Question

The return of Simon and Garfunkel?

Answer 1

Ha! Good one Tink! Never cared a lot for Simon and Garfunkel but that parody is great work! 

Answer 2

Hi Tink, I "got" about 75% of that, I think...and I would be concerned about the dangers of 'stomping out' liberalism/progressives. I would have doubted this kind of thing in the video, except for Bret Weinstein. He has given eloquent convincing evaluations of what happened to him with the SJW's, and connected his experience in with other campuses.

However, many liberals I know are not even aware this is happening.

I am convinced it was a bad mistake to 'stomp out' communism (in the USA), and to equate socialism with communism - just spelled differently. And (essentially) get rid of labor unions at the same time...that SCOTUS decision I was concerned about this spring did happen, further weakening the ability of labor to negotiate.

The ultra-conservative direction the USA has been going is not working, unchallenged capitalism does not work. I am coming to think maybe we need the challenge of socialism to keep capitalism honest.

Maybe liberals and conservatives who dialogue in a balanced tradition of loyal opposition are joining up in the underground dark web, while the nutsos of both extremes just burn themselves out, slinging mud at each other like this video!

Comments

Virginia, I think this parody is aimed not at reasonable, thinking liberals, but at the doctrinaire fools such as can be found at Evergreen State and many other campuses, not to mention in the streets, who are anything BUT liberal in their actions and behavior.

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Tink I think you have hit upon the key there...having discovered my own liberal leanings 1967, I can find NOTHING liberal in what Weinstein and others were facing.

What concerns me is that this perspective seems to be creeping everywhere...when I watched historian Niall Ferguson talk about the Dark Underground Web, he indicated he himself (as a conservative) was driven there (the DUW) as "liberals" took over the college faculties. And for those 'liberals,' it was a no-no to EVER mention the fact or even the possibility that the 9/11 attacks had a religious component, that is to be wiped from history!

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THAT'S not liberal, that is book-burning ultra-right-wing Nazi stuff...as you once mentioned, the extremes meeting each other 'round the back...

And I hope you are correct about the aim of the parody...I'm feeling some concern about the polarization between R and L, when they need to collaborate into checks and balances.

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Virginia, I think the centrists in both parties are going to have to learn to work together for the common good. If there are still enough centrists who aren't on the take in one way or another, that is.

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You are even more cynical than I am, so-to-speak...I hope you are wrong ("If there are still enough centrists who aren't on the take..."), but I think we need to be prepared that your perspective may actually be accurate.

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Virginia, it's amazing how $200,000/year politicians almost invariably manage to become millionaires in a matter of a few years.

They must be very thrifty. 

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Tink, last year I began following a thread Marianne showed me, the Mondragon cooperatives and such...leads you to the flaws in our political and economic systems. And what I am hearing is that the people in those positions know the systems are crumbling, and just game those systems to rake in all they can.

Then they wall themselves in behind gated communities with armed guards - the comparison is the French aristocracy before the French Revolution, in Versailles, trying to hide away from "After me, the deluge."

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I am not certain the comparison is apt, but it helped me develop some kind of understanding.