Richsplaining Liberals
Remember when Bernie Sanders was mocked in the primaries as "not getting it"?
While admirable, Sanders’s “revolution” is primarily an economic one. And despite what he may say, an economic revolution is not tantamount to a sociopolitical overhaul. To put a finer point on it: Achieving a $15 minimum wage will not stop racially prejudiced cops from shooting black people. It will not stop immigrants or refugees from being detained at our borders. Dismantling Wall Street, whatever that means exactly, will not shore up or extend women’s reproductive rights.
Yes. Why would Bernie want to prioritize economic issues? It's such a mystery.
Oh sure, Americans overwhelmingly support Bernie Sanders' economic policies, but everyone knows that minority voters only really care about issues specific to their identity.
Why is it that the Democratic establishment is convinced that we shouldn't prioritize economic issues?
You don't suppose they think that because they are already wealthy so it's not a problem for them, do you?
A shockingly large percentage of these Obama-Trump voters said Democrats’ economic policies will favor the wealthy — twice the percentage that said the same about Trump.
Let's look at it from the wealthy elite point of view for a moment.
They think of themselves as civilized and progressive.
But Bernie's "tax the rich" plans will cost them money.
Being progressive on economic issues is painful when you are already rich. It's much easier to be progressive on gay marriage because it doesn't cost you anything, while you can still signal your virtue.
It explains why identity politics is so popular with the wealthy.
Because the core of a left politics is its critique of and resistance to capitalism—its commitment to decommodifying education, health care, and housing, and creating a more economically equal society. Neither hostility to discrimination nor the accompanying enthusiasm for diversity makes the slightest contribution to accomplishing any of those goals. Just the opposite, in fact. They function instead to provide inequality with a meritocratic justification: If everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed, there’s no injustice when some people fail.
This is why Adolph Reed and I have been arguing that identity politics is not an alternative to class politics but a form of it: It’s the politics of an upper class that has no problem with seeing people being left behind as long as they haven’t been left behind because of their race or sex. That’s why elite institutions like universities make an effort to recruit black people as well as white into the ruling class. They’re seeking to legitimate the class structure, not abolish it.
Identity politics not only justifies inequality, it also works to prevent solidarity in the working class.
It assumes that social groups—say, gay or black—are homogeneous monoliths with uniform interests. And when class isn’t taken into account, socialist critics rightly note that “identity politics” has become a vehicle for the interests of elite leaders who substitute diversity in the White House and on Wall Street for substantive justice. Poor black people and poor white people both face increasing economic precarity and thus share many of the same grievances. Conversely, wealthy black elites share economic interests with wealthy people as a whole—interests opposed to those of the much larger number of black people who are economically marginalized. The same goes for wealthy women or wealthy LGBTQ people.
So it becomes problem when Sanders supporters start demanding that we help out the working poor. You can't signal your virtue, while being against the working poor too (some of them are women and minorities).
Recall that you've spent years mocking and demonizing the white working-class, even to the point of openly celebrating their early deaths.
It's a tricky social status problem. Hypocrisy doesn't translate well.
So what do you do? Or should I say, what do you do in a way that costs you nothing?
Well, for starters you slander Sanders supporters for being racist and misogynist while questioning their motives. No evidence required.
Meanwhile, have your Ivy-league attack dog shills misrepresent Bernie's economic positions.
The slamming of Sanders reflects an enduring status quo defense mechanism which usually begins with allegations of extremism, then mixes in charges of lack of qualification and realism, and ends with assertions of un-electability.
That usually works, but for some reason it didn't work this time.
So you moralize about how progressives aren't helping, that demanding economic justice is the same as "stumbling toward liberal purity", while letting your rabid attack dogs loose.
Meanwhile you enlist your number one weapon - late night comedians - to belittle and condescend progressives for not falling into line and doing as they are told.
What would happen if progressives were to stop listening to those who disrespect them, and start thinking in terms of class interests?
Comments
No, please, Dems... keep harping on that tribalism...
It's no longer identity politics, it's now, "What can I get for my tribe?" Right down to the calls for prosecution color coded to the opposition.
See, here's the thing that even a well designed AI gets, that you DON'T.
If you do the same thing, over and over again, any reasonable human being will learn what you are doing. If they can counter it, they will. If they can't, they'll move on and figure out a way to hurt you.
This is why dropping bombs on people is NOT effective from a "winning the war" method. People can do nothing about it, so it becomes a part of the background noise, while they figure out how to hurt the people supporting the people dropping bombs.
For those who don't know, I'm a wargamer. It's a way for me to expunge the nightmares of my service by focusing on the mechanical, and the challenge involved. One of the things I love most is the "Grotesque" scenario, which originated in chess. In that type of scenario, white is HEAVILY outnumbered, and often has little to no way to win, unless the white player concentrates soley on their own action and exploiting the rules of engagement and positioning. That expands into the more complex scenarios I play, wherein there is often little to nothing you are able to do early game to counter the enemy. As such those scenarios become extremely focused, and it's a great victory when you can eke out a win under harsh conditions.
I admit to rambling a bit, but the point is:
What we have now in the DNC, is a disciplined, well ordered machine... that is very predictable.
It can be beaten, but not by trying to play by their rules.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
well designed AI
.... running on a 6520 processor with 64K of RAM and no hard disk (Commodore 64).....
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Techno-archaeological nitpick: 6502 processor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOS_Technology_6502
MOS 6520
You're right, lotlizard! The 6520 was the peripheral manager IC in those machines!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
@detroitmechworks God bless gamers.
God bless gamers.
It's wonderful to talk to someone who looks at things tactically.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
First Rule: Question Authority
If the message is coming over the TV, it's probably bullsh*t.
@gjohnsit they've infiltrated indie
they've infiltrated indie media too, IMO. A lot of controlled opposition about lately.
One good way of telling the puppets from the self-directed: nobody truly independent tends to believe the shit about Russia in any kind of wholesale way. Another: nobody truly independent uses Joe McCarthy witchhunt tactics on people who merely disagree.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
What they don't get
is that we won't do as we're told, now or ever. They can bash and scream as much as they like, but we can't be brow-beaten into supporting DLC type politics and politicians.
And they can't win elections without us.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
And, they also don't understand human nature.
Samantha Bee and all the others richsplaining? I doubt that helps the democrats much. And, in the end, I'm OK with that. Thank you Samantha.
It certainly helps me get out of bed in the morning and reinforces my belief that the Democratic Socialists will win.
One way. Or another.
What would happen?
Well, I can only speak for myself personally but what happened is that I started voting in my interests and in the interests of the lower 80% of income earners. For this I'm both a racist and a misogynist but I can live with that. Those words mean nothing coming from a Democrat.
A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard
I've actually read some very stupid comments (on youtube)
@SnappleBC that are accusing the Green Party of doing the same thing re:
What bullshit. Not once did I hear Jill Stein or Ajamu Baraka bring up that kind of shit. Youtube, among many other sites, has become a cesspool for the Alt-Right. They can go fuck themselves right along with the 'Centrist' 'Democrats'.
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
I thought most of the smearing of the Green party
... was coming from the Democratic party. Why did you attribute those youtube comments to the alt-right? What possible benefit would the right have for smearing the Green party? We already know why the Democratic party does it.
A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard
Your "celebrating their early deaths" link is broken.
Try this one.
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
There are two reasons really. Yes, number 1 is
they have theirs so they don't give a damn. (But they won't continue to have theirs unless they stay on their kneepad servicing the 1%)
The second reason they want the attention focused elsewhere is because when people are discussing, debating, and researching the economy we find out exactly how it was that they GOT theirs.
Can't have that.
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
While admirable, Sanders’s
Again you're right gjohnist. I mean let's break this down.
Don't think anyone said that a $15 wage was going to stop cops from shooting black people. Kind of an odd thing to compare. But yeah, a $15 wage can allow people to... I don't know... survive to afford the things they need?
Dealing with Wall Street has significant ramifications in several sectors that are impeding our progress, but yeah don't think anyone has said that somehow dealing with Wall Street will suddenly produce birth control in every mailbox.
Democrats care about the current economic model. They are more concerned about getting women as CEO's but have little care for a woman who is in poverty.
Symbolism
Symbolism over substance. That is a primary characteristic of the meritocracy and the Democratic party.
They can point to their symbols as proof of their own (self) righteousness. Bur when it comes to the real changes that would make everyone's lives better, they have to resort to name calling.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
There's a meritocracy in the Democratic Party? n/t
@Strife Delivery As I said the other day,
As I said the other day, LGBT folks like myself used to be outlaws (with all the bad and good that suggests); now we're fashion accessories for Democratic politicians. Like a flag lapel pin.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal As a fellow LGBT, I
As a fellow LGBT, I completely agree.
Democrats state that they fought for LGBT rights. Wrong. They opposed them. PEOPLE, not Democratic politicians, fought for LGBT rights. Then when the smoke was cleared, the Dems swooped in and claimed the victory. Fuck that.
Also, flag lapel pin, nice comparison. Starting to see myself as nothing more than a bloodied cudgel.
"Hey can we talk about the disastrous effects of climate change and... OF COURSE YOU HATE IDENTITY POLITICS AND LGBT PEOPLE"
"Any talks on healthcare and...THAT WON'T HELP LGBT PEOPLE"
"I could use decent housing and work...MONEY WON'T HELP LGBT, STOP THINKING ABOUT MONEY WHITE MAN"
Dems don't give a shit about me. As you pointed out, we are the latest fashion accessory trotted out to make them feel good about themselves. But the moment we ask for help (besides anything pertaining exclusively to that facet of our person) we are ignored.
Just so tired of it.
@Strife Delivery
Exactly! It's the amassing by the relative few of money and power stolen from the 99%/their government/policy/public funding/resources/environment which more easily enables the amassing by the relative few of all of the money and power, stolen from the 99%/their government/policy/public funding/resources/environment - right down to their absolute destruction. Good to the last drop of life-blood.
A smart parasite would never kill off their host/life support system, but pathological, mindless greed is blind, even to self-created hazards, believing that those so afflicted with megalomania are 'too special' to suffer the fate of those despised/dismissed ordinary mortals - or the global life support system - they so expediently/eagerly kill off for all of the money they thereby render useless.
They really do seriously believe that money can buy them everything. Including, in at least some cases, an unliving 'immortality', this possibly being why they believe they'll survive MAD and the deadly nuclear dimming (and anyway are engaging in/short-term-profiting from/OK with for-profit 'geo-engineering' producing similar effects and ultimate results in the near future) which will polish off the global oxygen, etc. producing life cycle along with the pesky hoi-polloi, once drained of whatever remains of all that they have and becoming, as they think, unnecessary to their existence.
Drives me nuts that these are given flattering titles such as 'The Elite' which carries their self-serving 'Us iz exceptional!' meme and spreads that 'Mammon Rules!' propaganda message by using terms implying they're the 'best of the best' and 'the cream of the cream' when they're so very clearly not. They're typically-psychopathic or deluded and appallingly ignorant parasites/lackeys and should be labelled as such, not as 'entitled elite destined rulers/advisors/directors' under their own meritocracy evaluation dependent upon accumulated extreme wealth drained from everyone/everything else, too-often by ruthless/criminal extraction.
Basic human worth is inherent and cannot be measured or allotted according to individual financial status - at 'elite' hundreds-of-millions/billionaire levels often indicating the presence of destructive mental dysfunction/illness - by those regarding these as the elites of this psychopathic self-defined meritocracy, whether because including themselves or their paymasters within.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Whenever Rich tries to explain anything
I just tune out.
Awful bloke.
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
I woke up to the sound of chainsaws.
Over at the spinning TOP they were clear cutting Bernie Bros. Out out damn spot. Like lady Macbeth once you have blood on your hands it don't wash off your brain pan. Oh the humanity! In an effort to understand as our Precendent says "what the hell is going on" I'm going back after yoga class when I've collected a little Eckart Tolle park bench calm. I tend not to be overly interested in politics per se, but more as a neo Malthusian, it's economics and macro issues of limits to growth that interest me. Still politics is an ugly step sister to those issues. And it's certainly getting ugly over at Kostopia. And I certainly agree with the well founded issues presented by this diarist.
Ha
I try to have a range of things I read to gauge the general vibe.
Found a comment from DKOS:
"C99 did irreparable harm to the Democratic Party, not just Clinton"
Wow, Jesus.
I mean I like C99 and all here, but I don't think we have this super-mega-awesome power that was just described. But that is the thing. That level of delusion, of ignoring reality. Blame everyone and everything else.
WOW!
We're powerful! Let's use that power to continue to effect change! YAY C99P! GO TEAM!!
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
I love it
Do you have a link to that?
I'd like to know if we're going to be the next Netflix Marvel superhero show.
@gjohnsit http://www.dailykos
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/05/08/1660063/-If-we-agree-on-the-issues-why-are-so-many-on-the-Left-fighting-each-other
I'm an asshole
According to Markos.
First of all, much of the border already has a wall.
Secondly, Obama deported more immigrants than most presidents before him.
But mostly, I want single-payer is because it will save thousands of lives.
However, many of them would be white coal miners, and Markos already said he wanted them to die, so I can see where his priorities are.
But I'm the asshole.
"Safe and secure" apparently doesn't mean a roof over your head and food in your kids belly.
It seems Markos doesn't believe that economic issues are important to Latinos either.
Markos The Tolerant Censor.
It makes me wish I could get bojo'd all over again.
Markos should keep telling people to fuck off
It is working so well.
Seems like the denizens of TOP
think that we are all assholes here at C99.
It’s like the old, ideologically rigid East German government
heaping opprobrium on anyone who fled to the West after its equivalent of the “Ides of March decree” — the building of the “Anti-fascist Protective Wall,” begun two days before the Ides of August 1961.
A posting by TOP’s proprietor dramatically describes the serious nature of “flight from the community-policed ‘veal pen’ of tolerance and diversity”:
Yeah, well he sure did make us go away
and just look what happened when he did that, his girl lost the race, booohfuckingwhoooo....
With a little luck I hope we make HIM go away. Forever. Not as in violence but as in irrelevance, not to mention a little bad Karma that hopefully will bite him in the ass one day.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
More good stuff
Gosh. Those people at C99P sound terrible.
Denise Oliver Velez ...
... doesn't like it when someone "... has the guts to say shit to (her) face (and not hide) under the veil of screen names". She was one of the reasons I left TOP.
For context, I have never hidden behind a screen name, and tend to speak my mind. Just an FYI.
"...sludge sites like C99" - Denise Oliver Velez
could we work this into our advertising?
Denise Oliver loathes "sludge sites like c99". Sounds good!
c99
at the blue water pool
truth is the rule
fools go to be schooled
all are kept cool
and everyone plays in the water.
motown acts did not go to Monterrey, wanted no part of otis redding & Stax band.
check donald "duck" dunn on bass. solid! Back then all Gulf Coast blue-eyed soul bands wanted to sound just like Redding's.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/14/arts/music/duck-dunn-bassist-in-booker...
edit. loathes for avoids
I don't know
I sorta wish she would stop by, just so we could ban her.
no really, that would be great.
challenge her to come over here & throw down!
thing is, we wouldn't have to bully or ban her.
they are repelled by truth & reason, as the vampire is by garlic & cross.
bet she won't come, but I wish she would.
@gjohnsit Has anyone
Has anyone actually been banned here? For the most part I haven't ever really seen anything (pure anecdotal I know) that has required the banhammer.
Robots and drop in trolls
have been deleted or self immolated in the time I have been here. From what I could determine No Actual Humans Were Harmed during these purges.
Ban? Nah!
I would rather school her in how we can have discussion and disagreement without being arrogant and disagreeable.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Ahhh... the sweet sound....
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCQGQ5qBQTA]
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
If that were true,
wouldn't the oligarchs be showering JtC with cash and prizes?
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
Maybe they are
Maybe JtC is an oligarch
made my day, guys!
lolol.
Dammit! We obviously didn't do enough
damage because here they are again, the 'You should have KNOWN we're liars and cheats' Dimocrats AND the Clinton Creature, back from the politically dead (again).
Both are as rude, crude, loud, dishonest, and obtuse as ever. (No matter what Sanders says.) I'm thinking it really might take something drastic next time.
And Tesla Boy really needs to get a hint that this latest rant probably doesn't impress anyone. What's he gonna do, start banning people and then watch them start their own website? And then bitch about that? Stupid little man, they're already crying about one site that started out that way.
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
We should learn from the Russians.
there's a lot at stake.
Flattery will get you nowhere Kos,
and we're tired of your bag of tricks. What are you trying to do anyway -- persuade your followers of how evil we are, or threaten them with excommunication if they don't agree? It looks to me like thine Left eye hast offended thee, and thou hast plucked it out. There's really no point in trying to stick it back in again. I guess you'll have to settle for walking around half blind.
native
@Strife Delivery We did? Irreparable
We did? Irreparable harm! Glory hallelujah!
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I'm going out on a limb here
but this has been on my mind. Perhaps I'm raggedy-annsplaining this to anyone who will listen, but I assure you, the elite will say I'm wrong, and I might be.
It occurs to me that many people in America today 1) have too much time on their hands and no money; 2) have no time on their hands and no money - for a plethora of reasons - debt slaves; more than one job necessary; etc.
That leads me to think that if well paying jobs were provided to the people, that would reduce crime, it would provide stability to people, keep their little hands busy, give them enough money to afford their lives, allow them to make positive choices in their lives, etc.
Economics is the second most important thing in people's lives. What is being done to we, the people, in the name of "freedom" and "democracy" is criminal, but we are allowing it.
We see it happening and seem to be in disbelief.
The park thing - I hear they want the uranium - makes sense if they are nuclear-happy.
Too much crap is flowing in and out of my consciousness. It's disturbing.
I'm with Big Al - we've got to change the system. They are slowly co-opting our very lives. Changing the system is the only solution.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
In our system, "economics" is survival.
If you'd like to nourish yourself then you need to discuss "economics". If you want to keep yourself warm in cold weather you need to discuss "economics". If you want to have a place to live you need to discuss "economics". In our system the absolute basics of survival are 100% connected to economics.
There is no way to say that you are for some group and then not want to discuss the economic situation.
A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard
Paraphrasing Bubba
You ask:
To paraphrase the arch-Centrist Sellout (redundant, I know) himself:
Corporate Centrists have stripped mined Economic Populism from the Democratic Party
as its go-to, Bedrock Principle because, very simply, you cannot beg for Wall Street Dollars and talk Economic Populism at the same time. It is the Centrists' job to make sure that never, ever happens again.
After all, the Era of Big Government is over, no?
If Obama and Hillary don't go away,
we will absolutely have Trump and the GOP for 8 years.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Minimum!
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
And they don't have the wisdom or the guts to admit
@PriceRip that they were the ones who were clearly in the wrong. Just like Hillary, they're blaming everyone BUT themselves for their loss. To say that racism and sexism didn't play a part in why people voted for Dipshit Trump would be foolhardy, but the bigger reason Hillary lost was the fact that she cheated Sanders and tried to race Trumpy Boy right off a cliff after she was crowned by Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Ignoring the rust belt and refusing to talk about economic issues didn't help the entitled one either. And with the way the party and Orange State continue to go, it's obvious they'd rather let Republicans run rough shod over everyone than actually govern in the best interests of the voters/constituents. God forbid if they ever have to give up the Clinton corporate gravy train. How the hell is Orange State even still alive?
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
I'm convinced that GOS gets generous
infusions from the PTB, and all it cost them is their soul.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
@dervish
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9-KRo8IQ1I]
What a joke, @strife delivery!
And a bad one, at that! Rec'd!!
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
@orlbucfan Throwing out some old
Throwing out some old Mortal Kombat love, what's not to like?