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  • It's more like the wealthy leveraged the poorly educated and mentally deficient segment of society and pit them against everyone else.

    It's not like the left was getting provoked to pass legislation to like, "end redneck culture" or anything (not counting the places they fell for bait like the southern flag and statue distractions) But the the left broadly has been pushing back against capital for decades and making progress, why should we be at all surprised they raised an army in self-defense?

    The conservative right is not an even split in this country, there are far less of them than leftists or liberals. They do NOT represent the majority, but again, they leveraged the decency, complacency and naivety of the left to get a foothold into american discourse that will never dislodged because now most people do think the right is some giant monolith. They're like, less than 20% of the population, and out of that 20% most of them are literally so dim that they would change flags and banners to some new issue tomorrow if led properly. They're a small band of orcs and we've been treating them like a mighty empire of intellectual elves.

    • not counting the places they fell for bait like the southern flag and statue distractions

      Fell for the bait? Jesus actual christ, we had and still have statues in our parks and town squares erected by the KKK that exist solely to intimidate PoC and venerate men whose only notable "accomplishment" was being on the losing side in a war to own and brutally exploit human beings – black people who they saw as subhumans – and getting those out is "taking the bait"?? Absolutely lost your goddamn mind, like sensible people who want those removed are falling into a trap set by the elite to distract them from class consciousness. Racist dipshits were baited into responding vehemently against that. In much the same way that sensible people didn't "fall for the bait" when they started supporting trans rights and MAGA made that a wedge issue (although I know some tankies actually fall for that transphobic garbage).

      • While I hate the statues and flags and everything they stand for, how well did that fight help us? Where are we now?

        The nation is falling because people can't figure out where to focus efforts because you all get distracted by emotional appeals and straw tigers and little fiddly bullshit while in the background corporations empowered an army of ravaging orcs who are now in control of the mightiest nation on Earth, laughing at our failed efforts to mobilize towards policy, community and representation, the things that would have prevented this.

        I mean, it doesn't matter now. The whole thing is a footnote in America's slide into fascism and eventual fall of democracy. But sure, at least we successfully fought a few symbols.

        Any amount of time I spend arguing with hysterical leftists about this point just fuels the machine, so I'm not replying nor will I see replies.

        This is all so stupid and tragic and you all need to actually do something instead of attacking some rando on Lemmy who thinks we're not fighting the right fights. I mean, it's pretty evident we're not fighting the right fights BECAUSE WE FUCKING LOST EVERYTHING AND ARE STILL BICKERING ON SAFESPACE BUBBLES LIKE THIS.

  • I was at Robben Island in Capetown a few months ago and the guide there basically said this was Apartheid. Pit groups against each other so they don't fight against the authority. Race, culture, etc.

    I'm just repeating what he said.

    • Apartheidist regimes make a special point of inventing more racial and ethnic cohorts within the law, so that there is this broad spectrum of oppression - everyone had an opportunity to benefit from the oppression of someone slightly below them, there's always another stair you can get pushed down if the government doesn't like you.

      Since your status is derived from the apartheidist regime and you're always standing on someone else's shoulders, there's this prevailing fear that you'll be targeted by the people behind you if the people at the top ever fail.

      Tends to work best during periods of economic expansion, because there's a surplus to spread around. Even the lower tiers of society can feel like life is improving. But once you start running into a recessionary headwind - because you've depleted the soil with industrial farming or you've mined out the easily accessible precious minerals or malinvestment in education and technology leaves you trailing the rest of the world - the bottom falls out, crime skyrockets, and plutocrats start turning on one another to stay ahead.

      Good thing we're not in a country that's cracked its head on a glass ceiling.

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