POLITICAL CONFUSION & CONSPIRACIES

CALEB MAUPIN—In the case of civic activism and political struggle, Navalny has always been in favor of a setup in which authorities, including, judges, can be dispensed with quickly, and then shot. While talk about the danger of social media rhetoric inciting violence is very prevalent across the United States these days, in 2020 Navalny announced publicly that he calls for the immediate forcible overthrow the government of Russia: “Such a government must be overthrown right now, quite possibly even by force.”

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE—Police abolishment advocates are pushing for something which would require the complete reconfiguration of power in society to accomplish, where the prison industrial complex and the war on drugs are ended and what we think of as policing can for example be mostly replaced by something more akin to social work. Police “reform” proponents are advancing a decoy agenda which people have been distracted by for generations while the police force has become increasingly militarized behind a veil of meaningless verbiage about community outreach and training programs.

The Real News takes aim at the top 5 mainstream myths that bolster income inequality and tout the ultra-rich.

RYAN GUNDERSON—It is fitting that the far right are most attracted to the cultural-Marxist boogeyman tale discussed above, not only because a group of radical Jewish academic refugees of Nazism is an ideal scapegoat for anti-Semitic reactionaries, but also because the Frankfurt School’s research on the fascist’s and “potential fascist” pseudo-conservative’s personality and ideology still depicts the modern authoritarian personality’s character and worldview with eerie accuracy.

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE—The word “conspire” is defined by Merriam-Webster as “to join in a secret agreement to do an unlawful or wrongful act or an act which becomes unlawful as a result of the secret agreement”. No sane person would deny that this is a thing that happens, nor that this is likely a thing that happens to some extent among the powerful in their own nation. This by itself is a theory about conspiracy per definition, and it accurately applies to pretty much everyone. Since it applies to pretty much everyone, the label is essentially meaningless, either as a pejorative or as anything else.