Golden Dawn fills law and order vacuum in austerity-ravaged Greece

[Lief 🗽]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/28/greek-police-victims-neo-nazi/print

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Good job you austerity-loving neoliberal ECB fucks. Twenty-two percent in the polls and replacing the police because the government can't pay them anymore. Fantastic.

[Marokai Backbeat]

It is actually heartbreaking to see this happen. The environment the neoliberals have created is breaking an entire generation of people that would otherwise be completely rational and open-minded individuals ending up in wholly different places in their lives; and yet instead are being bent and distorted into violent begrudged people who have had no choice but to turn to a radical right-wing movement. I hate the rise of the far right throughout Europe, but I understand wholeheartedly why it's happening.

[後援会]

Take heed. This is what tenbatsu for decades of profligacy looks like.

[Vosem]

Take heed. This is what tenbatsu for decades of profligacy looks like.

Only neoliberalism can save Greece now.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Take heed. This is what tenbatsu for decades of profligacy looks like.

Only neoliberalism can save Greece now.

Neoliberalism is on track to triggering a coup.

[GMantis]

While Golden Dawn are a Neo-Nazi movement, there is still the fact that the last thing Greece needs at the moment is mass immigration. Of course, with the austerity, the government has even less ability to deal with this problem, so it's not surprising that Golden Dawn fills the vacuum.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I don' think mass immigration is something Greece should worry about. Why would anyone immigrate TO Greece right now?

[GMantis]

I don' think mass immigration is something Greece should worry about. Why would anyone immigrate TO Greece right now?

You are wrong about this, mass immigration is a very serious problem in Greece.

And there are very good reasons for immigrants to enter. First, even with the economic crisis it's still better than the countries they come from, like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Algeria and so on (and until fairly recently, even immigrants from EU countries like Bulgaria were not in a hurry to leace). And secondly, Greece is a gateway to the rest of the EU. As Greece doesn't border any Shengen countries however, they can only leave by plane or ship, which is rather difficult for people who've already paid a fortune to smugglers. Also, if they are caught in Western Europe, they are shipped back to Greece, while Greece can't return them to Turkey, as the EU doesn't have an agreement on returning immigrants with Turkey.
So the result is an accumulation of illegal immigrants in the very EU country that can least afford them.

[© tweed]

Take heed. This is what tenbatsu for decades of profligacy looks like.

Only neoliberalism can save Greece now.

This is the cure: the same as the symptom.
Simple and pure: break to keep fixing.
Patiently nurse, patient and nurse.
This is the part I wouldn't show you.
The part where you say, "I don't even know you."
This is your cue.
Be glad it's through.

[Boris]

Take heed. This is what tenbatsu for decades of profligacy looks like.

Only neoliberalism can save Greece now.

This is the cure: the same as the symptom.
Simple and pure: break to keep fixing.
Patiently nurse, patient and nurse.
This is the part I wouldn't show you.
The part where you say, "I don't even know you."
This is your cue.
Be glad it's through.

Would you accept social services from Golden Dawn if offered?

[Cory]

Neoliberalism is on track to triggering a coup.

God I hope so.

[© tweed]

Take heed. This is what tenbatsu for decades of profligacy looks like.

Only neoliberalism can save Greece now.

This is the cure: the same as the symptom.
Simple and pure: break to keep fixing.
Patiently nurse, patient and nurse.
This is the part I wouldn't show you.
The part where you say, "I don't even know you."
This is your cue.
Be glad it's through.

Would you accept social services from Golden Dawn if offered?

principles are for the well-fed

[Franzl]

I don' think mass immigration is something Greece should worry about. Why would anyone immigrate TO Greece right now?

It's still a lot better than many places.

[Leftbehind]

Neoliberalism is on track to triggering a coup.

God I hope so.

That or SYRIZA winning the next election.

[LastVoter]

But guys, we can't vote SYRIZA because that would be the end of Greece!

This article reminds me of some posters before the last election.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Only neoliberalism can save Greece now.

Stupidest post of the month?

(and considering how prolific Politico and the 2012 hacks have been, that's quite an accomplishment)

[Bacon King]

Take heed. This is what tenbatsu for decades of profligacy looks like.

Only neoliberalism can save Greece now.

At first I thought this was a sarcastic joke, but then I remembered you're the guy who actually unironically refers to himself as a neoliberal. Please take note of a few things:

1. "Neoliberalism" carries very negative connotations; no serious politician or organization (outside of a couple of DC think-tanks in the early 1980's) has ever referred to themselves as a neoliberal. Its only used in political discouse to deride one's opponents.

2. Neoliberalism isn't really a political philosophy. It's used to describe the ideology behind internationally-imposed austerity programs, budget cuts, and trade liberalization measures. The term originated to describe the "Washington Consensus" implemented throughout the Americas by the IMF and IADB in the aftermath of the Latin American debt crisis. The strict mandates were done because it was the only way international banks would feel secure enough to get their money back from these short-term emergency loans coordinated by the IMF. Even at it's root neoliberalism has nothing to do with promoting economic growth, it's just a way to force a country to cut back on spending enough that international lenders didn't have to face a default. The other enforced reforms which sought to deregulate and liberalize the "recipient" nation's economy were at best misguided efforts to promote long-term economic growth to even out the nation's economy by making up for the fact that the immediate economic "readjustment" would be disasterous. Even then, it hurt more than it helped and plummetted many nations into intense socioeconomic instability.

3.It's worth pointing out that the only nation in South America to make it through the Washington Consensus mostly unscathed was Chile, because their dictator forced the reforms through at gunpoint, and they got an early enough start on liberalization so the IMF was never able to Chile to sell off the extremely lucurative government-owned copper mines. Colombia also made it through mostly okay thanks to the tons of cocaine money constantly entering their economy as well as the constant blank checks sent from the US to help Colombia fight the spread of communism and such. Besides that, it was disasterous.

4. This social and economic unrest is BECAUSE of neoliberalism. Greece doesn't have an oppressive dictator and moneymaking nationalized industries like Chile did, and Greece doesn't have a superpower sugardaddy and a very profitable black market export like Colombia did. The problems Greece suffers from currently are virtually identical to those caused by the Washington Consensus elsewhere. If a nation is forced to cut back on spending so much that the police can't even operate effectively, and shrink social safety nets to the point that the retired and the unemployed can't even put food on the table, things like this happen. Neoliberalism is quite obviously part of the problem, not the solution. 

[Beet]

People are rewarding competence. The same reason people turn to the mafia. I assume everyone here has seen The Godfather. Where is SYRIZA? Where are the communists? Why aren't they providing the same services? This is the same reason why the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas took over the Middle East. They actually, you know, helped people. Elections aren't everything. If they wanted an alternative to Golden Dawn, the left ought to get out there and organize.

[LastVoter]

People are rewarding competence. The same reason people turn to the mafia. I assume everyone here has seen The Godfather. Where is SYRIZA? Where are the communists? Why aren't they providing the same services? This is the same reason why the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas took over the Middle East. They actually, you know, helped people. Elections aren't everything. If they wanted an alternative to Golden Dawn, the left ought to get out there and organize.

SYRIZA has actually been helping people... and that's why they'll probably win the next snap election.

[Bacon King]

If SYRIZA will probably win a snap election, there won't be any snap election

[DC Al Fine]

Take heed. This is what tenbatsu for decades of profligacy looks like.

Only neoliberalism can save Greece now.

 This social and economic unrest is BECAUSE of neoliberalism.

Do you honestly think people are going to lend their money to a spendthrift government on the verge of bankruptcy without demanding some changes in return? Sure the cuts are brutal, but imagine if Greece had continued to spend and the bankers had cut them off. The cuts in that situation would make austerity look like a teddy bear's picnic

[Gustaf]

The people blaming neo-liberalism are, imo, being a bit intellectually lazy. I'd rather blame the people who set up the euro. And the Greek government.

To say that this is the fault of people who won't give Greece free money remains misguided, in my view.

Of course, if you define neoliberalism as total thickheadedness in the face of extreme social repercussions following extreme austerity...sure, that's stupid.

We should keep in mind that neoliberals would argue (they do argue, I know several) that things wouldn't have gotten this bad if Greece had been allowed to default straight away. That's what most actual neoliberals I've heard voice an opinion on this favoured from the start.

[© tweed]

The people blaming neo-liberalism are, imo, being a bit intellectually lazy. I'd rather blame the people who set up the euro. And the Greek government.

the creation of the currency zone was a central neoliberal project of the 1990s.

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as Wikipedia would say: Who?

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Take heed. This is what tenbatsu for decades of profligacy looks like.

Only neoliberalism can save Greece now.

 This social and economic unrest is BECAUSE of neoliberalism.

Do you honestly think people are going to lend their money to a spendthrift government on the verge of bankruptcy without demanding some changes in return? Sure the cuts are brutal, but imagine if Greece had continued to spend and the bankers had cut them off. The cuts in that situation would make austerity look like a teddy bear's picnic

The problem is that most of the needed changes - such as updating and reforming the tax system - require investment. The cuts are actually making it harder for the Greek State to collect taxes, which is the reason they are in this mess in the first place.

[Beet]

The people blaming neo-liberalism are, imo, being a bit intellectually lazy. I'd rather blame the people who set up the euro. And the Greek government.

To say that this is the fault of people who won't give Greece free money remains misguided, in my view.

Most of the money 'given' to Greece is simply turned straight back around and used to repay yourselves what Greece previously owed you.

You don't have to give Greece a penny to help Greece. It's a simple instinctual logic. If your brother is in your debt, how can your brother repay you? By doing things for you, or giving you something, that is the only way. The problem is that austerity policies only encourage your brother not to work even more. What's needed is to put Greeks to work repaying the rest of Europe.