Chris Hedges on Death of the Liberal Class

[ashburnhouse]

I am shocked at the credulous sheep who admirable this fraud. 

[Deadmansparty2002]

While I understand the ideas he is putting forward are of concern, I am not certain that it's as bad as he would expect us to believe.

[inkpad100]

He makes some good points, but all his conclusions (to me) are wrong. This guy seems to me to be as big a whack-job as Rick Santorum.

[atheistine]

@TheTristonian *stupid

[TheColonialFleet]

/r/SocialDemocracy/ I'll just leave this here.

[JofanM]

@TheColonialFleet Why not /r/socialism/ ?

[Pangolinx1]

The farther we go from a reality that acknowledges science, that fairly shares resources and education, that understands the challenges we face in the environment........the worse the whipcrack that snaps us back to reality will be.

[Antiks72]

This man's FBI file must be thick. 

[JonathanBloggs]

Well I was already vaguely aware of how fucked america was but this has basically made me shit my pants

[bluegreen1138]

So true, it's nice to hear somebody besides myself saying this. Thank you, Mr Hedges, you're a peach.

[MenOfLetters]

A great thinker.

[tstruss912]

I might just rejoin my church if the preacher would talk like this!

[luxati]

od ove price na kraju mi se prikenjalo

[steltch]

I thought it made perfect sense and was entertaining (in spite of his distrust of entertainment)

[TheTristonian]

Wow, Hedges is very confusing. While making many valid and intellectually consistent arguments. He makes accurate critiques but does not apply those to himself. He appears to be corrupted in the same manner that he makes his case for during this talk!

He keeps indirectly referencing free inquiry and critical thinking in the failures of institutions. Yet has profusely debated academics against the use of reason. I'm stupefied.

[oceallaigh2003]

@TheTristonian NOT STUPIFIED ,JUST STUPID.

[youngatheart212]

@TheTristonian You make an excellent point I would like to quote you in a review for this speech for my class.

[mnmnmnmzzz]

Liberals got intimidated. They know to fight back is like offering themselves up for sacrifice. It's gotten to that point. Liberals are pacifist by nature. Dissent against this psychotic canabalism is met with immediate punishments these days OR you are put on a security list to be rounded up when the time is right. Criminals hoodwinked society into viewing them as lawful protectors and the just are scapegoated as criminals. People are made to feel guilty or shameful for protecting themselves.

[EnchantEmerson]

Remarkable 

[sistitulasi]

A very narrow set of analytical skills indeed. It is strange and sickening how privilege masks itself as intellectually valuable and is accepted and interpreted that way by the media. We need to organize and allow not only Chris Hedges and Noam Chompsky, but also Vandana Shiva and those people who already embody the grassroots who are working tirelessly to counter the ill effects of globalism and elitism. Elitism should not be mistaken for actually being elite.

[cuttlefishgem]

Oh thank God!! An American who knows how to think. This talk is incredible.

[Antiks72]

@cuttlefishgem He's an intellectual du jour, one of the few in my country.

[UtopiaMinor666]

The reality of this is enough to make you want to cry.

[cuttlefishgem]

@UtopiaMinor666 It did make me cry at the end when he told the story of the Muslim farmer. What a beautiful human being.

[NixonisLord]

Bapyou needs to celebrate his diversity-and take a look at the membership and attendance figures for Mainline Protestantism put out by these churches themselves. By 2100, they'll be the Shakers. And I could just as easily light a candle in front of the Quaker Nixon as anyone else-you'd get the same result as lighting one in front of your god. Or wasting your time at "Divinity School". As a Divinity School alumnus, is Hedges a divinity?

[TimothyStuartRiches]

This was fantastic! Highly recommended this be shared with others!

[NixonisLord]

I hope he sees the deaths of the ridiculous religious "progressives" who are J. Crew at prayer and hypocrites and self-satisfied. All the WASP-run mainlines have done nothing but wring their hands at evils while doing nothing. I hope that all these churches close up. Their median age is now nearly 60 and rising and I hope to see the last one buried. This man is a typical pseudo-progressive WASP and totally useless and paranoid and self-satisfied.

[bapyou]

@NixonisLord is your username? Bwahahahaha! You have chosen to align yourself with perhaps America's most morally vacuous, corrupt politician. Calling Richard Nixon your "lord" speaks volumes about your own moral vacuity. It doesn't surprise me then that your opinion of Chris Hedges and others from the religious left is as equally morally vacuous and blind. Richard Nixon would be proud of you. You've learned your lessons well.

[neil73]

How come this video only has 1,662 views?

I think it is generally well known that the corporations really run the world; the USA in particular. But I'm not sure what Hedges is implying here. I'm also skeptical of his critique (not mentioned in this video) of people like Hitchens, Harris and Dawkins, who he calls 'The New Atheists'. However, if he is correct in his assumptions, then the USA could well be on the way to a revolution.

[subframer]

always great to start a lecture by calling your opponents "lunatics." the supposition of this arrogant lecture is that "liberalism" is superior, and that if people were smart and acting rationally, they would always choose a "progressive" ideology as their societal basis. arrogant nonsense. the majority of the electorate, witnessing the results of 50 years of "liberalism" in the public schools, organized social services, tax policy, have finally had enough. and this fool is pro communist(!)

[ramenshino]

@subframer lol he isn't communist, he does however descrbie himself as socialist.

[ManACanadian]

@subframer You are at the wrong lecture or maybe you slept through the talk. He is talking about the USA, not some socialist country in Western Europe.

Corporate States of America (aka USA) has been destroying liberalism for the past 50 years. it is the unbridled capitalism and corporatism that has led the US of A into the mess it finds itself.

Of course if you belong to the lunatics Chris Hedges refers to, then I understand why you are so angry and hateful.

[rickbar123]

@subframer Or, 50 years of bullshit propaganda from the business class just has you stuck on 'stupid.' NAM and all the other organized business class nut jobs paid a very high price over the years. In fact, billions have been spent to make you think like that. They have done well with you, they have got their moneys worth.

[tport1622]

@subframer ...you need to view his interview with Charlie Rose when it is available. His short interview will make a lot more sense than how this lecture was delivered. He really didn't deliver his full message on corporate elitism or the complete description of the lynching by corporate capitalism of the USA.

[mimbyus]

Mr. Hedges: I've come to this video of your Nov, 2010 lecture at Univ. of Toronto "The Death of Liberal Class" by way of listening to the TVO podcast of same.

I am a retired Canadian journalist living in Metro Vancouver, B.C. Politics was my beat, and America-watching has been my life-long vocation.

I think you and I have mind-melded! On my blog I write about "My American Neighbours..." wherein I cover your very points and come to same conclusions. Google "nothingyoucansee.wordpress" W.T.

[TheeUnidentified]

Thanks for uploading this.