Cat and Mouse in Partnership: Fox News Explained

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If you want to understand modern American politics, read “Cat and Mouse in Partnership”, by the Brothers Grimm: the story teaches an important lesson about how the ultra-rich exploit the rest of us. The cat is like the 196 Americans -- the .0000063 percent -- who contribute close to 80 percent of super PAC expenditures. The mouse is like everyone else. The .0000063% use their contributions to buy politicians, who write the laws as their donors wish (deregulation of the financial sector, minimal corporate taxes, minimal taxes on investment income) in exchange for the donations. As a result, they get richer and the rest of us get poorer: the richest 400 Americans now own as much as the bottom 150 million put together. But the cat tells the mouse that they're friends and that the food is for both of them. That is what advertising is for. That is what mainstream media coverage is for -- to convince us that the laws are for everyone's benefit. And the mouse believes the cat and waits patiently to share the food. And while the mouse waits, the cat keeps sneaking off and eats everything -- including, ultimately, the mouse itself. Thus far, like good little mice, we have continued to re-elect the politicians who have been bought off -- if we even bother to vote. And nothing changes. The system continues to operate to the advantage of the (fat) cats, who take more than their share of the resources. And "kill" (read: marginalize) us if we dare to expose their hypocrisy. Because they don’t want the other mice to find out what’s really happening. And because they don’t want to even admit it to themselves. No one wants to think of himself as the bad guy. As the final line of the story goes, "You see, that is the way of the world.” But the world can change . . .

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