#politics

I take criticism so seriously as to believe that, even in the midst of a battle in which one is unmistakably on one side against another, there should be criticism, because there must be critical consciousness if there are to be issues, problems, values, even lives to be fought for... Criticism must think of itself as life-enhancing and constitutively opposed to every form of tyranny, domination, and abuse; its social goals are noncoercive knowledge produced in the interests of human freedom. ↗

— Edward W. Said

#edward-said #freedom #politics #freedom

What sense would it make to classify a man as handicapped because he is in a wheelchair today, if he is expected to be walking again in a month, and competing in track meets before the year is out? Yet Americans are generally given 'class' labels on the basis of their transient location in the income stream. If most Americans do not stay in the same broad income bracket for even a decade, their repeatedly changing 'class' makes class itself a nebulous concept. Yet the intelligentsia are habituated, if not addicted, to seeing the world in class terms. ↗

— Thomas Sowell

#class-warfare #politics #poverty #change

Many journalists now are no more than channelers and echoers of what George Orwell called the 'official truth'. They simply cipher and transmit lies. It really grieves me that so many of my fellow journalists can be so manipulated that they become really what the French describe as 'functionaires', functionaries, not journalists. Many journalists become very defensive when you suggest to them that they are anything but impartial and objective. The problem with those words 'impartiality' and 'objectivity' is that they have lost their dictionary meaning. They've been taken over... [they] now mean the establishment point of view... Journalists don't sit down and think, 'I'm now going to speak for the establishment.' Of course not. But they internalise a whole set of assumptions, and one of the most potent assumptions is that the world should be seen in terms of its usefulness to the West, not humanity. ↗

— John Pilger

#journalism #media #politics #prejudice #journalist

Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, I think everybody can agree that politicians are crooks. But I don’t think politicians are thieves, because you can’t steal what you’ve been given. Once we stop giving in, they’ll stop taking.
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— Jarod Kintz

#politicians #politics #republicans #change

The question deserves to be asked: Is hating one's nation really such a bad thing? Or perhaps more importantly, after the crimes our government has committed, what moral self-respecting person can truly love this nation? ↗

— Michel Templet

#philosophy #politics #love

Aos políticos: «menos liberalismo e mais carácter»; aos homens de letras: «menos eloquência e mais ideia»; aos cidadãos em geral: «menos progresso e mais moral». ↗

— Eça de Queirós

#politics #society #inspirational

I still lack a political, religious, and philosophical world view. I change it every month, so I'll have to limit myself to the description of how my heroes love, marry, give birth, die, and how they speak. ↗

— Anton Chekhov

#politics #religion #writing #change

...We are all Federalists,and we are all Republicans. ↗

— Thomas Jefferson

#history #inaugural-address #inspirational #politics #inspirational

I do not know what the heart of a rascal may be, but I know what is in the heart of an honest man; it is horrible. ↗

— Joseph de Maistre

#philosophy #politics #inspirational

We will restore science to its rightful place and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. ↗

— Barack Obama

#politics #science #inspirational