Fair enough. I'll delete the Trump meme. I am still very concerned, though, that the same dynamics that led to the rise of MAGA could lead to an equally politically anarchistic and socially destructive countermovement on the left.
the most important factor is the availability of engineers and technically skilled workers. that rules out most of the world except the west, india and the far east. and when semiconductor manufacturing got started, india was not remotely in the game for a number of reasons.
Not could. Will. The die is cast in that regard. The pendulum has swung far to one pole and it must arrest that momentum by swinging just as forcefully in the other direction. The question is how much further it swings toward the anarchist right before course correcting.
sure it can. thats why its a good idea to be friends with folks like paine. treat our allies like allies. and yes, i get frustrated by the neoliberalism stuff, and the dismissiveness toward liberals. they have work to do also. but let's save the trump memes for trump (and i am using that as broader metaphor).
If y’all are really that worried about an authoritarian left-wing rising in the U.S., then that’s why you should keep me close.
i am not worried about that. i watched occupy wall street. i lived in park slope. leftists can't even properly run a food coop. they aint taking over the government.If y’all are really that worried about an authoritarian left-wing rising in the U.S., then that’s why you should keep me close.
Nah, I can’t imagine that. Che was a singular figure. That’s why I think the path for the American left is firmly rooted in the history of American left-wing populism from Tom Paine to Jefferson to FDR to Sanders.
My concern is not that the left wing populists will take over the government. It's that they'll ruin the Democratic Party's remaining ability to be a stabilizing force in an extremely unstable political environment. We're already down to one functional party. If we lose that one, there's literally nothing to maintain the systems on which the nation -- and the world for that matter -- rely.
What do you think Paine, TJ and FDR would have thought about the CHIPS Act?
I'm sorry... Thomas Jefferson was a left wing populist?
I don’t know. They’d probably first ask: “what the hell is a chip?”
Use your imagination. You're the one who invoked them.
Compared to the other founding fathers, yes. We can acknowledge his many flaws along with his contributions to democratic thought. There’s a reason he was so well-respected amongst French revolutionaries.
I guess if we separate what Jefferson wrote in theory vs what he wrote into practice and what he lived. Maybe. On a good day.
Without a doubt. I won’t make any excuses for the way he lived or his failure to live up to the ideals he wrote about.
This is a quibble, but Rousseau was not a leader of the French Revolution nor even alive when it happened, but it is certainly true that many of the leaders of the FR were influenced by Rousseau's writings. As for the FR itself, that didn't turn out so well, the road to Hell being paved with good intentions and all that...
Why don’t you tell me what you think they would say about CHIPS? You clearly want to talk about it.
this seems to be a question best put to clarence thomas. it's what he puzzles during oral argument.
That's probably right. And that's what it did.
i saw a headline a couple of days ago, don't remember where and i didn't read the article but it was about democrats trying to reestablish faith as part of their messaging. so its not just you and me any more lol.