Please tell me there's a response to this somewhere...

[Andrew76]

You've all seen it if you're on Facebook, or haven't been living under a rock. But I'm want a proper response to this slice of hilarity:
"remember when teachers, public employees, Planned Parenthood, NPR, PBS, crashed the stock market, wiped out half our 401k's, took trillions in tarp money, spilled oil in the gulf of Mexico, gave themselves billions in bonuses, and paid no taxes? Yeah, me neither."
Apart from the sheer falsity of most of this, I'm looking to compose a proper response. I'm guessing someone already has.
To angry to think straight and unravel this bullshit ball of yarn.

[Carehn]

No but i do remember the people they voted into office doing it.

[Andrew76]

Also, wasn't TARP 700 billion? Large, but not trillions. And these people were likely educated by said teachers. What does it say about them?

[Andrew76]

Not to mention, where does all the money come from to pay for the teachers, public employees, et al?

[AuH20]

Didn't you get the memo? Regular "working" people could never be greedy and manipulative. :D

[cubical]

Remember when the Neo-Nazis did all those things too? Me neither.

[specsaregood]

Remember when the Neo-Nazis did all those things too? Me neither.

lol, win

Bernie Madoff didn't do all those things either, but he sure did donate to a bunch of democrats.
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/12/madoff-and-company-spent-nearl.html

[IDefendThePlatform]

No but i do remember the people they voted into office doing it.


+1

[BrendenR]

Not sure why you guys take offense at this.

We should be allied with progressives on this front: Corporations are in bed with the government. It's all fucking over the hard working people of this nation.

If you want to win over progressives, don't be defending these corporations that write their own regulations to force out competition, exploit public resources, and take tax payers money.

I'm NOT forgiving the politicians at all.

Simply stating that the quote in the OP is correct, blaming teachers for this mess we are in is ridiculous. It does not serve to unite us against the real (and much larger) enemy.

[Andrew76]

I agree that any corporate entity taking tax money deserves to fail. The mixing of business and government has another name, it's called fascism.
But the sentiment in the original quote is not anti-fascist as anyone and everyone posting this on FB is a flaming liberal. The gist is anti-capitalist.
Further, none of those groups mentioned are innocent as well. That politically connected companies have taken more money does not make public employees any less guilty. Living on the dole is living on the dole.

[sratiug]

You've all seen it if you're on Facebook, or haven't been living under a rock. But I'm want a proper response to this slice of hilarity:
"remember when teachers, public employees, Planned Parenthood, NPR, PBS, crashed the stock market, wiped out half our 401k's, took trillions in tarp money, spilled oil in the gulf of Mexico, gave themselves billions in bonuses, and paid no taxes? Yeah, me neither."
Apart from the sheer falsity of most of this, I'm looking to compose a proper response. I'm guessing someone already has.
To angry to think straight and unravel this bullshit ball of yarn.

Just fix it for them.


Remember when teachers, public employees, Planned Parenthood, NPR, and PBS wanted more federal tax money? The money printing required to sustain their demands crashed the stock market and wiped out half our 401k's. The bankers who profited from the money printing then took trillions in tarp money and gave themselves billions in bonuses. Meanwhile GE makes billions as the largest weapons contractor in the world and pays no taxes. END THE FED.

[georgiaboy]

Or another restatement:
Remember when teachers, bloated bureaucracies, PBS, NPR, paying farmers to not grow food, giving corporate bailouts and regulatory protection, defining what could and could not be bought and sold, giving monetary aid to foreign nations, and building over 700 military bases in other countries around the world, were listed as constitutionally delegated responsibilities of the US federal government? Me neither.

[georgiaboy]

Or how about this one?
Remember when $1 could buy you dinner and a movie, and fill up your tank with gas? Me neither.

[georgiaboy]

Another:
Remember when you could keep spending nearly twice what you make every year, with obligations for 1000+ times more debt already guaranteed in your future? Me neither.

[angelatc]

Not sure why you guys take offense at this.

We should be allied with progressives on this front: Corporations are in bed with the government. It's all fucking over the hard working people of this nation.

If you want to win over progressives, don't be defending these corporations that write their own regulations to force out competition, exploit public resources, and take tax payers money.

I'm NOT forgiving the politicians at all.

Simply stating that the quote in the OP is correct, blaming teachers for this mess we are in is ridiculous. It does not serve to unite us against the real (and much larger) enemy.

We aren't going to win over the progressives. They are as much the larger enemy as corporate America.

[BrendenR]

We aren't going to win over the progressives. They are as much the larger enemy as corporate America.

I simply disagree. I guarantee you that everyone on this forum had at one time a different political philosophy than the one they hold today, unless they were raised by libertarian/anarchist parents. Education and knowledge are the cure (as RP says all the time).

If you have a chance to educate, why spew rhetoric that will only rile them up more?

[AuH20]

We aren't going to win over the progressives. They are as much the larger enemy as corporate America.

They don't value the concept of private property. That's the huge chasm and why they can be manipulated so easily by emotionally based deception.

[Andrew76]

I simply disagree. I guarantee you that everyone on this forum had at one time a different political philosophy than the one they hold today, unless they were raised by libertarian/anarchist parents. Education and knowledge are the cure (as RP says all the time).

If you have a chance to educate, why spew rhetoric that will only rile them up more?

Agreed. I wasn't looking for a tit-for-tat, but more of a fact based rebuttal.
Years ago I was a solid lefty. Reading Ayn Rand, like many of us, changed my mind an of course I kept reading further, new authors, etc.
Believe me I've spent countless hours chatting people up, trying to persuade with friendly info and appeals to rationality... I want it work. It rarely does. It wouldn't have worked on me. It took me voluntarily reading Atlas Shrugged to change my mind, or at least get the change started.
My bug frustration is how scattershot and incorrect that quote is.

[Freedom 4 all]

I simply disagree. I guarantee you that everyone on this forum had at one time a different political philosophy than the one they hold today, unless they were raised by libertarian/anarchist parents. Education and knowledge are the cure (as RP says all the time).

If you have a chance to educate, why spew rhetoric that will only rile them up more?

I forget who, but I remember reading about some Muslim scholar who became an atheist. He found one tiny flaw in the Quran. In itself it was nothing, but his questioning of that section led him to further questions and eventually came to the conclusion the whole thing was bull (for the record I`m not ragging on Islam, I don`t know enough about it to make a comment one way or the other).

Point being, I was a progressive once. For me it was guns that made me start questioning. Why would a movement that was all about bringing power to the people deprive them of the right to bear arms? That question led to another question, and that one led to another until I realized that progressive politics were never about liberty or equality and never were. I ended up going a full 180 and now I`m here. I look back at some of the beliefs I held (ex. that no one should be allowed to earn more than 100k a year) with horror now that my eyes are open. Bottom line is we need to get progressives to question one tenant of progressiveness. After that happens, the rest will fall like a house of cards.

[KramerDSP]

We aren't going to win over the progressives. They are as much the larger enemy as corporate America.

I'm starting to agree. I've been working on a group of progressive friends. Every single time that I think I have finally won them over and gotten them to see things in a different light, I see something inane from them saying they'll still vote for Obama because it is the lesser of two evils. They are convinced that the GOP will never give RP the nomination, and despite my attempts to convince them to switch over because Obama won't be primaried, they keep going back to NYT or Salon articles that convince them the evil republicans are to blame for everything going on. They are dissapointed with Obama, and arguably less likely to vote this time around, but they're still very headstrong about "doing the right thing" and being "social democrats with a conscience". It's very discouraging.

At the same time, I agree with the other poster who said "if you have a chance to educate, why spew rhetoric that will only rile them up?".

[IDefendThePlatform]

I forget who, but I remember reading about some Muslim scholar who became an atheist. He found one tiny flaw in the Quran. In itself it was nothing, but his questioning of that section led him to further questions and eventually came to the conclusion the whole thing was bull (for the record I`m not ragging on Islam, I don`t know enough about it to make a comment one way or the other).

Point being, I was a progressive once. For me it was guns that made me start questioning. Why would a movement that was all about bringing power to the people deprive them of the right to bear arms? That question led to another question, and that one led to another until I realized that progressive politics were never about liberty or equality and never were. I ended up going a full 180 and now I`m here. I look back at some of the beliefs I held (ex. that no one should be allowed to earn more than 100k a year) with horror now that my eyes are open. Bottom line is we need to get progressives to question one tenant of progressiveness. After that happens, the rest will fall like a house of cards.

Great point. Finding that one issue that will make a person think a little harder is a great way to start the conversion process.

I was a limited government conservative republican who just thought that the government needed to be spending a lot less on entitlements. Then I thought, "How much less is the right amount?", read a few books, etc etc and am now a voluntaryist/anarcho-capitalist.

[IDefendThePlatform]

Or another restatement:
Remember when teachers, bloated bureaucracies, PBS, NPR, paying farmers to not grow food, giving corporate bailouts and regulatory protection, defining what could and could not be bought and sold, giving monetary aid to foreign nations, and building over 700 military bases in other countries around the world, were listed as constitutionally delegated responsibilities of the US federal government? Me neither.

lol. I like this one.