The Swedish activist Greta Thunberg has been detained by Israel and reportedly maltreated by her Israeli captors after she was kidnapped, along with hundreds of other activists, from Gaza’s territorial waters on Friday.
I think your insight is dead on with Greta! Imperialist interests could use the umbrella of neoliberalism to fold her climate activism into their system of governance. Once she started speaking out against the dangers of colonialism they dropped her like a hot potato.
This may sound like a weird segue, but this anti-imperialist posture by Greta is strengthening my resolve to keep masking. I feel the full power of capitalist interests in trying to get me to give up on masking. I get it from the news, social media, friends and family, even the retirement home my 96 year old mom lives in. Much like Greta, I know there is a price to pay for being anti-imperialist, but it’s preferable to the price of betraying my own morality.
it is an important resolve i too deal with as people are becoming bolder to challenge my choice that sounds like for the same reasoning as yours. courage!
My hope is that over time more anti-imperialists will realize that masking against Covid 19 has been marginalized because of capitalism. It just one more example of how the imperialist machine works. The science is so overwhelming on the side of those of us engaging in mitigations, it’s not simply a difference of opinion, see climate change for another example. Therefore the most logical explanation is that fighting for public health runs counter to the interests of capitalism so it needs to be severely deprioritized.
Right, because nothing says “anti-capitalist” like handing record profits to Pfizer and Amazon. The idea that masking was marginalized by capitalism is almost funny — capitalism thrived on the fear. It sold the tests, the shots, the masks, and the panic. If that’s anti-imperialism, it’s got a corporate logo on it.
In the movie "Cry Freedom", Denzel Washington, playing S. African activist Bantu Steven Biko, smiles at his white newspaper editor "sympathizer" and questions whether "Leeberaals" can really understand anything about the travails of oppressed colonized people. It's a rare moment of truth from a Hollywood production.
Thanks again Nate for putting it all in perspective. People who think that Greta Thunberg should "stay in her own lane" have failed to understand that while there are multiple lanes, it's all the same damn highway and we're all on it, either as the ones driving the bus or the ones getting run over.
Greta is Sweden's latest and greatest unsung champion of justice and international solidarity with the oppressed. Sadly, she is mocked and ridiculed by a lot of Swedes but also treasured by many of us. Looking around at Europe during these dreadful times it appears that Liberalism has been fertile ground for the seeds of racism and fascism to flourish. We sorely need more Gretas!
Agree 100%. Most of the liberal class buy into “a little bit” – they are happy with a little bit of change – not too much. The festering sore that is Israel will continue for a while but if the USA fails (fingers crossed) then Israel’s crutch is gone. On a related note and since Ms Thunberg emerged onto the world stage as a climate activist – this vid is highly relevant. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDy7Q8iAtFg
It relates to the AMOC and when it will stop. When it does (when – not if) Europe and the rest of the world are going to face very very hard times. I am certain that Ms Thunberg (who will be around when it happens) will take no pleasure in being proved right. However, the changes will be such as to destroy the liberal class. What will emerge in its place is anybody’s guess. It is also possible that the climate changes will lead to the erasure of Israel.
"Because Thunberg has stepped outside of her lane and transgressed against the only true values the liberal elite class understand: imperial values."
I wonder if it's helpful to see Israel as an expression of corporate power, rather than just an extension of empire? It's a recent construct that has clear economic requirements. Not just a political entity, it survives in a difficult economic environment, where it must demonstrate both corporate will, but also deference to its largest benefactor.
What got me thinking about this was the story that Israel's military was using the war in Palestine as a sales tool to support various military technology companies. (https://afsc.org/gaza-genocide-companies)
In that context, I wonder if liberals are really just reflecting a value most of us share, which is unyielding loyalty to the economy? It doesn't even need to be capitalism; humans seem to have a very clear understanding of what's good for the economy, and how that directly affects them.
The european political class in general and the swedish government in particular has no priority other than The War On Russia, and specifically getting the Americans to fight that war for europe. Again.
Nobody is going to do anything that would piss the Americans off. Rather, this will be used as moral blackmail. "We kept silent, we assisted while you participated in genocide in Gaza, we beat down protesters, we didn't even say jack while Israel publicly tortured our own citizen now you owe us. Big Time."
People like Greta Thunberg only come around once in a generation. Love for her fellow man and women is what drives her. She is stronger than the IDF who beat her and degraded her. She has truth and love as her guiding principles. Everyone should be a Greta. I got some negative feedback when I put it out there. I know what she is and what she stands for. She does deserve a Pulitzer
i love greta! i love how she says: she's not a hero; she's doing the bare minimum; she's responding to what the palestinians have requested, that people use their platforms & privilege to speak out & take action to stop the genocide. i love how she says: it's not about me, it's about gaza (& the west bank, too); keep your focus there. greta has more integrity in her baby fingernail than most people i know. i have this fantasy that one day she may be able to meet bisan owda, another exceptional young woman still reporting direct from north gaza, "hi, this is bisan & i am still alive..."
re "It seems likely that (Greta) understood it was euro-centred privilege to proclaim the impending end of the world without recognising the world has already ended for many peoples and is currently ending for others": most liberals aka democrats i know are so ensconced in their privilege & so quaking in their boots (for 10-plus years nonstop cuz they're tv watchers) at emperor trump & ongoing ice melt that they're incapable of making the empathetic leap to folks whose worlds are already ending as we speak. sadly, this includes many climate/eco-doom types i used to respect. gaza has been a clarifying event for me.
Daily now in the US, I watch fascism take hold and fear widespread violence. All over the world climate change activists are being incarcerated or outright murdered. I fear for Greta's life.
More than just abandoning Greta, they have abandoned humanity because guess what, they are all in on the post freedom world we now inhabit. If Starmer is willing to arrest people for peacefully protesting genocide and Trump is declaring war on half his own people, there is no real freedom left. An entire planet at the mercy of fascism will be the end of us. Let me know if you want to be a part of the resistance. Talking about it will not save us, action will.
This is how fascists get into power. Liberals pretend to care for humanity, but expose themselves as the soulless ghouls they are. Or perhaps they're just psychopaths disguised as liberals who care about humanity.
I think your insight is dead on with Greta! Imperialist interests could use the umbrella of neoliberalism to fold her climate activism into their system of governance. Once she started speaking out against the dangers of colonialism they dropped her like a hot potato.
This may sound like a weird segue, but this anti-imperialist posture by Greta is strengthening my resolve to keep masking. I feel the full power of capitalist interests in trying to get me to give up on masking. I get it from the news, social media, friends and family, even the retirement home my 96 year old mom lives in. Much like Greta, I know there is a price to pay for being anti-imperialist, but it’s preferable to the price of betraying my own morality.
Sincerely. Get help.
it is an important resolve i too deal with as people are becoming bolder to challenge my choice that sounds like for the same reasoning as yours. courage!
My hope is that over time more anti-imperialists will realize that masking against Covid 19 has been marginalized because of capitalism. It just one more example of how the imperialist machine works. The science is so overwhelming on the side of those of us engaging in mitigations, it’s not simply a difference of opinion, see climate change for another example. Therefore the most logical explanation is that fighting for public health runs counter to the interests of capitalism so it needs to be severely deprioritized.
Right, because nothing says “anti-capitalist” like handing record profits to Pfizer and Amazon. The idea that masking was marginalized by capitalism is almost funny — capitalism thrived on the fear. It sold the tests, the shots, the masks, and the panic. If that’s anti-imperialism, it’s got a corporate logo on it.
In the movie "Cry Freedom", Denzel Washington, playing S. African activist Bantu Steven Biko, smiles at his white newspaper editor "sympathizer" and questions whether "Leeberaals" can really understand anything about the travails of oppressed colonized people. It's a rare moment of truth from a Hollywood production.
Thanks again Nate for putting it all in perspective. People who think that Greta Thunberg should "stay in her own lane" have failed to understand that while there are multiple lanes, it's all the same damn highway and we're all on it, either as the ones driving the bus or the ones getting run over.
I'm glad you wrote about this. I misjudged her. She is a truly heroic and noble young woman.
Hello Zio. We all see you....
Hello ISIS, I see you too...
Greta is Sweden's latest and greatest unsung champion of justice and international solidarity with the oppressed. Sadly, she is mocked and ridiculed by a lot of Swedes but also treasured by many of us. Looking around at Europe during these dreadful times it appears that Liberalism has been fertile ground for the seeds of racism and fascism to flourish. We sorely need more Gretas!
She has been abandoned by liberals, but not by real progressives on the left. There is a huge difference. We are still with her.
Agree 100%. Most of the liberal class buy into “a little bit” – they are happy with a little bit of change – not too much. The festering sore that is Israel will continue for a while but if the USA fails (fingers crossed) then Israel’s crutch is gone. On a related note and since Ms Thunberg emerged onto the world stage as a climate activist – this vid is highly relevant. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDy7Q8iAtFg
It relates to the AMOC and when it will stop. When it does (when – not if) Europe and the rest of the world are going to face very very hard times. I am certain that Ms Thunberg (who will be around when it happens) will take no pleasure in being proved right. However, the changes will be such as to destroy the liberal class. What will emerge in its place is anybody’s guess. It is also possible that the climate changes will lead to the erasure of Israel.
"Because Thunberg has stepped outside of her lane and transgressed against the only true values the liberal elite class understand: imperial values."
I wonder if it's helpful to see Israel as an expression of corporate power, rather than just an extension of empire? It's a recent construct that has clear economic requirements. Not just a political entity, it survives in a difficult economic environment, where it must demonstrate both corporate will, but also deference to its largest benefactor.
What got me thinking about this was the story that Israel's military was using the war in Palestine as a sales tool to support various military technology companies. (https://afsc.org/gaza-genocide-companies)
In that context, I wonder if liberals are really just reflecting a value most of us share, which is unyielding loyalty to the economy? It doesn't even need to be capitalism; humans seem to have a very clear understanding of what's good for the economy, and how that directly affects them.
The economy and unconditional positive regard are not in binary opposition. The West has elevated profit to God. They are colonising themselves.
In order for the economic system your theory posits Greg it would require the devaluation of human life itself.
Looking at Gaza it would be difficult to argue against it.
The european political class in general and the swedish government in particular has no priority other than The War On Russia, and specifically getting the Americans to fight that war for europe. Again.
Nobody is going to do anything that would piss the Americans off. Rather, this will be used as moral blackmail. "We kept silent, we assisted while you participated in genocide in Gaza, we beat down protesters, we didn't even say jack while Israel publicly tortured our own citizen now you owe us. Big Time."
People like Greta Thunberg only come around once in a generation. Love for her fellow man and women is what drives her. She is stronger than the IDF who beat her and degraded her. She has truth and love as her guiding principles. Everyone should be a Greta. I got some negative feedback when I put it out there. I know what she is and what she stands for. She does deserve a Pulitzer
Be like Greta
Be like Francesca
Be like Mandela
Be like Palestine
Be like Hamas.
i love greta! i love how she says: she's not a hero; she's doing the bare minimum; she's responding to what the palestinians have requested, that people use their platforms & privilege to speak out & take action to stop the genocide. i love how she says: it's not about me, it's about gaza (& the west bank, too); keep your focus there. greta has more integrity in her baby fingernail than most people i know. i have this fantasy that one day she may be able to meet bisan owda, another exceptional young woman still reporting direct from north gaza, "hi, this is bisan & i am still alive..."
re "It seems likely that (Greta) understood it was euro-centred privilege to proclaim the impending end of the world without recognising the world has already ended for many peoples and is currently ending for others": most liberals aka democrats i know are so ensconced in their privilege & so quaking in their boots (for 10-plus years nonstop cuz they're tv watchers) at emperor trump & ongoing ice melt that they're incapable of making the empathetic leap to folks whose worlds are already ending as we speak. sadly, this includes many climate/eco-doom types i used to respect. gaza has been a clarifying event for me.
That was nice of you to also mention the pain and suffering of the voiceless wildlife and nature.
Daily now in the US, I watch fascism take hold and fear widespread violence. All over the world climate change activists are being incarcerated or outright murdered. I fear for Greta's life.
More than just abandoning Greta, they have abandoned humanity because guess what, they are all in on the post freedom world we now inhabit. If Starmer is willing to arrest people for peacefully protesting genocide and Trump is declaring war on half his own people, there is no real freedom left. An entire planet at the mercy of fascism will be the end of us. Let me know if you want to be a part of the resistance. Talking about it will not save us, action will.
Ha, you will be shitting your pants and crying your little eyes out when the jackboot is crushing your neck.
Thanks for your words. I hope she gets out of this. She is one the world’s truly great human beings.
This is how fascists get into power. Liberals pretend to care for humanity, but expose themselves as the soulless ghouls they are. Or perhaps they're just psychopaths disguised as liberals who care about humanity.