The biggest danger to the US is fascism, not communism. Actual communism, is vanishingly rare in the US and for Trump and the other fascists to pretend that opponents are communists in hock to Karl Marx, is a lie of massive proportions. theguardian.com 1/🧵
www.theguardian.com
I don't go along with any sort of ideology. But let's be clear about this, actual communists are quite open about their beliefs, and those just on the left, progressives, Greens etc, are not all secret communists. This is just an Orwellian lie to justify political violence and repression. 2/ There is a tendency on the right, to label anyone, not of their ilk as communists or Marxists. When the reality is the modern populist right, are much, much closer to 1930s fascists, than progressives are to communists. Especially the lies they use to attack political opponents. 3/ I have nothing personally against communists and Marxists, it is as legitimate as any other ideology, it is just that personally, I don't believe any ideology works, because of the inherent problems in all ideology i.e. a cult like tendency to interpret everything in terms of that ideology. 4/ You see, all ideologies, whether they be right, centre, left etc, presume that all the problems and answers are already known. Life, reality ecology, is not like that. Ideology destroys rational thinking, and stops effective problem-solving. All the answers are not already known. 5/ Effective problem-solving, especially as regards something like the climate and ecological emergency, requires total open mindedness, because often what seems like a good idea, an effective solution, in advance, doesn't work in practise. So you must be willing to re-evaluate your approach. 6/ In fact, this tendency for people to mistakenly believe they already know everything, has been the biggest failing of modern human thinking, since powerful individuals first took over our civilizations, thousands of years ago. It is strongly tied up with power, dictators. 7/ No one, knows everything in advance, this is a flimflam. This is the problem with organized religion, which is a type of ideology. Each religion claims to be the right one, to know everything and all others are wrong. No one has this ability, it is delusional, egoism. It's a delusion of power. 8/ If anyone tells you that they know all the answers, their ideology is the true way, then you are dealing with either a con-artist, or a delusional megalomaniac. Capitalism is as flawed as communism. Neither are right, they are all singing and dancing nonsense. 9/ Effective problem-solving requires you to first acknowledge there is a problem. So take the climate and ecological emergency. It requires acknowledging burning fossil fuels is leading to climate change, and that we are systematically destroy our natural life support systems and biodiversity. 10/ The modern right, want you to believe that even acknowledging the existence of anthropogenic climate change, and the destruction of our natural life support systems is ideological. No, this is classic Orwellian doublethink. It's right wing denial that is ideological, not recognition of reality. 11/ The correct way to effective problem-solving is first acknowledging what the problem is, and the obvious causes of it are, with no ideological preconceptions to cloud your mind. So you can't solve the climate and ecological emergency by coming up with a big plan now. 12/ To solve a problem like this climate and ecological emergency, you have to first acknowledge what the clear problem is, and that is that the mass burning of fossil fuels and other anthropological processes, is altering the climate. That systematic destruction of biodiversity is happening. 13/ The simplest solution to a problem is just to stop doing what is causing the problem. So with say smoking, the simple solution to the problem is to stop smoking, not to try and come up with a clever way of continuing to smoke without the negative health effects. 14/ It's only if you have an ideological preconception, that we must burn fossil fuels, have profligate energy use, must systematically destroy natural systems to create wealth, that it becomes a wicked problem. This is the inherent failing of all ideology. 15/ If you approach the problem rationally, using an effective problem-solving approach, you start off by acknowledging that systematically destroying the Earth's natural life support systems, is a stupid thing to do. It really is that simple. Not finding a way of how to have your cake and eat it. 16/ As I say, anyone claiming to already have a plan, all the solutions, beyond not doing what is causing the problem is either delusional, or a con-artist, because ecological reality does not work like that. Life, ecological relationships, evolves of time, not with it already known. 17/ Recognising the problem is far, far, far more important, than coming up with a plan to solve it. Effective problem-solving starts of with acknowledging what the problem is, stopping what is causing the problem, and starting afresh, bit by bit. 18/ Claiming you know everything, have a great big plan how to do things right, is the product of a megalomaniac, dreaming of great power, if only they can hope to con humanity into accepting their ideology, which they control, to get ultimate power. Ideology is a vehicle for power, not a solution. 19/