KNOW YOUR RIGHTS

[The Good Reverend Roger]

You have the right to drink yourself into a stupor, but it may cost you plenty.  You have the right to stare at Afghanistan war TV with a vacant look on your face.  You have the right to eat shitty food and get morbidly obese.  You have the right to attend protests, as long as you don't have a message to convey...Once a clear message has been formulated, you have the right to an ass-beating by gorillas in police uniforms.  You have the right to be silent, as long as you can keep your mouth shut while being waterboarded.

You have the right to mortgage yourself into a smoking hole in the ground.  You do, after all, deserve that Lexus, that big fucking house, that new computer, that Caribbean cruise.  And "deserving" is the same as having a right to it.  This is America™.  You can have anything you like, if you watch enough television. 

You have the right to sing the blues.  You have the right to tell jokes on stage, as long as they are haha jokes instead of HAW HAW jokes, which are unpatriotic and illegal.  You have the right to slip down the shower drain.  You deserve the love They have for sale, on easy credit terms.  You have the right to vote for Blue or Red, and you have the right to endlessly argue which is better, with the other sodomy victims on the internet supermarket.

You have the right to a credit card.  You have the right to electronic gizmos.  Having a  cell phone is a human right, just like having food and air and water and a Smartbook.  Unless you live in small, unfurnished countries like Mali or Wales.

You have the right to sacrifice your children to The Machine™, after it dresses them in the ritual camouflage clothing.  You have the right to give your money to banks, and pay them for taking it.  You have the right to a dead-end job in a cubicle, or at least a comfy spot under a bridge.  You have the right to the enormous complacency that brought you to this point.  You have the right to bitch about the results of your own complacency, as if it were someone else's fault.

Welcome to the life you have, the life you have a right to, the life you deserve.

Or Kill Me.

[LMNO]

You have the right to sit there and take the shit they shovel on you, simply because they can.  You have the right to shovel your own shit onto others.  You have the right not to be responsible for your behavior.  You have the right to blame others for your misfortune.  You do not have the right to be poor.  If you are found to be poor, we have the right to say you brought it on yourself.  You have the right to free speech up until the point you try to exercise that right.  You have the right to belive in fariy tales like American Exceptionalism.  You have the right to eat yourself to death.

[navkat]

It's not even because the world is asleep anymore, Rog. The people are fucking pissed. I know everyone hates the teabag movement because the good guys were misguided, the bad guys were greedy and opportunistic and basically killed the impetus of a lot of decent, pissed off people that could have been harnessed for good.

OWS fuckers have been raging on for months. They've got a lot of fluff in there but a lot of right ideas. They're standing out in the cold, screaming their heads off and their president is literally making a huge show of pretending he doesn't hear them.

We are literally under dictatorship now...except the dictator is the whole fucking machine--a massive group of empty suits who have diluted any sense of responsibility beyond reduction. The teabaggers are right about smaller government. The OWS guys are right about government controlling the corporation. The problem is that the corporation and government are in their own privae idaho together no different than the early settlers were irrespective of the tribal people. This is their land now. This is their home. What do the care what all the natives do or want?

It's infuriating. What's the solution? I'm frightened for my child that it's going to include a lot of poverty, a lot of blood and a lot of suffering for long after I'm worm food.

What's the solution, Rog?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

It's not even because the world is asleep anymore, Rog. The people are fucking pissed. I know everyone hates the teabag movement because the good guys were misguided, the bad guys were greedy and opportunistic and basically killed the impetus of a lot of decent, pissed off people that could have been harnessed for good.

OWS fuckers have been raging on for months. They've got a lot of fluff in there but a lot of right ideas. They're standing out in the cold, screaming their heads off and their president is literally making a huge show of pretending he doesn't hear them.

We are literally under dictatorship now...except the dictator is the whole fucking machine--a massive group of empty suits who have diluted any sense of responsibility beyond reduction. The teabaggers are right about smaller government. The OWS guys are right about government controlling the corporation. The problem is that the corporation and government are in their own privae idaho together no different than the early settlers were irrespective of the tribal people. This is their land now. This is their home. What do the care what all the natives do or want?

It's infuriating. What's the solution? I'm frightened for my child that it's going to include a lot of poverty, a lot of blood and a lot of suffering for long after I'm worm food.

What's the solution, Rog?

You are operating off of bad signal, Navkat.  First, there is not necessarily a solution.  Second, this is nothing new.  It happens every fucking century, like clockwork.  Third, the teabaggers were created by the Koch brothers, not coopted by them.  Fourth, the president doesn't hear the OWS people.

I used to think there was a solution, that if we could find enough like-minded people and wake some other people up, we might at least slow down the relentless tide of fascism and yahoos that's rolling over us.  Then I figured out that not only aren't there like-minded people, but there isn't even a "we".  There's a gigantic clash of egos, but that's not a "we".

I am told we should tell people that The Machine™ can be stopped if only people care enough, that we should charge the ramparts armed only with the righteousness of our cause.

And who knows?  Maybe we should tell people that.

[navkat]

I care. I'm teaching my boy to care too. What's the plan? Get kicked out of Zucotti park a few more times? I'm actually a little dismayed by the fact that there are people in this country who are actually bitching about the occupiers starting a free library in the park. The Authority wants to arrest people for that.

Think about a second.

They are deliberately operating in rebellion of what we want. Deliberately. This isn't a matter of people not caring. This is a coup de t'at that happened gradually. The corporate/government complex doesn't even know they aren't entitled: they're entitled.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I care. I'm teaching my boy to care too. What's the plan? Get kicked out of Zucotti park a few more times? I'm actually a little dismayed by the fact that there are people in this country who are actually bitching about the occupiers starting a free library in the park. The Authority wants to arrest people for that.

Think about a second.

They are deliberately operating in rebellion of what we want. Deliberately. This isn't a matter of people not caring. This is a coup de t'at that happened gradually. The corporate/government complex doesn't even know they aren't entitled: they're entitled.

What I'm trying to say is that I spent 9 years screaming, and I wasn't the only one doing it, and the end result of those 9 years of us screaming is a dozen or so people pissing on each other, ridiculing anyone who tries to suggest the pissing is counterproductive, and people posting in threads about Cracked.com articles.

So the answer is, I don't know what the answer is.  I thought I did, but I was wrong.  I tried, and I failed.

You should probably find someone who has answers.  I don't.

[Dysfunctional Cunt]

Can things still be changed?  I still think it is possible, just not on the global level I used to dream about.  I've decided my effort for change will be on those things that I can actually, you know, change....

It's become the little things for me Roger.  Walking the neighborhood getting signatures regarding the warehouse parties that occur in our area regularly that result in drunken idiots peeing on my front porch. 

Getting a group of people together to help clean up the local park after the city installed new playground equipment. 

Helping to campaign on local issues that I concern myself with. 

I've stopped deluding myself that we can, as humans, work together on a global level.  I think if we try to make the changes we want to see locally and actually get them or at least some of them accomplished, then we can think about something on a larger scale.  I'm not holding my breath or anything, but it's a pretty thought.

I lost the enjoyment of the ride.  I needed to accomplish something because the thrill of the ride just didn't do much anymore.  I have to think there are thousands like me, they're just sick and tired of the bullshit but they have no clue how to actually do anything about it.  I know there are things that we can never hope to change, well I know now.  However, that doesn't mean there aren't changes that can be made yanno?

[navkat]

We're already doing it. There's no solution except to keep screaming and hope the future generations continue to stay pissed off enough to either erode the system or crash the gates.

But don't fault people for entertaining themselves with the occaisional drivel. Everyone needs a smoke break from time to time. We're here to make sure that break doesn't last 20 minutes and to make each other get back to work.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

We're already doing it. There's no solution except to keep screaming and hope the future generations continue to stay pissed off enough to either erode the system or crash the gates.

But don't fault people for entertaining themselves with the occaisional drivel. Everyone needs a smoke break from time to time. We're here to make sure that break doesn't last 20 minutes and to make each other get back to work.

It ain't the drivel.  I am all about a bit of fluff here and there.

It's that we've fucking moved BACKWARDS.  I am finding it really hard to process the reaction from the board at large when I tried to get RWHN's attention.  And for all the bitching back and forth he and I have done, he's the only one that attempted to answer constructively.  The rest was a constant series of potshots which I earned for trying.  Don't take my word for it, go look for yourself.  I may be a slow learner, but eventually even I can figure these things out.  Nobody wants things to get better, they just want their turn to deliver a zinger.

And if WE can't get along, then it's fucking hopeless.  Same thing happened to the Church of the Subgenius.

In fact, I'm starting to buy into RHWN's philosophy.  Here for the mirth, HAW HAW HAW.  There's no prophet in trying anything else (UCWUTIDIDTHAR?), and as for the country or the world at large, I just thank God my oldest kid joined the military...Because, as the late, great Hellpope Huey once said, "The difference between heaven and hell is what side of the pitchfork you're on."

I'm out of the business of trying to make things better.  I have proven incompetent at it, and it's well past time that I got out of the way and allowed someone else a shot at it.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Can things still be changed?  I still think it is possible, just not on the global level I used to dream about.  I've decided my effort for change will be on those things that I can actually, you know, change....

It's become the little things for me Roger.  Walking the neighborhood getting signatures regarding the warehouse parties that occur in our area regularly that result in drunken idiots peeing on my front porch. 

Getting a group of people together to help clean up the local park after the city installed new playground equipment. 

Helping to campaign on local issues that I concern myself with. 

I've stopped deluding myself that we can, as humans, work together on a global level.  I think if we try to make the changes we want to see locally and actually get them or at least some of them accomplished, then we can think about something on a larger scale.  I'm not holding my breath or anything, but it's a pretty thought.

I lost the enjoyment of the ride.  I needed to accomplish something because the thrill of the ride just didn't do much anymore.  I have to think there are thousands like me, they're just sick and tired of the bullshit but they have no clue how to actually do anything about it.  I know there are things that we can never hope to change, well I know now.  However, that doesn't mean there aren't changes that can be made yanno?

Just the other day, I was saying the same thing. 

But right now, I'm feeling that it's a losing battle.  Entropy takes no prisoners.

[Dysfunctional Cunt]

Can things still be changed?  I still think it is possible, just not on the global level I used to dream about.  I've decided my effort for change will be on those things that I can actually, you know, change....

It's become the little things for me Roger.  Walking the neighborhood getting signatures regarding the warehouse parties that occur in our area regularly that result in drunken idiots peeing on my front porch. 

Getting a group of people together to help clean up the local park after the city installed new playground equipment. 

Helping to campaign on local issues that I concern myself with. 

I've stopped deluding myself that we can, as humans, work together on a global level.  I think if we try to make the changes we want to see locally and actually get them or at least some of them accomplished, then we can think about something on a larger scale.  I'm not holding my breath or anything, but it's a pretty thought.

I lost the enjoyment of the ride.  I needed to accomplish something because the thrill of the ride just didn't do much anymore.  I have to think there are thousands like me, they're just sick and tired of the bullshit but they have no clue how to actually do anything about it.  I know there are things that we can never hope to change, well I know now.  However, that doesn't mean there aren't changes that can be made yanno?

Just the other day, I was saying the same thing. 

But right now, I'm feeling that it's a losing battle.  Entropy takes no prisoners.

I decided that I could live with me a lot better if I knew I had at least tried.  And what I am doing may not be right for everyone, but this is a war and we all need to choose a battle we believe in and fight in it, get support for it, but by god do something. 

While it may be a losing battle, at least we gave it a good fight.  What's the alternative?  Sit on our asses and just watch it all go by?  I admit that was my outlook for a while now.  I'm just going to watch it burn.  I had to force myself to get involved.  It's helped me. 

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I decided that I could live with me a lot better if I knew I had at least tried. 

I did try.  I'm done.  See above posts for further clarification.

It's all about cheap laughs from here on out.

Nuff said.

[Dysfunctional Cunt]

I decided that I could live with me a lot better if I knew I had at least tried. 

I did try.  I'm done.  See above posts for further clarification.

It's all about cheap laughs from here on out.

Nuff said.

Hey, even Holy Men have their days.

Look at me, I posted and I swore I was thru. 

You have not been screaming to an empty room.  Some of us have heard you.  We may not say anything, but it doesn't mean you didn't inspire us to do something. 

[navkat]

I thought the lulz were part of the revolution...that's my philosophy, anyway: never get soo full of your own shit, you can't laugh at the stupidity. Life is an absurd comedy.

I feel like triggering laughter is a powerful tool in getting people to keep on. Poking, laughing, whistling in the dark. We can't howl all the time.

Yeah, I'm fucking pissed! I'm pissed and all I have is a marshmallow gun. So that's what I use. That's the weapon in my arsenal. You have a knife and a very bright flashlight. Cram has an endless series of costumes and jarring noisemakers. Cain has a Library of Congress in his head. So on and so forth.

Keep shining that light. We'll do what we can to help you keep fresh batteries in it but you gotta have patience. We're a rag-tag bunch of clowns and none of us has it figured out.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I thought the lulz were part of the revolution...that's my philosophy, anyway: never get soo full of your own shit, you can't laugh at the stupidity. Life is an absurd comedy.

I feel like triggering laughter is a powerful tool in getting people to keep on. Poking, laughing, whistling in the dark. We can't howl all the time.

Yeah, I'm fucking pissed! I'm pissed and all I have is a marshmallow gun. So that's what I use. That's the weapon in my arsenal. You have a knife and a very bright flashlight. Cram has an endless series of costumes and jarring noisemakers. Cain has a Library of Congress in his head. So on and so forth.

Keep shining that light. We'll do what we can to help you keep fresh batteries in it but you gotta have patience. We're a rag-tag bunch of clowns and none of us has it figured out.

What you haven't figured out is that all that horrible shit you're seeing is what The People WANT.

If they didn't fucking want it, they wouldn't PAY for it.  That is the cold fucking reality of America - fuck, the WORLD - in the 21st Century.

And who am I to get between primates and their fake bananas?  Ho ho!  This is not my first rodeo.  Let someone else get themselves shredded.  I've had my fucking turn in the barrel.