Many of us rolled our eyes at that phrase because we’ve heard variations at every US election and we are well aware US democracy is just a façade, but now we’ve reached the point where fascism is out in the open - and here is what’s going to make Biden apologists mad - their man has been even more fascistic than Donald Trump.
Aside from the fact Biden is guilty of all the horrible things Trump is guilty of from sexually harassing girls to locking children in cages, Trump, for all his many faults and his despicable actions for which I offer no defence, never committed genocide or took us to the brink of World War III, and he did not attack democracy to quite the extent we’re seeing now.
For the benefit of those who inhabit a binary universe, this does not mean I see Trump as a great defender of democracy. On the contrary, I would expect him to do every bad thing Biden is currently doing and worse if he were to regain the presidency. The US is on a downward spiral and it does not matter who is in charge, only fascism is on offer.
Biden is doing everything he can to jail Trump, and if he fails, Trump will win and do everything he can to jail Biden. The US is not remotely a functioning democracy. It’s a system run by those who are most susceptible to corruption. Politicians controlled by AIPAC through donations and blackmail have abandoned any pretence of democratic norms to protect the privilege of the chosen race. One city even refused to provide relief from natural disasters to anyone who is boycotting Israel. As an American, you are expected to show allegiance to the out of control settler colony. If you don’t, the boot of fascism will slam down on your face.
NYPD has been ordered into Columbia University, looking like a fascist army in full riot gear, riding in on military vehicles to brutalise those armed only with words. Instead of stopping the war, the US went to war on its own kids.
In a rare example of MSM candour, CNN's Miguel Marquez said: “I've covered lots of this sort of stuff around the world, and I've never seen this many police moving into one area.”
It’s not just one US university where this is happening either, it’s many universities. Police have been using tear gas and rubber bullets on protesters at the University of South Florida, and the irony is the violence is being cheered on by Trump supporters who seem to have forgotten they will be next under the fascist boot.
Zionists are boasting on camera of forming armed anti-protest groups (AKA militias). Fascism is suddenly fashionable, but by all means, keep posting your jokes about “orange man bad” or launch into a rant about LGBT people. You’re doing the fascists’ bidding, even if you think you’re not on their side. Now is not the time for division because divisions are how fascists maintain their rule. If we still can’t understand the fight is the 99% versus the 1%, there truly is no hope for western society.
Some of us tried to warn you that whatever they do in Gaza or Iraq or Afghanistan or Libya or Syria is exactly what they would do to you, should the need arise. This is one of those horrible “I told you so” moments. Politicians throughout history have been waiting for the point they can take full control, and with recent improvements in technology, that goal is finally in sight. The prospect of endless rule by the people with flamethrower robots and sniper drones should terrify us all.
In recent years, the precedent was set that online censorship is fine, only for it to backfire on many who supported it with the TikTok ban. Now the precedent has been set that violent suppression of protesters is fine - and it was Biden who set that precedent.
Ironically, I read a news story yesterday about Iran violently suppressing women who refuse to wear the hijab. This is terrible, of course, but it’s only terrible in the eyes of our government and media when violent suppression is happening somewhere like Iran. When it’s happening in a country like the US, especially when it’s happening in defence of Israel, it’s not even considered violence. Cracking skulls is just law and order.
We’ve been hearing non-stop about how violent the protesters who sit on lawns are. Students who weren’t even involved in protests were racially profiled and suspended without due process. Meanwhile, we’ve seen footage of Zionists throwing fireworks, chairs and other objects at protesters and releasing noxious substances. We’ve heard chanting for a “second Nakba”. We’ve seen Zionists violently attack protesters, including an older woman, while saying: “You stand no chance, old lady!” as police stood and watched.
We’ve seen evidence of Zionist provocateurs being paid to cause trouble at the protests. We’ve even seen a Zionist counter-protester shout “Kill the Jews”, only for that to be blamed on the anti-genocide protesters and used as an excuse to shut them down. We’ve seen non-stop calls for genocide from Zionists and yet it’s the anti-genocide protesters who are accused of being genocidal.
Police knocked a professor out and dragged his limp body away, leaving him with broken bones. Doctors say he is lucky to be alive. Another professor, a middle-aged woman, was violently arrested for questioning police and charged with battery. A student was left with a head injury by a metal baton. Another student was flung down a flight of stairs by officers. Green Party leader Jill Stein had a bike shoved in her face before being taken away in cuffs. Everything I’ve just described is the tip of the iceberg.
When a system is targeting its own students, academics and politicians, there is a word for that. Guess what that word is? Go on, I’m sure you can figure it out. No police force that violently cracked down on protests was ever remembered fondly by history.
The evidence is clear that Zionist provocateurs and the police are the problem, and the media, for the most part, is pretending it’s the opposite. We’re even hearing ridiculous claims about how protest movements of the past, such as the civil rights movement and the Vietnam anti-war movement, were much less divisive than this one, often from braindead neoliberals who always support liberation movements of the past but never the one in the present. These people must never have read a history book because they would have hated the protest movements of the past, had they lived through them.
Here’s the point of protest movements: they will always antagonise the people they are protesting against - and in this case, the target is pro-establishment liberal and conservative Zionists: two cheeks of the same arsehole pretending they are the lesser of two evils.
Even the people who are mildly sympathetic towards protesters’ goals will turn against protests because their instinct is to see anyone fighting back as a troublemaker. They would gladly choose peace with the absence of tension and justice. The moderates think they’re drivers of progress when in fact they’re barriers to it.
One ridiculous argument I’ve heard is these protests are having the opposite effect because they’re preventing the media from focusing on Gaza. No, they’re not! The media reports on whatever it likes and it could and should be reporting the full extent of Israel’s war crimes. It’s not doing that, and perversely, it’s blaming anti-genocide protesters for it not doing its job. It’s just nonsense.
The media has not been entirely awful though, sometimes its reporters make a genuine attempt to tell the truth. It’s just that when they do, they always end up getting sacked. In the UK, the latest victim is Sangita Myska. Does it not concern you that the genocidal state can get anyone fired for criticising it? Does this sound like justice to you?
Israel is about to massacre the people it has trapped in Rafah and mark my words, they would do the same to you if they could, and your government would give them the weapons to do it. What the protesters are experiencing now is a small fraction of what Palestinians have been experiencing for 75 years, but if we’re not careful, their normal will become our normal too. In other words, their fight is our fight and we can’t afford to lose.The last working-class hero in England.
Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016 Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018 Jasper the Ruffian cat ? ? ? - 4 November 2021
Re: "Vote Biden to save democracy" is not going according to plan, is it?
Biden is doing everything he can to jail Trump, and if he fails, Trump will win and do everything he can to jail Biden.. The duopoly bun fight. I thought it funny : /
Cracking skulls is just law and order. He has a way with words : )
In essence, quite a reasonable article ..
Re: "Vote Biden to save democracy" is not going according to plan, is it?
I heard someone (maybe Eugene Puryear) say the other day that never in history large scale student protests even been on the wrong side of history and I reckon he's right (in the U.S. maybe. Some of the astro-turf right-wing agitation in central America might not fit).
He, or might have been someone else, also said he doesn't think the Demrats are even thinking about winning the election or really trying to. Let the other team get the hot seat for a while and we can pretend it's all their fault. ...no amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party...So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin.
Re: "Vote Biden to save democracy" is not going according to plan, is it?
on May 1, 2024, 9:32 pm