The gov's futile search for a radical left-wing boogeyman is both hilarious and sad. They are a victim of their own success. Let me tell you a story....
1960s freaked ppl the 'eff out. A lot. It's romanticized in movies and TV shows, but during that time, the vast majority of Americans were not hippies at Woodstock or anti-war protestors. The vast majority of voting citizens just wanted to eat their TV dinner and not see war and ppl shouting on the TV screen. They wanted peace and -if they couldn't get peace- then they would take silence. The idea of the middle class is always 'make it go away. Make the noise and discomfort and bad feelings go away.' And the wealthy, the media, and gov were more than willing to oblige that request. They would make 'the noise' go away. They weaponized the cries of injustice into the nightmare fuel to drive the fears of respectable, quiet ppl.
We are still living in the 60-year blowback from a brief window in time when you had feminism rising, strong Black political orgs, rising farm labor movements, Native American power rising, and student protests for human rights. Btw, 99% of this was non-violent, ideology-based, and driven by strong charismatic leaders and a devoted core of followers. Since then, it has been the mission of our government to extinguish every ember of that movement so that it never rises again. And this goes for Republican AND Democratic presidents.
Law enforcement surveilled, harassed, sabotaged, incarcerated, and un-alived many of the key figures. They choked off the means of income and demonized any opposition to racism as 'anti-white.' Then they blackmailed and bribed the pliable leaders who were just charismatic enough to attract followings but just weak enough to not actually LEAD the ppl anywhere. And this has continued successfully in every decade. And it is both Democratic and Republican presidents and governors who take their marching orders from the ruling class: silence any and all opposition to oligarchical capitalism and systemic oppression.
Occasionally, there is a stirring among the average person losing rights, money, and their health to corporate America. There was Occupy Wall Street. Remember that? Obama was in power at the time. Dems and Republicans united to eviscerate and wipe that movement from the collective memory of working-class people. These blips are usually the one time both parties come together to stamp out the possibility of radical change.
There is no sustainable ideology on the left-wings of America. That is not to say that there are no ppl on the left bravely trying. There are many protestors and even some politicians who are attempting to make small changes in their own area. But there isn't anything or anyone that brings it all together. There is no grand liberal movement to improve America, much less a conspiracy against America. There are grifters, trolls, The Daily Show, and the occasional Robert Reich video pointing toward the problems. A dozen or so ANTIFA teens are running around in scarves, some transgender activists who would like to be treated as human beings to the horror of the right-wing, the lowest and slowest of civil rights orgs trying to cobble together some lawsuits to hold back the authoritarian tsunami. Within the left, there are scattered voices that quickly fall out of favor with each other due to the most minor of differences. There is infighting, purity tests, and obscure new demands made by random online groups that gather with mob-like intensity for a short period of time. There are statues and plaques to all the killed leaders, lionized for their heroism and romanticized for their strong jawbones, so that ppl don't actually read about what they were actually saying.
And yet, there is a deep desire for change. We know our situation isn't good. If you've traveled to any first-world country outside of the United States, you could rattle off the usual list of things we could have but don't b/c it would be woke or liberal. 70% of Americans support gun control, most support Medicare-for-all, most want affordable housing a free college tuition, and free daycare. And yet we are not closer to any of these things happening b/c oligarchs run our government through SuperPacs and dark money. What the people want is insignificant to the billions dumped into political coffers.
Frustrated by our political impotence to stop the mass shootings, the healthcare corruption, the soaring costs, and shrinking hope, we turn our rage elsewhere. We direct our energy toward cultural hot-button issues and entertaining distractions. The Real Housewives of Whatever, or Patti Lupone, or the casting choices of a play, or a TV show, or an influencer who said something naughty, because changing the real systemic oppression is too unfathomable...too far away. So strike at the thing closest to you to feel morally righteous. I may not be able to protect my kids, but at least I'm outraged by that thing that celebrity said. We have our 'rage session' and then go back to work like a good little prole.
Every generation, there is a right-of-center charismatic moderate like Clinton or Obama who proposes the bare minimum for human decency (hey, maybe ppl should be able to see a doctor without going into crippling debt), only to be met with jeers of 'communists' by respectable healthcare CEOs who have algorithms that kill ppl for profit. The gov and media have so completely succeeded in their goals that there aren't even any believable scapegoats now that they need one to shut down freedom of speech. So they cancel Kimmel and Colbert and work their way down the list. It will get down to the granular level, aka 'you.' It will come down to scrutinizing private citizens' social media posts and getting them fired or suspended for disloyalty. And then, even that tiny ember of protest will be turned to ash and displaced onto Taylor Swift or the latest consumer craze.
No comments:
Post a Comment