Makes me recall Michael Parenti's comment that he knew what the system was all about and exactly the role of the police when their batons landed on him and he was beaten by cops at a protest in the 60s. J. Edgar Hoover saw the protest movements of the period as the greatest possible threats to fascism, and protests today also pose the same threat. Fascism responds to criticism with violence, and all of its power to enforce its dictates depends on the threat of violence, every last ounce of their power is impossible without it. So, they have to display violence regularly to maintain their position. You protest Israel, you're "antisemitic" and you deserve a good beating for it. Maybe you deserve to be killed, for opposing the "right" kind of killing. Dole out enough threats and beatings, do some COINTELPRO projects and the movements go away, people start worrying about themselves because collective action "doesn't work" and it takes too much energy you could spend feeling good about capitalism. A few years later you can have Ronald Reagan. That's how the 60s played out.
How are we going to do things differently this time? Because surely we will have to.
"Nothing is more important than stopping fascism, because fascism is gonna stop us all." -Fred Hampton
Thank you for your analysis and insights, Dr. Street. It would be trite and fatuous of me to say this, but I will anyway, the U.S. mainstream media will never come close to disclosing any of this information to the American public.
Due to the sophisticated American capitalist propaganda system most Americans don't even know they are in a working class. They naively believe they are just one lottery ticket or one job promotion away from "making it." They actually look up to and admire anti-humane snakes and parasites like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates who accumulate their fortunes on the backs of virtually enslaved working-class. Although de jure slavery went out of fashion in the 1820s in most of the world (the U.S. was a little late in catching on) it is far too lucrative an institution for the capital class to give up entirely; thus the wage-slave minimum wage stuck at $7.25 an hour for 15 years now.
The American working class needs to outgrow the trite platitude, "We're All in This Together." They need to read Marx and raise their awareness of the class based nature of capitalism. In short they need to grow up.
Am I holding my breath waiting for this to happen? If I were that stupid I'd have suffocated decades ago.
I honestly don't think I can hold my nose against the stench in our mostly criminal "government" to vote for the Menace or not vote at all. I have an idea that if we don't act now against fascism we'll be doing exactly what the Germans did in the '30's. Woe be unto us and the whole world.
Bourgeois democracy as a class dictatorship: https://revcom.us/en/bob_avakian/democracy/index.htm
Obama, Dems and crackdown on Occupy: https://www.counterpunch.org/2012/05/14/did-the-white-house-direct-the-police-crackdown-on-occupy/
Biden statements: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/04/21/statement-from-president-joe-biden-on-passover/#:~:text=This%20year%2C%20let%20us%20remember,a%20Happy%20Passover%2C%20Chag%20Sameach.
Makes me recall Michael Parenti's comment that he knew what the system was all about and exactly the role of the police when their batons landed on him and he was beaten by cops at a protest in the 60s. J. Edgar Hoover saw the protest movements of the period as the greatest possible threats to fascism, and protests today also pose the same threat. Fascism responds to criticism with violence, and all of its power to enforce its dictates depends on the threat of violence, every last ounce of their power is impossible without it. So, they have to display violence regularly to maintain their position. You protest Israel, you're "antisemitic" and you deserve a good beating for it. Maybe you deserve to be killed, for opposing the "right" kind of killing. Dole out enough threats and beatings, do some COINTELPRO projects and the movements go away, people start worrying about themselves because collective action "doesn't work" and it takes too much energy you could spend feeling good about capitalism. A few years later you can have Ronald Reagan. That's how the 60s played out.
How are we going to do things differently this time? Because surely we will have to.
"Nothing is more important than stopping fascism, because fascism is gonna stop us all." -Fred Hampton
Main news sources did not even bother to interview protestors, or even turn their cameras to the protestors.
Thank you for your analysis and insights, Dr. Street. It would be trite and fatuous of me to say this, but I will anyway, the U.S. mainstream media will never come close to disclosing any of this information to the American public.
Due to the sophisticated American capitalist propaganda system most Americans don't even know they are in a working class. They naively believe they are just one lottery ticket or one job promotion away from "making it." They actually look up to and admire anti-humane snakes and parasites like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates who accumulate their fortunes on the backs of virtually enslaved working-class. Although de jure slavery went out of fashion in the 1820s in most of the world (the U.S. was a little late in catching on) it is far too lucrative an institution for the capital class to give up entirely; thus the wage-slave minimum wage stuck at $7.25 an hour for 15 years now.
The American working class needs to outgrow the trite platitude, "We're All in This Together." They need to read Marx and raise their awareness of the class based nature of capitalism. In short they need to grow up.
Am I holding my breath waiting for this to happen? If I were that stupid I'd have suffocated decades ago.
I'll stop. Most of what I write could go to 100 endnotes if I had time.
Pro-Palestine students banned from Columbia campus but an open PB fascist gets to join leading Republifascist Mike Johnson on Columbia campus: https://www.dailydot.com/debug/gavin-mcinnes-columbia-protests-palestine/
Democracy Now report on student protest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeYAA7I7nhE
Fascist police display at U-Texas-Austin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYVThq9T7Pg
Wave of campus protests https://revcom.us/en/waves-campus-protests-against-us-backed-israeli-war-genocide-continue-and-spread?
Biden and Congress break rail strike December 2022: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-signs-bill-block-us-railroad-strike-2022-12-02/
1945-46 strikes and Truman: https://www.amazon.com/Strike-Jeremy-Brecher/dp/1604864281, pp. 221-231.
NYC Mayor Eric Adams justifying crackdown on student protests, blaming them on the "outside agitators": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqeS8CV_JfI
FDR "plague on both your houses": https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/05/pers-m29.html
I honestly don't think I can hold my nose against the stench in our mostly criminal "government" to vote for the Menace or not vote at all. I have an idea that if we don't act now against fascism we'll be doing exactly what the Germans did in the '30's. Woe be unto us and the whole world.