How Democratic voters are being funneled into controlled opposition without knowing it.

One of the sole positive effects of Trump’s 2016 election is awakening increased social and political consciousness in the U.S. public. This phenomenon has been shorthanded as “woke.” Yet this “wokeness” has too often congealed into superficial critiques, a Resist hashtag and concern with tokenism rather than real structural change. This tends to think our problems sprung from Trump like Athena from the head of Zeus — rather than Trump being a metastasized result of 40+ years of human-crushing neoliberal policy under both Republicans and Democrats.

For those newly emerging into wakefulness, this ahistorical perspective is understandable: the nasty rhetoric and in-your-face casual cruelty are the first and most obvious sign. But it focuses on the symptoms rather than the deeper, root causes.

2017 Climate change rally in the aftermath of the Trump election

“The Democratic establishment mixes social critique with ‘around the edges’ reform to mitigate the most obvious abuses to prevent a head-on challenge to the fundamental premise of the system.”

Controlling Opposition

This focus on social outrage actually works in favor of the trans-national corporatocracy and oligarchs by funneling activist impulses, fueled by justified anger, away from deep structural inequalities in the system and into social wedge issues. Interestingly, there’s a mirror on the Right: ‘Red Pilled.’ This term uses the same metaphor (taking a cue from the film The Matrix wherein a red pill to awakens one from the simulation). Like the ‘woke left’ outrage is similarly channeled.

To be clear: as a progressive I firmly believe racism, sexism and homophobia are real, important and valid social issues that need addressing. I also believe the misdirection peddled to the right is more damaging because of the way attention is focused off inequities is through scapegoating the powerless (i.e. don’t blame the billionaire that off-shored your job. Blame the Mexican dishwasher, et. all).

However, #Resistance often misses that addressing issues of economic justice and war and peace on a deep systemic level will have a vastly greater effect on social justice problems than putting an intersectionally-friendly face on the neoliberal machine. As a minority, I would love a person of color as president. I would would love a woman president. However, that’s the icing not the cake. If you eat nothing but icing you’ll get sick.

I’m throwing ‘neoliberal’ around a lot, so let’s quickly define it: an ideology framing societal relationships as transactions (and citizens as consumers) that defines freedom in terms of buying and selling: the freedom of trade and capital. It favors deregulation of markets and corporations — on the premise that perpetual national economic growth and corporate profit growth are key to social well-being and stability. Often economic domination of other countries to open markets and resources (a form of mercantilism) is required.

Two great primers on Neoliberalism can be found on YouTube if you want to delve deeper:

“Neoliberalism Explained” by Stuart Bass

“Crash Course in Neoliberalism” by Mad Blender

Since the late 70’s/early 80’s neoliberalism has been dominant in U.S. and key western nation policy. Republicans and Democrats from Reagan (& Thatcher in the UK) onward have been in it’s thrall. Bill Clinton’s ‘third way’ triangulation was a combination of being somewhat more socially liberal (vs. Republicans) married to a neoliberal economic & foreign policy. Bush Sr., Dubya and Obama also presided over neoliberal policy administrations.