The most vicious enemies of the working class in the United States are bourgeois pseudo-democracy and the combined power of congress and the courts. Just prior to each election cycle a hidden primary is held by the corporate elite behind the voters’ backs. It is through this informal primary that the funders of the election campaigns determine which potential candidate to fund and in effect purchase. Unless the potential candidate is a self funding millionaire or billionaire (who represents corporate interests ipso facto), the one selected through the hidden primary becomes bought property. Many times, especially since the Citizens United...
Big Pharma: pushing harmful drugs
Last year I wrote about the rebellious teenagers ‘diagnosed’ with the newly invented Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) and the highly profitable industry that has grown up to ‘treat’ – that is, abuse – them (MW, January 2012). The American Psychiatric Association has included ODD in the latest edition of its authoritative handbook, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), together with Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder, for people who get angry too often, and Hoarding Disorder, for people who don’t like to throw things away. The biomedical model In early May the Division of Clinical Psychology of the...
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