[Thanos]

Watching those who live among one of the most free generations to ever exist in human history complain about how oppressed they are is endlessly fascinating. It applies just as much to the black helicopter crowd of ultra-paranoiacs on the right as it does to the juvenile whiners on the left. Whaddya mean, even though I never vote and I never join any political parties, that the government isn't going to do exactly what I want every time I want it? Help! Help! I'm being oppressed! See the violence inherent in the system!

Sorry, folks, there's far too many of you that deserve to live under a real dictatorship (and a genuine Orwellian style one that controls every second of your lives, not the delusional one the righties have made up about the Obamunist or the one the lefties have made up about HitlerHarper) just to teach you all a lesson about what real oppression looks and feels like. Seriously, maybe a couple of years in North Korea or Zimbabwe would be needed for you to appreciate where you live and what you've got. Too many of you are simply incapable of understanding context or realistic comparison of X to Y at all. It's not that you're stupid, for the most part, it's just that you're too fucking childish and toying with such ridiculous bush-league cynicism to take seriously at all anymore.

You're good folks for the most part but too many of you are just too damn silly, even if you're not intending to be, for me to get worked up over any more. Thanks regardless for helping me turn over a new leaf of no longer taking what's said here as being very important. It's merely sheer entertainment value and something to do with my free time and it all amounts to very little else.

[BartSimpson]

Thanos Thanos:

See the violence inherent in the system!

Says the guy who lives in a country (Canada) that deports its citizens in secret to be tortured and murdered in prisons that my country pays for.

[andyt]

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

andyt andyt:

Oligarchy is not democracy, by definition. Most people think political freedom entails living in a democracy.

Incorrect. Oligarchy means that the elite have the power, not the voters. It's still a democracy, in that voters can still vote, it just voting makes little difference to who wields the power. People still have their freedom to succeed, freedom of speech etc. so Democracy is intact.

Stalin said that 'he who counts the votes' wins the election. But in an Oligarchy 'he who controls the politicians' is really the government.

Actually the researchers don't use the term oligarchy:

$1:

A few people have run with these findings, suggesting that the study proves the US is an oligarchy.
+
“It’s not an unfair characterization,” Gilens said, when we bounced the O-word off him, though he added, “It’s a little bit alarmist.”
+
I guess it depends on how you define oligarchy. If you go with Aristotle’s original definition—”when men of property have the government in their hands”—then, well, yeah. (Although we don’t really stick to Aristotle’s definition of democracy—“when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers”—anymore.) But today oligarchs have become virtually synonymous with the circle of billionaire crony commodities capitalists who make up the Russian power structure. It doesn’t feel like we’re talking about the same thing in this paper. Here’s why:
+
What we cannot do with these data is distinguish definitively among different versions of elite theories. We cannot be sure whether we are capturing the political influence of the wealthiest Americans (the top 1% of wealth-holders? the top 1/10th of 1%?), or, conceivably, the less affluent but more numerous citizens around the 90th income percentile whose preferences are directly gauged by our measure.

[rickc]

Thanos Thanos:

Watching those who live among one of the most free generations to ever exist in human history complain about how oppressed they are is endlessly fascinating. It applies just as much to the black helicopter crowd of ultra-paranoiacs on the right as it does to the juvenile whiners on the left. Whaddya mean, even though I never vote and I never join any political parties, that the government isn't going to do exactly what I want every time I want it? Help! Help! I'm being oppressed! See the violence inherent in the system!

Sorry, folks, there's far too many of you that deserve to live under a real dictatorship (and a genuine Orwellian style one that controls every second of your lives, not the delusional one the righties have made up about the Obamunist or the one the lefties have made up about HitlerHarper) just to teach you all a lesson about what real oppression looks and feels like. Seriously, maybe a couple of years in North Korea or Zimbabwe would be needed for you to appreciate where you live and what you've got. Too many of you are simply incapable of understanding context or realistic comparison of X to Y at all. It's not that you're stupid, for the most part, it's just that you're too fucking childish and toying with such ridiculous bush-league cynicism to take seriously at all anymore.

You're good folks for the most part but too many of you are just too damn silly, even if you're not intending to be, for me to get worked up over any more. Thanks regardless for helping me turn over a new leaf of no longer taking what's said here as being very important. It's merely sheer entertainment value and something to do with my free time and it all amounts to very little else.

Id rep if I could! You have been knocking them out of the park lately! As far as you not getting worked up any more, well that would be a damn shame! You getting worked up is a major part of the attraction of this site. I know that I am not alone in stating that I look forward to a great Thanos rant every now and then! I do not agree with everything that you say (more like 5o%), but you are never boring!!! That alone would put you in the top 5% of the posters on this forum. We need you worked up! We count on it! I dare say you have an obligation. A social contract if you will. If you do not do it, who will?

[Thanos]

Can't do it all the time. Too many episodes like the one yesterday with my good pal Andy just leave me with a migraine.