h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Taking it back to post 1, Trish Regan and Fox News, she's definitely out of touch with reality.

So, apparently, is her editorial oversight.

Probably the majority of the viewers will see it that way, considering there are more grounds for contrast between Denmark and Venezuela than for comparison.

But if we don't refute fake news like these, people might believe Fox - and we can't have that

Amen. Always refute nonsense, but don't fall into the fake logic....the Bible advises this. (Proverbs 26: 4-5)

The 'Wise Men of Gotham' was an old story-telling meme in England, Pierce. Apparently, the town of Gotham once pretended that everybody there was insane to keep the king from bankrupting them with a royal visit. So they became the butt of those 'how dumb were they?' jokes. There's quite a collection of them:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/meft/meft44.htm

My favourite is the one where the guy tells the wheels of cheese to go ahead, he'll meet them at the market....

These people were obviously the ancestors of the Fox Network's target audience.

When I was a kid, I feel like I got a good inoculation against propaganda. I read Mad Magazine from an early age, which taught me to be sceptical if not out-right cynical when it comes to the media and government. Then I read the main works of Orwell. And in High School, In 1981, I watched a dramatization of _The Third Wave_ experiment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Wave_(experiment)
This really instilled in me a sensitivity to fascistic indoctrination.

But I never really believed I'd see fascist propaganda institutionalized like it is on Fox News and other conservative media and social media.

These are frightening, hate-filled times, indeed.

We need those teachers from the 60s back.

One of the things I considered with the Fox News material was that they may have intended a negative psychological pitch.

Whether or not that was an issue of intent, there's always the hazard with such material that there is always someone exposed to it who's going to believe no matter how ridiculous that material may be.

re post 23:

Dmitri. I knew a tiny little bit about The Wise Men of Gotham but it was my understanding that they were indeed very wise, just pretending to be hopping mad.

But if later generations only focus on the madness they displayed then yes, they fit in this thread very well.

Anyway, enough about that, carry on

Trish Regan from Fox Business Network has corrected the statement, where she resembled Denmark with Venezuela: "I would like to clarify my point from my statement last week about socialism. I never suggested that the conditions in Denmark were in any way like the present tragedy in Venezuela," writes Trish Regan and continues: "I pointed out - based on reports from The Atlantic, The Independent and other publications - that socialism is not the way," she continues.



PS: According to the Danish Tax Ministry, tax burden in Denmark is 44.9 percent this year (total taxes and duties as a percentage of gross domestic product at market prices). Pretty high (but not high enough if you ask me) and certainly way below the 56 percent Trish Regan claimed.

I'll make the assumption that that 44.9% (or even 56%) is the top tax rate, and that it works like it does in the States, where a person is only charged that top rate on earnings ABOVE a certain amount. Fox News likes to conflate this with the effective rate on total earnings, hence her saying that everyone is working for the government. Many people here don't understand this, but a "News" organization can't claim ignorance. There were reports during the Obama administration that some folks in the 1% were opting to cut their own pay to stay out of the top bracket thinking that this would somehow save them money. That's not how it works. The money one earns up to the top bracket is still taxed at the lower rates, and only the earnings above that top bracket are charged at the highest rate. You don't lose money by moving up a tax bracket, you just keep a lower percentage of the extra you make above it.

Fox loves to scare people, it's their business.

I think the situation at Fox is a little worse than that.

'Single Truthers', advocates of the >ONE, TRUE, WAY< always have a screw loose.

The only variation between them is 'which screw?'.

Their vices and follies are otherwise the same.

If you ask where the truth lies, you're an oxymoron.

re post 29:

It is very complicated. But basically Baron Grim is right.
In principle everyone is paying a flat tax.
But there is an additional tax for those who earn over a certain amount (72.987,42 USD). Because the strongest shoulders should carry the heaviest burdens.
But some expenses are deductible ...
Which means that Apple, McDonald's, Starbucks and Samsung basically do not pay taxes.
The rest of us pay local tax also. And then there are all the duties - on spirits, tobacco, cars.
So the ministry's calculation is probably the closest we get if we want to compare to other countries taxes.

Oh, and when she claims people are working for the government - well, she obviously doesn't understand that we - the people - are the government.

Maybe she is so detached from the government of the US that she can't fathom what government in a democracy actually means?

God bless her heart.

That's the problem - they're always saying 'less government', etc, while not realising that we *are* the government.

Government of, by, and for the people.

For big business, the government is their enemy when it comes to taxes and regulations that may limit their ability to maximize profits for shareholders. Reagan succinctly expressed the paranoia the republican party wanted to instill in their working class voters on behalf of their big business base with his pithy line, "The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help." They painted every government worker with the broad brush of incompetency and malfeasance. And they've been demonizing "big government" ever since while corporate profits soar, working wages have stagnated, and corporate tax rates and oversight has plummeted.

Only a few days ago I quoted Theodore Roosevelt: "There once was a time in history, when the limitation of governmental power meant increasing liberty for the people. In the present day the limitation of governmental power, of governmental action, means the enslavement of the people by the great corporations."

Teddy Roosevelt could do more than talk. He was pretty effective at getting things done. And he had a big heart that could be broken. The first time was when his wife died. The second was when his son died in World War I. He never recovered from that.

Roosevelt called one of my countrymen "Jacob Riis, whom I am tempted to call the best American I ever knew, although he was already a young man when he came hither from Denmark".

The reason can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Riis

It is undeniable that Theodore Roosevelt did some good things. He could also be an idiot - like when he talked Andrew Carnegie out of $25,000 so that he could go on a safari and shoot elephants.

He lied and told Carnegie that if he'd give him the $25,000, he, TR, would make peace with the Kaiser. Of course, he did no such thing, nor even tried to. Little Andy was sorely disappointed in him.

Eugene V Debs had to campaign for president from jail - partly because of what he said about TR. A87835116

TR also insulted 'hyphenated Americans'. He was as full of b.s. as the other rich snobs.