one day of hard work in their lives, that got rich off the labors of others or con the worker out of their hard earned dollars. You ask them exactly what the CEO of any big business does that is harder then the work done by the guy doing the real, back breaking work of that big business. Answer every time is they don't know, but it must be hard work because of the CEO's pay scale and besides they could never do the job of a CEO so that proves its hard work. Never once does it accure to them the reason they never been offered the CEO job is the same reason they never got a government job like head of FEMA, or HUD or any other, they didn't get asked or weren't friends of the people that own the business or the stock holders of said business.

[Stinky The Clown]

18. To be fair .... the bottom 98% of the 2% probably do work for a living.

They just get paid a hell of a lot.

[DeSwiss]

41. Ahh... yes, I believe you have it....

...lest we forget: "The meek shall in inherit the earth."

And on top of that, we don't want to mess-up that free ticket to heaven, now do we??? Hmmm???

Where generation after generation, for millinea has been taught, and have been indoctrinated into believing in things without any shred of evidence whatsoever? Actually, quite to the contrary?

Where they teach: "are you going to believe your lying eyes, or me?

Where their followers are repeatedly admonished to "obey their rulers?" No matter what?

Where the very existence of these religious institutions are the counterpoint against taking any collective action against a common enemy?

Where wars have been fought by the 98%, almost to the exclusive benefit of the rich 2%?

Yes, this is how they do it. And this is also why religion is so important to the rich. Even though the rich 2% have been told that they have a better chance of fitting through the eye of a needle, than making it to heaven with the 98% poor believers.

- K&R!!!



"Religion is what keeps the poor from
murdering the rich." ~ Napoleon Bonaparte

[RaleighNCDUer]

3. Because, as a nation of individualists, in the class war any single

ordinary person is gonna be squashed by any single rich person. The rich own the courts, the businesses, and probably your house.

We have lost the habit of collective action by which the working class can actually stand up to the ruling class.

They've got us buffaloed, and are terrified that we might wake up - that's why organizations like the DLC are created, to prevent populist uprisings that might empower the people.




And yes, I'm a screaming socialist.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

4. I'm screaming right there with ya. nt

[Pineywoods Sam]

30. We are the only country in the world ...

where the middle class rush out into the street screaming at the rich :

"We're going to cut you goddam taxes" !

Which is why the rich treat us like we are total fools.

[RaleighNCDUer]

57. LOL

I can just picture it.

Welcome to DU.

[Kitty Herder]

37. ...

:applause: :yourock: :toast:

From a fellow screaming socialist

[Donkeykick]

5. N/T

:applause:

[LSparkle]

6. People have been mindf***ed into THINKING they're afraid of it

and that it's "useless" or "taboo" to even raise the argument, much less get
into the streets and fight. We don't see general strikes in this country the
way they have in Europe (look at U.K. just in the past few days!) because
we've been convinced that expressing anger at the unfair distribution of
wealth is just ... not done.

It's because that 2% is SCARED SHITLESS that one of these days the rest of
us 98-ers will wake up and do something about it.

THE DOORS: Five To One (J. Morrison)

"The old get old
And the young get stronger
May take a week
And it may take longer
They got the guns
But we got the numbers
Gonna win, yeah
Were takin over
Come on!"

[Liberal Gramma]

7. It's only the 2% who are afraid

but they own the media, the mills, the plants, the factories, etc. Sometimes I think the French handled their revolution better than we did.

[SammyWinstonJack]

8. K&R!

[Bucky]

9. First they came for a 2%er, but I wasn't a 2%er, so I didn't speak up

[nichomachus]

10. It's part of the disinformation campaign

It's the same reason that the fascists have worked so hard to make "conspiracy" a bad word and to paint anyone who suggests conspiracy as a "nut." That way, they can carry on their conspiracy without interference.

They've done the same with "class warfare." We are in the middle of a huge class war, but they've engineered it so anyone who points it out becomes the villain.

[Kitty Herder]

38. Yep. nt

[Quantess]

11. I'm not as worried about the bottom of the top 2%

The top 0.1% are the really powerful ones. The ones who own us.

[RaleighNCDUer]

15. The top 2% own us.

The top .01% own the top 2%.

[Trillo]

31. Perhaps, but....

The top .00001% own our government. They reportedly have an income of 160+ million per year, and that makes the top 1%'s $1 million per year seem like a pittance.

As far as I'm concerned, those Top 400 folks need a stiff tax, like 99%, leaving them with 1.6 M. But were that rate to be applied to the top 1%, say two professionals, those folks would be left with minimum wage levels of net income.

But none of this does anything to rein in Corporate Personhood, or the income and expense benefits of mergers and/or corporate shells within shells, leading to an ownership puzzle that likely conceals the Top 400's controlling ownership of what is probably most all significant industries, while saying to the rest of us, "Hey, you too can buy some stock and be an owner!"

[Quantess]

34. Absolutely! .01% is too riff-raff to properly define the people who are have the world on a leash.

I did want to make a point, that upper-middle-class-to-wealthy people are not the problem. Making $500,000 per year does not make the person an enemy to democracy, and it's great if you can do it in the spirit of the American Dream (odds of that are akin to winning powerball).
I am talking about people who make $500,000,000 per year. They are out there, owning us all.

[Disturbed]

17. ".so what do you call that/??"

Wealthfare

[Quantess]

36. Far more serious than "wealthfare".

Wealthfare happens, sure. Wealthy people can often be bumbling humans who mind their own big businesses, and there are rich goofs who live frivolously. Those individuals aren't dangerous, necessarily.

The powerful ones own everything. They own us all. This is happening right now.

[Robbien]

13. There is no class warfare. Warfare would mean both sides are fighting

When only one side is attacking and pillaging, it is called a rout. And the rich has surely overwhelmingly routed the rest of us.

[Kitty Herder]

39. That's becaue they've convinced the bottom 98% that it's their own fault

that they are suffering, that they are not the victims of an attack from the upper 2%. They make people believe that not being wealthy is a moral failing.

[Hydra]

14. As someone pointed out

The problem is that the "American Dream" is to become one of the 2%. They're idolized, above the law, and get everything they want.

You want the shit to stop? That dream has to die. People have to stop aspiring to be an asshole who walks on the backs of everyone else.

[Two Americas]

26. disagree

I do not think you have correctly analyzed the problem, and the remedy you are proposing - the remaking of human nature - makes progress impossible.

Most people do not aspire to become the top 2%, and they resent the people in the liberal activist community - most of whom are in the upper 10%, or identify with those who are - for our hypocrisy and arrogance. People do not "aspire to be an asshole who walks on the backs of everyone else," they are forced into a system that rewards bullying behavior to survive.

Blaming the people is a cowardly escape from our responsibilities as left wing activists and intellectuals. Talk of reforming people as individuals is merely the "progressive" version of Reagan individualism and "personal responsibility." Reforming people is religion, not politics.

Social reform requires political solutions, and political solutions require collective action, and collective action requires leadership and speakers, requires the intellectuals to stand up for the rest of the working class rather than wallow in the perks and status they have been given in exchange for their compliance with the ruling class.

The prime way that we assist the advancement of the interests of the ruling class is by seeing the people as to blame, seeing the people as stupid, seeing social reform as a matter of improving the people to be "like us" - smart, smug, and superior - blaming the people for their misery and oppression.

[Hydra]

52. You may be caught in that web yourself

But I'm here at the bottom, and I see things quite a bit differently than you.

It's not a matter of education, it's a matter of where we all want to go. The 2%ers get off not only on the idea of having anything they want, but also by denying other people the same opportunity.

Think that's not an important detail?

Consider this then- we have the capability of raising everyone in America to upper middle class status or better. Who is standing in the way of that? It's not just the two percenters.

I don't recall where I saw this, but it sums up our whole problem:

The upper class wants to keep what they have and keep others out
The middle class wants what the upper class has
The lower class wants everyone to be equal

The people who want what the upper class have are not just looking for wealth. They want to be in the exclusive club, with all the powers and legal immunities that comes with. Hey, they worked for it, right? Those lazy people at the bottom aren't worth anything, right?

I've preached the idea of equality and equal access- and do you know what the most common reply I got was? "Even for those people?"

[Warpy]

16. I'm afraid too many of them identify with the upper class

even though they don't have a clue just what constitutes "rich" as they sit in the house they don't own (and whose value is declining) surrounded by all the state of the art toys they don't own financed by a job which they qualified for by education they don't own and reached by a car they don't own.

Because they are surrounded by all this STUFF and because they're shielded from the consequences of negative net worth by still being able to leverage a little more debt on their credit cards, they think they've achieved the American Dream and that class warfare means all those welfare queens (read: black folks and Mexicans) will take everything away from them.

Any return to fiscal sanity in this country will take everything away from them sooner or later, but it won't be poor folks who do the deed. They won't catch on to this fact until it happens. Until then, expect them to be afraid of class warfare, of socialism, and of anything that seeks to shore up the social safety net.

[Two Americas]

25. strongly disagree

I disagree with those who blame the people. I think the fault lies with us, those in the upper 10% with the luxury of time and natural communication gifts and education who are politically active. On matters of power and economics - which is what politics is about and the OP is talking about - the activist community of "progressives" - "socially liberal and economically conservative" - is far to the right of the majority of the population.

Most of the people in the country are struggling through no fault of their own and do not fit your derisive stereotype. Calling them "stupid" and "morons" is just an excuse, a way to shuffle off responsibility from our own shoulders onto the rest of the population; a cowardly rationale for failure; an arrogant and elitist attitude that is contradictory to everything the political left stands for.

The people cannot very well follow a political movement that does not exist, nor understand a political narrative that is not being spoken. That responsibility lies with us, and we are missing in action. We are the ones blocking the aspirations of the working class. We are the ones suppressing discussions about economics and power and class. We are the ones promoting and supporting and defending the sell out Democratic party politicians. We are the ones ignoring economics and power and obsessing over culture war issues. We are the ones counseling moderation, and baby steps, and working within the system, and being realistic, and not getting too "radical." We are the ones talking about personal and individualistic survival or escape plans, plans that are out of the reach of most of the people. We are the ones differentiating ourselves from the rest of the working class, on issues of personal choices and preferences, and then feeling superior and self-righteous about that.

[Warpy]

33. First, please don't tell me I called them anything when I didn't.

It's rude and you should know better.

Second, these people do identify with the class they've gone into debt to emulate. I've spent the last 30 years trying to get through to them about what conservatives in both parties have done to the system that worked for all of us for so long, the New Deal that was created by liberals and resulted in the longest sustained real boom this country has ever seen. I have tried to warn them about disappearing jobs, wealth disparity, and the concentration of debt at the bottom that people assumed to compensate for substandard wages. All I got was blank stares, at best, because how could I possibly be right when they had all this STUFF?

If you disbelieve it, I suggest you try it. Your job will be easier now that they can no longer treat their homes like ATM machines and swap low interest mortgage debt for high interest credit card debt.

They still will reject everything you try to tell them, especially the part about how net worth is going to be a very important concept in the coming few years and how negative net worth will likely cause them to lose everything. Try to tell such people they are not well off and have nothing in common with the rich. See how far you get.

[readmoreoften]

46. Warpy and Two Americas, I think you're both right.

Here are a few points I'd like to make:

1) I agree with Warpy that people have been led to think--particularly people who came of age in the 90s--that we have entered into a technological new age of unlimited wealth and ease. This world view was heavily promoted in the mid-90s with the tech boom and the constant parade of 'millionaires under 30'. The tech bust was such a slow fizzle that I think people never really stopped believing in it. People have really swallowed the capitalist mantra hook-line-sinker: "the market just comes and goes in waves...the ebb and flow of life..." and so forth. It seemed like this to many people too, because right after 'the tech bubble' there was 'the housing boom.' I watched more and more people go into debt thinking that they were the only ones, thinking that the economy was okay but that they had just made foolish choices.

2) I agree with Two Americas that people aren't stupid. I think they're intentionally misinformed, harassed, and suckered by a system that's guided by sociopaths. Most people blame themselves and are deeply ashamed of their financial failures. I can't tell you have many people I've talked to who felt like they couldn't get a good job after plunking 40K on college because they were "losers." Or how many people who lost businesses felt like it was their fault, even though they lost out to a box store. In reality, the system is set up for average people to fail. It's a monopoly game where some of are born with Boardwalk and Park and 20,000 dollars and others of us are born with mismatched slum properties and no cash. I think the biggest racket today is college. And I teach college. A million new kids a year all being told that they're going to be film directors and journalists and sociologists. But there are only a few hundred people a year who get to do these jobs--and they're often from wealthy families, kids who could take two internships every semester, who have impeccable wardrobes, high end computer gear. I see the working class kids go into debt competing with these kids. It's a toxic situation.

3) Where I disagree with Two Americas is in the idea of a 10%. I sounds too much to me like a vanguard party. I think that there are those of us who have this information who need to spread it, probably more vigorously than we are. But this kind of knowledge is not dependent on education or wealth. It's usually dependent on things like: are their unions in that area, or is it a 'right to work state'? Have their been large, contentious strikes? Right wing libertarians have absolutely stolen the male working class base. These people are voting for Ron Paul when they should be waging class warfare. There are good movements in Latin America that work without a vanguard. I personally think we should use them as a model--just my opinion.

[readmoreoften]

48. Oh yeah, and one more thing: the fall of communism.

The reason why this rhetoric has become so virulent is the fall of communism. It, oddly enough, reminds me of people when they talk to gay Democrats who are disillusioned with the party. The kneejerk, snide reaction is: oh yeah! well who're ya gonna vote for!!!??? Since the collapse of capitalism, any class analysis is answered with: oh yeah! well what're ya gonna be a communist??!!! It doesn't work!!!!!

But what if both State communism and capitalism fall? Could it happen? What does it mean that "socialism doesn't work"? And why do people think that because the Soviets collapsed that capitalism won't?

[Warpy]

55. Blessed be the peacemakers

:hi:

I'm not altogether certain a more vigorous approach will work on such people nor will it be timely enough to make a difference. After all, they know the system of piling up debt to achieve the good life works. They have the house, the car, the education, and the toys to prove it. For now, they can afford to service all that debt by laughably low minimum credit card payments that will keep them paying interest for 30 years after the last charge.

However, that's all about to change.

[readmoreoften]

58. Hey I'm one of those people leveraging debt. But not for toys. For survival.

I just wanted to go to get some degrees. That was my downfall. Working class kids like me aren't supposed to do that. I also bought a house (no adjustable rate, no ATM home) and now I can rent out rooms, which I'm doing. I have no credit cards and own a used vehicle. But my debt is astonishing nonetheless. My other downfall is that I went on strike and had my employer retaliate against me. (The case is actually at the frickin United Nations now, I hear...) I lost $11,000 in benefits and salary.

I'm trying to talk my partner into leveraging debt. She's a working-class kid who took out loans to go to school to be a cinematographer--worked two jobs through the whole 4 years. But her field requires her to own a $10,000 camera package that needs to be updated every three years. Now she's 30K in debt for school and has no real credit. How is she supposed to get the equipment so she can work in her field? The only option she has is....wait for it... graduate school! She does not want to go to grad school. She hates school. She's a techie type, not an intellectual. But the only way she can do her job is if she can get this camera and the only way she can get the camera is if she goes back to school. Meanwhile, she's working part-time at Starbucks. If she had the camera she could earn $400 a day.

Much of this "stuff" people are buying on credit is necessary for economic survival. A home computer, internet connection, car and a cell phone are expected at most jobs. With the computer, internet connection, and cell phone, you're talking about a new $1500 machine every 5 years, a $25 a month bill, and a $60 a month bill that would have been unnecessary two decades ago. Part of this stuff is the digital divide.

I think people are feeling it. Of course, I don't really know anyone but poor people and academics, so what do I know?

[Warpy]

59. I was talking about people who identify with the wealthy

and are thus thrown into hysterics when anyone mentions "class war," which was the point of the whole thread.

Obviously, that's not you. It's not me, either. I squeaked through nursing school debt free although it put me into the hospital twice to do it. I've always lived out of thrift shops, driven junk, and had a credit card for only 2 years before they started charging junk fees on top of high interest and I smelled a scam and got rid of it.

I think you and I would welcome the type of class war that benefits our class. We've both experienced far too much of it waged for the benefit of the super rich.

However, that doesn't cover the people I described, and that's rather the point.

[Quantess]

40. What makes you think you are in the upper 10%?

And what makes you stereotype other DUers as being with you, in that upper 10%?

No, I'm pretty sure you are mistaken. There are plenty of DUers like me, who are college educated, yet living poorly and struggling financially. Just because we're smart doesn't mean we're "succeeding".

Do you realize that you and I are owned by a handful of powerful people?

The "handful" is far less than 2% of fellow Americans. It's more like .0001% or fewer who control EVERYTHING.

[readmoreoften]

45. It's true that "cultural capital" is a garbage concept.

Whose who really have cultural capital generally have real capital too. A bachelor's degree (especially one that you've gone into debt paying for) might be cultural capital, but barely enough to eat on these days.

[Rosemary2205]

19. We need to explain that taxation was Plan Z not plan A

We tried everything possible to give the upper 2% the option to volutarily give workers a fair shake. We will work our asses off in exchange for a fair wage, affordable and safe decent housing, access to healthcare, decent educational opportunities, safe products on the shelves, honest financial dealings.

But no. they had to be evil lying selfish little fuckers instead. So now, tax them until they bleed for all I care.

No one cares if the rich are rich. We care that their riches are amassed upon the broken backs of our grandparents and our children.

[HeresyLives]

20. Why are people afraid?

Well, the French Revolution, and the Bolshevik Revolution come to mind.

[Cresent City Kid]

21. get out of my head

Seriously, you must be a mind reader, you put my thoughts into words perfectly. This is warfare, and we are being pillaged. As in all wars, there is propoganda, which in this case has led to an ignorant electorate that willingly votes the raiders into office.

Every four years I watch the chance to re-educate the population wasted as an increasing amount of media coverage gets less and less in depth. Every economic indicator has tanked, and the candidate that promises us the same policies has nearly a 50-50 shot at winning.

Meanwhile, I've reduced my American Dream to paying the rent on time with food money left over.

[tavalon]

22. I make over 80,000 a year as a nurse

I don't think for a second that you are talking about me. I think our fear is borne of a belief that we don't have access to the magical halls of power and that they do.

[Quantess]

42. Don't kid yourself, you're a lowly dog.

I'm a little jealous of your income, I admit. But seriously, you are not a contender in the 2%. Thank you for being in a "helping" profession!

But, the top 2% are mostly white trash when you see the big picture.

There are a few people, of course I don't know how many, but they are in control of the world. This is the reality no one ever sees.

[tavalon]

50. I actually said that in my post

I know where I am in the food chain. I was responding to a concern of the OP.

[readmoreoften]

47. Funny story about $80,000 a year....

About 10 years ago I was talking to a wealthy degenerate I know from Dallas. He (let's call him Rolf) was telling me a sad story about his friend (let's call her Sara) who he had known since high school. He went to an exclusive boarding school and he said Sara was a scholarship student there who was looked down upon by all the 'rich snobs' but that he befriended her. He said that her life had been very difficult and that even though she had attended his elite institution, she was not able to get ahead in life after high school because of her family's extreme poverty...

When I asked Rolf to explain what he meant by "poor", he said with a sad, sincere face: "Oh she was very poor. I don't think her family made more than 80,000 a year."

And he went to high school in the 1980s...

[angrycarpenter]

23. Down with capitalist dogma, power to the workers.

The words of revolution sound just like communism, That turns many off. Most do not believe in themselves enough to suffer and die for a cause. Most have just enough stuff to be afraid of losing it. The main reason is that "poor" is a dirty word, just admitting that you are poor is a admission of defeat.

Look at our nation, somehow we were defeated without having a revolt.

[annabanana]

24. Because they don't know they've been LOSING IT for years!

They think it's something that will have poor people take their stuff away. The truth is that they're the "poor people" and they've been getting the shaft for decades!!

[Two Americas]

29. they know that

What needs to happen is that we in the liberal activist community need to see that WE are the poor people, and that in exchange for a little status and a few perks and a little more security, we - the intellectuals who should be agitating and developing and disseminating a strong alternative political narrative - are in the service of the ruling class. Every time we blame the people, are we are doing the work of the ruling class and abrogating our own responsibility to our fellow working class brothers and sisters who do not have the benefit of our advantages, good fortune, verbal skills, or intellectual gifts.

The people are not so much embracing the right wing or voting for Republicans as they are rejecting us and voting against modern liberalism, and not without reason. Were we not afraid to provide them a strong alternative narrative, talk about power and economics instead of lifestyle choices, personal stances and individual belief systems, and were we seeing those who are oppressed as our allies rather than those who are smart, they would not be opposed to us any longer.

[readmoreoften]

49. The big issue is the alternative narrative.

Right now there are two narratives. The one is seen as treasonous and impossible. It's also confused with totalitarianism. The other is capitalism.

[RufusTFirefly]

27. LSparkle, Liberal Gramma, and nichomachus have all nailed it

LSparkle
Liberal Gramma
nichomachus

Anyone who dares raise the question will be brought to heel promptly.

As for those who truly fear it and are not part of the Top 2%, it's kind of a What's the Matter With Kansas? thing. (Or maybe it's a case of the Stockholm Syndrome.) People are tricked, distracted, and/or frightened into working against their own interests.

[bluesmail]

28. The top 2% , given they have any conscience at all

are scared to death their party won't last. After all it's 2% v 98%, and in all probability it won't. Somethings gonna give.

[Fly by night]

32. Afraid? I'm looking forward to it. My "Eat the Rich" bumper sticker keeps Hummers off my tail in TN.

[lonestarnot]

61. I want one of those!

[Kansas Wyatt]

64. It's long overdue and I cannot wait for the rich to face the reckoning.

They can all go straight to HELL, right after they face the masses they have been fucking over.

:popcorn:

[dysfunctional press]

35. only RICH people are afraid of it- and for good reason.

nt

[readmoreoften]

43. It's not fear. People actually think they can "make it" into the 2%. Seriously.

And if they don't, they have bought into the notion that they are inferior, that they or their descendants haven't worked hard enough, or had enough 'hutzpah' or bright ideas. What we have is royalty with some token nouveau riche mixed in.

I think Herbert Marcuse had it right when he realized that late capitalist media would destroy the concept of class. We think that we actually have something in common with the CEO because we both watch the same TV shows and have the same "taste" in music. A hundred years ago class cultures were distinct. These meaningless 'culture commonalities' have given us the illusion that we're all really 'the same' and that the wealthy are just 'lucky.' You know, Bush is just a 'regular joe six pack' and so forth.

The concept of class has been destroyed--and just when we needed it most :(

[crispini]

44. Agree!

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

51. The 2% hire Blackwater and own the Commander in Chief

They won't be taxed that heavily. never happen.

[Romulox]

53. The guy with his foot on your head is frequently only one or two rungs above you

Disagree that class issues implicate only billionaires like Soros ("top 2%".) There are very real issues of social and economic justice between we mere mortals, too.

[blindpig]

54. It is a matter of who works for their money

and who makes their money on other people's labor. If you work, then you have more in common with other workers than the 'fortunate few'. The problem is that some workers have delusions of grandeur and mistakenly believe that they have more in common with the rich, some baubles here, some perks there. It's the old divide and conquer. The housing bubble, the overall decline of the middle class, signs of how things truly are.

[kineneb]

56. well, I am not

shit happens when countries and governments become corrupt... those who forget the lessons of the French Revolution may live only long enough to regret their ignorance... not saying I want violence, but that it won't surprise me when it happens...

[lonestarnot]

60. son of a bitch! Can you repost this so I can recommend it?

:rofl: Clearly people are not getting this!

[datasuspect]

62. the top 2% elites (our owners) are stewards of the sewer that was once the United States

rapacious, greedy, and vindictively possessive and protective of the their power and station, they seek only to keep us pacified and doped up.

we have the illusion of control.

most of us work very diligently at employment they provide and we pat ourselves on the back and claim moral victory when we send them back the money they trade us for our time and labor.

to do otherwise would be dangerous: one might become a deadbeat. and god forbid if you don't pay your bills on time! that would be irresponsible.

the teeming masses, those dark scary people who live in places that our parents and grandparents moved out of the 50s and 60s just sit back and collect government checks. we're not like them. we send our payments in promptly. we're GOOD people.

did i mention they are usually dark? and scary.

the most marginal and hopeless in our country have institutional structures in place to make sure they stay in some phase of the prison industry. at least that way, we can keep track of them.

[lame54]

63. Because they own Blackwater

[Lydia Leftcoast]

65. It's a Republican and DLC catch phrase used to slam

anyone who is on to their money-grubbing, fat-cat-coddling tricks.

The only sensible response is, "You guys fired the first shots. We're defending ourselves."