Hello everyone, I'm Muirén and describe myself as a Pragmatic Democratic Socialist, Cooperative Capitalist, Ecocentric, Socially Responsible Technology Advocate. I live in Berkeley and as unlikely as it may seem, I meet an amazingly large number of Trump supporters among people born and raised here.
The only thing more disturbing are the number of people among my friends who refuse to believe it even when they have heard is straight from a neighbor's mouth. They go into full tilt apologetic mode that amounts to the person in question just doesn't understand what they are saying.
Even it that somehow was true, it doesn't alter the horrific consequences of thinking, acting, voting. I can't pretend to know what is in some dim recess of their heart, but when they commit to acts both subtle and gross that end up having the effect of denial of my civil rights, that is a serious problem.
I wandered into this group because I find myself with few to no opportunities for reasonable conversations about issues of the day, or the cooperative problem-solving projects I am active in.
Welcome, Wanderer. You will find opportunities here.
I’m a long time retiree in Napa County and a few years ago I was visiting the UCB main library to do research. I tell Trump supporters he is educating us and enjoy the puzzled looks I see on their faces.
I want employees to own the companies they work for. Do Cooperative Capitalists want that?
Update: I perhaps should have led with stating that I am a staunch and vocal advocate of Economic Democracy For Social Democracy, and Socially Responsible Use of Technology.
Back to our regularly scheduled program . . .
Cooperative Capital is a step beyond Worker-Cooperatives with an emphasis on Local Investment and accountability to the communities they reside in. Though I have found a few scant references to technology oriented cooperatives the only one near me in Oakland is Communist and disdain any form of capitalism as predatory, a position that cannot be logically defended.
Alan Harding of New Zealand, though a social conservative in many ways, nonetheless offers one of the more progressive but cogent summations of Cooperative Capitalism here, with an in-depth framework published elsewhere on his website.
[co-operativecapitalism.com]
The most significant barrier I have run into is that the legal community here advocating for Cooperatives being normalized has a very specific form of cooperative they want and doesn't appear to include manufacturing through the use of advanced i4.0 tools and distribution systems.
As long as I stay in my lane, focusing on service sector missions like a bakery, bicycle repair, or co-housing for example nobody seems to mind. The minute I start talking about manufacturing durable goods with the potential of growth in scale the velvet gloved iron fist of Polite White Supremacy emerges.
Great Question!
@yvilletom Decades of hard work, so I can with predictably listen to you condescend to tell me my business after admitting you know little to nothing about it in the previous post.
Forget the word Cooperative? The "Big Boys"? Seriously? Credit Unions have been the target of the "Big Boys" for over a hundred years because the Predator abhors a Shepard. Is there some part of Credit Unions being Cooperatives that escaped you?
I worked for a bank that hated the existence of Credit Unions, wasted millions in court attacking them alone and in collaboration with other banks and politicians in their pockets, so what ANY competitor are you taking about, name a single credible study that supports a word you said.
Not only are there dozens of studies contradicting you, Forbes and Economist have published several analyses suggesting the reasons for the growth of various models of cooperative capitalist.
Robert B. Reich's last 3 books enumerate the historic and financial assumptions that make more socialist business models healthier and more profitable for workers and the communities they reside in.
Business isn't an orthodox religion, culture is not immutable, money and business forms are inventions and innovations. I have an evolutionary innovation in cooperative operation.
Since you take no responsibility for what you express here, trying to talk with you is a waste of time.
@yvilletom Really? So, you think the handful of words calling you out for your hubris takes some great effort. You didn't answer because you cannot and now this. Please, wake up from the fog of implicit narcissism you are living in.
This was not only testing your character, but that of the larger community and its pretence of a progressive community that by their silence condones your behaviour.
The truth is that you have saved me a great deal of time.
Posted by KilltheskyfairyIt’s the only way…
Posted by KilltheskyfairyIt’s the only way…
Posted by KilltheskyfairyIt’s the only way…
Posted by HippieChick58Donnie thinks he had every right to interfere with the 2020 election
Posted by KilltheskyfairyHappy Labor Day!
Posted by KilltheskyfairyHappy Labor Day!
Posted by KilltheskyfairyHappy Labor Day!
Posted by KilltheskyfairyHappy Labor Day!
Posted by KilltheskyfairyHappy Labor Day!
Posted by KilltheskyfairyHappy Labor Day!
Posted by KilltheskyfairyHappy Labor Day!
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Posted by KilltheskyfairyCorporate greed!
Posted by KilltheskyfairyCorporate greed!
Posted by KilltheskyfairyCorporate greed!