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Chris Hedges Says US System is Going Down

Brickjectivity

Turned to Stone. Now I stretch daily.
Staff member
Premium Member
This video has me a little worried. Chris Hedges believes that our system has decayed with too many disenfranchised young people and that now our economy is running only on stock speculation. Covid 19 isn't helping, and the stimulus he says is really just going to the banks and speculators, that the moratorium on rents is being lifted, that the real unemployment rate is probably 20%, that the middle class is going away permanently. The supra-national interests 'Raid our treasury' he says. He thinks neither Trump nor Biden makes any difference. What do you think?

 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
I'll accept your summary being disinclined to spend 1/2 hour on the video.

Are we in a time of turmoil and testing? To me we are. Have we been here before? Yes, the Civil War and Revolutionary War were two notable times. And the Great Depression was one where we could have seen a revolution.

I don't accept that we're all doomed, though.

And I don't accept that Trump and Biden make no difference. Trump is accelerating and promoting the crisis by his words and deeds leading to an authoritarian regime with similarities to XI's China and Putin's Russia. Biden is seeking to pull us back from the edge and to do some repair work.

The very fact that a surprising number of very conservative people, who would never have voted for a Democrat ever, have endorsed and contributed to Biden is an excellent sign that the forces behind Trump can be defeated.

Attacking the structural problems that are faced not only by the US but all over the world is a longer term battle. I probably won't be around to see the end, but I can cheer the beginning.
 

bobhikes

Nondetermined
Premium Member
This video has me a little worried. Chris Hedges believes that our system has decayed with too many disenfranchised young people and that now our economy is running only on stock speculation. Covid 19 isn't helping, and the stimulus he says is really just going to the banks and speculators, that the moratorium on rents is being lifted, that the real unemployment rate is probably 20%, that the middle class is going away permanently. The supra-national interests 'Raid our treasury' he says. He thinks neither Trump nor Biden makes any difference. What do you think?

I think overall will be fine but I am worried about a period of civil unrest possibly civil war. It seems that there is a rather large portion of citizens that want their way and are willing to forcibly take it. It also seems that there are people in the government that believe this as well. The US is at a period of transition and transitions rarely go smoothly.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
....our economy is running only on stock speculation.
That statement is a clue that he offers no real insight.
While we have currently less economic activity because of the
plague, & must make great adjustments, the economy is so very
much more than stock market trades.
For example, every construction, electrical, HVAC, plumbing, roofing,
& other building companies I know is awash in projects. I'm finding
it hard to get work done because all are booked up far in advance.

Dang...that post was a disaster.
Now it's the cleaned up version,
& is actually readable.
 
Last edited:

Heyo

Veteran Member
This video has me a little worried. Chris Hedges believes that our system has decayed with too many disenfranchised young people and that now our economy is running only on stock speculation. Covid 19 isn't helping, and the stimulus he says is really just going to the banks and speculators, that the moratorium on rents is being lifted, that the real unemployment rate is probably 20%, that the middle class is going away permanently. The supra-national interests 'Raid our treasury' he says. He thinks neither Trump nor Biden makes any difference. What do you think?

The US is going down the drain like the Roman Empire was after Nero. It circled for 300 more years. The human factor is too complicated to compute for me in this case (though my prediction with Covid deaths was pretty accurate up to now, maybe a little bit optimistic).
Biden would not reverse the course but he can keep the status quo for some time. With another four years of Trump the collapse would be faster and more obvious.
The US public is special. Obsessed with their little personal freedoms but otoh very patriotic and obedient in the big picture. (If they weren't they wouldn't be allowed to carry weapons.) Not easy to predict when the excrements are going to hit the fan.
 

Saint Frankenstein

Wanderer From Afar
Premium Member
The US is going down the drain like the Roman Empire was after Nero. It circled for 300 more years. The human factor is too complicated to compute for me in this case (though my prediction with Covid deaths was pretty accurate up to now, maybe a little bit optimistic).
Biden would not reverse the course but he can keep the status quo for some time. With another four years of Trump the collapse would be faster and more obvious.
The US public is special. Obsessed with their little personal freedoms but otoh very patriotic and obedient in the big picture. (If they weren't they wouldn't be allowed to carry weapons.) Not easy to predict when the excrements are going to hit the fan.
Agreed. It is hard to tell when it's going to hit the fan, but it's coming. The other day, my Canadian friend was telling me that she's surprised it hasn't happened already because we've been on the precipice multiple times just this year.
 

metis

aged ecumenical anthropologist
This video has me a little worried. Chris Hedges believes that our system has decayed with too many disenfranchised young people and that now our economy is running only on stock speculation. Covid 19 isn't helping, and the stimulus he says is really just going to the banks and speculators, that the moratorium on rents is being lifted, that the real unemployment rate is probably 20%, that the middle class is going away permanently. The supra-national interests 'Raid our treasury' he says. He thinks neither Trump nor Biden makes any difference. What do you think?

A few weeks ago I posted a similar theme with references to the anthropologist Desmond Morris ("The Naked Ape" and other books) made around 1970 and also Alan Greenspan with references he made when testifying to Congress in 2009.

If we don't evolve, we will collapse-- the only question is how far?
 

Brickjectivity

Turned to Stone. Now I stretch daily.
Staff member
Premium Member
That statement is a clue that he offers no real insight.
While we have currently less economic activity because of the
plague, & must make great adjustments, the economy is so very
much more than stock market trades.
For example, every construction, electrical, HVAC, plumbing, roofing,
& other building companies I know is awash in projects. I'm finding
it hard to get work done because all are booked up far in advance.

Dang...that post was a disaster.
Now it's the cleaned up version,
& is actually readable.
Yeah, but you should see his face in the video. He's very believable.

The US is going down the drain like the Roman Empire was after Nero. It circled for 300 more years. The human factor is too complicated to compute for me in this case (though my prediction with Covid deaths was pretty accurate up to now, maybe a little bit optimistic).
Biden would not reverse the course but he can keep the status quo for some time. With another four years of Trump the collapse would be faster and more obvious.
The US public is special. Obsessed with their little personal freedoms but otoh very patriotic and obedient in the big picture. (If they weren't they wouldn't be allowed to carry weapons.) Not easy to predict when the excrements are going to hit the fan.
Some major differences and similarities between the US and Rome exist. To me Rome is a religion, because Roman citizens see themselves as impermanent with Rome being a way to be eternal. USA is more of an experiment and less of a religion though a little like a religion. US citizens don't think that USA is our way to live forever. Its just a piece of land to us. The idea of allowing people to immigrate and become full citizens is sort of like Rome, except its a lot easier here. That is a strength.

You know that the Romans maintained military control over large areas for a long time, but over centuries and as financial problems and political incompetencies came they had to shrink that control. This is what the other large nations are waiting for us to do, and they are applying a little extra pressure to try to get us to do it sooner.

Agreed. It is hard to tell when it's going to hit the fan, but it's coming. The other day, my Canadian friend was telling me that she's surprised it hasn't happened already because we've been on the precipice multiple times just this year.
I think despite it being a dismal year things have changed this year for the better. I think that as a result of the protests that knowledge has, overall, improved about the problem of systematic racial tensions and injustices. It may not seem like it immediately, but on thing it has done is it has stimulated the production of lots of videos and commentaries online. Those will be around for a while. It has sparked conversations in social media, not merely echo chamber conversations but real ones. Plus we've all faced the idea of a country with high unemployment, and we've been reminded that we don't want high unemployment. That's going to motivate us to focus on economic issues in future, and future politicians will be required to be more specific about their economic goals.
 

Brickjectivity

Turned to Stone. Now I stretch daily.
Staff member
Premium Member
A few weeks ago I posted a similar theme with references to the anthropologist Desmond Morris ("The Naked Ape" and other books) made around 1970 and also Alan Greenspan with references he made when testifying to Congress in 2009.

If we don't evolve, we will collapse-- the only question is how far?
I don't know. I know this that some genius could appear and improve things by improving how we relate to each other. Once in a while somebody clever comes along and changes everything. In truth I expect this to happen because of the high population count. Maybe to you that sounds whimsical. I think its likely.
 

MNoBody

Well-Known Member
Agreed. It is hard to tell when it's going to hit the fan, but it's coming. The other day, my Canadian friend was telling me that she's surprised it hasn't happened already because we've been on the precipice multiple times just this year.
it has been a slow boil [frog in the simmering pot], the other metaphor was misleading, since we wait for some big event, when really it was already eroding away, undermining the foundations...... now it has unraveled too far.... it causes a cascade eventually, like a space-stations environmental systems cratering beyond their ability to get a handle on it....exponential dominos...
not very optimistic...I know.... however the evidence does not provide much to encourage optimism at this point
 

tytlyf

Not Religious
Well the glaring problem is the Republican Senate and Mitch McConnell running the country into the ground for decades. They have been raiding the Treasury, mostly in the MIC, big oil and coal, big farm, big pharma, Wall Street, etc.
Republicans even tell you that they're about to implement capitalist policies. That does not help middle-class Americans.
 

MNoBody

Well-Known Member
the dependency upon a so called "Gaussian formula" [the one 'wolf of wall street' illustrated]caused the crash of 2007, which was made by whom [spoiler: some guy working for a Canadian bank] reveals many troublesome undercurrents in the world we live in, if you aren't "ankh-cious" [anxious] by now, well....some never get it until it hits them.
 

MNoBody

Well-Known Member
brace yerself, 'they' [insert favored villain here] are playing for keeps....
knockout-punch-660x400.jpg
 

metis

aged ecumenical anthropologist
I don't know. I know this that some genius could appear and improve things by improving how we relate to each other. Once in a while somebody clever comes along and changes everything. In truth I expect this to happen because of the high population count. Maybe to you that sounds whimsical. I think its likely.
Yep, this is the kind of person I do believe that we and the world needs right now, imo. Someone sorta like Gandhi, maybe. :shrug:
 

MNoBody

Well-Known Member
Yep, this is the kind of person I do believe that we and the world needs right now, imo. Someone sorta like Gandhi, maybe. :shrug:
except this round there is none
and any that would "appear" would be highly suspect
look how all the others turned out to be merely the puppet avatars of these karma lords
the solutions are not external
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
This video has me a little worried. Chris Hedges believes that our system has decayed with too many disenfranchised young people and that now our economy is running only on stock speculation. Covid 19 isn't helping, and the stimulus he says is really just going to the banks and speculators, that the moratorium on rents is being lifted, that the real unemployment rate is probably 20%, that the middle class is going away permanently. The supra-national interests 'Raid our treasury' he says. He thinks neither Trump nor Biden makes any difference. What do you think?

My own opinion is thats what you get when society is suddenly and intentionally forced to shut down in wake of a moderately lethal pandemic.

Its called cutting your head off to spite your face.
 
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