What a joke. He’s what passes for a ‘people’s intellectual’ in the US.
Anti-materialist, idealist, prone to believing in horrors of “the ebil atheist commies”. Sees things in terms of people being misguide, wretched sinners who are fundamentally good if you just reach out to them emotionally in the right way with the right language rather than material interests, superstructure, the complexities of white supremacist empire and capital, etc being what determines interests, actions, etc. I used to look up to him until I actually sat down and listened to him and he’s just so full of shit. Typical liberal intelligentsia.
And it’s no shock, you can’t be actually radical and black in the US and not get killed or at least silenced and deplatformed out of any notability. So yes, he’s an op IMO even if he doesn’t know it. He shepherds people into meaningless electoralism and pointless and easily ignored protests so he and his liberal friends can feel like they’re reliving the MLK days acting out their righteousness and that’s all that matters, being pious and righteous in public and senselessly believing that the powers that be will be shamed into moving one day by it.
Not realizing of course as liberals do not that MLK only succeeded because of the Soviet Union using racism and what MLK was facing as a hammer and injuring the US and global capital’s struggle for dominance and power and control in various regions to the point the CIA, imperialists, smarter capitalists all commanded a lid be put on those uppity racist whites down south and to send them to practice racism in their homes and churches (and religious schools which they created in droves after integration) out of the limelight instead of in public where it hurt the larger picture. Also Malcolm X and the threat of militant (and violent) black nationalism certainly didn’t hurt either yet this guy goes around calling people brother and sister and shit and think that’s going to work. It puts some people on the defensive in the moment to be sure but it doesn’t change anything the moment you leave and they can go back to the way they want to be.
And he’s not even the best liberals have to offer. Maybe CodePINK’s people are actually Marxists or socialists of some sort and I’m not aware but there are absolutely liberals anti-war, anti-empire who won’t waste meaningful time talking up the alleged crimes of others because they know it’s a distraction from the stuff the US is doing and is used to equivocate and distract and sap momentum by redirecting the conversation to how America is still better than them and learning and yada yada yada.
He’s only against imperialism when proper atrocity propaganda hasn’t been manufactured and disseminated is what this tweet is saying and that’s worthless because these days most imperialism is preceded or accompanied by that. Look at what he says about China and the Uyghurs, look at how effective the propaganda is. Look at the propaganda on Ukraine and I doubt he challenges or would dare to challenge that or fail to call Putin the aggressor.
Supporting Cuba or Palestine is basically mainstream and meaningless for any liberal under 35 because neither of those fronts are active or moving anywhere and no amount of support or protest is going to stop US support for Israel or end the US blockade of Cuba. So token things like that for street cred are worthless. Show me the support of things that gets other liberals furious at you. Show me the Seymour Hersh type reporting and stances that debunks their atrocity propaganda. But he doesn’t. He’s not an effective anti-imperialist and I’m sorry to say this but there are at the moment reactionaries who are more solidly anti-imperialist in message if not sentiment right now towards the US global foreign policy than this guy and that says something not about how great reactionaries are but how awful liberals are and the limits of their discourse.
EDIT: Love how mad I’ve (apparently) made some people. Why not come here and reply with what I said that’s wrong? No reason to waste time on this guy and his weird “love your enemies” act which is anti-Marxist.
What a joke. He’s what passes for a ‘people’s intellectual’ in the US.
Anti-materialist, idealist, prone to believing in horrors of “the ebil atheist commies”. Sees things in terms of people being misguide, wretched sinners who are fundamentally good if you just reach out to them emotionally in the right way with the right language rather than material interests, superstructure, the complexities of white supremacist empire and capital, etc being what determines interests, actions, etc. I used to look up to him until I actually sat down and listened to him and he’s just so full of shit. Typical liberal intelligentsia.
And it’s no shock, you can’t be actually radical and black in the US and not get killed or at least silenced and deplatformed out of any notability. So yes, he’s an op IMO even if he doesn’t know it. He shepherds people into meaningless electoralism and pointless and easily ignored protests so he and his liberal friends can feel like they’re reliving the MLK days acting out their righteousness and that’s all that matters, being pious and righteous in public and senselessly believing that the powers that be will be shamed into moving one day by it.
Not realizing of course as liberals do not that MLK only succeeded because of the Soviet Union using racism and what MLK was facing as a hammer and injuring the US and global capital’s struggle for dominance and power and control in various regions to the point the CIA, imperialists, smarter capitalists all commanded a lid be put on those uppity racist whites down south and to send them to practice racism in their homes and churches (and religious schools which they created in droves after integration) out of the limelight instead of in public where it hurt the larger picture. Also Malcolm X and the threat of militant (and violent) black nationalism certainly didn’t hurt either yet this guy goes around calling people brother and sister and shit and think that’s going to work. It puts some people on the defensive in the moment to be sure but it doesn’t change anything the moment you leave and they can go back to the way they want to be.
Very relevant read that probably gives some insight into some of his flawed thought process: https://redsails.org/western-marxism-and-christianity/
And he’s not even the best liberals have to offer. Maybe CodePINK’s people are actually Marxists or socialists of some sort and I’m not aware but there are absolutely liberals anti-war, anti-empire who won’t waste meaningful time talking up the alleged crimes of others because they know it’s a distraction from the stuff the US is doing and is used to equivocate and distract and sap momentum by redirecting the conversation to how America is still better than them and learning and yada yada yada.
He’s only against imperialism when proper atrocity propaganda hasn’t been manufactured and disseminated is what this tweet is saying and that’s worthless because these days most imperialism is preceded or accompanied by that. Look at what he says about China and the Uyghurs, look at how effective the propaganda is. Look at the propaganda on Ukraine and I doubt he challenges or would dare to challenge that or fail to call Putin the aggressor.
Supporting Cuba or Palestine is basically mainstream and meaningless for any liberal under 35 because neither of those fronts are active or moving anywhere and no amount of support or protest is going to stop US support for Israel or end the US blockade of Cuba. So token things like that for street cred are worthless. Show me the support of things that gets other liberals furious at you. Show me the Seymour Hersh type reporting and stances that debunks their atrocity propaganda. But he doesn’t. He’s not an effective anti-imperialist and I’m sorry to say this but there are at the moment reactionaries who are more solidly anti-imperialist in message if not sentiment right now towards the US global foreign policy than this guy and that says something not about how great reactionaries are but how awful liberals are and the limits of their discourse.
EDIT: Love how mad I’ve (apparently) made some people. Why not come here and reply with what I said that’s wrong? No reason to waste time on this guy and his weird “love your enemies” act which is anti-Marxist.