Are you sick of my political rants yet?
Apr. 8th, 2019 08:49 pmA few things, though.
In addition to legalizing tailgating, which I truly thought was already legal but I'm not that kind of white person so I've never done it, paying an unknown amount of money to spread untruths about the carbon tax, and getting his MPPs to tweet "RESPECT MAH AUTHORITY"*, Ford is quickly working on dismantling Ontario's healthcare system. He gave the province all of 48 hours to participate in "consultations"; he actually didn't want to do any consultations at all but someone leaked that this was going on. 1,594 Ontarians applied for a spot to speak to the bill in committee, but the government limited the number of presenters to 30.
I happen to know one of those 30 people and she sent me the video of her testimony. I think it's really important to watch. I think it's particularly important that it gets out to the media that the only patients consulted on drastic changes to health care, including cancer care, were given a total of 8 minutes to speak. The media, thus far, has not been interested in what patients have to say any more than the government is, but maybe you know someone who knows someone? She has given me permission to share this publicly. TW for discussion of cancer.
On a broader note, I have Many Thoughts about the death of liberal (small-l) democracy. And I'll get around to posting them as soon as things calm down a little. Now, I do not personally believe that electoral democracy structured along national lines with a market-based economy is the best or only possible configuration for a society—I'm basically a Marxist, after all—but I do think it's better than where we're headed. Furthermore, I believe that the market-based part of that equation ensures that the liberal and democratic side of it is, long-term, doomed.
I think that the final form of capitalism doesn't look like the United States or Canada in the 1950s and 1960s, which is kind of what capitalist's proponents want it to look like. I think it looks a lot more like Russia or China, formerly communist countries that are vastly better at capitalism than we are. And I don't believe that the step from here to there is all that big, or that the bulk of the population would put up any meaningful resistance whatsoever to the change.
This post is what I'm talking about. I think it's important to read because what this guy says, pseudonymously, is what I suspect is going through a lot of people's heads as the world goes to hell.
Give it a read, and you'll have more of an idea of why I don't sleep anymore.
* He removed the tweet but North99 got a screenshot.
In addition to legalizing tailgating, which I truly thought was already legal but I'm not that kind of white person so I've never done it, paying an unknown amount of money to spread untruths about the carbon tax, and getting his MPPs to tweet "RESPECT MAH AUTHORITY"*, Ford is quickly working on dismantling Ontario's healthcare system. He gave the province all of 48 hours to participate in "consultations"; he actually didn't want to do any consultations at all but someone leaked that this was going on. 1,594 Ontarians applied for a spot to speak to the bill in committee, but the government limited the number of presenters to 30.
I happen to know one of those 30 people and she sent me the video of her testimony. I think it's really important to watch. I think it's particularly important that it gets out to the media that the only patients consulted on drastic changes to health care, including cancer care, were given a total of 8 minutes to speak. The media, thus far, has not been interested in what patients have to say any more than the government is, but maybe you know someone who knows someone? She has given me permission to share this publicly. TW for discussion of cancer.
On a broader note, I have Many Thoughts about the death of liberal (small-l) democracy. And I'll get around to posting them as soon as things calm down a little. Now, I do not personally believe that electoral democracy structured along national lines with a market-based economy is the best or only possible configuration for a society—I'm basically a Marxist, after all—but I do think it's better than where we're headed. Furthermore, I believe that the market-based part of that equation ensures that the liberal and democratic side of it is, long-term, doomed.
I think that the final form of capitalism doesn't look like the United States or Canada in the 1950s and 1960s, which is kind of what capitalist's proponents want it to look like. I think it looks a lot more like Russia or China, formerly communist countries that are vastly better at capitalism than we are. And I don't believe that the step from here to there is all that big, or that the bulk of the population would put up any meaningful resistance whatsoever to the change.
This post is what I'm talking about. I think it's important to read because what this guy says, pseudonymously, is what I suspect is going through a lot of people's heads as the world goes to hell.
Democracy is pretty overrated. I would be totally content with a benevolent oligarchy making policy decisions for me. I’m not an expert in medicine, so I don’t decide who gets to be a doctor, and I’m not an expert in engine repair, so I don’t decide who gets to be a mechanic. Since I’m also not an expert in government, so why insist that I decide who governs me?
As Americans, we are so thoroughly conditioned to hold voting rights sacred and to insist that we have a say in our government. I think we’d all be a lot happier if we worried less about who was running for what office and let someone else make those decisions for us, but to a lot of people that sounds downright un-American.
Give it a read, and you'll have more of an idea of why I don't sleep anymore.
* He removed the tweet but North99 got a screenshot.