2w ago

Liberals Believe In Nothing And Remember Even Less

www.caitlinjohnst.one

If Harris wins, the Democratic base will continue to sleep. You can do anything when the Dems are in the WH. It was under Trump that protesters shut down airport terminals, but under Biden the base sleeps regarding immigration & asylum. That’s what Glenn Greenwald and I learned from the GWB to Obama transition: the Dems sleep when their team is in office. Greenwald “changed” from hero to villain without changing the least bit; the only difference was who was in office. Unlike the Dem-aligned media, he didn’t go to sleep.
You can war as much as you want. You can run a fucking star chamber. You can stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody.
If Harris is the harm reduction candidate, who for?

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Obligatory reminder that this song swung the election to Trumpito

Edit: I don’t know why I was so cranky earlier. Just ignore my complaining that someone was supposedly complaining.
~~Depends on what harm you care about. Trump is very clearly much more damaging for Americans than Harris could ever hope to be, probably to the (eventual) benefit of the global population, however.~~
Anyway, Johnstone’s insistence on whining about a single lib imagining she has any influence to get anyone to do anything is tiring but maybe an ego-boost on some level—I couldn’t imagine why else she thinks it deserves mention at all.
- Leaving aside which of the two genocidal fascist choices was worse, because i think that's just splitting hairs at this point...I for one appreciate Caitlin Johnstone's writing. I don't see it as whining at all. Yes she keeps repeating herself but that's because what she is saying about the brutality and inhumanity of US empire is something that needs to be repeated over and over ad nauseam until it sinks in with everyone who can be a potential ally in the fight against this genocidal empire, against this enemy of humanity.
  
  She’s not wrong and usually I find her writing insightful, I just think “actually you and the group you view as your mortal enemies are the same” is a less than optimal rhetorical strategy for convincing anyone who isn’t already in the know and just comes across as incredibly smug and annoying to ‘normal’ folks. I was being overly flippant though I’m sure.
- It's probably more useful look at it like the two parties are two sides of the same entity whose rule mostly comes down to capitalist interests making lobbying decisions, rather than viewing it as two distinct parties whose rule mostly comes down to how people vote as individuals.
  In other words, we could get hung up on arguing over whether and how much materially worse Trump is or isn't, but if you look at it more like the two parties are the same sword and the republicans tend to be a more openly pointy end, that doesn't mean the democrats are actually harm reduction; they're still working on stabbing the world with the same sword (with the hilt being primarily controlled by the capitalist/imperialist power brokers, not the voters).
  It can be observed time and again that the democrats are not a true opposition party and act as more of a buffer against / capture of reformist and revolutionary energy than anything actually oppositional to the more brazen republican agenda. The democrats help create the conditions that lead to someone like Trump by helping to block any kind of meaningful reform and quietly going along with practices that are similar if not identical to the worst republicans get called out for, so even from the standpoint of believing that the republicans are "significantly worse", the democrats are still helping them be that, which cannot be called harm reduction in the long-term. And even in the short-term, is such a dynamic from the democrats really improving lives or is it just buying the system as a whole more time to adapt to worsening conditions, such as by building cop cities and the like? By slowing the transition to something more brazenly fascistic?
  
  Prior to the second Trump admin, I think what you’re saying is undeniable. Trump 2 is a bit of a new animal though. His intense breaks from previous foreign affairs and financial moves in opposition to the steadiness and easy predictability loved by big capital is a paradigm shift away from business as usual. We’re in uncharted waters right now I think. That’s not to say the dems will in anyway rise to protecting the previous govt paradigm, as you put it well, they aren’t there to be opposition.
  
  "A conversation between the sword and the neck"
- It still doesn't make sense to view Trump as a harm reduction option for the rest of the world. There was no credible harm reduction candidate this time around.
  Trump is still the guy who reversed detente with Iran and went to the brink of war with them twice. He's completely untrustworthy as a negotiator and doesn't actually care about any of the underlying issues, which undercuts what should be easy wins (detente with the DPRK) and makes tougher negotiations even harder. He started his second term by saying he wants to invade Canada and Greenland. He's fucking with the water rights treaty the U.S. has with Mexico. He's a return to naked imperialism, not a rejection of imperialism.
  His only positive move so far was forcing Israel to accept a ceasefire, which they've now torn up without repercussion. That's something, but not much.
  
  I generally agree. My possibly naive hope is that Trump is significantly weakening the US’s position as global hegemon, which will eventually benefit humanity. But his admin’s actions are chaos at best and monstrous at worse.

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