So... I normally don't talk about politics on here, especially on gaming forums, and I have other social media to vent, but I kinda feel like I need to be away from my circle of friends to define my thoughts and put them down. If the mods want to close this thread, that's perfectly fine. I don't want to reveal too much about myself here so I'll be a bit vague.
Look, I have family in the Dominican Republic. They talk about how the United States invaded the island and deposed Juan Bush with some aid from the CIA. And my friends in Turkey (and I have some family there too) talk about how there were multiple coups in that country, sometimes with the aid of the CIA as well. Fascism was pretty much rife in both cases, I would say, from what I know.
I was also in Bolivia in 2019. I think what happened there was also a fascist coup. I remember seeing a crowd of dozens of people do a "sieg heil" to a Christian cross, or at least I saw many in the crowd do so. And from what I remember, there was a lot of hatred against Evo Morales and indigenous people living in Bolivia. The last President before the recent election in Bolivia (the one in 2020) called them "savages," if I recall correctly. There was also a massacre with several people dead at least.
When I was in Bolivia, there was lots of racism against indigenous people and Christian nationalist imagery and street fights leading up to the coup and the family I was staying with warned me to go back to the USA in order to save myself from an uprising. There were rumors of an incoming coup around and while I was in the plane, barely out of Bolivia, Evo Morales (the first Native American President of Bolivia) was forced to step down. I remember other Bolivian friends telling me on the Internet that things were pretty violent and hectic, and there was lots of racism and charges of fraud against MAS and especially their Native American and rural supporters. Trump's administration along with Republicans and Democrats recognized the new fascist government in Bolivia led by Jeanine Anez (the same person that called Native Americans in Bolivia "savages" and "pagans") and that was that.
Okay, before you all despair while reading all this: I'm not here to make anyone feel bad. I'm just venting. The situation is not at all hopeless. But I felt the need to type all this because I know people close to me who are liberals who are in denial about all this. I won't say who. They think it was not a coup attempt. They think it was not fascist. But the lead-up to the uprising and the actual uprising reminded some of my Latin American friends of coups in their own countries (usually with the aid of the CIA or billionaires or fascists or narco-criminals or a mix of several of these types of people). And frankly, the storming of the main capitol building in DC along with the attacks around the country on government buildings in places such as Georgia seemed to go beyond what happened in Bolivia.
Alright, I'll wrap this up and get everything out there. Basically, I kinda saw the country reaching a certain level of instability. But I also saw that there was a dark side to this country as well. A racist white rich kid in my school used to make racist insults toward me along with other people around him for several years. Nobody did a thing. I faced racism, sure, but at the same token, I have to say that a lot of this seems to be the result of upper-middle-class whites (and there are going to be a minority of non-whites in this category). I would say that even before 2016, they could definitely be construed as racist, alt-right, classist, and even fascist. Now, people in my school who were poor or at least had certain issues economically (and they could be white, brown, black, Asian, etc.) never had a bad thing to say about me. And look, being neurodiverse certainly made others look down on me with my "staring eyes" or my nasal voice.
What I'm saying is this: it wasn't much of a stretch for the idiots that I met at school and university to be fascist. I remember my Russian friends telling me about how the Nazis, quite literally, wanted to exterminate all Slavs. Outside of the Holocaust, which was horrible, millions and millions of more people were killed. So maybe it's a tall order to say that it doesn't take much to be as immoral as the Nazis. But you gotta believe me: I saw it. Instead of questioning why the United States had troops occupying the countries in the Middle-East (spurring many Muslims and Arabs and so on to take up arms against this country), among other reasons that angered the people there, I think it was telling that people looked at them as "hating our freedom" or something. And other people in my school, including myself, faced racism. We also faced classism, though I would say that the classism was more low-key and insidious.
Maybe I'm making a stretch here, but look: rightwing terrorism was growing during the Bush years, Obama years, and of course, the Trump years. And a lot of the racist bullies in school joined the military or National Guard or police or what have you. I saw hatred against non-whites. I saw hatred against poor people. And God help you if you were a poor non-white. And many people noticed that the economic situation has declined since at least the 1980s for some reason, or so they've always said. And people at school one day didn't show up because they died from opioids or people near me knew people that died from opioids. So honestly, even back then, I thought (and maybe because I can be a pretty extreme person sometimes, I admit) that the country as a whole wasn't THAT far away from fascism. The ingredients were there.
I'll get to the larger point because I could cite many more examples so I'll just say this: let's not be in denial about this. We need to be objective. We need to see things for what they are. I think in what people call the "neoliberal" era, it's very possible for stuff like this to happen. But to me, personally, many liberals seemed to turn a blind eye to George W. Bush not being tried as a war criminal for his crimes on the Iraqi people, for example. Given that some people that I know being in denial about there having been a fascist coup attempt recently, I felt the need to vent and maybe make a lengthy reminder: let's not act like what happened wasn't fascism or a coup attempt.
Last paragraph: the United States had it good in terms of stability compared to, say, the World War 2 years. Well, we're going through the "World War 2 years" again and with the current pandemic and decades of economic decline, there's going to be fascist groups taking advantage. So honestly, what I'm worried about is that we don't at least have the courage to call a spade a spade. So look: instead of going "doomer" or some shit, let's be careful about this. In Latin American countries, people have fought far-right groups in the streets because they knew what they were up against. But honestly, I just hope that we recognize and be on guard about a possible fascist threat to the people of this country.
Okay, last paragraph FOR REAL this time: humanity has been through this rodeo before and, I would say objectively, this is less harmful to most people than some of those "rodeos" back then (no doubt there will still be doomers in the comments anyway, I'm sure). Of course, it still fucking sucks to be living through history, to be "living in interesting times." I'll just say: it's time to forget the comfy life that we thought most of us would have for the next several years and that partly means BEING CAREFUL. I'm not asking for much from all of you except to just be careful, believe your lying eyes when you see fascism or racism or classism or any other threat, and not act like things are just "peachy" or "hunky-dory." When the current crisis is over, many will have the scars, I'm sure, but we can't act like threats like fascism aren't a problem because they totally can be. What happened recently was a coup attempt done by fascists. Let's at least identify the possible threat. That is all.
If the mods want to close this thread since we kinda already have a thread like this or maybe move this post to that one, that's fine, but I'm glad that I could vent this all out so thanks for reading till the end of this long-winded and verbose rant or whatever we're calling this. 😅
Hey, I'm not in despair, but let's be careful so more people aren't possibly hurt by the end of this, yeah?
Take care!
🤗
Look, I have family in the Dominican Republic. They talk about how the United States invaded the island and deposed Juan Bush with some aid from the CIA. And my friends in Turkey (and I have some family there too) talk about how there were multiple coups in that country, sometimes with the aid of the CIA as well. Fascism was pretty much rife in both cases, I would say, from what I know.
I was also in Bolivia in 2019. I think what happened there was also a fascist coup. I remember seeing a crowd of dozens of people do a "sieg heil" to a Christian cross, or at least I saw many in the crowd do so. And from what I remember, there was a lot of hatred against Evo Morales and indigenous people living in Bolivia. The last President before the recent election in Bolivia (the one in 2020) called them "savages," if I recall correctly. There was also a massacre with several people dead at least.
When I was in Bolivia, there was lots of racism against indigenous people and Christian nationalist imagery and street fights leading up to the coup and the family I was staying with warned me to go back to the USA in order to save myself from an uprising. There were rumors of an incoming coup around and while I was in the plane, barely out of Bolivia, Evo Morales (the first Native American President of Bolivia) was forced to step down. I remember other Bolivian friends telling me on the Internet that things were pretty violent and hectic, and there was lots of racism and charges of fraud against MAS and especially their Native American and rural supporters. Trump's administration along with Republicans and Democrats recognized the new fascist government in Bolivia led by Jeanine Anez (the same person that called Native Americans in Bolivia "savages" and "pagans") and that was that.
Okay, before you all despair while reading all this: I'm not here to make anyone feel bad. I'm just venting. The situation is not at all hopeless. But I felt the need to type all this because I know people close to me who are liberals who are in denial about all this. I won't say who. They think it was not a coup attempt. They think it was not fascist. But the lead-up to the uprising and the actual uprising reminded some of my Latin American friends of coups in their own countries (usually with the aid of the CIA or billionaires or fascists or narco-criminals or a mix of several of these types of people). And frankly, the storming of the main capitol building in DC along with the attacks around the country on government buildings in places such as Georgia seemed to go beyond what happened in Bolivia.
Alright, I'll wrap this up and get everything out there. Basically, I kinda saw the country reaching a certain level of instability. But I also saw that there was a dark side to this country as well. A racist white rich kid in my school used to make racist insults toward me along with other people around him for several years. Nobody did a thing. I faced racism, sure, but at the same token, I have to say that a lot of this seems to be the result of upper-middle-class whites (and there are going to be a minority of non-whites in this category). I would say that even before 2016, they could definitely be construed as racist, alt-right, classist, and even fascist. Now, people in my school who were poor or at least had certain issues economically (and they could be white, brown, black, Asian, etc.) never had a bad thing to say about me. And look, being neurodiverse certainly made others look down on me with my "staring eyes" or my nasal voice.
What I'm saying is this: it wasn't much of a stretch for the idiots that I met at school and university to be fascist. I remember my Russian friends telling me about how the Nazis, quite literally, wanted to exterminate all Slavs. Outside of the Holocaust, which was horrible, millions and millions of more people were killed. So maybe it's a tall order to say that it doesn't take much to be as immoral as the Nazis. But you gotta believe me: I saw it. Instead of questioning why the United States had troops occupying the countries in the Middle-East (spurring many Muslims and Arabs and so on to take up arms against this country), among other reasons that angered the people there, I think it was telling that people looked at them as "hating our freedom" or something. And other people in my school, including myself, faced racism. We also faced classism, though I would say that the classism was more low-key and insidious.
Maybe I'm making a stretch here, but look: rightwing terrorism was growing during the Bush years, Obama years, and of course, the Trump years. And a lot of the racist bullies in school joined the military or National Guard or police or what have you. I saw hatred against non-whites. I saw hatred against poor people. And God help you if you were a poor non-white. And many people noticed that the economic situation has declined since at least the 1980s for some reason, or so they've always said. And people at school one day didn't show up because they died from opioids or people near me knew people that died from opioids. So honestly, even back then, I thought (and maybe because I can be a pretty extreme person sometimes, I admit) that the country as a whole wasn't THAT far away from fascism. The ingredients were there.
I'll get to the larger point because I could cite many more examples so I'll just say this: let's not be in denial about this. We need to be objective. We need to see things for what they are. I think in what people call the "neoliberal" era, it's very possible for stuff like this to happen. But to me, personally, many liberals seemed to turn a blind eye to George W. Bush not being tried as a war criminal for his crimes on the Iraqi people, for example. Given that some people that I know being in denial about there having been a fascist coup attempt recently, I felt the need to vent and maybe make a lengthy reminder: let's not act like what happened wasn't fascism or a coup attempt.
Last paragraph: the United States had it good in terms of stability compared to, say, the World War 2 years. Well, we're going through the "World War 2 years" again and with the current pandemic and decades of economic decline, there's going to be fascist groups taking advantage. So honestly, what I'm worried about is that we don't at least have the courage to call a spade a spade. So look: instead of going "doomer" or some shit, let's be careful about this. In Latin American countries, people have fought far-right groups in the streets because they knew what they were up against. But honestly, I just hope that we recognize and be on guard about a possible fascist threat to the people of this country.
Okay, last paragraph FOR REAL this time: humanity has been through this rodeo before and, I would say objectively, this is less harmful to most people than some of those "rodeos" back then (no doubt there will still be doomers in the comments anyway, I'm sure). Of course, it still fucking sucks to be living through history, to be "living in interesting times." I'll just say: it's time to forget the comfy life that we thought most of us would have for the next several years and that partly means BEING CAREFUL. I'm not asking for much from all of you except to just be careful, believe your lying eyes when you see fascism or racism or classism or any other threat, and not act like things are just "peachy" or "hunky-dory." When the current crisis is over, many will have the scars, I'm sure, but we can't act like threats like fascism aren't a problem because they totally can be. What happened recently was a coup attempt done by fascists. Let's at least identify the possible threat. That is all.
If the mods want to close this thread since we kinda already have a thread like this or maybe move this post to that one, that's fine, but I'm glad that I could vent this all out so thanks for reading till the end of this long-winded and verbose rant or whatever we're calling this. 😅
Hey, I'm not in despair, but let's be careful so more people aren't possibly hurt by the end of this, yeah?
Take care!
🤗
