BayouBengal07
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Sat Aug-28-10 07:00 PM
Original message |
I think the takeaway is that we're supposed to return to the guilded age |
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The incessant invocation of religion at beckapallooza today convinced me that all the concern about debt and taxes is just a front for the lingering culture wars. But at the rally I found one tea partier who really believed it. He basically said that all tax is theft and that we need to dismantle the modern federal administrative/welfare state. He actually told me that we need to "return" to a system where local churches provide us with the services we need - instead of paying uncle sam our surplus income would go to the church which would then dole it out for the common good. So basically think 21st century Dickens - are there no poor houses? I asked him what would happen if a church decided to hoard the money; he said the free market would take care of it and we could simply choose another church. I wonder if he really thinks life was really better when we had to wait for the clergy and captains of industry to grace us with their charity. Scary stuff.
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phantom power
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Sat Aug-28-10 07:03 PM
Response to Original message |
1. These people are completely a-historical. |
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A two-bit demagogue like Beck can tell them anything, and they'll buy into it.
:shrug:
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BrklynLiberal
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Sat Aug-28-10 07:08 PM
Response to Reply #1 |
3. The ignorant and the fearful are the prime targets of the evil and the greedy... |
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Beck and the Beckerheads..it is like a perfect storm.
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lunatica
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Sat Aug-28-10 07:08 PM
Response to Original message |
2. They're on the low side of the IQ curve |
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They look and act quite normal unless you go deeper than skin deep.
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Hello_Kitty
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Sat Aug-28-10 07:12 PM
Response to Original message |
4. They are convinced that 95% of tax revenues go directly to welfare recipients |
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Does the rocket surgeon you were talking to realize that churches aren't really going to be in a position to build roads and dams? And how does he propose to fund the Holy Wars against the Moozlin Terra?
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BayouBengal07
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Sat Aug-28-10 07:26 PM
Response to Reply #4 |
6. There was room for other private actors |
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He said that we could rely on private companies to provide roads and other infrastructure. No word on how we're supposed to trust local governments to pick the best companies. Are we supposed to petition them ourselves?
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Ruby the Liberal
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Sat Aug-28-10 07:21 PM
Response to Original message |
5. I could buy that if the collective church was actually spending |
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money on charity as opposed to erecting larger and more ornate buildings for themselves and keeping their 'leadership' in Mercedes and private planes.
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bobbolink
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Sat Aug-28-10 07:57 PM
Response to Reply #5 |
9. Really? You could buy that? |
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Edited on Sat Aug-28-10 07:58 PM by bobbolink
You really believe that churches could spend ALL their income building enough housing to accomodate all the people who are homeless?
You really believe the churches could feed all hungry people if they just spent all their money on that? And you really think that food would be quality, the kind of food that DUers are always touting as what we should all be eating, as opposed to heavy starches?
Do you really?
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Ruby the Liberal
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Sat Aug-28-10 08:30 PM
Response to Reply #9 |
14. Not buy the "troothiness" of the argument, |
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buy someone's ability to believe it.
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bobbolink
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Sat Aug-28-10 09:17 PM
Response to Reply #14 |
15. OK, I get that. We need to be doing a better job of educating people about the downside of |
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charity! Including the damned shelters!
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femrap
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Sat Aug-28-10 07:30 PM
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Phlem
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Sat Aug-28-10 07:31 PM
Response to Original message |
8. That is so F'ing true. |
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More true than you might know based on the current economic divide. I've always thought and it was just really weird (and cool) for someone to post that. I mostly love that people are making connections and exercising the grey matter. The opposite has gotten us where we are today. One very effective way (as we're seeing the dividends now) is dismantling the public education system. Did you know that more then 70% of home schooled children in the US are Evangelical Christians?
Yea you know, when Jesus walked with the dinosaurs, etc, etc...
Well guess what, they're growing up and voting!
Sends fucking shivers down my spine. :yoiks:
-p
PS.. check out Jesus Camp on dvd if you dare.
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rucky
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Sat Aug-28-10 08:00 PM
Response to Original message |
10. Ask him how he expects everybody to pay their fair share. |
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And what to do about the "freeriders."
That's always an interesting and bumpy road to go down.
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Warren Stupidity
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Sat Aug-28-10 08:03 PM
Response to Original message |
11. 'gilded' as in gold covered. The 'guilded age' might have been |
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around the 1200's or so in northern europe, particularly Germany.
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ocd liberal
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Sat Aug-28-10 08:16 PM
Response to Original message |
12. This is what Mormons do. |
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These are the folks who come knocking at your front door with pamphlets. Glenn Nazi Beck is no different from any other Amway selling Mormon I've ever met.
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pinboy3niner
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Sat Aug-28-10 08:22 PM
Response to Original message |
13. Google 'Domionism' or 'Christian Reconstructionism' |
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Edited on Sat Aug-28-10 08:25 PM by pinboy3niner
There are Fundy elements here that seriously want a Christian version of Sharia law in America.
ETA: I believe you mean 'gilded' age.
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KillCapitalism
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Sat Aug-28-10 09:50 PM
Response to Original message |
16. Farther back than the gilded age... |
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Try the antebellum south. If they had their way, minimum wage laws would be repealed & they'd expect Americans to work for the same wages as Cambodians, which is essentially slavery.
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Tue Apr 23rd 2024, 09:32 PM
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