Todd Gitlin (1943–2022)

This book was referenced in another book I'd recently read, and it seemed intriguing: written in 1995 amidst the "science wars", the "PC wars", and so forth, how would the "culture wars" of that time relate to the political strife now (fall 2016)?

Very much so. Very, very much so. There are passages, almost entire paragraphs, that you could lift from the book and you wouldn't be able to tell (minus one or two references) if they had been written then or now, particularly re: white (and, show more particularly, white male) anger, frustration, and resentment (regardless of how you view that) and the political capitalization of that by conservative political power. (To the point that Trump is now making the Republican party the de facto white identify party.)

Overall, the book is a criticism and call away from identity politics, and a call toward the (re)establishment of a common Left. I'm not sure if that is a project who's time has come, though I don't see what other (even passably good) options exist. show less

This book provides an extensive, detailed, well-researched, and personal account of the 1960s political youth movement. The combination of factual accounts of major events and anecdotes of illustrative minor events evokes the zeitgeist of the 60s. Although I do not always concur with Gitlin's extrapolated wisdom regarding movement strategy, his theoretical commentary is thoughtful and never overwhelms the other content. This work gets five stars primarily because Gitlin's exposition of the show more nitty-gritty internal workings of activist groups is excellent to the point of being a must-read for anyone interested in the subject. show less

I am still sorta glad I bought the book, even after having read the whole thing—certainly at the very beginning it’s reasonably good, and at the very end, it stops snarling over tea & crumpets, in the last few moments allowed to it. Although mostly it’s bad, and I’m just satisfied to have learned some of what’s out there, in terms of what you find when you go looking for ‘justice’ allies, right.

But yeah, essentially “(a) I like activism, & (b) I like nostalgia, but (c) show more really, I dislike activism: I want it in a box….”

…. My phrase would have been, ‘on the mythology of history’, but yeah: “or several warped ways of looking at the Sixties”: you’re supposed to to think you’re not being set up by being asked to choose, (indeed, perhaps just split the difference between), the reformist starry-eyed romcom, and the the bitter-boy/resentful old man schtick, right….

re: feminists were “sometimes indifferent to children”—aren’t men more likely to be indifferent to children?…. ?! ~Although I didn’t realize at first, just how bad he was going to get by this whole, ignore and intermittently snipe at, the other backgrounds, and snip at the devil-radical, and simp up to authority man….!

“….all societies embody contrary principles…. (conservatives) are refusing to face the complexity and strangeness of culture.”

Although in retrospect, in lines like this, even before the counter-revolution has begun, he is serving up negative three slices of passion, right: and as changeable and unreliable as emotion can be: beyond a certain point, lack of passion is the bed fellow of manipulation and betrayal—because why not? You’ve not really got a dog in the fight, right…. Detachment is not all one thing: there are different forms of detachment; that’s one of the great ironies of life….

“…. but every just course of action entails damage.”

But yeah: and then he fakes to the left and darts to the right, and he makes the lay-up, right: ‘but radicalism causes damage: equivocation is infinitely valuable’ lol

…. There are a couple of lines like that, ‘costs can be borne for a non-apartheid state’ theme: but he tires of it quickly, and then he weeps and rages, in his cold, feigned way, about the indecent leftists, and then resolves: ‘radicalism: but only if it isn’t opposed’, right…. (Indecent = is opposed? But some people oppose capitalism; so, indecent = opposed by authority, right)…. like Neil Gaiman, right; it’s like, boy, if you think you’re a male-dom, you don’t fucking PRESENT yourself, like that, to the world…. You know?…. Like, fucking honesty, right….

~I still agree with putting Lenin down as ‘dishonest’, sure…. Although it is funny, a rev-left group who used Lenin on a poster is basically using a marketing image: so as much as Lenin was a violent opportunist, mostly worried about himself and his organization-power, and as much as I would vote against using him on a poster…. “Use marketing! Use dramatic images, and don’t trip over the details!…. And don’t stress so much about the crimes of the past: this is America! We love the crimes of the past!…. Oh no, wait…. Those are my lines. Your lines in the school play are, ‘Financial Times, five cents! Central Bankers weigh in on war fears: five cents, read all about it, Financial Times’, and then…. Yeah, then you exit stage left; and that’s pretty much it for you, except for the cookies in the back. (slaps with rolled-up script) There are advantages to getting the shit part. Play to your comparative perks….” Right?…. Which isn’t to say that I like Lenin…. But in the context of this book, it’s curious, right, the statement…. The truth can be given honestly, or, ‘the truth’ can be given with the intention to deceive, wouldn’t you say?

~and I agree that it is ‘sterilized explaining away’, as I put it, to put down left-wing tyranny as ‘understandable’, the end. But this is where we start to part ways. It’s like: you take the traumatized, impoverished, raped, bombed countries, that are attacked by the most powerful militaries, and they naturally enough snap under pressure, and do legit bad things: but it’s like, if you’re traumatized, you’re human, yeah? You’re a human robbed of resources to be taught and be healed, and protected: but people say, on some level, ‘ok, epithet: (¡¡¡) if you’re going to go against the white race and say you’re oppressed, then you’d better be PERFECT.’ (!!!) (Cf, what were you wearing, basically?…. Um…. Headscarf? “Send in the Marines.”). It’s like, and you take the leaders of the powerful countries: and corporate backers, and any of these people could pay for any therapy they wanted; and if they’re busy—they’ve chosen to be, right; their survival isn’t at stake; they’ve chosen their path: their wars are wars of choice…. And you not only put the crimes of the traumatized and endangered on a level with the wars-of-choice crew, who decide from the safest positions, that exist, at least—OMG, but still not IMMORTAL! Danger! Send in the Air Force! Nobody gets out alive!…. And not only do you put them on a level, you SHAME people for noting the crimes of the wars-of-choice crew, and you think you’re being…. Independent! Insightful! Avoiding naivety! Oh my god! Like…. Boy? You’re tripping! 😂😠…. For noting the crimes of the colonized hellholes that had all their wealth stolen a hundred years before they got re-invaded, right, and it’s like…. Don’t you have a conscience? “My loyalty is my conscience, and my indifference…. And I’m running as the Democrat for Governor of Safe Blue State. 😉” It’s like, boy, get out of here….

…. And he has this thing where he’s like, ‘The bad people don’t have any enemies to their Left’, and it’s like, that is indeed problematic, sure…. But maybe, darling, I have some enemies to my Right, you know….

…. You know, it’s like: it’s billed as leftism, and then before you can say Jack Robinson, it’s centrism: only he’s not even ~trying~ to be an ~honest~ centrist, really: because he doesn’t accept criticism from both left and right; criticism from the right is legitimate and fascinating; criticism from the left is wacky, out of order, and to be dismissed with contempt. This is the normal ‘center-left’ stance: to bill as centrism (leftism!), and not to desire to be an honest centrist—but to desire to be the left wing of the single Party, the Capitalist Party, right; the America Party; which has prudently divided into two organizations for organizational purposes, to avoid seeming to need, in effect, anti-trust action, right…. If criticism from one side but not the other is valid, how are you the referee? You’ve chosen your side, you know. Even as you smile, in feigned indifference…. Right? He seems indifferent because he’s cold and relatively unlikable; but he’s deployed his troops on the battle map: he’s not indifferent in THAT sense!….

…. And then he dipped into the main theme of the book, radical-exclusive liberalism/radical-exclusive liberal animus/passion, you know: the hysterical moderate, right…. this is a little ~too~ impassioned, though: fairness is nice, but it IS, TRUE, that North Korea isn’t as powerful and expansionist as the USA; even Saudi Arabia is a sort of ally; China is “bad” for their trading/manufacture…. But maybe their mass suicide, might placate the GOP?….?

…. Todd is explaining the 60s: ‘Real estate values were no object: You could rent a decent apartment for $100 a month almost anywhere. Why *not* frolic a bit, bum around, do civil rights (and so on and so on)….?” ~Marx would agree with some of this, material-base-of-society, stuff, ironically….

…. (Gandhi/India vs the British: Brits had) “neither an insuperable stake in subduing India nor a [my marginal note: infinitely patient] conscienceless commitment to ruthless suppression.” Original marginal note = fixed it…. God, I wonder what a LEGIT “insuperable stake in subduing” a region/race/nation, would be, right…. Who has an INSUPERABLE WILL, right? Ant-Man? ~Haven’t seen the movies, I just looked up the director because my friend was watching one of his other movies: I have to say, both his super-flare and common-romance movies seem modestly interesting, even though he also seems average: so, who knows…. But yeah: on-topic, as much as we don’t want to get a job working in a bar just so that we can spit in white people’s drinks just cause—it is of course, true, that pointless anti-social behavior is well, pointless…. But God, does Todd get STUCK on that idea, in the Name of Grandiosity & Truth, right…. But gods, are we giving the British Empire morality points, grading them on a curve so that they can pass Remedial Ethics 002, and get on with their life without their rich father screwing with us…. Are we giving them points for being, NON-FICTIONAL? Well, at least they’re not ~Ant-Man~, or whoever, they don’t have an Insuperable Commitment to Evil…. ~Right, only if there’s money in it…. Like, what do you do with that? Is that a serious argument? What can you say; it’s almost like a non-sequitur: a little politism. “Raj’s father was shot by the British in 1936.” “I do so like your tie. And your glasses make you look very smart: you probably read a lot of books.” It’s like…. Thank you…. mutha? Right? How do you respond to that? There is no response. There isn’t “supposed to” be, right….

…. (Todd) “Violent action and violent rhetoric (are) stale nineteenth century gestures.” ¿? [right? wtf, seriously? (picks a war from after 1900) was a…. 19th century…. Gesture?…. Does this kid have an EDITOR?…. Like, wtf, boy, c’mon, now…. Like Apollo 13, was it, C’mon Tom Hanks: bring back the Earth!…. Keep the Earth in the little window, man…. I don’t want to go off spinning out in outer space, bro…. 🪐 😭 ….]

…. I’m not saying that life is a goddamn action movie, but of you look at popular TV/movies or whatever from 1970: these ‘shared abhorrence of violence’ were not earnest, broad-minded, inclusive, deeply ethical people pushed out of pro-justice movement only after an epic action movie bloodbath, right. (Quite the opposite: ‘broad-minded, earnest, pro-social moral anti-violence’ largely coincided with unthinking carte blanche to butchering as many people in South-East Asia as, economical—or, ~even more~, right….). It’s not an easy question what to do, but some people: WHATEVER you do is the excuse to ‘abhor’ the ‘radicals’, right.

A little repetitive, in part because Todd himself has so little to say, right…. But then: ~Granted that ghetto youth can be grating and crude…. But does the revolution of humane treatment have to be affluent, well-educated, well-spoken, polite, and feel-good for this sort of well-connected white person, to merit non-dehumanizing treatment? Such a materialist conception of violence, and with such an attention problem! The system is violent—to ignore its violence is to allow it, and be pro-violence.

…. (Re: some sort of hysterical-moderate chapter-ending screech of rage, or another, right) What a marvelous display of imperturbable non-violence! ~Don’t~ be violent! Just crush your enemies: word, dog. About violence: you attract what you give attention to (or will), AND what you, ~Obsessively~, EXCLUDE.

Aversion attracts.

…. And aside from his pathological fear of emotion…. his reading of the psychology of the Right is weird, (they never feel guilt?), even when he’s trying to put spin on the ball to give them an unfair advantage, his vague and weird and un-life-like portraits of the right…. I’m really trying to figure out these ‘right-wingers have more enjoyment and less guilt’ comments…. ~Is it just that the Right is the idealized Other that he depersonalizes even as he makes it ‘perfect’?…. Does he mean the country music crew? Because before, he was complimenting them for being inherently orderly…. It just shows that he doesn’t ~see~ them; they’re just objects to be given a privileged place in order to virtue signal; they don’t ~really exist~ for him…. And his self-hatred for his past and for leftists is quite weird: his snide comment about college “riffraff” slides effortlessly into a description of a violent, physical attack on an anti-war person that I can only describe in that context, as smug, right…. Dripping with self-loathing, while feigning neutrality…. yeah, I guess that’s one way to get class status, right….

~It’s interesting, during this self?-pillorying (at what point, is it easy, right, because you’ve vacated your emotional troops out of those positions, so the ‘enemy’ bombs raining down on the empty trenches, doesn’t bother you) about 60s aggressive radicalism: there’s no discussion of actual ~ELECTED or CANDIDATE people~, from that time, right…. I mean, the ‘liberal’ president was basically using violence and compulsion to force people to help him invade a foreign country in a neo-colonial war, right: the only way it could have been more colonial was if we wanted to annex land and move in settlers: other than that, I mean, we just (the people worried about ‘leftist violence’, right), literally depopulated whole villages and districts, to the tune of a few million, no one bothered to count too precisely: because the thing that mattered, was keeping THEM, down, not quixotic ideas about…. Well, I mean, you didn’t want to support state terror, you were a ‘criminal’: draft resistance was not obeying the law, right….

And yeah: for the record, Nelson Mandela was convicted because of property damage/violence, ‘terrorism’, right: and went to jail for a whole generation’s worth of time: for that, not for trying to desegregate lunch counters, right. Trauma breeds idiocy, sure: but I also don’t trust that this idiot wouldn’t gloss ‘property damage/violence’ as meaning ‘terrorism’, in whatever skunky language he would veil his ~hardcore~ depersonalizing attack, in…. The only person who wouldn’t be able to figure out his sympathies would be himself, since his feelings are a foreign country to him, right….

Even Sidney Poitiers did radical stuff in the 70s—‘the Wilby Conspiracy’ flick. He probs didn’t mind not having to be compared to Hitler again, by East-German-origin nuns, right?….

Like, at what point is it not, ‘feel this way, or be destroyed by the state’—at the very least: gossips/loyal people consider freedom of, opinion, even, to be an improper thing, improperly and dangerously and shamefully extended to the unworthy, you know—and a pity about your face, but coppers can always make it uglier!

It always amazes me, now, how hysterical and one-sided ~moderates~ can be. It’s his own secret handshake…. The only way to be a moderate is to hysterically denounce radicalism!

…. And the “moderate Democrats” are already trying to make themselves attractive to Trump voters, even in New Jersey, there are too many MAGAs and the leftists and untapped snowed-over forgottens too dirty, for the “opposition party” not to try to re-package Trump as a moderate, essentially: since they’re “center-left”: and they can do Trump too, right!…. Like in the 19th century, the Jackson Mob caused the jacksonization of the Whig (ie, ‘resist the king’) opposition: it’s very similar: respond to outta control smoke shop racism by appealing to elitist sentiment, then later, just re-brand outta control racist assault as your own new Whig/21st century Democrat “opposition” (to) right-wing populism…. Because elitism is best, but you don’t fight for things, it’s too hard: and the ‘help the destroyed people’ people are just a cause of SHAME, right…. The outta control smoke shop racists: you can at least do a deal with them, right—aren’t they like everyone else?…. Maybe they’re moderates, even!….

~re: “betrayal happens” as paranoia—the whites in South Africa got enough rural Blacks on their side because they were afraid of the woke city crap, and often the pro-white rural Blacks would, if I remember, violently attack the Nelson Mandela Blacks…. and today in South Africa a preponderance of power is still in the hands of private white wealth…..

~re: The Middle East, or something damn minority culture, needs “an unwritten anthem” called “In Praise of Forgetfulness” = good idea for, ballet companies, or…. Is that the Negroes-only Kool-Aid, eh?….

~Showing sympathy for the honest, good racist, who’s just having “resentment of you for putting them on the spot”: (wise old man voice)—Show me a white person who isn’t resentful, and I’ll show you—a potential, at least, lol—anti-racist, son.

…. And just: show me a century with societal crimes that can be solved or even addressed, point blank, addressed, while ~~never putting anyone ‘on the spot’, right….~~…. Is our society the only one that has produced deluded consciences capable of feeling pain? Confederate veterans in the 1880s wouldn’t have been “put on the spot”, by pointing out the lynching disease in the ~~white mind~~, right…. God, you’d trigger their pain! This just reminds me of his war wounds! ~It’s like, getting shot in a war sucks, I agree; but as to the issue of the lynchings in this state over the past year…. “Hush! Rude boy!” (finger wagging)….

….“(What the famed poet of old didn’t have to deal with, because people used to be good, etc etc)”

The idea that there were no radicals to suppress in between 1875 and 1926 is truly dopey. The reactionaries have NEVER been happy or at peace, in any period….

“(Sometimes people change and move right, etc etc, so, you’re bad, etc etc).”

Anti-radicals tend to worship power. By the same token, you could say that it was, ~America~, a country of X millions, and Y dollars, that splattered this or that SE Asian village with blood, right…. So, relax. Extreme non-sequitur…. ‘Be a radical, unless someone doesn’t like it. If that happens, judge yourself.’ ~So say the hysterical moderates: so say, we ALL….

…. Re: freaking out over the Greens—the Dem establishment was probably delirious with joy over Bernie Sanders: it probably didn’t amount to the verbal equivalent of assassination, given that it is, The Absolute Truth of God, (TM), that, Moderates Are Reasonable In Every Situation Life Always Puts Them In, Always, (TM)—unless they meet a radical: then, they are well within their rights, to wet the bed, and cry for Mommy, hoping that she will wet the Earth Itself, with the blood of the poorly credentialed and the protesting, right…. I mean: it goes without saying….

Dems should “pick up more votes on their right”, eh? This is the ONLY strategy, we’re told: and its track record is AWFUL…. Assuming that there is a strong correlation, even, between stated goals and real goals, (which are obviously not just making money and making deals, come what massacres may come: right?)….

…. And he literally rants about “interest-group ghettoes”, in a “leftist” book with essentially zero to say about the Black experience, right….

~And yeah this Vague Caution BS—the Grandeur of It All, you know?— is not a three-point, actionable plan, right?…. Lacking ambition isn’t the same as being practical; the two can almost be opposites, right. But having ambition on behalf of those with nothing, who are considered as nothing, brings shame, no?

And just the vague pointless pathless wood Byzantine pseudo-Europhilia, right: it’s so American, to be honest; it’s EXACTLY why Europeans so often convulse with anti-Americanism: the need to distinguish themselves from subtly disrespectful cheap imitation frauds put forward as their own culture, in the name of deeply classist pseudo-leftist thought, you know…. They want society to change so much, that they’ll rewrite their resume to include more German and French words, right…. It’s like, whatever a fraud does turns to forgery, right; I can’t even describe it….

…. “anticolonial violence.”

You’re not obligated to agree with anybody, including someone who suffers more/is more oppressed: but sometimes people in the colonized world embrace “anti-colonial violence” because they don’t want to be…. un-patriotic. Do “violent” people have no right to an opinion/POV? Can you suppress them because ‘no, the violent (3rd world!) POV is defective: so yes you can violently suppress them….’ Get a government spy job, right…. ~The hysterical moderate: I’ll, PROBABLY make a high-minded decision, for as long my power is absolute…. But ask my wife what happened, after she started hanging out with the suffragettes!…. Etc, etc.

It’s a terrible argument, right. “Saint Augustine” burning “heresy” books: “I used to believe this crap. I’m entitled.”

~the excluded conversation: If being poor is so expensive, degrading, and results in such bad training, mentoring, and opportunities, does this mean that society in this way enjoys ‘economic rights’ because out-of-shape right-wing math egg-heads decided this was ‘natural’—destroys the human Earth habitat, but hey: private wealth over government, call it by its Decepticon Magic name, right?…. Nature calls for oppression and artificial limitation; and therefore oppression and artificial limitation are natural; this proves that, nature, as we have now proven, many times over, is of the nature to correspond to my interests and these rules I just invented yesterday…. Nature calls for weakness; reject nature and find God; and Nature will teach all men to be weak and obey: classic Christian philosophy ‘logic’ about ‘natural’ restrictions, right…. ~And that’s why we build colonies and cut down ~~as many trees as possible~~, because life is a plastic product you buy at the store, rught…. Did you follow that?

…. He writes about what the “insiders” will do and have to offer: and it’s like…. he is himself “dismissive”, right…. But moving on, let’s focus on what YOU can do: lead the sheep to the slaughter….

cf under your skin, or whatever the song was like: change your mentality; tune into reality: (earnest left-moderate) “I want us to work together. I will work hard to show you that, whatever you don’t agree to, won’t happen.” (entitled Richie Rich/conservative corporate blue-suit banker/‘leader’) (punching the air with his finger, right) “Good. Because I’m better than you: I make the rules—and you’ll do what I say. Do I make myself clear? Get back to work.” “This isn’t my place of employment. I’m a community—“ “Communities lack the hierarchy present in nature. Damned, unnatural things. I try not to engage in any communication, without a clear chain of command.” (spits directly in front of your shoe, and leaves).

…. “smug”

I don’t like a narrow definition, a short list of your allies, either: but saying that X isn’t or is smug, because Prince Czarludohv of the Banker’s Centrist Party for Change, says so: is a ~Terrible~ argument. ~He~ is arrogant!

…. And remember: in this war of British vs French North America, goal no. 1: stop caveman allies, from hurting French (white) prisoners: first goal, only goal.

…. (him talking about culture, which he implicitly finds as deeply irrelevant as…. Life itself, and eventually his own thought, really)

Translation: (a) job sucks, (b) get a tarot reading, (c) reader: your job sucks, what’s your plan; let’s make a plan; (d) “….employees, who in turn discovered that they could draw on a range of….” things that are toys, when divorced from experience.

~Just that my dad could present himself as ‘helping’ me, by saying I could rag on the bookseller/cashier for no reason, and all I had to do in return, implicitly, was spend, even on benefits and bringing home, per force, very little money, maybe half my time at work, or whatever: and be in a position to get ragged on and be unjustly vulnerable there…. But in return, I could collect a few pennies and use them to reinforce the humiliation of this guy who seemed like a good guy: but my Boomer Enneagram One father didn’t like him, because my perfect father loves perfect things, and knows that wearing all dark colors is bad, and lighting SHOULD be bright: and again, I initiated the small talk, and the guy did beautifully…. But it’s like…. Being “right” and unjustly tyrannical for five minutes, or whatever: how many hours of my own, frankly, poorly-used labor, in this irrationally top-down labor system…. Right? How many HOURS of poorly-used no-status labor time, does this opportunity for unjust tyrant-game ‘I am the customer’ compensate for, right…. People are out of their minds, and their heads are bleeding: that’s American capitalism….

~yeah, “this necessary division of labor” canards, right: why does this remind me of, the Congo using shit-wages labor to ship exotic metals to Cell-Phone Stan, California, right? “It’s a necessary division of labor, for the common good.”

~re: Stiglitz—who it’s hard to imagine him /HONESTLY/ taking seriously: it’s just an intellectual canard; you read books to gain status, and to frustrate the author by pretending to agree, in order to educate your stance of disengagement, apathy, and opposition, right…. Sometimes academics ~do~ say true things: but who thinks that a billionaire will cancel a vacation because Stiglitz or somebody writes a book? The body politic is the moderates: calm; either well-informed, or simply callous; and the Indian-hunters of high and low degree…. Somebody’s father does not even stop calling Leftist Laura from across the way bad names, just because Stiglitz wrote a book!

…. ~the poor have to deal with there being a World Bank; the end~ do they not have a CHOICE? Is this democratic choice-making? Just to say, Deal, deal with it: the end, ok? I have a ballet I don’t want to see, to go see: out of my way….

“the grim road” of 20th century communism, which must never be trod again, in the Sacred Name of the Earth Children, amen!, etc etc—ie; The colonized countries acted out, and lost. The end. 👌

…. “…. murderous networks….” ~ “getting ready to kill 100,000 American civilians in Iraq…. Oh no, wait…. ~Ie, the LEFT should be grinny? But let’s not forget; grumpy RIGHT-wingers Need ~Never~ be happy! 😀 ~God, he gets LOUD in his assertion that the honest right-wing son of the soil has every right to cut up a few draft dodgers with knives, right…. It’s such hysteria, so much of moderatism…. It’s just, hysteria….

~Israel, anti-Semitism: Blacks are oppressed too, but you don’t see anybody reacting to that by saying, ‘no murder: except in South Chicago’…. Right: two kinds of victims—good/client victims; and bad/enemy victims…. Why can’t we just save the children, right….

~Al Qaeda’s as “trivial criminals” who don’t need little things like trials re: their alleged crimes; me: Is this a legal term?— ‘trivial criminals’? Is there a legal definition for ‘trivial criminal’? Do they get a ‘trivial’ trial?…. Jakki Pakki was a trivial criminal; the question of his guilt was beside the point. He was the enemy: not a defendant….

…. “the terrorists hate you too.” Clever. Yes, the crazy poor people from Povistan, who are acting out, and shooting-crazy, hate me too. Now, answer: is it brave, or sane, to indiscriminately kill, because 60% of the world’s military budget, or whatever it is, isn’t enough. Logical? Brave? Or just…. Acting out?

…. The Code of the Centrist: Never Be Denounced.
Reality: YOU WILL BE, DENOUNCED.

(A) “I like astrology.”
(B) “I like astrology, too.”
(A—the same, as before!!!!) “Stay away, Satan.”

I mean, I get a lot of likes, sorta: although mainly for the more trivial threads, probably negative feedback is just 1-5%, because it’s all so trivial, but it’s like, literally 2-3 times, it’s been:
(A) (has opinion).
(B) (hey, blah blah blah: good for you, fist pump, etc.)
(A) (blocks me, and declines comment.)

But remember: the Code of the Centrist, is….

…. The black-balling of the whole issue of violence against his “allies”, the trite white racial solidarity, you know: it’s all so tired…. Does the trite white racial solidarity actually assuage some delusional-~guilt~ he has over…. What? What are we talking about, here?

…. About the problem of purpose in education, it’s just…. he’s such a deeply-pseudo-serious writer, everything is a play for prestige…. So, what’s the point?…. And then he admires the Right for being on the right side of the ‘discipline gap’: and it’s like…. country music?…. It’s just such a eyes-carefully-closed idiocy, right; at what point in history has large swaths, probably a large majority of the American Right, and probably the whole country, not been unruly rightists, you know…. This is not a disciplined country; never has been…. The Lenape were probably the last ones in my region to be relatively disciplined: that’s just a basic reality check, you know…. For all our clock-punching neurosis, and punishment neurosis, etc etc…. Americans are…. Wilder than wolves, you know….

…. And: Blacks in the footnotes of history, right: it really doesn’t deserve a response….

…. I’ll spare you the Germany-Poland jokes about his desperately, hopelessly supportive comments about 60s-era rightism: YES, the anti-MLK, pro-segregation right, as ‘a furious optimism of the will’…. It’s like…. I like to make jokes, but that’s just…. I’m not worthy, to make the 1939 jokes, about that line, right…. It’s like, what can you do, but say, Send my brother Aaron, I am uncircumcised of jokes…. But yeah, seriously: it’s like, if you’re making excuses for people opposing MLK de-segregation, MAYBE, you’re just making too many damn excuses, son. (does a ‘fuck you’ shrug of shoulders)

…. And I mean: there’s just so MUCH, such a rich harvest of idiocy; the orderly, regimented masses of American nationalists; the solidly leftist bankers, ever restless, eager for change; the Viet Cong ceaselessly, murderous ravaging the American countryside: an existential threat, to our very survival, as a restlessly-reforming-banker-led, calm, regimented cowboy nation, right….

…. the condescension is just ~unreal~…. ‘…. but you refuse to walk away from (your identity).’ ~What, stop being a Jew? A woman? Or, trans? Or, Black?…. I even refuse to lie and say that the faith of the church makes sense! I refuse to say I’m not a Wiccan.... Even THAT is REALLY not quite a choice…. Except in honesty versus deception, right.... Has this kid really NEVER not in the bosom of majoritarian society: at least, that he lets himself remember? Omg….

…. Again…. His unreal aristocrat-ism…. His vaguely psychotic notion that racism was under control—if a little unpleasant, certainly on its way out, right: at a time when W. has essentially declared on any country with suspiciously high levels of poverty, and/or non-Europeans, and/or the entire Middle East: and the government had given itself carte blanche to harass groups of suspicious origin…. But if you fast forward a decade into the Donnie Days era, you see just how prescient this sort of comment is…. But yeah, it took the symbolic victory of the Obama photo op, sorry, the Obama presidency, to get the majority of the left this out of touch with reality, right…. But here we have a real ‘trail-blazer’ writing in a time of considerable leftist agitation and effort, which was to expand considerably over the next 1-3 years, and even a little beyond, maybe…. And yeah, the advance squadron fighter was busy drugging the drink of the cows before the slaughter, basically…. Real class act…. Class war act, maybe: but on whose side?….

…. And then, after the lengthy repressed-rage diatribes about identity politics being the architect’s plan of the devil’s city, he writes a chapter about the clear and present menace of anti-Semitism…. As opposed to say, anti-Black antipathy. It’s like, whatever does he think that Black “identity politics” consists of, right? Getting up in front of Congress and talking about collard greens? Is that why he thinks it’s trivial?…. I mean, incidentally, someone SHOULD do something about the degenerate nature of food in the Age of Plastics, right: but you know what I mean, right? If a Jewish college student gets harassed by a Christian or whoever at school—and incidentally, ALL of his examples that he gives of Anti-Semitism, are of Jews attacked by low-status groups: Blacks and Palestinians, right: which isn’t to say that that disadvantaged people can’t be aggressive and exacerbate other people’s pain: but it’s like, did Micky McEire never get hot and sweaty about Pope Rome XII’s fervent desire to prove that Catholicism is the only religion that really…. Religious…. You know? And while the Catholics have sometimes softened their supremacist stance over the years, it’s by no means a consensus: I once heard a priest—one with a lot of awards for how great his talks were—describe Vatican II as basically a way to keep the Church’s teachings relevant, given that computers had changed: and then he kept it moving, and was on to the next theological battle, right…. Why does anti-Semitism only hurt when it comes from lower-status groups: John Henry’s anti-Semitism needs to be denounced, and Micky McEire’s anti-Semitism: it’s like…. Let me tell you something about Micky McEire: he’s lived in that house down the street for twenty-five years; if he ran for president of the home-owner’s association, I’d vote for him in a heartbeat…. Micky McEire is NOT, an anti-Semite!!….

~It’s like: the issue of whether a genocide happens as a result of the direct action of the Empire Proper, or through the actions of one of client states, right: isn’t the most terribly interesting issue; in the end, everything happens because of the empire, not the client states: it’s like saying somebody’s 16-year-old kid has a lot of money and lives in the Beverley Hills, and gets snide at Mexicans, and everything…. It’s like yeah: but they don’t really have money; and they didn’t decide to get educated to be snide at Mexicans: they’re a 16 year old; they decided what breakfast cereal to buy, the end….

But yeah: it’s almost like the non-fiction version of ‘Ender’s Game’, right. Let’s make genocide fun again!—there have been too many reforms! You know I don’t have anything against the bugs—we’ll just nuke them; although I am very moral—but yeah, it’s getting really hard to be a low-level enforcer in the mafia empire, right; the bugs don’t understand how hard it is to step on them…. Some days, I come back from fumigated bug colonies, so we can build person colonies, and I just cry, and cry, and cry: and I say to myself, I have to be strong, so that rural districts under the control of conservative American religious currents can, finally, be alright!…. (sniff, sniff), It’s these reforms against genocide, I tell ya: my mother don’t like ‘em…. They tricked my mother; they wanted her to think they were on her side, that she needed to be able to vote…. (roars with tearful rage) She just needed more roast bug to eat!….

You know: the genocidal armies need your PITY, NOW; they’re being OPPRESSED BY THE INFERIOR BUG RACES! 😖😖😖

It’s funny: they get so nationalistic, the genocide nationalists, and I can sorta understand it with the USA, because we really have never!, been different than that, we’ve never really been non-imperial, even before the separatist period, when things accelerated…. But yeah, people get so proud of their genocide nationalists, but whether they’re German or Utah or Israeli or, I don’t know, Russian or, Saudi, maybe, the Saudis are especially laughable, because they don’t even conquer lands anymore; they just cash checks and play with guns and grenades, right…. But I mean: they’re all just little bitch men who feel sorry for themselves for being murderers, right: they kill for their culture, even though they have zero understanding of the actual non-dysfunctional, or real, aspects of their culture; if any, (Ender’s Game/Utah, right)…. They kill each other over differences, when they’re like so many interchangeable little-bitch-man machine parts, right….

…. And, from observation, I can see that many Black “leaders”, don’t say, ‘end this social system which destroys us’: since being a dissident is semi-illegal, and being Black is semi-illegal: putting them together can be VERY scary, and Blacks can feel fear and vulnerability, even if whites can’t see that on them—and indeed, African-Americans tend to habitually hide that, inevitable stance towards life in them, when it comes up…. But yeah: they don’t say, ‘end the system’, and they don’t even say, ‘include us’, they don’t say, ‘let there be a system where everyone is included, where exclusion is overcome and abandoned’: that is ALSO rage-inducing, for essentially coddled and entitled whites—at least they’re coddled and entitled, AS WHITES: it might be the ONLY way, potentially, in which they’re given carte blanche by the system for irrational anger and socially sanctioned acting out and unnatural wrath: so they sure AF not giving it up, homies!…. Yeah: so they don’t say, ‘include us, so that hierarchy is also honest’; Black leaders tend to look at the white power structure—and how can you grow wealthy, without the patronage, (sponsoring; mentorship; “opportunities”, etc), of the already-powerful, right? (If you can sift through the people who post internet videos of people who offer mock mentorship in exchange for a check and some interesting videos, and then cash all the checks, and laugh all the way to the bank, about people’s ludicrously unsuccessful attempts at selling out, so to speak…. And even where money itself isn’t an issue, many wealthy people UNDERSTAND SO LITTLE of the lifestyle obstacles of the poor and other non-wealthy, that they really only CAN, as a matter of, ~effectiveness~, help other rich people…. Even if they fail to NOTICE that, about themselves, right?….)…. But yeah: the Black “leaders”—or, would-be sell-outs, I guess; the double-crossed sell-outs, right…. They go to the white power brokers and say, “Make us ~powerful~, DESPITE our being Black…. My friends from my old church can go to hell in a police raid, right: just give me an individual role, worth having….”

And: to tie it back into the specific place in the book: despite the differences, individuals as extraordinary isolated actors, versus what became common for the whole ethnicity: that’s not unlike the situation that befell the unfortunate Jews. “Help us become eligible for power: DESPITE our being Jewish.” And so there are powerful Jews: and yet even the energetically pro-Israeli client state Christians, if you scratch the surface, can be HELLISHLY anti-Semitic, even AFTER they’ve done the deal, and set up the bank transfers with the eligible individuals. It just doesn’t make any difference: power games are about power games—they’re not about ending anti-Semitism, or any sort of craziness, frankly.

I can’t even begin to fathom the depth of Todd’s guilt, as a “thought” leader, and an “activist”, on, any of these issues under discussion, right….

It’s funny: people would have you think that always choosing the most qualified candidate for the job, even within class and imperial oppression, and MAYBE the non-accepted group member who is most ashamed of their mother’s national background, right…. Albeit THAT, with appropriate guilt (!), and reprisals (!!!)….

People just paint that as like, pie in the sky, smoking-pot shit, right. Well…. What is always choosing, almost the most mediocre white male…. After a certain point, even mediocrity itself becomes a qualification: you don’t want people to get “funny” ideas, right…. Mediocrity is, stability. Mediocrity…. The, MOST, practical thing, right. (Advertisement, especially an in-person one) Mediocrity is, good for business! So, pay more and get less, for my callous indifference: because I’m telling you down, children. It’s a good deal!….

Like, if that’s ‘practicality’…. Then practicality must be a path to collective suicide, right….

…. Yeah, briefly, for me: he’s like a Billy Joel Jew, you know: “Orthodox girls start much too late.” ~a non-Billy Joel line. It’s common, given EXTREME Anglo ethnocentrism, and the disparities between the two populations…. (Jewish academics are entirely anglicized in their work, etc.)…. The Black Billy Joel fan worried about anti-Black police brutality = ‘identity politics’: and then, you take a deep breath, and say, ‘But, SOMETIMES….’…. and yeah, just A LOT of stuff ~resenting~ prejudice from the bottom, ~~~because those people are dirty and it’s an insult to be rejected by the trash can itself~~~…. And if the supermen reject us, well…. Well, you’ve got to be loyal, little girl: they’re in charge around here, it’s no dishonor to be slighted now and then, by a Real American…. Didn’t you hear it was getting better?…. Let’s all rally around me being slighted by the despicable, and then, maybe the empire will roll along; God, Mary Jane, if I ever get murdered, I don’t want to be at the hands of the schmucks…. Dirty people, schmucks…. Some people just don’t deserve the benefit of the doubt; they’re inferior. At least not everyone is like that, though….

~I mean, is being just another Jewish academic in the American racial state, really be THAT good a deal, that he, Can’t Fucking Imagine, a better way?…. Or are you just mediocre and callous, right?…. other examples of male mediocrity & callousness, removed for length, lol.

…. (Todd) “we dare not sign onto every raid against liberty”

~& you need not, because they’re not REALLY asking your pompous, passive-aggressive equivocating ass, at the end of the day….

…. “I oppose all past wars, though no future ones.”
“Deal.”
“Outrageous!”
“Let’s have a debate: sell tickets—advertise, gentlemen, advertise!”….

…. It’s improbable that the old USAF has killed more than 3,000 innocents—based on what? Sentiment? Loyalty? Politeness?…. Politeness to WHOM—to whom, my good man. Have my man bring me my tea, old chap.

…. I wonder if we do expect, THEM, to be more moral than, us, right. EYE have a MOTHER, you shit from nowhere! Your culture has zero military power—suffer gladly: like fools, monks, and Christians! ~segue to some randy USA culture happenings, lol

“…. my own anti-anti-Americanism—a surprise to me”: [on page 153] are you READING the pages, after you draft them? 152 you forgot about, eh?

…. But maybe it would be okay if 50-60% or whatever, of the world’s military spending, could grow up and stop praying that baby Jesus will stop the looming anti-American genocide, right…. Turn it around: Baby Lord Jesus, though we have 55% of the world’s military spending, we stand helpless before your dirty diaper in the crib in Ohio. Only You, can halt the otherwise inevitable, anti-American genocide…. Ah, ah, Jesus! Jesus!—Keep it in your pants, little dog….

…. Re: ‘If we forego the luxury of disdain, it is not to embrace the patriotism of silence.’ ~I was just watching a part of ‘Les Pecheurs de Perles’, and: this sentence needs to be said in French, or by a French person, right…. He could be a real owned toy, for Napoleon III, right. ‘If we abolish the Republic, it is not to…’ ~And the post-1789 French governments, even the non-republican ones, and, among the non-republicans, especially the Bonapartists, never held, as their own doctrine, and it never was, that the Revolution was over, and now it was as though it had never been, right…. Although in France, from 1802-1848, slavery came back, because of Napoleon…. But if we bring back slavery, my fraternal partners in Revolution, it is not to…. It’s certainly not to spite, MARKETING, right?…. (purple and white balloons!!!)

…. Yeah, sometimes of the last chapter was ok: most of it, I guess, although he leaves himself an ‘out’ or two to escape through, right: ‘let’s have another military draft, another few wars: for empire! This time, though: a liberal one, (we won’t tell Texas), & just the whole phenomenon of: ‘Anti-colonialism: an exercise in colonial thought; a Class & Status Press publication’, and, one, vague line about civil rights…. And just the problem of, one chapter, maybe two, if you include the first chapter, (out of a total of, ~eleven~, right….?), that are actually, realistically, FOR activism, right…. Enough for a maybe thirty page, strategic hamlet, right….

And just the problem of—what’s the action suggested, right?…. Aside from another draft, and extra wars!…. And, SUGGESTED, CEO-reimbursement-waiving…. Oh, mfg…. Omfg….

What is the end game he’s hoping for, right? ‘I hate the left, and one time I met a leftist who hated the left…. So, I stand tall, proud’?

—Activism is wrong. However, in the end…. I believe, in activism. In hope.
—Uh huh. Fuck you, though, faggot-lover.
—Mmm…. Yeah. So true. You know, in the end, I don’t think I’m right, either.
—Yup. (finishes American beer) Suck a cock, gay boy. (walks off)
—(as their guy is leaving) But I’m more polite, so—…. I win!!!

…. This book was published in 2003–I was still very small then; I don’t even know that I was in high school, yet: I’m thinking I wasn’t: I wasn’t even really the youngest generation yet. I wasn’t anything yet.

Reading and interacting with stuff from that time: the 90s, the early 2000s, one is struck by how insane the world was. (In the late 2000s into the early 2010s, a new crazy came about: the Great Complacency Time~ for some.) But yeah, the Turn Backwards, With Regret, Towards the Proper Way of Lies & Destruction—the callousness, you know.

The racism; the callousness.

The sky-children will look back & sigh over the Era of Mediocrity, right!

“From the troubled heart of South Africa,
Nicaragua’s festering sore;
The turmoil on the streets of China~
Death crying out for more.

A change is slowly coming
My eyes can scarcely see
The rays of hope come streaming
Through THE SMOKE OF APATHY.”

Loreena McKennitt, 1989 (caps added)

I ended out with a meditation on generation, ageism, and right-wing youth fad culture: the Baby Boomer ambition to be a solidly progressive generation has changed a great deal; capitalist empire and bigotry remains largely the same, with the added burden of ageism/judging older adults based on surface appearances, (although it must be said that Frank Capra often promoted ageism, and his career was essentially over by what, 1961?), and the new right-wing-sell complacency and rebranded bigotry and other forms of viciousness to the youth: some right-wing lies are easier to believe when you’re young, right…. Or when you own a house….

But yeah: I won’t type the whole thing out again; there was a little glitch. Instead I’ll just close out with a snippet of a different song:

‘Late night, turns into morning blue
It took such a long time,
To make up my own mind about you
Now the sun hangs heavy,
I can’t even lift my eyes:
To where it sits indifferently:
Unmoved Mover of the sky….’

The Sun: the Unmoved Mover of the Sky…. Something Bigger, than America, and all the empires, and all the bullshit and prejudice.

Amen. show less

The Chosen Peoples: America, Israel, and the Ordeals of Divine Election does more than dispel any preexisting theories regarding Divine Election, and surprisingly, the authors do give credit to the power behind the forces that sustain the continuing notion.

Todd Gitlin and Liel Liebovitz wanted to discredit or to deflate the assumption of Divine Election or “choseness” with their brazenness. Yet, within the book, the reader gets the sense that they did a turnaround of sorts, through their show more own research. Their perceptions and concepts changed from subjective to objective. Their presumptuousness did a back flip. Forces beyond their control reigned supreme in the outcome of their intelligent, incredible and masterful work, The Chosen Peoples: America, Israel, and the Ordeals of Divine Election. show less