Fascism is a specific type of authoritarianism. Both are forms of government characterized by tightly centralized power, either under a sole dictatorship / demagogue or a small cadre of rulers — typically of wealthy oligarchs — where rule is absolute and the vast majority of people have little say in policy-making or national events. Identifying […]
The Founders meant for the republic to be agile in philosophy — always changing to meet the new demands of the next generations. They meant for us to be self-governing, and empowered to create policy for problem-solving in new eras they themselves could not even conceive of. Thomas Jefferson wrote forewarningly of the Dead Hand […]
Trickle down economics is known by a number of names: supply side economics, Reaganomics, voodoo economics, deregulation, Libertarianism, Mudsill Theory, horse and sparrow theory, and the Trump tax cuts, to name a few. It has been espoused by everyone from Ayn Rand to Milton Friedman to Alan Greenspan to Gordon Gecko. Trickle down economics involves […]
We are rarely content with mere survival — we want naturally to be flourishing… most of us, anyway. A very vocal minority perennially aims to fuck it all up though, with disinformation and bullying and violence and domestic terrorism. Those power mad, money hungry, fame whoring moral prostitutes seek to keep us all surviving vs. […]
Stay tuned for quotes, theories, and ideas from some of the world’s foremost thinkers — concepts that have stood the test of time. Featuring selections from: Timeless wisdom from early history Timeless wisdom from the Stoics Epictetus (50 – 135 AD) Timeless wisdom from historical figures James Madison
The right wing alleges that Antifa and Black Lives Matter are the “violent lefties” of yore — and though the kernel of truth is that leftist anarchists did have a reputation for violence a century ago, these days it’s the right whose militant fantasies routinely animate stochastic terrorism and planned aggressions of all sorts. Antifa […]
The radical right is a fervent anti-government strain of Libertarian ultraconservative, emerging out of the anti-New Deal ideology of the 1930s. From McCarthyism to the John Birch Society, from fiscal conservatives to Christian nationalists, the radical right contains some of the most extreme ideologies in the right wing. Conservative ideology has gotten more and more […]
Twin visions were there at the start and here they still remain — we’ve been oscillating around the same set of unresolved issues for centuries, like a pair of neutron stars. There have always been two Americas: one egalitarian and Enlightened, patterned after Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin; and one haughty and zero-sum like John […]
When using the Broken Record method, think K.I.S.S. for quick and dirty media strategy: Keep It Simple, Stupid. Then, repeat those short phrases or sentences frequently. Themes to Broken Record for 2022 (and beyond): Fascism / Authoritarianism warnings Optimism > Pessimism Buddhism and Stoicism were hopefully about humanity — these were philosophies that placed humans […]
Supremacy is the magical thinking that one’s ingroup is the only source of truth. It’s the ultimate conspiracy theory, and the apotheosis of a hierarchical worldview. Supremacy is a common worldview shared by narcissists and totalitarians. Supremacist groups in American history White supremacy in particular is both a psychological condition and an institutional condition — […]
Majority Leader Schumer is right to come around to the idea that the filibuster must be changed in order to pass voting rights and save our democratic republic from the forces of authoritarianism. The filibuster is an archaic rule that was at first only there by accident, then whittled into a sharp blade of minority […]
Research has shown that emotional repression causes authoritarianism (Altemeyer, Adorno, Stenner et al). Fundamentalist religious groups favor the most repression, culturally — ergo, fundamentalist groups are at the highest risk for nurturing authoritarian traits. Emotional repression is the keystone of fundamentalist parenting. The strict application of “Biblical law” as cherry-picked by extremists is inherently contradictory […]
Mythology has it that “reckless Democratic spending” is to blame for the ballooning of the national debt — though the historical record shows otherwise. In fact, the conservatives‘ beloved demi-god Ronald Reagan was the first President to skyrocket the debt, thanks to some bunk ideas from an old cocktail napkin that linger to this day […]
The estate tax only kicks in at $5.4m in wealth — so it’s not about the “American worker”! Repealing it would give away $270 billion to rich elites. The concept of “double taxation” is a red herring, because most estates contain real estate assets whose capital gains have never been realized and taxed.
Economics Dictionary This economics dictionary and lexicon is a work in progress, so please pardon the dust — I’ll be adding to it over time. The goal is to democratize the esoteric language of economics, and arm more people with the tools to understand policy decisions — and identify bad ones. Economic literacy ought to […]