I’m old enough to remember the Reagan years. They absolutely sucked. I also voted for and was happy with Clinton. That said, in hind sight, Reagan set the house on fire, but the deregulation during the Clinton years threw a barrel of napalm into it to help it along. 1980-2000 is when we destroyed it all.
If Gore had won the presidency, things would have turned out very differently. And let’s not forget that things worked out quite well for a while under Clinton.
Same with Reagan (for some). When you rip out the brakes you get to go fast, which is great, until you need to turn or avoid a brick wall.
The positive effects of deregulation are instantaneous, which is great for the current administration. The shit hitting the fan takes its time, which is bad for later administrations.
EDIT: Gore did win. Never forget that.
Gore did win
Echos of QAnon?
When the votes cast were actually counted in Florida, Gore had more. FL was called for Bush before then, and the SCOTUS ruled 5-4 that what they initially called should stand.
None of that matters, all that matters was the final call that he lost
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Things only worked out well for those not paying attention. Clinton was horrible
Well, that’s because Clinton and every Democratic President since has been an Eisenhower Republican. Hilary campaigned for Barry Fuckin’ Goldwater.
I’m not old enough to have voted, but I remember the last few of the Reagan years, when his dementia was just as obvious as McConnell’s or Feinsten’s.
Wilson started it, Roosevelt and Eisenhower propped it up, inadvertently or not, Nixon continued it, and Reagan paved the way for the shit we see today.
The Clintons also laid the groundwork for scaling up the prison population to boost slave labour and poors suppression.
Something the republicans gladly inherited.
Let’s not forget to give Nixon his due, and the evil bastards that made Citizens United a law.
And Jude Wanniski, author of The Two Santa Claus Theory, which has become the backbone of Republican stupidity ever since.
Don’t get me wrong, absolutely fuck Reagan and lady Reagan (Thatcher), but to ignore the framework that preceded them and enabled them to do what they did is being wilfully ignorant and is counter productive.
Yeah, they fucked society up in their unique and terrible ways, but they are absolutely not the cause of our problems, just another symptom.
The cause is capitalism (and before that, feudalism) and the varied systemic oppression and exploitation it relies on to exist.
It is a tangible cause we can and should fight against, not a ghost to pointlessly shake a fist at for a quick dopamine hit.
Reagan and Thatcher introduced neoliberalism into their respective countries. If you were right, it would have been pointless to vote for a center left party in the next election because they wouldn’t abolish it. But when the Democrats/Labour came into power, first thing was to undo all the shit and abolish neoliberalism, right? Right?
John the Duncan made a good video about how the center left parties legitimized and normalized neoliberalism in the next legislative period. If you want me to, I can see if I find this video.
Democrats/Labour came into power, first thing was to undo all the shit and abolish neoliberalism, right? Right?
Right! If Reagan and Thatcher made neoliberalism law, then Clinton and Blair made it doctrine.
In New Zealand, neoliberalisim was introduced by the center left Labour party.
Interesting! I thought we Germany were the only ones. We had a coalition of the social Democrats together with the green party in the late 90s/ early 2000s. Especially the green party used to be very radical until they came to power
I would like to watch said video please
Give me a day or two to find it. If I forget, remind me 😉
It’s not that he did only one video on neoliberalism, it’s one of his favorite topics.
Lmfao, what the fuck do you think neoliberalism is?
And yes, it is pointless voting for the centre left, for exactly that reason - they too are neoliberal (= capitalists = exactly the point I was making in my comment).
You’re seriously not making the point you think you’re making lolI’m not making the point you think I was making. I wasn’t arguing against you. If it was all Reagan’s fault, the center left would have corrected it. But they didn’t. They turned neoliberal when they got to power. They are now but weren’t before.
neoliberal = capitalists
That’s very simplistic. 19th century capitalism wasn’t neoliberalism. The new deal era wasn’t neoliberal but socdem. Neoliberalism is the flavor of capitalism introduced by Thatcher/Reagan/… it’s not the same as capitalism.
Yeah, they fucked society up in their unique and terrible ways, but they are absolutely not the cause of our problems, just another symptom.
It may be simplistic to focus blame on some individual antagonist, but the one named is probably the one whose choices carried the greatest weight toward achieving the current condition of disaster.
At any rate, as a champion of individual responsibility, he would happily accept, no doubt, his own.
It may be simplistic to focus blame on some individual antagonist, but the one named is probably the one whose choices carried the greatest weight toward achieving the current condition of disaster.
no, but feel free to continue focusing on a symptom rather than on the problem, and
At any rate, as a champion of individual responsibility, he would happily accept, no doubt, his own.
Lmfao, absolutely never happen
feel free to continue focusing on a symptom rather than on the problem
I think you are extrapolatng, and not interpreting my response in context.
I absolutely love how you put that man.
And let’s not forget Rupert fucking Murdoch.
Rupert Murdoch wouldn’t have been a thing if Reagan hadn’t ended the fairness doctrine. Rupert Murdoch is Reagan’s fault.
Bill Clinton gave us Murdoch with his telecom act. Before Clinton, Murdoch wouldn’t have been able to own Fox News in the US because foreign nationals couldn’t own US news providers
Woah. Never knew that was illegal before. We need that law back.
or the fucking Koch brothers, or the Mercers
That’s the biggest problem with a social democracy, it just takes one bad faith actor supported by Capital owners to completely derail the system of social safety nets that were built with good faith over almost 200 years…
Good faith is a bit of a weird way to say exploitation, slavery, genocide and war in the global south
I was more referring to good faith governance (govermeny working for its citizens best interests and not corporations), not saying that social democracy aren’t fueled by those sources. But fuxk me for not writing an essay decrying every crime of social democracy’s lmao my bad.
Np you’ll get it right next time
That being said, it wasn’t good faith that gave us those safety nets, it was the working class picking up arms and demanding it.
“You’ll get it right next time” What a condescending prick lol
As if the “next time I’ll write an essay” comment wasn’t condescending. Simply matching the tone.
Class conciousness and working class Solidarity is built by poking lots of holes in the arguments of Capitalist Simps and libs by pointing out hypocrisies in the systems they support, and how every progress a social democracy has clawed for hundreds of years to get can be undone and if not undone undermined by the ruling class using their vast wealth to influence elections. Lecturing them on literally every crime of Capitalism that they have been indoctrinated in since birth is going to do nothing, but make them ignore you. Make a meme and share it if you want to address those issues you have with social democracies, just be normal and stop trying to undermine other leftists trying to spread class conciousness. You came in condescending, implying me saying the term ‘Good Faith’ was endorsing the exploitation of impoverished nations for the Imperial cores benefit. While I was trying to point out to the Imperial core how insignificant they are to the corporate overlords and the ruling class. Its a spectrum, and getting folks to recognize the Burgouis Prolitariat class divide is the first step, which is what I am trying to accomplish. I shouldnt be required to write a damn essay about every sin of social democracies every fucking time to avoid leftist like you coming in and being condescending pricks…
Gonna be real with you, I didn’t think you were making the point you were making in the first comment, that’s on me. I mistook you for a lib that is aware of the inherent injustices of the system but thinks they’re caused by bad actors in an otherwise valid system that strives for the betterment of everyone (“it’s just crony capitalism that’s bad”), while ignoring the actual harm the supposed good faith progress caused to the rest of the world and the exploited classes.
We’re on the same page, I think.
It seems that what you mean is social democracy broadly fails to meet the needs of the working class because it binds our fate to the exercise of ruling power.
This is sarcasm, right?
In which way? Downvoters don’t see your point.
I had no idea Reagan was responsible for people not knowing how to use capital letters.
Edit: Reagan was, apparently, also responsible for people misspelling Reagan. 🫣
The War on Education started with Reagan! It tracks
You gotta wait for the capitals to trickle down
THIS BUT UNIRONICALLY
tHis buT uNironIcally
yeAh capItal leTters aRe liKe caPital ciTies, thEy beLong nEar tHe cenTer.
United States of America has left the chat.
I’m partial to blaming European colonialism myself.
I blame the wrong side winning at Thermopylae.
The bailout system we have now, starting in 2008, is way worse than any reaganomics. Now we just hand them cash and don’t even expect it to trickle down.
There are pretty substantial ghouls that preceded Reaganomics: chartered monopolies, anonymous transferable shares of companies (thinking Dutch East India Company here), prohibition of local currencies, central banking, labor theory of property
And that succeeded Reaganomics: Chokepoint capitalism, evergreen IP, the gig economy
Yes, in a proximate sense, specifically in the US, Reagan broke a lot of dams that were holding back the most calamitous floods that were poised to drown us… but he didn’t fill them with water in the first place.
yeah I was going to say not to forget nixon but reagan was really a turning point but so is trump now. pre/post wise I feel trump is worse but that just might be the bias of how adjacent it is currently.
Ronald Reagan is proof that most actors should not become politicians.
You get too good at pretending to be somebody you’re not when it is your actual day job.
Have you caught yourself doing that?
Does anyone have any book/article recommendations if I’m unfamiliar with this topic, but may want to start down this rabbit hole?
More than emphasizing the figure of Reagan, I suggest learning about neoliberalism overall, and its emergence as the global order.
Frankly, Reagan was just a simpleton in a suit, by my estimation.
Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman are the more relevant figures historically.
I’m not familiar with books on Reagan but if you want a great book on how the right wing billionaires manipulate things with money I suggest Dark Money by Jane Meyer. It’s in the same vein and dark money is a highly interesting topic.
And left wing billionaries don’t manipulate, they are good guys?
Start with The Shock Doctrine from Naomi Klein
The best thing he did was marry the Throat GOAT.
That absolutely slays me.
If it wasn’t Reagan it was Biden
