"I think to effectively combat the radical right we have to renounce our heroism and embrace the democratic strategy where we link arms. Our strength comes from our numbers, not when we suddenly become heroes."
Not too much renouncing though:
"Conspiracism encourages a mindset when facts don't matter, and unfortunately that seeps into folks on the left as well. It just happens to be that the right has turned into a gigantic font of bullshit, which has to do with why I'm on the left."
"Confront them head-on" is a very seductive phrase. With pluck and luck, we can defeat the opposition and win! But this is not amenable to rational analysis and cogent argument, it needs serious therapy. Writing about "the right" and "the left" and what's wrong with "them" seems to sell books. But it's bankrupt if we're after sanity. The language of warfare and heroism cited in the interview is nevertheless the same language being used in putting forth the idea of confrontation, whether through "democratic strategy" or brute force. This can only lead to more of the same.
"I believe that we will have a healthier media environment if we return to the era when corporate ownership was not allowed. Back when newspapers and TV stations were owned by private companies."
I can't remember those halcyon days, and I'm over seventy now, and they still let me run around loose. But the problem isn't the Neiwerts, or the Burleys. And it's not even the rank sewage churning out of our screens. The problem is the paradigm we're stuck in. We can't punch our way out of this paper bag. We lack even the vocabulary to think effectively about this barking insanity. And that shouldn't be surprising, given that wars don't end anymore, and aren't even about any definable objectives, other than obscene profits -- no, costs -- of hastening our own extinction.
The kids now entering college have never experienced "peace time." Not even the strange version that held for about five days after the Soviet Union bottomed out.
"Love your enemy" is not some mystical Zen riddle, it's radical revolutionary principle. Because whatever enemy you see is more than likely one that was painted on the inside of your skull by the real conspirators. The con artists who survive by getting you to fight yourselves, while they take all your stuff. The joke is that they really think their end of the lifeboat will stay dry.
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