I pit the Republicans who have opposed social progress by...

[Kimballkid]

@sylmar

the Pee Wee Herman School of Rhetoric.

I know you are, but what am I?

[BrainGlutton]

@Kimballkid

I know you are, but what am I?

I know you are, but what is this?

[sylmar]

@BrainGlutton

I know you are, but what is this?

A Pee Wee wee pee?

[Beware_of_Doug]

@YogSosoth

We’re already in class warfare, the rich have declared the poor expendable a long time ago when they opposed the social progress of minimum wage, 40 hour work weeks, overtime, child labor laws, unions, and any form of worker protection.

Sorry, the new definition of class warfare is doing anything about it.

[sylmar]

@Beware_of_Doug

Sorry, the new definition of class warfare is doing anything about it.

It’s sad the way the GOP has learned to use that in every counter argument they make. Complain about an incident of racism? You’re a racist!

Complain about preferential financial laws regulations favoring the rich? Class warfare against the rich.

Man, that PW Herman School is just churning them out…

Is there a word for this particular rhetorical flourish? (Besides asshat).

[Euphonious_Polemic]

Having read this hot mess of a thread, I’m not sure which I enjoyed more:

• tralfamidor’s “my post is my cite” schtick
• his obvious moving the goalposts from “there is limited upward mobility” to “there is NO upward mobility”
• the crying about people being mean to him in the pit
• trying to seize the moral high ground after being a total douche
• a nonsensical post from Clothahump

[sylmar]

Has to be Clothahump’s “BOOM!”, roasted moment with the altered quotations.

I was sure Miller was going to turn this car around and make us all go to our rooms…

[sylmar]

@sylmar

Is there a word for this particular rhetorical flourish? (Besides asshat).

False equivalency… :smack:

[Saintly_Loser]

@tralfamidor

Then how do you explain the actual, real-world social reform that has taken place in the last 100 years or so?

Fought for and won (for a while, anyway, but we’re backsliding) by organized labor.

@tralfamidor

How do you explain the advent of universal health care (however flawed)?

I don’t explain it, because we don’t have it. We’ve got (or are about to have) a bullshit patchwork of private insurance that will be better for some people, but is unsustainable in the long run.

@tralfamidor

If the eeeeevil rich were completely in iron-fisted control, little Joey would still be working 60-hour weeks in the textile factory, wouldn’t he?

No, he’d be scrambling to put together 20 or 30 hours at a job where he’s ostensibly employed by a temp agency, but never allowed to get enough hours to qualify him for benefits. Wait, that’s what’s actually happening now. Yes, the company store has vanished (well, except for companies paying their employees via debit cards with fees for every transaction), but that’s just because they’ve thought up better ways to fuck over the working classes.

@tralfamidor

We don’t need a revolution. We need a continuation of the democratic process, and to move–or lurch–in the direction we’ve been going. Demonizing the rich and igniting class warfare will slow that process down, not accelerate it.

We do need a revolution. But don’t worry, it will never happen. But if we continue for another twenty years in the direction we’re going, we’ll have a hereditary aristocracy who owns everything and a bunch of destitute and semi-literate minimum-wage workers.

The only upside to that is that eventually they’re going to wake up and get pissed off.