I don't want to put words in blancos mouth (goodness knows what else has been in there), but I believe the major catalyst for blankfist's politics is anger at paying taxes. Government and democracy is the major focus of his ire. Our political feud is a years-long battle that goes far beyond the subject matter of this video.

He believes the free market is a benevolent, intelligent, almost supernatural force that somehow is able to right all wrongs. Oppressive sweatshops are put out of business by angry citizens who stop buying their products or open their own competing businesses. I've never seen any evidence to suggest the market works like this. To me, it seems to reward low prices at any cost, be it human rights, environmental carnage, livable wages, the exploitation of the 3rd world, squandered resources or otherwise.

I believe the concept of 'the free market' was created to justify greed, selfishness, gross inequity and to absolve the wealthy and big business of all personal responsibility for the part they play in this world. Those with wealth earned it with hard work and ingenuity (or more likely inherited it from their parents); those without are lazy bums who are receiving just desserts for their lack of ambition (or more likely inherited it from their parents). If only those lowly wage slaves would pick themselves up by their bootstraps, they could be the next Bill Gates.

We are pretty much together in our disgust for corporations, but what constitutes an oppressive work environment differs greatly between the two of us.

I've never seen a foot in a mouth and a head up an ass at the same time; meanwhile, buried ass deep in sand. Amazing. Speechless.

Probably an abject lesson in why you don't pull yourself up by your own bootstraps...

>> ^videosiftbannedme:
promote

You know, I still come back to this video sometimes and play it in the background while I'm working... I think it makes a good soundtrack.. Johnnie bootstrapping himself up from nothing.

Wow, I guess you can pull yourself up by your own bootstraps...

10 percent of your fellow citizens are fucked when it comes to healthcare. Now, what do you propose to do about that? Nothing, right? Let the market handle it, let 'em pull themselves up by the bootstraps.

"Free" emergency rooms for all (including illegals), Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, SCHIP. Yeah, we just can't do ENOUGH for the statists. Why can't we be more like Sweden or the soviet union?

I propose not letting the geniuses behind Amtrak run medicine, preventing 100%* of citizens from being fucked.


*minus Congress, who refuse to be on this wonderful plan themselves

http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/hlthins/hlthin08/p60no236_table7.pdf

Number of AMERICAN Citizen uninsured: ~35M, about 11%

Number of non-citizen uninsured: (doesn't necessarily mean illegal, includes visa and green card holders: ~10M

10 percent of your fellow citizens are fucked when it comes to healthcare. Now, what do you propose to do about that? Nothing, right? Let the market handle it, let 'em pull themselves up by the bootstraps.

Pull yourself up by your bootstraps!

>> ^Psychologic:


Automation will create jobs as well. The big fear back in the 80s was the robots replacing factory workers on assembly lines. I say good. I've worked an assembly line, and it's no fucking picnic. It's monotonous and I don't believe any man should suffer that fate. But, that's just a personal opinion, and in no way am I trying to take a political stance for or against assembly lines.

The robotics industry still needs employees. Sure, the factory worker lost his job, but a technician gained a job to fix the robot, and the software engineers needed to program these automations. It's a tradeoff. The factory becomes more efficient, and higher paying jobs are created where skilled human labor is needed. I do feel bad for those uneducated workers with little to no skills, but progress in the marketplace doesn't sit idly worrying about the sum of all its parts.

I do fairly well programming Flash sites and games. You think that will be a career I could hang my hat on for the rest of my life? Hell no. At some point I will need to progress and try to find another way to make a living. It wouldn't be fair to anyone if Flash programmers unionized and demanded tech benchmarks that prohibited the tech industry from advancing beyond Flash 8 AS2 (an older benchmark for Flash programmers) so to best make the market fair and to ensure the majority of programmers keep their jobs. I know this isn't exactly what you were talking about, but I wanted to go off on a tangent. Sue me.

I think it becomes everyone's responsibility in life to pick yourself up by your bootstraps, if you pardon my cliche - including the purchasing of health care. And, as I do agree we need health care reform, I don't believe government involvement is the system we need. I hate the current corporate system, and I'd love to see corporations die on their knees as much as the next man, but not by way of the government gun.

A new system is necessary. I just don't know what that system could be. I'd like to start with the government not recognizing corporations, therefore they'd lose their teeth, and people could use the courts to regulate a market instead of relying on the bureaucratic government morass that's terribly ineffectual and completely unfair. Point in case, Smithfield's pork industry in NC is ruining the land and getting the loc
als sick. Their hands are tied from suing Smithfield's unless they want to go way of Class Action, which is a joke. The EPA stepped up to correct the injustice and fined Smithfield's less than 1% of their yearly sales. The EPA in turn gave Smithfield's an award for environmentalism!

These government is part of the problem. We don't want them further ruining something that's already broken thanks to their collusion. We want them out. And, we want to use the court system to keep these corporations honest, which would lead to less denials of claims if there wasn't such thing as a goddamn insurance commission to protect them.

>> ^quantumushroom:
There will always be statists OUTRAGED that the people who actually earn the money should want to keep it! Never understood that, or will.

It's almost not worth having any discourse with you then.

Did not the people who earn the money benefit from government funded amenities, likes schools, roads, health care etc. ?

If they did not then they were already born into a family that could afford to do everything privately... but for how many generations can you go back on a currently rich family to find a point where they came from working stock who used public infrastructure to help them up?

See, in my mind, we need to provide as much as we can to allow the poor and uneducated to become educated, become skilled, become valuable, EARN an income and start contributing to society. By doing so we therefore start having a lot more self worth, a lot better family environment and a greater starting point for their children, and their children's children.

You great a self servicing system whereby you continually reduce the number of poor and destitute who need help from others.

YOUR mindset is that nothing should be provided to anyone, and everyone can get a great job if they just work hard enough. Really? So how do those people afford somewhere to live, an education, health care etc. while becoming skilled enough to become productive?

My mindset is that if you have enough money to be living comfortably and doing well for yourself and your family then why the F*CK not be giving some of that back to the community that gave you a chance if you needed it, and is giving a chance for less people to be reliant on support as a whole.


Upset because there's corruption in endeavors the government is supposed to spend money on (like defense) the statist would rather see money "wasted" on endeavors the government has no legitimate role in providing (health care, government schools, price controls).

What? Seriously, you don't think a government should provide health care or EDUF*CKINGCATION? Well, I write you completely off then. If you think that education should be a privately run endeavor, then you are a fully, and completely lost cause. If you can't see how running schools as profitable enterprises by private firms with private interests is a BAD IDEA, then, well, I just cannot understand that mindset.

Ditto with healthcare

And I'm not sure exactly what you're referring to in regards to price controls (unless you mean the subsidies for farmers etc.), so I'll leave that alone.


Which is dumber, supporting a government big enough to give you everything you want, or acting surprised when it takes away everything you have?


Or, perhaps believing that private enterprise has your best interest at heart and that somehow poor people can lift themselves up by their bootstraps through the goodness of private firms. Yeah, that's going to happen.

Stop with this 'I have money, I'm doing fine, I work hard, man I wish I didn't have to give some of MY MY MY hard earned money for those lazy poor people' mentality. It's selfish, lacking in any empathy at all, and just so narrow minded it sickens others.

Heres the thing. I think all humans should be treated equal. Now how is that going to happen when certain people constantly try to rule others, or tell others what to do. How can two people be considered equal if one of them is giving orders to the other? And thats what it is, when you want to enact some sort of government policy, say mandatory healthcare, what you are really saying is that there are two distinct types of people - those who are rulers, and those who are to be ruled. Thats inequality and theres really just no way I can justify that.

I'll be honest, lately I'm starting to wonder why I'm letting these people run me through the maze, when I should be gaming the system just like all the people you seem to look up to.

This whole idea of picking yourself up by your bootstraps is just bullshit. Getting into college, studying hard, getting a degree, finding a respectable job, working for your pay. Thats not what anyone ruling anyone else ever did. They made their money with violence - lying, cheating, stealing, scamming; killing even.

Working for a living in this corrupt, fraudulent, violent world we've created - is for suckers. No matter how hard I work, how successful I am, how easy my life is or how little I work for what I make - someone else is earning 40 cents of ever dollar I earn. I'm still being played by someone else who earns their living off the blood and sweat of others, without so much as lifting a finger. Someone who thinks we aren't equal - that they somehow have the authority to give us orders, as if the mere act of being born made us enlisted to them.

>> ^NetRunner:
If ya wanna change the world, learn some poli sci.

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To add to Citrohan, I would ask Debbie where the constitution talks about socialism or capitalism for that matter. Capitalism was in its infancy, and socialism hadn't even been conceived when that document was being crafted. The founding fathers would be surprised at the ideological weight you give this 'conflict' between capitalism and socialism.

We are not a welfare state? What about medicare, medicaid, timber payments to alot of the folks in Oregon, and actual welfare. I disagree, we do help people all the time; it's only delusional people like you who think your prosperity (or potential---ha ha--prosperity) is due solely to bootstrapping it.

You said the current administration is scrapping the constitution. Where? Name the amendment and what the Obama administration has done to weaken it. Is that question making your head spin? Do you know what an amendment is?

I can certainly point to a few amendments and tell you specifically how the Bush administration and the republican-led congress have diminished my freedoms.

Citrohan, they were not only silent at the surplus was transformed into a record deficit, these yahoos on the video cheered Bush on as he wasted our money on tax cuts and bullshit wars.

Liberals seem to come in many varieties, some are indeed privileged, like me, who grew up the son of two school teachers. Many are poor, many are blue collar, and there are limousine libs as well. Liberals are not afraid of the French Revolution, in fact many fantasize about FR2: Electric Boogaloo. Liberals aren't motivated by fear of the poor, but rather empathy and anger at social injustice.

When I say supportive parents, I mean it in every way possible, financially, emotionally, creatively, educationally, etc. Most important is that they are there for you, which is not the norm for many kids, whose parents work several jobs.

I can tell you have great parents, because you are a great person. It is obvious that they allowed you to think and grow and create. I'm not using that as a put down, I'm just saying that some of the shit I've seen teaching in poor neighborhoods would break your heart. The number one factor in student achievement is parental involvement, and when mom and/or dad aren't there, kids get into trouble in many ways. It's not right that someone has to choose between putting food on the table and spending time with their kids. These are the real life consequences of 'wage-slavery'.

I'm claiming wage-slavery (not poorness) is a product of supply and demand, which (if I understand correctly) is one of the sacred principles of the free market. When there are more people than jobs, supply and demand becomes an instrument of rape.

Who are we to say otherwise? WTF?

The majority of consumers want socialized medicine, who are we to say otherwise? - blankfist, March 31, 2009

(imaginary hell has frozen over)

In reply to this comment by blankfist:
I believe you have a valid, possibly accurate, take on a lot of people who are Libertarians, but I wouldn't know as I don't know too many at all - almost none outside of VideoSift. Most of the people I know who come from privilege are liberals terrified to their very core of a lower class uprising similar to the French Revolution.

I feel like you may be grasping at straws, albeit ever so eloquently and persuasively, when you attack the dichotomous argument of what someone perceives as lifting themselves up by the bootstraps and having supportive parents. I'm not sure I ever led a life of privilege, since you seem to be indirectly insinuating me in this conversation. My father and mother still work even though they should be retired thanks to them blindly believing our social security system they paid into would take care of them. Secondly, I did in fact work in textile mills from high school through college except when I was in the military.

I did have supportive parents, just not financially supportive, which it seems you are eluding to as money and class seems to be an issue with you. I'm not sure whether someone had supportive parents or not should or could ever be used as an argument against volunteerism over coercion. People should be supportive, but only if they choose to do so.

You claim the poor is an effect of the free market. Are you sure you're not confusing the free market with, and forgive my 'isms', capitalism (or rather state capitalism) or corporatism? The free market is simply a mutually beneficial agreement without coercion. If that can (or worse is) destroying any section of society, I think we should all pack it in and get back to hunting and gathering, because we simply will never have a chance as an evolved social species.

I, too, am for smaller business, but you have to support them for them to viably exist. Unfortunately, the consumer chose Walmart instead. It's sad, but... if that's what people want as consumers, who are we to say otherwise?

I believe you have a valid, possibly accurate, take on a lot of people who are Libertarians, but I wouldn't know as I don't know too many at all - almost none outside of VideoSift. Most of the people I know who come from privilege are liberals terrified to their very core of a lower class uprising similar to the French Revolution.

I feel like you may be grasping at straws, albeit ever so eloquently and persuasively, when you attack the dichotomous argument of what someone perceives as lifting themselves up by the bootstraps and having supportive parents. I'm not sure I ever led a life of privilege, since you seem to be indirectly insinuating me in this conversation. My father and mother still work even though they should be retired thanks to them blindly believing our social security system they paid into would take care of them. Secondly, I did in fact work in textile mills from high school through college except when I was in the military.

I did have supportive parents, just not financially supportive, which it seems you are eluding to as money and class seems to be an issue with you. I'm not sure whether someone had supportive parents or not should or could ever be used as an argument against volunteerism over coercion. People should be supportive, but only if they choose to do so.

You claim the poor is an effect of the free market. Are you sure you're not confusing the free market with, and forgive my 'isms', capitalism (or rather state capitalism) or corporatism? The free market is simply a mutually beneficial agreement without coercion. If that can (or worse is) destroying any section of society, I think we should all pack it in and get back to hunting and gathering, because we simply will never have a chance as an evolved social species.

I, too, am for smaller business, but you have to support them for them to viably exist. Unfortunately, the consumer chose Walmart instead. It's sad, but... if that's what people want as consumers, who are we to say otherwise?



In reply to this comment by dystopianfuturetoday:
Yep, that's the standard libertarian line on abusive business.

My standard response to that standard respnse is something like:

"The people I'm talking about don't have a choice. It's very easy to sweep other people's misery under the carpet and claim it's their own damned fault, especially when you yourself have (very likely) led a life of (relative) privilege and opportunity (this is usually a tender subject for libertarians, sorry, but it is spot on 99.9999% of the time). The problems I speak of cannot be laid at the feet of the entire lower class, because these problems are systemic, and one of the many, many, many, many, many major failings of the 'free market'.

We'd absolutely be better off without WalMart. They put a lot of small businesses out of business and degrade the culture and quality of life wherever they set up shop. WalMart is the American poster child of free market failure.

I do agree with you that people are rarely satisfied by what they have, but I'm talking about those who make less than 15k for performing grueling, back breaking work, and have little time to spend with their families because they have been bound and gagged by the free market. I'm talking about people who have a right to complain, but usually don't, because no one listens to them."

Usually after that, the libertarian gets miffed and tells me how hard his (always a he) life has been (the adversity is always minimal), and how he has earned everything solely by the sweat of his Galtian brow (which is usually a euphemism for extremely generous and supportive parents and a whole host of various other peoples that are conveniently forgotten). Not saying this is you, but this is what I've encountered in my numerous arguments with libertarians over the years.

Not trying to offend. You are a kick ass intelligent, funny guy, whom I care about. I'm just keepin' it real.