What I think is that society has been changing. The focus is now on using
technology to manipulate masses of people. One could see the changes as
television took over our country so that values, ideas, and products could be
marketed to large masses of people, and as American societal culture began to
infect the world. Our food production and distribution changed so that our food
became less nutritious and laden with chemicals and additives to make food
attractive and allow it to last longer so it could be shipped farther. That
meant factory farming. People began watching TV more and having fewer face to
face gatherings. Computer technology, made popular and then sold to the public,
eventually as smart phones, completed the increase in impersonalization.
Everything meaningful is done on line. Add to that, the financialization of
business, the outsourcing of work to the most impoverished, least educated,
least powerful workforces, and the basis of healthy societies: personal bonds,
meaningful work, relationships with animals and plants, has been destroyed. So
yes, then social sicknesses increase: racism, malignant nationalism, exploitive
sexuality, increase of violent outbursts. What we're seeing, is the death of
humanity.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Monday, August 12, 2019 3:46 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Do El Paso killings show a rise of white
supremacists?
My opinion, based on absolutely nothing, no survey, scientific study or even
serious empirical observations, is that there are more people with fewer
prejudices, and fewer people with outspoken prejudices.
But since we have "leaders" who are White Supremacists and exhibit strong anti
social opinions and behavior, those fewer kindred spirits are also emboldened
thus giving the appearance of large numbers.
Until we move from placing high value on material possessions, and place them
on the People, we will continue to see prejudice fester.
Carl Jarvis
On 8/12/19, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
https://themilitant.com/2019/08/10/do-el-paso-killings-show-a-rise-of-
white-supremacists/
Do El Paso killings show a rise of white supremacists?
??By Seth Galinsky
Vol. 83/No. 30
August 19, 2019
Is the massacre of Latinos at a Walmart in El Paso by a rightist
killer a sign that ???there are more and more angry white people out
there willing to commit mayhem???? as columnist Paul Krugman asserted in an
Aug.
5 New York Times article. Are ???white supremacists,??? racism and
anti-immigrant hatred rising as many liberal commentators allege?
Patrick Crusius, 21, murdered at least 22 people and injured another
24 when he opened fire at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, Aug. 3.
There were as many as 3,000 people shopping and 100 employees inside
the store at the time. According to one witness he shot people
???aisle by aisle, with rage.???
Kianna Long, who survived the massacre, told CBS that workers at the
store stopped to hold doors open, helping people inside get out and
escape the slaying.
The store is close to the international bridge that crosses the
border, and is popular with large numbers of Mexican-American families
as well as families coming from Mexico. Working people in El Paso
frequently cross over to Ciudad Juarez for cheaper medical care. And
many residents of Ciudad Juarez go to school or work in El Paso.
At least seven of those killed or injured were Mexican nationals. Many
of the rest are from families that have lived in Texas for generations.
Some, like Arturo Benavides, 67, a bus driver, were U.S. army veterans.
Anti-immigrant manifesto
Police say that just minutes before he started shooting, Crusius
posted an anti-immigrant statement online saying, ???I support the
Christchurch shooter and his manifesto. This attack is a response to
the Hispanic invasion of Texas.??? He claimed to be ???defending my
country from cultural
and ethnic replacement.???
The ???Christchurch shooter??? murdered 50 people at two mosques in
New Zealand March 15. He was a rightist terrorist and self-proclaimed
???eco-fascist,??? who called Muslim immigrants an ???assault on our
civilization.???
The liberal media made a big point of saying Crusius??? statement
echoed anti-immigrant comments by President Trump.
Beto O???Rourke, trying to salvage his presidential campaign, blamed
Trump for the attack, saying the president ???is a racist and he
stokes racism in this country.??? Candidate Elizabeth Warren said,
???We need to call out
the president himself for advancing racism and white supremacy.???
Trump tried to present himself as taking the moral high ground. ???In
one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry, and white
supremacy,??? he said two days after the Walmart shooting and another
in Dayton, Ohio, where nine people were shot dead and 27 wounded Aug. 4.
The president seized on the mass killings to call for bipartisan
support for giving the cops and FBI ???whatever they need??? to combat
???hate crimes and domestic terrorism.??? He also proposed expanding
use of the death penalty. But Crusius, charged with murder, already
faces the death penalty under existing laws.
As struggles by working people pick up in the future as the bosses
intensify their assaults, more working people will come to see that
the real target of stepped-up police spying and executions by the
state is not terrorists, but the working class.
Trump also called for extending ???red flag??? laws that exist in some
states. These vary, but can allow people to request a court order to
prevent someone they know and consider a threat from accessing firearms.
Many liberals called for further ???gun control.??? But undermining
the Bill
of Rights, including the right to bear arms, to free speech and
assembly, to a speedy trial, undercuts protections that are needed for
defending the interests of the working class.
Less racism today
Anti-immigrant prejudices are continually fostered by the capitalist
rulers as they attempt to divide working people, hoping to sap our
capacity to struggle against their attacks on living standards and job
conditions. But it???s not true that there is growing racism and
prejudice against immigrants. In fact, there is less racism and
anti-immigrant sentiment among working people, the consequence of the
defeat of Jim Crow segregation by the mass Black rights movement in
the 1950s and ???60s, which continues to be felt today. As native- and
foreign-born workers live and work alongside each other,
anti-immigrant prejudices begin to break down.
Liberal Democrats have pointed to President Trump???s anti-immigrant
rhetoric, which is aimed at bolstering the bosses??? attempts to
divide working people.
While the Democrats??? rhetoric may be different, their actions are not.
Both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama deported more immigrants than Trump.
And Joe Biden, the leading Democratic Party candidate for president,
has said that immigrants without papers in the U.S. ???should have to
get in line [to apply to stay]. That???s the problem.??? All of this
encourages scapegoating immigrants for the social and economic crisis of
capitalism.
Despite the bipartisan anti-immigrant policies of the Democrats and
Republicans, deportations are not popular among many workers.
???Working people need to denounce every attack on immigrants who are
fellow workers,??? said Lea Sherman, Socialist Workers Party candidate
for New Jersey General Assembly. ???The answer to the bosses???
attempts to divide U.S.- and foreign-born workers is to demand amnesty
for all 11 million immigrants in the U.S. without ???official???
papers. This is not an
???immigrant??? question. It???s needed to unite the working class and
put us in a better position to organize the unorganized and rebuild a
fighting union movement.???
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York, NY 10018?? -?? themilitant@xxxxxxx
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Okay, thank
--
---
George Carlin
??? Tell people there's an invisible man in the sky who created the
universe, and the vast majority will believe you. Tell them the paint
is wet, and they have to touch it to be sure. ???
??? George Carlin