rhett o rick
rhett o rick's JournalAnd that's your justification for what exactly? When David takes on Goliath some people
immediately side with David and some immediately side with Goliath, revealing to me authoritarian issues on both sides. That may include me (not in this particular case) because I do have authoritarian issues. I tend to mistrust authoritarians unless proven otherwise. And I believe those that side with Goliath also have issues with authoritarians. They tend to trust authoritarians until proven otherwise. And in the case of priests, continue to trust authoritarians even after proven otherwise.
But because a few (several?) posters on a message board of thousands declared Snowden a hero shouldnt be used to rationalize that he isnt. But once again, and again, whether Snowden is a hero or not is beside the point. The important point is that we, as a society may have a trust problem with our elected and appointed people that are supposed to be working in our best interest. It is every bit our responsibility to assure that they are working in our best interest.
Most here recognize that the investigative report on Christie is most likely tainted. The same reasoning should lead us to be suspicious of investigative reports issued by the NSA about the NSA. And we should be suspicious of attempts by the NSA to smear anyone that dares to speak out in this democratic society.
If you want democracy you must demand it and be vigilant, and be very weary of those that ask you to blindly trust them.
I think to characterize capitalism as evil reveals part of our economic problem.
Capitalism is an economic system and itself isnt evil any more than a knife is evil. I know this sounds like I am being picky but believing that capitalism is evil goes along with the idea that capitalism is like a person and it isnt. Capitalism should be viewed as a tool which can be used for good or bad just like a knife.
Humans cannot live in society without rules. There is a natural tendency to look out for one's self. But to live in an orderly society, humans must some times sacrifice what's best for themselves to make the society function for the best of the society.
Also, it must be clear that when we say capitalism needs to be regulated, we mean "for the benefit of society as a whole" and not for a select few. Our capitalistic based system currently has lots of regulations, but they have been modified to benefit a very small, select few.
The SCOTUS did our society a great disservice in the Citizens United decision where they ruled that our Constitution restricted us as a society on how much we can regulate our capitalist system. They demonstrated their enormous power to overrule the Congress and the President. IMO this is out of hand. The SCOTUS has too much power (but that's a discussion for another day).
The argument that the capitalist (oligarchs) cant be regulated by society because it's not "democratic" is bogus. Our democracy isnt inherently laissez-faire. We as a society can and must control our democracy and economic system to benefit society as a whole and strip the oligarchs of their power.
Capitalism isnt evil, we must take responsibility to control it, by whatever means necessary.
Other than that, have a great day. 
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