December 10 2016 Dispatch #8 Day 32 Post-Ascendency of White Supremacy & Misogyny (PAWSM)
Just spent a week in Biloxi MS participating in a Habitat Build. Katrina decimated the Mississippi Gulf Coast in 2005; 11 years later MGC residents continue their struggle to recover. A SHOUT-OUT to Habitat for Humanity Mississippi Gulf Coast — a Fabulous local habitat affiliate making a difference every day for low-income and working class families. Volunteer or Donate, you will be glad you did. http://www.habitat.org/us-ms/gulfport/mississippi-gulf-coast-inc-hfh
So yeah, the White Supremacist and Misogynist President-Select (AKA Pussy-Grabbing President-Select) and his collaborators (i.e., people who collaborate with an enemy occupying force) and quislings (i.e., people who betray their own country by aiding an invading enemy) have been busy dismantling the country’s already fragile moral compass.
Highlights include:
Cyberbullying the Indiana union head who challenged the lies about how the Carrier deal saved jobs (actually 400 instead of 800) as if giving away $7M to a $13B global corporation to save 800 jobs wasn’t disgusting enough.
Appointing a hard-line foe of pollution regulation and climate change denier, to head EPA
Appointing as Secretary of Labor an anti-labor fast-food-millionaire who opposed to minimum wage
Appointing as Secretary of Education a billionaire who favors privatizing the public right to an education through high school
In case you are wondering, do I HAVE to call him the White Supremacist and Misogynist President-Select (AKA Pussy-Grabbing President-Select) EVERY time!?!
YES I DO!! YES I WILL!!
Recall how regularly “Crooked Hillary” and “Hillary the Liar” was reported. This election season schooled us in the power of “ad nauseam propaganda technique:” the tireless repetition of an idea, especially a simple slogan, in order that it becomes the truth. (This approach is more effective alongside the propagandist limiting or controlling the media.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_techniques
Whereas the Trump campaign ad nauseam strategy was about establishing lies about Hillary as truth, my ad nauseam strategy is about demanding that the truth about what Trump represents is shouted in plain language every day.
Instead, tragically for the country, the Orwellian normalization of the White Supremacist and Misogynist President-Select (AKA Pussy-Grabbing President-Select) and his collaborators and quislings continues at a steady pace. The drumbeat assertions that Democrats lost the working class by “not understanding their economic pain and so hurt/angry Americans voted for the non-politician/outsider” are particularly tragic in that the dog whistle campaign is rewarded. http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/stop-asking-me-empathize-white-working-class
In case you are wondering, “Orwellian” is an adjective describing a situation, idea, or societal condition that George Orwell identified as being destructive to the welfare of a free and open society. Orwellian also describes oppressive political ideas and the use of euphemistic political language in public discourse to camouflage morally outrageous ideas and actions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orwellian
OK, here is an example of post-election Normalizing that hides reality, discourages resistance, and encourages quiet acceptance of fascism.
We read constantly the handwringing and troubled reporting that the country is polarized and how can we have less extremism and more civility. What, did the country polarize itself?!?!
The more informative, accurate and instructive statement about polarization: after 8 years of relentless White Supremacy rhetoric in reaction to a Black President, relentless Republican actions to block every effort to govern, and constant incendiary pubic lies (e.g., Obamacare is worse than slavery, Obama is coming for all your guns, Obama is kowtowing to other countries), yeah, these people whipped up a certain category of white folks. This is NOT rocket science.
Now, as normalizing becomes the status quo, we are supposed to calm down, tone down the rhetoric, and be very concerned about polarization. People/activists concerned about the rights of women, black and brown people, immigrants, Muslims are guilty of identity politics whose harsh insistence on special rights excluded some people and contributed to polarization. We are now encouraged to give the White Supremacist and Misogynist President-Select (AKA Pussy-Grabbing President-Select) a chance to lead – the bully who fanned bigotry. And the White Supremacist and Misogynist President-Select (AKA Pussy-Grabbing President-Select) gets to insist “Hey I didn’t have anything to do with this polarization, don’t blame me.”
SERIOUSLY!? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!?!?
Resistance to normalizing requires/depends that we do not back away from using language that inspires action, language that informs and reveals truths, language that doesn’t use lies and fairy tales to support/hide oppression. Language that doesn’t employ some passive expression of reality as if this happened on its own out of thin air.
Language is the first step toward disruptive action that will create social change. The language of obfuscation creates acquiescence due to ignorance-driven hopelessness. Normalizing condemns disruptive truth-telling words, especially when spoken by women.
“My greatest political asset, which professional politicians fear, is my mouth, out of which come all kinds of things one shouldn’t always discuss for reasons of political expediency.” Shirley Chisholm
What kind of trouble are we facing right now as a consequence of normalizing that hides the reality of a degraded humanity, and encourages quiet acceptance of fascism?
Neal Gabler considers this in a recent post where he reflects how Ayn Rand became the guiding spirit of the modern Republican Party.
“The transformation and corruption of America’s moral values didn’t happen in the shadows. It happened in plain sight. The Republican Party has been the party of selfishness and the party of punishment for decades now, trashing the basic precepts not only of the Judeo-Christian tradition but also of humanity generally…… as [Gore]Vidal says “That it is right to help someone less fortunate is an idea that has figured in most systems of conduct since the beginning of the race.” It is, one could argue, what makes us human. The opposing idea, Ayn Rand’s idea, that the less fortunate should be left to suffer, is what endangers our humanity now. [he quotes from Vidal again]…“She has a great attraction for simple people who are puzzled by organized society, who object to paying taxes, who hate the ‘welfare state,’ who feel guilt at the thought of the suffering of others but who would like to harden their hearts.”
America is in moral crisis. Many Americans seem far more interested in making sure that those they consider undeserving — basically, the poor — get nothing than in making sure that they themselves get something. A friend recently told me a joke told him by a Hungarian acquaintance, who intended it as an example of Hungarian schadenfreude, but I have modified it because I think it is a harrowing parable for contemporary America and its strange moral turnabout.
This is Trump’s America (emphasis added):
There were three farmers: a German, a Hungarian and an American. Each had a cow. One day, misfortune befell them, and their cows died. Each remonstrated against God, saying God had failed him, and each lost faith. God realized he had to do something to make amends. So he came to Earth and approached the German. “What can I do to restore your faith?” He asked. And the German answered, “God, I lost my cow. Please give me another cow.” And God did so. “What can I do to restore your faith?” He asked the Hungarian. And the Hungarian answered, “God, I lost my cow. Please give me that cow and another to compensate.” And God did so. And finally God came to the American, and He asked, “What can I do to restore your faith?” And the American answered, “God, I lost my cow. Shoot my neighbor’s cow.”
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