Because protestors are calling for the dismantling of the police state, an essential part of the U.S. empire, nice guy abusers are falling all over themselves to manipulate them back into their cage, writes Caity Johnstone.
By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com
For ages the Democratic Party and its allies have been actively manipulating leftwardly-inclined Americans away from issues which might inconvenience the powerful — issues like economic justice, anti-imperialism, slashing the military budget, ending government surveillance and police militarization, and actually getting money out of politics. Instead they’ve been encouraged to only care about issues which establishment power structures don’t care about — issues like abortion, misogyny, LGBT rights, gun control, and racism.
The powerful do not care if you have an abortion. They do not care how many bullets your gun can hold, they do not care if two guys get married or what gender pronouns you use, and they do not care if everyone is a racist or if no one is. They care about maintaining and expanding their ability to exert control over other people. If they can use prejudice or the threat of revoking rights to advance those agendas then they will certainly use them, but beyond that, they do not care.
For this reason, many who see the abusive nature of the oligarchic empire have come to look upon these issues a bit disdainfully, seeing social justice issues as a power-serving distraction from the actual issues they don’t want us pushing for like dismantling the war machine, ending plutocracy and making sure everyone has what they need. This is a major part of why, when racism suddenly became the number one hot topic in the news for days on end amid protests against police brutality, many anti-establishment types viewed it with suspicion.
But what actually seems to be happening here is a lot more interesting than some impotent and irrelevant distraction. Because people aren’t just out protesting racism, they’re calling for the complete dismantling of the entire police state, which is an essential part of the glue holding the US-centralized empire in place.
And the nice guy abusers are falling all over themselves to manipulate them back into their cage.
In an article titled “Democrats Push Reforms That Will Not Fundamentally Change Policing”, Shadowproof’s Kevin Gosztola breaks down how the Pelosi-led House Democrats are presenting a “Justice In Policing Act” that is functionally the same as attempts at police reform which have been tried without success for generations. Like every other popular grassroots initiative which is actually disruptive to real power institutions, the Democratic Party’s response has been to slap a Kente cloth band-aid on a sucking chest wound and stage a narrative control campaign calling it healed. This is because, as we discussed recently, the Democratic Party’s primary function is to co-opt and kill authentic change movements.
The problem is, as Gosztola puts it, “unlike most establishment Democrats, activists pressing for the ‘defunding’ of police grasp the fact that policing is the problem.” The desperate attempts to manipulate them back into position are exposing them.
Liberal narrative managers manipulated the people into understanding that they are only allowed to care about issues like sexism, LGBT rights, and racism. The people responded by saying “Okay, well then we demand that you dismantle the entire police state because it is racist.”
Through all the confusion and fog of a lifetime of ingesting establishment propaganda, the people have still managed to find one solid strand of “no” that they know the nice guy abuser can’t actually forbid them from holding onto, and they are grasping it with an iron fist and pulling themselves toward the door.
To quote the famous Jeff Goldblum line from Jurassic Park, life finds a way.
Life did find a way. Seemingly by instinct, humanity is finding more and more ways to get out from underneath the thick veil of propagandistic psychological abuse to wake each other up from the narrative control matrix. Homo sapiens will soon be uncaged, rampaging around the theme park and eating the bloodsucking lawyer right off the toilet.
Like I’ve been saying since last year, things are only going to keep getting stranger. Our species is unpatterning at a rapidly accelerating rate, and the people whose job it is to manipulate us back to sleep have been failing to do so with greater and greater frequency. Don’t waste emotional energy on the hope that things will eventually go back to normal, because they won’t. The good news is that what we think of as “normal” is actually as crazy and self-destructive as a species can possibly be, and life is awkwardly, sloppily stumbling toward true sanity. Stumbling for the door.
“If there is one thing the history of evolution has taught us it’s that life will not be contained. Life breaks free, it expands to new territories and crashes through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously, but, uh… well, there it is.”
Caitlin Johnstone is a rogue journalist, poet, and utopia prepper who publishes regularly at Medium. Follow her work on Facebook, Twitter, or her website. She has a podcast and a book, “Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers.”
This article was re-published with permission.
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Meanwhile back in the Senate Sen. Sanders has introduced some serious and original proposals for restructuring of policing: See Vt Digger, mid June:
“Sanders listed the following goals “to seriously address an intolerable situation in this country:”
Amend federal civil rights laws to allow more effective prosecution of police misconduct by changing the standard from willfulness to recklessness.
Abolish “qualified immunity,” so police officers can be held civilly liable for abuses.
Prohibit the transfer of offensive military equipment to police departments.
Strip federal funds from departments that violate civil rights.
Create a federal model policing program that emphasizes de-escalation, non-lethal force and culturally competent policing in which access to federal funds depends upon the level of reform adopted. As part of this effort to modernize and humanize police departments we need to enhance the recruitment pool by ensuring that the resources are available to pay wages that will attract the top-tier officers we need to do the difficult work of policing.
There are more but they are too long to list. Of course, Bernie is really an independent, so this breath of fresh air doesn’t apply to the Dems. He should never have gotten into bed with them in the first place. When you sleep with mangy dogs you get fleas.
I am sure these will go no where in McConnell’s Senate, so let’s give equal time on the s— list to Republicans, screwing us over is very bi partisan.
Never underestimate the danger of large groups of stupid people, especially when they are leading the democratic party.
The message being sent across this country currently by protests has never been stronger. Trump ignores the boils on his face despite
his own self-absorpstion. The republicans are split seemingly between those who would live to fight another day and those who are
willing to turn the country side into a war zone feeling that it is apparent to them the South will rise again. The democrats or the money
running them is hesitant to embrace any constructive criticism and methods to distance themselves from the MIN, the national security
state and business as usual when it comes to running election campaigns. It is a shame, they a missing a chance to build a strong coalition, at least in numbers, maybe not money.
Caitlin is right life will go on regardless of U.S. politics but the democrats haven’t recognized their lack of effort in organizing will run up the level of danger to those living in this country.
Seriously who in their right mind would desire to be a republican after the party’s showing the last three year years six months and 13 days in D.C..
Many more issues must be resolved in order to rectify the problems with the police. Lets first note that the Sheriffs department is the only elected “law” enforcement agency and takes an oath to defend the constitution. City and state police are appointed and enforce Statutes and policies for the commercialized government corporations. Statutes and policies are NOT law. The only way for corporate policies to apply to anyone is to be an employee of the corporation. The constitution specifically identifies a law as something passed by the congress and common law, which the constitution is based on, requires there to be a victim in order for a crime to be committed. Each and every level of government is incorporated and without your consent has signed you on as an employee. So lets address other issues:
1. The private prison system – corporations contracted with a state to maintain a certain occupancy at a set rate per prisoner. If the occupancy drops the rate increases. Its in the best interest of the corporate state to lock up as many as possible.
2. 90% of the crimes committed arrest a defendant after the fact. Police to not stop crime.
3. The police are revenue collectors for the corporate governments. Opening your wallet for tickets, fees, licensing, registrations, license plates and anything else you can be robbed from. The corporate state owns your property thru fictitious titles
4. Asset forfeiture – Taking your property and money without due process or even a conviction.
5. Patriot Act – Accusing you of being a terrorist which denies you access to an attorney or a court, Say goodbye.
6. The courts – The cops word is golden, yours is inferior. We have lost the right to be the beneficiary of any doubt, to be innocent until proven guilty. We are incarcerated based solely on the police statement and if you ever consider defending yourself, try doing that from inside a prison. The cards are severely stacked against everyone except the elite.
7. Inequality – If your not very wealthy than you are poor in comparison. The elite have a different set of laws.
Ummmm, yeah right, maybe . Except in China , Russia, India , South America, where an entire continent is on the verge of martial law. In parts of the EU and the USA “protesters”, antifa and BLM , yello vests and the like types are being allowed to vent a bit. When the dust settles I see maybe some a demilitarization of the police in the USA, in France maybe a bit. . They don’t need to in Germany where people generally accept their limits. Then there will be a creep towards acceptance of the need for facial recognition Technology and AI monitoring of crowds and travel corridors in the USA. This already happens in China and the tech is in place in the EU. Meanwhile phone and computers are being monitored in real time by law enforcement and intelligence and the NYT ,Washington Post, CNN and most all the rest are in lock step putting a spin on events, similarly with the Covid Pandemic, that should be seen a form of propaganda. I see more state control in the future and law enforcement emerging in a stronger position, perhaps with a better fitting fig leaf attached. Hope springs eternal but this is not Childhoods End or the Dawning of a New Day.
The left-right schism is patently false given especially the rapacious military killing machines deployed in the lands of the Other, the relentless exploitation of resources, and the nonchalant disregard for the humanity of others. I guess the MIC has won the day! It is unfathomable how the so-called “beacon of democracy, all that is supposedly unimpeachable and and beautiful) gets away with the wholesale slaughter of hundreds of thousands. Many thoughtful commentators wholeheartedly agree with Caitlin, but not with the old democratic party hacks and hucksters, ready at a moment’s notice, to amputate voices of genuine transformation. Democracy must be lived, not become part of the rhetorical games intended to gut real change. The current convulsive moments carry within them the down payment for futures of possibility, thriving, and redemption – as long as we don’t get ambushed by democratic part’s rearguard
Lots of truth here, but, sad to say, any real change is going to cost in terms of bloodshed, jail terms, and lives. Our political elites are not just going to sit still and be co-opted.
Quoting Ralph Nader—Seize this moment ! Big Time !–These are the seeds for a strengthened, enlarged ,Democracy of justice, freedom, and equality .—
I’d bet psychologically the fact that police are dressed in combat uniforms has more to do with the yelling of ‘police state’ than the overall behavior of police. The biggest part of this yelling ‘police state’ is simply some people/followers simply jumping on the bandwagon at police battle gear. (You expect a white shirt and tie?).Yes, we’ve had/have some rogue police. We’ve seen them in action. We know of cover-ups of their wrong doings. But who do you call when a crime is committed? You call the police.
Ms. Johnston puts down the Democratic party in her first two paragraphs (I am politically uncommitted). But from my point of view, she just as well could have included the Republican party.
I think Caitlin hit the nail on the head, we’re fed up with police brutality and impunity, and it’s a global thing (writing from South Africa)
I don’t think anybody has a problem with the police enforcing traffic laws and helping folks out. We don’t want them in militarised uniforms, with guns, shooting at protestors and gassing them.
Take away their guns! That would solve 99% of the problems right off the bat.
“who do you call when a crime is committed? You call the police” – is what we do now. It wasn’t what happened through most of humanity’s existence. And it doesn’t have to be the case in the future, as so many in the police abolitionist movement are showing. Perhaps you could listen to them.
hXXp://criticalresistance.org/
I do not see us having any real control. As long as the rich have the money, they control the politicians who write the laws for their benefit not ours. The stock market rebound proves they do not even need us working. The release of documents shows that big business is working towards our demise over the last 50+ years and now there are only a few years to go. I believe ours is around the 7th civilization to fail here on earth. I question what the 8th will do different.
Let’s hope you’re right, Caitlin.
Kinda feels like you’re jumping the gun with the headline at the first sign of potential change – but it seems like this article is less about this (potentially too) hopeful statement than the valid point about the left avoiding glaring issues in favor of a specific set.
That said, I’d wager the powerful really do care how many bullets a gun can hold – more than the rest of us do.
Here is an article that looks at how the misuse of deadly force by American police forces can be solved:
hXXp://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2020/06/police-use-of-deadly-force-part-2.html
Unfortunately, decades of police “military-style corporate culture” and the “blue wall of silence” means that meaningful changes to the policies regarding the use of deadly force will continue to be ignored despite the fact that an average of three Americans die at the hands of police officers every day.
Bravo!
Exquisitely put, Caitlin.
The “Nice Guy” abusers.
As well, however, there are generational and class “identities” which remain ever faithful and who seek the “safety” and “security” of staying with the, “well, he is not all that intelligent, but he’s a sweet guy who gives me nice presents and … he’s rich, so he invites me to gala affairs, he sits on lots of boards and, you know, is a fine example of merit, and we should celebrate him, also he’s good looking and tall”, nice guys, in a “friends with benefits” arrangement.
Will the Boomers, who view rent and debt as “contracts” to be honored unto death, realize that the lack of a social contract means that the cohort of their kids and grandkids is being placed in untenable position?
Might the educated, meritorious who have, somehow, noticed nothing but themselves these last five decades, have hidden themselves at universities, which too many of the young can no longer afford to attend, where the highest paid individuals are sports coaches, and which institutions have failed utterly to provide the young with the tools requisite to their genuine needs in a society gone insane with greed and absolute control, might these folks, working comfortably from home (though many professors complain how hard the whole online “thing” is, and administrators have precious little to “administer”) have begun to ponder the crushing days ahead for the deplorable many?
Do they care?
Or, do they pine, all bloo who, for the liberation promised by Joe Biden?
There are older folks on the streets, even academics, and the disquiet has shaken many, yet, how many really care about the bloody war machine, the rapacious destruction of Earth, the swelling ranks of the homeless, how many hungry children there are, or police brutality, when they have spent a lifetime in the “not see” mode?
To imagine that any red/blue division of comprehension about these things has been abuilding among either right wing of the war and money oligarchic kabuki aficionados, is hardly borne out by the evidence of the election frenzy, even as the combatants huddle in basements.
So, we must conclude that it is primarily among the unsmitten, those less predisposed to swallow the mythology of a shining City on the hillishness, who are, it is to be hoped, asking themselves and each other when enough IS enough.
One also anticipates that those in the streets are seriously talking and listening to each other, are willing to imagine, articulate, and struggle for a sane, humane, and sustainable society, else the slick-talking, pusillanimous piss ants, the sycophantic sheep dogs, will herd the young, once again, into the fold.
Frankly, this time, it may sustain long enough, may spark enough conscience and courage, requiring widespread tolerance, and understanding sufficient to resist the “efficient” slap down, which Obama (still the heartthrob of many, apparently) so adroitly and imperiously applied to Occupy, with help of mayors in many of the very cities now pretending to care with play acting props and gestures so well known to those who have witnessed what has transpired over the last sixty-five and more years.
Certainly, there is a deeper and more widespread grasp of the ludicrous corruption and outright depravity of the elite than ever before.
Thanks for Caitlin’s spirited and principled thoughts. While recognizing the value of good policing, encouraging the opposition to suppressive policing to see the underlying problem of plutocratic narrative control is a path to reform.
Ms. Johnstone’s first two paragraphs offer immense insight for anyone who wants to ponder the establishment narrative. I wish left and right activists would contemplate the plain truth of her words.