Why Conservatives Hate This Fact About MLK

With celebrations of MLK Day around the country Dr. King's views on race relations are always highlighted - what about his views on economic or social situations in America? Cenk Uygur and John Iadarola (host of TYT University and Common Room) break it down on The Young Turks.

[UPlayNetwork]

MLK is an american hero, every american should be proud that we had such a person fighting for civil rights

[tetsubo]

I am reminded of a quote I read years ago, "They didn't kill him until he started to talk about class."

[AvangionQ]

"We must rapidly begin the shift from a `thing-oriented` society to a `person-oriented` society.  When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered." / "One day we must ask the question `why are there forty million poor people in America?`, and when you begin to ask that question, you are raising questions about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth.  When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy." Martin Luther King, Jr ... brilliant, such amazing quotes that still ring true after all this time ...

Corporations have taken capitalism beyond the limits of its scope, where that profit motive towards their shareholders exceeds their responsibility to their workers, to the communities they serve and to the environment as a whole.  That profit motive has created a world where the wealth inequality allows the 85 richest people to exceed the wealth of the bottom 50%, and the top 1% to have 65x more combined wealth than the bottom half.  At some point, this dam has got to give ~ either by soft redistribution or by hard revolution, and I'm for the former, not looking forward to the inevitable latter.

[LackOfAnatomy]

3:40
Although I'm a Scandinavian, I have to play the devil's advocate here:
There is no way to accurately measure "happiness". I am always flabbergasted when I hear people quote this and say that it necessarily makes a country better. People's happiness is purely based on what standard of living they are used to. Think about this comparison:

A Sudanese family is given a basic house as a roof over their head, given enough food to survive for the day and are given access to water. Imagine the same things being given to a Danish person, a Swedish person or an American. Do you think people in the west will be as happy with a living standard like that compared to a Sudanese family?

[scrapingyines]

Should've used this quote: 
""I imagine you already know that I am much more socialistic in my economic theory than capitalistic. And yet I am not so opposed to capitalism that I have failed to see its relative merits. It started out with a noble and high motive, to block the trade monopolies of nobles, but like most human systems it falls victim to the very thing it was revolting against. So today capitalism has outlived its usefulness. It has brought about a system that takes necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes." - MLK, jr. 

[richardmulledy]

People keep trying to bring up the nuances of Dr. King's beliefs as if they are controversial. A Protestant minister was in favor of helping the poor, yet against gay marriage and abortion? Madness! A man who was constantly harassed with death threats applied to own a gun? Insanity! Look, Dr. King was a brilliant individual with whom you may choose to agree or disagree on certain issues, but for goodness' sake, don't act like liberals OR conservatives should completely hate him because *some* of his beliefs contradict theirs. If we all learned to compromise, fix the things on which we agree now, and work on the contentions later, much more good would get done.

[JKCWvids]

"You think this can last? There's a storm coming, Mr. Wayne. You and your friends better batten down the hatches, because when it hits, you're all gonna wonder how you ever thought you could live so large and leave so little for the rest of us."

[Humptydumptytribe]

My favorite MLK of all time (from 1966):

"There is no human circumstance more tragic that the persisting existence of a harmful condition for which a remedy is readily available. Family planning, to relate population to world resources, is possible, practical and necessary. Unlike plagues of the dark ages or contemporary diseases we do not yet understand, the modern plague of overpopulation is soluble by the means we have discovered and with resources we possess."

[mkratos]

wonder if MLK was a time traveler because he was ahead of this time too bad he couldn't have been president back then

[korrdxl]

Whenever I see an MLK quote I think "I wonder where he plagiarized this from."

[kinglink]

5:08 I they actually talked about that in school, I can just imagine the screaming crowd of people yelling "liberal socialist propaganda in our schools-they're coming for our kids!" 

[bveracka]

1:06 - I can't agree more. There have been many great Americans, but few so great and so incredibly enlightened as Dr. King.

[Pythagoras]

John asks, 'why is it that we feel we have nothing to learn from Scandanavia even though the people there are much happier?'... it's because the ultimate aim or purpose of Western societies is NOT the well being and mental health of the majority of people. So no we have nothing to learn from Scandanavia 

[LegendaryAntiHero]

Great analysis on Martin Luther King's speech. Conservatives must've hated him when they heard this part. They don't want us to know he was against poverty.

Also, isn't it technically 3 quarters of the world covered by water?

[rangers]

As a Conservative i have no problem disagreeing 100% with MLK's economic views. I know TYT would try and viw that as being racist, but it just doesn't concern me.

"Why is it that people have to pay water bills in a world that is 2/3 water?" 

That to me is clearly a comment that an idiot would make. 

Now, i agree with him on things like Vietnam and racial equality. But again, most idiots should be able to see that Vietnam was not good strategy (albeit harder in his day), and that blacks should be treated equally as whites. Most schoolchildren could tell you that.

What i celebrate, is his guts and bravery and how he can convey passion to inspire literally millions of people.

He can have his opinion on the economy, but i don't see the relevance that Conservatives disagree. It's perhaps only relevant to FOX news if  they portray MLK as some super right conservative, which sadly he wasn't 

[JONATHANRHUMPHRIES]

Martin Luther is was a man of courage just as much as his namesake's originator was in the 16th century.  Luther made the Bible the most read book in all of the Wester World, refused to support to the hypocrisy "selling indulgences", as well as publicly contradicting one of the most powerful men in all of Europe, Pope Leo X.  

His actions began the Protestant Reformation, and though he is lauded as being one of the most important Germans ever, he was an anti-semite and spent a good portion of this final sermon ridiculing Jews.  

Over 500 years later, MLK is annually celebrated for his non violence and civil rights leadership, even though MLK also may have had some choice words that would rathe be struck from his legacy.  

Irregardless of the words the men once uttered, it was their actions as men of faith and provocateurs of change that live one today as a testament to our gut desire to be as a society of grace and mercy.    

May your legacy be heralded atop the highest peaks for ages to come, Martin Luther.   

[savvasithaka]

the exact particulars/phrasing of how cenk talked about healthcare around 4:00 is one of the best ways to talk about that topic, especially the "false patriotism" bit. Those words should be used for messaging on that issue.

[Comp]

If MLK were here today, he would not be happy with Obama.

[AnkhEmFentu]

Thanks for revewing other topics of MLK, other than " I have a Dream."  There is so much more to him.  As just as Cenk stated " The man is brilliant!"

[Nemophilist]

I'm pretty sure that Scandinavian countries are Western, John.