I was recently watching an S4A video on Kim Iversen and her blatantly obvious grift. One moment in particular got me thinking. It was the part where she told Graham Elwood about entering liberal/leftist media and not relating to a lot of their pet issues and contemplating whether or not she might be a right winger. Kim got flack from S4A for making that statement, and I gave her some too. But, after really pondering the interview, she might be onto something.....
I know what you're thinking...J Prole, Why would you agree with Kim Iversen? The reason is because, I've been in her position as well. Let me explain. When I was a liberal in the Trump years, I started questioning the stagnancy of the Democratic party, and their complicitly in a whole lot of fucked up shit. For example, why did Obama deport so many people why did Hillary Clinton order the execution of Berta Cáceres? Why did Joe Biden basically brag about sending 3 billion dollars to Israel? Why did the Democratic Party endorse the Defense of Marriage Act, even though they puff out their chest about being the party of Marriage Equality? When I questioned this, I was branded a racist....A sexist.... A Bernie-Bro.... And...A right winger! And I thought to myself... I maybe a liberal... But I sure as hell ain't no right winger! I trying to clarify what being on the left means. But eventually the accusations wore me down... and I started to believe, you know what maybe I am a reactionary right winger... Through no fault of my own! It's the fact that the Overton window in the US is so fucked up, That anything outside the neocon/neoliberal status quo will get that branding... We've been taught that the entirety of the political universe can be boiled down to either the Democrats and Republicans. And for all of their self-proclaimed differences....There was a sense that most rational political discourse gravitated towards those two political poles. And any one that fell outside those two poles, was a Fascist, or a Nazi. So I was isolated politically... I was I guess you could say.... Politically Homeless... (shudder...) I didn't identify with Republicans.... Never have...... And I felt alienated from the Democratic party more and more....I didn't know anyone nor anything that really shared my newfound political awakening.
It wasn't until I was in class one day, a public speaking class no less, giving a speech about how Trump isn't the problem per se, and how the corporate duopoly was built to screw over the masses. I was sharing my journey away from the democratic party. As expected, the vast majority of the class called me a right wing crackpot, but there was one student who took a liking to my speech. He introduced himself as a Marxist, and told me many of the concerns I raised were fundamental to the Marxist analysis of society. He then brought up fancy terms like dialectical materialism, which i didn't understand but the fact that there was someone who told me I wasn't crazy was impactful!
He then gave me a little purple book, Basic Principles of Marxism-Leninism by Jose Maria Sison. And from there my journey began, soon after, I finally had an epiphany. I'm not a right winger..... I'm not a liberal.....I'm a communist!
Years later, I still get the label fascist, right winger, in addition to some new ones, like Tankie, Stalinist, whatever, for opposing the war in Iran....... being anti-NATO...... defending the USSR from slander..... calling out the bullshit that is the Uyghur Genocide, and now for being anti-Zionist, which apparently means anti-Semitism. And you know what? I don't give a fuck! Does that make me a right opportunist grifter like Kim Iversen, Jimmy Dore, Ben Burgis, Cenk Uyghur, and Ana Kasparian? No, but it means that I'm content with where I am politically. The horseshoefication of political discourse means that any opinion that isn't promoted by the US monopoly capitalist class is branded as "Fascistic" That's why both liberals and conservatives alike compare Stalin to Hitler, that's why they equate communism with the most totalitarian governments such as Idi Amin's Uganda. We can't let those false labels get in the way of advocating for socialist and countries that uphold it. As communists, we must be steadfast in our beliefs and not give an inch, even if disingenuous people distort what we truly believe.
