A working paper from a pair of political scientists analyzed World Values Survey
data to trace the rise of support for authoritarianism in America to a
growing sense among white people that democracy’s commitment to giving
everyone a vote would soon erode their privilege, as the growing
population of racialized people started to vote for fairer policies.
They’re echoing Peter Thiel’s frank admission
that “freedom” (the right to amass unlimited power and wealth) is
incompatible with “democracy” (the right for everyone to vote, even the
people who will cease to sell you their blood if they can secure a wage
that allows them to keep it for themselves).
The conclusions are based on surveys of attitudes well before the Trump election, because Trump is the result of this phenomenon, not the cause of it.
One important measure that is not included in the study is the role that
inequality plays in the rise of support for racist authoritarianism.
Neoliberalism’s core tenet is that we “can’t afford” to see to it that
everyone is housed, fed, educated and cared for, and that any suggestion
that this is in reach given policies that seek broadly shared
prosperity instead of a Gilded Age aristocracy is “unrealistic,”
“socialistic” and “unworkable.”
But it seems obvious to me that any anxiety about losing privilege will
be sharpened and magnified if you believe that the underprivileged face
homelessness, hunger, ignorance and suffering due to preventable
illnesses. As security for life’s essentials has been withdrawn since
the Reagan years, the sense that we’re playing a game of musical chairs
that ends with the least-privileged flat on their asses has only
mounted. White privilege gave you a better shot at getting one of those
chairs, so losing white privilege in an age of neoliberal austerity is a
lot worse than losing it during (say), the more widely shared
prosperity enjoyed during the justice struggles of (say) 1968.
mariah’s mtv cribs episode is the literal meaning of iconic. she gaves us so many Moments… like 7 outfit changes, taking off her clothes and getting in the bathtub in the middle of the interview, exercising on the elliptical with a mini-dress and stilettos on, tours of her closets even the one with actual gold leafs in the flooring, the high note when her dog attacked her cat, WHEN SHE TOOK HER DOG OUT OF THE DRYER WITH NO EXPLANATION WHATSOEVER, when she talked about how she had her fish’s sleeping schedule reprogrammed so that they would match hers, when she said the lighting was designed to be frontal so it would be more flattering, when she told us about how she dropped out of beauty school…. god mariah makes me so happy
A woman reaches under a block from the apartheid wall trying to hold the hand of her mother on the other side. Many families have become segregated after the Israeli occupation regime completed the construction of the wall which runs through Palestinian lands. This is just one of thousands of cases.
this is from the documentary متسلّلون – Infiltrators (trailer linked) by palestinian filmmaker khaled jarrar. you can watch it in full here (though, no subtitles unfortunately).
medranochav 