"opulence without visible labor, comatose nostalgia. An entire industry choreographs weddings for carefully curated memories with suffering redacted. The photographer arrives early to scrub the blood from the walls. At sundown, the band turns up the volume to drown out the screams."
What is your evidence for the claim "The leadership of the United States is currently attempting a return to an imagined innocence. The powers are themselves nostalgic for segregation and its hierarchy of persons, for fantasies of race science, eager for brutality thinly veiled by platitudes" and, specifically, how are things worse under the current admin than the former or other "more typical" admins?
For one, the Trump regime itself has stated that it wants to repeal the 20th century. They are explicitly opposed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, which is another way of saying they are segregationists. Their thought leaders regularly appeal to tye falsehoods of race science, claiming that Black people are naturally inferior. They are dismantling the structures of governance that insure the rights of minorities and make possible the material gains necessary to end racism.
That does not, in any way, let White liberals off the hook for their lack of progress. White liberals have often spoken the right language without making material change.
I'm incorrect on attributing that line directly to Trump regime officials. It has been used by various Christo-fascist thinkers and media voices, e.g. C. Jay Engel here: https://x.com/contramordor/status/1886208343808540902
OK I have never heard of C Jay Engel and know nothing of what this person (or bot) has posted on twitter. What I'm looking for is references to support your claims. For example, a definition of "race science," and where Trump admin officials have expressly referenced this as their agenda. Video clips, interviews, policy statements, press releases, etc. And if you can show where they have successfully implemented these policies.
Sure. I wrote they were "eager for brutality." Currently, the Trump administration has stepped up criminal enforcement of assumed civil immigration violations, often without evidence, by: arresting people they assume are immigrants, sometimes without confirmation of actual documentation; sending some of those to foreign prisons without due process; sending others to domestic holding facilities that are not equipped for human habitation; wearing tactical armor and refusing to wear nameplates or ID badges; or, wearing plain clothes and face masks,again without ID, while arresting immigrants who are in standard proceedings in immigration courts in accordance with the law; activating a national guard unit to police demonstrations; activating a Marine platoon to further provoke the situation; calling the presence of immigrants in Los Angeles city an "invasion." All of these things have been widely reported in the news. Any single one of them could be fairly characterized as "brutal." Taken together they establish a pattern and practice that the regime is seeking, eagerly, brutality.
Obama deported more people across the southern border than Trump in his first term, and built the cages that were decried "kids in cages!" during Trump's first term. Obama dropped more bombs on innocent middle easterners than George W Bush. Obama extended the war on terror from two countries under Bush/Cheney to seven, and turned Libya from the most well-off country in Africa to a failed state run by terrorist warlords with open air slave markets. Obama prosecuted the dirty wars in Syria and Yemen, and the humanitarian crisis in Yemen was the worst in the world before the Gaza genocide began under Biden. Obama dispensed with due process and habeas corpus, and made it legal for US nat-sec agencies to run propaganda campaigns against US citizens. Obama bailed out Wall St and left main st and working class mortgage holders twisting in the wind. Obama prosecuted more gov't whistleblowers under the Espionage act than all other presidents before him combined. Obama carried out the coup against the democratically elected gov't of Ukraine in 2014 that brought literal neo-Nazis to power and brought us to the brink of nuclear war, escalated by the Biden administration. I could go on and on. Be as mad at Trump as you want, you'll have no argument from me. But you are not nearly mad enough at the Dem Establishment...
OK these are all still assertions, not claims backed up by evidence. I agree with you - that due process and other basic cvil rights have been abrogated by the government in a show of being "tough on illegal immigration," and I oppose these horrendous activities. I became politically active in the early 2000s and have been opposing this stuff the whole time. In the early 2000s the govt could identify someone as a "terrorist" or "enemy combatant" and that meant they could strip the person of civil rights, send them around the world on "rendition" for torture, and detain them indefinitely without due process or habeas corpus (e.g. at Guantanamo). I have always objected to this. Now the Trump admin is doing the exact same thing our gov't has always done (regardless of R or D admin) with sending people to a new prison camp in El Salvador in addition to the old one in Guantanamo. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. If people are outraged at what the gov't is doing now fine, but I can list you 1,000 things that are as bad or worse done under the Obama admin that the people currently crying "fascist" at Trump are ignorant about. Hopefully at some point folks will wake up to who the true "us versus them" are, and will stop being brainwashed into hating their neighbors.
Great one, Greg. Especially this bit-
"opulence without visible labor, comatose nostalgia. An entire industry choreographs weddings for carefully curated memories with suffering redacted. The photographer arrives early to scrub the blood from the walls. At sundown, the band turns up the volume to drown out the screams."
What is your evidence for the claim "The leadership of the United States is currently attempting a return to an imagined innocence. The powers are themselves nostalgic for segregation and its hierarchy of persons, for fantasies of race science, eager for brutality thinly veiled by platitudes" and, specifically, how are things worse under the current admin than the former or other "more typical" admins?
For one, the Trump regime itself has stated that it wants to repeal the 20th century. They are explicitly opposed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, which is another way of saying they are segregationists. Their thought leaders regularly appeal to tye falsehoods of race science, claiming that Black people are naturally inferior. They are dismantling the structures of governance that insure the rights of minorities and make possible the material gains necessary to end racism.
That does not, in any way, let White liberals off the hook for their lack of progress. White liberals have often spoken the right language without making material change.
Can you provide written or video evidence of Trump admin officials stating their objective "to repeal the 20th century"?
I'm incorrect on attributing that line directly to Trump regime officials. It has been used by various Christo-fascist thinkers and media voices, e.g. C. Jay Engel here: https://x.com/contramordor/status/1886208343808540902
OK I have never heard of C Jay Engel and know nothing of what this person (or bot) has posted on twitter. What I'm looking for is references to support your claims. For example, a definition of "race science," and where Trump admin officials have expressly referenced this as their agenda. Video clips, interviews, policy statements, press releases, etc. And if you can show where they have successfully implemented these policies.
Sure. I wrote they were "eager for brutality." Currently, the Trump administration has stepped up criminal enforcement of assumed civil immigration violations, often without evidence, by: arresting people they assume are immigrants, sometimes without confirmation of actual documentation; sending some of those to foreign prisons without due process; sending others to domestic holding facilities that are not equipped for human habitation; wearing tactical armor and refusing to wear nameplates or ID badges; or, wearing plain clothes and face masks,again without ID, while arresting immigrants who are in standard proceedings in immigration courts in accordance with the law; activating a national guard unit to police demonstrations; activating a Marine platoon to further provoke the situation; calling the presence of immigrants in Los Angeles city an "invasion." All of these things have been widely reported in the news. Any single one of them could be fairly characterized as "brutal." Taken together they establish a pattern and practice that the regime is seeking, eagerly, brutality.
Here's a good overview of race science (or scientific racsim), the distorted belief that racial differences have a basis in biology.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_racism#:~:text=The%20division%20of%20humankind%20into,science%20by%20those%20who%20support
Obama deported more people across the southern border than Trump in his first term, and built the cages that were decried "kids in cages!" during Trump's first term. Obama dropped more bombs on innocent middle easterners than George W Bush. Obama extended the war on terror from two countries under Bush/Cheney to seven, and turned Libya from the most well-off country in Africa to a failed state run by terrorist warlords with open air slave markets. Obama prosecuted the dirty wars in Syria and Yemen, and the humanitarian crisis in Yemen was the worst in the world before the Gaza genocide began under Biden. Obama dispensed with due process and habeas corpus, and made it legal for US nat-sec agencies to run propaganda campaigns against US citizens. Obama bailed out Wall St and left main st and working class mortgage holders twisting in the wind. Obama prosecuted more gov't whistleblowers under the Espionage act than all other presidents before him combined. Obama carried out the coup against the democratically elected gov't of Ukraine in 2014 that brought literal neo-Nazis to power and brought us to the brink of nuclear war, escalated by the Biden administration. I could go on and on. Be as mad at Trump as you want, you'll have no argument from me. But you are not nearly mad enough at the Dem Establishment...
OK these are all still assertions, not claims backed up by evidence. I agree with you - that due process and other basic cvil rights have been abrogated by the government in a show of being "tough on illegal immigration," and I oppose these horrendous activities. I became politically active in the early 2000s and have been opposing this stuff the whole time. In the early 2000s the govt could identify someone as a "terrorist" or "enemy combatant" and that meant they could strip the person of civil rights, send them around the world on "rendition" for torture, and detain them indefinitely without due process or habeas corpus (e.g. at Guantanamo). I have always objected to this. Now the Trump admin is doing the exact same thing our gov't has always done (regardless of R or D admin) with sending people to a new prison camp in El Salvador in addition to the old one in Guantanamo. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. If people are outraged at what the gov't is doing now fine, but I can list you 1,000 things that are as bad or worse done under the Obama admin that the people currently crying "fascist" at Trump are ignorant about. Hopefully at some point folks will wake up to who the true "us versus them" are, and will stop being brainwashed into hating their neighbors.