Spukikitty, a mod told me to view your most recent posts as an example of how to do a proper reply. Which
Spuki, let me explain something to you:
Not everyone here is left-wing or has a burning desire to bring down 'The System'. People are pissed off about a large corporation using its financial muscle to shut down a woman's shelter, that doesn't mean that everyone is going to want to see the whole of the US shut down for a week to protest at the Government.
No. I'm not against the Government. I'm all for supporting the Government, paying taxes & all that jazz. I love America and the ideals it was founded on. I was suggesting that people who work for regular, non-Govt. jobs (I should have specified that) protest by taking a week of, thereby depriving the big corporations money.
But after careful consideration, I realize it's a dumb idea, plus most folks won't do it. I must be sane & realistic.
If one is to starve the beast, it's best not to do business with the offending companies. There are alternatives, small businesses, credit unions in lieu of big banks, second-hand shops, dumpster diving, etc.
If everyone cut back on the big box chain stuff, we could greatly reduce the money going to dorks like the Kochs, Murdoch, this woman's shelter stealer, etc. Less money means less power & our ability to fight them would be a tad easier.
Government isn't the problem, it's corruption.
Believe it or not, I'm very patriotic...but it isn't blind patriotism, nationalism or jingoism. I love America as a concept, an ideal. An ideal that is very PROGRESSIVE. The Stars & Stripes should be in the same camp as The Peace Sign, Ecology Flag, The Dove, COEXIST, and other "Liberal"-type symbols. We need to reclaim that stuff, man!
Historically, the government
oppressed people with Peace Signs and Ecology Flags. Anarchists, and anyone else with an unpopular political opinion who dared challenge the government and state power, could reasonably expect to lose their jobs, and were often beaten, imprisoned, or killed at the hands of strikebreakers and the police. The symbols you mention, though often fully compatible with the limited government mandated by the Constitution, were in opposition to the authoritarian regime of the time.
I don't remember who posted it, but someone said they would rather pledge to the Constitution than the flag. I don't think the problem is reclaiming symbols so much as bringing the government back to its Constitutional limits, instead of the current system where we have massive overreach and abuse of power. This is not a "capitalist" thing, a socialist like George Orwell would have vehemently opposed the Patriot Act as well. Belief constitutionally limited government does not necessarily make one a libertarian, much less a Teabagger or "right-wing Patriot militia nut."
In any case, I think I've pretty much given away through earlier posts that I strongly disagree with the pro-statism position.
There are a lot of reasons why, and I'll get to them later, but it's
4:00 5:00 in the morning right now, and to continue would be to take the "I disagree with someone on teh internets, must type!" meme to more of an extreme than I've already taken it by not sleeping right now. By reasons, I don't mean evangelize or flame you, just to give a background of where I'm coming from in terms of what I believe. I say that because there seems to be a widespread impression, not confined to the left wing*, that libertarians are an unthinking herd of redneck scrooges mindlessly parroting lines about "gol-dern gub'mint takin' my cashmoney and automatic weapons."
*On the other hand, just to spout off opinion, may not be a bad trade for progressives to get the flag and the term "Patriot" back from the conservatives, if progressives agree to give the term "liberal" back to the [url-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_liberalism]actual liberals[/url]. And it wouldn't hurt if guys like Blount would admit they actually despise most of the ideas of Milton Friedman and Ayn Rand when it comes to personal freedom, instead of quoting them as if libertarians (who are not collectivists) and right-wing authoritarian racialists (who are) are on the same ideological team.
*See: Rick Santorum, Pat Buchanan, Paleoconservatism, Compassionate Conservatism
