Matisyahu's Blog

I was watching the following video on YouTube regarding food banks and there are people who take it upon themselves to punch down on those who need help. This punching down comes with the usual blaming decisions people have made as if everything bad that happens is purely the result of the decisions made in their life and that external factors have nothing to do with where one ends up in life. You can plan everything in your life perfectly, live frugally, save and invest wisely, only have the number of kids you can afford but then suddenly one of you may lose your job, an expected medical emergency deplete the savings you had put aside leaving you vulnerable to an unexpected emergency. It reminds me of a homeless women who was interviewed and how she talked about she was married with kids and a house in the suburbs only to end it losing it all. It as stark reminder of how precarious life is and how it is impossible to plan for every possible eventuality.

The precarious situation that people find themselves in can be traced back to the late 1970s where in response to stagflation (inflation and stagnation) the neoliberal experiment was started – the shrinking of the state, the deregulation of the market and the rolling back of the rights of unions to the point that their ability to the use leverage of withholding labour to force the hand of capital to the negotiation table is severely limited. As a consequence people’s pay and productivity decoupled. The lack of income growth was partially offset by an increase in both parents working but then that didn’t keep up so people began using their savings and saving less then to keep up their standard of living people started to rely on various form of credit – personal loans, hire purchase, revolving loans, credit cards etc. The was an interesting point made by an Thom Hartman (From ‘The Thom Hartman Show’) that noted how up until the late 1970s the credit card was something that the business people would use and very few consumers had but as the wages stagnated, savings went down and banks saw an opportunity to expand their potential customer base so that now people make use of credit cards to maintain their standard of living.

The point I’m trying to make is that even if you’re tried to do everything ‘according to the rules’ the system is ultimately stacked against you. This idea that if you’re relying on assistance, either provided by the government, charity or a charity with assistance of the government as being an example of failure then you’re taking the blame for something you had no part in creating. I sometimes wonder whether people think before they post comments like “if you can’t feed them don’t breed them’ or is this an example of people punching down and scapegoating the poor to make themselves feel good? capitalism needs to perpetual the myth of scarcity so then the working class are easier to divide and fight with each other rather than uniting around a shared common economic interest. That doesn’t absolve people of the responsibility for posting nonsense but I really do wish that people would do a bit of self reflecting rather than posting comments without reflecting on the matter before hand.

Below is an interesting video regarding how people deprogramming a life time of indoctrination which is kind of relevant to what we see today. Eventually Trump will complete his presidential term and leave office with the big question is what happens to those who went along with Trump the whole presidency? what happens today for those who voted for Trump and are suddenly realising that the ‘good times’ of 2016 under Trump was in spite of Trump’s policies rather than because of them.

People are going to deprogramme at different rates but the question is whether we’re going to see a genuine deconstruction and deprogramming or whether it’ll be a situation of people publicly renouncing but still holding onto the views but hide them because they’re no longer socially acceptable.? I say that because I remember the 8 years of George W Bush as president and yet it is impossible to find someone who openly admits to voting for him twice or as someone else pointed out in the video that it was impossible to admit they voted for Richard Nixon 10 years after he stepped down as president. How many are in MAGA who were in the Tea Party who were ‘Compassionate Conservatives’ who were Regan Republicans etc. basically people who believe in nothing and go with the vibes, an empty husk of a person who is what gamers would call an NPC. Such individuals going from ideology to ideology that complete contradict each other but such individuals unable to see the contradiction other than going along with what ever happens to be the dominant zeitgeist of the moment within the Republican Party.

This is the reason why MAGA people can be suddenly against free speech after suddenly claiming to be for it, to talk about free speech yet have no idea that the first amendment is in regards to the government limiting free speech and nothing to do with your employer deciding not to continue employing you because your behaviour bought their business into disrepute. These are the same people who don’t know the difference between a publicly traded company vs. a publicly owned/state owned enterprise by claiming the first amendment covers publicly listed companies because it has public in the description. The toxic combination of arrogance and ignorance, and something tells me that many will, after Donald Trump ends up presidency, will keep holding onto such views so then the next Trump like politician can come along and tap into the psyche of such individuals. I wish that things would change and what bought Trump to power was a flash in the pan but unfortunately I don’t see the mindset that got him into power and maintained his popularity with his base, in spite of all the bad economic news, changing any time soon.