Is it time to call for class warfare?

[Xipe Totec]

Real persons against artificial corporate persons?

[Peregrine Took]

1. Yes. There is and has been a war against the poor and the middle class. n/t

[Posteritatis]

2. yes! we'll declare war and.. uh... chant slogans! or something! that'll fix everything! (nt)

[kudzu22]

38. Can I get a "hey hey ho ho"?

[leftygolfer]

3. I'm in

If there is an organized effort, let me know. If things continue like they've been for me, I may "go rogue." I'm just at wits end. I need a win in my life. So depressed.

[Taitertots]

4. Why get made at inanimate entities?

Get mad at the ultra rich would control them. Don't be mad at Walmart, be mad at the Walton family.

Don't get mad at the corporations, for everyone of them you destroy the oligarchs will make ten more.

[Xipe Totec]

5. Thank you very much for your input

I'll give it all the consideration it deserves.

[bread_and_roses]

6. ROFL (n/t)

[Taitertots]

11. Let me know when your class war against corporations becomes anything more than a fantasy n/t

[Xipe Totec]

12. Yes. That will definitely be my first priority. n/t

[readmoreoften]

16. We will. Thousands of people around the world are busy organizing reforms with the goal of moving

towards revolutionary conflict. Unfortunately, with so many lazy nihilists in the US, we'll probably be the last nation to change. If its only a "fantasy" maybe that's because the lazy people waiting to jump on the bandwagon ridicule those trying to build the bandwagon. C'est la vie.

[rucky]

7. Seems fair.

Since class warfare's been called on us.

[Earth_First]

8. Yep!

BEYOND time!

[FreakinDJ]

9. They declared WAR on the Working Class almost 30 years ago

Actually it is about time we fought back

America's Working Class almost began fighting back in 1992 but we elected Bill Clinton instead. The RATpubliCONs coined a catchy little phrase "Contract with America" and we working stiffs took the bait "Hook Line, and Sinker". In light of current events it has proven to be our own undoing

In 1992, the Wealthy Elite were so scared of our Working Class Angst, many of them "Refused" to ride to and fro the airport in Limousines. They were actually scared they would "be caught dead" in a limousine - but that is about as far as it went. Today they merely scoff at the plight of the working class as they give thereself $Billions in bonuses, trash the value of our largest investment, plunder the US Tax coffers

[Xipe Totec]

19. Elected Bill Clinton instead?

INteresting argument.

The alternative would have been?... :shrug:

[FreakinDJ]

22. The Cork Soaker exposing the wonders of Globalization

Poppy Bushit

[Tesha]

32. Tom Harkin? (NT)

[leftstreet]

28. +1

[notesdev]

10. I think you mean

"is it time to start fighting back?"

Answer is hell yeah

This class war has been going on for generations, but only one side has been fighting.

[Xipe Totec]

15. The other side has been fighting too, but only at fractional strength

The rest has been sleeping through the battle.

It's time to stir them awake.

[pipi_k]

13. Oh man... I've still got injuries from fighting with Christmas

Gotta ask for a deferment until they heal...

[Xipe Totec]

17. You get three deferments, tops! After that you turn into a Dick

Cheney!

[Kaleva]

14. Fighting against DU, a corporation, will earn one a tombstone.

[Xipe Totec]

18. I doubt it.

But thanks for playing!

[muntrv]

20. The Democrats should use the SCOTUS ruling as a wedge issue against

the republickers.

[FreakinDJ]

25. Frame as "Giving Rights to the Corps that Bankrupted America"

Now they have Inalienable Freedoms to Trash our Economy

[Lorien]

21. "Call" for it? It's been waged for decades by the elite against the working class

but the working class doesn't fight back in this country. They're too busy just trying to survive...and watching the glass teat.

[anonymous171]

23. Replace the Church with the media and you have modern Corporate Capitalism.

[Sebastian Doyle]

24. Class Warfare was declared January 20, 1981 and has never stopped since.

It's time to fight back.

[JVS]

27. Class warfare is as old as civilization

[JVS]

26. Corporations are not to blame. Corporations are merely a tool of the dominant class...

to more effectively rule over the proles. Why attack the corporations that the rich use to shield and enrich themselves. Go after the rich instead.

[Xipe Totec]

29. How do you propose to go after the rich? Pitchforks and Torches? n/t

[Political Heretic]

33. Simply having money is not the problem.

Our problems are structural. If you make over x dollars of income you don't suddenly become the enemy. If you support the injustices and inequalities written in to the very structure of our failed system - be you rich or poor, then you are part of the problem.

The key is to challenge structural injustice and a failed system, not "hating" rich individuals merely for having more income.

[JVS]

34. Capital accumulation does not happen by accident.

The laws that benefit the rich are a result of rich people's actions to improve and protect their wealth. You say to challenge a failed system. Why is the system failed? Because rich people own it and decided that it is in their best interests to have it become a failed system. The problem is fundamentally one of people.

[Political Heretic]

40. not all "rich" people are the same.

Of course what you are suggesting happens as a generalized explanation. People with power and privilege, attempt to shape the government and the laws so that they have even more power and privilege. People representing institutional interests (large businesses, industries, financial sectors) come together and demand laws that benefit them without care or concern about those that they hurt or the underclass that it creates and sustains.

All this is true.

But you are missing the particulars for the generals. Saying "the rich" without any sort of explanation or qualification actually makes the argument sound more ignorant and absurd instead of completely understandable and reasonable.

Why? Because if I make 100,000 a year, as a single man with no dependents, that classifies me as rich - top 10% of America. I do not suddenly transform from "good" at the 99,999 dollar mark to "evil" at the 100,000 dollar mark.

What would make me "evil" is if I stopped opposing a system built on extravagant benefits to the few at the expense of the many. Or if my income meant more to me that supporting policies and principles that were economically just.

The problem may be one of "people" - the problem is not one of "all" people, and you don't magically become part of the "problem" simply by crossing a dollar income threshold.

If you disagree, then please tell me what is the specific dollar amount where you officially cross from not being part of the problem to being party of the problem?

[Usrename]

47. I'm not sure it has very much to do with people at all.

It is more likely to me that rich and poor are not all that different when viewed as individuals, especially if they are viewed as equals. The problem that I see is that priveledge (usually associated with wealth, but not always) allows a condition where some people are more equal than others.

My own theory is that money has a gravitational pull all its own. When great sums are accumulated they can create a sort of black hole of money which sucks in more money with an irresistible force. I don't think mere mortals have very much control over it at some point. Even the most powerful and wealthy people on the planet must have some concern about hurling themselves under such a juggernaut.

[Tesha]

30. Ultimately, the war against the corporations will come to this. (NT)

[Political Heretic]

31. No, its time for a new civil rights movement for economic equality.

America has had class war for quite some time.

“There's class warfare, all right,” Mr. Buffett said, “but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning.” - Warren Buffet

What we need is to finish the work Dr. King had shifted to focusing on in his last days (and then coincidentally was assasinated) - economic justice and structural revolution of our political economy.

[alfredo]

35. Put this poster up everywhere. It can be printed out on your printer.

[deaniac21]

42. Repeal a supreme court decision? I am confused now.

[alfredo]

46. Repeal and Rescind are pretty much the same:

Main Entry: re·peal
Pronunciation: \ri-ˈpēl\
Function: transitive verb
Etymology: Middle English repelen, from Anglo-French repeler, literally, to call back, from re- + apeler to appeal, call
Date: 14th century
1 : to rescind or annul by authoritative act; especially : to revoke or abrogate by legislative enactment
2 : abandon, renounce
3 obsolete : to summon to return : recall
— repeal noun

Can you think of a better word? Revoke?

[earth mom]

36. Probably, but the Great Depression 2 isn't bad enough yet to get people motivated. nt

[ParkieDem]

37. Exactly.

Despite the gross income inequality we have nowadays, people will have to get very, very uncomfortable in order to "revolt."

People definitely have less of a sense of security these days, but most live in a larger, more comfortable home than they did 30 years ago, and have no question about where their next meal is coming from. In the Great Depression, you had people being evicted on a massive scale (much more than today's foreclosure crisis), and many more people begging for food. Now, affordable housing and food security haven't been completely solved, but the scale of these problems is much, much more limited than it was in the 1930s. And even then, there was only isolated "revolutionary" talk; the true revolt of the people came via peaceful means, i.e. FDR's election.

[Political Heretic]

41. That's becaus so-called "great depression 2" hasn't been anything like a great depression.

The great depression had many other factors that contributed to its severity apart from just a 25% unemployment rate, and even then we're 15% shy of "depression" era unemployment.

[uponit7771]

43. RIGHT!!! We're only at 17% on the U6 rate not 25%, busted savings accounts and no home equity

[Political Heretic]

44. Comparing a u3 25% to a u6 17% really doesn't make much of an argument.

No one is saying it isn't bad.

But I'm not seeing bread lines stretched down seven city blocks, or scores of tent cities outside nearly every city.

I'm unemployed, and technically homeless (I say technically, because I am couch crashing, meaning I have a roof over my head - a blessing compared to millions of homeless) - so its not like I'm exactly insensitive to how bad things are.

But things are going to have to get much much worse, before we have action in the streets across every state in the nation.

[Orsino]

39. Shhh. They'll hear you.

We're down here, in this trench.

[surrealAmerican]

45. Too late.

They already won.

[Odin2005]

48. The Elites already started one 30 years ago. See the Powell Memo.