Originally Posted by Alsatian

This makes me think of a passage in Xenophon's "Cyropaedia" (aka "The Life of Cyrus"). This is a book which is considered the first in a long list of books providing advice on statecraft to Princes or Kings which includes Machiavelli's superb "The Prince." Here is the passage:

"For those who were subjects -- indeed slaves -- Cyrus did not incite them to noble deeds. He would not let them even carry arms. He was careful that they should never lack food or drink. The end of it was these subjects called him their father even as the nobles did, because he attended to their needs, but the object of his care was to keep them slaves forever." Cyropaedia by Xenophon Book 8, chapter 1, paragraph 43.

Damn straight. Make the people slaves. Make them absolutely incapable of resisting the path the elite leaders are leading them down. People may think me pedantic or silly for solemnly quoting from old books as I sometimes do. My point is two fold in making such quotes. First, brilliant, profound thinkers have thought on these subjects before and what they have to say is highly illuminating. Learn from them. Second, if the truth was known 2400 years ago (in case of Xenophon) and published or if the truth was known 600 years ago (in case of Machiavelli) . . . how is it that we much more sophisticated, well-informed, fortunate people of 2022 can't see these things for ourselves? These are "no-brainers" people. You don't want to willingly surrender your second amendment rights that our founding fathers wisely amended into the constitution at the same time they added freedom of speech and association. You don't want the government to provide for all your needs and make yourself abjectly dependent upon what government provides you to live on.

Originally Posted by chazspot

I could see liberals getting behind this and voting for these horrible policies, but what confuses me is how the rich liberals support this. I live among many Trump-hating liberals who are quite well off and work hard to get richer. How could they throw all that away for such policies? I don't see it.

Originally Posted by Alsatian

They AREN'T the slaves, they are among the ruling noble class.

Originally Posted by Alsatian

Chazspot: First, I don't know the reason well-off liberals support this stuff. Liberal guilt? It seems sort of trendy, sort of fashionable? These are plausible explanations and probably explains some of the well-off liberals. Second, take a look at my quote from Xenophon again. It wasn't ALL the population that Cyrus treated in this way -- the subjects were treated this way, but not the "nobles." Without parsing what the nobles would constitute under ancient Persian government . . . it is quite possible that the nobles of Cyrus's time equate to the rich of today. The rich of today are connected, have a stake in things, have considerable influence in government and power in the business world. They AREN'T the slaves, they are among the ruling noble class. That is a hypothetical explanation and answer to your question. Does my answer hold up to scrutiny? I don't know. Maybe all three of these might combine together to provide 65% of an answer?

Originally Posted by chazspot

Those who complain about the Twitter takeover by Musk are saying that a political party might be shunned even albeit slightly to sway elections.