The Pop Up Festival of Dangerous Ideas: David Simon: Some People Are More Equal Than Others

[@shanhu7892]

This guy, man. What a guy!!

[@davejones5091]

I heard great things about _The Wire_ but had never seen an episode. Looked it up on Amazon and found the entire series for just $35. That's 5 seasons on 23 disks, plus 22 audio commentaries and other extras. Felt like I was stealing! 😄 And from the very first episode I was loving it.

[@mfreeman313]

I was a huge fan of Homicide: Life on the Street back in the Nineties, so when the accolades were coming in for The Wire I took it seriously and checked it out, and it really was masterful work. What was being done that was better, in any genre? Nothing I'm aware of. I've never had cable, but in the beginning I got the first seasons from the library and watched in amazement. You've got the work of a brilliant journalist who learned to do brilliant TV working at the top of his game and any fair evaluation acknowledging it. We're privileged to have it.

[@katc5051]

It is sincerely a seminal US television program for the ages, and one set or another ought to be in the Smithsonian. Also, Burns and Simon ought to be rewarded MacArthur Genius. It's simply that good. Breathtaking, if you will. Thanks guys!

[@billsimpson7686]

David Simon is the only public figure, elected or otherwise, who tells the whole truth about the consequences of the war on drugs. I come from the same streets of Baltimore that David writes about. He is spot on in his observations and analysis.

[@charliedw100]

Excellent!

[@jeffreyallen3461]

2:20 - and We Own THese Streets

[@katc5051]

Everytime I see the thumbnail for this video I think David Simon is talking to Zach Galifianakis while having a conversation offsight away from his "Between Two Ferns" set. Every. Single. Time.

[@wildpett]

The dollar is not a theory - it is a credit instrument - but is pretty close to home. The theory is that the obligations eventually will be honored.

[@MrKaneShadow]

A literal prophecy of 2020

[@eileenmc4746]

shame on wall street. what a moral thinking man. treme is fantastic.

[@brianletlhabane6018]

love this

[@coreycox2345]

This man is articulate.

[@dancebackthesea]

It was only for less than 50 years of the 20th century, that the United States existed as a relatively egalitarian, secure, middle-class democracy (as close as we came, at least), with structures in place that supported the aspirations of ordinary people. As historian Gordon Wood wrote, [our nation discovered its greatness] “by creating a prosperous free society belonging to obscure people with their workaday concerns and pecuniary pursuits of happiness.” This democracy, he said, changed the lives of “hitherto neglected and despised masses of common laboring people.” Not to say there were not very serious problems of racism, inequality, poverty, and war; but the citizenry, if not the government, were actively trying to address these issues. But, on August 23, 1971, a game plan for a corporate coup began circulating in the halls of power . A wealthy, corporate lawyer named Lewis Powell - a board member of the death-dealing tobacco giant Philip Morris and a future justice of the Supreme Court (whose pro-business stance paved the way for the passage of Citizens' United) released a confidential memorandum for his friends at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. This widely circulated memo was nothing less than a militant call to arms for class war waged from the top down. The cause of this "war" came in the late 1960's, when big business was being forced to clean up its act. Even Republicans had signed on. In 1970 President Nixon put his signature on the National Environmental Policy Act and named a White House Council to promote environmental quality. A few months later millions of Americans turned out for Earth Day. Nixon then agreed to create the Environmental Protection Agency. Congress acted swiftly to pass tough amendments to the Clean Air Act, and the EPA announced the first air pollution standards. There were new regulations directed at lead paint and pesticides. Many corporations were no longer getting away with the murder and environmental mayhem that made them so much profit. Powell was shocked by what he called an “attack on the American free enterprise system.” Not just from a few “extremists of the left” but also from “perfectly respectable elements of society,” including the media, politicians and leading intellectuals. Fight back and fight back hard, he urged his compatriots. Build a movement. Set speakers loose across the country. Take on prominent institutions of public opinion-especially the universities, the media and the courts. Keep television programs “monitored the same way textbooks should be kept under constant surveillance.” And above all, recognize that political power must be “assiduously [sic] cultivated; and that when necessary, it must be used aggressively and with determination” and “without embarrassment.” Powell imagined the Chamber of Commerce as a council of war. Since business executives had “little stomach for hard-nosed contest with their critics” and “little skill in effective intellectual and philosophical debate,” they should create think tanks, legal foundations and front groups of every stripe. These groups could, he said, be aligned into a united front through “careful long-range planning and implementation…consistency of action over an indefinite period of years, in the scale of financing available only through joint effort, and in the political power available only through united action and united organizations.” Within two years the board of the Chamber of Commerce had formed a task force of forty business executives-from US Steel, GE, GM, Phillips Petroleum, 3M, Amway, and ABC and CBS. Powell had set in motion a revolt of the rich. The National Association of Manufacturers moved its main offices to Washington. In 1971 only 175 firms had registered lobbyists in the capital; by 1982 nearly 2,500 did. Corporate PACs increased from fewer than 300 in 1976 to more than 1,200 by the mid-’80s. From Powell’s impetus came the Business Roundtable, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, the Manhattan Institute, Citizens for a Sound Economy (precursor to what we now know as Americans for Prosperity) and other organizations united in pushing back against political equality and shared prosperity. They triggered an economic transformation that would in time touch every aspect of our lives. By the late 1970s big business and conservative ideologues were working hard to undo the regulations and progressive tax policies that had helped ensure a fair distribution of economic rewards, deregulation and privatization, got under way, taxes were cut for the wealthiest, and business decisively defeated labor in Washington. And this transformation continued under Reagan and the Bushes as well as under Clinton and Obama with both parties catering to the rich, the financial industry and corporations. A recent example is the passing of the Death Tax Repeal Act of 2015, that ended the nearly 100-year-old federal estate tax. The legislation passed easily 239 to 179. Not surprisingly - with over half of congress being millionaires, and their donors billionaires - the measure benefits only the top .2 percent of the population. Only estates worth more than $10.9 million for couples and $5.4 million for individuals fall under the tax. I left the country for a socialist democracy, but I'm watching it being dismantled by tax breaks for the rich, privatisation, massive lobbying of the wealthy elites that hold power locally and that head the EU, etcetera. The despicable tactics the IMF and the World Bank, and global corporations used to gut poor countries - are now being used on the West under the name of austerity to hollow out the wealth of the people and destroy democracy and socialist institutions. We now have a viscous parasitic capitalism that profits off the earth and body of citizens until the earth and body sicken and are of no use - and then there's the old vulture capitalism that profits from our corpses.

[@coreycox2345]

I did not know that the situation in which we find ourselves had been historically engineered, implemented, and institutionalized in such a systematic way. Labor unions and the environmental movement have been weak opposing forces because a policy group of the 40 biggest corporations would have a lot of power, with the ability to control elections in a system that is not a representative democracy. (What is it about the number "40?" In Arizona, the wealthy entrepreneurs who have generally run the place have historically been known as "The Phoenix 40." Maybe 40 is a good number for a dictatorial board? In my (kind of) analogous experience, the press played a critical role. My favorite reporter ran a series of front-page articles under the "brand" "An Acre an Hour." These and the Arizona Planning Association (us) critique of a "Citizens Growth Management Plan" sponsored by the Sierra Club gelled the public consciousness enough to inspire the Phoenix 40 to ask the Governor to establish a "Growing Smarter Commission." Although the ultimate changes from this were not what I had hoped, they were more than many had expected. This proves to me that the "other side" (the side of reason over greed) can plan and execute their own plans. It would be a good idea to study cases like this, and what made them succeed and fail.) (Should I be worried that I am adopting a new political philosophy based on KZbin videos I have watched?) I like the image of dancing back the sea.

[@patriciagriffin1505]

Good analysis

[@toledosweatequitypainting7441]

Yes. Am still in the united states. I believe the necessary fights are won through single issue campaigns. On t one hand you take the 4 factories owned by employees. Oh Bob's redmill. And 2 prohibition. I find it just not factually strategic to say outloud you want more.than one thing.

[@judelicscious7571]

Something's missing in this interview... I know... where's the two Ferns??

[@patriciagriffin1505]

It's 2020 and these issues have only worsened..the shark tank full of billionaires who listening to entrepreneurs deciding who to support with their money would not make deals with anyone who wanted to produce products in the US with US laborers. Yes it is really profits over people more now than then and getting worse day by day. Govt full of billionaires who are ruining our economy, our environment, no universal health care, etc etc

[@whereamigoing777]

Its not just the billionaires running the show, but the desire for cheaper/more plentiful products in the US makes it harder to sell products made domestically. Amazon got rich by basically reselling chinese products. Thankfully theres more talk of domestic production for technology, because of the risks associated with foreign supply chain security, but it’ll take time and incentive to bring jobs back.

[@makinen06]

1:01:35 "fuck the hammer". when david simon is on twitter or when he says stuff like fuck the hammer, you can almost hear mcnulty speaking out of david simon.

[@bikelockmusic]

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@Thompson8200]

I'd really appreciate it if the interviewer could breathe into the microphone a little bit louder.

[@rkalla]

He wants to let you know he's ok and can breath well! :)

[@santim270]

at first it annoys you but then it is oddly comforting

[@MrKaneShadow]

@@santim270 It's halfway to an ASMR video

[@katherenewedic8076]

Maybe after a spiritual awakening people will practice and live spiritual concepts, rather than swallow the disunity kool-aid

[@shanhu7892]

Agree!

[@madscaro9956]

Except the unsustainablity of all public promises. Government is captured by capital and labor.

[@zjc92]

4:50 he calls Animal Farm "Animal House" lmao There might be a bit of difference between the two.

[@arthurhudson2]

Why is it a bad thing in David's eyes for a 14 year-old to want to be a writer for television?

[@zbaksh101]

@1:10. He believed most of the film industry is just about entertainment without anything to say.

[@davejones5091]

@@zbaksh101 He's got that right.

[@itadaku23]

No life experience. No perspective. No clue

[@paulocunhamartins]

Stewie Griffin has changed so much

[@BeastReview]

It’s far easier to criticize government and economic systems, than it is to fix them or implement better systems in their place. Ironically enough, The Wire is a perfect representation of this principal.

[@andrewstolzmann2663]

Not sure you know what irony is.

[@patriciagriffin1505]

It's such a shame...2020 nothing has changed and even gotten worse..

[@gussampson5029]

He's talking about labor and unions as if they weren't exactly the thing that pushed all of those companies overseas. It just doesn't make any sense to employ expensive Americans when you can employ cheap foreigners. I agree that we should use tariffs and other measures to force these outsourcing companies to pay for the cheap labor they get. Which is exactly what Trump was trying to do while David Simon was bitching about him lol. Granted I'm no big fan of Trump but he actually attempted to address this particular problem. And leftists called it a Trade War and dragged him for it.

[@toledosweatequitypainting7441]

The wages paid to union laborers. Are only two pl us times what I make 14 $ an hour for yeomans wi years skill at painting. The cost is acceptable considering the relative value people place on having for example a car that behaves as it is adv'ized.

[@sixty-nine3574]

This guy is trying to say that crypto is the same thing as black people having rights? That’s insane

[@gussampson5029]

David Simon never misses an opportunity to shit on libertarianism and yet he empathically stresses over and over again that EVERY SINGLE INSTITUTION IS BROKEN. Now he wants to create MORE INSTITUTIONS. While the other ones are still fucking broken and have not improved even 1% since he started complaining about it 15-30 years ago. To be fair, these days I agree that libertarians are just as naive as socialists. I've certainly come a long way since my libertarian days. But unfortunately Dave Simon can't get himself to the other half of that understanding. We cannot continue to create institutions while all of our institutions, as well as the mechanisms for changing those institutions, are broken. It's just amazing to me that he fails to have the self-awareness to understand his own ideological possession. I definitely understand the problems with capitalism and yet David Simon, intelligent man that he seems to be, cannot understand the problems with socialism. His only problem with socialism seems to be with violent implementation versus peaceful implementation.

[@ss_avsmt]

He speaks about the violent implementation because that is the only argument that anti-socialist people seem to bring about as counter, which is another way of saying that "no one's going to listen to you".

[@seenyourshine6989]

An American TV writer? please. Others have done far better for centuries.

[@andrewstolzmann2663]

Have you heard the good word of my Gospel, The Wire?