Biden has announced plans to roll out new domestic terrorism laws in the wake of the Capitol Hill riot.
Did you know that Biden has often boasted about being the original author of the US Patriot Act?
[...] Accounts are vanishing quickly, including some popular Trump supporter accounts. I myself have lost hundreds of followers on Twitter in the last few hours, and I've seen people saying they lost a lot more.
It also wasn't just Trump supporters; leftist accounts are getting suspended too. The online left is hopefully learning that cheering for Twitter "banning fascists" irrationally assumes that (A) their purges are only banning fascists and (B) they are limiting their bans to your personal definition of fascists. There is no basis whatsoever for either of these assumptions. [...]
[...] "The post 9/11 era is over," Slotkin [CIA 'analyst'] tweeted while sharing a clip of her appearance. "The single greatest national security threat right now is our internal division. The threat of domestic terrorism. The polarization that threatens our democracy. If we don't reconnect our two Americas, the threats will not have to come from the outside." [...]
This is the urge to bring the draconian policies from abroad home.
[...] Supporting the censorship of online speech is to support the authority of monopolistic tech oligarchs to exert more and more global control over human communication. Regardless of your attitude toward whoever happens to be getting deplatformed today, supporting this is suicidal. [...]
See full linked article, not a long read.
Remember, Biden loves to brag about being the author of the first Patriot Act. We are 100% going to get another one that's much worse and seeks to clamp down on "dis-information" which will mean Russia hysteria and Sinophobia being used to justify silencing of any opinions too far outside the mainstream consensus.
I mean, I was laughing and being worried at the same time. Can't I do both?
Nothing wrong with laughing at the pained racists and fascists I suppose. But I object to cheering it. It's not being done for the right reasons and the rationale will be used against us, already is being used against us. Have no doubt, the left loses far more out of such silencing than the right whose culture is already sewn into the fabric of the nation and the nation's culture.
What is the material result of us cheering this vs not cheering this?
Exactly this. These platforms aren't constrained by anything, including actual laws, but they're going to change their behavior based on what the online left does or doesn't complain about? They're monopolies, they don't give a fuck what anyone thinks. Maybe we should all change our avatars to black to protest this injustice? Y'all need materialism.
What's the material result of cheering violent imperialist action versus not? I am not saying this is that. But you're basically cheering for a state of affairs that is very bad for us, lending your voice in support. Why not go down to the police station and cheer them and buy some back the blue merch? In the larger picture it wouldn't matter if you did do that of course but it isn't uh to the benefit of the left to do so.
What I am attempting to do here is make people aware of what these moves really mean. It's like all that very annoying "the libs are waking up/wtf woke subredditx" posting that has been going on for a while that misunderstands the nature of things, it sees a good thing, devoid of context and cheers of it then is confused why it is followed by a bad thing. The fascists are not being silenced and deplatformed because they are fascists or because they are particularly violent or hateful. They are being silenced and deplatformed because they are being violent towards the wrong people (in this case the institutions of power and representatives thereof) and because their hate is too obvious and uncivil, of a lowbrow nature as opposed to approved racism via police violence and institutional means and methods like uh Biden ran with in the 90s.
So yes it is amusing to see the fascists hurting of course. But they are not being hurt for the right reasons and they are not truly as dangerous as the liberal institutions, certainly their body count is a rounding error on that of the institutions and capitalist system itself. And these reasons are not good reasons and often non-sensical, if you read Twitter's explanation for banning Trump it's the most bullshit thing I've seen in a bit. It's not a clear "this guy is a racist or here are racist things", it's more "he said some things which we believe may be taken by some of his supporters to mean the precious election was a fraud or that they should engage in violence against the capital" when he is on record urging people to directly beat people up, on record with racist statements, and so on and so forth. Because they don't fundamentally object to that so it boils down to "how dare you sir disrespect our precious bourgeois democracy and its institutions". Which is vague as fuck. I disrespect that, anyone who debunks the State Dept does that.
My question was genuine and not rhetorical. If you had said that if we cheered it on, twitter admins might be encouraged to do more of such actions in the future which will inevitably backfire on us, I would have agreed with you.
For those leftists who cheer on imperialist action, we can see their material goals, that is free healthcare for the core at the expense of the world. I just want you to frame your answer in this way so we can see clearly the benefits or negatives to doing this or that for the movement
Here are some general thoughts I wrote down before even seeing this as I saw all of the cheering and hooting about the deplatforming of the Trumpists:
There is a strong push to silence anyone who challenges the status quo, probably backed by the nat-sec agencies, to enact a new nationalist cold war consensus to bind America back together to destroy China and continue its reign as hegemon.
The Democrats (at least the base as you can plainly see on reddit) are solidly behind this as part of the agenda is purging the "impure" which means mainly Trump supporters in power but will also mean a clampdown on the left for daring such "un-American/beneficial to our enemies" acts as supporting Tara Reade, challenging the mainstream lies about AES nations, and punching at Biden from the left (which makes many of them feel insecure and angry).
Yes, it is now most obvious in the form of silencing and deplatforming racists and fascists which is good. However the reasoning is bad ("patriotism" and charges of treason instead of the hate) and inevitably the "enlightened centrist" liberals will catch wind of the complaints of the reactionaries about all the anti-American communists and socialists and turn to silence us and equate us to them with accusations of genocide denial and all of us just being Russian or Chinese agents/shills anyways spreading disinfo to weaken Amerikkka. In fact I doubt it will take complaints from the Republican types to do it, they're already talking about having to do things about "dis-information from our enemies". They see you and me, every one of us as either literally a paid shill or a "useful id*ot".
THIS IS THE BARGAIN. The new bargain set out by the powerful in America, a purge of the most vocal, boisterous and unhinged fringe reactionary elements in exchange for the rights to a clampdown against anyone outside the neoliberal consensus which means removal of the growing left in a time of economic downward mobility and upheaval. It is one the overwhelming majority of "vote blue" Biden stanning liberals are all too eager to take.
The status quo favors reactionaries...
...never think you have won anything but a few meaningless tears from meaningless and often powerless (and if they're not powerless, if they're Sean Hannity then they have the money and resources and connections to overcome this censorship anyways on their own platforms while the left has no such wealthy, connected personalities or benefactors) fascist grifters with this stuff.
The police have long carried out fascist violence against POC in the US and protected from criticism from the left by new moderation policies and/or laws they will continue to do so with the impunity of the state. The US military is of course a perpetrator of global "fascist" violence against the bodies of the global proletariat. The chances for changing these things, for weakening this evil empire and lessening harm to POC within and without is with us having a voice against neo-liberalism.
These companies and people like Joe Biden and the DNC do not object of course to the fascist ideology, to the violence of the wicked US empire or police violence, or for that matter to a certain racism or sexism or bigotry. They object to the incivility of rocking the boat with mean threats and nasty slurs. Let the police continue to kill black people without objection, that's fine by them, that's not violence to their eyes. But object to it strenuously, rock the status quo and that's violence to their eyes. And why shouldn't it be? It is that which threatens the rule of empire and the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.
It is not good PERIOD to cheer the development of large for-profit companies with contracts and relationships with the national security state starting to police what is and what is not acceptable political content and purging anyone and anything they deem unacceptable. FULL STOP.
This will do nothing to stop fascism in the US.
Fascism is here already every day for POC and other minorities subject to unaccountable state violence. But if we're talking taking off the mask, camps and death trains type it won't stop that either.
Fascism does not arise or take power because of a bunch of angry, racist, channers online or Fox News boomers marching in the streets, it arises because the national bourgeois feel threatened and calls it up and gives it power to protect them and their interests.
(What it does do is give all the excuse they need to completely silence the left and any challenges against any actions or statements by the American state that rise to more than milquetoast liberal critiques of appearance.)
This is also why their coup on the 6th did not succeed and would not have changed anything if they had. The cops were letting them express their frustration at the symbol of power but not the actual power. Were they to try storming one of the nat-sec agencies, reactionaries or no and you will get a very different level of violence in their response. That is where the real power, the real government that unchangingly protects the interests of the bourgeoisie and the empire rests. The congress critters may change, they may die or even be murdered by furious chuds or cults in South America but it doesn't matter, for every one of them there are a hundred they can be replaced with who while having minor disagreements with implementation details all favor fundamentally the same system and privilege and can be inculcated with the right values and thinking with a little time in Washington.
Joe Biden will be clamping down hardest on the left, on any dissent against American imperialism as he tries to "reach across the aisle" to "heal the nation" with the Republicans.
He will use this riot in DC as well as the well trodden Democrat conspiracy about Russia and the bi-partisan hatred and cold war mentality towards China to enact sweeping powers and restrictions. I also would not be surprised by a false flag or hyping of an incident with antifa early in his first term for him to eagerly show the chuds how eager he is to crush the "violent left".
Get ready for the strong possibility of Patriot Act 2.0, the criminalization of any "anti-US"/"foreign propaganda and disinfo"/"Russian/Chinese disinfo campaigns" that make it impossible to challenge US imperialism online, it will create an atmosphere where you get permabanned and struggle to find hosting for resources because they're all being purged and links to them blocked on major platforms in the name of stopping muh Russian/Chinese influence against muh beloved Amerikkka. |
Reactionaries while no longer able to openly fantasize about murdering minorities in their neighborhoods (on major platforms) will still be part of the dominant American ideology, the one that holds every police baton, every soldier's gun, every US gunship massacring brown people far away from us. The violence level will be dialed up ever further as a result of lack of dissent.
Make no mistake, this is a prelude to what may be a forceful, maybe even violent stripping of civil liberties and rights in the name of a new American consensus and absolute merciless state and state urged private censorship towards both the left and the fringe reactionary right. Biden will hand all the tools necessary to the fascist who comes after him. That or we will have a coup and a military junta which violently suppresses both the reactionary fringe and the left as a whole in the name of American values.
Biden is in my mind much more dangerous than Trump ever was. He is the consensus tyrant, the kind who upholds empire abroad and will reach across the aisle to clamp down at home on both extremes, the left, and the fringe reactionary right. He hates BLM, he is a racist. But he has the respectability of not being one. He has screaming online armies of sobbing liberals proclaiming how much better than Trump he is who shove their fingers furiously into their eardrums to silence any attempt at criticism of him.
Many of you were liberals under Obama (as was I), you've had it easy criticizing things under a hated president that distracted the liberals, you will now see the wilderness the left wandered under Obama, the isolation, the attacks from a majority of the population, and so on.
Stop wasting your time doing the work of liberals in assisting in the deplatforming of these meaningless chud losers, stop cheering the idea that evil major corporations with blood-stained hands who work hand in hand with the nat-sec state should be arbitrating these things. This is a crusade against the left by virtue of being a crusade against those outside the neo-liberal, pro-empire consensus more than it is against the reactionary fringe (notice, fringe, not all reactionaries, these people want a return to Reaganism or Clintonism not soc-dem policies). And as I outlined, because reactionary thought is the default it is the left who loses in a return to consensus.
Yes reactionaries should not be given free speech, but they should be denied it not on charges of "anti-americanism" or "assisting a foreign power" or "sedition against America" which is what is happening, but on the basis of their hatred/bigotry and support for a vile system. And that will not be done by corporations, ever, it will be accomplished only by the left once it has power. Until then let the liberals who will be left spared by this crackdown, who will spit on you as you're dragged away to a camp with the reactionaries, who will cheer for the passage of the patriot act 2.0 because it will be used to silence us and crush some of but not all of the worst reactionaries, let them, the liberals use their energy on it. Something large and deadly is looming and I dread what will come of it and you should too.
To those who might say that online is irrelevant, to "log-off" you are incorrect. See my argument below:
Where did a huge chunk of discussion and social interaction take place even before COVID? Online.
Where does even more take place since? Online.
Where might impressionable kids for whom the propaganda hasn’t set in encounter communist ideas? Unless you like picketing schools and handing out pamphlets the answer is online.
So yes. The left being silenced online has enormous ramifications for spreading our ideas and recruiting new people (young people spend so much of their social lives online). I myself can say my entire journey from liberal to ML occurred thanks to online interactions, communities and resources such as publications. Lots of other people were exposed entirely through personalities. Hell the largest left reddit sub ever, CTH ostensibly started out as a sub for a podcast. And most of you here I would bet were exposed to communist thought and became communists online.
It’s amusing then to say we should just spread ideas IRL and cede online. It smacks of fetishization of the way the revolutionaries of old did things without accounting for changes in a society.
Things have changed! Adapt to the new reality or lose. The public square in the modern age is online. The modern watercooler is online. There is nothing wrong with talking to people you know in real life and advocating in real life and you should, but you are foolish if you think online spreading of our ideas and countering lies is not an essential ingredient.
At any rate when you talk to people IRL what resources do you give them? I would bet money the resources are online, they're marxists.org, they're good youtubers, they're wikis that debunk NATO lies, etc. Without them you're left either telling people to buy books (lol, good luck, the fascists will "educate" you on fascism for free, no purchase or shipping needed) or if you have money handing out copies of hard to squire books and hoping people don't set them aside and lose them as they get absorbed into their computer after work. If propaganda online didn't matter then the capitalists, the empire, wouldn't spend so much money on manipulating opinion online.
There is also the matter of anti-imperialism. Even if we cannot get the masses to class consciousness via memes and posting we could previously undermine the lies that are used to justify imperialist aggression. We could present an alternative to the propaganda about China being used to manufacture a new cold war and racism. We could undermine the image of the US by spreading word of its atrocities which creates division and dissent which could result in enough pressure to save lives. Cracks in the armor of American exceptionalism are good. Look no further than the fact that on reddit these days our efforts have had dividends, in many China propaganda posts you can now find dissent upvoted, you can find skepticism of these notions upvoted.
Stay safe comrades. Things may be about to get much more dangerous and much harder.
I agree it's important, and I agree it's a bad position about to get worse, but what is the actual plan to do anything about it? Post about how twitter needs more free speech & should let nazis stay? what is that going to accomplish?
Two words : opsec and privacy. There surely must exist a way to make it harder for the pigs to get info on us. I do not have any social media left, and I'm thinking on switching to both Tor and DuckDuckGo for my research. I mean, that's not much, but that's a start.
The other poster has it. We should if we can lend voices to opposition to this eventual bill. We may not stop it but it's worth a shot. Outside of that, we'll just have to endure and fight harder and hope this doesn't all end within 12 years with most of us against a wall looking down the barrels of a bunch of long-guns.
the US has moved from the 'War on [foreign] terror' to the 'War on domestic terror’
If I have to say Foucault’s boomerang one more time I’m gonna get semantic satiation
can't wait for Biden to drone me at Thanksgiving because my aunt's BF posted one too many q anon memes.
liberals thought biden was going to be obama's third term but really he's going to be bush's third term
You're not trying to make things better, you're trying to make them worse. You're not trying to restore peace and order, you're trying to force a confrontation so your political enemies can be crushed. You're accelerationist.
If this is referring to the Silicon Valley types, I don’t think that much thought goes into it. I think they see this as an opportunity to get a little PR win.
Get your leftist friends on Mastodon and Friendica. Like yesterday. If you can afford Netflix, you can afford to a host a small server. Get your liberal friends and family on there too.
