And if I may, I’d like to capture the truths you unearth in fitting memes, using phraseology and hashtags such as Swiss cheese Christianity and #ProSTRIFE. Evangelicals and the GOP have crafted a brand of Christianity with holes where The Golden Rule and “Judge not, lest ye be judged” used to go. And “family values” Republicans who choose to needlessly inflict economic hardships on the poor and middle class clearly don’t value families much, do they?
Todd, I really like your metaphor of "Swiss Cheese Christians." Republicans like to think of themselves as holy, well, in reality, they are holey. I will use that in a sermon at some point. I also like "pro-strife" because Repubs are certainly not "pro-life." I am trying to think what they are pro beyond getting money and power for themselves, very non-Christian pursuits. You are also right about their not being the family party. I cana't think of one thing they have done while in office to help families except maybe rich white ones whose male head is willing to share his tax breaks with wife and kiddies.
Ruth, I recently asked my drumpf-prayer-warrior sister if she subscribed to the buffet idea of christianity, that is, just take what you like and leave the rest. didn't go over well.
I'll bet it didn't. I've tried talking to family members and acquaintances about the very same thing. It didn't go well for me either. They do have a buffet style of religion. The parts they like are the parts that feed and reconfirm their reactionary prejudices. And there's a whole industry devoted to perpetuating and amplifying their reactionary feelings. Shaping them and misaligning them for fun and profit. Especially the profit.
They say blood is thicker than water. That trope is hogwash. When a Sultan died, the first son who heard of it, went around the grounds slaying all of his brothers and half brothers. Much the same thing happened in Christian Europe and included fathers, uncles, cousins.
WWI was called the cousin war, because King George, the Kaiser and the Tsar were all grandsons of Queen Victoria. My wife and I are as close, ideologically, without being clones, our differences are in perspective and minor. Neither her nor I would have been together these 31 years were we a George and Kellly Anne Conway, or a James Carville and Mary Matalin. For some reason I am suspicious of those two couples and any like them
My two sisters were at logger heads with me, and we only communicated on their death beds.
Any previous attempts were rehashing the only thing we had in common, our childhoods, and even then our recall of reality differed, as if we grew up in different families.
I have mentioned here before in a comment, that I have such a super jackass of a brother. A "born again" (whatever the hell that is), who lived in my parents' house for years after they were shuffled off to assisted living, not paying them any rent, and then after they both died, buying the house at a "loss" (??), and claims it is haunted! No wonder! At first, until I discovered that he ACTUALLY thinks Trump was sent by God (!), to do God-knows-what, I do not know, and he discovered that I am an avid Trump HATER, I tried to help him with the situation. BUT THEN -- he just dumped me by the wayside, so I wrote him a very explicit letter telling him that he needs to move out of that house, that he is not wanted there, and telling him all about our father enlisting and going across the world to parts unknown, after graduating cum laude from Indiana University, leaving behind everything he had ever known, including the girl of his dreams from way back in grade school (in the first stages of a yet discovered pregnancy), to fight against Hitler, the Nazis, Mussolini, the Fascists, and the Japanese, to help keep freedom alive. He was stationed in the Philippines, and did not get to see my sister until she was already nine months old. My brother is a DISGUSTING COWARD, who goes to "Bible studies" every Weds. night, and will swallow any BS the "christians" and Trump will tell him! My other brother says he doesn't know who is crazier, our mutual brother or his son! God -- I am surprised our father hasn't RISEN FROM THE DEAD BY NOW AND B-O-D-I-L-Y EJECTED HIM FROM THAT HOUSE!
I forgot to mention one very astounding and flabbergasting point: My brother actually declared to me, during one of our arguments, that "Dad would respect [!] and approve of my choices." !!!!! UNBELIEVABLE!!!!
I call them “Faux Christians” because that’s what they are: Fakes. They do the opposite of what Jesus lived and taught. Where He Healed, they Harm. Where He Loved, they Hate. Where He Joined, they Divided. Where He Inspired, they bring Despair. That is what they are doing in and to our Country, using a warped, corrupted, religiosity to Destroy America.
But they have mastered the fine art of appealing to people's reactionism for fun and profit. Especially the profit part. And made them feel good and even superior for feeling that way. It!s those little hits of dopamine which people really like.
Keith, I find it so sad that so many people are desperate and are OK with their "hit" each day or few hours - information or strokes that will make them feel real good while ultimately ending up hurting other people. I guess either they don't think about it or pretend it is other people doing the hurting or that THOSE people deserve whatever happens to them. In any case, it is a terrible way to live. That may be why so many are so closely tethered to Trump; they don't ever have to face the harm they are really doing. Trump and Kump like it that way because those folks are easy to manipulate, getting them to do all sorts of things they would never otherwise do, January 6th an example. And, the best part, most of them will never be held accountable, and if the SC cons get their way, even fewer of them will on some kind of "trumped-up" technicality. The SC cons are perfect models for the Trumpers and Trumpettes because so far, they can't be held accountable for any of their bad behavior, criminal behavior. Criminally charging Alito and Thomas for taking bribes could be a start. It would be pretty embarrassing for those supposedly christian men to be called out on their anti-Christian behavior, while sitting in court in front of a jury. It would make a good show and might break up the SC conservatives as they are now, a partisan bunch of racist, misogynistic bullies.
Garland could and should, but he won't any more than he didn't charge the J6 conspirators in Congress and Administration. As far as Garland is concerned there was no insurrection no attempted coup. Just felonies and misdemeanors for assaulting the Capitol and police officer
I have called the DOJ NUMEROUS TIMES TELLING GARLAND WHAT A COWARDLY WOOSE HE IS AND THAT HE SHOULD BE KICKED OUT OF OFFICE ALONG WITH CHRISTOPHER WRAY, BOTH SO DERELICT IN THEIR DUTIES! I HAVE TOLD BIDEN OVER AND OVER AGAIN TO REMOVE GARLAND! BIDEN IS AS BIG A _ _ _ _ _ AS THEY BOTH ARE!
Know Biden's political history and you know Biden. Biden came to the Senate from Delaware. Delaware is the home of over 600 corporations, and Biden's nick name in the Senate was the Senator from Wall Street.
As a freshman he was elected into a Senate in which the Democratic senators were predominantly old south racists, and was mentored by James Eastman and Strom Thurmond.
These were his mentors, they guided him, they taught him, they introduced him to allies.
The Senators use to talk of my friends across the aisle, my friends on the other side, and what that really meant was that they had no ideological convictions, only the desire to hold their seat and be known as a senator.
The catch phrase in Congress, until Trump and his cult, has been bipartisanship. Bipartisanship over rode everything.
Bipartisanship is what we elected in 2020. It is why Biden appointed a right wing radical as attorney general, and because Trump saw the AG as his personal attorney, Biden bends the other way, to his and our detriment, and allows a radical Republican to interfere in the prosecution of those who planned and tried to carry off a coup.
It is just not Biden, but the whole Democratic party apparatchiks, are timid and afraid of being controversial, because they fear the press, and the press, the owners and editors, are financial invested in preservation and protection of the status quo.
If the Democratic party steps out of line, the hammer of Thor will come down on them. The Republican party is in their back pocket and recipient of their largess.
The Plutocrats, the oligarchs, the wealthy upper class, the 1 and 10 percenters, whatever they are called, however they are called, know that their wealth and power keeps them immune from the effects and fall out of the culture wars. They can and will have sex with young and even pre teens and suffer no ill effects, the Jeff Epsteins will always be suicided, die in a traffic accident, fall out of a window, drown in their swimming pool, or whatever. A daughter needs an abortion, no problem she gets one. they kill someone on purpose or by accident, they got that covered as well. They never go to prison, much less tried.
The Bernie Maddoff's and Sam Bankman Frieds, and Martha Stewarts only got caught and punished because they grifted the wrong people.
These people, be they CEO's, Chairman of the Board, majority shareholder of any corporation, especially a multi national one, never pay a price for their crimes,whether against a person, a group or a nation though they kill thousands, or millions. OPEC and the oil cabal have killed more people than Hitler and the death toll keeps rising.
Tobacco giants never paid the price for the death they have caused, and the trillions wasted on unnecessary medical procedures and pharmaceuticals.
For instance, I was addicted to nicotine at the age of 12, and stayed addicted for the next 57 years, I managed to quit, but too late, because the Big C showed up in my lungs, metastisized to the brain, and after an operation, two years of immunotherapy, the cost of which was $2 million dollars, and five years of monitoring with CT Scans, MRi's and quarterly then semi annual meetings with an oncologist. I am only in remission and it might be coming back,
Big Tobacco knew, bur suppressed the knowledge that they were killing people, and are still at it, because they have bought politiciains and the judicial system.
Union Carbide operated a plant in Bhopal, India. It failed to do maintenance, because it costs money and cuts down on the return on investment for shareholders, and they had a leak of gas that killed thousands. They were found guilty, eventually, the Supreme Court of India, freely bought, let them off the hook eventually, but not before they filed bankruptcy and were bought out pennies on the dollar by DOW chemicals. Nobody has gone to jail, for negligent manslaughter or homicide.
Stalin said Kill one person and it is murder, kill thousands and it is a statistic, that is the way the human mind works.
Blind justice is a distracting and untrue meme. Money and power buys Justice.
Trump, his enablers, his co conspirators, his planners in Congress and his administration will never see justice. Not even those in Georgia.
If Trump is convicted next week, and I doubt that he will be, he will not suffer any consequences, because those who could punish are afraid or complicit.
And unless the idiot's with their grievance wake the fuck up, he will be elected and that most certainly will ruin their day and their lives (mine as well).
One of the U.S. congressional representatives, Dem. Steve Cohen from my state of Tenn., just introduced a resolution to Congress to censure Alito and remove him from his position on the Court. Steve made appearances today on both CNN and MSNBC. Catch him there, and of course you can find it online. I subscribe to Cohen's newsletter because he is one of the only SANE TENNESSEANS WE HAVE IN OFFICE. He is not my rep, alas, he represents the whole Memphis area, but he is a TIRELESS worker for the people, and he is not afraid to get in the faces of all those who need it! I will have to send him bundles of cash, or try to get out the vote for him when he is up for reelection again. I SO HOPE HIS ACTIONS TOWARD ALITO SEND A HUGE WAKE-UP CALL TO THE DUMB-ASSES SO N-O-T DOING THE WORK NEEDED TO REPRESENT THE REST OF THE NATION! Kudos to TN Rep. Steve Cohen!!!
The Right-Cons have built a superior messaging machine. They have to because of the inferiority of their actual messages. They're selling that old sizzle...
So any memes you come up with would be a help. The more relatable the better. Good luck.
Todd Telford, looking forward to your (World According to Reich, pearls in a half shell), creative interpretations. Memes as pull-out quotes. It’s all thoughtful distilled stuff that I (for one) need as ammo, or the swirl of untruths, condescending assertions, goes unremarked, uncorrected, due to lack of background, inability to speak off-the-cuff about what I feel I know, not without understanding from topical historical pertinent factoids, available here! Interested in yours, harmonize striking the right notes, meme-wise on foundation.
Klare K, Your name-calling says something about you. Todd Telford said he is going to create memes. You characterize my appreciation (to him of his plans and efforts) as “blathering on.” Your father served, your brother is a religious-right nut that stole your house. Blathering, while, yes, you have “NO IDEA,” that’s on you.
You're one of the best teachers I've ever had, and I am looking forward to learning more about the economy and how our system really works. Thank you for sharing what you know and for creating this community that I visit every morning.
Prof. Reich, if this series works out for those of us on this thread, maybe you'll consider packaging it for middle and high schools as well as community colleges. Young people are interested in how money works, which is a way I was able to reach the 8th grade math students I was tutoring. Your presentations are light-hearted but serious too and with the illustrations, the students will enjoy it. If I were still teaching, I would have used parts of your college course with my high schoolers; they would have found it really interesting because you don't talk down to young people, but tell them what is worth knowing and what it means for them and their families.
Money... people spend a goodly chunk of their lives interacting with money. Chasing it. Earning it. Stealing it. It guides so many of our choices. Yet most people don't know how it works. Weird. So good for those students, they're curious and apparently willing to spend the time to learn about it. Glad to hear it. May I recommend a book to you? It's entitled, "1%: the Book the Banks Don't Want You to Read". Can't remember the authors name. Also the writings of an economist focused on money: Poltzar is his name. Works for the banks. Intellectually fearless.
Hi Robert, I love everything that you do! Here in the UK we are weeks away from a General Election that our equivalent of the Democrats is expected to win with a landslide on a policy platform that includes new taxes on the rich. We will be very interested to watch your Myth Debunking series over the campaigning period to voting day, which happens to be 4 July.
Robert…you are such an inspiration to me. Thank you for carrying on with such relevance and import. You ARE making a huge difference in a time of great need.
Thanks for the heads-up, Klare, but who cares what garbage djt posts?. I'm not seeing anything about whether T.S. turns down ads promoting views contrary to djt's.
I have never been on "Truth Social," the name is an oxymoron, and this isn't even worth a discussion. I really doubt a "social" media platform run by the addled, age-riddled, looks 140 yrs. old, orange-faced, make-up wearing, SICKEST PERVERT OF OUR TIMES ON THE PLANET would allow in a single word of TRUTH. Don't respond to me again.
Heck, Donald, Trump wouldn't have the patience to sit through it and wouldn't understand it if he did. He couldn't even stay awake in court when he knew the jury would be making decisions about his future.
The Fourth Reich of the Rich. Unfortunately there is a book by that name by Des Griffin and it is an antisemitic screed., the crap you see on 4 chan , 8 chan, OANN, Stormfront, Der Sturmer.
I look forward to it. I also have always been confused by economics, and you are so good at explaining it in a way that I gain some clarity! Thank you for all your hard work and dedication.
Very fine idea. Let me add a companion concept to help pull reality into the public eye. Some years ago I read about a weekly television program in Finland that ran on Friday evenings just after the news hour; its hosts ran clips of major news/propaganda stories of the week and debunked them, with satire, facts, cartoons, etc. I imagine a cross between Jon Stewart and Monty Python doing Lawrence O'Donnell. This was valuable to the growing audience because Russia was increasing its propaganda work, and getting a lot of its falsehoods into the mainstream. The program was entertaining and widely viewed, I have read. I have not been able to find a clip, alas. But the idea stays sound.
great idea. I suppose you could say we kind of do that in the US except alot of debunking is done on the late night comedy shows, far removed from the "reality"time slot of the evening news which strives for "nonpartisanship" and so is often mired in BS.
And if I may, I’d like to capture the truths you unearth in fitting memes, using phraseology and hashtags such as Swiss cheese Christianity and #ProSTRIFE. Evangelicals and the GOP have crafted a brand of Christianity with holes where The Golden Rule and “Judge not, lest ye be judged” used to go. And “family values” Republicans who choose to needlessly inflict economic hardships on the poor and middle class clearly don’t value families much, do they?
Todd, I really like your metaphor of "Swiss Cheese Christians." Republicans like to think of themselves as holy, well, in reality, they are holey. I will use that in a sermon at some point. I also like "pro-strife" because Repubs are certainly not "pro-life." I am trying to think what they are pro beyond getting money and power for themselves, very non-Christian pursuits. You are also right about their not being the family party. I cana't think of one thing they have done while in office to help families except maybe rich white ones whose male head is willing to share his tax breaks with wife and kiddies.
Ruth, I recently asked my drumpf-prayer-warrior sister if she subscribed to the buffet idea of christianity, that is, just take what you like and leave the rest. didn't go over well.
I'll bet it didn't. I've tried talking to family members and acquaintances about the very same thing. It didn't go well for me either. They do have a buffet style of religion. The parts they like are the parts that feed and reconfirm their reactionary prejudices. And there's a whole industry devoted to perpetuating and amplifying their reactionary feelings. Shaping them and misaligning them for fun and profit. Especially the profit.
They say blood is thicker than water. That trope is hogwash. When a Sultan died, the first son who heard of it, went around the grounds slaying all of his brothers and half brothers. Much the same thing happened in Christian Europe and included fathers, uncles, cousins.
WWI was called the cousin war, because King George, the Kaiser and the Tsar were all grandsons of Queen Victoria. My wife and I are as close, ideologically, without being clones, our differences are in perspective and minor. Neither her nor I would have been together these 31 years were we a George and Kellly Anne Conway, or a James Carville and Mary Matalin. For some reason I am suspicious of those two couples and any like them
My two sisters were at logger heads with me, and we only communicated on their death beds.
Any previous attempts were rehashing the only thing we had in common, our childhoods, and even then our recall of reality differed, as if we grew up in different families.
I have mentioned here before in a comment, that I have such a super jackass of a brother. A "born again" (whatever the hell that is), who lived in my parents' house for years after they were shuffled off to assisted living, not paying them any rent, and then after they both died, buying the house at a "loss" (??), and claims it is haunted! No wonder! At first, until I discovered that he ACTUALLY thinks Trump was sent by God (!), to do God-knows-what, I do not know, and he discovered that I am an avid Trump HATER, I tried to help him with the situation. BUT THEN -- he just dumped me by the wayside, so I wrote him a very explicit letter telling him that he needs to move out of that house, that he is not wanted there, and telling him all about our father enlisting and going across the world to parts unknown, after graduating cum laude from Indiana University, leaving behind everything he had ever known, including the girl of his dreams from way back in grade school (in the first stages of a yet discovered pregnancy), to fight against Hitler, the Nazis, Mussolini, the Fascists, and the Japanese, to help keep freedom alive. He was stationed in the Philippines, and did not get to see my sister until she was already nine months old. My brother is a DISGUSTING COWARD, who goes to "Bible studies" every Weds. night, and will swallow any BS the "christians" and Trump will tell him! My other brother says he doesn't know who is crazier, our mutual brother or his son! God -- I am surprised our father hasn't RISEN FROM THE DEAD BY NOW AND B-O-D-I-L-Y EJECTED HIM FROM THAT HOUSE!
I forgot to mention one very astounding and flabbergasting point: My brother actually declared to me, during one of our arguments, that "Dad would respect [!] and approve of my choices." !!!!! UNBELIEVABLE!!!!
Ha, ha! Good for you!
I call them “Faux Christians” because that’s what they are: Fakes. They do the opposite of what Jesus lived and taught. Where He Healed, they Harm. Where He Loved, they Hate. Where He Joined, they Divided. Where He Inspired, they bring Despair. That is what they are doing in and to our Country, using a warped, corrupted, religiosity to Destroy America.
But they have mastered the fine art of appealing to people's reactionism for fun and profit. Especially the profit part. And made them feel good and even superior for feeling that way. It!s those little hits of dopamine which people really like.
Keith, I find it so sad that so many people are desperate and are OK with their "hit" each day or few hours - information or strokes that will make them feel real good while ultimately ending up hurting other people. I guess either they don't think about it or pretend it is other people doing the hurting or that THOSE people deserve whatever happens to them. In any case, it is a terrible way to live. That may be why so many are so closely tethered to Trump; they don't ever have to face the harm they are really doing. Trump and Kump like it that way because those folks are easy to manipulate, getting them to do all sorts of things they would never otherwise do, January 6th an example. And, the best part, most of them will never be held accountable, and if the SC cons get their way, even fewer of them will on some kind of "trumped-up" technicality. The SC cons are perfect models for the Trumpers and Trumpettes because so far, they can't be held accountable for any of their bad behavior, criminal behavior. Criminally charging Alito and Thomas for taking bribes could be a start. It would be pretty embarrassing for those supposedly christian men to be called out on their anti-Christian behavior, while sitting in court in front of a jury. It would make a good show and might break up the SC conservatives as they are now, a partisan bunch of racist, misogynistic bullies.
Garland could and should, but he won't any more than he didn't charge the J6 conspirators in Congress and Administration. As far as Garland is concerned there was no insurrection no attempted coup. Just felonies and misdemeanors for assaulting the Capitol and police officer
Sad. Having watched the unfolding in real time, it still amazes me.
I have called the DOJ NUMEROUS TIMES TELLING GARLAND WHAT A COWARDLY WOOSE HE IS AND THAT HE SHOULD BE KICKED OUT OF OFFICE ALONG WITH CHRISTOPHER WRAY, BOTH SO DERELICT IN THEIR DUTIES! I HAVE TOLD BIDEN OVER AND OVER AGAIN TO REMOVE GARLAND! BIDEN IS AS BIG A _ _ _ _ _ AS THEY BOTH ARE!
Know Biden's political history and you know Biden. Biden came to the Senate from Delaware. Delaware is the home of over 600 corporations, and Biden's nick name in the Senate was the Senator from Wall Street.
As a freshman he was elected into a Senate in which the Democratic senators were predominantly old south racists, and was mentored by James Eastman and Strom Thurmond.
These were his mentors, they guided him, they taught him, they introduced him to allies.
The Senators use to talk of my friends across the aisle, my friends on the other side, and what that really meant was that they had no ideological convictions, only the desire to hold their seat and be known as a senator.
The catch phrase in Congress, until Trump and his cult, has been bipartisanship. Bipartisanship over rode everything.
Bipartisanship is what we elected in 2020. It is why Biden appointed a right wing radical as attorney general, and because Trump saw the AG as his personal attorney, Biden bends the other way, to his and our detriment, and allows a radical Republican to interfere in the prosecution of those who planned and tried to carry off a coup.
It is just not Biden, but the whole Democratic party apparatchiks, are timid and afraid of being controversial, because they fear the press, and the press, the owners and editors, are financial invested in preservation and protection of the status quo.
If the Democratic party steps out of line, the hammer of Thor will come down on them. The Republican party is in their back pocket and recipient of their largess.
The Plutocrats, the oligarchs, the wealthy upper class, the 1 and 10 percenters, whatever they are called, however they are called, know that their wealth and power keeps them immune from the effects and fall out of the culture wars. They can and will have sex with young and even pre teens and suffer no ill effects, the Jeff Epsteins will always be suicided, die in a traffic accident, fall out of a window, drown in their swimming pool, or whatever. A daughter needs an abortion, no problem she gets one. they kill someone on purpose or by accident, they got that covered as well. They never go to prison, much less tried.
The Bernie Maddoff's and Sam Bankman Frieds, and Martha Stewarts only got caught and punished because they grifted the wrong people.
These people, be they CEO's, Chairman of the Board, majority shareholder of any corporation, especially a multi national one, never pay a price for their crimes,whether against a person, a group or a nation though they kill thousands, or millions. OPEC and the oil cabal have killed more people than Hitler and the death toll keeps rising.
Tobacco giants never paid the price for the death they have caused, and the trillions wasted on unnecessary medical procedures and pharmaceuticals.
For instance, I was addicted to nicotine at the age of 12, and stayed addicted for the next 57 years, I managed to quit, but too late, because the Big C showed up in my lungs, metastisized to the brain, and after an operation, two years of immunotherapy, the cost of which was $2 million dollars, and five years of monitoring with CT Scans, MRi's and quarterly then semi annual meetings with an oncologist. I am only in remission and it might be coming back,
Big Tobacco knew, bur suppressed the knowledge that they were killing people, and are still at it, because they have bought politiciains and the judicial system.
Union Carbide operated a plant in Bhopal, India. It failed to do maintenance, because it costs money and cuts down on the return on investment for shareholders, and they had a leak of gas that killed thousands. They were found guilty, eventually, the Supreme Court of India, freely bought, let them off the hook eventually, but not before they filed bankruptcy and were bought out pennies on the dollar by DOW chemicals. Nobody has gone to jail, for negligent manslaughter or homicide.
Stalin said Kill one person and it is murder, kill thousands and it is a statistic, that is the way the human mind works.
Blind justice is a distracting and untrue meme. Money and power buys Justice.
Trump, his enablers, his co conspirators, his planners in Congress and his administration will never see justice. Not even those in Georgia.
If Trump is convicted next week, and I doubt that he will be, he will not suffer any consequences, because those who could punish are afraid or complicit.
And unless the idiot's with their grievance wake the fuck up, he will be elected and that most certainly will ruin their day and their lives (mine as well).
One of the U.S. congressional representatives, Dem. Steve Cohen from my state of Tenn., just introduced a resolution to Congress to censure Alito and remove him from his position on the Court. Steve made appearances today on both CNN and MSNBC. Catch him there, and of course you can find it online. I subscribe to Cohen's newsletter because he is one of the only SANE TENNESSEANS WE HAVE IN OFFICE. He is not my rep, alas, he represents the whole Memphis area, but he is a TIRELESS worker for the people, and he is not afraid to get in the faces of all those who need it! I will have to send him bundles of cash, or try to get out the vote for him when he is up for reelection again. I SO HOPE HIS ACTIONS TOWARD ALITO SEND A HUGE WAKE-UP CALL TO THE DUMB-ASSES SO N-O-T DOING THE WORK NEEDED TO REPRESENT THE REST OF THE NATION! Kudos to TN Rep. Steve Cohen!!!
Swiss cheese Christianity. Now that’s a great description of their perverted beliefs.
I resonate with the "Swiss cheese Christianity" phrase, holes in what many like myself, consider holy.
The Right-Cons have built a superior messaging machine. They have to because of the inferiority of their actual messages. They're selling that old sizzle...
So any memes you come up with would be a help. The more relatable the better. Good luck.
The Republicans didn't invent that. All of that behavior is standard operating procedure for Christianity, historically speaking.
Liberal/progressive Christians appearing in any significant numbers is a distinctly new trend in Christianity's history.
Todd Telford, looking forward to your (World According to Reich, pearls in a half shell), creative interpretations. Memes as pull-out quotes. It’s all thoughtful distilled stuff that I (for one) need as ammo, or the swirl of untruths, condescending assertions, goes unremarked, uncorrected, due to lack of background, inability to speak off-the-cuff about what I feel I know, not without understanding from topical historical pertinent factoids, available here! Interested in yours, harmonize striking the right notes, meme-wise on foundation.
HUH? Learn to write, buddy! Have NO IDEA what you were blathering on about! ANOTHER TROLL???
Klare K, Your name-calling says something about you. Todd Telford said he is going to create memes. You characterize my appreciation (to him of his plans and efforts) as “blathering on.” Your father served, your brother is a religious-right nut that stole your house. Blathering, while, yes, you have “NO IDEA,” that’s on you.
It would be nice if you could write!!!!
I'l do my best to be there Robert. You seem to be quoted and mentioned often these days STAY LOUD!.
You're one of the best teachers I've ever had, and I am looking forward to learning more about the economy and how our system really works. Thank you for sharing what you know and for creating this community that I visit every morning.
And you are one of the best teachers I've ever had. Keep on teach'n.
Sounds great -- dazzle with brilliance, to counteract those who continually try to baffle us with bullshit.
(credit & apologies to W.C. Fields)
Your saying "dazzle with brilliance" is beautiful. Something to ponder, and more.
Did W.C. Fields really coin that saying???
Seems to be attributed to him, as far as I could tell from a bit of initial, non-scholarly research.
Prof. Reich, if this series works out for those of us on this thread, maybe you'll consider packaging it for middle and high schools as well as community colleges. Young people are interested in how money works, which is a way I was able to reach the 8th grade math students I was tutoring. Your presentations are light-hearted but serious too and with the illustrations, the students will enjoy it. If I were still teaching, I would have used parts of your college course with my high schoolers; they would have found it really interesting because you don't talk down to young people, but tell them what is worth knowing and what it means for them and their families.
Ruth, I have long thought that Democrats should employ Reich to make such skits for their campaign ads.
More super thought!
Money... people spend a goodly chunk of their lives interacting with money. Chasing it. Earning it. Stealing it. It guides so many of our choices. Yet most people don't know how it works. Weird. So good for those students, they're curious and apparently willing to spend the time to learn about it. Glad to hear it. May I recommend a book to you? It's entitled, "1%: the Book the Banks Don't Want You to Read". Can't remember the authors name. Also the writings of an economist focused on money: Poltzar is his name. Works for the banks. Intellectually fearless.
Super thought!
Hi Robert, I love everything that you do! Here in the UK we are weeks away from a General Election that our equivalent of the Democrats is expected to win with a landslide on a policy platform that includes new taxes on the rich. We will be very interested to watch your Myth Debunking series over the campaigning period to voting day, which happens to be 4 July.
If only We could have such a short campaigning period!
FOR SURE!! If for no other reason than to preserve our sanity — this run-up to November is breaking my brain ….
Pat ; more time for the big money to spread disinformation and figure out new ways to block the votes!
🥺
Funny (but sadly, a lotta kinda not!)!
Robert…you are such an inspiration to me. Thank you for carrying on with such relevance and import. You ARE making a huge difference in a time of great need.
Yes indeed. We ARE in a "time of great need" and all that entails. Yours was a timely phrase and nicely used. Very much appreciated. Thank you.
Good! Looking forward to it! Ready to share.
The people who need it the most are the 90% of MAGATs that vote against their own economic and physical health. Post on Truth Social!
Meanwhile, register Democrats -- save the economy.
https://www.fieldteam6.org/
Truth Social???? EEWWWWW….I’d have to take a shower after every post considering how much mindless, reflexive vitriol that would be heaped upon me….
Smart thought, using Truth Social. The big liar allows contrary opinion on his personal billboard?
Hello, no . . . See my just-comment to Dan Solomon, above.
Thanks for the heads-up, Klare, but who cares what garbage djt posts?. I'm not seeing anything about whether T.S. turns down ads promoting views contrary to djt's.
I have never been on "Truth Social," the name is an oxymoron, and this isn't even worth a discussion. I really doubt a "social" media platform run by the addled, age-riddled, looks 140 yrs. old, orange-faced, make-up wearing, SICKEST PERVERT OF OUR TIMES ON THE PLANET would allow in a single word of TRUTH. Don't respond to me again.
Do not try to dictate communication practices to me. If you don't want to know what I have to say, collapse my comments.
Too funny! I can imagine all the drivel, lies, hyperbole, and hate speech that would conjure up from Trump (Lord Voldemort II) once discovered there!!
Looking forward to being “back in class” with my favorite prof. See ya Friday! Gotta go polish an apple.
I think your idea has great possibilities and Trump can't soil the process through his childish antics.
Heck, Donald, Trump wouldn't have the patience to sit through it and wouldn't understand it if he did. He couldn't even stay awake in court when he knew the jury would be making decisions about his future.
Ruth ; and that awful word 'sharing' ! It would turn him off.
Ha! Good one …
Lol.
Ruth--Past examples of people who failed to think for themselves just ran as Republican candidates for public office. Trump broke the mold.
YAY! i love these series, Professor Reich! looking forward to it.
As long as your third session is not called The Third Reich!
I am more concerned about the 4th Reich, or "unified reich" as Trump calls it.
The Fourth Reich of the Rich. Unfortunately there is a book by that name by Des Griffin and it is an antisemitic screed., the crap you see on 4 chan , 8 chan, OANN, Stormfront, Der Sturmer.
It would be a Better Reich!
Apparently this is very needed according to the polls especially that Harris poll commissioned by the Guardian. Astonishing.
I look forward to it. I also have always been confused by economics, and you are so good at explaining it in a way that I gain some clarity! Thank you for all your hard work and dedication.
if you're not confused you're not paying attention
Looking forward to it!
Very fine idea. Let me add a companion concept to help pull reality into the public eye. Some years ago I read about a weekly television program in Finland that ran on Friday evenings just after the news hour; its hosts ran clips of major news/propaganda stories of the week and debunked them, with satire, facts, cartoons, etc. I imagine a cross between Jon Stewart and Monty Python doing Lawrence O'Donnell. This was valuable to the growing audience because Russia was increasing its propaganda work, and getting a lot of its falsehoods into the mainstream. The program was entertaining and widely viewed, I have read. I have not been able to find a clip, alas. But the idea stays sound.
great idea. I suppose you could say we kind of do that in the US except alot of debunking is done on the late night comedy shows, far removed from the "reality"time slot of the evening news which strives for "nonpartisanship" and so is often mired in BS.