Thread by @wmnjoya

Tribalism is a narrative for manufacturing consent. It is a narrative designed to exclude class, history, economics and other issues from elections, and to make people accept the political incoherence and manipulation by imperialism. #decolonizeelections

Meaning that once we accept that ALL Kenyans vote on tribalism ONLY, we accept a very narrow politics with all its contradictions. Politics becomes toxic because people are unable to politically organize on other issues, and they are sabotaged when they do. #decolonizeelections

The same tribal formula is in the US and the UK. The US is infamous for using race and identity for enforcing its toxic two horse race. Bernie Sanders was vilified by the Democrats and Pelosi rebuked The Squad (kina AOC) for spoiling the racial algorithms
#decolonizeelections

In the 2016 elections, black Americans were put in the uncomfortable position of having to choose between Trump, who was openly racist, and Hillary who was partly responsible for the high incarceration rates of black people. That was not a real choice. #decolonizeelections

Third parties in the US have a very difficult time getting a voice. They are institutionally blocked from the ballot, or third-party presidential candidates running on major social issues are vilified, especially by Democrats. #decolonizelections
democracynow.org/2016/8/4/as_gr…

Meanwhile, the US offers voters its own version of Wajackoya, where you have a cartoon running for the presidency. Joe Exotic, a guy obsessed with big cats, ran for US elections in 2016.
#decolonizeelections

The UK has the same toxic politics. Their elections are reduced to a Labour vs Tory race, and any attempt in Labour to prioritize working class politics is ruthlessly squashed with the help of the media and the UK version of SK Macharia (aka Rupert Murdoch) #decolonizeelections

In 2015, Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader of the Labour Party thanks to ordinary people joined the party in record numbers. Corbyn promised to put working class agenda back on the table.

The establishment panicked.
#decolonizeelections

They supported an elite buffoon as Prime minister while they worked on undermining Cobyn's leadership from within the party. Imagine that. Bureaucrats of a party working hard to make sure that their democratically elected party leader loses the elections.

#decolonizeelections

Meanwhile, they kept the British voters entertained with a guy called de Pfeffel, who crushed his way through the pandemic, and was cracking jokes and quoting Shakespeare or Kermit the Frog when dealing with serious social issues. #decolonizeelections

For the record, this is the guy Johnson was quoting at the climate summit.

And they have more than a one Wajackoya in British elections. There's Lord Buckethead, Elmo and Binface who usually compete in the same constituency as the prime minister.
#decolonizeelections

All this drama was basically to keep British voters distracted while they conducted a purge of the Labour Party after Corbyn lost the elections. The goal of the purge was to mold the Labour Party in the image of the Tories #decolonizeelections

Once Labour was safely toothless, Murdoch (UK's SK Macharia), the UK Githeri media and Tory MPs could safely start exposing de Pfeffel's incompetence and force him to resign. #decolonizeelections

Now the UK is stuck in a nowhere land, like us, where the people have to wait for the Tories to choose the next prime minister. It's fundamentally anti-democratic because No. 10 doesnt have to face the electorate.

That was the same point of BBI. #decolonizeelections

And now NIS has perfected the art of introducing comic relief in elections to distract us. This year it was Wajackoya. He inherited that space from Githeriman of 2017.
#decolonizeelections

This political absurdity is what happens when we narrow political discussions to single stories. But Empire thrives on putting one story on a pedestal and crushing all other stories around it. And we #decolonizeelections by multiplying the stories.

Chomsky put it briefly in this way.

Tribalism works the same way. It narrows the conversation, but excites the liveliest and most toxic debates that leave us pacified and healing from wounds for the next 5 years. And then we get another dose of elections.
#decolonizeelections