Morning, Threaders, Threadheads, and all in between. Lots of coffee. Black.
Not like us.
Following the divide in the Democratic Party after the shameful action of 10 of its senators, another looms large over our ranks. A much more dangerous one. It is being fostered by the usual horse shoe ends that nearly meet. We should be aware of it and prepare for it.
Democracy’s weaknesses are exploited by the extreme right and the extreme left with equal enthusiasm; without our pushback they will inevitably break through and prevail. They are both not interested in dialogue or reason. And they both have their own interpretation of the law, which is resumed to making it the affair of the State through the imposition of its Order. No Law and Order, remember? Just Order is enough. Our opposition “leadership” has let us down so it’s up to us.
More and more we take to the streets. The protests are growing and won’t stop; there’s too much to protest against so the reasons for protesting lead to different organizing tactics, be it by Tesla dealerships or government agency buildings, from town halls to the federal Capitol itself. It’s inevitable. Permeating all these demonstrations is one method and one message: their peaceful nature and opposing the fascist government. These are fundamental to success.
So far there has been no violent clashes between protesters and police. Some arrests were made. Some BLM activists suggest this is due to the majority of the protesters being white, implying the police is less inclined to use rubber bullets and attack dogs on a white crowd. From the images I have seen this is nonsense; there are people of all colors at these protests, especially in urban areas. The reason is, in my view, so far they have been peaceful.
That will not last. As the protests grow the violent pushback will happen, regardless of their peaceful nature. This may not last either, as the results of the fascist policies become deadlier and people’s despair bigger. While we must resist the urge to turn violent we must prepare for that possibility. This is the essence of a revolt: at some point violence will erupt, either from the police (or military) sent to crush protesters or by protesters themselves.
On the government side, the justification for violence is based on its view of Order and its self proclaimed authority to protect it by any means necessary. That’s the hallmark of fascism. On the protesters side, becoming violent is the result of a reaction to more and more draconian government policies and the real harm that fuels their revolt. As our loved ones start to go hungry, get sick, homeless, and eventually die, revolt becomes violent.
The results of protesting peacefully are palpable and it works wonders when people take to the streets immediately, to prevent bad things from happening. We have seen some examples of this already. We have been assisted in these efforts by the courts, who provide a window of opportunity to protest against measures still in the works. This has been the goal of most demonstrations: to not obey in advance; to be proactive rather than reactive. And it’s working in some cases.
However, resistance is a reaction. We had our chance to proactively address the establishment of a fascist government. We failed. We can (and must) proactively resist its objectives but we are doomed to react to the existing government itself. For it is real. How that reaction is carried out, how resistance works, is not simple. The divisions we experienced, proactively resisting before fascism was installed, are now exacerbated.
The vast majority of us are fighting for our country and democracy. We are fighting to restore the rule of law. To make order rely on that law and to do so by making government work for the people. But some among us have no such interests. They are not fighting this government: they are fighting against the idea of democracy itself and any government that is based on it. In their minds, democracy has failed. Irredeemably.
How do I know this? They are the same people who had no problem going against the only way to prevent this from happening: voting for Kamala Harris. While most of them are brainless puppets they are still dangerous puppets, guided by those who created the “Abandon Harris” movement. They don’t have the courage of conviction because the true conviction of their puppeteers is not to free anything but to destroy everything. That’s not a good idea to present the people with.
So they wrap themselves in the disguise of human rights and they pick themselves a flawless escape goat: the Jews. Finally they got what they wanted: a fascist government at home. They can now pretend to fight fascism while promoting their own. At home as abroad, their goal is not to defeat fascist inspired governments. The playbook is the same for our country as it is for Israel. Destroy everything. This is a different fight; one between Christian/Jewish fascists and Islamic fascists.
I included Jewish right wing extremists because the Israeli government is trying to do exactly the same things our current government is trying to do: turn democracy into a shell that houses authoritarian rule. The subversion of the law, the search for absolute executive power, the diminishing of social freedoms and rights are parallel actions between the US and the Israeli governments. A large number of us, citizens of the US and Jewish people, fight against this.
Others around the world, who unlike Israel are not involved in a concrete war of survival, fall for the “human rights” disguise of those to whom human rights mean nothing and, with the excuse of Christian fascist governments they helped elect, once again promote their old aspirations: to defeat democracy from the left flank. Their logic is the same as those rushing us from the right flank. Once they both manage to destroy us they will find themselves face to face.
Be careful who you stand with against tyranny, for some are fighting for their own. You can recognize them because they bring Palestinian flags to protests meant to save America. They are the ones, given the chance, shouting “death” to the country and the democracy we are trying to save; just like Mahmoud Khalil did. A senior activist with Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), Khalil endorsed and promoted October 7 levels of violence as “resistance”.
Not just in Israel but right here, in the US. The fact Marco Rubio is an idiot who can’t articulate ideas past his master’s own doesn’t mean Khalil is a “nice young man” (he’s 31 years old, btw). In the same way, it is not freedom of speech that is under assault in Khalil’s case: it’s the rule of law itself. The same rule of law Khalil and his acolytes oppose. So beware who stands by your side. They will abandon you soon enough, just as they abandoned Harris.
Fight ALL fascists.
