This is one of my fundamental hangups with other communists. Class consciousness in the US will not reliably produce communists. It will produce imperialists much more reliably.

Socialist revolution is not a natural outcome of American class consciousness, WW3 is.

So, in fact, critical consciousness combined with a very refined ethical (not moral, more onto-epistemological) orientation is necessary to arrive at the consciousness needed for revolution in the US. In many regards, you DO need to be very critically skilled to be a communist in the US. Class doesn’t automatically hand you your politics, and the class that would hand you a proletarian politic does not exist in the US. Having a boss and having needs doesn’t magically create communists in a society built on theft and rape. It creates fascists.

I work in university education and critical thinking is abysmal among students. I deal with 40-60 students per class, maybe 10-15 in a class show worthwhile critical skills. Most struggle to retain key points or cannot read and follow instructions. The majority don’t, or don’t know how, to access library databases or archives. Most assignments are full of sources they got from Google because the library search function is an extra click away.

Students also make life hell for themselves, their peers, and teachers because of their lack of respect for their surroundings. A significant portion of students just sit there with earbuds in and text or shop online.

And this isn’t even mentioning the fact that half the curriculum isn’t worth learning because the professor or department are compromised by liberalism and settler imperialism.

Not sure what I’m contributing here. I think this is nothing new, it’s just so intense these days that it’s hard to believe it’s ONLY education and ideology. It feels like there is more to the puzzle otherwise my story of emerging out of Christian fascism through criticism is just an accident and not a universal model for personal growth.

Edit: I want to add that my deepest frustration isn’t even with fascism per se. It’s with liberals. I am about as scared of liberals as fascists, because liberals (and anarchist types) are very self righteous about things that will only make things worse and they are so poisoned by discourse that whatever critical skills they have only function as their own ideological prison, a golden cage to be proud of. Fascists do exactly what I expect at least. Fanon was right that people can only truly become themselves through conflict against oppression and by destroying their oppressors. There is no other anvil to be molded on but imperial ideology.

This shit is so rancid. I’ve got “friends” who call themselves Iranian feminists pleading for a rapist to save Iranian women. Truly the most undignified fucking position I’ve ever heard in my life. But no, it’s the privileged American that heard stories of their father’s war crimes who is obviously wrong.

That is a big part of it.

But also how “puritans” are this supreme scapegoat historically that supposedly explains a wide range of American behaviors. It is used to leverage sexual politics but it is always clunky at best yet way too confident. I would say few Americans actually have puritan heritage.

The other part is personal. I have had a very specific relationship with Christianity and grew up in a hard-line family. Since living on the west coast I find that many ex-christians and Christians are completely dumbfounded by my experiences while I am dumbfounded by their severe lack of knowledge on Christianity, the Bible, varying doctrines etc. Christians here are not, in my personal view, Christian at all. And most ex-christians who tell me their experiences have almost nothing in common with mine.

So generally when “puritans” come up, I anticipate nonsense.

I doubt you think so.

This is exactly how this dogshit spreads. Same with the hatred laced in Tylenol jokes. I don’t care what undignified ways people internalize their ableism. Get this shit out of my face

Please delete this. Really tired of autism and autists being made into a fucking joke or otherwise objectified.

Why won’t they just ban it?

My 2nd least favorite religion.

Fuck AI

The US is currently stealing the largest oil reserves on the planet, worth 4x the GNP of Japan, while already boasting the world’s largest oil production.

Id say they’re buying themselves more than enough time to do permanent damage.

The reaction to Trump is also part of emboldenment. Listen to the chorus of “we are a 3rd world country!” “She was a CITIZEN!”

We can not afford to be fooled by liberal historonics.

But I write none of this as a commentary on hope. I don’t give a shit about giving people hope any more than I care to take it away. Hope simply isn’t my perogative. I think you are fully valid to feel as if life is over, because there is no reason to think our lives aren’t the price of fixing this. I wouldn’t even blame you for saying that cost is too high.

I grew up in a culture of evangelism. I was part of sects that would have you build your own casket before you were sent into the field. You had to forfeit your life for the mission. I’ve never met a single person on the west coast USA that has a comparable attitude when it comes to their convictions, but when I do I might admit to an iota of “hope.”

TOWN HALLS! PHONE CALLS! Lmao

Your belief that those who doubt your tactics are giving up makes you a fascist in my view. If you think the only way forward is to believe in America, then I’m going to pave the future straight over you, and Trump too.

But will the rate of profit falling, which is a tendency and not a law, actually end empire if no one takes action? What actions will people take in the core? Will the global south actually do the magical thing you suggest? I don’t understand what we gain by painting this telelogical end unless we are so hopeless, weak, and vulnerable that we need a heaven/salvation myth forged from a religion of economics to cope with the reality that we have no real grip on history.

I’m not optimistic. Since Trump first mentioned Greenland my intuition is that no one will stop it. I would not be surprised if young folks that scoffed at Trump’s proposal end up taking land claims in Greenland, USA 5 years from now.

I don’t see a scared empire. I see an emboldened one that is looking in the mirror and noticing it’s wardrobe the last few decades is now out of fashion. I don’t see desperation at all. I see a new trend setting. Modernity is not a prison for fascism and it will no longer imprison this empire. The ruling class doesn’t need to play a perfect hand.

There is too great a desire to emasculate fascism and it is fruitless. ICE and DHS are dangerous. They aren’t “larping.” Their equipment is deadly regardless of if someone thinks it is embarrassing. People can only lash out with “eh they don’t look so tough.” This is all I hear when people try to say the empire is magically crumbling and I find it to be an expression of weakness above all.

And to go further, I also am not always hiding away. I have to interview people and meet with people and correspond with people for my work and studies. It has only broken me down more, especially since everyone is just trying to carry on as if things will just calm down.

This will never be an excuse to me, regardless of its truth.

What’s difficult is that “non-fascists” are too vulnerable. You have to be ideologically trained to have any relevance in this environment. Simply not appreciating, or even being scared, is not enough.

Years back I would listen to David Harvey quite heavily. He would bemoan that we are all neoliberals. Well we are all fascists now. Poor or not, hungry or not, knowledgeable or not. People don’t have enough to lose because they can always gain something by playing along with empire. I’m still watching people join the military, ICE, and the police, all believing themselves to be special.

Can we cut this out? Your language indicates an ontology that sits a mere standard deviation from any run of the mill fascist

There are a lot of people that seem to be in denial of the severity of our situation and offer no substance in the face of hopeless. Yet they think they can motivate people to disbelieve their own experiences in favor of comforting the malformed sensibilities of denial.

Here’s another excellent reason for disillusionment you have identified. People think if you just go outside you will be cured of anything at all, and they will recite this nonsense to you without fail. No one is allowed to experience social and political alienation because that is somehow a crime against collectivism.

But it isn’t. These things are necessary to admit to move forward. The very infrastructure you would put others down for not valuing and not accessing does not exist.