The deeper point on the Republi-fascism question is that it is an outcome of the whole damn capitalist-imperialist system that the Dems can never seriously oppose.
Politics needs to move away from pushing personal narratives because it's supposed to be about what is good for the populace, as a whole. Then, that would carry over, globally, instead of all the atrocities we have now, and historically. Any entity, who holds all others accountable to rule of law, while refusing to be held accountable to rule of law, is characteristic of either authoritarianism, or a criminal entity. This applies to the US federal government, as well. Dems & GOP are all in bed together. The only people who can bring about positive change, are the people themselves, and change always begins with self.
The “ass-holes” think like ideological state apparatuses have taught them to think, in binaries. If you do not like the Democrats you support Trump is the shit I have been getting. It is one of the ways people are taught to think right/wrong good guys/bad guys etc. I taught and one of my basic struggles was teaching that reality is not this/that….but more complex.
I hate the whole intersectionality shit…all issues are in individual branded boxes and if you make a superficial connection between a couple, wowee zowee you are doing intersectionality. One of my neighbors stopped talking to me because I have Stop The Genocide In Gaza signs in my window….he assumed, rightly, that I did not vote for the Democratic candidate. So he thinks I aM a Muslim loving freak who is responsible for Trump. I am fucking tired of being in activist groups where a lot of your pet peeves are present, but getting beyond binary thinking is always an uphill battle.
I agree these fascists should not be considered legitimate.
I think we need to revolt and shut the country down…but people are indifferent to reality in this country.
I have lived in Africa and Asia, worked in many countries. Whenever I come back to this country after a lengthy stay in the so called global south, I feel like I am among monad zombies. How the fuck do you propose we get enough people in the streets to stop this shit show?
This discussion really hit home with me. Every point. Every angle of your response to what you are witnessing around you. What this Biden/Harris outgoing administration has done in arenas around the globe and especially in relation to Israel, has brought where we are in focus for a lot of people that haven’t been seeing the big and total picture of where and what this country is and has been. The blinders are off for some but still on for others. The mind blowing discussion with your old colleague was similar to one I had a while back with an on again off again friend that wrapped that relationship up. Going to a neighborhood dinner tomorrow with two couples that had piles of Harris signs in their yards. If you would like to join us and speak eloquently on my behalf, I would be much obliged.
I want to start by saying that I have been following you for about a decade and appreciate your writings. They are insightful and never short on details, descriptions and explanations. Through the seriousness, darkness and absurdity you are able to maintain a sense of humor that shows an emotional intelligence that the right wing authoritarians are completely lacking. Frequently I find you summing up what I have in my head but haven't verbally formulated.
But I have some concerns about the BA led communist revolution. Regardless of how agreeable his writings and ideas are(not all) and that I believe you have an emotional intelligence that most do not, taking a wide view of it socially and structurally there are things that don't sit well with me.(summed up later)
I have read a little into the constitution that you posted the other day and it starts off as and there are some parts that come across as fictional and they are, not because there's nothing to it but that it is theoretical and projecting into the future. That being said I found myself reading some of my own words and concepts in it, so again I'm not saying there's nothing to it.
I also had some concerns about what I saw and read on the Revcoms website. First it feels like I am being sold something, specifically a leader and that's probably by design to get people to join. I was also reading BA writing vaguely about what sounded like armed asymmetric and guerrilla type warfare. A very serious question for me is why someone who has not been emotionally roused to put their faith in a leader his ideas regardless of the validity of them, would sign on to potentially risk their life in an armed conflict battling uphill against a social structure that the probability of succeeding against or bearing any fruit in their lifetime is not likely. I know things are going to shit but most people are still surviving at the least and that goes back to the conditions for a revolutionary moment which I do not believe exist, unlike the conditions for something counterrevolutionary. You're right, it is a sick as fuck stupid farm. I've never heard the term before but that sounds right to me.
So to sum it up people are being emotionally roused to put their faith in a leader and his ideas(again regardless of the validity) probably a necessary to motivate people to join. It very much has a religious aspect to it. I know you're emotionally intelligent but most are not(human nature generally speaking) and if they are emotionally roused they are not going to be able to put the breaks on something that someone who is not emotionally invested could see is a bad idea.
That is why I was suggesting theoretically that there may be a better, easier way than a drawn out potentially violent conflict that most likely will lead nowhere and cause significant suffering. I know that is how things have played out in history up until this point but maybe technology can be utilized(not going into specifics which are all theoretical) to take advantage of human strengths and eliminate the conditions(as in an institution) that give rise to, magnify and perpetuate destructive behavior. If a shortcut past the above mentioned pitfalls of organized human behavior can be realized in the transition to a horizontally restructured society it would be a lot more appealing to the masses and some of the elites who are not sociopathic.
If you want to rebut or agree with what I wrote, please do. Or correct my grammar as I have a lot of thoughts but am not a writer.
P.S I just read your Counterpunch article and there are several factors involved, but I would say generally that right wing authoritarians have a damn near monopoly on projecting their actions, motivations and sickness onto others(think the orange epitome of that). They are fundamentally dishonest and can twist, distort and remake reality to fit their current emotional and real world needs. Whatever you have to do to get ahead at whoever else's expense.
I’m glad there are many independent thinkers with decent academic backgrounds who are willing and able to tolerate MSM long enough to report on it for the rest of us. I haven’t been able to watch Newshour since the days of Rumsfeld in first term of Bush. I do watch a lot of the early evening local news, but that means about 12 minutes of a muted TV during commercials every 30 minutes with sound on for a lot of weather and sports with a couple minutes of lead stories which may be local or may be national or international.
Want to add some human agency to the equation as opposed to seeing/watching? dd you read my piece on Marx, where I write the following?:
'As Engels noted in his graveside speech, “Marx was before all else a revolutionist. His real mission in life was to contribute, in one way or another, to the overthrow of capitalist society and of the state institutions which it had brought into being, to contribute to the liberation of the modern proletariat, which he was the first to make conscious of its own position and its needs, conscious of the conditions of its emancipation.” An interesting formulation. Engels’ phrase “in one way or another” somewhat suggests that Marx was open to different pathways to revolution than proletarian class struggle alone – something suggested by Marx’s late-life musings that Russia might make a contingent transition to socialism in part via peasant communalism. Engel’s phrase hailing Marx as “the first to make [the proletariat] conscious of its own position and its needs” shows that Marx did not believe that proletarian class consciousness was actually inevitable or likely to develop without the assistance of class traitors from the bourgeoisie and petit-bourgeoisie like himself. ..'
Oh, meant to put this up to -- the Revcoms' take on the fall of the butcher Assad: https://revcom.us/en/reactionary-regime-syrias-bashar-al-assad-overthrown-what-happening-syriawhy-who-are-forces
The deeper point on the Republi-fascism question is that it is an outcome of the whole damn capitalist-imperialist system that the Dems can never seriously oppose.
Politics needs to move away from pushing personal narratives because it's supposed to be about what is good for the populace, as a whole. Then, that would carry over, globally, instead of all the atrocities we have now, and historically. Any entity, who holds all others accountable to rule of law, while refusing to be held accountable to rule of law, is characteristic of either authoritarianism, or a criminal entity. This applies to the US federal government, as well. Dems & GOP are all in bed together. The only people who can bring about positive change, are the people themselves, and change always begins with self.
I really enjoy these Fireside Chat videos. They are always informative and entertaining. Thanks for all your hard work, Paul!
The “ass-holes” think like ideological state apparatuses have taught them to think, in binaries. If you do not like the Democrats you support Trump is the shit I have been getting. It is one of the ways people are taught to think right/wrong good guys/bad guys etc. I taught and one of my basic struggles was teaching that reality is not this/that….but more complex.
I hate the whole intersectionality shit…all issues are in individual branded boxes and if you make a superficial connection between a couple, wowee zowee you are doing intersectionality. One of my neighbors stopped talking to me because I have Stop The Genocide In Gaza signs in my window….he assumed, rightly, that I did not vote for the Democratic candidate. So he thinks I aM a Muslim loving freak who is responsible for Trump. I am fucking tired of being in activist groups where a lot of your pet peeves are present, but getting beyond binary thinking is always an uphill battle.
I agree these fascists should not be considered legitimate.
I think we need to revolt and shut the country down…but people are indifferent to reality in this country.
I have lived in Africa and Asia, worked in many countries. Whenever I come back to this country after a lengthy stay in the so called global south, I feel like I am among monad zombies. How the fuck do you propose we get enough people in the streets to stop this shit show?
This discussion really hit home with me. Every point. Every angle of your response to what you are witnessing around you. What this Biden/Harris outgoing administration has done in arenas around the globe and especially in relation to Israel, has brought where we are in focus for a lot of people that haven’t been seeing the big and total picture of where and what this country is and has been. The blinders are off for some but still on for others. The mind blowing discussion with your old colleague was similar to one I had a while back with an on again off again friend that wrapped that relationship up. Going to a neighborhood dinner tomorrow with two couples that had piles of Harris signs in their yards. If you would like to join us and speak eloquently on my behalf, I would be much obliged.
I want to start by saying that I have been following you for about a decade and appreciate your writings. They are insightful and never short on details, descriptions and explanations. Through the seriousness, darkness and absurdity you are able to maintain a sense of humor that shows an emotional intelligence that the right wing authoritarians are completely lacking. Frequently I find you summing up what I have in my head but haven't verbally formulated.
But I have some concerns about the BA led communist revolution. Regardless of how agreeable his writings and ideas are(not all) and that I believe you have an emotional intelligence that most do not, taking a wide view of it socially and structurally there are things that don't sit well with me.(summed up later)
I have read a little into the constitution that you posted the other day and it starts off as and there are some parts that come across as fictional and they are, not because there's nothing to it but that it is theoretical and projecting into the future. That being said I found myself reading some of my own words and concepts in it, so again I'm not saying there's nothing to it.
I also had some concerns about what I saw and read on the Revcoms website. First it feels like I am being sold something, specifically a leader and that's probably by design to get people to join. I was also reading BA writing vaguely about what sounded like armed asymmetric and guerrilla type warfare. A very serious question for me is why someone who has not been emotionally roused to put their faith in a leader his ideas regardless of the validity of them, would sign on to potentially risk their life in an armed conflict battling uphill against a social structure that the probability of succeeding against or bearing any fruit in their lifetime is not likely. I know things are going to shit but most people are still surviving at the least and that goes back to the conditions for a revolutionary moment which I do not believe exist, unlike the conditions for something counterrevolutionary. You're right, it is a sick as fuck stupid farm. I've never heard the term before but that sounds right to me.
So to sum it up people are being emotionally roused to put their faith in a leader and his ideas(again regardless of the validity) probably a necessary to motivate people to join. It very much has a religious aspect to it. I know you're emotionally intelligent but most are not(human nature generally speaking) and if they are emotionally roused they are not going to be able to put the breaks on something that someone who is not emotionally invested could see is a bad idea.
That is why I was suggesting theoretically that there may be a better, easier way than a drawn out potentially violent conflict that most likely will lead nowhere and cause significant suffering. I know that is how things have played out in history up until this point but maybe technology can be utilized(not going into specifics which are all theoretical) to take advantage of human strengths and eliminate the conditions(as in an institution) that give rise to, magnify and perpetuate destructive behavior. If a shortcut past the above mentioned pitfalls of organized human behavior can be realized in the transition to a horizontally restructured society it would be a lot more appealing to the masses and some of the elites who are not sociopathic.
If you want to rebut or agree with what I wrote, please do. Or correct my grammar as I have a lot of thoughts but am not a writer.
P.S I just read your Counterpunch article and there are several factors involved, but I would say generally that right wing authoritarians have a damn near monopoly on projecting their actions, motivations and sickness onto others(think the orange epitome of that). They are fundamentally dishonest and can twist, distort and remake reality to fit their current emotional and real world needs. Whatever you have to do to get ahead at whoever else's expense.
I’m glad there are many independent thinkers with decent academic backgrounds who are willing and able to tolerate MSM long enough to report on it for the rest of us. I haven’t been able to watch Newshour since the days of Rumsfeld in first term of Bush. I do watch a lot of the early evening local news, but that means about 12 minutes of a muted TV during commercials every 30 minutes with sound on for a lot of weather and sports with a couple minutes of lead stories which may be local or may be national or international.
Avakian is full of shit and is running a cult, even he admitted that was their goal- to have a cult.
Thanks, nice essay. It seems that politics without morality is merely a heartless bourgeois game.
Will their be the will of the masses to do this. Or will most just sit on their hands. We'll see, Paul.
Want to add some human agency to the equation as opposed to seeing/watching? dd you read my piece on Marx, where I write the following?:
'As Engels noted in his graveside speech, “Marx was before all else a revolutionist. His real mission in life was to contribute, in one way or another, to the overthrow of capitalist society and of the state institutions which it had brought into being, to contribute to the liberation of the modern proletariat, which he was the first to make conscious of its own position and its needs, conscious of the conditions of its emancipation.” An interesting formulation. Engels’ phrase “in one way or another” somewhat suggests that Marx was open to different pathways to revolution than proletarian class struggle alone – something suggested by Marx’s late-life musings that Russia might make a contingent transition to socialism in part via peasant communalism. Engel’s phrase hailing Marx as “the first to make [the proletariat] conscious of its own position and its needs” shows that Marx did not believe that proletarian class consciousness was actually inevitable or likely to develop without the assistance of class traitors from the bourgeoisie and petit-bourgeoisie like himself. ..'
Love it.