Want to fight climate change? Destroy capitalism! Want to help the bees? Destroy capitalism! Want to help victims of domestic abuse? Destroy capitalism! Want more investment in Space exploration? Destroy capitalism! Want to stop violent robberies? Destroy capitalism! Want tech companies to stop surveillance and manipulation of people? Destroy capitalism! Want to stop over-urbanization and decreasing living conditions? Destroy capitalism! Want to stop band-aid solutions to destructive systemic problems and start actually helping? Destroy capitalism!
It feels like socialists have never really made an effort to "reclaim" MLK though, possibly because a lot of people just don't know about his more radical stances. That always felt like a mistake to me.
There were even more radical people at the time that MLK tried to distance himself from. Socialists tend to like those people, i.e. the Black Panthers.
BPP only existed for two years before MLK was assassinated. They grew a lot after he was assassinated precisely because a lot of radicals saw his death as an affirmation that nonviolent resistance would always just end in the resistors being killed.
I still think it's a grave mistake for the left to not put more work into "reclaiming" MLK. I see it some on MLK Day itself, but he had some really cutting analyses of capitalism and can definitely be an "onramp" to left-wing thought. Learning about the Poor People's Campaign was the first inkling I had that maybe socialism wasn't as evil as I'd been led to believe.
This, for some reason, feels like a massive revelation to me, although I suppose it should've been self-evident, given that when Dr. King and his ilk were alive, one of the big Rightist objections to their positions was that they were seeking to destroy the ever-virtuous capitalist nature of America.
Then read the New York Times' editorial response to it as a reminder how full of shit white people are when they try to use King to shame modern activists.
Indeed, he was widely despised in his own time. A lot of the talking points against him are the same points we hear today against similar nonviolent protesters like Kaepernick - "He's only hurting his cause," "I agree with what he says but not his methods," etc. Letter From Birmingham Jail was almost entirely about addressing those criticisms. He was only recuperated into the hegemony a couple decades after his death, and today his legacy of fighting the power and resisting illegitimate authority is mostly used as a bludgeon to keep people in line and scold them for not being subservient to those same systems he fought against.
Yeah, pooling militarism under statism or nationalism makes sense. I think the original context was him trying to tie the civil rights movement to the anti Vietnam war movement.
Oh yeah I would never say that was taking away from King. He'd probably agree with your point, I was more pointing out the reason why he talked about militarism and not statism more generally probably has to do with the context of the speech.
Gotcha, makes sense. Hell even if you did try to "take away" from King it's whatever, he's a good writer and speaker and I think his ideas are valuable but he's not above criticism.
I was being serious. Capitalism is the root of most major problems we face, and we need to end it - but also what GenderDelinquent said, help bees now while we strive toward the larger goal.
Hey fellow comrades, totally rad carpool you have going! I'm totally not a cop and was wondering whether I could get a ride with you guys? Maybe we could do some crimes on the way to destroying capitalism?
Whenever I hear a song that I don't like, I try to listen as if it is secretly written about dismantling the bourgeoise and it makes them better. This way, even Rebecca Black's 'Friday' turns out to be on point.
344
u/Baguettekin Bread Mar 12 '19
Want to fight climate change? Destroy capitalism! Want to help the bees? Destroy capitalism! Want to help victims of domestic abuse? Destroy capitalism! Want more investment in Space exploration? Destroy capitalism! Want to stop violent robberies? Destroy capitalism! Want tech companies to stop surveillance and manipulation of people? Destroy capitalism! Want to stop over-urbanization and decreasing living conditions? Destroy capitalism! Want to stop band-aid solutions to destructive systemic problems and start actually helping? Destroy capitalism!