Recent comments
ADHD: Hunter in a Farmer's World
Thom Hartmann has written a dozen books covering ADD / ADHD - Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder.
Join Thom for his new twice-weekly email newsletters on ADHD, whether it affects you or a member of your family.
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
By webmaster
Hello All
Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
Please follow us across to hartmannreport.com - this will be the only place going forward to read Thom's blog posts and articles.
Hamas and Hezbollah have sworn to the death of all Jews; men, women and children. But they don't just share this belief in peace, they idolize those that kill Jews and support any atrocities committed against the Jewish people. Jews on the other hand, have only asked for peace, to be left alone. In fact, Israel is a democracy that offers freedom, even political participation from Arabs. That is not the case in other Arab states. So there is no moral equivalence between Hamas, Hezbollah and the Jewish people. The media has painted Israel in a bad light, somehow equating disproportionate amounts force as somehow being inhumane. This new propaganda term is illogical because you cannot defend yourself from any determined enemy force without a disproportionate amount of force; it's how the Nazi's were defeated in WWII. In most cases, Israel is delivering these military strikes in defense of an attack on innocent civilians. History backs that up. Has Israel been perfect? No, but they have gone further than any other nation or group to minimize civilian deaths on both sides of the conflict, yet the terrorists hide their missiles in schools populated with children so that they can gain sympathy from the press. Israel has even gone as far as warning civilians in enemy states before they strike to give them time to evacuate. Hamas and Hezbolah do nothing of the kind to protect civilians. Further, I don't see Israel or America decapitating anyone, or purposely targeting women and children. So to lump America or Israel, even the top 1% (of whom the majority are leftist Democrats), in with groups that commit the most heinous acts against human kind, requires belief in a true fallacy. Propaganda is clouding the issue and misleading the public by overlooking some very relevant facts and exploiting civilian carnage of Arabs. Even Arab governments are starting to speak out against this false narrative, yet many on the left in this country are still buying into it.
I think it’s pretty clear from the comments in this blog that people who can still think logically are able to pin down how media corruption is playing out. The question that society is refusing to address, however, is WHAT IS THE FUNDAMENTAL CAUSE? After years of researching the breakdown of communication in modern society I found some profound, but disturbing answers.
One of the earlier discoveries, which has now been confirmed by others, was that human language is not primarily learned as a function of logic. Instead, our brains first remember speech patterns in relation to fundamental drives like smell, taste, pain, hunger etc. The response of a “brain pattern match” to something we hear is first a signal we sense as an emotion. Associating these matches with higher concepts like logic comes much later in the hearing process. This results in MAJOR LIMITATIONS to how humans hear and speak language. The major limitation is that MOST people are not able to broadly understand logical or complex issues, especially when the emotional content is high and the information comes quickly. They are not able to intuitively envision many interacting variables at one time. The best they can do is what I call SINGLE SENTENCE LOGIC.
As the media, and politicians, are driven to capture wider audiences, they DUMB DOWN their material. They get the largest audience by being clever with sound BITES – i.e. single sentence logic. The problem is, for these kind of thinkers, both listeners and talkers, the logic of each sentence does NOT have to be consistent with the logic of other sentences.
Another irony of this process is that it is NOT related to being SMART or wise. Many people who think only in sound bites have a very high ability to memorize those single logical sentences. They can string them together over a very wide range of material very quickly. Human evolution has put high value on that ability. In the world of the cave man, a large memory of single pieces of logic, mostly learned through hard won experience and SUPERSTITION, and very fast recall, came in very handy for staying alive. The irony is that, in a modern complex society, these skills are detrimental. They are detrimental because they do NOT include the ability to link the separate pieces of logic together. That is, they can NOT comprehend many complex variable interacting at the same time. Let me re-emphasize this: MOST PEOPLE CANNOT INTUITIVELY COMPREHEND COMPLEX ISSUES. This is why two political parties, and a media driven by the notion that there are “always two sides to an issue” can see the same facts in such different ways. They just draw on different collections of superstition and random experience.
The irony continues when, to counter challenges, both sides are driven to GET MORE DATA. The irony is, it doesn’t help! Because listeners don’t know how to simultaneously process lots of variables, providing more doesn’t help. It creates more confusion.
Of course, people don’t want to admit it. As modern culture grew in complexity, and people were barraged with more complexity, they created “street smart” workarounds to get by. While it worked for awhile, while society was still sparse and primarily agricultural, we have now reached a level of technology and social system complexity where the workarounds don’t work anymore.
With the radical extremes we hear from our government leaders and the media, it is not a stretch to say those discussions are not distinguishable from what we would hear in an insane asylum. THIS IS WHAT THE MEDIA WON’T TELL YOU. Tragically, it is because those who control it aren’t able to understand it themselves.
This problem with Language is discussed further at A3society.org/Language
Thomas Jefferson 1787..... Were it left to me to decide if the nation were to have government without newspapers, or newspapers without government, I would not hesitate to choose the latter!
Apparently, the news media wasn't owned by large industrialists back then!
Well, its based on fear, not hatred. Half of all murders are comitted by blacks, even though they make up only 12% of the population.
Racial conflict is not as dumb as you guys think it is. It is based on current realities which are based on self-reinforcing behaviors. Blacks are often excluded from society, so crime is higher. If there is more crime, there is more fear, more segregation, and more exclusion. But this does not justify anyone from ignoring the higher proportion of crime by blacks, just as if whites were put in a similiar situation would act similiarly.
Reply to Lorin, post #9: I can’t speak for everyone, but I don’t think Obama’s flip-flops discredit people of color. Not for me anyway. As for the Democrats? No argument there!
President Nixon, along with every goddam president we’ve had since Carter, has each furthered the damage in a significant way. It didn’t even start with Reagan; ole “Ray-gun” merely accelerated the process. They all sucked in my book, every friggin’ one of them.
Until this election period has run its course, I still refuse to let go of the hope Bernie Sanders has brought me. In the short time he’s been in the race, his numbers have been steadily swelling. Hope beats despair; might as well grab onto it whenever I can.
Good to see ya here, Loren…. always a treat.
Of course, stecoop, you're absolutely right. Like I said, I'm generally against the death penalty. It's just that in cases like this, my own vengeful side gets the best of me at times, in the comments I make. I'm aware that frying the murderous little punk won't solve anything.
The root cause of problems like this goes way beyond "race". The ruling elite would like us to think it's just a race issue, but race is only part of it. During hard times, scapegoating becomes even more prevalent. Lots of people are hurting and on the edge. Brings out the worst of the worst. Gotta have someone to blame. It's one of the traits I've found most detestible in humans.
Charlatans and frauds are always real likeable because they work real hard at it. Truthful people don't care that much about being likeable. You gotta watch those likeable smoothies. They'll getcha.
That's one thing I learned from watching Thom's guests.
A truthful person doesn't need to be likeable - or so they think. That's one reason lefties can be unpopular. They think having the truth should be enough. Likeability is not relevant but the righties' PR machine exploits that.
AIW - My point is that as long as there are all these purveyors of hatred out there, able to pump thier brand of hatred into young people, we will always have the Roof's and others like him to be dealt with; 'frying' Dylann Roof won't solve the problem, anymore than cutting the head off a dandelion gets rid of the weed.
As a society, we must look at, and fix, the root cause of these problems, otherwise, they will always be with us.
kilosqrd - I'm detecting a whiff of "Chem Trails" from your snarky comment. However, I consider commonsense gun control laws, any laws that keep guns out of the hands of anyone, who so soon in the wake of this last massacre, believes that our gun laws are too restrictive.
Bravo, Chuck! I concur.
kilosqrd -- I liked the gun control bill created by the dems in the house and, per polling, approved by 90% of the people. If you think the 2nd amendment has anything to do with this (it doesn't since it was created to keep slave patrols in place), it only takes 67% vote to do away or modify an amendment. Of course, the gun manufacturers (AKA the NRA) bribed enough dems (and all the repugs) so the bill would not pass. So much for the democratic process.
Also, I like Thom's idea of a license to own a gun and insurance to cover any damages. Lethal weapons, like cars, do have those "common sense" laws.
What do you mean 'our'?
I'm out of here!
OK, now that I am here, let me just say that Thom Hartman's point is really stupid.
Regulations *will* cost jobs. Lots of them. If you shut down all the oil refineries tomarrow, there will be an economic calamity never before witnessed by man.
This is obvious to a child. Ok, a big child who is smart and goes to Earth Day or something.
Thom has continually mislead people post after post, exaggerating the claims and making people who follow him stooges for the right, when they suddenly come accross the truth and realize Thom lies.
So, Thom, fess up! Be like me: be a liberal, not a liar.
chuckle8 said
"Dr. Econ -- Did you ever have an economics course? All the unemployed and underemployed people are a great source of wealth (nothing to do with money) that could easily save the world. "
To my response that 'the Republicans are right: it is too expensive to save the world'.
I was merely quoting Kurt Vonnegut's line that 'We could have saved the world, but it was too expensive'.
So, I was joking.
However, there might come a time when it will be true - not all the horses and men will be able to put humpty dumpty back together again.
Yeah, I wonder why these sunday talk shows don't say anything.
It's because Archer Daniels Midland pays for the show and donates to the candidate.
It's the same companies paying the same candiates.
In order to be a Sunday Talk Show Host, you need those candidates on your show. So, you trade access for truth, and you get the usual pablam of horse racing, gossip and superficial nonsense.
If regulations create jobs, why not generate a continuous supply of erroneous regulations and stimulate the economy?
Because regulations only create temporary jobs at the cost of the consumer, until competition from other countries (like China) steel the market with less regulation. Both regulation and high taxes send jobs overseas. But it doesn't happen overnight, it takes a few years, which is why few see the connection; how regulation kills jobs long term.
You're so filled up with your own self-righteous rage that you seem not to have understood what I wrote. That being the case, it would be a waste of time to respond.
"the inability to enact common sense gun controls"
Please, tell us what are those "common sense" laws you are speaking of.
Reply to #10: Chuck, he’s dfisagreeing with Kilo in post #1.
Reply to #12: stecoop, in a country where black folks get executed in the street for jaywalking, selling loose cigarettes, playing with toy guns or doing nothing at all, I’d find it a little hard to stomach witnessing a mass murderer like Roof “de-programmed and treated” instead of fried. I’m no supporter of the death penalty... but talk about white privilege!!!
I agree with Mr. Henderson (post #9); that kid should get life without parole. In solitary confinement, I might add. A fate worse than death, in many respects.
Should our whole culture lag? -
- under skies where the KKK’s flag
floats their brag
on their wretched rag?
On civility their flag is a drag.
. . . . . . . .
P.S. Sorry Thom, I hate to say it but President Obama is himself a terrorist. He's killed hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent people with his fucking drones. He keeps a hit list of individuals, both domestic and foreign, targeted for assassination without charge or trial. Please pardon me for my bluntness, but if that ain't a terrorist I don't know what is. When I heard Obama's speech following this massacre, I could've puked.
And Mathboy, forget about South Carolina flying their ugly-ass Confederate rag half-mast. Why not tear the fucking thing down, and have a nice little bonfire?
Whateverittakes, I don’t need extensive research to be convinced that our country has been overtaken by fascism. And where we have fascists, we have scapegoats.
This didn’t spontaneously combust out of nowhere; it has been planned and orchestrated for decades. The seeds for it were planted immediately after WWII via Operation Paperclip, when a bunch of Nazi engineers, scientists, etc. were secretly escorted into our country. I think it can reasonably be assumed these toxic clowns didn’t come here with the desire to create a more peaceful, freer, egalitarian society!
Meanwhile I've had my fill of these fucking gun nuts whining and shrieking about their "rights". They can shove that Second Amendment right up their white privileged little asses. South Carolina's governor says we'll "never know" why these mass shootings take place… yeah right. Not only disingenuous, but a tired cliché. Like ole Papintonio says, the hell we don't know; it's white terrorism! Angry little white men with guns.
I think it’s also worth noting that whenever times are hard, these racists come crawling out of the woodwork like cockroaches. They’re always looking for someone to blame so they can have themselves a nice big dump, all under the illusion that they’re taking back whatever empowerment they’ve lost.
The kid is 21 years old. What does he know about how Black men treat White women? I see "planted" all over this. Arguing about whether it was a hate crime or a terrorist attack feeds right into the hand of the real perpetrators. They're leading us around by the nose.
Find the YouTube video called A Noble Lie about the OKC bombing. Watch it.
Americans need to familiarize themselves with the extent to which our so-called "intelligence" agencies, to wit the FBI, have infiltrated white supremacist groups in America, and are using members they have co-opted there to foment violence at large. This is a more difficult story to tell, requires detailed research and the making of Deep State connections.
This story is about forces within this country that are determined to destroy the country, its citizenry, and its Constitutionally-granted freedoms. If we let them continue to perpetrate mayhem everywhere--Connecticut, Boston, Colorado, New York--and then befuddle us as to who is really doing what, we've lost their game. We've helped them win.
I hear people say that gun control laws don't work and that people who want guns will always get them and those that want to, will use them anyway.
While it's true that we can't legislate morality; the laws of a nation, or the lack of certain laws, define the moral character of a nation.
When we think of the Citizens United decision and the inability to enact even basic common sense gun controls that the majority of the nation supports, then we see that out government has become morally bankrupt. Greed and selfishness have become our moral standard. Is it any wonder that depraved people feel empowered to act on their most heinous urges?
I can empathize with much of what you write, but I don't think there is a solution. For years, it has been politically profitable to pit people against each other by class and race. This has been achieved very successfully. We've been in similar cultural and economic messes before, when the richest few were able to gain extraordinary power over our politics and policies. Each time in the past, the poor and middle class, workers and the jobless, ultimately united to fight back -- to everyone's benefit. That can't happen this time.
The US has been sinking for years now. When Reagan was first elected, launching the campaign against our poor, the overall quality of life in the US was rated at #1. By the time Obama was elected, this had already plunged to #43, and we can no longer adequately compete in the modern world market. Obviously, it's impossible to save/rebuild the middle class/country without shoring up the poor, but today's middle class would rather drown than allow a crumb to trickle down. That's just the way it is.