Is this the new Russia?
I took a look at TOP this morning and saw this on the front page:
From Charlottesville to Netroots Nation: white supremacy is everywhere—even in progressive spaces
The word that caught my attention was "everywhere". It reminded me of debates I've had on TOP that too often ended with statements of "All white people are racist!"
It's an effective way of ending a debate, but that's the only thing that statement does.
Let's ignore that fact that most of the people that got ran over in Charlottesville were white.
Instead, let's ask a rather obvious question:
Are there really that many white supremacists in America?
That depends on how you define "white supremacists".
For the writer of that diary, everyone who chanted "Let her speak" was a white supremacist.
This leads us to a situation where anytime a black person wants to end a debate and a white person doesn't, it must mean the white person is a white supremacist. Any other motivation is automatically ruled out.
That isn't the only ridiculous situation that's happened recently.
As with the Red Scare, there’s some reason for vigilance regarding actual racists, as Charlottesville reminded us. But as with the hunt for Communists under every bed, the scare tactics far outweigh the actual problem.
The New McCarthyism revealed its full absurdity this week via the ACLU’s Twitter stream, which had the temerity to post a picture of an adorable young toddler holding an American flag and a doll with the tag line “This is the future that ACLU members want.” Because the girl (TRIGGER WARNING: I assume it’s a girl, given the doll) happens to be blonde and Caucasian, the ACLU was promptly attacked – the ACLU!
...Did the ACLU, a group once known for taking brave and unpopular stands, hold its ground or, better yet, simply ignore the online rabble? Sadly, no. The organization shortly responded with a Kermit the Frog image saying “That’s a very good point” and the post “When your followers keep you in check and remind you that white supremacy is everywhere.”
Come again? This lovely young kid holding a flag equals “white supremacy”? Who even thinks of such things?
Good question.
I group them into two general categories.
This is the future that ACLU members want. pic.twitter.com/bAIwuheEco
— ACLU National (@ACLU) August 23, 2017
When your Twitter followers keep you in check and remind you that white supremacy is everywhere. pic.twitter.com/Qx5D5hbKWy
— ACLU National (@ACLU) August 23, 2017
Little kid with flag = white supremacy
Got it @ACLU good to know where you guys stand— austin de la joya (@austindelafrog) August 23, 2017
Some people, like the diary writer on TOP, live in constant fear, and expect you to respect his/her fear, whether that fear has been blown out of proportion or not.
In that way he/she is much like Republicans and their fear of Muslim terrorists. Muslim terrorists, like actual white supremacists do indeed exist. And if you are on the constant lookout for it, while you are motivated by near debilitating fear, it's not a surprise that you see it everywhere.
Other people have a political agenda, and they play with redefining words to accomplish this.
To you and I, white supremacy has a specific definition, usually associated with Nazis and the KKK. Maybe unknown to you and I, it got redefined in some circles.
A good example of this is the word "privilege".
But politics aside, 19-year-old Tal Fortgang wrote a compelling argument against having to “check his privilege,” outlining the hardships his own family faced in getting where they are today. It resonated with a lot of people, and you know what? I understand why. If I believed that “white privilege” was a term meant to diminish my personal achievements... if I thought “white privilege” meant that I had to apologize for things that happened before I was born ... if I thought that “white privilege” meant that I need to be ashamed or embarrassed for being born white... if I thought that “white privilege” dismisses the very real hardships and challenges that I’ve had in my life... if that was my understanding of white privilege, I’d probably be a little resentful about it, too.
...This is what I find so frustrating about Tal Fortgang’s piece. He didn’t take the time to learn what white privilege means, and instead railed against it in an essay that clearly shows his lack of grasp on the subject.
No, that isn't the problem. Tal didn't do anything wrong.
The problem here is that Tal understood what is the dictionary definition of "privilege" and responded accordingly.
priv·i·leged (prĭv′ə-lĭjd, prĭv′lĭjd)
adj.
1. Enjoying a privilege or having privileges: a privileged childhood; privileged society.
What's been done in liberal circles is that they've broadened the definition of an inflammatory word, and then just expected the listener to understand what they meant.
That's not how it works!
It's the obligation of the accuser, not the accused, to make themselves understood.
If necessary, the accuser should use different, less inflammatory words in order to get their point across.
Instead, too many liberals put the obligation on the accused to understand their redefined words, and then use circular reasoning to justify their opinions when the accused takes offense. It's the typical thinking of someone who believes themselves smarter and/or morally superior than others.
There is no legitimate reason to redefine inflammatory words like "supremacy" and "privilege". Nothing prevents anyone from getting across their points with words being defined in the dictionary.
I have to think that those who do this are looking for confrontations, not solutions.
And it isn't working.
Comments
Nailed It!
I genuinely appreciate you visiting TOP so I don't have to gjohnsit. You are a braver man than I am. I hope you didn't click on the Comments Button. PTSD Counseling is available.
I participated in a number of Los Angeles BLM protests. Once I got in a political discussion and was stunned with the retort that Planned Parenthood is a program of genocide against the black race!
I tell people all the time, Ignore ignorance and walk away from Stupid, so that's what I did.
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
I don't so much visit
...as I do skim past.
The only time I look at comments is on the rare occasion someone calls out Markos, or something like it.
Wow really? I *rush* to the comments
I already know what sort of useless drivel I'm going to read based on the title and hovertext. So I scan the diary and only stop and really read it if it has gone off-script somehow.
The comments are where people get to really express themselves so I read those with great interest. I'm fascinated by what the various contingents think. There are the obviously paid shills. Then there are those who are clearly intelligent but just as clearly wildly disconnected from reality. I'm intrigued by how, exactly, each person has been joggled loose from actual reality. I feel like the better I can understand their delusions the more I can understand how those delusions are going to effect me and what I might do to push back.
I don't get offended by anything I read there because, in my mind, they're all a bunch of matrix people doing their matrix things. I'm sure it's all very important and "real" to them. Even so, they aren't the right people to ask about critiques of the Zion defense plans. I think I got over being offended by matrix-opinions about 5 years ago.
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
Yeah
"The only time I look at comments is on the rare occasion someone calls out Markos, or something like it." They are worth the click.
Is that even still allowed?
I figured that was in the "ban-able offense" category at this point.
don't feed the trolls
Also known by its online equivalent, "Don't feed the trolls!"
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Ignorance can be cured
Stupid is forever.
I don't mind engaging with someone that is ignorant, as long as they are open minded.
Hell, there are plenty of things I'm ignorant of.
Are there that many white supremacists in America?
Yes, there are. But that doesn't mean we need to post their photos online in hopes of getting them fired from their jobs for attending a perfectly legal rally. The momentary sense of satisfaction we get from doing that obscures two things:
1) Do we really want to go down that road? Do we know where it will end?
2) Nothing good came of it. We just turned a radical into an unemployed radical, is all. And I think we know where that's going to end.
Which may actually be the point. The relationship between the alt-right and the social justice warriors is on the verge of becoming dangerously symbiotic, if it's not there already. One is reminded of the neocons and Islamic fundamentalists, wrapped up in a battle that neither side is trying to win because the battle itself is the gravy train.
And there are more Islamic radicals now than there were before we invaded Afghanistan.
"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum." --Noam Chomsky
May very well be the point.
All you have to ask is who benefits from all this?
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
Interesting point
I hadn't considered that.
You are probably right.
I have a hard time believing that there are all that many real white supremacists, but it depends on how you define 1) many, and 2) real white supremacists.
There's no point in debating it until the meaning of the words is agreed upon.
For instance, I just watched this video
About half-way through I was thinking "This is a lot bigger than I thought."
And then they said, "Only a thousand have signed up."
Which is not "many" in a nation as big as ours.
So there is no doubt that white supremacy is more out in the open these days, but is it bigger?
Maybe, maybe not.
Chris Hedges and Ajamu Baraka
Wow! I've never heard Baraka before.
Injustice Collector race-baiters and white supremacism
Oh, it's definitely "there already".
Back when I still went to Daily Kos regularly -- a habit I kicked on March 15, 2016 -- I often wondered how much the KKK were paying Denise Oliver Velez and Markos himself to keep up the race-baiting they were doing. And yes, the common abuse of "privilege" and the continued insult of commenters and Diary authors for no other reason than being white is nothing else besides race baiting.
I used to wonder how much the KKK was paying the people who did that. If I were the Klan, I would! You post Diaries gloating about poor, mostly white, union coal miners losing their health insurance and dying for it, and sauce that behavior with more anti-white bigotry and race-baiting, and it's the Ku Klux and their ilk who benefit. Markos, Denise Oliver Velez, etc., may think they're taking up arms as honest social justice warriors, but the reality is more like:
[video:https://youtu.be/XTGmTrQXrwg]
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Yeah, remember the "Pied Piper" strategy?
Where Team Clinton deliberately elevated both Donald Trump and his white nationalism because they thought (bigly wrongly) that doing so would redound to their benefit?
They sent toxic ideas over the airwaves because they thought they would personally gain from it. What is that, if not this same symbiosis?
"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum." --Noam Chomsky
"Facism" has its proper
political and historical definitions, but the colloquial meaning -- X policing and suppressing Y's thoughts and expressions -- is every bit as accurate. Assuming one has the authority to violently attack someone in a way that is aimed at destroying their dignity is just plain old evil and infantile.
Orwell: Where's the omelette?
It’s evil & infantile to promote throwing urine & feces at folks
Or otherwise dabbling in pee and poo as a political tactic.
Infringe others’ rights to free speech and assembly? Shut down civilized discussion and open debate? The heck with that. When anyone starts doing that, they’ve lost me. They can justify it as “anti-fascist” or whatever. I don’t care.
TOP has become a very angry place
It's gotten increasingly difficult to participate in serious discussion or collaboration at TOP post-election. Anti-white sentiment continues to grow and isn't even called out.
bigotry
It's called "bigotry" and is supposedly against the published rules of the site. But it's OK when the targets are white people or those making under $50,000 a year, or both.
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
@thanatokephaloidesIt's called "bigotry"
It does amaze me the way that Dems find themselves unable to really grasp what they are truly saying.
How many times do they frame something as being against POC, women, LGBT, disabled, etc. Often it is just shorthand for POC and women.
To start, why do they need to include women as its own category? POC for instance can be men or women, so why need to include women? Oh that's right, cause then they can include WHITE women, see? White women OK. White men bad.
But when they start going through their categories of people to state who white folks are against these people, look at the categories: Women (they can be white), LGBT (oops they can be white too), disabled (white also).
They try to simultaneously stand up for these people even though they can be white. If you're a white LGBT, uh oh you now a white supremacist...but Dems say you are ok cause you are LGBT but then you're still white so...
In the end, divide and conquer is the easiest game around and sadly it works so wonderfully.
I Recall The Nephew Pie Fight
I was already fed up and done with the orange steaming pile of shit and The NEPHEW flame war broke out. Holy mole with a guacamale canole did I rupture an intestinal ligament laughing. I did some lurking for a while and Professor Denise Oliver, IIRC, was supremely arrogant about anyone who had the nerve to question her authoritarian authority.
It's hard to believe GOS keeps getting worse and going further downhill. Keep on trucking Markos. China is just out of reach.
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
As others have mentioned...
Expecting Basic Human Rights and Decency is not a Privilege.
If you expect that and are treated reasonably, there is no problem.
If you expect that and are NOT, there is.
It's a silencing technique, brewed in academia, weaponized by activist groups, and deployed in their political wars by the DNC.
The gang mentality that is associated with pushing it... well that has just been encouraged by numerous types of enforcement policies, all happily abused by those without scruples.
And thanks to who ever posted this first, but Dammit, Here's one for the idiots who think name calling with genteel curses is the best way to win an argument.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th4Czv1j3F8]
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
I wonder
If you posted this example of basic logic on TOP would you be accused of a) white privilege, or b) white supremacy?
Maybe both. I can't keep up with how the terms are defined this week.
All of the above. And Sexist too.
Because the video I posted.
It uses VERY naughty words which "prove" I hate women and have zero respect for them. (No, cultural differences between English speaking cultures are NOT an excuse, apparently.)
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
Lenny Bruce Is Not Afraid
Gets credit from every comedian for challenging profanity and religious/political blue laws:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenny_Bruce
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
methinks that credit's yours, dmw!
As usual with Alestorm hereabouts, methinks that credit's yours, dmw!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Exactly
Having your rights upheld is not a privilege and it's dangerous to go down that road. Claiming that privilege is a problem is more likely to result in the "privileged" group having that privilege being taken away than it is to the "unprivileged" group gaining that right.
It's the classic crabs dragging each other into the boiling pot mentality. "If my rights are being suppressed, I'm going to make sure nobody gets them!"
Horrible, horrible thinking. And look where it's getting us. The work of the civil rights movement is being undone with people demanding racially segregated dorms. The KKK couldn't have asked for a better outcome.
There was an article in The Guardian
a week or so ago, detailing the need to remove the statue of Nelson from his column in Trafalgar Square, London, because he was a 'white supremacist', according to the author's definition.
No matter his naval service record against Revolutionary and Napoleonic France.
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
Oh, so they haven't gotten around to Wellington yet?
He once declared England a Christian Country.
And he TOTALLY let the Catholic Church back into England, and as we know the Catholic Church is evil because Crusades.
And he was a notorious womanizer, and had a lot of Mistresses, which we know means that he hated women.
I think I've covered the major ones, but I'm sure the white guys are scum committee can come up with more.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
Kos is getting skewered on Twitter for his
poc are responsible for Trump remark. He is being called out by people we all know, and people nobody has ever heard of. If they had donuts, he'd be banned by now.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
He's getting called out on youtube as well
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6Wz7uYLFcY width:500]
That's a great video
I would only add that you could swap out "people of color" with "progressives" to every statement he made and be equally correct.
I just wonder if Markos is white or brownish?
just asking... the temptation of twittering stuff that brings clicks and money to his site and make people racially incited, should be ... according to the bible ... forgiven.
Oh just had to say something that you don't like. /s Couldn't resist.
That's me, the fool to the power of four.
I grew up white and privileged and got accused for it by my own brownish son. So, what would you have said to your son? Just curious about your answers....
White? Brown? Who cares? I just know this:
And Markos would have found a way to defend it. /snark
hmm, there is a little bit grey-ishness
missing in your imagery.
Let's compromise. Markos is clownish, not brownish. Waiting for all or you growing out of that ...
Nichts für Ungut.
Why not?
Obama brought slavery to Libya.
Plus he thought that Malaysia's slavery and human trafficking isn't such a bad thing anymore.
He wanted the TPP so badly that he was willing to overlook their participation in that to get them on board.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Can't let the perfect be theenemy of the good...
Although I have a hard time understanding how anybody can simultaneously call slavery EVIL when it happens in the past and good when it happens now.
Guess it depends on whether or not you get a cut.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
@snoopydawg
But is that really it, or is it that the TPP (and other such corporate coup 'trade deals') demands slavery for those maximized self-anticipated-level corporate/billionaire profits? If one involved country offers slave labour, than I expect that they (we) all could be sued into bankruptcy and one way or another doing this as well, under off-shored corporate law.
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.
He's been on TV
Think he was seven or so when he moved to the States. Family from at least middle class; possibly upper part. See and hear him: There's not a cop in the country that would pin him as anything but a regular native born white guy. Makes his use of his early circumstances seem that much more cynical.
Orwell: Where's the omelette?
@ jim p
I remember Markos' bio very well and also his appearances. Don't worry. I know what I am thinking, just wanted to post a rhetorical question to see what you were thinking...
I thought this was a pretty good 7-minute video...
...even if it is from a Black Female Conservative.
How to Escape the Democrat Plantation (an easy guide).
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILQXW2Ob1PU&feature=youtu.be width:500]
She points out some interesting facts some of which I knew and some of which I didn't know.
I'm not sure if she's a Trump supporter or not. I think she is although she doesn't come right out and say it. I watched another one of her videos titles "Mom, Dad...I'm a Conservative," but to her, being a conservative just means putting the economic issues of this country ahead of the social issues. (She's not saying social issues aren't important. She just thinks economic issues are more important.)
She spoke the truth (mostly)
she forgot to say, "and the Republicans are just the other side of the coin, different but the same. The whole system is corrupt, not just one party. So stop being chumps by being loyal to either party."
Southern Democrats
The South abandoned the Republican party after the Civil War (Lincoln was a Republican, after all.) Between 1865 and 1970, for all intents and purposes there was only one political party in the southern states: the Democratic party.
Most of the southern contingent of the Dem party were not liberal minded. They were Dems because, in the prevailing duopoly, that was their only alternative. When JFK and LBJ got on board with the civil rights movement, the South switched sides once again. Since most of the southern Dems were already conservative, it was an easy switch to the Republican party.
"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi
"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone
She got DW Griffith's title wrong
It was The Birth of a Nation (which was a ridiculously overblown title for a film about the Civil War and its aftermath). The book from which Griffith copped the plot (mostly the infamous "Klan-Cavalry to the rescue" sequence) was called The Klansman, but Griffith made a lot of changes to it.
Even by the mid-teens Griffith was so totally hung up on "Cavalry to the rescue" that he simply could not make a film without it. He didn't always make wise choices as to who the "Cavalry" was.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Libruls. That's what they fuckin' are.
Remember the 'eebil librul' caricature we always heard and wrote about? Well, the Dems and their sycophants ARE the caricature.
They would punch left with the ctrl ("alt") right facists if push ever came to shove. They always do. And since the Soviets are long dead, these assholes don't have to worry about workers rebelling against the gig economy. After all, we're all too tired and too busy puking our guts out from working ourselves to death to really give a shit about anything.
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.
Is Limbaugh scripting the Left these days?
You are spot on. I have no idea how the left thinks becoming the straw man librul (said with maximum dripping distain) Limbaugh and others in the Right Wing Media love to punch does any good for anything. Once upon a time, It was easy to deflate those kind of arguments from RWM listeners by challenging them to find a source for this crap that want Rush or O'Riely. Too bad the left has decided these straw men were a winning strategy, not a grotesque generalization.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
Kinda like being called antisemitic for calling out DWS
Though, calling Bernie antisemitic for calling out someone, who happens to be Jewish, for her wrongdoing, was easier to respond to than all white people are racists.
The way I'm automatically treated by cops is what I consider white privilege, imo. I literally mentioned it and the stop that immediately comes to mind, a couple hours ago, to my next door neighbor. And I know I'm supposed to be treated professionally by cops. The fact that they don't automatically consider me a suspect of some criminal act of some kind, or automatically consider me a threat, is what I'm talking about. Throw in some female privilege if you want, (that ought to piss some people off too lol), and I don't get treated like shit by cops. I just don't.
Good to see you posting...
was worried. Be safe.
Thanks, Smiley
I was being taken around my little town and the outskirts to see tornado damage and the river level. We took a road I'd never been on, and once we hit a main road, I realized I had been pulled over by a state troop near where we ended up. That's the stop I referenced above.
Incidentally, and off topic, I watched footage of one of those boats with the giant fans on the back, and one of their big steering flaps was painted with the confederate flag. Sigh . . . It was headed into a neighborhood. Would they help everyone, or just white people? Would some refuse to be rescued due to it? Can't be sure either way.
This.
I'm a very white, very blonde, female. Been stopped multiple times by cops in the past, always for traffic violations: speeding; expired registration or inspection sticker; malfunctioning head- or tail-light. (I'm older and wiser now, and actually pay attention to these things -- well, except for the speeding).
I never once received a ticket -- or even a written warning. Verbal warnings only.
Total bullshit.
I didn't see it as anything new
I'm not so sure that they have any idea of a "new" strategy. That would mean they had to admit that #Russiagate is a hoax. This isn't even an additional strategy. They've been weaponizing liberal concepts since 2016 primaries at least. That's how I became a sexist because I voted for a woman.
I Saw that diary as just another monkey flinging more poo at the wall. Sadly, the monkey doesn't understand that only the other monkeys really care about their poo-art. I certainly hope the trends on Democratic membership and DKOS viewership continue. The smaller that room of monkeys the better off we all are.
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
Bwahahahaa! Monkey poo-art! n/t
Yeah, I call it the Moris Dees model
1) Inflate the threat
2) Hit up your fundraising list for donations
3) Deposit these donations into your organization's already fat accounts
4) Repeat!
As with Islamic fundamentalists, the threat is real, but I would be very wary of accepting "solutions" to problems from those whose livelihoods depend on the problem not being solved.
"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum." --Noam Chomsky
Damn
That was supposed to be a response to gjohnsit upthread.
"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum." --Noam Chomsky
"white privilege" is a foreign word applied to me
After 5 years in an orphanage, (I usually say "boarding school" to save my pride) then working as a live-in baby-sitter/housekeeper for my last 2 years of high school, I don't acknowledge an iota of privilege. Luck? yes. I was lucky to have good health and good friends. I also had good teachers and good bosses who helped my entrance into the adult world.
To thine own self be true.
Yep
I grew up being called "trailer trash", so I sorta know how you feel.
However, we are both using the dictionary definition of words.
Not the liberal echo chamber definition.
I don't disagree with this.
I do agree with Deja, though (see above). There is certainly some (non-dictionary-definition) privilege in being white (and not mentally ill) when it comes to interactions with the cops, and other "policers."
Really good essay. Has me thinking a lot.
Feeds alt-right white nationalist internet movements.
The Intercept has a very good article by Fang and Woodhouse how much of the current white nationalism movement grew up in the online world, and how just recently these people have left the online world and have done counter marches, etc. And of course the violence. These sorts of extremist statements become critical fuel for the rise of the nationalist/supremacist groups as they feed and grow off grievance. The statements become a recruitment tool.
One other effect of these beliefs is the people making them must end up denying class. What happens then is blindness to the marginalization of millions of people. It undercuts political unity. it is a view where a daughter of a truck driver has the same privileges and power as Chelsea Clinton.
That's the point
Denying class is exactly the point, as I see it. By focusing on meaningless identities based on skin color, gender, sexuality, etc., it allows the truly privileged to take the focus off of them. Hillary isn't a part of the wealthy political class, she's a victim! Obama was a victim too, and just like every other black person he's the victim of vile white supremacists, not the most powerful man int he world! It's the oldest story in the books, pit people against each other so everyone ignores the fact that everyone in Washington DC is robbing the rest of us blind.
Yeah, been commenting on it here too
But as it relates to this diary, a simplification:
Chairman GOS's People's Democratic Dictatorship anyone?
One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will. To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.--Tennyson
Anger Addicts
From a recent Matt Taibai piece.
In these days, Civility is Revolutionary. We've had two generations now where Mass Media, in both news and entertainment, constantly model sass, expressions of discontent and disrespect as something genuinely rebellious and admirable. Came from the marketing strategies to then-young Boomers who were thinking about throwing out the system. Everybody's been well-trained to crap on other people if you don't like them. Compounded with Internet anonymity.
A good response is "Your resentments and fears don't give you authority to assault my basic human dignity."
Orwell: Where's the omelette?
@ jim p - I think this piece ties a bit into what you say
How the Internet Has Transformed Capitalism [Transcript Added]
ok, I am not great at summarizing. But I think that's why there is a lot mean-spirited, aggressive, corrupt and hypocritical behavior in what we read in blog discussions.
I'm guessing that the oligarchs
who bought the Democratic party have decided that Kamala Harris will be their nominee for 2020, and this "white supremacy" nonsense is an attempt to pave the way for her. Who needs primaries? They know what's best for us, or so they'll tell us.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
ROFL, same tune, different day
Well, perhaps not the exact same tune. Just like last time they are offering up the perfect oligarchy candidate. Just like last time, there is no chance this candidate can get my vote no matter how many identity boxes she ticks off. Just like last time, I vote on policy and character.
Unlike last time, the Democratic party has already shunned and shamed me. So this time, they will not hear me say those things. This time, they will not ignore me because I won't have been in the conversation. This time, they will march even more blindly off the edge of the cliff.
Just like last time though, I'm certain I'll get the blame for their moral corruptness.
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 have to think that those who do this are looking for
confrontations, not solutions."
They're looking for a solution all right. Their problem is solved if people are intimidated into shutting up and doing as told. They need to be confronted. They need to be faced down and laughed at. They need to be told that we don't associate with chickenshit liars and cheats.
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
The destructive nature of IdPol
This seems to be a very positive movement to bring left & right together as the 99%.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmsaoWvA0Po
Here's the antifa response
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsZC4Om3VKw
So sad to these guys sucked under by the Nancy Pelosi mob.
chuck utzman
TULSI 2020
ID Politics has stupid-ized the Many -
Between the over-extended arm of the politically correct rulings - rulings that members of society have put into place to enslave themselves and everyone else too, and the establishment of incorrect definitions of racism, the average fool in this society is between a rock and a hard place.
Recent Rasmussen poll indicated that 66% of all Americans avoid discussing much of anything for fear of being branded a sexist, racist, (or this week, of course: a Supremacist), and also experiencing blow back at work with attendance at some type of HR course being made mandatory.
A very wise someone on another forum pointed me in the direction of Pat Moseley (link to her at very bottom) and I thought this bit of writing excellent on the subject of id politics. Somewhere along the lines, Civil Rights became more about making sure that the formerly privileged now realize the discrimination that was once so harshly set in place over the former losers of id politics. From what I can tell, only white people who are poor are now able to be shoved and sandwiched into the back of the bus, and left there without recourse. For any and every other group, someone would raise up a shout and some help, but apparently we who are poor and white obviously got this way by being in charge of the slavery of African Americans, the near genocide of the American Natives, and also, most recently, in charge of sending all those jobs over seas! We just must have forgotten to collect any of our ill earned gains, or otherwise we wouldn't be poor!
But I digress and here is Pat Moseley:
Concerns over “disproportionate” incarceration have replaced prison abolition,
just as the “right” to military service replaced disarmament. In the course of
editing this piece, the sheer toxicity of this culture I once actively
contributed to hit me again and again.
I encountered a feminist advocating the sexual assault of men to “level the
playing field.” When it was brought to her attention that men are already raped,
her concern was exposed to not really be about the victims of sexualized violence
but the fact that women are “winning” with regard to being raped. I think her
choice of words is apt.
For all the denials to the contrary, these are oppression Olympics. Rape, death camps,
and other atrocities don’t matter. Who is winning does. The recognition
that identity essentialism fails to capture lived experience or challenge
the indiscriminate maw of society is rebuked in favor of an unspoken,
unassailable, and frankly insane sectarian rule book we’re all already too late
in learning.
Also:
In the eggshell world of identity politics, I’m one mistake, or one incorrect
visual assumption about who I am away from losing whatever security this
“community” purports to offer.
Lastly:
Speaking specifically as a working class disabled transqueer person, I don’t have the luxury of driving away would-be allies, being visibly femme or trans all the time, or restricting my activism to solely working on trans-specific issues. Before I get to be trans in the world, I am already disabled and dependent on medication to live. I must work to pay for that medication and for food. Most people also must work for shelter. And all of these conditions determined by capitalist class relations take place before we even get to interpersonal or structural conflicts around race, gender, gender identity, sexuality, ability, etc. My intention is not to say that race, gender, etc. are irrelevant, but rather that our class conditions precede them and are fertile soil for a solidarity that could also address identity-specific issues.
https://patmosley.blog/2017/05/14/un-identity-climbing-down-the-other-si...
Believing in the improbable can make your life a miracle.
(No subject)
Believing in the improbable can make your life a miracle.