Good news, everyone!
Onions. Someone in the office is chopping onions.
Sheâs a national treasure.
Her free online event is Feb 25, 2022:
Just a sweet little news item:
âThey see me trollinâ, they hating, hacking servers and trying to catch me âmailing dirtyâŚâ
A post by Billy Bragg. The good/encouraging thing is that hes writing and posting like this.
__
Been a tough week for democracy in the US, Canada and the UK.
Last Monday, the US Supreme Court overturned the ruling of a lower court which had found that Alabama Republicans had illegally discriminated against Black voters when they drew the stateâs seven new congressional districts last year, ordering them to redraw the boundaries. In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court said Alabama did not have to redraw its seven congressional districts ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. African Americans comprise roughly a quarter of Alabamaâs voting age population, but hold a majority in just one of the stateâs seven districts.
On the same day, an angry mob surrounded Keir Starmer, ostensibly to protest against vaccine mandates. However, they also accused him of being a âpaedophile protectorâ, echoing Boris Johnsonâs slur that Starmer was responsible for the failure to prosecute Jimmy Savile â a lie promoted by right wing conspiracy websites.
Meanwhile in Canada, truck drivers have been blockading the centre of Ottawa, the nationâs capital, in opposition to vaccine mandates. Since 15th January, the Canadian government has required truck drivers crossing the US/Canadian border to be fully vaccinated to re-enter the country. Almost 90% of Canadians are fully vaccinated and the Canadian Trucking Alliance, representing the industry, estimates that 85% of the 120,000 truck drivers in Canada are already vaccinated.
This didnât deter the truckers, calling themselves the Freedom Convoy, from heading to the capital from various points across Canada with the self-declared aim of getting rid of all vaccine mandates and passports. By the time they arrived in Ottawa, however, Jason LaFace, the Ontario organizer for the convoy, stated that the intent of the protest is to dissolve the government.
On the face of it, the truckers have much in common with the Occupy movement, blocking the streets until their demands are met. And I support their right to do so. My beef with the truckers is the nature of what they are trying to achieve. The Occupy movement was a protest against the power of multi-national corporations and the destructive nature of global capitalism. The freedom they demanded was freedom from social, economic and racial inequality.
The Freedom Convoy has an altogether different definition of freedom, articulated by a truck driver at the occupation who was interviewed on the BBC news on Tuesday: âI donât want people telling me what to doâ.
The notion of the sovereign individual - exempt from social responsibility, entitled to choose which laws they obey â has a long tradition in the US, where libertarianism has played a central role in national mythology. The rise of social media has spread the creed, allowing anyone able to cut and paste the Magna Carta to become a law unto themselves. While itâs an idea that has always had its attractions, over the past decade or so, it has been harnessed for very disturbing purposes.
A few years ago, in a comment about a blog on liberalism, Frank Wilhoit came up with a definition of conservatism that resonated widely. Conservatism, he argued, âconsists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.â Traditionally, those out-groups have consisted of women, people of colour and leftists. The in-groups have almost exclusively been peopled by white men.
Since the 1960s, the ability of conservatism to maintain the exclusion of those out-groups has been whittled away. While the in-groups have ceded rights, they have done so in a manner that ensured they remained in control. However, the election of Barack Obama shattered their confidence. Everywhere they looked, out-groups were demanding laws that sought to bind but not protect the in-groups: #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, Extinction Rebellion.
Suddenly, white men were being told what to do.
Donald Trump was the visceral response to this threat, a man whose power is based upon the fact that he has no empathy for others, nor sense of shame whatsoever â the ultimate sovereign individual. Although it was liberal democracy that delivered him to the presidency, his followers fear that demographic trends mean that they will soon be forced to accommodate the demands of out-groups. As a result, they no longer believe in democracy.
This is a godsend for billionaire free market ideologues who complain about regulation and resent taxation. Theyâre happy to support those who take an anti-woke stance because to be woke is to be aware of injustice and show solidarity with the out-groups. In the US, they fund legislators who are seeking to keep the out-groups in their place by restricting womenâs right to abortion or gerrymandering voting districts to keep the Black vote down. In the UK, they fight to maintain a historical narrative that turns a blind eye to slavery and colonialism.
The Daily Mail reported on the Keir Starmer incident by claiming he was attacked by âhard-left anti-vax aggressorsâ. One of the âhard leftiesâ named by the Mail was William Coleshill, a former Conservative Party councillor, now editor in chief of the Resistance GB website, who goes around sticking his camera into the faces of unsuspecting politicians who he confronts on the street.
While presenting themselves as a free media outlet committed to bring you news which the mainstream wonât report, Resistance GB defines its philosophy on the front page of its website as âresisting erosion and abolition of British culture, our Constitution, our Common Law and moreâ. Fear of cultural obliteration is a classic far right rallying cry, one that echoes Enoch Powellâs notorious âRivers of Bloodâ speech. The UK constitution and the common law are referenced as touchstones of the sovereign individual movement. Citing archaic documents which contain laws long since repealed, they claim ancient rights which they claim exempt them from anything from vaccine mandates to paying taxes.
This is flat earth politics, in which an individualâs world view is based not on facts, but on their perception. It is a conscious effort to put themselves beyond the reach of personal accountability.
This is why the occupation in Ottawa isnât only about defying covid mandates. At root, itâs a protest against the notion of the common good, that idea that we each have a responsibility to one another, pitching in when times are hard, working together get through the challenges we all face, willing to take collective action to address issues that affect us all, such as the pandemic or the climate crisis.
Thatâs why people are so angry about the Downing Street parties â they see Johnson sticking two fingers up at those who made great sacrifices for what they believed was the benefit of all.
But if the benefits achieved are common to all, then the privileges that come with being a member of the in-groups are stripped away, which is why they are hostile to democracy, the means by which the common good acquires legitimate agency.
In the US, the Republican Party has no policies except to stymie the efforts of Democratic legislators to make even the smallest reforms. In Canada, the Conservatives ousted their centrist leader last week, unhappy with his stance on a carbon tax, assault rifles and LGBTQ+ rights. Here in the UK, our own sovereign individual, Boris Johnson, is daily hacking away at the principles upon which the notion of the common good is based â veracity, trust, personal responsibility.
What unites Republicans in Alabama, truck drivers in Ottawa and Boris Johnson is a determination to avoid being held to account for their actions. They just donât want anyone â people of colour, a democratically elected government, Sue Grey â telling them what to do.
Yay, Billy BraggâŚ
Thatâs excellent⌠where did he post that?
I follow him on FBook. Not sure if thatâs the only place he posted it.
The background to this storyâŚ
Thank you so much for posting this!
Billy Bragg never forgets his own humanity, and reminds us that we are not alone in our struggles.
I need to print that out and tape it to my mirror, so I can reread it while I brush my teeth. The protesters point the way, for me, because they are protesting against something that does exist: the common good (even as they attempt to negate it).
Thank you again.
So glad you found it inspiring!
Iâll kep an eye out for if and when he does another.
