Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris said in a CNN interview that aired late Thursday that, if elected in November, she would not change the Biden administration's policy of steadfast military support for Israel.
im not willing to give the americans the out of being brainwashed, i imagine if youve been on this site for a while youve probably already heard the critiques at least once, i agree the ideas of the ruling class of america are the ideas of the working class, but also that the working class of america are the junior party of the ruling class of the world, and their class position makes it beneficial for them to behave like they do, and the consumption the propaganda they consume is a subconcious effort to reaffirm that they arent the bad guys. This has never been clearer to me in the wake of gaza, seeing how these people choose to not see something and not believe something because it would shatter their self image if they were to accept it.
No one believes they are the bad guys. IDK how to break people out of that cognitive self-defense.
Also there’s a sort of doomerism that comes with realizing you live in a country like this. It is easy to feel powerless & despair so why not push those feelings down and try to ignore it? I get the logic. It’s wrong, but I don’t believe people in this position can’t be converted to the left. We have to try reaching people. We can’t give up.
I think the logic of trying to push those feelings down is actually one of a couple “correct” things to do. Its easier to not fight against the bullys. Like in school when people see the kid being picked on they don’t intervene even if they feel bad because then the attention would be on them. Its actually a good individual survival strategy.
I also agree that those people can be reached and that we shouldnt give up. However many years down the line I just want honesty from the westerners that come around to communism or whatever that before they were cowards at best, evildooers at worst.
Talk of “manufacturing” and “inventing” suggests an imposition over and against the individual’s will. I believe that, on the contrary, the process of Western propaganda is better understood in terms of “licensing”: the issuing of moral license for the bourgeois proletariat to profitably go along with bourgeois designs without the feeling of shame overwhelming. In this alternative account people aren’t “brainwashed” insofar as they don’t actually believe the lies, not in the way that we generally understand belief. It’s more correct to say that they go along with them, whether enthusiastically or apprehensively, because it’s actually their optimal survival strategy.
im not willing to give the americans the out of being brainwashed, i imagine if youve been on this site for a while youve probably already heard the critiques at least once, i agree the ideas of the ruling class of america are the ideas of the working class, but also that the working class of america are the junior party of the ruling class of the world, and their class position makes it beneficial for them to behave like they do, and the consumption the propaganda they consume is a subconcious effort to reaffirm that they arent the bad guys. This has never been clearer to me in the wake of gaza, seeing how these people choose to not see something and not believe something because it would shatter their self image if they were to accept it.
No one believes they are the bad guys. IDK how to break people out of that cognitive self-defense.
Also there’s a sort of doomerism that comes with realizing you live in a country like this. It is easy to feel powerless & despair so why not push those feelings down and try to ignore it? I get the logic. It’s wrong, but I don’t believe people in this position can’t be converted to the left. We have to try reaching people. We can’t give up.
I think the logic of trying to push those feelings down is actually one of a couple “correct” things to do. Its easier to not fight against the bullys. Like in school when people see the kid being picked on they don’t intervene even if they feel bad because then the attention would be on them. Its actually a good individual survival strategy.
I also agree that those people can be reached and that we shouldnt give up. However many years down the line I just want honesty from the westerners that come around to communism or whatever that before they were cowards at best, evildooers at worst.
Relevant essay about brainwashing versus licensing in the imperial core
https://redsails.org/masses-elites-and-rebels/