My kid just excitedly showed this to me. He’s learning real history at home, not American Exceptionalism propaganda that he gets in school. “Where Is the Grand Canyon?” children’s book, part of the WhoHQ series of Who? What? Where? Some of these books in that series are fairly open to presenting radical history. We’ve also got the Che, Nikola Tesla, The Underground Railroad books.
“ Real world scenarios have proven that it's not money that makes most people show up to court, it's their need to vindicate themselves and fight and win their trial. (And things like text messaging people to remind them of court dates are highly effective). But... Keeping someone in a dangerous jail before their trial allows police, without evidence, and prosecutors, without a case, to find people guilty, and pad their careers enough to climb the career ladder. And do nearly NO work. How? Most suicides, murders, sexual abuse occurs the very first weeks in jail. You've heard stories of Rikers. It's dangerous. People die. And on the outside, your family suffers. Rent's due. Job's calling. Car's taken. Child needs u. Bills piling. This gives a prosecutor leverage... The career ladder climbing prosecutor just has to tell you to take a plea deal. Just admit you did it, even if you didn't and you'll be out of here. Some will even come with photos of your kids, telling you you'll miss them growing up. There's more...“
truthout.org
“In the mad Black person, all the violences of modernity converge to produce death. That is what we witnessed on the New York subway. Add to that homelessness, and the mad Black person without property is the perfect anthesis of this violent brutal capitalist society — they must be made to disappear by all means necessary, even if by white non-police deputization, as Frank Wilderson has called it. Wilderson argues that the existence of Black people is put permanently in question when compared to others whose existence goes without saying. He writes, ‘In such a paradigm White people are, ipso facto, deputized in the face of Black people, whether they know it (consciously) or not.’ The message seems to be, ‘kill them fuckers!’ Indeed, any white deputy can kill them fuckers. White protection is the order of the day because whiteness owns everything. In ‘The Souls of White Folk,’ it is W.E.B. Du Bois who says, ‘Then always, somehow, some way, silently but clearly, I am given to understand that whiteness is the ownership of the earth forever and ever, Amen!’”
It’s so fucked up on soooo many levels I’m getting dizzy. The result of a festering toxic stew of: centuries of institutional racism (literally the cornerstone of the imperialism and capitalism that made America rich), the sanctification of authority, hatred of the poor/homeless/mental ill (the counterpart of HeMan individualist Bootstrapism), RW hate machine media ridicule of the poor and criminalization of skin color/purposeful Neoliberal ignoring of the problem, cultural Copaganda/worship of the military, a learned cultural helplessness/turning away from what’s wrong/lack of examining ones conscience, still no universal healthcare (during a fucking pandemic!!) and paltry, dysfunctional mental health care, cost of living obscenely out of control, people alienated by the social media trap which further silos and depresses us, etc. Pure unadulterated FASCISM, in every way. That motherfucker better be prosecuted to the fullest degree of “the law,” along with the two other accomplices. Which is a joke in and of itself. Did he get a little Happy Meal with the KKKops afterward? Jordan Neely had to testify as a kid at the trial for when his mother was choked to death at 30 yrs old. Can you imagine his life? If anybody knows of a vigil or rally for this poor, wretched soul please post. I fucking hate this country with a blinding rage. https://twitter.com/marxist777/status/1653872190977179650?s=46&t=Z3k45qYldoj7RETAaKXY7w
Keeps coming up, no matter how many different ways I change the title, or content, or photo…
Just opened. Sent away to the good folks of Radical Graffiti in Australia for a package of assorted stickers. This is a sampling of the cool shit they do. Comrades, there’s nothing like seeing graffiti out in public to let our brethren know that we’re (they’re) not alone. Spray the walls, until the bastards fall. Fuck the fascists.
youtu.be
Yeah, yeah. We all know Pink Floyd. Dark Side of the Moon was the longest charting album in the history of Billboard. When I was growing up you could absolutely count on going into a anyone’s house and finding it in their record collection. And then there’s The Wall. Which just shattered the ceiling for what a rock opera could achieve, both musically and in terms of live presentation (although my personal favorite and their most political is Animals, of which gratefully he’s been doing a lot of on his recent tours). A couple of bits on his politics: Surprisingly good interview with Marc Maron in which he shares some pivotal moments in the development of his political ideology. https://youtu.be/aS4HHJWGMEY “ [Neoliberalism is fanning the flames of fascism](https://youtu.be/DRFtWBc_qh4) ” [Pt 2](https://youtu.be/vwvyW3KF-vM) [The Occupation of the American Mind](https://youtu.be/Sf0dutJCZMk) ****Dogs*** *(from Animals, 1977)* You gotta be crazy, you gotta have a real need. You gotta sleep on your toes, and when you're on the street, You gotta be able to pick out the easy meat with your eyes closed. And then moving in silently, down wind and out of sight, You gotta strike when the moment is right without thinking. And after a while, you can work on points for style. Like the club tie, and the firm handshake, a certain look in the eye and an easy smile. You have to be trusted by the people that you lie to, So that when they turn their backs on you, You'll get the chance to put the knife in. (2nd verse) You gotta keep one eye looking over your shoulder. You know it's going to get harder, and harder, and harder as you get older. And in the end you'll pack up and fly down south, Hide your head in the sand. Just another sad old man, all alone and dying of cancer. (Middle) And when you lose control, you'll reap the harvest you have sown. And as the fear grows, the bad blood slows and turns to stone. And it's too late to lose the weight you used to need to throw around. So have a good drown, as you go down, all alone, Dragged down by the stone. (3rd verse) I gotta admit that I'm a little bit confused. Sometimes it seems to me as if I'm just being used. Gotta stay awake, gotta try and shake off this creeping malaise. If I don't stand my own ground, how can I find my way out of this maze? Deaf, dumb, and blind, you just keep on pretending That everyone's expendable and no-one has a real friend. And it seems to you the thing to do would be to isolate the winner And everything's done under the sun, And you believe at heart, everyone's a killer. (Outro) Who was born in a house full of pain Who was trained not to spit in the fan Who was told what to do by the man Who was broken by trained personnel Who was fitted with collar and chain Who was given a pat on the back Who was breaking away from the pack Who was only a stranger at home Who was ground down in the end Who was found dead on the phone Who was dragged down by the stone.
Drive to work in my Blackrock sedan, eat at Blackrock Ristorante, shop at the local Blackrock supermarket. Blacknet keeps me in touch with my friends and families on other quadrants. Blackrock news and entertainment has endless channels to choose from. We like to vacation at the Blackrock ski resort in Aspe, or Club Black in the Mediterranean. Larry Fink and Steve Schwarzman are our benevolent overlords. Praise be to them for saving society.
Loan increased *512%* over fourteen years. Greatest Country In The World ™ https://www.newyorker.com/news/us-journal/the-aging-student-debtors-of-america
Starting to get that feeling in the first 26 pages. It’s great and have wanted to read it for a while now. But wondering what the take is here on it overall. The line he literally wrote about the population size of Russia being unsuitable for socialism is like verbatim RW criticism used today and typically repeated when saying that it while it may work in small European counties it won’t here. Need also to brush up on the Russian Revolution, having only read some of John Reed’s account.
It’s just unbelievable. Is there really no way on here to edit a photo?
the_dunk_tank
Dozens and dozens of Americans praise the system of prison slavery.
Tormato 2 years ago • 100%
“ I fear that Allied policy may be no more than to achieve Fascism which will favor us instead of favor Germany.”
- Edward Murrow
“Germany lost the Second World War; fascism won it."
- George Carlin
askchapo
Are there any great examples of how human nature is not to be greedy and selfish that can convince cynics that the future of humanity is not doom and gloom?
Tormato 3 years ago • 100%
Continues along:
“If we become increasingly apathetic in modern times - well, so do fish on river banks, after a little while. Our children often come to resemble apathetic fish - except that fish can't play guitars. And what do many of our children attempt to do? They attempt to form folk societies, which they call "communes." They fail. The generation gap is an argument between those who believe folk societies are still possible and those who know they aren't.
Older persons form clubs and corporations and the like. Those who form them pretend to be interested in this or that narrow aspect of life. Members of the Lions Club pretend to be interested in the cure and prevention of diseases of the eye. They are in fact lonesome Neanderthalers, obeying the First Law of Life, which is this: "Human beings become increasingly contented as they approach the simpleminded, brotherly conditions of a folk society."
Only possible in a socialist system, in which inter-personal relationships are not commodified as we currently are overwhelmed by today.
Carlin speaks pretty profoundly about this subject too. Will see if I can find some stuff later…
askchapo
Are there any great examples of how human nature is not to be greedy and selfish that can convince cynics that the future of humanity is not doom and gloom?
Tormato 3 years ago • 0%
Always think of this passage from Kurt Vonnegut’s “Wampeters, Foma, And Granfalloons”:
“[Dr. Robert Redfield] acknowledged that primitive societies were bewilderingly various. He begged us to admit, though, that all of them had certain characteristics in common. For instance: They were all so small that everybody knew everybody well, and associations lasted for life. The members communicated intimately with one another, and very little with anybody else.
“The members communicated only by word of mouth. There was no access to the experience and thought of the past, except through memory. The old were treasured for their memories. There was little change. What one man knew and believed was the same as what all men knew and believed. There wasn’t much of a division of labor. What one person did was pretty much what another person did. “And so on. Dr. Redfield invited us to call any such society ‘a Folk Society’…. In a folk society, says Dr. Redfield, and I quote him now:
“‘[B]ehavior is personal, not impersonal. A “person” may be defined as that social object which I feel to respond to situations as I do, with all the sentiments and interests which I feel to be my own; a person is myself in another form, his qualities and values are inherent within him, and his significance for me is not merely one of utility. A “thing,” on the other hand, is a social object which has no claim upon my sympathies, which responds to me, as I conceive it, mechanically; its value for me exists in so far as it serves my end. In the folk society, all human beings admitted to the society are treated as persons; one does not deal impersonally (“thing fashion”) with any other participant in the little world of that folk society.
“‘Moreover [Dr. Redfield goes on], in the folk society much besides human beings is treated personally. The pattern of behavior which is first suggested by the inner experience of the individual—his wishes, fears, sensitivities, and interests of all sorts—is projected onto all objects with which he comes in contact. Thus nature, too, is treated personally; the elements, the features of the landscape, the animals, and especially anything in the environment which by its appearance or behavior suggests the attributes of mankind—to all these are attributed qualities of the human person.’
“And I say to you that we are full of chemicals which require us to belong to folk societies, or failing that, to feel lousy all the time. We are chemically engineered to live in folk societies, just as fish are chemically engineered to live in clean water—and there aren’t any folk societies for us anymore.”