A more polite set of monsters
As Steven Salaita says on Facebook:
Trump is unusually crude and boastful. As a result, nearly all his actions highlight a reality obscured by more cultured politicians: the ruling class, in both its conservative and liberal incarnations, has unadulterated contempt for those with less power.
He governs with an overt desire to repress dissent, maintain white supremacy, and reinforce economic iniquity. The problem isn't the desire itself, but his unwillingness, or inability, to understand that in a capitalist liberal democracy these things are structured to be implicit. He sees no need to manufacture the consent of the dispossessed. He embraces plutocracy. He obsesses about status. He openly deploys propaganda. He violates the longstanding Democratic and Republican covenant to never cast doubt on the fundamental goodness of the United States.
I detest Donald Trump, but I also recognize that in some ways his inelegance and stupidity are an asset.
That's it! That's what the ruling class hates in Donald Trump -- he's a less polite monster. See, everything would be totally kewl with it if our march to oblivion were supported by a government that could offer the world suave rhetorical flourish while it destroys nation-states, runs interference for the world's polluters, and covers up scores of banking crimes. Donald Trump will be doing all that as well, but without the suave rhetorical flourish. In fact, he's basically an oaf. Well to heck with that! Resist! General strike! And when pressed as regards who you really are, deny!
One tiny little ray of light into this picture was apparently cast by Bernie Sanders last week in blaming the Democratic Party for failing to get a grip on reality. I dunno, Bernie. When the chips are down, Bernie, will you go back to blaming the Russians?
Meanwhile, for instance (and this is going to be a very short for instance -- I do not have the time here to enumerate all the wrongs done to actual people while the nice liberals have been away worshiping the fictional ones), Black people are broke, and they're being pushed out of cities. They're also being pushed out of that great Hillary stronghold, California -- at some point the push was delivered with the help of California's favorite Democrat, Kamala Harris. Start with 13:40 of this video by Irami Osei-Frimpong:
But hey, that's only the physical world, over which the invocation of Democrats counts as a talisman to ward away nothing. What power does the mere physical world have over people when compared with the awesome might of the social imaginary, in which moneyed (D) politicians fight the eternal battle of good versus evil against the moneyed (R) villains, and especially that archvillain Donald Trump, whose main claim to being Hitler is that he can't keep his mouth shut?
At any rate -- and this is to reiterate a point I made in a previous essay -- it's all fine and well to protest; in fact, please protest with the entire repertoire of the Ruckus Society's tactics in mind, and do so as often as you can! But, yeah, I'm still interested in that real world in which the protests are taking place, and in whether or not that real world has any relevance anymore.
Comments
My fear thoughts exactly.
Trooping through the streets, Light Brigades, all old stuff, which they ignore. Or uselessly slam. We have become powerless in this State. How to take back power (which we never had)?
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
Thank you!
Their problem with Trump is indeed not so much morals, but manners.
I think they also have a problem with the fact that Trump is a little less vetted and trained than they'd ordinarily like, which means there's a slightly higher percentage chance he might occasionally do something they don't like. They're aiming for absolute control, it seems to me, and anything less is undesirable. Either Hillary or Pence would be preferable to the carnie--and I bet that's how they see him, too. It's always good to remember that Trump is very good friends with Vince McMahon, and makes a fair amount of his money entertaining the masses (god knows why the masses find him entertaining, but that's another story). It's a small game to provide casinos to the bottom 90%; you're supposed to turn the entire world into your casino, and make your money through your bookies on Wall St.
"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
Great post
and I feel the same. I know I too have a tendency to panic at all the latest outrages, the daily outrages, but I constantly tell myself this is only the true face of the thing. It would be no different under Shillary, she'd just be more subtle is all. While she wouldn't be banning Muslims outright or conducting ICE raids on Latinos, she'd be too busy killing them.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
Well you know --
Honduras and stuff...
"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama
I enjoyed this essay.
Trump says we need to kill some Muslim bad guys and their families, too, and there is a freak out.
Hillary goes on tv, says we came, we saw, he died, ha ha ha, but she did it with a tremendous practiced grace, so it's different. Amirite?
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
The diff between Donald and Hillary was style, not substance.
The resistance to Trump is in many ways against his raw naked style. This whole ban issue shows that. I was myself not aware of what Obama did previously--I try to keep up put was not aware of his actions. Trump builds on what Obama did and protests. Mention what Obama did and it goes down the rat hole, or my point that Obama dropped over 50,000 bombs on Muslim countries makes me a Trump lackey.
Don't forget intelligence!
Hillary Clinton is quite a bit smarter than Donald Trump. The problem for Clinton, of course, is one of what she does with her considerable intelligence.
"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama
@Cassiodorus You can have a smart,
You can have a smart, well-practiced lunatic, or a less smart, amoral asshole with basic sanity.
"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
@MrWebster Partisanship rots the
Partisanship rots the brain.
"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
People just love
purty talking and endless streams of bs.
Ugh.
dfarrah
The just started collecting
people in so cal and austin to ship away. ice. I am so upset. Keep the faith bro, we are all in this together. Work harder not madder.
Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation
Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook
This was on my Facebook feed from an hour ago
Friends in Los Angeles:
ICE Checkpoint on Van Nuys Blvd. and Oxnard St. Spread the word in the SF Valley.
"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama
Thanks Cassidorus
this is the best essay I have read here in a while. There are demonstrations, rally's and events all over the place here in Portland but they all seem to be about the monster Trump! It's hard for me to get out there and resist as I think this resistance is aimed at the nasty symptom and does not address the disease.
To make matters worse I look at what the duly elected Demorat's in congress and in my city, state and county are up to and it's the same anti-democratic nasty agenda wrapped and packaged socially liberal. As a far leftie purist I cannot get behind what even the progressive's are passing off as obstructing this scary loud mouthed asshole clown.
Ask me the ruling class duopoly are just going to let him rip and detour people's righteous resistance down Trump's street. He's perfect to do their dirty work. Like The Mad Bomber or any of the Demorat's are going to stop the fascistic 'way forward' of the global oligarchical collectivist's. Bernie will save us Draft Bernie right now! I resist the Demorat's as they installed this overt monster and will do nothing to unseat him as it would as Nancy Pelosi said be 'irresponsible'.
I get a lot of grief from people who identify as liberal or progressive for not believing that Elizabeth Warren is a heroine or that Obomber was a classy great president and a victim of the racist RW deplorable's. Trump is a handy foil for the psychopath's that rule the world. They have even dusted off that inane meme 'don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.'https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_is_the_enemy_of_good. More like "Never let a good crisis go to waste". Disaster capitalism taken to the limit.
Right now I have a god awful cold/flu that has prevented me from participating in the 'resistance' but as I read the calls to hit the street locally I'm dubious as they are all about Trump's behavior . I can't help thinking that any effective resistance coming from 'we the people' has to be directed at the whole rotten to the core political/governmental system.
There is nothing remotely good about any of this duopolistic political horror show to be the enemy of. It's all political theater and I just can't suspend my belief to blame the odious Trump for what has brought us to this point. I will resist but not under the banner of lesser evil's or greater good's. A pox on their whole fascistic mad global NWO.
"Wrapping his arms around Putin" was laughable and yet people believe this bs. as it is easier then admitting to or looking at the reality of what's going down. Yesterday someone I like in real life posted on fb that Jill Stein was an agent of the RW and Putin. For proof they linked to an establishment propagandist 'fake news' piece of shit story which had a picture of Jill sitting at a table at some conference with the latest evil Goldstein, Putin. How come people of good spirit regardless of their political ideology on the tweaked left/center/right spectrum cannot look beyond the fake reality that the oppressors tell them is the inevitable only possible world.
To be sure --
lots of protests is GREAT! Yes please let's inform everyone of all the ICE checkpoints and so on. But let's also be for something substantively different than the Democratic Party, which offered a slightly-milder version of all this as all the nice liberals were looking the other way.
"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama
The onramp to actual thinking is too steep
Many of us have sensed or seen it being raised centimeter by centimeter for many decades and have an engine of some kind to gun. For those on foot there's no entry sign, only a blank wall that has always been there. And cheerful young couples in a nearby neighborhood stop in the aisle of he market to admire each other's infants.
It is class and style, not the issues.
We shouldn't keep underestimating Trump, though. If he were really stupid, he wouldn't be in the White House now, despite the Democratic Establishment, the entire Republican Establishment, and all the media opposing and sneering at him for more than the past year. That was no small thing to pull off.
@Sunspots
Unless his money actually is 'bigly' enough to talk and make more sense than he does?
I still have the feeling that he's in, at least in part, to make the next Corporate Candidate look better by comparison, after Trump finishes showing through more illegal 'law' to cripple the law-abiding against making any self-defense. And I suspect that the idiots feel that the Coronation of Clintons will be demanded at some point by the outraged and desperate serfs, since they are allowed a 'choice' of only what the privately owned Two-Faced Corporate party permits them to 'vote for'.
Since much of the dirtiest work would have already been done, with the Dems naturally unable to do a darned thing about any of it, she might even make a pretext of being gentler, maybe even find some old lube lying around... On the other hand, they're all so literally lunatic and worsening all of the time, so that part's hard to guess. The big thing with them is that there's nobody else to vote for, of course, and Homeland (In)Security will make damn sure of that - and that The Chosen One Wins, every time.
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.
I believe Hillary spent a multiple of what Trump spent.
True, "bigly" is a lower class wording. New York City crude.
We outraged and desperate former Democratic serfs were desperate for change. For me, no nuclear WW3 and no TPP were critical, as they would have made all other options hopeless.
I think most people who voted for Trump (or maybe we should say against Hillary) were also sick of the Weakman style "leader," who said nice things but then was inexplicably helpless to make any of them happen. Always, someone else was in control to make sure that we couldn't have nice things.
On tactics, especially after all the flack about Obama playing 11th dimensional chess, there was an interesting article lately about one way to actually win at chess:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-02-09/trumps-game-chess
The writer was starting a chess club and was lucky enough to get Kasparov's chess coach to teach him, who said, "You are not very good and there isn't time to teach you the right way. But, I can teach you simple rules that will enable you to defeat anyone that doesn’t study chess full time.”
...
@Sunspots
Couldn't agree more and do very much like your points, especially the last one. I think we've all spent too long watching that tactic being used against us all by those holding public offices intended to serve the public interest, yet being all-too-commonly referred to as 'ruling' even by some among ourselves, showing the effects of the propaganda trap on general perspectives...
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.