It’s been a while since I’ve written anything regarding current events, politics, etc. So today, I’m going to spend some time just sharing my thoughts on some topics I find interesting at the moment. I’m not going to go too far in depth or provide any deep analysis, just a brief overview of my thoughts on a few topics. So let’s get started!
Today, I’ll be discussing:
This is a topic where I believe I may have a different take on than a lot of other people. Most people are either straight for or against Elon’s takeover of Twitter. And that’s completely fine. If you wholeheartedly believe that Elon will be the savior of free speech, great. Celebrate! On the other hand, if you believe that a vital function of the public’s informational sphere is being corrupted by another oligarch, then by all means, eat the rich!
Originally, I was appalled at the thought of Musk taking over Twitter. Mainly for what it meant for the overall health of the platform. In most “Twitter-shperes”, things can get pretty toxic. Well, if you start allowing users to publish content that goes through no or very little moderation, it could become a nightmare.
It wasn’t until I realized what a scenario like that would do to the platform’s success that I concluded: sure, let it happen. Musk is spending billions of dollars that’s from what I’ve seen, leveraged against his assets. If he wants to crash the platform by driving away a large portion of the userbase due to Twitter becoming a hate filled echo chamber, let him. I will gladly watch him flush billions of $ down the drain.
ROE V. WADE
It’s been happening for a long time, but we’re finally seeing the culmination of it. The politicization of the Supreme Court is finally reaching a point where precedent literally does not matter anymore. In each of their committee hearings, each SC Justice was asked or stated that they would uphold precedent, especially regarding Roe v. Wade.
Many politicians took them at their word – either naively or nefariously. But with how the GOP has been trending the past couple decades (more on that later), it was obvious this would eventually happen.
The issue of abortion has also seemingly transcended religion. What was mostly a religious opposition, has taken a sinister turn. Now, you see mostly white men vehemently opposing abortion. The reason is simple. They want women to be subservient to them. They want any decision a woman makes to be in their control, not the individual.
Most of the time, you’ll see crazy right wingers try to hide their true goal by spouting some nonsense like “liberals just want to kill babies, they want to abort the day before delivery!”. There’s even been viral clips of people suggesting that there’s going to be a rise in abortions the next couple of months before the decision is official.
This type of rhetoric is truly unbelievable. Rather than just owning up to their need to control women, they would rather obfuscate it by making outlandish claims that have no legitimacy whatsoever.
The only other thing I must add is, be on the lookout for more laws going forward that take away even more of women’s rights. Currently, there’s law in the works in Louisiana that claims life begins at fertilization. This bill would also classify abortion is homicide. It’s already passed the state House subcommittee and is waiting for a full floor vote now. The implications of a bill such as this are catastrophic.
INFLATION
The most recent numbers for inflation were pretty staggering. The latest CPI data shows an 8.3% increase year over year. I can’t remember exactly, but I believe this is the single largest CPI reading in over 30 years (maybe even longer). This is pretty incredible. Even just a few years ago, you were seeing a lot of mainstream economists trying to figure out how to stop deflation.
Even with these numbers being as high as they are, most middle-class people and above aren’t going to be too impacted in their everyday lives. Sure, it’s a lot more expensive to purchase your rental property or build an addition to your house, but normal activities aren’t suddenly breaking the bank.
For a lot of lower income families, though, things aren’t as easy going. The price of gas alone right now is astronomical. We recently went to Myrtle Beach for my son’s soccer tournament (he played amazing, by the way!), and when I looked back on how much money we spent on gas, it really surprised me. I couldn’t imagine having to drive to work and back every day (sometimes twice a day) with these gas prices. That mixed with the increased cost of food must be devastating for some people.
But that’s not exactly what I’d like to discuss. I’d rather focus on what’s being done to fight this inflation.
Currently, there’s two main theories as to what’s causing inflation:
- Too much stimulus
- The argument here is that the government’s response to COVID-19 by stimulating the economy created too much demand causing prices to increase
- Workings demanding higher wages
- We’ve seen the job market plummet during the pandemic and then come roaring back within the past year. This argument suggests that the tightening labor market has given workers more power to increase their wages – thus putting additional money into the hands of the people and driving up demand.
Conveniently, the mainstream economic response to both of these scenarios is to raise interest rates. In short, companies will end up raising prices to cover the cost of additional interest payments – which then means that people will ultimately consume less, lowering overall demand. In essence, the Fed will strive to make a large portion of the population poorer to meet their goal of price stabilization.
Outside of the impact that has on millions of people, the main issue I have with this logic is that everything is deemed a ‘demand problem’. Where the excess demand needs to be tampered. But what about the supply side? Why aren’t we focusing on increasing supply capacities in order to meet the demands of the people?
Instead of studying and correcting the root causes of inflation (in which will often times be different), their policy is to legitimately put people of work, which loosens the labor market and gives employers the freedom to lower overall wages. But really quick, let’s just think about why there could be supply side issues right now. Hmmm, maybe an ongoing pandemic that’s still shutting down whole cities in China could be an issue? What about companies that are raising prices over their cost increases (housing, gas)?
Lastly, if you think big companies are suffering right now because of cost increases, think again. Just take a look some recent earnings reports. They’ve made sure that they’re taken care of. The rest of us though, I guess we just need to pull up our bootstraps even more!
GOP
What an absolute garbage political party. I’m completely fed up with the democratic party, but at least they’re not actively trying to completely subjugate women. Instead, they’re just mostly complicit, yay!
But seriously though, this is what Republicans have been building towards ever since Reagan. They knew they had to put in the groundwork to take control and have been very successful at a bottom-up approach. One thing the right has accomplished that the left seemingly never will, is build an actual infrastructure to take and hold power.
There is a massive network of law, business, and media entities that operate with the sole purpose of churning out right-wing talent. If you look at the makeup of the most “successful” people in each of these spheres, you’ll mostly see individuals who are direct benefactors from these right-wing organizations.
What does this all mean? Basically, the right can set a narrative through their massive media influence and then carry it through the control of courts and businesses.
An obvious question would be “Why isn’t the left doing anything to stop them?!” Well, the simple answer would be that they just don’t care enough. In the world of big business, it truly doesn’t matter which party has control. Both parties pander to the rich. Joe Biden even said it himself when he met with rich donors when he said that “Nothing would fundamentally change” for them under his presidency.
Now what if you believe that the GOP has been taken over by “the crazies”? Well, you’re just wrong. That just IS the party now. If you look at congressional fundraising, the top Republican fundraiser for the past couple of years has been Marjorie Taylor Greene. You know, the woman who went to the capitol (likely drunk) and was trying to speak to AOC through the mail slot on her office door. Such a quality individual, her.
Anyway, we all just need to face the fact that republicans are now a bunch of people who tout crazy stuff such as the great replacement theory, want to control women’s bodies (hello The Handmaid’s Tale), and have an AWFUL sense of humor.
Well, that’s it for now. I definitely haven’t had as much time as I’d like to write, but life is a bit busy these days. 3 kids (one of which is a 2 month old), working full-time, and running a YouTube channel has caused me to neglect the blog a bit more than I’d like. But it’s OK. I’ve truly been enjoying myself.
Finally, COVID is not over. Please, still be mindful of that. If you are feeling like you may have symptoms, get tested. Don’t take the chance of spreading it unnecessarily. And if you haven’t already, you can order your free at-home COVID tests here: https://special.usps.com/testkits
