#neoliberalism

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre delivered a fiery speech Thursday that depicted the government's latest budget as a threat to the country's future, and suggested a number of new social programs will get a second look if he leads the next government.

He also claimed Ottawa's push into pharmacare could dismantle private drug insurance and leave Canadians with inferior coverage and higher taxes to pay for it all.

Health Minister Mark Holland, meanwhile, accused the Conservative leader of trying to whip up fear by raising "fake boogeyman" to distract from a program that makes contraceptives and diabetes treatments more affordable for everyone.

While he attacks the Liberals' spending plan, Poilievre is under pressure to explain what he'd cut to fulfil his stated promise to "fix the budget" if he's elected. [...]

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Tagging: @newsfromstolenland

[animentality]

[kropotkindersurprise]

On April 8 we celebrate the death of Margaret Thatcher, and remember all the lives she destroyed.

[probablyasocialecologist]

"But Weber’s argument was carefully grounded in history. Price controls, she argued, had been an essential element of the U.S. mobilization strategy during the Second World War. And there were several striking similarities between the economy of the nineteen-forties and that of the present day, including very high consumer demand for goods, record corporate profits, and production bottlenecks in important areas. Back then, the Office of Price Administration simply prohibited companies from raising prices above certain levels. Violators could be sued, or worse. In 1944, Montgomery Ward, the department-store chain, refused to accept the terms of a collective-bargaining agreement—a cap on the price of labor—brokered by the government. President Roosevelt ordered the National Guard to seize the business and remove Sewell Avery, its chairman, from its headquarters." (source)

[whereserpentswalk]

Imagine what neoliberal propaganda articles look like in various evil empires.

"Women in Sauron's army. How female orcs have helped create a more inclusive global conquest." - The Mordor Examiner

"How the death star program is revitalizing the galactic economy." - The Coruscant Times

"Despite progressive cries to "Free Arrakis" situation with House Harkonnen more complicated then most people think." - The Corrino Fund

"How the anti imperial rabbit hole can easily lead to people to pro choas views." - Ultramar Today

[elierlick]

There are actually only 2 types of transsexuals.

[odinsblog]

[nando161mando]

Liberal double standards

[politijohn]

Source

[hussyknee]

(alt included)

Showcase example of why I am deeply skeptical of Eat The Rich types. Too many of y'all are like this fuckhead who has no clue what rich requires eating.

Also for context: Ron Perlman has been acting since 1975. Studio exec Bob Igor made $27 million last year from Disney alone, just one of his streams of annual income, which includes but is not limited to stocks, real estate and consulting.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Jessie Golem has spent much of the last six years sharing the stories of participants in Ontario's basic income pilot program.

A former participant herself, the Hamilton photographer says the promise of three years of guaranteed income was life-changing. 

She was one of 4,000 low-income earners who signed up for the pilot in 2017. At the time, she was working four jobs and hoping to start a full-time photography business. The pilot gave Golem the chance she needed, and she calculated that she could launch the business and be earning more than the $34,000 ceiling for the pilot before it ended.

She didn't get that chance. The Ford government cancelled the pilot in 2018, within a year from its start under the previous Liberal government under Kathleen Wynne.

"If the pilot had been allowed to continue, my life would look a lot different right now," Golem told CBC Hamilton this week. [...]

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Tagging: @newsfromstolenland

[animentality]

[unapologeticmelancholy]

[probablyasocialecologist]

A plan to build a Google data centre that will use millions of litres of water a day has sparked anger in Uruguay, which is suffering its worst drought in 74 years. Water shortages are so severe in the country that a state of emergency has been declared in Montevideo and the authorities have added salty water to the public drinking water supplies, prompting widespread protests. Critics claim that the government is prioritising water for transnationals and agribusiness at the expense of its own citizens. Daniel Pena, a researcher at the University of the Republic in Montevideo, said: “Only a tiny proportion of water in Uruguay is used for human consumption. The majority is used for big agro industries, such as soya, rice and wood pulping. Now we have Google planning to use enormous quantities of water.”

[whereserpentswalk]

Made this political cartoon. Feel free to share it around just don't remove the watermark.

[eelhound]

"Rituals are architectures of time, structuring and stabilising life, and they are on the wane. The pandemic has accelerated the disappearance of rituals. Work also has ritual aspects. We go to work at set times. Work takes place in a community. In the home office, the ritual of work is completely lost. The day loses its rhythm and structure. This somehow makes us tired and depressed.

In The Little Prince [1943], by [Antoine de] Saint-Exupéry, the little prince asks the fox to always visit at the exact same time, so that the visit becomes a ritual. The little prince explains to the fox what a ritual is. Rituals are to time as rooms are to an apartment. They make time accessible like a house. They organise time, arrange it. In this way you make time appear meaningful.

Time today lacks a solid structure. It is not a house, but a capricious river. The disappearance of rituals does not simply mean that we have more freedom. The total flexibilisation of life brings loss, too. Rituals may restrict freedom, but they structure and stabilise life. They anchor values and symbolic systems in the body, reinforcing community. In rituals we experience community, communal closeness, physically.

Digitalisation strips away the physicality of the world. Then comes the pandemic. It aggravates the loss of the physical experience of community. You’re asking: can’t we do this by ourselves? Today we reject all rituals as something external, formal and therefore inauthentic. Neoliberalism produces a culture of authenticity, which places the ego at its centre. The culture of authenticity develops a suspicion of ritualised forms of interaction. Only spontaneous emotions, subjective states, are authentic. Modelled behaviour, for example courtesy, is written off as inauthentic or superficial. The narcissistic cult of authenticity is partly responsible for the increasing brutality of society.

In my book I argue the case against the cult of authenticity, for an ethic of beautiful forms. Gestures of courtesy are not just superficial. The French philosopher Alain says that gestures of courtesy hold a great power on our thoughts. That if you mime kindness, goodwill and joy, and go through motions such as bowing, they help against foul moods as well as stomach ache. Often the external has a stronger hold than the internal.

Blaise Pascal once said that instead of despairing over a loss of faith, one should simply go to mass and join in rituals such as prayer and song, in other words mime, since it is precisely this that will bring back faith. The external transforms the internal, brings about new conditions. Therein lies the power of rituals. And our consciousness today is no longer rooted in objects. These external things can be very effective in stabilising consciousness. It is very difficult with information, since it is really volatile and holds a very narrow range of relevance."

- Byung-Chul Han being interviewed by Gesine Borcherdt, from "Byung-Chul Han: 'I Practise Philosophy as Art.'" Art Review, 2 December 2021.