Coolest Political Ad Ever

[cbeast]

I don't see the parties as left vs. right. I see them as (mostly) intellectual vs. willfully ignorant. Sure, the Dems are shifting toward the WI, and the smart Dems have to work with the tools (pun intended) they have. Face it, the USA has crossed the Rubicon of idiocracy and will never be as good as it once was, but we can only change things for the better by getting the smart folks together and agree to stop listening to the dumbasses of the world.

[BitterTea]

Bureaucrats are poorly paid public employees.  Are you seriously saying that the clerks in the local department of motor vehicles own you?

Wow, can you be more disingenuous? The clerks at the DMV are to the line cooks at McDonald's as politicians are to CEOs.

Yes, the politicians own you, and with the cooperation or ignorance of a small number of people, can cast a magic spell (law) and turn you into a criminal, lock you in jail, or execute you.

[rainingbitcoins]

The clerks at the DMV are to the line cooks at McDonald's as politicians are to CEOs.

Except they get a living wage, health care, and retirement.

If I had to choose, I'd rather be owned by the guy who gives me that than the one who gives me minimum wage and a coupon for 10% off a turkey at Christmas.

[Hawker]

Bureaucrats are poorly paid public employees.  Are you seriously saying that the clerks in the local department of motor vehicles own you?

Wow, can you be more disingenuous? The clerks at the DMV are to the line cooks at McDonald's as politicians are to CEOs.

Yes, the politicians own you, and with the cooperation or ignorance of a small number of people, can cast a magic spell (law) and turn you into a criminal, lock you in jail, or execute you.

So if I become a politician, that means I own people.  Seems a valubale reward for little effort!
 
Do you have any statistics on how many people I own as a parish councillor?  What about a member of parliament - do they get to choose which people they own or is it random?  Is there a "no way I don't want that fat stinky guy" option as part of this ownership scheme?

Is Sarah Palin a politician and does she own people?  I know she used to be but now she sells books.  Or did she lose the people she owned when Obama won in 2008?  Were they given to Joe Biden perhaps?  

[cbeast]

I think he's referring to George Carlin's suggestion that "they" own you. It's a provocative notion, but he didn't believe it or he would not have been so outspoken.

[BitterTea]

Except they get a living wage, health care, and retirement.

If I had to choose, I'd rather be owned by the guy who gives me that than the one who gives me minimum wage and a coupon for 10% off a turkey at Christmas.

You're happy being a slave. That's great, good for you. I'm not, yet you give the slavemaster money to make sure I'm a slave too. Fuck you.

[Hawker]

Except they get a living wage, health care, and retirement.

If I had to choose, I'd rather be owned by the guy who gives me that than the one who gives me minimum wage and a coupon for 10% off a turkey at Christmas.

You're happy being a slave. That's great, good for you. I'm not, yet you give the slavemaster money to make sure I'm a slave too. Fuck you.

Just preserving this as pretending you are a slave is pathetic. 

[rainingbitcoins]

You're happy being a slave. That's great, good for you. I'm not, yet you give the slavemaster money to make sure I'm a slave too. Fuck you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wage_slavery

Similarities between wage labor and slavery were noted at least as early as Cicero. Before the American Civil War, Southern defenders of African American slavery invoked the concept to favorably compare the condition of their slaves to workers in the North.

[BitterTea]

It's a provocative notion, but he didn't believe it or he would not have been so outspoken.

What do you mean by this?

[BitterTea]

You're happy being a slave. That's great, good for you. I'm not, yet you give the slavemaster money to make sure I'm a slave too. Fuck you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wage_slavery

Similarities between wage labor and slavery were noted at least as early as Cicero. Before the American Civil War, Southern defenders of African American slavery invoked the concept to favorably compare the condition of their slaves to workers in the North.

Do you also see a similarity between taxation and slavery?

[Hawker]

You're happy being a slave. That's great, good for you. I'm not, yet you give the slavemaster money to make sure I'm a slave too. Fuck you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wage_slavery

Similarities between wage labor and slavery were noted at least as early as Cicero. Before the American Civil War, Southern defenders of African American slavery invoked the concept to favorably compare the condition of their slaves to workers in the North.

Do you also see a similarity between taxation and slavery?

Do you notice that the comparison was used to justify real slavery?

[BitterTea]

Do you notice that the comparison was used to justify real slavery?

So? There is a fundamental difference between "wage slavery" and slavery. "Wage slaves" can always choose to leave and find some other way to feed themselves, whether it's becoming an entrepreneur, finding a better paying job, etc.

[Hawker]

Do you notice that the comparison was used to justify real slavery?

So? There is a fundamental difference between "wage slavery" and slavery. "Wage slaves" can always choose to leave and find some other way to feed themselves, whether it's becoming an entrepreneur, finding a better paying job, etc.

Still waiting for you to tell me how moving into politics would allow me own people. 

[BitterTea]

Still waiting for you to tell me how moving into politics would allow me own people. 

Still waiting for you to clue me in to concrete historical inaccuracies in The Story of Your Enslavement.

Since I'm not a hypocrite, I will also answer your question (with a question). What does "ownership" mean to you?

[Ashkelon]

[/quote]
 What does "ownership" mean to you?
[/quote]

Means you can kill it without fear of retribution

[rainingbitcoins]

Do you notice that the comparison was used to justify real slavery?

So? There is a fundamental difference between "wage slavery" and slavery. "Wage slaves" can always choose to leave and find some other way to feed themselves, whether it's becoming an entrepreneur, finding a better paying job, etc.

Yes, finding a new job when everything you're qualified to do pays the same shitty wage. Sounds viable. Almost as viable as becoming an entrepreneur on a sustenance-level wage working 18 hours a day.

It's all about CHOICE, even if your choice is between abject shit and a pie-in-the-sky dream that, pretty much by definition, can only be realized by a tiny fraction of the populace.

[Hawker]

Still waiting for you to tell me how moving into politics would allow me own people.  

Still waiting for you to clue me in to concrete historical inaccuracies in The Story of Your Enslavement.

Since I'm not a hypocrite, I will also answer your question (with a question). What does "ownership" mean to you?

In the first 30 seconds, he announces that the fear of death is the big problem of society.  In my experience, its people who are willing to die for their beliefs are the big problem - not the ones who are afraid of dying.  He descibes an "enclosure" movement as covering all Europe.  It didn't - Ireland never had one and as far as I know it was an English/Scottish thing.

As for ownership: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ownership

You claim to be a slave.  Who is it that owns you?

[BitterTea]

What does "ownership" mean to you?

Means you can kill it without fear of retribution

At first, I was going to dispute this, but upon second thought, this seems like a good partial definition of ownership. I would say that owning an object means you can do anything you want with it, up to and including destroying it.

I would argue that this definition fits the relationship between the fictional entity known as the State (and those that make decisions in its name) and its citizens.

[Hawker]

What does "ownership" mean to you?

Means you can kill it without fear of retribution

At first, I was going to dispute this, but upon second thought, this seems like a good partial definition of ownership. I would say that owning an object means you can do anything you want with it, up to and including destroying it.

I would argue that this definition fits the relationship between the fictional entity known as the State (and those that make decisions in its name) and its citizens.

Circular logic.  In a democracy, the people own the state.

[BitterTea]

In the first 30 seconds, he announces that the fear of death is the big problem of society.  In my experience, its people who are willing to die for their beliefs are the big problem - not the ones who are afraid of dying.

Not a historical inaccuracy, a difference of opinion. Do you truly claim that humans are not alone among animals (as far as we can currently tell) in fearing death and future loss?

He descibes an "enclosure" movement as covering all Europe.  It didn't - Ireland never had one and as far as I know it was an English/Scottish thing.

You truly hear exactly what you want to hear. He says nothing about Europe. Here is what he says:

Instead of being directly owned, peasants farmed land that they could retain as long as they paid off the local warlords. This model eventually broke down due to the continual subdivision of productive land and was destroyed during the enclosure movement when land was consolidated and hundreds of thousands of peasants were kicked off their ancestral land because new farming techniques made larger farms more productive with fewer people.

Emphasized in the quote is my answer to your question of "ownership". That same model is used today, but replace "peasants" with "citizens" and "warlords" with "governments".