For years, corporate media has been encouraging Americans to hate each other across the political divide. It’s part of their business model and no longer in dispute. Matt Taibbi has written an entire book on the subject, to critical acclaim and all the damage wrought to the American polis has been done in the cynical pursuit of ratings. This essay was originally written as a response to an article in Quillette covering the politicisation of anthropology and the Capitol Riots: The Society of Cultural Anthropology’s Campaign to Present American Populism as Fascism
An interesting essay. One thing that struck me about the commentary on the subject of the Capitol riot is that, whilst I by no means condone the violence, a significant percentage of the 120 or so key instigators of the violence had major financial setbacks in their recent history, either in the form or bankruptcies or home repossessions. Once we understand that Trump was a symptom of economic desperation and dissatisfaction with America’s political class, not- as many have impugned- a manifestation of fears over the loss of cultural power, then we can begin to see a clear unbroken line running through American politics.
Most of America is entrenched in its political affiliation. At least 40% on each side would elect a three-legged goat for POTUS, if they thought it could beat the opposition. But, of those who were swayable, a large minority voted first for Obama, then wanted Bernie over Hilary, and finally plunked for Trump as the agent of change. They wanted someone who was willing to take a wrecking ball to the political paradigm of Washington’s establishment class, and despite being a narcissistic Reality TV star, Trump delivered on this promise.
Doubtless, there are some areas where Trump’s influence has been more baleful than good- a more reasonable and less partisan debate on immigration would have seen America shift its policy away from inward migration which competes directly with the source of all of America’s historical populist movements- the blue collar class- and towards addressing skills and knowledge shortages that the country desperately needs, and which university sectors always massively fail to deliver. And some of the rhetoric directed at illegals was truly appalling.
But in other areas the paradigm shift has been more healthy. The relationship with China has been reset, and even if it now needs to be repaired, any politician who attempts it will need to look to the interests of the American people rather than the corporate interests of a few billionaires. At long last, politicians are questioning the advisability of Trade deals which saw American jobs offshored.
Support for the Forever Wars of the Washington Policy Establishment may still be popular within the legacy media, but amongst the American people it has never been lower- and if the networks and Cable News shows could be bothered to put the right question in the field, they would find that it is perhaps the single biggest reason why so many are tuning out, and turning to YouTube news sources like Breaking Points, which now has higher viewing figures than CNN.
Even the campaign to oust Donald Trump, in the form of the Democratic Primaries had positive side effects. Political outsider Andrew Yang may not have polled well, because of legacy media running interference for the corrupt political class, and his 2021 bid for Mayor of New York might have fallen flat on its face (largely because of his absorption by osmosis of the stale, outdated ideas of the establishment in policy areas like Israel), but he was absolutely accurate in diagnosing exactly why Hilary failed and Trump won.
It was the automation crisis in Key Battleground States that made the blue collar class willing to vote successively for Obama, Bernie and Trump- the economic and social dissolution of entire American States which made people susceptible to his message- not Russia, sexism, racism or Hilary’s emails. If one were to sum up all of the smears, foreign influence, fake news and supposed prejudices of those voting against Hilary, and weighed them against the Deplorables comment, a too close relationship with the loathed Wall Street crowd (see the GameStop Rebellion) through the Clinton Foundation and the fact that she lacks the personal charisma and ease with strangers that her husband possesses in droves then one can see the media’s reasons for why she lost are dwarfed by these other mammoth factors. I would highly recommend reading the Glenn Greenwald extract from his Substack, in the GameStop link.
But the real tragedy of the legacy media profit model which causes Americans to hate each other across the American partisan divide, is that there are so many issues America could have fixed with the energy, time and effort expended on The Culture War. There could have been a national debate on Police Reforms which didn’t compromise public safety. The wave of Progressive Prosecutors sweeping the nation could have had their laudable ambitions tempered by the conservative caution which prioritises public safety and quality of life for residents in America’s most troubled neighbourhoods.
Reparations could have been reframed as an issue for the universal improvement of the prospects of every American kid who doesn’t do well at school, the demographics of whom are disproportionately African American (75% of African American boys in California’s Public Schools don’t meet state reading standards). It could have provoked a shift towards vocational training at 14 for those failing in public education, with over seven million reasonably well-paid jobs in Blue Collar roles going unfilled and vacant in 2019.
But instead we get the same tired politics which encourage us to hate one another, for no good reason. Yes, there are White Supremacists in America but they constitute a tiny, tiny fraction of a percent. Yes, a substantial portion of the Antifa cohort really are committed communists who want to see a bloody revolution, to make policing unworkable in America and watch it all burn, scorched from the Earth, as a result- but they too are a tiny subset of the population.
Regardless, none of this bodes well for the Democratic Party in 2022. Americans are getting tired of the lurch to the Left. According to Civiqs, support for BLM remains consistently high amongst Democrats and low amongst Republicans, but amongst Independents the ground has shifted- support was once 51% and has now dropped to 39%, and opposition was once 26% and has now risen to 44%. This important poll by Rasmussen shows that two-third of the country want a Capitol Riot style commission on the BLM activities of summer 2020, whilst recent other polling has shown that support for Democrats in Key Battleground States is tailing by 6%, which suggest that in real-terms the Democrats face a 10% wall which will likely see them lose the House.
Now that House Democrats have created a committee to investigate the January 6 Capitol riot, most voters believe Congress should also investigate the Black Lives Matter protests that sparked violence in major cities last year. (From the Article)
Many liberals don’t like Rasmussen as a source, but the fact that it able to elicit more honest results from both the Right and Independents means that its polling has been more accurate than most in every recent American election other the 2018 midterms where the Trump vote was understandably depressed. In May 2018, noted British luminary Stephen Fry argued against Political Correctness in the Munk Debates.
Quite apart from the fact that Mr Fry elucidated the idea that he, like so many, was uncomfortable with the sense that public life had become like something out of communist bloc East Germany, with the omnipresent fear that Stasi informers might be listening in, he also questioned the fundamental assumptions that the PC authoritarianism of the Left could ever win politically. The Congressional Democratic Party is currently in the thrall of this ideology, busy de-gendering the language, erasing the word mother and using phrases like ‘Amen and Awomen’ without a care in the world as to how it will look to the average voter as they increasingly begin to sit up and pay attention.
And the American people will punish them for their Folly at the ballot box. God only knows who we might see next sitting in the White House and Congress.
Race relations in America, unfortunately, seem to be driven by race hustlers like Ibram X Kendi & Robin DiAngelo. And the one thing that race hustlers want is to keep the hustle going. If race relations actually improve, then they're out of a job. Kimberle Crenshaw makes this point explicitly in (IIRC) "Mapping the Margins" - Critical Race Theory has as its primary purpose the continuation of Affirmative Action & minority set-asides. James Lindsay in one of his recent <a href=https://newdiscourses.com/2021/06/why-you-can-be-transgender-but-not-transracial/>podcasts</a> goes into this in some detail.
Fixing the political divide isn't really possible. People will always hold different opinions, like different things, hate different things, think/want/need/act differently.
Liberty is found the only proven balm, one that accepts diversity, tolerates differences, isn't aggressive, lives and let lives and more prosper. It doesn't use force, coercion, fear and intimidation to impose itself on others. It's a voluntary, free choice, free trade world in which the end result when people interact is both are better off.
Equality under the law was found to be the best way to deal with limited government powers over personal liberty when it comes to those who will use fraud, force, theft and extortion. It means laws don't protect special interests. It means there's no crony capitalism. It means taxes are uniform and the same for all so paying them doesn't seem to make you the chump little people. It means government programs are paid for with taxes it imposes on those who exists for and to pay back debt that expires when or before the benefits of the program end.
But we'll never get these. Factions are too powerful. Fear easily causes most to submit. Division is easier. Suggesting others choices that are not like our own are bad and shouldn't be allowed is easy. Being a victim of power is the norm.
Liberty and equality turn out to be harder for the human mind than truly believing in fairy tales.
Stephen Fry was a comedian not a `noted British luminary` (though no doubt he would not cavil at the description) but I suppose he has just as much right as a real estate baron to comment on the topic. Politics, which most seem to forget, is always a balance which will leave some dissatisfied every time. Most political debate nowadays revolves around the pot calling the kettle black with the commensurate blindness attached. That is the danger - the art of compromise and when to change has been forgotten.
Trump raised some tariffs and lowered others. All cost jobs in this country. The Solar power industry lost 1000's of jobs. Factory work here also lost 1000's of jobs.
"a significant percentage of the 120 or so key instigators of the violence had major financial setbacks in their recent history, either in the form or bankruptcies or home repossessions."
Frightened, hurt people become irrational and dangerous, who would have guessed?
Nice article! I have always said you couldn't fill a high school football stadium with white supremacist unless you believe the garbage media and Biden but by the way the media is covering the days events--by god I'm probably living next to one!!
Race relations in America, unfortunately, seem to be driven by race hustlers like Ibram X Kendi & Robin DiAngelo. And the one thing that race hustlers want is to keep the hustle going. If race relations actually improve, then they're out of a job. Kimberle Crenshaw makes this point explicitly in (IIRC) "Mapping the Margins" - Critical Race Theory has as its primary purpose the continuation of Affirmative Action & minority set-asides. James Lindsay in one of his recent <a href=https://newdiscourses.com/2021/06/why-you-can-be-transgender-but-not-transracial/>podcasts</a> goes into this in some detail.
Fixing the political divide isn't really possible. People will always hold different opinions, like different things, hate different things, think/want/need/act differently.
Liberty is found the only proven balm, one that accepts diversity, tolerates differences, isn't aggressive, lives and let lives and more prosper. It doesn't use force, coercion, fear and intimidation to impose itself on others. It's a voluntary, free choice, free trade world in which the end result when people interact is both are better off.
Equality under the law was found to be the best way to deal with limited government powers over personal liberty when it comes to those who will use fraud, force, theft and extortion. It means laws don't protect special interests. It means there's no crony capitalism. It means taxes are uniform and the same for all so paying them doesn't seem to make you the chump little people. It means government programs are paid for with taxes it imposes on those who exists for and to pay back debt that expires when or before the benefits of the program end.
But we'll never get these. Factions are too powerful. Fear easily causes most to submit. Division is easier. Suggesting others choices that are not like our own are bad and shouldn't be allowed is easy. Being a victim of power is the norm.
Liberty and equality turn out to be harder for the human mind than truly believing in fairy tales.
Stephen Fry was a comedian not a `noted British luminary` (though no doubt he would not cavil at the description) but I suppose he has just as much right as a real estate baron to comment on the topic. Politics, which most seem to forget, is always a balance which will leave some dissatisfied every time. Most political debate nowadays revolves around the pot calling the kettle black with the commensurate blindness attached. That is the danger - the art of compromise and when to change has been forgotten.
Trump raised some tariffs and lowered others. All cost jobs in this country. The Solar power industry lost 1000's of jobs. Factory work here also lost 1000's of jobs.
"a significant percentage of the 120 or so key instigators of the violence had major financial setbacks in their recent history, either in the form or bankruptcies or home repossessions."
Frightened, hurt people become irrational and dangerous, who would have guessed?
Nice article! I have always said you couldn't fill a high school football stadium with white supremacist unless you believe the garbage media and Biden but by the way the media is covering the days events--by god I'm probably living next to one!!