- How Portland Radicalized Me by Saskia Hostetler Lippy from CounterPunch. My commentary follows:
After reading her article, I could still not understand "how Portland radicalized" Lippy. She attempts to be apolitical without any politics of her own. The fact that this is posted in CounterPunch, a liberal online publication, is the only clue as to her politics. Because her article was posted in this publication, I can only make an assumption about her politics: her actions were motivated by a concern for minorities who have historically been oppressed.
By politics, I refer to the hierarchical class structure which underlies all history of human societies after they first settled in agricultural communities. This class structure, which gives more opportunities and decisions to some people in contrast others, has divided people and caused serious social conflicts ever since humans settled in these communities.
Because we live "in a country of lies" (Curtin), the ruling class uses the arts of deception extensively to maintain their dominance and privileges over the rest of the population. The system of capitalism gives certain members, identified as capitalists, so much power over the rest of the population that they are able to impose their rules, manners, and interests on the former. Thus, they became a ruling class. In order to protect their wealth and privileges, they have had to resort to many subterfuges to remain in power.
These capitalists proceeded to take power away from the monarchy and the aristocracy, which had ruled for a number of centuries initially through the use of arbitrary rules and violence or the threat of violence. But later, they to succumbed to self-serving mythologies, mostly religions, to maintain their rule. This new capitalist class based their power on the claims of "ownership" of the rapidly developing economic properties (industries) that started roughly in the 15th century in Europe. Because they were a minority, they had to appeal to the majority of citizens. They did so by calling themselves "liberals" (freedom from arbitrary rules laid down by monarchs and aristocrats) to appeal to ordinary people who resented the arbitrary nature of feudal authorities, and to claim they were establishing democracies (rule by the people). These were the first two lies, but they didn't stop there.
The new capitalist classes became dominant everywhere and resorted to many lies to legitimatize their rule in the eyes of the vast majority. They rewrote history and laws which essentially sanctified the ownership of economic property. Naturally, the small publishers initially tended to distort their reporting to favor the new ruling capitalist classes. They reorganized lands that belonged to feudal authorities into nations. Capitalists appealed to nationalist instincts to wage wars to secure more resources. Naturally, they told lies to cover their covetous motivations. They spread stories about the inferiority and barbarity of their enemies.
Over time, capitalism consolidated so much property in the hands of a relatively few people that it was increasingly noticed by activist members of the general public which challenged the rule of capitalists. These latter became known as socialists or communists because they challenged private ownership of economic property. The capitalist ruling classes, in order to retain their dominant status, increasingly used "propaganda" to distort the thinking of their subject in self-serving ways. They also used their dominance over all institutions (education, history, entertainment, etc.) to impose their self-serving views on the rest of their societies which became ever larger over time as was the ownership of economic property secured in ever fewer hands. They told lies about racial minorities in order to divide and control ordinary Americans. This racist strategy has been resurrected today by the capitalist ruling class to sustain their diminishing power. I suspect it underlies the recent events in Portland and the confused politics of Lippy.
But the fundamental problem is that the general public is so confused about the nature of their societies and politics that they are easily manipulated by capitalist authorities. They have been lied to so much for so long by highly trained and remunerated propaganda specialists that they no longer have a realistic grasp of political reality. This, I suspect, applies to Lippy, the author of this article, and to so many activists like her.
To rid themselves of this confusion, activists need to renew their conceptions of reality by studying history by real historians and to pursue the ever elusive truth about what is happening in the world through alternative media. This is precisely why I started on a journalistic project about three years ago: to restore some semblance to reality so that activists can no longer be manipulated. They must reject material conveniently furnished by media corporations. They must study real history from a working-class point of view if they are to effectively challenge the ruling capitalist class.
- COVID’s Covert Reengineering of Humanity. “Genetically Modified” Vaccines? by Julian Rose from Global Research.
- Epidemiologist At Yale Provides Testimony On Hydroxychloroquine For Treating COVID-19 by Arjun Walia from Collective Evolution.
- Amid fears of overwhelmed medical systems, data shows ample hospital capacity nationwide by Daniel Payne from Just the News.
