I always thought Casual-T would be the GOAT rap name; haven't found anyone who agrees with me yet.

The word 'exploit' here is admittedly used in a technical sense. That is as extracting material advantage simply by exercising class advantage... basically by profiting from a middle-man position. This is the true essence of capitalism.

The typical propagandist dodge is to say "how is the NBA owner 'exploiting' basketball players, he pays them millions?" This is a completely different usage of the word. A better example of this technical meaning is as used in black-hat hacking. A middle class (or poor) hacker running an "exploit" that steals a trivial amount of money from an NBA owner (or player, or fellow middle class or poor NBA fan) is 'exploiting' their victim.

This is straight out propaganda. The trick here is that this 'utility' is measured in profit extracted. It's begging the question.

Typically we hear that capitalism is more 'efficient'. But when this so-called 'efficiency' is examined, once again the metric is extracting the most profit. So this statement devolves to "capitalism is more efficient at extracting profits for capitalists." If we use the term 'efficient' in the same way an engineer or physicist uses the term, capitalism is catastrophically inefficient. Example: global outsourcing.

People are better off because of the onward march of human knowledge, especially technology. People are better off, even despite capitalism. People are better off under non-capitalist regimes too. Capitalism, just like any other -ism, produces nothing. It's physically impossible for an ideology to produce anything... only hard work and mother nature can be productive.

I'm not trying to argue for a more socialized system ITT. In fact since Communism as practiced is also predicated directly on (a) profit motive, and (b) property rights... it suffers from the same exact defects.

I'm trying to explain that class hierarchy is an underlying cause of the creation, and of the continual and necessary maintenance, of racism.

Interesting thought. I'm at a loss however imagining what a similar qualification might be.

Yeah, but proper tea is theft.

How about (to a typical Murican capitalist), "You're racist...but, what I mean by that probably isn't what you think, and here's why: _________________."

Then you can have a go at convincing them they should feel bad being a part of a class, that capitalism propagates the class system and isn't efficient at generating wealth, etc, etc. If your goal is to help eliminate racism and not simply add to the political polarization of this country, I think clear communication is essential.

Ice Cube's "Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It" This video has more on point social commentary than 99.99% of popular music that was produced in the USA during the 2000's.



I can't find the quote, but I remember reading that some of the first "gangsta rappers" wanted to call their art "reality rap", but the label didn't think that would market as well.

OK, very good.

Although I might mess up sometimes, I try to always start out with the 'that's racist' line first. For example my first post regarding BruceZ on 8-26...

I try not to label a poster as a 'racist' unless they're out-of-the-closet, like Silver_Man2, or after having the racist content of their posting explained to them clearly and repetitively, they keep doubling-down.

Since it's really easy to inadvertently use a dog-whistle out of ignorance (I never heard of the watermelon/fried chicken shiz until I was ~17yo), or not have thought through the racial implications of something (like voter ID), I think it's kinda misleading to lump such accidental racism in with intentional racism.

However, my goal posting on line isn't to combat racism. That's something I do in real life through my activism. In fact, IRL I don't call anyone a racist to their face... I just try not to personally deal with them.

Word.

Sounds like a great rap name for a white guy who thinks he is more clever than he actually is.

Casual T?

Money2Burn, no reply?

I'll have a bit of a go. I think its the hardest question of this type I have to grapple with..

The redistribution of wealth to poorer countries via trade has been one of the greatest things that has happened in my lifetime and long may it continue. The sickening exploitation that can be involved with this is disgusting. When I can tell which products to avoid then I try to do so but information is sparse and the upside massively too big to just boycott everything.

More information and law is the best answer but its such a tricky area that it's where I'd like to see companies have publicly stated policies that they're legally accountable for.

I understand that I'm very privileged in that it makes only a small difference to my standard of living either way.

This was the third best selling rap album of the last 15 years, behind two Eminem albums. It is the second most sold album by a black artist behind Usher's "Confessions" in that same period. It is literally called "Get Rich or Die Tryin'." Stop pretending you have any idea about rap music or hip hop culture.

Punk is the genre that has closer to zero ****s about getting paid.

I'd go with the anarchists for that. Compare:



with



both punk but one sub-genre was so much more about the $$$s

Fantastic comparison.
Crass, rudimentary peni, et al. pretty much acted allergic to money. Those were the types of punk artists I was thinking about when I made that post.

In light of recent developments down in Texas, I'm thinking "E-balla" trumps. He's sick with it.

True, plus there was that reality show. But he's another example of a driven and creative hip-hop entrepreneur, one who parlayed his marginal skills as an early "gangsta rapper" into a pretty successful career in mainstream show business. I'm far from a hip-hop scholar, but I always thought he was a cut above many of the other early rappers in terms of political and social commentary.

From 1991 (lyrics NSFW):

Solid read. I was a huge Ice T fan back when that video came out. Love his metal band Body Count. The irony of him playing a sex cop on tv, while embracing pimping is kind of odd. Though,as I recall, he does not advocate abusiveness towards women and sees pimping like management. Definitely a talented cat.

I don't understand this post. People have been calling for his ruination for half a decade or more. Practically every ATF Politics thread in that time has been directly or indirectly related to him. Every thread in ATF about Wookie's unfair moderation is specifically talking about how he regularly infracts and bans non-liberal types for things that are not as bad as what Fly does every single day.

In fact, it was the fact that spank cracked down a bit after Fly said

that got Fly's fanboys' to get their jimmies rustled and harass spank until he was demodded.

Don't forget about the time Ice-t dressed up like a kangaroo for one of the WOAT comic book to movie adaptations.

It's not really a secret whose gimmick Fly is.

Unless you meant like the actual person.

I'm actually terrible at putting people on ranges, but I balance that out by making it impossible for others to put me on a range.

It's not a personal attack when the person is a troll and mostly faking...

It's also not fair to compare a person who is not used to being attacked being attacked with an especially vile accusation to one who is attacked with obviously true accusations regularly.

But most important of all, what really got to Bruce was the dog piling. I think he would have been just fine if it had been only one person doing it.

Not to mention that the idea of emulating a sociopath because they react better to highly emotional situations is pretty silly.

So really, you are simply making a category error here.

Yeah, no.

I thought I handled the autism thing pretty well considering my child was getting tested for autism around the time that was posted. I remember kurto stopped me from banning Silverman2 when he made an autism slur in that same time period because he hadn't been specifically warned about that kind of behavior.