With the election/selection of Donald Trump as CEO of America, Inc. we have seen the dramatic rise of a new campaign to smear dissent by independent journalists, bloggers, and now professors as reported by this article. I am of the opinion that this has little to do with his election, but is a symptom of a fear that is gripping powerful political circles among the US capitalist ruling class. This fear has been activated by setbacks in their extensive efforts to destabilize Syria, the diminishing prospects for a Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, the increasing influence of dissent within the US (especially among alienated young people), and other indications that the US Empire is losing power in the world in the face of challenges by Russia and China.
Thus if I am correct (I don't pretend to be omniscient), we would have seen exactly the same phenomenon if Hillary Clinton had won the election/selection. This conforms to my long held position that it is the ruling class that decides important issues, policies, and even who is elected/selected to head the government. Because we only see the top of this political iceberg and it is very difficult to see what lies below the sea of ruling class intrigue, we tend to focus too much attention on what lies visibly above.
What is currently disturbing to many is the increasing appearance of blacklists of dissenters, the most recent of which is what this article reports:
...200 university and college professors have been placed on a new Professor Watchlist being operated by Turning Point USA, a right-wing nonprofit run by 23-year old Charlie Kirk who spoke this year at the Republican National Convention. Kirk has raised well over $1 million from conservatives to spread the “free markets/small government” mantra at high school and university campuses....Many allusions have been made to the McCarthy period regarding these lists, but I think conditions today are quite different from the 1950s. Then there was very little of an alternative media to challenge ruling class media. The latter had an almost exclusive monopoly over discourse and they used this to instill fear of the Russians and Communist subversion of our country that reached hysterical proportions. Then the US reigned supreme in the world and our ruling class was clearly high on their drugs of power and profit that lay before them for the taking. Today they are increasingly challenged especially by Russia and China, and by the dissenters in alternative media at home. They are losing their battles with Russia and China, but in desperation they are now directing their frustrated wrath on dissenters and alternative media.
If my argument is correct, then we should not cower in fear but redouble our efforts to expose the ongoing lies that our masters spread throughout their corporate media while supporting in any way we can independent journalists and credible dissenters.
