George Moonbat (sorry, I couldn't resist the pun) has a habit of repeatedly u-turning and flip-flopping on just about anything and everything, because reasons. Or something. From nuclear power to vegetarianism to modernity in general, he has tied himself in Gordian knots with his mental gymnastics.
The so-called "Left" has revealed itself to be the morally bankrupt naked emperor it long was the moment that political polarities abruptly reversed reversed circa March 18-20, 2020. Prior to that, lockdowns were largely a right-wing thing, and then it flipped in every country except Sweden, Nicaragua, India, and the Philippines.
Lockdowns, masks, antisocial distancing, travel restrictions, school closures, healthcare restrictions, and last but not least, those novel experimental gene therapies that self-identify as "vaccines", you name it, all of these things failed miserably in the long run. And anyone who still thinks anything even remotely similar would somehow be a good idea for the climate crisis and polycrisis in general, really needs their head examined!
The opening sentence in Wikipedia's article on political left and right says this:
"The left–right political spectrum is a system of classifying political positions, ideologies and parties, with emphasis placed upon issues of social equality and social hierarchy."
Does Wikipedia go astray in this opening sentence? I tend to think not.
In recent decades, or perhaps for the last century (?), but certainly recently (!) no one -- almost no one -- knows what these terms are even referring to. In the USA, the heavily right-leaning political party (there being only one that has any play) very often represents it's ostensible opposition as crazy-eyed radical extremist leftists. (LOL!) The accusation amounts to painting Democrats with the broad brush of "Communist Fascists". (Need I explain why and how there have never been Communist Fascists, though indeed there have been Communist authoritarians?) The claim, of course, is that Democrats in the USA represent "the left" ... and that "the left" is authoritarian to the core and root. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!
But it's true, the socialist / communist "left" became unhinged and co-opted long ago, and what got mistaken for Communism and Socialism (as Chomsky so adequately explains) was neither, nor leftist.
What passes for "the left" now is not the left at all. It's all counterfeit. Okay, not all of it, but everything insofar as mainstream media represents it. Okay, not all mainstream media, but overwhelmingly most of it!
So many of our words no longer mean anything. They're not words but worbs.
As people of a progressive bent are at war with each other in the ever worsening breakdown of democratic governance -- case in point over vaccines, and Ukraine, too -- and I'm a city girl ignorant of what’s down on the farm and disappointed if Monbiot is in the wrong camp from when he seemed like the ideal critic of modern times, what I do have something to say about is how focused we are on long-range planning when we may not make it as humanity long-range unless we do radical things short-range. First in my thinking is to see what we-the-people could do now, where we possibly could work wonders if we looked for them. We are so docile, at the mercy of politicians who all are bought, where "elect Democrats" is the best we come up with and hardly is THE answer.
Although I have some substantial thought-shaper allies I talk to on private Zooms, I don’t have any organization behind me, so getting attention to what I’m talking about is challenging. Hopefully you and your readers will have a look at this track of posts dealing with what we could be doing that would get us to be a cooperative humanity – and that would be paying attention to doing things locally: https://suzannetaylor.substack.com/s/changemaking-now.
...continuing from the last line: ...or fracking CORPORATIONS. What's wrong with governments and experts is largely how taken over by corporations they have come to be.
George Moonbat (sorry, I couldn't resist the pun) has a habit of repeatedly u-turning and flip-flopping on just about anything and everything, because reasons. Or something. From nuclear power to vegetarianism to modernity in general, he has tied himself in Gordian knots with his mental gymnastics.
The so-called "Left" has revealed itself to be the morally bankrupt naked emperor it long was the moment that political polarities abruptly reversed reversed circa March 18-20, 2020. Prior to that, lockdowns were largely a right-wing thing, and then it flipped in every country except Sweden, Nicaragua, India, and the Philippines.
Lockdowns, masks, antisocial distancing, travel restrictions, school closures, healthcare restrictions, and last but not least, those novel experimental gene therapies that self-identify as "vaccines", you name it, all of these things failed miserably in the long run. And anyone who still thinks anything even remotely similar would somehow be a good idea for the climate crisis and polycrisis in general, really needs their head examined!
The opening sentence in Wikipedia's article on political left and right says this:
"The left–right political spectrum is a system of classifying political positions, ideologies and parties, with emphasis placed upon issues of social equality and social hierarchy."
Does Wikipedia go astray in this opening sentence? I tend to think not.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left%E2%80%93right_political_spectrum
In recent decades, or perhaps for the last century (?), but certainly recently (!) no one -- almost no one -- knows what these terms are even referring to. In the USA, the heavily right-leaning political party (there being only one that has any play) very often represents it's ostensible opposition as crazy-eyed radical extremist leftists. (LOL!) The accusation amounts to painting Democrats with the broad brush of "Communist Fascists". (Need I explain why and how there have never been Communist Fascists, though indeed there have been Communist authoritarians?) The claim, of course, is that Democrats in the USA represent "the left" ... and that "the left" is authoritarian to the core and root. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!
But it's true, the socialist / communist "left" became unhinged and co-opted long ago, and what got mistaken for Communism and Socialism (as Chomsky so adequately explains) was neither, nor leftist.
What passes for "the left" now is not the left at all. It's all counterfeit. Okay, not all of it, but everything insofar as mainstream media represents it. Okay, not all mainstream media, but overwhelmingly most of it!
So many of our words no longer mean anything. They're not words but worbs.
Worbs, defined.:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3valcuAqMA
Warm thanks for publishing this today; altho I read C.S. regularly elsewhere, this history and
the warnings therein were fresh and relevant.
As people of a progressive bent are at war with each other in the ever worsening breakdown of democratic governance -- case in point over vaccines, and Ukraine, too -- and I'm a city girl ignorant of what’s down on the farm and disappointed if Monbiot is in the wrong camp from when he seemed like the ideal critic of modern times, what I do have something to say about is how focused we are on long-range planning when we may not make it as humanity long-range unless we do radical things short-range. First in my thinking is to see what we-the-people could do now, where we possibly could work wonders if we looked for them. We are so docile, at the mercy of politicians who all are bought, where "elect Democrats" is the best we come up with and hardly is THE answer.
Although I have some substantial thought-shaper allies I talk to on private Zooms, I don’t have any organization behind me, so getting attention to what I’m talking about is challenging. Hopefully you and your readers will have a look at this track of posts dealing with what we could be doing that would get us to be a cooperative humanity – and that would be paying attention to doing things locally: https://suzannetaylor.substack.com/s/changemaking-now.
...continuing from the last line: ...or fracking CORPORATIONS. What's wrong with governments and experts is largely how taken over by corporations they have come to be.