If you say so.
Your definition of “freedom,” should be entertaining.
You never got around to telling us what AmeriKKKa means to you, either.
Can you enlighten us there as well?
Come now. Are you being purposefully thick? The repubkklicans under trump have empowered the worst, most detestable fascists to come crawling out of their holes. The same is happening in Europe; " Hey look! The most powerful leader in the world is building a wall!
If you can’t see what’s happening, you’re being absurdly obtuse.
No, just curious. Like, “I wonder what’s in that box” curious.
Kind of what I figured. So can you name a single fascist in the GOP? Just one among the “many” that have “emerged” would be helpful.
I can’t read your mind, you know. If by “what’s happening” you mean the death of laissez faire globalism and the rise of nationalism, then we are bound to disagree on the costs and benefits of both.
I really have no idea how your head works. If you think fascism is on the rise in the US, what can I say.
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It clearly is. As in the rest of the world. Beaks my heart.
Then you’ll have to point it out. Not seeing it in the GOP.
Now, that said. Big tech and its support for Democrats and Biden? You might have an argument there. But within the GOP? Nah.
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Some of the tax money from Italy actually goes to the Vatican. I believe they did pass legislation that allows you to opt out of your portion of the taxes going towards the church, there are now some secular organizations that you can choose.
You haven’t seen the rise in neo-nazi groups and their claims to legitimacy over the last four years? Jesus fucking christ. It’s like talking to kids around here. Have fun! Bye.
Of course they shouldn’t be taxed. They hold civilization together. Same applies to synagogues and mosques.
No. I have seen lots of Democrat claims about it, though. There are rather significant differences between reality and Dem claims about reality, you know.
Aided by Big Tech, these claims (see Twitter). Good grief, man, I’m greasing the skids for your “US fascism is on the rise” argument.
What I see emanating from you is what an American writer named Hunter S Thompson called “fear and loathing.” Nothing less, nothing more.
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I agree, and it’s a significant point. I don’t claim it’s costless, but religion in the US is definitely strong glue.
Yeah, most of those types suffer from what I call PMS (parrot, monkey, and sheeple) syndrome…
Far too many examples of academics, Supreme Court justices (and ex-justices), and the media not only lying, but lying egregiously.
“Free” medical care…lol.
Edited to add: Hard to take a poster seriously, who calls Republicans fascist yet states religion should be banned… unless that was simply hyperbole.
My political views are probably more in line with Jimi than with Bojack. (I’m a Trump-hater.) But I’m going to interject to say that Bojack is asking the right questions here, even if we might disagree on some specific answers.
For example, responding to the above quote: free healthcare and free education ain’t free, they get paid for with our tax money. And the billionaire who gets “the fuck” taxed out of him ain’t living in a free country, because all his hard work was for nothing if the government takes away his earnings.
My true political position is somewhat left-centrist. I think we should have public options for health care and education. But the devil is in the details: how much do we tax businesses and individuals to pay for these things, and then how luxurious (or awful?) are the “free” offerings from the government?
Americans love FREEDUM! and will resist too much government interference, even if the interference would benefit us (for example free healthcare and college would be great, I want to benefit from free stuff too, but the deep strain of independence / self-sufficient ideology among Americans makes it difficult for them to accept that the government should give anyone free stuff.)
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I like to support a community pub every Sunday and I strongly believe in them. The money in my pocket has already been taxed but me and the pub need to pay taxes when I go inside and spend my money. But
I don’t think Pubs should be tax exempt just because I worship my beer.
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The reason the founders of this country believed churches shouldn’t be taxed is to keep them from getting screwed. Churches in Europe weaponized taxation to screw each other, and we needed to get away from that.
The US also had strong institutional separation of church and state, which helped it avoid an inefficient state monopoly on religion.
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You can’t separate church and state if you tax the church imo. The church will now have a vested interest in state matters and should be if they are taxed to be fair. The only reason people are ok with taxes is if they also believe it benefits them and they have representation and a voice.
So how is it that more secular countries have less crime and strife?
Which is why churches should not be taxed if they don’t engage in partisan politics. They can indulge in it, including campaigning or calling for their supporters to support a particular candidate, if they pay taxes like any organization involved in party politics.
It’s totally legal for a church to say, “we think abortion/capital punishment should be abolished, and you should consider this when you cast your ballot”, it’s another thing to say “Vote for Trump/Biden”.
My opinion is we have enough resources to re-allocate our priorities and focus on what matters most. The US spent over a $1T on the development of the F-35, that is the equivalent of all outstanding student debt at a time when the nature of war has changed. We have continually propped up industries rather than focus on the people that supply them.
Why are billions of dollars spent on keeping companies afloat when instead we could extend unemployment, invest in education and re-training of the work force? Anyone who argues that entitlement programs make people complacent should at the same time look at how corporate welfare makes companies complacent. In many cases we have import taxes/duties meant to protect industries that don’t even exist in this country anymore.
One of the things I like about Andrew Yang’s platform, although I don’t agree with UBI, was the need to move away from GDP as a measure. If we instead focused on life expectancy our priorities would change.
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If you focus on life expectancy, you had better pay attention to economic indicators like GDP because you those old people come with huge financial liabilities in the developed world.