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Ah yes, our conspiracy theories are true.This would be a better argument if a) the theories about Big Tobacco and Big Oil hadn't been proven true (and in the former case, the rot went further than anyone had claimed); and b) the 0.1%ers weren't acting exactly as socialists have always predicted the oligarchs to act when presented with a threat to power. If you wanted to explain the last year in one sentence, you could do worse than the peasant in the Holy Grail: "now you see the violence inherent in the system."
I taught corporate law. I know that "multi-national corporations" are not, in general, what leftists make them out to be. In that respect, you're not wrong.Ah yes, our conspiracy theories are true.
To be a little less flippant, yes certain industries and individuals try to (and do) influence policy. But it is a collective effort of hundreds of different individual decisionmakers -- many of whom have directly contrary strategies and objectives. There is not a unitary 1% or "Big Pharma" or anything else in "control" of anything. That is not how the real world works.
Yes, I know you are not a conspiracy theorist, although you do have some Payne-ish tendencies.I taught corporate law. I know that "multi-national corporations" are not, in general, what leftists make them out to be. In that respect, you're not wrong.
But Big Tobacco and Big Oil are incredibly evil actors who have undisputedly caused tremendous harm to humans and routinely lie about what their products do or don't do.
As for the 1%, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the 0.01% -- it's hard not to see the parade of centi-billionaires either kissing Trump's ass or actively doing his bidding and see anything else but Capital at work.
I think the education gap is a little overblown. While people with post graduate degrees support democrats by a 2-1 margin, what percentage of the electorate is that?Education accounts for a lot of this. There are tons of educated Americans who are nonetheless under the thrall of the right wing crazies, but as a general rule, less education makes one far more susceptible to manipulation. And the American right has been shunning the educated and appealing to the less educated for decades now.
Paine wasn't a conspiracy theorist. Just a historical materialist, which I am not.Yes, I know you are not a conspiracy theorist, although you do have some Payne-ish tendencies.
Of course there are uber rich people kissing Trump's ass. But almost none of them can stand each other and it serves little analytical value to lump them into the same bucket as "very wealthy" -- as if they are all on the same page and trying to accomplish the same thing.
The problem with Candace Owens and conspiracy theories in general is that they try to simplify a messy world with overly simple explanations. The left does this, too, albeit to a lesser degree and with more nuance.
Yes. There is a much stronger correlation based on religious beliefs but less so regarding education. You could maybe make an argument that the reason Republicans are more willing to support these wing nut shills is that they are willing to believe in jewish carpenter mythology. I just don't think less education is as strong of an argument.Adjust for religious beliefs. The stronger and more dogmatic, the less commitment to cause and effect and more allowance for the hand of God, fate, providence or whatever.
there are lots of colleges...I think the education gap is a little overblown. While people with post graduate degrees support democrats by a 2-1 margin, what percentage of the electorate is that?
This is from Pew:
"Voters with postgraduate degrees are even more Democratic than those with bachelor’s degrees. About six-in-ten registered voters who have a postgraduate degree (61%) identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, while 37% associate with the Republican Party. Voters with a bachelor’s degree but no graduate degree are more closely divided: 51% Democratic, 46% Republican.
Voters with a high school degree or less education and those who have attended some college but do not have a bachelor’s degree both tilt Republican by similar margins."
In other words, there is a slight bias of democrats with bachelors degrees and republicans without but its pretty close. You can't say that education or at least a college education magically imparts a resistance to right wing nuts while lacking college will make you putty in the hands of Trump. There are too many counterfactuals. It has to be something else in the right wing mindset that makes them substantially more susceptible while somehow left-wing hucksters can never gain that wide spread traction.