The Sage Garden

[free my dawg]

Successful in expanding American hegemony abroad and continuing/accelerating the transfer of wealth and power to the upper crust, yes.

The bigger the words, the bigger the truths.

[Paul Kemp]

"Hegemony" is most certainly a red flag for sage.

[free my dawg]

Abrahamic Slave Morality.

Also this.

[morgieb]

Better GOP dominance than dominance by the current Democratic Party, which on the one hand manages to silence opposition from progressives to it enacting a neoliberal agenda. The Obama administration is a far more reactionary one than even the Bush administration, with the deterioration of the social safety net proceeding at full speed under Obama, as well as the continued obliteration of human rights in the face of a now larger and more powerful (as well as legally sanctioned - Thanks Obama!) national security state. Obama has governed markedly to the right of Bush throughout his tenure. A Democratic Party in his image is a danger to literally every progressive, and should not be welcomed or supported with open arms, as it's primary goal is the implementation of neoliberal policy outcomes with a 'progressive' veneer.

[morgieb]

The brutal silencing of enemies of the regime--not even for violations of the TOS--sets an awful precedent which will surely spiral into more executions of those who displease the powerful. I fear for my own survival on this forum.

[free my dawg]

HP even without the rape. Actually, I'd say he raped developing countries.

[Oakvale]

Defending sexual predators is vile IMO. I know that's apparently a controversial opinion these days but there you go.

opebo has certainly defended sexual predators, but his action in Thailand, though illicit, represent voluntary transactions. Either that, or both that and the sweatshops in the developing world are exploitative.

Shout out to the classic "Rich coming from someone who supports sweatshops" burn attempt on Gully.

[RogueBeaver]

If Vince Foster was on any incarnation of this "list" than Hillary can kiss the Oval Office goodbye...

RIP Vince Foster

[Deus Naturae]

Dehumanizing poverty is one of the tools of control of workers, and it works best if it is capricious. With it the Master Class can give the order "Suffer for my greed -- for it is my virtue -- that you may be poor, but not THAT poor" because of threatening images of children with distended bellies. If the Far Left has typically allowed the Perfect to be the enemy of the Good through sheer recklessness of thought, the Traditional Right has knowingly allowed the Horrific to be the defense of the Dreadful, at least for the common man so that the economic elites can enjoy sybaritic excess. Economic exploitation has been one of the typical tools for maximizing profits and the elite share of the productive capacities of a country.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

If Vince Foster was on any incarnation of this "list" than Hillary can kiss the Oval Office goodbye...

RIP Vince Foster

...that was a joke.

[Хahar 🤔]

The last line in particular:

Code:

20:14	Snowstalker	tnf, i know i come off as elitist/determined to prove my "superiority"
20:14	Snowstalker	but i'm sure you realize that it's those sorts who give the capitalist oppressors their legitimacy
20:15	Snowstalker	the attitudes of the modern proletariat range from complacence to outright sycophanty

[free my dawg]

IRC quotes are practically cheating, though.

[Napoleon]

I agree with the majority, above average filmmaker, well below average human.  I don't really care about the marrying his "step daughter" (he was never a father figure to the girl), but there is a lot, A LOT, of rumor that he's done Polanski levels of crimes without the hard evidence to get a conviction.

And hundreds of other Hollywood figures. Its the darkest industry in America (sorry Wall Street haters its true).

I wouldn't call the financial sector an industry, given that it produces nothing.

[free my dawg]

That is equality before the law. In my criticisms, I've tried to include the terms objectively and 'in all cases' to qualify my position. I do not believe that equality is objectively a bad thing, things like simple equality in the courts are by and large good things. However, my beef is with this idea that equality is some kind of 'light upon the hill', a societal state that should be promoted and striven for. We are not all equal, we are rendered different by circumstances of our birth, abilities, and, yes, occasionally the patronage that we may have received in life. Its not just things like equality before the law that flow from the broader idea of 'equality', no, there is a whole stream of BS that flows from it, from 'equality of outcomes' to the use of the phrase 'because equality'. I take issue with this idea that all humans, by simple virtue of their humanity and nothing else, are automatically able to access a laundry list of 'rights'. No, no, no I say enough. What 'rights' we have, or as I might call them 'privileges', are the gift of the state, the Church, whatever organisational unit we happen to be dealing with. We should mold ourselves to these boundaries, not expect them to fit us perfectly.

[Cassius]

I wasn't trying to appear wise or iconoclastic. That's simply what I think.

[free my dawg]

Thanks for saving me the effort of quoting.

[Cassius]

Fwiw its true. Why bother trying to be wise? It hurts the head.

[free my dawg]

Fwiw its true. Why bother trying to be wise? It hurts the head.

[courts]

18 as a purchase age, no actual drinking minimum.  The best way to prevent unhealthy relationships with alcohol is for parents to expose kids to booze themselves, in moderation- that way it's not some sort of forbidden fruit.

FWIW I was 16 when I first had alcohol and that seems about "right".*

As for the scourge of drunk driving, the obvious solution is to raise the driving age instead.   Maybe start introducing learner's permits at 18, and don't issue full licenses until 21.  (I would also consider raising the age to serve in the military or to own firearms to 21, along with driving- the privilege of operating deadly machinery is not a right in the way that votin' or boozin' is, and really does need to be only entrusted to people who have demonstrated sufficient maturity.  Sorry folks.)

*I would not necessarily oppose a purchase minimum of 16, but it would have to be coupled with raising the driving age for me to support it; and I also don't think it's necessarily a bad thing for teenagers to be able to be exposed to alcohol before they're allowed to buy it themselves.

[free my dawg]

You reap what you sow. No one should be surprised by this, seeing as these are teens who have spent their entire lives in the world's largest outdoor prison.

Generally speaking, the only people who sow and reap are the ordinary people.

Israel is not Lord Voldemort - they cannot cast the Imperius curse on these people. They have a choice on how to respond and it's a pity they keep choosing the wrong response.

How would you respond to a strip of land run by an insane death cult that trains its citizens to commit mass murder-suicide and lobs rockets at Israeli civilians?

[Psychic Octopus]

18 as a purchase age, no actual drinking minimum.  The best way to prevent unhealthy relationships with alcohol is for parents to expose kids to booze themselves, in moderation- that way it's not some sort of forbidden fruit.

FWIW I was 16 when I first had alcohol and that seems about "right".*

As for the scourge of drunk driving, the obvious solution is to raise the driving age instead.   Maybe start introducing learner's permits at 18, and don't issue full licenses until 21.  (I would also consider raising the age to serve in the military or to own firearms to 21, along with driving- the privilege of operating deadly machinery is not a right in the way that votin' or boozin' is, and really does need to be only entrusted to people who have demonstrated sufficient maturity.  Sorry folks.)

*I would not necessarily oppose a purchase minimum of 16, but it would have to be coupled with raising the driving age for me to support it; and I also don't think it's necessarily a bad thing for teenagers to be able to be exposed to alcohol before they're allowed to buy it themselves.

Man, that's odd. Talk about punishing high schoolars. Being 16 meant freedom and fun.

[Хahar 🤔]

Snowstalker is much wiser than the savages in foreign lands and can thus make pronouncements on their fate.

The important thing I got out of this thread is that's Snowstalker's apparently entered some kind of bizarre right-wing Israel-supporting phase.

There's plenty to dislike about Israel (Netanyahu's an unambiguous dick, the obviously illegal West Bank settlements, the probably disproportionate response to attacks), but unlike many of my fellow leftists I see absolutely no reason why the Palestinians are more deserving of sympathy; it's not like it would be a liberal democracy that tolerates gays like Israel is if/when the occupation ends. Peace will only come from rejecting the ultrareligious, bloodthirsty reactionaries on both sides, Hamas included.

[traininthedistance]

18 as a purchase age, no actual drinking minimum.  The best way to prevent unhealthy relationships with alcohol is for parents to expose kids to booze themselves, in moderation- that way it's not some sort of forbidden fruit.

FWIW I was 16 when I first had alcohol and that seems about "right".*

As for the scourge of drunk driving, the obvious solution is to raise the driving age instead.   Maybe start introducing learner's permits at 18, and don't issue full licenses until 21.  (I would also consider raising the age to serve in the military or to own firearms to 21, along with driving- the privilege of operating deadly machinery is not a right in the way that votin' or boozin' is, and really does need to be only entrusted to people who have demonstrated sufficient maturity.  Sorry folks.)

*I would not necessarily oppose a purchase minimum of 16, but it would have to be coupled with raising the driving age for me to support it; and I also don't think it's necessarily a bad thing for teenagers to be able to be exposed to alcohol before they're allowed to buy it themselves.

Man, that's odd. Talk about punishing high schoolars. Being 16 meant freedom and fun.

I don't want to punish high schoolers- I want them to booze up openly, which is the opposite of punishment.  And of course I utterly reject the idea that the royal road to "freedom and fun" is socially-mandated car ownership: my whole point is that those things shouldn't rely on access to cars, for a kajillion reasons.

I'll grant that perhaps the specific ages I was throwing out might be less than 100 percent workable at the present moment (though they're more workable than most people fear), which is a shame insofar as it's served to distract from my wider point.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

We need a leftist response to the State of the Union, not just a response from the even worse reactionaries. The idea that a imperialist neoliberal thug should represent the "left" is disgusting.

[RogueBeaver]

Everything that Snow posted in the SOTU thread.

Is this thug seriously suggesting that the fascist TPP will boost the American working class and lead to more American manufacturing?!?!?!