Ah, yes. Another 'friend' buys into the bullshit...

[HCE SuiGeneris]

I just received this e-mail from someone I once considered intelligent. It's a travesty that brains have such a weak defense against propaganda.

> >> I AM FORWARDING THIS EMAIL THAT I RECEIVED TODAY.
> >> IT REFLECTS THE FEELINGS OF A LOT OF PEOPLE
> >>
> >> I have never heard this said as simply or as well. Class war at its best.
> >>
> >>
> >> The folks who are getting the free stuff don't like the folks who are
> >> paying for the free stuff, because the folks who are paying for the free
> >> stuff can no longer afford to pay for both the free stuff and their own
> >> stuff.
> >>
> >> And, the folks who are paying for the free stuff want the free stuff to
> >> stop.
> >>
> >> And the folks who are getting the free stuff want even more free stuff on
> >> top of the free stuff they are already getting!
> >>
> >> Now... the people who are forcing the people who pay for the free stuff
> >> have told the people who are RECEIVING the free stuff that the people who
> >> are PAYING for the free stuff are being mean, prejudiced, and racist.
> >>
> >> So... the people who are GETTING the free stuff have been convinced they
> >> need to hate the people who are paying for the free stuff by the people
> >> who are forcing some people to pay for their free stuff
> >> and giving them the free stuff in the first place.
> >>
> >> We have let the free stuff giving go on for so long that there are
> >>
> >>
> >> now more people getting free stuff than paying for the free stuff.
> >>
> >> Now understand this. All great democracies have committed financial
> >> suicide somewhere between 200 and 250 years after being founded. The
> >> reason?
> >>
> >> The voters figured out they could vote themselves money from the treasury
> >> by electing people who promised to give them money from the treasury in
> >> exchange for electing them.
> >>
> >> The United States officially became a Republic in 1776...........
> >>
> >>
> >> 231 years ago. The number of people now getting free stuff outnumbers the
> >> people paying for the free stuff.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> We have one chance to change that in 2012.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Failure to change that spells the end of the
> >>
> >>
> >> United States as we know it.
> >>
> >>
> >> ELECTION 2012 IS COMING
> >>
> >> A Nation of Sheep Breeds a Government of Wolves!
> >>
> >> PASS THIS ON !!!
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Take a Stand!!!
> >>
> >> Obama: Gone!
> >>
> >> Borders: Closed!
> >>
> >> Language: English only
> >>
> >> Culture: Constitution, and the Bill of Rights!
> >>
> >> Drug Free: Mandatory Drug Screening before Welfare!
> >>
> >> NO freebies to: Non-Citizens!
> >>
> >> We, the people, are coming.
> >>
> >> Only 86% will send this on.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Should be a 100%. What will you do?


My response...

Not my cup of tea, xxxxxx.

Please define "free stuff". Are you speaking about Social Security? Medicare? Infrastructure? These are not "entitlements", as touted by the jingoistic pawns of the Koch brothers. Keep letting Faux "News" and Murdoch-like media frame the argument, and the sheeple who watch and believe the crap shoveled at them will continue to act against their own best interests.

If you would like me to vote for Bachmann, Perry, Scott, or any of the other turds championing the corporate stranglehold on our country, you will have to present a better argument than a sophomoric email.

[cleanhippie]

1. Great response.

[valerief]

2. I wish you and others wouldn't post this crap. It belongs in Free Republic not here. nt

[HCE SuiGeneris]

5. Sorry that I (and others) have offended you.

Please don't censor my input here.

I would suggest hiding the thread.

[RaleighNCDUer]

10. I, OTOH, think it is a good thing to know what the other side is saying.

I don't like being taken by surprise.

There is a difference between exposing something and promoting it.

[valerief]

17. We get what the other side is saying 24/7 from the MSM. We shouldn't shit in our bed. nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

43. Actually no you are not

Unless you regularly watch FNC

As bad as msnbc is, you do not get in near true and pure form. For that matter that one comes even closer to the source...shock radio...

Yes from time to time I do listen to el Rushbo or worst...important to keep up with the bs.

[valerief]

44. I get it from Faux viewers. 24/7. The MSM is almost as bad. nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

47. No, no it's not

It's bad but not near as bad.

Also it's critical to engage in signals intel, which this is.

[Stuckinthebush]

20. I love that it was posted here! Thanks to the poster for doing that

It helps us to see what crap is circulating and how others respond.

[ck4829]

3. Reads like a first grader wrote this

Rehashing something his or her parents said, well they're mad about free stuff. Really?

[Puzzler]

4. The people getting "free stuff" are the 1%!!!

[HCE SuiGeneris]

7. No shit.

[HughBeaumont]

12. All evidence shows us that the only "socialism" happening in the US flows UPward, not DOWN.

Unless we're talking about debt, risk, competition and loss.

THOSE things, they shifted to us.

[gratuitous]

14. There you go

People who get the bare necessities of life (maybe) aren't the freeloaders. As a society, we owe everyone a minimum standard of living. The fact that we can't do that is due mostly to the fact that there is a small percentage of overly greedy people who need not only everything they need, but everything they want, and on top of that, everything others need. Then they have the temerity to complain about others who continue to survive, despite the greedheads' best efforts to deny them even the basics.

Philosophers and prophets throughout human history have had some pretty hard things to say about the greedy ones.

[abelenkpe]

30. Reminds me of this song

The Two Bums

The bum on the rods is hunted down as an enemy of mankind
The other is driven around to his club, is feted, wined and dined

And they who curse the bum on the rods as the essence of all that's bad
Will greet the other with a willing smile and extend a hand so glad

The bum on the rods is a social flea who gets an occassional bite
The bum on the plush is a social leech, bloodsucking day and night

The bum on the rods is a load so light that his weight we scarcely feel
But it takes the labour of dozens of folks to furnish the other a meal

As long as we sanction the bum on the plush the other will always be there
But rid ourselves of the bum on the plush and the other will dissappear

Then make an intelligent organised kick get rid of the weights that crush
Dont worry about the bum on the rods get rid of the bum on the plush

From: http://unionsong.com/u099.html

From our last depression I think. Bum on the plush is the 1 percent...

[Laluchacontinua]

41. That's for sure. Case in point:

... here are some facts on how the system works.

Companies license the rights to pharmaceuticals, software and other intellectual property to offshore subsidiaries, or they engage in cost-sharing arrangements with these offshore units.

The subsidiaries then charge the U.S. parent royalties and other fees, which the parent can count as tax-deductible expenses in the United States. And the subsidiaries take their profits in entities known as "tax nothings," so-called because they are invisible to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. So long as the profits are indefinitely reinvested offshore, no tax is due. The problem arises when the companies want to bring the profits back to the United States. That is where a tax holiday comes in.

When Congress passed a similar tax holiday in 2004, the biggest beneficiary was drug manufacturing giant Pfizer Inc , according to a report to Congress by the IRS in June 2008. Pfizer brought back $37 billion and saved $11 billion in taxes.

Since then, the company has piled up another $42.5 billion in untaxed profits overseas, its disclosure statement at the end of last year showed.

Pfizer is among several companies lobbying Congress for another holiday for untaxed offshore profits. It and other firms want an 85 percent tax rate discount....

Are our politicians unaware that the biggest businesses, and the wealthiest business owners, already bear lighter tax burdens than those who make less?

Business owners who make more than $5 million from all sources pay lower median and average tax rates than those who make as little as $350,000, a new study by the Congressional Research Service shows.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/18/column-dcjohnston-repatriation-idUSN1E79H04R20111018

[redqueen]

6. Idiocracy.

[JuniperLea]

18. Hence the simple language...

The Idiocracy needs little words.

[redqueen]

32. And massive fail re: history

That's how these fucking idiots get taken in by BS again and again and again. They flat-out refuse to learn. At times like this I can almost see Strauss's point... but no... if we only cared enough to educate our fucking children they wouldn't turn out as stupid as the laziest among us apparently enjoy being.

[hfojvt]

8. yeah those poor multi billionaires

they cannot afford to pay for any more free stuff for the poor and low income working Americans, especially not after their huge tax cuts of 1996, 2001 and 2003 which were extended in 2010. After all those tax cuts, how can anybody suggest that they should pay more? Haven't they suffered enough??? How would you feel if you had an income of $400 million and you had to scrape by on a mere $320 million after taxes?

Okay, I can see you are doing some sort of victory dance.

But what if some people were calling for class warfare against you? What if some people wanted to force you to get by on a mere $280 million like you did back in 2000? Would you really want to suffer that much, just so some veteran could get treatment for PTSD, or some child could get medical care, or food, or money to pay for heat? I know I sure wouldn't. Those kids can get jobs in the textile mills like they did in the 19th century, or picking vegetables or cotton now that Alabama has run off all the illegals.

You may not have any empathy or sympathy for the poor, overtaxed Fab 400 and other multi-millionaires, but thank goodness the Republican Party still does, or this great experiment we call democracy would be totally over, just like it was in 1950 when Eisenhower was President and the top marginal tax rate was 90%.

[otohara]

9. My Favorite Free Stuff

air....

[cui bono]

25. With free pollution topping! n/t

[Skittles]

11. painful ignorance

[abelenkpe]

13. This is the type of stuff my mom, dad, brother and lately my 9 year old niece would forward

To me. Then I usually send out my:
Please don't forward me political or religious emails or chain letters to me at work.
Followed by indignant and rude email telling me how insulted they are by my request and that I'm a horrible intolerant person. Then months of silence and sulking. Then they'll suddenly warm up around the holidaze, exchanging gift lists, a couple of texts maybe a cellphone pic. Then the process will repeat when they again send me some kind of forwarded message similar to the one above.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

22. I'm so sorry that your immediate family has bought into the BS.

Truly, it has to be very challenging. My empathy goes out to you.

[CJCRANE]

15. Ask them what they think about the banks getting handouts...

and then asking us to pay for their mistakes.

[JuniperLea]

16. They have to keep up the lie machine...

The reality is too much for them to take.

The truth is, no one wants anything for free. We just want to keep more of what is ours.

There is no ONE clear message from OWS and the other various protests because there are a myriad of evil deeds and immoral actions that have been levied against the 99% in an effort to take our money, so many in fact that at least one, maybe more, touches each and every one of the 99%.

[Frustratedlady]

19. I heard a good one, yesterday, on the OWS...are you ready?

A friend said, "Well, they are saying that no one is staying in those tents at night...they are going home to showers, hot food and warm beds."

I asked where she had heard such a ridiculous thing. She heard it on the news, but couldn't remember which program.

You can't fix stupid.

[cui bono]

27. I saw that there is propaganda about that being spread. When a reporter tried to prove it

they couldn't. At that particular location the tents are at more than 70% occupancy at any given time and when someone had to leave to go deal with personal matters they would fill the vacant tent with someone else.

[Frustratedlady]

28. Thanks! I hadn't heard anything about it until yesterday.

I told her many sites have webcams and plenty of photos she could use to check for herself.

She also never heard of the Koch bros. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!

I explained a lot of what was going on and she finally said, "Are you a Democrat?"

She gets her info off talk radio and FOX.

[cui bono]

31. Oh man, her question shows she is rank and file. Truth has no labels.

I don't think you'll get through to her but keep on trying!

[redqueen]

34. "You can't fix stupid."

Not when it's willful, no you can't.

But you can sure soak them for every cent they have, while they help you do the same to their non-clueless peers... which is what has been happening for so very long now.

[prole_for_peace]

21. That made my head hurt.

I reads like a child wrote it.

[dajoki]

23. K&R

[cui bono]

24. Tell them about the FREE ride corporations get and the FREE bailout

the banksters got. And the FREE use of our armed forces the oil industry gets, and all the FREE subsidies too. Will his/her argument be that they paid for them with their campaign donations???

[hatrack]

26. Wow. This email has, like, electrolytes & shit!

It's got what brains crave!

[GoCubsGo]

29. Did you hit "Reply All"?

The very least that would do would be to potentially stop your friend from sending you more crap like that. Hopefully, it might open a few eyes, too.

[ebayfool]

38. 'Reply All' brought the flow of crap to my inbox to a screeching stop!

People hate to be schooled in front of a crowd!

[Ilsa]

33. Trying topic the poor against the middle class, and watch from afar.

The point omitted is that the upper class PAYS ALMOST NOTHING as a percentage of what they take in.

[deaniac21]

35. important stuff

[JoePhilly]

36. I'll grab the "english only" line .... maybe it will help you later ....

I have a friend who would say that.

He's an adult now ... but he seems to forget that when we were in high school, he was an extremely proud Italian-American.

So proud, that he wore his ability to speak Italian as a badge of honor. And, even better, he was "more Italian" than others because his grandmother straight off the boat, lived with his family and she spoke NO ENGLISH at all!!!

[ieoeja]

37. My reply:

The folks who are taking our money don't like the folks who are earning the money, because the folks who are earning the money no longer have much money to take away.

And the folks who are earning the money want people to stop taking their money.

And the folks who are taking the money want even more money on top of all the money they have already taken!

Now... the people who are forcing the people who earn the money to give it the people who are RECEIVING the money are calling the people who are EARNING the money radical, extremist and lazy.

So... the people who are TAKING the money are trying to convince the people who are earning the money that they should hate the people who are trying to stop the people who force some people to give their money in the first place.

We have let the money taking go on for so long that there are now less than 1% getting most of the money.

I have worked full time since 1984. I own two small businesses. I make over $100,000 a year. And I am still the 99% and want the 1% to pay their fair share so the 99% can rebuild our country.

[leftynyc]

39. Excellent response

I find condescending is the perfect response to crap like this.

[Laluchacontinua]

40. Working people pay for social security and medicare out of their paychecks.

I don't know what the hell they're talking about with this "free stuff" crap.

[county worker]

42. What free stuff? Who is asking for free stuff? Who is giving free stuff?

How can people not see the complexity of our society and think it is as black and white as that?

Poverty moves up the food chain. Soon this guy will be hoping that there will be some free stuff for him.

I have an idea for a sign.

"Got critical thinking?"

[Warren DeMontague]

45. By "people receiving free stuff" they must mean the Pentagon and the DEA.

I agree, time to cut off the free stuff spigot to those freeloaders.

[Warren DeMontague]

46. what does "Culture: Constitution, and the Bill of Rights!" mean?

I'm curious about that one.

[Initech]

49. Same as their definition of the bible.

They can't fully read or comprehend what it says for themselves, so they have to have others do it for them!

[Warren DeMontague]

50. It's right there in the bill of rites: "Put all teh gays to death!"

Rush said so.

[Initech]

48. Holy crap, I can't wrap my head around that kind of stupid!

:crazy:

[Taverner]

51. Free Stuff = Services other people use

Not Free Stuff = services I use

[Enthusiast]

52. This is typical right wing propaganda.

Disgusting.

[Lorien]

53. I keep wondering what this "free stuff" is that they are talking about

Big Business gets "free stuff" in the form of subsidies, but we the people PAY for all of our services and infrastructure. I pay for other people's kids to go to school "which might be someone's idea of "free stuff") but since I want to live in an educated society, I don't mind one bit. SS, Medicare, roads, police, all paid for by EVERYONE, but we the working class pay a HIGHER PERCENTAGE of our income to pay for it than do the billionaires who live off capital gains and don't work for a living...but somehow this doesn't bother the room temperature IQ crowd.