David Simon on America as a Horror Show

[@1982Lennon]

Bill Moyers is incredible and David Simon equally so. It's so refreshing to hear some real talk. The media is too consolidated and controlled by too few to be relevant anymore or foster any meaningful discussion / public debate

[@BiscuitHead22]

Yeah, you don't even realize how starved and desperate for the truth you were until you finally hear it, and then you have to cope with the melancholy fact that after people like Simon finish their lecture and go home, the truth also goes with them, and you shudder at the revelation that it's back to the old media lies, the old careful tending of goalposts, the carefully tended limits of what can and can't be discussed, the salespeople hocking special made blinders for room-sized elephants. Fuck.

[@BiscuitHead22]

Yeah, you don't, trust me I can be a total douche. But thank you, that was a nice thing to say.

[@MarcillaSmith]

I'm a fan of both, but not necessarily the discussion in this video. Mr. Simon takes almost half an hour to say we need to be more invested in politics? Well in some twisted kind of way, I guess he got his wish, although I'm sure he would say this isn't what he meant. Maybe he should have been a little quicker to get to the point, so he could take time to expound upon it.

[@gothamsonam]

I try and watch this interview once a year just so I stay grounded.

[@PatchedThePipe]

This guy articulates the western world problems extremely well and not once comes across fanatical in his views, just very matter of fact. Very clever dude.

[@CrowClouds]

We exist

[@CheerfullyCynical829]

Unfortunately, because he's so soft spoken, he goes unnoticed by a lot of people.

[@budramey9595]

I've been uneasy about America's track for a long time. It's been just short of my grasp to try to explain why without offending one half or the other of the people. David Simon has something to say that is very hard to ignore.

[@terrygorle3679]

This is the most important 26 minutes of current American reality I can imagine. Required viewing for the entire nation. Thank you.

[@Bigbudd0045]

the people who care already know this. The ones who dont know would reject it. The ones causing spend billions to keep things the way they are.

@Robert Gardea I'm in complete agreement with the truth here. Dem/Reps....BOTH HORRID panderers to the OLIGARCHY (rich ruling hidden elite A-holes)!

[@MaryJohanna]

Still or even more relevant in hindsight.

[@gbag37]

I wish they had viewed this required viewing. Now we’re totally fcked

[@csanchezalvarez]

"Once we start regarding [the government] as some alien force that we can't control, we're done. Democracy is done." The whole interview is quotable, but I think this one stands out as a perfect summary of the political situation we're in right now. In the US, and throughout the world.

[@danielsalisbury245]

Two of the most important voices left in the United States.

[@sheryleddins6239]

Yes!

[@schmodel]

David Simon is a national treasure. If I had the money and power I would give him the complete Super Bowl halftime show to talk to the people.

[@cleomagoolando]

Everyone else in the stadium would throw a hissy fit and wheel out a guillotine, much to the delight of most of the dumb fucks watching at home.

[@mhill7569]

cleomagoolando AMEN.

[@schmodel]

cleomagoolando Wait, what? You're allowed to take a guillotine to the Super Bowl? You could take somebody's eye out with that.

[@DanStrayer]

And if I were at the other end of that negotiation process for the NFL, I wouldn’t ask for a penny. 👍🏽

[@Atlastheyote222]

Incredible insight from a man who has seen so much more and has so much better of an understanding of the darkest parts of American society than most people ever would.

[@billmoyersandcompany]

David Simon, creator of The Wire and Treme, talks about capitalism and America this week on 'Moyers & Company.'

[@spacedoginnebraska]

Prophetic and wise. Mr. Simon gets it. Maybe he should run for office. He'd get my vote, that's for sure.

[@christianpetersen163]

Very powerful, very accurate analysis by David Simon!

[@mattsharpey361]

He says it perfectly, great interview.

[@BrandonPatterson]

Amazing talk with David Simon. Can't wait for the next one.

[@stephaniepersin4145]

When you think too much about society, you see the ugliness of the human animal.

[@dunkafelic]

11:21 "There is no shame anymore in America."

[@codacreator6162]

A big part of the problem is that our legislators believe, all the way down to their DNA, that they would never and could never be poor, that no calamity, no catastrophe, could ever befall them that would result in their poverty. They believe fundamentally that they have achieved their level of success solely on their own merits and that no force in the universe is capable of undoing that success. This is by no means an idea that is limited to the legislature, though. It's pervasive throughout our society. Just listen for those who advise the poor to just get an education, get a good job, be responsible, work hard, and stay focused and it'll all work out. Which, again, is BS. There are millions of people in America who work their asses off that never get anywhere. Serendipity, luck, opportunity, and a host of other fortuitous events that elevate some people are no where to be found for others--however blind to the fact the recipients may be, it does not eliminate their existence. Nobody in America is a success purely on his or her own efforts. Nobody. And if you think you are, you haven't been looking hard enough. Stable families, good schools, career advice and support, opportunities provided by relationships and acquaintances, good health care, good food--all contribute to every success in this country. And in the world.

[@Theomite]

You'd think that at least *one* of them would have watched TRADING PLACES.

[@100consciouseternallightho6]

coda After reading the book "Hidden History" by Jefferies I am convinced that everyone of those "in power" manipulated someone else to get there. That means killing, putting in prison for the rest of their lives, and or the breaking of legs and families of the people that know their secrets.

[@brokkenstar]

TERM LIMITS ALREADY- for the U.S. Congress, and every state legislature; and TARIFFS!

[@travelauteurs]

Great talk. Forwarded on to a number of friends.

[@dewaynestafford5507]

It trickles down when they pee !!!!

[@kathleankeesler1639]

Ha ha ha. JFK to 911 Everything is a Rich Man’s Trick by Francis Richard Conolly

[@AlwonDomz]

More like when they defecate.

[@Truthseeker1515]

Sick country...

[@drakebenelli2]

The main problem with America is the military industrial complex.

[@DorothyGTyas]

*The banksters are a huge part of the problem---as are corporate owned politicians!* ☜💀

[@analogueoverdigital929]

That and the prison industry complex... which feeds those who served directly into it.

[@weston.weston]

I am watching this episode in October 2022 because despite being a youngish person of color, I miss Bill Moyers' style of reporting. It is not loud or flashy; it is also not timid or complacent.

[@davidsimpson9730]

a rising tide lifts all luxury yachts and swamps and sinks all us in the dingys :/

[@dunkafelic]

+David Simpson You may think you're clever, but you obviously have no clue.

[@davidsimpson9730]

I guess per your standards if I had a clue I would have a yacht?

[@dunkafelic]

+David Simpson The tide isn't rising at all when only the yachts are lifted. The "tide" hasn't risen in 35 years.

[@davidsimpson9730]

SlashBernGrow so what your saying is since Reagan things have been fucked? right? so why attack me when I stated what you obviously believe. end the circle firing squad bud, I am on your side in this.

[@dunkafelic]

David Simpson I wasn't attacking you....just making a statement that the saying you used isn't appropriate since if all boats aren't lifted the tide isn't really rising at all. The rich use a boat lift for their yachts. I may have misunderstood the intent behind what you said though. My bad.

[@ajeetpalgill8442]

After listening to David Simon I feel like I gained several IQ points

[@mydogskips2]

We are all in this together, by ourselves.

[@StonedVorlon]

Great interview. David Simon knows exactly what he's talking about when he says "this is about the loss of the idea of society."

[@jamespardee8534]

Blame Milton Friedman for the breaking of the social contract!

[@GregariousAntithesis]

Try adding Ronnie and Ayn Rand to the downfall of our society as we know it today. Of and of course every president and politician from and since Reagan.

[@stephenpavlov8942]

+luckyharry1000 I can't figure you out? Are you for the comi libs who promise to take care of you in exchange for your rights or are you for freedom and having to take care of yourself? Regan and Rand have very little in common.

[@zoomustard]

Unless you're trying to destroy a society

[@stevechu6268]

Milton is a freaking evil man.

[@coreycox2345]

Even Milton Friedman said that society is judged by how it cares for the young, the old and infirm.

[@badoocee1967]

Great interview for anyone to watch.

[@sdhydro7152]

started watching the wire currently on season 5 , ended up here and ive learned so much than i did in high school about the goverment and economy from watching a tv show

[@eddieobrien1411]

We have exactly the same disaster here in UK. A ruling entitled Conservative party waffling on about free market economics,tough on crime and drugs;meanwhile we are seeing unprecedented Foodbank proliferation and children going hungry,locked into poverty and deprivation. The shocking thing is that despite all the shameful behaviour of the Tory party:they continue to get elected and the shitshow goes on ad nauseum and their benefactors get richer still while the rest have to choose between eating and heating their homes!!!😡

[@marthacmd]

good information

[@carltonbanks1254]

He still walked the fence in this interview. Hes scared like everyone else

[@tonyman64]

Listening to David Simon will raise your IQ 10 points!

[@studfinderball]

There is no 'We the People', except on paper.

[@GregariousAntithesis]

To bad the American public is so ignorant to see this simple formula about discretionary money in working peoples pockets and what grows an economy not money in the riches pockets.

[@codacreator6162]

They've been indoctrinated to the Reagan myth--and buy it, hook, line, and sinker: the only thing standing between you and unlimited wealth is the US Government. It's BS, of course. Even a simpleton, taking a cursory look at how much the government takes and the disparity between where they are and where they want to be can come to the conclusion that something else is wrong, if not exactly what that something is.

[@DaveE99]

You judge a society by its hospitals and it’s prision.

[@JM-zv5bi]

I miss Bill Moyers so much. His show was thoughtful and cut to the root of things. It’s hard to find shows like that on TV now.

[@jaywarrenclark6263]

"Congress is yes "inert." But that's too passive. It's much worse.

[@dj1211]

Yea the only bill they pass is their salary increase.

[@AllOneVoice]

Such a brilliant man.

[@petersz98]

Bring back the new deal, tax the filthy rich!

[@stephaniepersin4145]

Tax them as much as our government taxes the middle class.

[@DrCruel]

I'm sure the filthy rich government elite would agree. The problem is that business people move. Soon all that will remain is a rich socialist elite borrowing the country into bankruptcy and a mass of struggling unemployed poor. Oh wait ...

[@saidas108]

Stephanie Persin More. They aren't job creators; they are wealth creators. Most of the wealth they create doesn't circulate in the general economy as it does with the Middle Class; it circulates at the top in investment funds and offshore bank accounts. Wealth doesn't "trickle down"...it floats on the surface.

[@101aptbam]

If someone else has thoughts on this idea let me know. Simon talks about how in the previous century the working class had enough money to buy things they "wanted" and not just what they needed versus today we're debating over "10 or 12 dollars an hour." Is part of that perhaps due to racial bias? In the first half of the century, seemingly any class with comfortable income was white. But now minorities are more integrated into each class, bringing with them to an extant the social stigmas of crime and drugs that has become more visible as the immediacy of media progresses. Thus, a popular narrative in the media is that the middle and lower classes are more "lazy, entitled and or destructive" and don't deserve these wages. Making politicians and business owners feel less social pressure to compensate workers. Note I think it's fucked up and agree with Simon on his thoughts. This is just an idea that might explain, at least partially, why the wages or the working class have gone down.

[@vka337]

101aptbam Right to the T. That's the difference between Europe and America, US has people of color with whites.

[@nightoftheworld]

Pure journalism-what every working patriot has known and lived for decades laid out so eloquently..

[@ragwarkanisa9831]

These fools tell you own nothing and be happy yet they wanna own you and your souls .

[@kathleankeesler1639]

Thank you Mr Moyers + David Simon. Purple state, Kathlean Perlin Keesler *Santa Cruz Ca 95062

[@mcevans]

Anyone know where the second part of this is?

[@anthonymorales842]

This episode is what 8 years old now. Honestly what has changed especially with income disparity and the industrial prison complex

[@kensmith280]

Thank you from the infinite plain of existence on the extra continents beyond the south pole.

[@garyivarson7540]

Amen ! ! !

[@mab3465]

I love this guy, he gets it, the greedy rich has destroyed America

[@purplepeople3739]

EXPOSE & BRING THEM DOWN IMMEDIATELY. THIS VIDEO CAN. kzbin.info/www/bejne/fZXaen9umZV9pZo

[@dr.barrycohn5461]

This doesn't even scratch any surface .

[@patriciagriffin1505]

Well it's 7/5/20 and it's gotten worse

[@missmaomi28]

Wow. It took me 9 years to find this treasure

[@AlwonDomz]

8:20 Dear gosh, I love this man.

[@swirlcrop]

Great video. :-)

[@flaggstick]

There are two reasons that jump out at me regarding why OccupyWallstreet didn't have a second act. One is the idea that they felt they had to camp out every night and never leave as though they were copying the Arab Spring. They could have left each night and showed up again the next day. I know the sheer logistics would have probably precluded that. Still it wouldn't have given the bankers or the cops anything to complain about. Public sleeping is verboten. The second reason is that the drummers do not realize how annoying they are. They see a gathering like that as a chance to drum They refused to stop drumming when speakers would take the podium. And they actually whined that they're rights were being violated by organizers who wanted them to stop. There was a third reason too. The banks gave the cops a bunch of money and the next day they were out there trapping demonstrators and smashing heads.

[@maxwellspringer5768]

Nothing is untouched by politics: the air we breath, a child's education, the cost of our food; everything is dependent on our collective political imagination realized through self governance, when we retreat from the political we retreat from our humanity, surrender our dignity, and worst of all we cease to be free.

[@wadegoodwin6773]

Real talk at its best...

[@thefakenewsnetwork8072]

Long live freedom and freedom

[@andyc211247]

Question: Is it possible that the core economic engines of American capitalism currently - medicine, tech, biotech, financial engineering, software design, AI, et al, require workers who must have exceptional intelligence, work ethic, performance standards, and soft skills in combination that only exist in a relatively small group of people? Is that why income inequality is rising? Is the American workforce just not even close to being prepared for these requirements?

[@micheledaly5823]

The problem with that statement is that there are plenty of poor highly intelligent people that have no means to further their education to be able to attain said jobs.If your poor more than likely even if you work your fingers to the bone you will never have the opportunity to go a little further than minimum wage which hasn't been changed to combat inflation or the housing market or the ability to financially support yourself.That is why illegal activity is thriving which is exactly what capatalists want.The idea was always to cater to the rich and push the rest down or keep them stagnant.You can't arrest your way out of 2 different America's and opportunities.Eventually it's gonna sleep into your reality and building taller fences around you isn't gonna change that.Oppresion is alive in well and we the people are at a breaking point.

[@joshuagharis9017]

It doesn't reflect public will. Studies show that donaters are what influence Congressional laws, regardless of what we the people want

[@analogueoverdigital929]

And look where we are now. I wonder what he would say now...

[@DoooBeeDoooBeeDooo]

David : It's over , it's hopeless. Interviewer : But is it?, find out next week.

[@joelaine828]

"Where's the shame?" Where's the shame, indeed. Keep going, David. Never seen The Wire. Have put it on my Lovefilm. This guy is great. It sounds like a desperate situation in the US. The white upper middle class must be so far removed. It seems there's a type of amorality built into the capitalist system. Factories are relocated; jobs and industries are outsourced, and consequently communities suffer. The profit motive is so problematic. I keep thinking of Robocop (Verhoven's original), which is all about capitalism. That film's America is looking more and more plausible.

[@DaveE99]

Presidents run on “domestic platforms” but they make their career on their “military and international arena” because that lever actually works.

[@donovanjones4175]

Anyone else here in 2020? Watching the chickens come home to roost.

[@analogueoverdigital929]

2024 laughing at how stupid people have become. Hey, check out our porous border😂.

[@laragreene8328]

I was more fully aware of this in 1992.....I just saw it on my own for years then i went to a presidential rally and during a break most everybody there felt like they were in Heaven listening to God!! God was telling us how filthy/evil the Governments were, States and Federal!!! People have fought them ever since and nobody has won against them.....but I think finally somebody is fixing to!!!

[@scotty6124]

Sounds just like Bernie Sanders. Love it.

[@billf7062]

When people wonder how does a society collapse? Where did it all go wrong? Here’s your answer.

[@itsthomasreimer]

Don't worry Mr. Simon - 2020 is the second act :)

[@jerryjones7293]

Hope is the opiate of the masses.

[@cityscapes4ever]

then pessimism is the nail in the coffin

[@analogueoverdigital929]

If your going to quote Marx, at least acknowledge that his "theories" and "socialist structures" have racked up body counts in the millions. 😂😂 Marx was an overweight opiate addict himself.

[@freemason4979]

Less regulation, both drug laws and business reg.

[@Flipyoutoo]

Sounds like yanggang 👍

[@Shawk95]

Most of the blue collar and low tech jobs which have moved abroad are not coming back. Lets forget about them. Instead, America should promote creation of higher paying jobs.

[@BIRISHPM]

Horse droppings. Focusing on just producing high paying jobs continues ignore a huge segment of the American populace. I am a capitalist, I've owned two successful small companies so I'm no socialist. The argument that jobs cannot return to America is false because they did not disappear because they were eliminated or phased out, they still exist just not in America. Foolish trade deals like NAFTA created, just as Ross Perot said it would "a huge sucking sound made by jobs leaving the country". Free trade is great and necessary but not stupid trade deals and our political fecklessness that allows China to currency speculate thus insuring that a huge trade advantage remains in their favor. Trump is right on one account, these international trade deals have helped destroy the American working class while at the same time helping our international corporations to reach record profits. Something is terribly amiss in this country and we either figure out and address the problems or we are heading into a dark future.

[@Shawk95]

BIRISHPM What incentives would the US corporations need so that they can manufacture products in the US profitably instead of China, Mexico or India?

[@jeviosoorishas181]

David Simon should read Eric Hoffer. He's wrong about capitalism, and libertarianism...but I still respect him and his work.

[@chadelles2586]

Jevioso Orishas I think he has a point. Strictly adhering to any political train of thought is devastatingly close minded. On some issues libertarianism is great. However, without regulations we cannot correct for externalities or provide the proper amount of public goods. The free market simply will not do this.

[@rdecredico]

Jevioso Orishas I used to think he was wrong. Then I hoped he was wrong. I am beginning to realize he is not wrong at all.

[@Mermaid2261]

Maybe most of us are irrelevant to the society at large and I include myself, I like to think not, but God.........look at the changes in the economy! Look at who's in power and why and how they got there. I see how many jobs have been closed down and outsourced to other nations where the price tag is like peanuts and it makes me sad and mad. People just want a solid job and work. The poor and lower class only want the jobs that used to be here and benefits that go with them. Instead, we get ENRON types who hijack pensions, sell them, and lose them in the market, and people lose big time. Everything is an investment in the unreal. The stock market? That is the unreal. It could crash anytime like it did in 1929-30. America no longer invest in America and only a few benefit anymore. We're mostly all working class or lower class just trying to make a living and now that living has to be made working two or three jobs and both mom and dad have to work.

[@mrjones7222]

Thank u😝

[@AsFriendOrFoe]

That intro will kill any forward thinking from the curious right.

[@analogueoverdigital929]

Not at all my friend. I am on the right, and my side doesn't shame people and focus on color, and constantly push dei in everything. Like IDC if the pilot flying me is white, black or a damn parrot. If they are good at what they do, I'm all in. Also every economic disaster ever was passed by the left. How can you even be a Democrat in 2024? Shame on you

[@MYacono]

What I wouldn't give to see Omar, Snoop, Weebey and Chris vs. the Koch Brothers, Art Pope, Karl Rove and Chris Christie.

[@MYacono]

I see what I call "The Latin Americanization" of the USA. Simply speaking basically its a mix of Guatemala, Argentina and Venezuela/Brazil. 1) Argentina IN that there is an out of control debt, in which eventually the bubble will burst causing devaluation, inflation and leading the govt to expropriate people's savings to save itself. (B) The 1% in order to preserve themselves will become Guatemala in that the corporate-fascist state in where the ties between business, the government and the military where so blurred and intertwined that anyone who tried to organize labor, or demand human rights will be deemed a threat under the label of terrorism and exterminated . Lastly Venezuela/Brazil where the rich will live behind 60 ft concrete walls and private security guards while outside is pure chaos , favelas, kidnappings, shootings and armed drug gangs. If history is any indicator , this is where we are heading

[@bomaniigloo]

You could always donate more to charity Dave.

[@cityscapes4ever]

if the best idea you may have is to throw money at the problem, you have not done enough thinking.

[@richard85121]

Agreed .. And for those that blame China for loss of jobs etc ..the gdp of both countries over the last 2 decades are about the same 10 Tril for China and 11 for the US ... but the 1% share of wealth in the US was equal to the bottom 80% whereas China lifted 800mil out of poverty ... the pie just got sliced very differently... say what you want about China but they did it right and their becoming #1 is not that far away .... I also read another stat that if just all the wealth that could be generated from disputed maritime borders alone went to the worlds population ... every person on earth could have 1 million dollars ... 🙏and that’s just the disputed waters 😎

[@ruhloflaw6709]

And how can people complain about Trump. His élection was entirely prédictable.

[@dugfern]

life is cheap

[@caponsacchi]

Is it possible that both O'Malley (the capitalist reformer) and Simon (the counter-cultural revolutionary) are right? But which of the two is "more right"? O'Malley certainly presents a hopeful face to a capitalist nation that is in need of "reform" based on, but not necessarily subscribing to, the "revolutionary"critique of David Simon. In the first place, Simon is 1) automatically discredited (or, if you prefer, "compromised" or "tainted") by his own celebrity in a "media culture" that bequeaths power and wealth to those players who, whether through talent or luck, gain notoriety within a system that rewards the latest sensationalist critique. The success of "The Wire," as measured by the all-important ratings game, offers more proof of the success of a free enterprise economy while affirming the rightness of the democratic experiment of the sponsoring fathers. The television series that pretends to be a critique "outside" the the system its purports to scrutinize is instead another "commodity" within a capitalistic system. In the second place, the inescapable, paradoxical truth missed by the crusaders for radical change is that the most disenfranchised in a system favoring the wealthy few are the most loathe to replace the system. Why is that? The short answer is that the examples of the exceptional few (e.g., NBA players with salaries starting at a mil, hip-hop "artists" like Dr. Dre receiving billions from Apple, a black American President, Donald Trump) serve as persistent reminders--or perhaps deep-seated beliefs encoded in the American DNA--that "exceptional" is within reach of all of us, even the lowest serf in the lowest class of the economic pecking order. In other words, the "American Dream" is the lottery ticket we imagine we all possess by virtue of being Americans, and every one of us imagines that ticket will someday pay off, providing deliverance from our oppression (if almighty Jesus doesn't get there first). In such a context, O'Malley's political optimism as a reformer is the more pragmatic if not the more realistic; Simon's revolutionary rhetoric and call for systemic change, on the other hand, is the more sensational, the more sophomoric, the more cynical and ess productive of the two approaches. And why should any American wish a revolutionary change after viewing socialism or communism or the European welfare state? In the most recent Democratic Presidential debate Bernie Sanders tried to shame Americans with such a strategy, contrasting the USA with Denmark. Immediately, he was checkmated by Hillary Clinton. But as has been demonstrated time and time again, comparisons with other countries that are designed to show the U.S.A as anything less than #1 are--a priori and pro forma--doomed to failure. Even long before Hillary, Shakespeare's Hamlet knew that "something is rotten in the state of Denmark." Practically every major rock n' roll star has achieved fame and fortune by embracing a countercultural music that, beginning in the 1960s, proceeded to ring American cash registers by appealing to a suddenly dominant consumer culture led by youth--the first influx of baby boomers newly empowered to experience the entitlements due the victors of America's ever-more-distant but never-forgotten "good war." Of course, O'Malley is himself a rock 'n roller but not a very good one--at least as a musician. It's as a politician that he has learned how and when to pull his punches, reforming the system by working with, and not against, it.

[@bisiilki]

very prescient still today

[@PubliusUSA]

Still relevant....

[@edwardgeorge4881]

The quality of the new human-being can be recognised at Boeing - greed is good! 😉 Alternative: sack government and put in administrators!!

[@greg1030]

I just want what's mine. What I earned and deserve to hold. But how do you fight to do so when all the laws are written by those with every motive to deny you opportunities to get justice? It may be enough for most American tax payers to despise people rich and greedy enough to elect legislator who continually craft tax codes in their favor, and/or politicians from BOTH parties who have literally enabled over 30 years of over immigration which has deliberately suppressed wages to far below inflation rates by flooding labor markets, paved over dwindling acres of CO2 consuming green space, accelerated species extinction and driven up the cost and down the quality and quantity of every basic human necessity. But I also despise politicians-and TV journalists-who advocate and endorse tax codes which discriminate and penalize kidless by choice people and extorting from them thousands in property and income taxes every tax year. Now name me just one politician who could and would undo all of this injustice, unfairness, hazardous and ecological idiocy-and I mean ALL of it. You’ll never find him or her in either Tweedle Dum or Tweedle Dee party-both are so steeped in the corrupting Big Money that only highlights the empty shell referred to by the corporate owned media as American Democracy. How then to create a viable Third Party?

[@Who-yo3xh]

Easy come easy go empire

[@tommyboy1653]

Damage control.

[@lolitamorris2943]

And today is Monday January 18 -2021 Ending Trump era .... So relevant 6 years later

[@lespasta]

lol brought to you by carnegie

[@DorothyGTyas]

*Corporations make ones skin crawl....* ☜💀

[@briancordero7674]

Robin Hood was right.

[@baddudecornpop5226]

talk about karma!

[@kainewilson6837]

Everybody sitting at the kitchen table morning now we can solve racism just give people a living wage was $15 an hour $500 a week I work on the assembly line making 30$factory workers low skill work if you're in business pay a living wage I work off your computer from home

[@frankodesandy4688]

Quite amorphous. I agree with many of Simon's observations, but who knows the solutions? No one. There's a lot of euphonious rhetoric here, and it's entertaining. But at the root, maybe we're just seeing the deterioration of an empire due to the rising power of base human nature. I hear folks say we don't deserve democracy because we've been asleep as citizens. Capitalism is amoral. Maybe humans are basically demonstrating simian behavior. Maybe there is no shining city on the hill. Our recent leaders, Clintons, the Bushes, Obama, Trump, Biden and the Congress are the moneyed aristocracy, and we have tolerated it.

[@cityscapes4ever]

if you have nothing to offer, then why speak? i'm sorry for your life if you cannot believe, nay, work for a better tomorrow for the next generation because you are too busy postulating within your armchair, unable to rise from "your base human nature".

[@frankodesandy4688]

@@cityscapes4ever, you know nothing about my life. You seem to be interested in suppressing ideas other than your own. Try reading it again with a little deeper insight.

[@oterenceo]

It's called trickle down economics. When you give alot of money to the rich, some will trickle down. Does it work? Well, congress and the senate seems to think so.

[@ybrix101]

I am not giving money to the rich. If you think it is so bad, then stop yourself.

[@annasmother]

whatever.. it is all a fuked up place any ways.

[@ronwalker4849]

MR. SIMON SPEAKS IN TERMS OF REALITY, AND IT MAKES ME SO SICK TO MY STOMACH, THAT I CANNOT WATCH THE VIDEO TILL THE END. BUT THESE ARE AMREICA´S MATERIALISTIC VALUES YES, TWO YACHTS. ONE IN THE CARRIBEAN AND ONE IN PALM BEACH SO THEY DON´T LOSE TRAVEL TIME IN TRANSIT BETWEEN THE TWO PLACES. ROME HAD TWO GIANT LUXURY CITY BOATS FLOATING IN A LAKE NORTH OF ROME. THEY WERE BOTH BOMBED BY GERMANY IN WW2, AND YOU CANNOT SEE THAM ANY LONGER. BUT THEY ARE EMBLAMATIC OF HAVING TOO MUCH. EVENTUALY, SOMEONE WILL COME AND DESTTROY THE WHOLE THING JUST FOR THE HELL OF IT. DESTRUCTION IS OUR DESTINY, AND TODAY´S YACHTS ARE POWERED BY COCAINE AS WELL. (I KNOW PERSONALLY THE TRAFFICER)