Mark Doran blog

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  • May 17, 2020 at 1:20 pm #115020
    wv
    Participant

    Mark Doran is usually purty-ok.

    MarkDoran:https://markdoran.wordpress.com/2020/05/10/racism-101/
    Racism 101

    “..If you ask me — and I’m sure you were about to — I’d say that there’s a fairly basic ‘litmus test’ that can be used to decide whether or not a given person should be considered a grown-up in today’s world.

    The requirement that I have in mind is simply this:

    The ability to discern that, and when, systems of power are using familiar words and apparently straightforward terms to refer to things that are their precise opposites.

    Pretty elementary stuff, I think you will agree; but….

    …On top of this, we see people classed as ‘conservatives’ who, being in reality ‘destructives’, ‘exploitatives’ and ‘ecocidal, short-termist extractivists’, conserve nothing except minority privilege; and the label ‘neoconservative’ applied to people who are simply amoral, predatory nationalists with a radical disregard for both international laws and foreign lives. Meanwhile, the mildest centre-left and conflict-averse social democracy (Corbyn!) is smeared and toxified in every forum as ‘dangerous extremism’ — and compared unfavourably with a ‘responsible and moderate centrism’ that in reality embraces every extreme element of the wealth-serving agenda, from society-destroying neoliberalism at home to nation-destroying neoimperialism abroad.

    Or you could study a newspaper (as we’re told, they sell for ‘just the price of a coffee’ — so as soon as you are able, do the right thing and buy a coffee…) and see how the political coverage is so ludicrously elite-serving that non-opposition is celebrated as opposition; malicious inaction is celebrated as ‘policy guided by the science’; and rank dishonesty is celebrated as frank disclosure…

    May 17, 2020 at 1:30 pm #115021
    wv
    Participant

    Mark Doran part2:https://markdoran.wordpress.com/2020/05/16/racism-101-2/

    May 17, 2020 at 4:43 pm #115032
    Zooey
    Moderator

    Okay. Leaves out the “radical disregard for national laws and domestic lives.”

    I think people are deluded who think that these contemporary conservatives have some kind of sense of noblesse oblige to their own countries. They don’t. They are actively pursuing wealth and power and KNOW that the consequence will be increased squalor.

    They don’t care about us. At all. They have said so. McConnell has repeatedly stated in public that they are coming for Social Security and Medicare if Trump is re-elected. These people are quite clearly comfortable saying the quiet parts out loud now. They are comfortable with the knowledge that many people in this country can see plainly that they do not serve the interests of the bottom 90%.

    I am afraid that many Liberals are blind to this. They think these people won’t “go that far.”

    They will. They are. They are throwing people back to work without proper protections, and passing legislation to prevent the ownership class from liability. People are disposable. They have calculated that a million dead people won’t drive up the cost of labor, and they all know that AI is coming anyway, so there are going to be too many people. Sharing resources with them plays no part in their plans for the future.

    May 17, 2020 at 9:24 pm #115041
    Zooey
    Moderator

    I want to clarify the comment “I am afraid that many Liberals are blind to this. They think these people won’t ‘go that far.’”

    I think that rich people are totally fine with wiping out the much-talked-about Middle Class.

    They don’t need middle class people. I think liberals tend to overestimate the degree to which their interests align with the wealthy. A lot of Democrats worry about Sanders going too far with his social policy because they instinctively worry that it will cost them something, that they will lose privileges of some kind. They kind of feel like they shouldn’t fight for these things.

    They think the system needs tweaking. They don’t realize that the wealthy want THEIR slice of the pie, too.

    They are coming for pensions and all health care. They want everything commodified. And I don’t think many middle class people see what they’re going to do to them.

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