Tag: fascism

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Political Commentary

Free speech distortion, cancel culture confusion

Speech or Cancel Culture At Boston University? by Ken White (The Popehat Review)

But are labor protests cancel culture now? Is not paying writers a form of controversial expression that we ought to hear out and react to with refined and well-moderated debate? Is the entire history of the American labor movement’s raucousness a history of woke censorship?

 

Or is that all cynical partisan bullshit, a way to delegitimize certain (usually left-leaning) political views while pretending to be noble and pro-free-speech?

I also think it’s notably obtuse for the president to act as though these students should have no say in their graduation ceremony. Inviting an anti-labor CEO in the midst of a writer’s strike is an implicit endorsement of his tactics, rubbing the graduating students’ noses in their university’s political stance, showing that they care more about the prestige of their speakers than their students’ opinions. To be forced to listen to some anti-union slimer would certainly ruin my graduation day — a day of celebration and achievement tarnished by someone who disrespects the value of work or creativity.

(via Dan the Clam Man)

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Activism Political Commentary

Oppression against public opinion

A WaPo Poll Found That Significant Majorities Support Pro-Trans Policies, But Reported The Exact Opposite by Parker Malloy (The Present Age) on May 8 2023

WaPo polling found most people (57%) didn’t think being transgender was a real thing, but also that most believed trans people should receive protections regardless:

  • 71% of adults support laws banning discrimination against trans people by medical professionals.
  • 72% of adults support laws banning discrimination against trans people from getting health insurance.
  • 69% of adults support laws banning discrimination against transgender people in K-12 schools.
  • 73% of adults support laws banning discrimination against transgender people at their jobs and workplaces.
  • 74% of adults support laws banning discrimination against transgender people in housing.

Fascists and religious extremists are imposing their hateful views on all of us, against our common values. Forced birth is not popular. Discrimination against trans people is a minority viewpoint.

Corporations are driven by profit and simper into pathetic compliance at the merest whisper of manufactured exploitative outrage from fascists, but the rest of us don’t have to go along with it.

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May Anti-Trans Legislative Risk Map by Erin Reed (Erin in the Morning) on May 20, 2023

Map illustrating the risk of anti trans legislation in each state, with a general trend of the West and Northeast being lowest risk.

This map illustrates a stark divide. Nearly all states with any potential for passing harsh anti-trans laws have done so… On the other hand, states with a low likelihood of passing such laws have enacted highly protective legislation, including refuge/shield laws that block extradition and investigations into care from out of state.

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Categories
Activism Comics Memoir

Read Save It for Later

Read Save It for Later: Promises, Protest, and Parenthood by Nate Powell

In seven interwoven comics essays, author and graphic novelist Nate Powell addresses living in an era of what he calls “necessary protest.” Save It for Later: Promises, Parenthood, and the Urgency of Protest is Powell’s reflection on witnessing the collapse of discourse in real time while drawing the award-winning trilogy March, written by Congressman John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, this generation’s preeminent historical account of nonviolent revolution in the civil rights movement. Powell highlights both the danger of normalized paramilitary presence symbols in consumer pop culture, and the roles we play individually as we interact with our communities, families, and society at large.
Each essay tracks Powell’s journey from the night of the election—promising his four-year-old daughter that Trump will never win, to the reality of the authoritarian presidency, protesting the administration’s policies, and navigating the complications of teaching his children how to raise their own voices in a world that is becoming increasingly dangerous and more and more polarized. While six of the seven essays are new, unpublished work, Powell has also included “About Face,” a comics essay first published by Popula Online that swiftly went viral and inspired him to expand his work on Save It for Later. The seventh and final essay will contextualize the myriad events of 2020 with the previous four years—from the COVID-19 pandemic to global protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder to the 2020 presidential election itself—highlighting both the consistencies and inversions of widely shared experiences and observations amidst a massive social upheaval.
As Powell moves between subjective and objective experiences raising his children—depicted in their childhood innocence as imaginary anthropomorphic animals—he reveals the electrifying sense of trust and connection with neighbors and strangers in protest. He also explores how to equip young people with tools to best make their own noise as they grow up and help shape the direction and future of this country.

I found this more depressing than empowering — in that respect, I would point anyone to March over this (also, March is phenomenal). That’s not to say this is bad — it’s a very thoughtful, personal reflection on the Trump years (please say we’re done with them) and on raising children to understand social justice and protest in a world that is rapidly falling into fascism. The feeling of despair over watching America fall to fascists is certainly relatable, though I don’t agree with all of his perspectives or conclusions.

It’s unapologetically progressive, while also recognizing that each generation gets over more of its baggage and is able to deal with social justice better. That said, there were moments I wanted more from the essays — places where I’m seeing a conclusion that he didn’t quite commit to. What he sees is that his parents were complacent about racial injustice while he’s underestimated the powerful undercurrent of right wing hatred.

Throughout, the way he talks about fascists is infantilizing and dehumanizing, which I think is a mistake. While their views are evil and the way they act is dangerous, “a child’s power fantasy played out in adulthood, speaking only the language of power, the intellectual crudeness of reaction, contrarianism, opposition,” it’s vital to not turn fascists into monsters or people who are too immature to make their own decisions. To remember that these are regular people who have chosen this mindset of hatred and dominance. They are responsible for their choices.

I disagree with his viewpoint that in-person protest — marching — is the only way to make change. In recent years I’ve read more about mutual aid and the different parts we all have to play in change — for example, “Good Trouble” highlights the importance of behind the scenes organizers like people prepping food for the community and arranging rides, etc. Marching is important. So is building community and advocating for local policy and having difficult conversations and writing about issues.

The artwork is excellent. He uses a muted color palette and black backgrounds to strong effect. I liked the choice to illustrate his kids as unicorns, though I thought his oldest daughter looked older than I would have guessed.

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Categories
Activism

Protest as public nuisance

Replied to Police accused of ‘alarming’ attack on right to protest after anti-monarchist arrested by Daniel Boffey (The Guardian)

The Metropolitan police later said a total of 52 arrests had been made for affray, public order offences, breach of the peace and conspiracy to cause a public nuisance around the coronation.

Yasmine Ahmed, the UK director of Human Rights Watch, condemned the arrests. “The reports of people being arrested for peacefully protesting [against] the coronation are incredibly alarming. This is something you would expect to see in Moscow, not London. Peaceful protests allow individuals to hold those in power to account, something the UK government seems increasingly averse to,” she said.

Nuisance is used to suppress protest the way niceness is used to suppress and avoid addressing complaints of racism and sexism.

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Categories
Business Society The Internet

Pairing: business values

Substack CEO Chris Best Doesn’t Realize He’s Just Become The Nazi Bar (TechDirt) by Mike Masnick

If you’re not going to moderate, and you don’t care that the biggest draws on your platform are pure nonsense peddlers preying on the most gullible people to get their subscriptions, fucking own it, Chris.

Say it. Say that you’re the Nazi bar and you’re proud of it.

Say “we believe that writers on our platform can publish anything they want, no matter how ridiculous, or hateful, or wrong.” Don’t hide from the question. You claim you’re enabling free speech, so own it. Don’t hide behind some lofty goals about “freedom of the press” when you’re really enabling “freedom of the grifters.”

You have every right to allow that on your platform. But the whole point of everyone eventually coming to terms with the content moderation learning curve, and the fact that private businesses are private and not the government, is that what you allow on your platform is what sticks to you. It’s your reputation at play.

This is also where Twitter is going. I think Musk would be fine with either outcome: driving Twitter to bankruptcy or driving out all the liberals and turning it into 4chan with a veneer of carryover trustworthiness.

(See also: Controlling the information platforms, controlling the information)

I don’t get it. Are there that many Nazis that these businesses think that’s a better long-term business audience than… everyone else? Because no one wants to hang out at the Nazi bar besides Nazis. Or are they worried their VC funding will dry up if they don’t allow Nazis? Because Substack’s already dried up…

I’d bet Substack thinks they can somehow pull off the rewards of social media without accepting the responsibility. They looked at their shrinking budget and said, you know what? It doesn’t matter if we enable genocide, because we can’t afford quality moderation, but without this shiny new sell the company will fold. And what are the odds we’ll actually support a genocide?

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We should all be embarrassed that companies in the entertainment industry are taking leadership positions on pushing back against fascism, while companies involved in journalism, education, and publishing, are taking the collaborator stance.

The parts of society that everyone promised would save us from fascism, are failing. The parts of society that the Very Serious People ™ saw as frivolous pastimes, are providing more truth and safety.

This is the Teen Vogue’ification of the world.

— Mekka Okereke @mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io
Apr 15, 2023, 09:44

The example he highlights of Scholastic preemptively censoring material is exactly as Tim Snyder calls out in On Tyranny: compliance in advance. There are no actual restrictions on explaining that Japanese internment was the result of racism, but Scholastic is vaguely concerned it could be “bad for business” because the topic of racism has become controversial to conservatives who don’t want to talk about bad things white people did to people of color in the past (especially in ways that highlight those continuing practices)… basically showing Scholastic doesn’t actually care about their purported value of inclusion, and is more scared of conservative book bans than public outcry from liberals over their censorship (which is exactly what they’ve gotten — and tbh now the book has gotten so much attention it will certainly be included in book bans and boycotts). Essentially, in censoring this book they’ve gotten the worst of all outcomes: they’ve tarnished their brand among liberals and drawn a lot of attention to this particular book so it’ll be on the conservative’s radar for book bans. If they don’t publish it now liberals cry censorship, and if they do conservatives push against it.

You can’t appease both fascists and their victims at the same time. You have to choose.

— Mekka Okereke @mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io
Apr 15, 2023, 09:39

Categories
Political Commentary

Distortion and distraction

Replied to Tennessee House votes to expel 2 of 3 Democratic members over gun protest (npr.org)

House Speaker Cameron Sexton compared the incident to Jan. 6: “What they did today was equivalent, at least equivalent, maybe worse depending on how you look at it, to doing an insurrection in the State Capitol,” he said.

Misconstruing words and intentions is an integral tool for fascists, reflected in the importance of ‘doublethink’ in Orwell’s 1984. Here, a powerful politician pretends not to be aware of the difference between a peaceful protest and an insurrection. With his comparison, he equates using a megaphone and peacefully occupying a space (potentially on recess?) with showing up at the nation’s capital with weapons and zipties while calling for the head of the politician charged with peacefully transferring power from one elected leader to the next. The silenced, disenfranchised populace making themselves heard by the politicians theoretically representing them (but not due to horrendous gerrymandering) are equivalent to a lynch mob seeking to subvert the will of the people by blocking execution of electoral results. At once, he is dismissing the validity of protest and making protest out to be more dangerous than it is. Casting protest as something alarming rather than a very American exercise of First Amendment rights — particularly when led by two young Black men.

(This is the perspective that makes Feedly’s new AI tool lumping together protests and riots alarming.)

Having conflated a minor rules violation with a treasonous attack, he could justify subverting democratic representation by casting out the troublemakers under the guise of decorum. He can claim to be on the side of democracy by dismissing the democratic tactic of protest as disruptive to the legislative process of “representative” democracy, and may righteously return to ignoring gun control now that he has invalidated the protestors and distracted from the purpose of their protest.

Categories
History

1941: “Who Goes Nazi?”

Bookmarked Who Goes Nazi? by Dorothy Thompson (harpers.org)

It is an interesting and somewhat macabre parlor game to play at a large gathering of one’s acquaintances: to speculate who in a showdown would go Nazi. By now, I think I know. I have gone through the experience many times—in Germany, in Austria, and in France. I have come to know the types: the born Nazis, the Nazis whom democracy itself has created, the certain-to-be fellow-travelers. And I also know those who never, under any conceivable circumstances, would become Nazis.

Who does

His body is vigorous. His mind is childish. His soul has been almost completely neglected.

His code is not his own; it is that of his class—no worse, no better, He fits easily into whatever pattern is successful. That is his sole measure of value—success. Nazism as a minority movement would not attract him. As a movement likely to attain power, it would.

He is a snob, loathing his own snobbery. He despises the men about him… because he knows that what he has had to achieve by relentless work men like B have won by knowing the right people. But his contempt is inextricably mingled with envy. Even more than he hates the class into which he has insecurely risen, does he hate the people from whom he came… He has an ambition, bitter and burning. It is to rise to such an eminence that no one can ever again humiliate him. Not to rule but to be the secret ruler, pulling the strings of puppets created by his brains.

She speaks disapprovingly of other “masculine” or insufficiently devoted wives. Her husband, however, is bored to death with her. He neglects her completely and she is looking for someone else before whom to pour her ecstatic self-abasement. She will titillate with pleased excitement to the first popular hero who proclaims the basic subordination of women.

Those who haven’t anything in them to tell them what they like and what they don’t—whether it is breeding, or happiness, or wisdom, or a code, however old-fashioned or however modern, go Nazi.

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Categories
Art and Design Featured Political Commentary

The tactic of destroying the meaning of words

Replied to Florida Principal Ousted Over “Pornographic” Michelangelo Sculpture by Elaine VelieElaine Velie (hyperallergic.com)

Parents complained that the famous sculpture was shown to their sixth graders.

It’s a known authoritarian practice to undermine the meaning of words: in this case, applying the word pornographic to an artistic masterwork representing a biblical figure in the nude. At the same time, they are diminishing the cultural and historical value of art; art and history are threats to them that must be suppressed for their narrative to reign.

Il David is an important work to study in European art history, and frankly any curriculum that omitted it would be questionable.

Nudity is not the same as pornography.

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Categories
Activism

Unite Against Book Bans

Bookmarked Unite Against Book Bans by Jan Carmichael (uniteagainstbookbans.org)

1269 ATTEMPTS TO BAN LIBRARY BOOKS IN 2022

Unite Against Book Bans is a national initiative to empower readers everywhere to stand together in the fight against censorship.

Get your fucking religion out of our public institutions.

Categories
Political Commentary

Abortion is not murder

Replied to 21 South Carolina GOP Lawmakers Propose Death Penalty for Women Who Have Abortions (rollingstone.com)

It’s not just a lone extremist: The bill has 21 co-sponsors in the state’s House of Representatives

It is religious extremism to say that women deserve to die for a tiny nonviable bundle of cells without a visible embryo. Only belief in a soul beginning at conception makes that make any amount of sense.

Is this 3″ bundle of cells more important than me? Should a woman die for this?

See also:

Our Rage is Not Hysterical