I have never seen so many people praise Trump and Pelosi here. The good news is we're (hopefully) getting paid. The bad is that it's clear we all have a price...
I have never seen so many people praise Trump and Pelosi here. The good news is we're (hopefully) getting paid. The bad is that it's clear we all have a price...
:shocked-pikachu:
Seriously, are you surprised that people like getting money? What alternative do you have up your sleeve that you could just smoothly put into play if there was no payout?
The idea of "if things get bad enough people will revolt" is kind of bankrupt. The working class in America (and aligned countries) has been slow-boiling for 40 years; media control is more complete and convincing and engaging; capital has been gaining ground and has armies of the brainwashed to defend it... you're not going to get a revolution that just emerges from the material conditions. You need people to build and fight for what they believe in, and they can contribute more to that if they have more resources.
Narratives of "selling out" imply that without taking the money, people would have the agency to act. But agency doesn't come out of desperation; it comes out of our values, our analysis, and our level of organization.
I don't think it's bankrupt, I think it's incomplete. When I see the rising number of mass shootings and suicides and protests and political extremism in America, I think that that stuff 100% signals a revolt - but the problem is that people live their lives as individuals, so they revolt as individuals. Here on the left we should be about making people realize that they're part of a class so that they can revolt as a class.
That neighborhood that kicked police out and blockaded the road to stop their neighbors from getting evicted has the right idea, the CHOP had the right idea, but the problem with those moments is that there was no larger working class movement for them to connect to, so naturally they got besieged and crushed by the bourgeoise state.