Welcome back to Lucid, and a big hello to all new subscribers. Our next Q&A will be Friday, Dec. 22, 1-2pmET. Our guest will be Heather Bruegl, a public historian, activist, and decolonial and indigenous rights education consultant. She is a member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. I’m looking forward to discussing land back movements, indigenous sovereignty issues, Native American efforts for climate justice, and the role of historians in public policy.
Anthony, thank you for your interest in the last Lucid discussion where you asked me a bit about the current US economy, economic factors & conditions -- and I missed it! Sorry! But I do indeed have lots to say and I’ll get back with you very soon. Related Note: I saw you were/are an educator in Georgia (??changing battleground state currently??) and something I’ve been discussing with one of my children who is currently deciding among several “faculty positions” where his top choice is in Georgia at Emory University! Input alert‼️ LOL
Emory is in the very top tier of our universities! I’m now in the loop on the selection process. Seems, at times, most decisions are made politically and not always on qualifications!
I have a friend whose parents are in Argentina. They are in their 70s and not likely to be involved in protests. But the inflation is killing them--they are both retired, and apparently the devaluation is making it worse. And help from my friend and his family here is becoming close to valueless.
Regarding the Biden impeachment--- To make fascism palatable, all competition must be made to appear as vicious monsters. Everyone outside their glorious fascist camp is somehow corrupt to them. I'm always amazed at how powerful propaganda is and how people will believe in utter nonsense.
William, ‘poisoned blood’ is a dog whistle’ for White supremacists; referred to the mixing of Whites with people of color.
White immigrants are ok with trump, but non whites are not. White supremacy plays a key role in American and European fascism and, in my view, Israel’s fascist Zionist ideology as represented by the Hated Palestinian Other. Notice the reaction, rightfully so, of many Israelis when Hamas terrorists killed 1200 Israelis and the taking of another 240 hostages on 10/7. The deaths of over 19000, to date —2/3 women and children, including 7000 children, elicits much less concern. Israelis appear to be, if we can trust photos taken by the media, of a lighter complexion. Palestinians seem to be of a darker hue. Israel’s fascist regime may be using Jewish autocracy as a pretext, when their unstated goal is White Eurocentric technocratic, capitalist supremacy. Genocide is a convenient tool to eradicate Indigenous people, the Hated Other, everywhere; usually if not always, darker than their dominant colonial settler oppressor.
The media, part of US not THEM, inevitably pays lip service to the suffering Other, while detracting US from the ongoing eradication process. We can sense that gradually, while the public’s attention is diverted, the massacres are normalized and the victims are dehumanized. People are no longer shocked at images that once seemed horrific. It’s the unspoken price that some seem to accept as must be paid in the name of the “progress,” that the Hated (allegedly backward and lazy) Other obstructs. Jason Stanley, author of How Fascism Works, The Politics of Us and Them, addresses this process seemingly always involved in fascist ideology, but too often ignored by those who profit from the spoils derived from the plunder of both Indigenous people and the Earth they revere. . “WE need” access to the resources THEY— the native population—left idle, unused, wasted, as in the case of the Amazon Rainforest, wantonly destroyed under fascist White supremacist Bolsonaro, during his relentless attack on the darker skinned Indigenous people who cared for the portion of the Earth they inherited. White ethos sought instead to consume that which indigenous populations worshiped. Fascist ideology, under various Orwellian euphemisms, has been a useful tool to impose White ethos and hegemony.
In the meantime, our capacity for empathy erodes, psychopathy and sociopathy a surging pandemic, becomes increasingly becomes normalized—convenient to fascist cult leaders at home and abroad, inevitably agents at the service of oligarchs.
Many campus groups are angry with Biden, yet they don’t appreciate the dire consequences of a Trump presidency. Trump must be confronted by the left for his malignant views.
Raphael, “campus groups ARE angry with Biden” and they DO “appreciate the dire consequences of a Trump presidency.” Students activists are some of the first to always suffer under fascist regimes. They are not willing to ignore m, however. Biden’s betrayal of campaign promises made, as most corporate ‘democratic’ members have done.
I sympathize with our youth while embarrassed by Biden hypocrisy, as someone older than he. Elders should demand more from ourselves. We owe a sacred debt to our youth who are suffering our greed inspired legacy and sanctimonious hubris—in which we deny obvious conflict of interest, blood tainted financia interests.
True friends are willing and obligated to criticize errant friends, addicted to unsustainable suicidal lifestyle which denies a future with living to those that have a right to follow, but for our parasitic rather than symbiotic relationship with the Earth. When Biden is willing to sacrifice 2/3 of the Earth, while purporting to be a climate advocate, we’re obligated to say NO. When Biden fist-bumped a Saudi Prince murderer, who Biden promised to treat as a pariah, we are morally obligated to ask: “Have you no shame?”
As elders, those of us with that dubious privilege, we should stand alongside our youth more and criticize less when they are right and we’re wrong. Biden has the distinct capacity, lacking in trump, to self-correct. As an 82-year-old environmentalist, once a Sierra Club Bay Chapter leader, and consultant to an Alameda County Supervisor, a graduate student in geography, I’m ashamed to acknowledge witnessing a dying Earth. and outraged at the demands made by some , including family and friends to remain silent, or else. The youth we’ve betrayed, will suffer the most, as horrific and comparable to the carnage being inflicted upon the Palestinian Indigenous people, rationalized by propaganda uttered by demagogues and other masters at the art of Gaslighting.
We aught to expect more of our president, not less. We do a disservice to an incumbent President the nation, and the Earth if we allow fear of a fascist GOP opponent and accept Democratic betrayals, as is the case of Biden embrace of corrupt Netanyahu while perpetrating massacres upon innocent civilians with our weapons and tax dollars; yet some demand re remain silent and offer impunity while horrific war crimes are committed. Shane on us. Our obligation is to support our youth and add our voice to theirs , demanding a unconditional cease-fire, now. We are doing Biden a favor by urging him not to be yet another war criminal president that we have cowardly shielded from accountability due to
our penchant for a double standard of justice; one for the elite and another for the rest of us.
I do hope that the example of Argentina and what will result will scare the living crap out of anyone here even thinking of voting for Trump or any of his "imitations".
Annette, let’s add the example of Israel, Brazil, Russia, Hondura, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Etc. not necessarily in that order; the list is long, incomplete. Our leaders often complicit in the installation of fascist regimes, as in the case of Iran and others, because of our penchant to remain indifferent to the suffering of others.
I have been starting to remind people that the CONservatives will be coming after all of them too. They want to be free of government "tyranny" as they like to call it, but they will feel the real tyranny of the CONservatives when they no longer can watch what they want, read what they want, and are totally subject to the whims of the wealthy that control the power. Just like Obran took over Hungary and isolated the country, the right wing nuts have the same aim for us. You were correct about Argentina and that is the simple playbook for any autocrat. After years of the conservative BS of government is the problem, some of the conservatives like Liz Cheney have woken up, but I fear it is too late. They spent so much time blaming the government while making sure it was not funded and over regulated that people lost faith that the government could do the job and should be privatized. Since Reagan, that is all the conservatives have sought to do and the money made goes to their donors while hurting the lowest on the economic scale. Every time.
When I read "Argentinian President Javier Milei’s crackdown against the right to protest" I imidiatly thought of the Natzi rallys here in the US of late. Maga has ugly rally's now so that they can use them to justify their clampdowns inthe future. Like their baiting the Biden administration into preceding what they have planned =/
Someone referred to Trump’s political organization as the “MAGA Mafia!” A perfect description!
I always thought of Trump's family as the Trump Mafia, so that makes sense to me.
Read Craig Unger’s “House of Trump, house of Putin” for true info on Donald Trump and the Russian mafia.
Thanks!
Anthony, thank you for your interest in the last Lucid discussion where you asked me a bit about the current US economy, economic factors & conditions -- and I missed it! Sorry! But I do indeed have lots to say and I’ll get back with you very soon. Related Note: I saw you were/are an educator in Georgia (??changing battleground state currently??) and something I’ve been discussing with one of my children who is currently deciding among several “faculty positions” where his top choice is in Georgia at Emory University! Input alert‼️ LOL
Emory is in the very top tier of our universities! I’m now in the loop on the selection process. Seems, at times, most decisions are made politically and not always on qualifications!
I’m speaking in reference to the Board of Regents
I call in MKUltra MAGA =]
blood pollution & garbage politics - the peanut butter and jelly sandwich of today's GOP
It looks like the "Dirty War" is back in Argentina.
Thank you for giving Mehdi Hasan a platform Ruth! I was dismayed that his show was cancelled.
Argentina went fascist and I believe that may have also happened in Chile (my instant memory isn’t what it used to be)...
Argentina should be a message to the left....be careful what you wish for.
Ruth - you have a gift for encapsulation - “garbage politics” and “fake populist” really ring the bell. Thank you.
Yep! Those terms ned to go in the Ruth’s thesaurus!
Need
I have a friend whose parents are in Argentina. They are in their 70s and not likely to be involved in protests. But the inflation is killing them--they are both retired, and apparently the devaluation is making it worse. And help from my friend and his family here is becoming close to valueless.
Regarding the Biden impeachment--- To make fascism palatable, all competition must be made to appear as vicious monsters. Everyone outside their glorious fascist camp is somehow corrupt to them. I'm always amazed at how powerful propaganda is and how people will believe in utter nonsense.
The gullibility level is running high!
"Dehumanize your targets now to smooth public acceptance of future repression" RBG. Meat is always easier to chew once its been tenderized.
Trump would do well to remember that he is the son and grandson of immigrants. Moreover, he married TWO of them. Yet, he speaks of poisoned blood!
William, ‘poisoned blood’ is a dog whistle’ for White supremacists; referred to the mixing of Whites with people of color.
White immigrants are ok with trump, but non whites are not. White supremacy plays a key role in American and European fascism and, in my view, Israel’s fascist Zionist ideology as represented by the Hated Palestinian Other. Notice the reaction, rightfully so, of many Israelis when Hamas terrorists killed 1200 Israelis and the taking of another 240 hostages on 10/7. The deaths of over 19000, to date —2/3 women and children, including 7000 children, elicits much less concern. Israelis appear to be, if we can trust photos taken by the media, of a lighter complexion. Palestinians seem to be of a darker hue. Israel’s fascist regime may be using Jewish autocracy as a pretext, when their unstated goal is White Eurocentric technocratic, capitalist supremacy. Genocide is a convenient tool to eradicate Indigenous people, the Hated Other, everywhere; usually if not always, darker than their dominant colonial settler oppressor.
The media, part of US not THEM, inevitably pays lip service to the suffering Other, while detracting US from the ongoing eradication process. We can sense that gradually, while the public’s attention is diverted, the massacres are normalized and the victims are dehumanized. People are no longer shocked at images that once seemed horrific. It’s the unspoken price that some seem to accept as must be paid in the name of the “progress,” that the Hated (allegedly backward and lazy) Other obstructs. Jason Stanley, author of How Fascism Works, The Politics of Us and Them, addresses this process seemingly always involved in fascist ideology, but too often ignored by those who profit from the spoils derived from the plunder of both Indigenous people and the Earth they revere. . “WE need” access to the resources THEY— the native population—left idle, unused, wasted, as in the case of the Amazon Rainforest, wantonly destroyed under fascist White supremacist Bolsonaro, during his relentless attack on the darker skinned Indigenous people who cared for the portion of the Earth they inherited. White ethos sought instead to consume that which indigenous populations worshiped. Fascist ideology, under various Orwellian euphemisms, has been a useful tool to impose White ethos and hegemony.
In the meantime, our capacity for empathy erodes, psychopathy and sociopathy a surging pandemic, becomes increasingly becomes normalized—convenient to fascist cult leaders at home and abroad, inevitably agents at the service of oligarchs.
Many campus groups are angry with Biden, yet they don’t appreciate the dire consequences of a Trump presidency. Trump must be confronted by the left for his malignant views.
Raphael, “campus groups ARE angry with Biden” and they DO “appreciate the dire consequences of a Trump presidency.” Students activists are some of the first to always suffer under fascist regimes. They are not willing to ignore m, however. Biden’s betrayal of campaign promises made, as most corporate ‘democratic’ members have done.
I sympathize with our youth while embarrassed by Biden hypocrisy, as someone older than he. Elders should demand more from ourselves. We owe a sacred debt to our youth who are suffering our greed inspired legacy and sanctimonious hubris—in which we deny obvious conflict of interest, blood tainted financia interests.
True friends are willing and obligated to criticize errant friends, addicted to unsustainable suicidal lifestyle which denies a future with living to those that have a right to follow, but for our parasitic rather than symbiotic relationship with the Earth. When Biden is willing to sacrifice 2/3 of the Earth, while purporting to be a climate advocate, we’re obligated to say NO. When Biden fist-bumped a Saudi Prince murderer, who Biden promised to treat as a pariah, we are morally obligated to ask: “Have you no shame?”
As elders, those of us with that dubious privilege, we should stand alongside our youth more and criticize less when they are right and we’re wrong. Biden has the distinct capacity, lacking in trump, to self-correct. As an 82-year-old environmentalist, once a Sierra Club Bay Chapter leader, and consultant to an Alameda County Supervisor, a graduate student in geography, I’m ashamed to acknowledge witnessing a dying Earth. and outraged at the demands made by some , including family and friends to remain silent, or else. The youth we’ve betrayed, will suffer the most, as horrific and comparable to the carnage being inflicted upon the Palestinian Indigenous people, rationalized by propaganda uttered by demagogues and other masters at the art of Gaslighting.
We aught to expect more of our president, not less. We do a disservice to an incumbent President the nation, and the Earth if we allow fear of a fascist GOP opponent and accept Democratic betrayals, as is the case of Biden embrace of corrupt Netanyahu while perpetrating massacres upon innocent civilians with our weapons and tax dollars; yet some demand re remain silent and offer impunity while horrific war crimes are committed. Shane on us. Our obligation is to support our youth and add our voice to theirs , demanding a unconditional cease-fire, now. We are doing Biden a favor by urging him not to be yet another war criminal president that we have cowardly shielded from accountability due to
our penchant for a double standard of justice; one for the elite and another for the rest of us.
I do hope that the example of Argentina and what will result will scare the living crap out of anyone here even thinking of voting for Trump or any of his "imitations".
Annette, let’s add the example of Israel, Brazil, Russia, Hondura, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Etc. not necessarily in that order; the list is long, incomplete. Our leaders often complicit in the installation of fascist regimes, as in the case of Iran and others, because of our penchant to remain indifferent to the suffering of others.
Darn Ruth. You just keep getting it right!
I have been starting to remind people that the CONservatives will be coming after all of them too. They want to be free of government "tyranny" as they like to call it, but they will feel the real tyranny of the CONservatives when they no longer can watch what they want, read what they want, and are totally subject to the whims of the wealthy that control the power. Just like Obran took over Hungary and isolated the country, the right wing nuts have the same aim for us. You were correct about Argentina and that is the simple playbook for any autocrat. After years of the conservative BS of government is the problem, some of the conservatives like Liz Cheney have woken up, but I fear it is too late. They spent so much time blaming the government while making sure it was not funded and over regulated that people lost faith that the government could do the job and should be privatized. Since Reagan, that is all the conservatives have sought to do and the money made goes to their donors while hurting the lowest on the economic scale. Every time.
Thank you, Professor for bringing context and clarity to the machinations of Republican fascism.
When I read "Argentinian President Javier Milei’s crackdown against the right to protest" I imidiatly thought of the Natzi rallys here in the US of late. Maga has ugly rally's now so that they can use them to justify their clampdowns inthe future. Like their baiting the Biden administration into preceding what they have planned =/