123
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2023
123 points (95.6% liked)
politics
19135 readers
2188 users here now
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Fortunately we can flip flop on that too, it's not impossible. The term "military-industrial complex" itself was coined by President Eisenhower, WW2 general and 2 term pres, in his farewell address to the American people, when he explained it to us as a likely future problem.
Before WW2, we disbanded most of our military after basically every war. Much cheaper that way. Though always costlier in the first stretch of any new war.
These kinds of broad changes, like say, battling the robber barons of the 19th century, tend to take us more than a generation to fix, though. We're not static, it just looks that way at personal timescales, about 99% of the time. It's an illusion though, with proper training and/or practice you can see right through it.
Thank you for your optimism.
I'm not alone, extremely cautious optimism is fairly common with more old school liberals.
Historians like Stephen Kotkin and Yuval Noah Harari frequently take these kinds of positions, with Kotkin having been pretty active regarding Ukraine, and recently Harari having to take some really difficult, nuanced positions about a situation he, his family and friends are literally living. He is a historian at the University of Jerusalem, if memory serves.
Here's a recent interview he did: https://youtu.be/9qaxYQqmzIg?si=hq3dbjC9gHGB4kXE
We were a more honest society then. The department of defense was appropriately named the war department, and not one of our many Orwellian jingoisms.
We also raised tax to pay for the war then too, and sold bonds to the public to fund it. Thats what part of the "war effort" at home was about.
Now we just devalue the dollar and rack up debt we will never pay. The rich already own everything money can buy, they won't give two shits when it's worth less than toilet paper. They've made out with everything of value while paying you less and less every year.
Stealing anything good any of us ever made with our wasted vitality and youth.
They're a fucking cancer that needs to be excised.
I see right through it, it's a country founded on the genocide of native Americans, made strong through the enslavement of a kidnapped people for 400 years, and then made the global dominant superpower thanks to capitalism, war, and oil.