Peter Watkins is fascinating, a great comrade, as far as I can tell.
Was fascinated with him a while back.
His analysis about how often film can be so easily used for cloying, predictable mainstream ends is really great.
Thanks, will watch when I can.
This is the kind of thing to burst the bubble of American Exceptionalism that all the brainwashed nationalists need so desperately to see.
They know it , often on a visceral level too. But like with so much real news dissemination these stories are buried . Which has the effect on the average American of not believing something is valid, until they see it on tv or a video.
More of these kinds of reports, but also tying it to the corrosive economic system of capitalism as the culprit, will be the thing that gets the 99% united against this system.
Jfc.
Guilt by association. I know of none of what you’re talking about. If he’s on record as being transphobic - and “contributes to the planned genocide” - then please produce the evidence. That’s serious.
Admittedly I haven’t followed his career in the past few years as closely. Whenever he offers media criticism or points out the hypocrisy of the Dem party I’ve found his critiques to almost always be among the best.
AFAIC there’s way too much canceling of everyone. Frankly, I don’t find him full MAGA - at all.
I should also like to point out that lately a lot of excellent, career Left writers or commentators have garnered larger followings (benefiting from Trump’s loss) of RWers, who ostensibly were looking for new voices willing to criticize the Dem Party. Which is much different than actually being a supporter of RW politics.
That said, I’m willing to hear people out.
Just about to go to bed after a long say with the kids and in the sun. So don’t have a lot to offer other than, great stuff!
Amazing that the horrific tragedy that Casale personally witnessed at Kent State was immortalized by Neil Young in one of the all-time great songs of crystalline capturing of a moment, and would lead to him swearing off the hippie movement. Only to so strangely be paired up with the Hippie Dreamer himself in some intense jams, which influenced Young in lots of ways, they title Rust Never Sleeps is one.
Badly need to check out Devo more. When hearing them as a hard rock kid they just seemed too weird. I now know there’s some great stuff there, and in who they were/what they were doing.
It’s an incredibly English-written, rhyming poem. He studied abroad, didn’t he? Wonder how many languages he spoke.
The little I know of him is so impressive. Must pick up a good book. Suggestions welcomed.
Wow, what a story of Davis/Abdul-Hakeem!
Need to read a bit more about this. Incredible that he shot six cops and was acquitted. Justice, for a black man in the Bronx? One little sparkle of hope.
I’ve been contemplating that beautiful, noble 24yr old, twice-widowed woman soldier with the machine gun for hours now. I’m in awe of, and in love, with her.
Extraordinarily moving photos and stories. The dignity, heroism and resilience of the people shines through. This is a gem - thanks!
Capitalism’s other end point is monopoly. Which is what you’re looking at when you realize there’s hardly any regional things anymore (even radio stations, which used to be a delight).
Mergers and acquisitions were the rage in the 80’s/90’s. Corporate conglomeration decimated everything. There are some graphs showing, for instance, how maybe a handful of food conglomerates like Nestle, Kraft and General Mills own and produce pretty much all the crappy processed foods displayed on American supermarkets shelves to give the illusion of many choices. Freedom of choice!
As Bill Hicks said, please do us all a favor if you’re in marketing and kill yourselves.
Yeah, right.
When you look it in the face it’s destabilizing almost. That there are still people in 2023 who can adopt such jarringly insane views. As if he lived in a cave without any human interaction while getting nonstop 24/7 racist propaganda like in a mind experiment or something. The guy’s *a fucking paramedic *, does he actually think humans with different pigmentation don’t have the exact same biological elements as those with lighter skin.
Propaganda and willful ignorance is a volatile mix.
Reading the Reddit comments on r/NYC has been so deeply awful and depressing too.
How are we ever going to get anywhere with such people in our midst?
One point I do agree with, is that it will be an unfair financial burden upon the working class.
NYC is and has always been a place in which everyone has to hustle to afford the exorbitant often obscene costs of living. The money’s in the city, so one is always having to haul oneself, and one’s things, in to do the work.
Maybe some kind of staggered pricing could work, like the way Scandinavian countries handle traffic and speeding offenses. Which is based on one’s earnings, so working class people aren’t destroyed by one stupid indiscretion. Rich people don’t give a fuck about tickets, so they can flout all laws.
The overall solution would seem to involve, as ever, the perpetual elephant in the room where this city is concerned: taxing the fucking rich!
Complete extortion racket.
In full socialism/communism no one would be bilked by the private contractors who get these contracts.
Financial preying upon the vulnerable: a hallmark of capitalism.
So fucking utterly grotesque - and uniquely American.
Jfc.
Goldman fucking Sachs “philanthropy fund”?
What the fucking fuck?
One part of me thinks, yeah, take that disgusting, illicit and fictitious capital and use it for something really good finally. Another part is totally discombobulated and confused.
Because you really have to wonder: what exactly are the strings attached? The only agreement, as far as I’m concerned in taking this kind of foul money, is that there are, under any circumstances, no expectations or demands attached to the acceptance of this “philanthropy.”
People’s Forum is such a great place, a dream really.
A blueprint for which should be in every neighborhood across the country.
But I thought this only happens in those “Third World” countries?
Oh, the 10 year old is being groomed for a cover story in Forbes, in which he’ll say that he’s got to start somewhere to becoming a powerful CEO.
That’s bullshit.
Someone needed to speak up thusly, “yo, he’s going to die if you don’t stop choking him; does this person deserve to die because he’s having a mental breakdown?”
Which would totally change the feeling in the subway car, from thinking of the person being choked as a disturber of the peace inconveniencing and perhaps possibly scaring a few people, to a human being with mental health problems having a bad day but basically not going to harm anybody.
I mean, one person speaking up could have engendered the requisite feeling of compassion and empathy that situation should have taken.
And that poor guy would be alive today and (hopefully) getting treatment, while at the same time the crowd could have shamed and stopped the vigilante asshole for wanting to act out his fascist fantasy.
As with the both the Eric Garner and George Floyd murders by thug cops, I have to respectfully ask of the onlookers: why did none of you pieces of shit intervene to stop the killing of an unarmed, innocent man - especially one who was compelled to issue a desperate plea for help in describing his condition?
So conditioned are we with fealty to the state, or more precisely stunted children who do as their told and absolutely never, ever ruffle any feathers, that we can’t imagine even acting in accordance with what is right, damn “the law” or what the mob is doing.
Corporate media either ridicules (RW) or ignores (mainstream liberal) the realities of the poor. And this is what we get: fearful little tough guys, living out their fantasies of killing the expendable poor and black who threaten their bourgeois consciousness.
15 minutes of choking somebody is murder. That lawyer statement released on his behalf was one of the lamest, most pathetically transparent admission of guilt too.
Fucking POS scumbag fascist vigilante.