- Propagandists Cry About Bernie’s Online Base Because It’s Effective, Not Because It’s Mean by Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog. (Note: I think she is "spot on" in identifying a skeptical trend especially among young people in the USA. I have a hunch that this is primarily due to the Deep State's (the directorate of the ruling capitalist class) ongoing attacks on Donald Trump and his administration for the lies they disseminate. Also, a part of this phenomenon is ruling class's increasing boldness about expressing lies. This is a result of lies they told in the past with a gullible public largely believing all of them (the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy, Martin L. King, the Iraq War, 9/11, the Bernie Sanders 2016 election campaign, etc.) Currently I see evidence of this in the growing popularity of satirical websites like Consent Factory, Inc., Jimmy Dore Comedy, RTAmerica which includes Redacted Tonight, Johnstone's website, and many other alternative news and analysis websites.)
Stuart Scott quit his day job in 2008 to serve humanity and life on Earth full time as a climate change and eco-social strategist. Here is one of his first speeches at the UN climate talks, one of the 'intercessional' rounds of negotiations between the annual COPs, or Conferences Of Parties. Everything he said is as urgently relevant today as it was back then. But the climate talks have continued as a disingenuous ritual of 'kicking the can down the road', until now we are experiencing a climate emergency of huge proportions.
(Note: Zuesse, as a social democrat, must distort certain details of history in order to salvage his view "That’s not what capitalism was supposed to be." Thus a ruling class becomes an aristocracy, government become a "regime", and he places too much emphasis on individuals to explain his social democratic view of 20th century history that turned capitalism (in his view) from a hopeful enterprise to a disaster.
However, as a stickler for truth, he presents a much more realistic view of history than do thoroughly capitalist-indoctrinated historians who largely rewrite history to manage social consent for the ongoing disastrous actions of the US ruling class.
The latter saw opportunities in 1941 to construct an empire out of the rubble that WWII left behind. Like any good capitalist, early on the ruling class saw this exciting opportunity and launched their initial attempts to defeat all opposition whether domestic or abroad. Their domestic opponents posed a more serious threat in 1945, and the latter were to weak to resist. So, they began their attacks on labor unions with the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 (also see this), and went on to weed out socialist-minded opponents in the film industry. This was only the beginning of an effort by the US capitalist ruling class to establish their own empire.
So, the simple answer to his question is a resounding "yes"! but not the individualist reasons he gives. The causes are systemic--capitalism.)
This article, while focusing on the latest labor union's fight for survival, only touches on the carefully hidden class war that has been going in the USA since its founding by mostly land speculators and slaveholders like George Washington and their ruling class collaborators like Alexander Hamilton. But you, as a US citizen would know nothing about their history from US schools or coverage by media corporations. They even rewrite history to portray them reverently as "Founding Fathers". (Hamilton was celebrated recently in the Broadway play named "Hamilton".)
- Bernie Sanders' Commie Kill Swarm by CJ Hopkins, in my opinion the top US satirist, from his weblog Consent Factory, Inc. (Note: I thought it would be best to start off with a little satire to get you smiling before I hit you with the hammer of depressing news and analysis.)