Kurt Andersen and Lawrence O’Donnell 

Advertising has become oppressive. I must spend 20 minutes a day avoiding ads--muting or lowering the volume on devices, Xing out of ad windows, switching channels. We are bombarded with this meaningless crap.

Absolutely correct. When every aspect of life is commoditized for profit then life itself is nothing but a commodity. We cease being human beings- just vessels for profit.

@@paulaoh5306 Around 30 years ago, I began joking that the only place I didn't see advertising was on the inside of my eyelids...yet. And of course, almost nothing that gets advertised is an actual need. For example, we need food, but we don't need Oreos, as delicious as they are. We do need vegetables, but only when your grocery store has a sale, do you see a broccoli ad. But it's not a brand name item. The need for so many things and services is itself a manufactured need. I think it's really about creating addictions. That, I think, is the main sickness in this country. We are all addicted in ways we never were before.

In the absence of the results of which we wouldn’t be communicating right now … the poverty of elite moral imagination has left the masses bereft and awash in all they know how to do - endlessly substitute one vice for another

Dont worry. We are moving from selling to govt power.

Youre going to Hell!

That statement is based on others standing before us exclaiming " only I know the way to heaven"`so let me show you the way.

Exactly. Thank you!

Well said. It is a huge red light to those that know narcissistic people and being a malignant narcissist and sociopath propels him forward into mental illness that we should have known.

it's like the children who haven't yet come to understand that fact are the ones determining which voice we value

It is the rallying cry of all dictators and tyrants with an array of diagnoses.

Exactly. And I was calling MAGA a cult of personality back in 2017, and everyone thought I was crazy and the comments would be deleted. Now it has become common to refer to MAGA as a cult. But why did it take so long for people to speak openly about what was so apparent? And he was normalized by the media, especially in the beginning, and that was a big mistake.

A truly serious pandemic of ignorance and lack of critical thinking.

We MUST vote blue 💙

@user-zb7uh2ob1r You make a VERY important point. Trump could not utter the same words from the beginning. He gave the public a little poison every day

In case you missed it, and I think it's important, -- David Pakman has written a small book For children called "Think Like A Detective". It teaches cognitive thinking.

Totally agree. Hope for more such informative conversations.

Thank you for giving me reason for not doubting the choice to quit my publication, rather than betray my morals. If only I could pretend to write reichwing junk. They pay a fortune, and no pesky fact checkers, editors, or sourcing.

You can recover from such self-hatred. Most thinking people can learn from such deception. Far more destructive is Crony Corporatism combined with Religionism, which leads most often to fascistic law.

Has always been.

trail of tears the american indian's sad plgh😂😢 morningjoe 30 mar 2024 d gell no

It's on evidence in this comment section.

America was created in the rational Enlightenment. Later phjilosophers, Left and Right ,rejected reason for mysticism and subjectivism.

And they want to take away Social Security too

Simply an idiotic system. Minority rule. From a resident of crazy, nut job FL.

@crl7413 - If you’re a renter on SS, why are you still in CA? Move to a state where the cost of living is lower.

@@samadamms3432. Like moving is affordable when you’re poor?

@@sandarahcatmom9897 - What does that even mean? Anyone can move, there are things called suitcases, and buses. What you would save on rent would pay for the ticket in the first month. Sometimes you need to sacrifice in the short term, to benefit in the long run. Your mentality is precisely why people remain in poverty.

However, when "true followers" are fooled into unconstitutional approaches to Re-established Religionist politics and law, then Fascism can reappear in governance!

"the south" encompasses the "biblebelt"

Well said. I call it "neo-feudalism." Few seem to see it, even though that is what they have in Russia. Russia never completely let go of feudalism.

Well said. I just can't understand why the masses can't see it.

The masses cannot see it because they're infected with #BabyDoomerism.

> the greediest of the wealthiest Thats a mystical claim, not abstracted from concrete observation.

Got a link?

​@@frankmarsh1159ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-SO0DVT409cI.htmlsi=X0Lz00Vv7_j-leRK

Well said.

Democracy is unlimited majority rule, ie, anti-individual rights. Left=Right. Ayn Rand is the radical alternative.

@@TeaParty1776 Democracy is the political method of choosing leaderships. Freedom vs. tyranny is governance. The US is, supposedly, a nation that intends to have individual liberty and equality of right and justice for all. Those that want to replace democracy with tyranny would also end individual liberty and equality.

@@stoppin2look > Democracy is the political method of choosing leaderships Individual rights defend mans free will mind, the basic method of survival. Democracy (UNlimited majority rule) is a confession of the hatred and terror of mans free will mind. Rocks fall when thrown. Rocks sink in water. Democracy changes into anarchy. Anarchy changes into dictatorship. This is history from ancient Greece to now. Democracy has no objective guide to voting. Emotions rule.

@@stoppin2look Individual rights protect individuals from leaders. Individual rights contradicts equality (except legal equality).

100%… a greenlight to act terrible. It’s childish.

Big tech is winning

Indeed, but the resulting cult is not simply a "personality" cult, it is most importantly a Religionist Cult!

Capitalism is producers. The Garden of Eden is about consumers.

​@@LibrawLou Everyone should be very frightened by the power and influence of this movement.

Blacks, like myself, love Trump. If you vote against Trump then you vote to keep Black women like me in poverty. Wake up. Stop being brainwashed.

i heard Bulgarian? lol

How is that "excellent"? It's schoolyard bs. I bet you have a university degree, too. 🤷🏻‍♂️

@@vipermad358 Just an excellent play on words. If you don't get it, that's not my fault.

Such ridicule is STILL ad hominum nonsense, not the fruitful parody of political cartoons, outlawed by the mistaken NYTimes!

​@@LibrawLou I am still laughing at your post!

The right wing has been organizing for many years to control politics. To wit ... The Federalist Society, the White Nationalist Evangelical movement (scam vangelists), the mega donors like the Koch Brothers, gerrymandering, and the takeover of the Supreme Court. In many respects they have simply outmanurvered the left wing from a political strategic standpoint. Chump was simply in the right place at the right time to take advantage of decades of republican efforts. Unfortunately the democrats are simply not very good at political strategy and utilizing the massive advantages that they have. One can probably rack that up to poor organizational leadership and an unwillingness to effectively exploit the numerous advantages that they have. Instead of "political hacks" trying the same old tired and often failing political strategies, they need "killer leaders" to define and implement strategies that will dominate the electoral college. A superstar business leader like for example a Mike Bloomberg could figure that out. Please when you have an "excess" of 8+ million extra popular votes and you cannot dominate the electoral college .... then that is just poor and ineffective leadership. The politicians in the democratic party are good, much better than the republicans. But the strategic and organizational leadership of the democrats is getting outplayed by the republicans for many years now.

@marytenn378 Trump lost Biden won Accept it

@leemdynamo To your point, they also neglected to bring up Lee Atwater.

They're all functionaries of the same project. Agreed, right-wing talk radio could have gotten a mention. But their noting the start of the Fox cable channel kind of has an entire thread unto itself, under prohibitive time constraints it seems.

100% they did forget Limbaugh, who never loved this country, he loved profits, just like the right wing “influencers” now. If they could get the same money being hard-core Lefties, they’d be doing that now. It’s always about tax cuts and always will be.

Relevant parody at a high level!

An over dedication to being entertained, right?!

Author?

@black_sheep_nation3572 Neil Postman wrote "Amusing Ourselves to Death".

@@karenmorris674 thanks

they don't vote very much and when they do vote they consistently vote against their economic interests - working class folks should have voted for Bernie, not Trump - they have to own it

This is a cop out that assholes use to support assholes. I AM your average working guy/gal who is surrounded by average guys/gals and the ones who I know that support trump were assholes before him. He just gave them permission to be louder about it. Enough of the excuses.

Ignored indeed, and made more vulnerable to insanity by the clickbait thoughtlessness and cookie analysis encouraged by greedy Crony Corporatists with unregulated social platforms!

Please explain your comment, as it certainly does not match up with imperial data on certain elective periods. There are huge differences in social policies.

@@sarahhearn-vonfoerster7401 As a life long Dem, I can understand the unhappiness of an ordinary person with the college educated/elites, the advances of modern technology and the impact on those who just do not understand the new world of work around them. This doesn't mean Dems have done nothing......in fact Dems have done far more than the R's. Dem communication needs to be improved significantly so that people can recognize the things that have been done for them.

Calvin Coolidge had his hand on greed as well. He started propping up the Stock Market that was actually failing.

@@nancychandler3673 That was way back in 1893. Cleveland had nothing to do with the 1929 crash on Wall Street, unless you're referring to his policy changes some 36 years earlier. He did turn strongly conservative during his second, non-consecutive term in the White House.

​@@WWZenaDoThanks. I edited my comment

Hoover was as anti-capitalist statist who helped cause the GD. Your "greed" is religious blather. Capitalism is about rational ambition and self-respect.

@@TeaParty1776 Wrong. From Smithsonian: "Hoover never accepted the notion that capitalism was dead, or that central planning was the answer. He insisted on private enterprise as the mainspring of development and social progress, and capitalism as the one “ism” that would preserve individual liberty and initiative." From Governing: "We tend to think of Hoover as a stiff and unresourceful man who failed to respond adequately to the coming of the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. True enough..."

Focus your mind with rational values.

Trump's Russian ties start far earlier than his visit. I cannot recommend enough Craig Unger's American Kompromat for a well-researched presentation of the timeline and connections.

Thanks for sharing your emotions.

@@TeaParty1776 Who said anything about emotions?

@@TeaParty1776 ah. I see the problem: you don't know the definition of "emotion." The thing you don't understand is the thing that has power over you. It would be well to keep that in mind.

@@ashleyreeb It was sneaked in.

I promise I WILL; for America I will vote BLUE.🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊

They vote for the policies that exacerbate inequality

A large segment of his followers are well off. They see through his con, but they don't care because he serves their interests and fuels their anti-democratic leanings.

The "inequality" is not the problem. It's the American dream was vanquished by Clinton in doubling corporate tax rates simultaniously with initiating free trade laws with countries such as Mexico, Ireland, and China who had only 15% tax rates vs Clintons 35% rate. Shipping costs were down to $1,000 per container in the late 90s. Tax was 60% discounted. Labor was 90% discounted. Why wouldn't they all leave? There are now HALF as many companies in America listed on the NYSE than 1999. HALF.

Speak for yourself. Only.

​@@vipermad358Please don't speak at all.

It seems like, to a 77 year old, that several forces together as well as the media responses led to the MAGA worshippers. I think that after Vietnam the US had a major economy and employment crisis. Defense contractors that used to make and sell home appliances for instances lost defense contracts and started relocating to other countries where labor would be much cheaper and maybe more trainable more cheaply, as well as facilities less costly. So many in US were left unemployed or underemployed. Meanwhile Nixon had nixed the successful social programs of the Johnson era, insisting that he pulled himself up by his bootstraps and so could anyone else. That was a big mistake that negatively affected all races in the US. During Johnson Era we could walk across the street and see a competent therapist for $5. Now it is over $120 with insurance coverage. That's one example of the social net breaking. So drugs became a goto for mental health. Led to more employment problems and people's ability to solve their problems constructively, vote intelligently, and stay healthy enough to hold a job. Then they had just self reliance left and government became an impedence to that. Someone now can become homeless overnight literally and have to wait several months for a decision as to if help is available to them. In meantime they have lived in the street, out of their cars, sofa surfing, relying on generosity of religious institutions to feed and clothe them. The part if society that stays afloat looks down on them, has their IRA's, hasn't a clue what happened or why. You see, the more you have the more you get here. Tbe less you have the less you can get. Regardless of your skills or motivation. Social programs can be managed to fill the gap, and economic planning by government is essential to have a healthy job market. I voted for Ralph Nader because he was stressing the importance of the people as employees and consumers as the basis of a good economy and a healthy nation.

Well, were all waiting for you to write the next episode.

@@acedrumminman haha

True.

Who a society esteems, remunerates the most highly and admires tells you what their priorities and value systems are.

Indeed, an excellent movie.

"Spy" was the first publication to print "short fingered vulgarian" about Trump. I remember it. Spy was pretty good for snark back in the day.

Andersen was an editor at Spy, along with Greydon Carter

I think - you get to where you are - wherever the hell we all are via 100,000s of others. And we are not "there" very long. 😊 I am the greatest me I can be at any given moment. Hopefully. 2005-2024. What was or is the problem, world?

its fear - a wave of fear swept over the planet - like a virus

It's not "or" but rather "yes and". Dualistic thinking causes infighting and weakens our position.

Such ridicule is still ad hominem nonsense, not relevant parody such as political caricature in cartoons!

They have been brainwashed, mostly by Fox.

Reagan tore up the social safety net. Until his presidency, the hoboes, single men who rode the freight cars, moving from season to season, were the only homeless people. As a result of Reagan's destruction of public programs, women and children became homeless.

gender equality ia good for society - good for everyone

@@Merriwether-w8k agreed. But feminism, lbgt are not about equality. They are about equity, group conformity, power.

No they aren't. You are not an expert - clearly - we are moving from a Judeo Christain society to a science and math based society - there is no scientific basis to discriminate against women of queer people in any way - they are homo sapiens - same as you - traditionally babies get their DNA from mom and ad in a 50/50 split - there are now babies with DNA from 3 parents - you are slow to adapt to this new world@@VonKirda

I preferred Bernie to Hillary and voted for him in the primary, BUT once Hillary was the nominee, for whatever reason, the left needed to get behind her 100%. But they didn't. They even believed some of the Russian propaganda about her that was everywhere and shared some of the misogynistic things that were said. So then we got Trump. And we still have Trump. I told people back in 2015 that he is extremely dangerous, but maybe they thought he could never get elected so they threw potshots at Hillary and voted for that every four year jack in the box, Jill Stein. I still blame those people for what we are dealing with now. I saved those FB posts with my warnings and predictions, but it just makes me very sad to look at them, so I don't.

You've simultaneously hit the nail on the head, and missed the point entirely.