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Read through the most famous quotes by topic #politics
Government or politics in America today is big business. Everybody makes money involving themselves in one way or the other, whether it's pollsters, whether they are policy wonks, whether they are pundits, whether they are those who believe that they must call it as they see it and then to be fair about it. ↗
The little boats cannot make much difference to the welfare of Gaza either way, since the materials being shipped are in such negligible quantity. The chief significance of the enterprise is therefore symbolic. And the symbolism, when examined even cursorily, doesn't seem too adorable. The intended beneficiary of the stunt is a ruling group with close ties to two of the most retrograde dictatorships in the Middle East, each of which has recently been up to its elbows in the blood of its own civilians. The same group also manages to maintain warm relations with, or at the very least to make cordial remarks about, both Hezbollah and al-Qaida. Meanwhile, a document that was once accurately described as a 'warrant for genocide' forms part of the declared political platform of the aforesaid group. There is something about this that fails to pass a smell test. ↗
#al-qaeda #antisemitism #dictatorship #freedom-flotilla-ii #gaza
Indeed, an astoundingly small proportion of arguments ‘for free speech’ and ‘against censorship’ or ‘banning’ are, in fact, about free speech, censorship or banning. It is depressing to have to point out, yet again, that there is a distinction between having the legal right to say something & having the moral right not to be held accountable for what you say. Being asked to apologise for saying something unconscionable is not the same as being stripped of the legal right to say it. It’s really not very f-cking complicated. Cry “free speech” in such contexts, you are demanding the right to speak any bilge you wish without apology or fear of comeback. You are demanding not legal rights but an end to debate about and criticism of what you say. When did bigotry get so needy? This assertive & idiotic failure to understand that juridical permissibility backed up by the state is not the horizon of politics or morality is absurdly resilient. ↗
لا يعني إنتهاء نظام ديكتاتوري أن جميع المشكلات التي خلفها ستنتهي، فسقوط نظام معين لا يخلق المدينة الفاضلة، بل يفتح المجال أمام عهود طويلة لبناء علاقات ءإجتماعية وإقتصادية وسياسية عادلة ويهيى للقضاء على أشكال الظلم والإضطهاد الأخرى. لقد استطاع تحدي الشعوب الذي تميز في الغالب باللا عنف منذ عام 1980 إسقاط الأنظمة الديكتاتورية في استونيا ولاتفيا وليتوانيا وبولندا وألمانيا الشرقية وتشيكوسلوفاكيا وسلوفينيا ومدغشقر ومالي وبوليفيا والفلبين، لكن من المؤكد إن إنهيار الأنظمة الديكتاتورية لم يحل جميع المشكلات الأخرى في هذه المجتمعات كالفقر والجريمة وعدم الفعالية البيروقراطية وتخريب البيئة فذلك ما تورثه الأنظمة القمعية. لكن سقوط هذه الأنظمة الديكتاتورية كان له الحد الأدنى من تخفيف معاناة ضحايا القمع وفتح الطريق أمام إعادة بناء هذه المجتمعات بوجود عدالة إجتماعية وحريات سياسية وديمقراطية وشخصية ↗
