I recently attended the 2018 Women’s March in Los Angeles with a crew of awesome journalists, including Derrick Broze & Ford Fischer, both fellow Steemians. This was an interesting and frustrating experience for a group of anarchists. We tried our best to stay calm while navigating hundreds of thousands of people who believe their 'voting is their superpower.'
Regardless of my ‘radical’ philosophy of non-aggression, all morning I listened to the crowd cheer and scream raucously for immigrants’ rights, women’s rights, and the prospect of voting to liberate themselves from the tyrannies of Donald Trump (the attendees were evidently unconscious of the fact that they, too, were seeking to control others).
But when a single speaker made a passing reference to the war economy and how it needed to be stopped, the crowd fell silent. Literally crickets. It almost seemed like they didn’t even understand the term, which was clearly a reference the military-industrial complex.
So when did this:
Become this?
Donald Trump has set a record for the number of bombs he’s dropped in just a year in office. He’s slaughtering civilians left and right and continuing illegal occupations he inherited from past presidents. Surely the left has every right and reason to protest authoritarian Donald Trump’s crimes against humanity and his expansion of the evil empire. They could easily seize this shining opportunity to stew in and express their hatred for him.
Yet as the so-called resistance goes on and on about fighting for entitlement programs, tolerance, and justice, they are completely oblivious to and apathetic toward what’s been the biggest drain on taxpayer dollars and humanity at large for decades: the American military empire they keep funding.
How could this be?
It’s simple. Barack Obama killed the anti-war left.
Despite boastful claims from the former president and the mainstream left that he ended the Iraq war, in reality, he only wound down troop levels — in line with a Bush-era plan — after attempting to leave 10,000 troops in the war-torn country. He imposed a surge in Afghanistan. He exponentially increased drone warfare, imposing policies that could easily amount to war crimes. His administration bombed weddings and funerals and used a “double tap” strategy where a drone wages one onslaught and then circles back to attack first responders tending to victims. This tactic has been deemed terroristic. Under Obama, the definition of “combatants” was expanded to encompass any military-aged male. The hope and change leader presided over the bombing of a hospital in Afghanistan and facilitated arms deals with Saudi Arabia, a misogynistic, authoritarian regime that routinely slaughters women and children in Yemen (Trump followed suit, making yet another weapons deal with them).
Nevertheless, in some of my videos where I point out that America’s problems didn’t start with Trump and are a result of more widespread systemic corruption, I’m often told that it doesn’t matter what Obama did anymore because he’s no longer president. But is that true? What has changed? To me, his actions as president are just relevant as George W. Bush, and Clinton before him, and Bush before him, and so on and so forth — they are hammering home the same agenda.
Regardless, Trump is carrying out the same foreign policy objectives, and the left is silent. Are they concerned that Obama set a precedent for assassinating American citizens without trial, and now Trump wields that same power should he choose to use it? I haven’t heard a peep. They complain about his fascism, his mean remarks, his racism, his sexism — everything but the biggest driving force of oppression the U.S. government commits.
When I asked a marcher holding an impeach Trump sign if she had any thoughts on the current president continuing past policies of Obama’s, in particular arming the extremist Saudis and perpetuating drone warfare and other forms of militarism, her response was simple: “No.” (I wish I had the video of this interview but my camera failed to record – aka, me, it was me, I forgot to hit record. Sad!). She did not care to comment on the glaring similarities between her enemy and the previous president.
And why didn’t she care?
Because Obama made war seem soft and fuzzy and humanitarian and heroic. When he ousted Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, where terrorists now run rampant and rape and slavery are part of everyday life amid the power vacuum Barack, Hillary Clinton, and NATO created, his followers insisted it was for the good of humanity. Gaddafi had to go because he was a dictator… just like… Saddam — the same dictator the left once passionately protested toppling (to some people’s credit, there was a wave of protest against Obama’s push for war in Syria in 2013, but that dissolved a year later when ISIS became a major source of fear for Americans).
Obama made war cool — he removed it further and further from the scope of the national conversation after using it to get himself elected, and his supporters followed suit because the partisan programming in this country is so powerful that people are more capable of rejecting their principles than their propagandized political heroes.
Of course, there are many factors that have converged to make the left amenable and open to war — it’s not just Obama. Hollywood’s constant glorification of military violence (and government in general) percolates into the minds of the masses, and the CIA’s infiltration of and influence on the news media has undoubtedly created narratives that condition the public into tolerance for war.
But during the Bush years, when even liberal-leaning outlets like the Washington Post and the New York Times were gunning for the Iraq invasion, liberals appeared to know better. Unfortunately, the subsequent Obama years showed this was probably only because a Republican was president.
At the women’s march this year, I looked around for anti-war signs, for any recognition that the military empire is unjust and antithetical to the values of peace and tolerance the left still claims to champion. But aside from one banner discouraging nuclear war, I didn’t see a single sign. For a single hopeful moment I thought I saw a sign that said “No War on Yemen,” but upon getting a better view, it simply said “No War on Women” (incidentally, imperial wars also amount to wars on women, who also die among men and children).
Those who believe they’re part of the resistance against Donald Trump and don’t know or care what countries he’s bombing, what terrorist factions the U.S. military is assisting, and how much of their tax dollars are going to fund this violence, are, to put it plainly, not part of any resistance at all.
They’re simply bickering over crumbs while the government they’re claiming to dissent against goes on with business as usual, using their money to inflict violence (its only enforcement tool) just like Obama did while they sat silently and starry-eyed, bowing to their false idol.
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All of the furore over the budget - the shutdowns, the partisan grandstanding - and nobody really highlighted or gave a fuck about another huge defence budget increase to $716bn in 2019.
This is for a country that can't provide universal healthcare or repair the electricity grid in Puerto Rico.
That's the most tragic part of our two-party politics. The neoliberal democrats hesitate on funding universal healthcare/etc, but they're also perfectly fine with funding and justifying war. The Republicans talk good about government expenditures, then mums when you start talking about war spending. Infinite war spending is perfectly fine for them, and they even think we're not spending enough!
The funny thing is that many of the things like have universal health care (cost one third per person than what we have now, based on examples from UK and Canada), basic income with supported housing (which would be much cheaper than leaving the homeless out there, and invigorate the economy), etc would actually save the country money.
How come there’s no news of women (of the West) supporting other women fighting for their rights and freedom in Iran when 3 women threw away their hijab in anti-government protests in Iran.
What happened to feminism? What a laugh? Fake feminism has been used to spread propaganda for selfish reasons. Right, tell the women’s march to continue to wear their pussy on their head. Think about the (stupidity) in the big scheme of things and the picture it’s presenting.
Since Obama is done and gone, though he refuses to ride away into the sunset but continues his charade as a shadow government, using Obama as a smokescreen to actually protest and put forth anti-trump antics is such an obvious tactics of the left, since Obama holds no sway anymore or at all, especially the moment his devious and traitorous acts and behavior came to light.
So true, everyone is busy arguing with their own friends and family about everything. I'm convinced Facebook's newest algorithm is purposely showing people posts they will argue passionately over because that way Facebook can say "more people are engaging". I see tons of arguments in my newsfeed and when I scroll, the one comment that shows is almost always negative. I wish more of the people who follow my art would give Steemit a try lol
Today was the first time I didn't check my Facebook feed first. The reason being, I'm sick of it. The algorithm has clearly changed in a significant way, just as you noted. I became dependent upon Facebook for my morning news feed because of the people and news sources I follow. Now, it clearly doesn't show the content I want to see. Thank you Steemit!
The thing that bother me the most is people going off about them censoring right or left wing whatever. It censors EVERYTHING - art, music,left, right, pages that just post beautiful sunset photos, my own friends and family.I see almost NOTHING I want to anymore - I only see posts that paid. I hardly see any of my friends ACTUAL posts, only posts they shared from pages that paid...
Lots of discussion these days about Al Gore's rhythm. Myself, I've never heard him play...
From barry to chump, most Americans just don't grasp that they don't get to choose which puppet they worship as "president" do they?
The hyper-militarism isn't just antithetical to liberalism, it goes against traditional conservative values of small government and "minding your own business." What ever happened to "don't tread on me" and "walk softly but carry a big stick?" Neither side of the duopoly seems to have any grasp of political philosophy any more. It's all been completely diluted by a corporate media that is systematically removing meaning, context, and content from civic dialogue. That's why what you're doing is so important, Carey. Never stop.
Wow. A great article that makes great points. I completely agree that by NOT criticizing Obama about drone strikes etc they have lost the ability and even the will to criticize Trump now. This phenomenon can be seen in others areas as well. For example, the press was silent when it came to Obama's executive overreach. As a result they have now lost the credibility to criticize Trump in any kind of effective manner on this score. At any rate thank-you for the thought provoking article!
Excellent piece @carywelder.
Great piece @careywedler "(incidentally, imperial wars also amount to wars on women, who also die among men and children)."
“The most radical experiment in women’s rights is now underway in what may be the world’s least likely place: northern Syria.” http://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2018/02/inside-worlds-most-radical-experiment-womens-rights/145760/
Yet, Turkey has recruited ISIS and other Islamist terrorists to slaughter the Kurds of Rojava using weaponry supplied by the US and EU. I haven’t heard a whisper about this from the pussyhat crowd. Could it be they only have solidarity with mainly white, well-to-do women?
That's really cool information for all steemit parks @careywedler
Statists make me sad. People honestly think that they can enact changes by begging tptb to come to senses, how pathetic is that?
great pictures. Upvote.
Nice.
I would like to ask for suggestions and suggestions how to keep my steemit account as advanced as you.
Keep fighting Carey.
Politically, we do live in weird times. I've kept a close eye on the so-called Republican civil war, but not a close eye on the Dems. Thanks for your ground-level report.
Recently, Michael Barone wrote a piece that said, "Gentry liberals own the Democratic Party. He identified identity politics as a pet cause of gentry liberals. Based on what you saw, anti-war is not one of their pet causes.
Insightful post @careywedler. I'm interested to see how much Obama influenced the view of the people on war. Or are people behaving like storks; sticking their head in the ground when the topic is war because other stuff is much more important to them, stuff such as women rights.
A +
I consider myself a tough individual, but after seeing four picture in that post I'm feeling a bit strange... you should have thinked about adding nsfw tag.
Dear Carey,
thank you very much for your article.
The same thing that you observe in the US is also true for Europe I guess. At least for Germany (this is where I live). Obama still has a very high reputation over here and people do not at all associate him with violence, assassinations and war .
He managed to stage one of the biggest media stunts of all times: coming across as the peaceful messiah and at the same time terrorizing countries with an illegal drone warfare program.
As a German resident, my country is part of this monstrous MIC war game too, since the military base Ramstein is located in Germany. As whistleblower Brandon Bryant explained, most signals to control drones in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria etc. run through Ramstein Air Base.
German peace activists have been actively campaigning against the air base for years, but our government has long denied any knowledge about the drone program, which of course was a lie.
Peace movements in Germany have been suffering badly in the last years, they are being relived again, but they are far from being as widespread as they used to be e.g. in the 80s. What peace movements need is probably an international approach. Since warfare has become such a global plague, it needs a global answer.
In case you are interested in the German peace movement's campaign against the US Air Base in Ramstein, please check out: https://www.ramstein-kampagne.eu
I'd be happy to get into further contact with you, maybe we could set up some form of transatlantic peace alliance <3