Getting elites attention
What the right wants from its followers is for them to be riven by hatred of any difference, thus making them easy to manipulate and willing to sell out their economic values in exchange for seeing brown people beaten, and women and trans people losing control over their own bodies.
What neoliberals want is for their followers to be convinced that each group, even each micro group, is on its own, unable to understand each other and thus that solidarity is impossible and all one can hope for is that some member of the identity group is allowed to join the elite, while most of all groups remain in poverty.
They’re very similar, really. In both cases hatred of other groups is inculcated as the core value, as a way of making manipulation easy and avoiding having to actually deal with broad issues of well being.
Both of these are variations on “divide and conquer”. It costs a lot less to give a few people something than to give many people something. “Want some women and minorities in power? Sure. Costs us almost nothing.”
“Want women to be forced to bear rape children and die in pregnancy due to lack of necessary abortions? Sure, costs us nothing. Our women can still get abortions.
“Want trans people excluded and denied health care? Sure, they’re a tiny part of the population and rich trans people will be fine.”
On the other hand giving everyone healthcare would cut a lot of profits. Giving everyone a liveable wage or assistance to those who can’t work or find jobs: that would cost a lot of profits.
“You can have anything you want, as long as it doesn’t make elites poorer.”
On that the right and center are unified.
bruce wilder
No one is more easily conned than a skilled salesman.
Political leanings were once called “persuasions” and that was a telling term. I do not think most people are interested in or knowledgeable about politics as a realm of power and governance. If they participate at all by having opinions or voting (or merely intending to vote in their hearts if not on an actual ballot), they do on the basis of some or another fraud. The sociopaths who quite invisibly exercise power may disregard the consequences to others, but I am not convinced that most people are so much callous as politically ignorant and ahistorical. They may echo slogans and memes manufactured on behalf of billionaires by scholars and pundits, but their foundational political attitudes are less informational than simply the social psychology of ambivalence, dependence and precarity.
Mark Level
A concise description of the Elite “acceptable” parameters of discourse allowed. They’re called a Ruling Class, after all. Their donors (or blackmailers) are kept happy, the majority are screwed. DC was called Hollywood for ugly people. But those ugly people get lots of perks at the table, at the Club (that you’re not in, as Carlin noted.)
Think Starmer, Macron and Merz riding the train back from “Keev” with their little cocaine baggy and spoon. “Democracy” & “values”, what a sick joke!! Cake for the Nobles, shite for the peasants.
Seattle Resident
Speaking of elites, how does AIPAC and Sheldon Adelson’s wife feel about the news of an impending nuclear deal with Iran? They’ve been pouring zillions of dollars into Congress and the Presidency, only to get backstabbed like this! Netanyahu was looking to bomb Iran with the U.S. holding Israel’s hand, and now it appears that he has been hung out to dry and may end up getting convicted in an Israeli court.
Ian I know you said that elites don’t fight you or try to destroy you unless you’ve done something that detrimentally affects their interests. The blowback, if any, will be something to see.
Adam
And what the left wants from its followers is for them to be riven by hatred of any difference, thus making them easy to manipulate and willing to sell out their common sense in exchange for seeing gender critical people beaten, and women and children losing control over their own boundaries.
Ian Welsh
Ah yes. Transwomen suffer terrific levels of violence, “gender critical” (transphobes) hardly any, and “boundaries” = not being allowed to make one’s own choices.”
Amazing.