Today is the big day.
If you're American and want to do a little something to help the world. Do us a solid; vote out an incoherent arrogant narcissist.
Only to vote in a neoliberal establishment politician. Oh well! The goal is harm reduction, therefore the only course of action, at this time, is to vote for Biden. Were I involved I wouldn't be happy about that, but that's the situation you're faced with in the US right now. Again, as with our election last year, that's the only praxis. Harm reduction. Yes, the system is shit. No, I don't want to support electoralism. I think you have to judge it all on a case by case basis, thus for the Americans, as with Tories vs Labour, there is a clear case to make for using your vote in this fashion. The alternative is too horrible to contemplate. At least that was the notion, now we've lived with that level of horrible for a year and we're facing a second lockdown under a leader so terrible that literally anything would have been preferable.
Yet the Tories will all exhort that 'Comrade Corbyn' would still have been worse. At this point I wonder if voting is just an exercise in tribal tub thumping. We are in a post truth world defined by ideology. You vote Tory, even if that produces a response to an existential crisis so terrible that thousands have died that didn't have to, while kids starve and the economy explodes over the White Cliffs of Dover.
This was demonstrated by IDS's bizarre tweet, in response to the new lockdown proposition, chastising the government for listening to the scientists! This is where fascism begins: the denial of expertise in favour of herd mentality (perhaps even herd immunity, coincidence?). Trump is the same: a wealthy landlord drenched in privilege to the point of narcissism who wants to convince voters he's not part of the elite. That he's against the elite because it's a corrupt swamp. In IDS's mind it's become a strained technocracy; elites with expertise. How dare they lecture you.
Ignoring the reality of course.
These are the beginnings of fascism: late stage capitalism. People look at claims such as fascism and think it must be a phalanx of brown-shirts jackbooting down the pavement, fronting up to people's houses with guns and pogroms. As with any major social changes, they never appear so brazenly and so obviously. Change comes upon us unexpectedly, slowly, and often in forms we don't recognise. By coming slowly it runs the risk of being easily normalised. This is dangerous: a comment here, a faux outrage there, a Nigel Farage tweet, or a starving child. Excuses are made, money can't be found, let the migrants suffer. We must take care of our own.
But our own is everyone in the working class. There's no difference between you and a Syrian on a boat being exploited for the media camera or judged by a millionaire stockbroker for the benefit of his latest scheme. No difference at all.
Unless you're name is Donald J. Trump. The J stands for vote the fucker out!
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