The Antisocial Socialist

So bcholmes and I went to see The Dark Knight Rises.

Paul Johansson, take note: This is how you make a really good movie with really reprehensible politics.

( spoilers! )

ETA: Two more interesting reviews.

The Dark Knight Rises: Class War in the Dystopian Present:

Our first thought on leaving the theatre- what kind of society could produce a big-budget movie with such a completely hopeless message about the future of humanity and the inability of ‘the people’ to govern themselves?

'The Dark Knight' is No Capitalist:

So this is a class struggle all right, but it’s not between Bane’s pseudo-proles and Gotham’s elite with their cop army. That’s a sideshow. The struggle is within the ruling class itself, between the capitalist Daggett and the aristocratic Wayne. Wayne is far more feudalism than finance: heir to a manor complete with fawning manservant, unconcerned with business or money-making, bound by duty and honor even if it makes him a recluse.

Facebook political arguments are the greatest. Well, they're quite awful, really, because there is a higher percentage of stupid on FB than there was on LJ even in its heyday.

Today, I'm in an argument about—

What am I in an argument about? FB arguments are so incoherent.

A friend posted about the Québec student strike. One of his friends responded with a confused and inflammatory statement about Québec separatism. I found myself having to explain about provincial and federal tax structure, which this person still does not seem to understand, why separatism isn't actually treason or illegal regardless of whether or not one agrees with it, and how he ought not to complain about taxes since a) he is a beneficiary of tax dollars, and b) I probably pay way more in taxes than he does and you don't see me whining nearly as hard. And besides which, whether he pays taxes in Ontario has little to do with how tax dollars are spent in Québec.

Alas, on LJ you can have footnotes and link to stats and you can dogpile people. On FB, the discussion degenerates quickly and then gets forgotten. You can't thread it so that responses to a person's idiocy on taxes, Québec politics, and tuition are separated out so that each bit of stupid can be properly refuted. It leads to sloppy thinking on the part of inferior minds. At least, I can only assume this is why buddy thinks these are all the same issue.

Libertarians are the same all over, though. I truly hate listening to people whine about how they've worked so hard and don't want to pay taxes. It makes me want to let them loose in whatever wilderness remains and see how their self-sufficiency is worth as they slowly starve to death.

Obama > Kissinger

Obama < that doctor in the Congo who was also up for it.

Can we settle down and drink some tea now?

EDIT: His response was decent and correct, however.