An Important Read, Article By Salon's Chauncey Devega-- What If The Capitol Rioters Had Been Black Or Brown?
Salon writer Chauncey Devega posted on Facebook last night and presented a preview of his most recent article. (Linked below) He confronts the reader with the question, "where would the US be right now, one year after the events of January 6th if the Mob attacking the Capitol had been composed of African Americans, Muslims and other minorities, instead of the right wing white "Christians" who were the perpetrators"? What would have been done then, and what would be the consequences of those actions today?
He also confronts his readers and the mainstream media with their willful self-delusion and softness on the question of America's legacy of racism which leads them to soft pedal or deny the extreme danger which we face going forward. I'm paraphrasing,, but in essence his argument is in effect that we will not represent an effective force in opposition to the fascist Confederate takeover by Trumpism if we continue to engage in denialism on the centrality of race in the ongoing political crisis. In the back and forth with his readers, he rejected the primacy of class conflict in driving current events as a diversion, designed as a kind of cover to suppress an honest discussion of history and race in America.
It is his take, and I'm not endorsing it in full nor rejecting it, rather presenting it as background to my comments to him, which are the following:
["I just read an essay by Timothy Snyder, who I know you know well, which is pretty horrifying. He talks about the likely Trump/GOP seizure of power in 2024 after losing, which results in mass rioting, bloodshed, an internal shooting War between paramilitaries, geographical breakup of the US and mass migrations/forced deportations which amount to ethnic cleansing. Very little of the USA would be left standing.
He posits that only the January 6th Committee or DOJ can stop this, combined with huge electoral reform and significant economic gains. He is mostly tilting toward the worst case. Snyder seems to think that the GOP is "gaming" the elections, while Trump and his hard-core want a violent blood purge, but that the GOP establishment thinks they can "manage" Trump and use him to gain power. Not exactly "hopium" there. And it is a movie we have seen before.
The problem with the liberal establishment and media as I see it is that they present racism as an "issue", one of many on a long laundry list of bad "isms" which they think should gain attention, when in fact racism is not an issue.. It is the driving dynamic of American and world history, which is embodied by the monstrosities known as the slave trade and the Confederacy, and the conflict between them and those who opposed it.
Because most writers and white liberals in general only know about racism and have not suffered it, they'll treat it as an issue of great concern, but don't take it personally. They don't want to look at the actual simmering cauldron of race hatred which lives underneath the pleasant public veneer of their neighbors, friends, fellow church congregants, coworkers, even some among their own family members. They don't want to confront the residual racist attitudes in themselves, or their passive acceptance of it in others.
This is why they have been so blind and deluded regarding Trump and his movement, in the same way as the liberal media in the 1930's sat back and watched the rise of European fascism, while issuing streams of commentary on how shocked and surprised they were at what Hitler was doing. The irony there of course is that just like Trump and his allies today, Hitler was explicit in saying what he would do once he gained power, both in his testimony during his treason trial in Munich, then in his book written in jail. He spelled it all out for the World to see, and people didn't want to believe him. They said and thought "he can't be serious".
So, mainstream liberal white writers often change the subject, address diversionary issues, hype "good news" and feel good stories, cover "human interest", anything to deflect from the awful truth which they have been avoiding. And this is the projected fantasy world of delusion, denial, and myopia where nations go to die. When people tell a lie or accept a lie, they have to first believe the lies they tell themselves.
