The US political/media class have been pushing hard for more authoritarian policies to stave off the threat of “domestic terrorism” in the wake of the Capitol riot. President Biden, who was already working on rolling out new domestic terror policies well before January sixth, confirmed after the riot that he is making these new measures a priority. Political internet censorship is becoming increasingly normalized, anti-protest bills are being passed, and now we’re seeing liberals encouraged to form “digital armies” to spy on Trump supporters to report them to the authorities.
And an amazingly large percentage of the US population seems to have no problem with any of this, even in sectors of the political spectrum that should really know better by now.
“What else can we do?” they reason. “What other solution could there possibly be to the threat of dangerous fascists and conspiracy theorists continuing to gain power and influence?”
Well there’s a whole lot that can be done, and none of it includes consenting to sweeping new Patriot Act-like authoritarian measures or encouraging monopolistic Silicon Valley plutocrats to censor worldwide political speech. There’s just a whole lot of mass-scale narrative manipulation going on to keep it from being obvious to everyone.
The New Domestic War on Terror is Cominghttps://t.co/DEBw4qB1yr
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 19, 2021
The way to stem the tide of Trumpism (or fascism, or white supremacism, or Trump cultism, or whatever term you use for what you’re worried about here) is to eliminate the conditions which created it.
Trump was only able to launch his successful faux-populist campaign in the first place by exploiting the widespread pre-existing opinion that there was a swamp that needed draining, a corrupt political system whose leadership does not promote the interests of the people.
Conspiracy theories only exist because the government often does evil things and lies about them with the help of the mass media, forcing people to just guess what’s happening behind the opaque wall of government secrecy.
People only get it in their heads that they need a trustworthy strongman to overhaul the system if the system has failed them.
People who are actually interested in ending Trumpism would be promoting an end to the corruption in the political system, an end to the opacity of their government, an end to their uniquely awful electoral system, and an end to the neoliberal policies which have been making Americans poorer and poorer with less and less support from the government which purports to protect them.
But these changes are not being promoted by the US political/media class, because the US political/media class speaks for an empire that depends on these things.
Without corruption, the plutocratic class couldn’t use campaign donations and corporate lobbying to install and maintain politicians who will advance their interests.
Without government secrecy, the oligarchic empire could not conspire in secret to advance the military and economic agendas which form the glue that holds the empire together.
Without a lying mass media, people’s consent could not be manufactured for wars and a system which does not serve their interests.
Without widespread poverty and domestic austerity, people could not be kept too busy and politically impotent to challenge the massive political influence of the plutocrats.
Since the day of the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, at least nine states have introduced 14 anti-protest bills. https://t.co/TcyifxsS9D
— The Intercept (@theintercept) January 22, 2021
So the option of stopping the rise of Trumpism by changing the system is taken off the table, which is why you never hear it discussed as a possibility in mainstream circles. The only option people are being offered to debate the pros and cons of is giving more powers to that same corrupt system which created Trump, powers which will be under the control of the next Trumpian figure who is elevated by that very system.
You’re not going to prevent fascism by creating a big authoritarian monster to stomp it into silence, and even if you could you would only be stopping the fascism by becoming the fascism. To stop the rise of fascism you need to actually change. Drastically. Believing you can just make it go away without changing your situation is like believing you can avert an oncoming train by putting your hands over your eyes.
There is no valid argument against what I am saying here. Saying the powerful won’t allow any positive change is just confirming everything I’m saying and confirming the need to remove the powerful from power. Saying that ending corruption, government secrecy and injustice would just be giving the terrorists what they want would be turning yourself into a bootlicker of such cartoonish obsequiousness there aren’t words in the English language adequate to mock you.
Yes, change is desperately needed. Yes, the powerful will resist that change with everything they have. But the alternative is letting them plunge the world into darkness and destruction. We’re going to have to find a way to win this thing.
_________________________
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45 responses to “You Counter Trumpism By Ending The Conditions Which Created It, Not With Authoritarian Policies”
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The elites care not if we take the blue pill or red. Either prevents the ability to be willing to look closely at the things we believe to be mostly pure. Change will only come when we honestly evaluate our systems to become disillusioned (rid of false perceptions). There is much that needs changed in both camps and as long as wall street has undue influence as well as the military industrial complex little will change.
Trump is not a fascist and neither is nationalism or populism fascism. Nor is Trump a white supremacist. Putting American citizens first is not racist or fascist. That is what politicians are supposed to do – to serve the best interests of their own people and nation. These accusations of fascism and racism etc are just standard liberal demonization tropes that are neither correct nor true.
Correct, DJ is not a white supremacist. My county GOP Central Committee gained many Black members since 2016 because of DJT’s economic policies that benefited Blacks in particular. In addition, DJT dated a Black woman for two years, but the media would never let that info out! https://victoriassecret.fandom.com/wiki/Kara_Young
We’re truly entering the era of the battle of the minds. And MSM certainly has the overwhelming advantage. That is to hi-jack and subvert any meaningful change, no doubt. Free speech is curtailed perhaps like never before. McCarthy was a mere vision of what’s to come. The onslaught is total. Previously trusted thinkers & commentators have joined in the frenzy. It’s as if they’ve lost their senses. They’re singing from the same hymn book invented by CNN. And so the world is truly going crazy, as 1+ 2 no longer equals 3. Yea, so maybe he’s really a fascist and a racist after all? And all those stories about fraud? Pure and simple lies. Right? ”We’re going to have to find a way to win this thing” sums it up fair & square. If this battle is not won, our minds will disintegrate. Is it night? or is it day? What does big tech say?
According to Harari, large human societies are possible only because Homo sapiens can believe in what he calls “stories” and that certain makes sense. You could could never convince a monkey to give you her banana today for a promise of infinite banana’s tomorrow. Monkeys are not that Dumb, people are. The ruling classes have always used that flaw to control the lumpen proletariat and it still works today. The more absurd the story, the better.. the invisible man in the sky is as absurd as it gets but billions believe it so how hard is it to believe in money which is the biggest story/scam or that your politician who is owned by the ruling classes is your friend. Not to worry, climate change will put an end to Homo sapiens, just enjoy yourself, it truly is later than you think.
Apparently the MSM agenda is not at all driven by capitalist considerations so much as a hive mind ideology very concerned with assimilating any and all outlying minds. At this point, any alternative schools of thought are to be burned to the ground along with their books, if history provides any lessons. Not to worry, even that history will be totally rewritten. The CNN network in particular has never been concerned that viewership numbers have forever been too low to justify any commercially aspirated sponsorship because the globalist oligarchs who control the corporations sponsor CNN and most of MSM purely for reasons of political propaganda and social engineering. Yes Virginia, there is a Great Satan, AKA the Father of All Lies, and it sits on a throne at the hub of this world laughing at everyone, even at its own minions who deem themselves “illuminated”.
For all the shit Biden has had thrown at him here and elsewhere, by me and others, let it be noted that he just made the following public statements which cried out to be made. Follow-through is something else, of course, but this sure as hell ain’t a bad way to start his presidency. Is it conceivable that hope will stop being a dirty word?
https://sputniknews.com/us/202101221081852723-biden-says-us-economic-crisis-is-deepening/
Trump is an unbelievable puke. Oh yeah!
Trump is an impossible racist. Agree!
Trump is a disgusting sexist. For sure!
Trump is a pathological narcissist. Exactly!
Trump is incapable of empathy. Sadly true!
Trump was never part of the US political establishment. Can’t be!
Trump has not started any wars. Highly suspicious!
Trump is the ideal scapegoat. Of course!
So let’s all have another good kicking!
Now that he’s gone down.
No one will defend him as a victim!
He is to blame for all evil!
He’s the only one!
Let’s free ourselves!
Kill him!
This is called a lynch mob.
Yup, you’re absolutely right.
Just calm down and enjoy the show. I’m going out “eyes wide open”. How about you?
The ” ugliness of hatred ” is not going anywhere anytime soon. Each and every human being has both good and bad inside of themselves; the ” good people ” suppress the bad inside of themselves but that does not mean that they ever got rid of it. If you go deep enough you can find it ready to take a person over at any time. United States democracy is a charade that is fading fast; when the public gets mad enough about it; changes will be made. It will not be a long time coming and just how violent it will be is anyones guess; but chaos is inevitable!
Indeed, we all have within us the same evil that the most horrible have. Suppressing that evil is the hallmark of civilization. Simply being aware of your internal evil goes a long way to suppressing it. However, most have a breaking point. If enough evil is inflicted upon you, you are quite likely to turn your evil loose. Not a happy circumstance, but perhaps a necessary one. Too bad result is so unpredictable. A case in point, the French Revolution did not create what one would necessarily call a better circumstance.
I suspect the Democrats don’t really want to end Trumpism, for three possible reasons:
1) They may see it as a spent force and no real threat to US institutions, especially with Trump out of the White House and off Twitter. After all, if the Jan. 6 “insurrection” was the best they could do, no worries.
2) Trumpists are great for fund-raising as they make any alternative, no matter how corrupt and oligarchic, appear preferable. Virtually every corporate sector is now behind the Dems, with the notable but single exception of the fossil-fuel industry. Ditto the upper 10% of the population, all college-educated/indoctrinated.
3) Trumpists are a wonderful distraction. Dems have only to point and shudder at these “deplorables” to shift attention from the fact that they’re resuming that neoliberal, globalist sellout of the struggling 90%.
Makes sense, but I wonder if Trumpism won’t simply fade away. It’s sooooo boring, and most of us are soooo tired of it. From this point forward, every second spent thinking about Trump is a second wasted. Much better to focus on how to move Bidenism in a better direction.
No comment actually required, as the article is exactly correct.
If the American ruling class, including the Deep State and the media as well as its visible politicians, depends on present conditions for their powers and possessions, it’s not going to be easy to change them. It’s not merely a matter of corruption; it’s a matter of the organic configuration of the state. Complaint has become superfluous. The people voted for change, and got nothing. Now what?
“Without widespread poverty and domestic austerity, people could not be kept too busy and politically impotent to challenge the massive political influence of the plutocrats.” This is a crucial observation, pointing to the lessons learned by the American PTB during the late 60s/early 70s, when this codger was coming of age. For the first time in U.S. history, college became affordable to the young of the working class (via a combination of higher wages, reasonable costs of higher ed, and ample financial aid and scholarships), and working class kids poured into campuses across the country, rubbing shoulders and minds with the more privileged members of their generation. Throw in a forgotten piece of the pop culture of that era, and you have a perfect storm of youth rebellion pushing in the direction of social justice…until the narcissism of the drug culture (likely CIA-promoted) sapped the strength of its winds. As for that forgotten piece of pop culture, I tried to capture it in this little essay:
https://newtonfinn.com/2011/12/15/would-paladin-have-shot-bin-laden/
Losing weight in a short space of time has always been thought of as a near impossible task. For years, doctors and dieticians have told the public that it takes months and sometimes even years of hard work to see any progress with weight loss, or to sculpt the perfect body. But that is simply not true at all.
Read more—>>
My God another sickening spammer; the world is doomed!!
DC = open air insane asylum
Crimes committed by DC = crimes
Pretending that this particular government is somehow not a criminal organization = insanity
Trumpism is a result of the desperation of some of those aware of the insanity of at least some part of the psychopathic insanity called the US government. They flailed about looking for something, anything that might demonstrate their desperation. Then there was Trump. He was successful at two things. His election alone threw the Psychopaths In Charge into a fit of rage. Remaining in office for the full term, and occasionally tweeting something that enraged them even more, maintained their rage. That’s it. Their rage exposed them. Unfortunately, their rage continues, and grows. They are preparing to use their “men with guns” to inflict punishment on those who dared challenge them. When they’re done with the reds, they’ll come for the blues, which they will use to dispose of the reds first. Fear and division are the primary tools of tyrants. Both are being inflicted upon us at a near unprecedented level.
“If you’re not ready to die for it, put the word ‘freedom’ out of your vocabulary.”
Malcolm X
How do you think Hitler came to power. There is one waiting in the wings to take over right now when the time is right. It is not Trump but something far worse.
The desperate weren’t aware – they were just desperate and if the Democrats keep them desperate anything could happen.
The crazy part is the psychopaths could very easily continue to rule by simply giving folks bread and circuses instead of trying to squeeze every frigging nickel out of them.
I disagree. They were aware, just not aware of all of it. They weren’t aware that the entire show was nothing but the will of the Psychopaths In Charge and their masters in the bank cartel. They were aware they were being abused, just not the degree or quantity of abuse they were actually getting.
At the risk of infringing a sixty-year long capitalist ‘greed mongers’ copyright of others’ work, I’ll cite a short passage from Jean Paul Sartre’s preface to Frantz Fanons: The Wretched of the Earth, which says it all, about the roots of white European colonial racism; and the likelihood of newly elevated fervent believer, Joe Biden, doing anything other than those who have come before.
[… And when one day our human kind becomes full-grown, it will not define itself as the sum total of the whole world’s inhabitants, but as the infinite unity of their mutual needs. Here I stop, you will have no trouble in finishing the job; all you have to do is look our aristocratic virtues straight in the face, for the first and last time. They are cracking up; how could they survive the aristocracy of underlings who brought them into being? A few years ago, a bourgeois colonialist commentator found only this to say in defense of the West: “We aren’t angels. But we, at least, feel some remorse.” What a confession! Formally our continent was buoyed up by other means: the Parthenon, Chartres, the Rights of Man, or the swastika. Now we know what these are worth; and our only chance of being saved from shipwreck is the very Christian sentiment of guilt.]
Without conscious conscience, there is no guilt! And, it is more apparent today, if that is at all possible to acknowledge, that we are still a very long way off from becoming “full-grown” human kind. Of course, poetry and rhetoric are uplifting, and critical thinking expressive journalism too!
Nice quote. Thanks, EM. Fanon also told us another important truth we leftists tend to forget: that the oppressed often participate in their oppression, help to enable it. That uncomfortable fact, which doesn’t excuse for one moment the failure to address the needs of “the least of these,” is denied or ignored by the left at its peril. The reason it cannot be denied or ignored is that it provides the oppressive bastards with that sliver of truth which makes the rest of their propaganda viable, sellable to those who think emotionally, egotistically, superficially.
Distracted I was when I watched TV
Confused I was when I listened to the radio
Perplexed I became when I read the news site
Disheartened I became at the loss of my understanding
Of Science, society, justice, journalism, government and opposition
Lonely I became in isolation
When hope was the only thing that was left
They knew how and when
and what to say and do
To steal it away when I needed it most
Trump, Biden, The oligarchs,
the elites, the left ,the right, the msm,
my last boss, that person who I worked with
that yelled and swore at me and pointed out my worst traits often
and always in private
What was it that I did to them
I know I had some bad days
But shesh did you have take
the only thing I had left
that way that you did
I was having fucking red hot go
but Im not perfect, didn’t say I was
Did I scare them?
Perhaps I was to tenacious?
Was I a threat?
Perhaps I don”t know my power
Or the potential of a limitless mind.
Perhaps I am unstoppable
Yeah that must be it.
New record number set last year for firearms sales to private citizens? Priceless! New record number set for first time firearms sales to private citizens? Priceless x 2! New record number of voters who now have a vested interest in supporting the Second Amendment? (You know, that one in the U.S. Constitution that so called liberals hate so much.). Priceless x 3! Odds that most first time firearms purchases last year were actually completed by liberals who hate guns but got one or more anyway for self protection due to the fear mongering tactics of supposedly liberal mainstream media propagandists and globalist puppet politicians who supported actual domestic terrorism last year but now project that categorization upon their perceived political foes? Bitcoin bonanza priceless! Still calling to defund the police while rioting and burning American cities knowing those same police you want defunded have been ordered to stand down, protect you from citizen reprisal and watch it happen? Batshit crazy priceless!
Caitlin Johnstone wrote:
> Trump was only able to launch his successful faux-populist campaign in the first place by exploiting the widespread pre-existing opinion that there was a swamp that needed draining, a corrupt political system whose leadership does not promote the interests of the people.
And, for many on the right and the left, fake progressive Clinton — financed by corporations, war profiteers, etc., contrary to the labor unions, etc, that supported Sanders — represented that corrupt political system. She was the candidate of the military-industrial complex.
> Political internet censorship is becoming increasingly normalized, anti-protest bills are being passed, and now we’re seeing liberals encouraged to form “digital armies” to spy on Trump supporters to report them to the authorities.
Yes, that’s exactly the opposite of what is needed, and will just make the situation much worse.
See the different reasons why Trump won, very clearly explained just after the 2016 presidential election, by a then sleep-deprived but intelligent progressive who understood what was really going on:
President Trump: How & Why… — Jonathan Pie — November 10, 2016 — 4,408,967 views
Fun video, fresh and true as on the day it was made. Nice link, JMG.
Well said, Caitlin. Let’s not forget that it was Joe Biden who effectively wrote the Patriot Act…in 1994. For how long as the legislation that they’re trying to force on us now been sitting there, waiting for a trigger event?
………..
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4876107/user-clip-joe-biden-wrote-patriot-act
…………
The incursion at the U.S. Capitol was just the thing they were looking for. How convenient…
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/01/joe-biden-domestic-terrorism-bill-capitol-building
The problem with this statement “The way to stem the tide of Trumpism is to eliminate the conditions which created it” is that easy access to social media tools for coordinating action *is* one of the conditions which facilitated the storming of the Capitol. I think you mean the socio-economic conditions which created Trumpism, and, of course, that is correct, but trying to deny there is a grain of truth to the idea that social media played a part is the wrong approach. One should instead emphasize that any such clamping down on social media will impact *ALL* forms of organizing, peaceful and violent alike, and thus represent a full-frontal assault on constitutional rights to freedom of speech and peaceful assembly, etc.
The riot at the U.S. Capitol did not happen in a vacuum. Thousands (millions) of people had very legitimate concerns about the election. They were there to protest the certification of the election because they wanted a 10-day audit of the ballots and ballot processing software. The protest at the Capitol was not an insurrection, it was a demand for election integrity. The fact that the media has deliberately reframed this as “white supremacism” (a term they are using to justify the surveillance and punishment of large numbers of Americans) is an indication that the protest might have been a setup.
There was no riot. A riot is what happened in Watts years ago. Yes, It was staged for the purposes you mentioned.
Yup. No riot. Orderly and well behaved. Ushered in by Capitol security between velvet guide ropes without knocking over a goddamned thing.
EZ! comedy. and poetry. plays. screenplays. rebel yells and lean meat.
no bread no bacon no beer
no pasta no pastries no pizza.
no backups no bailout no bench
all we gotta do is follow da stench.
…but for now scream with all yer might at the dumbercraps!
let Biden really feel yer love of no worries, the end of stress,
insanity. killer oney godlings seeking someone to love in all
the wrong killing fields.
this is end of climate as we thought we knew it.
this is armageddon this is the time of secret orders
this is the time of lonely informers
this is possibly the beginning of the end all be all.
i mean the end of oxygen.and i can explain that if you want.
i know for sure that medicals are brainwashed by their own regs.
{see moderna remedy–in crass perfidy unless that is a redundancy; 2 doses @ minus 90 degrees? no wonder it hurts yer arm. might wear out in a year? for a virus that we don”t even know if it was man-made. or not. that’s batty!
and then three doses in 12 months after that. this guy is the enemy of the people persona non-grata.
tamper with yer own genetic code.
i’ll take a hike and not travel much anyway.
this is the time of the generation of the cull.
on the cusp of joy or hell
on earth…
after all we are gods, right
of what?
the gardens of plenty…or destruction.?
Reset that.
i think they much prefer the authoritarian path. It must be a relef for them to finally relax and behave according to their true nature.
Tom Luongo has it:
https://tomluongo.me/2021/01/20/epitaph-for-a-post-trump-america/
Terrorism is a category which allows any thing you oppose to be demonized. It is a very convenient and flexible tool. Practice free speech , then you can be described as a terrorist, for example. Defend yourself and your defense can be used as evidence you are a terrorist.
Any act against or endangering the state and status quo is terrorism.
It seems to me that any unwanted comment could now be ‘violence’.
I am offended by that. Someone lock speedbird up.
Even:
Are you one of those who believe govt must answer to the people, & has a duty to uphold, defend, preserve the (your understanding, immutable) rights enshrined in the Constitution? Do you feel an obligation to those who said ‘give me liberty or give me death’, and then gave their life securing these rights for posterity?
.
Are you Christian and believe your rights came from a Supreme Authority, not of any man or govt? Haven’t you always been an annoyance to some with that arrogant nonsense?
.
Do you tend to be middle class, & feel free to complain about govt because you’re not dependent on govt for your needs?
.
Are you white, a convenient, easily seen, easily pointed to identifier of other-imposed ideas/beliefs, guilt or intentions (unlike in the past, where your ideas/beliefs were actually yours, myriad, unique, and private in your head) in an identity politics social experiment? Can your skin color, which can’t be private, be used against you and a founding political system (now considered systemically racist) that must go because of all the you’s that represent it?
.
Do you believe the people are the real govt, and if the leaders no longer represent the people, it’s the people’s right (per that Constitution) to change it, plus you probably own a gun?
I guess I should have added, many Trump supporters, those called fascists, white supremacists, domestic terrorists, are the old fashioned squares, the Americana types, who still believe in the things I list above, and with dramatic, paradigmatic change/reset coming to the world (expect class changes-smaller upper, larger lower, values change, systems change, much, much more) and they’ll surely make that harder, they probably need to become, figuratively or, gulp, literally, a dying breed.