First, thanks Jay for posting a great article.

by Regular Joseph , Wednesday, October 31, 2018, 16:53 (2709 days ago) @ Jay

I love a good cultural theory and who can connect the dots like Umberto Eco? Nobody!

tl;dr I think Greg’s okay and we’re all okay and it really is capitalism’s fault that middle america is racist.

I like Greg’s point about addressing the alienation of the middle class as the cause of fascism. As for how that turned into him making excuses for racists etc, I think that’s a leap. Like he was saying, I think the solution is trying to understand what’s going on in the heads of these people (I’m a member of the elite after all). I think it’s important to make a distinction between attempting to understand and address the causes structural racism and tolerating individual racism. We can demand an end to discriminatory criminal justice without demonizing the police as a class (though I do find it hard not to). Fortunately, I think you’re allowed to fully embrace righteous indignation toward individual cops for lots of things. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to change anything.

As for domer.hq’s point that questioning the systems we have received involves a rejection of Capitalism, I don’t think that’s a necessary conclusion, but, actually, I agree with him. I think Capitalism is implicated in the degeneration of our society and civic life. CK08 calls these inefficiencies. I would call them fundamental flaws. It’s inhumane and unreasonable to ask people to move from factory to factory around the world whether they are from Honduras or West Virginia. Whether the free flow of capital or “free” fossil fuels are the primary cause of our world of plenty, increasing inequality and anomie are definitely the expected consequence of uncorrected Capitalism.

I’ll agree with the spirit of Savage and CK08 in that political correctness can restrict honest dialogue. I’m suspicious of people who might accurately be called ‘globalists’, even though I’m friends with mostly globalists and almost no one I went to high school with. (Again I think this sucks, I’d rather not be alienated from my home, but then I’ve been somewhat successful in a system of global capitalism) I think it’s important to make a distinction between dog-whistle politics about George Soros and criticisms of systems. In a surprise to no one who has read this far, I feel very clear that the Republican Party is doing the former and that in today’s climate the burden of proof lies on anyone trying to do the latter. Although, I’d hope that burden is light for a poster on this board.

If you guys weren’t so awesome, I wouldn’t have books of things to say. (And if capitalism hadn’t invented the internet I wouldn’t be able to say them. And if the internet didn’t suck as a means for maintaining relationships, people wouldn’t get so frustrated with me…)