“If we want to make better decisions or do things in our society’s self-interest, we need to be tricked into doing them,” explained Steve Valk from the Citizens Climate Lobby.
Yeah, these folks think just SO highly of their fellow citizens. Yet another Jonathan Gruber type; just outright lie to folks in order to fulfill your political / ideological end game. And now, this is what the eco-socialist Left wishes to do. As I said here, I’m always entering Treehugger territory to show up for “the battle in the arena of ideas”. I may lose (or more often, just run out of time in which to debate because that means I’m not writing here) but I can’t win if I don’t show up (hint, hint, again readers – have we here at GraniteGrok equipped you sufficiently to do the same?). I alluded to one skirmish that I got involved with and that continued on longer than my original post. So I made the argument that if you don’t like what Trump is doing now, too bad as it is because Government has given itself more Power than what it should have. Don’t like it? Shrink it. Yeah, even in light of the “Orange Man doing things they hate, there can never be any talk of diminishing its power (go figure, eh?). And with all Socialists, they deny the power and standing of the Individual in the face of the Collective might via the force of Government:
“….so that finally WE can decide, each of us individually, for ourselves….”
And there in lies another illusion because its not the individual, its the individual with the most money and the specific social talent to get it. Your end desire is the BIGGEST lie of all, and will ALWAYS be true as long as there is currency. Your end as history has shown time and time again, produces gilded ages and Princes and Poppers…Gee how wonderful…
Three cheers for Grover Norquist…lets drown government in a bath tub, after we shrink it of course…
Now, certainly I agree with his last line but I got the slightest tinge that it was of that thing called “sarcasm”. Who knows, however – maybe I am making an impact (heh!)? So I left him a challenge:
What you are saying, Bill, is that everyone is a sheeple and unable to think or reason for themselves. I don’t. I’ve watched the people here in NH, with the most money and the most “social talent” in which the Smart People betting on Conventional Wisdom believed they were a lock to win – lose. And lose very expensively.
It IS the Individual, each and everyone of us, reasoning things out for ourselves to determine what is right and wrong. Sure, there are those that can be swayed, and those that have already mind up their minds – that’s life.
For the majority of our history, the Federal Govt made up less than 2-3% of our GDP (if I am remembering correctly). During that time, we became the most successful, wealthiest, and freest nation in history. Now, it is well over 10 times that amount, has spent us and the next 3 generations into oblivion ($23 TRILLION ain’t pocket change) and has inserted it self into every nook and cranny of our lives (the Democrats here in NH now wish to institute a domestic pet registry – WHY??).
My end desire is NOT a big lie – but it is to have a govt that is no longer too big for its own britches and one that we can actually afford. It does too much beyond its enumerated powers and much of that it doesn’t do all that well.
BTW, simply because he’s in the news: so WHAT if Jeff Bezos is worth $135 Billion (and half that once his divorce comes through). Bill, do you want the Govt to take the majority of that away from him just because he has it (re: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and now most of the Democrat Prez Wannabees) because people kept buying products from his companies WILLINGLY?
And as to those Wannabees – who is more greedy? The politicians who say that they should confiscate it simply because they can, or Bezos who offered millions of people such a value that they bought what his companies offered WILLINGLY?
It comes down to this – I don’t believe in a zero sum game; the economic pie can be enlarged and many people can become rich without affecting my standard of living (and most likely, yours and everyone else here at Treehugger). Ours used to be an aspirational society where the belief was that one had the possibility to elevate themselves. Instead, I see an envious society willing to take from those that have succeeded.
Change my mind.
More later but it was clear that he couldn’t refute any of it.