This article in The Atlantic by Ta-Nehisi Coates is typical of democratic-party-think: "Donald is a true white supremacist, and all he does is to elevate white supremacy."
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/10/the-first-white-president-ta-nehisi-coates/537909/
It’s true in some basic ways – certainly he does openly flout many white supremacist notions and say many blatantly racist things. He is without a doubt an openly bigoted, misogynist, and racist man.
But the agenda of democrats & so-called “liberal media” is to amplify all of that into some sort of super-villain, some evil aberration who is simultaneously a mastermind of white supremacy and also a bungling idiot and also a Russian agent provocateur and also an incompetent man-baby.
Trump is a PoS of a human being. On that I agree wholeheartedly with democrats and progressives and sundry other leftists and independents.
But this attempt to make him out as being an aberration in terms of his white supremacy, and thereby to normalize the quiet acceptance of white supremacy of his predecessors –
I have deep misgivings with that. It is fundamental to what neoliberalism is, and how it maintains its stranglehold on American politics. It willfully misunderstands racism and white supremacy and our national character and the social fight we’re all currently engaged in. It eliminates from our entire conversation ownership of our collective participation in our collective ongoing systematic racism - especially including school-to-prison pipelines, criminalization of the poor, legalized murder of black and poor folks by the police.
Pieces such as this serve no useful purpose, as far as I can tell. Folks who read The Atlantic and articles like this – are democrats. They are the “true believers” in this narrative, and reading this is just joining into a massive circle with all of their peers – a kind of national prayer – going to the same church together to “pray on it.”
It doesn’t help elucidate anyone who goes. It doesn’t take responsibility for how we got to this sordid juncture in history. It doesn’t offer a way forward. It just reinforces everyone’s false-belief that they are good people, that Trump is bad people, that democrats are trying to do right in the world, that republicans are the evil slime blocking their good intentions.
That’s a road to nowhere. It’s where we’ve been stuck as a nation since at least Ronny-Ray-gun, and we’ve been digging this collective hole we’re all standing in deeper and deeper – with Congress becoming more partisan and acrimonious for decades.
And then the media plays up this rift – giving excuse to democratic representatives and senators – “oh, they couldn’t do [anything good] because those mean old evil republicans.”
And the democratic faithful rend their clothes and gnash their teeth and wail at the sky and do absolutely nothing. Understand absolutely nothing. Take responsibility for – nor demand their congress people take responsibility for – absolutely nothing.
Which is how this game is really being played.
Democrats always manage to pass the budget including a massive hand-out to all of their favorite donors – including war-industry, pharmaceuticals, insurance companies, and so on; while claiming that they can’t get anything that we-the-people want accomplished – often in numbers like 83% across both republicans and democrats – saying that “the other party makes it impossible.”
Democrats always manage to "do the patriotic thing" and vote for wars, and war-spending, and war-power.
Democrats always manage to "protect the homeland" and pass police-surveillance, fund new and existing intelligence agencies, rescind their duty to act as a check and balance to the president's power by authorizing (or not authorizing) wars.
Democrats always manage to ignore Flint, MI, and the leaded and contaminated water issue there. Or the crime problems in Chicago. Or the overall movement of money from the lower and middle class to the ultra-few-elite-wealthy. Or to ignore the vast inflation of health care in favor of their wealthy donors who own insurance co's, pharmaceutical co's, or etc.
Democrats always manage to pass bills that favor the wealthy, but can never manage anything that even upwards of 83% of all Americans want.
So the narrative given by this Atlantic article does nothing more than reinforce this useless and largely untrue narrative that keeps everyone stuck and useless while the domestic greedy and global war profiteers continue to have their way in the world.
So – please don’t think I am offering succor to Trump or his bigotry or his mismanagement or the myriad ways he embodies the inner asshole of the entire Human race.
However – he is merely a symptom of a larger cancer of our national character – one that this narrative only helps to hide while growing in plain sight.
Monday, December 18, 2017
Tuesday, December 5, 2017
Sex vs. Gender
Let us start with some simple truths:
A woman is not a man, and a man is not a woman.Let me state for the record that I am a man - both biologically and in gender-identity. I have not lived a woman's life experiences, and similarly, a woman hasn't lived a man's life experiences. Nor have either lived a Trans-man nor Trans-woman's life experiences. All four categories are distinct because society treats us differently. This is inescapably true.
As a male identifying man, I have most definitely lived a man's privileges and perspectives. My expectations and other's expectations of me are largely related to their perception of me as being a male. I am given male clothes, expected to behave in male-conforming ways, and I am given various latitudes and priorities in all sorts of social situations where males are deferred to as the norm.
To pretend that others' perceptions of my gender are irrelevant is literally self-deceptive and disingenuous. To pretend that my lived experiences encompases other folks lived experiences when I identify as male and have a male conforming body would be just incredibly disrespectful to others - such as women, or trans folks.
Their experiences are undoubtedly different. I haven't had the same confusion or fears over choosing a bathroom, or clothes, or friendships, or sexual partners, or self identity. Those are all struggles that are a part of being a trans person that - to pretend I know them from my lived experiences as a male, would be truly disrespectful and dishonest.
So let's stop pretending that trans people's lived experiences encompass anyone else's lived experiences when it comes to how society treats you due to your apparent sex.
Males, Females, Trans-women, and Trans-men all have different lived experiences.
So, if we can agree to something this obvious, this fundamental, this self-explanatory, then we're off to a good start on solid footing.
Unfortunately, so-called "trans-theory" or, as it's often known in academia as "queer-theory", attempts to obfuscate this self-evident truth: that we all have different lived experiences because of other's perceptions of us and society's norms for how it treats men, women, and trans-people.
Queer-theory obscures it, associate it with hate-crimes, denounces anyone who would point out such self-supporting truths in an effort to obscure this conversation so that they can enable trans folks - primarily trans-women, who are natal-men, to then claim to be allowed to define womanhood and erase any meaningful or commonsense definitions of what it is to be a woman living in our sexist, patriarchal, misogynist world.
And that's messed up. It's wrong. It acts as a cloak for unscrupulous actors and predators. It erases women as a distinct, identifiable class of people who need common sense protections. It destroys hard-won protections for women and girls - because it redefines such things to be whatever some males claim they are!
Women's sports becomes a joke. Some unscrupulous men simply identify as women and compete against actual women, with their male bodies. Not that most transwomen are the kind of folks who are looking to cheat or rob women of anything! In fact, in my personal experiences with trans folks, they're quite genuine in their desire to be a woman or to be a man - to present as such, and to be treated as such, and are not looking to use this to take rights or protections from anyone else. However, there is a significant minority who are and would happily twist things to their unethical advantage. This subset is often predatory in nature, and must be addressed.
I know it is upsetting to consider - but just as with natal men - there is an unscrupulous subset of males who are quite eager to abuse others and to use their physical size or social standing to abuse and exploit others. Sexual predators is a real phenomenon of human beings. Just because you may think it is upsetting - and that "not all men!" - doesn't release you and I and everyone of our responsibilities to protect our fellow sisters and mothers and daughters from such people!
Women's scholarships or other attempts to create encouragement for women to enter various underrepresented fields becomes a lie - a farce! Some unscrupulous males will simply change their claim of identity and get to claim those incentives, literally taking women's things for themselves.
Academic scholarships are threatened, as are safe spaces for showering, dressing rooms, political and academic positions intended for females (such as head of Women's Studies or Feminism), rape crisis centers, women's prisons, and probably quite a few more if one considers everything that is sex segregated (and considers for half of one second that they're sex segregated for a reason - usually hard-won against male patriarchal opposition to allowing women to have those safe spaces in the first place - for example: Women's bathrooms are relatively new only being about a hundred years old in Europe and America, previously having forced women to stay home or be unsafe in male places with high rates of harassment and even rape).
If there is truly any doubt in your mind at this point - and if you're new to this conversation, then there probably is - you might want to consider the following:
- Opposing trans-theory / queer-theory is not about attacking trans people!
It is about protecting women and girls!
Trans people can live and let live without annihilating any meaningful distinction between men and women. - Trans folks protections should not come at the expense of women's and girl's protections.
We can and should protect both classes of people. - Trans folks should not be trying to redefine "woman" for homo sapiens.
Sex is a category that is a biological truth across all sexually reproducing animals, Humans included. - Nor should anyone be policing language at all!
In a free society that values freedom-of-speech, everyone is free not to listen to a given point of view, but everyone has the right - must have the right - to their freedom of speech! - Crying "hate-speech" for the perceived misuse of ordinary words like "female" and "woman" is a quick slide to thought policing and totalitarianism.
Please see links below for some heinous results that are already emerging from this misuse of power to silence other views and even normal human interactions around queer-theory. - Gender isn't only about what an individual wants to project!
It is also about what others' perceive.
This is fundamental and indelible.
Self-identity is a only one piece of a much larger and more complex puzzle with wide-ranging impacts upon all of our lives!
The consequences of annihilating the meaning of the words "woman" "man" "female" and "male" have profound deleterious consequences that favor patriarchy and misogyny and the erasure of women's and girl's protections. This is a terrible, retrograde idea that is not grounded in liberation or sexual or social empowerment at all - but rather in controlling women and society through sexuality and a sick and twisted regressive theory of gender conformity!
No concessions: the five letters in sequence "woman" or "women" must not be applied to males ever, because all such roads lead right back to where we are. Further, there is nothing offensive about calling a man a man.
— Jenn Smith (@JennSmith64) February 6, 2018
Please keep in mind: this is not about opposing trans people's rights to be trans people! I, and every feminist I know, is a staunch supporter of an individual's right to present as they wish while being treated with respect and decency.
Everyone has the right - or should have the right - to be treated with basic respect, common decency, and have all of the rights to pursue happiness and self expression so long as it does not infringe upon the rights of others.
Queer theory / trans theory absolutely impinges upon all of our rights, erases hard-won protections, and is a bludgeon of gender-conformity and regressive thinking.
---
There are a great many good resources to help you explore this topic. I've assembled a few here, to help get you started:
TERF is really a hate-label:
http://www.feministcurrent.com/2014/07/29/how-terf-works/
https://twitter.com/terfisaslur?lang=en
Miranda Yardley (An honest-to-goodness feminist who happens to be a trans-woman):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyUNuD8WUSY
http://mirandayardley.com/en/
Born in the right body (a mom and daughter's odyssey):
One of the best essays I've read to-date:
https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3108929-a-letter-to-the-woman-who-called-me-a-terf
One critique of gender-spectrum theory:https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3108929-a-letter-to-the-woman-who-called-me-a-terf
https://rebeccarc.com/2016/01/06/gender-is-not-a-binary/
Brilliant rebuttal against Canadian trans-theory bill C-16:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgOLs_cEKi0
Brilliant Reflections by Camille Paglia:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8BRdwgPChQ
Brilliant Gender-Critical Series:
https://auticulture.wordpress.com/2017/05/31/the-rise-of-the-dream-state1/
For the Marxist minded, this is brilliant:
https://medium.com/@zacharygeorgenajariannajafi/misogyny-is-revisionism-part-1-on-the-lefts-woman-problem-22984b49675b
On cultural-appropriation and blatant ignorance from trans-activists around indigenous peoples of the Americas:
https://culturallyboundgender.wordpress.com/2013/03/09/toward-an-end-to-appropriation-of-indigenous-two-spirit-people-in-trans-politics-the-relationship-between-third-gender-roles-and-patriarchy/
Who is funding this anti-science bizarro-world newspeak:
http://thefederalist.com/2018/02/20/rich-white-men-institutionalizing-transgender-ideology/#.Wow7W_wn1Dg.twitter
Another excellent piece on following the money:
http://www.feministcurrent.com/2018/01/03/considering-rapid-rise-trans-ideology-academia-follow-money/
A "Master Post" of violence in the name of "protecting trans people" effected upon other people (because nothing says "I'm all about protecting transgender people from harm" like harming another human being over disagreeable words)
https://bannedbytrans.wordpress.com/masterpost/
An honest and learned review of "I am Jazz"
http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2018/04/21220/
https://medium.com/@julian.vigo/violence-against-gender-critical-women-from-hyde-park-corner-to-the-anarchist-bookfair-e42bcf028415
Gender-Inclusion Policy and Increased Sexual Violence
http://womanmeanssomething.com/1034-2/
An analysis on why trans-cult will harm homosexual rights
http://thefederalist.com/2017/05/02/trans-activists-will-destroy-homosexual-rights/
Similarities between synanon brainwashing and the trans-cult
https://transanityca.wordpress.com/2017/08/13/synanon-the-brainwashing-game-and-modern-transgender-activism-the-orwellian-implications-of-transgender-politics-by-jenn-smith/
Autogynephilia
https://autogynephiliatruth.wordpress.com/2015/05/09/the-faces-of-autogynephilia/
Connection between trans-cult and neutering children
http://theconversation.com/eugenics-and-the-practice-of-transgendering-children-3838
Ludicrous deflections around the implications of trans-cult activism in refugee camps
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKBEpngVLz8&feature=youtu.be
Can has science?
http://www.thedailybell.com/news-analysis/is-science-offensive-the-blurry-line-between-transgender-athlete-and-cheating/
More violence from trans-cultists against women:
http://www.feministcurrent.com/2018/02/02/trans-identified-male-verbally-attacks-rose-mcgowan-barnes-noble-talk/
We're not actually against each other - seriously:
http://www.thenational.scot/news/15919299.Fighting_each_other_over_gender_is_getting_us_nowhere/?ref=twtrec
Actual consequences of pretending men are women in our prison systems:
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/feminism/2018/01/marie-dean-story-shows-there-s-no-simple-answer-how-we-treat-transgender
We register people as they identify (consequences of sex-as-identity on sports)
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/apr/9/boston-marathons-transgender-policy-sparks-fairnes/
Many thanks to the many folks who helped me to understand this issue when I first encountered it, and to Julianne Jazz and many others for assembling and sharing some of these resources to help shine a light on this dark and foolish corner of human socialization.
Thursday, October 12, 2017
"White Privilege" and "Racism" are not about name-calling
"White Privilege" and "Racism" are not about name-calling.
I'm not shaming anyone - not in the sense you probably think I am.
I don't require anyone feel bad more than they already do (this is push back I get from conservatives especially - "you want to feel ashamed of your (country/race)!")
Naming racism is about naming racism - its reality - its effects - its interwoven nature - just as classism is.
You have been lied to your entire life to believe that "racism" means "racial bigotry."
That's not actually what racism means - and before we get into a long drawn out argument over word definitions - we're not going to agree on - just cut to the chase and agree that there is such a thing as systemic racism - and that - like classism - it is pervasive and doesn't need your conscious effort to remain in place and controlling our lives.
Taking responsibility for a thing is necessary. It's about having heart, and growing up and becoming a mature person.
Denying responsibility because it "feels bad" (or you don't want to "feel ashamed") is about shirking responsibility - about remaining a small child and refusing to take on adult responsibility in life.
Americans are mostly stunted people. They - white Americans in particular - are used to be molly coddled and catered to - so that they don't have to experience much that makes them feel uncomfortable and unsafe and unsure of themselves in the world.
That is not true for almost anyone else.
Asking white Americans to have to suffer some discomfort in order to understand that they are participating in a racist system - should not be an impassable obstacle for anyone who is genuinely interested in being an adult - a humanitarian - a genuine equal in all things - including in bearing the burdens of helping to fix the world.
Saying "whites are mostly racists" is exactly like saying "most whites are classists" - they didn't create the system - but they're a part of it - and it is not more or less pejorative except in their own minds - and only because they've been duped into identifying with racism and "whiteness" and hence feel a need to defend it ('cause they believe attacks on it are attacks on their identity).
That is what I've been trying to tell you:
>>> This is all about identity. <<<
People identify as White - not just their skin color - but all of the baggage that "White" carries with it - including "racism".
It's time for folks to let go of allowing "White" to include "tacit racism" and start to mean something else (or stop with separating into "White" at all - just be "People").
And that can't happen while folks remain staunchly opposed to realizing that these ideas are connected - and that this realization and recogning has to happen.
It's not just a "political goal" - it's also a profound and necessary personal journey.
For me to treat a "black person" as my true equal - I have to understand how that I have been conditioned to think of myself as more - I'm "white" so I'm "safe" and I'm "respected" and "I'm the default in everything".
And that this awareness - this "whiteness" - forces me to think of "them" as less - even if I consciously avow "them" to be my equal.
It's not enough.
We have to look at the systems that are in place - and at the programming that is underneath our consciousness - that enables and continues this sick cycle.
I have to grow up.
You have to grow up.
We all do!
Or we are going to die as a species in misery and depravity.
Merely sidestepping racism in favor of "focusing on classism" means that racism remains in place for another generation - and any attempts we make to address economic issues will inevitably carry with them the foundation of racism should we fail to address them.
So - to actually move forward - we must jettison not only classism, but racism as well (and sexism!)
Equality demands True Equality - not "partial" equality - that's not equal - that's un equal.
There is no way around this but to own it wholly, and work with it as an interconnected piece that cannot be isolated neatly and some parts ignored in favor of other parts (that are less threatening to whites).
I'm not shaming anyone - not in the sense you probably think I am.
I don't require anyone feel bad more than they already do (this is push back I get from conservatives especially - "you want to feel ashamed of your (country/race)!")
Naming racism is about naming racism - its reality - its effects - its interwoven nature - just as classism is.
You have been lied to your entire life to believe that "racism" means "racial bigotry."
That's not actually what racism means - and before we get into a long drawn out argument over word definitions - we're not going to agree on - just cut to the chase and agree that there is such a thing as systemic racism - and that - like classism - it is pervasive and doesn't need your conscious effort to remain in place and controlling our lives.
Taking responsibility for a thing is necessary. It's about having heart, and growing up and becoming a mature person.
Denying responsibility because it "feels bad" (or you don't want to "feel ashamed") is about shirking responsibility - about remaining a small child and refusing to take on adult responsibility in life.
Americans are mostly stunted people. They - white Americans in particular - are used to be molly coddled and catered to - so that they don't have to experience much that makes them feel uncomfortable and unsafe and unsure of themselves in the world.
That is not true for almost anyone else.
Asking white Americans to have to suffer some discomfort in order to understand that they are participating in a racist system - should not be an impassable obstacle for anyone who is genuinely interested in being an adult - a humanitarian - a genuine equal in all things - including in bearing the burdens of helping to fix the world.
Saying "whites are mostly racists" is exactly like saying "most whites are classists" - they didn't create the system - but they're a part of it - and it is not more or less pejorative except in their own minds - and only because they've been duped into identifying with racism and "whiteness" and hence feel a need to defend it ('cause they believe attacks on it are attacks on their identity).
That is what I've been trying to tell you:
>>> This is all about identity. <<<
People identify as White - not just their skin color - but all of the baggage that "White" carries with it - including "racism".
It's time for folks to let go of allowing "White" to include "tacit racism" and start to mean something else (or stop with separating into "White" at all - just be "People").
And that can't happen while folks remain staunchly opposed to realizing that these ideas are connected - and that this realization and recogning has to happen.
It's not just a "political goal" - it's also a profound and necessary personal journey.
For me to treat a "black person" as my true equal - I have to understand how that I have been conditioned to think of myself as more - I'm "white" so I'm "safe" and I'm "respected" and "I'm the default in everything".
And that this awareness - this "whiteness" - forces me to think of "them" as less - even if I consciously avow "them" to be my equal.
It's not enough.
We have to look at the systems that are in place - and at the programming that is underneath our consciousness - that enables and continues this sick cycle.
I have to grow up.
You have to grow up.
We all do!
Or we are going to die as a species in misery and depravity.
Merely sidestepping racism in favor of "focusing on classism" means that racism remains in place for another generation - and any attempts we make to address economic issues will inevitably carry with them the foundation of racism should we fail to address them.
So - to actually move forward - we must jettison not only classism, but racism as well (and sexism!)
Equality demands True Equality - not "partial" equality - that's not equal - that's un equal.
There is no way around this but to own it wholly, and work with it as an interconnected piece that cannot be isolated neatly and some parts ignored in favor of other parts (that are less threatening to whites).
Culpability shouldn't be a sticking point
I see racism through the same prism that I see colonialism (aka globalism).
We cannot claim not to be colonialist. Just because we didn't set up this system of exploitation doesn't mean we're not participating in it every single day.
Just because we didn't create globalism doesn't mean we didn't - and aren't continuing to - profit by it.
And to the degree that we participate in, and worse, actively encourage such systems, we have some real, honest measure of culpability.
---
I guess that for some folks they need to believe themselves to be pure victims. That they had no hand in anything and are not responsible for anything that has happened to them or to others in their lifetimes. They're pure white snow, unblemished, not-responsible.
---
For me, I see that as a cop-out - a lie. You are responsible for everything you are and have done and will do, even as I know that nobody has pure choice and liberty to just unilaterally decide to go off the grid and not be racist and not benefit and not have a job...
Most of us have little to no control over our lives in any practical sense - i.e. we could choose not to participate should we be resigned to homelessness and begging...
But if we have kids or spouses or even aging parents or even self-love and wish to care for ourselves and minimize our own suffering - then we are beholden to participate in this nation's economy - which by definition makes us complicit participants in its colonialism, its racism, its imperialism, its patriarchy.
These things are inseparable.
That doesn't mean you get to do that and still claim zero responsibility. Not in my book!
Sure, I have compassion for you and the tough choices you face - just as I have self-compassion for the tough choices I face.
But I want to hold you accountable for what is real. For the degree to which you are making a choice - even if you refuse to see it, I cannot unsee it.
I hold myself accountable for the real choices I am making as well, even as I struggle with all of the implications.
---
Many people, in my experience, look at all of this and decide either:
A) If I'm evil then fuck it all I don't have to worry about it because we're all evil so it's all meaningless and I can be without guilt as I take every advantage of others that I can to be selfish and ignore other's plight in life.
-or-
B) I am in no way responsible for any of this so you cannot hold me responsible for any of this whatsoever. So I am pure and not-a-racist and not-a-colonialist and not-a-capitalist and not-a-classist and not-a-sexist etc. I am truly blameless (yet I hold all of a certain group responsible and blame them for all evil things but only them).
Both of those positions are disingenuous.
I see it as
C) I am not an evil person by nature - almost nobody is - but I am - due to no fault inherent in me - born into a very mixed system full of its evils - that I have personally benefitted by - my parents benefitted and I - the opportunities I had - the resources I had - all derive from all of the history of exploitation and slavery and capitalism and colonialism and native genocide. But because I don't wish any of that on anyone - because I have the personal desire to be a better person - to do right by my brothers and sisters on planet Earth - because I wish to leave this place better than I found - I will hold myself accountable for my choices - I will offer myself and others compassion for our crazy fucked up situation - but I will not pretend that hard realities don't exist just to soothe my ego - so that I can claim innocence, nor will I cave to the evils of the world and become a willing enthusiastic narcissist myself.
We cannot claim not to be colonialist. Just because we didn't set up this system of exploitation doesn't mean we're not participating in it every single day.
Just because we didn't create globalism doesn't mean we didn't - and aren't continuing to - profit by it.
And to the degree that we participate in, and worse, actively encourage such systems, we have some real, honest measure of culpability.
---
I guess that for some folks they need to believe themselves to be pure victims. That they had no hand in anything and are not responsible for anything that has happened to them or to others in their lifetimes. They're pure white snow, unblemished, not-responsible.
---
For me, I see that as a cop-out - a lie. You are responsible for everything you are and have done and will do, even as I know that nobody has pure choice and liberty to just unilaterally decide to go off the grid and not be racist and not benefit and not have a job...
Most of us have little to no control over our lives in any practical sense - i.e. we could choose not to participate should we be resigned to homelessness and begging...
But if we have kids or spouses or even aging parents or even self-love and wish to care for ourselves and minimize our own suffering - then we are beholden to participate in this nation's economy - which by definition makes us complicit participants in its colonialism, its racism, its imperialism, its patriarchy.
These things are inseparable.
That doesn't mean you get to do that and still claim zero responsibility. Not in my book!
Sure, I have compassion for you and the tough choices you face - just as I have self-compassion for the tough choices I face.
But I want to hold you accountable for what is real. For the degree to which you are making a choice - even if you refuse to see it, I cannot unsee it.
I hold myself accountable for the real choices I am making as well, even as I struggle with all of the implications.
---
Many people, in my experience, look at all of this and decide either:
A) If I'm evil then fuck it all I don't have to worry about it because we're all evil so it's all meaningless and I can be without guilt as I take every advantage of others that I can to be selfish and ignore other's plight in life.
-or-
B) I am in no way responsible for any of this so you cannot hold me responsible for any of this whatsoever. So I am pure and not-a-racist and not-a-colonialist and not-a-capitalist and not-a-classist and not-a-sexist etc. I am truly blameless (yet I hold all of a certain group responsible and blame them for all evil things but only them).
Both of those positions are disingenuous.
I see it as
C) I am not an evil person by nature - almost nobody is - but I am - due to no fault inherent in me - born into a very mixed system full of its evils - that I have personally benefitted by - my parents benefitted and I - the opportunities I had - the resources I had - all derive from all of the history of exploitation and slavery and capitalism and colonialism and native genocide. But because I don't wish any of that on anyone - because I have the personal desire to be a better person - to do right by my brothers and sisters on planet Earth - because I wish to leave this place better than I found - I will hold myself accountable for my choices - I will offer myself and others compassion for our crazy fucked up situation - but I will not pretend that hard realities don't exist just to soothe my ego - so that I can claim innocence, nor will I cave to the evils of the world and become a willing enthusiastic narcissist myself.
Thursday, July 13, 2017
One does not simply "get over it"
Tigranes Utidjian:
As far as I can tell the attempts, till now, to acknowledge crimes, have been along the lines of: everybody was doing it; it wasn't that bad, some masters were good to their slaves; in the New York times recently: "We were building a great nation" we had to break a few eggs.
Steve Wolf:
Exactly. The messages I've gotten my entire life are:
So, America did bad things - in the past.
There's nothing we can do about the entire history of the world. Can't worry about what you can't change (and besides, what - are you going to give up your house? are you going to give away all of your money?)
So just "make peace with it."
Learn to move on. Do what you can now, and accept that things are the way that they are. Humans are greedy and terrible and war-like and cruel. Just the way we *all* are.
---
I don't want to make my peace with being a people who committed genocide and "just get on with it" without actually owning up to the fact that:
WE'RE A PEOPLE WHO COMMITTED GENOCIDE and ALL WE OWN IS FROM MASSIVE THEFT!
I'm fine if we want to talk about reparations, apologies, real attempts to heal the wounds, and learn to all live together as TRUE EQUALS.
---
But that's not what white Americans want.
They want whites to forget all this stuff - ignore it all - and just continue pretending these crimes are only in the past and there's nothing to be done now.
They want whites to keep pretending that we're all equals now - that things are fair now, despite overwhelming endless EVIDENCE that they are NOT EQUAL now.
RACISM is HERE and NOW and CONTINUES every day.
:'(
---
I want my white brethren to stop FUCKING LYING to themselves, and be HONEST for just ONE FUCKING SECOND in their STOLEN lives.
And admit it - just fucking admit it.
Your WEALTH (whatever degree you have) is a goddamn WAR CRIME against HUMANITY.
And - if you don't like that reality...
Then fuckiing step up and participate in how to fix it...
So that we really can move forward as actual honest-to-goodness equals...
Instead of liars, thieves, and gaslighters.
As far as I can tell the attempts, till now, to acknowledge crimes, have been along the lines of: everybody was doing it; it wasn't that bad, some masters were good to their slaves; in the New York times recently: "We were building a great nation" we had to break a few eggs.
Steve Wolf:
Exactly. The messages I've gotten my entire life are:
So, America did bad things - in the past.
There's nothing we can do about the entire history of the world. Can't worry about what you can't change (and besides, what - are you going to give up your house? are you going to give away all of your money?)
So just "make peace with it."
Learn to move on. Do what you can now, and accept that things are the way that they are. Humans are greedy and terrible and war-like and cruel. Just the way we *all* are.
---
I don't want to make my peace with being a people who committed genocide and "just get on with it" without actually owning up to the fact that:
WE'RE A PEOPLE WHO COMMITTED GENOCIDE and ALL WE OWN IS FROM MASSIVE THEFT!
I'm fine if we want to talk about reparations, apologies, real attempts to heal the wounds, and learn to all live together as TRUE EQUALS.
---
But that's not what white Americans want.
They want whites to forget all this stuff - ignore it all - and just continue pretending these crimes are only in the past and there's nothing to be done now.
They want whites to keep pretending that we're all equals now - that things are fair now, despite overwhelming endless EVIDENCE that they are NOT EQUAL now.
RACISM is HERE and NOW and CONTINUES every day.
:'(
---
I want my white brethren to stop FUCKING LYING to themselves, and be HONEST for just ONE FUCKING SECOND in their STOLEN lives.
And admit it - just fucking admit it.
Your WEALTH (whatever degree you have) is a goddamn WAR CRIME against HUMANITY.
And - if you don't like that reality...
Then fuckiing step up and participate in how to fix it...
So that we really can move forward as actual honest-to-goodness equals...
Instead of liars, thieves, and gaslighters.
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
Community isn't a dirty word
The need to be a part of a community, and share the rewards of our combined efforts, is inherent to all social orders.
How fairly or unfairly we distribute the rewards vs. the hardships - that's the real question.
Americans have been made fools.
We've been led to believe that Capitalism - "Free Markets" - are able to reward the self-disciplined and useful, while penalizing the lazy and unhelpful.
That's pure-as-new-blown-snow bullshit. But Americans eat it like it's freaking sugar!
Only in some western style societies are people actually so duped by the bling of media and propaganda that they actually think that they're benefitting greatly from a system that is slowly but surely taking away their freedoms[1], their money[2], and their safety[3].
[1] Our ability to elect anyone fairly has been nullified. Our ability to communicate with one another without the government or corporations storing and possibly using that information against us has been annihilated. Our laws protecting whistleblowers who do the patriotic thing have been nullified. Our protections for Journalists have been replaced with the arbitrary imprisonment of Journalists in the name of "Freedom." Our separation of powers has been eroded. Our 3-part government has had much of its power concentrated in the executive branch. Our congress has abdicated its power and check/balance power wrt wars. Our judiciary has been stuffed with highly inappropriate and ideologically minded thugs. Our Police have been militarized - with massive amounts of "military surplus" going to local law enforcement agencies who've seen their mandates change from "serve and protect" to "enforce the will of the rich upperclass - with free reign to murder in broad daylight minorities."
[2] Poor as a class is expanding steadily since the 1980s. Middle-class and upper middle-class have been shrinking. The dollar has massively lost value over that time span. Income levels have stagnated since the housing collapse in 2008, and had been exceedingly sluggish due to two prior recessions[4], none of which have we actually recovered from, except for the extremely wealthy.
[3] As America and much of NATO continues to splurge on machines of death and destruction, and their global policy is theft of resources and fomenting of social unrest anywhere that has resources of interest to American Empire, it has spawned massive numbers of hopeless and desperate and very angry people whose greatest aspirations in life are to blow up Americans and Westerners in as large a number as possible by any means possible.
[4] Our recessions are direct result of CAPITALISM. GREED. OVERREACH by the extremely wealthy. We the people pay for them in lost wages, lost retirement accounts, ruined housing values, lost jobs, lost benefits, while the rich simply profit or have a short break in their general massive trend towards profiting.
One could add that this "Land of Freedom" is the most violent and oppressive regime that the planet has ever known. Murdering folks every single day - in more wars than any other nation in history, continuing genocide on its own minorities and many abroad, aggressively fomenting civil unrest, funding terrorism, being the worlds largest arms dealer, using WMDs on a regular basis (white phosphor, depleted uranium, giant bombs, economic sanctions that amount to mass murder of the aged, the young, and the poor).
We actively oppose all democratically elected governments and actively rig other nations elections in favor of creating puppet states we can manipulate and steal resources from unhindered.
Thursday, April 6, 2017
So you really want to change things for the better?
So you really want to change things for the better, and you want someone to tell you how?
Nobody knows how.
But hell - most don't even want to change anything at all - they spend a lot of time denying anything is wrong / justifying the way things are / telling everyone they're crazy for even questioning the way things are.
If you're at least aware that society is rigged in favor of the Hillary's and the Trumps against almost everyone else, and you don't want to defend that -- then you're on the right track.
A small number of people can't just decide to change it for the better for everyone - not as far as I'm aware. (the opposite is more possible - a few people can make things even worse - terrorism, for example).
For things to get better - folks have to come to accept that the way things are isn't even close to the best it can be - and isn't even acceptable... It's wrong, and inhumane, and unhealthy for all concerned - and with global warming - it's a terminal situation unless we radically change as a species.
Struggle of mass of people against the owner/ruler class is the only thing that has ever worked - and for that to happen - we need a ton of folks to be willing to risk joining together to demand something better.
So - all you can do - is to help your friends and family and community to be open to the idea that things are unacceptably unjust and suicidal the way they're currently going - and that it's possible to demand a fairer split of the world's resources - and a system that is in balance with the world's ability to process our waste. Accept that's it's okay to scale back to a sustainable lifestyle that can accommodate 7 billion and climbing, instead of this insane consumption marathon we're running - apparently hell bent on destroying and using up everything to force our extinction as quickly as possible.
But that also means America can't be on top anymore - we can't be using Indonesians and Afghanis and poor kids in Somalia as indentured servants and economic slaves. We can't be turning a blind eye to our military extortion complex which strong arms peoples and nations all over the globe to rob them of resources and labor. We all have to accept that fair means fair for all. There is no other kind of fair, or world worth living in. Justice for all is a beginning, not an end. It is not a utopia, it is the absolute minimum foundation upon which to begin building a sustainable world that can allow our species to truly blossom and become something amazing.
And nobody deserves more or better - we all deserve equality. Nor do some deserve less, or worse. You did not come by what you have purely by yourself - you are standing on the shoulders of past generations and community that made it possible, and that continue to make it possible. We owe one another our respect, our love, and our solidarity.
From there, you're doing something radical by just being that honest and compassionate in the world.
Eventually change happens - it always does - on its own time. But by doing your part, you're helping to moving it a tiny bit further along, a little closer to now.
Beyond that - well - anyone who tells you this is simple or can be done quickly or claims violence will solve our problems is not working for you or anyone but themselves - and using you as cannon fodder in the process.
Ultimately none of us has the ability to make all of the difference for anyone but themselves and those around them. You can't change the whole world, but you can be a helper or a leader who helps light the way to ending injustice and cruelty. I hope we can all learn to work together in prosperity and common decency.
Uhuru
Nobody knows how.
But hell - most don't even want to change anything at all - they spend a lot of time denying anything is wrong / justifying the way things are / telling everyone they're crazy for even questioning the way things are.
If you're at least aware that society is rigged in favor of the Hillary's and the Trumps against almost everyone else, and you don't want to defend that -- then you're on the right track.
A small number of people can't just decide to change it for the better for everyone - not as far as I'm aware. (the opposite is more possible - a few people can make things even worse - terrorism, for example).
For things to get better - folks have to come to accept that the way things are isn't even close to the best it can be - and isn't even acceptable... It's wrong, and inhumane, and unhealthy for all concerned - and with global warming - it's a terminal situation unless we radically change as a species.
Struggle of mass of people against the owner/ruler class is the only thing that has ever worked - and for that to happen - we need a ton of folks to be willing to risk joining together to demand something better.
So - all you can do - is to help your friends and family and community to be open to the idea that things are unacceptably unjust and suicidal the way they're currently going - and that it's possible to demand a fairer split of the world's resources - and a system that is in balance with the world's ability to process our waste. Accept that's it's okay to scale back to a sustainable lifestyle that can accommodate 7 billion and climbing, instead of this insane consumption marathon we're running - apparently hell bent on destroying and using up everything to force our extinction as quickly as possible.
But that also means America can't be on top anymore - we can't be using Indonesians and Afghanis and poor kids in Somalia as indentured servants and economic slaves. We can't be turning a blind eye to our military extortion complex which strong arms peoples and nations all over the globe to rob them of resources and labor. We all have to accept that fair means fair for all. There is no other kind of fair, or world worth living in. Justice for all is a beginning, not an end. It is not a utopia, it is the absolute minimum foundation upon which to begin building a sustainable world that can allow our species to truly blossom and become something amazing.
And nobody deserves more or better - we all deserve equality. Nor do some deserve less, or worse. You did not come by what you have purely by yourself - you are standing on the shoulders of past generations and community that made it possible, and that continue to make it possible. We owe one another our respect, our love, and our solidarity.
From there, you're doing something radical by just being that honest and compassionate in the world.
Eventually change happens - it always does - on its own time. But by doing your part, you're helping to moving it a tiny bit further along, a little closer to now.
Beyond that - well - anyone who tells you this is simple or can be done quickly or claims violence will solve our problems is not working for you or anyone but themselves - and using you as cannon fodder in the process.
Ultimately none of us has the ability to make all of the difference for anyone but themselves and those around them. You can't change the whole world, but you can be a helper or a leader who helps light the way to ending injustice and cruelty. I hope we can all learn to work together in prosperity and common decency.
Uhuru
Friday, March 31, 2017
On Personal Responsibility and Privilege
The ideal of personal responsibility is the only part of conservatism that holds any value or appeal for me. I do agree that there is a valuable truth there, that there is something deeply imbalanced placing all of the responsibility for inner-city problems on "society" and giving the gangstas, their parents, their community a free pass.
The problem I have with conservatives (and libertarians) emphasizing personal responsibility is the total lack of appreciation for the big picture, the context in which folks are failing to raise good kids, or kids are failing to become good citizens. By emphasizing personal responsibility over the reality of ghettos, of police crime & abuse, of joblessness, of systemic racism that makes it 3x more likely for a white to get the job over a black, that makes the loans 3x more expensive for a black, that makes the car 3x more expensive for the black, ... these things all matter. Not just a little. A freaking ton.
To me, I can't understand the lack of understanding of the set & setting (the context) except to frame it for myself as a matter of white privilege. Privilege is the ability to not-think about a lot of stuff - to take a lot of stuff for granted - and not even be aware of what you're not thinking about, not worried about, not concerned about, doesn't enter your thinking at all, because it is true for you, due to your privilege, and you're simply not aware of it at all because of your privilege.
So, a lot of people who experience life growing up in middle class or better families in America (sometimes regardless of skin color), believe with all their hearts that if the folks in the ghettos would just work as hard as they do, they would succeed. That their sense of personal responsibility and self-determination are what sets them apart. That life is hard, but if only these other folks would put their noses to the grindstone they'd have a solid chance to succeed, just as they themselves do.
This line of thinking - is so fundamentally intertwined with a world-view born of privilege. Of seeing things work out when they try hard. Of only having themselves to blame for things not working out. When they themselves are lazy, then things go badly. Or when a friend or class mate is lazy, they see the problems that flow from this. But even then, most times, such people can redeem themselves by learning their lesson and getting with the program.
But this whole world-view is one supported by having stable parents. By having only to worry about yourself, for the most part. By not worrying about whether you'll eat today. Whether your father will come home and beat you. Or some other man your mother just brought home desperate for love and attention, even if it means the kids getting beat up a bit. Or no parents around at all, and the responsibility of feeding your little siblings falls on your 10yr old ass. Or of being shot at on the way to school. Or pressured by your friends bigger brothers to run drugs for them - which would pay some bills, get you some standing (and you'd be "protected" by your gang), and so on.
I just... I cannot imagine living under those conditions and being expected to just "study harder". "Focus on school." And worst of all - "It's my own fault - my laziness - for not doing better under these circumstances". I just... I would be livid with fury if others who have "everything" came down to tell me I'm a moral failure for being unable to cope in the way they think I should be able to when they haven't lived this life for one friggin' second of their pampered-ass privileged-ass mutherfucking-lives!
Yes, responsibility has to also be shouldered by those who live in ghettos. I think there are many, many heroes who try to stand for justice and reason every day in such communities. But corruption, police-abuse, governmental incompetence, and outright hatred of blacks get in the way time and time again, and reinforce the social structures and patterns time and again, all the while some ass-hat at Fox is screaming about you having "a refrigerator!" - as if that is what marks living the easy life, or having privilege like they do!
And to sort of head-off a really common response by other whites and privileged folks I've had this conversation with -- whatever degree of "but I grew up poor / underprivileged / worked my ass off to make it where I am today / I struggle to make ends meet / I had less than perfect parents / I was abused as a kid / etc" -- sure, all of those things are true enough - but they're a pittance compared to what ghetto kids face. And you have every opportunity to change things for yourself. You can go get a job, and are 3x more likely than any black to get the same job you're both competing for. You very likely have family with some resources to help you out should your ship really tank. You can definitely go get public assistance, and you're very likely to face a streamlined process that doesn't immediately suspect you're cheating the system and you're a lazy bastard mooching off of society. You have resources you can fall back on, so you have a level of freedom to take chances in life because you freakin' know you'll likely be okay in the long run.
Ghetto folks do NOT have this same level of assurance of support. They have much worse chances for a good outcome in every possible direction they look. You're likely to get that job, not them. You're likely to be paid more when you land that job, because of the unwritten rules that indicate that a white person is worth more than a colored. You're likely to be trusted more, given more autonomy and respect in any position you hold. I'm not saying you're going to be treated wonderfully by everyone, but you're likely to be treated better in every single thing you do and try in life, as compared to a colored / immigrant. You don't have to worry about deportation, and you worry a shit ton less about police brutality or wrongful imprisonment!
I really don't think personal-responsibility is the primary issue here. It's important, for sure, but emphasizing it is exactly what every racist and privileged person does, and it only adds more weight to pushing down the exact folks you're thinking you'd like to see succeed.
Thursday, March 30, 2017
On Gang Culture, Racism, Classism, and Radical Self Reliance
In response to the idea that inner city kids are a product of poor parenting...
I really doubt that this was due to the parenting - at least for most of these kids.
I would suggest that it is due to living in a world surrounded by people who shoot each other - the gangs. Why are there gangs? Because of a pervasive hopelessness. Because everywhere an inner city child looks, there is poverty and guns and killing and hopeless adults who aren't able to find jobs and pay the bills, and stressed out mothers who also can't find jobs, and schools where the teachers are freaking out because everyone is shooting each other and bringing guns and knives to school and on and on.
The very conservative (and libertarian) idea that this is a product of a moral failure to raise children well is .. as far as I can tell, naive.
I'm not trying to say that culture isn't important... at this late date, there is a strong element of gang-worship, of bling mentality, of live fast because living for the long run ain't worth it.
But that just underscores the liberal point: there is no real evidence that if you're a black kid in an inner city that you have any rational reason to think that you will be better off if you study and work towards a long stable life of fitting into the larger world.
The reality is that our prisons are full of black inner city folk. The big majority are the people from their neighborhoods - their fathers, their uncles, their mothers, their brothers, and so on.
And I don't know how that anyone can honestly believe that human beings are born equal yet turn into such horrible people unless you're implying that there is a strong element of genetic predisposition to moral failing.
And there are many studies that show if you take an inner city child and raise him or her up in a suburban home, they're likely to have white people attitudes. You're saying it's entirely what their mother & father said to them that makes that difference?! Or maybe it is seeing everyone around them preparing for a life of paying the bills and being a citizen? And critically: seeing that they're succeeding.
Watching those who struggle to do right fail in the face of overwhelming poverty and racism - with the police attacking you or your friends or your parents or your neighbors; you're just not going to get the sense that you're on the same side with the cops, or with society as a whole. You're clearly the wrong color, coming from the wrong side of the tracks, and unless you're a basketball / football star, your prospects are shit, is going to give you a very different view of your potential futures and what strategies might be sensibly applied to your life.
Seriously! Parental upbringing is the problem?! That's flat-out vastly insufficient to explain the phenomenons of inner cities, and would fit well with every racist group on the planet: the Jews are garbage. The Spics, the Beaners, the whatever. Their culture is to blame. Their upbringing. There is something fundamentally wrong with them.
No, there is something fundamentally unfair about the world, and kids aren't stupid. They get it by the time they're about 10 yrs old. This shit is rigged, they're on the losing team, and any attempt to change teams will be met with fierce opposition by both sides. They're fucked up, down and sideways. So, if they're fucked, then there's nothing for it but to get what you can before you're shot. To do your best for your tribe. There's honor in that, clearly. Fuck the man.
I really doubt that this was due to the parenting - at least for most of these kids.
I would suggest that it is due to living in a world surrounded by people who shoot each other - the gangs. Why are there gangs? Because of a pervasive hopelessness. Because everywhere an inner city child looks, there is poverty and guns and killing and hopeless adults who aren't able to find jobs and pay the bills, and stressed out mothers who also can't find jobs, and schools where the teachers are freaking out because everyone is shooting each other and bringing guns and knives to school and on and on.
The very conservative (and libertarian) idea that this is a product of a moral failure to raise children well is .. as far as I can tell, naive.
I'm not trying to say that culture isn't important... at this late date, there is a strong element of gang-worship, of bling mentality, of live fast because living for the long run ain't worth it.
But that just underscores the liberal point: there is no real evidence that if you're a black kid in an inner city that you have any rational reason to think that you will be better off if you study and work towards a long stable life of fitting into the larger world.
The reality is that our prisons are full of black inner city folk. The big majority are the people from their neighborhoods - their fathers, their uncles, their mothers, their brothers, and so on.
And I don't know how that anyone can honestly believe that human beings are born equal yet turn into such horrible people unless you're implying that there is a strong element of genetic predisposition to moral failing.
And there are many studies that show if you take an inner city child and raise him or her up in a suburban home, they're likely to have white people attitudes. You're saying it's entirely what their mother & father said to them that makes that difference?! Or maybe it is seeing everyone around them preparing for a life of paying the bills and being a citizen? And critically: seeing that they're succeeding.
Watching those who struggle to do right fail in the face of overwhelming poverty and racism - with the police attacking you or your friends or your parents or your neighbors; you're just not going to get the sense that you're on the same side with the cops, or with society as a whole. You're clearly the wrong color, coming from the wrong side of the tracks, and unless you're a basketball / football star, your prospects are shit, is going to give you a very different view of your potential futures and what strategies might be sensibly applied to your life.
Seriously! Parental upbringing is the problem?! That's flat-out vastly insufficient to explain the phenomenons of inner cities, and would fit well with every racist group on the planet: the Jews are garbage. The Spics, the Beaners, the whatever. Their culture is to blame. Their upbringing. There is something fundamentally wrong with them.
No, there is something fundamentally unfair about the world, and kids aren't stupid. They get it by the time they're about 10 yrs old. This shit is rigged, they're on the losing team, and any attempt to change teams will be met with fierce opposition by both sides. They're fucked up, down and sideways. So, if they're fucked, then there's nothing for it but to get what you can before you're shot. To do your best for your tribe. There's honor in that, clearly. Fuck the man.
"Liberal"
For those who are still confused by the vitriol aimed at "liberals" and "liberalism"
I'm far from the first to point any of this out, but it seems to me that many continue to be baffled by why "liberal" is a dirty word in my book:
Basically, American "liberals" (self-identified) are better referred to as "neoliberals" or "bourgeois liberals" - liberals of middle and upper classes who wish for personal freedoms and ignore the suffering imposed by liberal capitalist markets at home and abroad.
Certainly that is the core of my criticism - "liberals" in American common parlance - i.e. as most Americans understand the term (i.e. those on the "opposite" side of the political aisle from "conservatives/republicans")...
That sort of liberal is happy to be ignorant or self-deluded about the evils perpetrated in the name of America and Capitalism and Globalism to untold billions of suffering fellow human beings who are effectively made to live in slave labor in nations which are themselves enslaved to America or its western allies.
It robs people of their autonomy, dignity, self direction, local accountability, right up to and including death by near starvation wages and inhuman working conditions.
This is not a happenstance or a fringe effect of American style capitalism - but rather a direct desired result to grease the wheels of resource extraction - whether it be raw materials robbed from the ground, water, wildlife, or vegetation; or human labor robbed from the populace...
Rather, this outcome is intentional and deliberate and orchestrated with the use of propaganda and terror viz the CIA and black ops and outright military intervention and color revolutions and bribery of local officials. This terrorism includes the funding of local (or even non-local) violent groups - who are often trained, armed, and aided by the US in order to carry out attacks against any who oppose our enslavement - most often targeting the civilian populations in order to murder and instill fears or mislead them into believing that they're actually being attacked by another group and should help the American agenda for their own good.
American "liberals" claim to be the dictionary definition - accepting, loving, compassionate, open to change, etc., while absolutely turning a blind eye and deaf ear to all of the above - denying its existence - insisting it is all propaganda - siding with the USA's doctrine of "Exceptionalism" to "justify" the rape and pillaging of most of the planet so that they get the material benefits of a bourgeois lifestyle.
It's a quid-pro-quo arrangement: I, the American Liberal, will turn a blind eye to the evils you perpetrate and not agitate politically for reform as long your evils keep me relatively well off.
That's the core of "American Exceptionalism" - we can do what ever we wish to the planet and are above international law or even the most basic levels of human decency because we're full of "exceptional" people who deserve only the very best at any conceivable cost...
I'm far from the first to point any of this out, but it seems to me that many continue to be baffled by why "liberal" is a dirty word in my book:
Basically, American "liberals" (self-identified) are better referred to as "neoliberals" or "bourgeois liberals" - liberals of middle and upper classes who wish for personal freedoms and ignore the suffering imposed by liberal capitalist markets at home and abroad.
Certainly that is the core of my criticism - "liberals" in American common parlance - i.e. as most Americans understand the term (i.e. those on the "opposite" side of the political aisle from "conservatives/republicans")...
That sort of liberal is happy to be ignorant or self-deluded about the evils perpetrated in the name of America and Capitalism and Globalism to untold billions of suffering fellow human beings who are effectively made to live in slave labor in nations which are themselves enslaved to America or its western allies.
It robs people of their autonomy, dignity, self direction, local accountability, right up to and including death by near starvation wages and inhuman working conditions.
This is not a happenstance or a fringe effect of American style capitalism - but rather a direct desired result to grease the wheels of resource extraction - whether it be raw materials robbed from the ground, water, wildlife, or vegetation; or human labor robbed from the populace...
Rather, this outcome is intentional and deliberate and orchestrated with the use of propaganda and terror viz the CIA and black ops and outright military intervention and color revolutions and bribery of local officials. This terrorism includes the funding of local (or even non-local) violent groups - who are often trained, armed, and aided by the US in order to carry out attacks against any who oppose our enslavement - most often targeting the civilian populations in order to murder and instill fears or mislead them into believing that they're actually being attacked by another group and should help the American agenda for their own good.
American "liberals" claim to be the dictionary definition - accepting, loving, compassionate, open to change, etc., while absolutely turning a blind eye and deaf ear to all of the above - denying its existence - insisting it is all propaganda - siding with the USA's doctrine of "Exceptionalism" to "justify" the rape and pillaging of most of the planet so that they get the material benefits of a bourgeois lifestyle.
It's a quid-pro-quo arrangement: I, the American Liberal, will turn a blind eye to the evils you perpetrate and not agitate politically for reform as long your evils keep me relatively well off.
That's the core of "American Exceptionalism" - we can do what ever we wish to the planet and are above international law or even the most basic levels of human decency because we're full of "exceptional" people who deserve only the very best at any conceivable cost...
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
Atheism is not a religion - or How 5 is like pie... (or NOT)
From Wikipedia:
"...most agnostics see their view as distinct from atheism, which they may consider no more justified than theism or requiring an equal conviction.[43] The supposed unattainability of knowledge for or against the existence of gods is sometimes seen as indication that atheism requires a leap of faith.[44] Common atheist responses to this argument include that unproven religious propositions deserve as much disbelief as all other unproven propositions,[45] and that the unprovability of a god's existence does not imply equal probability of either possibility."
Arguing that Atheism is a theism, is akin to arguing that "5" is a "fruit". It is not, by its very nature, and cannot possibly be. One can confuse the issue and make confusing observations such as "there can be 5 fruits, 5 fruits taste delicious, my favorite pie has 5 fruits in it..." and so on. But you're simply confusing the issue... not proving that 5 is a fruit, or fruit is a 5.
A person could, to my mind, spend all eternity positing unprovable possibilities, and then engaging in the pointless exercise of trying to prove or disprove each of them until he or she collapsed with their last breath. Such a life is, to my mind, wasted. I much desire to avoid that fate. To give credence to the argument that in order to not believe in god - to outright claim that it doesn't exist - requires such a meaningless waste of a lifetime is tacitly buying into religion's frame of reference - the very world-view that leads to so much human suffering.
I reject outright any such frame of reference, so I don't need to waste my life disproving every possible proposition, no matter how ridiculous. And any argument that requires that we limit our minds to that frame of reference has already lost - has already proved itself a doomed enterprise, by failing to recognize the absurdity, the suffering, the pointless waste that it is to try to disprove every goofy thing that could-possibly-be-but-there-is-no-reason-to-think-it-might-really; and by that, proves the questioner to be profoundly confused and ignorant of the underlying truths - essentially to be ignorant of the most important thing: their frame of reference.
New Atheism - the kind that doesn't piss-around with useless "we cannot know therefore we cannot really say", or the equally mealy-mouthed "we don't think it's likely, but we respect every goofy thing everyone might believe no matter how destructive to society and the very health of this planet" - is not trying to win hearts or minds or play the stupid game that religions do. New atheists acknowledging what is inevitable, indisputable, fundamentally true. What science shows to be fact.
All religious beliefs are by their very nature mental masturbation and wasteful of life, mind, and existence, due to the fact that they don't have any error-correction mechanism. They can posit any ridiculous notion and because someone believes it - it is sacred and indisputable.
I don't mind others having all sorts of goofy religious beliefs, per se. But I don't need to waste my time on them, insofar as they don't curtail my own life, or insofar as I don't care about the poor schmuck who's so abused him or herself with those blinders.
However, I take passionate unction towards anyone who tries to shoe-horn the conversation of atheism into one that can only support the untenable world-view that proof of the ridiculous is required in order to dismiss the ridiculous.
I understand that emotionally and culturally (and even humanly) that folks often find that they are afraid. Afraid of death. Afraid of the unknown. Afraid of pain, loss, suffering. Human beings often feel the need to appeal to a higher authority, someone they feel they can trust to tell them what is the right thing to do.
This is a need to feel that there is a parent-figure watching over them so that they can feel confident that everything is okay.
However, that is an emotional short-coming on their part, and by no means requires that I, or anyone else, participate or prove to them anything, nor justify my own rejection of such stupidity and short comings for any purpose whatsoever.
Again, the perspective that a world-view, or frame of reference need prove itself to be "good" is already devolving into the blinders of religious dogma and foolishness.
Atheism doesn't try to justify itself. It doesn't acknowledge a connection between one's religion and whether you're a good or bad person. Goodness and badness are relative to who benefits, who suffers. People's behavior is far more motivated by our basic biological necessities and circumstances than by such ephemeral minutia as religious beliefs. We're the product of millions of years of trial & error, of brains that got eating and shitting right, and later mastered social grouping behaviors. We are quite literally layers of minds - deep down we have our lizards stems, and above that a much larger mammalian layer, and above and to the fore of that we have our uniquely Human frontal lobes.
Atheists have a wide variety of spiritual beliefs, have a wide variety of "goodness" or "badness" or "charisma" or "bluntness" or any other characteristic you wish to name. None of those traits has anything whatsoever to do with Atheism per se, any more than 5 has to do with pie. They're not related. At. All.
What sparks me about conversations with religious folk is that I see you as requiring that we speak in religious terms: goodness, badness, beliefs. Atheism doesn't doesn't exist inside of any of those. It is not a belief, nor is it a faith. It is, inexorably, incontrovertibly, the search for that which honestly, truly is. It is in fact the very essence of 'reject that which has no evidence,' and simply trying to find 'that which is.'
This is quintessentially why atheism lends itself to science. Not the magical pseudo-science that most religious and laypeople believe in - but rather in the actual, provable, incontrovertible, inescapable, what-is (or in Buddhism, suchness: Tathātā/Dharmatā).
It is also worth awakening your mind to the fact (not belief, not faith) that Buddhism is not a theism, and should not be lumped into religion anymore than Enlightenment or Humanism or Secularism should be. Philosophy is better term, because it is better grounded in an honest desire to discover the truth, rather than the deceitful desire to hide the truth from oneself in order to conform to the will of others and "fit in".
I would posit that the word belief is inappropriately applied to Atheism by religious folk. Atheism is not a belief - it is not subject to the "might be true, might not be". It simply rejects that which has no basis in reality. Religion exists within the world-view of belief - it might or might not be true, and it desperately tries to hide the truth and divert people's attention away from even thinking about the truth or falseness - the likelihood of what it posits to be truth. If you don't look too hard, don't think too much, you can stay happily ignorant in the fold of religions.
But science looks for what is, what is repeatable, what can be observed by everyone, consistently, repeatably. Its only "belief" is that these things constitute solid evidence of what is, and that there is something that-is in the first place. i.e. that there is a reality that we all share that is independent of our desires for what it should be, but simply is what it is.
I certainly believe in science (i.e. I have no way to prove the existence of existence). Science is the most useful philosophical point of view I have encountered in my life, and requires the least faith of any philosophy. Again - only the belief that there is something real that we're learning about.
But atheism is even simpler: It only rejects the silly magical invisible guy in the sky stupidity. It makes sense from multiple logically self-consistent frames of reference, and I know it equally from several coherent spiritually satisfying frames of reference.
But what you choose to believe, or come to know for yourself, is your own business. And I couldn't care less (other than a basic desire to see you not force the suffering upon yourself that comes part & parcel with all theism and religion in general).
But please do not limit your thinking so drastically that you insist that 5 is a fruit - that atheism is a theism. It is not, nor ever will be.
"...most agnostics see their view as distinct from atheism, which they may consider no more justified than theism or requiring an equal conviction.[43] The supposed unattainability of knowledge for or against the existence of gods is sometimes seen as indication that atheism requires a leap of faith.[44] Common atheist responses to this argument include that unproven religious propositions deserve as much disbelief as all other unproven propositions,[45] and that the unprovability of a god's existence does not imply equal probability of either possibility."
Arguing that Atheism is a theism, is akin to arguing that "5" is a "fruit". It is not, by its very nature, and cannot possibly be. One can confuse the issue and make confusing observations such as "there can be 5 fruits, 5 fruits taste delicious, my favorite pie has 5 fruits in it..." and so on. But you're simply confusing the issue... not proving that 5 is a fruit, or fruit is a 5.
A person could, to my mind, spend all eternity positing unprovable possibilities, and then engaging in the pointless exercise of trying to prove or disprove each of them until he or she collapsed with their last breath. Such a life is, to my mind, wasted. I much desire to avoid that fate. To give credence to the argument that in order to not believe in god - to outright claim that it doesn't exist - requires such a meaningless waste of a lifetime is tacitly buying into religion's frame of reference - the very world-view that leads to so much human suffering.
I reject outright any such frame of reference, so I don't need to waste my life disproving every possible proposition, no matter how ridiculous. And any argument that requires that we limit our minds to that frame of reference has already lost - has already proved itself a doomed enterprise, by failing to recognize the absurdity, the suffering, the pointless waste that it is to try to disprove every goofy thing that could-possibly-be-but-there-is-no-reason-to-think-it-might-really; and by that, proves the questioner to be profoundly confused and ignorant of the underlying truths - essentially to be ignorant of the most important thing: their frame of reference.
New Atheism - the kind that doesn't piss-around with useless "we cannot know therefore we cannot really say", or the equally mealy-mouthed "we don't think it's likely, but we respect every goofy thing everyone might believe no matter how destructive to society and the very health of this planet" - is not trying to win hearts or minds or play the stupid game that religions do. New atheists acknowledging what is inevitable, indisputable, fundamentally true. What science shows to be fact.
All religious beliefs are by their very nature mental masturbation and wasteful of life, mind, and existence, due to the fact that they don't have any error-correction mechanism. They can posit any ridiculous notion and because someone believes it - it is sacred and indisputable.
I don't mind others having all sorts of goofy religious beliefs, per se. But I don't need to waste my time on them, insofar as they don't curtail my own life, or insofar as I don't care about the poor schmuck who's so abused him or herself with those blinders.
However, I take passionate unction towards anyone who tries to shoe-horn the conversation of atheism into one that can only support the untenable world-view that proof of the ridiculous is required in order to dismiss the ridiculous.
I understand that emotionally and culturally (and even humanly) that folks often find that they are afraid. Afraid of death. Afraid of the unknown. Afraid of pain, loss, suffering. Human beings often feel the need to appeal to a higher authority, someone they feel they can trust to tell them what is the right thing to do.
This is a need to feel that there is a parent-figure watching over them so that they can feel confident that everything is okay.
However, that is an emotional short-coming on their part, and by no means requires that I, or anyone else, participate or prove to them anything, nor justify my own rejection of such stupidity and short comings for any purpose whatsoever.
Again, the perspective that a world-view, or frame of reference need prove itself to be "good" is already devolving into the blinders of religious dogma and foolishness.
Atheism doesn't try to justify itself. It doesn't acknowledge a connection between one's religion and whether you're a good or bad person. Goodness and badness are relative to who benefits, who suffers. People's behavior is far more motivated by our basic biological necessities and circumstances than by such ephemeral minutia as religious beliefs. We're the product of millions of years of trial & error, of brains that got eating and shitting right, and later mastered social grouping behaviors. We are quite literally layers of minds - deep down we have our lizards stems, and above that a much larger mammalian layer, and above and to the fore of that we have our uniquely Human frontal lobes.
Atheists have a wide variety of spiritual beliefs, have a wide variety of "goodness" or "badness" or "charisma" or "bluntness" or any other characteristic you wish to name. None of those traits has anything whatsoever to do with Atheism per se, any more than 5 has to do with pie. They're not related. At. All.
What sparks me about conversations with religious folk is that I see you as requiring that we speak in religious terms: goodness, badness, beliefs. Atheism doesn't doesn't exist inside of any of those. It is not a belief, nor is it a faith. It is, inexorably, incontrovertibly, the search for that which honestly, truly is. It is in fact the very essence of 'reject that which has no evidence,' and simply trying to find 'that which is.'
This is quintessentially why atheism lends itself to science. Not the magical pseudo-science that most religious and laypeople believe in - but rather in the actual, provable, incontrovertible, inescapable, what-is (or in Buddhism, suchness: Tathātā/Dharmatā).
It is also worth awakening your mind to the fact (not belief, not faith) that Buddhism is not a theism, and should not be lumped into religion anymore than Enlightenment or Humanism or Secularism should be. Philosophy is better term, because it is better grounded in an honest desire to discover the truth, rather than the deceitful desire to hide the truth from oneself in order to conform to the will of others and "fit in".
I would posit that the word belief is inappropriately applied to Atheism by religious folk. Atheism is not a belief - it is not subject to the "might be true, might not be". It simply rejects that which has no basis in reality. Religion exists within the world-view of belief - it might or might not be true, and it desperately tries to hide the truth and divert people's attention away from even thinking about the truth or falseness - the likelihood of what it posits to be truth. If you don't look too hard, don't think too much, you can stay happily ignorant in the fold of religions.
But science looks for what is, what is repeatable, what can be observed by everyone, consistently, repeatably. Its only "belief" is that these things constitute solid evidence of what is, and that there is something that-is in the first place. i.e. that there is a reality that we all share that is independent of our desires for what it should be, but simply is what it is.
I certainly believe in science (i.e. I have no way to prove the existence of existence). Science is the most useful philosophical point of view I have encountered in my life, and requires the least faith of any philosophy. Again - only the belief that there is something real that we're learning about.
But atheism is even simpler: It only rejects the silly magical invisible guy in the sky stupidity. It makes sense from multiple logically self-consistent frames of reference, and I know it equally from several coherent spiritually satisfying frames of reference.
But what you choose to believe, or come to know for yourself, is your own business. And I couldn't care less (other than a basic desire to see you not force the suffering upon yourself that comes part & parcel with all theism and religion in general).
But please do not limit your thinking so drastically that you insist that 5 is a fruit - that atheism is a theism. It is not, nor ever will be.
Tuesday, February 7, 2017
We are a nation in existential crisis
1. We are a nation in existential crisis.
Are we going to be a land of freedom, liberty, and justice; or are we going to continue to decline into capitalistic greed and an American flavor of fascism (tight coupling of state and private business interests, using the state as the bully stick to force workers into line for private for-profit interests against the will of we-the-people)?
2. This IS NOT NEW.
We've been going down this path for a very long time now - certainly since WW2's expansion of the Military Industrial Complex (MIC), which was vastly ramped up with Reagan and continues to this day - with every - single - president & congress in those intervening years supporting and expanding the power of the MIC and, more recently, the Surveillance State - the CIA, NSA, Homeland Security, and etc.
3. President Trump is NOT an ABERRATION.
He is merely the next in a long series of flip-flops between the Republicans and the Democrats holding power - almost like clockwork, going back to Reagan.
Every 8 years, the populous is sick and tired of the current party's excuses for not doing almost anything whatsoever of its promises of hope & change - and instead has delivered endless more-of-the-same - sellouts to big money.
Whether we're a Democrat or a Republican, the bottom line is we see that the administration has failed us. Many of us become disgusted by this, and we don't come to vote for our party - which allows the other side - which has become enthusiastic about ousting our side during the interim - to come in and garner enough votes to swap an R for a D, or a D for an R.
4. This CYCLE allows for continuation of American POLITICAL evil.
It wasn't President GW Bush who was truly at fault for the problems of American Imperialism. Nor was it President Obama, who continued the same policies - in fact - expanded on them for his eight (8) years in office. Nor was it congress fault entirely, who overwhelmingly went along with expanded wars, and surveillance, and expansions of executive powers during these past 16 years.
No president is solely to blame. And no congress, no matter how obstructionist, is entirely to blame. Not even a significant minority to blame. They're just doing their acting roles in a larger play that is being put on for our endless entertainment.
5.Our willingness to believe in these actors and this play as being real - having real power and mattering - or of us having some real - meaningful degree of influence over this charade by being active in the system - voting, campaigning, advocating for (D) or (R) candidates - that is a huge part of the problem. This charade is being performed to keep us interested in "The days of our government's lives" daytime soap opera and not out in the streets refusing to allow this to continue.
6. Trump is bad.
7. Obama was bad.
8. GW Bush was bad.
9. Bill Clinton was bad.
10. H. Bush was bad.
11. Reagan was bad.
These presidents all expanded executive power, set precedents of corruption, executive dictatorial power grabs, expansion of the MIC and Surveillance State, the erosion of privacy, of individual liberty, of perversions of the constitution to enable greater latitude in being openly corrupt and pay-to-play.
Every single president here is guilty of going along with, or actively wanting to create, the global capitalistic dominance of the planet and hand-in-hand the global militaristic dominance of the planet by America's corporate and military might.
This, folks, is the actual textbook definition of "Fascism."
Not racism, per se, not jack-booted thugs, not burning Jews or other pogroms - rather, the intimate conjoining of private business interests with the military and governmental powers of the state.
America is Fascist and has been for quite some time.
Trump has only made it minutely more so - expanding on a vast set of precedents and foundations laid by his predecessors.
These same actions that many democrats are now decrying were actively done by Obama, and all prior administrations, especially including (D) administrations.
In fact - many of the most pivotal moments have happened during (D) administrations. The vast expansion of the incarceration of black and poor folks was accomplished by Bill Clinton, with democrats cheering him on.
The vast roll-back of entitlements that had previously greatly helped poor people and single mothers to make ends meet, was ripped out and gutted under Bill Clinton with Hillary Clinton being an instrumental wheeler and dealer in accomplishing this change. (This being one of the strongest criticisms of HRC as being very much NOT a defender of children, but rather someone who throws them under the bus whenever politically expedient to do so).
The dissolution of the Glass-Steagall act and passage of the "Commodity Futures Modernization act" by Bill Clinton with the help of the republican congress - removed the protections against global economy-destroying overreach and greed by Wall Street which had successfully protected us since the Great Depression.
Removing Glass-Steagall lead directly to the Savings & Loan debacle and recession, and the growingly massive recessions and depressions we've had since.
The housing loan derivatives market which was legalized by the "Commodity Futures Modernization act" directly lead to the housing collapse & recession in '08/'09.
According to statistics on the global economy - we have a recession every 4-7 years on average. The last one was in '09, which means we are DUE for another RECESSION, and since we have failed to reinstate Glass-Steagall, it may bring the entire global economy to a state similar to the '30 Great Depression!
---
To summarize:
I. We're a fascist, imperialist, colonialist, racist nation and have been from the start.
II. Trump is not an aberration, but a culmination of our continued denial of who we really are and our collective failures - especially as white people - to do a goddamn thing about it.
Are we going to be a land of freedom, liberty, and justice; or are we going to continue to decline into capitalistic greed and an American flavor of fascism (tight coupling of state and private business interests, using the state as the bully stick to force workers into line for private for-profit interests against the will of we-the-people)?
2. This IS NOT NEW.
We've been going down this path for a very long time now - certainly since WW2's expansion of the Military Industrial Complex (MIC), which was vastly ramped up with Reagan and continues to this day - with every - single - president & congress in those intervening years supporting and expanding the power of the MIC and, more recently, the Surveillance State - the CIA, NSA, Homeland Security, and etc.
3. President Trump is NOT an ABERRATION.
He is merely the next in a long series of flip-flops between the Republicans and the Democrats holding power - almost like clockwork, going back to Reagan.
Every 8 years, the populous is sick and tired of the current party's excuses for not doing almost anything whatsoever of its promises of hope & change - and instead has delivered endless more-of-the-same - sellouts to big money.
Whether we're a Democrat or a Republican, the bottom line is we see that the administration has failed us. Many of us become disgusted by this, and we don't come to vote for our party - which allows the other side - which has become enthusiastic about ousting our side during the interim - to come in and garner enough votes to swap an R for a D, or a D for an R.
4. This CYCLE allows for continuation of American POLITICAL evil.
It wasn't President GW Bush who was truly at fault for the problems of American Imperialism. Nor was it President Obama, who continued the same policies - in fact - expanded on them for his eight (8) years in office. Nor was it congress fault entirely, who overwhelmingly went along with expanded wars, and surveillance, and expansions of executive powers during these past 16 years.
No president is solely to blame. And no congress, no matter how obstructionist, is entirely to blame. Not even a significant minority to blame. They're just doing their acting roles in a larger play that is being put on for our endless entertainment.
5.Our willingness to believe in these actors and this play as being real - having real power and mattering - or of us having some real - meaningful degree of influence over this charade by being active in the system - voting, campaigning, advocating for (D) or (R) candidates - that is a huge part of the problem. This charade is being performed to keep us interested in "The days of our government's lives" daytime soap opera and not out in the streets refusing to allow this to continue.
6. Trump is bad.
7. Obama was bad.
8. GW Bush was bad.
9. Bill Clinton was bad.
10. H. Bush was bad.
11. Reagan was bad.
These presidents all expanded executive power, set precedents of corruption, executive dictatorial power grabs, expansion of the MIC and Surveillance State, the erosion of privacy, of individual liberty, of perversions of the constitution to enable greater latitude in being openly corrupt and pay-to-play.
Every single president here is guilty of going along with, or actively wanting to create, the global capitalistic dominance of the planet and hand-in-hand the global militaristic dominance of the planet by America's corporate and military might.
This, folks, is the actual textbook definition of "Fascism."
Not racism, per se, not jack-booted thugs, not burning Jews or other pogroms - rather, the intimate conjoining of private business interests with the military and governmental powers of the state.
America is Fascist and has been for quite some time.
Trump has only made it minutely more so - expanding on a vast set of precedents and foundations laid by his predecessors.
These same actions that many democrats are now decrying were actively done by Obama, and all prior administrations, especially including (D) administrations.
In fact - many of the most pivotal moments have happened during (D) administrations. The vast expansion of the incarceration of black and poor folks was accomplished by Bill Clinton, with democrats cheering him on.
The vast roll-back of entitlements that had previously greatly helped poor people and single mothers to make ends meet, was ripped out and gutted under Bill Clinton with Hillary Clinton being an instrumental wheeler and dealer in accomplishing this change. (This being one of the strongest criticisms of HRC as being very much NOT a defender of children, but rather someone who throws them under the bus whenever politically expedient to do so).
The dissolution of the Glass-Steagall act and passage of the "Commodity Futures Modernization act" by Bill Clinton with the help of the republican congress - removed the protections against global economy-destroying overreach and greed by Wall Street which had successfully protected us since the Great Depression.
Removing Glass-Steagall lead directly to the Savings & Loan debacle and recession, and the growingly massive recessions and depressions we've had since.
The housing loan derivatives market which was legalized by the "Commodity Futures Modernization act" directly lead to the housing collapse & recession in '08/'09.
According to statistics on the global economy - we have a recession every 4-7 years on average. The last one was in '09, which means we are DUE for another RECESSION, and since we have failed to reinstate Glass-Steagall, it may bring the entire global economy to a state similar to the '30 Great Depression!
---
To summarize:
I. We're a fascist, imperialist, colonialist, racist nation and have been from the start.
II. Trump is not an aberration, but a culmination of our continued denial of who we really are and our collective failures - especially as white people - to do a goddamn thing about it.
Thursday, January 26, 2017
We are the reason
The real problem is that the born-here American people - from truck driver to CEO to Soccer Mom to Cable TV dad to Senator are complacent with American Imperialism.
The real problem is that Liberals accept a lying, cheating, warmonger in stride, they don't even notice that it's at odds with the concept of liberalism. Americans turn a blind eye on foreign policy with a pervasive attitude that "what happens elsewhere in the world is of very little importance, really."
They accept the deportation of jobs and industry in the hopes that the dropping prices at walmart will compensate, that their standard of living will remain much higher than the world's average, that they will have a chance at becoming filthy rich in "the land of opportunity."
The real problem is that white americans who are really feeling the results of austerity measures (a term intended to facilitate the takeover of our government by the oligarchy) are the very ones who are angry and lashing out against immigrants and people of color, angry at their loss of status and income, but much, much, much too ignorant and culturally unprepared to cope with the reality that capitalism is their worst enemy.
The problem, my friend, is that Liberals have fallen into a complacent stupor - unwilling to criticise in any sort of a serious manner their own "leaders" - Jon Stewart, John Oliver, Bill Maher, Samantha Bee, & etc., all get doughy eyed around Democrats and are so frightened of the current right-wing threat that they decided that they cannot criticize their prevaricating, greedy, in-cahoots democrats for fear that something even worse will get into office.
And so, my friend, you, me, everyone who claims to care about liberal issues has fueled the race to the bottom - to Hillary & Trump. Some of our friends were saying "this is an untenable pattern - it will lead to the bottom" for years, and yet you, and I, and most every liberal around ignored them as the "crazy fringe" .
But - and I cite reality here - they were resoundingly right.
So, although I respect everyone's right to make choices for themselves - that's a core to my progressive-humanist values - the fact is that it is this continued blind faith in the status quo and a real deliberate looking-away by liberals that allows this system to accelerate towards - if not outright to WW3, then at the very minimum degradation of the biosphere to catastrophic degrees of CO2 emission, sea level rise, the 6th extinction, and a return to slave or near slave labor for most of humanity in a senseless pursuit of profit for 1% of 1% of the population.
We're text-book insane as a nation. And since Liberals will not acknowledge this - or their place - their complacency - and the dire degree to which all of this is real, on the ground reality here and now - I see no hope of turning the tide here in America.
I honestly have no sense of what - if anything at all - will turn the tide short of self destruction on a grand scale.
And I cry for the children bombed in Somalia because America doesn't consider the people there to be people, and they were just in the way in some geopolitical move that the Clintons wanted to make.
Or for the children in Syria, who are dying under our 45,000 bombs dropped this year so-far by the Obama administration - 24hrs / day, 7 day / week - while liberals and americans and journalists pretend that this is a "just war" which is "borne of humanitarian reasons." (See here for another perspective)
It's sick - it's cardboard cutout cartoon villain level of bullshit - that you, and my previous self - and most everyone we know happily barely acknowledges and hides our war mongering away in their peripheral vision so that they don't have to think too hard about it and just trusts the idea that america as a reasonable sane place with flawed but overall sensible well-meaning leaders (well, R's think theirs are the sane ones, and D's think theirs are, while in truth they're both beating the same war drums and taking the same corporate pay-to-play cash).
Liberals willfully buy-in to the "Assad is a bad guy" pre-chewed narrative and go along with the idea that this somehow gives the USA carte blanche to bomb and starve and terrorize civilians in order to bring about a regime change that suits our geopolitical interests better even though this is a flash point for Russia and China and seriously endangers sparking a WW3.
But, you know, "bad guy" = them, and "good guy" = us, and all is right under the american pie.
The real problem is that Liberals accept a lying, cheating, warmonger in stride, they don't even notice that it's at odds with the concept of liberalism. Americans turn a blind eye on foreign policy with a pervasive attitude that "what happens elsewhere in the world is of very little importance, really."
They accept the deportation of jobs and industry in the hopes that the dropping prices at walmart will compensate, that their standard of living will remain much higher than the world's average, that they will have a chance at becoming filthy rich in "the land of opportunity."
The real problem is that white americans who are really feeling the results of austerity measures (a term intended to facilitate the takeover of our government by the oligarchy) are the very ones who are angry and lashing out against immigrants and people of color, angry at their loss of status and income, but much, much, much too ignorant and culturally unprepared to cope with the reality that capitalism is their worst enemy.
The problem, my friend, is that Liberals have fallen into a complacent stupor - unwilling to criticise in any sort of a serious manner their own "leaders" - Jon Stewart, John Oliver, Bill Maher, Samantha Bee, & etc., all get doughy eyed around Democrats and are so frightened of the current right-wing threat that they decided that they cannot criticize their prevaricating, greedy, in-cahoots democrats for fear that something even worse will get into office.
And so, my friend, you, me, everyone who claims to care about liberal issues has fueled the race to the bottom - to Hillary & Trump. Some of our friends were saying "this is an untenable pattern - it will lead to the bottom" for years, and yet you, and I, and most every liberal around ignored them as the "crazy fringe" .
But - and I cite reality here - they were resoundingly right.
So, although I respect everyone's right to make choices for themselves - that's a core to my progressive-humanist values - the fact is that it is this continued blind faith in the status quo and a real deliberate looking-away by liberals that allows this system to accelerate towards - if not outright to WW3, then at the very minimum degradation of the biosphere to catastrophic degrees of CO2 emission, sea level rise, the 6th extinction, and a return to slave or near slave labor for most of humanity in a senseless pursuit of profit for 1% of 1% of the population.
We're text-book insane as a nation. And since Liberals will not acknowledge this - or their place - their complacency - and the dire degree to which all of this is real, on the ground reality here and now - I see no hope of turning the tide here in America.
I honestly have no sense of what - if anything at all - will turn the tide short of self destruction on a grand scale.
And I cry for the children bombed in Somalia because America doesn't consider the people there to be people, and they were just in the way in some geopolitical move that the Clintons wanted to make.
Or for the children in Syria, who are dying under our 45,000 bombs dropped this year so-far by the Obama administration - 24hrs / day, 7 day / week - while liberals and americans and journalists pretend that this is a "just war" which is "borne of humanitarian reasons." (See here for another perspective)
It's sick - it's cardboard cutout cartoon villain level of bullshit - that you, and my previous self - and most everyone we know happily barely acknowledges and hides our war mongering away in their peripheral vision so that they don't have to think too hard about it and just trusts the idea that america as a reasonable sane place with flawed but overall sensible well-meaning leaders (well, R's think theirs are the sane ones, and D's think theirs are, while in truth they're both beating the same war drums and taking the same corporate pay-to-play cash).
Liberals willfully buy-in to the "Assad is a bad guy" pre-chewed narrative and go along with the idea that this somehow gives the USA carte blanche to bomb and starve and terrorize civilians in order to bring about a regime change that suits our geopolitical interests better even though this is a flash point for Russia and China and seriously endangers sparking a WW3.
But, you know, "bad guy" = them, and "good guy" = us, and all is right under the american pie.
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
The DNC is a reeking corpse...
I agree with all Alicé Anil has to say in that video except the idea that we can do anything at all useful with the DNC. They're extremely well funded and corporate-money controls them to their core.
There is no we in the DNC - no populous anything - just a lot of neoliberals trying to blow up the world for fun or profit.
The DNC is pro-war, pro-repressive regimes, pro-puppet regime change, pro psy-ops, pro-globalization, pro-human rights abuses, anti-humanist, anti-working class, anti-democracy on every possible level.
So - YES! The DNC couldn't have been more stupid - more self-destructive - more destructive to our nation if they tried (wait - they did try - they did their absolute damndest to retain power at the expense of all moral and ethical value - all reason to legitimately want power in the first place!)
The DNC sold their soul when they chose to follow Bill Clinton and his advisors from the DLC into "3rd way democrats" - i.e. wooing big monied interests by agreeing to help them with their agenda while simultaneously trading on the good name they still had from FDR and Kennedy to woo us voters.
But they haven't helped minorities, or the poor, or really fought for women's health in 30+ years.
And time and again when they lose big (as they did in 2010 midterms, and before in 2000 when they lost to GW for christ's sake!) - they just say "oh, it was /anything-but-their-failures/ to blame.
They never acknowledge that their focus on pleasing big money has utterly hollowed out their party and left it a vampire that feeds on the lifeblood of those who still believe in the goodness of people, of FDR, of JFK, or MLK, and wrongly believe that the DNC is in there fighting the good fight with them.
No - the DNC is not our friend - nay - it is indelibly our sworn enemy - the enemy of all goodness and human interests for the mindless pursuit of power and money.
Do not be a fool and fall for their lies.
Do not be naive and accept that there is ANY path to redeeming the DNC.
They are dead, dead, and dead.
All that's left is for us to bury their stinking reeking corpse, and to birth a new political system - not a goddamn two -party duopoly - but a real democracy with a real parliament or something similar that's open, inclusive, diverse, and multiethnic, multi-inclusive, as America really ought to be!!!
There is no we in the DNC - no populous anything - just a lot of neoliberals trying to blow up the world for fun or profit.
The DNC is pro-war, pro-repressive regimes, pro-puppet regime change, pro psy-ops, pro-globalization, pro-human rights abuses, anti-humanist, anti-working class, anti-democracy on every possible level.
So - YES! The DNC couldn't have been more stupid - more self-destructive - more destructive to our nation if they tried (wait - they did try - they did their absolute damndest to retain power at the expense of all moral and ethical value - all reason to legitimately want power in the first place!)
The DNC sold their soul when they chose to follow Bill Clinton and his advisors from the DLC into "3rd way democrats" - i.e. wooing big monied interests by agreeing to help them with their agenda while simultaneously trading on the good name they still had from FDR and Kennedy to woo us voters.
But they haven't helped minorities, or the poor, or really fought for women's health in 30+ years.
And time and again when they lose big (as they did in 2010 midterms, and before in 2000 when they lost to GW for christ's sake!) - they just say "oh, it was /anything-but-their-failures/ to blame.
They never acknowledge that their focus on pleasing big money has utterly hollowed out their party and left it a vampire that feeds on the lifeblood of those who still believe in the goodness of people, of FDR, of JFK, or MLK, and wrongly believe that the DNC is in there fighting the good fight with them.
No - the DNC is not our friend - nay - it is indelibly our sworn enemy - the enemy of all goodness and human interests for the mindless pursuit of power and money.
Do not be a fool and fall for their lies.
Do not be naive and accept that there is ANY path to redeeming the DNC.
They are dead, dead, and dead.
All that's left is for us to bury their stinking reeking corpse, and to birth a new political system - not a goddamn two -party duopoly - but a real democracy with a real parliament or something similar that's open, inclusive, diverse, and multiethnic, multi-inclusive, as America really ought to be!!!
It begins with a process of reconciliation
I watched a TED talk recently where a man - a black man - Bryan Stevenson - works with incarcerated youths who were tried as adults and imprisoned for life.
Of all of the so-called developed nations, this only happens in America - that we take 14yr old children, try them as adults - and give them life sentences.
One of his remarks that most struck me was this idea that America has not yet really committed to the process of reconciliation - and that process requires a full commitment to truth.
We are a nation that is literally founded upon a genocide as grave and enormous as the Nazi attempt to annihilate Jews of Europe. We literally sit in houses built on stolen land, having murdered almost all the people that rightfully owned it.
We are a nation whose wealth was initially created - but largely continues to be created - through the enslavement of millions of black Africans - hunted, captured, chained, and shipped here to die as cattle for our greed.
We are a nation whose infrastructure was built on the backs of mistreated and abused immigrants whose search from something better landed them in a place where their labor was cheap, their lives cheaper still.
We are a nation whose military dominates this globe. We use that military to bomb 7 other nations currently. We use that military to coerce other nations to give us access to their oil, their metals, their water, any commodity that we covet. We use that military and our CIA to undermine foreign governments - often democratic governments - who do not jump in line to offer us access cheaply enough or freely enough for our greedy exploitative corporations.
We are a nation that believes itself to be exceptional. Exceptional in the sense that we do not owe respect to any other nation, nor to international norms, or international treaties, or international laws. We do as we please, where we please, when we please, and we claim that it is because we are a special people and these lesser restrictions do no apply to so exceptional a people as we.
We are a nation that lies to its own citizens while singing songs of freedom.
We are a nation that condemns other governments for human rights abuses as we attack the water protectors in North Dakota who are trying to protect their water sources from yet further ecological damage from greedy oil corporations.
We are a nation that has unilaterally given itself the right to assassinate anyone, anywhere - including American civilians - if the president decides its in his best interests without judicial oversight and against international treaties, norms, and laws.
We are a nation that tortures.
We are a nation that steals.
We are a nation that lies about its past, its present, and its future.
We are in desperate need of some honesty.
We are in desperate need of acknowledging our unlawful, immoral, unethical, abusive, and intolerable behavior towards every culture on earth that isn't white upper class Americans.
I agree with that fellow in the TED talks:
We need a serious and honest commitment to reconciliation -
And until we do that, we cannot honestly nor reasonably have any hope at all of being able to move forward and stop repeating these same crimes and abuses over and over.
So, no, we cannot stop talking about the war crimes and crimes against humanity that Obama and Hillary and GW Bush and Rumsfeld, and the rest of our leaders have committed.
We must continue to act as our conscience until we as a whole - we as a community - we as a nation - stop lying to ourselves and face the truth to begin walking in the path of justice.
We must prosecute our criminals - starting at the highest levels and working our way down until we have renounced to our very cores exceptionalism once and for all.
Germany reminds itself annually of its criminal past - and has memorials in many prominent places to remind itself of its dark past. It teaches of itself honestly and openly in its schools so that it never makes the same mistake again.
America needs to own up to its global crimes and begin that same process.
As Bryan Stevenson notes - the opposite of poverty is not wealth - it is Justice.
Of all of the so-called developed nations, this only happens in America - that we take 14yr old children, try them as adults - and give them life sentences.
One of his remarks that most struck me was this idea that America has not yet really committed to the process of reconciliation - and that process requires a full commitment to truth.
We are a nation that is literally founded upon a genocide as grave and enormous as the Nazi attempt to annihilate Jews of Europe. We literally sit in houses built on stolen land, having murdered almost all the people that rightfully owned it.
We are a nation whose wealth was initially created - but largely continues to be created - through the enslavement of millions of black Africans - hunted, captured, chained, and shipped here to die as cattle for our greed.
We are a nation whose infrastructure was built on the backs of mistreated and abused immigrants whose search from something better landed them in a place where their labor was cheap, their lives cheaper still.
We are a nation whose military dominates this globe. We use that military to bomb 7 other nations currently. We use that military to coerce other nations to give us access to their oil, their metals, their water, any commodity that we covet. We use that military and our CIA to undermine foreign governments - often democratic governments - who do not jump in line to offer us access cheaply enough or freely enough for our greedy exploitative corporations.
We are a nation that believes itself to be exceptional. Exceptional in the sense that we do not owe respect to any other nation, nor to international norms, or international treaties, or international laws. We do as we please, where we please, when we please, and we claim that it is because we are a special people and these lesser restrictions do no apply to so exceptional a people as we.
We are a nation that lies to its own citizens while singing songs of freedom.
We are a nation that condemns other governments for human rights abuses as we attack the water protectors in North Dakota who are trying to protect their water sources from yet further ecological damage from greedy oil corporations.
We are a nation that has unilaterally given itself the right to assassinate anyone, anywhere - including American civilians - if the president decides its in his best interests without judicial oversight and against international treaties, norms, and laws.
We are a nation that tortures.
We are a nation that steals.
We are a nation that lies about its past, its present, and its future.
We are in desperate need of some honesty.
We are in desperate need of acknowledging our unlawful, immoral, unethical, abusive, and intolerable behavior towards every culture on earth that isn't white upper class Americans.
I agree with that fellow in the TED talks:
We need a serious and honest commitment to reconciliation -
And until we do that, we cannot honestly nor reasonably have any hope at all of being able to move forward and stop repeating these same crimes and abuses over and over.
So, no, we cannot stop talking about the war crimes and crimes against humanity that Obama and Hillary and GW Bush and Rumsfeld, and the rest of our leaders have committed.
We must continue to act as our conscience until we as a whole - we as a community - we as a nation - stop lying to ourselves and face the truth to begin walking in the path of justice.
We must prosecute our criminals - starting at the highest levels and working our way down until we have renounced to our very cores exceptionalism once and for all.
Germany reminds itself annually of its criminal past - and has memorials in many prominent places to remind itself of its dark past. It teaches of itself honestly and openly in its schools so that it never makes the same mistake again.
America needs to own up to its global crimes and begin that same process.
As Bryan Stevenson notes - the opposite of poverty is not wealth - it is Justice.
Saturday, January 21, 2017
On Honesty & American Denialism
My sense of the world that you and I live in is that folks want to believe whatever they believe and are very quick to turn away if what someone else has to say disrupts that belief in any way.
I can count on my fingers the number of folks I know who consider content more important than tone, and I think when push comes to shove, tone is ultimately critical to them as well - myself included.
But I don't think that makes us all equal in this regard.
Even the intention of putting content first - at looking through the ephemeris of the message to its core is important. It's a philosophical point of view that I hold dear. I suppose it's a belief I have: That attempting to understand what is true is more important than making everyone feel good to maintain the peace.
I don't hold the belief that there is only one truth, however. Understanding what is true is more of a process of eliminating those beliefs that simply cannot be true. That are at odds with reality, insofar as we can actually say with some degree of confidence what some part of reality is.
That doesn't mean that I feel the need to require everyone to believe a certain way - but it does mean that I don't respect a person's beliefs that are in conflict with known facts, especially when those facts are readily available to them - that it is a matter of wilful ignorance, not a matter of innocence.
I can and often do empathise with people's desire to believe things that are demonstrably untrue, or radically unlikely. And I have a basic empathy and respect for everyone wherever they're coming from even if they're deeply wrong about any number of things - as far as I can tell or know.
Again, It's not that I believe I have some special line to "objective" reality - but I don't find that there are that many in my spheres of experience who give a flying tomato for what is true over what they wish or were brought up to believe is true.
The point being, I would just like to have more folks who are willing to look for what we can know to be true (or at least not demonstrably false) and have the conversations that flow from that starting point or minimum adherence to reality.
A friend recently put it thus - that all truth is human truth - subjective - because at best we approach what is potentially objectively true by continuous refinements - it's an asymptotic relationship. All of science is like this. As a hypothesis is well tested and shown to be predictive and useful it becomes a theory, but theories are still conditional - they can still be modified and over time usually are. Not discarded whole - rather updated or modified to better encompass additional understandings that were poorly or incorrectly handled by the previous incarnation of the theory. Newtonian physics being expanded and deepened and corrected by Einstein's theory of gravity and spacetime. Newtonian physics didn't cease to exist - it's explanatory power didn't end with Einstein's discoveries - rather it was given context and its limits better understood and we achieved through Einstein new insights on how to go beyond those limits (but the new limits are still limits, and I have no doubt that we will come to modify our understand of reality again and have new insights that allow us to understand more deeply than either Newton or Einstein did, continuing the refining process, or the expanding understanding process).
Again, my sense of talking with people about politics or social theory is one of constantly running into people's emotionally held beliefs and anger at having those beliefs thrown into question.
It's like the reaction of the Catholic Church to Galileo. His ideas upset their beliefs and that was intolerable to them. Not that they were interested in refining their understanding of the world - just that it was upsetting and they wanted the upset to go away. Not, mind you, that I am comparing myself to the genius of Galileo! Rather, that even my meager desire to be truthful and honest and refine my understanding of what is true - to apply science to my own understanding of life as I live it - leads to analogous encounters.
I am constantly bombarded by former friends and family who want me to stop questioning their beliefs. I am told that it's how I say it, not what I'm saying. But no matter how nicely I say a thing - I'm still asking them to question their beliefs which is a fundamentally painful experience - and as far as I can tell - that's the real issue.
As such, it is impossible to avoid the pain and the backlash (or would you like to point out the scientist who was a greatly beloved member of his or her society and brought about great insights into the world without upsetting folks around him or her?)
Learning ugly truths about Hillary when Hillary was our best chance for a female to rise to President of the United States thus far is not going to be welcome news to anyone for whom having a woman hold the highest office in this land is a strongly held desire.
Everyone has the ability to do the research - to look a few things up about her - to discover "is she often a good person and in alignment with my personal values or is she often what I consider to be a bad person - out of alignment with what I value and believe others should value?" (Or, perhaps being a moral person is not a virtue for you?)
The same is true for Obama. Or democrats as a whole. Or the United States domestic or foreign policy as a whole.
These things aren't hidden if you simply look beyond the immediate surrounding veil of surface information. Listening to CBS evening news certainly isn't going to challenge the predominant narrative that America is great. Listening to NPR isn't going to give you one shred of evidence against the righteous democratic and glorious nation of our motherland. Talking to your friends, coworkers, and family - who also only go by these same sources for their information - isn't going to challenge anything you've been taught to believe your entire life by a culture that is intent on having you be a supporting member of its cast.
America wants you to see America as a great, good, just, righteous nation. That - is - at - its - core - for its own survival: your allegiance, your faith, your cooperation and participation.
And other Americans in power wish to keep their power and so they also work hard at generating this sense of positive messaging about America. Because it makes them powerful. Your allegiance makes them powerful. Whatever America is doing has made them very powerful, so it is insanity to question it. The higher a person is on the economic ladder in America, the more they're going to be a true believer in America - regardless of any objective ethics - because it is working for them very well, or very, very, very well.
It is not a failing on my part to ask you to go beyond your inculcation - your programming - your illusions and your jingoism.
That push-back, that desire to denounce me, that feeling of anger and unhappiness is a desire to kill the messenger - perhaps it is a sign that I am actually on to something and at that point it is up to you to figure out what is true:
Is your understanding more correct or not?
Do you have supporting evidence from reasonably neutral, reliable sources, from disparate sources, which bolster your understanding and creates a holistic view of what's going on to give context to my concerns that render them no longer upsetting because in the larger deeper context you know their place and their place is small?
Or, are you simply not interested in what is real - what is true - not even interested in approaching reality as best we can - but perhaps your real desire is to be left in peace with the beliefs you were given as a member of society and leave it at that?
Stepping outside of the accepted norms of society is scary. It's potentially deadly, it's potentially very bad for your social and economic positions.
In fact, it directly means coming to terms with the fact that you and I and everyone we know owes their economic surety to the life's work, sweat and tears of enslaved peoples. A vast cruelty that is hard to imagine in depth and scope. The enslavement of 12.5 million black Africans captured as if they were but animals, all rights stripped, all decency, all empathy, all humanity unilaterally stripped for the immediate benefit of our great great parents - but which almost certainly benefits you and me to this day.
Many of my black brothers and sisters speak of reparations. Reparations that they are owed. I agree. America is one giant spoils of crime. Of a genocide of many native peoples who existed here before my European ancestors did, and murdered them en masse. Whether genocide was better or worse then racially based mass slavery is impossible to know, and probably pointless to debate. Both were crimes against humanity. Both were as monstrous as Auschwitz and the other ethnic pogroms of the world.
Yet we don't talk about it.
Yet I am attacked when I point out that these United States of America exist entirely upon the blood of millions in genocide and in human chattel.
When I attack Hillary's record - when I attack Obama's record - when I attack the DNC's record - when I question this nation's goodness and history and righteousness and lack of justice - I am directly asking you to step out of your comfortable lies and illusions that allow you to ignore the reality that all you have exists only because your forefathers stole it or beat humans into creating the conditions under which it was created for them and for you.
We Americans owe a debt to the world that in all reasonable conscience we can never repay.
How can we un-murder millions of native peoples?
How can we un-enslave millions of black people?
How can we restore the hundreds of millions of children never born to those people?
How can we restore the dignity we robbed? The lives we destroyed through poverty or incarceration? The suffering we administered on people... on humans - on our brothers, our sisters - for our greed?
America is one big circle-jerk - one big amalgamation of the children of crime lords arguing about how just and righteous and honorable a people we really are.
We have the audacity to claim exceptionalism - a right to stand above international law and ethical norms - to do as we please through might and extortion and war and assassination and global theft - and we claim it's because we are better than the rest of the world. We are just that exceptional a peoples.
And folks get angry at me. Americans feel upset by me. They have their feelings hurt by me pointing out that our leaders are all of those things - that if you bother to pay even a little attention to what is actually true - and not the Disney story of America - but the factual record of one Hillary Rodham Clinton - you see all of these crimes and more writ in plain English in our very own public records within OUR lifetimes - contemporary crimes against humanity occurring NOW! Not in some comfortably far off yesteryear, some blameless place remote in years from our existence. But in the here and now and - not even becoming less criminal! Instead, accelerating and becoming more criminal! More heinous, more cruel, more inexcusable while we American citizens argue over which of the insanely unworthy crime lords propped up for our perusal we should have elected as the face of the global war crimes machine.
I try - I really try to be gentle. To deliver this information to folks in small bites, in easy to understand pieces backed up by articles by good journalists who've done their homework to bring you and I some insight into the world.
But y'all don't listen. Y'all just want to shoot me, the messenger, and gaslight me, and tell me I'm the crazypants, the tinfoil wearing nutjob who will believe any old conspiracy theory.
I hereby formally reject that lie.
I am - to the very best of my ability - a discerning person who does his honest best at determining whether the information is true, fits the scenery, connects with other information, and genuinely fits the whole.
I am also - to the very best of my ability - willing to change my mind when sufficient evidence is found or presented that refutes a point I used to believe. I am willing to refine my hypothesis and theories and learn from my mistakes and work with you if you you're but willing to be brave enough to work with me, unflinchingly honest and in integrity with what is actually to the very best of our ability to understand or uncover to be true.
I am looking for allies, friends, brothers, sisters of the faith in honesty, integrity, and virtue of becoming a better people for the greater good of all humanity.
If there is any way to restore balance on this planet - I believe that it is to renounce our criminal ways of the past - and to work as TRUE EQUALS with all HUMANs everywhere on this blue marble.
It is our spiritual salvation. Our ecological salvation. Our material salvation. Our one true road forward to a time when we can be honest about who we are AND FEEL GOOD ABOUT IT.
Please stop participating in the theft by hiding from the ugly truth of human history - especially of American history - and work together to put an end to the violence, the thievery, the gaslighting, and the small-minded self-destructive greed that we are all complicit in by staying silent or by defending the very politicians and political systems - including our police - and military - which continues to execute those same crimes here, there, and almost everywhere around this earth.
I'm not claiming to be perfect or know all of the answers. But I am eager to discuss any and all of this with you if you're willing to be intellectually honest with me towards refining an understanding of truth instead of obfuscating it on behalf of fears.
We can take responsibility for who we are and where we are and who we owe for that. For me, that must be grounded in honesty. A commitment to the truth and a real process of reconciliation in which we admit that our very way of life as Americans is predicated upon global theft, and we stop it. We. Stop. The. Evil. Machine. Together. First, by simply being willing to realize that this is the situation, and no longer being willing to be a defender of it out of our own shame or fears.
We can create a future worth existing in. One that can sustain humanity.
But it cannot be one whose foundation is not firmly set in love, integrity, and peace.
Please, help.
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