Origins of wokeness: Marxism vs. liberalism

This fascinating 24 minute video by Ryan Chapman (YouTube home page) explains the origins of modern wokeness in Marxism and liberalism, and the core trait of wokeness that focuses on fighting against oppression of the the oppressed class (the workers) by the oppressor class (the bourgeoisie). 

According to Chapman, liberalism is the ideology that people should be free to think and act for themselves and own property. Marx argued that aspect of classical liberalism (freedom and property) is the source of class oppressors and oppressed. I guess it boils down to the idea that people who own a lot of property tends to have a lot of power and they have the freedom to oppress a lot of people who don't have much property.

The lecture defines key terms clearly. It is direct and clear in the line of reasoning that wokeness is basically Marxist, at least in terms of the idea of class struggle and how to deal with it, i.e., cancel culture in modern times. This will be a real eye opener for a lot of people, probably most Americans, including many or most of those who are active in the wokeness movement.

Acknowledgement: Thanks to milo for posting this in a comment here several days ago. I just came across it this morning. My bad. ☹️

Dysfunction...

Has the U.S. become a dysfunctional society?  Why/Why not?  

List reasons by categories (e.g., political, religious, educational, capitalism, environment, Hollywood, role models, guns, parenting, immigration, free speech, commercialism, economy, etc., etc., and etc.) to support your yes/no claims.

Republican reasons for opposing reasonable gun regulations

“. . . . the typical citizen drops down to a lower level of mental performance as soon as he enters the political field. He argues and analyzes in a way which he would readily recognize as infantile within the sphere of his real interests. . . . cherished ideas and judgments we bring to politics are stereotypes and simplifications with little room for adjustment as the facts change. . . . . the real environment is altogether too big, too complex, and too fleeting for direct acquaintance. We are not equipped to deal with so much subtlety, so much variety, so many permutations and combinations. Although we have to act in that environment, we have to reconstruct it on a simpler model before we can manage it.” -- Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels, Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government, 2016

“And, the infantile reasoning situation is even worse when the typical citizen is constantly bombarded with disinformation, lies, opacity, irrational emotional manipulation and crackpot reasoning. What passes for reason in the minds of the deceived and manipulated is usually irrational drivel.” -- Germaine, 2022

At 3:54-6:52 of the video, Trevor Noah describes a few examples of the “reasoning” that Republicans in Congress cite to explain why they oppose gun regulations, currently in the form of the Protecting Our Kids Act.[1] Their thinking is either infantile, or far more likely, insulting cynical mendacity. No adult can be this infantile and function normally. 

Those Republicans are not stupid, but they just cannot come up with anything close to rational to explain their reasoning. One cannot rationally defend the indefensible. So, Republican elites are forced to defend the indefensible with irrationality. Most of the people this kind of thinking works with (~90% ?) are gun nuts who themselves are infantile in their reasoning on this issue.

Footnote: 

1. The House passed the bill, but the Senate will kill it. Republicans oppose it and the filibuster prevents its passage. Once again, nothing significant will come from congress in the wake of another mass slaughter inflicted by a weapon of war in the hands of an insane person. 

The main provisions of the bill are:

• People under 21 years of age cannot purchase assault rifles
• Outlaw high capacity ammo clips and bump stocks
• Mark all firearms to make them traceable (bans ghost guns)
• Promote responsible maintenance of guns
• Hold adults accountable if they fail to safely store their firearms
• Makes firearms trafficking a distinct Federal crime allowing prosecutors to go after people who provide guns to criminals 

That is what Republicans, gun makers, the NRA, Faux News** and gun freaks vehemently oppose. Presumably most normal American adults (~75% ?) support it, but by now we all know that public opinion walks and campaign contributions talk.

** I'll be using Faux News as shorthand for the whole neo-fascist, radical right propaganda Leviathan. 

A new twist in the abortion wars

Those Christians are not there to help

They are there to deceive, lie and instill fear and guilt

The Guardian published an interesting article about what happens to some google searches for abortion services.

Google misdirects one in 10 searches for abortion to ‘pregnancy crisis centers’

In US ‘trigger states’ where the procedure may soon be illegal, searchers may be sent to centers that do not actually provide care

One in 10 Google searches for abortion services in US “trigger states”, where the procedure is likely to become illegal if the US supreme court overturns Roe v Wade, are being misdirected to clinics known as “pregnancy crisis centers” that do not actually provide care, according to a new study.

After a leak revealed the US supreme court is on the verge of overturning the landmark abortion rights law Roe v Wade, attention has turned to “trigger law” states that would ban abortion immediately if the decades-old decision is undone.

In more than a dozen such trigger-law states, researchers found, 11% of Google search results for “abortion clinic near me” and “abortion pill” led to “crisis pregnancy centers”, according to misinformation research non-profit Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH).

This is another example of radical right Christian nationalism (CN) relying on outright deceit to get what it wants. The moral rot that characterizes Republican Party elites also applies to the Christian nationalists, elites and rank and file. 

Why make taxpayers support this sleaze?

For CNs, God's sacred ends justify immoral and sleazy means. God's demands even justify treason as seen by the participation of proud CNs in the 1/6 coup attempt. The radical right's blatant contempt for inconvenient truth and honesty is shameless and boundless.

As discussed here before (and here), radical right anti-abortion Christian groups set up sham abortion services operations in poor neighborhoods. Those centers explicitly advertise themselves as providing abortion services. In fact, they provide anti-abortion propaganda and coercion. 

These 'pregnancy crisis centers" try hard to con pregnant women out of having the abortion they were looking to find help with. These fine Christians use copious amounts of lies, guilt, sleaze and slanders to shame or frighten women into submission so they will carry their fetus to full term and then give birth. God's sacred ends justify Satan's evil means. 

After conning women into having their baby, these heartless Republican motherfuckers then gleefully turn their backs and walk away. They cut public services for women and children because they hate government at least as as much as they hate abortion. The women and babies are left to fend for themselves. 

We can expect the Supreme Court will most likely release its neo-fascist decision to overturn Roe v. Wade at the end of June or maybe a day or two into July. Then, the gutless CN neo-fascist Republican judges will high-tail it out of court and hide behind their annual recess in the hope that the furor will die down so that they can continue dismantling democracy and civil liberties when they get back to work in October. Those stalwart liar justices hope that pregnant women who want to abort a fetus but cannot will just calm down, pull themselves up by their bootstraps, stop whining and get over it. After all, it is womens' fault that they got preggers, even if they were raped. The fetus is God's gift to the woman. 

And, those women damn well better bring that baby up as a good Christian nationalist too. If not, they will be condemned as bad mommies by the arrogant, self-righteous CN deceivers who screwed the women over in the first place with their deceit, lies and coercion.

Q: Was that over the top? If so, oops my bad.[1]

Footnote: 

1. In times of trials, tribulations and bullshit, sometimes one's patience is tried. Sometimes one might even get a bit testy about it all. These definitely are times of trials, tribulations and bullshit.

Policy idea: Let's defund Christianity by getting rid of all tax 

breaks, adding tens of billions to the US treasury each year!!

Write to your Senator with this wonderful policy suggestion!