There’s so much chaos going on that it’s easy to get confused. & of course, it’s the holidays. It’s really easy to say, I’m burned out with politics – I’m just going to shop til I drop & then I’m going to bake cookies & have mocha lattes & sing my favorite holiday songs. & why not? Do we not all feel a sense of powerlessness? Way beyond what we ever felt in any AA meeting?
But I can’t help thinking. Sleepless in my single bed, I think as I listen to the winds whipping off Lake Erie as the digital clock flips one minute after another. WHY do they want to end “Net Neutrality”? What is the purpose of making the internet slower & more expensive for the average consumer, not to mention hundreds if not thousands of small businesses & millions of non-profits (such as libraries) who depend on a free & open internet? Not to mention colleges & universities? All these places will have to charge more for their services or close up completely.
At the same time, there is this odious so-called “tax reform” bill working its way through congress. It ends all kinds of deductions for higher education, charitable giving, & other things that benefit the rapidly declining middle class & quickly growing lower class. But if you have a private jet, you can write that off! YAY!
I have to ask myself, WHY? Why are they – the rich people running our country – the congressmen & senators & the donor class that fund them – so intent on ruining things for everyone else?
Ending “net neutrality” & making it harder for people in the middle classes to get the tax breaks they need to continue their education or pay off their mortgage isn’t going to Make America Great Again. It is, in fact, going to ruin what’s left of the economy.
WHY? Why do they want to do this?
Are these people so anti-science that they want to get rid of research in America? Because it’s graduate students who do the bulk of the research in American universities. & if they can’t write off their tuition anymore, then they won’t be able to afford to go to school anymore. & they won’t be able to work on their own anymore – like I have been these past six years – because either the internet will be too expensive or too slow or the sites needed for research will be censored.
Is this the reasons why?
Libertarians believe everything should be privately funded. They don’t believe in paying taxes & they don’t believe in public anything – no libraries, busses, trains, schools – anything that benefits the public good. In a libertarian world, all the roads would be privately owned & you would pay a toll every time you wanted to travel somewhere or you would stay home.
Our government is now in the hands of Libertarians. If you don’t believe me, look up the biographies of the Koch Brothers and the Mercers, to name the two biggest donors of the GOP. There are others but these are the main two. Rand Paul, Betsy Devos, Paul Ryan are all Libertarians. They do not believe that the government has a duty to help the citizens, the people who they are sworn to represent. Have you noticed that nobody even uses the word “citizen” anymore? We are all “consumers”. We don’t even rate as members of our own country anymore.
Keep asking WHY. I know, it seems amazing that our government would want to blow up our own economy but there has been LOTS of amazing & unbelievable things that has happened in America since I was born in 1960 & I would believe almost anything now. Who would believe that a reality TV personality with a sprayed-on orange tan & the worst toupee known to man would get elected to the highest position in America?
If you want to join the battle to save Net Neutrality, here’s a link: https://www.battleforthenet.com/
Never stop asking WHY. #resist.
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