When I use “participatory fascism”—for me a technical term in political economy, not an ideological or rhetorical cudgel—most people react to the “fascism” part and disregard the “participatory” part. Yet that part is critical to one’s understanding of how this system of rule proves so durable and resilient.
Tag: money
McSkillet
When will we build a wall to stop the McSkillets of the world? Why didn’t the heightened activity of ICE keep Rivera away from Mollie Tibbetts? (Although McSkillet killed three times as many as did Rivera.) Wasn’t anybody on duty while Manafort stole $ millions?
Your Existence Matters, but Your Work Is Always up for Debate
Economic worth is not an opinion that you have about yourself nor is it an opinion that someone else has about you. It’s a social construct generated by your ability to influence other people’s behavior through strategic forms of value-creation.
New Haven Overdoses: It’s Time for Indictments
Together, Dhillon and Gottlieb oversee the “scheduling” of drugs under federal law. And, like their predecessors, they have conspired to create a market for “synthetic marijuana” by putting REAL marijuana on Schedule I, fraudulently claiming that it has a “high potential for abuse,” “no currently acceptable medial use,” and a “lack of accepted safety.”
If It Works for the Opt-ins, It Works for the Opt-outs
If you’re going to be an advocate of philosophies like “be true yourself” and “don’t compare yourself to others” and “as long as you’re happy with your life, don’t have any regrets,” just make sure you don’t arbitrarily move the goal post when you run into someone who meets all those conditions without being a participant in tradition schooling.
The Danger of Discipline without Direction
The value of finishing a task is relative to what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. If finishing a task makes you a better human being and you genuinely believe that it’s the right choice for you, then you should finish what you started even it’s uncomfortable. If sticking with a task robs you of your time, your money, your health, your joy, or anything else that really matters to you, then it’s self-defeating to keep going merely for the sake of proving to others that you’re a disciplined person.
“Be True to Yourself…As Long as You Go to College”
When college opt-outs say things like “I don’t want to go to college. Instead, I’m going to try starting a business or I’m going to pursue this creative venture I love”, everyone loves to whip out income statistics about having a degree.
New Tariffs Nothing to Cheer About
Some American workers are cheering President Trump’s new tariffs. They know not what they cheer. Tariffs are as bad for you and me — economically — as taxing corporations. It’s a great plan — if your goal is to economically cripple America.
What Taxation Means
There is certainly no shortage of libertarian types who will gladly tell why they believe that the practice of taxation amounts to robbery or extortion. Likewise for those who will tell you why they believe that the practice of taxation is good and necessary. Personally, I side with the former belief that the practice of taxation is illicit and criminal. But let’s look at it another way, shall we?
Two Worlds—Politics and Everything Else
Political discourse itself is enough to make even a person of moderate intelligence run away screaming. So much ignorance is on display, so much viciousness, so much ill-disguised envy and malevolence, such unscrupulous attempts to take what belongs to other people and redirect it to those who have no just right to it. The stupidity, therefore, is not only an inability to connect real causes and effects, but also moral stupidity, an inability to do what is obviously right and decent, as opposed to predatory and criminal, albeit legal.