Originally posted by jean
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Chomsky on Trump
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Originally posted by jean View PostAs though the status quo just needed to be left alone?It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.
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Originally posted by french frank View PostSince you ask :-), no, I don't think you can assume that he means that as he follows it up with comparable examples from the Soviet Union and the Chinese communists. He merely points out that what was done led to famine and death: he doesn't say nothing needed to be done. In Mugabe's case it was also a populist/popular policy. In the USSR and China is was perhaps more of an imposed, authoritarian revolution?
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Originally posted by Serial_Apologist View PostAll violent revolutions such as the three you cite are authoritarian in one way or anotherIt isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.
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I just wonder whether what has happened in 2016 merits academic theory. Arguably the rudest and most belligerent American candidate in living memory is so offended by milder rudeness and belligerence from members of the UK Government that the Prime Minister is the eleventh person he rings. Mr Farage as the one favoured is wholly unaccountable (Trump likes those who are unelected - see also The Queen) but under a fair system of proportional representation he would have been something in a Coalition Government. For years, parties with leftish traditions in both the US and Britain have been as much in cahoots with tax avoiders as those on the right who understand Atlantic Bridge and they have been as hawkish if not more so. They oversaw a big widening of the gap between the top and the bottom as the trickle down theory was proven to have a totally mythical status.
The US public have vented their anger on politicians who permitted corruption in big business by attempting to cut out the middle man and electing a big business man with questionable credentials. Only a few know "mainstream" Democrats and Republicans were hand in glove on Ukraine where the overthrowing of the President was prompted by an internet TV station set up by the Dutch within the EU under cross-party American instruction. Those parties share an opinion on Russia's arrival in Crimea that it was unprompted. Black Lives Matter UK was at one point being led by a privileged 19 year old middle class model who was hellbent on presenting British black experience as a direct extension of sporadic American black experience. On her website there were echoes of the Ku Klux Klan as she assessed when non whites would be in the majority here with the message "then we win". In these sorts of contexts, it is hard to apply any sort of theory other than to see a wide range of people as being on the make. It's partially why I am now post-political.
(I accept Farage is an MEP but that isn't relevant in the context in which he is being used)Last edited by Lat-Literal; 21-11-16, 20:22.
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Originally posted by Lat-Literal View PostThe US public have vented their anger on politicians who permitted corruption in big business by attempting to cut out the middle man and electing a big business man with questionable credentials.It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.
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Originally posted by jean View PostLet's hope that's the case with Trump's opposition to TTIP.It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.
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He wasn't keen on TTIP eithr - though arguably it was already defeated before he got to it.
This is the whole 'free trade treaty' problem: bilateral deals favour the stronger economy, which is why America quite likes the idea.
Donald Trump’s victory should be a warning to those on the centre left pushing for more “market” in our lives. But early signs suggest that there is every danger of Europe’s leaders falling into an even deeper sleep.
The United States-European Union Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership trade agreement has become a hated modern symbol of the power of big business and the market over our societies. The TTIP deal has rightly been seen as less a traditional agreement on tariffs and more an attempt to give big business new powers over our laws and public services. All of this would be enforceable in special “corporate courts” only accessible to large foreign investors.
Trump cynically exploited working-class anger over these sorts of trade deals. He spoke of the devastation caused by TTIP’s forerunner, the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), which radically speeded up the ability of corporations to “offshore” jobs to Mexico, leaving communities hollowed out and their voices silenced in the mainstream media. He also promised to halt TTIP’s sister deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
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