What if Western civilization never got rid of slavery?

[evince]

You'd be a slave.

These idiots hate truth

 

[Dutch Uncle]

Considering your political slant, I suspect you see a VERY limited role in government regulation. It's the area where you and I have the biggest disagreements most likely. In that vein, what is the best way to keep corporations in check? Do you view that as the role of consumers speaking with their pocketbooks? I don't trust that, and as exhibit A for why not, I give you Donald Trump. But it's an interesting discussion.

It depends. A primary purpose of government is to resolve disputes between citizens, including corporations. If a company is polluting the water table, then government should intervene to prevent harm to citizens.

One thing I'd like to see, but probably won't live long to do so, is removing the citizenship status given to corporations. Giving a soulless, theoretically-immortal entity the same rights as a mortal citizen is wrong.

 

[Dutch Uncle]

I'm an optimist. The arc of history bends towards justice. I believe that. I think what you are seeing right now are the death throes of dogmatic religion in the industrialized world.

Agreed on justice and history. IMO, it's a matter of tech. Once humanity breaks the barrier of unlimited energy and matter replication, the human race will enter a new era of prosperity and exploration.

As for dogmatic religion, Stalin and Mao tried to stamp it out and failed. Notice how the Catholic church is bending toward more flexibility in their dogma.

OTOH, US Evangelicals and fucking Baptists are the American version of Islamic Jihadists, the Third World's conservative theists.

 

[evince]

Hello ThatOwlWoman,



If you had not made this post I would have. Took the words right out of my thoughts. I was totally thinking the same thing.

And here's a parallel thought.

We are all still slaves.

We are slaves to capitalism.

It is ironic how so many people are so afraid of big brother, government snooping into their lives, running their lives.

Now we can see the real threat was capitalism. We have these giant corporations that are so powerful they tell government what to do. They are more powerful than either political party. That was completely apparent during the creation of Obamacare. Big insurance and big pharma TOLD government how it was going to be. No, there was not to be any public option. That was taken off the table. Our president was dictated to. He was told to take that off the table and he had to comply, he had no choice. He was told if you take it off the table we will support what you are doing. If you do not, then we will kill it. And he knew they had that power. He had to do as he was told.

The only way we could stand up to such power is for both parties to unite against it.

And that is why the power is being used to keep us bitterly divided so that will never happen.

Because the Republican Party tries to destroy the protections we pass to tame capitalism


Capitalism is just a tool


You have to maintain the tool or it doesn’t perform the job


REGULATIONS


The Republican Party fights to deregulate any and everything

They want us slaves to corporations


They want the money all piled in one spot


Our system is having problems not because it’s flawed


It’s because we have criminal minds trying to break it constantly

Con men who pose as representatives


And fox keeps their minions constantly confused as to what reality is


It’s all fixable

We have to fight the evil within and eradicate it

 

[Concart]

It depends. A primary purpose of government is to resolve disputes between citizens, including corporations. If a company is polluting the water table, then government should intervene to prevent harm to citizens.

One thing I'd like to see, but probably won't live long to do so, is removing the citizenship status given to corporations. Giving a soulless, theoretically-immortal entity the same rights as a mortal citizen is wrong.

Fair enough. I think the question of how far a government should intervene is a relevant one. While I come down on the side of fairly heavy government regulation, I concede that at times government has gone way too far and the result has been the exact opposite of what was intended. The ability to go overseas and avoid those onerous regulations has had a profound impact on our economy, but that of course doesn't happen in a vacuum. These are the kinds of discussions I hope we all eventually return to, instead of arguing about whether Joe Biden is a pedophile or Donald Trump had the election stolen.

 

[PoliTalker]

Hello evince,

Because the Republican Party tries to destroy the protections we pass to tame capitalism


Capitalism is just a tool


You have to maintain the tool or it doesn’t perform the job


REGULATIONS


The Republican Party fights to deregulate any and everything

They want us slaves to corporations


They want the money all piled in one spot


Our system is having problems not because it’s flawed


It’s because we have criminal minds trying to break it constantly

Con men who pose as representatives


And fox keeps their minions constantly confused as to what reality is


It’s all fixable

We have to fight the evil within and eradicate it

Education is key.

 

[Dutch Uncle]

A thousand years from now, people will laugh at superstitious religions like Christianity.

'Can you imagine they thought some guy died for their sins and they would all go to heaven?' Too funny.

Like you laugh at King Arthur and Merlin? Siddhartha?

Educated, intelligent adults can separate the dogma and myth from the message.

 

[evince]

I'm an optimist. The arc of history bends towards justice. I believe that. I think what you are seeing right now are the death throes of dogmatic religion in the industrialized world.

By ending huge corporation like religious structures


It’s just to easy for evil people to climb to the top of these structures


A perfect stage and implied power for evil to manipulate millions of gullible people seeking guidance in life

 

[Dutch Uncle]

Hello evince,

Education is key.

Agreed. What's the plan?

IMO, states and the Feds getting behind more distance learning is the most cost-effective and practical method of raising education levels.

If it was up to me, I'd have year-round schools broken into semesters or quarters with 1 to 2 week breaks in between.

 

[Dutch Uncle]

Hello Dutch Uncle,



Agree as long as we have a big powerful government to keep capitalism in check. What we have now is not enough.

We want the good part of capitalism, but we have to actively manage the bad part.

Propaganda like: "All regulation is bad" is dangerous.

Agreed on all points.

 

[Dutch Uncle]

Fair enough. I think the question of how far a government should intervene is a relevant one. While I come down on the side of fairly heavy government regulation, I concede that at times government has gone way too far and the result has been the exact opposite of what was intended. The ability to go overseas and avoid those onerous regulations has had a profound impact on our economy, but that of course doesn't happen in a vacuum. These are the kinds of discussions I hope we all eventually return to, instead of arguing about whether Joe Biden is a pedophile or Donald Trump had the election stolen.

Agreed. Those mixed messages are distractors.

 

[evince]

Like you laugh at King Arthur and Merlin? Siddhartha?

Educated, intelligent adults can separate the dogma and myth from the message.

Organized religion is the wrong structure for philosophy


It’s destroys the good in it


Read history


Too easy for evil to steal that power from good humans


Religion is personal belief


It doesn’t need a trillion dollar castle built for it


The evil in just building that castle is obvious


FEED PEOPLE

DONT BUILD MASSIVE CASTLES

 

[Cypress]

Hello Dutch Uncle,



That was over a decade ago.

As time goes by, fewer and fewer people identify with a church.

It shadows how much knowledge is being gained through science.

Not belonging to a church is not the same as rejecting religion altogether or becoming atheist.

The polls I have seen do not show atheism growing in any substantial way. The overwhelming majority of people still have an affinity for the spritual, the metaphysical, the theological. Whether they identify with an organized church or not.

I have no doubt that Christianity and Judaism 200 years from now, should they exist, will look substantially different that they do today. For that matter, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism look extraordinarily different today than they did a thousand years ago.

Evolution occurs in all human institutions: science, religion, economics, culture.

My personal opinon is that most human beings will always have an affinity for the metaphysical or the spirtual. There are questions about the meaning of life and the nature of reality which probably can never be answered with particle accelerators, mass spectrometers, or radio telescopes.

 

[Dutch Uncle]

Organized religion is the wrong structure for philosophy


It’s destroys the good in it


Read history


Too easy for evil to steal that power from good humans


Religion is personal belief


It doesn’t need a trillion dollar castle built for it


The evil in just building that castle is obvious


FEED PEOPLE

DONT BUILD MASSIVE CASTLES

All groups evolve or die. Dogmatic religion is seeing that happen now. There's no need to attack them like Stalin and Mao since they'll survive or wither on their own.

Instead of focusing on stamping out religion, a better path is to focus on better education for all. Free online courses (meaning taxpayer funded) where students pay a small fee for accreditation if they want it.

Example; around 2008 I took 10 night welding classes at a community college. It was $200/5-6 week class, unaccredited. It was higher for those seeking credits toward a degree.

Almost all college freshman and sophomore classes are core classes which can be done online. Completing a course at home and then going to take an in-person test for a fee would be one way to handle it. Those just seeking to learn would pay nothing.

Example: https://www.khanacademy.org/math/trigonometry

 

[Cypress]

A thousand years from now, people will laugh at superstitious religions like Christianity.

'Can you imagine they thought some guy died for their sins and they would all go to heaven?' Too funny.

Everyone is certainly entitled to an opinion about Jesus, Siddhartha Guatama, Mohamed, Confucius.

My personal sense about Jesus is that he was an obscure early first century historical Jewish teacher and philosopher who people in hindsight came to believe was executed on their behalf for his message of ethics, salvation, and spiritual equality.

In principle, I do not see that as an evil, terrible, appalling article of faith to hold.

Though obviously religious institutions founded later on the basis of Christianity can be faulted for many instances of corruption and crime.

 

[Jarod]

We have a type of enslavement today, its not comparable to the atrocities of what we had before the civil war, but when Conservatives are screaming about $600 payments to poor people, because employers cant fond workers, that's a type of economic enslavement. For the working poor, its work in a shitty job for a non-living wage, or starve.

 

[Dutch Uncle]

We have a type of enslavement today, its not comparable to the atrocities of what we had before the civil war, but when Conservatives are screaming about $600 payments to poor people, because employers cant fond workers, that's a type of economic enslavement. For the working poor, its work in a shitty job for a non-living wage, or starve.

Calling that slavery is like calling Republicans fucking Nazis; it waters down the term to the point no one gives a shit anymore.

While I'll readily agree that poor people face into a cycle of poverty, if they wanted out, they can get out.

One problem is exactly what you are pointing out; the lack of funds for a grubstake to make the move.

OTOH, a bigger problem is many don't want to leave family. This applies equally to a NY ghetto or an Appalachian shithole. It's not a race thing, it's an economic issue.

 

[Yakuda]

when has any democrat called a stupid fuck trump bitch a n-lover, you piece of shit moron? do you get paid to post dumbass shit on the internet, or would that affect your amateur status?

Guess you do it for free. You're so fucking dumb no one would pay you for it. You cunt

 

[Hoosier Daddy]

Guess you do it for free. You're so fucking dumb no one would pay you for it. You cunt

wow, you really turned that around. you need to print out this page, underline your comment in yellow, and tape it to the fridge for your mom to see when she gets home.

 

[Yakuda]

wow, you really turned that around. you need to print out this page, underline your comment in yellow, and tape it to the fridge for your mom to see when she gets home.

Right, humans have mother's. Pieces of shit like you you retarded parasite have a petri dish for a mom. Go fuck yourself doofus