Another Big Idea: Corruption
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Wednesday, July 8, 2026 18:55
VIEWED: 465
PAGE 1 of 3
Corruption is THE government/society- killer.
Just a placeholder for further ideas.
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JD Vance comments about a president considered to be one of the most corrupt of all time. But, no, it wasn't Donald Trump. It was Richard Nixon, who, unlike Vance's boss, was never actually impeached but resigned before the House could vote on his charges.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/jd-vances-bizarre-comment
s-nixon-163632349.html
The vice president suggested that if the Watergate scandal that led to the end of Nixon's presidency happened tomorrow, "It would be like a 12-hour news story." He added, "The idea that it took down a presidency is crazy."
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Oh, I see.
You're fighting a war against Nixon.
He's dead, man.
Let it go.
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
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My idea of corruption goes beyond politicians personally enriching themselves. Maybe the term should be "parasitism": when the elite parasitize more than an economy can sustain.
But then, of course, I'd have to define "economy". MOST people, even supposed knowledgeable alt media commentators, routinely conflate financialism with the economy. Au contraire. Financialism is mostly just another form of parasitism.
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
My idea of corruption goes beyond politicians personally enriching themselves. Maybe the term should be "parasitism": when the elite parasitize more than an economy can sustain.
But then, of course, I'd have to define "economy". MOST people, even supposed knowledgeable alt media commentators, routinely conflate financialism with the economy. Au contraire. Financialism is mostly just another form of parasitism.
I don't know where he got the term, but I always liked when Jimmy Dore called it "Predatory Capitalism". His all time biggest gripe is that for nearly all of us, it doesn't even matter what we make in life because the Healtcare Industry is going to take it all away from you when you die and leave you nothing to give your children.
We are way beyond post-capitalism. They dangle the carrot out in front of you by using the very few examples that ever get anything truly amazing done, but the chances that any of us are going to be successful business owners are so slim-to-none that it may as well be promises of being an astronaut or the President one day.
The vast, vast, vast majority of us are nothing but wage slaves at the end of the day. Quite a few of us voluntarily chose that too, making far more money than they'd need to at least be able to retire 20 or more years early, but they can't help themselves and have to buy all the new shit to keep up with the cool kids.
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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.
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Quote:Are you aware that this is a problem only in the US?
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I don't know where he got the term, but I always liked when Jimmy Dore called it "Predatory Capitalism". His all time biggest gripe is that for nearly all of us, it doesn't even matter what we make in life because the Healtcare Industry is going to take it all away from you when you die and leave you nothing to give your children.
We are way beyond post-capitalism.
August 2009
Only in America: Bankruptcy Due to Health Care Costs
James E. Dalen, MD, MPH
https://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-93430900525-7/fulltext
The article by Himmelstein et al in this issue of The American Journal of Medicine documents that health care expenses were the most common cause of bankruptcy in the United States in 2007, accounting for 62% of US bankruptcies compared with 8% in 1981.2
Most bankruptcies occurred in middle-class citizens with health insurance, further evidence that our current health care system, based on for-profit, employment-based health insurance, is not working. Millions of Americans have limited access to health care because they cannot afford health insurance. Millions of others, such as those who have to file for bankruptcy because of health care costs, have inadequate health insurance. It is estimated that 1 in 5 Americans goes without health insurance or has inadequate health insurance.3
Why is the United States, one of the richest countries in the world, the only major industrial nation that is unable to provide access to health care to all its citizens? Are there any other nations whose citizens have to declare bankruptcy because of health care expenses?
Other industrial nations ensure access to health care to all their citizens, at a much lower cost than the United States, and with better health outcomes, by 1 of 2 basic plans.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:Are you aware that this is a problem only in the US?
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I don't know where he got the term, but I always liked when Jimmy Dore called it "Predatory Capitalism". His all time biggest gripe is that for nearly all of us, it doesn't even matter what we make in life because the Healtcare Industry is going to take it all away from you when you die and leave you nothing to give your children.
We are way beyond post-capitalism.
No. It certainly is not.
The US problem IS the worldwide problem. The worldwide problem is the illusory world I've spoken about before that has been funded for generations by $39 Trillion worth of debt and virtually nothing to show for it, unless you're counting the history of how we all got ourselves stuck between the hammer and the anvil. "The world you thought you knew 6 months ago is dead and never coming back, and all of that...
All the shit you buy that you don't need and most of the stuff that you do need is made by slaves in countries such as China, many of them very under working age. All of the electricity that powers your shitty, unsalable Ford F-150 Lightning comes from coal being burned somewhere you don't have to smell it. Despite any lies you believe to the contrary with no purpose other than to feel better about yourself, everyone in the world is using more fossil fuels every year and those numbers never go down. And they will never, ever go down unless we start going Nuclear, or all the oil starts to run out. At the very best your little obscenely expensive hobby is keeping just a small fraction of that growing number every year at bay. You don't get to claim that your electricity, personally, is being powered by solar or wind unless you've got your own damn solar panels or a windmill on in your backyard. And even then, only if your entire usage every month is nil or less and you're getting credited for feeding into the system.
Everything any country thinks they have simply evaporates overnight if all the debt ever gets called. There's hardly a military presence at all in the EU anymore, and they've got 27 Million Muslims living all throughout, just waiting for the chaos to start when the free money wells finally dry up. Europe, or the once-strong and noble countries that used to mean something before the EU swallowed them all up, would never have allowed itself to atrophy the way that it has over time if they needed to keep up their own very strong military presence for VERY real reasons that are and have always been festering just beneath the surface. But the US has been powering that illusory world with debt this whole time. Up until recently military spending had been the main culprit for our debt year over year, until the interest on our debt just eclipsed military spending.
27 Million Muslims love their new homes when they get a bunch of free shit. Even the ones who do indeed work for a living and contribute. What happens when the free shit disappears along with the jobs that AI or the eventual and inevitable recession or depression is going to destroy? What will 27 Million bored, hungry and facing homelessness angry Muslims do in that situation when there are tons of people who look nothing like them and share none of their values at all, with shit that they wouldn't mind having? 27 Million men and women, very many of whom have had MUCH more difficult lives than the likes of you could fathom. 27 Million men and women who know how to face adversity when it comes. Have learned to predict and intuit likely future outcomes when building their defenses as a life skill since they were old enough to enunciate.
Indeed what would they do when they know the entire police force has been liberally feminized and couldn't even fight back when things take a turn if they wanted to. What do you suppose that unarmed, pudgy little dumb fucks without a competent local police
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Quote:The truth has no defense against a fool (like 6ixStringJoker) determined to believe a lie.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
All the shit you buy that you don't need and most of the stuff that you do need is made by slaves in countries such as China, many of them very under working age. All of the electricity that powers your shitty, unsalable Ford F-150 Lightning comes from coal being burned somewhere you don't have to smell it. Despite any lies you believe to the contrary with no purpose other than to feel better about yourself, everyone in the world is using more fossil fuels every year and those numbers never go down. And they will never, ever go down unless we start going Nuclear, or all the oil starts to run out. At the very best your little obscenely expensive hobby is keeping just a small fraction of that growing number every year at bay. You don't get to claim that your electricity, personally, is being powered by solar or wind unless you've got your own damn solar panels or a windmill on in your backyard. And even then, only if your entire usage every month is nil or less and you're getting credited for feeding into the system.
You are a very stupid person, Second. Very stupid.
- falsely attributed to Mark Twain
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Renewable energy accounts for roughly 24% to 30% of Texas's total electricity generation, depending on the specific seasonal data and grid metrics evaluated. Wind and solar energy are the primary renewable sources, and on high-production days, they can supply over 70% of the state's total electricity demand.
The breakdown of how the Lone Star State powers its grid includes:
• Wind Power: Provides over 20% of the state's electricity and makes Texas the #1 wind energy producer in the nation.
• Solar Power: Supplies approximately 8% to 11% of the state's electricity, with a massive surge in utility-scale capacity over the last few years.
• Nuclear Energy: Contributes another 7% to 10%. Combined, these low-carbon and renewable sources account for about 40% of Texas's overall electricity production, while natural gas remains the dominant base-load Source.
You can track real-time renewable energy generation and fuel mix on the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) dashboard. https://www.ercot.com/
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The thinking style that makes people (like 6ixStringJoker) vulnerable to extremism
The people most drawn to ideological thinking and authoritarianism aren’t aware of what makes them so susceptible
By Leor Zmigrod, political neuroscientist
26 June 2026
https://psyche.co/ideas/the-thinking-style-that-makes-people-vulnerabl
e-to-extremism
One of the characteristics I have studied is called cognitive rigidity, and it captures whether a person struggles to adapt to change or uncertainty. We all exist on a spectrum from cognitively rigid to cognitively flexible thinkers. You might think you have a sense of where you lie on this spectrum, but in fact most of us have very little insight into our own cognitive rigidity. I’ve found that some of the most rigid thinkers describe themselves as spectacularly flexible while the most flexible people are often unaware of their own adaptability. This is why, instead of relying on asking people how rigid they think they are, I began studying people’s unconscious thinking styles.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
The thinking style that makes people (like 6ixStringJoker) vulnerable to extremism
The people most drawn to ideological thinking and authoritarianism aren’t aware of what makes them so susceptible
By Leor Zmigrod, political neuroscientist
26 June 2026
https://psyche.co/ideas/the-thinking-style-that-makes-people-vulnerabl
e-to-extremism
One of the characteristics I have studied is called cognitive rigidity, and it captures whether a person struggles to adapt to change or uncertainty. We all exist on a spectrum from cognitively rigid to cognitively flexible thinkers. You might think you have a sense of where you lie on this spectrum, but in fact most of us have very little insight into our own cognitive rigidity. I’ve found that some of the most rigid thinkers describe themselves as spectacularly flexible while the most flexible people are often unaware of their own adaptability. This is why, instead of relying on asking people how rigid they think they are, I began studying people’s unconscious thinking styles.
That's hilarious, coming from the prime example of rigidly ideological extremism.
SECOND, you drag EVERY thread to your favorite topic, don't you?
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
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SIX, those are all excellent consequences of elite parasitism, especially the hive mind thinking of EUrocrats.
But being the mental munchkins that they are, they could never have attained such power without the USA uniparty as sponsor. And those uniparty members themselves could never have attained power without their own sponsors.
So, who is manipulating the mental midgets in office, and what are their interests? 'Cause it sure isn't the welfare of our society or robustness of our economy.
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
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