Yeah, I know; hence the “rhetorical” disclaimer.
I’ve personally funded a fair bit of American school supplies in the past:
But y’all get how deeply fucked up this is?
My brother teaches at remote Indigenous schools where the local poverty level is closer to African stereotypes than the western norm, due primarily to the genocidal racism of Australian colonialism.
Despite that, he does not have to do this. His classroom supplies are funded by the state.
You’re all probably familiar with my rants about scapegoating the mentally ill for societal violence, so I won’t repeat them here.
However, the bit of detail that I usually omit for rhetorical purposes:
Although the mentally ill are not the main perpetrators of violence, we do tend to be abnormally sensitive to the zeitgeist. Organically-produced mental illness expresses in culturally-mediated ways.
In the Middle Ages, people had delusions of demons. In the Cold War, they had delusions of aliens instead. Religious people talk to god, atheists write crazy manifestos.
America is hyper-militaristic, hyper-violent and in obvious collapse. This is going to affect the behaviour of Americans undergoing psychotic breakdowns, and some of that behaviour is going to express itself ballistically.
Crazyfolk are the canaries in the coalmine.
The DSA are upbeat:
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https://twitter.com/alexnpress/status/928074206910312448
That statement is true for the actual left as well, unfortunately. There are ones who ascribe to the left economically who do not agree with addressing equality, and they are pretty vocal about it too.
It’s just a hard fact that it is a prevalent issue across political divides, though you will see it more in whiter and more exclusive groups.
Yup.
The distrust between PoC and white socialists has a solid historical basis, particularly in the USA [1]. And there are plenty of left blokes of all colours who are sketchy on sexism.
Race, class and gender; it’s all about intersectionality. You can’t deal with any of it unless you deal with all of it.
And that’s a key factor.
The DNC Dems appear to be overwhelmingly middle class or above, mostly middle aged or older, heavily white and almost entirely devoid of transfolk. They have some gay people, but mostly of the wealthy white dude variety; a handful of PoC, but generally not working class. Fairly even gender balance.
The online left appears to be substantially younger, browner and poorer than the centrists. Kiran Opal, blackblocboi, Existential Enso, Lana Del Raytheon, etc.
The further left you go, the stronger this factor becomes. The Berniecrats still have a fair collection of straight white dudes from Irony Twitter (Chapo etc.), but once you get left of the DSA there’s barely any to be seen. Everyone hits at least one box on the oppression checklists, and usually more; trans, PoC, Muslim, disabled, etc.
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[1] A fair few early American [2] proto-socialists supported slavery as a means of sparing white workers from the worst facets of labour.
[2] For the local equivalent: one of the foundational moments of the Australian left was a premeditated race riot by white goldminers directed against the Chinese. See also the unimpressive record of Oz pastoral worker’s unions’ relationship with Aboriginal farmhands.
Good lefty podcasts all over the place these days:
I’m not trying to pick a fight with this theme, BTW.
I’m intrigued by the demographic differences between the factions, and I’m also interested in trying to work out this question:
…in part, because I constantly see establishment-aligned Dems expressing sentiments like this:
Which suggests that they really have no idea that there is a reason why the left dislikes them. It isn’t a messaging problem.
See this for a bluntly phrased expression of radical left PoC sentiment:
You’ll find very similar sentiments in the trans community about their recent symbolic win.
Also see:
There’s a fair bit of Akala-style anti-imperialist sentiment on the activist left these days. They have a very global perspective.
I find another one of these every time I wander through Wikipedia…
I don’t disagree with that, but:
The GOP will have noticed that as well, and they’ll respond by accelerating and intensifying their voter suppression.
Well, duh…
Culture:
I still think the single most universal message the Dems could make a central plank is fair elections through maximizing participation and trying to break down district walls. It’s what the GOP fears the most, it will bring anti-GOP third party out of the woodwork nation-wide, and it would still most likely result in a Democrat majority for a lengthy period of time.
No, them winning is not the end. But it’s a start at moving the Overton window back. This isn’t where you give up, but you can pause and reset your feet for the next push.
Recognising small victories isn’t the same as saying the battle is over, let alone the war, it’s just recognising ground was (at the very least) held and not lost.
Quick summary of DSA wins? Is there a legislature with multiple members?
GOP response to the DSA’s rise:
cool!
