I'm sorry but some of our insulated and pampered academics on this list really piss me off. This shit about "Well this isn't Germany", "Well the conditions in Italy and Germany" were unique", Well fascism is not in America and will not come in any form, if it comes, resembling German and Italian fascism". Well we have some basic "freedoms" we can use and defend but to use them we must be "consistent"....
Yes, there are all sorts of freedoms for pampered white, insulated academics. Yes there is all sorts of freedom to write esoteric jargon-riddled "progressive tracts" that no one but some other insulated and pampered academic will read. Yes you can call yourself a communist as long as you are tenured and don't really act like one and actually do "field work" with the oppressed objects of your research. Yes, you can do all sorts of anti-capitalist or anti-state "research" as long as it is published in come marginal irrrevelent journal and you don't actually act on anything you write. Yes, you can do "heterodox" economics as long as you politely debate, as long as the subject is esoteric enough that no one can act on it and as long as you pay due homage to the "mainstream" by attempting to "attack" the mainstream by staying within its parameters of jargon and scope/angles of analysis. Yes you can think/speak/write all sorts of "radical" things in America as long as you don't actually act on anything.
Why don't some of you heroes of the revolution write to Leonard Peltier for his opinion about the state of civil rights, freedom and the prospects of fascism in America? All over this country Indian activists are being found dead and the BIA/US Government refuse to investigate their deaths. And further, one of the reasons why we don't have full-blown or even close to fascism YET in America, is because all over the imperial possessions, the ones that bring cheap shoes, gas and shirts and mega-profits back to America, there is indeed full-blown fascist repression going on. Not as open as in Germany and Italy, but it is there--death squads (Einsatzgruppen) and all.
There were some in Germany who said some of the same shit as is being repeated here: "It" can't happen here; this is the land of Beethoven and Goethe and culture... such ugliness could never happen here. Another issue is how you define fascism. The level of sophistication and extent of surveillance in the US is staggering. Why do you think NSA's project echelon is going on. Do you remember in the Iran-Contra hearings when Congressman Jack Brooks mentioned "REX 84" and Inouye immediately said, "stop, that is classified, do not go further" (REX 84 was an exercise to round up illegals and put them in special detention centres; it was later acknowledged as an exercise to determine how fast and effectely targeted "subversives" could be rounded up and detained.) Why the proliferation of grants funding "sensory deprivation" research and its use in interrogation techniques going back to the 60s and a hot item today?
What do you think it means when Indian Reservations are being targeted as low-cost (no regulation) dump sites for the most dangerous radioactive and toxic wastes (instead of herding victims into chambers utilizing deadly chemicals to kill them, now we bring the deadly chemicals to the targeted victims)? So everyone says "yes, genocide, as defined by the UN Convention 1948 is indeed going on in the US Canada and elsewhere, yes it is terrible, but, this is not fascism like German or Italy. Why, because those saying it are white, pampered, insulated and frankly do not really say or do anything really dangerous to the system.. Of course for you, America is not and never will be like Germany. We still have rights we can use in struggle (we can afford lawyers).
Fuck you, you racist scum.
Jim Craven
|