Illusion of freedom

[HeyYou]

You get the freedoms your government decides to grant you. That's it. There is no such thing as "god given rights". It sounded good at the time it was written, but, its a snow job. The government in the US has been taking away our 'god given rights' since its inception. That process has only accelerated these last couple decades. It's getting to the point that there is no freedom of speech, and it seems the left wants to revoke the 2nd amendment as well.

[Mktavish]

Well ultimately it is not the government taking away our freedom. It is companies being given to much freedom to exploit. Ergo yours and mine statements of ... they should not be considered individuals with the rights granted therein.

They need be a subset of entities treated differently , with their potential for power culled.

 

@ Oblivion It is their right to freedom of speech on par with individuals , that they then can take to power levels beyond individuals and conglomerations of individuals like municipalities.

That they then exploit for profit gain , which leads into a circular self feeding entity for power growth. And this could simply be mitigated by taxing their use of speech. Ergo treated differently than individuals.

 

First and foremost at the top of the food chain ... political opinion punditry.

Which if you are going to do that as a business ... you should pay for the footprint you create.

[Oblivionaddicted]

@ Oblivion It is their right to freedom of speech on par with individuals , that they then can take to power levels beyond individuals and conglomerations of individuals like municipalities.

That they then exploit for profit gain , which leads into a circular self feeding entity for power growth. And this could simply be mitigated by taxing their use of speech. Ergo treated differently than individuals.

How would it mitigate anything?

 

In a democracy the power would be given to human beings who wouldn't have anything to win trampling people's rights and who would be sure to be denunced and punished if they do so. This notably goes by medias independent of the company bosses and the state.

 

By the way everytime a dictator makes a coup d'état he takes the control of the medias.

[HeyYou]

Problem is, who decides what is 'trampling', and what is 'for the greater good'??? Everyone has their own ideas of how things *should* be. And strangely enough, not everyone agrees on what those are. So you would end up with the 'majority' controlling the morals/values of EVERYONE. Something like what the dems are trying to do even now.......

[Mktavish]

Im simply talking about changing the difference between actual human being individuals ... and the entities for business the humans create. First and foreMOST ... they do not have the freedom of speech we living breathing entities do. They should pay a municipal tax equivalent to the power their speech has. (the foot print) and yes it would need a thought out way to measure it. But first lets talk about culling their power period .

 

Basic news I am not talking about ... I am talking about politcal opinion punditry ... exploiting us ... and actually exacerbating things.

 

So I say OK ... lets accept things how they are now ... then change it so we the people get something better out of it.

[Oblivionaddicted]

To know what acts for everyone's greater good people need to judge with a total knoledge, something only feasible if the medias don't have any unavowable interest to defend which requires them to be independent from the company bosses and the state.

[HeyYou]

Im simply talking about changing the difference between actual human being individuals ... and the entities for business the humans create. First and foreMOST ... they do not have the freedom of speech we living breathing entities do. They should pay a municipal tax equivalent to the power their speech has. (the foot print) and yes it would need a thought out way to measure it. But first lets talk about culling their power period .

 

Basic news I am not talking about ... I am talking about politcal opinion punditry ... exploiting us ... and actually exacerbating things.

 

So I say OK ... lets accept things how they are now ... then change it so we the people get something better out of it.

Repeal citizens united. Corporations are NOT people, therefore, they do not have rights ascribed to individuals.

 

Campaign finance reform. Allow political donations ONLY from individuals, and cap it at 5000 dollars TOTAL, per year.

 

Limit political campaigns to within six months of the election they are running for. In the age of instant information, available at your fingertips, there is zero reason for campaigns to start YEARS before the election. Our politicians are spending more time campaigning for (re)election, than they are doing the business of the country, that they were elected to do. That's gotta stop.

 

Is any of that going to happen though? Nope. The only folks that CAN change it, are the very same folks that benefit the most from NOT changing it. Unfortunately, that applies to EVERY government reform. Therefore, the government will never reform.

 

We here in the US have three options for addressing our government. The Soap box, which so far has proven ineffective, the Ballot box, which doesn't make any difference at all, doesn't matter whom you elect, the same policies continue, and even the most self-righteous "new" congress person is soon absorbed into the swamp that is Washington D.C.... The leaves..... the Cartridge box. Unfortunately, taken as a whole, americans are too fat, dumb, and lazy, to get off their duffs and DO anything about our runaway government, that is wholly owned by the military-industrial complex.

 

End Result? We are going to continue on our current course, until it all catches up with us, and then our economy is simply going to collapse.

[Striker879]

 

Im simply talking about changing the difference between actual human being individuals ... and the entities for business the humans create. First and foreMOST ... they do not have the freedom of speech we living breathing entities do. They should pay a municipal tax equivalent to the power their speech has. (the foot print) and yes it would need a thought out way to measure it. But first lets talk about culling their power period .

 

Basic news I am not talking about ... I am talking about politcal opinion punditry ... exploiting us ... and actually exacerbating things.

 

So I say OK ... lets accept things how they are now ... then change it so we the people get something better out of it.

Repeal citizens united. Corporations are NOT people, therefore, they do not have rights ascribed to individuals.

 

Campaign finance reform. Allow political donations ONLY from individuals, and cap it at 5000 dollars TOTAL, per year.

 

Limit political campaigns to within six months of the election they are running for. In the age of instant information, available at your fingertips, there is zero reason for campaigns to start YEARS before the election. Our politicians are spending more time campaigning for (re)election, than they are doing the business of the country, that they were elected to do. That's gotta stop.

 

Is any of that going to happen though? Nope. The only folks that CAN change it, are the very same folks that benefit the most from NOT changing it. Unfortunately, that applies to EVERY government reform. Therefore, the government will never reform.

 

We here in the US have three options for addressing our government. The Soap box, which so far has proven ineffective, the Ballot box, which doesn't make any difference at all, doesn't matter whom you elect, the same policies continue, and even the most self-righteous "new" congress person is soon absorbed into the swamp that is Washington D.C.... The leaves..... the Cartridge box. Unfortunately, taken as a whole, americans are too fat, dumb, and lazy, to get off their duffs and DO anything about our runaway government, that is wholly owned by the military-industrial complex.

 

End Result? We are going to continue on our current course, until it all catches up with us, and then our economy is simply going to collapse.

 

 

So now you are zeroing in on the true root of the problem ... the illusion we residents of western nations suffer from is the illusion of democracy.

Edited February 6, 2020 by Striker879

[HeyYou]

Yup. We get to vote, but, someone else decides what names show up on the ticket. For the most part though, the 'average american' doesn't have a voice in government. That is supposedly what our elected representatives are for. Trouble is, they promise all sorts of stuff to essentially buy votes, but, once they get into office, all those promises fall by the wayside. They vote the way their major campaign donors dictate, or, they their vote depends on whatever is most advantageous to THEM. The 'good of the country' trails a distance 50th place or so.

 

Why else would have a body that can legislate themselves better salaries, more benefits, and their FULL salary when the leave, even after only serving ONE term. Does anyone think that the american people, if they had been asked, would have said "yes" to such a proposal? I hardly think so.

 

That is essentially what "free health care for all", and "reparations for slavery" is all about. Buying votes. That's it.

[Striker879]

Yup. We get to vote, but, someone else decides what names show up on the ticket. For the most part though, the 'average american' doesn't have a voice in government. That is supposedly what our elected representatives are for. Trouble is, they promise all sorts of stuff to essentially buy votes, but, once they get into office, all those promises fall by the wayside. They vote the way their major campaign donors dictate, or, they their vote depends on whatever is most advantageous to THEM. The 'good of the country' trails a distance 50th place or so.

 

Why else would have a body that can legislate themselves better salaries, more benefits, and their FULL salary when the leave, even after only serving ONE term. Does anyone think that the american people, if they had been asked, would have said "yes" to such a proposal? I hardly think so.

 

That is essentially what "free health care for all", and "reparations for slavery" is all about. Buying votes. That's it.

 

It isn't just you poor souls south of "the border" (or across the crick in your case Hey).

 

There has never been a proper democracy ... even those civilizations that proceeded ours, from which we formed the english word we use to describe that which has never been. The Greeks and Romans didn't have one at any point. It has always been the privileged and rich who have formed governments. Even the first English parliament was comprised of the rich English who were threatening to overthrow the royals. We only have this "system" in place called "elections" because those rich sods quickly figured out that it was no fun doing the ruling directly, so they got their stooges to do the dirty work.

 

And those stooges have always known which side of the bread has the butter on it.