Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Trump’s Real sin in DC is not distinguishing between “Good” and “Bad” Dictators

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Trump’s Real sin in DC is not distinguishing between “Good” and “Bad” Dictators

Click here to access article by Juan Cole from his blog Informed Consent.

Donald J. Trump’s peculiar comments about and relationship with dictators and loonies among foreign leaders have upset a range of observers, from sincere human rights activists to cold-blooded Think Tank Rats. First he welcomed the Philippines’ demagogue and possibly cold-blooded murderer Rodrigo Duterte to Washington. Then he said he understood the problems North Korea’s Kim Jong Un had battling off his bloodthirsty relatives.

But I would argue that the inside-the-Beltway Blob is mainly upset because Trump doesn’t seem to know the difference between the Bad dictators, whom you diss, and the Good dictators, whom you praise as strong allies. Trump just seems to like all the dictators.

Cole is trying to counter the ruling class's management of your consent to their rule and interests (wealth and power) to one of "informed consent". He (maybe naively) believes that if we are informed of the truth, we can as free citizens of a "democracy" make wise choices by electing good government leaders among the choices given to us by our masters (or so the capitalist version of democracy claims).

As Cole tells us--and I think he's right--the problem Trump is having with the ruling class and their media pundits is that he doesn't know who the good guys and bad guys are--as they define them. This might be because he has never played the government-office-holders game before, the game in which he must in public utterances preach the line of the ruling capitalist class. However in recent weeks Trump looks to be a quick learner by spewing the appropriate anti-Russian and anti-Assad propaganda and acting accordingly.

The only problem I have with this scenario is that democracy in the US, like corporate sponsored news, is fake. Both are simply designed to fool people into supporting a tiny class of billionaires who, under the logical dynamics of capitalism, which is the goose that lays their golden eggs of wealth and power, own and control nearly everything of value in the US and a large amount that exists abroad. And they want more of both because an addict can never get enough of his/her drugs.