We need to have a conversation about state violence, police cruelty, and how liberal democracies become authoritarian states.
People need to understand exactly what's happening right now and what's at stake.
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People need to understand exactly what's happening right now and what's at stake.
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The reason this is happening is because the state is failing. It can't provide relief from a generational pandemic or a looming depression. It can't make lives better or provide democratic means for reform/progress.
When a state has nothing left to offer, it offers violence.
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When a state has nothing left to offer, it offers violence.
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America is broken. Our government has been bought and sold by the wealthy and powerful and one of our major parties has completely abandoned democratic ideals in favor of gerrymandering, disenfranchisement, intimidation, and blatant appeals to fascism.
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People would not be out in the streets if they had the means to address their frustrations and concerns via actual democratic channels. This is why revolutions happen. Because the system locks out its people in favor of wealth and power.
It builds until it can't anymore.
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It builds until it can't anymore.
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These protests and this movement are mass messages that the state is failing and is no longer able to hear the needs of the people or is no longer interested in hearing the needs of the people.
It is a message that behind the veneer of liberal democracy is fascism.
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It is a message that behind the veneer of liberal democracy is fascism.
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The violence we're watching is two-fold. These cops are taught to behave this way, their system runs on this kind of cruelty. But it also sends a message to potential protesters: to exercise your First Amendment rights means risking having your skull caved in.
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Fascists would MUCH RATHER have the illusion of liberal democracy to hide their control. They love when people have symbolic freedoms but are terrified to exercise them.
This controlled management is what separates explicit fascists from controlled democracy.
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This controlled management is what separates explicit fascists from controlled democracy.
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America is on the precipice of becoming a totally managed democracy where rights are only illusory and public life is riddled with illusory moments and crises. Authoritarians are dead-set on replacing liberal democracy with a mutated form that appears normal but is perverted.
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Authoritarians like Trump, the wealthy and powerful, corporations, Big Tech, they're all post-political. They'd rather move beyond democratic institutions in order to pursue profit and power without impediment.
They'd rather do it quietly without the violence and dissent.
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They'd rather do it quietly without the violence and dissent.
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This explicit violence and cruelty is the last resort of failing states when they can no longer contain the people by empty promises and illusory symbols of progress and freedom.
They'll use violence to dissuade protest and the usage of freedoms until voices go silent.
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They'll use violence to dissuade protest and the usage of freedoms until voices go silent.
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The cruelty is the point.
The cruelty is a means to intimidate people into silence so that they retain their Constitutional rights but are too afraid to use them or realize them.
It's an illusion and the main foundation of illiberal or managed democracies.
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The cruelty is a means to intimidate people into silence so that they retain their Constitutional rights but are too afraid to use them or realize them.
It's an illusion and the main foundation of illiberal or managed democracies.
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Remember this as police leave men and women bleeding in the streets, as they gleefully beat them. It's messaging. It's suppression.
Remember this when Trump calls them terrorists or Cotton calls for their execution. It's the last resort of anti-democratic institutions.
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Remember this when Trump calls them terrorists or Cotton calls for their execution. It's the last resort of anti-democratic institutions.
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