Rabbit Hole politics-What Did Those Wealthy Elites Put In Our Water To Make Us SO Docile?

[kpete]

Monday, March 07, 2011


Rabbit Hole politics

by digby
.................


Keep in mind, that’s nearly two decades of benefits that could be paid even before the changes to which Wisconsin’s current public employees have agreed go into effect. Overall, Wisconsin’s pension system is 97 percent funded, according to the Center for Retirement Research.

In fact, as the Center for Economic and Policy Research pointed out, “the shortfalls facing most state and local pension funds have been seriously misrepresented in public debates”:

The major cause of these shortfalls has not been inadequate contributions by state governments, but rather the plunge in the stock market following the collapse of the housing bubble. Given the low PE ratios in the stock market, pension fund assumptions on the future rate of return on their assets are consistent with most projections of economic growth and past experience. Furthermore, when expressed relative to the size of their economies, most states are facing shortfalls that appear easily manageable.

Walker has already been scolded by his state’s finance director for falsely claiming that he would have to lay off state employees if his budget bill wasn’t passed by a certain date. Politifact also rated Walker’s repeated assertions that his state is broke as “false.”

I think most people assume that both the federal and state governments are on the verge of collapse. Certainly, that's the narrative. And they are further convinced that the reason they are on the verge of collapse because of their pension and health obligations to their citizens. This is not true on every level. But most importantly, it is not the cause of the current budget shortfalls, which are also a result of the recession and the lower tax revenue due to unemployment.

We are taking a national trip down the rabbit hole cutting spending to solve problems that won't exist for decades (if at all), in order to pretend to be doing something about the current economy which is starved for stimulus. It's a great disaster capitalist play, for sure. But this country will look back on this in a decade or so and wonder what these wealthy elites put in the water to make the populace so docile and accepting of their own demise.

[Turbineguy]

1. Distraction.

Ooooh Look! A flying saucer!

[pipi_k]

3. Where??? Where???

Oh wait...I just found some belly button lint!

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

8. And Charlie's flying it!

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. TV and dumbing down the populace for the last 30 years has worked well.

"Because of the stupidity of the average man, he follows not reason, but faith,
and this naive faith requires necessary illusion."
Rheinhold Niebuhr



Note the use of the word "average".

[liberal N proud]

4. Call it the FOX BOX or the BOOB TUBE

It is the flat screen TV everyone rushed out last Black Friday to get a great deal on. Or maybe you are still using one of those older tube type things in a cabinet.

It's the propaganda machines they have convinced nearly everyone they can't live without. They tell us we must watch the talking heads on this network or that so we can stay informed with the latest brain washing propaganda.

And when they really want to do something, throw in fluff like Dancing With the Stars or Watch a Star Crash Dujour.

[theaocp]

10. Television

the drug of a nation. Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation. ~Michael Franti

[CanSocDem]

5. The opiate of the masses....???

Why, religion of course. Who said that...???


.

[Pharaoh]

6. Flouride n/t

[TalkingDog]

14. It was good enough for concentration camp prisoners, it's damned well good enough for us.

n/t

[old mark]

7. K&R-TV!!!!!

;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;)



mark

[Kurovski]

9. Corn Syrup and Three and a Half Men did it!

One down, one to go.

[Kurovski]

20. --I mean Two and a Half Men.

(I must have been thinking of the "three men in a tub" I keep on my back porch.)

[Edweird]

11. Conformity. Fear. If you 'act out' you could lose what you have.

[blm]

12. Internet also keeps the angry populace busy protesting in desk chairs instead of on the streets.

Unfortunately.

[Kurovski]

13. I disagree. The volume of online protesting has contributed to action.

It has in my life, and in others who I know. Debate online informs and even changes minds.

But then, it's always good to be reminded that online complaint is not the end of our democratic duties, so thank you for that reminder, blm.

[FiveGoodMen]

16. Millions took to the streets in cities around the world to tell Bush not to invade Iraq

He responded that he didn't listen to focus groups.

What makes anyone believe that the PTB would listen to us if we were marching?

[blm]

19. that's too true....not like corpmedia would give protests the coverage called for, anyway

.

[NeedleCast]

15. Coffee, apparently

I just found out my evil corporate overlord is using it to get a better performance out of me...right here on DU!

[Solomon]

17. It's not just one thing, like television and chemicals in the water,

in the air. It's everything combined. They are throwing everything and the kitchen sink, drugs, propaganda, etc.to keep the masses controlled.

[ljm2002]

18. Misinformation, disinformation, propaganda and distraction...

...that is what the elites have supplied us with and that has worked better than anything they could have put in the water.

The propaganda: US is #1 in everything, by definition. US is moral in everything it does, by definition. Support for the troops is required and == support for any and every war and military adventure cooked up by any President.

Misinformation: lies about how many people support various policies -- e.g., "America is a center right country", even though polls repeatedly show that Americans in general support center left policies, when they are asked about actual issues. "Americans don't want (this or that)" gets repeated over and over, so that anyone who takes a different position thinks they are in the minority. It is very effective.

Disinformation: lies about the policies themselves, such as the trickle-down theory, the latest incarnation of which is that tax cuts for the wealthy will create jobs. Somehow it never gets mentioned that the tax cuts for the wealthy have been in place for nearly 10 years now, with no jobs to show for it.

Distraction: everyone needs to know about Charlie Sheen, and the more his meltdown is publicized through interviews, the more distracting it is. Ditto for other bad-boy and bad-girl celebs. Which would be fine if they'd leave it on the entertainment shows, but of course they do not.

We do not have news in this country anymore, we are well along the road to the new model of corpo-fascism, where each of us is a consumer but not a citizen. Citizen implies actively paying attention and participating in the democratic processes of governance, at the very least voting; Consumer implies passively choosing between the options that are offered as to our necessities of life, without policy considerations.

We have been infantilized and as a population we have internalized that thinking: nothing I do can make a difference, who cares anyway, they're all corrupt, all I can do is keep my little family going, etc... It is tragic, really.