Dear Fellow Travelers, Keith points below are not only sage, they are of an absolute necessity in the USA … and I (as a direct descendant of those puritan settler-colonialists, aboriginal and colonized peoples ( yes,Trump’s worst nightmare) I couldn’t agree any more.
Christiane Robbins > On Oct 6, 2020, at 4:00 PM, Keith Sanborn <[email protected]> wrote: > > Dear Nettimers, > > An appeal to the history of settler colonialism and the continued history of > slavery is appropriate and accurate but at this moment used as a reductio ad > absurdum is just dangerous. I am not a believer in justice through bourgeois > democracy but the violence promoted and actualized under the Trump regime > must be stopped. Think of Biden/Harris as a tourniquet applied to staunch > fatal bleeding. > > Let me end with this: the day after Trump was elected, my students at the New > School, most of them women, were in a state of shock and for good reason: one > shared with the class that after Trump’s win had been announced she was > walking down the street near the “campus” in New York City and a young guy > walked up to her and said, “Now I can grab your pussy whenever I want.” And > disease entity called Trump was not even inaugurated yet. The irresponsible > minimization of covid which has lead directly to deaths and the work of the > “Proud Boys” as agents provocateurs, which again lead to deaths. > > We are talking about the death of even the semblance of bourgeois democracy. > And in its place not revolutionary socialism, or an anarchist utopia, but > death-dealing fascism. Given the choice, I will vote for bourgeois democracy > any time. > > Keith Sanborn > >> On Oct 6, 2020, at 2:42 PM, Ryan Griffis <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> Tue, 6 Oct 2020 11:12:55 -0500, Frederic Neyrat wrote: >> >>> A subject, be it collective or individual, is always divided. The One is an >>> imposture. >> >> Thank you Frederic, for stating what I would have hoped was a shared >> understanding of nation-state politics, especially on an international list >> focused on “networked culture.” >> >> I wrote the following just before receiving Frederic's message, then decided >> not to send it. But, maybe it’s worth adding to Frederic’s rightful call to >> dispense with the collapsing of people into nation-states? Anyway, here it >> is... >> >> I don’t mean to overstate the point here, but discussions of “democracy in >> the US” (as with discussions of the political economy anywhere in the world) >> should really be more responsible to actual history. Personally, I think >> such responsibility is necessary to have a meaningful international leftist >> perspective on solidarity. >> For starters, the settler-colonial status of the US as an ongoing form of >> occupation can’t be simply glossed over. >> But specifically to the question of democracy, it might be more useful to >> understand the situation as the *continued prevention* of democracy, rather >> than its collapse, as if it was somehow ever stable or even meaningfully >> democratic in some historical sense. >> Just to provide *some* specifics. >> It would be ridiculous to consider the rollback of voting rights for >> formerly incarcerated individuals (essentially a poll tax) in my settler >> home state of Florida without recognizing that the very rights being >> undermined *were just recently granted* to begin with. >> Exactly 100 years ago there, leading up to the 1920 election, there was >> widespread mass violence perpetrated against black residents to re-solidify >> an anti-democratic, white supremacist regime. >> For anyone interested in this specific history who is not familiar, I’d >> recommend Paul Ortiz’s excellent book “Emancipation Betrayed.” >> >> Trump may be a glaring and garish example of white supremacist >> anti-democratic/fascism in the US, but it’s not like the foundation wasn’t >> already set. >> IF we’re able to move the US in a more democratic direction, it will be >> through continued struggle that builds on the history of such struggles that >> have been occurring for well over 100 years (some would say it’s more like >> 500 years). IMHO, these struggles are not best understood as trying to >> *perfect* the US as a democracy, but as part of a movement to achieve (and >> maintain) liberation for all people (which is no simple concept in a >> settler-colonial state). Our foundation as a nation-state built on >> internationally coordinated, genocidal violence (that predates the actual US >> nation-state, obviously) seems like it begs for us to understand the US >> beyond the exceptional, cohesive case put forward by the ruling classes >> (i.e. settler white supremacists and neoliberal oligarchs). >> >> Apologies if this is all pedantic… I’m just frustrated by the tone of >> discussions about “American Democracy” that maintains imaginary clean >> spatio-temporal boundaries that prevents us from talking about actual >> struggles for liberation, both “inside” and “outside” any enforced borders. >> >> Best, >> Ryan >> # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission >> # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, >> # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets >> # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l >> # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [email protected] >> # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject: > # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission > # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, > # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets > # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l > # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [email protected] > # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject: # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [email protected] # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:
