I have been having, what I think, is an interesting discussion with Socialismsuckz. We don't agree on a whole lot of things, but I think that on many of those items we aren't as far away as it seems. One thing that it seems we always come back around to is the issue of the corporate elite and its role in controlling world events. We disagree on some elements of that, but on that overall thing, we agree on. If you also agree, then I hope you read this and add to the discussion of what to do about it.

First a summary of other things we discussed:

I hope he will correct me if I have this summary wrong.

We both agree that Islamic states are bad and generally abuse their citizens as well as supporting terrorism outside their borders. But, on the other hand, we agree that the Muslims we personally know are fine people, good Americans.

We agree that the issue of transgender children is problematic. We differ though on underlying issues. I tend to think that the desire of some children to be a different gender is real and intrinsic. I believe there is significant research to support that. I also believe that there is a research that shows ignoring that or trying to force a child into natal gender roles can lead to depression and even suicide. Of course, no child should be encouraged or pushed into adopting a non-natal gender role, that would be equally and maybe even more damaging to the child. But if gender dysphoria is a real thing, then we as a society need to support those individuals who have that issue. That's my opinion. Socialismsuckz believes it's more an issue of social programming or pressures from outside the family encouraging or pushing children into gender dysphoria. I haven't seen research on that, but if someone has some, then please I'd like to see it. But overall, though this is an important issue for the sake of the individuals caught up in it, it's not an issue that is personal to me. I'm concerned that it be handled correctly, but ultimately, I can leave it to professionals and don't feel a need to be personally involved in it.

We have some disagreement on Second Amendment issues. I support gun ownership, was raised by an ex-Marine and we had lots of guns around our house, a Springfield, numerous .22 rifles and pistols, a Colt Commander .38, a few shotguns, some old six-shooter with an ivory handle, a Mexican Revolution era Remington of some kind...just all kinds of stuff. My friends and I would go out in the woods and set up a shooting range, buy a bunch of bullets at Wal-mart. A lot of fun. Probably not very safe. Anyway, yes, so I support things like Red Flag laws as long as there is reasonable due process to back it up. Socialismsuckz sees them as a sneaky away to take everybody's guns away.

So you can see sort of the break down on this. But I don't want to debate those things in this thread. I would like to see a productive thread discussing how to deal with one thing we both agree on:

There is a corporate elite (and I would say it is a transnational elite) that exerts undue influence on public policy in ways that harm the public. We might disagree on the harms. This is what I see:

*the corporate elite maintains economic systems that allows the rich to get enormously richer while the working class stagnates or gets poorer. Look at the intrinsic contradictions between the interests of the elites and the rest of us (the 99%). Elites want to cut labor costs which leads to stagnate wages, off shoring jobs, automation. That means we don't have jobs or we have jobs that don't pay well. What do we, the people, do about that?

*the corporate elite meets regularly to design systems to continue to maintain that power. I believe that by and large, they do this publicly (for the most part), but of course, they talk outside of large conferences and meetings and whatnot. We're not part of that decision-making process even though we have a nominal democratic republic. What can we do to have more power within this system that is controlled by the elites?

*I see these policies harming the public in ways such as getting us involved in "forever wars" in which the elites make bank on non-competitive government contracts, by paying off politicians to continue policies that are leading to environmental catastrophe, etc., etc. What should our foreign policy be based on? When should the US get involved in armed conflicts? Are there other ways to address our national interests (not to mention defining those national interests)?

I see all these other things like whether we teach about slavery in school (its part of our history, that's just a fact), concerns about transgender children, etc, as distractions, ways to divide all of us while the corporate elite just keep doing their thing.

So, what I would like to know is: what are some specific ways to address corporate rule in the US (if not globally)?