Thomas Riggins
Welcome to the United States of Hate. Researchers "found that in all U.S. regions, less education, population change, and ethnic diversity correlated with more hate groups, as did areas with higher poverty rates and more conservative political affiliation."
Interestingly, the more CONSERVATIVE an area of the country is the more hate groups it has. The correlation between conservative politics and fascism (the grounds of fascist ideology are found on the right-wing) implies the fight against hatred and the inhumanity and violence it breeds is also a fight against conservativism and the unenlightenment and ignorance it represents.
Liberals are another problem. When they are stressed out by the struggle of the oppressed they tend to mutate into conservatives. How this is reflected in the class strugge poses a problem for the struggle for socialism in the US since the major liberal party in the US, the Democratic, now has at least three factions -- moderate liberals (left-wing conservatives: Obama/HRC wing), liberals (straddling the fence between HRC and Sanders people but more likely to jump down on the HRC side), and progressive/social democratic Bernie Sanders types (although Sanders claims that he is not a Democrat).
The legitimate Left has to devise tactics that will minimize the defection of the members of first two groups to the conservatives while at the same time not betraying true Left values (the Democratic cave in re Dreamers and the Budget is an example) while at the same increasing the intensity of the class struggle while being aware that many millions of "liberals" don't self-identify as working class. This is the job of the CP (I hope it's up to it even without its theoretical journal which handicaps wide spread discussion of these issues within the membership). How to deal with the Greens and other third parties is also a problem that seemingly hasn't been handled very well.
Welcome to the United States of Hate. Researchers "found that in all U.S. regions, less education, population change, and ethnic diversity correlated with more hate groups, as did areas with higher poverty rates and more conservative political affiliation."
Interestingly, the more CONSERVATIVE an area of the country is the more hate groups it has. The correlation between conservative politics and fascism (the grounds of fascist ideology are found on the right-wing) implies the fight against hatred and the inhumanity and violence it breeds is also a fight against conservativism and the unenlightenment and ignorance it represents.
Liberals are another problem. When they are stressed out by the struggle of the oppressed they tend to mutate into conservatives. How this is reflected in the class strugge poses a problem for the struggle for socialism in the US since the major liberal party in the US, the Democratic, now has at least three factions -- moderate liberals (left-wing conservatives: Obama/HRC wing), liberals (straddling the fence between HRC and Sanders people but more likely to jump down on the HRC side), and progressive/social democratic Bernie Sanders types (although Sanders claims that he is not a Democrat).
The legitimate Left has to devise tactics that will minimize the defection of the members of first two groups to the conservatives while at the same time not betraying true Left values (the Democratic cave in re Dreamers and the Budget is an example) while at the same increasing the intensity of the class struggle while being aware that many millions of "liberals" don't self-identify as working class. This is the job of the CP (I hope it's up to it even without its theoretical journal which handicaps wide spread discussion of these issues within the membership). How to deal with the Greens and other third parties is also a problem that seemingly hasn't been handled very well.
No comments:
Post a Comment