Greetings comrades!
I must apologize again for the lack of podcast episode last week. I’ve not been feeling well, and as it turns out, as I discovered at urgent care yesterday, I have shingles. So I’m now on a course of medications for those, and trying to keep on top of the pain levels as much as possible. The prednisone is helping today, so I’ve been working on some new memes using art from the very talented artist, Alifstyle on Fiverr, as well working on the script for this week’s podcast.
One of the key takeaways from everything I do that I want listeners and readers to ruminate on is the fact that Capitalism is a pyramid scheme, just like Multi-Level Marketing schemes. And just like MLM’s, Capitalists have used propaganda and cult tactics to indoctrinate the American public in order to keep us compliant with their demands, even if we don’t recognize those as such. I’m not the only one who says this, and there are many who’ve said it longer than I have. If you don’t understand this, I have spent a couple hundred hours of my time GRATIS, so far, writing and producing my podcast, this site, and its associated social media accounts in an effort to offer education, so please utilize it.
Capitalism has no solutions to the climate emergency, either – because it creates the conditions that caused the crisis in the first place, and stopping those practices would be too unprofitable for Capitalists. This intersects with the income inequality that is causing an even greater divide between the wealthy in power, and the rest of us. It’s all connected, and the Capitalists are desperate to sell you on their intentions to reform themselves. But how do you reform a system that relies upon the exploitation and extraction of people and planet in order to enrich a minority of humans? The practices of this system are making our planet increasingly inhabitable with each passing day, all so a few rich people can win the “high score” of Capitalism before they scurry off to their survival bunkers.
If you think Capitalism can continue alongside a survivable planet – you are woefully misinformed by those who profit from your ignorance, whether it is genuine, or if you have applied cognitive dissonance, and frankly, there is a moral divide between you and I, because your continued ignorance is a holdup to our ability to address these problems in a way that (1) minimizes deaths of the oppressed, particularly marginalized groups in the short-term (2) maximizes humanity’s chance of a livable future via immediate implementation of radical anti-capitalist, pro-social (get it? SOCIAL-ism, centering politics on ALL people and our ecosystem rather than on capital and a minority of humans who are actually capitalists) policies and practices. Your fear or arrogance is problematic. But I’m here trying to help y’all with that.
I understand that having our entire way of life challenged and uprooted is overwhelming. That is why I have made myself available as an educator – to share what I have learned. I am disabled by chronic illness and pain. It -costs- me something personally to invest myself into this work, and I have chosen it because of my love of humanity and our planet. I feel morally obligated to try and help us save ourselves.
If you are fearful or biased against reading socialist/Leftist books or other media – ask yourself why, particularly if you are a person interested in social and economic justice. Are your feelings yours, or feelings your family, friends, school, or job inculcated in you without any conscious debate or deductive reasoning on your part? Are you fearful of being mocked or questioned by family or friends? What is your refusal to learn more about socialist policy and practice based on?
I grew up in the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and they told us not to read publications other than theirs, but PARTICULARLY, publications that were critical of their beliefs. It is a common cult tactic. And guess what? Capitalists have managed to use it in order to shape our society. I’m sure that sounds crazy if you aren’t already versed in Zinn, Loewen, and other historians who have brought us a people’s history – the real stories instead of the propaganda. This includes the fact that our nation was founded by racist white supremacists who enslaved Black people, as well as some Indigenous Americans (many others were victims of genocide at white settler hands), whose policies and philosophies on Black and Indigenous people continue to impact those marginalized people, as well as the rest of us, down to this day. This goes beyond the fact that the Founding Fathers owned slaves and enacted racist policies. That’s the proverbial tip of the iceberg. Just wait till you find out what’s underneath. It is vital that you are aware of those matters, especially if you are a white person, so that you can confront the indoctrination we all underwent and determine which of your thoughts are actually YOUR thoughts regarding politics, policy, race relations, the duty of leaders, and so on. It is also imperative if we are to unite, organize, and overthrow this corrupt system.
I will ask the same question I asked about the books the JW’s banned – if that information is so dangerous to my faith in these beliefs, if you are telling me that I “already” have the truth about reality (really, meaning sharing your personal view), how can these “ironclad” ideas be so easily disproven by exploring a book? Why would you assume that one book is all it would take to abandon those beliefs? If they are as truth-based and undeniable as you claim, shouldn’t reading anything critical of those beliefs be harmless and only reinforce the fact that those beliefs agree with objective reality? And if your argument is that I, personally, am incapable of discerning “truth,” then that’s not a very good argument about why you would want me to stay on “your side” of a matter, because then wouldn’t I simply be offering evidence of my ineptitude by choosing your beliefs, too? If you only think I’m right when I agree with you, that’s just ego talking, and it’s the 21st century, so, time to send that packing if you want to be a modern human.
Anyway, my meds are wearing off. Shingles are no joke. I’m going to leave you today with this article about what Karl Marx has to say about our environmental problems today. I hope you will think about the fact that we were not taught Marxist or class theory in school as a matter of course here in the US, and why, given his importance to the rest of the world, they would want to keep us from learning about it. If his ideas are such shite compared to Capitalism, wouldn’t they want to at least show how, in more detail than the propaganda we were given? Food for thought.
In Solidarity,
The Birb
