Chris
11-10-2016, 01:27 PM
Keith Preston at Attack the System offers a radical view of the election.
One can hope for civil responses. One can't force it.
Yesterday’s Real Loser: Totalitarian Humanism (https://attackthesystem.com/2016/11/09/yesterdays-real-loser-totalitarian-humanism/)
He begins with
Contrary to what many people are no doubt thinking, Trump’s victory does not appear to be a victory of the Right over the Left, racism over anti-racism, or social conservatism over social liberalism (or libertarianism).
He considers the following:
Trump ran left of Clinton
Trump did fairly well with minorities
A majority disagree with his rightwing positions (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-news-exit-polls-how-donald-trump-won-the-us-presidency/)
...
Sanders might well have beat Trump (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/presidential-election-donald-trump-would-have-lost-if-bernie-sanders-had-been-the-candidate-a7406346.html)
All of this data combined, including victories for weed, porn, the working class, improved performances for liberal and left minor parties, and the first black Senator in 150 years, with actual right-wing authoritarian Joe Arpaio being voted out after 23 years in office, hardly indicates a shift of the United States towards “fascism.” Instead, it can be reasonably argued that Trump won because he was actually the most left-wing of the two major party candidates, i.e. the most dovish on foreign policy, the most pro-working class, and, by a wide margin, the most anti-establishment.
He looks then at what the vote was against:
The emerging ideology of the Western, particularly American, ruling classes can, I believe, be described as follows:
Militarism, Imperialism and Empire in the guise of ‘human rights’, ‘democracy’, modernity, universalism, feminism and other leftist shibboleths.
Corporate Mercantilism (or ‘state-capitalism’) under the guise of ‘free trade’.
In domestic policy, what I call ‘totalitarian humanism’ whereby an all-encompassing and unaccountable bureaucracy peers into every corner of society to make sure no one anywhere, anyplace, anytime ever practices ‘racism, sexism, homophobia’, smoking, ‘sex abuse’ or other such leftist sins.
In the realm of law, a police state ostensibly designed to protect everyone from terrorism, crime, drugs, guns, gangs or some other bogeyman of the month.
The kind of state that proponents of this new ideology envision is one where the purpose of local government is to enforce leftist orthodoxy against competing institutions (like families, religions, businesses, unions, clubs, other associations), the purpose of national government is to enforce leftism against local communities, and the purpose of foreign policy is to enforce leftism against “backward” or “reactionary” traditional societies.
He concludes with "Yesterday’s vote was, in fact, a big middle finger to the ruling class and its ideology of totalitarian humanism."
One can hope for civil responses. One can't force it.
Yesterday’s Real Loser: Totalitarian Humanism (https://attackthesystem.com/2016/11/09/yesterdays-real-loser-totalitarian-humanism/)
He begins with
Contrary to what many people are no doubt thinking, Trump’s victory does not appear to be a victory of the Right over the Left, racism over anti-racism, or social conservatism over social liberalism (or libertarianism).
He considers the following:
Trump ran left of Clinton
Trump did fairly well with minorities
A majority disagree with his rightwing positions (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-news-exit-polls-how-donald-trump-won-the-us-presidency/)
...
Sanders might well have beat Trump (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/presidential-election-donald-trump-would-have-lost-if-bernie-sanders-had-been-the-candidate-a7406346.html)
All of this data combined, including victories for weed, porn, the working class, improved performances for liberal and left minor parties, and the first black Senator in 150 years, with actual right-wing authoritarian Joe Arpaio being voted out after 23 years in office, hardly indicates a shift of the United States towards “fascism.” Instead, it can be reasonably argued that Trump won because he was actually the most left-wing of the two major party candidates, i.e. the most dovish on foreign policy, the most pro-working class, and, by a wide margin, the most anti-establishment.
He looks then at what the vote was against:
The emerging ideology of the Western, particularly American, ruling classes can, I believe, be described as follows:
Militarism, Imperialism and Empire in the guise of ‘human rights’, ‘democracy’, modernity, universalism, feminism and other leftist shibboleths.
Corporate Mercantilism (or ‘state-capitalism’) under the guise of ‘free trade’.
In domestic policy, what I call ‘totalitarian humanism’ whereby an all-encompassing and unaccountable bureaucracy peers into every corner of society to make sure no one anywhere, anyplace, anytime ever practices ‘racism, sexism, homophobia’, smoking, ‘sex abuse’ or other such leftist sins.
In the realm of law, a police state ostensibly designed to protect everyone from terrorism, crime, drugs, guns, gangs or some other bogeyman of the month.
The kind of state that proponents of this new ideology envision is one where the purpose of local government is to enforce leftist orthodoxy against competing institutions (like families, religions, businesses, unions, clubs, other associations), the purpose of national government is to enforce leftism against local communities, and the purpose of foreign policy is to enforce leftism against “backward” or “reactionary” traditional societies.
He concludes with "Yesterday’s vote was, in fact, a big middle finger to the ruling class and its ideology of totalitarian humanism."