War. What a racket. Many recognize this fact of what surrounds us, and yet many others ignore it, so long as they are comfortable and "well-off" in their geographical zone of comfort. Most believe it to be necessary to protect them, or naively to fight evil in the world while thinking their side are the good guys who are beyond reproach.
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WWI Major General Smedley Butler spoke of this in his 1935 book War is a Racket.
"War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes."
Since then, the U.S. budget for war has increased immensely. Just since the end of the cold war, the spending has increased by 182%, which is 44% when accounting for inflation.
That shows another racket: the value of the US dollar which keeps falling. People are oblivious to what is going on with the currency either.
2018 saw $942 billion. This year, it's expected to go over $1 trillion.
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This is how Americans' freedom is being "secured", not that it was in real jeopardy from the Middle Easterners anyways. There is no other military threat that compares to the U.S.
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Looking at that, one might logically conclude the biggest military threat in the world is the U.S. itself. With a conservative estimate that ignores other sectors of military spending, 2017 sees over $610 billion in spending, with the closest behind being China at $228 billion. Even the great bear Russia is only at $66.3 billion, just under the small Saudi Arabia.
There is a run-away military industrial complex war empire. They become wealthy and dominate in power with that wealth, and the U.S. empire secures their fortunes by dominating the rest of the planet as a bully.
People are being fleeced of their taxes, which is theft. But at lelast, if politicians cared about America, they would spend taxes to improve America, like the failing American infrastructures and cities. But no, they are all too much concerned with maintaining and promoting greater dominance abroad to secure the American way of life. That what most wars are for anyways, resources like oil that keep the economy rolling.
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The US really is a sort of fascistic republic the way it operates. We do have far more freedoms than many in a typical fascist state would. But, the overall way corporations and government interact is pretty fascistic imo. Whether it be the military industrial complex, pharma, tech, etc. All of these private sectors essentially dictate our policy these days.
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"Fascism should rightly be called Corporatism, as it is the merger of corporate & government power." -Mussolini
Yes, the West is degrading. We can enjoy what we have while we have, because it's being taken away.
Yeah, enjoy it while it lasts I guess lol.
Yes, American freedoms come at the expense of me, my family, my community...
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