The first clue that Platner was a shitty person wasn’t his military service or his Blackwater stint or his tattoo or the sexual assault stuff, it was that he ran for high office in the US government under one of America’s two mainstream parties. That’s damning in and of itself.
I said this on Twitter today and some DSA guy told me the best way to make changes in US politics is to work within the Democratic Party to elect left-wing candidates and advance progressive agendas.
I said, “You guys have been trying that for ten years with nothing to show for it.”
I mean, how much longer is it going to take before people admit that the “change the party from within” strategy isn’t working? Do you want another twenty years? Another fifty? Do you need to spend the next century watching a handful of vaguely progressive imperialists getting elected to Congress and then getting primaried out by opponents with mountains of special interest funding before you admit that you’re not making any meaningful gains? Our planet could be lifeless before then.
The Bernie Sanders “revolution” was ten years ago. Large factions of the American left took up his call to take over the Democratic Party using primary elections throughout the nation, and ever since then it’s been a two-steps-forward, two-steps-back addition of zeros. The people never got President Bernie, and the few progressive gains made on Capitol Hill were either kicked out like Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman or went full pro-establishment like John Fetterman. The few who stuck around have turned out to be perpetually disappointing empire managers like AOC, who know how to straddle the line between left-wing lip service and status quo swamp monster.
Crosspost from https://lemmygrad.ml/post/12160078 by Tim Foley:
Since you’re just copy and pasting this… I’ll do the same from another comment section responding to this same thing:
Constantly and unsurprisingly disappointed in Caitlin Johnstone’s articles. The second you click on her substack you know the exact take she’s going to have for the issue: the same that a Russian asset who is trying to fuck up domestic stuff would have. Not saying that she necessarily is or isn’t, but just assume what a Russian asset would say and that’s what she will have for an opinion. Sometimes it’s right, no doubt, but mostly it’s just defeatist crap like this. 👎
Girl, I am really not trying to be cover of a book and all that here… But man, combine: moderates lgbtq+ Christianity, volcel, and flexitarian (by themselves all debatable) with this absolute doo doo article… What are you even doing over there? 🫱🌾
… What? Caitlin Johnstone is usually correct, and is one of the most perceptive western journalists and analysts I know of.
Sure, in some ways in criticizing America, which America definitely deserves, she is. But she is also utterly predictable with her takes following the archetype I posited and I stand behind my original comment.
I can’t really make sense of what you’re saying though.
If a Russian asset is fucking up the domestic side of the most evil and bloodthirsty empire the world has seen since the sun finally set on the British empire, isn’t that a good thing?
I want maximally good things for the maximum amount of people possible. Just because folks want to see the US empire fail it doesn’t mean that they want the same. They may have an ulterior motive. I’m implying that could be happening. And if it’s not, I do not believe her approach is useful. I want change. I think we probably ideologically agree. I do not believe this is the way to go about it
Do what you’ve always done. Get what you always got. 💩