Bill Maher has come in for tons of criticism since he opted to have dinner with Donald Trump, but none of it was as biting as a recent takedown by “Seinfeld” creator Larry David.
In an essay for the New York Times called “My Dinner With Adolf,” David took Maher to task for attempting to soften the image of a fascist strongman. While David never mentions the “Real Time” host by name, the timing of the piece and its main character’s need to hear out all sides past the point of ludicrousness make the target clear.
David’s fictional meeting with Adolf Hitler echoes many of the points that Maher has made in the days since he dined with Trump. Maher, a crochety liberal-leaning comic who has grown more crochety and less liberal as societal norms have passed him by, marvelled at the fact that he could make the commander-in-chief laugh.
i know. it’s the rural/urban divide the capitalist class has used to divide us for as long as we’ve told stories about the subjugation of the people to the will of the kings, emperors, and pharoahs. they convince the rural worker they have nothing in common with those high fallutin’ city folk that benefit from the fruits of the farmer’s labor. never mind that the city folk are just as destitute as the rural folk, and are simply trying to survive their material conditions as well. the rural worker hates the taxes they pay, and sees construction in the city and thinks their money is being funneled to benefit the urban worker. the truth is though that the capitalist would stop maintaining the city immediately, but it’s cheaper for them to keep making sure the city folk don’t revolt from strictly necessary aspects of city life to maintain their workforce of cleaners, cooks, and planners.
but none of this stops the capitalist from funding propaganda to tell the field worker it’s the city’s fault they’re poor.
it’s all a great big joke when you peel back the layers. a painful, cruel, and twisted joke
To your point about where the capitalist would spend money it’s actually the other way around. Capitalists hate the countryside, and nothing makes it more obvious than the shitty state of internet and package delivery. It costs way too much money to lay a mile of high-speed cable just so two families can pay not-even-that-much for an internet plan. USPS is and Canada Post are crucial services because of how badly the private parcel companies don’t want to serve rural communities.
oh i know. i’m speaking on this as a rural citizen who’s seen how my neighbors are manipulated. per capita, rural tax payers get more back from their taxes as benefits than city dwellers. the rural voter sees that it’s not enough though and seeths with anger. being isolated by the land around them, they’re easier to manipulate into blaming someone in an apartment than in a penthouse or mansion. the best way to resist fascism is to go out into the world and talk to people. the rural voters who fuel fascism are less able to do this thanks to their material conditions, making them more vulnerable to bullshit propaganda. urban voters meanwhile, are not immune to fascism, but are far more likely to encounter perspectives other than their own by the nature of their lived experience in a large community.
the most terrifying in all this are the suburbs. the places where people actively choose to tune out of being connected in favor of a 1950s vision of america that would be easier to manipulate a la brave new world and 1984 into working against their own best interests.
fuck. i’m gonna have to go listen to nazi by chumbawamba now…
Well put. And oh the suburbs, where the greatest argument always seems to be centered around how much they hate their neighbours and believe that a cut lawn in a development is closer to nature than a full, grown back alley with maybe even a small community garden(fairly common in the major city where I live).
Something you don’t hear much about is the death of the ‘small town rich.’
Back in the day, a town would have a local bank and a local newspaper. The factory owners kids would go to the local high school. Sure they were capitalists, but they saw the town as their home. Those days are over. Even if a rich person lives in the town, they send their kids to a private school and would love to move out.
The locals can go hang.
They definitely do not hate the countryside. They just want it for themselves.
This Land is My Land
rural people/conservatives are so brainwashed most of the tax moneys paid by blue states go to red and rural areas.
100%. i’m only trying to explain how the brainwashing works and why it’s effective. to combat it you must be aware of its mechanisms