In The Aggregate: Reactions

Editor's Note: In The Aggregate is a new semi-regular series bringing you links to, and commentary on stories of interest to leftists, from around the web.

Staying Busy Underwater

Since there's no easy way to say this I'm just going to be real with you folks; I have long Covid. At some point I might write about the journey that lead me to discovering this, but for now the only important thing you need to know is that I have long Covid, and I've had it for quite a while. I'm not going to die, but I'm still learning how to cope with this long-term illness, and as such it's not exactly easy for me to write essays right now. 

What I can still do however, is read, share, and briefly analyze articles by other people; people who aren't suffering from an extreme inability to focus and chronic fatigue. Is this effectively a link dump being published by a woman so desperate for content she'll try anything? In a word, yes. It's also what I'm capable of doing right now and I'm tired of getting three hundred words into an essay and then passing out exhausted. 

Please note that just because I link to an article doesn't mean I'm endorsing everything the author has ever said, or the website that article is published on. I will not link to crypto-fascists and racists, but sometimes the article you want to share is on Vox, even if you think Vox is a faux-progressive corporate propaganda shop run by rich liberals and tech barons. I should also note that I've accumulated a lot of links I want to share over the past nine months of struggling to write, so early editions of In The Aggregate are definitely going to feature a mix of new and old links; over time, I'll run out of good old links and it'll be mostly current affairs items.

Alright then, let's go; we've got a lot of long reads to cover this week and you might want to click on the links as we go along.

Fascism in the Pig Empire

The Whole Country is the Reichstag by Adolph Reed Jr. at nonsite.org 

Well, would you look at that. After nigh on six years of having out of context Adolph Reed Jr. quotes thrown at me by crypto-fascists, lumpen reactionaries and faux vulgar Marxists who don't understand his work, a friend of mine showed me this glorious longform essay by the man himself. At almost eight thousand words, this is certainly an absorbing read, but it's also the best analysis of modern fascism in the American political context I've ever encountered; and I'm not just saying that because Reed covers so much of the same ground I've been writing about for the past half-decade either. Blending history, political theory, and incisive analysis of key current events in the rise of modern fascism, this essay provides an illuminating handle on the convergence of political, judicial, and financial power behind the re-emergence of an organized, violent right wing extremism in America. As Reed demonstrates, the United States has been on the fast track to our current fascist moment since at least Goldwater; this is the logical outcome of that trip. It is indeed "time to be blunt" about the dangers of Americanized fascism; my only question for Reed at this point is - what took you so long to get here?   

88 Tactical, Militarized Police, and a Looming Coup in Brazil by Amanda Gailey at Seeing Red

So what exactly does this nexus of political power, private sector influence and violent white supremacy look like in practice? This two thousand word banger shines a light on the peculiar relationship between members of fascist ruling family in Brazil, the Trump political organization, and a neonazi paramilitary training company in Nebraska that goes by, I kid you not, 88 Tactical. After falling at their first putsch attempt in American on January 6th, are the forces of Pig Empire fascism looking to up their game in Brazil? It sure does look like it. We've got cops, nazis and would be Führers aplenty in this story that is genuinely stranger than fiction, and yet attracted almost no mainstream media attention whatsoever. 

It’s shocking to see so many leftwingers lured to the far right by conspiracy theories by George Monbiot at the Guardian.

Given that I've spent the past eleven months setting my life on fire by trying to counteract reactionary attempts to recruit left, I'm mostly just publishing this as a belated "I told you so." Of course, just because Monbiot can correctly identify the problem of fascists using anti-establishment sentiment, Covid 19, and conspiracy thinking to recruit nominal lumpen proles who think they're leftists, doesn't mean he has any idea what to do about it. Liberal antifascism is staggeringly ineffective and always has been; the only way to stop fascism, is to make fascists (including rich fascists) too afraid to spread their poisonous ideology. In light of American capital's dependence on maintaining core principles of that ideology in order to justify exploitation for profit, I fear giving the nazis a stern talking-to might not be enough to stem the tide of legally and politically empowered fascism in the Pig Empire. 

Canada’s Far Right Is More of a Threat Than You Think by Luke Savage at Jacobin

As anyone who understands the intertwined relationship between capitalism and fascism could have predicted, the Americanized model of fascism we've grown familiar with over the past half-decade, is easily exportable to other settler capitalist countries operating under the fig-leaf of "liberal democracy." In this short piece, Luke Savage talks about the progress of a Canadian fascist movement fueled by reactionary pandemic politics and conspiracies. The People's Party of Canada may have helped Justin Trudeau stave off defeat, but now the fascists have a seat at the table in Canadian politics and that will have consequences of its own. 

Armed Picnics and Snipers at Family Dollar: Life in a Town With a Government-Approved Militia by Matt Cohen at Mother Jones

One of the hallmarks of a liberal democracy under the influence of a fascist creep, is the way civic and political power is used to lead an air of authority, respectability and normalcy to reactionary paramilitaries and vigilantes; see for example the relationship between Hindutva extremists and the Modi government in India. In this lengthy expose, Cohen takes us inside the far too close for comfort relationship between the local government in Bedford County, Virginia and far right militia groups opposed to the Black Lives Matter movement and convinced the 2020 US election was stolen from Downmarket Mussolini. If you want to know what fascism coming to America is going to look like, this article is a good place to start; although like most liberals, this author isn't actually brave enough to name the beast directly.

How the Epik hack reveals every secret the far-right tried to hide by Mikael Thalen at Daily Dot 

Speaking of stories that aren't getting nearly as much attention as they warrant from corporate mainstream media, have you heard about the 2021 Epik Data Breach? Just over two weeks ago, the hacktivist collective known as Anonymous dumped the “entire primary database” of domain registrar and web hosting company Epik, online. Run by noted sh*theel Rob Monster, Epik is important because apparently it's the critical web services company of choice for fascist websites who've been kicked off other social media platforms; including Gab, Parler, and numerous right wing extremist forums. After dragging their asses for two weeks, it would seem the mainstream media is finally (and perhaps reluctantly) on the story; I wonder how long it will taken them to find the connection between Epik and the Stop the Steal rallies that lead to the January 6th coup attempt?

Copaganda and the Police State

"We get to hear them training to kill us.” by Christina Cauterucci at Slate

If you've ever wondered why African Americans in urban and suburban areas used to refer to local policing as "the occupation" then this is the kind of story you need to read. Ostensibly an article about the local resident's fight to remove a Cincinnati Police Department open-air firing ranged from a small, predominantly minority suburb called Lincoln Heights, this evocative longform expose is really about the constant exercise of whiteness under the guise of color-blind civic policy, to intimidate and suppress African Americans. From city services, to zoning fights, and all the way to an upcoming battle over control of the property the (hopefully) vacated shooting range resides on, it always seems that through pure coincidence, the citizens of Lincoln Heights bear the costs, while other, wealthier and whiter communities reap the rewards of modern living. That's no accident my friends; white supremacy in America has never ended, it just rebrands itself every couple of decades. 

Federal Prison's Switch to Scanning Mail is a Surveillance Nightmare by Lauren Gill at The Intercept

Even after roughly seven years of studying the American carceral machine, I am still shocked the dystopian ways our society invents to both deprive incarcerated persons of their rights and dignity, while simultaneously finding a way for someone to profit from that endeavor. In this story Federal Bureau of Prison facilities are photocopying and then keeping incoming mail in what amounts to a for-profit mass surveillance scheme. Astoundingly enough, prison officials claim this is part of "an effort to stop drugs that are entering facilities by being sprayed on mail, which officials claim is affecting staff, though there is scant evidence of this phenomenon." Let's just say prison pigs aren't exactly the brightest lights on the porch and move on.   

Five Tropes Local TV News Uses to Dehumanize Homeless People by Adam Johnson at The Column

Over the past little while, I've published two lengthy articles about both the experience of being homeless, and violent persecution of the homeless in the Pig Empire, on our main website: NIDC. In this excellent piece by media critic Adam Johnson, we get a look inside the casual propaganda employed by literally every level of media in our society, to demonize the homeless is ways that allow the dehumanization and ultimately violent persecution of innocent people who simply lack housing, every day. The manufacture of consent for authoritarian policy is a function of both domestic and foreign policies in the Pig Empire, and even its local media reflects that reality.

Copaganda and a Complicit Media: a Thread by Scott Hechinger on Twitter

Who says Twitter isn't good for anything? In this lengthy chain of posts a public defender and anti-criminalization advocate dissects the outright lies, misrepresentations, and false intimations made by one NPR reporter on behalf of American police. While the sheer number of crass fallacies exposed in this thread is certainly shocking, it's important to understand that this is just one story in an infinite sea of willful pro-police propaganda spread in mainstream U.S. media; here's another thread just like it by author and civil rights advocate Alec Karakatsanis, this time featuring copaganda published by the New York Times. Nor is this type of casual copaganda reserved for the national news; here's a reporter for the local ABC affiliate in Philadelphia pushing the absolutely bonkers idea that folks are handing out thousands of dollars worth of weed edibles as Halloween candy; why? Because some cops told her so for... reasons. 

Police and Racist Vigilantes: Even Worse Than You Think by John Knefel at The American Prospect

Finally, to close this section off and illustrate the "reaction" tie-in that binds this whole article together, I thought I'd share this blast from the past about the cozy, even overlapping relationship between fascists, white supremacists and American police. In a media environment dripping with pro-police copaganda, it's important to disabuse ourselves of the fiction that policing, even reformed policing, is the answer to the fascist menace; the police are after all, usually on the same side as the nazis, and always have been.  

Quotable Reading

“Whenever fascism threatens, its representatives and facilitators denounce universities and schools as sources of "Marxist indoctrination," the classic bogeyman of fascist politics. Typically used without any connection to Marx or Marxism, the expression is employed in fascist politics as a way to malign equality. That is why universities that seek to give some intellectual space to marginalized perspectives, however small, are subject to denunciation as hotbeds of "Marxism.” 

Jason Stanley, How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them

Theory Corner

A History of “Wokeness” by Aja Romano at Vox

As folks who've read my Film Sessions articles on Cancel Culture and the 1776 Project are undoubtedly aware, I consider pushing back on fascist "culture war" narratives a necessary, if tedious, part of anti-fascist work. Today I've decided to let someone else lug the cart up the hill in the form of this lengthy and detailed examination of the term woke; its meaning, its history, and how the American right (including and especially the far right fascists) has co-opted the term and tried to alter its usage. Unfortunately, the author fails to really get into why using woke as a pejorative term is so firmly rooted in anti-Blackness. For that I'd also recommend reading "How “Woke” Became a Slur" by Joshua Adams at Colorlines. Additionally, I should mention that at some point the Vox piece calls James Lindsey "a writer" when in reality, he's a fascist provocateur with a college degree. While this may seem like old news, given the centrality of "anti-wokeness" to the crypto-reactionary movement recruiting left online, it's probably a good idea to clarify what the word actually means before letting nazis define the terms of the discourse. 

Debate Me! How To Know Things on Youtube by JohntheDuncan on YouTube

One of the wonderful things about human diversity is that we all have our own unique ways of learning or acquiring knowledge. For example, some of the folks reading this are going to be glad I included a video essay because they're hardwired to absorb information better in that format. I should warn you however that this forty minute video touches on some pretty heady concepts. In answering the seemingly simple question of "how useful is online debate culture" our presenter is forced to break down the structurally capitalist nature of the YouTube platform, and how that structure exerts pressure to privilege certain types of knowledge, ways of knowing, and (dramatic) forms of discourse. While these debates may generate easy and exciting content, they demonstrably lack the intellectual rigor and sincerity to function as a legitimate teaching tool. Finally, John illuminates how both of these pressures result in the replication of a neoliberal capitalist, Western-centric, and deeply patriarchal lens through which we understand what knowledge even is. I warned you it was heady stuff.  

Anarchism Shaped David Graeber. Then He Shaped Anarchism by Shane Little on Novara Media

I must confess that as a “capital-A” anarchist (anarcho-syndicalist) who believes in the importance of organizing around a common political and social program, closing off this edition of In the Aggregate with this particular essay may seem like a curious choice. The truth however is that for every point of disagreement I've ever had with Graeber's work, my own thoughts have been shaped and influenced in countless additional ways by his writing and ideas. If the purpose of a Theory Corner section is to challenge readers to think differently, then I see no reason why I can't subject myself to the same ritual. Crucially, Graeber's work looks towards an organic, modern theory of anarchist living that becomes more vital by the day on a planet set on boil; regardless of your (or my) commitment to classical forms. I do believe that we are indeed all poorer in a world without Dave Graeber; for more information on why please check out "David Graeber Was Right: A Debt Free World Is Possible" by Andrew Ross, and "Sex Work Is Not a Bullshit Job" by Marin Scarlett; also on Novara Media. 

  - nina illingworth

Anarcho-syndicalist writer, critic, and analyst. 

You can find my work at NIDC, Can’t You Read, Media Madness and my Patreon Blog

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