The Rationalia Blog Roll

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pErvinalia
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The Rationalia Blog Roll

Post by pErvinalia » Wed Nov 09, 2016 8:09 am

Post your blog posts here.

I've just busted one out about Trump's victory in the US election.
Are We Awake Yet?

"President Trump”. Two words you never imaged you would hear together. Well it’s happened. And it’s happened for easily identifiable reasons. That is if you weren’t asleep for the last 30 odd years. Unfortunately the majority of people, including the so called “educated” left, have indeed been asleep at the wheel. Well, the alarm is going off loud and clear now. There can’t be any more excuses for not hearing it. It’s time to wake up.

Let’s clear up right from the start what this vote represents. While it does represent the angry white man vote, that is far too simplistic an assessment. What this is is the continuation of public disenfranchisement from society and ultimately the political system that has been occurring since the advent of neoliberalism in the 70s/80s. Angry white working class men (amongst others) are a symptom of neoliberalism more so than a driver of the ultimate result – a President Trump.

This is important to realise. We can shout all we like about a stupid bigoted populace, but these people – the ones who have lost their jobs to globalisation and have been left behind by society – are at the pointy end of neoliberalism and the social dislocation it leads to. They’ve seen what the allegedly more educated amongst us haven’t seen – that neoliberalism is a socially destructive practice that is decimating communities. They have experienced decades of stagnating wages, growing inequality, growing under-employment, and cuts to services and welfare. That they have arguably grasped the wrong end of the stick by voting in Trump is lamentable and, frankly, depressing. But they’ve lived the reality of neoliberalism while the educated middle classes have been largely sleep walking through the last 30 years.

It’s important to remember that as un-likeable as some of these Trump voters are, they are after all just human. When pushed into a corner they will get emotional and fight. Exactly the same as you would. If you are looking for someone to blame, blame the politicians and media that have manufactured the enemy for these people to target their emotions against. Immigrants, blacks, Latinos, uppity women, Mulims etc.

There’s an interesting psychological phenomenon that I’ve talked about before called ‘System Justification’. It explains why people support a system that is fairly objectively bad for them. This phenomenon explains why the lower and middle classes have largely supported neoliberalism as offered by both major parties in countries like Australia, US, UK, NZ and Canada for 30+ years. But research into this phenomenon also hints at ways to overcome this irrational justification. Appealing to base emotions and a sense of ‘us vs them’, particularly in terms of nationalism and/or patriotism, is seen as a way to override our inherent desire to not rock the boat (or perhaps more accurately – not bite the hand that feeds us). And whether on purpose or not, Trump’s campaign has tapped into this and mobilised a lot of people who were previously too afraid to buck the system.

In the coming weeks we are going to see a lot of attempts to blame bigotry for this result. The establishment media and politicians are going to rely on this to deflect blame away from themselves. To be clear, there is a huge amount of bigotry going on here. But let’s not confuse the symptom for the cause. Outright bigotry, in this context, is largely a symptom of reducing people to base animals forced to ferociously compete for a smaller and smaller portion of the pie. The answer to this problem isn’t to denigrate the very people who are suffering the most under neoliberalism. It’s to try to educate everyone about what’s going on. It’s not immigrants or Muslims who are to blame for massive job losses and growing under-employment. It’s not women or blacks who are to blame for structural budget deficits and insane amounts of military spending while cutting spending to essential public services. It’s not the unemployed who are to blame for the fact that there are multiples of job seekers for each job vacancy and a frankly evil moralistic agenda which punishes people for not working in jobs that simply don’t exist (and will exist in even lesser amounts in the future with growing automation). It is the fault of the professional political class (like Hillary Clinton) and a neoliberal system that reduces society to an economic system that primarily functions to benefit the elite.

The signs have been there for a long time for those willing to make the effort to look. Working backwards in recent history we’ve had – Brexit, Syriza and Podemos in Greece and Spain, growing right wing nationalism in Europe, the GFC which saw the middle and lower classes decimated while inequality grew and bankers got bonuses for wrecking the economy, Bush Jnr – elected not once, but twice. We’ve been sleep walking through life for nearly 40 years. And the nightmare of a President Trump is the result of that. Support for establishment neoliberals like the Clintons, Obama, Blair, and Labour parties across the western world are the problem, not the solution. It’s time to wake up. It’s time to stop accepting the status quo. It’s time to stop believing in the delusion that prosperity built on debt (both financial and environmental) is actually real prosperity. It’s time to question the media narrative. We rejoice when unemployment falls, like it has under Obama, because the media portrays this as an event worthy of rejoicing. It’s not. Learn what the unemployment figure actually measures. We rejoice when economies grow?. Why? Learn what growth actually means, not least the effect it has on our natural life support systems.

There are no more excuses left for not noticing the collapse of civil society and the frankly barbaric treatment of the disadvantaged in our societies. In short – wake up!
https://politicsforpeoplenotcorporation ... awake-yet/
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"The Western world is fucking awesome because of mostly white men" - DaveDodo007.
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Brian Peacock
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Re: The Rationalia Blog Roll

Post by Brian Peacock » Wed Nov 09, 2016 12:58 pm

Just what the internet needs.
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"It isn't necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice.
There are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia."

Frank Zappa

"This is how humanity ends; bickering over the irrelevant."
Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
.

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JimC
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Re: The Rationalia Blog Roll

Post by JimC » Wed Nov 09, 2016 8:51 pm

I am a blog virgin...
Nurse, where the fuck's my cardigan?
And my gin!

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Svartalf
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Re: The Rationalia Blog Roll

Post by Svartalf » Wed Nov 09, 2016 9:09 pm

I'm not, but my blog account got lost somewhere and I did not have the drive to maintain an interesting one anyway.
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Re: The Rationalia Blog Roll

Post by Brian Peacock » Wed Nov 09, 2016 10:10 pm

JimC wrote:I am a blog virgin...
There's certainly a gap in the market for a good Maths blog, something like Devilish Sums for Learning and Pleasure perhaps? You wouldn't believe the stuff I had to plough through last year just to get a handle on the cubic bezier curve equation.
Rationalia relies on voluntary donations. There is no obligation of course, but if you value this place and want to see it continue please consider making a small donation towards the forum's running costs.
Details on how to do that can be found here.

.

"It isn't necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice.
There are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia."

Frank Zappa

"This is how humanity ends; bickering over the irrelevant."
Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
.

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JimC
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Re: The Rationalia Blog Roll

Post by JimC » Wed Nov 09, 2016 10:14 pm

Perhaps when I retire...
Nurse, where the fuck's my cardigan?
And my gin!

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pErvinalia
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Re: The Rationalia Blog Roll

Post by pErvinalia » Wed Nov 09, 2016 11:12 pm

Ok, then it'll just be a thread for me and Tero..
Sent from my penis using wankertalk.
"The Western world is fucking awesome because of mostly white men" - DaveDodo007.
"Socialized medicine is just exactly as morally defensible as gassing and cooking Jews" - Seth. Yes, he really did say that..
"Seth you are a boon to this community" - Cunt.
"I am seriously thinking of going on a spree killing" - Svartalf.

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pErvinalia
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Re: The Rationalia Blog Roll

Post by pErvinalia » Mon Nov 14, 2016 1:34 am

Some cunt write a blog post. :lay:

I think Brian should write a blog post. His considerable writing talents are wasted writing random retardations at the arse end of the internet. Get to it, Brian. :coffee:
Sent from my penis using wankertalk.
"The Western world is fucking awesome because of mostly white men" - DaveDodo007.
"Socialized medicine is just exactly as morally defensible as gassing and cooking Jews" - Seth. Yes, he really did say that..
"Seth you are a boon to this community" - Cunt.
"I am seriously thinking of going on a spree killing" - Svartalf.

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laklak
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Re: The Rationalia Blog Roll

Post by laklak » Mon Nov 14, 2016 2:41 am

I'm thinking of taking up blogging, I'll title it "All Y'all Can Go Fuck Y'alls Selves", and I'll offend EVERYBODY.
Yeah well that's just, like, your opinion, man.

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Brian Peacock
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Re: The Rationalia Blog Roll

Post by Brian Peacock » Mon Nov 14, 2016 4:11 am

pErvin wrote:Some cunt write a blog post. :lay:

I think Brian should write a blog post. His considerable writing talents are wasted writing random retardations at the arse end of the internet. Get to it, Brian. :coffee:
I'll have to check with my mosad handler first. I'm supposed to be keeping a low profile untill the Krill attack.
Rationalia relies on voluntary donations. There is no obligation of course, but if you value this place and want to see it continue please consider making a small donation towards the forum's running costs.
Details on how to do that can be found here.

.

"It isn't necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice.
There are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia."

Frank Zappa

"This is how humanity ends; bickering over the irrelevant."
Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
.

User avatar
pErvinalia
On the good stuff
Posts: 59278
Joined: Tue Feb 23, 2010 11:08 pm
About me: Spelling 'were' 'where'
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Re: The Rationalia Blog Roll

Post by pErvinalia » Mon Nov 14, 2016 5:14 am

:hehe:

Fucking krill. I knew something was up with those slimy little fuckers!
Sent from my penis using wankertalk.
"The Western world is fucking awesome because of mostly white men" - DaveDodo007.
"Socialized medicine is just exactly as morally defensible as gassing and cooking Jews" - Seth. Yes, he really did say that..
"Seth you are a boon to this community" - Cunt.
"I am seriously thinking of going on a spree killing" - Svartalf.

User avatar
Brian Peacock
Tipping cows since 1946
Posts: 37941
Joined: Thu Mar 05, 2009 11:44 am
About me: Ablate me:
Location: Location: Location:
Contact:

Re: The Rationalia Blog Roll

Post by Brian Peacock » Mon Nov 14, 2016 12:25 pm

Not 'krill'. 'The Krill'. Ask Galaxian :whisper:
Rationalia relies on voluntary donations. There is no obligation of course, but if you value this place and want to see it continue please consider making a small donation towards the forum's running costs.
Details on how to do that can be found here.

.

"It isn't necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice.
There are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia."

Frank Zappa

"This is how humanity ends; bickering over the irrelevant."
Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
.

User avatar
pErvinalia
On the good stuff
Posts: 59278
Joined: Tue Feb 23, 2010 11:08 pm
About me: Spelling 'were' 'where'
Location: dystopia
Contact:

Re: The Rationalia Blog Roll

Post by pErvinalia » Mon Nov 14, 2016 12:42 pm

Too late. I'm anti-krill now..
Sent from my penis using wankertalk.
"The Western world is fucking awesome because of mostly white men" - DaveDodo007.
"Socialized medicine is just exactly as morally defensible as gassing and cooking Jews" - Seth. Yes, he really did say that..
"Seth you are a boon to this community" - Cunt.
"I am seriously thinking of going on a spree killing" - Svartalf.

User avatar
laklak
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About me: My preferred pronoun is "Massah"
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Re: The Rationalia Blog Roll

Post by laklak » Mon Nov 14, 2016 2:23 pm

"Arcturus Calling" was a great album.
Yeah well that's just, like, your opinion, man.

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Tero
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Re: The Rationalia Blog Roll

Post by Tero » Tue Nov 15, 2016 2:43 pm

Blog.

See my sig. Well, if you can see it. I don't see sigs on the phone.

Pooting out one blog log
http://karireport.blogspot.com

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