#neoliberalism

People are starting to care about the environment, and that’s wonderful… but there’s a catch. Always is, isn’t there? It’s a mix of aestheticism, marketing, and research suppression. More often than not, most entrepreneurs and companies are out to make a quick buck off of people who think that reducing waste or using renewable materials is active environmentalism. It’s not their fault for having the wool pulled over their eyes, that’s how so called “green capitalism” is designed, blaming others for being fooled is just victim blaming. Another tool of separation by the ruling class is greenwashing.

An example of greenwashing is this: 

You do see the problem here, right? I mean you’d have to be metaphorically blind to miss it. What good is reducing carbon emissions when you’re using a plastic bottle? Creating plastic causes hella emissions, From an article by NPR (I know, they sold out, but hear them out) “By one estimate, emissions from producing and incinerating plastics could amount to 56 gigatons of carbon — almost 50 times the annual emissions of all of the coal power plants in the U.S. — between now and 2050. … And that’s what makes replacing plastic a problem without a clear solution.” For the whole article, click the quote.

But where’s the point in what I’m saying? It’s not gonna stop anytime soon. The point is to potentially educate those who fall for these these things, as I’ve stated before, they’re victims of marketeering and (probably) propaganda propelled forward by the ruling class. In the end, putting green in front of whatever is being sold doesn’t make it true. Don’t be a victim, be what they fear most, educated.

That’s all for tonight (currently 7:22 American Central time zone as I’m typing)

I’d love for you to share this, with how many (ugh) liberals are on Tumblr, I wouldn’t be surprised if I got backlash for blaming capitalism, but anyway, this has been @punkofsunshine​, have a good one and stay safe.

Now, I may be a peace-loving hippie, but I’m one of those people who is in favour of attacking fascists. To explain my point of view I will quote Lady Death herself “Every [German] who remains alive will kill women, children and old folks. Dead Germans are harmless. Therefore, if I kill a [German], I am saving lives.” -Lyudmila Pavlichenko 

So what does this have to do with the neoliberal thought prison? It perceives all violence as equal, when that couldn’t be further from the truth, Punching a Nazi isn’t the same level as assaulting people because you don’t like the colour of their skin. Yet if you punch a Nazi, you’re somehow “restricting freedom of speech,” in a way they’re right, fascists can’t peddle their hate speech if they’re missing a bunch of teeth, for an example of this hit this link to see how the neoliberal and conservative parties enable fascism. 

You can be intolerant of intolerance, it is necessary to be.

“Though the US and a few other failed states had all the information that led functioning societies to react appropriately, of course not all was entirely clear. That could hardly have been possible in such tumultuous circumstances. Like others, leading US health officials had some uncertainty about what exactly was happening and how best to handle it. Nevertheless, it was possible to take effective action, as shown by the record of governments that have some concern for their citizens. US intelligence and health officials understood more than enough. Through January and February, they were trying to get through to the White House, but Trump was too busy watching his TV ratings. In the style of petty dictators, he […] surrounded himself with sycophants or comical figures. So, nothing from them. Or from the Republican Party, now trembling in fear of the crowds that can be mobilized by Trump and his corporate sponsors.

"When some dare to inject a little rationality into administration discussions, they quickly learn their lessons, like the physician in charge of developing vaccines who was dismissed in April [2020] for warning against one of the quack medicines that Trump was advertising.

”‘Down with intelligence! Long live death!’“

–Noam Chomsky, “COVID-19 Has Exposed the US under Trump as a 'Failed State,'” in The Precipice: Neoliberalism, the Pandemic and the Urgent Need for Social Change (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2021), 263

For the last few years, a lot of people have expressed how much they miss President Obama, and I do miss some aspects of his personality and his presidency: an intelligent, affable, charismatic person who helped make marriage equality an acceptable idea for many, he signed the executive order for DACA. He invested significant political capital to enact the Iran nuclear deal, which staved off the threat of war with Iran. It was historically important to have a black person as president, too. Bin Laden was killed under his watch, so there’s that, and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has some good aspects like providing protections for pre-existing conditions. He repealed Don’t Ask-Don’t Tell, too, and the stock market was far more stable in 2016 than it was in 2009.

However, there were plenty downsides to his presidency that we should consider. While he technically ended torture as an American policy, he increased drone bombing and bombed seven nations at a time in 2016 alone. He regime changed Libya illegally, leading to the country’s collapse, and attempted to regime change Syria in a fairly drawn-out, agonizing process. The Democratic Party lost Congress and countless state legislatures and governorships to Republicans under his watch, and he failed to leverage his movement for change after his election in 2008. I don’t miss his drive to enact the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a gift to corporations and a slap in the face to workers and democratic processes, either.

Moreover, I don’t miss him going easy on the Bush administration for committing war crimes or his expansion of the surveillance state or setting the precedent for killing American citizens without due process. He waited until the very last minute to intervene at Standing Rock, and he was behind almost 2 million deportations. He used the Espionage Act to crack down on journalists and leakers at an unprecedented level. He also failed to demand at the very least a public option in the ACA after endorsing a single payer system during the 2008 election. He made numerous corporatist executive appointments like Arne Duncan and Larry Summers. He let the big banks off the hook after the financial crisis. He proposed cuts to Social Security, and–relatedly–he had the tendency to negotiate from the center with Republicans who had no desire to negotiate in the first place. And while the stock market might have grown during his presidency, so did wealth inequality. Even though corporate profits soared, poverty barely decreased.

Obama began his presidency with the promise of transformational change. Eight years later, though, one could argue that any number of centrist Democrats could have replicated his legacy. Ultimately, I can understand why people miss him; I prefer Obama to Trump. I know people find his presidency inspiring, and I did, too, for a time. However, I also have no desire to romanticize the Obama administration. We need to look at his legacy soberly. If we do not, we will think that what he achieved is as good as we can get and that a return to Obama-era “normalcy” in 2020 and beyond will set the country on an acceptable track. It will not. America deserves better than the results of the Obama presidency.

When will the dropping of bombs on innocent civilians by the United States, and invading and occupying their country, without their country attacking or threatening the US, become completely discredited?

William Blum, Author, journalist, and historian