#Fascist white death cult mindset

[bijoumikhawal]

"Biden is the best choice and he's actually really empathetic and reasonable but also you can't wait for a candidate that won't do genocide and war crimes because to become a presidential candidate you have to be willing to do that" see what you fundamentally don't understand is I'm not waiting for a candidate that won't do war crimes, because I know that. I cannot morally stomach this system, it's a joke to claim its democratic, and AMERICA DELENDA EST. this country is a plague on this Earth

[qqueenofhades]

Do you really hate this county? Or were you just ranting?

Sigh. I debated whether or not to answer this, since I usually keep the real-life/politics/depressing current events to a relative minimum on this blog, except when I really can't avoid ranting about it. But I have some things to get off my chest, it seems, and you did ask. So.

The thing is, any American with a single modicum of genuine historical consciousness knows that despite all the triumphalist mythology about Pulling Up By Our Bootstraps and the American Dream and etc, this country was founded and built on the massive and systematic exploitation and extermination of Black and Indigenous people. And now, when we are barely (400 years later!!!) getting to a point of acknowledging that in a widespread way, oh my god the screaming. I'm so sick of the American right wing I could spit for so many reasons, not least of which is the increasingly reductive and reactive attempts to put the genie back in the bottle and set up hysterical boogeymen about how Teaching Your Children Critical Race Theory is the end of all things. They have forfeited all pretense of being a real governing party; remember how their only platform at the 2020 RNC was "support whatever Trump says?" They have devolved to the point where the cruelty IS the point, to everyone who doesn't fit the nakedly white supremacist mold. They don't have anything to do aside from attempt to usher in actual, literal, dictionary-definition-of-fascism and sponsor armed revolts against the peaceful transfer of power.

That is fucking exhausting to be aware of all the time, especially with the knowledge that if we miss a single election cycle -- which is exceptionally easy to do with the way the Democratic electorate needs to be wooed and courted and herded like cats every single time, rather than just getting their asses to the polls and voting to keep Nazis out of office -- they will be right back in power again. If Manchin and Sinema don't get over their poseur pearl-clutching and either nuke the filibuster or carve out an exception for voting rights, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act is never going to get passed, no matter how many boilerplate appeals the Democratic leadership makes on Twitter. In which case, the 2022 midterms are going to give us Kevin McCarthy, Speaker of the House (I threw up in my mouth a little typing that) and right back to the Mitch McConnell Obstruction Power Hour in the Senate. The Online Left (TM) will then blame the Democrats for not doing more to stop them. These are, of course, the same people who refused to vote for Hillary Clinton out of precious moral purity reasons in 2016, handed the election to Trump, and now like to complain when the Trump-stacked Supreme Court reliably churns out terrible decisions. Gee, it's almost like elections have consequences!!

Aside from my exasperation with the death-cult right-wing fascists and the Online Left (TM), I am sick and tired of how forty years of "trickle-down" Reaganomics has created a world where billionaires can just fly to space for the fun of it, while the rest of America (and the world) is even more sick, poor, overheated, economically deprived, and unable to survive the biggest public health crisis in a century, even if half the elected leadership wasn't actively trying to sabotage it. Did you know that half of American workers can't even afford a one-bedroom apartment? Plus the obvious scandal that is race relations, health care, paid leave, the education system (or lack thereof), etc etc. I'm so tired of this America Is The Greatest Country in the World mindless jingoistic catchphrasing. We are an empire in the late stages of collapse and it's not going to be pretty for anyone. We have been poisoned on sociopathic-libertarian-selfishness-disguised-as-Freedom ideology for so long that that's all there is left. We have become a country of idiots who believe everything their idiot friends post on social media, but in a very real sense, it's not directly those individuals' fault. How could they, when they have been very deliberately cultivated into that mindset and stripped of critical thinking skills, to serve a noxious combination of money, power, and ideology?

I am tired of the fact that I have become so drained of empathy that when I see news about more people who refused to get the vaccine predictably dying of COVID, my reaction is "eh, whatever, they kind of deserved it." I KNOW that is not a good mindset to have, and I am doing my best to maintain my personal attempts to be kind to those I meet and to do my small part to make the world better. I know these are human beings who believed what they were told by people that they (for whatever reason) thought knew better than them, and that they are part of someone's family, they had loved ones, etc. But I just can't summon up the will to give a single damn about them (I'm keeping a bingo card of right-wing anti-vax radio hosts who die of COVID and every time it's like, "Alexa, play Another One Bites The Dust.") The course that the pandemic took in 21st-century America was not preordained or inevitable. It was (and continues to be) drastically mismanaged for cynical political reasons, and the legacy of the Former Guy continues to poison any attempts to bring it under control or convince people to get a goddamn vaccine. We now have over 100,000 patients hospitalized with COVID across the country -- more than last summer, when the vaccines weren't available.

I have been open about my fury about the devaluation of the humanities and other critical thinking skills, about the fact that as an academic in this field, my chances of getting a full-time job for which I have trained extensively and acquired a specialist PhD are... very low. I am tired of the fact that Americans have been encouraged to believe whatever bullshit they fucking please, regardless of whether it is remotely true, and told that any attempt to correct them is "anti-freedom." I am tired of how little the education system functions in a useful way at all -- not necessarily due to the fault of teachers, who have to work with what they're given, and who are basically heroes struggling stubbornly along in a profession that actively hates them, but because of relentless under-funding, political interference, and furious attempts, as discussed above, to keep white America safely in the dark about its actual history. I am tired of the fact that grade school education basically relies on passing the right standardized tests, the end. I am tired of the implication that the truth is too scary or "un-American" to handle. I am tired. Tired.

I know as well that "America" is not synonymous in all cases with "capitalist imperialist white-supremacist corporate death cult." This is still the most diverse country in the world. "America" is not just rich white middle-aged Republicans. "America" involves a ton of people of color, women, LGBTQ people, Muslims, Jews, Christians of good will (I have a whole other rant on how American Christianity as a whole has yielded all pretense of being any sort of a principled moral opposition), white allies, etc etc. all trying to make a better world. The blue, highly vaccinated, Biden-winning states and counties are leading the economic recovery and enacting all kinds of progressive-wishlist dream policies. We DID get rid of the Orange One via the electoral process and avert fascism at the ballot box, which is almost unheard-of, historically speaking. But because, as also discussed above, certain elements of the Democratic electorate need to fall in love with a candidate every single time or threaten to withhold their vote to punish the rest of the country for not being Progressive Enough, these gains are constantly fragile and at risk of being undone in the next electoral cycle. Yes, the existing system is a crock of shit. But it's what we've got right now, and the other alternative is open fascism, which we all got a terrifying taste of over the last four years. I don't know about you, but I really don't want to go back.

So... I don't know. I don't know if that stacks up to hate. I do hate almost everything about what this country currently is, structurally speaking, but I recognize that is not identical with the many people who still live here and are trying to do their best, including my friends, family, and myself. I am exhausted by the fact that as an older millennial, I am expected to survive multiple cataclysmic economic crashes, a planet that is literally boiling alive, a barely functional political system run on black cash, lies, and xenophobia, a total lack of critical thinking skills, renewed assaults on women/queer people/POC/etc, and somehow feel like I'm confident or prepared for the future. Not all these problems are only America's fault alone. The West as a whole bears huge responsibility for the current clusterfuck that the world is in, for many reasons, and so do some non-Western countries. But there is no denying that many of these problems have ultimate American roots. See how the ongoing fad for right-wing authoritarian strongmen around the world has them modeling themselves openly on Trump (like Brazil's lunatic president, Jair Bolsonaro, who talks all the time about how Trump is his political role model). See what's going on in Afghanistan right now. Etc. etc.

Anyway. I am very, very tired. There you have it.

[agiar2000]

Resistance to Violence

I just saw this video, and I found it very intriguing and impactful, intellectually. It actually did get me thinking differently about the main issue therein. https://youtu.be/YJSehRlU34w

When this video was published, I was probably already quite convinced of the virtue of non-violent resistance.

In recent years, however, I have seen more and more of how non-violent protesters have not only been subjected to oppressive violence in retaliation, but have also been publicly blamed for the violence being done to and around them, so that the corrupt media has successfully managed to redirect the sympathy that ought to be conferred on those who are bravely and peacefully standing in the face of violence and oppression, and twist it into even more support for the oppressive system. I have seen how violent regimes are perfectly willing to brutalize peaceful people just to assert and demonstrate their dominance, and then I see them getting praise from large swaths of the population who support that oppression.

On the other hand, I have also been thinking more about situations where violence was the catalyst to finally make progress for equality and justice. The Confederate States of America, the Nazis of Germany, and the various unconscionable horrors they wrought were not stopped by people protesting peacefully, by seeking common ground, by seeking to understand them better and make them comfortable. They were stopped by a sufficient opposing army slaughtering them until they ceased to be willing and able to pose a continuing threat to humanity.

It's also helpful, I think to contrast the end of the Confederacy with the end of the Nazis. Starting with the Confederacy: While slavery and white supremacy were certainly overtly stated goals of the Confederacy's rebellion, the Union was (and still is) hardly an anti-racist country, and it has been noted that their goal in fighting the Confederacy was more about retaining the Union than about ending slavery. In the end, when the Confederacy surrendered, there was an attempt by the victors to ease the feelings of the erstwhile rebels, to allow them to retain a great deal of "Southern pride". For that, we get the Daughters of the Confederacy whitewashing and rewriting history, the Ku Klux Klan continuing to wage terror across the country, and many of the various monuments and other dedications to honor Confederate leaders. The meaning of these symbols is clearly white supremacy, and not merely "Southern pride", as evidenced by how they're used. Many of these monuments were erected in the former Confederacy as part of the backlash against the civil rights movement in the 20th century, and some people even outside of America proudly wave the Confederacy's navy jack flag. Why would non-Americans wave that flag? Because they want to wave a flag for white supremacy, and they can't legally wave the flag of the Nazis.

The Nazis, by contrast, were obliterated. They were not allowed to retain "Nazi pride" after the fall of their heinous regime. The symbols of their monstrosity were banned. A standard of basic human decency was granted greater priority than the "freedom" of terrible people to do horrible things. Nazism was destroyed, not simply because it opposed other powers that wanted to control them, but because they were evil, and they needed to be stopped for the good of the world. The result is that now, less than 8 decades after the fall of the Nazis, Germany is a far more decent, pro-social democracy than the former Confederate states, which continue to stand for right-wing oppression, even over 15 decades after the surrender of the Confederacy.

Another example, though less of a dramatic one, is that of the Stonewall riot. The LGBTQ community did not start gaining rights and freedom from a horrifically oppressive regime because they were kind, nice, and peaceful, gently appealing to the better angels of their murderers and oppressors, making the effort to try to understand them and to meet them in the middle. What kicked off their victories at this time was Black trans women of color throwing bricks at police.

Considering all that, I found Chenoweth's presentation difficult to reconcile. When the oppressive regime has control over the media, when they make every peaceful protester look like a violent, dangerous terrorist, and they convince large portions of the population to be willing to fight for fascism, convincing them that it is actually "freedom", and that efforts for justice are actually an attack on their very identity, how can one possibly proceed? When those in power do murder peaceful protesters, do you keep showing up to protest peacefully? If you see someone going around shooting people left and right, do you stand there and demand verbally that the shooter stop?

So, what to do? We live in a violent society that has normalized routine violence against the poor, minorities, people of color, and all of the most marginalized and vulnerable in society. We only need 3.5% of the population to actively resist? Already 5.8% of the American population is in deep poverty, with 9.2% in poverty, generally. Globally, these numbers are even more horrifying, with 9.2% in deep poverty and nearly 17% in a state of being "multidimensionally poor", and nearly half living on less than the equivalent of US$5.50 per day. Couldn't we count on those people, at the very least, to oppose their own oppression? No, we cannot, partly because part of being so oppressed is being kept so weak and powerless that you don't have the energy to resist and being provided just enough that you're terrified to lose what little you have by daring to stand up, but also because so many of them have been brainwashed and corrupted into voting against their own interests and being willing to fight against the people who are trying to help them, and blame the even more marginalized among them or phantoms of foreign powers for all of their problems. Maybe if they knew what was really going on, we would have won long before now.

Now, regarding the topic of the video, the success of non-violent resistance, I very much appreciate that Chenoweth's presentation relied on statistical data from studies of hundreds of events rather than the mere anecdotes that were foremost in my mind when I started watching, and I also appreciate that she started by talking about the mindset from which she started, which closely resembled my own, including good examples of violent revolutions that ended corrupt regimes. I don't know exactly how the data she used to reach her conclusion were gathered and classified, and I retain some skepticism, but I would very much like to believe that her data are, in fact, representative, accurate, and actionable. I would very much like to believe that we can, in fact, win freedom and justice through peaceful means, though I have a hard time really being confident in it. I want to believe that she's right because otherwise, I see very little hope at all. We are very close to a point at which total environmental collapse is inevitable, with the majority of global power still putting the pedal to the metal to drive us off that cliff as fast as possible. The most aggressive policy proposals to save the planet involve easing up on the gas slightly, far too little far too late, and even those are being defeated by the regressive death cult of neoliberals, conservatives, and fascists. At this point, it is hard to see how any future can exist that does not involve tremendous destruction. Either the forces of evil win outright and destroy everything, or the forces that oppose them are forced to wreak so much destruction in order to stop them that they might as well have lost anyway. It's hard to imagine sometimes that we have not already completely lost, that the world is not already completely doomed, and all that is left is to watch as the monsters responsible for it just keep making things worse until the very end.

I guess the answer is just to have faith and to do whatever we can to give humanity the best possible chance, and that means two main strategic goals: 1. Motivate and influence enough people to reach that 3.5% threshold to actually resist for the change that we all need. 2. Determine an actual action plan for those people to carry out that will have the desired effect with a minimum of collateral damage and harmful side effects.

Sadly, I have no idea how to do either of those things, and anything I can think of still feels either depressingly small and insufficient or worrying for its potential to cause unintended harm.

[ariainstars]

Umberto Eco on Fascism

I am blogging Eco’s words here because many people don’t seem to understand what “fascism” actually is by definition. The word, together with “Nazi”, seems to have become an overall definition for “evil”, or as a meaning to offend someone by accusing them of being narrow-minded, elitist and enabling violence.This is particularly disturbing within the Star Wars fandom.

The main points of Umberto Eco’s 1995 essay on „Ur-Fascism“.

1.  The cult of tradition. “One has only to look at the syllabus of every fascist movement to find the major traditionalist thinkers. The Nazi gnosis was nourished by traditionalist, syncretistic, occult elements.”

2.  The rejection of modernism. “The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity. In this sense Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism.”

3.  The cult of action for action’s sake. “Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation.”

4.  Disagreement is treason. “The critical spirit makes distinctions, and to distinguish is a sign of modernism. In modern culture the scientific community praises disagreement as a way to improve knowledge.”

5.  Fear of difference. “The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders. Thus Ur-Fascism is racist by definition.”

6.  Appeal to social frustration. “One of the most typical features of the historical fascism was the appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation, and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups.”

7.  To those who lack any social identity, Ur-Fascism suggests that their only privilege is the most common of all, i.e. having all been born in the same country. This is the origin of nationalism and why the only ones who can offer an identity to the nation are the alleged enemies. This leads to the obsession with a plot. “Thus at the root of the Ur-Fascist psychology there is the obsession with a plot, possibly an international one. The followers must feel besieged.” The easiest way to expose a plot is to apply to xenophobia. But the complot must also come from the inside, which explains why during Nazi Germany Jews seemed an ideal object for this, since they at once belonged to the country by living there and did not belong since they identified as Jews.

8.     Followers must feel humiliated by the assumed wealth and strength of the enemies. Eco recalls that when he was small, he was told that Englishmen had five repasts every day, contrarily to Italians who were seen as simpler and more sober people. Jews were all assumed to be rich and helping one another through a secret network of reciprocate assistance. The followers must however be convinced that they can “win” over their enemies, thus the enemy is seen as both strong and weak. “By a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak.”

9.     Pacifism is trafficking with the enemy. “For Ur-Fascism there is no struggle for life but, rather, life is lived for struggle.”

10.  Contempt for the weak. “Elitism is a typical aspect of any reactionary ideology.”

11.  Everybody is educated to become a hero. “In Ur-Fascist ideology, heroism is the norm. This cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death.”

12.  Machismo and weaponry. “Machismo implies both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality.”

13.  Selective populism. “There is in our future a TV or internet populism, in which the emotional response of a selected group of citizens can be presented and accepted as the Voice of the People.”

14.  Ur-Fascism speaks Newspeak. “All the Nazi or Fascist schoolbooks made use of an impoverished vocabulary, and an elementary syntax, in order to limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning.”

 By contrast, I would like to leave a note on imperialism here.

“Imperialism - state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas. Because it always involves the use of power, whether military or economic or some subtler form, imperialism has often been considered morally reprehensible, and the term is frequently employed in international propaganda to denounce and discredit an opponent’s foreign policy.” (Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica)

I cannot find any parallel between the Empire and the First Order and fascist / Nazi ideology. Their political and military structure is clearly imperialistic, but any of the above-mentioned mindsets are nowhere to be seen. It would be absolutely unfitting for a franchise of action movies, where the average moviegoer simply wants to be entertained, to introduce such a highly charged and complex subject. (On a side note: Darth Vader’s Theme, which we first hear in “The Empire Strikes Back”, the movie where both he and the Empire are at the peak of their power, is called The Imperial March.)

One of the main reasons why I often hear Palpatine’s Empire or Snoke’s First Order being referred to as fascism or a Nazi regime is the destruction of the planet of Alderaan respectively of the Hosnian Prime system, which is called “genocide”.

The destruction of Alderaan and the Hosnian Prime system by the Empire and the First Order aimed at showing the galaxy the extreme destructive power of their oppressor’s weapons in order to terrify them and keep any rebellion at bay. Alderaan and Hosnian Prime were situated at coordinates in the galaxy where their destruction would be witnessed by many other planets. In A New Hope, the actual rebel base is dismissed by Moff Tarkin as being too far away to be suitable as an actual demonstration of the Empire’s power. The races, cultures, religions etc. of the people living on those planets were not of the least interest to them (see points 6, 7 and 8 above). Fascism was not at the root of those mass murders, terrible as they are.

I have never heard or read any Star Wars fan saying that the Empire or the First Order actually were morally good. It is unacceptable that as a fan, one is dismissed as being a fascist or a Nazi respectively someone who supports these awful mindsets.

Yes, some of us understand and feel for characters like Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader and Kylo Ren / Ben Solo. That does not make us members of a “Nazi boy fan club”: the whole above-mentioned ideology is out of the question.

I have never heard anyone, as well, pretend that these two men did nothing bad and or that they are secretly good. Nobody is doubting or questioning their terrible choices. The point of their stories was to show that they both had once been good, that some good was still left in them and showed itself in the end, that they largely also were a product of their environment and that their fates, and the fates of the many who suffered through them, could have been avoided. It is easy to say “Everybody has a choice / I would never do such a thing” when, as a mere spectator, one is in a wholly different situation.

I will write another entry on the subject of psychological abuse to clarify why I don’t defend Star Wars’ villains but can understand them in their complexity and appreciate the narrative for not simply telling morally black and white stories.

I kindly ask anyone who reads this to please stick to facts instead of blindly attacking fans over a fictional story using terms they don’t quite understand believing by that to prove their own morality. Thank you.

[questionthebox]

What To Do

the working class in the United States is hermetically sealed, 

we have to come to grips with this. 

1. we allowed these crazy ass christian cult mega churches, pastors and culture, capture a large portion of the working class and essentially ghettoizing their minds to a Middle Ages mindset, where they genuinely believe in myth, 

2. the paltry labor unions that exist, apparently the union leaders have no interaction with the rank and file with many workers not even knowing the name of the union they’re in, the union leadership has long betrayed their class, and now exists as fat cats pampered by the system, which has made the rank and file apathetic or reactionary 

3. a while ago I asked the white people in my life, if they ever met a poor white person, and all said no, none have ever interacted with the working class whites that populate the rural areas, this rural proletariat, exists totally isolated and captured in hard drugs, meth and heroin, Fox News, and reactionary death cults represented in right wing groups like the proud boys, a lot of these people and this is going to sound ridicioulus but a lot of these people have become so captured in nihilism that they actively worship the devil, they mix devil worship with right wing hate-politics. 

4. the urban working class, of which I am part of, we have no outlets to engage in the organizing of a revolutionary socialist party, we have the DSA of which ive recently become a member, but its time to come out of the closet and actively preach revolution, 

5. there are no liberal for one, as liberalism, has decayed into Neo Liberalism, in this we have no large scale progressive left media outlets, the way the right wing does and organized capital does, organized capital has the axis of the New York Times, the Washington post, CNN, MSNBC, and the Fascists have Fox News, and right wing hate radio, and these weird rightist christian outlets, this has to change in some way. 

6. Ultimately this, its time to organize on revolutionary socialist principles, no more hiding it, we have to organize the working class by letting them tell their stories of rape, dysfunction, abuse and so on, that’s solidarity, we have to demand that those progressive YouTube platforms that do exist, have to from that point be the bully pulpit for socialism, they must become propagandists for the revolution, if not they shall be banished, we need an army as well, and once we have in the cities at least 100k members we need to antagonize the state, by not running for office, our strategy should be to gain millions of followers, of which we will train, and once we reach a certain number, we should just take over, 

[hufflly-puffs]

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows

Chapter 1: The Dark Lord Ascending

Without checking, but I think this is the only book that I own that is dedicated to me. And well to everyone else, who stuck with Harry until the very end. It might be just a small thing, but I remember how much it meant to me, the first time I read Rowling’s dedication for her final book in the Potter series. Reading those books had felt like a long journey for me; read the first one with 11 and the last one with 18. Those books were my childhood/youth. And speaking of journeys: I started these chapter notes over a year ago, so this feels like another journey is ending soon.

We start the book again from an outsider POV, though with an omniscient narrator. The only other chapter written like that was “The Unbreakable Vow” (book 6, Chapter 2) and both chapters revolve around the Death Eaters, and especially Snape. Given the ambiguous nature of Snape, and that his true loyalty is meant to remain a secret almost until the end, it makes of course sense we don’t get to see inside Snape’s mind, don’t know what he is thinking or feeling. Rowling remains an observer in this chapter, never commenting the events.

What we get is a great insight of the hierarchy Voldemort has built around him. His followers live in constant fear of him and see each other as competition for his approval. The moment one of them fails, one of them shows only the slightest weakness, they all turn against him or her. They remind me of a group of school bullies, letting out their own fear and anger on someone weak, an easy target, although of course the Death Eaters are far more dangerous.

We can already learn so much from those first moments when Snape and Yaxley arrive; their first instinct is to attack each other before they recognise who the other one is. They are both anxious because they are late, knowing that only good news will justify their lateness. Yaxley even says he hopes Voldemort will be satisfied. Clearly his cult is built on fear and punishment and the constant need to do better than the others, to show no weakness, to be no failure.

“‘He always did himself well, Lucius. Peacocks …’ Yaxley thrust his wand back under his cloak with a snort.” – Ok, the fact that the Malfoys own a snow-white peacock is like something straight out of a fan fiction and how everyone imagined the Manor would look like, but that I never expected to be true.

“As their eyes grew accustomed to the lack of light they were drawn upwards to the strangest feature of the scene: an apparently unconscious human figure hanging upside-down over the table, revolving slowly as if suspended by an invisible rope, and reflected in the mirror and in the bare, polished surface of the table below. None of the people seated underneath this singular sight was looking at it except for a pale young man sitting almost directly below it. He seemed unable to prevent himself from glancing upwards every minute or so.” – I wonder if Draco did know who the woman was? Did she look familiar to him? Obviously he wouldn’t have taken Muggle Studies, but still she was a teacher at Hogwarts, so it is possible he recognized her. Draco’s behaviour shows a clear difference between him and the rest of the Death Eaters. The others know to show no interest in that woman, no curiosity, or perhaps even pity. This might not be the first time Voldemort brings a “guest” so they already know what will happen soon. Draco though had a hard course of reality check lately. He knows that Dumbledore was right in saying he is not a killer, knows that he is not as cruel and sadistic like the other Death Eaters, but also in what kind of danger this puts him and his family, because in the eyes of Voldemort this is a weakness. And by the way Voldemort taunts Lucius and Draco he is fully aware of that.

“‘Severus, here,’ said Voldemort, indicating the seat on his immediate right. ‘Yaxley – beside Dolohov.’ The two men took their allotted places. Most of the eyes around the table followed Snape and it was to him that Voldemort spoke first.” – It is very obvious that Snape is pretty high in this hierarchy. He is allowed to sit directly next to Voldemort, he is addressed first, and all the attention from the other Death Eaters is on him, because they know Voldemort favours Snape. Snape of course has been one of the most valuable spies, with access to the Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledore, and of course ultimately he is the one who killed Dumbledore. Of course for Dumbledore’s plan to succeed Voldemort needed to trust Snape and therefore Snape had to sacrifice almost everything. He needed to give Voldemort important information about the Order. It is possible Snape is the one who gave the Death Eaters information about Emmeline Vance, resulting in her death, sacrificing her for a greater plan. He now will give Voldemort the right information about the date Harry will leave the Dursleys, obviously putting Harry (and everyone else who tries to protect him) at risk. He has to in order to remain Voldemort’s most trusted follower; it is a very calculated risk.

“‘Saturday … at nightfall,’ repeated Voldemort. His red eyes fastened upon Snape’s black ones with such intensity that some of the watchers looked away, apparently fearful that they themselves would be scorched by the ferocity of the gaze. Snape, however, looked calmly back into Voldemort’s face and, after a moment or two, Voldemort’s lipless mouth curved into something like a smile. ‘Good. Very good. And this information comes –’ ‘From the source we discussed,’ said Snape.” – First of all we never learn who that source is. We later learn that Snape knew about the right date because Dumbledore (or rather his portrait) had told him, but I doubt he told Voldemort that, so he had to find someone else to present Voldemort as a reliable source. Second, short appreciation for the badass-Occlumens Snape is, never revealing to Voldemort his true motivation/loyalty.

Yaxley gives Voldemort a different date for Harry’s departure from the Dursleys, but it is obvious that Voldemort favours Snape and trusts his information more, or perhaps he thinks Snape’s source is more reliable than Yaxley’s. We also learn that the Death Eaters have by now infiltrated the Ministry of Magic and plan to overtake the Ministry. This will obviously give them much more control over the Wizarding World, as it gives them more tools of surveillance and the ability to change the law. Obviously Voldemort does not care if what he does is illegal, but it still makes a difference if you can rule your terror regime within the law. Fascist parties will always be more dangerous if they act legally, if their power is supported by the law they created. Because even though not everyone is as radical as Voldemort and the Death Eaters this new regime will have enough followers who share enough of the mindset of Voldemort to tag along. And yet Voldemort will never be in the open. He does not make himself Minister of Magic, but instead uses marionettes to do his work for him. He does not need to be in the open, because the whole time he is in the one in power. He knows that people fear him, but also the outright hate he creates. As long as he remains in the shadow people can silence their conscience because after all they don’t follow Voldemort.

Also, while Snape gives away the correct date of Harry’s departure (he has to for Voldemort to trust him) he does not reveal which member of the Order will take Harry in until his birthday. Of course it is possible he simply does not know, but maybe it is again calculated risk. Give away one vital information but keep another a secret. (And as we later learn, the plan to protect Harry – the seven Potters – came from Snape as well)

“Many of those sitting around Yaxley looked impressed; his neighbour, Dolohov, a man with a long, twisted face, clapped him on the back.” – Awww. I think this the closet kind of affection we will ever see between two Death Eaters.

“Again, Voldemort looked up at the slowly revolving body as he went on, ‘I shall attend to the boy in person. There have been too many mistakes where Harry Potter is concerned. Some of them have been my own. That Potter lives is due more to my errors, than to his triumphs.’ […]‘I have been careless, and so have been thwarted by luck and chance, those wreckers of all but the best laid plans. But I know better now. I understand those things that I did not understand before. I must be the one to kill Harry Potter, and I shall be.’” – It is interesting that Voldemort blames himself, that he makes his own errors responsible for the fact that Harry still lives. But obviously the only reason why he would admit failure is to lessen Harry’s impact. Harry did not survive because he might be the better wizard, because he has powers Voldemort does not, but simply because Voldemort made mistakes. The only way he could survive was because Voldemort had been careless. There is no other way Voldemort can explain to himself why Harry is still alive, a teenage boy who is not even fully educated compared to the greatest wizard of all time. It seems like Voldemort by now has heard the full prophecy (perhaps Snape told him, because by now it does no longer make a difference), because he insists he is the one to kill Harry. But it also seems like he ignores the part where the prophecy says Harry has a power Voldemort does not know about, because to Voldemort that simply is not possible.

“The faces around him displayed nothing but shock; he might have announced that he wanted to borrow one of their arms. ‘No volunteers?’ said Voldemort. ‘Let’s see … Lucius, I see no reason for you to have a wand any more.’” – A lot of book 7 revolves around wand lore, the importance of a wand and the ownership of a wand and how it can change. It is very obvious that none of the Death Eaters wants to give away their wand voluntary – without a wand you are defenceless, powerless, in short no longer a wizard. Demanding Lucius’s wand is the ultimate humiliation for him. Voldemort insists Lucius has no longer a need for a wand, therefore saying he no longer sees him as a wizard – he is worthless. The low standing of the Malfoy family is symbolized by the fact that during the following year they will all lose their wand (Lucius’s wand is destroyed, Draco’s taken by Harry and Narcissa gives hers to her son).

“Malfoy glanced sideways at his wife. She was staring straight ahead, quite as pale as he was, her long, blonde hair hanging down her back, but beneath the table her slim fingers closed briefly on his wrist. At her touch, Malfoy put his hand into his robes, withdrew a wand and passed it along to Voldemort, who held it up in front of his red eyes, examining it closely.” – Let’s be clear here: Narcissa is without a doubt the strongest, most capable of the Malfoys. She is the one holding this family together. She will be the one who has ultimately the nerve to lie to Voldemort just to save her son. We stan.

“‘I have given you your liberty, Lucius, is that not enough for you? But I have noticed that you and your family seem less than happy of late … what is it about my presence in your home that displeases you, Lucius?’” – I think Dumbledore was right in assuming Lucius was safer in Azkaban than he is now, even though he is free. Using the Manor as a base is yet another punishment for the Malfoys. And I always liked the fan fics who would later explore the idea of Draco being unable to return home because of what happened there, how tainted the place became he had once called home.

“She sat beside her sister, as unlike her in looks, with her dark hair and heavily lidded eyes, as she was in bearing and demeanour; where Narcissa sat rigid and impassive, Bellatrix leaned towards Voldemort, for mere words could not demonstrate her longing for closeness.” – I don’t think it has ever been addressed if Narcissa had been a Death Eater as well, but I don’t think so. Of course both her husband and her son are, so she is in this mess as well regardless. But while she shares the thought that Muggleborn wizards and witches do not belong in the Wizarding World, she has never been as devoted as her sister. She only cares about the well-being of her family, especially her son, and she does not care on what side she has to be in order to protect him.

“There was an eruption of jeering laughter from around the table. Many leaned forward to exchange gleeful looks; a few thumped the table with their fists. The great snake, disliking the disturbance, opened its mouth wide and hissed angrily, but the Death Eaters did not hear it, so jubilant were they at Bellatrix and the Malfoys’ humiliation. Bellatrix’s face, so recently flushed with happiness, had turned an ugly, blotchy red.” – As I said, the Death Eaters use every opportunity to turn against one of their own, the weakest link, the easiest victim. And especially Bellatrix used to brag about how close she is to Voldemort, how deep her devotion is, so to see her humiliated by Voldemort himself is greeted with a lot of spite and malice.

“‘What say you, Draco?’ asked Voldemort, and though his voice was quiet, it carried clearly through the catcalls and jeers. ‘Will you babysit the cubs?’” – I admit I have a soft spot for fan fics where Harry and Draco babysit Teddy together. And I do wonder if after the war Draco had contact with Andromeda and Teddy, and Narcissa as well, trying to heal some old wounds.

“‘Many of our oldest family trees become a little diseased over time,’ he said, as Bellatrix gazed at him, breathless and imploring. ‘You must prune yours, must you not, to keep it healthy? Cut away those parts that threaten the health of the rest.’ ‘Yes, my Lord,’ whispered Bellatrix, and her eyes swam with tears of gratitude again. ‘At the first chance!’” – And this is the reason why Bellatrix became so obsessed with the idea of killing Tonks. She makes her responsible for her falling out with Voldemort, believing that if she cuts away the rotten part of her family she can redeem herself.

“Charity Burbage revolved to face Snape again. ‘Severus … please … please …’” – Which of course are the exact same last words Dumbledore said to Snape.

“‘Silence,’ said Voldemort, with another twitch of Malfoy’s wand, and Charity fell silent as if gagged. ‘Not content with corrupting and polluting polluting the minds of wizarding children, last week Professor Burbage wrote an impassioned defence of Mudbloods in the Daily Prophet. Wizards, she says, must accept these thieves of their knowledge and magic. The dwindling of the pure-bloods is, says Professor Burbage, a most desirable circumstance … she would have us all mate with Muggles … or, no doubt, werewolves …’” – Isn’t it fascinating to listen to those words, knowing that Voldemort’s mother ‘mated’ with a Muggle, that Voldemort himself grew up like a Muggle, so he as well ‘stole’ knowledge. Yes, he is the heir of Slytherin, but he did not grow up in a wizarding family, he did not know about the Wizarding World until he attended Hogwarts, he is more familiar with the Muggle world than all those pureblood wizards sitting at his table. Following his own thoughts he himself would not have to right to be part of the Wizarding World.

[battlestar-royco]

(tw for rape mention) ok idk if you've seen midsommar yet so spoilet warning just in case but like,,,,,why is the fandom thirsting over a character that canonically: is part of a fascist/white supremacist death cult, nonconsensually kissed the mc at one point in the movie, and aided in one character being raped,,,and ppl still think this man is good,,,,,it makes me highkey uncomfortable,,,,,why are ppl like this,,,,,

I actually haven’t watched it. I read the Wiki summary recently and it freaked me out, so I don’t think I’m ready yet, but I probably will eventually if I’m in the right mindset. Tis the season, after all. But dude, if I were to read out a list of objectively terrible white men I’ve seen fandoms stan, I’d be reading for days. If you want a character to get away with  l i t e r a l l y  anything, all you have to do is making him a passably attractive thin white dude and your job is done. Genocide, bigotry, animal cruelty, incest, patricide, colonization, lifelong abuse of a friend/family member/partner/protagonist? I’ve seen them all excused for cis white guys young and old but especially between the ages of 18 and about 50. Fandom takes it upon themselves to make it their life’s work to find the good in any living garbage character as long as they’re a white man.

[afrosocialism]

7 Reasons why the Left is dead in America.

As we know, the left is in serious life support in America. It wasn’t what it was then in the 60s and 70s or the era of the Industrial Revolution. There are many reasons for its downfall, but I’m gonna give seven. 

#7: Internal in-fighting between ideologies and sectarianism. 

One of the major problem that befell the left is the constant antagonism between state and libertarian socialists esp. in the case of MLs/communists and anarchists/ancoms. We are fighting over what ideology is right and wrong, ideas from this revolutionary will set us free, which leader is better, what is or what is not socialism, and all that jazz. Both anarchism and communism have its problems, but we need to realize this: they’re both tenants of socialism that is made to fight against the capitalist state. We have no connection with each other just squabbling. Despite that, there are groups that are cult-like or secretarian that think their ideas are better and others aren’t. Avoid em. Anyway, look at the left in Latin America, as it consists of different ideologies working to fight against capitalism and imperialism.

#6: Over reliance on old leftist theorists and a cult of personality. 

I see this a lot in leftists and it annoys me that we still got people who are over dependent on works from leftist theorists like Bakunin, Marx, Kropotkin, and Lenin. They are so optimistic that if we just keep following their ideas, we’ll be free rather than adapting to the reality of now and see we need more than that to survive. Anarchist Panther Ashanti Alston Omowale said that anarchism is pitiful if it relies on the work of its European figureheads, rather than the experience of actual struggle and revolution. That can apply that to forms of socialism. If we rely on leftist dogma, we ain’t gonna progress. Another thing is that a lotta leftists wanna create a cult of personality around their favorite theorists than learn from their ideas and flaws. We refuse to adapt to the situation that capitalism created. Look at Communalism. It’s based off of experiences of revolutionary organizing and action. It was made for how to create self governed municipalities to survive from the vampiric nature of capitalism. We need to learn from recent experiences of revolution and struggle and the ever changing nature of capitalism. 

#5: How it treats anti-oppression and intersectional politics.  One problem with the left is that it refuses or fully adapt anti oppression and/or intersectional politics. Some of them may claim that they are anti-racist/sexist/transphobic etc. but don’t do nothing with it. Sometimes they make their opposition towards oppressive behaviors about themselves or invade marginalized folx spaces and police them. On the other hand, there are some that dismiss them as identity politics and call them divisive and believe that they are a distraction in fighting class conflict. The revolution will be intersectional or it will not be a revolution. What they don’t understand that these identities intersect with class and that class itself is an identity. Also, there are those that practice oppressive behaviors in their spaces (I’ll get into that more) and resist to understand how they benefit off of whiteness. 

#4 Over reliance on electoral politics and entrance to the state. 

The left believes that to succeed is to elect people into state politics. Even though this been a long practice with limited success, but those leftists groups also had revolutionary organizing. Here’s the thing: we ain’t got that now. We’re so fixated in putting our ideas to the state, that we forget the necessity to organize. At this point we should see the reality of electoral politics by these facts: 

A. The state is essentially capitalist as it is a system ran by the ruling class.

B. Electoral politics are controlled and operated by the state. 

C. Electoral politics are centered around an elephant and a jackass. 

D. Any chance that the radical left getting elected into state politics is slim. 

E. In order to succeed into the state, you must soften your views or assimilate into their political thinking. 

I may sound anarchist saying this, but I know that there are state socialists who agree that compromises with the state is surrender. That’s how Bernie Sanders was made. He came out left, but when he worked with the state, he didn’t bother to oppose the capitalist state, worked with the Dems and stood by or be silent of their atrocities, spoke nebulously for milquetoast reforms, and appealed to middle class white millennials than the working class and poor he claimed he’s standing for. We should never sell out to the state because the state will never be for our interests. 

#3: Engaging in a lotta pacifism. 

I know people that are nonviolent, and I’m like okay, but I think we really need to transcend from that. Pacifism has a lot of problems, mostly that the only way to fight against institutionalized violence and corruption is to be nonviolent and it implants that idea towards oppressed folx. It is ignorant  towards the history that this country (and many other settler nations) was founded by violence, that nonviolence alone is futile without armed wing to back it, and that it’s necessary to retaliate with violence against an illegitimate state. A lotta leftists have completely abandoned armed resistance and rejected violence as a tactic to fight against capitalism and oppression. They won’t even bother to fight the right, believing that they’ll change through debate and compassion. However, they don’t know that the right can and will exert violence on whom they hate. Many believe that nonviolence will produce better change, not realizing that the state has a monopoly on violence and can exert it at their own will. Also, pacifism is toxic as fuck as it tells us that we shouldn’t fight back while our oppressors plot our destruction.

#2: Too many liberals (and some reactionaries) in our movement.

One major issue why the Left is struggling because liberals (and some reactionaries) has invaded and flooded our movement. Main reasons for most of the aforementioned reasons are because liberalism is infecting our movement. They’re the main reason for why we won’t fight fascists/bigots as they humanize em, defend their actions as free speech, justify their existence. When the right gets stronger, they'll come out their doldrums and defend their existence, and let them kill us. Liberals push pacifism and electoral politics on leftists and claim that these ideas are radical. They distort the fuck outta history and the true meaning of socialism, into their view and pandering to the right's dismissive view of it. I see a lot of so called leftists engaging in liberalism rather than radicalism, that they’re deserving of questioning. I also see that a lotta liberals call them leftists and claim that they are the standard bearers of leftism and make leftism about being anti-conservative, yet pro liberal and liking leftist figures without even understanding their principles. They also flood the movement with conspiracy theories, something that isn't leftist. Let’s be honest, liberals aren’t our friends and not even left because they have a history of destroying and crushing leftist movements and leaders. Most of them are working with the Democrats and are double agents of the state as they exist dilute radical ideas and movements and assimilate them to the capitalist state. These people wants to push the left into the capitalist state and the Democrats. These people justify or be silent on neoliberalism and imperialism as long it’s a Democrat. These people also encourage or even gaslight other leftists to engage into shitty liberal beliefs. Most of them also engage in oppressive behaviors (mostly transphobia, racism, classism, sexism, and ableism). Speaking of that, reactionaries have also taken over the left, mostly in Facebook groups. They engage in the aforementioned behavior just as worst as the liberals and defend it as left. These are what I call the "alt left". The main reason why the left is dying too many damn people with reactionary or revisionist mindsets coming in infecting our movement with their shit.

And #1: AMERICA.

What could be at fault than any of the other reasons for the left's demise? Simple. It's America. Many people like to blame the left dying because the right going strong, identity politics, or being too soft, but they refuse to look at how much America fucked up the left. America (with occasional help from other Western nations) has spent years in dismantling, weakening, and suppressing leftist ideals, movements, leaders, and nations through the Red Scare, McCarthyism, espionage acts, police, imperialism, violence, propaganda, the FBI, CIA, NATO, unjust laws, betrayal, coups, neo-colonialism, installing puppet leaders, and war. America is the greatest enemy of the left, and will make sure we die a slow or fast death. America will never adapt to leftism because it is a white imperialist capitalist settler nation that was founded by the genocide of the Native Americans and the slavery of Africans. America is capitalist and will not give up its capitalist state without fight. You know why the left is dying here? Because America has killed it. America will do anything to destroy the left in here and in other nations.

Even though I said the left is in struggle in the USA, It has been slowing recovering with the election of President Donald Trump and the concurrent rise of fascism in this nation. However, the left got stronger in some nations of Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

[evilelitest2]

100 Days of Trump Season 2

Well yesterday I finished season 2 of 100 Days of Trump so it is time to look back and wonder at all we have accomplished...namely that I think i’ve been more productive than the President of the United States and isn’t that a scary thought.  51 of these suckers down, 49 to go.  And seriously, watch the Wire People.  For new readers, this is a project where I try to recommend a work every day to help explain WTF happened in 2016 and what we can do about it.  Season one mostly focused on the psychology of the Trump voter, season 2 focused on the system which made Trump possible...and also the psychology of the Trump voter.  Season 3 starts...today actually but you see what I mean. 

100 Days of Trump, Understanding what happened in 2016

1) Assassins Understanding Trump populism

2) M by Fritz Lang Understanding fascism

3) It Happened Here Understanding Collaboration

4) City of Life and Death, Understanding military atrocities

5) Taxi Driver, understanding MRAs

6) Pink Floyd’s the Wall, the Psychological Appeal of Fascism

7) Conspiracy, how Fascists force their will o others

8) Maus, about how existing bigotry makes fascism possible.

9) Pan’s Labyrinth about the danger of letting roles subsume you.  

10) Breaking Bad, summing up the Obama/Trump voter mindset

11) To Kill a Mockingbird, about the foundations that make bigotry possible.

12) All The President’s Men, about what the 4th estate is suppose to do.  

13) 1776, about what America’s founding actually stood for

14) Protagonist, about the pattern of insecurity leading to radicalism

15) The Russians are Coming, about the appeal of an imaginary enemy

16) Stalag 17, how not to respond when there actually is a spy trying to fuck you over.

17) A Series of Unfortunate Events, about the normalization of evil and how to deal with it.  

18) The Godfather (Part 1 and Part 2), about the Client Patron relationship, immigration in America, and how the Mob resembles American capitalism

19) The Social Network about the libertarian nerdbro culture which helps Trump even as he destroys them.

20) The Last King Scotland, on the Appeal of Authoritarianism

21) Dr. Strangelove: Why Nuclear War is a very bad thing

22) Bob Roberts: On how the Right Co-opts the Left

23) Rope, Looking at the psychology of Hipster Racism

24) State of the Union, about how our political system make Trump possible

25) The Complete History of the Soviet Union to the Melody of Tetris, about WTF is going on with Putin?

26) Watchmen, on what happens when a society losses sight of its national narrative.

27) The Big Short, explaining the economic crash that made this whole thing possible

28) I Claudius about the mindset/psychology of the political elites

29) Stressed Out, the millennial theme song

30) Angels in America, on the double think of the Political World

31) Yes Prime Minister, on how politics actually work

32) West Wing, on how politics should work.  

33) Citizen Kane, on the dangers of mixing egotism and populism

34) Rodger and Me, on how Reaganomics and Neoliberalism ruined the Rust Belt

35) 8-Mile, on how the humiliation of poverty makes poor whites susceptible to authoritarian flattery.  

36) Extra History/Extra Credits, on the problems our or democracy actually have a president.  

37) CGPGrey: On Voting Systems and how a political system encourages certain brehaviors

38) Why are you so angry, on psychology of Angry Jack,  the so-called “moderates” who allow the Alt Right to thrive.

39) The Lion in Winter, on the nature of being human and in power

40) Veronica Mars, on Class conflict and privilege in America

41) Bowling for Columbine, on the culture of Fear in America

42)The Great Gatsby about the vast carelessness that made Trump inevitable

42.5) 3 PS3, a little bonus episode on the attitude of the rich

43) Fargo, on the world that makes such obsession with wealth possible

44) Death of a Salesmen, about America’s addiction to Nostalgia

45)In Cold Blood, about shame and outlast in the Trump Movement

46) Into Pieces on the nihilistic psychology of Trump’s Personality Cult

47) The Jimquisition, about how corporations work and think

48) Paper’s Please, on how evil systems are able to sustain themselves.

49) The Third Man about how people can rationalize Evil

50)  The Wire, about the institutions of America and why they fail.  

51) Chinatown, about the why evil often wins

[translationandbetrayals]

Emotional high, cult of death and use of nazi imagery in Shingeki no Kyojin

Hey guys! Remember the nazis!? They were soooooo cool!!!

(Yes, this will contain spoilers for both the anime and potentially the manga)

  So… I have a confession to make: I like Attack on Titan, I first watch the few 9 episodes that were currently out at the time in one sitting and then went to read the manga. The animation was nice, the plot was ridiculous and interesting at the same time (It’s a world where big people chew and swallow little people, this creates a pseudo-post apocalyptic society that follows the politics of Carl Schmitt), a lot of people said that the manga art is ugly but I found it interesting and unique...The same cannot be said for the soundtrack in my opinion.

I was hooked, all was good...until the fandom craze arrived. Do not get me wrong, I have no problem with fandoms but you have to admit that when you have everyone screaming HYYYYYYYYYYPE, HYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYPE and repeating no stop the “Mikasa es tu casa” jokes...well, saying that it was obnoxious is an understatement. I gave up, I dropped the weekly episodes of Shingeki no Kyojin and with a sigh just went off to play some Medieval 2 Total War.

Of Course I came back to finish the series that I started to watch and I am now up to date (following once again the weekly releases). Is it the greatest thing ever? Nah, it’s just okay, I have some issues with the pacing and character development which is a flashback extravaganza but I will say that the show is certainly not mediocre. When I now observe the aftermath of the hype (that kind of slightly died down at season 2 of the show) I find it a interesting case study of emotional high and how this fenomena relates with the themes and references of Attack on Titan.

If you have watched Attack on Titan then you know the drill: Humans vs Titans; Titans are super overpowered, scary and ridiculous, words that could be used to describe death as it is unavoidable, it is scary but you have to admit that some people just die in the most stupid and sometimes hilarious ways (They made a entire show about people dying in embarrassing ways). To put it bluntly: you would not be very proud that you died, witch (surprisingly) makes it hard to convince to willing die… there are however some ways to make this not only easy but also desirable. (Note: Death does not always have to be physical or literal, it can be more abstract like the death of a culture or identity).

Death can be fetishize with the concepts of duty, sacrifice and the “glorious progress of my nation/city/family/group”, the deaths not only being yours and your “political comrades” but also of your “political enemies”. Many characters in Attack on Titan express this obsession when they always ask “Was my/his/hers/theirs/ours/humanities deaths in vain”; the show also shows many moments of emotional rushes and a sense of overdrive when a kill is secured (Be this Mikasa killing for the first time / Eren's rage when he is in titan form / The flashy kills of all the titans). This “cult of death” can be also observed in other examples of fictional fascist nations/empires, some examples would be Starship Troopers and Warhammer 40000 and of course we could observe this social phenomena in real world fascist powers (It must be said that “cults of death” are not exclusive social tools to fascists). With death itself transformed into the “highest honor that one could have in their life”, its involvement becomes a trigger for a emotional high for a follower of a “cult of death”.

So what does the so called “cult of death” had to do with the hype? One of the most proliferated aspects of the hype of Attack on Titan was its opening; A parallel could be drawn between the opening of the first season and the federal network of the movie Starship Troopers in their appropriation of Nazi imagery and propaganda techniques to display themes and the critique of them. Somo concepts that this two audiovisual products have in common is that of: hunter vs prey; we (the people) vs the enemy; glory. Nazi propaganda usually seeks not only glorify the effort to fight a demonized enemy but also to provoke an emotional reaction which could be described as hype and you can certainly say that the first opening succeed to provoke such a phenomena in the general anime community and also defining how viewers would experience the first season; Attack on Titan initially was very strong on its character development or even on it’s progression of the plot, what kept it going was the constant rush of twist and turns of blood, gore, ideological rhetoric and extreme/pathetic reactions of everyone towards everything (I admit that I am exaggerating). When characters did die the impact of the tragedy was not the investment into the characters but because of existential danger of dying without glory and in some worst cases: pointless for the cause of the nation; as the Attack on Titan opening ask us as it begins “Are you the prey? No, we are the hunters.”

To put it bluntly: If the opening of Attack on Titan was actually nazi propaganda then it would have complete succeed in making the nazis cool and attractive. This does not make either the show or the hype itself pro-nazi, I actually think that this theoretical fact actually contributes to the themes and criticism that show wants to make on fascist ideas and mindsets. The protagonist, Eren Jaeger, begins as a simple blood-firsty boy who wants to “kill all of the titans” (who are demonized by his surroundings and initially by the presentation of the show) but as the story progresses the black and white mindset of “humans good and titans bad” will be consistently challenged with the titan shapeshifters and (shockingly) humans just being not completely honest people (And also being a little bit genocidal). We could go into more detail but this post is longer as it is, I will be however leaving a link to a easy to digest video related to the various subjects discussed here.

  Remember kids: The Marleyans did nothing wrong.

  Even more videos related to this subject:

  Vid 1 ::: Vid 2 ::: Vid 3 ::: Vid 4

  Pedro Pons

[muzaffar1969]

http://ift.tt/2rO3sBl

Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com,

After the Manchester suicide bombing only two weeks ago I warned my readers that the repetition of terror attacks is breeding complacency within the public, in Europe most acutely. It is not uncommon now for attacks killing dozens to be forgotten within a week of the event. The news feeds are awash in distraction, and of course, sometimes these events themselves act as distractions.

In a recent newscast of MSNBC's “Morning Joe”, BBC anchor Katty Kay stated:

“Europe is getting used to attacks like this, Mika. They have to, because we are never going to be able to totally wipe this out...”

To me, this attitude is rather indicative of the European victim-culture mindset. Many in Europe (not all, but many) seem to enjoy a steady routine of self-flagellation. Countless centuries of the feudal serf system will do that to a society. The British still pay taxes to maintain a royal family, after all. I also think that the results of the Brexit vote in the UK might mislead those of us in America into thinking that the the British are turning over a new leaf in terms of liberty and conservative-like values. While I do think there is a fierce underlying drive to protect sovereignty of the British nation, the British individual has all but abandoned any hope of their own personal sovereignty and self determination.

In mainland Europe the self-loathing natural born citizen has become a bit of a mainstay and has been exploited quite successfully by the globalist establishment. In particular, the great fear among predominantly liberal Europeans is a return to the nationalist fervor that they believe spawned the rise of Nazism and the Third Reich (I have written numerous articles outlining the involvement of the corporate and banking elite in funding and supplying vital technology to the Nazis before and during WWII). It is this “guilt” of association with the Nazi legacy that has left Europe vulnerable to manipulation from the other end of the political spectrum – the socialist/Marxist end.

It is also this mindset that allowed globalists to forcefully inject millions of Muslim immigrants through open border policies and refugee policies into EU nations without proper vetting procedures. The majority of Europeans that saw the policy as irrational and dangerous were afraid to say anything for fear that they would be labeled “fascists”.

The greatest threat is not only the conditioning of the population to accept cultural invasion without assimilation. Nor is the greatest threat the pacification of the populace in the face of rampant terror attacks. No, the pinnacle threat is what will inevitably come next – the apathy of a nation in the wake of incremental martial law and the death of personal liberty.

This past week, a team of three Muslim men struck pedestrians with a white van, then emerged wielding hunting knives in a rampage through a crowded London night spot. This is only one attack in a steady stream that have plagued Europe ever since the Cloward-Piven program of Muslim relocation allowed millions of “refugees” into the EU's borders. The vaporous ISIS terror group has since claimed responsibility.

In response, Prime Minister Theresa May has declared “enough is enough”, and demanded a review of the UK's counter-terrorism strategy. London police have been asked to adjust to new tactical conditions, patrolling streets heavily armed and utilizing surveillance helicopters with the aid of special forces units.

NOTE - After finishing this article on Sunday, I find this quote from Theresa May on Tuesday:

“We should do even more to restrict the freedom and the movements of terrorist suspects when we have enough evidence to know they present a threat, but not enough evidence to prosecute them in full in court."

  "And if human rights laws get in the way of doing these things, we will change those laws to make sure we can do them..."

The deployment of over 5000 British troops at strategic locations by Theresa May is all part of a plan established in 2015 called “Operation Temperer”. The plan calls for the deployment of troops within the UK border in response to “major terrorist threats”. Essentially, it is a martial law program that acts incrementally, rather than overtly. Once implemented, Temperer would be difficult to reverse. As UK military chiefs warned when the operation was publicly exposed, troops would likely not be pulled back after commitment unless the terror threat was “reduced”, leaving the definition of the “threat level” open for rather broad interpretation.

Operation Temperer is now in full swing as police departments ask for military aid. The prime minister has obliged, replacing officers in numerous locations with military units on patrol. So, is this “martial law”? Perhaps not quite, but it is damn close to the line, and this is how tyranny is commonly implemented; not all at once, but a stepping stone at a time.

First, I would point out that May introduced Temperer measures after the Manchester bombing, and they do not seem to have done much to disrupt the latest attack in London. Second, I would also point out that the UK general elections for parliament are only a today, and it is highly likely that the latest attacks will solidify Theresa May and her Brexit base.

The timing is rather interesting...

Many in the Liberty Movement would say that this is a good thing; that finally the British will be able to reverse the forced cultural invasion of an incompatible Muslim mass. I would say that this is all part of the plan.

As I have argued since before the Brexit vote last year, we are witnessing perhaps the largest 4th Gen psy-op in history. The globalists have deliberately engineered conditions by which European nations in particular will either be enveloped by an alien ideology with no protection from their own governments, or, they will have to respond with overarching countermeasures. Meaning, Europeans have been given a false choice between the ideological cult of multiculturalism, or, martial law conditions.

In my view, the UK has been slated for the latter measure, and this makes perfect sense if you understand the game plan of the globalists.

Brexit and by extension the rise of Donald Trump in the US has been ALLOWED to happen. Despite the delusions of some in the liberty movement, the so-called “deep state” is perfectly positioned to take advantage of both events. They are not opposed in the slightest. Why? Because this is about destroying the name of sovereign nationalism and conservative principles. This is about the long game.

The UK appears to be first in the line-up. Terror attacks are mounting, May has already initiated Operation Temperer, and the attacks have continued anyway. The solution they will present will be MORE militarization, not less. It is my prediction that after a year of incrementalism and continued attacks, the entire UK will be in the midst of what many would define as full spectrum martial law. The UK government might not openly call it that, but that is what it will be.

While I personally find Muslim based societies to be abhorrent in their attitude towards individual liberty, I do see a disturbing trend developing on the other side of the coin. Western nations like the UK and the US have every right to defend their borders, to deny immigration from ANYWHERE for any reason, and to deport illegal immigrants and immigrants with provable ties to terror groups. However, the line that should not be crossed but probably will be crossed is the persecution or deportation of people merely for holding particular ideological views.

Even if the majority of citizens don't necessarily support an outright broad brush response towards all people that hold Muslim views as potential terrorists, the temptation will be overwhelming, and our respective governments will oblige it. Once we step into the world of thought crime, there is no turning back.

And, what this does is paint conservative/nationalist movements as monstrous in the eyes of future generations. They will be taught that the globalists “warned the world” about the dangerous “racist” populists and alt-right groups, and look what happened when they came to power; they vaporized the economy (see my previous articles on the Trump scapegoat narrative) and rounded up innocent people because of their belief system even though they committed no specific crimes. My fear is that what is happening here is that conservative movements are going to be driven to such madness in the name of security that we will actually make the globalists look like “good guys” by comparison.

So, what is the solution? Well, look at the choices the British people have been given: Accept multicultural sublimation without question, or, initiate complete military oversight and sacrifice personal liberty. Are there no other options available?

What about this: The UK citizenry DEMANDS the return of their right to self defense and the legalization of firearms ownership for those without a criminal background? The real solution is for UK citizens to begin providing their own security, not handing over their country to militarization because they are all disarmed and afraid.

Will this happen? I seriously doubt it. But, I do want to point out that there is clearly another path far superior to the two being offered.

Again, I believe the UK will be under martial law in a year's time. Unless the people of the UK do something NOW to assert their right to determine their own security, they will fall to a complete totalitarian framework. And, in the long run, they will only be helping the very globalists the Brexit movement in particular sought to fight against. They will do this by trampling the image of nationalism and sovereignty with the jackbooted philosophy of externalized security and government dependency, making globalism, the offered antithesis, look pleasant and tolerable in retrospect.

June 08, 2017 at 09:38AM http://ift.tt/2rNE9Q4 from Tyler Durden http://ift.tt/2rNE9Q4

[evilelitest2]

100 Days of Trump: Season 3

Ok, welcome back to 100 days of Trump Season 3, we are almost done with this monster.  Trying to explain why 2016 turned out the way it did in 100 recommendations of various works.  Check out everything I recommend, and you will have a greater understanding of why the Anglo world went entirely fucking insane.   76 days into Trump’s administration and..remarkably little has happened, turns out incompetence is the closest thing to a savior we have in these dark times.  Cause honestly, I feel like I’ve been more productive recommending stuff to you guys than Trump has been as you know...president.  In a world gone mad, madness is our only respite.  Check it out.

OH fun fact, in all of these posts I’ve made about how the Right is terrible, the one they threw a bitch fit about was...Fallout New Vegas, cause I was too mean to the Legion.  I am dead serious.  

100 Days of Trump, Understanding what happened in 2016

1) Assassins Understanding Trump populism

2) M by Fritz Lang Understanding fascism

3) It Happened Here Understanding Collaboration

4) City of Life and Death, Understanding military atrocities

5) Taxi Driver, understanding MRAs

6) Pink Floyd’s the Wall, the Psychological Appeal of Fascism

7) Conspiracy, how Fascists force their will o others

8) Maus, about how existing bigotry makes fascism possible.

9) Pan’s Labyrinth about the danger of letting roles subsume you.  

10) Breaking Bad, summing up the Obama/Trump voter mindset

11) To Kill a Mockingbird, about the foundations that make bigotry possible.

12) All The President’s Men, about what the 4th estate is suppose to do.  

13) 1776, about what America’s founding actually stood for

14) Protagonist, about the pattern of insecurity leading to radicalism

15) The Russians are Coming, about the appeal of an imaginary enemy

16) Stalag 17, how not to respond when there actually is a spy trying to fuck you over.

17) A Series of Unfortunate Events, about the normalization of evil and how to deal with it.  

18) The Godfather (Part 1 and Part 2), about the Client Patron relationship, immigration in America, and how the Mob resembles American capitalism

19) The Social Network about the libertarian nerdbro culture which helps Trump even as he destroys them.

20) The Last King Scotland, on the Appeal of Authoritarianism

21) Dr. Strangelove: Why Nuclear War is a very bad thing

22) Bob Roberts: On how the Right Co-opts the Left

23) Rope, Looking at the psychology of Hipster Racism

24) State of the Union, about how our political system make Trump possible

25) The Complete History of the Soviet Union to the Melody of Tetris, about WTF is going on with Putin?

26) Watchmen, on what happens when a society losses sight of its national narrative.

27) The Big Short, explaining the economic crash that made this whole thing possible

28) I Claudius about the mindset/psychology of the political elites

29) 21 Pilots, the millennial theme song

30) Angels in America, on the double think of the Political World

31) Yes Prime Minister, on how politics actually work

32) West Wing, on how politics should work.  

33) Citizen Kane, on the dangers of mixing egotism and populism

34) Rodger and Me, on how Reaganomics and Neoliberalism ruined the Rust Belt

35) 8-Mile, on how the humiliation of poverty makes poor whites susceptible to authoritarian flattery.  

36) Extra History/Extra Credits, on the problems our or democracy actually have a president.  

37) CGPGrey: On Voting Systems and how a political system encourages certain brehaviors

38) Why are you so angry, on psychology of Angry Jack,  the so-called “moderates” who allow the Alt Right to thrive.

39) The Lion in Winter, on the nature of being human and in power

40) Veronica Mars, on Class conflict and privilege in America

41) Bowling for Columbine, on the culture of Fear in America

42)The Great Gatsby about the vast carelessness that made Trump inevitable

42.5) 3 PS3, a little bonus episode on the attitude of the rich

43) Fargo, on the world that makes such obsession with wealth possible

44) Death of a Salesmen, about America’s addiction to Nostalgia

45)In Cold Blood, about shame and outlast in the Trump Movement

46) Into Pieces on the nihilistic psychology of Trump’s Personality Cult

47) The Jimquisition, about how corporations work and think

48) Paper’s Please, on how evil systems are able to sustain themselves.

49) The Third Man about how people can rationalize Evil

50)  The Wire, about the institutions of America and why they fail.  

51) Chinatown, about the why evil often wins

52) Franz Kafka Double Bill, The Trial and Metamorphosis: The inevitable result of a system that views self respect as an enemy.  

53) Rules of the Game: Why people prefer to stick their head in the sand rather than address obvious approaching disaster.  

54) Spec; Opts the Line, on the desire to be a hero and the sick need to ahve a winning war.

55) Eminem,  on the psychology of the White Working Class

56) Animal Farm, on how good ideas get warped.  

57) Ken Burn’s the Civil War, about America’s original sin.

58) Foyle’s War, about how war leas to simplistic morality.  

59) Fight Club, a failed movie about misdirected rebellion against corporate culture falling int other trap of toxic rebellion.  

60) 1984 about the expedience of political language and the true meaning of the right wing media hate machine

61a) Vlogbrothers (Politics) About the seriously important issues that Americans just don’t understand.

61b) Vlogbrothers (Current Events) About the major of the last few years that you have heard of but likely don’t understand

62) We need to Talk about Kenny/This is Phil Fish about how broken people are drawn to dangerous ideas/the danger of celebrity culture.

63) Spoony Experiment’s Swat 4/Ultima, about how difficult being moral actually is.  

64) Fallout: New Vegas, about how the symbolism past is pillaged to support horrible regimes which don’t understand their own history.

65) Apocalypse Now: On how long standing morally dubious wars hurts the American political system

66) Hardcore History: About understanding cults and human extremes.  History repeats a great deal, and we can see it all here.  

67) Handmaid’s Tale: On the psychology of the Religious Right and the danger of fundamentalist communities

68) Cabaret: About how a degree of progress often leads to a reactionary backlash

69) Christopher and his Kind: About the normalization of fascism and shame in the creation of nationalism.

70) Prohibition by Ken Burns: About the unintended consequence of Utopian laws

71) Geography Now: On understanding the various conflicts i the world around us

72a) Crash Course US History: Gee, its almost like this shit happened before

72b) Crash Course World History 1: Nice historical outline

73C) Crash Course World History 2: On some of the important historical events that got us to where we are

74D) Crash Course Government: How the US Government actually works…or doesn’t….mostly doesn’t

73) Brazil: About the Self Perpetuation Nature of Bureaucracy and Institution

74) Night in the Woods: About the how Hope, Despair, and Nostalgia make a toxic mixture

75) Revolutions: On how Revolutions actually work: or often don’t

76) Mr. Smith Goes to Washington: Why good things in politics become evil.