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odinsblog · 1 year

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Nothing screams fascism quite like encouraging students to rat out their teachers to the state

Last week, the state House joined the state Senate in passing a bill that encourages children and school employees to turn in teachers who mention "divisive concepts" in their classrooms.

As for what Tennessee lawmakers consider to be "divisive concepts," it's quite the hodgepodge, but it mostly boils down to mentioning racism or sexism in any way that might make a Tennessee Republican school or university student sad. WBIR gives a rundown of banned concepts, and the definition sandwiches no-brainer violations like teaching "that one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex" with other, much weirder prohibitions like:

• That a person, by virtue of their race or sex, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex

• That a person should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish or another form of psychological distress because of their race or sex

• That a meritocracy is inherently racist, sexist or designed by a particular race or sex to oppress members of another race or sex

• That Tennessee or the U.S. is fundamentally or irredeemably racist or sexist

• Promoting or advocating the violent overthrow of the U.S. government

• Promoting division between, or resentment of, a race, sex, religion, creed, nonviolent political affiliation, social class or class of people

• Ascribing character traits, values, moral or ethical codes, privileges or beliefs to a race or sex, or to a person because of their race or sex

• That the rule of law does not exist but instead is a series of power relationships and struggles among racial or other groups

State universities can't use state funds to support organizations that promote "divisive concepts, and are now required to allow any guest speaker on campus regardless of "non-violent political ideology." That requirement is an obvious nod to far-right white nationalist, white supremacist, and antisemitic speakers who have been having a harder time booking gigs now that those events have become notorious for instigating on-campus and near-campus violence.

Rep. Justin Jones (D—Nashville) spoke about the bill when he returned to the House of Representatives after he was expelled and reinstated. He asked a series of questions, such as whether "college students are mature enough to talk about race and systemic racism, some of the concepts you want to prohibit being discussed at the college level?"

"I believe in God. All else is settled by facts and data," Ragan said.

Jones was quite blunt in his evaluation of the "racist" law, and not just in pointing out that the bill would seem to plainly ban discussions of systemic racism. "How will we be honest about our history if you're prohibiting any concepts about America's racist history? This sounds like fascism. This sounds like authoritarianism."

The Republican push to ban "divisive" discussions of American racism past and present, new Florida prohibitions against university professors giving expert testimony that contradicts the governor's views, and book bans that have expanded into threats to close public libraries entirely rather than tolerate court rulings that return "disputed" books to the shelves: Yes, it all sounds like fascism. Republicans have lost every cultural war they've joined and have decided that it's democracy that's the problem, not them.

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#politics #tennessee #republicans #white fragility #justin jones #education #critical race theory #crt #fascism #neofascism #white supremacy

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 8 months

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By Chauncey Devega

Donald Trump is a dictator in waiting. Like other dictators, he is threatening to put his "enemies" in prison – and to do even worse things to them. These are not idle threats or empty acts of ideation: Donald Trump is a violent man who is a proven enemy of democracy and freedom.

These threats of violence against his enemies are part of a much larger pattern of violent and dangerous behavior that is only growing worse as he faces criminal trials and the possibility of going to prison for hundreds of years.

In the most recent example, Donald Trump told Glenn Beck during an interview last week that he is going to put President Biden and other "enemies" in prison when he takes by the White House in 2025.

In a Sunday evening post on his Truth Social disinformation social media platform, Trump was even more explicit with his threats of violence and harm, threatening that he would treat Biden and the other "enemies" like they do in "banana republics":

“The Crooked Joe Biden Campaign has thrown so many Indictments and lawsuits against me that Republicans are already thinking about what we are going to do to Biden and the Communists when it's our turn. They have started a whole new Banana Republic way of thinking about political campaigns. So cheap and dirty, but that's where America is right now. Be careful what you wish for!”

In "banana republics" the enemies of the leader and the regime are usually imprisoned, tortured, executed, and face death squads and mass executions. Trump himself has publicly expressed his admiration for murderous dictators and autocrats such as Vladimir Putin and N. Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

The corporate news media — with MSNBC being a notable exception — as is their policy, mostly ignored Trump's most recent threats to kill and imprison President Joe Biden and the other "enemies" of the MAGA movement. Ignoring the danger will not make it disappear or otherwise go away; moreover, to ignore Trumpism and neofascism is to normalize them.

During an interview Saturday on MSNBC, Miles Taylor, who was a senior member of Trump's administration and author of the New York Times' "Anonymous" op-ed, warned that the ex-president's desires to imprison his "enemies" are not new:

“A number of folks who worked in the Trump administration with me and have since spoken out against the ex-president, we joke darkly about the fact that in a second term, a number of us will be in orange jumpsuits in Guantanamo Bay. I say that the comment is half facetious because Donald Trump actually did have a vision while I was in the administration to go use the terrorist prison at Guantanamo Bay to house political prisoners. And in that case what he wanted to do is use it to move people from the southern border to send a message and put them in the same place where people like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, sits behind bars, and send a message. The only reason Donald Trump didn't start sending people to Gitmo is because he was convinced it would be too expensive, and the facility couldn't house the number of people he wanted to send there. That was the mindset of the man when he was President of the United States. You have seen him since double down on his intention to again use the justice system for political purposes, and specifically admitting that he would do so to go after his enemies. I think that's very chilling.”

In a recent conversation here at Salon, Taylor also issued this warning:

“If I were to bet on who is going to be the next president of the United States, I would put my money on Donald Trump. Obviously, that is the last thing I want to see happen. But if I had to make a bet today, despite the impeachments and the indictments, and the widespread opposition to him, I think he's likely to be the next President of the United States. That should be a five-alarm fire for our democracy. Our democracy right now is at very grave risk of going through a period of destruction, and in many ways it already has. … As the saying goes, 'Stalin was bad, but the little Stalins were a hell of a lot worse.' And that is what we would be seeing in a second Trump term. As bad as Donald Trump will be if he wins a second term, his lieutenants will likely be people who are even more evil than he is. That is going to be true of Trump's successors too because they will be following his authoritarian playbook to win the MAGA base.”

During a fake interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson two weeks ago, Trump engaged in obvious acts of mental projection and fantasy as he shared his fears of being assassinated by "the left", the Democrats, the "deep state" and other imagined enemies.

These lies are part of a right-wing disinformation campaign in service to the Big Lie that Trump won the 2020 presidential election and that it was stolen from him by Biden and the Democrats. No evidence exists to support such claims.

The reality: Law enforcement and other experts have repeatedly warned (and documented) that the greatest threat to the country's domestic safety is from right-wing extremism. One such right-wing terrorist, a neo-Nazi terrorist, murdered three black people at a Dollar General Store in Jacksonville, Florida two Saturdays ago.

The "enemies" that Trump and his next regime want to put in prison or worse, include not just President Biden, the Democratic Party's leadership, and the members of law enforcement who are prosecuting Trump for his crimes, but all people who he and the Republican fascists and MAGA movement deem to be "the enemy" and "un-American".

Here are some specific examples.

If you do not support Donald Trump and the Republican fascists and the MAGA movement (or are deemed insufficiently loyal) you will face prison or worse.

The American right-wing wing has been trained for decades by their news media and other political leaders and influentials to believe that Democrats, liberals, progressives, feminists and others who are not "real Americans" are to be eliminated and subjected to other genocidal violence.

If you are a black or brown person, a Muslim, Jewish, an atheist, not a White Christian, a members of the LGBTQIA+ community, believe in women's reproductive rights and freedoms, are deemed to be "Woke" or tainted by the "Critical Race Theory Mind Virus" or otherwise deemed to be the Other you will also be targeted by Trump's next regime and movement.

Dictators and other authoritarians expand the category of "the enemy" in response to political necessity and the whims, grievances, and others mercurial needs and impulses of the leader(s). This dynamic is even more powerful in a political personality cult such as Trumpism.

Even more so in personality cult such as Trumpism. No American, not even Trump's MAGA supporters and other Republican voters, will be safe from being put in prison or targeted for violence by the next Trump regime.

Trump and his advisers are actively creating the infrastructure for him to follow through on his plans to be a dictator when/if he retakes the White House in 2025. Trump's Agenda 47 is a plan to radically remake the presidency and American government (and American society) in service to his neo-fascist vision that includes such goals as ending birthright citizenship, criminalizing migrants and refugees, putting homeless people in camps, instituting national stop and frisk laws, restricting freedom of the press, ending academic freedom at the country's universities, colleges and other institutions of higher education, replacing quality public education that teaches critical thinking and the country's real history with a form of fascist "patriotic" indoctrination, ending environmental regulations, more gangster capitalism and power for the richest Americans and corporations, reversing the progress of the civil rights movement and the Black Freedom Struggle, taking away the rights of gays and lesbians and other queer people, further restricting women's civil and human rights, and ending US support for Ukraine.

Project 2025 is a strategy that has been developed by right-wing think tanks and interest groups such as the Heritage Foundation. The main focus of Project 2025 is to launch a blitzkrieg assault on the American government by ending career civil service and replacing it with Trump loyalists with the goal of eliminating any internal opposition to the Trump dictatorship. In essence, these Trump loyalists will place his vision above the Constitution and the rule of law.

Salon's Areeba Shah explains more:

“A network of conservative groups is gearing up for the potential reelection of Donald Trump, actively enlisting an "army" of Americans to come to Washington with a mission to disassemble the federal government and substitute it with a vision that aligns more closely with their own beliefs and ideas, according to The Associated Press.

Organized by the Heritage Foundation, the sweeping new initiative called Project 2025, offers a policy agenda, transition plan, a playbook for the first 180 days and a personnel database for the next GOP president to access from the very beginning to take control, reform, and eliminate what Republicans criticize as the "deep state" bureaucracy. Their plan includes the possibility of firing as many as 50,000 federal employees.

Democracy experts view Project 2025 as an authoritarian attempt to seize power by filling the federal government, including the Department of Justice and the FBI, with unwavering Trump supporters, which could potentially erode the country's system of checks and balances.

"The irony of course is that in the name of 'draining the swamp', it creates opportunities to make the federal government actually quite corrupt and turn the country into a more authoritarian kind of government," Matt Dallek, a professor at George Washington's Graduate School of Political Management, who studies the American right, told Salon.”

Those who remain in denial about the realities of Trump's plans to become a dictator and the country's worsening democracy crisis, would likely object to these warnings with foolish deflections such as Trump is just making "empty threats" and that he is "disorganized and not disciplined" and "the law would stop him" because "of American Exceptionalism" and "the institutions and the guardrails of democracy…"

Such voices have learned little, which seven years later is a choice, from the Age of Trump, the horrors it unleashed, and the system's failures that vomited it out.

By definition, fascists and other authoritarians such as Donald Trump and his fake populist MAGA movement do not care about the law or "institutions". The cry "that's illegal!" is one of the final things that many people in societies around the world have said when an authoritarian and their forces take power.

In addition, the last seven years have also highlighted how vulnerable and weak America's governing social and political institutions are to neofascism and other forms of authoritarianism and illiberalism. A second Trump regime, and the Republican Party and "conservative movement" more generally, have gained great experience with exploiting these vulnerabilities and are now trying to fully explode them – from both inside and outside the country's governing institutions.

The most foolish and dangerous example of wish-casting is the argument that "Trump can't win anyway" or that he will be in prison or disqualified under the 14th Amendment. Trump is a symbol and leader of a movement. The decades-long neofascist campaign to end multiracial pluralistic democracy will continue without him and will likely become even more effective and dangerous if a committed and disciplined ideologue in the mold of Ron DeSantis were to become its leader.

Or perhaps those members of the news media, political class, and among the general public who want to ignore or downplay Trump's escalating dictatorial threats would heed the warnings of former Republicans, the same people who helped to create the circumstances for Trump and the MAGA movement's rise to power?

As a group those Never-Trumpers and other pro-democracy voices from the "conservative" movement are sounding the alarm, almost screaming, that Donald Trump means everything that he says about becoming a dictator for life and getting revenge on those people who dare(d) to oppose him. Those same people are also warning, repeatedly, that Trump's chances of winning the 2024 Election are much higher than the mainstream news media and pundit class want to admit.

If Donald Trump was a private citizen and he was threatening his neighbors with violence and other harm, he would likely be put in jail or otherwise removed from society. But Donald Trump is not a regular person. He is a former president who commands the loyalty of tens of millions of people. When a person tells you who they are believe them. That wisdom and warning most certainly applies to Trump and his MAGAites and the other neofascists and members of the white right. Denial will not save you no matter how much you wish it would.

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racefortheironthrone · 4 months

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What do you think about the choice to make Hydra Cap into a Flag Smasher and how it reflects or doesn’t reflect real life fascists?

Overall, I like it.

"Grant" Rogers getting acquitted for attempted mass murder due to systemic prejudice against mutants and ex-HYDRA tendencies inside the state works.

The whole idea of him reinventing himself as an advocate for genetic apartheid (and secretly, mutant genocide) who claims to be a kindler, gentler, and post-nationalist advocate of human unity does resonate with real-life neofascists who try to label themselves as "alt-right" or "cultural traditionalists" or "white identitarians" or some other euphemism.

On the other hand, I don't think Gerry Duggan has the voice right for Steve Rogers or "Stevil." Dialogue between Cap and his squad or "Grant" and the villains in Uncanny Avengers was good, but the big set-piece speeches felt like Duggan was trying to play the hits but hadn't practiced enough.

#xmen #xmen meta #marvel #marvel meta #flag smasher #captain america #steve rogers #stevil #grant rogers #neofascism #orchis #fall of x

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sataniccapitalist · 3 months

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#crisis of legitimacy #elections #POTUS #american exceptionalism #neoliberalism #neofascism #choice #lesser evil #USA

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canadianabroadvery · 8 months

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“At every moment of our lives, we all have one foot in a fairy tale and the other in the abyss.”― Paulo Coelho

Marjorie Taylor Greene quote on critical race theory

#republican party #us politics #neofascism

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whatthehelloh · 1 year

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The headline says it all.

#neofascism #neo nazis #alt right #homeschooling #it just keeps getting worse #fight fascism #always punch nazis

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kaydub80 · 1 year

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Watch "How Will the U.S. Manage Losing Economic Power? - Economic Update with Richard Wolff" on YouTube

youtube

Time is running out.

#late stage capitalism #socialism #neoliberalism #neofascism #Youtube

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rickmctumbleface · 2 years

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If we allow this to happen, and we seem well on our way to, we do not deserve our freedom.

#neofascism #fascism #fuck your fascism

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kp777 · 2 years

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#thom hartmann #neofascism #republicans

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nando161mando · 8 months

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contemplatingoutlander · 1 year

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In the New York Magazine article, “The Future of Trumpism: The greatest threat to Donald Trump’s hold on the GOP comes from Ron DeSantis, who may be more MAGA than the MAGA king himself,” Jonathan Chait discusses some of Ron DeSantis’s more disturbing beliefs about the U.S. Constitution and wealth.

Basically, DeSantis seems to believe that the Constitution was designed to protect elite wealth from being redistributed to the working classes. If DeSantis were to be elected president, there’s a good chance he would try to undo every progressive social safety net program we have created since the New Deal, including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the ACA, SNAP, and TANF.

Below are some excerpts from DeSantis’s 2011 book Dreams From Our Founding Fathers: First principles in the age of Obama:

[Benjamin] Franklin and other Founding Fathers believed that respect for individual property rights was the sine qua non of a free society, and regarded the so-called “leveling spirit,” which seeks to equalize property through government action, as a danger that American institutions needed to check…. How to craft a government based on popular consent that did not devolve into popular majorities voting themselves the property of others was one of the main concerns for Madison and his colleagues at the Constitutional Convention. [...] Madison pulled no punches about specifying the particular types of faction that a republican form of government needed to guard against. “A rage for paper money, for an abolition of debts, for an equal division of property, or for any other improper or wicked project”…. Madison…also viewed these “wicked projects” as inimical to fundamental notions of justice and individual liberty. As a matter of first principle, the republic needed to be constructed to prevent such projects from ever coming into being.

[emphasis added]

--Ron DeSantis (2011, pp. 123, 128-129)

If Ron DeSantis wins the White House in 2024 and has a GOP Congress, and a Federalist Society dominated Supreme Court, he will be able to dismantle the social safety net in the U.S. with impunity. We cannot let that happen.

[edited]

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Ron DeSantis Photo-Illustration: Eddie Guy & Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images (before edits & title caption); Maya Angelou quote image source (before edits & a newer version of Maya Angelou’s signature)

#ron desantis #dreams from our founding fathers #us constitution #protection of wealth #neofascism #jonathan chait #new york magazine #intelligencer #my edits

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odinsblog · 9 months

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ROME — What a difference a few months can make.

Ahead of Italy’s election last fall, Giorgia Meloni was widely depicted as a menace. By this summer, everything — her youthful admiration for Benito Mussolini, her party’s links to neofascists, her often extreme rhetoric — had been forgiven. Praised for her practicality and support for Ukraine, Ms. Meloni has established herself as a reliable Western partner, central to Group of 7 meetings and NATO summits alike. A visit to Washington, which takes place on Thursday, seals her status as a valued member of the international community.

But the comforting tale of a populist firebrand turned pragmatist overlooks something important: what’s been happening in Italy. Ms. Meloni’s administration has spent its first months accusing minorities of undermining the triad of God, nation and family, with dire practical consequences for migrants, nongovernmental organizations and same-sex parents. Efforts to weaken anti-torture legislation, stack the public broadcaster with loyalists and rewrite Italy’s postwar constitution to increase executive power are similarly troubling. Ms. Meloni’s government isn’t just nativist but has a harsh authoritarian streak, too.

For Italy, this is bad enough. But much of its significance lies beyond its borders, showing how the far right can break down historic barriers with the center right. Allies of Ms. Meloni are already in power in Poland, also newly legitimized by their support for Ukraine. In Sweden, a center-right coalition relies on the nativist Sweden Democrats’ support to govern. In Finland, the anti-immigrant Finns Party went one better and joined the government. Though these parties, like many of their European counterparts, once rejected membership in NATO and the European Union, today they seek a place in the main Euro-Atlantic institutions, transforming them from within. In this project, Ms. Meloni is leading the way.

Since becoming prime minister, Ms. Meloni has certainly moderated her language. In official settings, she’s at pains to appear considered and cautious — an act aided by her preference for televised addresses rather than questioning by journalists. Yet she can also rely on colleagues in her Brothers of Italy party to be less restrained. Taking aim at one of the government’s main targets, L.G.B.T.Q. parents, party leaders have called surrogate parenting a “crime worse than pedophilia,” claiming that gay people are “passing off” foreign kids as their own. Ms. Meloni can appear aloof from such rhetoric, even suggesting unhappiness with its extremism. But her decisions in office reflect zealotry, not caution. The government extended a ban on surrogacy to criminalize adoptions in other countries and ordered municipalities to stop registering same-sex parents, leaving children in legal limbo.

It’s a similar story with immigration. The agriculture minister, a longtime ally of Ms. Meloni’s who is also her brother-in-law, has taken the lead in appealing for resistance to “ethnic replacement.” Hardly averse to the slogan — she used it to successfully oppose a 2017 bill that would have granted citizenship to children born in Italy to noncitizen parents — Ms. Meloni has avoided employing the phrase herself since taking office. But her call for “births, not migrants” expresses the same sentiment, and aggressive opposition to migration has been the centerpiece of her administration. A law passed in April forces asylum seekers to live in state-run migrant centers while their claims are considered — a process that can last up to two years — all without legal advice or Italian-language classes. In recent weeks, Ms. Meloni spearheaded a European Union deal with Tunisia, whose authoritarian regime promotes the great replacement conspiracy theory, to curb migration in exchange for financial support.

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#politics #giorgia meloni #italy #lgbt #fascism #authoritarianism #homophobia #xenophobia #transphobia #lgbtq #neofascism

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andrewlovely · 8 days

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Thought Experiments for the Emerging Police State

Imagine that a black wallet stuffed full of sweaty one hundred dollar bills is left on the sidewalk in plain view, and in clear sight of a surveillance camera under the charge, or subject to the purview of a state agency. The subject approaches, notices the wallet on the sidewalk, scratches their head, looks left and right, and picks up the wallet. They browse through the bills as a look of slight shock appears on their face; they seem slightly stunned, surprised. They look around again, until this time they notice the surveillance camera fixed on their position. For a moment the subject looks straight into the camera’s lens. Then they promptly turn the wallet in to the nearest police station.

The state analyst reviewing this footage says, “Well of course, they only turned in the wallet because they became aware that they were being watched.”

State provocateurs commit crimes, ranging from petty misdemeanors to serious felonies, in plain view of the subject. The subject does not react.

The state analyst says, “Well either the subject doesn’t understand that these activities are crimes, doesn’t consider these infractions to be offenses, doesn’t want to get involved, or simply doesn’t care.”

Agents of the state feigning radical or extremist beliefs approach the subject and begin to expound upon views that, “the liberation of women has contributed to the decline of our social values,” or that, “slavery was integral to the development of this country,” or that, “only armed, violent struggle can lead to any real progress,” or that, “freedom of speech is overrated,” or that, “this is a holy war we are fighting,” or that, “serious decisions should not be left up to the people, because the people are stupid,” or that, “there is a secret cabal running the entire world,” but especially that, “only a violent, armed revolution can be effective in the long run, don’t you agree?” The subject nods in understanding but shows little to no reaction.

The analyst says, “The subject must at least sympathize with these positions to some degree, otherwise we would see a stronger reaction here, some kind of an objection, be it verbal on nonverbal.”

The state behaviorists treat human beings as if they are laboratory mice in some controlled scientific experiment. But there is a uniquely human element, a uniquely human quality which will always sabotage any effort by the fascist behaviorists to draw any kind of meaningful conclusion from the speech, from the behavior, and yes, in the dystopian world we are now entering, even from the thoughts of their controlled “subjects” – and that sublimely human quality is conscious awareness.

What happens when the mark becomes aware of the sting? What happens when the lab rat becomes aware that it’s in a maze? Because a human being is not a rat.

What frustrates the behaviorists of the fascist surveillance state more than anything is that any conscious awareness on behalf of the subject renders any and all of their conclusions irrelevant, meaningless, and without any real basis. The analysts then might scamper to identify precisely “when” the subject became aware, thinking foolishly that by identifying precisely the exact moment when conscious awareness emerged, they will then have a “control,” that is, a collection of data and analyses before the subject’s conscious awareness became emergent and began to interfere with, or invalidate any possible conclusions.

And I say that the state analysts foolishly attempt this kind of backtracking because how exactly do you pinpoint the precise moment of an emerging consciousness? What are the “tells” of a newly conscious awareness? To further complicate matters, how does one factor in for unconscious awareness? After all, not all awareness is conscious; in fact, one could argue that the most perspicacious awareness of all is that of the unconscious mind – all living human beings can attest to the power of their animalistic instincts and their human intuition. How exactly do you account for that, how do you take that into consideration in any empirical sense, or quantify it?

And yet in the new dark age, it will be the burden of the First Man to prove his own inherent instincts, his own intuition, and verily by extension and by definition, his own existence. The First Man will be paradoxically in the most advantageous position, given the nature of his gifts, his sixth sense which is both the sum and the transcendence of his other five combined, and yet simultaneously, in the most disadvantageous position, as his highest awareness cannot be proven, and any lens which might catch the shadow trails cast by his activities and pastimes in the nonlinear causal world are under the ward and auspices of the same surveillance state which seeks to discredit and destroy him – in any case, no man made lens or apparatus can see his awareness anyway – for his consciousness is not even his at all, but belongs to all living beings – or rather, all living beings belong together with the same Mother, and the same Father, and the same consciousness.

The First Man, being forced to live as a stranger in the world of the Last, and likewise the Last Man himself, nostalgic of a Home he has never known, for he is both the same man himself, both the First and the Last, looks upon his brother at first with befuddlement and amusement, at all his brother’s efforts to be both all-seeing and all-knowing. It makes him laugh! Because it is a futile and meaningless attempt. But underneath that amusement there is a deep sadness, a sadness for his brother who is that same Last Man. Sadly the Last Man’s efforts for omniscience and omnipotence are not without fruits. Oh, if only they were fruitless endeavors! But no, the fruits are many, and sick, and rotten. And sadly it is the First Man who must drink the blood of the prophets for nourishment and eat the rotten fruits, the bread of their shared sorrow for survival.

When the First Man is called to answer for that which he has not said, he will reply, “You have said this.” Likewise when the First Man is called to account for that which he has not done, he will say, “You have done this. You have fabricated and set this all up from the very beginning.” But his objections will fall on deaf ears. When finally out of a genuine curiosity he looks the provocateurs in the face and sincerely asks, “Why have you done all this? What is the point of it? What is the end game here?” his questions will not be understood, because they’ve never even been considered. It would be like asking a predator why it lures its prey out of hiding. There is no answer. Evidence and testimony will exist to validate both the First Man’s objections and his questions, but it will remain classified so as to not undermine the narrative of the agent provocateur trappers and poachers and knaves.

In the new dark age state agencies will effectively become both judge, jury, and executioner of every First Man, of every First Woman, as increasingly governmental authorities can conveniently withhold any state evidence which might greatly hurt their case – evidence compromised by the confounding variables mentioned above, and many others “in the interests of national security,” making any defense by ordinary citizens impossible, and extrajudicial killings will be increasingly employed whenever a citizen is deemed willing, vital, and capable of mounting an intelligent and successful defense, and therefore, by the state’s own definition, capable of compromising “national security.”

But let’s return to our thought experiment: if the subject becomes aware that they are being surveilled, then how can we know definitively that their behavior is being altered by their awareness of the surveillance, in other words, how can we know that they aren’t just doing what they were going to do anyway in the case of the lost wallet, or on the contrary, how can we know definitively that their behavior isn’t being altered by their awareness of the surveillance, such as in the case of the agent provocateurs? The answer of course is simple: we cannot know definitively, and no meaningful conclusions can be drawn about the subject’s behavior, because awareness fundamentally permeates and transforms everything it touches, or at least is capable of fundamentally permeating and transforming everything it touches; therefore our little experiment is effectively invalidated. Awareness is the confounding variable, both conscious and unconscious.

If I, feigning friendship and goodwill, gift a fake flower to an acquaintance of mine, a fake plastic flower in which is embedded a small microphone connected to a mobile wireless network which transmits each and every conversation they have, and my acquaintance, being a sensitive and keen individual, immediately notices that something is “off,” should I expect them to water my fake flower? And if they do water it, are they watering it because they think it’s real, or for the sake of appearances? And how can I tell the difference?

And even if I could tell the difference, how could I ascertain whether their awareness of my subterfuge was conscious, or unconscious? That is to say, perhaps my acquaintance, being very intuitive, just felt that the flower was faux, and so unconsciously kept forgetting to water it, and likewise just felt uncomfortable having conversations around my flower, for reasons he could not quite pinpoint, but felt quite strongly. Maybe he still watered it occasionally, but couldn’t quite escape the feeling that something was “off” about it – how would you distinguish this unconscious awareness from the conscious awareness that he was being spied on? And more importantly, if the awareness was only unconscious, why should that unconscious awareness be dismissed and invalidated as if it is not a significant confounding variable, especially considering how vital that same unconscious awareness has been to the survival of our species – an unconscious awareness that, if we were to be honest with ourselves, we probably rely on still more than the conscious awareness of our highly developed frontal lobes, which are relative newcomers in the greater neurological history of our human evolution. To reiterate, unconscious awareness may be just as much, if not more of a confounding variable than conscious awareness.

If I see fake flowers all around me, why should I water them? To keep up appearances? Why should a person be forced to participate in a theater of the absurd? It is insulting to human dignity, and amounts to little more than an incessant nuisance, a constant harassment, and should be treated as such – that is to say, paid no mind – no more mind than one would pay to the dogshit on the sidewalk – just enough to avoid it, but not enough to examine it closely – just enough to see it as it is and warn others so that they don’t step in it.

These questions may seem insane, and indeed, they are, but the First Man and the First Woman will be forced, or rather, by the very nature of the new dark age they will inhabit, coerced into taking such insanity into some kind of consideration.

It all boils down to the same question Philip K. Dick asked in his prescient foretelling of an equally insane world in A Scanner Darkly: “What does a scanner see?”

If I had a scanner with which I could observe all your speech, all your behavior, then what would I really know about you?

Here we are discussing the nature, the quality of your own subjective experience, which is very difficult, if not impossible to prove, let alone falsify. And if we are not interested in the subjective experience, then what are we interested in? The mindless routines of some automated machine part? A sense of the other person’s subjective experience, however oblique our approach or fuzzy that sense may be, is central to understanding the nature of another person’s character, and by extension, the nature of their actions, the extent of their responsibility as an individual in any given situation, the quality of their speech and their underlying intensions.

If I was a psychologist, or a psychiatrist, I could observe your speech and behavior, I could conduct experiments, record my observations, and use inductive reasoning to draw conclusions as to the nature of your personality. But there would be no way for me ultimately to know precisely what you are thinking, to know your motivations, let alone prove any of it. Because ultimately I can never truly know your own subjective experience. Only you can know that.

And likewise if I were an optometrist, I could conduct different tests to get a clearer sense of how you see the world, evaluate the quality of your vision, test for color blindness for example. But ultimately I can never really know what you see. Because I cannot inhabit your body/mind. And even if I could, I would be introducing a foreign element and thus compromising the purity of my observations.

To continue the thought experiment, what if as a psychiatrist I could actually read your thoughts? What if I had a machine that could read every single one of your thoughts? Okay, so now I know exactly what you are thinking. What will that tell me about you, exactly? If I can see all your thoughts, does that mean that I can see you? Does that mean that I know who you are? People have all sorts of errant thoughts all the time, thoughts that have no meaning and are not reflective of the nature of their individuality whatsoever. How would I distinguish between the “errant thoughts” and the thoughts that truly reflect who you are? And do any of your thoughts truly reflect who you are at a core level? We can control our speech and behavior, but we don’t even control which thoughts enter our mind. So how can we held responsible for our thoughts? And if we cannot be held responsible for our thoughts, do we really own them?

I suppose the argument could also be made that speech and behavior, though owned entirely by the individual, perhaps in contrast to thoughts which enter and exit the mind at their own whim, are less indicative of a person’s true nature, as they can be controlled by the individual, and therefore manipulated, and so appearances can be manipulated, concealing the individual’s true nature.

But I’m inclined to say that even if we could surveil all of an individual’s speech, behavior, and thoughts, we still wouldn’t have a clear idea as to the true nature of the individual. So what is the true nature of the individual, what is the quality of his consciousness, if even in surveilling all his thoughts, all his speech, all his behavior, we still don’t really have a complete picture, a complete sense of who they are?

In connection to the surveillance state of the new dark age, in which my thought experiment is sadly now all too real, I’m left often with the question: where are the philosophers? Where is the philosopher to ask, “Why are we even doing this?” or “What are we even doing here?” or “Is this right?” or “Is this legal?” or “What are we really even going to discover here?” The philosophers are absent. They have been excluded of course. Because if they had been included, the project could not go on.

Taking all this into consideration, I see the vast network of surveillance and the endless infrastructure of suppression being put in place to keep the ruling class entrenched, and all I can do is laugh. All your efforts to be like God, all your efforts laughable and in vain. And our Mother, She is so patient; I cannot speak for Her. She will endure you as long as She can. But if you knew how precious your life was, you wouldn’t waste it on all this nonsense. If there is one wish I have for you, it’s that you realize how precious your life is. Then you will not need me, you will see it for yourself. You will not want to waste not even one more second of your life on any of this absurdity you’ve invested in, and you’ll say it for yourself: “Enough with this nonsense!” You reading this right now, you have the power to stop it.

#andrew lovely #andrew eugene lovely #thoughts #police state #surveillance state #fascism #neofascism

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