From where I sit it is too easy to blame the small percentage of real fascists for an action that has been a very long time in the making and which in all probability is only supported by the elites because it has been such a successful means for keeping ordinary amerikans divided among themselves and not united in anger at the exploitation of all of them by elites.
Democrat pols are just as responsible for this as any rethug arse. Abortion rights have served as a way to keep women supporting a party whose adherence to the greedy demands of the elites would otherwise have caused them to shun the dems long ago.
In fact within a day of this coming out the DNC sent a mass email over Pelosi's handle asking for a $15 donation so that they can campaign against the supreme court in November. Ha! In early 2008 Obama is on record as saying that the passage of a bill codifying Roe v Wade would be his first act as prez. He won with a super-majority (filibuster proof) and then said "Roe v Wade was not a legislative priority".
He then deliberately failed to get a dem nominee on scotus in the vain hope that would force women to back the unelectable H. Clinton. That gave the rethugs 3! count 'em three! scotus picks 2016 to 2020 which the dems allowed to sail through the senate pretty much unimpeded - now they claim they were deceived, if you believe that, I've got a Nigerian prince who reckons you're the bees knees so he wants to give you a couple billion after his dad's estate is settled.
Creepy joe biden made a pretty much identical claim to Obama prior to his 2020 election then he did nothing. Heck he could do something now if he really wanted to, get rid of the filibuster then force the dem recalcitrants into line LBJ style but he won't do that, cause the pope may not let him kiss the ring any more. They have a majority in both houses & the whitehouse now as they have done since 2020 yet the dems do nothing other than renewing the lie that they will after the next election. Yeah right, they are gonna get their arses handed to 'em in november so that aint gonna happen, even if they did somehow by some miracle keep hold of both houses we already know what they will do about abortion - same as they always have, that is NOTHING!
The dems knew this was coming thanks to the leak but they did nothing because they actually wanted this to happen cos they imagine that it will give them something to campaign off of and raise money over. They are actually trying to use their unconscionable incompetence as a motivator to win back some mid-term votes, when the reason they are gonna get their arses kicked this November is that they haven't kept any promises - not a single one.
Even now Pelosi and the rest of the dem hacks including the fraud squad are going down to Texas to campaign for Henry Cuellar who is being primaried by a progressive. Cuellar is a dyed in the wool anti-abortionist just like joe biden.
If Pelosi wants to bring a change, why does she work so hard for the enemies of change?
Fall for it if you want, it sure reinforces the belief in the rest of the world that the average amerikan is just too stupid to live.
Well said.. I had not seen how harshly we could and should judge Obama for letting the GOP hat that third seat on the court. Really good observation...
Trump went after the "extremist" anti corporate vote on the right and won the primary. The party blindly fell right in after that. When a dem presidential candidate goes after the "extremist" anti corporate vote on the left they two will win and the sheeps in the democratic party will fall in line.
In California they have a super majority in every house and governor and th courts and they still voted NO on Universal Health Care for the state... That tells you exactly where the NeoLibleral Corporate controlled Democrats are.
Well said. I would not be surprised if the Dems are actually happy Row was overturned. It will be about the only thing they can use for fundraising. They have little else.
" . . . the Dems are happy Roe was overturned . . . can be used for fundraising . . . They have little else." Nailed it ! The Dems have NOTHING else, yet, the voters will once again choose the evil of two lessors. We the people are rathe fcuked !
Democrats have been far too permissive of Republican encroachment on civil liberties and abortion rights up until now. Making women wait for days and listen to heartbeats has already made abortion access prohibitive in many states. Evolution, another accepted part of science, has been successfully attacked in ways I’d never have imagined. George Lakoff explained how they were already reframing these issues in 2004, when Bush was in office. He laid out clearly what Democrats needed to do. I guess rather than fighting them, they joined them.
It sounds like many are now aware how the Democrats just use this issue to wrangle voters to a dying party. When I was a kid in the 80s, I wondered why the dems didn’t keep fighting for an ERA, but of course, by then, they had already been infiltrated by Republicans like HRC. She’s never been a feminist. A feminist would not attack the sexual victims of her husband; she would leave him. A feminist would not have manipulated evidence and destroyed a girl to save a client who was clearly guilty of abuse. Lawyers are expected to advocate for their client, but they are not required to betray basic ethics to get them off. A feminist would not push to arm violent religious extremists who want to turn women into chattel slaves, which they did, in order to overthrow a secular government.
Whatever Qaddafi’s faults, women had rights in his Libya. What HRC didn’t like about him is what the state department doesn’t like about Chavez, Lula, etc, which is that they refuse to be subservient to US/UK corporate greed. And now, she and Pelosi and all the other Democrats have sold the women of this country up the river to serve those same corporate interests, who also donate heavily to Republicans for tax breaks, while running PR campaigns about supporting LGBTQ and women’s rights.
Chris, fabulously accurate column. The Christian Fascists may well be willingly propagandized and pressured into actually believing this crap, but it is, IMHO, the ‘clear-eyed’ Empiricists at the top of the deceitful power & wealth pyramid who can only be unseated by the far greater power of Love.
I have to say, I wonder if you have ever spent any time in an actual local evangelical church? This reads as a very superficial and two dimensional straw person argument. Most evangelicals I know are against corporations, against federal power, against the militarization of the state, and want small government with local control. Spend some time with the people you despise, it might surprise you...
I attended a Christian College and saw very little overlap between what you are saying and the evangelical community in the school. They appeared to simply blindly follow what ever the Republican party thought was important at the time.
I am not saying 100% of evangelicals are the same. But certainly the rhetoric from the leaders of the largest evangelicals communities never ever voice opposition to corporations running the country (other than twitter and FB when they can't get their message out) or federal control if the Federal government is doing what they want it to do. How about you?
I think the mistake is in seeing 'leaders' rhetoric and conflating it with millions and millions of lay persons beliefs or actions. 'Evangelical' leaders are celebrities in a culture, not the determinative factor in how everyday Christians see the world or act. And most of lay Christians pay little to no attention to Pat Robertson or Liberty University. In general, most lay evangelicals want a less powerful, less intrusive, less deterministic Federal government. They don't believe in the power of the State, and the don't want the State to dictate cultural norms. And many of them are deeply disturbed by the Federal power used to shut down small businesses, while Target and Walmart stay open, and bailout funds are used reward crony capitalism, etc. Spend a few Sundays at your local Evangelical church, and listen to what they say. You'll find most of the attention is on Jesus, and the attitude toward the Federal government is "less, please".
I think your views on Christ and our savior only stand if you can use them to justify the current right wing political agenda.
If that is the case i would suggest you try to separate the two. Jesus, when offered political power, rejected it. He condemns neither slave nor slave owner, neither conservative nor liberal for being who they are.
But he convicts both slave and slave owner, conservative and liberal for what they do to one another.
When you can LOVE liberals the way you love conservatives then you are following Jesus way. But if you have to get your Political Policies from the modern Pharisee's then you can be assured that your actions will be as sinful as those that followed the Pharisee's and condemned Jesus to crucification over Barabbas.
The Pat Robersons and Liberty University's in the US are the embodiment of what Jesus hated. For it was the church, not the state, that asked to have him crucified.
The fact that most evangelicals show little to no visible anger toward morally corrupt church leaders, for whom Jesus was most vocal in opposition to, while showing massive desire for political power to punish those they see as sinners, whom Jesus embraced and forgave like homosexuals, reveals a group not inspired by the words of the lord. They are instead just an organized political group hiding behind a fake shield of religion. Don't you agree?
AM - Jesus said nothing about creating "empire". When offered political power he rejected it. Empire is a man made thing. Jesus gave no views on empire. But he gave many views on the actions of all of us. And it appears that the people that build empires also ignore Jesus teachings in their quest for power.
The bible has very few references to Hell being beneath us or haven in the sky. Perhaps both live in our hearts with us right here on earth.
I certainly hope that more evangelicals actually understand the deceits of the Empire that is now in full control of what many call “the most powerful country in the world” — but the seminal problem is that the overwhelming degree of propagandized mis-information produced by this highly camouflaged and Disguised Global Crony Capitalist Racist Propagandist Criminal Ecocidal Children-Killing and War-Starting EMPIRE — is every bit as deadly as was the Roman EMPIRE in nailing Christ on the Cross. Eg. Building the most powerful Empire in the world is not progressive nor an act of LOVE.
I certainly hope that more evangelicals actually understand the deceits of the Empire that is now in full control of what many call “the most powerful country in the world” — but the seminal problem is that the overwhelming degree of propagandized mis-information produced by this highly camouflaged and Disguised Global Crony Capitalist Racist Propagandist Criminal Ecocidal Children-Killing and War-Starting EMPIRE — is every bit as deadly as was the Roman EMPIRE in nailing Christ on the Cross. Eg. Building the most powerful Empire in the world is not progressive nor an act of LOVE.
I grew up in North Florida surrounded by evangelicals. I definitely did not get your impression of evangelicals. I did find them largely unaware of their myriad hypocrisies. As an excuse for reviling and persecuting gay people, often people in their own families, they say, “hate the sin, not the sinner”. They all heartily supported the Iraq war (both of them). Their children called me lovely names like ‘heathen’, ‘barbarian’ and ‘dirty liberal’, because my family didn’t attend any church. They were so disrespectful of my family’s beliefs, or lack thereof, that if I spent the night at a friend’s on a Saturday night, they would force me to go to church with them the next day. They send their kids on ‘mission’ vacations to proselytize to people, while pretending to help them. How much actual work gets done by a high school kid who spends a week in India? It nearly takes 2 days just to get there. I found Chris’s article spot on. And are you so obtuse that you don’t realize he’s an ordained minister? Spend some time with the people he’s deriding? I wish I could have grown up in a place with people who respected my beliefs, but in heavily evangelical areas, respecting peoples beliefs only applies to their own.
It was to point out the sheer hypocrisy of the modern evangelicals relative the actual words of the bible, which is what Hedges has written extensively about.
I, like Hedges, am a firm believer in the words of Chris and no where in the bible does he tell me to treat non believers or 'sinners" like 'heathens and barbarians'. On the contrary he says to love them.
Too many Modern evangelicals do quite the opposite. And the leaders of their churches act precisely as the Pharasee's in Jesus time did. And Jesus condemned them.
I am sorry for the difficulty these people brought you. I think Hedges article is brilliant. My only complaint is the constant hyperbole. It is effective in his books but to read it week after week it loses its effect.
Love can be turned into action.. It was love that drove workers to keep fighting for unions when employers were having them murdered or thrown out of their corporate shanty's for organizing. It was love that got millions of blacks and some whites to follow MLK into the streets to protest Jim Crow...
Empire can be defeated with Love. But only if that love motivates action. If we are not protesting in the streets over Row, over Essential Workers Pay over Starbucks and Amazon workers unionizing then LOVE will not defeat empire.
My takeaway from Mr. Hedges excellent essay, the death cult we call the elites desire to take people's freedom worker rights quality of life ect from the masses could not have found more fertile ground than this country's evangelical christians. I'd be good with letting the Living Word Of God decide on all things but as the great writer of this article teaches us, the righteous end up dead and the filthy march on. Thank you Chris dang you can write.
Actually Hedges has stated, and I agree, the only solution is to simply STOP reducing these evangelicals standard of living with Neoliberal economic policy
You put money back in their savings accounts and give them hope for improved financial success for them and their children and they will drop this "Magical" thinking.
He is right. Hating Evangelicals will no more stop the corporate interests that fund these Fascists than hating soldiers stopped Vietnam.
Focus on the enemy and the enemy are the Monopolies not the Evangelicals. They, like the soldiers in Vietnam are the soldiers are simply the tools of those with power.
It might shock you to know that in fact many evangelicals are anti-corporate and anti-state. They don't want government power over their lives, and the don't want government power dictating the culture they live in, and they don't want massive corporations abusing them either.
When i see evangelicals and their leaders getting as passionate about breaking up banks as they are about Gay Marriage i will believe you. Until then i fear it is a silent minority that think that way
I would say that Christ says nothing about the amount of government power any person should want in their lives. He says much about the importance of loving one another, even if we consider them sinners. If evangelicals were more vocal on their love for sinners than their desire for less government then I personally would not see the views of so many so called "evangelicals" as political more than serving in the words of Christ.
Most of the evangelical people and pastors I know see a clear prohibition on homosexual activity in the Bible, but breaking up major banks? less so. However, many do oppose usury; in my state evangelical Christians played an important role in limiting payday lending and other predatory lending practices. But if you are asking Evangelicals to conform to your worldview, that is exactly the kind of arrogant, condescending, (and non-understanding) position that Evangelicals, and 'deplorable' Americans are a bit weary of. Its like a Christian saying that a progressive doesn't care about humanity because they support abortion- it is an inability to see or understand a worldview other than your own.
I am not asking evangelicals to share my world view, as evangelicals.
I am asking Americans, regardless of their faith, to vote for leaders that pass policy that improves the economic lives of ordinary Americans. Jesus took no political stance and when offered the power to govern rejected it. Political leaders should not govern based on their faith, if so Jesus would have accepted the power offered to him, they should govern as citizens who are working to improve the lives of their constituents.
I am a strong believer in the Christ and a veracious reader of his word. He talks far more about teachers of the law (Pharisees) tying their flocks down with heavy burdens while not lifting a finger to help them, than he talks about, for example, homosexuality.
Issues like Breaking up Banks, Universal Health Care, Free Child Care and Higher Min wage remove the burden on the poor and middle class while improving the nations over all economy. Shutting your mind to such policy because your religious leaders want you to bare those burdens is not following the teachings of Christ. In fact religious leaders that tell you how to vote on such issues are following in the footsteps of Pharisees Jesus calls "serpents" and "vipers". If you are a Christian you should reject such church leaders if you put the word of Christ above your tribal desires to be accepted.
If you want to be good citizens (Give unto Caesar what is Caesar's and God that is God's) in a democracy then vote for leaders that will help the poor and middle class, regardless of their views on homosexuality or any other identity issue that your church is burdening you with.
Not sure where to start with my disagreements to this article. Perhaps it would have been better for Chris (whom I very much admire and respect) to define what he considers fascism to be. From where I stand, I see fascism as all things subordinate to the State, and the active collusion of State and Corporate power. To me, a once life long Democrat and humanist (25 years working in Africa, Latin America, ME, South Asia), I see all the evidence of fascism on the Left. The most pernicious example of this is the allegiance of the social media mega-corporations to the Leftist program of the Democratic party. This would be Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg contributing $400 million to elect Biden, and actively using the platform to purge right wing, conservative, or anti-establishment speech. This would be Bloomberg owning a media empire and contibuting $500 million to the election. This would be Amazon de-platforming right conservatives platforms, while Bezos owns the Washington Post and Amazon gains billions in government military contracts. This would be Twitter de-platforming the NY Post story on Biden's laptop, despite being true; and collaborating actively, and taking direction form, the department of homeland security; and in general the allegiance of the progressive left-leaning US medias subservience to the Security agencies of the US government. The evangelicals I know don't want to take over government, they want to be left alone. They don't want cultural ideology forced upon them by government or the courts, they want a small government, and the reject Statist power resoundingly.
Perhaps, if I see an unholy alliance between the Left, big business, and government, and Chris sees an unholy alliance between the Right, big business, and the Government; at least we can be assured that there is an unholy alliance between corporate and state power; and that in the end it will not be a left/right issue, but a top/bottom issue- and those on the bottom, either left or Right, will suffer, and those at the top, both left and right, will prosper, and state and corporates power unite to extract wealth form the bottom and transfer it to the top. The personal net wealth of Nancy Pelosi on the one hand ($100 million plus) and Mitch McConnel on the other ($150 million and counting) suggests this is the more accurate reading. Oh, and by the way, the pro-Life movement spent 50 years working to reverse a court edict that removed power from the voting population. I'd love to see the Left work 50 years to enact state and federal rights to bodily autonomy and medical freedom, for all people, in all circumstances. However, I'm not holding my breath...
Chris, how do you see the allegiance of major cultural institutions like NYTimes, CNN, WaPo to a Leftist ideology, plus their lockstep allegiance to the Democratic party, plus their lockstep allegiance to the USA Security state, as anything other than an example of the fusion of cultural ideology, corporate, and state power? Isn't this is pretty much the definition of Facism?
i hafta say that you mischaracterise the politicians & their supporters who advocate for divisive stances such as extreme LBTQ, anti-racism etc when you accuse these types as 'being of the left'. As someone who has worked & fought for left causes since my early teens I'm obliged to point out that the stances you demonise are not in the least 'of the left'.
As far as I can tell there isn't a single democrat pol in federal legislature who could be considered to be 'of the left'. Being a leftist is not a label one can stick on oneself, it is a term granted by others to humans who have worked to unite all against class oppression.
We 'leftists' have always seen class as the basis for our struggle and we seek to unite all workers in a struggle to defeat the elites who oppress us.
Racism can be used as a means to oppress poor humans but it is counter productive to organise against racism if in doing so other workers are alienated. That means when we fight racism it must be with the support of the masses.
This is not what neoliberal political organisations such as the amerikan democrat party do. They like their fellow travelers, the republican party, seek to use these issues to divide the masses, have them getting all het up with fighting each other making ordinary humans so distracted that they don't fight capitalist oppression by the huge corporations which control 99% of politicians and their enforcer bully boys, so-called law enforcement.
I agree with you, and it is important to distinguish between the 'true left' vs. the political "left" of the moment; and I heartfully respect your desire to hold onto the previous ideal of what it meant to be 'of the left' from the current progressive/democratic elected officials. The unanimous D vote for more ware with Ukraine (more MIC profits) was emblematic. But Just as no-one remember what a true 'liberal' in the classic sense is, few remember the true left-the global exploited class vs. the powerful capitalist/aristocratic/oligarchic war-mongering class. I wish it weren't so., but at least the way things are going, we may be forced- by painful circumstance- to remember why the Old Left spent a few hundred years and unimaginable sacrifice to negotiate basic rights vis-a-vis the powerful. So raise a glass to the Old Left; it is likely to be the New Left in decades to come...
...And it might possibly also be worth remembering, in the days of the Old Left, from the labor unions of the 1860s to coal and steel strikes of the 1910s, to the post-war strikes of the 1940s, many an 'evangelical' bible believing, gun toting Union man was in the front lines; and the rural folks from Vermont to Pennsylvania, to West Virginia, today disparaged as 'deplorables', had a vital role to play....
Piketty, I oft use a metaphorical thread similar to your insights:
Accepting the teachings of Jesus is entirely focused on the power of LOVE, which I believe at least Lennon believed -- although not so sure on Lenin.
My current & newest ad-hoc focus-group tested demonstration signs take the same "path least traveled":
LOVE OVER
MONEY, POWER
HATE & EMPIRE
Lennon, might have smiled at a one word change to his song:
Imagine there's no EMPIRE,
it's easy if you try
No hell beneath us,
above us only sky
As far as the Israelis and others are concerned with a moral and ethical path, I have written this since 2007:
Yes, AIPAC accomplishes precisely the inverse of the noble purpose it claims to serve--to protect the people of Israel--and is instead a great danger to the people of Israel through its singular focus on the unsustainable and inevitably sorrowful strategy of militarist Empire. But AIPAC is neither the only nor the worst deceiver and denier of the aspirations of peoples whom it claims to speak for. That title of champion guileful mis-guider and destroyer of people's democratic purpose is the corporate global Empire, which has metastasized from an initial tumor in the United States itself (although it shows no nationalism nor patriotism) and which can best be described as the Empire behind the curtain of "Vichy America."
Just as AIPAC disregards the real interests of the people of Israel in favor of its own agenda of militant imperialism, so the domestic-grown pathology of the US-centered corporate/financial Empire even more contemptuously and arrogantly disregards the democratic and peaceful interests of all Americans and displaces their dreams with its own sordid nightmare of global domination by force of arms and economic exploitation under the false flag of "Vichy America."
At the end of the day, it needs to be understood that the global corporatist Empire which hides behind the facade of "Vichy America" is the heart of the destructive unitive Empire that "the lobby" lobbies."
Since my 2007 criticism of AIPAC's undue and FALSE viewpoint in claiming to speak for any majority of Jews, I have further thought that from the humanist and empathetic 'democracy thinking' of the majority of Israeli and American working-class citizens, that "it's hard to imagine, in this very modern 21st century, that we are still looking toward the end of the last of tribal 'empire-thinking'.
We are a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-racial, even post-racial, sectarian, mixing-pot-world of democracies on a small fragile planet --- and yet, we are still not beyond the danger of existential death at the hands of ancient and irrelevant tribal 'empire-thinking'.
As only Kurt Vonnegut's sense of ironic black humor might envision, "It is as if the whole human race was about to sit down to a celebratory picnic for successfully reaching our 21st century, when we are all unexpectedly killed by one remaining giant dinosaur."
The last people in the world who should want to stay in (or ever promote) a world of tribalism, are the Muslims and Jews ---- based on how they have been abused by various nationalist and other modern "-ism" Empires.
Fighter pilots have a saying that, "speed is life". But, for all the rest of us, "inclusiveness is life" --- and tribalism is death by the oldest lie of empire.
Racism is another deadly old lie of empire, as is aggressively fundamentalist religion.
Nationalism is a somewhat newer lie of empire, proving particularly deadly in the 20th century.
While, economic ideology is the newest, and current, lie of empire (which is causing our economic and environmental collapse).
But all the lies and deceptions of "empire-thinking" lead ineluctably to the very same grave --- so choose your empire poison, stupidly. Or choose your inclusiveness, wisely.
Chris, the NY ‘Times’ seems to be blocking this “War Ginning” information:
IMHO, “Fight Like Hell” is the ‘call code word’ for the possible involvement of any alt-right coup d’état attempt by portions of the U. S. military.
While this might well seem hyperbolic, even paranoid, the media’s apparent ‘messaging’ this week, particularly by former Admiral James Stavridis, former SACEUR NATO, and current Managing Director of the global weapons investment firm the Carlyle Group’s involvement in the Defense Industry, qua. “Merchants of Death”, seems to be predicated/signalling the terms and conditions of eliminating the weaker of the three current, but conflicted possible Empires.
Admiral James Stavridis’s near saturation broadcasting of the “seven times greater” troop levels of ships, sailors, aircraft, pilots, special services, and other weapons from the ‘four minute NPR’ radio ‘messaging’ regrading his position as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization nations prepare to meet this week in Madrid presents shockingly provocative fodder with respect to being ‘War inducing’.
Admiral’s Quote: trying to down play his own words, “The War Plans are very specific”
The full transcript to the Admiral’s broadcast message should be considered akin to Hearst’s message in 1898; “Please remain. You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.”
But in this case on 6/29/2022, Stavridis seems to be saying, “Please remain. You furnish the radio broadcast and I’ll furnish the war.”
There has ‘So Far’ been no transcript released by NPR, but the Admiral’s speech is still available at NPR:
Another comment: Could it possibly be, that a bunch of Men in 1787, who recently won a lopsided and unlikely war against an imperial power, where everyday armed citizens formed the core of the rebellion, would have enshrined a right to keep and bear arms? And could it be that said congregation of Men, in thinking of important and central rights of citizens, neglected to enshrine a right for women to have an abortion? And that until those rights are changed by legislatures, they remain the law of the land, and that the letter of the law requires that the right to bear arms remain in place until changed by the specified means of changing it (a constitutional amendment) and that the woman's right to an abortion remain stillborn, so to speak, until passed into law by elected representatives? If we acknowledge that we are not in 1787, and that the law needs updating, then isn't upon us to effect this updating? And if we find that we are not in the majority, and unable to pass such laws, then doesn't behoove us to change the minds of those with whom we disagree? Or perhaps consider that we are in the minority, and likely to remain so, perhaps because there is a glimmer of merit on the side of those with whom we disagree? And might we not inquire as to what that minuscule glimmer of merit is amongst those whom we oppose, and find ourselves defeated by? In short, might we not strive to understand the merits of those we disagree with? I respectfully submit, that while more difficult than throwing around a scary memes such as "Christian Fascists" and allusions to Nazi Germany, it might actually prove more rewarding in the end. For your consideration...
YES, --- Right-on against this damned Disguised Global Crony Capitalist Racist Propagandist Criminal Ecocidal Children-Killing & War-Starting EMPIRE, controlled by the ‘Ruling-Elite’, UHNWI, <0.003%ers, TCCers, arrogantly self-appointed "Masters of the Universe", and "Evil (not-so) Geniuses" [Kurt Andersen] — which hides Empire behind their totally corrupted dual-party Vichy-facade of faux-democracy.
Text is as usual interesting but warning – don’t watch video. Russian prisoners with freshly cut throats by Ukrainian Nazis whose salaries are now paid by US taxpayers.
Corrupt war criminal Biden and his war party cabal declared that the highest domestic threat is -- white supremacy -- while supporting Ukraine Nazis in his proxy war against capitalist Russia
I read this article this morning then found his wgbh forum q&a on The Farewell Tour, and it's exactly a deep dive on this. I highly suggest it for a more engaging view on the development of this article
So is the answer to fight these fascists with Authoritarianism? Or is the answer to find common ground on economic issues and work together while agreeing to disagree on the identity politics?
I was going to look at the video but i was too busy explaining to my employer why Vaccines are useless and why i was at the Jan 6th attack on the capital to hold on to our democracy after Trump got the election stollen from him...
Bernie! Bernie! Bernie! That’s who got the election stolen from him! What, are you too scared to see building 7 fall? I’m sure you’ve never heard of building 7, and You don’t care. Happy magical thinking
From where I sit it is too easy to blame the small percentage of real fascists for an action that has been a very long time in the making and which in all probability is only supported by the elites because it has been such a successful means for keeping ordinary amerikans divided among themselves and not united in anger at the exploitation of all of them by elites.
Democrat pols are just as responsible for this as any rethug arse. Abortion rights have served as a way to keep women supporting a party whose adherence to the greedy demands of the elites would otherwise have caused them to shun the dems long ago.
In fact within a day of this coming out the DNC sent a mass email over Pelosi's handle asking for a $15 donation so that they can campaign against the supreme court in November. Ha! In early 2008 Obama is on record as saying that the passage of a bill codifying Roe v Wade would be his first act as prez. He won with a super-majority (filibuster proof) and then said "Roe v Wade was not a legislative priority".
He then deliberately failed to get a dem nominee on scotus in the vain hope that would force women to back the unelectable H. Clinton. That gave the rethugs 3! count 'em three! scotus picks 2016 to 2020 which the dems allowed to sail through the senate pretty much unimpeded - now they claim they were deceived, if you believe that, I've got a Nigerian prince who reckons you're the bees knees so he wants to give you a couple billion after his dad's estate is settled.
Creepy joe biden made a pretty much identical claim to Obama prior to his 2020 election then he did nothing. Heck he could do something now if he really wanted to, get rid of the filibuster then force the dem recalcitrants into line LBJ style but he won't do that, cause the pope may not let him kiss the ring any more. They have a majority in both houses & the whitehouse now as they have done since 2020 yet the dems do nothing other than renewing the lie that they will after the next election. Yeah right, they are gonna get their arses handed to 'em in november so that aint gonna happen, even if they did somehow by some miracle keep hold of both houses we already know what they will do about abortion - same as they always have, that is NOTHING!
The dems knew this was coming thanks to the leak but they did nothing because they actually wanted this to happen cos they imagine that it will give them something to campaign off of and raise money over. They are actually trying to use their unconscionable incompetence as a motivator to win back some mid-term votes, when the reason they are gonna get their arses kicked this November is that they haven't kept any promises - not a single one.
Even now Pelosi and the rest of the dem hacks including the fraud squad are going down to Texas to campaign for Henry Cuellar who is being primaried by a progressive. Cuellar is a dyed in the wool anti-abortionist just like joe biden.
If Pelosi wants to bring a change, why does she work so hard for the enemies of change?
Fall for it if you want, it sure reinforces the belief in the rest of the world that the average amerikan is just too stupid to live.
Well said.. I had not seen how harshly we could and should judge Obama for letting the GOP hat that third seat on the court. Really good observation...
Trump went after the "extremist" anti corporate vote on the right and won the primary. The party blindly fell right in after that. When a dem presidential candidate goes after the "extremist" anti corporate vote on the left they two will win and the sheeps in the democratic party will fall in line.
In California they have a super majority in every house and governor and th courts and they still voted NO on Universal Health Care for the state... That tells you exactly where the NeoLibleral Corporate controlled Democrats are.
Well said. I would not be surprised if the Dems are actually happy Row was overturned. It will be about the only thing they can use for fundraising. They have little else.
" . . . the Dems are happy Roe was overturned . . . can be used for fundraising . . . They have little else." Nailed it ! The Dems have NOTHING else, yet, the voters will once again choose the evil of two lessors. We the people are rathe fcuked !
Democrats have been far too permissive of Republican encroachment on civil liberties and abortion rights up until now. Making women wait for days and listen to heartbeats has already made abortion access prohibitive in many states. Evolution, another accepted part of science, has been successfully attacked in ways I’d never have imagined. George Lakoff explained how they were already reframing these issues in 2004, when Bush was in office. He laid out clearly what Democrats needed to do. I guess rather than fighting them, they joined them.
It sounds like many are now aware how the Democrats just use this issue to wrangle voters to a dying party. When I was a kid in the 80s, I wondered why the dems didn’t keep fighting for an ERA, but of course, by then, they had already been infiltrated by Republicans like HRC. She’s never been a feminist. A feminist would not attack the sexual victims of her husband; she would leave him. A feminist would not have manipulated evidence and destroyed a girl to save a client who was clearly guilty of abuse. Lawyers are expected to advocate for their client, but they are not required to betray basic ethics to get them off. A feminist would not push to arm violent religious extremists who want to turn women into chattel slaves, which they did, in order to overthrow a secular government.
Whatever Qaddafi’s faults, women had rights in his Libya. What HRC didn’t like about him is what the state department doesn’t like about Chavez, Lula, etc, which is that they refuse to be subservient to US/UK corporate greed. And now, she and Pelosi and all the other Democrats have sold the women of this country up the river to serve those same corporate interests, who also donate heavily to Republicans for tax breaks, while running PR campaigns about supporting LGBTQ and women’s rights.
Chris, fabulously accurate column. The Christian Fascists may well be willingly propagandized and pressured into actually believing this crap, but it is, IMHO, the ‘clear-eyed’ Empiricists at the top of the deceitful power & wealth pyramid who can only be unseated by the far greater power of Love.
LOVE v. EMPIRE — is the path.
I have to say, I wonder if you have ever spent any time in an actual local evangelical church? This reads as a very superficial and two dimensional straw person argument. Most evangelicals I know are against corporations, against federal power, against the militarization of the state, and want small government with local control. Spend some time with the people you despise, it might surprise you...
I attended a Christian College and saw very little overlap between what you are saying and the evangelical community in the school. They appeared to simply blindly follow what ever the Republican party thought was important at the time.
I am not saying 100% of evangelicals are the same. But certainly the rhetoric from the leaders of the largest evangelicals communities never ever voice opposition to corporations running the country (other than twitter and FB when they can't get their message out) or federal control if the Federal government is doing what they want it to do. How about you?
I think the mistake is in seeing 'leaders' rhetoric and conflating it with millions and millions of lay persons beliefs or actions. 'Evangelical' leaders are celebrities in a culture, not the determinative factor in how everyday Christians see the world or act. And most of lay Christians pay little to no attention to Pat Robertson or Liberty University. In general, most lay evangelicals want a less powerful, less intrusive, less deterministic Federal government. They don't believe in the power of the State, and the don't want the State to dictate cultural norms. And many of them are deeply disturbed by the Federal power used to shut down small businesses, while Target and Walmart stay open, and bailout funds are used reward crony capitalism, etc. Spend a few Sundays at your local Evangelical church, and listen to what they say. You'll find most of the attention is on Jesus, and the attitude toward the Federal government is "less, please".
Oregonian
I think your views on Christ and our savior only stand if you can use them to justify the current right wing political agenda.
If that is the case i would suggest you try to separate the two. Jesus, when offered political power, rejected it. He condemns neither slave nor slave owner, neither conservative nor liberal for being who they are.
But he convicts both slave and slave owner, conservative and liberal for what they do to one another.
When you can LOVE liberals the way you love conservatives then you are following Jesus way. But if you have to get your Political Policies from the modern Pharisee's then you can be assured that your actions will be as sinful as those that followed the Pharisee's and condemned Jesus to crucification over Barabbas.
Right?
The Pat Robersons and Liberty University's in the US are the embodiment of what Jesus hated. For it was the church, not the state, that asked to have him crucified.
The fact that most evangelicals show little to no visible anger toward morally corrupt church leaders, for whom Jesus was most vocal in opposition to, while showing massive desire for political power to punish those they see as sinners, whom Jesus embraced and forgave like homosexuals, reveals a group not inspired by the words of the lord. They are instead just an organized political group hiding behind a fake shield of religion. Don't you agree?
Imagine there’s no Empire
it’s easy if you try
No hell beneath us
above us only sky
AM - Jesus said nothing about creating "empire". When offered political power he rejected it. Empire is a man made thing. Jesus gave no views on empire. But he gave many views on the actions of all of us. And it appears that the people that build empires also ignore Jesus teachings in their quest for power.
The bible has very few references to Hell being beneath us or haven in the sky. Perhaps both live in our hearts with us right here on earth.
Good point by you Oregonian!
I certainly hope that more evangelicals actually understand the deceits of the Empire that is now in full control of what many call “the most powerful country in the world” — but the seminal problem is that the overwhelming degree of propagandized mis-information produced by this highly camouflaged and Disguised Global Crony Capitalist Racist Propagandist Criminal Ecocidal Children-Killing and War-Starting EMPIRE — is every bit as deadly as was the Roman EMPIRE in nailing Christ on the Cross. Eg. Building the most powerful Empire in the world is not progressive nor an act of LOVE.
Good point by you Oregonian!
I certainly hope that more evangelicals actually understand the deceits of the Empire that is now in full control of what many call “the most powerful country in the world” — but the seminal problem is that the overwhelming degree of propagandized mis-information produced by this highly camouflaged and Disguised Global Crony Capitalist Racist Propagandist Criminal Ecocidal Children-Killing and War-Starting EMPIRE — is every bit as deadly as was the Roman EMPIRE in nailing Christ on the Cross. Eg. Building the most powerful Empire in the world is not progressive nor an act of LOVE.
I grew up in North Florida surrounded by evangelicals. I definitely did not get your impression of evangelicals. I did find them largely unaware of their myriad hypocrisies. As an excuse for reviling and persecuting gay people, often people in their own families, they say, “hate the sin, not the sinner”. They all heartily supported the Iraq war (both of them). Their children called me lovely names like ‘heathen’, ‘barbarian’ and ‘dirty liberal’, because my family didn’t attend any church. They were so disrespectful of my family’s beliefs, or lack thereof, that if I spent the night at a friend’s on a Saturday night, they would force me to go to church with them the next day. They send their kids on ‘mission’ vacations to proselytize to people, while pretending to help them. How much actual work gets done by a high school kid who spends a week in India? It nearly takes 2 days just to get there. I found Chris’s article spot on. And are you so obtuse that you don’t realize he’s an ordained minister? Spend some time with the people he’s deriding? I wish I could have grown up in a place with people who respected my beliefs, but in heavily evangelical areas, respecting peoples beliefs only applies to their own.
Jennie
I think you misunderstood my post.
It was to point out the sheer hypocrisy of the modern evangelicals relative the actual words of the bible, which is what Hedges has written extensively about.
I, like Hedges, am a firm believer in the words of Chris and no where in the bible does he tell me to treat non believers or 'sinners" like 'heathens and barbarians'. On the contrary he says to love them.
Too many Modern evangelicals do quite the opposite. And the leaders of their churches act precisely as the Pharasee's in Jesus time did. And Jesus condemned them.
I am sorry for the difficulty these people brought you. I think Hedges article is brilliant. My only complaint is the constant hyperbole. It is effective in his books but to read it week after week it loses its effect.
Love can be turned into action.. It was love that drove workers to keep fighting for unions when employers were having them murdered or thrown out of their corporate shanty's for organizing. It was love that got millions of blacks and some whites to follow MLK into the streets to protest Jim Crow...
Empire can be defeated with Love. But only if that love motivates action. If we are not protesting in the streets over Row, over Essential Workers Pay over Starbucks and Amazon workers unionizing then LOVE will not defeat empire.
Organize, Organize and VOTE
My takeaway from Mr. Hedges excellent essay, the death cult we call the elites desire to take people's freedom worker rights quality of life ect from the masses could not have found more fertile ground than this country's evangelical christians. I'd be good with letting the Living Word Of God decide on all things but as the great writer of this article teaches us, the righteous end up dead and the filthy march on. Thank you Chris dang you can write.
Actually Hedges has stated, and I agree, the only solution is to simply STOP reducing these evangelicals standard of living with Neoliberal economic policy
You put money back in their savings accounts and give them hope for improved financial success for them and their children and they will drop this "Magical" thinking.
He is right. Hating Evangelicals will no more stop the corporate interests that fund these Fascists than hating soldiers stopped Vietnam.
Focus on the enemy and the enemy are the Monopolies not the Evangelicals. They, like the soldiers in Vietnam are the soldiers are simply the tools of those with power.
It might shock you to know that in fact many evangelicals are anti-corporate and anti-state. They don't want government power over their lives, and the don't want government power dictating the culture they live in, and they don't want massive corporations abusing them either.
When i see evangelicals and their leaders getting as passionate about breaking up banks as they are about Gay Marriage i will believe you. Until then i fear it is a silent minority that think that way
I would say that 90% of the Evangelicals I know want LESS government power of their (our) personal lives.
I would say that Christ says nothing about the amount of government power any person should want in their lives. He says much about the importance of loving one another, even if we consider them sinners. If evangelicals were more vocal on their love for sinners than their desire for less government then I personally would not see the views of so many so called "evangelicals" as political more than serving in the words of Christ.
Most of the evangelical people and pastors I know see a clear prohibition on homosexual activity in the Bible, but breaking up major banks? less so. However, many do oppose usury; in my state evangelical Christians played an important role in limiting payday lending and other predatory lending practices. But if you are asking Evangelicals to conform to your worldview, that is exactly the kind of arrogant, condescending, (and non-understanding) position that Evangelicals, and 'deplorable' Americans are a bit weary of. Its like a Christian saying that a progressive doesn't care about humanity because they support abortion- it is an inability to see or understand a worldview other than your own.
I am not asking evangelicals to share my world view, as evangelicals.
I am asking Americans, regardless of their faith, to vote for leaders that pass policy that improves the economic lives of ordinary Americans. Jesus took no political stance and when offered the power to govern rejected it. Political leaders should not govern based on their faith, if so Jesus would have accepted the power offered to him, they should govern as citizens who are working to improve the lives of their constituents.
I am a strong believer in the Christ and a veracious reader of his word. He talks far more about teachers of the law (Pharisees) tying their flocks down with heavy burdens while not lifting a finger to help them, than he talks about, for example, homosexuality.
Issues like Breaking up Banks, Universal Health Care, Free Child Care and Higher Min wage remove the burden on the poor and middle class while improving the nations over all economy. Shutting your mind to such policy because your religious leaders want you to bare those burdens is not following the teachings of Christ. In fact religious leaders that tell you how to vote on such issues are following in the footsteps of Pharisees Jesus calls "serpents" and "vipers". If you are a Christian you should reject such church leaders if you put the word of Christ above your tribal desires to be accepted.
If you want to be good citizens (Give unto Caesar what is Caesar's and God that is God's) in a democracy then vote for leaders that will help the poor and middle class, regardless of their views on homosexuality or any other identity issue that your church is burdening you with.
Not sure where to start with my disagreements to this article. Perhaps it would have been better for Chris (whom I very much admire and respect) to define what he considers fascism to be. From where I stand, I see fascism as all things subordinate to the State, and the active collusion of State and Corporate power. To me, a once life long Democrat and humanist (25 years working in Africa, Latin America, ME, South Asia), I see all the evidence of fascism on the Left. The most pernicious example of this is the allegiance of the social media mega-corporations to the Leftist program of the Democratic party. This would be Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg contributing $400 million to elect Biden, and actively using the platform to purge right wing, conservative, or anti-establishment speech. This would be Bloomberg owning a media empire and contibuting $500 million to the election. This would be Amazon de-platforming right conservatives platforms, while Bezos owns the Washington Post and Amazon gains billions in government military contracts. This would be Twitter de-platforming the NY Post story on Biden's laptop, despite being true; and collaborating actively, and taking direction form, the department of homeland security; and in general the allegiance of the progressive left-leaning US medias subservience to the Security agencies of the US government. The evangelicals I know don't want to take over government, they want to be left alone. They don't want cultural ideology forced upon them by government or the courts, they want a small government, and the reject Statist power resoundingly.
Perhaps, if I see an unholy alliance between the Left, big business, and government, and Chris sees an unholy alliance between the Right, big business, and the Government; at least we can be assured that there is an unholy alliance between corporate and state power; and that in the end it will not be a left/right issue, but a top/bottom issue- and those on the bottom, either left or Right, will suffer, and those at the top, both left and right, will prosper, and state and corporates power unite to extract wealth form the bottom and transfer it to the top. The personal net wealth of Nancy Pelosi on the one hand ($100 million plus) and Mitch McConnel on the other ($150 million and counting) suggests this is the more accurate reading. Oh, and by the way, the pro-Life movement spent 50 years working to reverse a court edict that removed power from the voting population. I'd love to see the Left work 50 years to enact state and federal rights to bodily autonomy and medical freedom, for all people, in all circumstances. However, I'm not holding my breath...
Chris, how do you see the allegiance of major cultural institutions like NYTimes, CNN, WaPo to a Leftist ideology, plus their lockstep allegiance to the Democratic party, plus their lockstep allegiance to the USA Security state, as anything other than an example of the fusion of cultural ideology, corporate, and state power? Isn't this is pretty much the definition of Facism?
i hafta say that you mischaracterise the politicians & their supporters who advocate for divisive stances such as extreme LBTQ, anti-racism etc when you accuse these types as 'being of the left'. As someone who has worked & fought for left causes since my early teens I'm obliged to point out that the stances you demonise are not in the least 'of the left'.
As far as I can tell there isn't a single democrat pol in federal legislature who could be considered to be 'of the left'. Being a leftist is not a label one can stick on oneself, it is a term granted by others to humans who have worked to unite all against class oppression.
We 'leftists' have always seen class as the basis for our struggle and we seek to unite all workers in a struggle to defeat the elites who oppress us.
Racism can be used as a means to oppress poor humans but it is counter productive to organise against racism if in doing so other workers are alienated. That means when we fight racism it must be with the support of the masses.
This is not what neoliberal political organisations such as the amerikan democrat party do. They like their fellow travelers, the republican party, seek to use these issues to divide the masses, have them getting all het up with fighting each other making ordinary humans so distracted that they don't fight capitalist oppression by the huge corporations which control 99% of politicians and their enforcer bully boys, so-called law enforcement.
I agree with you, and it is important to distinguish between the 'true left' vs. the political "left" of the moment; and I heartfully respect your desire to hold onto the previous ideal of what it meant to be 'of the left' from the current progressive/democratic elected officials. The unanimous D vote for more ware with Ukraine (more MIC profits) was emblematic. But Just as no-one remember what a true 'liberal' in the classic sense is, few remember the true left-the global exploited class vs. the powerful capitalist/aristocratic/oligarchic war-mongering class. I wish it weren't so., but at least the way things are going, we may be forced- by painful circumstance- to remember why the Old Left spent a few hundred years and unimaginable sacrifice to negotiate basic rights vis-a-vis the powerful. So raise a glass to the Old Left; it is likely to be the New Left in decades to come...
...And it might possibly also be worth remembering, in the days of the Old Left, from the labor unions of the 1860s to coal and steel strikes of the 1910s, to the post-war strikes of the 1940s, many an 'evangelical' bible believing, gun toting Union man was in the front lines; and the rural folks from Vermont to Pennsylvania, to West Virginia, today disparaged as 'deplorables', had a vital role to play....
Piketty, I oft use a metaphorical thread similar to your insights:
Accepting the teachings of Jesus is entirely focused on the power of LOVE, which I believe at least Lennon believed -- although not so sure on Lenin.
My current & newest ad-hoc focus-group tested demonstration signs take the same "path least traveled":
LOVE OVER
MONEY, POWER
HATE & EMPIRE
Lennon, might have smiled at a one word change to his song:
Imagine there's no EMPIRE,
it's easy if you try
No hell beneath us,
above us only sky
As far as the Israelis and others are concerned with a moral and ethical path, I have written this since 2007:
Yes, AIPAC accomplishes precisely the inverse of the noble purpose it claims to serve--to protect the people of Israel--and is instead a great danger to the people of Israel through its singular focus on the unsustainable and inevitably sorrowful strategy of militarist Empire. But AIPAC is neither the only nor the worst deceiver and denier of the aspirations of peoples whom it claims to speak for. That title of champion guileful mis-guider and destroyer of people's democratic purpose is the corporate global Empire, which has metastasized from an initial tumor in the United States itself (although it shows no nationalism nor patriotism) and which can best be described as the Empire behind the curtain of "Vichy America."
Just as AIPAC disregards the real interests of the people of Israel in favor of its own agenda of militant imperialism, so the domestic-grown pathology of the US-centered corporate/financial Empire even more contemptuously and arrogantly disregards the democratic and peaceful interests of all Americans and displaces their dreams with its own sordid nightmare of global domination by force of arms and economic exploitation under the false flag of "Vichy America."
At the end of the day, it needs to be understood that the global corporatist Empire which hides behind the facade of "Vichy America" is the heart of the destructive unitive Empire that "the lobby" lobbies."
Since my 2007 criticism of AIPAC's undue and FALSE viewpoint in claiming to speak for any majority of Jews, I have further thought that from the humanist and empathetic 'democracy thinking' of the majority of Israeli and American working-class citizens, that "it's hard to imagine, in this very modern 21st century, that we are still looking toward the end of the last of tribal 'empire-thinking'.
We are a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-racial, even post-racial, sectarian, mixing-pot-world of democracies on a small fragile planet --- and yet, we are still not beyond the danger of existential death at the hands of ancient and irrelevant tribal 'empire-thinking'.
As only Kurt Vonnegut's sense of ironic black humor might envision, "It is as if the whole human race was about to sit down to a celebratory picnic for successfully reaching our 21st century, when we are all unexpectedly killed by one remaining giant dinosaur."
The last people in the world who should want to stay in (or ever promote) a world of tribalism, are the Muslims and Jews ---- based on how they have been abused by various nationalist and other modern "-ism" Empires.
Fighter pilots have a saying that, "speed is life". But, for all the rest of us, "inclusiveness is life" --- and tribalism is death by the oldest lie of empire.
Racism is another deadly old lie of empire, as is aggressively fundamentalist religion.
Nationalism is a somewhat newer lie of empire, proving particularly deadly in the 20th century.
While, economic ideology is the newest, and current, lie of empire (which is causing our economic and environmental collapse).
But all the lies and deceptions of "empire-thinking" lead ineluctably to the very same grave --- so choose your empire poison, stupidly. Or choose your inclusiveness, wisely.
Chris, the NY ‘Times’ seems to be blocking this “War Ginning” information:
IMHO, “Fight Like Hell” is the ‘call code word’ for the possible involvement of any alt-right coup d’état attempt by portions of the U. S. military.
While this might well seem hyperbolic, even paranoid, the media’s apparent ‘messaging’ this week, particularly by former Admiral James Stavridis, former SACEUR NATO, and current Managing Director of the global weapons investment firm the Carlyle Group’s involvement in the Defense Industry, qua. “Merchants of Death”, seems to be predicated/signalling the terms and conditions of eliminating the weaker of the three current, but conflicted possible Empires.
Admiral James Stavridis’s near saturation broadcasting of the “seven times greater” troop levels of ships, sailors, aircraft, pilots, special services, and other weapons from the ‘four minute NPR’ radio ‘messaging’ regrading his position as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization nations prepare to meet this week in Madrid presents shockingly provocative fodder with respect to being ‘War inducing’.
Admiral’s Quote: trying to down play his own words, “The War Plans are very specific”
The full transcript to the Admiral’s broadcast message should be considered akin to Hearst’s message in 1898; “Please remain. You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.”
But in this case on 6/29/2022, Stavridis seems to be saying, “Please remain. You furnish the radio broadcast and I’ll furnish the war.”
There has ‘So Far’ been no transcript released by NPR, but the Admiral’s speech is still available at NPR:
https://admiralstav.com/news/
Adm. Stravidis’s audio should be clicked on the 4minute and 54 second NPR interview!
You may want to listen more than once to understand his use of Trump’s “We’ve got to fight like hell” and reference of “War Plans”
Is anyone in the ‘Anti-War’ or ‘Anti-Empire’ community awake to this obvious “Quiet American” War and Empire plan??
Another comment: Could it possibly be, that a bunch of Men in 1787, who recently won a lopsided and unlikely war against an imperial power, where everyday armed citizens formed the core of the rebellion, would have enshrined a right to keep and bear arms? And could it be that said congregation of Men, in thinking of important and central rights of citizens, neglected to enshrine a right for women to have an abortion? And that until those rights are changed by legislatures, they remain the law of the land, and that the letter of the law requires that the right to bear arms remain in place until changed by the specified means of changing it (a constitutional amendment) and that the woman's right to an abortion remain stillborn, so to speak, until passed into law by elected representatives? If we acknowledge that we are not in 1787, and that the law needs updating, then isn't upon us to effect this updating? And if we find that we are not in the majority, and unable to pass such laws, then doesn't behoove us to change the minds of those with whom we disagree? Or perhaps consider that we are in the minority, and likely to remain so, perhaps because there is a glimmer of merit on the side of those with whom we disagree? And might we not inquire as to what that minuscule glimmer of merit is amongst those whom we oppose, and find ourselves defeated by? In short, might we not strive to understand the merits of those we disagree with? I respectfully submit, that while more difficult than throwing around a scary memes such as "Christian Fascists" and allusions to Nazi Germany, it might actually prove more rewarding in the end. For your consideration...
YES, --- Right-on against this damned Disguised Global Crony Capitalist Racist Propagandist Criminal Ecocidal Children-Killing & War-Starting EMPIRE, controlled by the ‘Ruling-Elite’, UHNWI, <0.003%ers, TCCers, arrogantly self-appointed "Masters of the Universe", and "Evil (not-so) Geniuses" [Kurt Andersen] — which hides Empire behind their totally corrupted dual-party Vichy-facade of faux-democracy.
Text is as usual interesting but warning – don’t watch video. Russian prisoners with freshly cut throats by Ukrainian Nazis whose salaries are now paid by US taxpayers.
https://thedreizinreport.com/2022/06/27/ukraine-garrison-evacuating-lisichansk-russian-or-lugansk-forces-now-reportedly-inside-the-city-also-karma-strikes-as-russians-claim-to-bag-the-bearded-georgian-merc-shown-in-the-infamous-prisone/
Corrupt war criminal Biden and his war party cabal declared that the highest domestic threat is -- white supremacy -- while supporting Ukraine Nazis in his proxy war against capitalist Russia
Awesome.. It is called the "No Propaganda Zone" and its all propaganda.
Must have been trained at the FOX Media Training School.. Right?
GROW LOVE
ABORT EMPIRE
I read this article this morning then found his wgbh forum q&a on The Farewell Tour, and it's exactly a deep dive on this. I highly suggest it for a more engaging view on the development of this article
So is the answer to fight these fascists with Authoritarianism? Or is the answer to find common ground on economic issues and work together while agreeing to disagree on the identity politics?
I was going to look at the video but i was too busy explaining to my employer why Vaccines are useless and why i was at the Jan 6th attack on the capital to hold on to our democracy after Trump got the election stollen from him...
Bernie! Bernie! Bernie! That’s who got the election stolen from him! What, are you too scared to see building 7 fall? I’m sure you’ve never heard of building 7, and You don’t care. Happy magical thinking
😂😂😂😂😂
Magic! https://youtu.be/zRpCwKRnL1M