The rise of the "Conservative Movement" in the US has been on the back of the backlash to the Civil Rights Act and "dogwhistle" racism that can be rationalized away by the elements of the pre-Reagan Republican coalition that would be driven off by overt racism.

That provides much easier frame for attacking the social safety net, and so to a certain extent the American "Conservative Movement" has never needed to learn those lessons.


I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.

ThatBritGuy:

It's interesting as applied psychology

admirable detachment...

practical policy? most impractical for future generations, more bad social engineering for squalid short termism 101.

depressing yes. it appears that the leverage the 1% have over the rest of us is purely in our own minds, yet we grant it obediently, content if we can survive with some semblance of soul intact, grateful for crumbs of joy if we're lucky.
our leaders are weak, the people are stronger, we just haven't quite grocked it yet, how afraid they should be if we unite in displeasure.

france is the only country in europe where protest is not (perceived as) 'alternative' or 'fringe', (easily dissmissable) and it's serious protest at that, the effective kind.

governments back down in front of that kind of resolution. yet the french do it without target leaders, communally enough to avoid the trap of having conspicuous spokesmen (or idealogies) on whom the strikers build too strong a dependence, and without whom there is insufficient will to stand strong against exploitation.

today 150,000 protestors showed up in rome to try and affect the media climate here, even d'alema said good things about too much media power and pressure on a free press in the hands of one man being seen as essentially undemocratic by the majority of citizens.

one wonders if it will have any effect.

people seem more interested in rome and venice vying for the olympics in 2020...

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty