“What do you mean ‘started’?”
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I want to clarify that I’m talking about open mass-killings in the vein of Sharpeville or Bloody Sunday.
Reading and seeing the public’s reactions to things like the gassings and beatings at pro-Palestine encampments, BLM protestors getting run over, Kyle Rittenhouse’s victims, etc. it seems like the American people take an open and ghoulish delight in protestors getting brutalized, maimed, and killed. Go to any video or article about these things happening, and the comments section is an endless parade of the worst people imaginable cheering and hollering for it with extremely little or no pushback. It’s depressingly consistent.
It just gives me this horrible feeling that one day the police are going to unload into a crowd of protestors and leave a mass of bodies in their wake, the American people will hoot and clap and cheer about how the victims got what they deserved, and that’ll become the new MO. The only reason they aren’t already doing this is fear it might make them look bad, and if it doesn’t end up making them look bad in the eyes of the public, then there isn’t a single thing stopping them.
Full disclosure: I used to think, probably naively, that there was this massive group of americans who don’t vote who could potentially be allies but as time has gone on I really don’t have hope for the people of the usa anymore. Correct me if I’m wrong or being doomer.
People go along with what they’re convinced of. I often think back to first few months of covid and how the vast majority of folks were on board with masking, lockdowns, and waiting for a proper vaccine. And that was primarily because there was a reasonably consistent message (Flatten the Curve!) from our two big authority figures; The news media and the government. And then there was a lot of money and two/three years spent undermining that message to bring us to the point where even most left leaning folks can’t be bothered to put up the barest of resistance against eugenics and social murder.
We are in a Class War, that we’ve been convinced not to fight. Eventually leftists will realize they need to wage a mental battle as much as a physical one. Hopefully, before it’s too late.
Most people in any society are fundamentally apolitical and don’t really give a shit about the holders or application of power so long as they’re relatively comfortable. Seizing power is and has always been a process of building a core group of ideologically committed revolutionaries, overthrowing the existing power structures, beating out competitors to filling that power vacuum, and then providing well enough for everyone else that nobody turns around and does the same to you.
If US comrades manage to build the infrastructure and framework of revolution and connect with enough of the average populace, they will win. This is as true in the US now as it was in Russia in 1917 or vast swaths of southeast Asia in the 40s/50s.
Remember that Trump didn’t win as hard as the Republicans like to think they did. Once all the counting was done, he only won like 1% more of the popular vote, and it wasn’t even a majority of the population. "Didn’t vote* would still win if it was a candidate.
Most of the people who didn’t vote for Trump voted for Kamala, who also supports Israel. Genocide has such broad appeal in America that you can’t run a viable party unless you support it.
The genocide is actually pretty unpopular though. Just not unpopular enough to matter in our wonderful democracy.
I think we need to be precise about topics where we’re in the minority vs topics where people agree with us but we just have no representation. Very different political implications & organizing tasks.
Capital controls the party duopoly and does not allow alternative parties. That neither party allows dissent or opposition to Israel and its genocide of Palestinians is not at all indicative of broad support for that genocide or of Israel among the population. It’s indicative of the fact that the Capitalist class is motivated solely by profit and does not even remotely consider public opinion in its political actions.
Support and attitudes among DC politicians and the porkies that pull their strings do not reflect the opinions of the American populace.
Imo, there are a large number of people in America who may not exactly be allies, but don’t vote because who is in office hasn’t tangibly changed their living conditions in 50 years. I think promising the right things and delivering on them would win their life long support.