Oprah hosted some absolute dumbfucks (McCarthy, Dr. Oz, Dr. Phill, take your pick!) to fill air time and now a virus that could have cleared the country within the span of a month has taken over a million lives in the US alone and is still chugging 4 years later.
NO I’M NOT ESPECIALLY WANTING TO SCREAM IN HER GIFT TAX WHITE ELEPHANT GIVING FACE BECAUSE I’M DEALING WITH MY SECOND ROUND OF THE STUFF IN LESS THAN A YEAR AND HAVING TO POSTPONE A BIRTHDAY BASH FOR ALL MY AUGUST BABY FRIENDS BECAUSE OF IT! WHAT COULD EVER GIVE YOU SUCH A WEIRDLY SPECIFIC IDEA‽
I was so pissed to see her at the DNC. I don’t know what they were thinking letting her be there. Same with the Clintons honestly. Can we forget these people exist?
Oprah only contributed one thing of worth to our society, and that is this gif
Reminder that he won election, and four years later re-election, in landslides, even if you go by popular vote.
Now, there’s one thing you might have noticed I don’t complain about: politicians. Everybody complains about politicians. Everybody says they suck. Well, where do people think these politicians come from? They don’t fall out of the sky. They don’t pass through a membrane from another reality. They come from American parents and American families, American homes, American schools, American churches, American businesses and American universities, and they are elected by American citizens. This is the best we can do folks. This is what we have to offer. It’s what our system produces: Garbage in, garbage out. If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you’re going to get selfish, ignorant leaders. Term limits ain’t going to do any good; you’re just going to end up with a brand new bunch of selfish, ignorant Americans. So, maybe, maybe, maybe, it’s not the politicians who suck. Maybe something else sucks around here… like, the public. Yeah, the public sucks. There’s a nice campaign slogan for somebody: ‘The Public Sucks. Fuck Hope.’
Now calm down my friend. We can’t blame the public for such ills. Just like we can’t blame the consumer for end-stage capitalism.
“It’s not our fault! There should be laws against such things!”, scream the downtrodden masses. The masses who vote for and finance the means of our downfall.
“You don’t understand! We must legislate morality!”
Funny. When we were 80s punkers we laughed aloud at notions of legislating morals. “What a waste of time you idiots!”, we laughed. Ha. Ha.
The old skool punks already knew what was up. “No future” was not a nihilistic slogan but prophecy.
The average American knows less about U.S. politics than the average drunk, laying in a gutter, in Sweden. The average American grabs a insanely false sound bite from Fox, trots off to the local bar and spreads that misinformation (bullshit to be more accurate), to his buddies all night. Democrats need to do simplistic, easy to remember sound bites, not policy discussions, to attract the average voter. This has been the Dem’s downfall.
Nixon won his re-election by a landslide as well.
He won both his elections by landslides. It wasn’t even close.
1980
1984
1980 election results Candidate Party Electoral Votes Popular Votes ✓ Ronald Reagan Republican 489 43,901,812 Jimmy Carter (I) Democratic 49 35,483,820 John Anderson Independent 0 5,719,850 Ed Clark Libertarian 0 921,128
Reagan did well in the Electoral College in 1980, it was a much closer race in the popular vote.
There is a saying in politics - “You get the politicians you deserve”.
Americans won’t want to hear this, but you deserve Trump, Biden, Harris, the continual lack of affordable healthcare in your country, and a level of disdain for the average worker that would make many western countries’ skin crawl.
To the right’s credit, they have usually been good at sniffing out extreme views and rallying around “their guy” across many countries/systems. The left are notoriously bad at this, and it hampers legitimate issues like those raised above because you’ll fight each other over issues that are less important than basic shit like a higher minimum wage, paid vacation that aligns with the rest of the world, universal healthcare, employment protection, etc. The system is unfair in America, but it’s unfair everywhere else, so it’s ultimately just an excuse for inaction/apathy.
At best, it’s just a sign that the average voter doesn’t want these things. That could be an education thing, or the average person just being against others getting help, but it again points to the saying - you get what you deserve.
Then again, also George Carlin was produced by those American things.
If the apprentice hadn’t been cancelled, maybe Trump would still be doing that
They didn’t let that one guy into art school and 5 million Jews died.
Anyone else curse Reagan’s name on at least a weekly basis?
When I first started doing exactly this, (15 years or so ago) my mom was a die hard Reagan-er and enthusiastically defended all that stuff.
These days it’s getting harder for them to defend
I feel that what this tool did was worse than Nixon. Together they were the one-two punch that set us on the road to the darkest timeline. Or at least the darkest timeline that didn’t include WW3.
What did Nixon do, besides the obvious criminal actions?
- Intentionally sabotaged the Vietnam peace talks.
- Started the “war on drugs” with the known goal of arresting PoC and the anti-war left.
- Co-produced the Southern Strategy.
I’m sure there’s a ton more that I’m just not privy to with my surface-level knowledge of Nixon fuckery.
Propaganda works. All the time.
Almost every time.
I read somewhere that Germany has a pretty good anti-propaganda education. That was a long time ago, so I don’t know if it’s true now. At schools here in the U.S., a buzz phrase for a decade or two has been to teach “critical thinking”. I rarely actually saw it done. I feel like it needs to be explicitly about recognizing propaganda with current events and media coverage. Starting in like middle school. I know it’ll never happen because every school will have to teach the bible or something. And parents would freak out about their kids learning to think instead of just being passively, or aggressively, indoctrinated at home.
Nowadays Finland is the go to example on misinformation education: https://osis.bg/?p=4450&lang=en
An article with some examples and explanation from Finnish teachers: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/10/world/europe/finland-misinformation-classes.html
Adolf Hitler left art school, one thing led to another, and the United States dropped two nuclear bombs on the sovereign nation of Japan.
I can’t remember the comedian who had that as a bit, I think it was Brian Regan?
Mmm, yeah, probably not not linked with art school. But, but to japanese guy who was supposed to become a sake brewer
A reality tv show host peed on some people and now our country is teetering on total collapse
Astounding how fragile human civilization is
Ah yes, Campaigns Inc. Fuck Clem Whitaker and Leon Baxter with a long rusty spoon.
Why isn’t it called “public healthcare” and “private healthcare”? Alternatively, why isn’t it called “government-run healthcare” and “corporate-run healthcare”?
Why does it have to be “private healthcare” and “government-run healthcare”?
Adding something in here probably nobody outside italy knows:
“In 1981 Gelli was one of the very few Italians to be invited to President Reagan’s oath.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Licio_Gelli
Have fun reading this guy bio.
Why are evil people attracted to each other? Like police departments hiring abusers and harassing the good cops till resignation?
Good and healthy people aren’t lured by power as much and don’t end up in authoritarian positions to begin with
Pretty much every time I learn something new about Reagan it confirms my prior opinion.
$1000? You must have great insurance!
Somebody listened to this and can tell me what his rationale was? The unspoken reason is probably like less taxation for the rich and profit in the medical industry, but what are the “sensible” arguments he would be brave enough to formulate in public at the time? If it’s about medical research and innovation, it could be assured by the government but “it’s not the job of the state to ensure the people’s well-being”? Or “people will get lazy if their health is not on the line”?
Okay, I had a listen. Basically his arguments are:
- People don’t want it, it is forced through ruse by socialist politicians.
- It removes freedom from patients to choose their insurance, health care provider etc.
- It removes freedom from physicians to choose their working methods and living/practicing location. The state will control every aspect of their profession.
- By slippery slope, it’s going to lead to the same for every profession.
So it’s an attack point to impose socialism in America. Eh.
Is that in Spotify?
Fun fact, Kamala Harris is also opposed to socialized medicine. Obviously Trump is too, but we know Republicans are evil.
It sounds like her economic plan includes expanding the ACA, but it does not propose Medicare for All or a public option. That’s really not “opposed to socialized medicine” at all. She is proposing increasing healthcare subsidies under the ACA, capping out of pocket costs, and negotiating lower drug prices.
She used to be for it, now she’s against it. Funny how the opposite never happens. It’s like there’s some list of positions that Democrats have to reverse course on before they can be nominated for president.
There’s a saying here which roughly translated goes:
“You eat the bread of whose songs you sing.”
