When I was a pan-leftist (i.e. someone who believes the best way to advance the class struggle is by unifying the “left”), I viewed Michael Parenti as someone who was fully compatible with my ideology. Which required some contradictory thinking on my part, because Parenti made it clear that he did not view a great deal of the “left” as allies to the anti-imperialist cause. He
Yes. Agreed. Ben Norton is a very well concealed operator for CoIntelPro. This is made crystal clear by his ridiculous 1) attack on Canadian trucker/farmer anti-mandate protestors, with FBI/RCMP talking points which are shown to be completely false by even the slightest bit of web research 2) attack on Alexander Dugin (after Dugin's daughter was murdered by Ukraine fascists). Norton absurdly smeared Dugin as an "anti China fascist" (also clearly false to anyone who does less than an hour of research on the web).
He is fucking more annoying then the fake Syrian, European embedded asshole Richard Medhurst,or Aaron Mate or the whole Grayzone imbeciles or whoever comes to mind that MANAGED to amass YouTube audience. There are more channels ans pundits, can't name them all.
There's jo fuckig way these people are using master's tools to dismantle master's house. If that was the case we would not know about them.
Remember what they did to people who were telling the truth? No, I am not taking about Assange. The left swallowed Assange's Psy Op ... Like he's fucking Che Guevara of our time.
And the comparison is on point. When I see an Assangist I see a Che Guevarist.
Disagree with most of what you just wrote. You seem to be stuck in viewing the world ideologically in a conspiracist mode rather than doing the harder work of taking each case one-by-one on its own merits, and methodically thinking it through.
Mate and Grayzone are clearly anti-imperialist and have taken liberal mouthpieces like Democracy Now, Jacobin and the Intercept to task for neoliberal apologism. In fact, they booted Ben Norton from the Grayzone when they discovered that his Marxism was just a front for an FBI/CIA agenda.
I've heard accusations about Medhurst but have never seen anything strongly questionable in his videos.
Julian Assange is absolutely not a 'psy op' and has made a massive contribution to anti-imperialism (more important than any other single individual of his time) and the fact that you believe he is a psy op shows that you are merely following conspiracy theories instead of carefully thinking through all geo-politics on the facts and the merits.
I’ve occasionally seen this argument about Assange being a psyop over the years. It has no effect other than to set us back. Not just because it creates confusion on Assange, but because it can then be used to attack a bunch of other good people by saying “look, they’re promoting a psyop!”
Remember me, a child born in Yugoslavia, that's what I think of them all. Of course you will not agree with me, you haven't payed close attention to their bullshit. You are not aweere yet. Give it about 5-10 years. And, birch please, "conspiracist" is something the feds use against people who say stuff freely. Understand these people are no one and they don't matter or make any difference. If they did, they would he smacked of the face of the earth - by American oligarchy. So, do tell me about socialism my fucking blood was built into it here. Ask those assholes to explain to you who Milošević was and that's how you'd know who they are. They are not going to quote Parenti to you. Jesus' you are so fucking arrogant no wonder everyone is enraged by the smug American proselytizing.
While this is an excellent layout of our current anti-empire leftist vs neoliberal apologist liberal politics, you are incorrect on one point. The quote you used from Parenti that mentions taxes does not say that taxes should be used to fund environmental programs. If you look closely it only says that we must "tax the rich, not low-income working people".
That is meant as a reference to using taxes to get rid of wealth disparity. In a capitalist country like the US, taxes on wealth are essential to eliminate vast wealth divisions. It is only possible to abolish taxes in a fully command and control socialist state like North Korea where there is far less wealth disparity, all Koreans' economic and basic physical need are met by law, the state can exercise strong control of businesses and corporations, and much of the economic and production activity can be funded directly via the state.
Until we achieve state socialism or collectivist anarchism in the US, taxes will be necessary to correct wealth disparity and to control inflation.
He was essentially implying environmental programs should be funded by taxes on the rich, but I understand your point. The reason I push back against “tax the rich” statements is I’ve concluded that when we talk about taxes in this way, it reinforces the reformist reasoning of social democracy. I want to make people who’ve only so far been exposed to reformist ideas aware of revolutionary possibilities. Maybe I’m looking at this in a biased way, where I’m always thinking back to my own development from being a social democrat to becoming a Marxist.
Agreed, but there is a deeper and more important layer to the 'tax the rich' narrative when it is seen properly in the context of how money creation and taxes actually work, realities which very few people understand.
This is explained really well by the excellent analysis of the Keynesian capitalist economists in the Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) school. While there are flaws in their conclusions, and their thesis does nothing to take on the larger problem of capitalism itself, nonetheless their analysis is spot on, and crucial to understand.
The MMT school recently released a really good documentary on their unpacking of the monetary system that explains it pretty well. See:
Great post
Is Bernie Sanders still selling imperialist feminism and being lauded as "socialist"? Ha!
https://open.substack.com/pub/cyberwanderlust/p/a-yugoslav-woman-looks-at-the-usa
Also, Ben Norton is a fed. Most of the American so called leftist pundits are controlled opposition. And feds.
Yes. Agreed. Ben Norton is a very well concealed operator for CoIntelPro. This is made crystal clear by his ridiculous 1) attack on Canadian trucker/farmer anti-mandate protestors, with FBI/RCMP talking points which are shown to be completely false by even the slightest bit of web research 2) attack on Alexander Dugin (after Dugin's daughter was murdered by Ukraine fascists). Norton absurdly smeared Dugin as an "anti China fascist" (also clearly false to anyone who does less than an hour of research on the web).
Oh Jesus Christ Almighty you are gender cultist! I am getting away from you like you're plagued.
Good.
Bye Felicia.. 😉
He is fucking more annoying then the fake Syrian, European embedded asshole Richard Medhurst,or Aaron Mate or the whole Grayzone imbeciles or whoever comes to mind that MANAGED to amass YouTube audience. There are more channels ans pundits, can't name them all.
There's jo fuckig way these people are using master's tools to dismantle master's house. If that was the case we would not know about them.
Remember what they did to people who were telling the truth? No, I am not taking about Assange. The left swallowed Assange's Psy Op ... Like he's fucking Che Guevara of our time.
And the comparison is on point. When I see an Assangist I see a Che Guevarist.
Also, 4 years ago the palls... Cringe ! https://youtu.be/Tkg4wJFpc_E?si=Gqf4i2hloz4Fxy8X
Disagree with most of what you just wrote. You seem to be stuck in viewing the world ideologically in a conspiracist mode rather than doing the harder work of taking each case one-by-one on its own merits, and methodically thinking it through.
Mate and Grayzone are clearly anti-imperialist and have taken liberal mouthpieces like Democracy Now, Jacobin and the Intercept to task for neoliberal apologism. In fact, they booted Ben Norton from the Grayzone when they discovered that his Marxism was just a front for an FBI/CIA agenda.
I've heard accusations about Medhurst but have never seen anything strongly questionable in his videos.
Julian Assange is absolutely not a 'psy op' and has made a massive contribution to anti-imperialism (more important than any other single individual of his time) and the fact that you believe he is a psy op shows that you are merely following conspiracy theories instead of carefully thinking through all geo-politics on the facts and the merits.
I’ve occasionally seen this argument about Assange being a psyop over the years. It has no effect other than to set us back. Not just because it creates confusion on Assange, but because it can then be used to attack a bunch of other good people by saying “look, they’re promoting a psyop!”
Remember me, a child born in Yugoslavia, that's what I think of them all. Of course you will not agree with me, you haven't payed close attention to their bullshit. You are not aweere yet. Give it about 5-10 years. And, birch please, "conspiracist" is something the feds use against people who say stuff freely. Understand these people are no one and they don't matter or make any difference. If they did, they would he smacked of the face of the earth - by American oligarchy. So, do tell me about socialism my fucking blood was built into it here. Ask those assholes to explain to you who Milošević was and that's how you'd know who they are. They are not going to quote Parenti to you. Jesus' you are so fucking arrogant no wonder everyone is enraged by the smug American proselytizing.
🤣 ok Tankie..
While this is an excellent layout of our current anti-empire leftist vs neoliberal apologist liberal politics, you are incorrect on one point. The quote you used from Parenti that mentions taxes does not say that taxes should be used to fund environmental programs. If you look closely it only says that we must "tax the rich, not low-income working people".
That is meant as a reference to using taxes to get rid of wealth disparity. In a capitalist country like the US, taxes on wealth are essential to eliminate vast wealth divisions. It is only possible to abolish taxes in a fully command and control socialist state like North Korea where there is far less wealth disparity, all Koreans' economic and basic physical need are met by law, the state can exercise strong control of businesses and corporations, and much of the economic and production activity can be funded directly via the state.
Until we achieve state socialism or collectivist anarchism in the US, taxes will be necessary to correct wealth disparity and to control inflation.
He was essentially implying environmental programs should be funded by taxes on the rich, but I understand your point. The reason I push back against “tax the rich” statements is I’ve concluded that when we talk about taxes in this way, it reinforces the reformist reasoning of social democracy. I want to make people who’ve only so far been exposed to reformist ideas aware of revolutionary possibilities. Maybe I’m looking at this in a biased way, where I’m always thinking back to my own development from being a social democrat to becoming a Marxist.
Agreed, but there is a deeper and more important layer to the 'tax the rich' narrative when it is seen properly in the context of how money creation and taxes actually work, realities which very few people understand.
This is explained really well by the excellent analysis of the Keynesian capitalist economists in the Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) school. While there are flaws in their conclusions, and their thesis does nothing to take on the larger problem of capitalism itself, nonetheless their analysis is spot on, and crucial to understand.
The MMT school recently released a really good documentary on their unpacking of the monetary system that explains it pretty well. See:
"FINDING THE MONEY"
https://findingmoneyfilm.com