When did we stop fighting The Man?

[Puzzledtraveller]

There was no love between liberals and the government in our heyday. I doubt government changed much for the better if at all. So what did?

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. When fighting the man failed to change things

Permanently. I would say the Reagan years and better propaganda. Add Iran Contra, and really not going anywhere. That was truly the moment the oligarchy entrenched itself.

And if you remember the malaise has been with us since

[Puzzledtraveller]

2. I began thinking about it after I posed the question

and I would say you are right. Though I love the 80's from my childhood perspective looking back you can see just how thick the propaganda was. I was born in 1973 so what I know is mostly from history books and what people have told me.

[Ichingcarpenter]

8. I fought it in the work place, schools

and local politics and supported the ACLU who supported me and my family in fights.

I use to live in Ocean Beach, Coronado and went to Grossmont College.

Each had their local fights.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Most people here are under the delusion

That the system will be changed at the level of the President Well they are half right, if they mean the President of the City Council ( some city councils use that tittle).

Hundreds of thousands local fights will change the culture, ever so slowly. But Reagan cut the heart out of many. And people gave up on councils, boards and all that.

[Ichingcarpenter]

15. This is the next direction of occupy

As I have pointed out ..

Pot laws and gay marriage changes happened locally with no and in fact hindrance from Washington.

I witnessed and documented a so called riot in Ocean Beach in the 70s where I pointed out to my professor that the local news had put the chronological sequence of events in error which put the demonstrators at fault whereas the police instigated the violence.


It did get on the local news as a rebuttal but you know how that goes......


I think that Occupy was the key and even though it was shut down must be reborn like the phoenix because it was on the right track.

I make more real changes in consciousness one to one and that's real politics


the internet is just an outlet for my opinion.

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. And when some of us get involved n media

Alternate, we are told we are lying, it is not a paper, and we have not won any awards since well, it is not mainstream. Never mind we have, we are actually credentialed, and we get paid for it.

It is maddening. Some of us are trying hard to become part of the solution. But with "friends like this, who needs enemies?" Of course I have concluded we must be a threat to the status quo at this point, why the constant attacks. So those attacks become a source of pride and joy.

As to occupy, indeed. They are the only activists at some of these boards, like the CPUC. We need them at every board to be honest and for people to run for every office from dog catcher on up. And I expect my local Democratic Party and Republican Party to fight them tooth and nail...every step of the damn way.

[Ichingcarpenter]

17. That's why I asked about GOTV

and got no answers.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. On this board you will get none

It's easier to blame the mythical evil left (that does show up) than actually do the hard work. The hard work includes independents and the younger voter that needs a reason to vote.

Here it is mostly done by labor, and this year they are trying to get a minimum wage increase for the November ballot. They are discovering what the other side learned a generation ago, you need to give people a reason to come out and vote.

[Ichingcarpenter]

19. cheers to that..... one can

make that an issue with all you meet in real time.

The national scene is obscene.

[seabeckind]

3. Different man

we were never fighting the man the teanuts are fighting today. We were fighting the face of the men behind the gov't. The people who were pulling the strings.

we couldn't get to them so we did what we could.

The PRICs (people really in charge) backed off and found a different way to fight us. Divide and conquer. Get us fighting each other.

It worked.

The teanuts are just one of the weapons in the PRIC arsenal.

[Puzzledtraveller]

13. Do you think those same people are pulling the strings of government

In addition to divide and conquer of the people?

[seabeckind]

20. Pretty much the same, don't you think?

By doing the divide, they can take over the gov't.

A week or so ago I read a piece on here that said that the tea party isn't homogenous. That the only thing the members have in common is that they each hate something(s).

Unions, blacks, hispanics, poor, educated, scientists, atheists, women, old people, immigrants, libruls, students, etc.

Slap a label on an opponent, mix in a little gerrymandering..voila.

The label is the easy part...just buy you some media and a hater to scream on it.

[PDJane]

4. The first thing that comes to mind is Reagan's voodoo economics.

The constant propaganda of the reich wing; on radio, on television, in print helped it along, as did the rise of the religious right.

I'm convinced that a few men are behind this change, and they've done a very thorough job.

[Puzzledtraveller]

12. I remember in the 80's being really afraid that the soviets were going to nuke us.

I tell that to younger people today. I see films like Red Dawn for what they really are now. The made for TV movie "The Day After" I believe it was called had me terrified. I had this programmed fear and hatred of the word "Communist" as a child. There is no way that is accidental.

[Bandit]

5. In my day "the man" was the establishment and at that time the establishment was quite

authoritarian. We could not wear long hair to school/college, women could not wear slacks. White women could not date black men, hell black people could not do many things whites could. We fought those battles. We had sit ins and marches, etc. We actually defeated a good part of "the man" We believed in "People Power" and in many cases what we wanted became the norm.

[Vashta Nerada]

6. The Man changed.

Now, The Man isn't so much the government. The Man is now big business--the oligarchy.

Government is now The Man's mistress.

[hughee99]

7. "The man" has always been big business, it's just easier to see that today

than it was 40 years ago.

[Puzzledtraveller]

10. I can see that

[el_bryanto]

11. You mean the 1930s when FDR was in the white house and we made huge and valuable

changes? We really were pro-government then, as near as I can tell. I wasn't alive then, but it seemed like liberals counted on Government to play a roll in fixing societies ills.

Possibly you are thinking of some other time as our heyday.

Bryant

[1000words]

14. When "we" failed to throw Nixon in prison.

"For the good of the nation," of course. Similar to "moving forward," I imagine.

[lillypaddle]

21. When we became the man

And when we started trusting people over 30 (on our 30th birthday).