JasenComstock

May 6, 2012

"In an ironic twist of history, ‘democracy’ collapses day after day in its cradle, only to reveal itself as a bloodthirsty cacophony of exploitation, suppression and inhumanity."

—

Al Jazeera English columnist Nikolas Kosmatopoulos • Offering up a particularly harsh take on the state of affairs in Greece, which is holding elections today. His article’s title? “If elections could change things, they’d be illegal.” A tough title for a tough sentiment, in which Kosmatopoulos says that the rising influence of the far right has made targets of the poor and of immigrants in the country. The country, which runs on a multi-party parliamentary system, could see fringe groups, such as the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn, get significant shares of the votes on Sunday. What happens to a country so battered by economic austerity that fringe groups gain significant power? Let’s hope we don’t find out. (via shortformblog)

The minute you put the fiscal toys away, you get a sense of people as they are. The Tea Party is just the beginning. The Golden Dawn is just the beginning. Al Qaeda was just the beginning.

(via thecallus)

I have thoughts about this!

This dude is really setting up a straw man. First, his title is dumb. We don’t have elections to change things (thankfully) because then people would vote for all manner of really awful shit. like his ideas.

Next, isn’t it totally ironic that Greece, the birthplace of Democracy, is really shitty at being Democratic? Oh haha, it’s not, they always have been, not ironic at all, even the Athenians were bad at it (speaking of voting for all manner of really awful shit, let’s vote for people to kill themselves).

Third, elites are picking on immigrants, prostitutes and the poor. Well that’s a first. We call that Sunday here in the USA. Anarchy!

It sucks, yo, that “neo-fascists” are being elected in Greece. It also sucks that Anarchists are being elected in Greece. This dude’s answer to the problem is a system of more direct democracy. Which, this person sounds like: “there is this thing we have to do to fix problem and we need to free people to vote for the fix because that’s what happens when you let people vote.” you know, unless tons of people actually vote for neo-nazis. unless, we can’t let THOSE people vote. so…?

(via aatombomb)

12:55pm | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZmCeYyK_ZDGX

(Notes: 72)