This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Cory Doctorow discusses the inherent impossibility of trying to build any public good on an economic system centered on selfishness: This is the problem at the core of “mechanism design” grounded in “rational self-interest.” If you try to create a system where people
Continue readingTag: neoliberalism
A Puff of Absurdity: The Enshittification of Health Care
Last week David Moscrop wrote an excellent piece in The Walrus about Loblaw. He wrote, “If you live in Canada, you’re probably part of the Loblaw ecosystem, whether you like it or not. . . . It accounts for nearly a third of Canada’s grocery market. . . . Loblaw’s
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Climate Misery and Hope
Despair limits future actions, but knowledge is power. We must know and act in order to stave off despair. A depressing thread followed by an uplifting video today: Writer Matthew Todd wrote, “Sooner or later we’re going to have to face the reality that conservatism and capitalism are killing us. It’s not
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Oh, Canada: A Funeral Dirge – And A Prayer
Travelling the world recently again, I am struck by the staggering ignorance among the great majority of people in the world, as to what Canada is like today. All of them, with rare exceptions, seem to think this is 1974. They think of Canada as a rich, First World country,
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Argentina: Neoliberalism In Drag As Freedom
The new president of Argentina calls himself a libertarian, but he is a right-wing libertarian. (The distinction is crucial.) That means, essentially, neo-liberalism on steroids, unchecked and unleashed. Either he is ignorant or a liar, because Pinochet tried that plan in 1973 (see The Shock Doctrine), after he was installed
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Geoffrey Johnston examines how the latest wave of COVID-19 is swamping Ontario’s health care system while its cumulative effect is reducing life expectancies. Philip Moscovitch discusses the dangers of repeat COVID infections. And Zaki Arshad, Joshua Nazareth and Manish Pareek offer a reminder
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: What Is The Populist Right?
Neoliberals, “progressives”, and the neo-Maoist faux-Left, of which, neoliberals and so-called progressives form the core part, rabidly slander, dehumanize and demonize the populist right. But what, in reality, in truth, is the populist right, what are their core shared values as a political movement, who are they, and how can
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The Big Picture: Markers Of The Global Tectonic Shift, Now Underway
Or, The Big Picture: Economic Strength vs Economic Insolvency: US, Canada and Uruguay compared Uruguayan national debt in 2023:$40 billion USD(52% of GDP) Canadian national debt in 2023:$1.4 trillion USDOr$1,400 billion USD US national debt in 2023:Roughly $30 trillionOr$30,000 billion(Not including corporate and household debt, which brings the total to
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: It’s Still Not a Cold
Stats Canada just posted a report on Long Covid. They highlight that the risk of long term symptoms is cumulative, increasing with the number of Covid infections. By three or more infections, 38% of people – more than a third of people – report long term symptoms. They also report that
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Further Reflections On Nationalism
I would emphasize there are better and worse forms of nationalism, but stress that nationalist political-economic policies can be highly beneficial for the people, as opposed to neoliberalism, globalism or neoconservatism, so long as they are combined with robust democracy, human rights and freedom, and a spirit of friendliness and
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Too Poor to Live, But Not Too Well to Die
In March 2024, Canadians with mental health problems who haven’t found significant relief from their condition will be able to get Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD). As I wrote recently of the mental health crisis, “We no longer lock people up in asylums; instead, we give them less than they
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Compassion as the Antidote for Capitalism
A Taylor Swift fan took the brave position of calling out the beloved superstar, and everyone else involved, for the death of Ana Clara and many in need of medical attention at her concert Friday night in Rio: “First of all, Taylor made sure fans had water during the show.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Crawford Kilian reviews Ryan Meili’s A Healthy Future as an important account of the insufficient political response to the COVID-19 pandemic, while David Climenhaga calls out the absurdity of Preston Manning’s prescription for disaster in pushing for even to be done to protect
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Culture of Uncare or Pandemic of Inhumanity
Psychoanalyst Sally Weintrobe coined the term “culture of uncare” to explain intentional efforts to sever links from one another and from the environment. She calls it “severing links,” but the word that comes to mind is alienation. We’ve been alienated from our environment, from our work, from others, and from
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Newsflash: Covid Should Be Avoided
Studies make if very clear that Covid is really bad for us, yet we’re going to do nothing to prevent the spread. In case you didn’t know, if you have almost $20,000 to spend each year, per kid, on a private school, that many of them have excellent pandemic plans still in place.
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: The Central Error of the Pandemic
Dr. Satoshi Akima, who does internal medicine in Australia, has a great post up about the economic reasons for ignoring the pandemic. First, a bit of context to consider from Dr. Lisa Iannattone, “Disability rates haven’t stabilized since the great mass infection event of early 2022 [masks dropped in March
Continue readingAlex's Blog: Crack-Up Capitalism, Quinn Slobodian: A Review
In this engrossing historical account, Quinn Slobodian lays out how a few very rich men—yes pretty much men—and the neoliberal intellectuals upon whose ideas they fed, imagined and sometimes built their versions of utopia: “zones” free from the grasping hands of the many who want to tax their riches or
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Housing and Value(s)
Here’s a little story about the house at the end of my street. About 30 years ago, it was a bit of a grow-op, with vicious guard dogs, one that actually ate the leg off the neighbour’s family dog! When I’d walk down the street with my kids, we’d always
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Media Subterfuge
Want to be a respected news outlet? Stop writing horribly misleading headlines. An article in The Guardian is causing a stir, not because of what the article says, but because of the heading and subheading: “Thousands of Covid generation under-fives excluded from schools in England: Nearly half of children in some
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Covid or Climate: Can’t it be both?
In a local school board meeting from last June, in which they discussed their plan to remove HEPAs in rooms that had mechanical ventilation added (as if it’s and either/or option), they first discussed how far they’ve overshot their energy budget. There were clear implications that Covid mitigations had forced
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