#populism
“The Moral Degeneracy of the anti-Woke” (probably not what you think).
An article from greanvillepost that explains something I've been unable to express clearly. I've been puzzled for the last couple of years how on earth freedom-loving people for instance call te WEF a "communist" agenda?? A bunch of billionares want to enslave us in digital-feodalism and (mostly right wing) opponents call it communism, WFT. Read on...
As the Red vs. Blue paradigm begins to break down and become less and less useful for ruling class interests, it needs to be strengthened and adapted to current realities if it hopes to defeat the growing groundswell of populist sentiment.
Over the last few days, I have observed a rhetorical effort that purports to explain reality and provide an alternative understanding of the culture war, while simultaneously manipulating those already indoctrinated into conservatism, to support Team Red and the imperialist imperatives of the Western ruling class.
As actual communists, we understand and recognize the top-down effort to increase and agitate the cultural divide that exists among the working class. A divide that largely results from generations and generations of a two-pronged strategic cultural propaganda effort that was and is intended to destroy working-class unity by hijacking cultural differences and exploiting them for all they are worth.
So what are the features and contours of this new rhetorical effort to corral conservatives away from populism and back into the velvet ropes of "polite" elite discourse? Well, in a nutshell, they hope to accomplish this feat by spinning a narrative that blames “communism” and alleges a vast “communist conspiracy”. A communist conspiracy that is responsible for the overt top-down effort to shove “wokeness” down everyone’s throat.
For this narrative to be consistent and have a modicum of plausibility, it must misrepresent communism and appeal to the multi-generation anti-communist indoctrination that all Americans have been immersed in since communism first began to threaten the interests of Western imperialism, well over a hundred years ago.
The misrepresentation of communism hinges on the spurious and preposterous notion that Communism itself is a creation of the elite and is part of their “divide and conquer strategy” which they have employed in their pursuit of global domination. Of course, anyone who knows anything whatsoever about actual communism, or who has read the actual words of historic communist leaders, would know and understand the ignorance and idiocy of such a proposition.
Idiocy abounds, and is easily swallowed in many stubbornly ignorant quarters. Thus the dangerous upending of reality continues. Among other things, the masses have been sold the idea that capitalism is "the American Way", and that it guarantees freedom and democracy—none of which are even remotely true.
Yet, this preposterous notion of communism as the creation of evil elites, has a history in right-wing discourse that goes all the way back to Marx himself and has been championed by many contemporary right-wing influencers such as Antony Sutton (in his 1974 book “Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution”) and James Corbett who runs a popular libertarian podcast from Japan. This easily debunked right-wing trope has gained impressive traction within libertarian circles and inevitably, when the topic comes up, Sutton is cited by the libertarian faithful, as an authoritative expert.
The genius behind this narrative is that once you convince someone that communism is a tool and weapon of the elites that they created, and which they utilize for their own nefarious purposes, it reinforces and panders to the massive anti-communist narratives that the Western ruling class has created and been accepted as gospel by many unsuspecting Americans, over the last hundred years.
But this narrative which is being sold to the "anti-woke" side of the culture war, of course contains a primary and indeed fatal contradiction: On the one hand, the anti-woke are asked to accept the reality of a gargantuan “communist conspiracy” purportedly designed to undermine society in the hopes of eventually achieving a one world communist government, while they are also asked to accept the narrative about “communism being the ultimate evil” a notion which the same ruling class has turned into a virtual religion over the past several generations at least since the end of WWII.
Here is a question for the libertarian faithful who embrace this narrative: how do you square this circle? From where does this “communist conspiracy” draw its strength? If the communists have infiltrated all aspects of government, why did they turn anti-communism into a veritable religion? If the elites —who demonstrably control the West's governments everywhere—are “communist” why is communism so demonized by the same power structures of the West?
Yea, these guys are psychopaths alright, but NOT Marxist psychopaths. Try capitalist psychos. Only massive ignorance and confusion permits this kind of fundamental error.
So this is where the narrative pivots and does its best to pander to the inculcated ignorance of its intended victims. By redefining “communism” as, “everything that conservatives oppose”. There is truly no limit to the “evils” that conservatives are happy to blame communism for. A lecture from one of the narrative’s top proponents, James Lindsay, is entitled “Maoism With American Characteristics”. In this lecture, Lindsay panders to American ignorance by claiming Mao was an agent of the elites and that American elites want to revisit the evils upon the American people that Mao visited upon the Chinese people.
Another insidious aspect of this anti-woke propaganda offensive aimed at those Christian conservatives that have most fully embraced the religion of anti-communism, is the demonization of the nation of China. The obvious agenda here is to rally public support for a future hot war against China. But an obvious question begs to be answered: why are the communists, ostensibly in charge of the West, agitating for war against the communists that they created and installed in China? Like why are our supposed communist elites that are alleged to be shoving their woke agenda down our throats, provoking, sanctioning, and doing their best to cripple the economy of their Chinese communist allies? This is just mindless ignorance peddled to mindless people.
Everything stated above is a necessary background and preamble to the actual point I am hoping to sharpen with this essay. If we forget about these brazen contradictions which ought to make every adult reject this spurious narrative in its entirety, we are left with a basic argument that goes something like this: “I am an anti-authoritarian and so I hate communism and China for their authoritarianism. I believe in freedom, liberty, and volunteerism, so I simply can not abide by the communist agenda and I will oppose the great communist conspiracy that is attempting to control our lives just as it controls the lives of the Chinese people. (you know, with all their censorship, organ harvesting, human rights abuses, COVID tyranny, and their efforts to genocide the Uighurs and Taiwanese).
Notice again the schizophrenia. These folks parrot the bullshit narratives about China, long disseminated by the Western Elite, while simultaneously blaming a “communist conspiracy” of the Western elite, for the woke agenda.
Ferocious anti-communism has been drilled relentlessly into the American mind for well over a century, in a truly totalitarian way, with the most outrageous lies coming at the public from every conceivable corner: politicians, media, religion, academia, charities, the military, civic institutions, and of course the business class. The witch-hunt has also included blacklisting and overt police repression.
The reality of course is that the culture wars are facilitated, managed, and manipulated by the ruling class, not because the capitalist-feudalist ruling class are “communist” but because they are “wealthy elites” who hate and fear working class unity that communists hope to inspire and work to achieve. After all, Communists are the ones who have observed and identified the nature of class struggle and they understand that the Western ruling class exists first and foremost for the benefit of the small wealthy elite minority. This elite, chiefly concentrated in the US, but spanning the globe, comprises not more than 0.0001% of the human race. This tiny minority is supported by another 10% comprising the military, the police, and the PMCs (professional/managerial types, plus an assortment of upper-middle class small business owners). This elite owns outright or controls no less than 80% of all existing private property, including all the main means of production and media (which controls the people's minds), and entire nations (with their public goods) by controlling the political machinery of almost all nations currently in the so-called "collective West", the bloc of nations at present engaged in a war of conquest against Russia, China, Iran and whosoever else might stand in the way of their obsessive desire to maintain global hegemony and unipolar supremacy. Think about those facts for a minute, and tell us how you can believe such disgusting reality can equate with these elites' constant refrain that they are vibrant democracies!?
So, the people must be lied to about everything including the supposedly democratic nature of Western governance, as well as the true history of popular communist revolutions and the tremendous accomplishments these revolutions were able to achieve whenever they succeeded in taking political power. Mao best illustrates this last point. He was perhaps the single greatest humanitarian of all time, doing more good for more people than perhaps anyone else in the history of the known universe. However, according to Western elites, Mao was the greatest mass murderer of all time. Inevitably, far too many of the intended victims of elite propaganda honestly believe and fall for these lies. Ubiquitous repetition does the trick, and the West has mastered the art of disinformation.
Of course, the anti-woke crowd, in their schizophrenia, embrace the narrative of the Western elite and agree that Mao was the most prolific mass murderer of all time. Simultaneously however, they also believe that Mao was empowered by and used by the Western elite and that the Western Elite’s “woke agenda” is simply the Maoist blueprint, being used on the American public (listen to James Lindsay, he’ll tell ya).
( VIDEO HERE IN THE ORIGINAL POST)
So why and how are these ignorant conservatives and libertarians “moral degenerates” and what does this have to do with anything stated above? Good question, as I am slowly getting there. First off, it has to do with their prioritizing nonsense terms like “anti-authoritarianism”, and other meaningless slogans such as “individualism, anti-collectivism, freedom, liberty, and volunteerism” above any other rational consideration of reality, morality, or justice.
Ultimately, libertarianism is the anti-democratic ideology of the rich who want to make sure that democracy never threatens their obscenely disproportionate share of wealth, power, and privilege. So they emphasize “freedom” from government and they want government to be so small and ineffectual that it is unable to be used by the majority to threaten their interests and privilege.
The rich promote “individualism”, a formula for social atomization, because they fear the unity of the collective—the people united—and the conquest of political power by ordinary citizens. They know that the masses would likely use their political power to run the state in the interests of everyone instead of just in the interests of the rich. The rich have always hated communism and everything it stands for because ultimately, communism stands for the interests of humanity and wants to prioritize humanity’s interests over the oppositional interests of the wealthy elite. So, libertarian “freedom and liberty” means the freedom to stand aloof from humanity in a position of extreme privilege. It means freedom from the state and freedom from responsibility and accountability to the collective. It also means the “freedom” for the rich to exploit the poor. From the perspective of the rich, this is a natural political position to take as it promotes their material interests.
But, for the working class moral degenerates that sit in the church and affirm the dishonest narratives spun by folks like James Lindsay, and who have been hoodwinked into promoting the anti-working class ideology of libertarianism (which is in opposition to their own material interests) they simply want the freedom and liberty to be ideologically selfish. They don’t enjoy the wealth, power, and privilege that the wealthy elite do, so they embrace “freedom and liberty” because they want the freedom and liberty to be unaccountable to the rest of humanity. They want the freedom and liberty to not be responsible to reality. They want the freedom and liberty to maintain their indoctrinated delusions without being held accountable by their fellow man. They want the freedom and liberty to be selfish and to not want to put any effort into understanding reality or doing any sort of work that doesn’t, first and foremost, benefit their confused misperception of their own self-interest.
Sorry, this is the behavior, advocacy, and ideology of the morally degenerate. Prioritizing selfish individualism over responsibility to your fellow man, is the natural materialist predilection of the rich. #Christ himself, as anyone can read in the New Testament, reviled the selfish, judging selfishness, self-centeredness, a fundamental offense against his teachings and God. But there is a special shame for working-class libertarians, who adopt the material interests of the class which they don’t even belong to, while they simultaneously pretend to oppose them. Morality is about the courage and sacrifice of struggle. It is the struggle to be a better person and to work to make the people around you better. Morality can not be abstracted from the effort to discern reality, to understand reality, and the struggle to improve reality. Libertarianism is a morally degenerate ideology as it embodies a rejection of all of the above, or at least its subordination to the right to not be told what to do. Absolute “freedom” (besides being technically impossible since humans are social animals), is immoral. Freedom ought to be tempered with wisdom, love, responsibility, thoughtfulness, consideration, sacrifice, and struggle. When freedom stands alone, it can quickly turn to tyranny. Libertarianism is a morally bankrupt ideology built atop lies and the material interests of the wealthy and powerful."
#USA #wokism #communism #populism #propaganda #divideAndConquer
https://www.greanvillepost.com/2024/05/14/the-moral-degeneracy-of-the-anti-woke-probably-not-what-you-think/
The EU’s new migration pact is intended to neutralise the far right – it risks empowering it
The Guardian
With a heavy focus on deterrence, the agreement shows how far Europe’s centre has shifted to the right. (...)
(Text continues underneath the photo.)
A scene from the film Io Capitano (2023), which dramatises the plight of Senegalese migrants. Photograph: Greta De Lazzaris.
Seen in this light, the EU’s long-awaited pact on asylum and migration, which passed a knife-edge series of votes in the European parliament last week, continues an established trend towards deterrence. Ahead of European elections in June, in which rightwing populist parties are predicted to make significant gains, the pact’s centrist supporters have hailed the legislative package as a victory for the traditional EU values of compromise and moderation. Yet with a heavy focus on security screening and the removal of migrants deemed undeserving, the pact highlights how far Europe’s centre has already shifted to the right on migration – and risks further empowering the radical right it aims to neutralise. (...)
Tags: #migration #migrants #eu #european_union #migration_pact #populism #radical_right #frontex #fort_europe
Imagine being so disgustingly desperate for publicity and relevance that you make a joke about a young woman who lost her life standing up for the defenseless.
It is a show, and the clowns are having all the audience and focus these days.
#BenShapiro #RachelCorrie #Gaza #Politics #Populism #Israel #Hypocrisy #Repulsive
When #xenophobia is popular, #fascists become voices of #democracy : #Konfederacja proposed a referendum on migration policy
1) Do you support #EU relocation of migrants
2) Do you support social benefits for #immigrants?
3) Do you support paying immigrants Polish min pension if they did not pay into system
4) Do you support simplificiation in issueing migration permits to people from countries not culturaly close to #Poland (eg #muslim countries)
5) Do you support the project of the ministry of foreign affairs, which wants to admit into Poland atleast 400,000 migrants per year
#Journalists should have an oppositional relationship with power, and that means all power. Not only should they have an aggressively oppositional relationship with their government and its oligarchs, they should have an oppositional relationship with the mass media itself. They should spurn the approval of other journalists and media institutions; all the best journalists do.
It's not okay for journalists to let themselves become tools of power. It's not okay for journalists to be friends with politicians and government officials. It's not okay for journalists to have tribal loyalty to other journalists or seek to ingratiate themselves to them.
Journalists should have loyalty to the truth and the truth only. Not to the high-level people they schmooze with at the nation's capital. Not to government officials in the name of maintaining "access". Not to their government's geopolitical interests. Not even to each other.
And of course everything I just described is career suicide to anyone who's looking to make it anywhere in the mass media. If what you want is to have the story of "being a journalist" and all the social clout that comes with it, you're going to do the exact opposite of what I said. That's a big part of what makes western journalists such herd-minded, approval-seeking losers; that's the only type of personality that can make it to any level of prominence in the mass media today. That's a problem, and if we're ever going to have a healthy society it's going to have to change.
The only way to do real critical reporting and still keep your job is to go independent, but that means going without all the resources people have at mainstream news outlets to get their information. Nobody's found a great solution to this yet, which is perfectly understandable because we live in a sick society where money and power are closely related and it takes money to produce good investigative journalism. So you'll see things like "independent" media outlets cozying up with plutocrats to pay the bills, and they always run into problems down the track.
Really it's a bit of a catch-22; we can't have healthy media until we have a healthy society, and we can't have a healthy society until we have healthy media. We just muddle through as best we can, telling the truth the entire time, come what may.
#Politics #Populism #Media
(from her post on FB)
#overseas_aid #sunak #johnson #tories #economics #realpolitik #populism #pandering #poverty #uk #global
Toot Redux (first published 26th November 2020)
Why now again? Do the homework!
Fascist politics includes many distinct strategies: the mythic past, propaganda, anti-intellectualism, unreality, hierarchy, victimhood, law and order, sexual anxiety, appeals to the heartland, and a dismantling of public welfare and unity.
Jason Stanley (b. 1969) American philosopher, epistemologist, academic
How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them, Introduction (2018)
#quote #quotation #fascism #nationalism #politics #populism
More notes and sourcing on WIST: https://wist.info/stanley-jason/54912/
To change our laws and culture, the green movement must attract and include the majority of all people, not just the majority of affluent people.
Anthony Kapel “Van” Jones (b. 1968) American news commentator, author, lawyer
The Green Collar Economy (2008)
#quote #quotation #change #culture #elite #environmentalism #green #movement #populism
More notes and sourcing on WIST: https://wist.info/jones-van/51456/
https://leftlockdownsceptics.com/2021/10/james-burnhams-managerial-revolution-and-the-great-reset/
"...the thesis is this: The rulers of this new society will be the people who effectively control the means of production: that is, business executives, technicians, bureaucrats and soldiers, lumped together by Burnham under the name of ‘managers’. These people will eliminate the old capitalist class, crush the working class, and so organize society that all power and economic privilege remain in their own hands." -- Orwell’s ‘Second thoughts on James Burnham’, 1946
#managers #jamesburnham #orwell #privilege #power #leftlockdownsceptics #greatreset #pseudopandemic #fascism #Bolshevism #therulingclass #thesubservientclass #agenda #wetiko #technocracy #authoritarian #authoritarianism #totalitarianism #problemreactionsolution #hegel #rulingclass #economicinterests #sellop #psyop #wef #communitarian #decievers #usefulidiots #cynics #stakeholdercapitalism #klausschwab #libertariancommunist #oligarchy #exploitation #managerialclass #managerialsociety #capitalism #managerialrevolution #capitalistglobaltransnationaltotalitariancoup #subvert #populism #crisisindemocracy #capitalistclass #contradictions #dramaticstructuraloverhaul #GreatResetagenda #WorldEconomicForum #goodread #despitetypos #politics #consider #cuibono
"Hitler and Mussolini and Father Coughlan and Huey Long and Franklin Roosevelt ... attained their enormous influence by radio."
S.I. Hayakawa and General Semantics (1968)
I've had a few recommendations to look at the work of Hayakawa. He was an english professor, university president, and senator (from California). A decidedly eclectic mix.
The quote above comes at the opening of this lecture, discussing the revolution in media which had occurred at the opening of the 20th century. Highly recommended.
I'd come to the realisation of the significance of media and its role on society and politics a few years ago. I keep running into validation of that notion.
McLuhan isn't mentioned AFAICT though he makes similar points. See also #HannaArendt and the #FrankfurtSchool
https://youtube.com/watch?v=W0VdNQVlg7U
I've also queued up
- Hayakawa: What is General Semantics https://youtube.com/watch?v=P8rZrwBUheM
- George Lakoff: The Neuroscience of Language and Thought https://youtube.com/watch?v=JJP-rkilz40
(YouTube recommendations are proving interesting here.)
#SIHayakawa #Media #radio #politics #fascism #populism #MarshallMcLuhan
"There is No Algorithm for Truth" — Tom Scott speaks for about an hour at the Royal Institution of Great Britain: https://youtu.be/leX541Dr2rU #fz_webvideos #FakeNews #Brexit #PostTruth #Populism #Censorship