The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state. - Adam Smith, Of Taxes, Wealth of Nations (pg. 498)Please, proceed Sean. By all means, Go Galt. Go... Leave...
Sean Hannity recently conducted an interview with Nice Polite Republican Lincoln Chafee after the Democratic Debate. During the interview, Hannity and Chafee spared over raising taxes. As the back-and-forth continued about taxes Hannity, in a petulant fit, fished around in his pants, took out a wad of cash, and threw it in the air exclaiming, "Hang on. Hang on. I’ll give it to the government, hand it over. Why should I work?"
It's the last rhetorical question by Hannity that caught my attention. Exactly, what "work" does Sean Hannity do that's so indespensible? Does Sean believe that if he was to Shrug and Go Galt his radio show and tv hour would be replaced with naught but static? That no one else can do what he does?
Sean Hannity is One in a Million, by which I mean there are a million other conservatives eager to step into his spot as a loud-mouthed, know-nothing, conservative blowhard.
I don't judge a person's worth by their working utility, that's Hannity's and a Right-Wing metric. But, by his own standard Sean Hannity is worthless.
Ah, but to the Vulture Capitalists who employ him, Sean Hannity is a jewel, a rare treasure. You see Sean Hannity is paid vast sums of money to convince poor conservatives to support policies which demonstrably hurt them and the rest of the 99%. Sean Hannity is the Mouth of Sauron for the Plutocracy. His "work" is to pass on the Idealogy of the Wealthy and get the poor to accept it.
As Paulo Freire noted in Pedagogy of the Oppressed,
The dominant elites, on the other hand, can - and do -think without the people - although they do not permit themselves the luxury of failing to think about the people in order to know them better and thus dominant them more efficiently. Consequently, any apparent dialogue or communication between the elites and the masses is really the depositing of "communiques," whose contents are intended to exercise a domesticating influence. (pg. 112)When Sean Hannity speaks or when erstwhile Catholic Brian Kilmeade attacks the Pope and says the Pope "should go home" because "he's in the wrong country" and declares "America is Capitalist", or when Stuart Varney with his affected RP accent declares "the Poor lack a richness of spirit" they and every other right-wing loudmouth is passing along the agenda of the Rich.
None, of the Faux News talkers or Conservative Internet bloggers could survive actually working real jobs, it's why they are so rabid in their defense of Capitalism. Without being paid to "catapult the propaganda" the Right-Wing Internet fart bubble would burst and those conservatives paid handsomely to sit on their expansive derrieres and expound on the beauty of Capitalism, would starve because, without food stamps, none of them could earn enough doing actual labor to eat.
These people, and the people they front for, are sociopaths. There's just no other way to describe them.
ReplyDeleteNice piece, Gene.
Thanks W. Hackwhacker. Once you understand the Right-Wing Agenda (i.e. to create a Neo-Feudalist Wage Slave State with a crushed and compliant working class) the oddities and vulgarities of Faux News and the Right-Wing Internet incestuous fart bubble become clear.
ReplyDeleteConservatives, apparently believe, once Liberals and the Progressive Gains of the 20th century are crushed they will be the well-treated pets and guard dogs of the 1%.