Michael Parenti -- Real Patriots!

If one looks into the genealogies of many "old families", one discovers episodes of slave trafficking, bootlegging, gun running, opium trading, falsified land claims, violent acquisition of water and mineral rights, the extermination of indigenous peoples, sales of shoddy and unsafe goods, public funds used for private speculations, crooked deals in government bonds and vouchers, and payoffs for political favors. One finds fortunes built on slave labor, indentured labor, prison labor, immigrant labor, female labor, child labor, and scab labor -- backed by the lethal force of gun thugs and militia. "Old money" is often little more than dirty money laundered by several generations of possession.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Generosity
• toward
• the
• lower
• classes
• historically
• has
• never
• been
• an
• important
• part
• of
• upper-class
• awareness.

[reaperofsilk]

wow you are seriously

mentally retarded

did you not listen to a single WORD

he said

or did you just read the title

nd make this quotation

[hellboot666]

I guess you are one of those "flag waving patriots" that he mentioned.

[Ichtiostega]

It doesn't matter Parenti, we're all humans we all need the same things and we should all care for each other. Patriotism is just as effective for dividing people as racism or sexism are.

[ergo151]

Ever think about why the Draft has't been reinstated?.

Why military "service" is offered as a carrier choice for young people? They end up going for it because the alternative is unemployment or hustling on the streets.

All this hype about patriotism to glorify killing for Corporate America really makes me sick.

YOU too, can become an enemy of Freedom, soon enough.

I was fooled by smoke and mirrors in 2008.

Now I weep for myself and my fellow immigrants: land stealing WASP scum and more.

[bertly71]

I disagree, real patriots are those who put their lives on the line for freedom for all people. Truly put their lives on the line for what they believe.

[canaan1967]

Why do we have to be any kind of patriot to further economic and social conditions? Thomas Payne was certainly not a patriot, he was an internationalist.

[bphutchins]

well you have no problem using our technology and websites, utilizing our inventions and innovations. Go drink a lager and pass out before you have to be back to the warehouse you eurotrash scum.

[dadaphone]

I contend that the idea of patriotism itself is harmful and artificially divides people into competing groups.

[irishgeal1]

yea, who would want to be a patriot of the most hated country in the world.

[DIXADS]

I disagree that "one would not want to be any kind of patriot today." But we want to be TRUE patriots, working for and defending the rights of PEOPLE, not corporate interests. It's quite a trick that power has managed to convince so many that their virtual enemies are friends. The corporations, often with government help, seek one thing: to maximize profit, i.e. to suck the people dry. Patriots must embrace social welfare and services, defeat poverty, etc., NOT protect corporate advantages.

[dadaphone]

Why would you want to be any kind of patriot? The whole idea of patriotism is false and dangerous: ganging up together in competing tribes.