A couple of days after the 2016 US-American election farce, I could not contain my relief that at least Hillary Clinton wasn't going to start World War III. (Unlike liberal-progressive idiots, I was unnerved by her talk of imposing a no-fly zone over Syria even if the Russians and Assad said that they would refuse to comply. Unlike liberal-progressive idiots I tend to want to avoid provoking another nuclear power. Because unlike liberal-progressive idiots, I can process the fact that nuclear war is bad even if a Democratic president causes it.) (Also, don't get me wrong; I wasn't happy about Trump. Just re-read the previous bracketed sentences.) It was before the start of work and I sat with a co-worker. He's a white guy about my age. (We're a minority at this workplace.) I expressed my sentiments about avoiding nuclear war and the conversation soon descended into general observations about the whole election. He told me he agreed with Trump about illegal immigrants. How dare poor people want jobs. Or, if it's to Canada they're sneaking into, free health care.
I pointed out that in the case of the Mexicans, NAFTA had destroyed their agricultural economy and that three million people would have starved to death if a million of them hadn't fled to the USA to work and send money home. His response?
"Let them starve."
I can't fathom what such a mindset produces as it goes through the motions all those waking hours. I'm pretty sure I don't want to know.
Another co-worker is from India. I'd gotten inklings that he likes the BJP government. I showed him an article from CounterPunch about India's economic reforms saying it had caused living standards to fall. It also said something about a de-monetization program which I knew nothing about. I told my co-worker that I, personally, didn't know what to think. I wanted his opinion on the article. He read it and, ignoring all its major claims, told me that the de-monetization program was about stopping political corruption. Paper money can be used to bribe officials and by politicians to bribe others. He then said there were critics of it. Including:
"Poor people can't get food and blah, blah, blah."
I would think that people (poor or not) being unable to feed themselves would be a serious charge worthy of more than just "blah, blah, blah." I mean, how else could we use this phrase? "He's just angry at me because I killed his family and blah, blah, blah." "So I drove drunk and hit people and blah, blah, blah."
Poor people in India can't raise the wherewithal to pursue a better life in Canada. That takes resources that they don't have just to get started. They're stuck there and if they can't buy food because they have no paper cash and no bank accounts or access to a bank at all, then they'll be more upset than "blah, blah, blah."
I guess I have more empathy than a lot of people do. There was an explosion in Scarborough. A house blew-up due to a gas leak. A woman in the neighbourhood is still traumatised by it. It broke all her windows and shook her whole house violently. If a car back-fires she panics, almost half a year later. I was reminded of another co-workers contemptuous dismissal of the idea that refugees from war-torn countries would be traumatised by hearing the fighter-jets of an air-show display over Toronto.
So, apparently there's nothing concrete in any of these US intelligence agencies' claims about Putin hacking the DNC and Podesta emails to help Donald Trump. It's a ridiculous idea anyway, that Trump would be Putin's puppet after Putin provided marginal assistance to Trump. I can't begin to imagine the continued thought processes of anyone stupid enough to believe such drivel.
It's become quite clear to me that liberal-progressives will swallow anything if it's in a pretty package. Justin Trudeau and Barack Obama are cool, groovy, progressive dudes because they look nice and act nice. So forget about the wars. The assassinations. The denial of social-economic justice to oppressed groups. The pro-corporate policies. All of it.
I give up.
I pointed out that in the case of the Mexicans, NAFTA had destroyed their agricultural economy and that three million people would have starved to death if a million of them hadn't fled to the USA to work and send money home. His response?
"Let them starve."
I can't fathom what such a mindset produces as it goes through the motions all those waking hours. I'm pretty sure I don't want to know.
Another co-worker is from India. I'd gotten inklings that he likes the BJP government. I showed him an article from CounterPunch about India's economic reforms saying it had caused living standards to fall. It also said something about a de-monetization program which I knew nothing about. I told my co-worker that I, personally, didn't know what to think. I wanted his opinion on the article. He read it and, ignoring all its major claims, told me that the de-monetization program was about stopping political corruption. Paper money can be used to bribe officials and by politicians to bribe others. He then said there were critics of it. Including:
"Poor people can't get food and blah, blah, blah."
I would think that people (poor or not) being unable to feed themselves would be a serious charge worthy of more than just "blah, blah, blah." I mean, how else could we use this phrase? "He's just angry at me because I killed his family and blah, blah, blah." "So I drove drunk and hit people and blah, blah, blah."
Poor people in India can't raise the wherewithal to pursue a better life in Canada. That takes resources that they don't have just to get started. They're stuck there and if they can't buy food because they have no paper cash and no bank accounts or access to a bank at all, then they'll be more upset than "blah, blah, blah."
I guess I have more empathy than a lot of people do. There was an explosion in Scarborough. A house blew-up due to a gas leak. A woman in the neighbourhood is still traumatised by it. It broke all her windows and shook her whole house violently. If a car back-fires she panics, almost half a year later. I was reminded of another co-workers contemptuous dismissal of the idea that refugees from war-torn countries would be traumatised by hearing the fighter-jets of an air-show display over Toronto.
So, apparently there's nothing concrete in any of these US intelligence agencies' claims about Putin hacking the DNC and Podesta emails to help Donald Trump. It's a ridiculous idea anyway, that Trump would be Putin's puppet after Putin provided marginal assistance to Trump. I can't begin to imagine the continued thought processes of anyone stupid enough to believe such drivel.
It's become quite clear to me that liberal-progressives will swallow anything if it's in a pretty package. Justin Trudeau and Barack Obama are cool, groovy, progressive dudes because they look nice and act nice. So forget about the wars. The assassinations. The denial of social-economic justice to oppressed groups. The pro-corporate policies. All of it.
I give up.
No comments:
Post a Comment