Mastodawn

Aral Balkan Mar 14

Dear USA,

Donald Trump is exactly who you are.

Donald Trump is simply the #noFilter USA the rest of the world was forced to become intimately familiar with long ago; one dropped bomb and one lost family member at a time. The same USA Native Americans and African Americans have always known.

Until you fully grasp that and start learning about, accepting responsibility for, and atoning for how your country came to be and for your crimes throughout history both at home and abroad, this is what you will remain.

“This is not who we are.”

Bullshit.

This is exactly who you are and who you’ve always been.

You want to change?

Start by accepting that.

@aral I understand your point and share your outrage and frustration. I do feel some of your comments include the fallacy of division. There are many, at great personal and financial cost, fighting book bans, protesting, investigative journalism, standing up for themselves and other vulnerable people. I don’t know whether we are a plutocracy or an oligarchy but individuals are trying to act like sea wall to push back against relentless money and power.

Aral Balkan Mar 14

@coleenwalter And none of those listed people will take offence at what I wrote because it doesn’t pertain to them but rather to those they are struggling against.

Coleen Walter Mar 14

@aral I really appreciate that. Except for one slightly rebellious teacher in Highschool, I was taught a more sanitized version of history. I’ve had to play catch up over the decades with my own reading. From The Capital Order to Cobalt Red and other writings, I’m trying to put together a clearer picture of our history, economic theories and the consequences to others in the wider world. It’s hard to push back against things we don’t understand.

Aral Balkan Mar 14

@coleenwalter 💕

@coleenwalter @aral A book that could curl your hair. The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Half_Has_Never_Been_Told:_Slavery_and_the_Making_of_American_Capitalism

The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism - Wikipedia

Coleen Walter Mar 14

@xaxat @aral I think I’ll look for that one. Thank you for the recommendation

Oyu F'ka Mar 14

@coleenwalter @aral Same here in the uk - the white washed image of britain's 'adventures abroad', taught to us in the 50's and 60's, was pretty much a complete reversal of the truth.

It's been an on-going re-education for me, and at 73 I'm still finding shocking facts about my country's ruling class and their use and abuse of all people, at home *and* away.

Not so 'great' britain in reality 😔.

Aral Balkan Mar 14

@Oyu_Fka @coleenwalter 💕

Hegelian Princess Mar 14

@aral @coleenwalter it's the I Hate Men rule, it's not literally about all men but it is about all the men who get upset

Aral Balkan Mar 14

@julieofthespirits @coleenwalter This.

Violet Madder Mar 14

@aral @julieofthespirits @coleenwalter

There's a tricky tipping point, almost invisible.

Somewhere between, "Things are bad but a lot of us are trying to fix this!", which is true, and "Things are basically okay, bad guys aren't normal!" which is the dangerous delusion of enablers.

Bad IS normal and nobody is okay. This is the norm. Look, the planet is burning. ENOUGH of us are like this, and holding enough positions of power, to mean our overall trajectory is dropping fast in the Trump direction. Even when we're dutifully trying to do the whole Dem incremental harm reduction thing, we're still headed for the SAME evils just a bit more slowly and dressed up with a few more comforting lies. Abusers don't just get away with abuse, abuse is propped up and rewarded as good go-getter business sense, and we go along with it if we think it'll score us a few extra treats to ride an abuser's coattails and not rock the boat. I know he's bad but I'm doing the best I can from inside his office, okay so I'm carrying water for a fascist but I'm still a good guy.

The "moderate" liberal gets to pretend they're not part of the problem if they set the bad guys way out at some freakish distance they are not responsible for. They get to pretend that real estate flipping is a perfectly wholesome reasonable vocation, and that calling the cops on that nasty annoying homeless camp is a perfectly wholesome way to protect the neighborhood-- with zero awareness that they're
doing shit like, say, casually talking over the women in the room, singing along to songs about rape, voting for people participating in crimes against humanity, benefitting from exploitative settler colonialism, and upholding capitalism.

Aral Balkan 6d ago

@violetmadder @julieofthespirits @coleenwalter Beautifully put, thank you 💕

mahadevank 6d ago

@violetmadder @aral @julieofthespirits @coleenwalter i so agree. I dropped out of corporate because I realized this.

There's this horrible sense that the guys on top mean well and have the best of humanity at heart, but they just don't have a choice given the circumstances they are in.

No, the guys on top don't mean well, and anybody aligning with them is a disaster for the human race.

We should be panicking and revolting like our lives depended on it.

Gamal Sherif Mar 14

@coleenwalter @aral And jazz, for which I lovingly thank my Irish and African folk.

Shall we blanket-vilify Germans for nazi Germany, British for empire, Portuguese for enslaving and trading people? Israelis for ethnocide?

Supremacy culture is a global phenomenon that hypes [anti-] nationalist accusations - as well as racist, classist, sexist instabilities - to keep us separated.

It’s a global oligarchy that colludes at the expense of peoples’ lives.

Solidarity, on the other hand, is a more nuanced antidote to sleepiness of binary thinking. #onelove .

Aral Balkan Mar 14

@gdsherif @coleenwalter > Shall we blanket-vilify Germans for nazi Germany, British for empire, Portuguese for enslaving and trading people? Israelis for ethnocide?

The ones who do not acknowledge, fail to atone for, continue to benefit from, and continue to inflict such damage?

Yes.

The others? They’re rarely the ones offended by criticism of nations.