Tracing my Personal Political Development

Originally posted to Substack on July 5, 2022 Imported from Substack

When believers (of any faith) want to learn more about each other, they often ask “how did you personally come to the faith?” or “what’s your journey been like?”

Those stories tend to be more compelling than listening to a robotic recitation of the books they’ve studied. It’s the difference between a beautiful documentary versus a textbook covering the same topic.

Here’s my story (so far) of how I’ve come to be establishment disliker.

Technological Optimism

From a young age, I’d always loved science and technology. I carried a pocket-sized science book in elementary school. I doodled personal flying vehicles like the desert cruisers in Star Wars.

I hated mowing the lawn, so I wrote in my journals about automated lawn mowing services. (which a few years later, actually came to market, no thanks to me)

I want us to automate all jobs. But obviously, if we succeed in automating most everything, that will create a crisis of unemployment. (among other crises)

Sure, there might be new jobs that come from this new economy, but don’t worry — I wish to automate those too.

I also argue that this is a historical inevitability. Either technological optimists like myself will automate things, or greedy bosses will automate in an effort to reduce labor costs and increase profits.

2016 Presidential Election

Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign was the first election I was old enough to participate in. His left-wing economic populism awakened in me a Christ-like love for my fellow citizens. Jesus had called me to love my neighbor, and I’d just been told that my neighbor was being crushed by medical debt and skyrocketing costs of living.

During that same presidential election season, Andrew Yang was the lone voice bringing forth question of automation and technological unemployment. (despite Yang’s many other shortcomings as a candidate)

After watching the billionaire-owned Democratic Party and their loyal servants in the corporate media completely demolish the Bernie campaign in favor of their billionaire donor class, I began looking outside of the electoral sphere for answers.

Chomsky to Parenti

I grew fond of the lectures and writings of the self-described “libertarian socialist” Noam Chomsky, whose confused utopianism can be summarized in the following statement: “most countries that pursued socialism were evil dictatorships, but when we try socialism, we’ll do it right.”

My hatred for our own evil authorities made me suspicious of all authorities. I believed that direct democracy was the only answer. It was utopian in both senses; it sought utopia, and it was also unpractical and non-pragmatic.

Michael Partenti saved me from this silly thinking. His lectures are an impassioned firestorm of labor militancy wages so often against the Chomsky crowd of Western Intellectuals who couldn’t care less about socialist construction.

Parenti bravely defends the various revolutions of the global south from inside the belly of the beast, while Chomsky obediently toes the line of the State Department and the CIA that “socialism has failed everywhere it’s been tried”

Parenti defends Cuba, China, the USSR, Nicaragua, etc. (none without fault, none are perfect, all are or were embroiled in the messy, complex process of constructing a post-neoliberal post-capitalist society)

Chomsky is a weak-minded defeatist who loves revolutionaries until they succeed in taking power. Parenti is an optimist who knows that history is messy and imperfect, that the masses have won in the past, and can win again in the near future.

A hilarious meme describing the absolute uselessness of Noam Chomsky Thought, and the eternal supremacy of Michael Parenti Thought.

Kill your heroes. In the same way that I’d broken up with Chomsky, I slowly grew apart from Bernie.

Quick aside: Parenti and Bernie were actually friends, but Parenti recalls breaking ties when Bernard supported the CIA/NATO war against socialist Yugoslavia. That was the final straw for Parenti. Watch that full interview answer here. Watch til the end. There’s an interesting nugget.

2020 Presidential Election

I supported Bernie both times, in the 2016 primaries, and the 2020 primaries. Both times the corrupt Democratic Party crushed him. But each time, Bernie kowtowed to the corrupt Tammany Hall establishment by telling us to vote for the “lesser of two evils.” (a refreshingly honest admission of evil on the part of the Blue Team)

I did not listen to Bernie. I voted my conscience.

In 2016 I was accused of being sexist against Hillary Clinton by voting for the other woman in the race: Jill Stein of the Green Party. Someone who represented my values.

In 2020, I again voted against the Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, and instead voted for Gloria La Riva of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

The largest constituency of eligible voters is non-voters. They’ve given up on our sham elections. I joined that constituency by “throwing away my vote” by voting my conscience. I will never vote for the Segregationist Joe Biden or the War Hawk Hillary Clinton. Ever.

DSA & MAGA

Throughout those elections, I’d been involved with a Berniecrat organization called the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) in Dallas. They did some good work, organizing around tenants rights, environmental justice, public transit issues, etc.

At the same time, my conservative Christian families out in the suburbs became, to varying degrees, interested in the MAGA movement of Trump. The DSA appealed to socially liberal urban-dwelling youth (like myself, at the time), whereas the MAGA movement appealed to the sweat-browed construction workers and lower levels of capital, like small business owners.

What’s interesting about my MAGA family is that some of them said that they’d have supported Bernie if the Democrats had given him a chance.

It just goes to show that the Democrats could expand their support base by focusing on economic issues, rather than silly cultural wedge issues. Obviously, the Democrats aren’t interested in that, because no matter what the donor class always wins. Red or Blue team, it doesn’t matter to the elites.

No matter what, the donor class always wins. The Democrats don’t need to win elections. The Democrats exist to stop Bernie and other economic redistributionists.

Returning to the Automation Question

Amidst all this, my Chomsky-to-Parenti growth, my DSA-versus-MAGA observations, I’ve been studying Historical Materialism and Dialectical Materialism. What does this mean?

Historical materialism is a theory that says that history is driven forward by economic conditions. That no society can invent itself beyond its current economic conditions. Conditions include production of the necessities of life, as well as the relations between people and that production.

Dialectical materialism is an extension of this idea that new changes in society emerge only through contradictions. So back to the automation idea, the contradiction between technological advancement and unemployment will force society to re-think how things work.

Stephen Hawking in 2015 said this about automation: “…Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution…”

Our Current Conditions

Americans are angry. Bernie abandoned his base by selling out to the Democratic Party. Trump continues to rally his people. The liberal elites who own the news outlets and the social media companies continue to paint the picture that these MAGA folks are the enemy.

Isn’t that convenient for the rich: that the urbanites are being pitted against those in the outskirts; while we fight against one another, the mansions remain safe from our righteous rage.

We need to re-polarize US society along a correct basis. No more red team versus blue team. It’s about Americans fighting against the Aristocracy. The 99% fighting against “tha one puh cent” (Bernie voice)

Will we save our Republic by freeing ourselves from The New Crown of the plutocrats? or will be docile subjects to be dominated?

The cowboy hat-wearing yeehaws and the liberal pink-haired urbanites must unite together for an economic program that helps everyone and threatens the profits of the elites. Anyone who finds themselves siding with the elites must be forced out.

Demand jobs, roads, trains, re-industrialization, re-implementation of banking regulations, and the imprisonment of all corrupt officials and robber barons.

What’s Next For Me

My next chapter is unwritten. I know our country is facing crisis, but I do not know how to best serve the people in my own way. I am active with various organizations. I am drafting pamphlets to give to my community and others I interact with. I am getting back into making art, writing essays (such as this), etc.

We must build the New America ourselves. It is our duty, it is our right.

Please Support my Writing

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