I have a problem with this essay which has caused me much hesitation about posting it because it otherwise reports on the many lies about the US "aristocracy" and their media. Of course, for those who follow independent news sources and are politically aware, such exposures of lies have been exposed previously by many independent source. So, really, how much is really new here? How does this contribute to our understanding of political reality?
Well it does gather a lot of past information to answer the question posed in the headline. By doing so, it may raise the consciousness of some people, who have been asleep for decades, that US policy has been designed to make Russia into a prey for US corporations to plunder and profit from. However, the problem for me is it fundamental premise which is carefully and subtly slipped in at the very beginning of this article: capitalism should be considered totally separate from fascism, capitalism is good if it is regulated and prevented from blatantly stealing public enterprises.
Overtly conservative, nationalistic, ‘news’ media wouldn’t be able to sell to anyone who isn’t already on-board with privatizations of government assets as being a fundamental “free market” principle (i.e, equating fascism — the actual originator of privatizations — with constituting ‘capitalism,’ confusing the two systems as being one-and-the-same). So: not only the fascist media are anti-Putin, but media that pretend not to be are also.The link in this above quote takes us to an introduction to another article by Zuesse written by a liberal (left-wing capitalist) blogger who argues what I believe illustrates a position of most pseudo critics of capitalism:
Here’s the key: If these resources had always been in the private sector, that would be fine … that would be free market capitalism.Hence, they see capitalism as a good system, but our present leaders are straying from that into the bad system of fascism in which capitalist enterprises are unregulated and are permitted to steal public assets. I see this theme being argued by many critics of US policies such as Naomi Klein, Chris Hedges, and numerous others we encounter on the World Wide Web.
But if they were purchased on the people’s dime with our blood, tears, sweat and taxpayer funds – and then sold to the big boys for pennies on the dollar – that’s not capitalism … that’s looting. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what the Nazis, Italian fascists, and modern American “leaders” are doing.
Another cue that often suggests such a pseudo-critical position are the frequent use of the term "aristocracy", a term that accurately refers to the ruling class in feudalism, to refer to the ruling class in capitalism which, of course, are capitalists. "Aristocracy" for most Americans has connotations associated with opulence, splendor, people elegantly dressed and dancing to a Strauss waltz. Thus, the word has much nicer connotations than the term "ruling class", and even more so than a word like "capitalist". Such terms like the latter could easily lead us into thinking about issues of class, class interests, class conflicts, and even Marxist critical views of capitalism!
Could these critics be well-meaning even though politically retarded? Could they be doing the work of "gatekeepers" for our capitalist ruling class? As Lenin said many years ago, "The best way to control the opposition is to lead it ourselves." Either way they obscure the political realities of today's world and thus prevent real solutions.
Fascist governments differ from capitalist governments in only one way: they take their "democratic" gloves off to reveal a vicious brass-knuckled fist. To explain my position regarding such terms and these frequent pseudo-arguments that fascism is somehow a corruption of capitalism, rather than repeat myself, I am going to refer you to commentaries I wrote in previous posts (see this, this, this, and this).
