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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Eh, I don't know if that's unique to where you're from - I can see the logic behind that rule. I actually imagine it's not uncommon among Western European democracies, though I admit this is just an impression of mine and don't have solid proof of that right now.
The damned queen and the relentless knight.![]()
Right. Most of their policies are actually bad for the economy as a whole, even as certain actors benefit greatly. I think it's more reasonable to call them the party of "fuck you, got mine" than of any rational economic theory.
Edited by Fighteer on Aug 25th 2020 at 11:52:14 AM
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"It's about the business who gains the most market share by doing the most effective job of working the system, not by making the most competitive or best-priced products.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"I guess they aren't pro-business in the sense of some idealized rational capitalist ethos but that's mostly a myth, Republican economic policy is what pro-business entities and parties support the world over. Slashing social programs, lowering taxes, deregulation, and privatizing almost everything.
It's not good for the economy but that has never stopped plutocrats and their allies/puppets.
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji YangWhich is an inevitable outcome of capitalism. Everyone might start from the same starting line on the date that capitalism is officially adopted, but whoever wins today's competition is in a better position to win tomorrow's. And the winners of tomorrow will be in a better position for the day after.
Winning the race means you get to start fifty or a hundred or two hundred yards ahead when the next race begins. And as round after round after round of capitalism goes by, wealth and power are inevitably funneled into fewer and fewer hands as victories compound into easier and easier and easier victories.
It's a system where three people can each open their own fruit market and sure, whoever knows how to do business better may prevail. But if one of those people is motherfucking Walmart then it doesn't matter what the other two bring to the table, because even if they run their businesses better, they still can't compete with all of the unfair advantages Walmart brings with it from the moment it opens its new store in their neighborhood.
To the victor go all of the other races, because the system is designed to favor past winners. And that's why we live in the world we live in now, where megacorporations own every market, workers are routinely underpaid, and the nation's money continues pooling into fewer and fewer hands as year after year goes by.
Capitalism is not an even playing field. It is a system by which an even playing field can be gradually converted into a financial feudalist state. A means of labeling certain people in society as "Fundamentally Superior People" and reducing the rest of the population to serfs, laboring at the Better People's whim. Which is what Republicans want.
The reason that Republicans are so enraptured by authoritarianism and capitalism is because capitalism builds authoritarian states. They're just defined by brand labels instead of territory markers.
Edited by TobiasDrake on Aug 25th 2020 at 11:21:27 AM
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Come on. Even Adam Smith recognized that you need regulatory checks on capitalism. It's plain as day in his writing.
Republicans aren't for classical capitalism as an economic model for stable societies; they are for predatory capitalism at its most basic level: the Rockefeller version.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"US political parties are in effect public organisations, not private ones. You don’t join a US party the way you do in say the UK, you just tell the government you identity with the party. That’s the reason primaries are governed by state law not internal party rules, it’s also why they’re government run.
Some kind of limit is common, but party membership is a rather extreme limit. Generally I think you see limits on political activists and conflating your job and your views.
So a teacher can’t campaign for a candidate on school grounds, a civil servant might not even be allowed to deliver leaflets for their party, but I know in the UK restricting party membership isn’t done unless you’re the Queen. But you could probably get in trouble for telling anyone your party membership in certain jobs.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ CyranI think having teachers be apolitical is perfectly reasonable. I feel education should be free of politics, and based on science and education, not on political doctrine (or religious doctrine, for that matter).
Besides, can you imagine the fit parents would throw if their kid's teacher was espousing the opposing party's politics in the classroom?
Hope shines brightest in the darkest timesPretty sure there are already parents who think of essentially all education as 'liberal brainwashing'. *facepalm*
Thing is, you can technically restrict what you teach to the kids, but if the teacher is liberal or conservative and that slants how they teach, I can't imagine restricting them from formally declaring a party membership is going to do a whole lot.
Edited by PointMaid on Aug 25th 2020 at 3:19:41 PM
As I said it’s about degrees, sure a teacher shouldn’t be campaigning in the classroom. But should they be allowed to phone bank for a candidate on weekends as long as they keep their politics off school grounds? I know at least one teacher who is an elected member of their local council. Even if you don’t want them campaigning, shouldn’t they be able to join a political party and donate money to that party?
Edited by Silasw on Aug 25th 2020 at 7:22:20 PM
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ CyranI had a High School Teacher who was an active and serving State Senator. he only taught senior level classes for the one Semester then was off the rest of the year. He taught current events as in what's happening right now. IIRC he was totally pissed off that the Berlin Wall came down during one of his 'off' semesters
To be fair, Why We Are Bummed Communism Fell is a trope for a reason.
Ironically enough, a lot of those people live in the former DDR. Turns out the fall of communism wasn't a party for everyone involved.
Hope shines brightest in the darkest times

Republican policies are great for big business, which defacto makes them pro-business.
Big Business is not ALL of the businesses though, I think is the argument here.
Edited by Aszur on Aug 25th 2020 at 9:51:03 PM
It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes