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I’ve been involved in a political discussion on Facebook this morning, much of it caused by a comment I made about the Tea Party. One of the responses sited this website. Very interesting reading, I thought I would share it here.

[time.com]

Barnie2years 8 May 13
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"Read Atlas Shrugged" I did and it was terrible and totally idealistic. I also made a crack about libertarians and had no idea the person I was talking to was a libertarian. I received 21 short angry messages.

They are kind of like wasps these Trumplicans and Libertarians. Once you disturb them they just attack as a group and keep stinging no matter what you do.

I read Atlas Shrugged when I was in my 30's. The thing I liked about it was encouraging people to be their best. It made me see the corruption in our governement and how special interests were the takers. That a group wanted to go off and have their own 'system' seemed reasonable simply because I had no idea how big corporate and the wealthy were working to consolidate power within our government. I viewed the book as fiction that presented some interesting ideas, that I applied to doing the best job that I was hired to do. I also realize that my comprehension of that book was not what others got out of it.

@silverotter11 In the end it is money and greed that is the driver of all corruption both in industry and government. SCOTUS 'Citizens United' basically gave corporations a license to do as they pleased. Besides I also noted the extreme hypocrisy of touting honesty on one hand and, at the same time, justifying adultery.

@JackPedigo Hypocrisy and mendacity are running rampent thru our government and society. Everyone wants an exception to one rule or another.

@silverotter11 Sometimes even you, I and many others. People often claim that laws are unfair and think their case calls for an exception (sometimes it might but in many cases it's simple a way out).
I have only had a couple of run-ins with traffic police but I learned early that instead of trying to talk your way out and claim exceptional circumstances one needs to simply admit they did wrong the cop would be more apt to give leniency.

@JackPedigo Yes indeed. I was stopped headed home from work one day when I still lived in NJ. I'm south bound on Rt 130, 50 mph speed limit, my speed o meter says I'm pushing 63 or so. Then up ahead I see the troopers, too late. I slow down and pull over. Officer comes up to the car and wants license and registration (this was b4 manditory ins), and he says, Miss we clocked you doing 68 in a 50 mile an hour zone. I looked at him and said "Really? My speedometer only read 63". He paused, turned and went back to his car, checked my bona fides, confered with his partner ( I saw them laughing!!) and he came back and gave me a warning - NO ticket!!

@silverotter11 Similar thing to me. We had just bought the car and were headed home from visiting a friend in Olympia. It was a Sunday and I-5 was 60 mph. However there was a bend and the limit went down to 45. I saw a bunch of cops on the side waiting as in a trap and I could not slow down fast enough. Sure enough. The usual but I admitted I was doing 60. He ticketed me for 5 miles over the limit. Make it easy for them and they often will go easy on you. BTW, it was my very first moving violation.

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Trying to explain to them just how they have been manipulated is pretty much a dead end street. I think what makes it very difficult is the fact at least a third of those claiming to be democrat are just as bought by special interests and big corporate as the gop. Couple that with the distinctly American brand of racism and the propaganda porn network otherwise known as Fox, shake it all up and here we are.

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I also found the Encyclopedia Brittanica description interesting. This part of a long article especially:

Within weeks, Tea Party chapters began to appear around the United States, using social media sites such as Facebook to coordinate protest events. They were spurred on by conservative pundits, particularly by Fox News Channel’s Glenn Beck. The generally libertarian character of the movement drew disaffected Republicans to the Tea Party banner, and its antigovernment tone resonated with members of the paramilitary militia movement. Obama himself served as a powerful recruiting tool, as the Tea Party ranks were swelled by “Birthers”—individuals who claimed that Obama had been born outside the United States and was thus not eligible to serve as president (despite a statement by the director of the Hawaii State Department of Health attesting that she had seen Obama’s birth certificate and could confirm that he had been born in the state)—as well as by those who considered Obama a socialist and those who believed that Obama, who frequently discussed his Christianity publicly, was secretly a Muslim.

Let's see how people who don't think government is needed feel about going with any income or financial help from the hated government.

@JackPedigo their argument will be if the government had stayed out of it and not shut down, the possibility of 100,000 of extra death was just the price you pay for freedom. Many would sell their wives out for pay if they thought it would help keep them in guns and trucks.

@Barnie2years They like to tell themselves only 100,000. The real number would be far worse. When Europeans landed on this continent there were groups of indigenous peoples with whom 90% died from infectious diseases as smallpox.

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