4 ms·

The last time this sort of class-awareness trend got started in America was Occupy Wall Street, and the corporate media killed it by platforming and showcasing

The last time this sort of class-awareness trend got started in America was Occupy Wall Street, and the corporate media killed it by platforming and showcasing the looniest most alienating fringes of that movement, starting the descent into the 'racist' style of progressive activism which most of the public find alienating (https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/02/25/most-americans-say-colleges-should-not-consider-race-or-ethnicity-in-admissions/ https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/02/25/most-americ...) I think they'll do it again. If this movement finds legs and makes itself hard to ignore, then the corporate media will once again use their editorial powers to shift the conversation away from the class narrative, probably again in the direction of divisive race politics.

bloodyplonker22 4y ago
Occupy Wall street was not really about equality of opportunity. It was more about equality of outcome.
- LarryMullins 4y ago
  It was about the financial industry getting bailouts while the common man suffered from economic conditions caused by the financial industry being so reckless. But then the corporate media got their hands on it and the narrative became 'these loony hippies think that people should be ranked by privilege'. Most Americans had never heard of the "Progressive stack" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_stack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_stack ) before, and this alienated the movement. In essence, the corporate media promoted intra-class war to preempt inter-class war.
- honeybadger1 4y ago
  Completely agree
bobwaycott 4y ago
Indeed. The historically proven and repeated best method to kill any moment of social and political consciousness that unites multiple segments of society across race, class, and gender lines is to turn everyone’s attention to a new divisive identity politics—breaking down the common threads that bring people of vastly different backgrounds together to mutually support and advocate for each other. Sadly, the weak left in the US falls for it every time, shrinking at each step, becoming incapable of providing a vision for a better future for all—because they all start fighting over who’s doing the identity politics thing better. The right uselessly plays into the new narrative by fighting over how much they should have to even care about the new identity politics, arguing for a return to the time before the identity politics became the dominant theme. With both sides playing a pointless game, the damage is done—the fight that united people rarely returns with the same force it had before (as people exhaust themselves over divisive identity politics), and neoliberal dominance secures another decade or so of relative ease and impunity.

bloodyplonker22 4y ago

Occupy Wall street was not really about equality of opportunity. It was more about equality of outcome.

LarryMullins 4y ago
It was about the financial industry getting bailouts while the common man suffered from economic conditions caused by the financial industry being so reckless. But then the corporate media got their hands on it and the narrative became 'these loony hippies think that people should be ranked by privilege'. Most Americans had never heard of the "Progressive stack" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_stack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_stack ) before, and this alienated the movement. In essence, the corporate media promoted intra-class war to preempt inter-class war.
honeybadger1 4y ago
Completely agree

bobwaycott 4y ago

Indeed. The historically proven and repeated best method to kill any moment of social and political consciousness that unites multiple segments of society across race, class, and gender lines is to turn everyone’s attention to a new divisive identity politics—breaking down the common threads that bring people of vastly different backgrounds together to mutually support and advocate for each other. Sadly, the weak left in the US falls for it every time, shrinking at each step, becoming incapable of providing a vision for a better future for all—because they all start fighting over who’s doing the identity politics thing better. The right uselessly plays into the new narrative by fighting over how much they should have to even care about the new identity politics, arguing for a return to the time before the identity politics became the dominant theme. With both sides playing a pointless game, the damage is done—the fight that united people rarely returns with the same force it had before (as people exhaust themselves over divisive identity politics), and neoliberal dominance secures another decade or so of relative ease and impunity.