You Counter Trumpism By Ending The Conditions Which Created It, Not With Authoritarian Policies

"The only option people are being offered to debate the pros and cons of is giving more powers to that same corrupt system which created Trump"
caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/you-counter-…
The US political/media class have been pushing hard for more authoritarian policies to stave off the threat of "domestic terrorism" in the wake of the Capitol riot.
President Biden, who was already working on rolling out new domestic terror policies well before January sixth, confirmed after the riot that he is making these new measures a priority.
Political internet censorship is becoming increasingly normalized, and now we're seeing liberals encouraged to form "digital armies" to spy on Trump supporters to report them to the authorities.
caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/viral-trumps…
And an amazingly large percentage of the US population seems to have no problem with any of this, even in sectors of the political spectrum that should really know better by now.
Well there's a lot that can be done, and none of it includes consenting to new Patriot Act-like measures or encouraging monopolistic Silicon Valley plutocrats to censor worldwide political speech. There's just a lot of narrative management going into keeping this from being seen.
The way to stem the tide of Trumpism (or fascism, or white supremacism, or Trump cultism, or whatever term you use for what you're worried about here) is to eliminate the conditions which created it.
Trump was only able to launch his successful faux-populist campaign in the first place by exploiting the widespread pre-existing opinion that there was a swamp that needed draining, a corrupt political system whose leadership does not promote the interests of the people.
Conspiracy theories only exist because the government often does evil things and lies about them with the help of the mass media, forcing people to just guess what's happening behind the opaque wall of government secrecy.
People only get it in their heads that they need a trustworthy strongman to overhaul the system if the system has failed them.
But these changes are not being promoted by the US political/media class, because the US political/media class speaks for an empire that depends on these things.
Without corruption, the plutocratic class couldn't use campaign donations and corporate lobbying to install and maintain politicians who will advance their interests.
Without government secrecy, the oligarchic empire could not conspire in secret to advance the military and economic agendas which form the glue that holds the empire together.
Without a lying mass media, people's consent could not be manufactured for wars and a system which does not serve their interests.
Without widespread poverty and domestic austerity, people could not be kept too busy and politically impotent to challenge the massive political influence of the plutocrats.
You're not going to prevent fascism by creating a big authoritarian monster to stomp it into silence, and even if you could you would only be stopping the fascism by becoming the fascism. To stop the rise of fascism you need to actually change. Drastically.
Believing you can just make it go away without changing your situation is like believing you can avert an oncoming train by putting your hands over your eyes.
Yes, change is desperately needed. Yes, the powerful will resist that change with everything they have. But the alternative is letting them plunge the world into darkness and destruction. We're going to have to find a way to win this thing.
caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/09/10/how…
Well I guess I have to add this to the article:

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More from @caitoz

24 Jan
Days that Biden has chosen not to honor his campaign promise of ending support for the war on Yemen: Image
It is my sincere hope that I won't be posting many of these, because every day Biden chooses not to work toward the end of this war means more dead children. He could've taken major steps to end the mass atrocity in Yemen on day one. He has chosen not to.
inthesetimes.com/article/joe-bi… Image
More info:
Read 7 tweets
23 Jan
Too many people are expecting Biden's warmongering to manifest as blatant Bush-style ground invasions. If you keep looking in that direction you'll probably miss his actual warmongering, which will more likely manifest as proxy wars, cold war escalations, coups, sanctions, etc.
Too much of the antiwar movement is still stuck in the early 2000s. The western war machine just doesn't generally kill that way anymore, and we need to adjust our perspectives if we want to address the actual murderousness as it is actually showing up.
caityjohnstone.medium.com/the-modern-us-…
Already got someone bringing up Biden invading Syria in response to this thread, and that's exactly the sort of thing I'm talking about. Biden hasn't done anything new in Syria yet, it's just the same old shit. Expect more Trump and Obama, not more Bush.
Read 5 tweets
23 Jan
It will always tend to be more profitable to do bad things than good things: ecocide over preservation, exploitation over equality, war over peace. Humanity remains on a doomed trajectory for as long as its systems maintain profit-seeking as the driving force behind its behavior.
The only argument capitalism really has for this is that people can do their good deeds separately from their profit chasing: philanthropy etc. But at best this just means a tiny percentage of human behavior is going toward good things while everything else goes to bad things.
If human behavior is driven by profit chasing and it's more profitable to do bad things than good things, and if the entire system is pointed at doing bad things with only a few charitable good things done in our free time, we will necessarily remain on a doomed trajectory.
Read 4 tweets
23 Jan
FYI the more the powerful end up using the Capitol riot to advance agendas which benefit them, the more likely it is that the riot was orchestrated by the powerful.
I'm not claiming to know what happened, I'm saying you'll be able to make a rough educated guess by watching who winds up benefitting. QAnon had all the markings of a psyop from day one, and "domestic terror" laws are being cooked up right now. Just make a mental note and watch.
I don't. I am engaging in conspiracy theory right now. There's good conspiracy theory and bad conspiracy theory. Right now this is neither, but as evidence comes in it could prove to be good.
Read 5 tweets
23 Jan
Nationwide Dementiafest

"Now everyone has forgotten who Joe Biden is, including Joe Biden."
caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/01/23/nat…
Joe Biden. Joe Biden. Joe fucking fucking motherfucking Biden. In a country of 328 million people the guy that gets elevated to the top is literally one of the very worst human beings in the entire population. That's the "democracy" you're being told is under attack.
And this isn't even prime Joe Biden. This is coming out of retirement for a half-assed exhibition match Joe Biden. This is way past sell-by date Joe Biden. This is Joe Biden with missing pieces. That's the sort of animal that rises to the highest elected office in US "democracy".
Read 4 tweets
22 Jan
Days that Biden has chosen not to honor his campaign promise of ending US support for the mass atrocities in Yemen: Image
I'm posting these every day. It is my sincere hope that I won't be posting many of them. Biden could have taken major steps to end the mass atrocity in Yemen, the single worst atrocity in our world, on day one. He has chosen not to. This is inexcusable.
inthesetimes.com/article/joe-bi… Image
More info:
Read 6 tweets

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