OK. I know I saw one on Maher who said, in effect, "I forgive you Baby Boomers for fucking up the world" and now we are going to fix it. Admirable sentiment, but so close to what we boomers used to say about the older generation.
But, you know, fixing the world is a REALLY heavy lift, and we boomers fell prey to the old 'divide and conquer' strategy levied against us from the parasitical capitalist interests. Consider the civil rights movement - it was a time of great heroes - those Freedom Riders. And they were black and white, Christian and Jewish. They put their lives on the line and damned if we didn't see change. The nation rapidly approached the tipping point.
Monied interests were quaking in their boots, but they weren't done by a long shot. Beginning with the groundwork laid out by Powell's 1971 memo to the US Chamber of Commerce, they began issuing divisive literature, developing racial dog whistles and undermining academic freedom on campuses.
Then, in 1981 Reagan showed how unions could be undermined and busted. You had the birth of the crazy Christian movement that allied itself with the Republicans over abortion while ignoring the systematic weakening of social safety nets.
In 1987, the Fairness Doctrine died, killed by Reagan as one of his last despicable acts.
And look what we have now: the culture of right-wing white victimhood. Conservative-driven angry white men. Backlash against feminists. Backlash against blacks. Backlash against Hispanics. Backlash against poor. The idea, pounded into white heads through thousands of media outlets, that everyone is out to get us, and only the strongest survive (Social Darwinism).
Social Darwinism is great for the capitalists, though, because it plays us right into the hands of the billionaire parasites. Because it is all about money. It is about perverting our view of government from 'of, by and for' us, the people, to being the enemy of the people. It is about making us all hate and mistrust each other. Making us scream with frustration whenever we see anyone less fortunate getting a 'benefit' we are led to feel they did not earn.
This 'everyone for him/herself' meme allows us to be manipulated into allowing the Republican shills for the big capitalists to systematically strip our treasury of tax money that SHOULD be used to make our lives better, and instead give it to the billionaire parasites - defense and other government contracts, tax cuts increasing profits, and social programs suffering cut, cut, cut after cut.
In 2007, when the Wall Street capitalists gave Congress a typed one-page demand for $750 BILLION in taxpayer dollars to bail them out, and Congress GAVE it to them, we had the birth of the Tea Party, which was quickly co-opted by the Koch brothers.
The capitalist Koch brothers also fund organizations like ALEC, that introduce legislation that systematically undermines workers, social programs and institutions we trust - all designed to funnel more public money to billionaires and big corporations.
Lately, when Bernie ran in the 2016 primary, we saw divide and conquer in heavy action when nameless voices who actually represented the billionaire parasites began casting doubt - Bernie is a racist. Economic justice is separate than social justice, and we need social justice first. And so on.
Then when Clinton became our candidate, we all tried very hard to get her elected, but the right wing propaganda machine had decades to sow hatred of her, over and over and over and over.
Now we have Putin, whose hackers are sowing division amongst us, and who is quietly encouraging and helping white nationalist groups come out of the woodwork and gain power.
This is the capitalist utopia that these kids have awakened into. We are in the midst of a coup, make no mistake. The right wing is no longer even trying to hide the avarice of its corporate overlords. It is stripping the treasury and at the same time giving all of us the finger.
So, kids, good luck to you, and you can count on us to help, but WE MUST LEARN TO RECOGNIZE AND RESIST DIVIDE AND CONQUER STRATEGIES. Did you notice the post in the thread about how the Stoneman Douglas kids are owning their privilege that talks about how blacks are being recognized at the expense of Hispanics? THAT is the divide and conquer strategy in action.
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