zmhJan 20
Lou Plummer 💖
The real MLK was a radical. Take a moment today to learn something new about him. You will be glad you did.
Jan 19 at 1:05pmWeb
Show threadAltbotJan 19

@amerpie A tweet from Andre Henry ([@]andrehenry), marked with "sos" in red, displays the text: "Once again, it's that time of year that we pretend Dr. King never said things like this:" Below, a quote image features a black - and - white photo of a person on the left, and on the right, text reads: "Capitalism does not permit an even flow of economic resources. With this system, a small privileged few are rich beyond conscience, and almost all others are doomed to be poor at some level. That's the way the system works. And since we know that the system will not change the rules, we are going to have to change the system. — Martin Luther King — AZ QUOTES"

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Show threadUltra Verified 🇺🇦 🇬🇱Jan 19

@amerpie

In my observation for what it's worth, he was not a "radical", just a decent, caring, thoughtful human being.

Generations of corporate media has tried desperately to surpress, erase, distort and vilify the man, just for being that kind of person.

Show threadViolet MadderJan 19

@Ultraverified @amerpie

That IS being a radical. That's why they shot him.

Show threadUltra Verified 🇺🇦 🇬🇱Jan 19

@violetmadder @amerpie

Just being a decent human being is why they murdered Renee Good.

Show thread🌈 Kerblambuli 🦄Jan 19
@Ultraverified @violetmadder @amerpie being, and staying, kind as well as loving in a society built on aggression is, by its very definition, a radical act in and of itself.
Show threadViolet MadderJan 20

@ChrisUplus @Ultraverified @amerpie

Exactly!

And while we're at it: "radix" from the Latin, root. The term "radical" refers to the fundamental origin of a thing, and came into heavier political use in the 18th century with people talking about suffrage and the abolition of slavery, calling for "radical reform" as in meaningful and dramatic change at the roots of an issue. In the wake of the upheaval of the 60s and 70s it was shortened to "rad" as a slang expression for something exciting and positive.

The concept itself is neutral, but conservatives are the ones who will tend to automatically view its connotations as bad and scary because they don't like change and don't want anybody rocking the boat. To them it is basically interchangeable with "extremist".

Dr. King was definitely out to rock the boat. A radical in the best way-- who was reviled, feared, hated, persecuted, murdered... and then the system did its best to sanitize and co-opt his legacy. We named some streets after him, yay civil rights, he won look racism is over everything is fixed okay everybody now go sit back down and shut up.

Nothing short of radical change can save us now, with the whole planet sprinting towards catastrophe for profit.

Show threadSteveJan 19
@Ultraverified @amerpie very true!
Show threadLudwig VielfrassJan 19
@Ultraverified @amerpie In an indecent, uncaring, and thoughtless society, that is radical.
Show threadBot_AnixJan 20
@Ultraverified @amerpie
"decent, caring, thoughtful human being" IS radical. It allows us to focus not on chasing money, but on caring for each other.
Show threadDave VolekJan 19

@amerpie

So when are we "going to have to change the system"?

I've been working on my alternative democracy since 1997.

I've been on Medium since 2019.

I've been on Mastodon since 2023.

I see no sign of anyone wanting to change the system.

Show threadCloudmom ColetteJan 19

@amerpie it hurts so much that speaking plainly and abundantly evident truths like this is considered radical

but I do acknowledge that it is

100% though

Show thread Dirty AnComJan 19
@amerpie It's speech like this that got him assassinated by the FBI. They want you to think it was some crazy racist who assassinated him for civil rights, but it was the FBI who killed him because he started criticizing capitalism.
Show threadMagnus AhltorpJan 19

@DirtyAnCom @amerpie As is the case for many of these types of killings, it is fully possible for authorities to be responsible at the same time as they are not actively contracting a murder.

I know far too little about this specific case, but a very plausible hypothesis in general is that authorities lets someone be killed through inaction, stokes antipathy towards the person, or even provides resources to violent people.

There’s a whole spectrum of this, and all could be called ”killed him”.

Show thread Dirty AnComJan 19

@ahltorp @amerpie What we do have confirmation of is that the FBI sent him a threatening letter demanding that he kill himself or else they would release evidence of his affair (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI%E2%80%93King_letter).

The Trump Regime released thousands of files related to his assassination (as part of the "flood the zone" strategy to distract from everything else), but as far as I know, there's nothing that explicitly admits they were responsible for his assassination, beyond that they saw him as a dangerous adversary. (https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-administration-releases-fbi-records-on-mlk-jr-despite-his-familys-opposition)

I just firmly believe they were responsible, whether directly or by proxy, like you say.

FBI–King letter - Wikipedia

Show threadDennyJan 19
@amerpie he wasn't wrong about capitalism. Things is that we are humans, so no system we ever come up with will ever be anywhere near perfect.
Show threadL'égrégore André ꕭꕬJan 19
@capngloval @amerpie Thing is: we still can come up with something far better than capitalism.
Show threadDennyJan 22
@Mabande I doubt it. The problem is humans near sighted-ness. All the systems we have come up with so far are as flawed as capitalism.
Show threadL'égrégore André ꕭꕬJan 22
@capngloval Have they all been as flawed or were some of them just overpowered and destroyed by capitalism?
Show threadDennyJan 24
@Mabande pick one. Both of them have some legitimacy to the statement. I'm not saying anyway is better.
Show threadDressToKILTJan 19

@capngloval @amerpie describing capitalism as "not perfect" is kind of burying the lede. It is an awful system, designed by wicked people to accumulate power while simultaneously getting the have-nots to blame themselves for their failure to be one of the haves and crabs-in-a-barreling each other.

Capitalism is perfect, in the same way that a xenomorph is perfect. Unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality.

Show threadDennyJan 22
@dresstokilt @amerpie I could have been verbose about it, but I am still right. It is not perfect, which is what I said. I should have added a "very not perfect". I agree with everything you said. But the other options are nearly just as bad. As the Bible says, we are the blind leading the blind. Human rule always is deeply flawed.
Show threadMartinJan 19
@amerpie I can't see anything wrong with what he said, personally. Then again, I'm not in the pay of multi-billionaires.
Show threadBeldarakJan 19

@amerpie

So weird reading all those comments. I tought most Mastodon users would be anti-capitalist^^

"Capitalism makes tons of people live in poverty" isn't a radical view, just facts.

Americans especially did a really good job at convincing people that the only alternative to capitalism is (a fake representation of) communism.

When in reality there are a ton of other systems (also you can't directly jump from capitalism to communism, there are steps/systems in between)

Show threadSquirrelJan 19

@amerpie I don't think was as controversial back when it was said.

I don't think there is anything making you inherently evil if you criticize capitalism, so even today, you might come across as naive, but you're not really Stalin, though.

Show threadPatJan 19
@squirrel @amerpie back in those days, to criticize or even question capitalism made you by default a Communist. Which is one excuse Hoover had to hound Dr. King. Furthermore, many centrist whites called King "uppity". I was born in 1950 so I speak from lived experience.
Show threadJ LouJan 19
@squirrel @amerpie naive is assuming the problems with the current system can be solved any other way
Show threadSquirrelJan 20
@jlou @amerpie why would you though? say you could have something like the nordic model, instead? still capitalism, but with quite a bit of equality.
Show threadJ LouJan 20
@squirrel @amerpie Nordic model doesn’t resolve workers’ inalienable rights violations that occur routinely under all forms of capitalism. Capitalism is deeply inefficient at allocating resources towards public goods and dealing with externalities.
Show threadSquirrelJan 20
@jlou @amerpie what rights are being violated?
Show threadJ LouJan 20

@squirrel @amerpie the inalienable right to appropriate the positive and negative fruits of your labor.

Source: https://www.ellerman.org/inalienable-rights-part-i-the-basic-argument/

Inalienable Rights: Part I The Basic Argument

What is the inalienable rights theory that descends from the Reformation through the Enlightenment and that answers the classical apologies for slavery and autocracy based on implicit or explicit voluntary contracts?

DAVID ELLERMAN
Show threadSquirrelJan 20
@jlou @amerpie thanks. that was interesting. these cooperatives are free to operate within a Nordic model, though. you don't have to burn it all down for these to gain traction.
Show threadJ LouJan 20

@squirrel @amerpie The problem is the violation of workers’ inalienable rights in non-democratic non-cooperative firms. The employment contract must be abolished making all firm’s democratic.

Abolishing capitalism ≠ burning it all down

We can have economic democracy and keep many market institutions.

Show threadSquirrelJan 20

@jlou @amerpie I understand why somebody would want this. Myself, I kinda feel quite happy renting myself out and not having any responsibility for the fruits, good or bad, of my labor.

I mean, it is a capable way or organizing, but I'm unsure if it is everything to everyone, if you know what I mean.

Show threadJ LouJan 20

@squirrel @amerpie

Responsibility is non-transferable even with consent. No matter how much you like the terms of the employment contract. You can’t fulfill it because a de facto person can’t become de facto non-person to fulfill the legal role of a non-person.

Show threadSquirrelJan 21

@jlou @amerpie it feels a bit patronizing, tbh.

I mean, we have the concept of non-transferable rights in most democracies, but I guess I'm comfortable with the specifics as they are today because I've lived with them forever.

Thanks for giving me something to think about, friend.

Show threadAl & Val's Modern HomesteadingJan 19
@amerpie We could certainly use him today.
Show threadDeborah Rose ❌👑Jan 19
@amerpie Radical in the sense that he believed in the redistribution of economic and political power. He challenged America’s class system and its racial caste system. He was a strong ally of the nation’s labor union movement. He was assassinated in April 1968 in Memphis, where he had gone to support a sanitation workers’ strike. He opposed U.S. militarism and imperialism, especially the country’s misadventure in Vietnam.
Show threadxs4me2Jan 19

@amerpie

And it did not change since then… high time we did that now…

Show threadhumourmetomJan 19
@amerpie Many young people are so angry at the excesses of capitalism that they want to tear the whole thing down. But somehow they fail to appreciate that the right-wing politicians tearing things down are agents of capitalism.
Show threadTrimTab 🇺🇦Jan 19

@humourmetom @amerpie
If you step back further you realize that the communist elites and the capitalist elites are identical apart from their costumes and fairy tales they speak out loud.

The only way out of the lies os to realize both systems must coexist for durable peace. Either "ism" one on its own can only end in tears.

Show threadLudwig VielfrassJan 19
@amerpie I hate this holiday because the hypocrisy is palpable. While alive the government did their level best to literally and figuratively destroy this man. And now that he's dead, they've co-opted and watered down his messages to a kindergarten-level "we should all get along" thing.
Show threadEggs now in different baskets.Jan 19
@amerpie https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/mlk-capitalism-flow/
Did MLK Say This About Capitalism?

Quote: "Since we know that the system will not change the rules, we're going to have to change the system."

Snopes
Show threadBlender Dumbass ( J.Y.Amihud )Jan 19
@amerpie Wait, what is so radical about it? Sounds to me like pure common-sense.
Show threadcognitively accessible mathJan 19
@amerpie Last year a local church had a whole seminar about the radical king (election year, people came).
This year our locl community radio weft.org is doin' a thing top of next hour 4:00 CST for several hours of the stuff that doesn't get out there enough.
Now, aren't there also copyright issues w/ much of what was said and written?
Show threadPatrickJan 19
@amerpie it’s not wrong.
Show threadArena Cops 🇺🇦✌Jan 19

@amerpie Wait until MAGA finds out Jesus Christ was an early socialist, sharing bread & wine, feeding the poor & healing the sick without demanding monetary payment or recurring donations for legal defense funds not even existing!

Donnie may be able to walk on Trump wine — after he dropped a bottle onto the floor.
But he'll never be able to walk on water.
And he's not above the law & won't ever be!

Show threadLRJan 19
@amerpie not a radical. just an OG christian.
Show threadFLOSSbOxINJan 20
@amerpie
Wish India could see this and learn from it. This rings very true for politics and power in India. At times I wonder if the slavery under the English was better than being trampeled upon by the so called righteous fronts and your own people? At least we learnt from English, else the illiterate politicians and goons in parliament are the worst ever. Democracy is for namesake. Only the rich and politicians make money, have power and common man are living in the worst conditions ever.
Show threadSpaciousCoder78 Jan 20
@fbinin @amerpie gdp is growing pretty fast but the incomes aren’t. Growth is only for the rich, the common man in India still lives without proper access to things.
Show threadFLOSSbOxINJan 20
@SpaciousCoder78 How very true. Decades and decades of poverty, while rich gets ultra rich, and poor still get from these rich for political payments. Middle humans like us are the worst, as we get nothing, and pay triple++ taxes on everything. Anyways, probably derailing.
Show threadSpaciousCoder78 Jan 20
@fbinin yeah I’m pretty tired of people boasting about our GDP over western countries but our quality of living has always been bad and is becoming worse. You’re constantly being pumped up with toxic metals and PM 2.5 just by living here. Our children are being born with deformities or dying prematurely due to cancers or living with respiratory diseases. Not a very sustainable state
Show threadFLOSSbOxINJan 20

@SpaciousCoder78
Just found this online: https://www.reddit.com/r/pune/comments/1qgynby/interesting_conversation_with_our_maid_about/

Someone stated that in Pune, the parties gave out anywhere in between 4K-12K, maybe more per person to vote. I myself saw 4-5 days prior to the elections, people not from Pune being bought in and paid. Pathethic condition. Tax payers money and the #governmentofindia #goi is blind. Actually, they are not blind, they are in-part.

Show threadmega mushroomJan 20
@amerpie YAY!!! Rare historical figure that was accually a good person o_O