But the actual grassroots left is based on building widely diverse coalitions because we know that’s the best or maybe the only way to effectively pursue freedom and justice, and eco-sanity.
It’s the big money conservative/Republican and big money liberal/Democratic establishments that sow division.
That keeps people fighting one another instead of working in coalition, whereby rank-and-file liberals and conservatives build common ground against the corporatist establishments of both parties.
(7) I don’t speak for Tim Lemon or Verbs and maybe I’m misunderstanding them, but my talks with them call to mind how there is a line of thinking among some on the left whereby someone sees the racist, genocidal actions of the US empire and thereby concludes that we should allow or encourage the country to be torn apart or that no form of political organizing within this system of governance is worthwhile. [EDIT : Looking back, my guess is that I alienated both Tim and Verbs by more or less putting words in their mouths.]
I don’t share in that mentality because chaotic civil unrest is likely to bolster police militarization and decrease public support for the progressive grassroots.
Plus the civilians with by far the most guns are not liberals or progressives or leftists.
If forced to choose, heavily armed conservative civilians would ally with the military and the police. For many years, right wing propagandists have been repeatedly telling them that “radical leftists” and liberals “hate America” and are “trying to destroy America.” Propagandists on the political right are saying the same thing about Black Lives Matter, mongering fear by saying radical Marxists with the organization are trying to destroy society as we know it.
[So to me allowing or supporting the destruction of my home country makes no sense. EDIT: How does this point fit into the larger narrative? Who is supporting such destruction? Or is my point to illustrate the absurdity of right wing propaganda and fear-mongering ? ]
A country such as the US that would be undergoing domestic strife and government instability yet still have the massive war machine including nuclear weapons would pose an even greater threat to humankind.
That scenario would certainly not help with anti-racism, anti-colonialism or any other cause for freedom or justice. It wouldn’t help with promoting the habitability of the planet either if we allow fascistic governance take over the US and drag us into a nuclear war.
Another reason I don’t hate my home country is that it’s foolish to think that some other empire that conquers or otherwise replaces the US will somehow be exempt from the features of human nature that have caused our civilization to cause so much harm.
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