Agreed Mort - it has been right in front of all of us for years. I purchased and read the "Death of the Liberal Class'" and "Empire of Illusion" when they first came out and would re-read them both every so often. When I tried to share these books and or other pieces by Chris over the years I was dismissed and attacked for my efforts - and yet, here WE are.
I do wish this truth had been harped about more as it was happening throughout the decades in each administration. With media excluding most of the voices of alarm for just as long, however, it was, still is for many, hard to put it all together.
A train driven by trickle up econopaths with neolib Dem conductors. And like the disaster in Ohio, spewing poisons as it devastates human communities and ecosystems.
Speaking as a blue collar activist directly involved as all this unfolded, I admit it also took me awhile to understand how all the pieces fit. But it's been clear for decades the Dem party abandoned the working class majority and the liberal class didn't care. See my main comment for the details.
Yes, Trump is a symptom, not the cause. Began with a seething hatred of the New Deal, Keynesian economics, and labor organizing by heirs of the Robber Barons and the big biz elite. Exacerbated by the '60s/'70s successes of civil rights, the women's movement, anti-war demonstrations, gay liberation, and eco-activism. The monied elites were in a panic--actual democracy and economic equity could become permanent!!!
They organized; the opening salvo was the Powell memo. Then neolib usurpation of the Dem party in the late '70s. Corporate lite Ds, through financial deregulation and agreements like the WTO, made the US and the world safe for trickle up, leading to the '08 crash. They bailed out Wall St. But the millions who lost jobs, pensions, and homes got nothing as the Rust Belt became deaths of despair central. The suffering majority working class was rendered invisible.
The liberal class turned away, refusing to look at how sick their party and their country had become. Sources like the NYT were echo chambers of their own self satisfaction. This assault, as Chris said, "disenfranchised the working class that in desperation voted in a demagogue to save them." Then, pouring smug salt into an already badly infected wound, the libs blamed the victims. Not only morally reprehensible, but hardly a way to bring us blue collar workers back to a party that was once ours.
So now professors and MDs are rapidly becoming no more than assembly line workers. Hey, the working class lamb you betters thought it fine to sacrifice turned out to be a bellwether. Welcome to our world.
Thank you, Rafi. I always look forward to your insightful comments on whatever piece I happen to come across them.
The ongoing genocide is very difficult to bear, yet, so many justify and enable it - normalize it . . . The Global Warming reality is beyond disturbing - soul crushing - bearing down on all life at break-neck speed.
Seems "never again" had all sorts of fine print qualifiers and exceptions.
The global billionaire class realizes there's a monstrous eco-crisis looming; that's why they're buying megayachts and private islands in temperate climates. They favor doing nothing about it since they're sure they can ride it out. They're used to buying everything they want, including entire governments. Lessers who survive can work as maids, guards, and serfs on their neo-feudal estates.
What you describe Rafi, was brought to my attention in recent weeks by a few friends who sent me pieces from The Guardian and The New Yorker (surprising sources) that discussed it. No one, including the muy-ricos are going to "ride it out."
I am currently reading "We are the Middle of Forever - Indigenous Voices from Turtle Island on the Changing Earth" by Dahr Jamail and Stan Rushworth - (Indigenous voices discussing the environmental realities we are facing now and that they've been warning about forever).
I went back to college late in life; botany major, forestry minor. I had assumed everyone born and raised in the Pac NW knew what I did. I was shocked to find they couldn't even identify a Douglas-fir, the dominant tree species. Same in the SF Bay area where they can't identify Monterey cypresses. Trees grow in obligate symbiosis with fungi on their roots and this alone makes cooperation the dominant mode of life on Earth. Those who don't even know local trees live superficially on top of the land with no roots in it. The attitude of colonists. It's a spiritual thing, that deeply felt connection to the biota of a place. But it's also quite practical--after 10-20,000 years in one locale your people pretty much have it down.
Rafi - I know people who don't know East from West - seriously. I recall telling someone something using East as a reference, yet their confusion remained - I replied, "it's where the sun rises." Even that didn't seem to clear the confusion. The dumbing down of humans is working - the diminishment of our humanity and compassion keeping pace.
There are people who have no sense of direction; possibly inborn. Whereas I know even inside bldgs. The rest IMHO from being raised totally urban; they never learn to notice nature. Now exacerbated by face constantly in a 3" screen. They have no idea the sun is due east at 6 a.m. due south at noon, due west at 6 p.m. (standard time) I figured that out as a kid. Similar for moon phases. Or how the constellations we can see change with the seasons. Or what cloud shapes indicate about impending weather. In the Pac NW, conifers are dominant because of the summer dry climate. So if you see willows, cottonwoods, alders, you're near a stream, river, pond, lake. Yet people born and raised Pac NW have no idea about any of this. They can't avoid knowing about the volcanoes since they're huge and very visible. Bezos and Gates, despite what they might wish, cannot ever be the biggest things around here.
Hey Ya’ll, I think you’ll find this of interest & concern. And given the fact we Conspiracy Realist Educator Activist Truther Organizer Reader Socializers believe #TheRotsAtTheTop and #adrenochrome is a criminally gained and used serum of theirs, I’m forwarding this with kind regard.
Superb article, the sad part it’s been right in front of us for years and years.
Agreed Mort - it has been right in front of all of us for years. I purchased and read the "Death of the Liberal Class'" and "Empire of Illusion" when they first came out and would re-read them both every so often. When I tried to share these books and or other pieces by Chris over the years I was dismissed and attacked for my efforts - and yet, here WE are.
I do wish this truth had been harped about more as it was happening throughout the decades in each administration. With media excluding most of the voices of alarm for just as long, however, it was, still is for many, hard to put it all together.
It's hard to see something you don't want to look at or acknowledge - for me, it's been quite obvious, like a train on the tracks coming right at us.
A train driven by trickle up econopaths with neolib Dem conductors. And like the disaster in Ohio, spewing poisons as it devastates human communities and ecosystems.
Speaking as a blue collar activist directly involved as all this unfolded, I admit it also took me awhile to understand how all the pieces fit. But it's been clear for decades the Dem party abandoned the working class majority and the liberal class didn't care. See my main comment for the details.
Yes, Trump is a symptom, not the cause. Began with a seething hatred of the New Deal, Keynesian economics, and labor organizing by heirs of the Robber Barons and the big biz elite. Exacerbated by the '60s/'70s successes of civil rights, the women's movement, anti-war demonstrations, gay liberation, and eco-activism. The monied elites were in a panic--actual democracy and economic equity could become permanent!!!
They organized; the opening salvo was the Powell memo. Then neolib usurpation of the Dem party in the late '70s. Corporate lite Ds, through financial deregulation and agreements like the WTO, made the US and the world safe for trickle up, leading to the '08 crash. They bailed out Wall St. But the millions who lost jobs, pensions, and homes got nothing as the Rust Belt became deaths of despair central. The suffering majority working class was rendered invisible.
The liberal class turned away, refusing to look at how sick their party and their country had become. Sources like the NYT were echo chambers of their own self satisfaction. This assault, as Chris said, "disenfranchised the working class that in desperation voted in a demagogue to save them." Then, pouring smug salt into an already badly infected wound, the libs blamed the victims. Not only morally reprehensible, but hardly a way to bring us blue collar workers back to a party that was once ours.
So now professors and MDs are rapidly becoming no more than assembly line workers. Hey, the working class lamb you betters thought it fine to sacrifice turned out to be a bellwether. Welcome to our world.
Thank you, Rafi. I always look forward to your insightful comments on whatever piece I happen to come across them.
The ongoing genocide is very difficult to bear, yet, so many justify and enable it - normalize it . . . The Global Warming reality is beyond disturbing - soul crushing - bearing down on all life at break-neck speed.
Thank you for being. -- Luchador
Seems "never again" had all sorts of fine print qualifiers and exceptions.
The global billionaire class realizes there's a monstrous eco-crisis looming; that's why they're buying megayachts and private islands in temperate climates. They favor doing nothing about it since they're sure they can ride it out. They're used to buying everything they want, including entire governments. Lessers who survive can work as maids, guards, and serfs on their neo-feudal estates.
What you describe Rafi, was brought to my attention in recent weeks by a few friends who sent me pieces from The Guardian and The New Yorker (surprising sources) that discussed it. No one, including the muy-ricos are going to "ride it out."
I am currently reading "We are the Middle of Forever - Indigenous Voices from Turtle Island on the Changing Earth" by Dahr Jamail and Stan Rushworth - (Indigenous voices discussing the environmental realities we are facing now and that they've been warning about forever).
I went back to college late in life; botany major, forestry minor. I had assumed everyone born and raised in the Pac NW knew what I did. I was shocked to find they couldn't even identify a Douglas-fir, the dominant tree species. Same in the SF Bay area where they can't identify Monterey cypresses. Trees grow in obligate symbiosis with fungi on their roots and this alone makes cooperation the dominant mode of life on Earth. Those who don't even know local trees live superficially on top of the land with no roots in it. The attitude of colonists. It's a spiritual thing, that deeply felt connection to the biota of a place. But it's also quite practical--after 10-20,000 years in one locale your people pretty much have it down.
Rafi - I know people who don't know East from West - seriously. I recall telling someone something using East as a reference, yet their confusion remained - I replied, "it's where the sun rises." Even that didn't seem to clear the confusion. The dumbing down of humans is working - the diminishment of our humanity and compassion keeping pace.
There are people who have no sense of direction; possibly inborn. Whereas I know even inside bldgs. The rest IMHO from being raised totally urban; they never learn to notice nature. Now exacerbated by face constantly in a 3" screen. They have no idea the sun is due east at 6 a.m. due south at noon, due west at 6 p.m. (standard time) I figured that out as a kid. Similar for moon phases. Or how the constellations we can see change with the seasons. Or what cloud shapes indicate about impending weather. In the Pac NW, conifers are dominant because of the summer dry climate. So if you see willows, cottonwoods, alders, you're near a stream, river, pond, lake. Yet people born and raised Pac NW have no idea about any of this. They can't avoid knowing about the volcanoes since they're huge and very visible. Bezos and Gates, despite what they might wish, cannot ever be the biggest things around here.
Thank you for your Humanitarian Activism Needed Daily; #HAND it to the Reverend #ChrisHedges.
https://open.substack.com/pub/coffeeandcovid/p/the-destroyer-wednesday-may-6-2025?r=r6k8&utm_medium=ios
Hey Ya’ll, I think you’ll find this of interest & concern. And given the fact we Conspiracy Realist Educator Activist Truther Organizer Reader Socializers believe #TheRotsAtTheTop and #adrenochrome is a criminally gained and used serum of theirs, I’m forwarding this with kind regard.
Sincerely,
LewWelge.com
#CREATORS