Well that escalated obviously over 4 years!
None of us who have been watching the Cavalcade of Political Hate that has been Trump’s obscene term of malice can pretend that the Orange Lives Matter Insurrection we all witnessed was a surprise.
The attempt to nakedly usurp Democracy has been building every hour of his toxic Presidency.
This was the very obvious conclusion to the alternate reality of spiteful chaos that Trump has championed.
But as I watched Trump lunatic after Trump lunatic interviewed as they rampaged through the Capital Building, I didn’t feel angry at them, I honestly felt a terrible, terrible pity for them.
They have had their fear and their ignorance manipulated by forces far beyond their tiny insignificant intellects.
These morons are suffering from a shared collective mental illness! They believe a Satanic child sex cult is running the world, bioengineering the Covid virus to be spread by 5G to bring about a shadowy one world government for fucks sake.
I’d put money on the table that at least 50% of them think the Earth is flat, 30% think dinosaurs are a hoax and at least 15% who think Elvis is still alive.
Those delusional Orange Lives Matter nutters are a symptom of a much nastier and far more wicked disease, and that’s where the blame should go.
The blame should go on Trump whose Presidency from candidate announcement to this current bleak scaring of democracy has been one corrosive stain after another on the institutions that protect the American people. He has grown this tumour, he has lit a fuse by falsely claiming a rigged election and he told the crowd to march on the Capital Building after enflaming them with lies.
The blame should go on the gutless Republicans who have refused to stand up to the worst excesses of this Orange Fascist.
The blame should go on Fox News for enabling his lies and his fantasies.
The blame should go on Facebook for weaponising his disinformation with algorithms designed to make them profit from deceit and manipulations.
We should pity Trump’s followers but we should punish him and his enablers who set this abomination in motion.
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These people aren’t mad, they are reacting to fear of the end of their secure, comfortable privileges living in the No 1 global imperialist. They are still living the dream of frontier freedom where whites wiped out whole peoples to advance ‘civilisation’. It’s their historic decline that has thrown them, and they respond by pulling up the moat. Trump has served to unite this reactionary political movement into a force to be reckoned with. Workers cannot afford to under-rate what motivates this force as it poses a mortal threat. Its about the breakdown of the capitalist economy, and that has to be our target. No deals with ‘sane’ bosses, or petty bourgeois labour leaders. Workers’ Party, workers’ councils and militias, workers’ power and Workers’ State.
“Pulling up the moat’… genius right there Dave! You are waaay more of a threat to human welfare, but fortunately even less influential, than the Trumpistas!
Indeed.. ‘Pulling up the drawbridge”, db?
The mistrust of any powers other than continuation of US world economic, political and military dominance has been around for a few decades in the US. Plus, there long been factions who distrust US state power -probably not without reason.
It is probably based in the vast economic inequalities. Trump has mobilised the disaffected. Some of them probably still cling to the longtime US propaganda of exceptionalism, individualism, militaristic solutions, and meritocracy. A muddle of ideas and ideals.
I recall spending a night in an LA hotel when travelling between the UK and NZ in the 1980s. Couldn’t sleep and tuned into a radio station with a woman talking about her research. She sounded so matter of fact and rational. But she was talking about some codes on the back of road signs throughout rural US. She was claiming that these were codes to direct UN troops WHEN they took over the US.
I never did hear who she was or who she was speaking for. Later I read about the US militias, etc.
Mistrust of US and any government authorities or international organisations probably has a basis in the vast economic inequalities, and corporate power in the US.
Dave I have given you shit in the past but here I think that you have greatdr grip on the fundamental issue than Bomber.
The way I see it showing such contempt for Trump supporters on such subjects as Elvis etc is to place onself outside of this obviously working class group. It is to declare intellectual superiority, just basically being “better” whatever that means. It is to throw your hat in with Hillary, these are “deplorables”. This is tribalism, Liz and Martyn think their views superior to these inferiors and in doing so they declare their hand alongside the corrupt corporatist regime that impoverishes the “deplorables”.
I fully understood Dave why a Marxist would describe intellectual and academic lefties as “running dog capitalist roaders and lick spitgle oppressors of the proletariat”.
Trump has done nothing to serve anyone but himself, when will you ever learn?
I agree Dave. The cause of more immediacy than “breakdown of the capitalist economy” has been the neoliberal agenda of globalisation which has resulted a blunt force redistribution of the world’s wealth largely at the expense of the first-world’s working class. This has come with a great deal of pain for those whose expectations were raised by the post war economic bubble. It is also a shock to the huge sense of entitlement held by most western populaces; the belief that being poor is domain of shithole countries, not western democracies. Mix such bewilderment and resentment with demagoguery and the results are predictable.
Spurred on by a terrible spiteful MSM that chose to inaccurately report news to suit their biased agenda.
Trump was a terrible president, what a fkd up 4 years the damage he caused over his term is exactly what was feared but the inaccurate, sensationalism that was spewed out from the MSM gave strength to Trump. He could point to the MSMs blatent in accuracies strengthening his horrendous conspiracy theories.
The MSM need to just report the news not try to shape it.
1000% Ben
ONLY, 15% believe Elvis is still alive? Closer to 50%
As a leftist I completely agree with feeling sorry for these people, but the real question we must answer is how was it possible for Trump and the enablers to take advantage of them, what is the material analysis that helps make sense of this?
I think it is because neo-liberal economic policies of the last 50 years have devastated the working and middle classes and they Democrats have abandoned them. Bill Clinton broke the traditional alliance between Democrats and Unions and instead got into bed with Wall St then started a trajectory that delivered for them and that every successive Dem and Republican administration followed. I bet if you interviewed those Trump supporters who stormed the Washington DC you would find a large proportion of them or their families impacted by one or more of; tours of duty in pointless wars, loss of manufacturing jobs, house loss from 2008 GFC, opioid epidemic, poor health care etc. In that environment any latent white supremacy and racism will rise. The Democrats have allowed the space to open up for Trump to walk into. Bernie understood this and would’ve got some votes back, but Trump still got the second largest Presidential vote in history in losing to Biden.
On the flip side of Trump are the Dems who celebrate women and POC being in senior military and deep security state roles and a Corporate technology alliance in Silicon Valley that can control what opinions will be allowed. Trump’s presence on SM needed to be controlled but I am uncomfortable with the lack of any real process or oversight in the way this was done – leftists will now be easier to close down as Biden continues to go after Venezuela, Bolivia, Iran and possibly China. And then there’s Assange, the greatest journalist of the last 20 years who broke the biggest stories since the Pentagon Papers – the smears against him allow cowardly liberal journalists to not have to engage with what he actually revealed about western Govts and corporations and to not care about the grave threat to press freedom that the US extradition represents.
Sorry, not much to cheer about in all this.
Agree with a lot of what you’ve written, Bob e.g. on the history of the Democrats.
The collusion of the Dems with Big Tech, social media, etc is a worry. It’s continuing Obama’s strong connection with ‘Silicon Valley’ (See Shoshana Zuboff’s “Age of Surveillance Capitalism” on this).
Banning Trump from social media is not the way forward. Corporate controlled social media, and the enabling power given to it by the coming Biden presidency is a big worry. Private corporations should not be able to decide who gets to speak, and who is censored.
Team Biden and the Democrat establishment have now turned their backs on women. In their promised policies, they will make it legal for any male who says they feel like they are a woman, to be classified as a woman, legally and socially. In law and in practice, that will mean there is no female sex. This hugely benefits misogynists in male-dominated big tech.
Actually, at the moment Team Biden is confused about what exactly a ‘woman’ is. In some of their speeches they seem to be talking about women as biological females, and at other times, ‘gender identity’ (whatever that means).
They will turn back the clock on hard won rights, services and protections for females. The Biden presidency will not be progressive, only a slightly more benignly-presented form of capitalism and patriarchy.
Apart from the tragic deaths I thought the storming of the US capital buildings was an awesome moment and a timely reminder that politicians as corrupt and self serving as those in the US deserve to have the sh#t scared out of them from time to time.
Trump is a symptom and the anger he has tapped into is legitimate. These are not stupid people they are angry and power less and they have every right to attack their government when it fails to serve them as spectacular as it does in the US.
Sadly the situation will be used as cover by the Democrats who will do almost nothing fundamentally different in terms of policy and will expend their political time and energy on the theatrics of Trump bashing. Policy on healthcare, police reform, the environment and inequality, mean while, will all be carefully avoided.
That’s the key isn’t it.
“Trump is a symptom”.
He is the inevitable result of a populace who are angry and frightened of what the future holds, and decided they want change.
Sure, Trump was never going to deliver the change they wanted, but at last they have a voice.
Don’t underestimate the feeling of having a “voice” in US politics.
In NZ, I don’t feel I have a voice anymore, as someone who’s ancestors arrived in 1840. I can now see clearly why Maori have been so disenfranchised.
You can despise Trump all you like, but there is a good chance NZ is heading down the same path.
Let’s just hope we don’t have to wait for a Trump to make it happen.
The disenfranchised are not going away. Decades of falling incomes, rising living costs and wealth inequality led to the election of Trump. The only other person in the 2016 election to address these people was Bernie Sanders but the DNC stopped his nomination. In the rustbelt states Sanders did get buy in with socially progressive policies especially M4All over Hillary Clinton who as we all know went on to lose the rustbelt to Trump. Despite four years of deplorable politics and ultimately losing the election he increased his popular vote by over 9 million. These numbers include people who have been struggling to keep their heads above water for decades. The Clintons steered the DNC towards Wall Street and away from the working class and the party has never gone back. Can the Dems speak to these people again or have they travelled too far down Wall Street? If this is so then surely the time is right to create a party that can deliver policies that feed the progressive left and also make a bridge to all struggling Americans. Otherwise could the GOP come through the middle as evidenced by the passing of the Florida state referendum on 15 dollar minimum wage. Angry people need to be listened to, to find the true cause of their anger. The sleeping giant is now awake.
Yes spot on. The identitarian liberals will demonise Trumps supporters as “deplorables” but will ignore and even exacerbate the underlying causes. Biden still represents the elite.
Not sure how Donald will go without his Twitter account. Like Jaron Lanier, I too believe Donald has a social media addiction.
Seeing Trump staring at a telly during the riot and him knowing that he had instigated this act of terrorism because in his insane delusional thought patterns the election was ‘stolen’ from him made me think of that part of history about when Rome was burning Nero fiddled.
Trump could have called his supporters to tell them not to invade the Capitol but no. Instead he stood there watching the telly of the events and probably enjoying that moment of adulation towards his supporters and his supporters adulation towards him.
He could have told them to stop and if he had done this adult thing then 5 people would still be alive today.
Therefore to me the deaths of those 5 people means that Donald Trump now has blood on his hands.
It was only later on after the mob had done the damage did Trump tell them to go home. But I believe he also praised them for their actions. How mentally sick is that guy(Trump)???!!!!
Lets be well assured Donald Trump will never be held accountable for his actions and lack of actions either in the riot of a couple of days ago or his disdain and hatred of a democratically held election.
He is behaving like a tinpot dictator running and ruining a country and making it into a banana republic.
Those rioters and even those in the above photo look uncouth and poorly educated. They are what one would call the lower classed individuals of a country. Their eagerness to support Trump shows they are what even Trump has called others as Stupid.
Whilst social media outlets are closing off access by Donald Trump to spread his venom of hatred and lies he still can destroy this world by pushing one button. And in his little insane world of make believe I think he is quite capable of doing that.
Lets just hope the more intelligent Republican politicians have the guts to remove this lunatic because along with giving America a bad name he is also giving the Republican Party a bad name. And I am sure the Republican Party still want to exist once Donald Trump is no longer a part of it.
“Trump is a symptom and the anger he has tapped into is legitimate”
No, they are fucked in the head,if they were legitimate, then all 74 million would have descended upon the capitol, only the stupid ones did, look at the way they dressed and one stupid fuck had his ID badge!
I listened to a woman from the US today who is recovering from covid 19 say how lucky she was to have access to her husbands health insurance cover. She needed an ambulance to hospital and without insurance cover the cost is 5000 dollars plus her testing and overnight stay which would be many thousands of dollars. She paid a copay of 50 dollars. Joe Biden clearly and publicly stated that if a M4All bill came through congress to the floor of the senate he would immediately VETO it. Tens of millions of Americans have no health insurance which creates an underclass who struggle to find a way to survive, literally. That is where the monstrous Trump came in, promising to make America great again and while he has fed Wall Street he has starved main street. The question is how far will the US descend before it shakes off the shackles of corporatocracy and rampant capitalism? The disenfranchised around the globe are watching as the sleeping giant wakes up.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/randalllane/2021/01/07/a-truth-reckoning-why-were-holding-those-who-lied-for-trump-accountable/?
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