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Past prediction by an obscure left-wing philosopher foresaw the rise of a Trump-like ‘strongman’
Topic Started: Nov 19 2016, 08:20 PM (269 Views)
Cymru
Alt-Right
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/19/donald-trump-us-election-prediction-richard-rorty

Quote:
 
Americans trying to unpick he phenomenon of Donald Trump have turned to an obscure academic, who predicted that old industrialized democracies were heading into a Weimar-like period in which populist movements could overturn constitutional governments.

In 1998, the late Stanford philosopher Richard Rorty published a small volume, Achieving Our Country: Leftist Thought in Twentieth-Century America, that described a fracturing of the left wing coalition that rendered the movement dispirited and cynical that it invited its own collapse.


I find the comparison with conditions which existed in Weimar Germany to be very apt.

Quote:
 
In the book, Rorty predicted that what he called the left would come to give “cultural politics preference over real politics”. This movement would contribute to a tidal wave of resentment, he wrote, that would ricochet back as the kind of rancor that the left had tried to eradicate.

Rorty suggested that so long as “the proles can be distracted from their own despair by media-created pseudo-events, including the brief and bloody war, the super-rich will have little to fear.”

But as democratic institutions begin to fail, workers will begin to realize that governments are “not even trying to prevent wages from sinking or jobs from being exported”, Rorty wrote. They would also realize that the middle classes – themselves desperately afraid of being downsized – would not come to their rescue.

“At that point,” Rorty wrote, “something will crack.”

“The nonsuburban electorate will decide that the system has failed and start looking around for a strongman to vote for – someone willing to assure them that, once he is elected, the smug bureaucrats, tricky lawyers, overpaid bond salesmen, and postmodernist professors will no longer be calling the shots.”


Sound familiar?

The political centre can no longer address the needs of an increasing majority of people. This is because the political centre, obsessed as it is with identity politics in the social arena and maintaining neoliberalism in the economic arena, does not recognise the needs of these people as legitimate through their ideological lens.

So the voters kick them out.
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Affa
Senior Member
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Cymru
Nov 19 2016, 08:20 PM


So the voters kick them out.

Easier said than done!
If the referendum taught me anything it is that voters don't care about the truth. All they care about is their daily existence. And those witnessing the changing demographics have had enough of such changes.
Those least affected by those changes remain dogma driven.


Edited by Affa, Nov 19 2016, 09:38 PM.
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Rich
Senior Member
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Affa
Nov 19 2016, 09:35 PM
Cymru
Nov 19 2016, 08:20 PM


So the voters kick them out.

Easier said than done!
If the referendum taught me anything it is that voters don't care about the truth. All they care about is their daily existence. And those witnessing the changing demographics have had enough of such changes.
Those least affected by those changes remain dogma driven.


Do you mean the ideological Europhiles that are now crying like babies because their cosy little life styles are going to be disrupted and may well disappear......by george, they might even have to contemplate working for a wage....whatever next? !!===
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Affa
Senior Member
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Rich
Nov 19 2016, 11:43 PM
Affa
Nov 19 2016, 09:35 PM
Cymru
Nov 19 2016, 08:20 PM


So the voters kick them out.

Easier said than done!
If the referendum taught me anything it is that voters don't care about the truth. All they care about is their daily existence. And those witnessing the changing demographics have had enough of such changes.
Those least affected by those changes remain dogma driven.


Do you mean the ideological Europhiles that are now crying like babies because their cosy little life styles are going to be disrupted and may well disappear......by george, they might even have to contemplate working for a wage....whatever next? !!===

There you go.
Which are you Rich, fed up with increasing demographic changes, or still dogma driven, "I'm all right Jack"?

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xosg
Senior Member
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Affa
Nov 19 2016, 09:35 PM
Cymru
Nov 19 2016, 08:20 PM


So the voters kick them out.

Easier said than done!
If the referendum taught me anything it is that voters don't care about the truth. All they care about is their daily existence. And those witnessing the changing demographics have had enough of such changes.
Those least affected by those changes remain dogma driven.


I wish you remoaners would get away from this nonsensical "truth" serum you keep banging on about, Every election we have ever had the parties lie to the people.Yes even Labour (believe it or not ) it's called manifestos. I didn't vote for Bliar or NL but I got them. They never told me or anyone else about their plan for multi culti (unfettered immigration ) do I get those 12 years back,NO.So we all have a case when it comes to elections over lying regardless who you support.I just wish you lot would get of this idea that in the referendum lying was a one off and never been done before (how dare they ) We have been lied to ever since government was introduced,don't get on your high horse and tell everyone BREXIT was a one off (it wasn't,it isn't.) Accept it,giive your arguments, but stop the whining wingeing about how hard done to with the LIES. Accept that we get lied to on a daily basis,get in the real world and of your high horse.
Edited by xosg, Nov 20 2016, 11:13 AM.
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Affa
Senior Member
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Quote:
 
If the referendum taught me anything it is that voters don't care about the truth. All they care about is their daily existence. And those witnessing the changing demographics have had enough of such changes.
Those least affected by those changes remain dogma driven.


The above is a statement. It does not say, or attempt to say, that the lies told over the referendum run up was the only example, or points at only one side!
It is as it tells, a realisation that 'truth' is of little value where voting intentions are concerned.

Edited by Affa, Nov 20 2016, 11:56 AM.
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xosg
Senior Member
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Affa
Nov 20 2016, 11:55 AM
Quote:
 
If the referendum taught me anything it is that voters don't care about the truth. All they care about is their daily existence. And those witnessing the changing demographics have had enough of such changes.
Those least affected by those changes remain dogma driven.


The above is a statement. It does not say, or attempt to say, that the lies told over the referendum run up was the only example, or points at only one side!
It is as it tells, a realisation that 'truth' is of little value where voting intentions are concerned.

It is the implication in your statement,not the statement itself. In it you talk about lying,well guess what,that is all you remoaners have been going on about for the last 6 months, about the Brexit campaign.So one could naturally presume it is a dig at the leavers.
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Affa
Senior Member
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Quote:
 
It is as it tells, a realisation that 'truth' is of little value where voting intentions are concerned.

When others realise it too, things just might change, and the truth rediscover its value.
Wishful thinking I guess because dogma driven tribalism RULES.
Edited by Affa, Nov 21 2016, 12:45 PM.
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Malum Unus
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Hater of Political Correctness and Legalese
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Affa
Nov 21 2016, 12:44 PM
Quote:
 
It is as it tells, a realisation that 'truth' is of little value where voting intentions are concerned.

When others realise it too, things just might change, and the truth rediscover its value.
Wishful thinking I guess because dogma driven tribalism RULES.


More and more people ARE realising it though, why do you think voter apathy is so high?
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C-too
Member Avatar
Honourable Member
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xosg
Nov 20 2016, 11:11 AM
Affa
Nov 19 2016, 09:35 PM
Cymru
Nov 19 2016, 08:20 PM


So the voters kick them out.

Easier said than done!
If the referendum taught me anything it is that voters don't care about the truth. All they care about is their daily existence. And those witnessing the changing demographics have had enough of such changes.
Those least affected by those changes remain dogma driven.
I wish you remoaners would get away from this nonsensical "truth" serum you keep banging on about, Every election we have ever had the parties lie to the people.Yes even Labour (believe it or not ) it's called manifestos. I didn't vote for Bliar or NL but I got them. They never told me or anyone else about their plan for multi culti (unfettered immigration ) do I get those 12 years back,NO.So we all have a case when it comes to elections over lying regardless who you support.I just wish you lot would get of this idea that in the referendum lying was a one off and never been done before (how dare they ) We have been lied to ever since government was introduced,don't get on your high horse and tell everyone BREXIT was a one off (it wasn't,it isn't.) Accept it,giive your arguments, but stop the whining wingeing about how hard done to with the LIES. Accept that we get lied to on a daily basis,get in the real world and of your high horse.
---- " unfettered immigration " ----

An exaggeration that ignores the lack of skilled and professional people at a time when the economy was expanding.

The Tories imposed, Deregulation/Financial Services/Free Market economy on the country. This led to;

The loss of many professional positions.
The demise of much of our basic industrial base. (being addressed since 2009).
The loss of millions of skilled jobs.
The loss of multi millions of apprenticeships over the years. (With that loss goes the further education and self-discipline that apprentices used to get).

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Oddball
Senior Member
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Cymru - History is filled with examples of 'knee-jerk' reactions of folks who got a tad jerked off by the status quo - the Brexit result and its developing often ill pondered outcomes kind of springs to mind.
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