Oh yeah, there will be a bigger reactionary backlash, and that backlash will cause even more “normal unaffiliated” people to realize what’s at stake. I don’t mean to sound accelerationist or apocalyptic, but everything has a breaking point and pronounced change only comes through conflict.
I think we’re seeing a little bit of it through the abortion bans. People are genuinely pissed off about that.
We just have to hope there will be enough people who won’t tolerate reactionaries. I can’t say what will happen, but you’re right, it might get very ugly soon. But at the same time we can’t say we’re already defeated
I’m hoping this will break liberal fantasies about trusting certain corporations, but it probably won’t. It’ll push more suburban white liberals into the maw of being reactionary.
Is it accelerationist of me to want comfortable suburban liberals to just become conservatives already? They’re already most of the way there and it would help more properly delineate where the political divides really are.
My gut says it’s going to be more complicated than that. I believe in people and at a certain point the reactionary stuff is going to overplay their hand and I think we’re already seeing it.
At a certain point this stuff just breaks down, people will lose their patience. In my wildest dreams the 2020 riots were a kind of dress rehearsal for something more organized in the future. Eventually I think liberals might lose their ability to usurp movements.
Don’t get me wrong, we’re headed for bad times, but we don’t have to feel doomed. Believe in people.
Dolly Parton is a rich theme park owner who has abused her employees and she pals around with mass murderers like George W. Bush.
At a certain point she had credibility. She came from a poor Appalachian background and made music reflecting that. After a certain point though, after decades in the industry, she completely flipped. Her 9 to 5 song used to be a genuine anthem for struggling working class people, then she flipped it a few years ago as “5 to 9” for a Sqaurespace commercial, glorifying the idea of working a second job after your main one.
She’s the exact problem of modern country music. It’s made and financed by people too rich to be connected to humanity anymore.
Florida becoming the foundation of American fascism over the past 20 years is such a weird development. It used to be the party state. It did and still does have a huge supportive queer community.
I can only point to wealthy retirees shaping Florida’s trajectory
It’s a pretty reliable statistic that whenever anti-trans legislation goes to a public referendum, it fails. When this kind of stuff is a genuine public vote, the public almost always votes in favor of trans rights.
It’s also a reliable statistic that the more a politician talks about being anti-trans, the worse they do electorally.
Anti-trans legislation is being pushed through by appointed judges, unelected committees, state cabinets, shit like that. It’s not being pushed by a public vote.
I guess I don’t see much of a distinction between those exploitative parasites and the state actors. I’m on the side of Althusser here, where the state is both a structural arrangement and a set of ideological norms. In that sense, you could say all culture is a conspiracy, as in a conspiracy to replicate the content and character of one’s class interests.
I don’t mean to say there’s a shadowy group creating it, rather, there’s a shadowy group that gives a platform and representation to things that promote their own interests. Or something they can flip around and sell back to you. Capitalism is crafty like that, like Che Guevara t-shirts.
Oh no, absolutely not is country music self inflicted. Modern country music is part of the same propaganda network as everything else in capitalism. The whole Nashville and Georgia country scenes have been connected at the hip with conservative money since at least the 1970s where Nixon had a country campaign song. Then there was Reagan showing up at the Grand Ole Opry. It’s a useful vehicle to spread and satiate the thirst for white supremacy.
There’s also Clear Channel Radio (currently iHeartRadio) which is run by ideological conservatives.
Also there’s some kind of money floating around to suddenly promote the odd country song or two, like that Rich Men in Richmond song, or that stupid Jason Aldean guy. Every now and then you’ll see a random headline like “country star fights back against woke-ness in new song.” And that’s the propaganda.