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Saturday, June 19, 2010

Randroid Paul to Unemployed Folks: Quit Whining You Lazy Pigs and Go Back to Work

McClatchy
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul on Friday urged Americans who have been unemployed for many months to consider returning to the workforce in less desirable jobs rather than continue relying on government unemployment assistance.

Perhaps these lazy undeserving poor folks could work as human toilets for the rich.

Not only would this provide nutritional supplements for the ingrates, but think of the healthy workout the lazy bums would get following the rich around on leashes. Innovation! Although, come to think of it, probably the rich should be compensated for providing all these health benefits, otherwise the rich would be reduced to slavery by the poor parasites in this scenario when you really think deeply and Randroidally about it. You know, principles?

The usual grotesque right-wing oligarchic "beyond-left-and-right" libertarianism.

8 comments:

Lorraine said...

Let them eat cakə!

Anne Corwin said...

As someone who has now been unemployed-and-looking for going on six months, frankly I have to laugh at the notion that it's even *possible* to go out and get a "less desirable job" (than whatever my ideal would be, I guess).

For one thing, employers tend to be looking for a specific skill and experience set, and no matter how much I may or may not "desire" a given job, if I don't have what the hiring manager wants they're not going to give me a second look.

And for another thing, I have this sense that the economy (inasmuch as I understand such a thing) is in a state of extreme flux right now. Priorities are changing and things are being rearranged and adjusted. I am still seeing building after building go empty and dark in my local area.

And my guess is that it will probably be a while before the process of looking for a job settles down into anything other than something where you just have to get lucky because you happen to know this guy through your mom who happens to be looking for someone with your skillset. Or at least that's my take on things.

Summerspeaker said...

Yeah, I've applied to various bottom-of-the-barrel jobs without any success. Rand Paul disappoints me. I can't believe his ridiculous position on immigration, tepid opposition to imperialism, weak support for drug decriminalization, and opposition to gay marriage. Those are the few areas where libertarian type can actually offer something worthwhile.

Dale Carrico said...

libertarian type can actually offer something worthwhile

Never confuse so-called "market libertarians" (whose position always either cheerfully avows or unwittingly entails the advocacy of right-wing authoritarian oligarchy) with civil libertarians defending the equity-in-diversity of equality before the law, the scene of informed nonduressed consent, and actually accountable government of by and for the people.

Summerspeaker said...

Believe me, I'm more familiar than I might like to be with the various libertarian ideologies. I have respect for earnest anarcho-capitalists. Such is my opposition to the military that I could imagine voting for a minarchist who promised to get the U.S. out of the imperialism game. Of course such a politician would be boon to the corporations, but that's a given anyway.

Dale Carrico said...

Minarchist libertarians are idiots or liars or both. Defense spending is stealth centralized control of the economy and welfare for the already-rich -- it isn't an accident that so many "earnest" libertarians brag about their minarchism and always cozy up to police state authoritarians in practice. Market libertarianism is a right wing authoritarian ideology, and when it declares itself "beyond left and right" it is both deluded and deceptive. You might enjoy the Dispatches from Libertopia: An Anthology of Wingnut Chestnuts archived at the sidebar.

jimf said...

Dale wrote:

> [I]t isn't an accident that so many "earnest" libertarians brag
> about their minarchism and always cozy up to police state authoritarians
> in practice.

Have you ever read (SF geek that you are ;-> ) Ursula Le Guin's
_The Dispossessed_? The ideology of the planet Anarres (called
"Odonianism" in the fictional world) isn't anarcho-capitalism,
it's anarcho-socialism, but Le Guin manages to portray
very chillingly how a society opposed to authoritarianism
**on principle**, and whose authorities would take offense
at being called "authorities" (rather than simply servants
of the people), nevertheless manages to maintain an iron
grip while going to great lengths to disguise it as a
velvet glove. Well, actually, not so velvet -- this is a
harsh environment (think of an Israeli kibbutz on the planet
Vulcan) which stresses work, self-sacrifice, energy
and discipline, so a great deal of societal authority
is re-framed as simple morality and social responsibility.

But anybody who questions certain prevailing "core" beliefs
and opinions -- and the book contains a character who does so,
who is the close friend of the main character and who leads the
main character to question his own assumptions -- is
treated as crazy while at the same time being literally
driven crazy. Thoroughly crushed in spirit, in any
case -- by a society that prides itself on its celebration
of the duties of citizenship and participatory democracy.

Le Guin seems to be suggesting that there's no ideology,
no matter how carefully worked out, that can provide a
guarantee against that sort of creeping conformity leading
to practices totally in conflict with what made the
ideology attractive in the first place. Sounds platitudinous
when stated baldly like that (so what else is new?)
but the book is powerfully evocative nevertheless.
More than a little sad, too. It's been many years since
I read it. I should read it again.

Summerspeaker said...

It's one of the books I live by. My interpretation differs slightly from yours. While the anarchist society contained all the flaws you describe, it still seemed like paradise compared with both Urras and the present United States. The revolution must constantly be renewed, but it is a worthwhile dream.