Abortion Post Omega
Not really, but at Alas (and subsequently Mousewords) there’s been discussion of an essay which attempts to take precisely the opposite of my preferred approach to abortion rights: namely, it considers the problem of fetal value in a hypothetical universe where it cannot be counterbalanced by a right to bodily integrity. And then gives a bunch of straw men a good drubbing for displaying the wrong emotions about such a universe (or possibly they’re tin men in this instance, since they evidently have brains and need hearts).
I’m explicitly uninterested in the question of fetal value (and implicitly uninterested in the Lakoffish blah-de-blah about whether or not it’s politically savvy to display such an interest) but this is so precisely opposite my thinking that I feel obliged to point it out.
denisdekat wrote:
This post led me to think a lot (thnkas), following your links and all, that purphaps the only way to get anything pased or protected is to find a hot button issue for the masses(abortion is not the one). For exmaple, the Republicans passed tons of evil stuff, but the only thing they needed to do really is talk about gay marriage. Everyone forgot how much Bush and his deal with the coal industries has increased the output of pollutants (o yeah, bush no longer calls them polutants, that is how they got pulution to go down). If any of those so called christians cared about the erath, they would have stoned him to death like a good Christian should So really, what the Democrats need is a single issue folks can grasp on to. Sad but ture, this idea I first noticed reading Machiavelli. He would say, the masses need an issue or two, specifics, the upper class needs gran plan. I would include the educated in the upper class today, as it implies education more than rank The idea is too tru to be a happy ending to my post Abortion the issue is tricky to use as the highlighted issue. I am thinking that we should bring back the class war. Afterall, %90 of us of own like %10 of what is out there, so I think it has huge mass appeal potential… Onyl problem is Democrats have the corporations in their midsts, it is hard to even talk about class differences, even for guys like Gephadrt…
Anyways…
Posted 11 Dec 2020 at 8:19 am ¶
yami wrote:
Yeah, I’m a fan of the class war - unfortunately, though, it ends up being tied to protectionist economics, which may work politically but I think is a bad idea from a policy perspective.
Posted 11 Dec 2020 at 1:12 pm ¶
denisdekat wrote:
I think the problem is that Class warfare, in the US, is strongly tied to socialist type theories that are supposedly “bad for business”. Sadly, everyone in the US cares more about how business is doing than their neighbor.
I tend to remind myself of these layoof years, and I think Capitalism is not all perfect either (far from it). Don’;t forget that it was the Class warfare brought us the weekend, voting rights, along with many other rights and priviledges. Per Machivellis fine observations, no one gives up power willingly.
It seems easier to me to inpire folks on the fact that we are the %90 that owns the %10, rather than the usual approach which is “we will do what the republicans do but only better”. I think Dean calls those guys “Republican light”.
Posted 14 Dec 2020 at 6:40 am ¶
yami wrote:
Sure, but the choice isn’t between Capitalism and Socialism anymore - it’s between one mixed economy and another mixed economy. I’m all for “fair trade” as no one should be making money off of gross safety/environmental/labor rights violations, but once you’re past that hurdle I can’t pretend that a job in the US is more valuable than a similar job in India, as would be necessary to swallow some of the very old-fashioned protectionism proposed by Gephardt, Edwards et al. It’s all well and good to use class differences to promote a more progressive tax system (yay!) but Marxist politicking inevitably gets tied up with nationalism, which is where it goes all wrong.
Point of fact, everything goes wrong when it’s tied up with nationalism - except Sport of course, and Pie.
Posted 14 Dec 2020 at 8:28 am ¶
denisdekat wrote:
Agreed, but I would differ in that nationalism is good in getting folks to care about where they live. Sports, who cares, most players are international anyways. If you talk about sports as in olympic type competitions, I think they should be done for. It is ridiculous how China and the US kick ass over little countries and come back home all super proud. Anyways…
I was thinking of a class war that is more global, as in the workers in the world unite for the end of war and beginning of fair pay and fair work. It does not help anyone anywqhere if there is slave labor and child labor practices all over the place…
Finally, it does matter if jobs leave the US, as it is our economy and it affects people arround us. I am very worried about the social problems that unemployment can cause The business I am in, ironically enough does well if the dollar drops as we sell to South America a lot… Still I want a strong economy in the place I live in…
Posted 16 Dec 2020 at 5:31 am ¶
yami wrote:
I was thinking of the Olympics, and the World Cup, national cricket teams, etc. Of course it’s ridiculous, but it’s also mostly harmless.
Global class unity is lovely in theory, but never actually happens! How are we supposed to unite the workers of the world anyway, if we worry about the social problems of US unemployment more than the social problems of unemployment in, say, the south of Thailand?
Posted 16 Dec 2020 at 8:15 am ¶
denisdekat wrote:
Great question, I am not a very clear person
I believe that on a personal level, first you take care of yourself, then your family, then your community, then your country, then the world. No use in helping others if I am a mess. So I make sure I am not a concern for others, and then I check in on my family (includes friends)…
Now the Labor movement, they need to globalize like the coporations did. Visualize a world strike. The world stops, and demands the end of war, child labor, you name it. It would be over for the greedy Patricians…
Posted 17 Dec 2020 at 6:59 am ¶