Speak Softy and Carry a Big Stick

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

"Speak softly and carry a big stick."
- Theodore Roosevelt

Good advice under any circumstances.  However, what's been happening recently is that we've stopped speaking at any volume.  It's just the stick.  TR had said very nice things to the Japanese and Russians juring the Sino-Russian War, but he did so with the White Fleet behind him...But now, we don't say anything.  There is no profit in ending a war by speaking softly.  There IS, hoever, a HUGE profit in swinging that Big Stick. 

Well, not a PROFIT, so much as a pillaging, both of another country's treasure & population, but that of the working class, who must indirectly pay for the war, and who directly send their children to die in it.  One way lies peace, the other way lies profit.  Which way did YOU think we were going to go?  We have our underwear on our heads, Goddammit, we're ready to PARTY!

We here on the ground see that Big Stick, too.  Life in prison for reasons nobody can properly explain.  Illegal searches on any pretext or no pretext at all.  The cop doesn't like your face, you're getting a firehose up your ass. 

Only sometimes the stick doesn't look like a stick.  Sometimes it looks like an add for pills that will let grandpa get it up again, With the litany of potential horrible side effects, knowing grandpa won't care about those.  He's out of warranty anyway, so why not walk around with a hard dick for the last couple of years?

The stick is in our schoos; that's why we have 6 year olds being arrested on felony charges for acting out.  You demanded it, long, long ago.  And those bloodstains next to thecar belonging to the poor bastard who got pulled over?  Nobody explained to him that police are ALL stick and no talk.  Their mouths have in fact been sewn shut and replaced with an iPod soundboard that says things like "step out of the car, sir" and "You have the right to curl up in a fetal ball and die".

You asked for this.  You were sick of people speaking softly.  If you weren't, Carter would have been president in 1980, and GWB and Barack Obama never would have gotten near the center of power.  You wanted "tough on crime" and "let's show those smudgy people a thing or two".  No, you wanted the stick, and here it is.  Soft words unnecesarry and undesirable.

So own it.  Own what you asked for.  Own that you want INSTANT PUNISHMENT for accused pedos, rapists, etc.  Own that trials are for rich people, and the poor get assumption of guilt.  Own the bastard on death row, whose only crime was being Black and too poor to afford a lawyer.  Own Rennie Gibbs and 300+ other women who are in - or facing - prison for having miscarriages¹ .

I don't fucking care if you or I didn't want that.  We didn't do anything about it, and the fact is, when you stand by and let evil happen, you are silently voting for it.  You are complicit in that evil.

And I don't know about you, but I'm getting a little sick of being a Good German.

Or Kill Me



₁  http://healthfreedoms.org/2011/07/02/miscarriage-face-prison-time-for-murder/

HORRIBLE TRUTH.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I understand, Holy Men need to care about their flock's spiritual well being. I'm just a yelling idiot who wants more idiots yelling.

Now, if you want to post that shit as flyers, etc, AHEAD of but not WITH your ideas for what people should do, I'm okay with that, too.

But I do maintain that pissing people off is enough.  Especially right now, at this exact moment in time.

Yes. Get them uncomfortable and let THEM figure out what to do with it.

[Reginald Ret]

First time seeing it.

Do you ever do the "here's how you get up off your ass and DO SOMETHING" essays? These ones are 100% solid gold TRUTH, but without some kind of motivational at the end I'm afraid people will just be mad at the words on the paper for making them feel bad.

The goal is making them angry.  If they're angry at the words, pretty soon they'll be angry at the situation.

Telling people what to DO limits their options.  1000 people can out-think me.  If only 1% of those people come up with a good idea, that's 10 good ideas that are probably better than the idea I had.

I'm a Discordian.  I problem-solve with WRATH.  Knock the damn thing out of balance, let society's oscillations do the rest.

Similar to the OBEY bumper stickers we put on the backs of squadcars in Illinois, back in 2002/2003.  7/10 people will say "okay", 2 will say "that's stupid", and one will get madder and madder at authority of any kind all damn day, and not know why.  And THAT PERSON is our target.

First: Great OP.
Second: I'd prefer it with less German discrimination, not that the inaccurate prejudice personally offends me but it is collateral damage where none was needed. It may keep some otherwise interested parties from partaking.
Third: I'm stealing the OBEY sticker concept.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I understand, Holy Men need to care about their flock's spiritual well being. I'm just a yelling idiot who wants more idiots yelling.

Now, if you want to post that shit as flyers, etc, AHEAD of but not WITH your ideas for what people should do, I'm okay with that, too.

But I do maintain that pissing people off is enough.  Especially right now, at this exact moment in time.

Yes. Get them uncomfortable and let THEM figure out what to do with it.

Yes, as I get older, I am far more inclined to say "Think for yourself", and not "Think like me."

[Junkenstein]

I understand, Holy Men need to care about their flock's spiritual well being. I'm just a yelling idiot who wants more idiots yelling.

Now, if you want to post that shit as flyers, etc, AHEAD of but not WITH your ideas for what people should do, I'm okay with that, too.

But I do maintain that pissing people off is enough.  Especially right now, at this exact moment in time.

Yes. Get them uncomfortable and let THEM figure out what to do with it.

Yes, as I get older, I am far more inclined to say "Think for yourself", and not "Think like me."

Be pleased you're having conversations involving thinking at all.

The system grabs hold and instils punishments/reward scenarios at an early age. These are now developing to extreme standards. Consequences are no longer lines and detention, but prison and death. This creation of fear younger means the stick NEEDS to be bigger and nastier as life becomes real. Prisons are seen as soft unless run by Sheriff Joes. Judges lax for not seeking the maximum sentence. Prosecutors weak for making deals. And all this was over fucking parking ticket anyway so why are you losing your house again? No, you can't unfuck your life if your postal address is your car. Sorry, you lose. Please die somewhere near the city morgue and make sure you're carrying ID.

That's someone's job remember. Living in the future with all our advancements and freedom. We're so sophisticated we pay a guy minimum fucking wage to identify corpses. Think he likes that job? When was the last time you even thought about that guy anyway? Probably a fucking immigrant stealing one of our jobs, so fuck him if it sucks right?

After all, we would even be thinking about this at all if that poor frozen bastard had feared the stick a little less a kicked a door in.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

That's someone's job remember. Living in the future with all our advancements and freedom. We're so sophisticated we pay a guy minimum fucking wage to identify corpses. Think he likes that job?

If he's in LA he might.

After all, we would even be thinking about this at all if that poor frozen bastard had feared the stick a little less a kicked a door in.

Fucking menaces to society, I say.

[Junkenstein]

That's someone's job remember. Living in the future with all our advancements and freedom. We're so sophisticated we pay a guy minimum fucking wage to identify corpses. Think he likes that job?

If he's in LA he might.

After all, we would even be thinking about this at all if that poor frozen bastard had feared the stick a little less a kicked a door in.

Fucking menaces to society, I say.

1 - Touché.

The other, well, this is something that's been bothering me lately. This fear and craving for the stick described is built into society. We see it in all kinds of ways. People reliant on benefits insisting on welfare cuts because Stick. Bailout the X because Stick. Rehab programs cut because Stick. No investigation into political classes because who owns the fucking Stick?

In the meanwhile, those with the least to fear, the least to lose suffer and die. People actively prefer to risk freezing to death rather than potential criminal charges. The what ifs of the future somehow outweighing the immediate facts of the situation.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

That's someone's job remember. Living in the future with all our advancements and freedom. We're so sophisticated we pay a guy minimum fucking wage to identify corpses. Think he likes that job?

If he's in LA he might.

After all, we would even be thinking about this at all if that poor frozen bastard had feared the stick a little less a kicked a door in.

Fucking menaces to society, I say.

1 - Touché.

The other, well, this is something that's been bothering me lately. This fear and craving for the stick described is built into society. We see it in all kinds of ways. People reliant on benefits insisting on welfare cuts because Stick. Bailout the X because Stick. Rehab programs cut because Stick. No investigation into political classes because who owns the fucking Stick?

In the meanwhile, those with the least to fear, the least to lose suffer and die. People actively prefer to risk freezing to death rather than potential criminal charges. The what ifs of the future somehow outweighing the immediate facts of the situation.

Conditioning is a bitch.  You can condition people to advance into machine gun fire. 

And the one thing the governments of both the USA and the UK got REALLY good at in about 1980 was conditioning.

Why have a police state, when you can put a cop in every citizen's head?

[Junkenstein]

I'm curious, what makes you say 1980's? The rise of TV would be one guess. My other guess would be education given that schools work now as they always have, on a version of the Stockholm syndrome. Just shift what the hostage takes wants/ is believed to be capable of.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I'm curious, what makes you say 1980's? The rise of TV would be one guess. My other guess would be education given that schools work now as they always have, on a version of the Stockholm syndrome. Just shift what the hostage takes wants/ is believed to be capable of.

The medium of television has been around for ages.  Advertizers have been using it effectively for a half century.

Politicians figured it out in 1979.

[Cardinal Pizza Deliverance.]

Fucking yes. This thread is win.