History Quotes / InherentInTheSystem

-->-- '''[[Toys/EverAfterHigh Maddie]]''', explaining why [[PrincessClassic Apple]] is upset about Raven's FaceHeelTurn

-->--'''Jake the Dog''', ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', "Ocarina"

->''"The sad paradox of liberalism is to want majority rule while realizing that the majority is instinctively illiberal."''
-->--'''Creator/GoreVidal''', ''Playboy'' 1969

->''"So is there hope for a truly democratic Africa? Long answer: Only if continent-wide improvements in education, human rights, and public health are coupled with an aggressive and far-sighted debt-relief program that breaks the cycle of subsistence farming and urban squalor. Short answer: No."''
-->-- '''[[Series/TheDailyShow America: The Book]]'''

-> In Paris... I achieved a freer attitude toward anti-Semitism, which I now began to understand historically and to pardon. Above all, I recognized the emptiness and futility of trying to "combat" anti-Semitism.
-->-- '''Theodor Herzl'''

->[[AtLeastIAdmitIt I played by the rules of politics as I found them.]]
-->-- '''UsefulNotes/RichardNixon''', ''In the Arena'' (memoir)

->''"You might have noticed that I never complain about politicians. I leave that to others. And there's no shortage of volunteers; everyone complains about politicians. Everyone says they suck. But where do people think these politicians come from? They don't fall out of the sky; they don't pass through a membrane from a separate reality. They come from American homes, American families, American schools, American churches, and American businesses. And they're elected by American voters. This is what our system produces, folks. This is the best we can do. Let's face it, we have very little to work with. Garbage in, garbage out."''
-->-- '''Creator/GeorgeCarlin''', ''Napalm and Silly Putty''

->''"[[UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump Trump]] did not appear out of nowhere. [[GoneHorriblyRight He is the logical and most grotesque expression]] of a variety of trends we have allowed to fester: [[ForeverWar endless war]], [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem a virtually omnipotent presidency]], unlimited war powers from [[BigBrotherIsWatchingYou spying]] to due process-free imprisonment to [[ColdBloodedTorture torture]] to assassinations, repeated civil liberties erosions in the name of illusory guarantees of security, and [[TheScapegoat the sustained demonization of Muslims as scary, primitive, uniquely violent Others]]."''
-->-- '''[[https://theintercept.com/2017/01/28/trumps-muslim-ban-is-culmination-of-war-on-terror-mentality-but-still-uniquely-shameful/ Glenn Greenwald]]'''

->''"At regular intervals, Americans indulge in the fantasy that, if we just install the right person in the White House, all will be well. Ambitious politicians are quick to exploit this expectation. Presidential candidates struggle to differentiate themselves from their competitors, but all of them promise in one way or another to wipe the slate clean and Make America Great Again. Ignoring the historical record of promises broken or unfulfilled, and presidents who turn out not to be deities but flawed human beings, Americans — members of the media above all — pretend to take all this seriously.''

->''[[BreadAndCircuses Campaigns become longer, more expensive, more circus-like and ever less substantial]]. One might think that the election of Donald Trump would prompt a downward revision in the exalted expectations of presidents putting things right. [[IgnoredEpiphany Instead]], especially in the anti-Trump camp, getting rid of Trump himself (Collusion! Corruption! Obstruction! Impeachment!) has become the overriding imperative, [[MissingStepsPlan with little attention given to restoring the balance intended by the framers of the Constitution]]. The irony of Trump perpetuating wars that he once roundly criticized and then handing the conduct of those wars to [[ArmchairMilitary generals devoid of ideas for ending them]] almost entirely escapes notice."''
-->-- '''Andrew Bacevich''', "[[http://billmoyers.com/story/autopilot-america-us-wars/ How We Learned Not To Care About America’s Wars]]"

->''"But I think I know why Trump thought it was okay to do what he did — why he could get away with it. The reason is a culture of elite impunity, [[KarmaHoudini where business and political leaders face absolutely no accountability for misdeeds]]. And it’s a culture that Brennan and many political elites like him have fostered, and from which they have personally benefited.''

->''It’s much bigger than collusion. It encompasses many decades during which political officials have evaded accountability for broken laws and illicit foreign contacts, and business and corporate elites have skirted punishment for outright fraud. It’s a problem that, ironically, [[JerkassHasAPoint Trump hammered home in the campaign]]: [[DoubleStandard that there’s a different set of rules for elites than for normal people]]. It just happens that Trump knows that because he, for decades now, has been taking advantage of elite impunity.''

->''And unless critics are willing to target the problem of impunity, a problem in which some of them may be implicated, stuff like the Russia scandal [[HereWeGoAgain will just keep happening, again and again]]."''
-->-- '''Dylan Matthews''', "[[https://www.vox.com/2018/7/19/17581546/donald-trump-russia-collusion-elite-impunity-immunity-torture-iran-contra-financial-crisis Donald Trump and the crisis of elite impunity]]"

->''"While many of the problems we're being forced to confront right now weren't created by the Coronavirus, it has thrown a spotlight on some of the biggest flaws on how our system operates. Things like paid sick leave and hazard pay are essentially band-aids and we absolutely need them right now because we're bleeding. But, when this is over, this country's gonna need more than band-aids, it's gonna need FUCKING surgery. Things need to change and not go back to normal. Control-Z-ing us back to how we were in 2016 is simply not gonna cut it, and honestly, it shouldn't have taken a pandemic to prove our unemployment system is a mess, that we need universal healthcare, and that workers need benefits, the right to organize, and wages that reflect how essential they really are. And, we also shouldn't have needed a pandemic to consider whether mass incarceration is tolerable as prisons and jails become petri dishes for the Coronavirus or whether our treatment of the homeless is adequate when we've seen photos of them sleeping in a parking lot six feet apart, or what we do about the multiple underlying inequalities that are making this virus in some places twice as deadly for black and latino people as whites."''
-->-- '''Creator/JohnOliver''', ''Series/LastWeekTonightWithJohnOliver''

->''"Stop saying [[VocalMinority 'the problem is just a few bad apples.']] It’s not an apple problem, it’s an orchard problem. If you went apple-picking and the guy who ran the orchard said, 'There are a few bad apples out there,' and you said, 'How bad?', and they said, 'Kill you bad,' you’d say, 'This is a bad orchard.' [...] Putting it all on a few bad apples ignores the reality that there’s a predatory system, with a history of police misconduct built on a legacy of racism and exploitation that elevates the comfort and security of white people over the safety and security of black people. This is why we can’t settle for mild reforms."''
-->-- '''Creator/SethMeyers''', ''Series/LateNight with Seth Meyers'', on PoliceBrutality

->''"It’s true I don’t do it because of [[ThouShaltNotKill my code]], because of what I stand for, but there’s another reason too… I truly believe that if I did it, that if I killed [[ComicBook/TheJoker Joker]], Gotham would just send me someone worse. Maybe even send him back, worse than before…"''

->''"Man, don't you know? The law ain't made to help [[ChaoticGood earthy cats like us]]. Here on our planet, back in the old days - back in the ''real'' old days - it was just every man for himself, scrooblin' and scrat-scroblin' for the good stuff, the greenest valleys. And [[MightMakesRight the strongest, meanest men got the best stuff]]. They got the green valleys and were like 'The rest of you, y'all scrats get sand.' And that's when they made the laws, you see? Once the strong guys got it how they liked it, they said [[LawfulEvil 'This is fair now, this is the law.']] Once they were winning, [[MovingTheGoalposts they changed the rules up]]."''

-->-- '''[[MagnificentBastard Uueg Tching]]''', 54th Emperor of the Kitel Phard Dynasty on Atrisia, as quoted in ''[[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse Star Wars: The Essential Atlas]]''.

->''Shoot the dictator and prevent the war? But the dictator is merely the tip of the whole festering boil of social pus from which dictators emerge; shoot him and there'll be another one along in a minute. Shoot him too? Why not shoot everyone and invade Poland?''
-->--''Discworld/LordsAndLadies''

->''"It's a series of conspiracies, conflicting agendas and petty jealousies, all building upon, feeding upon, and excreting into an unending web of drek that people wade through every day and call it Life. If there was one Dark Lord controlling everything and we could drive a magic sword through his heart to free the world, that would be grand. Such clarity! Such focus! Alas.''

->''Just the opposite, schmuck. The lesson is this - the game is rigged. The cards are stacked. The dice are loaded.
It's the same as it always was. Every cycle. People in power exert power. Little people cower in their homes, think what they're told to think, and buy whatever product will help them forget how horrible their lives are for another day.''

-->-- '''Harlequin''' on the [[Tabletop/{{Shadowrun}} Sixth World]], ''VideoGame/ShadowrunReturns''

-->-- '''[[Franchise/EverAfterHigh Maddie]]''', explaining why [[PrincessClassic Apple]] is upset about Raven's FaceHeelTurn

->"People used to think 'broken' meant a system that can only respond to a crisis. But that's not broken. Broken is a system that can't even respond to a crisis."

->"People used to say the System was broken if it could only respond to a crisis. Now we've got a System that can't even respond to a crisis."
-->-- '''Hilger''', ''[[Literature/JohnRain Requiem for an Assassin]]''

->''"[[UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump Trump]] did not appear out of nowhere. [[GoneHorriblyRight He is the logical and most grotesque expression]] of a variety of trends we have allowed to fester: [[ForeverWar endless war]], [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem a virtually omnipotent presidency]], [[BigBrotherIsWatchingYou unlimited war powers from spying]] to due process-free imprisonment to [[ColdBloodedTorture torture]] to assassinations, repeated civil liberties erosions in the name of illusory guarantees of security, and [[TheScapegoat the sustained demonization of Muslims as scary, primitive, uniquely violent Others]]."''

->''"It’s true I don’t do it because of [[ThouShaltNotKill my code]], because of what I stand for, but there’s another reason too… I truly believe that if I did it, that if I killed [[SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker Joker]], Gotham would just send me someone worse. Maybe even send him back, worse than before…"''

->'''Ezri:''' Am I? [[ArmorPiercingQuestion Who was the last leader of the High Council that you respected? Has there even been one?]] And how many times have you [[TakingTheHeat had to cover up the crimes of Klingon leaders because you were told that it was for the good of the Empire]]? I... I know this sounds harsh, but the truth is, you have been willing to accept a government that you know is corrupt. Gowron is just the latest example. Worf, you are the most honorable and decent man that I've ever met. And if ''you're'' willing to tolerate men like Gowron, then what hope is there for the Empire?