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Amanda Clark's avatar

I live in Indiana and I had no idea that this political party existed. Can’t say I love any of their ideas either. Which is perhaps why I haven’t heard of them.... 🤔 Interesting read!

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Bryan Padrick's avatar

Thanks! I just found their very existence interesting.

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Amanda Clark's avatar

It's fascinating and not at all what I was expecting from the title. I was envisioning a rum soaked party hosted on a slew of boats on some sun-drenched coast. A political party was not even on my radar. Its an interesting choice for a name…. 🤔 Theyre obviously trying to appeal to a very particular subset of people.

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Bryan Padrick's avatar

Stoned college students?!

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Amanda Clark's avatar

😂 Yep! I think that pretty much covers it.

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Kevin Rose's avatar

While the phrase “people before corporations” sounds good, the reality is we live in a world economy where over 80% of the GDP of the entire world is dominated by the 200 largest transnational oligopolistic corporations on the planet.

Individual countries are powerless to control wealth, cash flows, tax rates, and employment generated by these corporations. Any legislation passed by nations are met by these corporations simply optimizing and shifting their markets, revenues, costs and taxes by shifting operations and activities to the most lucrative and least expensive countries.

This leaves countries competing for these corporate to do business in their jurisdiction by offering tax concessions, environmental concessions, cheap labor, and resources.

If the US Supreme Court reversed Citizens United, and other “people first” legislation, these transnational oligopolies would simply shift their operations, markets, and employment accordingly.

National Politicians and lawmakers - including the US Republican - Democrat duopoly are no match for these global oligopolies.

Hate to poop on your parade, but the US Pirate Party is already dead on arrival.

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Bryan Padrick's avatar

You haven't pooped on my parade - I'd never heard of them until the day before I wrote my piece! And despite reading a lot about/from them, I still can't shake the feeling that the whole thing was dreamt up in a college dorm room after many, many bong hits.

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Mark Lane's avatar

The sea of liberty is certainly boisterous these days! Great post in every facet!

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Bryan Padrick's avatar

Thanks - and very glad you liked it! As for the Pirates ... I can't shake the idea that it was dreamed up in a dorm room after many bong hits and shots of Jägermeister ...

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C.L. Steiner's avatar

Is the Pirate Party active in NC…yet?

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Bryan Padrick's avatar

Good question - I just had a look and there is currently no Pirate Party (at all) in NC. And nothing appears to be on the cards, either. But I've set up a Google Alert in case something pops up about it!

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Terry Freedman's avatar

Interesting. Does the USPP have ideas about how to incentives creators if their ability to earn money from their creations is so restricted?

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Bryan Padrick's avatar

I'd never heard of them until the day before I wrote it - and even after taking them seriously for at least as long as I was researching/writing about them, I still can't shake the idea that the whole enterprise was dreamed up in a dorm room while smoking bong hits and pretending Jägermeister is tasty. It's a good question, but I have no idea what they might think about this - much less the impact on the creative/humanities side of culture. Why does it seem that even well-meaning political groups can't seem to grasp that STEM courses aren't the only ones out there?

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