https://twitter.com/Oregonian/status/1361916778318815234?s=19
"The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth.
There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage."
In my view, this is the destruction of the soul of man by capitalism articulated masterfully.
If you ever needed a more clear cut example of when we talk about the role of the police is to protect capital.
Some people in one of my property law classes did the whole "just playing devil's advocate, it's good to padlock dumpsters full of edible food so that they spoil, rather than let people eat them for free", and I called them disgusting for thinking that.
'think of the liability issues!' they cry, while ignoring the people dying for food on the streets they use to get to the faculty. Where's the fucking consideration of 'liability' in that situation?
My prof eventually sent out a classwide email subbing me and saying to be academically respectful of all views, after some people complained about me pointing out how certain attitudes in the class led to the genocide and forced relocation of my people. I told him he would likely have been in favour of those policies at the time.
Last I heard he failed upwards and teaches at Harvard, lol.
:kanada: :amerikkka: :kanada:
There was an indigenous student protest where some of the Black Student Association reps spoke(one quarterback people were swooning over, one skinny turtleneck guy trying to rile up the crowd), and after it all died down I went up to the turtleneck guy and asked if he was the one putting up all the Sankara fliers across town.
Unsurprisingly he was, and we got along great. Apparently, he was a Maoist immigrant and was radicalizing the BSA.
Once I also saw a collection of people in suits waiting for a train and they had burkina faso pins etc. I asked if they were from there, they said they were a diplomatic envoy coming from a meeting, and I told them how Sankara was a hero to the entire world, and that we needed another as soon as possible. They were overjoyed to find someone in the west talking of Sankara that way.
:sankara-salute:
‘think of the liability issues
It's funny that they retreat to this one so often, because last I checked there were literally zero cases in the entire history of the United States where someone who was donated food sued because it was bad. There are a ton of cases against people who give out food brought by the state to prevent them from doing it, though.
Yeah, even when that gets pointed out using all the language of the confined system they profess to believe in, suddenly the issue is something else.
The legal profession and its teaching is such a fucking brainwashing machine that churns out very smooth brains ready to be the privileged pawns of the status quo
CAPITALISM
PROVIDES
THE
BEST
PRODUCT
TO
THE
CONSUMER
"If they worked as hard at their job as they do trying to steal food to survive, they wouldn't be in the situation in the first place!"
It's like I'm on facebook in the comments section of a news article!
and in the next breath this same person will argue against a living wage
