Aspies For Freedom

Well, I shall say this: at least people have realised that orthodox communism doesn't work. They've yet to realise that about capitalism, and that's the big problem.

Why do you feel this? Authoritarianism is unnatural. It negates individuation and freedom. You wish to create a ruined people and to destroy your country?

“Actually, social mobility IS alive and well in the US. It doesn't look that way from Europe because all the billionaires inherited their wealth. Well, ok, but if you go down a couple notches from Bill Gates you'll find a lot of new rich.”

An LSE (The London School of Economics) and UN study both confirmed that social mobility is lower in the UK and the US than any other developed country. Mine are not a priori judgements. Link: http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/pressAn...report.htm Yes, it's a few years old..but even so. Not as if there have been any significant political changes since. The UN one can be found easily through google. Would you challenge the experts?

“The thing with the US is that there are actually two social groups-people who believe that possessions make the man, and people who don't care about material things (the latter being more like a European democratic socialist). The materialists tend to be the flashy ones, the publicity hounds, so they get all the press. In truth, the materialists are all either greatly in debt or have inherited their money and are idle rich.

The real new rich are members of the second group. They live in modest houses and drive pickup trucks (most popular brands: Ford and General Motors brands like Chevrolet and GMC; very few new rich drive Mercedes Benzes). Their businesses are stuff like general contracting businesses (building trades) and industrial supply outfits. They don't wear a suit unless they're being honored for something; then they'll go to Penney's (low end department store) and buy a store brand suit. They are anything but flashy.”

Everyone appears to be in debt in the Anglosphere. Companies advertise, make false claims. People borrow rather than saving. You are all slaves to your banks, and it is sad. I shall reiterate: communism is flawed, but don't think that capitalism isn't. The people that save and are frugal? I commend them. It's a sane and purer way to live. Materialism, in that sense, is completely pointless. Strips life of all meaning. As for cars? I know very little about them, but a Mercedes is a good investment. Germans make the best domestic cars in the world, and by far. It will last forever.

“American media personalities all tend towards materialism, so that's who they profile. Therefore the evening news will have a salesman who makes six figures a year whining about how he invested in real estate and is now bankrupt. Or the newsmagazine program will interview Donald Trump when they aren't doing the Jerry Springer thing and profiling freaks. The news couldn't sell ad time if they profiled the true new rich, because their lives are pretty dull, and Americans especially won't tolerate dull TV”

All tv is dull, in my opinion.

“That's why it looks like America has little social mobility, because the news in America is either fawning over the flashy rich or eagerly tearing apart the single mom who got downsized from her middle class life and turned to prostitution to pay her mortgage and then disappeared.”

It appears that way, but why do the academics and experts agree that there is little social mobility?

“It's easy to conclude from afar that all Americans look gorgeous, live in big houses, drive expensive cars, use drugs, and turn to scams to pay for it all.”

I do not think that. I have been to America several times. To MA, CA, NY, W.D.C and Arkansas. I've seen the reality, and I don't watch TV or read pop-culture magazines.

I see what you mean. Maybe there is an element of distortion. Yet there is also a reality: in the US and UK the majority are getting relatively poorer. Your societies are less mobile than they once were. There is increasing child poverty, a compounded in the US by the lack of affordable healthcare. I think you're in trouble, both countries, and I stick by that.

Doesn't surprise me! I don't know as much about Australia. Is there still a problem with nationalism and xenophobia?

Bingo.

No, simply induced by bad taste.

Being a chav and a goth are entirely different. Goths constitute a subculture. Chavs, as identified in the press and by the British middle classes, are simply poor people that dress in a particular way. The clothes are cheap. That's about it. There is no real 'philosophy'. There isn't even a particular genre of music. It's ridiculous to compare the two.

One is a cultural phenomena, the other societal/socio-economic. You being a goth has nothing to do with poverty. Being a chav has everything to do with povery. You've committed a taxonomical blunder.

So what do you think? You seriously believe that a degenerative underclass of individuals just happened to create its own culture of violence? Just for the hell of it? It's a 'phase'? Does that seem like a plausible explanation?

Or is it more likely that they behave in a particular way because they are poorly educated, impoverished and do not give a *** about a society that has abandoned them? Hmmm...yes, demonised in the press. Even by The Sun. No opportunities. Bad schools, entrenched poverty. Hmmm....

Hmmmm...think about this logically.

This is -not- a cultural problem. To say otherwise is simply dangerous in the long run.

Calling Thatcher to account does not necessitate a critique of capitalism. Simply a reappraisal of her regime and the way in which she did things. She transformed a social market, albeit fairly dysfunctional, into a liberal market. She did so in the space of a few years. Radical change, and swift radical change, leaves detritus behind. She impoverished millions. Many became unemployed. Most families never recovered. Now the pieces have to be picked up.

You can wax lyrical about 'family values' or 'discipline' like IDS and the other coffin dodgers...

Or you can sort out the problem now, and rationally, before it's too late.

Take your pick.

No, simply induced by bad taste.

Being a chav and a goth are entirely different. Goths constitute a subculture. Chavs, as identified in the press and by the British middle classes, are simply poor people that dress in a particular way. The clothes are cheap. That's about it. There is no real 'philosophy'. There isn't even a particular genre of music. It's ridiculous to compare the two.

One is a cultural phenomena, the other societal/socio-economic. You being a goth has nothing to do with poverty. Being a chav has everything to do with povery. You've committed a taxonomical blunder.

So what do you think? You seriously believe that a degenerative underclass of individuals just happened to create its own culture of violence? Just for the hell of it? It's a 'phase'? Does that seem like a plausible explanation?

Or is it more likely that they behave in a particular way because they are poorly educated, impoverished and do not give a *** about a society that has abandoned them? Hmmm...yes, demonised in the press. Even by The Sun. No opportunities. Bad schools, entrenched poverty. Hmmm....

Hmmmm...think about this logically.

This is -not- a cultural problem. To say otherwise is simply dangerous in the long run.

Calling Thatcher to account does not necessitate a critique of capitalism. Simply a reappraisal of her regime and the way in which she did things. She transformed a social market, albeit fairly dysfunctional, into a liberal market. She did so in the space of a few years. Radical change, and swift radical change, leaves detritus behind. She impoverished millions. Many became unemployed. Most families never recovered. Now the pieces have to be picked up.

You can wax lyrical about 'family values' or 'discipline' like IDS and the other coffin dodgers...

Or you can sort out the problem now, and rationally, before it's too late.

Take your pick.

It was a joke.

No. I'm someone that is prepared to speak his mind. Doesn't mean that I'm a Troll. I suspect I have AS. I am seeking diagnosis this month. Why else would I be here?

I never said that I was a communist.

What depresses me about the UK...it seems to be the only country in  Europe where politicians are completely unwilling to listen to experts. Sociologists, political theorists and even psychiatrists have been pushing the same points as us for near a decade. Even economists are beginning to say 'Look, this kind of arrangement isn't working at the moment...' Will they budge? No. The *** has to hit the fan. It's as if David Cameron thinks he's a better economist than someone that holds a professorship at the LSE. It's **** ridiculous.

They vote Labour because it's preferable to voting Conservative. Thatcher still makes people shudder.