In recent days, even those who are exceptionally well-disposed towards Tomislav Tomašević, the mayor of Zagreb and one of the two leaders of the Možemo! movement, had to wonder whether he is indeed an underqualified politician and the ideology he supports.
First, he unsuccessfully attempted, from close range, to score a basket at the opening of a renovated gym in an elementary school. Then he sponsored and opened a conference (registration was charged) on degrowth, a trendy leftist concept according to which the solution to humanity’s problems, simplified, lies in giving up growth. This should be led by wealthy societies.
Tomašević demonstrated how untalented a politician he is and how willing he is to support ideas at the level of a flat-earth understanding of the world around him. If giving up competition with capitalism by abolishing GDP growth and starting radical wealth redistribution is the prevailing ideology in Možemo!, then the last hope for anything useful to emerge on the left spectrum of the political scene in Croatia as a substitute for HDZ’s rule disappears.
Imitating Bandić
First, about the embarrassment of the mayor’s inability to score a basket from close range after ten attempts. It seemed that no one would ever surpass the former mayor Milan Bandić in that shame when he crawled in socks on a snow-covered grave and tried to place a wreath where he intended. But here, Tomašević is a serious competitor. A politician should know whether he knows something or not. Tomašević’s movements show that he is completely uncoordinated in basketball. Then there is the thoughtlessness of trying to reach a height of 3.05 meters in a tight shirt. And finally, the worst message is that he stepped onto the court in shoes, not sneakers. What kind of message is that to children? One wonders, if the mayor so thoughtlessly attempted to score a basket, is he not similarly careless in more serious city matters? Such as waste management, for example.
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When it comes to supporting the radically left idea of degrowth, things gain further weight. The problem is not in defining the problem. Capitalism is indeed in a serious crisis. The gap between a small number of the richest and a large number of the poor is widening. Growth has been provoked for an entire decade by printing money, which has caused inflation and disproportionately inflated taxation of the poorer segments of society. Climate change peaks are largely a result of insisting on growth at any cost. It is a disaster when a politician like Tomašević supports salon leftist philosophers who could not come up with anything smarter, to say nothing of the feasibility of stopping growth in the developed world because it will, supposedly, help the poor in Africa. With such salon genius on the left, the right can maintain power for years with minimal effort. It would be interesting if the degrowth advocates provided their thoughts on how to implement what they advocate as a genius solution. Of course, the team finds it beneath their dignity to activate their brains on such reflections. They are on their philosophical heights, compromising left political and economic thought.
