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mightyflamethrower · 1 month

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At the nexus of most of America’s current crises, the diversity/equity/inclusion dogma can be found.

The southern border has been destroyed because the Democratic Party wanted the poor of the southern hemisphere to be counted in the census, to vote if possible in poorly audited mail-in elections, and to build upon constituencies that demand government help. Opposition to such cynicism and the de facto destruction of enforcement of U.S. immigration law is written off as “racism,” “nativism,” and “xenophobia.”

The military is short more than 40,000 soldiers. The Pentagon may fault youth gangs, drug use, or a tight labor market. But the real shortfall is mostly due inordinately to reluctant white males who have been smeared by some of the military elite as suspected “white supremacists,” despite dying at twice their demographics in Iraq and Afghanistan. And they are now passing on joining up despite their families’ often multigenerational combat service.

The nexus between critical race theory and critical legal theory has been, inter alia, defunding the police, Soros-funded district attorneys exempting criminals from punishment, the legitimization of mass looting, squatters’ rights, and general lawlessness across big-city America.

The recent epidemic of anti-Semitism was in part birthed by woke/DEI faculty and students on elite campuses, who declared Hamas a victim of “white settler” victimizing Israel and thus contextualized their Jewish hatred by claiming that as “victims,” they cannot be bigots.

There is a historic, malevolent role of states adjudicating political purity, substituting racial, sex, class, and tribal criteria for meritocracy. They define success or failure not based on actual outcomes but on the degree of orthodox zealotry. Once governments enter that realm of the surreal, the result is always an utter disaster.

After a series of disastrous military catastrophes in 1941 and 1942, Soviet strongman and arch-communist Joseph Stalin ended the Soviet commissar system in October 1942. He reversed course to give absolute tactical authority to his ground commanders rather than to the communist overseers, as was customary.

Stalin really had no choice since Marxist-Leninist ideology overriding military logic and efficacy had ensured that the Soviet Union was surprised by a massive Nazi invasion in June 1941. The Russians in the first 12 months of war subsequently lost nearly 5 million in vast encirclements—largely because foolhardy, ideologically driven directives curtailed the generals’ operational control of the army. After the commissars were disbanded and commanders given greater autonomy, the landmark victory at Stalingrad followed, and with it, the rebound of the Red Army.

One reason why the dictator Napoleon ran wild in Europe for nearly 18 years was that his marshals of France were neither selected only by the old Bourbon standards of aristocratic birth and wealth nor by new ideological revolutionary criteria, but by more meritocratic means than those of his rival nations.

Mao’s decade-long cultural revolution (1966–76) ruined China. It was predicated on Maoist revolutionary dogma overruling economic, social, cultural, and military realities. An entire meritocracy was deemed corrupted by the West and reactionary—and thus either liquidated or rendered inert.

In their place, incompetent zealots competed to destroy all prior standards as “bourgeois” and “counter-revolutionary.” It is no surprise that the current “people’s liberation army,” for all its talk of communist dogma, does not function entirely on Mao’s principles.

Muammar Gaddafi wrecked Libya by reordering an once oil-rich nation on Gaddafi’s crackpot rules of his “Green Book.” At times, the unhinged ideologue, in lunatic fashion, required all Libyans to raise chickens or to destroy all the violins in the nation. I once asked a Libyan why the oil-rich country appeared to me utterly wrecked, and he answered, “We first hire our first cousins—and usually the worst.”

There were many reasons why the King-Cotton, slave-owning Old South lagged far behind the North in population, productivity, and infrastructure. But the chief factor was the capital and effort invested in the amoral as well as uneconomic institution of slavery.

After the Civil War, persistent segregationist ideology demanded vast amounts of time, labor, and money in defining race down to the “one drop” rule—while establishing a labyrinth of segregation laws and refusing to draw on the talents of millions of black citizens.

Yet here we are in 2024, ignoring the baleful past as the woke diversity/equity/inclusion commissars war on merit. Institutions from United Airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration to the Pentagon and elite universities have been reformulated in the post-George Floyd woke hysteria. And to the delight of competitors and enemies abroad, they are now using criteria other than merit to hire, promote, evaluate, and retain.

The greatest problem historically with hiring and promoting based on DEI-like dogma is that anti-meritocratic criteria mark the beginning, not the end, of eroding vital standards. If one does not qualify for a position or slot by accepted standards, then a series of further remedial interventions are needed to sustain the woke project, from providing exceptions and exemptions, changing rules and requirements, and misleading the nation that a more “diverse” math, or more “inclusive” engineering, or more “equity” in chemistry can supplant mastery of critical knowledge that transcends gender, race, or ideology.

But planes either fly or crash due to proper operation, not the appearance or politics of the operator. All soldiers either hit or miss targets, and engineers either make bridges that stand or collapse on the basis of mastering ancient scientific canons and acquired skills, training, and aptitude that have nothing to do with superficial appearance, or tribal affinities, or religion, or doctrine.

The common denominator of critical theories, from critical legal theory to critical social theory, is toxic nihilism, which claims there are no absolute standards, only arbitrary rules and regulations set up by a privileged, powerful class to exploit “the other.” Yet, not punishing looting has nothing to do with race or class, but everything with corroding timeless deterrence that always has and always will prevent the bullying strong from preying on the weak and vulnerable.

Defunding the police sent a message to any criminally minded that in a cost-to-benefit risk assessment, the odds were now on the side of the criminal not being caught for his crimes—and so crime soared and the vulnerable of the inner city became easy prey.

Another danger of DEI is the subordination of the individual to the collective. We are currently witnessing an epidemic of DEI racism in which commissars talk nonstop of white supremacy/rage/privilege without any notion of enormous differences among 230 million individual Polish-, Greek-, Dutch-, Basque-, or Armenian-Americans, or the class, political, and cultural abyss that separates those in Martha’s Vineyard from their antitheses in East Palestine, Ohio.

Moreover, what is “whiteness” in an increasingly intermarried and multiracial society? Oddly, something akin to the old one-drop rules of the South is now updated to determine victims and victimizers—to the point of absurdity. Who is white—someone one half-Irish, one half Mexican—who is black—someone one quarter Jamaican, three-quarters German? To find answers, DEI czars must look to paradigms of the racist past for answers.

Moreover, once any group is exempted and not held to collective standards by virtue of its superficial appearance, then the nation naturally witnesses an increase in racism and bigotry—on the theory that it is not racist to racially stigmatize a supposedly “racist” collective. And we are already seeing an uptake in racially motivated interracial violence as criminals interpret the trickle-down theory of reparatory justice as providing exemption for opportunistic violence.

Throughout history, it has always been the most mediocre and opportunistic would-be commissars that appear to come forth when meritocracy vanishes. If there was not a Harvard President and plagiarist like Claudine Gay to trumpet and leverage her DEI credentials, she would have to be invented. If there was not a brilliant, non-DEI economist like Roland Fryer to be hounded and punished by her, he would have to be invented.

The DEI conglomerate has little idea of the landmines it is planting daily by reducing differences in talent, character, and morality into a boring blueprint of racial stereotypes. Punctuality is now “white time” and supposedly pernicious. The SAT, designed to give the less privileged a meritocratic pathway to college admissions, is deemed racist and either discarded or warped.

In its absence, universities are quietly now “reimaging” their curriculum to make it more “relevant to today’s students” and, of course, “more inclusive and more diverse.” Translated from the language of Oceania, that means after admitting tens of thousands to the nation’s elite schools who did not meet the universities’ own prior standards that they themselves once established and apprehensive about terminating such students, higher education is now euphemistically lowering the work load in classes, introducing new less rigorous classes, and inflating grades. In their virtue-signaling, they have little clue that inevitably their once prized and supposedly prestigious degrees will be rendered less valued as employers discover a Harvard, Stanford, or Princeton BA or BS is not a guarantee of academic excellence or mastery of vital skill sets.

Toxic tribalism is also, unfortunately, like nuclear proliferation. Once one group goes full tribal, others may as well, if for no reason than their own self-survival in a balkanized, Hobbesian world of bellum omnium contra omnes. If our popular culture is to be defined by the racist hosts of The View, or the racist anchorwoman Joy Reid, or members of the Congressman “Squad,” or entire studies departments in our universities that constantly bleat out the racialist mantra, then logically one of two developments will follow.

One, so-called whites in minority-majority states like California will copy the tribal affinities of others that transcend their class and cultural differences, again in response to other blocs that do the same for careerist advantage and perceived survival. Or two, racism will be redefined empirically so that any careerist elites who espouse ad nauseam racial chauvinism—on the assurance they cannot be deemed racists—will be discredited and exposed for what they’ve become, and thus the content of our character will triumph over the color of our skin.

Finally, do we ever ask how a country of immigrants like the United States—vastly smaller than India and China, less materially rich than the vast expanse of Russia, without the strategic geography of the Middle East, or without the long investment and infrastructure of Europe—emerged out of nowhere to dominate the world economically, financially, militarily, and educationally for nearly two centuries?

The answer is easy: it was the most meritocratic land of opportunity in the world, where millions emigrated (legally) on the assurance that their class, politics, religion, ethnicity, and yes, race, would be far less a drawback than anywhere else in the world.

The degree to which the U.S. survives DEI depends on either how quickly it is discarded or whether America’s existential enemies in the Middle East, China, Russia, and Iran have even worse DEI-anti-meritocratic criteria of their own in hiring, promotion, and admissions—whether defined by institutionalized hatred of the West, or loyalty oaths to the communist party, or demonstrable obsequiousness to the Putin regime, or lethal religious intolerance.

Unfortunately, our illiberal enemies, China especially, at least in matters of money and arms, are now emulating the meritocracy of the old America. Meanwhile, we are hellbent on following their former destructive habits of using politics instead of merit to staff our universities, government, corporations, and military.

Our future hinges on how quickly we discard DEI orthodoxy and simply make empirical decisions to stop printing money, deter enemies abroad, enforce our laws, punish criminals, secure the border, reboot the military, regain energy independence, and judge citizens on their character and talent and not their appearance and politics—at least if it is not already too late.

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tabsters · 8 months

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OHOHOHO FUNNY THAT @mythicalmagical-monkeyman AND @maiawhimsicalt SHOULD MENTION THESE TWO DEFINITELY UNRELATED CHARACTERS NYEHEHEHE

tagging: @mythicalmagical-monkeyman, @hyperfixation-tangentopia, and @maiawhimsicalt. if you want to get tagged for when i make zodiac posts, please let me know!

previous posts are here

So. Fun fact. Centaurus and Crux do indeed interact with each other.

What’s their relation to each other? Well…

They’re in the fine line between ‘friends’ and ‘lovers’. It’s complicated, but basically they want to mutually be in love but are super duper scared to actually admit their feelings to each other. Just like me and Rexen a couple weeks before we got together.

These two are also friggin DUMBASSES because they have KISSED and HELD HANDS and they STILL go like “yeah we did it just as friends lolol”

Essentially: idiots to lovers. Very big idiots to lovers.

Moving on from these two’s disastrous love life…(not more disastrous than mine though)

Centaurus:

Represents the constellation of the centaur

Minor goddess of dreams, nightmares, and the subconscious

Sagittarius’ older half sister

Related to Sagittarius through their dad. She also serves as Sagittarius’ advisor.

Centaurus and Sagittarius also have a younger half sister, again, related through their dad.

Chinese, born and raised. Unlike her half brother, she did not run away to America with her mother when she was twelve.

Suffers an extremely large amount from sleep paralysis, insomnia, and other sleep-related disorders due to being the goddess of sleep. Sometimes she also experiences other people’s nightmares if they’re distressed enough. Which is not fun. At all.

She can also, to some extent, manipulate others’ dreams and help interpret prophetic dreams. Additionally, she can use tarot cards to predict possible outcomes for the future.

She’s an actual centaur!! Four legs and horse tail and all!! Except she can change from centaur form to human form. No, she does not give out free rides. If you ask her that, she will kick you with her horse hooves.

She has the sleep schedule of Rexen (rexen this is your reminder to SLEEP. BETTER.) She sleeps at two am and wakes up nine hours later.

Voice claim: Sweet Dreams remix by Besomorph

Design:

Crux

Represents the constellation of the cross

Minor goddess of music

Lyra’s older sister, 2 years older than Lyra but 3 years younger than their older sister

Korean

As mentioned previously, Lyra’s hands got chopped off due to their parents fucking with a korean gang lord. Crux and their oldest sister got similar treatment. Crux had tally marks carved onto her back, one tally mark for every thousand won (korean currency) their parents owed. Totalling…ooh…150 tally marks in all. Ouchie.

I based Crux off of Raine Whispers, in terms of powers and personality (music powers, very shy and afraid of attention)

Crux can manipulate soundwaves via instruments, and is most skilled at the lyre, the violin, and the flute.

She has perfect pitch, which is the ability to identify any musical note by name after hearing it, without reference to other notes. She can also pick up any instrument pretty quickly after watching someone play it.

Crux 🤝 Sagittarius for Asians with religious trauma. You think I saw a constellation literally called “The Cross” and thought I wouldn’t give them religious trauma? Hehe no, it’s in the name of ✨SYMBOLISM✨

Voice claim: Saints by Echos

Design:

questions about my lore are greatly appreciated!!

#oc #oc lore #zodiac #zodiacs #zodiac sign #zodiac signs #zodiac lore #gacha club #gacha

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mariacallous · 2 years

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It often seems as if the hawkish elements of the U.S. establishment have only ever heard of one war: the Second World War in Europe. This is because whatever else they forget or get wrong about that war, they are right that it was planned and initiated by a deeply evil and megalomaniac force which posed a threat to the entire world, which had to be completely defeated, and with which no morally acceptable compromise was possible.

The perennial and exclusive references to that war allow U.S. hawks to portray every conflict in which they wish to involve America as an existential struggle against evil, which if not engaged in will lead to catastrophic consequences for America and the world. This has been true of their approach to Vietnam through Iraq to the present war in Ukraine, with disastrous results for America and the world.

This, however, is precisely what makes the Second World War so exceptional. The great majority of wars in modern history and indeed in American history have been far more morally complex in their origins, and have ended not with the complete victory of one side but with some form of messy compromise. Most wars (and this includes the Second World War) also illustrate the law of unintended consequences. The end results are very often not those predicted or desired even by the ostensible “victors.”

From this point of view, the First World War is a far better historical analogy than the Second for the present war in Ukraine. The years 1914 to 1918 saw the deaths of more than 20 million people, around half of them civilians. Even the French and British victor nations emerged crippled. The consequences of the First World War—including the Communist Revolution in Russia and the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire—paved the way for the Second.

Of the various leading figures, only Vladimir Lenin, who predicted that war would lead to revolution, can be said to have been accurate in his analysis prior to the war. Nobody else’s predictions came true. If it had been given to the governments in 1914 to see the future, not one would have thought the war worthwhile. Or as a French farmer near Verdun remarked simply a half century later to Alistair Horne, the British historian of the Battle of Verdun, “Ils etaient fous, ces gens-la”: Those people were crazy.

Today, no serious historians—or educated people in general—would argue that this conflict was necessary and in the real interests of any of the participants, nor that continuing the war in order to gain complete victory was necessary or wise, nor that the Versailles Settlement that ended the war turned out well for the victors, let alone the defeated. From the perspective of 112 years later, it seems obvious that in adopting the policies that led to war and persisting in its continuation, all the ruling elites of Europe fundamentally and disastrously misjudged the true interests of their countries.

As to moral guilt for the war, even in Germany, most historians today would accept that this lay principally with the German government. Germany’s encouragement to the Austrian government to attack Serbia in response to the assassination of the heir to the Austrian throne was the decision of Berlin alone. Germany was even more culpable for its legally and morally indefensible invasion of Belgium that brought the British Empire into the war.

At the same time, however, very few historians today would attribute sole blame for the war to Germany. In particular, one should stress the criminal folly of the Russian imperial government in forming an alliance with Serbia that emboldened Serbian nationalists to advance their irredentist claim to Austrian-held Bosnia, and emboldened the Serbian secret service covertly to back a terrorist campaign against Austria that led to the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and provided the spark that ignited the war.

Russian support for Serbia was indifferent not only to the fanatical and reckless character of Serbian nationalism, but the fact that nationalist claims directed by different Slavic peoples against the Austro-Hungarian Empire threatened that crumbling empire with destruction and thereby threatened to destroy the entire German geopolitical and ethnic position in Central Europe. It should have been obvious to any sensible Russian official that this was an issue over which Germany would in the last resort engage in a war that threatened Russia with destruction. Indeed, some Russians did point this out, but their advice was ignored by a Russian establishment committed to geopolitical ambitions that went far beyond both Russia’s real strength and Russia’s real interests.

In the Second World War, aspects of German policy were uniquely evil, in line with the uniquely evil racist ideology set out in Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf. In the First World War, things seem far less clear cut. The allied propaganda line of the war being a war of democracies against autocracies was rendered ludicrous by the fact that until it collapsed in 1917, the Russian Empire was a key ally against Germany. Nor of course were the British and French colonial empires democratic.

In the area of war crimes, the German strategy of unrestricted submarine warfare, intended to starve Britain into surrender, was treated in Britain and America as a monstrous and obvious war crime. The Germans argued, not without reason, that it was a response to the British strategy of starving Germany into surrender through blockade of Germany’s maritime trade by the Royal Navy. The German submarine strategy was extremely stupid, because it eventually brought America into the war against Germany and thereby ensured Germany’s defeat. But stupidity, however extreme, is not a war crime.

The Germans also pointed out that the British tactic (wholly in keeping with the traditional laws of war by the way) of disguising British warships as unarmed merchantmen (the “Q ships”) and then sinking German submarines that tried to check on them made it necessary to torpedo all ships without warning. Once again, 112 years later, we can regret all the suffering involved, and honor the brave men who died on both sides, without taking a high moral stance one way or the other.

Today we can all agree that principal responsibility for the war in Ukraine lies with the Russian government, which invaded Ukraine. But will historians of the future attribute sole responsibility to Russia, and exonerate the U.S. and NATO member governments of all blame for trying to integrate Ukraine with the West, and thus threatening what both Russians and a long row of Western experts (including the present head of the CIA, William Burns) warned were seen in Moscow as vital Russian interests?

Concerning war crimes, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the forced annexation of Ukrainian territory, are both clearly very serious crimes under international law, for which I hope that President Vladimir Putin will one day be brought to account. Russian soldiers have committed numerous crimes against Ukrainian civilians, for which the Ukrainian authorities are correct to put them on trial. The Russian high command has at the very least displayed indifference towards civilian casualties in its air campaign against Ukraine. However, we should be very careful not to portray these crimes as in some way culturally special to Russians, or as “genocide,” if only for the very obvious reason that Western forces have themselves repeatedly carried out similar actions. To use the “genocide” label in this way would put American and British commanders and air crews in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and Syria on the same level as Hitler’s SS and the Rwandan Hutu militias, a morally and historically grotesque proposition.

The Amnesty International report criticizing both Russian and Ukrainian actions in the war was justly attacked, but for the wrong reason. The correct charges against it were legal illiteracy and practical naivety. The fact that a war is illegal does not make everything the aggressor does a war crime. Under the laws of war, it is not a crime for Ukrainian forces to establish positions in populated areas, otherwise they could not defend their country at all. But nor is it a crime for Russian forces to bombard those positions. All of this is stated quite clearly in international treaties and conventions on the laws of war. Above all, we should not let justified moral outrage become hypocritical moral hysteria—as during the First World War—because this can very easily become an obstacle to seeking a peace settlement that may be in the best interests of ourselves and the victims of the war.

The same goes for negotiations over territory. If today it seems lunatic almost beyond belief that millions of German, French, and British soldiers should have died in a war that began over whether Austrians or Serbs should rule Sarajevo, let us consider the contemporary example of Sevastopol, the Russian naval base in Crimea. The present line of the U.S. administration and most of the U.S. establishment is that negotiations for peace are purely a matter for the Ukrainian government. And the Ukrainian government has repeatedly declared that its aim is to drive Russia from all the territory it has occupied in Ukraine, including Crimea. Recent military advances by Ukraine mean that such complete Ukrainian victory now seems at least possible.

Thirty years ago, the overwhelming majority of Americans would have simply assumed that Crimea was part of Russia, as indeed it was until the Soviet government transferred it by decree to Ukraine in 1954. Before the Russian conquest of 1783, the peninsula was ruled by Tatars, before that by Byzantines, before that by Scythians, and before that, well, whoever it was, it was certainly not Ukrainians.

Every officially connected Russian with whom I have spoken, and most ordinary Russians, have said that to defend Crimea, Russia should in the last resort use nuclear weapons, as the United States would to defend Hawaii and Pearl Harbor. This would very likely begin a ladder of escalation that would lead to the destruction of America, Russia, and civilization itself in a nuclear war.

We should not need to wait 112 years for historians (if there are any) to tell us that this is not an outcome that would serve the interests of any country, including Ukraine, and that the risks involved colossally outweigh any conceivable benefits to the United States. By repelling Russia’s invasion, Ukraine, with Western help, has already won a great victory and secured its independence and freedom to try to join the West. For the Biden administration to go beyond this, and aim at total victory for Ukraine, looks like unwarranted hubris on the part of Washington. And we should also not need historians of the future, or the lessons of the First World War, to tell us that hubris invariably leads to nemesis.

#I don't know that I fully agree with Lieven but some of his points are pretty solid

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versey21 · 1 year

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19th April

Concord Hymn by Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Battle of Lexington and Concord, the opening battle of the American War of Independence, took place on this day in 1775. An inconclusive clash between a Massachusetts Patriot militia and a squad of Redcoats, the fight nonetheless marked the irrevocable descent into war between the American colonies and the British Crown. The war would last eight years and end with the secession of the colonies from the British Empire and, ultimately, the formation of the United States of America.

The Battle of Lexington by William Barnes Wollen (1910). Source: Wikipedia

Concord Hymn

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,

Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,

Here once the embattled farmers stood

And fired the shot heard round the world.

The foe long since in silence slept;

Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;

And Time the ruined bridge has swept

Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.

On this green bank, by this soft stream,

We set today a votive stone;

That memory may their dead redeem,

When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

Spirit, that made those heroes dare

To die, and leave their children free,

Bid Time and Nature gently spare

The shaft we raise to them and thee.

The American foundational myth of national revolution against foreign tyranny has been carefully curated. However, in what many scholars now describe as a civil war, the outcome was disastrous for many Americans - principally Loyalists forced into ruinous exile in Canada, and black Americans condemned to continued slavery.

#poetry #ralph waldo emerson #american revolution #battle of Lexington

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void-of-valentino · 2 years

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Harrison Bergeron—Kurt Vonnegut

This is one of my favorite short stories, it's quick to read, but it requires a whole lot of thought to even begin to understand! I want to go over a few interesting things about this story, meaning the themes, symbol(s), and motifs(s) that I've found.

This will contain spoilers! I highly suggest you read the story before reading this post!!!

Themes:

The danger of total equality.

Harrison Bergeron is the story of a dystopian American society that’s set in the year 2081. In this society, everyone is equal; both mentally and physically. Contrary to the popular belief, Kurt Vonnegut suggests that total equality is unacheavable in a safe and/or humane manner. He suggests that total equality is not something that is worth striving for; and that it is more so a mistaken goal that is disastrous in both execution and outcome. The government in Vonnegut’s story tortures its citizens. The beautiful must wear hideous masks or disfigure themselves, the intelligent must listen to earsplitting noises that impede their ability to think, and the graceful and strong must wear weights around their necks at all hours of the day. The insistence on total equality seeps into the citizens, who begin to dumb themselves down or hide their special attributes. Some behave this way because they have internalized the government’s goals, and others because they fear that the government will punish them severely if they display any remarkable abilities. The outcome of this quest for equality is disastrous. America becomes a land of cowed, stupid, slow people. Government officials murder the extremely gifted with no fear of reprisal. Equality is more or less achieved, but at the cost of freedom and individual achievement.

The power of television.

Television is an immensely powerful force that sedates, rules, and terrorizes the characters in Harrison Bergeron. To emphasize television’s overwhelming importance in society, Vonnegut makes it a constant presence in his story: the entire narrative takes place as George and Hazel sit in front of the TV. Television functions primarily as a sedative for the masses. Hazel’s cheeks are wet with tears, but because she is distracted by the ballerinas on the screen, she doesn’t remember why she is crying. The government also uses television as a way of enforcing its laws. When dangerously talented people like Harrison are on the loose, for example, the government broadcasts warnings about them. They show a photograph of Harrison with his good looks mutilated and his strength dissipated. The photo is a way of identifying the supposedly dangerous escapee, but it is also a way of intimidating television viewers. It gives them a visual example of the handicaps imposed on those who do not suppress their own abilities. Television further turns into a means of terrorizing the citizens when Diana Moon Glampers shoots Harrison. The live execution is an effective way of showing viewers what will happen to those who dare to disobey the law.

Symbols:

Harrison Bergeron:

The title character of the story represents the spark of defiance and wanting for individuality that still exists in some Americans today. Harrison does not display the passivity or cowardice that virtually everyone else in the story does. Rather, he is an exaggerated, power hungry, alpha male, kind of character. A towering, brave, breathtakingly strong man. When he storms into the TV studio and announces that “‘I am the Emperor!” cried Harrison. “Do you hear? I am the Emperor! Everybody must do what I say at once!’” He then goes on to say that he is the greatest ruler who ever lived, which makes him sound like he has truly lost it. At the same time, however, his boastfulness is exhilarating. It is an exaggerated expression of the defiant urge to excel that some Americans still feel. When Harrison rips off his steel restraints and handicaps, the physical strength and beauty he reveals reminds some viewers that underneath their own restraints and handicaps, they too are still talented or lovely. But in the end, Harrison, symbol of defiance, is killed in cold blood by Diana Moon Glampers, the administrator of government power. The quick, efficient murder suggests that if a defiant spirit still exists in America in 2081, its days are numbered.

Motifs:

Noise:

The noises broadcast by the government increase in intensity and violence during the course of the story, paralleling the escalating tragedy of George’s and Hazel’s lives. When the story begins, a buzzer sounds in George’s head as he watches the ballerinas on TV. As he tries to think about the dancers, who are weighed down and masked to counteract their lightness and beauty, the sound of a bottle being smashed with a hammer rings in his ears. When he thinks about his son, he is interrupted by the sound of twenty-one guns firing, an excessively violent noise that foreshadows Harrison’s murder. Thoughts about the laws of equality and the competition that existed in the old days are shattered by the sound of a siren, a noise that suggests the extent to which the government has literally become the thought police. As Harrison barges into the television studio, George hears a car crash, a noise that connotes the injury of multiple people. The noise that interrupts George roughly at the same time that his son is being executed on live TV is described only as “a handicap signal,” an ominously vague phrase. Vonnegut suggests that the noise is so awful that it can’t be mentioned, just as the murder of Harrison is so awful that George and Hazel can’t fully comprehend it. The final noise George hears is that of a riveting gun, an appropriate echo of the way Diana Moon Glampers killed Harrison.

#harrison bergeron #kurt vonnegut #writing #writblr #writers #creative writing #writerblr

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bllsbailey · 4 months

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Michelle Obama's Terrible Takes: 'Terrified' of Election Outcome, Government Does 'Everything for Us'

Becoming... what? That's what I always wonder when I see the book title in the above image.

Do you miss the Obamas? Although many speculate that Barack and Michelle are secretly running the White House and telling Joe Biden what to do, I'm not so sure because even though Obama did terrible damage to this country in his seemingly endless eight-year reign, even he has been questioning Bumblin’ Joe's clown show administration.

SEE: Report: Obama Worried About 2024 Biden Campaign, Aides Dish on Tension Between Camps

Although the former president and first lady make appearances here and there and collect vast sums of money for books and Netflix deals, they are thankfully no longer daily fixtures in the news cycle.

But Michelle decided we needed her opinion on the current state of things and appeared on an episode of Jay Shetty’s “On Purpose” podcast released Monday to let the world know that she’s kept up at night because of her terror that her preferred presidential candidate might not win the 2024 election.

Democracy scares her that much.

Those are the things that keep me up, because you don’t have control over them. And you wonder, where are we in this? Where are our hearts? What’s gonna happen in this next election? I am terrified about what could possibly happen, because our leaders matter. Who we select, who speaks for us, who holds that bully pulpit, it affects us in ways that sometimes I think people take for granted.

She's so terrified that a vote might actually let the people decide who they want to be president? C'mon man.

Watch:

Unsurprisingly, I disagree with her. Many, many people do not take for granted how our leaders affect us. While Michelle’s husband Barack’s tenure was deeply unpleasant, shall we say, it was not quite so disastrous as Joe Biden’s current presidency. With rampant inflation, conflicts across the globe, humanitarian and security disasters at the southern border, few are taking “for granted” just how truly dreadful our leader is.

But she wasn’t done, and reminded us of why her and Barack’s worldview is incompatible with the vision of our Founding Fathers.

“The fact that people think that government — ‘eh, does it really even do anything?’ — and I’m like ‘Oh my God, does government do everything for us, and we cannot take this democracy for granted,’” Obama said. “And I worry sometimes that we do. Those are the things that keep me up.” [Emphasis mine.]

This lady seriously needs some Ambien.

Government does "everything for us.” That sums up the progressive ideology in a nutshell.

No, government does not -- and should not -- do everything for us. We would like to practice our own religions, raise our own kids, have our own values, keep our own money -- without the fed telling us how to do it. It's called "limited" government, and it's what the Founders envisioned. Has she never read the Federalist Papers?

Since it's Michelle Obama, we couldn't expect her to get through the discussion without dropping some inflammatory racial commentary, and she didn't disappoint. Although former President Donald Trump has been relentlessly hounded by Merrick Garland's weaponized Department of Justice and even corrupt local prosecutors, Michelle thinks it would be even worse if he were a black man:

“Other people can be indicted a bunch of times and still run for office. Black men can’t. You just learn to be good. And in the end, you benefit from that extra resilience,” said Obama.

Wasn't Barack supposed to usher in a "Post-Racial America?" How's that going exactly, Mrs. Obama? And I wonder if she ever heard of former Washington D.C. Mayor Marion Barry -- she might want to Google him.

Some have theorized that should Biden eventually be forced out of the race due to infirmity or other health issues, Michelle would jump in and immediately be a front-runner.

See: Ousting Joe Biden and Obama/Newsom, the Democratic...Dream Ticket?

I don't see it -- the Obamas seem too addicted to their jet-set, Hollywood lifestyle and enjoy dropping in, sounding sage, and then departing for yet another yacht adventure. Plus, should Michelle ever face the actual scrutiny that a presidential candidate would, her poll numbers would plummet like an asteroid when people paid closer attention to what she actually has to say. Progressives might idol-worship her, but she would get little love from independents or anyone even close to the middle.

Hopefully, her sporadic appearances will continue to remind voters of why we don't miss the Obamas, why Joe Biden is such a disaster, and why we need new leadership in the White House.

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stephen-barry · 5 months

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*opinion*

Has "Corporate Personhood" Delivered America to the Brink of Dictatorship? You Betcha.....

Corporations don't need pure food, clean air, or safe drinking water, but they control our government and elections… and the outcome is proving disastrous.

#2024 presidential race #donald trump #constitution #right wing extremism #corporate greed #supreme court #congress #politics

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sublimeobservationarcade · 1 year

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Australia Is Fast Becoming A Nation of Haves and Have Nots

Recent economic data reveals that Australia is fast becoming a nation of haves and have nots. The Australia Institute economic research shows that the decade 2009-19 delivered 93% of the wealth growth into the hands of the top 10% of Australian owners and earners. Not coincidentally, this coincided with the Coalition of Liberals and Nationals in power. During this time, the Abbott, Turnbull, and Morrison governments brought in regressive taxation measures, which are culminating with the Stage 3 tax cuts to the most wealthy section of our society. Flattening the tax system means that the wealthy keep more of their money and there is less redressing effect to help those much less fortunate within our communities.

Inequality & Inequity Hallmarks of Australian Society in the 21C

Australians are turning a deaf ear and blind eye to the plight of the growing poor and disadvantaged among our nation. The recent uproar about the crime wave in Alice Springs conveniently ignores the complete lack of services for Indigenous youth in regional areas. There is nothing for these kids to do in so many places around Australia. There is no one in their corner demanding better things either. The Voice to Parliament, which Peter Dutton the Opposition leader is campaigning against, will be a voice on matters such as these for the neglected poor amid our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brothers and sisters. The Liberal Party and National Party are divisive and non-inclusive forces within the Australian political landscape. Australia is fast becoming a nation of haves and have nots.

Photo by vectors icon on Pexels.com

Coalition Drove Inequity As Policy During Their Time In Power

The Coalition during their decade in power attempted an Americanisation of our institutions and way of life. The Coalition increased the costs of higher education for degrees in the humanities. They sought to increase privatisation of our tertiary institutions, which would lead to higher prices for degrees, as in America. Looking after the wealthy is a prime directive for the Liberals in Australia. If they could dismantle Medicare they would. Medicare is far from perfect but have a look at the United States if you want to see the worst failure of a healthcare system with a complete lack of universal health insurance. Privatisation in health delivers worldclass healthcare for the 10% who can afford it and disastrous outcomes for the 90% of the population who struggle to pay their medical bills and premiums. More people enter bankruptcy from outrageously priced medical bills in the US than anywhere else in the world.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com Aspirational Politics Mask Inequity Aspirational politics has infected Australia over the last couple of decades. Too many of us are only concerned with looking out for ourselves economically. The Coalition has moved further to the right, copying what is happening in the U.S. again. The greed is good culture has permeated those on the conservative side. The Robodebt scheme inaugurated by Scott Morrison zealously attacked those on welfare as cheats. This zealotry combined with their incompetence has cost us the tax payers $1.8 billion in a class action settlement. A Royal Commission has revealed how wrong Morrison, Alan Tudge, Stuart Robert, and Marise Payne got it. Several vulnerable and entirely innocent Australians killed themselves over debts in the thousands of dollars they did not owe. It was a complete abuse of power and catastrophic failing of the public service and government. It was a betrayal of trust of the Australian people. It ran for 5 years and the Australian people did nothing. We were largely indifferent to the suffering of the poorest and least able to defend themselves among us. This is the new Australia we live in. Australia is fast becoming a nation of haves and have nots.

Photo by MART PRODUCTION on Pexels.com Unfair Australia & Liberal Party Politics Australians do not look out for their poorer neighbours any more. Australia is not the land of a fair go. The Liberal Party and National Party Coalition is built on policies that look after the vested interests of the already wealthy and powerful. The Murdoch press likewise look after their corporate mates who advertise in their newspapers and on their radio programs. Similarly, Nine Fairfax follow the corporate media mandate, where objective journalism comes second to the interests of advertisers. The ABC remains a bastion of independence but had to survive a decade of concerted attacks by the Coalition. Its budget was slashed and its journalists criticised by Coalition government members in an attempt to weaken their reporting on their governing. It was effective in neutering the more outspoken Auntie presenters.

Australia has spent two decades growing used to locking up and, therefore, psychologically torturing asylum seekers who come to our shores via illegal boats. Out of sight is out of mind via offshore processing and locking these desperate people up in prison camps for years and years. The haves do not want their island paradise sullied by the needy, especially if they are dark skinned Arabs and Africans. Australia was built on the basis of it being a new world for white people – this remains rooted inside the beliefs and attitudes of many Australians. Racism voices its ugly message online via cowardly trolls and at the footy on weekends with black players being abused over the fence. It has a political champion in Pauline Hanson and her party who these racists can vote for. There is much greater racism in regional Australia, where the levels of education are far poorer, along with the available services.

Photo by Anna Tarazevich on Pexels.com The status quo ensures the continuing grossly unfair distribution of the nation’s wealth to the top 10%. The Coalition is all about the status quo, which is why after a decade in power they did nothing to provide Australia with an energy policy to meet the existential challenge of climate change. Playing politics whilst Australia burns was Tony Abbott’s and Scott Morrison’s speciality. Australia now faces a steeper road ahead to transition from fossil fuels to alternative low carbon emitting energy sources. This is why they were voted out of office in the end. Even the selfish Australians eventually realised you cannot go on having a government sticking their heads in the sand. The clock is ticking and even the dumbos in Queensland will have to wake up to the global reality.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com Australia has become less community minded over recent decades. Our concept of who is part of our community is far more likely to only entertain PLUs. Do individual white Australians feel a sense of responsibility for helping their disadvantaged black, fellow and sister, Australians? Would they walk a kilometre in their shoes? Or do they judge them harshly on a meaner scale of everyone is out for themselves? Helping repair the imbalance between the haves and have nots is not going to happen exclusively through government programs and policies. It is going to take all of us committing via a national resolve to lift up those falling behind. How about it Australia? ©House Therapy Read the full article

#America #Australia #Coalition #economics #humanrights #inequality #Morrison #wealthdistribution

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camillacammy · 1 year

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thesecrettimes · 1 year

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Bank of America Expects the Fed to Keep Hiking Rates Until ‘Point of Pain’ for Consumer Demand

Bank of America has warned that the Federal Reserve will have to keep raising interest rates until it finds “the point of pain for consumer demand.” Expecting a slowdown in consumer demand to “lead to an outright recession,” the bank’s economist cautioned that “additional Fed hikes would also mean more pain for the interest-sensitive non-consumer sectors such as housing.”

Bank of America’s Economic Warning

Bank of America senior economist Aditya Bhave published a note earlier this week warning that the Federal Reserve could increase interest rates beyond the market’s expectations to bring inflation down to its 2% target. According to a memo seen by Fortune, the bank wrote: The Fed will have to keep raising rates until it finds the point of pain for consumer demand. Bank of America added that at this stage, 25-basis-point interest rate hikes in the upcoming Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meetings in March and May “look extremely likely.” The economist also pointed out that Bank of America recently changed its Fed forecast to include an additional 25-basis-point interest rate hike in June. Bhave continued: The resilience of demand-driven inflation means the Fed might have to raise rates closer to 6% to get inflation back to target. Several other economists have cautioned that the Fed cannot reach its 2% inflation target without “crushing the economy,” including Allianz chief economist Mohamed El-Erian, who believes that “2% is not the right target.” Earlier this week, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that “disinflation is not a straight line.” While stating that “there’s more work to be done” given that “core inflation still remains at a level that’s above what’s consistent with the Fed’s objective,” the treasury secretary dismissed the idea that a recession is inevitable. Commenting on Yellen’s statements, the Bank of America senior economist stressed that “a recession appears more likely than a soft landing.” Bhaves opined: A slowdown in consumer demand, which our analysis suggests is necessary to bring inflation back to target, would likely lead to an outright recession. “Consumer spending makes up 68% of GDP, and additional Fed hikes would also mean more pain for the interest-sensitive non-consumer sectors such as housing,” the Bank of America economist described. “Our base case is that a recession will start in Q3 2023. Risks are skewed towards an extended period of consumer resilience, stickier inflation, and more Fed hikes. Either way, however, the lesson for investors is: No pain, no gain.” Several Fed officials have already said that more rate hikes are needed to bring inflation under control. Earlier this week, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic warned about “disastrous” economic consequences if the Fed loosens its policy prematurely. Meanwhile, billionaire “bond king” Jeffrey Gundlach predicted “painful outcomes” in the next recession while economist Peter Schiff cautioned that the Fed could be fighting a “complete economic collapse.” Do you agree with the Bank of America economist? Let us know in the comments section below. Read the full article

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barreratodd73 · 1 year

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Home Home Security System Can Protect Your Family And Your Prized Possessions

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ortegawqawestergaard · 2 years

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My personal Experience With Burnham Boilers

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#Furnace Repair Service

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