If Music Could Talk

Dr. Medulla wrote:Curiosity: All these assholes who are painting swastikas, do they watch movies set in Europe in World War II and cheer for the Nazis against the US? How do they rationalize making America great again when that greatness they're talking about is pretty much the immediate aftermath of the war against fascism?

To me it's the thing that sickens me the most. The same here with idiots who don't respect what their own families fought against. The idea that the freedom they so freely abuse came at a cost means so little to them.

Dr. Medulla wrote:Curiosity: All these assholes who are painting swastikas, do they watch movies set in Europe in World War II and cheer for the Nazis against the US? How do they rationalize making America great again when that greatness they're talking about is pretty much the immediate aftermath of the war against fascism?

They've been calling Obama Hitler for 8 years now, so it means they have become woke and liberals need to engage them by having GoFundMe drives every time somebody scratches an anarchy sign into the window of some plutocrat's limo...because "balance".



Seriously, though...it's probably no more complicated than our national id has been programmed to think "Nazi = Allies opening a can of whoop-ass on evil-doers". The symbolism is lost because anyone can be fingered as the evil-doer, anytime, whenever the spirit moves someone who's got the upper hand in power and ammo (proverbial, implied, or literal) to kick someone's ass. And you can tell just how much the symbolism is lost by the flare-ups always being a punching-down at those weaker and more vulnerable instead of what it actually meant: slaying the all-powerful bully.

That best explains it on both sides of the pond, and best explains why the flare-ups are so universal in times of crisis regardless of any Western society's starting point on the racism/xenophobia scale. Id says "I wanna break shit", swastika paints the target.


In other words...give Wolt credit for nuance. It's Punching Hitler, not Punching Nazis. One calls out fascism's rotting head by name...one is just the eye-of-beholder for guilt-free projection of one's pent-up rage.

if this Klan rally for 12/3 is on, it'll probably pop off in a big way. Everybody's plan is nonviolence of course, but these things often go south pretty quick.

Rat Patrol wrote:In other words...give Wolt credit for nuance.

I'll do no such thing.

eumaas wrote:if this Klan rally for 12/3 is on, it'll probably pop off in a big way. Everybody's plan is nonviolence of course, but these things often go south pretty quick.

See the Greensboro Massacre of 1979. A newly emboldened group whose core ideology is violence and intimidation all but guarantees blood will flow unless the police act as a deliberate counterweight. Even then, who the fuck knows.

Dr. Medulla wrote:

Rat Patrol wrote:In other words...give Wolt credit for nuance.

I'll do no such thing.

eumaas wrote:if this Klan rally for 12/3 is on, it'll probably pop off in a big way. Everybody's plan is nonviolence of course, but these things often go south pretty quick.

See the Greensboro Massacre of 1979. A newly emboldened group whose core ideology is violence and intimidation all but guarantees blood will flow unless the police act as a deliberate counterweight. Even then, who the fuck knows.

yep. Well, I'm gonna be there, so let's hope I don't end up dead or in jail!

eumaas wrote:

Dr. Medulla wrote:

eumaas wrote:if this Klan rally for 12/3 is on, it'll probably pop off in a big way. Everybody's plan is nonviolence of course, but these things often go south pretty quick.

See the Greensboro Massacre of 1979. A newly emboldened group whose core ideology is violence and intimidation all but guarantees blood will flow unless the police act as a deliberate counterweight. Even then, who the fuck knows.

yep. Well, I'm gonna be there, so let's hope I don't end up dead or in jail!

You're a tough bugger, Gene, who knows theory and practice.

Dr. Medulla wrote:

eumaas wrote:

Dr. Medulla wrote:

eumaas wrote:if this Klan rally for 12/3 is on, it'll probably pop off in a big way. Everybody's plan is nonviolence of course, but these things often go south pretty quick.

See the Greensboro Massacre of 1979. A newly emboldened group whose core ideology is violence and intimidation all but guarantees blood will flow unless the police act as a deliberate counterweight. Even then, who the fuck knows.

yep. Well, I'm gonna be there, so let's hope I don't end up dead or in jail!

You're a tough bugger, Gene, who knows theory and practice.

The ideas are dead if they're only in a book and not out there for real people.

Not to knock people who do the book work. We need them too, and they keep the ideas going in the bad stretches.

eumaas wrote:

Dr. Medulla wrote:

eumaas wrote:

Dr. Medulla wrote:

eumaas wrote:if this Klan rally for 12/3 is on, it'll probably pop off in a big way. Everybody's plan is nonviolence of course, but these things often go south pretty quick.

See the Greensboro Massacre of 1979. A newly emboldened group whose core ideology is violence and intimidation all but guarantees blood will flow unless the police act as a deliberate counterweight. Even then, who the fuck knows.

yep. Well, I'm gonna be there, so let's hope I don't end up dead or in jail!

You're a tough bugger, Gene, who knows theory and practice.

The ideas are dead if they're only in a book and not out there for real people.

Not to knock people who do the book work. We need them too, and they keep the ideas going in the bad stretches.

Yep. Just said pretty much that in the election thread—the scholars, if they play a role, need to be followers, not recreate vanguardism. But I'm reminded of a presentation by a prominent African American Marxist scholar, Robin D.G. Kelley. He told the story of interviewing (or maybe he was relating someone else's experience) an old black Communist who operated in the 1930s. The old guy pulled out a copy of The Communist Manifesto and said, "Theory." Then opened up a desk drawer and pulled out a box of shotgun shells and said, "Practice." I'm a pacifist, but I appreciate the harsh truth of it all.

eumaas wrote:

Dr. Medulla wrote:

Rat Patrol wrote:In other words...give Wolt credit for nuance.

I'll do no such thing.

eumaas wrote:if this Klan rally for 12/3 is on, it'll probably pop off in a big way. Everybody's plan is nonviolence of course, but these things often go south pretty quick.

See the Greensboro Massacre of 1979. A newly emboldened group whose core ideology is violence and intimidation all but guarantees blood will flow unless the police act as a deliberate counterweight. Even then, who the fuck knows.

yep. Well, I'm gonna be there, so let's hope I don't end up dead or in jail!

Doc says you are a "tough bugger" Gene that I don't know because I've never met you. However I do know you are one smart bugger so seriously just do your best to look after yourself and those around you.

I have no idea how comparable this will be to the anti-nazi rallies I attended in the 70's but I know how ugly things can get very quickly. So take care my man.

Dr. Medulla wrote:

Rat Patrol wrote:In other words...give Wolt credit for nuance.

I'll do no such thing.

eumaas wrote:if this Klan rally for 12/3 is on, it'll probably pop off in a big way. Everybody's plan is nonviolence of course, but these things often go south pretty quick.

See the Greensboro Massacre of 1979. A newly emboldened group whose core ideology is violence and intimidation all but guarantees blood will flow unless the police act as a deliberate counterweight. Even then, who the fuck knows.

That sure wasn't the case in Greensboro. The police were complicit in that massacre.

eumaas wrote: yep. Well, I'm gonna be there, so let's hope I don't end up dead or in jail!

You're not going in light, are you?

My local church (it's my Christmas and Easter church) was vandalized with a swastika and pro-trump graffiti last night.

Flex wrote:My local church (it's my Christmas and Easter church) was vandalized with a swastika and pro-trump graffiti last night.

Aren't people just using swastika/Trump graffiti to troll to get a rise out of people? Like I don't think the people doing that graffiti actually buy into fascism.

matedog wrote:Aren't people just using swastika/Trump graffiti to troll to get a rise out of people? Like I don't think the people doing that graffiti actually buy into fascism.

Most probably. I don't think there's, like, a neo-nazi group activating here in Summit County. But it says something about where we're at as a country at the moment that we're hopeful that a rash of nazi grafitti in support of our President Elect is "just" folks trying to get a rise out of people.

Dr. Medulla wrote:Curiosity: All these assholes who are painting swastikas, do they watch movies set in Europe in World War II and cheer for the Nazis against the US? How do they rationalize making America great again when that greatness they're talking about is pretty much the immediate aftermath of the war against fascism?

Perhaps they don't realise the Nazis lost?