argosy wrote: ↑Sun Oct 20, 2024 1:45 am
BLueRibbon wrote: ↑Fri Oct 18, 2024 2:29 pm
Outis wrote: ↑Thu Oct 17, 2024 10:50 pm
We're not in danger of going to gas chambers
We very much are, unless we fight back. Who would stop the authorities if they tried?
We need aggressive activism to stop it happening.
I used to believe that activism worked; I'm not so sure now.
Consider those jailed in the UK for attempting to organise a Just Stop Oil protest -- Roger Hallam wasn't even protesting, he was on a Zoom call giving a speech. He will be in jail for the next 5 years or so.
Consider what we've all seen on our social media feeds in the last few days -- people burning to death in their hospital beds, IV tubing still in their arms. People the world over have protested in their hundreds of thousands, even millions, and yet our governments haven't budged on their "Israel has the right to protect itself" stance. If images of shredded, headless children and people burning alive in their hospital beds, and huge numbers of citizens protesting don't motivate our governments to change course, what will?
That's how its always been though.
There was a monarchy with all the power and they were forced to share that power with powerful land lords in the UK.
People started to demand some power so "democracy" was rolled out. But was it? Why would those with all the power and wealth give up their power and wealth unless there was no alternative?
In my opiniion, democracy is just a smoke screen. Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-democracy, I think the principles and ideals of democracy are fantastic, but I don't believe we have ever had real democracy, what we were given was something called democracy but without the real change.
In the UK there are two primary parties with very similar policies. People get to choose which one governs them.
Once elected, the leader of that party goes to the palace to be granted the right to govern by the king.
So the king gives permission for one of the two groups to govern, with both groups being very similar.
Checks and balances comes from......the House of Lords, those powerful wealthy lords who forced the king way back to share some of his power.
The laws are created by.....the government. There is state run media with the BBC. I know it's unpopular to describe the BBC as state run, but it is because it's funded by a license fee imposed by the state and the head of the BBC usually has some connection to political parties.
People have no say in the laws they live under, in the economy, in whether we go to war, in who gets state contracts, in anything.
That isn't democracy, not even remotely.
The US system is no different, just differrent terminology and window dressing to make it an easier sell to the consumer base.
Climate protesters can be locked up for upsetting the state, maps can be, anybody can be, in the USA and UK and Europe just like they can be in Russia or China, there really is no difference. When Hong Kong went back to China there was a lot of complaining that people were presented with parties that represented the interests of Beijing. Well, guess what, our parties represent the interests of the state, monarchy and lords/wealthy oligarchs.
