Politics | Don't Fear the Truth

Instead of watching TV news people prattle on about War and Patriotism, listen to this guy.

Shane July 20th, 2008

It’s hard convincing people that the US is not a benevolent country.

Shane July 13th, 2008

Image by MATEUS_27:24&25 via FlickrNormally I don’t like to just post a link to one article (read: blogspam) but this article is too good not to get a full post.

http://www.alternet.org/audits/39416/?page=1

Most of my family does not want to believe that the US is not out to help countries and ’spread democracy’.

I probably piss them off by repeating it over and over, but I feel that this is the key to turning things around. As long as most Americans feel that we really try to help countries like Iraq, we will always fall into the same trap. Apologies will be made (’oh I guess there were no WMD. Ooops’), accusations will fly, but in the end, it will just continue the next time we want to attack someone (Iran?). Why? Because most of us do not know that the US has installed dictators and *ousted Democratically elected leaders* when it suited people in power to do so.

I need to buy a shirt that says ‘US sanctions on Iraq killed 500K Iraqi children. We suck.’ The propaganda and nationalism here is so strong though, that I would probably get accosted by some wingnut who thinks we are in Iraq to fight the war on ‘Terrah’.

If every American knew of the Guatemala coup, or how we screwed with Iran, or our involvement in Chile, and knew what really happened, we would never even have gone into Iraq…

What is your political compass?

Shane July 9th, 2008

I found this site about a year ago and never posted it here. In my opinion, it is a pretty eye opening site.

If you follow politics, or have parents that irritate you with their ‘bomb the Middle East, it will make the world safer’ views, you often hear the word ‘liberal’ tossed around. The ‘liberal media is anti-American’ or ‘those liberal treehuggers should just leave the US!’

By the way, is it possible to be ‘Un-American’? We are supposed to be the country that allows anyone to have any view, as long as it does not involve hurting other people, and we are the melting pot, or whatever they are calling us now, that has all cultures and ethnic groups… exactly what viewpoint makes you un-American then, when we supposedly encourage people to have different views?

Show article… »

Anyway, this site, www.politicalcompass.org, lets you take a test about your views, and then shows where you fit in the larger political ‘compass’. A quick quote explains the site well, I think:

The idea was developed by a political journalist with a university counselling background, assisted by a professor of social history. They’re indebted to people like Wilhelm Reich and Theodor Adorno for their ground-breaking work in this field. We believe that, in an age of diminishing ideology, a new generation in particular will get a better idea of where they stand politically - and the sort of political company they keep.

Is this website perfect? Probably not, as it is hard to really determine where a person stands based on a short questionnaire. But I do think it is correct in one important fact: the so-called ‘Liberals’ in our government are not really Liberal at all. Almost all Politicians lean towards the Authoritarian/Fascist axis, and the NeoLiberalism axis. NeoLiberalism, it turns out, has nothing to do with Liberalism. “Broadly speaking, Neoliberalism seeks to transfer control of the economy from state to the private sector.”

Here is where I stand on the axis, when I took the test:

I took this test about a year ago, which might explain why I leaned towards Communism. The more I read about how the government handles our money, the more I lean towards Libertarian/Neoliberalism. My communist tendencies are usually about people being equal economically. Basically I am a Libertarian who feels people should all make the same amount of money - as long as they work as hard and as long as everyone else does.

Here is a compass of the Presidential Candidates (remember I did this a year ago)

This is the enlightening ‘compass’. Supposedly ‘Left’ leaning politicians are not *really* on the Left at all. Or at least, very few are. The two who were really on the left? Ignored as wackos and lunatics. Did Kucinich and Gravel really have radical viewpoints, or has the rest of the political crowd moved to the Right? Remember that Communism, or Collectivism, is really about letting the government run things, and where all people are equal in status and wealth. Communism is not inherently evil, people are evil. Unfortunately evil people can and will abuse a communist system. But hey, people are abusing our system right now too, we are not immune.

Here are two more enlightening compasses:

Who would you rather be associated with? GW Bush, or Gandhi and Nelson Mandela? Obama, Hillary… much closer to Bush than Gandhi…

The truth, I think, is that people who run for political offices are usually not truly Liberal, or on the Left at all. People like me, who are really on the Left, want to dismantle government, not be the leader of it.

Remember these charts the next time you hear some politician called a Liberal.

« Hide Article

Some interesting photos.

Shane July 1st, 2008

Apparently kids saluted the flag here in the US before Hitler and WW2, then it was changed to the hand over the heart.

Do other nations pledge allegiance to the flag? So far I can’t find any… except possibly North Korea. Nice. Ever wonder why we happen to be involved in more wars than any other country? Is Patriotism just the door to Nationalism? There is a war going on. For your mind. Chucklechucklechuckle.

The Amnesty International ads are quite impressive.

Show article… »