A screenwriter whom I knew back in junior high school here in DC, and who, like me, was an anti-war activist back during Vietnam, and with whom I sometimes agree and sometimes disagree, wrote:
Retweeted Doug Henwood (@DougHenwood):
Anyone left of center who took the Russia paranoia seriously, look where it’s taking us. This is extremely bad news. https://t.co/64ZUUe4p9K
I replied as follows (edited by me for clarity and accuracy):
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I cannot find any actual facts in that tweet. (And yes, I followed the link)
On the other hand, here are a few things that I think are objectively true, and a few that are my own opinion:*
the Russian government is… (1) oligarchical,
(2) a kleptocracy on every level,
(3) steals from its own people and rapes its environment for the benefit of a small group of billionaires,
(4) murders, muzzles, or imprisons people who dissent,
(5) supports friendly dictators abroad,
(6) builds and sells military weapons all over the world, and
(7) meddles in the internal affairs of foreign countries.
By contrast, the American government has recently been adjudged by experts (not me) as
(1) an oligarchy that systematically works for the benefit of a small wealthy class of businessmen to thwart the wishes of the majority,
(2) assassinates lots of people (mostly overseas; the murders of black men by police seems to be a local, not an explicitly national, policy),
(3) while the billionaires have been quite successful in breaking labor unions in the US and reducing wages for working people, we have had over time all sorts of vigorous [and sometimes somewhat successful] movements [which are now under hard attack from the current party in power] to preserve the rights of workers, consumers, and the environment,
(4) the US does in fact allow critics [for example, I’ve been to any number of anti-government demonstrations over the past 50 years and have only been arrested a couple of times for it, never beaten up by police; however, there have been plenty of times when the power of the State lined up firmly on the side of corporations to help break labor unions],
(5) supports friendly dictators abroad [of course proclaiming them to be lovers of freedom,
(6) builds and sells more weapons than anybody, and
(7) meddles in foreign elections and so forth [I recently saw a very long list of countries where the US had interfered with internal affairs or overthrew the government since WW1].
There are a couple of differences, though:
In many countries, you can’t get ANYTHING done at any level of government (from the head of state down to dog-catcher) without bribing somebody. That is not (yet) true in the US. However, it looks to me like Trump and his family are working hard to bring the US up to the level where our corruption is even higher than in Russia, China, India, the Philippines, or Nigeria. And 45 has certainly called for beating up protesters like myself, and praised corrupt, murderous foreign dictators like Putin and Duterte. However, there is still a lot more freedom of the press and assembly here than in the four countries I named!
Vive la resistance!
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* which statements are fact, which are opinion? I type – you decide.
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