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The United States is headed for a plutocratic dystopia where a few gated communities sit like islands amidst a sea of bitterness, misery, and want.
Why?
Because the country is running on lies, myths, deceptions and distractions. Not surprisingly, they aren't working very well for us.
Let's run through a few of the most destructive lies and myths.
Three tries - each resulting in severe income inequality and the catastrophic economic meltdowns they inevitably cause. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out this strategy doesn't work.
So why is it that these myths and lies - so easily disproven - persist. Indeed, why have they become conventional wisdom for many Americans, and why do they shape the national debate?
Here's where the Democrats, distractions and the press's malfeasance comes in.
Republicans throw up a lot of flack to keep people from focusing on the fact that they're basically getting screwed by the 1%. Red meat issues like gay marriage, abortion and contraception, family values, and immigration do their part. Bald-faced lies like "Obama apologizes for America," or he was born in Kenya contribute as well. But it only works because Democrats are too wimpy - or too complicit - to confront this bait-and-switch bullshit.
It doesn't help that Democrats are feeding at the same corporate trough. No doubt that explains why they act like the class cowards and cringe in the last stall in the bathroom every time one of these faux issues get raised.
But the real culprit is the press - they've simply abrogated their responsibility to give people accurate, truthful information. Several weeks ago, New York Times "reader's representative" Andy Brisbane actually asked readers whether reporters should be concerned with the truth. Honestly. He did.
We are now stuck with a media that puts "balance" or "objectivity" before truth. As Eric Sevareid said:
"Our rigid formulae of so-called objectivity ... have given the lie the same prominence and impact that truth is given; they have elevated the influence of fools to that of wise men; the ignorant to the level of the learned; the evil to the level of the good."
This is more true today than it was then. And without a press devoted to honesty and accuracy, our ship of state runs on yarns, myths and the modern day equivalent of "bread and circuses," and we are at the mercy of the evil, the foolish and the ignorant.
As long as that's the case, the whims of the 1% will rule and your pay will continue to erode, or your job will exported to China or India or Honduras or anywhere the plutocrats are free to exploit workers and the environment. Or to places like Germany, where they don't buy into the myths, and an active government role assures high-wage jobs and general prosperity.
At the end of the day, trying to run a country according to the rules of fantasy island isn't a recipe for success. But it does serve the interests of the 1%.
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The United States is headed for a plutocratic dystopia where a few gated communities sit like islands amidst a sea of bitterness, misery, and want.
Why?
Because the country is running on lies, myths, deceptions and distractions. Not surprisingly, they aren't working very well for us.
Let's run through a few of the most destructive lies and myths.
Three tries - each resulting in severe income inequality and the catastrophic economic meltdowns they inevitably cause. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out this strategy doesn't work.
So why is it that these myths and lies - so easily disproven - persist. Indeed, why have they become conventional wisdom for many Americans, and why do they shape the national debate?
Here's where the Democrats, distractions and the press's malfeasance comes in.
Republicans throw up a lot of flack to keep people from focusing on the fact that they're basically getting screwed by the 1%. Red meat issues like gay marriage, abortion and contraception, family values, and immigration do their part. Bald-faced lies like "Obama apologizes for America," or he was born in Kenya contribute as well. But it only works because Democrats are too wimpy - or too complicit - to confront this bait-and-switch bullshit.
It doesn't help that Democrats are feeding at the same corporate trough. No doubt that explains why they act like the class cowards and cringe in the last stall in the bathroom every time one of these faux issues get raised.
But the real culprit is the press - they've simply abrogated their responsibility to give people accurate, truthful information. Several weeks ago, New York Times "reader's representative" Andy Brisbane actually asked readers whether reporters should be concerned with the truth. Honestly. He did.
We are now stuck with a media that puts "balance" or "objectivity" before truth. As Eric Sevareid said:
"Our rigid formulae of so-called objectivity ... have given the lie the same prominence and impact that truth is given; they have elevated the influence of fools to that of wise men; the ignorant to the level of the learned; the evil to the level of the good."
This is more true today than it was then. And without a press devoted to honesty and accuracy, our ship of state runs on yarns, myths and the modern day equivalent of "bread and circuses," and we are at the mercy of the evil, the foolish and the ignorant.
As long as that's the case, the whims of the 1% will rule and your pay will continue to erode, or your job will exported to China or India or Honduras or anywhere the plutocrats are free to exploit workers and the environment. Or to places like Germany, where they don't buy into the myths, and an active government role assures high-wage jobs and general prosperity.
At the end of the day, trying to run a country according to the rules of fantasy island isn't a recipe for success. But it does serve the interests of the 1%.
The United States is headed for a plutocratic dystopia where a few gated communities sit like islands amidst a sea of bitterness, misery, and want.
Why?
Because the country is running on lies, myths, deceptions and distractions. Not surprisingly, they aren't working very well for us.
Let's run through a few of the most destructive lies and myths.
Three tries - each resulting in severe income inequality and the catastrophic economic meltdowns they inevitably cause. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out this strategy doesn't work.
So why is it that these myths and lies - so easily disproven - persist. Indeed, why have they become conventional wisdom for many Americans, and why do they shape the national debate?
Here's where the Democrats, distractions and the press's malfeasance comes in.
Republicans throw up a lot of flack to keep people from focusing on the fact that they're basically getting screwed by the 1%. Red meat issues like gay marriage, abortion and contraception, family values, and immigration do their part. Bald-faced lies like "Obama apologizes for America," or he was born in Kenya contribute as well. But it only works because Democrats are too wimpy - or too complicit - to confront this bait-and-switch bullshit.
It doesn't help that Democrats are feeding at the same corporate trough. No doubt that explains why they act like the class cowards and cringe in the last stall in the bathroom every time one of these faux issues get raised.
But the real culprit is the press - they've simply abrogated their responsibility to give people accurate, truthful information. Several weeks ago, New York Times "reader's representative" Andy Brisbane actually asked readers whether reporters should be concerned with the truth. Honestly. He did.
We are now stuck with a media that puts "balance" or "objectivity" before truth. As Eric Sevareid said:
"Our rigid formulae of so-called objectivity ... have given the lie the same prominence and impact that truth is given; they have elevated the influence of fools to that of wise men; the ignorant to the level of the learned; the evil to the level of the good."
This is more true today than it was then. And without a press devoted to honesty and accuracy, our ship of state runs on yarns, myths and the modern day equivalent of "bread and circuses," and we are at the mercy of the evil, the foolish and the ignorant.
As long as that's the case, the whims of the 1% will rule and your pay will continue to erode, or your job will exported to China or India or Honduras or anywhere the plutocrats are free to exploit workers and the environment. Or to places like Germany, where they don't buy into the myths, and an active government role assures high-wage jobs and general prosperity.
At the end of the day, trying to run a country according to the rules of fantasy island isn't a recipe for success. But it does serve the interests of the 1%.