The Red and the Black
Technocracy heads or tails
https://www.oftwominds.com/blogaug24/super-wealthy8-24.html
In other words, extremes of wealth/power inequality set the stage, but the closing act is decided by our responses to soaring inequality. If the response is PR artifice, i.e. the rich keep getting richer as the suffering of the bottom 90% increases, regime change starts looking like the only solution available.
If, on the other hand, policy makers and the public push back against the dominance of the super-wealthy, then the status quo can avoid fragmentation and dissolution.
The super-wealthy play a key role in this choice of response, and this fragments the elites into warring camps, a dynamic I've addressed many times over the years, including in my chart of some of the overlapping crises that will demand more than duct-tape responses:
Covid seems to me one response that is not duct tape.
Many hot wars is another response.
Decimating the economy to increase the returns on financial predation yet another.
Faux elections where the choices are worse and worser depending on cognitive bias and fantasy.
Keeping the populace amused still another.
This blogger below because of their cognitive bias about the Donald symbolizes the mental confusion. Americans always find a reason for the other team and rarely recognize similarities are much more important than the differences. Indeed in doing this gambit they seem on the metaphoric chessboard to be “Castling” in each selection ceremony to keep the game going in a draw. My work in politics taught me that power hath it’s own reasons quite different than stated for keeping the game going-and despite the proof the elections choose some fellow traveller as Champion. Emotions line up behind the chosen ones. The issues they dispute and causes they praise tested by focus groups.
American Greatness ^ | 18 Aug, 2024 | Ned Ryun
Posted on 8/18/2024, 7:02:46 AM by MtnClimber
The mask is off, the revolution inside the Democrat Party complete: the red fascists have won and they now have two of their people as the candidates for the party.
In the 1920s, a term was coined that is very appropriate for what is taking place in America today: red fascism. It was a term that likely originated with an Italian anarchist, Luigi Fabbri, who wrote in 1922 that “‘red fascists’ is the name that has recently been given to those Bolshevik communists who are most inclined to espouse fascism’s methods for use against their adversaries.” This description and behavior of course should not come as a surprise to anyone. Socialism is intrinsic to both communism and fascism, as both are movements of the left with a massive, oppressive, and powerful State central to achieving their goals.
Consider where we are right now in this country: some people have said that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are the farthest left ticket ever run by the Democrat Party in this country’s history. That’s not quite correct. “Leftist” has lost some of its meaning because more traditional liberals are on the left. Harris and Walz are so far left they’re actually off the charts and into neo-Marxist territory. If for nothing else, their strong advocacy for the Green New Deal plants them firmly in that Marxism camp.
As I wrote in February of 2019:
The Green New Deal exposed [the] lies on that front. The underlying theme to the entire plan is coercion. It has to be. This Green New Deal cannot be achieved without embracing full-blown, coercive socialism.
How precisely would the United States get to ‘100 percent of the power demand . . . through clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources” in 10 years? Coercion. How do you pay for all of these ideas? Well you coerce people—and not just the despised “1 percent”—to hand over most of their income in taxes. How do you dictate all of the madness in regards to production and pollution are adhered to? Through coercion, naturally. There is another name for this kind of coercive socialism. It’s called Communism.’
Now tack on to this Kamala Harris’ beliefs in Medicare for All, mandatory and universal gun buybacks (a must for every true red fascist; can’t have the dirty little peasants resisting your ideas of progress by force), which all leads to Comrade Kamala’s newest commie proposal: price fixing on groceries to “fight” supposed corporate price gouging (damn them for their 1.2% profit margins). Mind you, none of that addresses the real rise in costs due to inflation caused by the Biden Administration’s pouring jet fuel on inflation with massive government spending, printing money up like it’s Monopoly money, and driving up fuel costs based on their belief in a hoax. But what price controls will do, as is evidenced by Maduro’s doing this in Venezuela, is lead to even more inflation (1300% for groceries in Venezuela), and then empty grocery shelves and breadlines because that’s what happens when you do such things. Just so we’re clear: there’s nothing joyful about starving.
Now on to the fascist elements of our American Neo-Marxists. For those a little fuzzy on the fascism side of things since the low IQ Left keeps throwing out the pejoratives of “Trump is Hitler!” And “MAGA is Nazis!” let me explain: fascism is all about all-encompassing, single-party state rule, about melding together the State (think big government) with big corporations (think Big Tech) to enforce the State’s narrative and to help firmly ensconce in power that single party and the wealthy elite (think Ruling Class).
The Democrat Party and the Administrative State have decided to absolutely annihilate, via corporations, your rights to free speech, and the free flow of information all while exposing you daily to the firehose of disinformation in support of the state and Ruling Class via the corporate propagandists and stenographers of the state who masquerade as “media” and “reporters.” Nor should we forget the fascist roots of the Progressive Statist movement that most Democrats identify with: Herbert Croly, one of the godfathers of the Progressive Statist movement, openly advocated for the nationalization of corporations.
If there was a silver lining to the political coup in removing Joe Biden as the Democrat nominee in 2024 it’s that the masquerade is over. No more Trojan Horsing the socialist ideals of the unAmerican Left (and by that I mean Democrat Party writ large) via the lie of moderate, likable good old Scranton Joe. The mask is off, the revolution inside the Democrat Party complete: the red fascists have won and they now have two of their people as the candidates for the party.
The question is will the American people be duped by the corporate propagandists’ nauseating hagiographic presentation of Comrade Kamala, who just short weeks ago was previously acknowledged as the nation’s leading purveyor of word salads? Or will the American people see through the lies and reject the threat of red fascism? With us living in a propaganda state, and the truth a daily victim of the lies, the fight is on to preserve liberty, equality, impartial justice, and quite frankly representative democracy. If Trump loses, all of that will be gone and our once free Republic will reside beside the Soviet Union on the ash heap of history.
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/voline-red-fascism
1. The economic factor. This is quite clear cut and widely understood. Here it is, in a few words: private capitalism (the economic foundation of which is demand freely competing for maximum profit and the political expression of which is bourgeois democracy) is falling apart and bankrupt. Violently assailed by all its enemies, whose numbers are on the rise, it is immersed in filth, crime and impotence. Wars, crisis, whole armies of the unemployed, impoverished masses, contrasted with material wealth galore and the boundless possibility of adding still further wealth, have exposed private capitalism’s powerlessness to resolve the economic problems of the age. These days there is a growing awareness of its death throes and imminent demise. So, instinctively or knowingly, thoughts have turned to replacing it with some new brand of capitalism, in the hope that the latter will be able to “save the world”. Yet again in human history, thoughts are turning to the lofty mission of a strong, all-powerful State based upon dictatorship. Thoughts are turning to a state capitalism directed by a dictatorships that “is above private interests”. Such is the new brand of capitalism underpinning fascism economically.
2. The social factor. This too is very clear cut and widely understood. The failure of private capitalism with all its horrific implications has conjured up an unmistakably revolutionary situation. The increasingly unhappy masses are stirring. Revolutionary currents are gaining ground. Organised workers are making increasingly active preparations to do battle with a system which grinds them down to the advantage of a gang of bandits. The working class, freely and pugnaciously organised (along political, trade union and ideological lines) is becoming more and more of an irritation, more and more of a threat to the propertied classes.
The latter have woken up to how precarious their situation is. And are running scared. So, instinctively or consciously, they are looking for a way out. They strive at all costs to cling to their privileged position which is based on exploitation of the toiling masses. What matters above all else is that the latter should remain an exploited, wage-dependent flock fleeced by its masters.
If the current model of exploitation cannot be sustained, a change of model will be called for (no great deal) to ensure that the underlying situation is unchanged. The masters of today can remain such as long as they agree to become members of a vast economic, political, social and essentially statist panel of leaders. Now, if this new social structure is to be made a reality, there has to be, above all else, an almighty state led by a strong man, a mailed fist, a dictator, a Mussolini, a Hitler! Such is the new brand of capitalism by which fascism is being fed, socially.
Were fascism based only upon these two things — its economic and its social underpinnings — it would never have gained the power we know it possesses. No doubt about it: the organised labouring masses would swiftly have stopped it in its tracks once and for all. Indeed, the means whereby the working class generally does battle with capitalism would, with a few minor adjustments, be of service still in effectively fighting against the reaction and fascism. Which would be simply the latest chapter of the workers’ great historic struggle against their exploiters. How many times during the course of history to date has the enemy adopted a new tack, donned a new mask or switched weapons! None of which ever stopped the workers from carrying on with their fight, without loss of equilibrium or confidence, without letting themselves be undone by the enemy’s maneuvering and U-turns!
Now, here we come to the important point. Whilst it may be regarded as a new (defensive and offensive) ploy by capitalism, fascism, wheresoever it set seriously about its task, scored such a stunning, extraordinary, fantastic success that the working class’s struggle proved, all of a sudden and universally — and this goes for Italy as well as for Germany, for Germany as well as for Austria, for Austria as well as elsewhere — not just testing but utterly ineffective and powerless. Not only has liberal bourgeois democracy failed to defend itself, but so have socialism, (Bolshevist) communism, the trade union movement, etc. They have all failed utterly to stand up to a capitalism with its back to the wall as it has maneuvered to save its skin. Not only have all these forces failed to wage a successful resistance against a capitalism overhauling its shaken ranks, but it has been the latter which has been quick to regroup and crush all its foes.
Socialism, so mighty in Germany, Austria and Italy, has proved powerless. “Communism”, itself very strong, especially in Germany, has proved powerless. The trade unions have proved powerless. How are we to account for this?
An already highly complicated problem is becoming even more so, if we think about the current situation in the USSR. As we know, there it was an authoritarian state communism (Bolshevism) that scored a stunning and rather easy victory in the events of 1917. Now, these days, nearly seventeen years on from that victory, not only is communism proving powerless to resist fascism abroad, but, where the regime within the USSR itself is concerned, the latter is more and more often being described more and more deliberately as “red fascism“. Comparisons are drawn between Stalin and Mussolini. Note is taken of the ferocious repression of the toiling masses by the ruling apparatus there which makes up a million persons of privilege dependent, as they are everywhere else, by the way, upon military and police powers. The absence of all freedom is noted. So too is the arbitrary and relentless persecution. And what counts is that such discoveries or opinions are coming, not from bourgeois quarters, but above all from the ranks of revolutionaries ... socialists, syndicalists, anarchists, and even from the ranks of the communist (Trotskyist) opposition which, on this basis, is “resuming the fight for emancipation” and launching the Fourth International.
All of these things are extremely worrying. They lead us inescapably to this conclusion, which may appear paradoxical: that even in the USSR, albeit under a different guise, it is fascism that has carried the day: that it is a new capitalism (state capitalism under the leadership of a mailed fist, a dictator, Stalin) that is in the saddle.
How are we to account for all this?
And might there yet be some other element, some other basis, some other raison d’etre that could be affording fascism some exceptional edge?
To which my answer is Yes. Here we have the third factor: the one I have yet to explore. I regard it as the most important one of all, as well as the most complicated and the least understood. Yet it is the one that explains everything for us.
3. The psychological (or ideological!) factor. The underlying factor in the successes of the fascists and the powerlessness of the forces of emancipation is, as I see it, the poisonous notion of dictatorship per se. I would even go further. There is a notion so widespread that it has all but turned into an axiomatic truth. Millions upon millions, even today, would be astounded to find it called into question. Better still: a goodly number of anarchists and syndicalists too see nothing suspect in it. Speaking for myself, I regard it as entirely wrong-headed. Now, every false notion embraced as a fact poses a great danger to the cause it affects. The notion in question is as follows: in order to win in the struggle and achieve their emancipation, the toiling masses have to be guided and led by some “elite”, some “enlightened minority”, by “far-seeing” men on a level higher than the masses.
That such a theory — which I see as merely a sweetened expression of the notion of dictatorship, for, in fact, it strips the masses of all freedom of action and enterprise — that a theory such as this can be peddled by exploiters, is perfectly understandable. But that such a notion should be anchored in the minds of those who purport to be liberators and revolutionaries, is one of the queerest phenomena history has to show. For — and this strikes me as obvious — if they are to shrug off exploitation, the masses should be led no longer. Quite the contrary: the toiling masses will rid themselves of all exploitation only once they have found a way of ridding themselves of all tutelage, of shifting for themselves, using their own initiative, in pursuit of their own interests, with the assistance and from within the ranks of their own authentic class agencies — trade unions, cooperatives, etc., — federated one with another.
Plus ça change...