by Francis Lee for the Saker Blog
The American ruling class as represented by its own nomenklatura have been guilty of the sins of the French Bourbons in a different age: ‘’They have learnt nothing and forgotten nothing.’’ (1)
I can hardly remember a US Presidential campaign/election carried out with virtually zero intelligent inputs and policies. It was as if it started at zero but then actually descended deep into minus territory. It was also clear from the outset that the same nomenklatura (or MICIMATT (2) – if you prefer) was solidly arrayed against Trump since the 2016 election when Trump defied all the media hype and had the temerity to win. From that day onwards a slow ‘colour revolution’ – i,e, putsches which had been successfully carried out by the US in various ‘naughty’ countries around the world – was operationalised and deployed against Trump. So for the entirety of his presence in the White House the sitting US President was the object of an unceasing campaign of character assassination, his loyalty to the US besmirched, his lack of education ridiculed, his manner boorish and clumsy, all of which shortcomings may have been to an extent justified, but he was never allowed to respond to a bogus narrative almost totally controlled by the MICIMATT complex.
THE AMERICAN CLASS SYSTEM
America and its advocates have always argued that America does not share the same class relationships, rigid social-hierarchies and history of class-struggles as has been the case in Europe. But even a cursory reading of American labour history will soon divest the reader of any such notion. Class struggles in the US have in fact been particularly vicious with the ruling elites being unrepentantly ruthless. For the established ruling elites Trump was an outsider, a voice of the hoi-polloi and decidedly not to the taste of the elite coalitions and ideologues of the F Scott Fitzgerald and Ayn Rand social/political strata. This has always been the case pretty much everywhere. To be sure, Trump was a semi-educated parvenu and many of his supporters may have also been somewhat deficient in this respect. But here’s the point. The worldview of the rich and famous was a perception of the world as they have and continued to experience it. In this respect being determines consciousness. This is the permanent social-political hierarchy that always and everywhere has existed from time immemorial but there are none so blind as those who refuse to see. Class struggle has been a continuous leitmotif throughout the ages and refusing this historical phenomenon doesn’t make it less so.
THE AMERICAN IDEOLOGY
Contrary to the media-hype the US has never been either exceptional or indispensable. During the late twentieth-century and early twenty-first America had developed into an imperialistic hegemon, simultaneously repressing its own people and making war on and intimidating other nations. Indeed it has been at war for 95% of its existence. All of this is a matter of record but it is taboo in the US itself and in most of its vassals. The US is run by a ruthless coalition of oligarchs, not as it is claimed by the masses. But the rule of the oligarchs is anchored in the second tier of America’s class structure. In short in the emergence of a middle-ranking elite of professional and managerial types – ‘an outer party’ in Orwellian terms which is the crucial ideological basis for the ascendency of the oligarch ‘inner party’ – this two-tier structure constituted the greatest negation of US democracy.
This new cognitive elite was made up of what Robert Reich called “symbolic analysts” — lawyers, academics, journalists, systems analysts, brokers, bankers, etc. (Less complimentary referred to as ‘Bullshit Jobs’ by the recently demised David Graebner.) These professionals trafficked in information and manipulated words and numbers for a living. They lived in an abstract world in which information and expertise were the most valuable commodities.
Since the market for these assets is international, the privileged class is more concerned with the global system than with regional, national, or local communities. In fact, members of the new elite tend to be estranged from their communities and their fellow citizens. These social/political/cultural experiences then transmute and harden into ideological belief systems which, in behavioural terms at least, take on a life of their own. These professional groups send their children to private schools, insure themselves against medical emergencies … and hire private security guards to protect themselves against the mounting violence against them.
“In effect, they have removed themselves from the common life and contact with everyday ordinary Americans.” (3)
The privileged classes, which, according to the late Christopher Lasch’s expansive definition, now make up roughly a fifth, or quarter of the population, and are heavily invested in the notion of social mobility. The new meritocracy has made professional advancement and the freedom to make money “the overriding goal of social policy.” Lasch charged that the fixation on opportunity and the “democratization of competence” betrayed rather than exemplified the American dream. “The reign of specialized expertise,” he wrote, “is the antithesis of democracy as it was understood by those who saw this country as the ‘last, best hope on earth'”(4).
Citizenship was grounded not in equal access to economic competition but in shared participation in a common life and a common political dialogue. The aim was not to hold out the promise of escape from the “labouring classes,” Lasch contended, but to ground the values and institutions of democracy in the inventiveness, industry, self-reliance, and self-respect of working people.
Unfortunately Lasch’s observations may well have been correct but with the passage of time his prescriptions are actually becoming less pervasive than he contended since the publication of his book in 1995. The American ruling stratum have if anything gutted the United States of the (albeit limited) idealism of the 1945-63 period and a genuine commitment to a democratic polity but instead are committed to a ruthless, winner-take-all, greed-is-good, economic, and social barbarism. Herewith an interesting insight from one of F Scott Fitzgerald’s characters – Amory Blaine – in one of the earlier novels.
‘’I detest poor people’’, thought Amory suddenly. ‘’I hate them for being poor. Poverty may have been beautiful once, but its rotten now. It is the ugliest thing in the world. It is essentially better to be corrupt and rich than it is to be innocent and poor.’’ He seemed to see again a figure whose significance had once impressed him – a well-dressed young man gazing from a club window on Fifth Avenue and saying something to his companion with a look of profound disgust. Probably thought Amory, what he said was: ‘’My God! Aren’t people horrible!’’(5) Such has been and is a fortiori the view of their fellow countrymen by America’s haute bourgeoisie.
THE GREAT COUNTER-REFORMATION
At this juncture the US Presidential election has been a moment (important and significant in its own right) but situated in much broader global developments. As previously mentioned, (vide supra) the transient mini-enlightenment of the 1945-63 period, has given way, after the 1970s interregnum, into what can only be described as the great Counter-Reformation, a global process known as neo-liberalism or globalization or both. This Counter-Reformation was incubated in university departments, independent think tanks, political parties, Corporation Board Rooms, Global institutions such as the IMF, BIS, OECD, World Bank, WTO, financial books, journalists writing for broadsheet publications – The Economist, Financial Times, and Wall Street Journal – and various papers being added to the output. What they were saying was essentially BS, but unfortunately, they were able to dominate the narrative, since they owned the means whereby to do so.
At one time those ideologies which had offered people of the world the hope of making their own histories and ideologies which offered hope have declined and collapsed at an increasing rate in Western societies. This collapse is also the collapse of the Enlightenment, that reason and freedom would prevail as the paramount forces in human history. Alas this is no longer the case; since the 1980s at least the forces of darkness have been on an ever increasing and accelerating rampage which shows no signs of letting up. Leading the process has been the United States with Europe in tow. Globalization, Neo Liberalism is the new orthodoxy which all must obey.
This historical process has brought these trends to a head and been conspicuously evidenced in microcosm by the 2020 US Presidential election. All the forces of darkness were quite blatantly coming into the open conspiring to get their man elected, by all and any means possible. This was essential for their more ambitious project of world domination. This ruthless undertaking consists of a plan for the US to become world hegemon sitting atop of its empire. The Europeans have already thrown in the towel and the rest of the world will soon be brought to heel – for their own good of course – and the world will be set fair for peace and prosperity. Yeah, right!
If the US and its allies (read vassals) think that it can impose their hegemonic ambitions upon the rest of the world, then they are in for a rather rude awakening.
This is because the world is no longer living in the economic and political golden age from 1945-71. The centre of global wealth-creation derives from the unusual coalition which has shifted from West to East, more specifically from the United States to China, whilst the distribution of power within international institutions still reflects the very different world of 1945. This incongruity is bound to foment tension.
‘’Some anticipate a Thucydides moment. In his History of the Peloponnesian War 2500 years ago Thucydides wrote that ‘What made war inevitable was the growth of Athenian power and the fear that this caused in Sparta’ today we seem to be on the same path as the old and new powers clash… Just as Sparta could not expect always to be on top, so America and the West should not always expect to be the dominant powers.’’ (6)
In short this means that the West will have difficulties in imposing its 1945 geo-political and trade agenda on the rest of the world. The current international configuration as inherited almost unchanged from the end of the Second World War no longer corresponds to the economic and increasingly political realities. The rise of Asia has decidedly flipped the location of production and new wealth generation. This has been an irreversible moment.
BRETTON WOODS – DECLINE AND FALL
The twilight of America and the American century began as a measurable decline and by the end of the 20th century this had become unstoppable. Firstly, there was the financialization and hollowing out of the productive sector of its economy and, secondly, with its wars of choice and endless military adventurism both of which tendencies are gradually bankrupting the country. The facts are irrefutable. The Presidential contest of 2020 was the conjunctural moment in this process; everything changed when the veils of obfuscation were torn away and the corruption and decadence of the old order – the blob – were fully revealed. America’s ruling elites have become irreversibly transformed into a lumpen, parasitic, aristocratic class, ruling by manipulation, wealth and power. It has been noted that,
‘’Nothing is more wretchedly corrupt than an aristocracy which retains its wealth when it has lost its productive power and which still enjoys a vast amount of leisure after it is reduced to mere vulgar pastimes. The energetic passions and great conceptions that animated it heretofore leave it then, and nothing remains to it but a host of petty consuming vices, which cling about it like worms upon a carcass.’’ (7)
The Epstein affair anyone? Enough said.
NOTES
(1) The quote is attributed to Talleyrand in speaking about the restored Bourbon dynasty after the abdication of Napoleon, and subsequently used against the French socialists and others. It comes close to Einstein’s definition of insanity as doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results, though the Talleyrand quote gives us a reason for their repeating mistakes of the past over and over
(2) MICIMATT – Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-Media-Academia-Think-Tank complex
(3) Christopher Lasch – The Revolt of the Elites –published in 1995
(4) Lasch – Op.cit.
(5) F Scott-Fitzgerald – This Side of Paradise – published 1920
(6) Phillip Mullan – Beyond Confrontation – published 2020 – p.xxv
(7) Alexis de Tocqueville – Democracy in America – Volume 2, p.220
” the great Counter-Reformation, a global process known as neo-liberalism or globalization or both. This Counter-Reformation was incubated in university departments, independent think tanks, political parties, Corporation Board Rooms, Global institutions such as the IMF, BIS, OECD, World Bank, WTO, financial books, journalists writing for broadsheet publications – The Economist, Financial Times, and Wall Street Journal – and various papers being added to the output. What they were saying was essentially BS, but unfortunately, they were able to dominate the narrative, since they owned the means whereby to do so.”
How was this organised and by whom.?
“… How was this organised …” An excellent question indeed.
“… and by whom? …” Broadly, not a secret, of course. Everyone is familiar with the masters of organising and subterfuge, the tribe of ill repute, the cancer upon western civilisation for two millennia already.
It was the democratic underground.
There is a temptation to gesture ambiguously to a Zionist conspiracy, but consider the following:
The decades prior to the neoliberal Counter-Reformation was characterized by a rapidly rising Soviet Union. Recall in 1957 the Soviets successfully launched Sputnik, a momentous event on the scale of life as we know it. In 1961 followed the Cuban Missile Crisis. The USSR was clearly demonstrating their capacity to be a next-gen global hegemon, usurping the Atlantic Empire. This terrified the imperial core and plans were set in motion to aggressively contain the USSR by any means possible: by challenging China through direct invasion of Vietnam, by challenging the Soviets through Central Asian proxy wars.
While the Soviets were comfortable in their current-gen technological advantage, the West was maintaining its cultural advantage. Pop music, Hollywood, mass media exploded from the West, spreading Western liberal ideals (which, to be fair, have close relations to the Zionist movement) and gradually claimed the minds of Soviets. Let’s be clear, the Cold War was fought on cultural fronts–the synthesis of economy, technology, media, way of life–not on traditional geographic fronts. The USSR was not crushed militarily but culturally.
Returning to the West, the implication of the culture war is that *ideas can be dangerous*. The USSR, with its nominally proletarian, socialist, communist bent, must be totally opposed. Any remnant of Soviet “culture” must be totally contained and rejected. This meant that Western culture was essentially defined by a negation. Anti-worker, anti-socialist, anti-communist. In positive terms: capitalist individualism (liberalism). This is the ideology that united both US political parties following the Counter-Reformation, pioneered by Reagan on the Right and adopted by Clinton in his Third Way coup of the Party of Roosevelt.
In conclusion, this Counter-Reformation was organized essentially by the same National Security State that was emboldened by WW2 and institutionalized by the creation of the CIA. To them, it was the only way to overcome the technological supremacy of the Soviets.
Yes with one small caveat, The USSR/ Russia has a thousand + year old culture and society that even 70 years could not destroy.Now it has returned and reclaimed the Slavic people, not completely, but significantly. The west particularly the USA has nothing to return to save its roots in Europe which has been gutted. .
Davi
Well spoken. Russia does indeed have more than 1000 years of history and culture, something the US does not have. Yes, the Rothschild’s provoked the 1861-1865 Civil War in the US. However, the mere fact they succeeded is proof how volatile US society was and still is. The white ethnic groups could not assimilate. In the North you had the English/Germanic culture, while in the South a mixture of English/French/Celtic. The English spoken in the South is English with a French accent. You cannot create an American “ethnic group” overnight. George Washington introduced it in 1776, to the surprise of his fellow “Americans”. After the “revolution”, you has mass emigration of immigrants back to England, as they did not want to be “Americans”.
And today ? You have a heterogeneous white ethnic group, an Afro-American ethnic group, a Latino ethnic group, a Chinese ethic group and a native American ethnic group. They have not assimilated, but are rather living side by side, as the old saying goes. Not very encouraging for the future.
Why do groups need to completely merge? You praise Russia and there are distinct ethnic groups there still so that does not make much sense.
Yes well that is the problem. Very little in Russia makes ‘sense’ to the Anglo mind. But it very easy and transparent for Russian to see the Anglo mind. All one has to do is look to the worst raits of humanity present in all countries (ie psychopathy’ and ans apply reason.
No way. The 70 years were enough to make not only a footprint in both Russian history and society. That is some 3 generations. Add 1 decade of the rotten 90’s which has the roots in Chruschev- Gorbi- Yeltzin decline.
What you get is the degeneration of nation as it is obvious today. There you have the sick liberalism blindly imported to Russia from the West and admired even when already proved to be self-destructive in the very western world. As you can see not even the 20 years of Putin’s reigning could change it. Indeed he rests his influence and power on oligarchs, too. Of course the “right ones” – his childhood and judo friends who fight the others in their own interest.
Not even mentioning the untouchables from the Yeltzin era. He (Putin himself) claimed clearly that he is a liberal and there will be no abolision of privatization!
Enough said, make your own conlusions (having in mind the destruction of Soviet era educational system which was one of the few virtues worth of keeping as a legacy of bolsheviks).
the master
Your comment belongs to the 1990’s era and is devoid of reality. Yes, Russians got a taste of liberalism under Yeltsin, namely one great big shock, which they are incapable of forgetting. When Putin came to power, 30.000 Orthodox churches were opened, proof that Russians have not forgotten their history and culture. As the old saying goes in Russia, “you cannot rule Russia without God and the Tsar”.
And yes, you have liberals in Russia. However, what is their power and who represents them ? Maybe little Kseniya Sobchak, and NGO puppet ? Or perhaps the “famous” blogger Navalny. The last time he held “demonstrations” in Moscow, he could not fill half a football stadium (his people claimed that 49.000 supporters came out, while the police stated it was less than half that number). Liberals like Sobchak and Navalny are known in Russia as “Sorosyata”, or Soros’s little piggies. There is no way they can ever end up ruling Russia.
Excuse me… ‘CUBAN missile’ crisis…incorrect..
The ‘TURKISH Cuban Missile Crisis’ is more accurate. US stationed their missiles in Turkey first, aimed directly at the Russian gut, before the Russians countered with their missiles placed in Cuba. The US, typically, has still not with drawn their nuclear weapons from their bases in Turkey. It is confirmed that Russia has listening stations in Cuba but NO FURTHER missiles or nuclear warheads.
Furthermore, it was thanks to one Russian intelligence officer on an ill prepared Russian submarine (crew sweating themselves to death on 3 non-tropical adapted subs, I think..) in 1961 who stopped the launching of nuclear armed torpedoes as a response to extensive depth charging (OK..by excercise munitions..) from a large US fleet north of Cuba. His courageous decision was in direct violation of Kremlin orders and he was heavily punished and ostracised upon his return to Russia…
Regarding further !!!HISTORICAL!! Russian provocations of the peace-loving & democracy building USA!!,
15 September 1945 Memorandum to General Groves from Major General Norstad.(Special Collection, Key documents on Nuclear Policy issues, 1945-1990). 2 weeks before the formal surrender of Japan…
These classified US historical documents now reveal that in 1945, a few weeks after the Hiroshima-Nagasaki experiments, the US placed an order for a further 124 atomic bombs, a minimum stock, with a long list of targets in Russia, Eastern Europe (before Warsaw Pact which was after NATO!!) and China.
quote “on Russian and Manchurian strategic areas”..
Naturally, of course, these references have already in 2017 been removed from YouTube etc.,
Furthermore, at the height of another “CRISIS’ ,the Korean passenger airliner being shot down over Russian airspace during the vip BUSH-Regan administration. It was again a Russian major at the Strategic Command for Strategic Missiles, who in spite of a “software glitch”!! with 3 US land-based missiles ‘Bogeys’ approaching and penetrating Russia territory, stubbornly refused to launch a fully justifiable nuclear counter attack.
At least his efforts were later acknowledged by the UN peace committee, by various US actors and a movie.
26 million dead Russians during WW2…..and 3 million in WW1
We are Anglo-zionists are SO GUILTY of historical ‘false flags, crises, glitches, provocations, wheeling and dealing’ etc., that we still do not have the GUTS to publicly release English,German and possibly Russian official archived documents from 1914 and WW1.
one cannot leave out of the analysis, though, the fact that the USSR was essentially a foriegn occupation of russia. A coup (they called it a revolution) was carried out, and for 70 years, all of russia was under the ruthless control of a tiny elite essentially managing it all (poorly) as a huge corporation. the people, the culture, the land, were all brutalized for the profit and control of the elite. Their struggles with the western elite were a fight among brothers – who had financed the total corporate takeover of russia? the same capitalist bankers who were financing roosevelt’s, churchill’s, and hitler’s war machines. the bankers owned all the dogs in the race, they didnt care who won the race, as long as the upheaval and conflict were used to justify the total control of their respective spheres of influence, by their dogs. when the ussr collapsed russia began the slow process of recovering.
in the west the same oligarchy is running the show, but they were content to keep a smiling face on the front of the machine of power and death for a long time. now it seems they dont care about appearances at all, and have color-revolutioned america, to get rid of those pesky people clinging to those outdated ideals of the enlightenment – liberty, limited government, private property (not corporate), freedom of people to communicate, move, and trade with each other, the important arms of government kept local and under frequent elections (sherriffs, judges, and so on)… these sorts of things are something the globalists have considered a constant irritation even as they used the strength of america to enforce imperial objectives abroad.
In a word – Lewis Powell…
Read “The Lewis Powell Memo: A Corporate Blueprint to Dominate Democracy” for a start.
Johny Conspiranoid
“How was this organized and by whom ?”. Answer: By the very same forces who created the US back in 1776. I will not repeat what I wrote on numerous occasions, just to say that in 1776 the North American colonies passed from Royal control to that of the Rothschild’s. George Washington, a freemason, was their agent, creating the USA. The country is ruled, covertly, from the HQ of the Freemasons in Washington DC. The Commander in Chief of all freemasons is Prince Philip, husband to the Queen of England, who stated that his wish upon dying was to be reincarnated as a virus, so that he could reduce the worlds population. Charming fellow. By the way, two of his sisters married German SS officers before World War Two, something historians love to conceal. The US Fed is controlled by the Rothschild’s.
When it comes to the article, I would like to make two points. The author has stated:
“The American ruling class as represented by its own nomenklatura have been guilty of the sins of the French Bourbons in a different age: ‘’They have learnt nothing and forgotten nothing.’’ Well, not quite. French aristocrats in 1789 were asleep, incapable of forgetting the Middle ages, always thinking of their privileges. When England was introducing the first industrial revolution, the chief question in France was if the aristocracy should pay taxes, leaving that little problem to the middle classes and the peasantry. They got a Rothschild’s financed revolution. Many lost their heads, as they did not think of having getaway plans. This little mistake is not being made by the US elite. Yes, it is greedy and ruthless, but it is not stupid. For more than ten years you had articles on the internet about the US elite buying up real estate in foreign countries, with New Zealand and Tasmania being the two top favorites.
“The privileged classes, which, according to the late Christopher Lasch’s expansive definition, now make up roughly a fifth, or quarter of the population, and are heavily invested in the notion of social mobility”. This statement is debatable. It could be true if you include what is left of the middle class, but again it is debatable if the middle class in the US is a privileged class, the upper middle class excluded.
Many have stated that the US is ruled by 1 % of the population, ie. by the elite. However, the elite in the US does not make up 1 % of the population, as that would mean more than 3 million people. The US elite makes up less than half of one percent of the population. And yes, it does have it’s social mercenaries, it’s feudal retainers who are bellow them and who back them up. I suppose you could call these retainers a semi-privileged class.
You could compare today’s social situation in the US to that which existed in France in 1789. However, comparison should perhaps be made to the situation which existed in Iran under the Shah. We all know who brought him to power. He created a semi-feudal entity, his family at the top, his retainers bellow him and everybody else at the bottom. His hold on power was based on huge corruption, which the West tolerated, as he sent billions of dollars to his Western bank accounts. However, such a situation could not last for ever. As that Greek philosopher stated, “hungry men do not ask, they take”. The Shah gets a revolution in 1979. He, of course, flees the country, as do his mercenaries who kept him in power.
I am afraid something similar is in store for the US. It will not get a civil war, and it probably will not get a revolution. However, it most probably will get severe social and political disturbances resembling either a civil war or a revolution. This is the reason why the US elite has been buying up real estate in foreign countries.
I don’t think that it’s that organized at all – it looks more like independent actions of unrelated entities, the combined effects of which give the impression of coherent and coordinated efforts.
Trump and his supporters were more interested in waging a culture war on their social betters than they ever were in helping the working class. People in major American cities are celebrating like they just overthrew a foreign occupying force because that’s exactly how Trump acted towards (in his own words) ‘Blue states’ and ‘Democrat run cities’. His 2020 campaign was nothing like his 2016 one; he basically just ran as an extreme right winger, labeling anyone against him as ‘socialist’.
And LOL at him being any threat to the ruling class. in foreign policy, he was the biggest Shabbos goy America has ever had as a President. In the domestic front, all he managed to do was pass a massive tax cut for the ultra wealthy.
@Nasser
‘Trump and his supporters were more interested in waging a culture war on their social betters.’
This is projection the culture war is an attack by ‘progressives’ onto conservatives.
‘And LOL at him being any threat to the ruling class’
If he was not a threat to the ruling class then why has the entire MSM (including social media) been against him the entire time and started to remove constitutionally protected rights such as freedom of expression even for the president himself, let alone one of his followers?
phep,
‘This is projection the culture war is an attack by ‘progressives’ onto conservatives.’
– Allow me to rephrase; they are more concerned with ‘owning the libs’ than any actual policy.
‘If he was not a threat to the ruling class then why has the entire MSM (including social media) been against him the entire time and started to remove constitutionally protected rights such as freedom of expression even for the president himself, let alone one of his followers?’
– I can see Trump as a threat when he was first elected. But ever since he got rid of Flynn and then Bannon, Trump has been thoroughly coopted by the GOP establishment. I mean just look at his policies. He is just standard GOP with a foul mouth. That foul mouth sure ‘trigger the libs’ and that’s what his supporters like but I fail to see what that actually accomplishes.
– The first amendment grants you freedom from government persecution not a license to ignore private property rights. I believe in the second amendment too but that doesn’t entitle you to bring a gun into my house. If you are going to use these tech platforms you have to abide by their rules; just like if I want to comment on this site I have to abide by the rules here. I don’t see how that is a violation of any constitutional right. I should add I believe the government has the right to regulate these tech platforms but they have chosen not to.
‘– Allow me to rephrase; they are more concerned with ‘owning the libs’ than any actual policy.’
Again projection.
‘– I can see Trump as a threat when he was first elected. But ever since he got rid of Flynn and then Bannon, Trump has been thoroughly coopted’
Trump was trapped by the outgoing administration.
‘– The first amendment grants you freedom from government persecution not a license to ignore private property rights.’
The United Nations’ Human Rights Committee states that this, “distinguishes the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief from the freedom to manifest religion or belief. It does not permit any limitations whatsoever on the freedom of thought and conscience or on the freedom to have or adopt a religion or belief of one’s choice. These freedoms are protected unconditionally”.[3] Similarly, Article 19 of the UDHR guarantees that “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference”
So if I want to send a letter via normal mail to other people in my subscriber list (or address book) if the mail company read them and said I do not politically agreed with the contents so I am writing my opinion next to yours that would be OK?
It would be ok with me if such a provision was explicitly in the terms of service.
Of course this analogy is an imperfect one because no one would sign up for such a mail service when there are better alternatives available. Whereas, these tech platforms like Facebook or Twitter are virtual monopolies and thus can just dictate terms to their users. If those on the political right feel unfairly targeted and censored then they should urge their governments to regulate these businesses; but to complain that their legal rights have been infringed upon is disingenuous.
Is it OK morally for a company to censor communication politically? You seem to think so.
People (and as such companys) dont think morally, how would they know if they posses the moral sense? They think ideologically, and then act politically about it.
We are a split down the middle divisive country.
@Alabama
‘We are a split down the middle divisive country.’
It is not the middle as propaganda, censorship and cheating has occured to win.
‘ They think ideologically, and then act politicaly about it. ‘
What if your ideology is pacifism or the golden principle? Then it would include moral elements for example.
Some other ideologies may be merciless and lake morality like Zionism for example.
“Less complimentary referred to as ‘Bullshit Jobs’ by the recently demised David Graebner”.
Editorial services are badly needed. In this one sentence:
1. “complimentary” should be “complimentarily”.
2. “demised” should be “deceased”.
3. The author’s name is David Graeber, not “Graebner”.
4. The class of jobs referred to – i.e. “lawyers, academics, journalists, systems analysts, brokers, bankers, etc.”- are not quite those that Graeber calls “bullshit jobs”. On the contrary, bullshit jobs are defined by Graeber as those that exist merely to give superiors the pleasure of having subordinates at their beck and call, whether there is any actual work for them to do or not.
It’s hard to take an article’s thesis and claims quite seriously, when simple errors crowd in so thick and fast.
@Tom Welsh
I think a few minor spelling errors do not effect the point here.
lawyers, academics, journalists, systems analysts, brokers, bankers,
They are such jobs if from the reference of an Oligarchic class for example.
IMO the article is derivative of Thomas Frank’s work (specifically. Listen, Liberal” and also some later essays).
I don’t see much in this essay that is new.
Katherine
Tom, if we get the grammar police here, I have but one response.
Are you offering to edit for our writers :-?
Please remember you’re dealing with writers mostly that do not have English as a first language, writers that do not have editors, usually a tight time schedule, usually a first draft, not professional journalists, and, you’ve gotto do all this editing for free, for the love of the cause in about 10 minutes flat, and frequently writers that are not public.
So, you wanna copy edit? Or forgive, because the meaning is quite clear?
There are few things, when reading the comments, that annoys me more than people who have nothing good to say or contribute, but must point out spelling mistakes and or ‘lack of editorial services’. How petty and snotty. You must be a pal of ‘Amory Blaine’, eh Tom Walsh?
Thank you Francis Lee for this essay. I intend to read it again.
Quite, and one might add no professional proof readers and contributors who might have American English as their first language. To pick out a couple of words in a 2 thousand word article seems, a little nit-picking/pettifoging if I may say.
Thomas Frank’s “Listen, LIberal” is a clear, highly documented and highly readable account of the rise of the PMC, Professional Managerial Class and its role in the political transformation of, in particular, the Democratic Party.
https://www.amazon.com/Listen-Liberal-Happened-Party-People/dp/1250118131
Frank’s book is indispensable to understanding the political dynamic created by this new self-serving class.
Katherine
Speaking of colour revolutions…
That chief American exporters of “colour revolutions”, the notorious former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, now has to nerve to complain about Putin not congratulating Biden for “election win”!……..
https://www.rt.com/usa/506079-mcfaul-biden-putin-victory-russia/
And that is a picture with all the necessary pixels. Trump probably hasn’t a clue what MICIMATT is, but he said it all with “Swamp”.
I made a similar comment in a previous stream yet it seems more relevant here (if the moderator agrees).
As artists we have the greatest responsibility to differentiate fact from fiction by painting what we see as the truth. This started before Michelangleo and continued through the most brilliant and greatest painters for hundreds of years. The truth here is that yet another the era of greed and moral decreptitude is ending.
Today the concept of civilization is that beauty can be ugly, songs can be without verse, fashion can be rags, good can be evil, common sense can be nonsence and innocence can be knowledge. This is demonstrated in the false contest of democrats vs republicans in the US and all the words of misdirection. Exploiting these areas we eventually get to Epstein’s Island where the elite test these ideas on the serfs.
Forget the recent election here is the full picture for those with binoculars looking backwards then stepping into the future.
http://www.cowdisley.com/videos/artfuture.mp4 or https://youtu.be/A2drSzBXYg0
Largely informative but has an injection of intruth:
‘false contest of democrats vs republicans’
Not on this occasion. Trump has been relentlessly demonised by the mass media.
Why don’t we get into the meat of the situation the US is experiencing? Can no one understand that the future king of England requires North America back? Didn’t anyone notice that it was the Rhode scholar Alexander Downer working for the Crown of England who planted the seeds of Russiagate hoax? The UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand together with the old crowns of Europe waiting to be reborn that have set their range finders on the United States. Face it,!the UK and its Commonwealth of Dominions is out to destroy the rule of democracy and that means destruction of the US as priority number one.
And where is Dominon Voting Systems headquartered? Why, Canada of course! The good old Canadians, in the first rank of turds, strikes at the heart of Democracy again….just like 1807 and all the very very ugly things the Canadians and their British rulers have done to zuncle Sam over these past few hundred years.
We do live in unprecedented and perilous times witnessed by few..
That is quite a broad brush you are flailing about. What of the many (most) Canadian turds, such as myself at 66 who have never heard of Dominion Voting Systems? How have I done anything very very ugly to the exceptional turds of the U.S.? All the U.S. turds and Canadian turds are ruled over by the same power structure, the top of which is not in who will be president or P.M. As Vladimir Putin has observed, it doesn’t matter who is president. U.S. foreign policy continues along the same path. We can vote or think we are voting for someone who will make a difference. This thinking is stuck in the Matrix. This lower tier ruling class will do as they are expected, or else!
You can point the finger of blame at Canada or Britain if you like. But don’t forget to look in the mirror. I think it was one of your founders, Benjamin Franklin who said ‘You have a Republic, if you can keep it’. He said it could only be maintained by a righteous people. And wasn’t it Abraham Lincoln who said the U.S. would never fall from without but only from within? There is a saying: show me who your friends are and I will show you who you are.
The thing is, the rest of the world doesn’t have to ‘declare war’ on the US. It just has to dedollarise. Sell Treasury bills. Carry out trade in non-dollar currencies. Seek loans from non US-institutions. You know: ‘send the US to Coventry’ as we Brits would have said 50 years ago.
Of course, this may provoke the US into violence (but let’s be realistic, almost anything triggers the US into violence), so a bit of salami-slicing in trade policy may be a more realistic outcome. But you are not telling me that the ‘New Silk Road’ initiatives have the US at their heart. They quite clearly are a Eurasian project with nothing whatever to do with the USA. The North East Passage trade route is clearly a way to avoid the Panama Canal, isn’t it? Or maybe going around the Cape of Good Hope or through Suez I suppose.
Once people distinguish between wealth and decency, they have to make some choices: ‘if I had to be a truly disgusting person to be rich or have a humble life but be decent, which do I choose?’ When enough people start saying the latter (and enormous numbers of people in their mid 30s to mid40s are doing precisely that), then the influence of the execreble super-rich starts to decline. It may take 50 years, but they are no longer respected, no longer barely tolerated.
So the next challenge comes with the ‘lockdowns’, the ‘vaccinations’ and ‘barcoding of children’. Truly disgusting actions of appalling moral-free psychopaths. Anyone who has any framework of decency left, allied to the mental faculties to see through the ridiculous propaganda, will have lost any residual respect for human beings like Bill Gates. He may be worth $100bn+, but he is a psychopath, a disgusting pile of human excrement, worthy of zero seconds of media time whatsoever.
I am very clear that Bill Gates should be given a one-way ticket with his technologies to Mars, never to return to earth. He can grow all his meat in a space-lab, use hydroponics to grow all his food and he can live out in space without trees, without rivers, without clouds, without hurricanes, without volcanoes, without all the features of nature that Asperger techies like he so abhor. He abhors them because he has to try and eliminate them instead of living alongside them.
So Eff Off, Gates et al. Go live in your billionaire spaceships on Mars.
We won’t miss you.
They dont have to do anything but wait until the american consumer can afford to spend anymore, then they got a problem.
I think the lesson here is dont mess w/Satan, even god elected to be a simple observer.
The “War Against Russia” cabal is now in charge again. But first, they might need to pause a bit to genocide off a few million former-Trump supporters. The murdering, anti-reform coup-machine that has been in operation around the world for the last eighty years is turning its attention to the Continental United States.
The interior war that is coming to the US will be all consuming. 70 million US citizens realize that their vote means nothing and can be manipulated. Further, they realize that a populist government will not be tolerated by the oligarchs. So the many million veterans will be the tip of the spear as the US devolves into chaos. They fought the foreign wars and will fight a domestic even though it will be so destructive. They have one good fight left before their time runs out. Better to right the ship of state than let it sink quickly. The cheating that will come in the Georgia run off senate elections will be the death seal. Remember my words, it will be a slaughter of targets of opportunity in the beginning.The courts will not step up to solve the current problem so it will be a deep, dark, cold, and bloody 2021 in the USA, sadly.
Oh joy! Your closing remarks about “nothing is more…” .Well, I, personally, see Many More Corrupt Entities which should have long ago died. But Here We Are! I Verily say to you all, Nothing is hid which won’t be revealed. Then what? When the Last drop of Holy Water ,hits the Dust, Who then will be left ‘standing’ in the gap? Who will care about you enough to throw a stone at their own neighbours just for your sake? Troublous times the book calls it. Enjoy. I Know I Will.