2024-11-13
"This is not who we are."
Let's get this out of the way right off: what we have right now is exactly who we are and who we've been since the first days of Europeans setting foot on the Americas. From day one we subjugated a population of people that lived here first.
Stop and consider that, don't move past it. Don't pretend that it's ancient history that is not relevant. Don't pretend there is an expiration date for land theft and genocide.
From day one white European settlers subjugated a population of people. From day one white European settlers began a genocide and land theft that they continue to support today.
Don't move past this truth because it is fundamental to what America is. At this moment Liberal America which hides from the truth of America is coping with its loss to the extreme right. But Liberal America, for all of its surface "wokeness", is generally in support of the American project. And that's the problem.
That is the problem. Because the American project is, at its core, an exercise in empire, violence and subjugation. Liberalism in the US as expressed by the modern Democratic Party is a kind of soft fascism for those that live in the US1. For those that live here, especially those of the white middle class, we are supposed to be protected. We are the privileged. The exceptional. And in recent decades the modern Democratic Party has been the party known as the champion of basic human rights for the LGBTQ and immigrant communities as well as access to abortion for women.
But make no mistake, the Democratic Party, especially the more moderate establishment of the party, is still firmly grounded in neoliberalism. Any pretense of social justice, economic justice and fairness is a thin veneer and under that veneer is the violence of genocide, war profiteering and global capitalism. It's all right there in the domestic and foreign policies and conduct of previous decades.
American liberalism is neoliberalism that quietly assumes as a given the violence of the current, modern America is justified and not to be questioned. The current episode of The East is a podcast explores aspects of this just as they have in many previous episodes.
A week after the elections in the US and the election of Donald Trump there is much discussion and debate about why the Democrats lost. Liberals are asking, how could this happen? How could a convicted rapist be reelected? How could a man who is openly using the language of the Nazis be reelected? How could half of the country support a candidate advocating mass deportations and the reduction of personal freedoms? The list goes on.
It happened because this is America. This is who we are. It's all right there to see from the first days Europeans set foot in the Americas in search of resources and wealth. Look with open eyes: from day one it was profit seeking and theft.
It's all right there in the foundational documents when women were denied the vote and slavery was protected. It's all there in our conduct in the 248 years since the Declaration of Independence as men fought against women's rights and whites fought to preserve their privilege.
This is who we are.
1. Those outside of the US are subjected to the hard knife's edge of who we are. Currently that's most visible in Israel and Palestine but any honest look at US foreign policy and activity will make clear the violence that is perpetrated by US as an empire in the name of "democracy".
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Elizabeth at The Valley Below responds, On Introspection and Ideology // One Year on “Micro.blog”:
As prologue. I’ve been thinking about what Denny wrote here the last few days, and I wanted to thank him for putting it in such stark terms. I think this is an important conversation to have, but not an easy one, especially to address in a public way. This is not intended as an argument against Denny’s initial post. This is my perspective, which I believe overlaps with his in a significant way, but from some different angles. I share here for the sake of supporting, by responding to, his statement, while reflecting our plurality of voices.
“This is who we are.”
Given that I agree with Denny’s assessment of the country’s genocidal history, as a supplement to its present and future likelihood of violence and (self- and other-) harm, that this is its basic definition or essence. On what grounds is there any “we”? If the “we” is defined, tied together and made one, only by those lies and that violence, then how can it be owed any allegiance?
So quickly, for me, the statement, “this is who we are”, becomes the question, “Is this who I am?”
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