Authoritarian LEADERS/Social Dominants/Both (Now with Colors and Fonts!)
POSTED BY: Niki2
UPDATED: Sunday, April 6, 2025 22:29
VIEWED: 4611
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This isn't partisan because I'd throw 'em both to the dogs at this point, but...
Uh oh. Geezer is too far to the left on this one:
Nazis were not the only racist left wing regime. There are many in Africa (I don't mean wulfie anti-white) I mean what we call black on black. Many leftist totalitarian groups are anti-semitic, I can't think of any right wing ones off hand, which isn't surprising: Judaism is a religion. Only in a strictly religious construct. Still, though jews were slaughtered in the crusades, that was not the intent, the intent was to slaughter muslims (hmm.) Okay, there have been a fair number of conservative western ideologies that are anti-muslim, and also liberal ones. I think the west is probably pretty anti-muslim overall.
Still, I'm not sure this holds at all. FDR's democratic party was still racist socialist. It's a long standing party position, just every once in a while it changes targets (switching in the mid-20th c. to be anti-asian, and later, anti-arab, though there's still some anti-asian)
Obama's famous The chinese will poison your children rant, and more recently, his positively Bidenesque "No more Bangalore..." playing up to the xenophobic democratic party base.
Democrats in power in the US have killed more asians than blacks, and more blacks in the last 20 years than in all of slavery (another great democratic party achievement.) Oops, sorry, forgot the indians.
Yes, but often there is class warfare in leftist totalitarian regimes, sometimes, like under Pol Pot and Mao, the line gets blurred. In africa also, at times, but at times it's appallingly clear.
Right now, the BNP is growing in britain on a platform of no more jews no more muslims, but it's a socialist-left platform, and expected to split labour's vote, which I'm so happy about, because labour will lose. :) Still, it means there's a rising xenophobic attitude in Britain, but notice that it's not coming from the Tories, they're just benefiting by default, because the BNP can't possibly win, they can only cause labour to lose.
Again, the USSR. Not racist later on, but early on it was, very: Ukraine. The major non-russian group in russia. Also, little publicized: Jews, and attempt at muslims, but it failed, and of course, I have to sympathize with the christians on this, because they never ever get sympathy: Christians. Christians just don't know how to play the victim card: they go on "thrown to the lions," or "war on christmas" but actually, there's an anti-christian genocide every ten years or so, racking up more than probably any other religion, though not %wise. (The US seems bent on making muslims the #1 victim religion...)
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Sorry again, Anthony, after DT's post I realized that even though it's a cute, fun song, that my post might not make sense in context, and people might think I'm just being frivolous.
Basically, I started singing that song because all the talk about robbing from the rich (and giving to the poor, that's the other half of it) reminded me of the story of Robin Hood.
I sang happily, because there are some of these rich folks who I wouldn't cry a damn tear over if they lost all their money tomorrow. I might feel bad for their employees if their employees weren't all in slave shops overseas. For that reason, where it counts, I also doubt that the loss would have much impact on the economy, apart from the stock market, which I feel is largely illusionary anyway.
But, I was also being tongue in cheek, as I realize a lot of these wealth distribution schemes really DO see themselves as justified, no matter the target, and probably do compare themselves to Robin Hood.
Have to be careful!
Mostly, I think there's gonna be an economic collapse that TPTB haven't planned for cause they only THINK they know how to drive the market. And when that happens, that's going to render all the rich versus poor stuff moot.
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In regards to China, I heard that there's now a worker class and the educated class that controls the jobs, the economy, the state, and etc. And the worker class is getting PISSED.
I'm actually wondering if China isn't going to have another Tiananmen Square sometime in the next two decades... Though no one in China will remember the original protests in 1989. ._.
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Byte
Quote:
Have to be careful!
No, you don't. Really. If people are saying they miss RiveR6213, go back and read some posts and you'll see that you are currently in a crowd I'd say it's *impossible* to alienate.
It's possible if an FFFer killed someone, a simple "my bad" would suffice
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Mostly, I think there's gonna be an economic collapse that TPTB haven't planned for cause they only THINK they know how to drive the market. And when that happens, that's going to render all the rich versus poor stuff moot.
Well, they created the system, so they know it, IMHO the only potential flaw is people can abandon that system, which is the only thing I think they haven't counted on.
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In regards to China, I heard that there's now a worker class and the educated class that controls the jobs, the economy, the state, and etc. And the worker class is getting PISSED.
That's fairly close to accurate. Ripe for revolution. I think the people aren't out for blood though, and the commies are, so people will wait for a weak post-revolutionary regime (after the last of of the old guard is dead)
Quote:
I'm actually wondering if China isn't going to have another Tiananmen Square sometime in the next two decades... Though no one in China will remember the original protests in 1989. ._.
I believe the tagline here is:
Tonight we're going to party like it's 1989.
I always thought it would be nice if signature lined appeared differently from the text, like italic blue or something... erg no blue. Anyone know any easter eggs?
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You mean like this?
Just testing.
I always thought it would be nice if signature lined appeared differently from the text, like italic blue or something...
Font colors aren't hard - I learned how in the "Test" posts in Troll Country. Find something cool, and hit "Reply with Quote" to see what all is included in the coolness.
You can do it in different colors, too, 'til you find one you like.
Not sure how many are available. I'm guessing "mauve" or "chartreuse" aren't in the cards. I could be wrong.
Anyhow, you use the less than/greater than brackets (<,>) and in between them, you just type in (with no spaces)"font color=(insert color name)".
Try it out.
Special Thanks to AVeryFineCompanion for the tutorial.
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Anthony: If we're speaking of the "uber rich", certainly I have a bias against their POSITION, not the people themselves. Met on the street and being told they were amazingly rich, I'd have no problem with them any more than any other person.
However, "I read your statements, Niki, and detected a strong bias against the wealthy. And with advocating taxes targeted specifically at the most wealthy citizenry, robbing the rich wholesale seems spot on." I didn't advocate taxes specifically at them, I said I believe the inheritance tax is--damn, what's the word? "Scaled"--proprtionately decided, you know what I mean? I think that's appropriate. UE is the OPPOSITE of authoritarianism. I don't know of any society which has "universal equality" which is authoritarian, certainly not today.
Israel, for example is no UE, but I wouldn't call it authoritarian either.
Wow, Dream, you've left me waaaaay behind in the long-thread category. I guess you win!
Seriously, this is sooo much stuff to plow through, I don't think I'm gonna do it. I agree there are flaws in the book, but I'm gonna hold to its main tenants rather than try to keep on debating point by point.
One thing I see is your bias is pretty strong so it's hard for me to try to write in generalities and feel like I might get through. It's turned into specific LEADERS, and if I were to try and point out how some leaders fit what he posits and others don't, I'd have to get into defending people/administrations or castigating others--that's too complex for me!
I'd be disagreeing and agreeing all the way down the line. I think you're not understanding that the author was THEORIZING, aside from Bush and the Nazis and authoritarian FOLLOWERS, I'm not sure he was saying many specific "social dominator high authoritarian" REGIMES have grown big enough in history to cite. I think his main mistake was to not realize that an authoritarian regime which is as tightly defined as the way he defined it doesn't last long 99% of the time--tho' he did say that somewhere, I forget where.
The vast majority of societies don't get that authoritarian, don't fit all the categories, at least to me. I disagree wholeheartedly that the author's bias equals anything like Wulf or PN's! Equally so that authoritarianism comes from socialist think tanks!!!
Quote:. You spoke of "people". He was talking about a specific KIND of person, psychologically, someone who wants power for power's sake. Whether WE want to classify them as "wicked" or not is immaterial; in THEIR minds, the world is evil and it's every man for himself, and they want to control. Dick Cheney is a perfect example...what he truly believes I don't know, but I'm betting he believes the world is evil and he needs as much power as possible to protect himself from it, and to destroy it. It seems pretty obvious to me that he doesn't care how he gets it, OR that it's "for the good" of the American people--tho' it may be IN HIS MIND. It's a specific type of personality, which I would say is almost pathological in nature, which is willing to do ANYTHING to achieve its goal.
people who pursue it do so because they have a use for power, imho, not because they are wicked
Quote:Again we WHOLEHEARTEDLY disagree. Nor do I even begin to believe he is a social dominant high authoritarian! Would be too long to point out all the falacies in that theory, so I'm not gonna.
The #1 powermonger in america right now is Barack Obama
As to citing the US as a UE society, what leaders SAY doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the REALITY, so citing Jefferson is a fallacy.
I don't even GET "preservation of a way of life was the principle american value until reagan"--because he was one of the biggest proponents of PWL...?
Quote:That's your opinion, I disagree HEARTILY with it. In fact I find it amazing.
There's almost no difference between Bush policy and Clinton policy
Quote:
You saw evidence at some point in the last 8 years that the Bush administration lifted as much as an eyelash to appeal to theNOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
I didn't advocate taxes specifically at them, I said I believe the inheritance tax is--damn, what's the word? "Scaled"--proprtionately decided, you know what I mean?
I think the word you're looking for is "progressive".
And I think it was Rue and SignyM who got me thinking more about flat-tax proposals, and how they SOUND fair (everybody pays 12%, for instance, or a 12% sales tax on everything), but in reality they end up punishing the poor more than the rich. How so? Well, for someone making a thousand bucks a month, a 12% tax is $120 out of their pocket, every month. It ends up taking a bigger bite out of their disposable income than it would for someone like a health insurance CEO who's making $100,000,000 per year. Take away $12,000,000 of his yearly salary, and he's still going to be doing okay with $88 million to tide him over...
Which is why we're set up on a progressive income tax structure. A progressive inheritance tax system seems pretty reasonable, too. Like Anthony points out, though - that's money that you've already paid taxes on once; why tax it again?
It seems a screwy system - if I buy a house, I have to pay taxes on it. And property taxes for the property I allegedly "own". And when I SELL that property, guess what? I have to pay taxes on the money I get from selling the house, at least if I get more than I bought it for. And the new buyer has to pay taxes on it, too. Same with cars - they're taxed every single time they change hands. Does that seem right to you?
Mike
"It was already blue when we got here!"
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Quote:
Originally posted by dreamtrove:
I always thought it would be nice if signature lined appeared differently from the text, like italic blue or something... erg no blue. Anyone know any easter eggs?
You may also change the font, if you'd like:
http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.asp?b=11&t=26185#695712
Edit:
Quote:
Originally posted by Kwicko:
Not sure how many are available. I'm guessing "mauve" or "chartreuse" aren't in the cards. I could be wrong.
Mauve
Chartreuse
Edited to clean things up.
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Quote:
Originally posted by yinyang:Quote:
Originally posted by dreamtrove:
I always thought it would be nice if signature lined appeared differently from the text, like italic blue or something... erg no blue. Anyone know any easter eggs?
You may also change the font, if you'd like:
http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.asp?b=11&t=26185#695712
YinYang, I love you for that! Niki and I were just in *another* Test Thread discussing that very thing. And playing with font sizes and colors, of course.
You rock.
And just because the font is handy,
SERENITY
There. I just had to say that. :)
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YY, I've got a pretty good list going on colors, just by typing in color names and seeing what happens. Where do you find the color # values that you use?
Red
Yellow
Blue
Purple
Green
Brown
Sienna
Maroon
Silver
Grey
Gold
Orange
Turquoise
Cyan
Magenta
Olive
This is pretty darned fun.
Before it's all said and done, it's going to look like Walt Disney threw up in here!
Mike
"It was already blue when we got here!"
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