It’s basically how Trump got elected so you’re right. Musk is too dumb to pull it off though because he’s alienated himself from all parts of the political spectrum. Only a niche of crypto NFT bozos like Musk now.
I won’t even say that about Musk because of what we saw happen with Trump. Memes, a superiority complex, and a hint of nihilism is how you get to where we are.
It’s a little reductive but I generally agree. Trump got where he did because he expressed really existing unrest and Hillary Clinton did not. Even if Clinton won it wouldn’t have saved the day, because that tension would still exist and intensify.
Working against individuals is not a useless tactic but it is nothing more or less than triage. It’s a mistake to place so much emphasis on individuals rather than the material conditions of the larger part of society, the working class, who look for a systemic solution to their problems but struggle to find expression for it. The liberals cannot solve the problem because their thesis is that the status quo is perfect, so that is the only basis on which they can oppose someone like Trump ie “he is wrong because the working class is not struggling, actually, now please quiet down.” It’s a losing strategy but they have no other option. Hence the intense focus on Trump the person, not Trump the reactionary expression of contradiction.
If Trump or Elon or whoever the fuck gets elected… it is a disaster first and foremost for the elements of the ruling class whose privilege would be usurped. It is only secondarily a disaster for the working class to the extent that reactionary policies harm and divide them up along racial, ethnic, religious etc lines.
The bourgeoisie want to convince the working class that they share a common struggle against Trump when in fact the two struggles have very different characters. It’s how the bourgeoisie overthrew feudal society: they convinced the serfs and peasants and small artisans that the struggle of that society was essentially a common struggle against the aristocracy. Which was true. But the essential struggle of this moment is not proletariat + liberal bourgeoisie versus reactionary bourgeoisie. It is proletariat + class conscious petty bourgeois versus the bourgeoisie.
It’s basically how Trump got elected so you’re right. Musk is too dumb to pull it off though because he’s alienated himself from all parts of the political spectrum. Only a niche of crypto NFT bozos like Musk now.
I won’t even say that about Musk because of what we saw happen with Trump. Memes, a superiority complex, and a hint of nihilism is how you get to where we are.
It’s a little reductive but I generally agree. Trump got where he did because he expressed really existing unrest and Hillary Clinton did not. Even if Clinton won it wouldn’t have saved the day, because that tension would still exist and intensify.
Working against individuals is not a useless tactic but it is nothing more or less than triage. It’s a mistake to place so much emphasis on individuals rather than the material conditions of the larger part of society, the working class, who look for a systemic solution to their problems but struggle to find expression for it. The liberals cannot solve the problem because their thesis is that the status quo is perfect, so that is the only basis on which they can oppose someone like Trump ie “he is wrong because the working class is not struggling, actually, now please quiet down.” It’s a losing strategy but they have no other option. Hence the intense focus on Trump the person, not Trump the reactionary expression of contradiction.
If Trump or Elon or whoever the fuck gets elected… it is a disaster first and foremost for the elements of the ruling class whose privilege would be usurped. It is only secondarily a disaster for the working class to the extent that reactionary policies harm and divide them up along racial, ethnic, religious etc lines.
The bourgeoisie want to convince the working class that they share a common struggle against Trump when in fact the two struggles have very different characters. It’s how the bourgeoisie overthrew feudal society: they convinced the serfs and peasants and small artisans that the struggle of that society was essentially a common struggle against the aristocracy. Which was true. But the essential struggle of this moment is not proletariat + liberal bourgeoisie versus reactionary bourgeoisie. It is proletariat + class conscious petty bourgeois versus the bourgeoisie.