[Discussion] Pushing the Overton Window back to normal

Republicans have fought a systematic campaign over the last few decades to push what is considered the political middle-ground, called the Overton Window, to the right with, frankly, absurd views on economics, the role of government, criminal punishment, gun rights, abortion, and science denial. To the point where being decent to fellow human beings is now a leftist position. Come up with some absurdly left-wing ideas to promote in order to push the window back to, at least, normal.

  • No health insurance at all, just straight up free healthcare
  • Free healthcare and Social Security for pets
  • VA benefits for SJW's and innocent victims of The Culture Wars (TM)

Thoughts?

1) nationalize all private property
2) LEO cannot be armed with anything more deadly than a whistle
3) reduce military spending by 99%
4) UBI
5) State sponsored higher ed
6) reparations to all groups hurt by colonialism
7) enforced diversity via quotas
8) hate speech laws on par with Germany
9) empower citizens to protect personal property
10) criminal justice reform
11) reduce prison population by 90%

That’s a start.

Guillotines. A lot of guillotines.

But seriously, I’ve always liked the idea of a Maximum Wealth policy... essentially one can only hold X amount of liquid assets at any time, anything beyond that is redistributed, preferably in the form of social programs or Basic Income.

Return to WWII tax levels until we no longer have troops in combat zones abroad.

Remove LLC's. No more limited liability unless you're working primarily on public works.

All purchased stocks or similar investments have to be held for at least 10 years. I'm open to longer.

Take 50% of each military branch's funding and shift it to a new "Infrastructure Force" that is mainly tasked with building roads, bridges, levees, etc. They'll still have combat training and function as reserves.

Nationwide gerrymandering reform. All districts are drawn by the same logic nationwide.

Also, everything that's already been said.

You know...I didn’t follow the instructions of the thread. I just posted what I would genuinely like to see. I suppose in order to move the Overton window, we would need to move into the authoritarian left category:

1) gulag (“detention centers”) for the following:
-saying taxation is theft
-all religious people
-anyone with a Blue Lives Matter photo on their social media
- anyone who voted for Trump twice
2) the guillotine, as referenced by ruhk above
3) culling of the bourgeoisie
4) replace the text “under god” with “I apologize for trump” in the pledge of allegiance
5) institute new trail of Tears for anyone with genetic ties to the Confederacy, to be relocated in Lybia, where slavery is flourishing

That’ll push the Overton window. It’s also on par with what the Right is currently pushing, so I stand by its extremism.

Come up with some absurdly left-wing ideas to promote in order to push the window back to, at least, normal.

hmm...

replace the Supreme Court with the nine most 'Liked' posters from P&C

Seth wrote:

5) institute new trail of Tears for anyone with genetic ties to the Confederacy, to be relocated in Libya, where slavery is flourishing

that's ironic in a surprising way

edit:

Jolly Bill wrote:

Remove LLC's. No more limited liability unless you're working primarily on public works.

Oh, this reminds me of something: all corporations must be unionized. Corporations are unions of capital. They should have to negotiate with similarly-consolidated entities when they purchase labor.

All borders, including state, county, and city borders are to be abolished.

Every citizen is expected to march in one parade dedicated to disrupting business as usual once yearly.

Individuals owning or leasing a full size truck are to be taxed at the highest tax bracket regardless of income.

Top earners must be licensed for their wealth. If they fail licensing requirements, their wealth becomes state property and is placed in human services and education fund.

All identified males above the age of 12 will be required to attend 40 hour human anatomy (with a focus on human reproduction) classes twice yearly with an optional test-out.

Active military members will be required to complete basics civics and life skills classes twice yearly. Their test will be a weekend pass in which they fail if they: get married, conceive a child, do anything to get on a blotter report, purchase any brand of smokeless tobacco, or are unable to to remain sober for two consecutive hours. Failure results in immediate separation and a suspension of future VA benefits.

Likewise, all present “veterans” will be expected to prove it. Like, really prove it. (NOTHING in the 80s counted.)

More as I think of it.

1) Every Confederate statue or memorial, regardless of historical value, will be destroyed. By hand. By forced labor drawn from the membership of any existing pro-Confederate or Confederate-sympathetic society.

2) Every street, park, school, building, etc. named after anyone connected to the Confederacy will be renamed after a black American of historical note. The changes will be paid for by confiscating the property of said members of existing pro-Confederate or Confederate sympathetic societies.

3) Every Confederate soldier buried in Arlington National Cemetery will be disinterred and their remains dumped on the lawn on their nearest living relative.

4) Any person displaying the Confederate flag in any format will have their property confiscated (up to the current value of 40 acres and a mule) and the proceeds distributed to black families. People who do not have property worth the current value of 40 acres and a mule will be required to work off the difference. Additionally they will have to undergo a mandatory, intensive reeducation program specifically focused on dismantling the ideas that the Confederate flag represents 'heritage not hate,' that the Confederates were anything except traitors to America, that the Civil War was fought over state's rights, etc.

5) Fox News hosts and conservative commentators/pundits will be live fact checked. False or misleading statements will be punished by the administration of electric shocks. The duration and power of the shock will double for every false of misleading statement made with additional increases made based on the "whopper factor" of how big of lie was told.

6) Owners, editors, and reporters for conservative blogs and "news sites" will also have their content fact checked. Every week there will be a public flogging televised on every channel and streaming service with ten lashes handed out for every false or misleading statement. Editors will receive ten lashes for every false or misleading statement said by people who report to them and CEOs/owners will receive the same by any false or misleading statement made by the anyone in the organization. Punishments will also be adjusted by the "whopper factor."

7) The income and corporate tax rate for conservative media organizations and their employees will also be continually adjusted upwards based on the number of false or misleading statements made. The increases will be tiered based on how close they are to the lying. For example a secretary of janitor working for Fox News would see their income tax increase by a few percent, but an on-air personality would see theirs increase much more. Executives and stockholders would see the greatest increase. Additionally, the news organization's corporate tax rate would be influenced by the accuracy of its reporting.

8) Political pundits and spokespeople cannot be quoted or appear on air unless they have been thoroughly vetted by an outside organization to ensure they don't have any conflicts of interest or financial arrangements. For example, a pundit couldn't go on air and claim global warming wasn't real if they've received money that can be traced to oil and gas companies (or trade groups), etc. Additionally, pundits and spokespeople will be subject to a "three strikes and you're out" law. If they make more than three false or misleading statements in their career they are banned from any further appearance or quote in any form of media. Each subsquent appearance carries penalty of a million dollar fine and 10 years in federal prison.

9) A Constitutional amendment requiring the public funding of every election and that bans any outside money.

10) A thorough review, audit, and overhaul of the non-profit system. Partisan organizations should not be able to claim non-profit status or hide where they get their money. The right wing is practically driven by billionaires who hand out millions of conservative non-profits who then crank out bogus research, books, movies, papers, etc. that are then promoted by conservative media.

11) Implementation of a civic reeducation program that's based on what people say or post on social media. For example, someone who posts on Facebook about how illegal immigrants are nothing but criminals who are ruining the country would be forced to live and work with a family of illegal immigrants to learn first hand how wrong they were. People who post comments about how black people wouldn't be shot by police if they only followed orders (or that black people were inherently more criminal) would be flagged for aggressive policing. Their car would be randomly pulled over and searched, they'd be stopped on the street or at work and questioned because "they match the description" of a nearby criminal, etc. People who post about how foreign immigrants, especially people fleeing conflict zones, are also ruining the country/leeching off taxpayers would have their entire family dropped off in one of those conflict zones to see what they'd do to provide a better life for their children.

12) Any politician that pushes for a reduction in the social safety net (or "reform" that leads to a reduction) will immediately forfeit their salary. Additionally, they will be barred from accessing or benefiting from any wealth or property they may have (which will be placed in a public trust) and instead be required to live off of said social safety net programs as long as they remain a politician. The acceptance of any outside help or resources will result in a fine equal to 10% of the trust.

Someone in another thread said that Trump and the Republicans will be out in 2020 and that the new administration will be about coarse-correcting the damage done during this one- I’m *moderately* confident Trump will be out in 2020 but thinking that we’ll be able to wipe the slate clean seems the height of foolishness. I joked about guillotines earlier, but I legitimately fear that we won’t be able to even return to the previous status quo without literal blood being spilled. The Republicans were obstructionist before, but now they’ve seen just how far they can push things, and the Democrats are basically useless because they’re more focused on political theater than political progress. They have repeatedly compromised themselves into ineffectiveness because they want to be seen reaching across the aisle and working with their ideological rivals while said rivals have shown zero interest in cooperating.
Every day it seems like there’s a new nail in the coffin of this nation and I just see fewer and fewer options on how to fix things.

EDIT: just so I don’t bring down the room buzz, why not make Tenacious D’s proposals the New Democratic platform?

Here are some more great ideas from the late, great George Carlin (NSFW, obviously):

The next line in his routine after the video ends, by the way, is this:

Spoiler:

And don't forget, the polls show the American people want capital punishment and they want a balanced budget, and I think even in a fake democracy people ought to get what they want once in a while - just to feed this illusion that they're really in charge!

Thanks, everyone. This is wonderful.

Chefskiss.gif

Every citizen will be required to own a single firearm “for protection.” The make and model of said firearm is to be period accurate relative to the drafting of the sacred Second Amendment.

Owning multiple firearms will place you on a terrorist watch, subject you to severe credit penalties, and will count as a “pre-existing condition” for the purposes of insurance.

All ammunition will be destroyed. Future manufacturing of ammunition will be prohibited.

Citizens will be trained in the manual of arms for 18th Century musket and bayonet.

White collar legal, medical, and social services professionals will be required to fully experience brief incarcerations, civil commitments, and/or temporary loss of parental rights once in their professional career. This is to ensure that societal gatekeepers fully empathize with the populations they serve.

“Saying it like it is” will be considered a symptom of potential severe and persistent mental illness.

Golf courses, tennis courts, and horse stables will be converted to basketball courts, soccer pitches, and public green spaces.

All personal internet devices (PC, phone, tablet, consoles, etc) will have data turned off on Election Day until the citizen has voted.

Election Day will be a national holiday.

President’s Day will no longer be a national holiday. They were all mostly trash.

Children below legal voting age will be allowed and encouraged to tar and feather adults above the age of 40 who vote Green or Libertarian party in national elections.

Reaper81 wrote:

All personal internet devices (PC, phone, tablet, consoles, etc) will have data turned off on Election Day until the citizen has voted.

How about we slightly modify that one because a lot of people use resources on the internet to help them figure out how to vote and often do that research at the last minute.

Make it "All personal internet devices (PC, phone, table, consoles, etc.) will have their gaming, streaming, social media, and porn functionality turned off on Election Day until the citizen has voted."

OG_slinger wrote:
Reaper81 wrote:

All personal internet devices (PC, phone, tablet, consoles, etc) will have data turned off on Election Day until the citizen has voted.

How about we slightly modify that one because a lot of people use resources on the internet to help them figure out how to vote and often do that research at the last minute.

Make it "All personal internet devices (PC, phone, table, consoles, etc.) will have their gaming, streaming, social media, and porn functionality turned off on Election Day until the citizen has voted."

Approved.

Also. Social media is now illegal.

Reaper81 wrote:

Also. Social media is now illegal.

But we need social media so that people can out themselves for the FEMA political reeducation camps.

OG_slinger wrote:
Reaper81 wrote:

Also. Social media is now illegal.

But we need social media so that people can out themselves for the FEMA political reeducation camps.

Nah, we can tell by their bumper stickers.

Mixolyde wrote:
OG_slinger wrote:
Reaper81 wrote:

Also. Social media is now illegal.

But we need social media so that people can out themselves for the FEMA political reeducation camps.

Nah, we can tell by their bumper stickers.

And Gadsden flags.*

*Note: The “No Step On Snek” variant is acceptable.

I would like to propose a copyright three strikes policy: any person (including corporate persons) who makes three unfounded accusations of copyright infringement will be permanently disconnected from the internet. This includes failure to consider fair use; if they loose a case where they claimed that a use was not fair use, the jury must decide if they acted in good faith and had a well founded belief that the use was infringing. Parent companies get the strikes of their subsidiaries, and if they sell a subsidiary with a strike, both the new buyer and the seller keep the strike (no fake sales of companies to shift strikes to companies about to go out of business). Since companies that can't go on line can't enforce copyright on line, they forfit the copyright of all of their works for use online (even if the work is sold). If an accusation is of online infringement is made for a work that has lost its online copyright this way, the remaining copyright is transferred to the accused.

3 strikes policy for men online.
1. Expelled from social media for life
2. Expelled from digital payment platforms for life
3. Expelled from the Internet for life

ruhk’s climate change proposal:

All public corporations have two years to offset their carbon footprint. This is a hard deadline. If they can attain negative emissions by the end of the two years they are rewarded by continuing to operate otherwise as normal. If they can only obtain carbon neutrality they can continue to exist, but are stripped of all grants, subsidies, tax incentives, etc. If they are unable to obtain at least carbon neutrality or are unable to do so within the two year window, all assets are seized by the state and the corporation is dissolved. The assets of the shareholders are also seized and the shareholders are dissolved in acid.

I would buy a tiny jar of that acid as a keepsake.

Also:

UBI for everyone except straight, white, men.

Dissolve any company that receives two of the same resume with different names and only calls back the one with the white-sounding name.

It just occurred to me that dissolving all those shareholders in acid could potentially release toxic greenhouse gasses. We should probably bury them alive deep underground where their carbon can be sequestered instead.

Put the current head of PETA in charge of the USDA.

ruhk wrote:

It just occurred to me that dissolving all those shareholders in acid could potentially release toxic greenhouse gasses. We should probably bury them alive deep underground where their carbon can be sequestered instead.

Can we use them as fertilizer for soy farms?

End tax exempt status for all religious organizations. RICO the Catholic Church, Southern Baptists, Boy Scouts, etc over sexual abuse cover ups.

EDIT - rereading I realize this didn’t come off as a Swift’s Modest Proposal so much as a bit of a rant. Removing.