[Poem] Louigi For President

 By Emmit Other

The supreme court says Presidents are Immune

Everyone not a blood money bribed dem

Says the Dems have lost the working class

Why not make two great separate tastes

Come together

And elect Louigi for President

Felons can run

That precedent has been established

And he has done the job

We want in a president

He can personally take care of the 1%

One at a time

He can pardon himself

And get out of prison

And he will be protected by the secret service

Louigi for President

If for no other reason

Than to piss off 

The assholes calling him a murderer

Baileyism - Mr. Potter

 Henry F. Potter (Wikpedia doesnt say what the F stands for but I imagine its Fucker) is the villain of our tale, and thus our philosophy.  He isn't just capitalism, he's late stage capitalism.  Does anyone doubt that Mr. Potter would be buying stock in Google, Microsoft and Apple because of their collusion on the Gulf of America in a criminal conspiracy against the people of the United States of America and should be charged accordingly?  He would invest in Blackwater, Blackrock, Goldman Sachs, Blood Diamonds, Tesla, Space X....the more evil the capital, the more he wants it.   He is described as a "robber baron" but to me he is more than that.   He is the face and the very personification of capitalism.  The actor who played him was well known as a voice for the Christmas Carol but Ebenezer Scrooge was a humbug skeptic who saw no use in humanity; there was redemption possible there.

Can you imagine the length of the chains for Mr. Potter?

The wonderful thing about It's a Wonderful Life is that it also is alternate universe fiction; and Monotheistic at that.  There are two timelines highlighted well and clearly.

The Baileyverse - Baileyism and FDR Social Democracy and Community all exist and America is the American Dream.  This is Hollywood reality.  Its a reality where you can imagine Captain America and Superman and the Forces of Good triumphing on a regular basis over the forces of evil.

The Potterverse - A slightly dystopian (at that time) mirror of the existing universe of what the world could be turned into where one man owned a whole town and trashed it for maximum enshittification and profit simply because he could.   This is our current reality.   The Satanic Tech Alliance, as well as Big Finance, The Military Industrial Complex and Big Housing all love this part of the movie and would happily use AI to edit it so that Mr. Potter won at the end.

Do you remember the rich asshole in Moulin Rouge, who pays for the "Spectacular Spectacular" and demands that the evil Raja win because rich people deserve to win? That's the Potterverse.  The Potterverse is so pervasive in our minds that unless you are already a dedicated anticapitalist, the Baileyverse seems like pie in the sky.  Bear in mind that of course there is a third category of people who believe that the Gubbamint could make everything better and that it would swoop in and solve everyone's problems and arrest mean old Mr. Potter and put him in jail for making a profit.

Socialists and Communists are a big fan of the Gubbamint universe and let's even pretend in their magical fantasy that instead of making it so George was never born, Mr. Potter wasn't and George was the mayor of the town.  George, one must remember, at the beginning of the movie is very much an optimistic capitalist; he wants to go see the world and get rich; the typical American Dream.  Of course the truly delightfully subversive nature of the movie is that it shows a different American Dream is possible; where everyone owns a home in a clean safe small town where Capitalists can do their filthy thing but have rules and regulations and boundaries.

Here is the problem with the Gubbamintverse....democracy which is VERY strong in the film even if the word democracy or elections are never mentioned.  This is variations on the AMERICAN dream, and you cannot have America without accountability of the elite; and simply put most examples of these gubbamints are at the point of a gun.  Having a bunch of thugs from out of town pointing guns at people changes the genre of the film entirely.  

It doesn't fit.  It doesn't belong.  

Long term, if America's will is broken to accept Autocracy, it won't be America anymore.  It might call itself that, but the spirit of the thing will in no way resemble the ideal.  To those opposed to the Empire of course, this is just deserts; but...I don't know about you but I find such people unpleasant to talk to and why would I want to or ally with them or allow them to affect dialog or my own thinking?

Such people, like Maga, have no part in a civilized society much less civilized debate.

But does Mr. Potter?  I personally don't think he does, but I can't be everywhere nor am I a god.  I believe I could enact a society that forbids Mr. Potter to exist or be a citizen or have rights and still be Its a Wonderful Life; but I have a very powerful fertile imagination and others simply can't.  And we want to actually affect change, in a positive way, not just find a pipe dream for whichever dictator (including a hypothetical me in this situation).  

It doesn't work.

But that's the wonderful thing about Baileyism.  IT does.   It allows regulated capitalism and simply bypasses it in a cultural fashion.  It doesn't require pointing guns at people, it just sets up a Building and Loan protected by the pittances of people paying in to it to barely withstand the forces of Mr Potter like an acorn until it grows and grows and grows and stops them.

Remember the actual Acorn and how the nazis destroyed it?  And how? By taking over the gubbamint.  If you have democracy, you will have conservatives like ants at a picnic.  And unless people are willing to suddenly find my ideas appealing, conservatism is never going to be outlawed.  But if you dont conservative proof your society, you are doomed.

The PURPOSE of Baileyism is to resist the Potters of the world, and do so in a way that lets a community thrive and grow.  Imagine a world where there wasn't just a Building and Loan but every shop in town was designed to keep Potter Out.  Imagine if instead of being Boomers, the next generation had been anti capitalist and learned the lessons of the movie to protect themselves from Potter Jr and Potter the III and Republicans.

Baileyism - The Tree Guy

 In Its a Wonderful Life do you remember the tree guy?

"House owner : You must mean two other trees. You had me worried. This is one of the oldest trees in Pottersville.

George Bailey : Pottersville? You mean Bedford Falls.

House owner : I mean Pottersville! Don't you think I know where I live? What's the matter with you?

[He proceeds toward his house. George is completely bewildered] 

George Bailey : Oh, I don't know. Either I'm off my nut, or he is...

[to Clarence] 

George Bailey : ... or you are!

Clarence : It isn't me!"

This asshole cares more about his fucking tree than he does about the man who just crashed and is injured.   This guy isnt a conservative like Mr Potter; hes a liberal.  He is the guy who pops out from under a rock on daily kos to distract an article about something and change the subject for his paid DNC masters.   Fact checkers for nazis.  Grammar nazis and spell checkers for nazis.

These are the people who, while we worry about Musk and DOGE and they will spend ten comments saying that you said that what they are doing violates s38-b when it was ACTUALLY s38-a.   Wrapped up in their own little world where their interest or word definition or dogma matters most to them rather than having empathy for people or opposing fascism

Baileyism is about dojng the right thing because of Tree Guy.  Earlier in the movie, the guy who wanted $2.35 despite fucking over everyone else was also a tree guy.   Tree guy will kill baileyism because he wants the gubbamint to solve all our problems despite what we are seeing now about how bad that is when nazis take over the gubbamint

And tree guy is also the first amendment freak that believes nazis deserve unlimited free speech even though they will use that speech to chop down his tree and plant it as a burning cross in his front yard

The Virtues of Unlimited Speech

 We have allowed Capitalist Technofascists and an Emolument Clause Violating Bribery Network to collectively cow all major media companies into reporting the old boring white guy as mentally incompetent and the actually clinically insane slowly actually dementia fat lard sociopath minimized with a fake assassination attempt and to perform multiple illegal action with no word mentioned, multiple protests barely mentioned all practiced while a genocide was committed for real estate speculation and all mention of protest was suppressed ir considered hate speech against a protected class of which about a third support the sociopath as president because he will let the genocide continue

But the liberal unlimited free speech freak will say that the alternative is worse.

Which is why people that advocate unlimited free speech should be treated like Flat Earthers.

The World Should Unite Against America

 America under a Trump is a threat to world peace, and the free world should unite against America and coordinate both militarily and economically to lock the most insane two men in history to run it

But they wont; it is in the self evident logical self interest for them to do so; but they wont, and the primary reason for it is conservatism.

The UK is run by a labour government right now but due to a conservative press and a drubbing by the conservative party the poodle Kier Starmer is running the most conservative labour government in history.

Germany just surrendered to the AfD and because Sholz loves Russia, the conservatives were leading the pools for the next election.  Nazis literally were just allowed to vote on meaningful legislation for the first time in eighty years and its because of conservatism.   France is being run by a center right fool by the name of Macron who locked the left out of power despite nazis at the gate.  Italy has embraced Trump.

Australia has more Murdoch press.

Canada was going the conservative route until Trump picked a fight with them, but make no mistake; every country in the world is gonna be bullied by Trump and anyone with a lick of sense can see it.

But no one can step up and lead to coordinate a response because they need to watch their backs with nazi conservative media.  Now that all american makor technology companies have revealed the technofascism I warned about in the Sins of Silicon Valley, the conservatives are coordinating their lies and their alternate facts and attacks on democracy.

The next step is the gleeful global celebration of the murder of protesters in the US.

It's when, not if.  Maga takes pride in spouting a lot of words but ultimately when cornered admit, literally, before my eyes that facts dont matter to them.  Their own pain doesnt matter to them.  Their childrens future doesnt matter to them.

They only wanna "make the librards cry."

That is the face of demonic evil; nazism is on the march in a global wave funded and orchestrated by capitalists and technofascist billionares

So the ultimate destination of conservatism and capitalism is demonic evil.

Why do we allow it?

What good, seriously, has conservatism ever done any society?  Ever? In the history of mankind?

Resistance to change for its own sake? Empowering the worthless elite and the anti immigrant and the culturally repressivr? Whats the point of this except to make small pointless people feel large?

What enlightenment bullshit is it to give unlimited free speech and freedom of association to people who ultimately only care about murdering liberals?

Nothing.

There is no point to it.

None.

Baileyism - Liberal Democracy Means Nazis Sometimes in Gubbamint

Our well meaning liberal friends are free speech absolutists, which means no outlawing Hard Right Parties, no outlawing Hard Right "news" and platforms, no outlawing the rich from owning newspapers, no outlawing the rich from funding parties (especially hard right ones) and there are, all over the world, enough liberals that no left leaning coalition is possible without them.  It means that the right and eventually the hard right will always eventually be in charge of the government part of the time, until the democracy isn't.

Baileyism is about the fundamental understanding that any system is going to have flaws, and that if you are attempting Utopia, you need to have something more than just trying to use the gubbamint to help the confederation of Identities or the less fortunate.  You need to figure out how to do good in this world in more ways than one.  The people of America have grown so use to the gubbamint as a source of good that, now that we have nazis working to actively do as much harm as possible, a lot of good the gubbamint has done, the liberals are looking around like floundering fish out of water with open fish lips and flapping around in moral outrage while people drown.

Baileyism has no time for that.

The more intelligent are already organizing into cells, but most of those people are direct action type.  Like, let's go rescue immigrants being targeted by ICE or protesting minorities being threatened by proud boy militia.  And those people are the immune response of civilization; but you can't build a body with just white blood cells.  Civilization and the things that make life livable, much less the infrastructure that have a livable or free society requires more than just running around putting out one fire after another.

We need infrastructure to build infrastructure independent of the gubbamint and independent of the liberals who hate good people and hate the far left.  The liberals are just as much of an obstacle to utopia as the hard right nazis.  Eventually, a functional society will need and allow liberals but to achieve utopia we need to counter intuitively do good work without the liberal, since the liberal is also the royal faction of the left.

Ever notice how in most table top role playing games there is the 'royal' faction? Like the Venture in Vampire the Masquerade? The faction that feels entitled to power for its own sake? Yeah that's the liberal and thus as the loudest voice in the room most of the pawns and ants on the left are drawn to them.  Pawns and Ants are the cells that make civilization possible, but no good of any kind will come from trying to keep them from following the liberal.

Baileyism is about building utopia in spite of these people

Baileyism - Neutral Good and Thugs

First of all, let's address the elephant in the room using a "Christmas Movie" after Christmas.  I had to start somewhere, with something, and let's also remember the fact that it's a wonderful like was originally release Jan 7, 1947 which isn't even in the stretchy definition of what Christmas constitutes like Epiphany.   Second of all, this movie still checks every box I'm looking for as a framing device to discuss what we need.  So if using Christmas Movies released after Christmas to fix the god damn planet bothers you, there's the door and feel free to step out while the world around you burns.

Ahem.

Anyway.   The DND alignment system is trite and simplified but a highly useful framework to demonstrate the kind of philosophical thought exercise I wish to describe in Baileyism.  The whole POINT of the entire exercise is to strengthen the commons, strengthen civil society in SPITE of government.   Until we have enough non governmental infrastructure to educate and unite against Hard Right Maga liars, until we have enough anti capitalist inertia to be able to tell the truth against Nihilionares no matter what they do, we need to use our still existing right to free association to bypass them.   Using the DND alignment axiom; with Chaos representing the individual and Law representing government, Neutral Good is where there is an alignment between them.

George Bailey is Neutral Good.  The Bailey Building and Loan is an institution, created by private individuals that can empower the rest of us to have enough power, time and prosperity to unite against tyranny.  Time and again in every problem facing society, we see 'we can't solve this problem because of X' usually with X being something related to Capitalism.   The infamous Powell Memo should not just be a historical evidence of crimes against humanity but also a blue print of how to fight capitalism.   Everything they did, we can do better and build parallel infrastructure that doesnt depend on government, doesn't depend on magical supermen coming from the sky to save us.  We need to build the tools to help us build private neutral good infrastructure that can, by private association, exclude Hard Right and Maga ruiners or agents of chaos that mean no good for society.

Government, as powerful as it is, is a tool that the left has relied on for far too long.  A properly done government has significant disadvantages that a private civil society does not have.  A government must equate for all its citizens; ergo it cannot exclude Christian Nationalists.  A government is often slow to adapt.  A government also responds to elected representatives, which ensures that the rich corporate oligarchic masters are able to wield disproportionate policy.  

This philosophy requires courage and faith.   Just like George Bailey.  Which is why I choose him as a template.  No one MAKES George Bailey sit with the building and loan and ensure the decency in the lives of the people he helps in the movie; it is a private choice by a private individual.  But he makes a world of difference.   Can you imagine how much better the world would be with more such individuals and the equivalent of the Building and Loan in finance, in tech, in newspapers, communication, entertainment and more?  Altruism is a powerful tool that can build more altruism.  The belief in Eucatastrophe, a better world despite what the cynics say has the power to make it so.

Mr. Potter, and his rampant greed is objectively Neutral Evil.  The two men stand in silent but legal conflict for the soul of the town.   While entirely off screen, there is zero doubt in my mind that from time to time Mr. Potter has employed Chaotic Evil thugs to terrorize the opposition to get what he wants, especially in the darker mirror world of Potterville.   To the Neutral Evil capitalist, any tool is a means to an end.  So too, for the Baileyist, should any tool that isn't evil be a means to save the Bailey Building and Loan.  The Government? Sure.  But also the work of people, always striving towards its mission to provide the people of the town better homes.

Neutral Good is the central point I make about the philosophy.  Government is a useful tool but at the end of the day, it is critical to remember it takes a village and a village is more than town hall.   So often Anticapitalist dogmas get lost in the weeds with this kind of argument.  As problematic as the DND alignment system is for any moral or civic framework; remember that its a better starting point than the libertarian lie which tries to make libertarianism some special ideology whilst ignoring its roots as a tool for capitalists and utterly ignoring the anticapitalist roots of true anarchism.  Capitalism is evil.   There are few exceptions and certainly no conservative ones.