Why Do We take the Words of Wall Street Grifters and Totalitarian Thugs Seriously?
True or false. Answer honestly. I don’t grade on a curve.
1. K Street in Washington, D.C. is filled with lobbyists who serve wealthy corporations and buy access, favors and legislation for their clients. Most politicians take the money, the meetings, and vote for the legislation their sponsors demand.
True or False?
2. For more than 40 years, after receiving repeatedly alarming warnings from scientists, governments — under the influence of wealthy corporations — refused to do anything about climate collapse because giant corporations want to continue profiting from oil regardless of the consequences for their children, our children and the planet.
True or False?
3. Both political parties are financed by wealthy bribers (I won’t call them “donors”) and get what they want — tax cuts, favors, bailouts, war for oil, ANYTHING — because the government is their property. This isn’t denying that one party is gleefully sadistic (obviously the GOP) while the other is simply subservient to the wealthy.
True or False?
4. The first three questions simplify the situation and it’s much more complicated than that.
True or False.
Ok. Pencils down.
Here’s the answers: Number 4 is false — the cheapest and easiest excuse for the status quo that somehow never stops working. The other three are true. And you know it.
Now, back to the title of this post. Why do we take Wall Street and totalitarian thugs seriously? Why do we listen to and discuss their ideologies as if they were relevant or credible? Why do we buy bullcrap like “Wall Street paid off their bailout and the taxpayers actually made a profit.” Why do we ever, EVER still listen to words like “corporations create jobs”? Why do we ever, EVER support a war, any war, when it’s just a bloodthirsty exercise ordered by a-holes who sit back on their fat asses in overstuffed padded chairs in their air-conditioned offices while foolish shlubs blow each other to pieces?
The people on Earth who have skills and the ability to do useful things are scientists and engineers — NOT politicians and businessmen. The latter are grifters, swindlers, egomaniacs with no ability to create or build anything useful. Why do we listen to those who led us into our current disaster and plan to continue until the Earth itself is a burnt lifeless husk, a situation which is fast approaching?
My answer: I don’t know.
But, I know that I will not ever take them or their ideologies and nonsense and cruel actions mislabeled as “pragmatic” or “realistic” serious again. If I ever did. I will ridicule them, briefly and dismissively, and turn the conversation to where it should go: towards saving the climate and repairing our planet for our children and their children. All those old businessmen and politicians and their worse than useless lieutenants will be dead fairly soon (albeit not soon enough), and the next generation will need to deal with their sh!t. I say, let’s not wait until then to do something.
Let’s do it now.
