America, Land of the Contortionist Right
Published in Jornal Economico
(Portugal) on 10 June 2020
by João Barros (link to original)
The “land of the free,” where the president threatens to shut down social media platforms because they are moderating his violent hate speech, is nothing more than an oppressive power.
George Floyd, the U.S. citizen murdered by the Minneapolis police in an incident so barbaric that it sparked protests in that city, in every U.S. state, and, finally, all over the world, is being buried in Houston, Texas, today. This year alone, 88 African American civilians have been killed by police officers.
This is the picture of justice in what is supposedly the most developed country in the world. The country with the most millionaires and billionaires, but where entire communities do not have access to quality education, health care, security or even safe drinking water. Where the first trillionaire in the world does not have to pay taxes, in part because a portion of the population that makes less than $45,000 per year (those who would benefit the most from a free, universal health care system) thinks that would amount to socialism — and socialism is a social cancer, as one can see in Scandinavia.
This is where the main problem in American society lies: its incoherence and hypocrisy. And the American right wing is the clearest example of this.
In America, the white, conservative, middle-class right — most of whom live in nonurban, largely industrial areas, with little racial diversity — speaks of "entitlement" in criticizing the millennial youth, who advocate for free health care, a more integrated and equal education system and a sharp reduction of the higher education tuition fees that strangle the personal finances of graduates for the next 40 years.
Meanwhile, this same right, descendants of downtrodden Europeans from the old continent who arrived with little means, now thinks itself master of the land expropriated from Indigenous groups, "entitled" to block the arrival of people who are, if not for the color of their skin or the language they speak, no different from their great-grandparents.
The Republican Party, in control of the Senate, has as its majority leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, who defends bailouts for Republican states over Democratic ones, ignoring the fact that his state, Kentucky, is a net recipient of federal funds, whereas Democratic bastions like New York and California are net contributors to the federal budget.
The American right is crazy about guns and regularly invokes the Second Amendment’s protection of the right to constitute a “well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State,” but chooses to stay at home when the military is called to the streets to attack the people. It is this American right — retrograde, immoral, ignorant, egotistical and, above all, hypocritical — that reflects the profoundly twisted values of a people who, having fled the institutional oppression of an ancient and rigid Europe, have recreated an equally unjust social system on the other side of the Atlantic, 350 years later.
The “land of the free,” where the president threatens to shut down social media platforms because they are moderating his violent hate speech, is nothing more than an oppressive power with a hero complex that resulted from its defeat of the Nazis (forgetting that America itself set up concentration camps for Japanese Americans, as if having Japanese roots would make them enemies of the state — essentially using the same logic as Hitler did with Jews).
It is, therefore, laughable to hear American diplomats speak about Hong Kong and China’s repression of demonstrations on that island, when Donald Trump wanted to invoke a 19th-century law — never used before, and considered by some experts to be unconstitutional — in order to send troops into the streets. There is a monstrous irony in reading statements from leaders with dubious freedom and civil rights records, such as Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Vladimir Putin, attacking the American government’s actions against protesters, and realizing that, regardless of their glass houses, they are essentially correct.
A National Geographic documentary now available on Netflix, “LA 92,” about the riots in Los Angeles after four police officers were acquitted of charges in the barbaric attack on Rodney King, begins and ends with a comparison to similar riots, in the same city, in the 1960s: once again a story of young, unarmed, Black men beaten up by white police officers, with the latter suffering no professional or legal consequences.
This is the country of Jim Crow, of the Ku Klux Klan, of hate churches such as the Westboro Baptist Church, and where funding for policing in New York City is greater than the combined total for public health care, youth development, efforts to combat homelessness and housing preservation and development. This is the country that wants to police the world and dictate international policy when it is unable to balance its own priorities. It is said that the world has lost its way — and it is clear it will continue to lose its way as long as America does not find itself. At this rate, we might as well start learning Mandarin.
George Floyd, the U.S. citizen murdered by the Minneapolis police in an incident so barbaric that it sparked protests in that city, in every U.S. state, and, finally, all over the world, is being buried in Houston, Texas, today. This year alone, 88 African American civilians have been killed by police officers.
This is the picture of justice in what is supposedly the most developed country in the world. The country with the most millionaires and billionaires, but where entire communities do not have access to quality education, health care, security or even safe drinking water. Where the first trillionaire in the world does not have to pay taxes, in part because a portion of the population that makes less than $45,000 per year (those who would benefit the most from a free, universal health care system) thinks that would amount to socialism — and socialism is a social cancer, as one can see in Scandinavia.
This is where the main problem in American society lies: its incoherence and hypocrisy. And the American right wing is the clearest example of this.
In America, the white, conservative, middle-class right — most of whom live in nonurban, largely industrial areas, with little racial diversity — speaks of "entitlement" in criticizing the millennial youth, who advocate for free health care, a more integrated and equal education system and a sharp reduction of the higher education tuition fees that strangle the personal finances of graduates for the next 40 years.
Meanwhile, this same right, descendants of downtrodden Europeans from the old continent who arrived with little means, now thinks itself master of the land expropriated from Indigenous groups, "entitled" to block the arrival of people who are, if not for the color of their skin or the language they speak, no different from their great-grandparents.
The Republican Party, in control of the Senate, has as its majority leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, who defends bailouts for Republican states over Democratic ones, ignoring the fact that his state, Kentucky, is a net recipient of federal funds, whereas Democratic bastions like New York and California are net contributors to the federal budget.
The American right is crazy about guns and regularly invokes the Second Amendment’s protection of the right to constitute a “well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State,” but chooses to stay at home when the military is called to the streets to attack the people. It is this American right — retrograde, immoral, ignorant, egotistical and, above all, hypocritical — that reflects the profoundly twisted values of a people who, having fled the institutional oppression of an ancient and rigid Europe, have recreated an equally unjust social system on the other side of the Atlantic, 350 years later.
The “land of the free,” where the president threatens to shut down social media platforms because they are moderating his violent hate speech, is nothing more than an oppressive power with a hero complex that resulted from its defeat of the Nazis (forgetting that America itself set up concentration camps for Japanese Americans, as if having Japanese roots would make them enemies of the state — essentially using the same logic as Hitler did with Jews).
It is, therefore, laughable to hear American diplomats speak about Hong Kong and China’s repression of demonstrations on that island, when Donald Trump wanted to invoke a 19th-century law — never used before, and considered by some experts to be unconstitutional — in order to send troops into the streets. There is a monstrous irony in reading statements from leaders with dubious freedom and civil rights records, such as Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Vladimir Putin, attacking the American government’s actions against protesters, and realizing that, regardless of their glass houses, they are essentially correct.
A National Geographic documentary now available on Netflix, “LA 92,” about the riots in Los Angeles after four police officers were acquitted of charges in the barbaric attack on Rodney King, begins and ends with a comparison to similar riots, in the same city, in the 1960s: once again a story of young, unarmed, Black men beaten up by white police officers, with the latter suffering no professional or legal consequences.
This is the country of Jim Crow, of the Ku Klux Klan, of hate churches such as the Westboro Baptist Church, and where funding for policing in New York City is greater than the combined total for public health care, youth development, efforts to combat homelessness and housing preservation and development. This is the country that wants to police the world and dictate international policy when it is unable to balance its own priorities. It is said that the world has lost its way — and it is clear it will continue to lose its way as long as America does not find itself. At this rate, we might as well start learning Mandarin.
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