If we take the line of questioning further, where did this division come from? What is the cause of such fear and hate?
The answer is 10 years of post-truth propaganda. The american people have been divided purposefully. Fascist politics includes rhetoric that encourages fear and anger as a means to foment ethnic and religious division. Hate and division is purposefully generated to serve the ultra rich. As long as MAGA is fighting WOKE, people are fighting a false war. The real enemy is the ultra rich, and they benefit from us fighting each other.
Unfortunately it's been so much longer than just 10yrs. I was raised in an evangelical household to a cop/deacon in the church. Rush Limbaugh started feeding my dad a steady diet of fear and rage since I was in high school 25yrs ago. When maga happened I lost him entirely. Americans who weren't raised in the oppression that is the evangelical church may never understand the type of wiring evangelicals are working with. To be Christian is to be the victim. always. Good Christians don't question authority. Questions could get you and your entire family sent to hell to burn for eternity. Honestly, they've been dreaming of P2025 for my entire life and are so delighted that it's finally here.
Not quite. What I’m arguing is that the appearance of two competing worldviews—economic class conflict vs. identity-based oppression—is largely a false binary. The truth is, both dynamics are real and deeply intertwined.
The ultra-wealthy exploit every tool at their disposal to preserve their power: economic control, racial division, gender inequality, religious manipulation, and more. The culture war isn’t about liberation—it’s a distraction. When the working class is divided by race, gender, or ideology, we’re too fractured to organize around the root problem: a system rigged in favor of billionaires and corporations.
So yes, class war is real. But ignoring the oppression baked into our institutions by race, gender, or other identities only weakens our solidarity. The goal isn’t to pick one lens—it’s to see how they work together to keep us fighting the wrong battles.
I believe in democracy, but have very recently realized that there are many on the R side who no longer believe in democracy. I recommend the Washington Post article today on Curtis Yarvin the ideological mentor of project 2025 who openly states that he believes not in democracy, but in dictatorship by one person and run by billionaire tech Bros (naturally. )Do you remember a few short years ago when was such a controversy over whether the Washington Post or other media main streamers could refer to Trump's lies as such, as LIES ,whether we could several years later, refer to him as a wannabe dictator or Autocrat . How tragically naïve we were. As a child of Holocaust survivors I spent much of my academic younger years, trying to answer the question for myself why did the Democratic German people support the genocide by the dictator, why did so many jews not believe it was going to happen? He was actually going to murder all the Jews that he could get his murderous hands on. The answer I came up with was that such cruelty such unspeakable sadism was unprecedented in their lives, they had a failure of imagination and isn't it obvious that that is what has happened to us . The msm has been so slow to catch on, but they still are in denial about the fact that the WH and their whole administration and congressional sycophant no longer want democracy they don't want any future elections ever ,so let us learn from our mistakes and take this american fuhrer literally and seriously, and never for a second make a mistake again .
as for what we do about it. the starting point must be no more denial, facing the unthinkable reality that we do not have two parties anymore. We have a Democratic party we have a party that largely does not believe in democracy any longer that openly openly expresses their preference for dictatorship. I think the answer is that every day we do what we can, and what we must in every way, we fight with full engagement of our intelligence and resources and energy on every level possible in every small way, speaking up in our small towns, writing letters, calling our representatives local state federal, getting out on the street with neighbors,with signs. This is working of course -the courts so far are holding up, more solidarity like Harvard set the example for ,by organizing other universities to stand firm ,like those quisling law firms did not do initially but many others in their wake,did ,and it's still not too late for those law firms to stand together. Yes, this means sacrifice ,look what we are in for though! Theft of our freedom, our democracy, our services , and our bank accounts ! people -it's coming -don't fail to imagine the empty shelves and the empty floor under the Christmas tree or around the menorah. This is coming unless of course, a miracle happens, and Donnie, two -dolls reverses his delusional, completely unhinged and universally debunked tariff catastrophe. I wrote Amazon ( he wont read it but thousands writing might get read!)that I'm not buying another thing unless they stand up to Trump and do what is right for their customers which is to print ,to publicize the tariff surcharges as they were going to do before Trump loudly threatened them not to dare. I have already seen the items I buy from Whole Foods -selected items that they know wealthier people can pay for like organic items - not imported, like Milk, skyrocket in price. I'm talking 10% which at this early stage of the economic nightmare we're in for, is a lot so speak up folks, protest /complain boycott get out on the streets. We can do this people. This is an extinction moment for all our small businesses who cant wait much longer, and eventually for ALL we hold dear, think on it, on all the sadistic destruction so far!!We MUST do this , every day in any and every way we can!we have no choice do we??
Well, when I listen to the news, I certainly agree with you. But I live in rural Vermont. Although we are impacted by the cuts to federal programs, Vermont remains a peaceful, progressive state with strong local communities and an ethic of caring. We are a bubble for sure. But the fact of Vermont, small but mighty, gives me hope.
Two decades ago most Americans had faith in our educational system all the way up to some of the top universities in the world.
Two decades ago I never heard people attach the word illegal to immigrants and I lived in a border state. People came and went. After 9/11 George W Bush needed to distract Americans about his lies of getting us into a forever war in the Middle East for the geo-political purpose of getting US hands on their oil and gas so illegal immigrants became a daily talking point on the news.
Two decades ago something changed in my family when my father began spouting fear-driven statements about how our country was under attack at every border.
Two decades ago FOX News, Rush Limbaugh, and other brainwashers began making people afraid and telling them who the enemy was. They blamed the schools and the immigrants. The cult was formed by freedom of speech being protected so that lies could be used to harm people. No one dared venture out to question this. Yelling fire in a crowded theater made sense to stop as people could get hurt or killed. Why did we never say that lies presented to the public were doing the same thing? We allowed this MAGA cult to develop based on fears and lies. We shot ourselves in the head.
There was a time when the Webster's Dictionary was the place to find definitions in the USA and I do have a 1947 edition here in the UK. Ever since the hi tech media has taken over from printed journalism, I find your language has changed so much that I struggle to fully understand what I read. Twitter X is particularly bad and often unintelligible. Words like political left, right and centre have degenerated into communist, Marxist, extreme left, centre now is woke lefty liberal or worse, right is fascist, nazi, extreme right or olygarchs, dictator and so on. The F word is freely combined with all of them in novel ways never envisaged by my ancestors and it is used by almost everybody in ways that my children would have got themselves into trouble.
My problem with all these labels is that they completely kill rational discussion and any attempts at consensus. Treaties, trade deals, international agreement becomes almost impossible or a lot more difficult. It seems to me that the linguistics create confusion and make it easier to control a population.
The answer probably lies in our education system but I do find myself getting distressed trying to understand some arguments that should be rational. The current attacks on education establishments are a worrying trend that needs to be stopped in it's tracks.
I used to feel this way. But then I realized that means I would have to leave others behind, including people I don’t know who don’t deserve to be subjected to oppression.
So we fight, every day, with our voices because the many outnumber the few.
If we take the line of questioning further, where did this division come from? What is the cause of such fear and hate?
The answer is 10 years of post-truth propaganda. The american people have been divided purposefully. Fascist politics includes rhetoric that encourages fear and anger as a means to foment ethnic and religious division. Hate and division is purposefully generated to serve the ultra rich. As long as MAGA is fighting WOKE, people are fighting a false war. The real enemy is the ultra rich, and they benefit from us fighting each other.
We have been duped.
I absolutely agree.
Unfortunately it's been so much longer than just 10yrs. I was raised in an evangelical household to a cop/deacon in the church. Rush Limbaugh started feeding my dad a steady diet of fear and rage since I was in high school 25yrs ago. When maga happened I lost him entirely. Americans who weren't raised in the oppression that is the evangelical church may never understand the type of wiring evangelicals are working with. To be Christian is to be the victim. always. Good Christians don't question authority. Questions could get you and your entire family sent to hell to burn for eternity. Honestly, they've been dreaming of P2025 for my entire life and are so delighted that it's finally here.
So is yours an argument of traditional Marxism, ie wealthy vs the rest, instead of the wokist, oppresses-oppressor Marxism?
Not quite. What I’m arguing is that the appearance of two competing worldviews—economic class conflict vs. identity-based oppression—is largely a false binary. The truth is, both dynamics are real and deeply intertwined.
The ultra-wealthy exploit every tool at their disposal to preserve their power: economic control, racial division, gender inequality, religious manipulation, and more. The culture war isn’t about liberation—it’s a distraction. When the working class is divided by race, gender, or ideology, we’re too fractured to organize around the root problem: a system rigged in favor of billionaires and corporations.
So yes, class war is real. But ignoring the oppression baked into our institutions by race, gender, or other identities only weakens our solidarity. The goal isn’t to pick one lens—it’s to see how they work together to keep us fighting the wrong battles.
I believe in democracy, but have very recently realized that there are many on the R side who no longer believe in democracy. I recommend the Washington Post article today on Curtis Yarvin the ideological mentor of project 2025 who openly states that he believes not in democracy, but in dictatorship by one person and run by billionaire tech Bros (naturally. )Do you remember a few short years ago when was such a controversy over whether the Washington Post or other media main streamers could refer to Trump's lies as such, as LIES ,whether we could several years later, refer to him as a wannabe dictator or Autocrat . How tragically naïve we were. As a child of Holocaust survivors I spent much of my academic younger years, trying to answer the question for myself why did the Democratic German people support the genocide by the dictator, why did so many jews not believe it was going to happen? He was actually going to murder all the Jews that he could get his murderous hands on. The answer I came up with was that such cruelty such unspeakable sadism was unprecedented in their lives, they had a failure of imagination and isn't it obvious that that is what has happened to us . The msm has been so slow to catch on, but they still are in denial about the fact that the WH and their whole administration and congressional sycophant no longer want democracy they don't want any future elections ever ,so let us learn from our mistakes and take this american fuhrer literally and seriously, and never for a second make a mistake again .
as for what we do about it. the starting point must be no more denial, facing the unthinkable reality that we do not have two parties anymore. We have a Democratic party we have a party that largely does not believe in democracy any longer that openly openly expresses their preference for dictatorship. I think the answer is that every day we do what we can, and what we must in every way, we fight with full engagement of our intelligence and resources and energy on every level possible in every small way, speaking up in our small towns, writing letters, calling our representatives local state federal, getting out on the street with neighbors,with signs. This is working of course -the courts so far are holding up, more solidarity like Harvard set the example for ,by organizing other universities to stand firm ,like those quisling law firms did not do initially but many others in their wake,did ,and it's still not too late for those law firms to stand together. Yes, this means sacrifice ,look what we are in for though! Theft of our freedom, our democracy, our services , and our bank accounts ! people -it's coming -don't fail to imagine the empty shelves and the empty floor under the Christmas tree or around the menorah. This is coming unless of course, a miracle happens, and Donnie, two -dolls reverses his delusional, completely unhinged and universally debunked tariff catastrophe. I wrote Amazon ( he wont read it but thousands writing might get read!)that I'm not buying another thing unless they stand up to Trump and do what is right for their customers which is to print ,to publicize the tariff surcharges as they were going to do before Trump loudly threatened them not to dare. I have already seen the items I buy from Whole Foods -selected items that they know wealthier people can pay for like organic items - not imported, like Milk, skyrocket in price. I'm talking 10% which at this early stage of the economic nightmare we're in for, is a lot so speak up folks, protest /complain boycott get out on the streets. We can do this people. This is an extinction moment for all our small businesses who cant wait much longer, and eventually for ALL we hold dear, think on it, on all the sadistic destruction so far!!We MUST do this , every day in any and every way we can!we have no choice do we??
Agreed. Also, Whole Foods is owned by Amazon. :/
Throughout recorded history, when competing parties, tribes, city states or countries cannot come to a peaceful agreement, “might makes right”.
Unfortunately.
Well, when I listen to the news, I certainly agree with you. But I live in rural Vermont. Although we are impacted by the cuts to federal programs, Vermont remains a peaceful, progressive state with strong local communities and an ethic of caring. We are a bubble for sure. But the fact of Vermont, small but mighty, gives me hope.
Two decades ago most Americans had faith in our educational system all the way up to some of the top universities in the world.
Two decades ago I never heard people attach the word illegal to immigrants and I lived in a border state. People came and went. After 9/11 George W Bush needed to distract Americans about his lies of getting us into a forever war in the Middle East for the geo-political purpose of getting US hands on their oil and gas so illegal immigrants became a daily talking point on the news.
Two decades ago something changed in my family when my father began spouting fear-driven statements about how our country was under attack at every border.
Two decades ago FOX News, Rush Limbaugh, and other brainwashers began making people afraid and telling them who the enemy was. They blamed the schools and the immigrants. The cult was formed by freedom of speech being protected so that lies could be used to harm people. No one dared venture out to question this. Yelling fire in a crowded theater made sense to stop as people could get hurt or killed. Why did we never say that lies presented to the public were doing the same thing? We allowed this MAGA cult to develop based on fears and lies. We shot ourselves in the head.
There was a time when the Webster's Dictionary was the place to find definitions in the USA and I do have a 1947 edition here in the UK. Ever since the hi tech media has taken over from printed journalism, I find your language has changed so much that I struggle to fully understand what I read. Twitter X is particularly bad and often unintelligible. Words like political left, right and centre have degenerated into communist, Marxist, extreme left, centre now is woke lefty liberal or worse, right is fascist, nazi, extreme right or olygarchs, dictator and so on. The F word is freely combined with all of them in novel ways never envisaged by my ancestors and it is used by almost everybody in ways that my children would have got themselves into trouble.
My problem with all these labels is that they completely kill rational discussion and any attempts at consensus. Treaties, trade deals, international agreement becomes almost impossible or a lot more difficult. It seems to me that the linguistics create confusion and make it easier to control a population.
The answer probably lies in our education system but I do find myself getting distressed trying to understand some arguments that should be rational. The current attacks on education establishments are a worrying trend that needs to be stopped in it's tracks.
I’d like to have the ability to leave the country.
I used to feel this way. But then I realized that means I would have to leave others behind, including people I don’t know who don’t deserve to be subjected to oppression.
So we fight, every day, with our voices because the many outnumber the few.