Oscar Wilde whining again

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6708398

Oh my.

The large-proboscised primitive, Oscar Wilde.

Cyrano  (1000+ posts)        Tue Oct-06-09 12:32 PM
Original message
 
We’re all slaves now

A slave is a piece of property owned by someone or some entity.

I really need someone to convince me that the majority of us are not owned by health insurance companies, banks, companies that pay our salaries and can discard us in a second, and a political system that gives us few choices. (Shackles and whips are not needed in today’s world.)

For all the truths, bitching, advice, suggestions, anger, rants, and opinions posted on DU daily, the fact that we are slaves never comes up. But make no mistake about it. We are all owned. As long as we live in this country and play by the rules, we have little or nothing to say about how we are governed, manipulated and screwed on a daily basis.

Need more proof? About 75% of the people in this country want a public health care option (and perhaps even a single payer system like the rest of the civilized world has). Yet, what we want is being ignored.

How secure is your job? Even if you belong to a union, the company you work for could pick up and move to Bangladesh next week. “Official” government unemployment figures aside, countless millions of Americans are out of work because most work has been shipped to countries that pay people perhaps as much as $1 a day. None of us had any say in that, or the means to prevent it.

How many of you read the small print in your mortgage? The purpose of small print is to ensure that you can get ****ed by whoever is holding your mortgage anytime they want to **** you.

And regarding our two party political system, about the only thing we can be sure of is that Democrats will sell us out reluctantly, while Republicans will sell us out with glee.

So can anyone explain to me how you can believe we are not slaves?

Oh, I dunno.

I think Oscar Wilde's slavery is a matter of attitude.

With his own attitude, franksolich is as free as a bird.

valerief  (1000+ posts)        Tue Oct-06-09 12:34 PM
Response to Original message
 
1. I think it's time Americans co-oped their country.

TexasObserver  (1000+ posts)        Tue Oct-06-09 12:38 PM
Response to Original message

2. That's what Jim Morrison said.

I have to admit that it does seem the government is hiring more and more goons to do unsavory things to US, to make US do theirs and government's bidding. From the illiterates who poke and prod us at airport entry points in the name of national security, to the mouth breathers who tase us on the side of the road for asserting our rights, to the insurers who force us to buy their coverages for homes, cars and now, our bodies, we are owned by the globalist corporations who run our government.

Yeah, it blows goats.

Blackwater, Haliburton, GE, Goldman Sachs.

Robber barons never had it so good.

Nor did those sucking off the governmental teat have it so good, either.

[delilahmused]

I'm confused. I thought all this bad stuff was supposed to end with the ascension of The One. What the heck happened?

Cindie

[GOBUCKS]

cali  (1000+ posts)        Tue Oct-06-09 12:40 PM
3. dog, this is such bullshit.
The truth is that you and I and everyone posting here, won the ****ing lottery as to where we
were born. Oh, maybe we didn't win the top prize of Norway, but billions of people- yes,
billions- don't have the luxury to diddle themselves with the kind of crap you're playing with.

NO I AM NOT SAYING HOW WONDERFUL THIS COUNTRY IS. I'm just saying it ain't slavery and
the lot of you sitting comfortably at your computers and bitching doesn't make it so.

I was shocked by this reply by the insane old bat DUmmy cali. Of course, she gave us second
place behind Norway (an unsubtle nod to her affection for coach), and had to add the disclaimer
about this not being a wonderful country, but those were just concessions to avoid a tombstone.

Skimmer and his gestapo will file this post away for future reference, in the event DUmmy cali
makes any more freeperish comments.

[Carl]

Just curious but have they ever linked to a poll or anything that actually suggests their wild figures about how popular a public option is?

[franksolich]

Just curious but have they ever linked to a poll or anything that actually suggests their wild figures about how popular a public option is?

Not that I've ever seen.

All I've ever seen are the primitives alleging "70%" or "85%" or "99%" of Americans want the public option, but they never name the poll.

[Karin]

Yeah, Frank, I've never seen them cite the poll either.  They made it up. 

This little quote struck me from TexasObserver: 

to the mouth breathers who tase us on the side of the road for asserting our rights, to the insurers who force us to buy their coverages for homes, cars and now, our bodies,

Taze you for asserting your rights?  Got a story behind that remark?  And, of course, insurers don't force coverage.  Either the banks holding a mortgage does, or the government, their beloved government, does. 

[franksolich]

Oh my.

Oscar Wilde's bonfire really took off after I posted this.

The primitives must come here to find out where they're supposed to post, and then go back over to Skins's island to comment.  It's enormous, and there's a whole slew of "name removed"s.

I'll pick it up where GOBUCKS left off, quoting the bitter old Vermontese cali primitive.

Cyrano  (1000+ posts)        Tue Oct-06-09 12:48 PM
Response to Reply #3

7. Nice rant, Cali. Now, how about making a case regarding the issues I posted? 

And you have no idea what I know about those truly enslaved on this planet. The never-ending cruelty that exists seems to just go on and on. But the lack of cruelty and horrors we associate with slavery, doesn't mean that we are a free people.

cali  (1000+ posts)        Tue Oct-06-09 12:51 PM
Response to Reply #7
 
9. you posted no facts. you posted opinion.

I made clear MY opinion about what you posted.

Cyrano  (1000+ posts)        Tue Oct-06-09 01:51 PM
Response to Reply #9
 
25. Oh, okay. 

So I guess that the majority of people don’t want a public health option. I guess that unemployment is no big deal (if you have a job). I guess the small print in mortgages is put there for our benefit. I guess that those who rent can’t be tossed out on their asses for missing rent payments. And I guess that the Democrats would never sell us out.

But as long as I’m replying, to you, let me say that I rarely get pissed off on DU, but you’ve managed to get me there.

Just what the hell do you think you know about me? Am I white? Am I black? Am I a Muslim, a Christian, a Jew, a Hindu, a Druid? How do you know I’ve never been to Rwanda and seen the unspeakable horrors first-hand? How do you know I’ve never been to any of the other torture chambers of this stinking planet and seen, smelled, or experienced the most horrendous crimes that human beings can commit against each other?

You don’t. Yet, your posts assume that I’m just sitting here typing up some bullshit to make it to “PAGE 1.”

I really couldn’t give a shit how many people recommend, unrecommend, or do nothing on this post. I just want people to read it and recognize that most of us are indentured servants. We are not (always) slaves who are tased, dragged behind pickup trucks, or left to die because we have no insurance. But make no mistake about it. Most of us are dwelling in economic slavery. And once you're owned economically, what's to prevent the physical horrors that have always accompanied slavery?

Although it's not a perfect example, look at how quickly Bush/Cheney descended into the torture chambers of the dark ages. Do you really think that couldn't happen here? (And with what we know about Cheney, who's to say it hasn't already happened?)

After which there's 17--17--"name removed"s in a row.

Brickbat (385 posts)      Tue Oct-06-09 12:42 PM
Response to Original message
 
5. I find this kind of broad-brush self-indulgence embarrassing.

No one owns me.

cali  (1000+ posts)        Tue Oct-06-09 12:44 PM
Response to Reply #5
 
6. oh, but you're just in denial. you're identifying with the slaveholders. You're too stupid to realize it. blah, blah, blah.

Pharlo (1000+ posts)      Tue Oct-06-09 12:51 PM
Response to Original message
 
8. Slaves have available work and get room and board.

cali  (1000+ posts)        Tue Oct-06-09 12:52 PM
Response to Reply #8
 
11. oh so we're worse of than actual real slaves 

garbage of the worst kind.

kctim (303 posts)      Tue Oct-06-09 01:06 PM
Response to Original message
 
14. What a load of crap

You have a choice when it comes to health insurance, what banks to use, what company to work for and who to vote for. SLAVES DO NOT HAVE CHOICES! They are a "piece of property owned by someone or some entity." NOBODY owns you and there is ONLY one entity capable of owning you.

This boils down to nothing more than you not getting what you want and feeling ignored. You are spoiled, not enslaved.

Yeah, that's Oscar Wilde, to a tee.

After which the Kansas City tim primitive, skeptical of the allegations of Oscar Wilde, gets into a few minor spats with other primitives.

And then back on track:

TheKentuckian  (1000+ posts)      Tue Oct-06-09 01:20 PM
Response to Original message
 
18. I agree with an upthread...serfdom is more appropriate or perhaps permanently indentured but those who think we have real self determination or equal opportunity are jacked into the matrix.

cali  (1000+ posts)        Tue Oct-06-09 01:23 PM
Response to Reply #18
 
19. oh ****ing please

yes, the social and economic construct is difficult to break out of, but it can be done. These hills are teaming with folks doing it. And no, they sure as shit aren't a bunch of bored privileged ex-stockbrokers.

TheKentuckian  (1000+ posts)      Tue Oct-06-09 02:00 PM
Response to Reply #19

29. For now perhaps but the gap grows daily while the avenues for sustained growth are systematically being cut from underneath us.

Virtually the entire nation is between one and a few paychecks from ruin, our education slips, our industries are place in competition with economies on a completely different scale, many of us have spent years and lots of money to educate ourselves only to see fields dry completely up, we are at the mercy of insurance companies if we get ill, we have no control of production, we have children that can only depend on a crappy school lunch and processed junk trying to learn, we have as a people been indebted by corporate communism and military adventure, and as a whole have more debt than property. That's just to wet the appetite!

Get off your high horse because you may have ecked out a small level of security. In all probability it wouldn't take a hell of a lot to ruin you either and if not then it is still stupid to ignore the reality of the majority of our people.

cali  (1000+ posts)        Tue Oct-06-09 02:51 PM
Response to Reply #29
 
45. Tell it to folks in my town. 

after which the bitter old Vermontese cali primitive does a long, a really long, public relations blurb for the Hardwick (Vermont) Chamber of Commerce

TheKentuckian  (1000+ posts)      Tue Oct-06-09 03:02 PM
Response to Reply #45
 
62. Good read but only tenously addressing my thoughts anyway.

cali  (1000+ posts)        Tue Oct-06-09 03:04 PM
Response to Reply #62
 
64. I think it illustrates that you can buck the system. that people can change things, that local is the way to effect real change and that all is not ****ing hopeless.

TheKentuckian  (1000+ posts)      Tue Oct-06-09 03:47 PM
Response to Reply #64
 
99. I understand that aspect but ideologically it makes a lot more sense to take the power from those who hold it rather than meekly growing a garden and keeping your head down. Those billions you see are a representation of our common resources that we borrow from the future and the labor of those who came before us hoping for a better world for their progeny.

I'm far from hopeless. I am agitated by those that would cede our mutual inheritance to thugs. I am disappointed by the refusal to bring down failed systems. I refuse to ever slink back to the the past because we as a people are too stupid, meek, and lazy to claim our future.

You local minded folks are turning a blind eye to forces that will consume you at their leisure. It is beautiful that your community is seizing control of food production but that is just a sliver. I look to the future not the past, there are no "good old days" in my mind and if we are to ever have them we can't do it under the weight of a bunch of failed systems championed by useful idiots and those who want to make a buck. We form governments to do what the individual cannot, it is a way to pool resources and effort not to use them as tools for the few.

You haven't bucked the system you have sidestepped it in a meaningful but small way.

cali  (1000+ posts)        Tue Oct-06-09 03:54 PM
Response to Reply #99
 
104. c'mon. a bunch of baby boomers chatting about revol;ution on the internet isn't a fraction as revolutionary as what we're doing in my little town- and it sure the **** isn't just growing a garden. We here involved in this are hardly turning a blind eye to anything. Collectively, we're pretty aware and quite savvy. And we're not just blathering, we're doing something. We're being the change we want to see. Act locally. Think globally. It's not just a cliche.

TheKentuckian  (1000+ posts)      Tue Oct-06-09 04:00 PM
Response to Reply #104
 
108. Blathering and doing aren't mutually exclusive

In fact little has ever got done without a fair amount of blather. Nor am I really talking revolution but simply using the limited tools we have in a determined and cohesive fashion. If we all pushed in the same direction relentlessly there would be little choice other than to give up a few more crumbs or roll the tanks on us.

I will grant that slavery (although useful imagery) is the wrong term because the power is there we just don't use it for a variety of shitty reasons.

A great deal more blahblahblah.

Nederland  (1000+ posts)      Tue Oct-06-09 02:45 PM
Response to Original message
 
41. What bullshit

You are perfectly free to quite your job and refuse your insurance. No person or government is forcing you to work for a living, you are perfectly free to choose not to. Sure, you'll very quickly have a hard time acquiring food, clothing or shelter without working, but what causes that? The ****ing laws of the universe do, that's what. Food, clothing, shelter, and yes, health care do not magically appear out of thin air, they are the result of people working.

If you don't like that, bitch to the God of your choice. You're perfectly free to do that too.

BoneDaddy (1000+ posts)     Tue Oct-06-09 02:50 PM
Response to Reply #41
 
44. I love people like this

try living in most of the world and tell me you are not free in America.

cali  (1000+ posts)        Tue Oct-06-09 03:02 PM
Response to Reply #49
 
61. yeah? Well my education is life long which is why I know that the idiots professing how enslaved they are, are melodramatic, self-indulgent and/or ignorant. It may irritate you, but yes, I'm relatively free. I'm not owned by corporations. True, I live a a very modest lifestyle in a very rural place, but that was my decision.

Whisp (1000+ posts)      Tue Oct-06-09 03:07 PM
Response to Reply #61
 
67. I'll give you the same respect you have given others here..

why do you think I give a shit where you live or how free you think you are?

You are obviously not interested in the subject and just want to spread your self important droppings here to remark to yourself how witty you are. and how free you are to be an abrasive jackass.

cali  (1000+ posts)        Tue Oct-06-09 03:16 PM
Response to Reply #67
 
70. you're the one braying on callously and ignorantly and you are the one doing the nasty name calling, dearie.

omega minimo  (1000+ posts)        Tue Oct-06-09 03:24 PM
Response to Reply #70
 
75. Whisp is simply pointing out, it's not All About You, cali or your droppings

cali  (1000+ posts)        Tue Oct-06-09 03:30 PM
Response to Reply #75
 
83. never said anything that a reasonable person could construe as it being all about me. And you should know about shit, dear. Your posts are pure unadulterated crap.

dionysus  (1000+ posts)      Tue Oct-06-09 04:32 PM
Response to Reply #67
 
119. cali may be abrasive, but she's not a jackass. this OP is embarrassing hyperbole.

Yeah it is.  Oscar Wilde is an embarrassment to Skins's island.

BoneDaddy (1000+ posts)     Tue Oct-06-09 08:06 PM
Response to Reply #61
 
153. I tend to agree

so many so called progressive liberals thrive within a victim mentality. I think they are emotionally masochistic.

Uh huh.

Throd (1000+ posts)      Tue Oct-06-09 03:02 PM
Response to Original message
 
63. Go visit an old plantation in Dixie

We're all slaves! It's the Holocaust! Hitler behind that rock! Stalin behind that tree!

cali  (1000+ posts)        Tue Oct-06-09 03:05 PM
Response to Reply #63
 
65. best comment in the thread. +1 and all that.

You know, I'm starting to sort of maybe perhaps possibly suspect Oscar Wilde is a drama queen, creating bonfires like this.

[Chump]

I understand that aspect but ideologically it makes a lot more sense to take the power from those who hold it rather than meekly growing a garden and keeping your head down.

Dems should take the power back from...the Dems?  You folks do know your party has absolutely no obstacles to anything, right?  RIGHT?  Let's be honest, if 75%-99% of voters or whatever percentage you pull out of your ass really want a public option, it would already be a done deal.  It isn't, because they don't, liars.

so many so called progressive liberals thrive within a victim mentality. I think they are emotionally masochistic.

No, it's the logical conclusion of your values.  You value the weak, the poor, the lazy, the do-nothings, the leech****s.  You prop them up at the expense of the producers, and you assert that doing so is a value because those people are in need.  In short, you reward the very mentality and work ethic you're bemoaning.  It's called reaping what you sow.

Go eat crow, hippies.

[Carl]

Wow,what is up with some of them actually acting like thinking adults?