Vid: Chris Hedges at Flood Wall Street: "Capitalism Exploits Humans"

Hundreds of protesters crammed the streets of Lower Manhattan today, clashing with the NYPD as they attempted to march down Wall Street. Kmele Foster, co-host of Fox Business' The Independents, met up with Pulitzer-Prize winning author Chris Hedges for a heated debate about the merits of capitalism.

Comments

[Sevo]

And Kmele gets to deal with it? Ask for a raise, Kmele.
Would one of you please let me know what it says? I'm afraid it's the equivalent of a post combining commie-kid, asshole and Tony.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

No shit, it was essentially this with some bits about capitalism enslaving blacks and only government protecting them.

He could not warp his brain around the essential truth that capitalism is just self-ownership and all the flows from it, including free exchange in a free market.

To him capitalism is corporations seizing control of the government and enslaving people.

[Sevo]

Grand Moff Serious Man|9.22.14 @ 11:37PM|#
..."with some bits about capitalism enslaving blacks and only government protecting them."...

Which is hilarious!
Yep, free-market means people sell themselves into slavery and the government has nothing to do with enforcing slave laws!
Nope, those slaves just, uh, WHAT?!

[LarryA]

To him capitalism is corporations seizing control of the government and enslaving people.

Obviously he's missed the part where 95% of what corporations do is in accordance with government regulations.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Amazing. Every bit of rationality and logic that Kmele attempted to use on this guy just bounced off him as he went back to the talking points about corporations.

And people like that are EDUCATORS

[GILMORE]

right.

i also find it amazing that 'thinking people' can say something 'capitalism exploits humans'...(an odd expression for voluntary markets)...

..then suggest the replacement should be a *coercive system* of increased taxes and redistribution by a state bureaucracy completely devoid of choice and immune to complaint.

It requires

[GILMORE]

...sorry - "it requires a complete inversion of most of the terms they actually use".

[C. S. P. Schofield]

It requires a willful ignorance of pretty much anything but "We want to run things. People keep stopping us from running things. Waaaah!"

[Sevo]

Grand Moff Serious Man|9.22.14 @ 11:35PM|#
"Amazing. Every bit of rationality and logic that Kmele attempted to use on this guy just bounced off him as he went back to the talking points about corporations."

So it was EXACTLY like dealing with the asshole craig, Tony, commie-kid, turd and a couple of others?
Kmele, ask for a BIG raise!

[Irish]

Craig's hilarious. I love Craig. Stop talking shit about Craig. He gives me hours of entertainment.

[Dweebston]

Au contraire. It's the abuse that brings him back.

[Sevo]

Irish|9.23.14 @ 12:12AM|#
"I love Craig."

I don't.

[Migrant Log Picker]

He just reinforces teh stupid of his ilk...no one who reads his posts takes him seriously. He's a pimply faced college freshman who thinks he's clever.

Can't really get too worked up about it because at his age I bought the same shit until life taught me some lessons.

OTOH fuckstains like Hedges are a real problem since they prey on vulnerable young minds.

His name sounds familiar but I'm not aware who he was "writing" for when he won a Pulitzer.

[Drake]

I was so hoping the interview would end with Kmele punching him in the face and yelling "Fuck Off Slaver".

[Juice]

When Hedges brought up slavery, Kmele should have said, "Let's talk about slavery, but lets start out by talking about central planning."

[GILMORE]

Jesus, i'm only a minute into the video and i'm nearly projectile vomiting at Chris Hedges describing his "prison teaching"... and saying, "that time is *sacred* for my students"...

...you think, chris? They're not going anywhere.

In the course of your "Corporations are Everything, and Everyting is Corporations" diatribe, did you really need to cast yourself as a 'liberating god'? Did we need to do that?

Did anyone in this giant circle jerk actually take note that the 'environment' has improved since the 1970s... sans any economic controls these people so desire?

we live in an 'oligarchic' system... but who is hedges? Is he not one of the high priests to the Ruling Class?

[GILMORE]

also, chris =

riddle me how the Oligarchy chose Obama as our new corporate puppet, and chose to undermine themselves with this clusterfuck ACA legislation, and have the government attempt to repatriate overseas earnings and prevent companies from relocating abroad... this is all in the interests of the Corporate Conspiracy? Or was this the product of your anti-economic populist bullshit? If the Puppetmasters are so powerful, why the fuck do i have to listen to you on TV, ever?

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

There are things so stupid only an academic could believe them.

[Dweebston]

Hedges isn't a reservation prog, as far as I can tell. He has harsh words for Obama and the current gang of Democrats for their myriad failures in winding down the wars, handling Wall Street, and sustaining civil rights. You could almost believe he's sympathetic to the libertarian cause, except he feels betrayed that the current crop of Dems aren't more rabidly socialist.

[Sevo]

"You could almost believe he's sympathetic to the libertarian cause, except he feels betrayed that the current crop of Dems aren't more rabidly socialist."

So he's even LESS libertarian than the current crop of thugs?
I'm not seeing that as 'sympathetic'. Sounds like Lenin and his gripes with the Mensheviks.

[Winston]

I'm not seeing that as 'sympathetic'. Sounds like Lenin and his gripes with the Mensheviks.

It's like saying that ISIS is sympathetic to the libertarian cause because they hate US foreign policy and oppose Obama's bombing campaign.

[Migrant Log Picker]

I'm curious why you would postulate that he is any way for more liberty, he's all about big gov and more control and he doesn't even pretend otherwise.

His mask has long been off, he's a statist fuck that derives sustenance from a state enterprise presently. He's a fucking leech.

[Drake]

^This

Nothing that came out of his mouth made me think he valued my freedom in the least.

[Dweebston]

"The left has been destroyed, especially the radical left, quite consciously in the whole name of anti-communism"

Can't have had anything to do with perpetual failures of the leftist platform, of course. Not their subservience to corrupt labor groups, grievance politicking, and vote-buying schemes, nor the fact that after long enough even the dull American electorate bridles at the bureaucratic sclerosis and wholesale theft. No, it's because the left didn't evince enough sympathy for communism.

[Redmanfms]

"The left has been destroyed, especially the radical left, quite consciously in the whole name of anti-communism"

Might it have been destroyed because the radical left were and still are actually Communists?

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

And when Kmele pointed out that corporate agriculture has effectively eradicated starvation in this country and produced enough food to feed needy people all over the world the douche pulls out the FOOD DESERT card and argues there are people in New York who can't afford tomatoes trucked in from California.

I just can't even...

[Dweebston]

Give me canned stew tomatoes (especially the fire-roasted variety) over this fresh produce crap any day. I cook sporadically, and the last thing I want is having to toss out a five dollar bunch of heirloom vine-ripened organic roma tomatoes because I didn't get around to making spaghetti last night.

I think my lifestyle better characterizes those living in putative food deserts than does Hedges'.

[Sevo]

Grand Moff Serious Man|9.23.14 @ 12:39AM|#
"And when Kmele pointed out that corporate agriculture has effectively eradicated starvation in this country and produced enough food to feed needy people all over the world the douche pulls out the FOOD DESERT card and argues there are people in New York who can't afford tomatoes trucked in from California."

Commie-kid (below) tried a similar mis-direction; it's what lefty assholes do.
Hey, Chris! Yes, I'm calling your a lefty asshole! Care to comment, lefty asshole?

[Mark22]

First world problems. The way to address them according to Hedges is to turn our nation into a third world nation, then we will have only third world problems!

[american socialist]

Hi Kmele, since part of the discussion revolved around Reconstruction I'm wondering if share cropping and the crop-lein system is either a.) glorious or b.) crony capitalism. In the 30s and 40s parts of the country were in revolt over this so I'm guessing its b.

Can you guys on Fox conduct an interview where you ask a question and let the interviewee finish an answer before, you know, you rudely interrupt? Is this the type of rational discourse you guys encourage at Reason. Color me unimpressed. But, hey, I have to give you credit that at least this time you didn't engage in ridicule of unsavvy people who care enough about the world to engage in political protest. I'd give it a "C" for that at least.

[Sevo]

american socialist|9.23.14 @ 12:46AM|#
"Hi Kmele, since part of the discussion revolved around Reconstruction I'm wondering if share cropping and the crop-lein system is either a.) glorious or b.) crony capitalism. In the 30s and 40s parts of the country were in revolt over this so I'm guessing its b."
Hi, shitstain! I'm guessing you think some stupid loaded question is of interest.

"Can you guys on Fox conduct an interview where you ask a question and let the interviewee finish an answer before, you know, you rudely interrupt? Is this the type of rational discourse you guys encourage at Reason. Color me unimpressed."
Well, impressing shitstain lefties is what it's all about, right?

"But, hey, I have to give you credit that at least this time you didn't engage in ridicule of unsavvy people who care enough about the world to engage in political protest. I'd give it a "C" for that at least."
How kind of you, commie-kid. I'll bet your mom is impressed!

[Mark22]

Actually, sharecropping and crop-lien systems are just an expression of pre-industrial farming, lack of other job alternatives, and a fairly poor population. They are still in use as such around the world in poor regions. Industrializations, better farming methods, and the rise of large corporations basically ended them in the US; protests had nothing to do with it.

What system would you have preferred to sharecropping and crop-lien systems, and how would that have worked? And what does any of that have to do with Reconstruction?

[Live Free Or Diet]

The idea of food deserts is a farce. If people there would buy tomatoes, the stores would sell them tomatoes.
I live in a relatively poor area. The grocery nearest me has three trailer parks within a mile. They sell tomatoes for $1.49/lb. Lettuce is under a buck a head. Whole chicken is under a buck a pound. A lot of fruits and vegetables are under a buck.
Even without putting my garden, hunting or farm animals into the mix, I can easily cook and eat good, solid, tasty, nutritious meals for $50 a week per person. I'd eat a lot of chicken, but then with the right spices you can do a lot of great things with chicken.

[Winston]

We need Sheldon Richman and Thaddeus Russell telling us that we should ally with Hedges because we too hate Obama and the status quo even though we have the exact opposite solutions to these problems. Might as well join ISIS since we too oppose US foreign policy.

[Suellington]

We need to get some Stitches on that.

http://m.youtube.com/index?#/watch?v=Aj1mp5zxZQI

[Les]

I didn't know of Hedges and was very unimpressed by his topic changing and sweeping generalizations (especially contrasted with Kmele's polite precision). A quick google search reveals him to be a rather shameless plagiarist.

http://www.newrepublic.com/art.....plagiarist

[Rev-Match]

"Capitalism Exploits Humans"

Sure, and top-down central planning in which others dictate your life/choices is not exploitative at all.

[Drake]

Can somebody alert Dee Snider about the terrible thing I just saw happen to his song.

[Malkavian]

Is this idiocy a New York City thing? Has the guy ranting about apples and supermarkets actually seen a wild apple before? We have an apple tree in our back yard, its true, it produces a lot of apples, but they all suck because we don't take care of the tree.

To produce supermarket quality apple, you need to fertilize properly, prune, protect from worms etc, which is a lot of effort and investment. I'm glad I can buy apples in the supermarket for very little money and not have to worry about it.

[Drake]

It is a city / hipster thing to bitch about food without any direct knowledge of what it takes to feed millions of people.

[Azathoth!!]

Don't know why it'd be a NYC thing, you can't walk a block without hitting some kind of neighborhood grocery--usually with a stack of fresh fruit and veg out front.

When I was a kid there was a small grocery half a block away, a second small grocery, a convenience store, and an italian pork store all on the same block two blocks south, a full on greengrocer a block north, and a big supermarket three blocks north of that. And this was Staten Island.

And with the exception of name changes, all these places are still there.

So I don't know where the concept of 'food desert' comes from.

[WGuyll]

Andrew Jackson? He may have meant Johnson.

[Juice]

I know. I was waiting for someone to yell JOHNSON, YOU CLOD!