Barbelith Underground > Switchboard

My name has been mentioned rather a lot in this thread and I think I thus have a right to defend myself against a number of rather large assumptions that have been made about me.

I might dislike the way Nina made her criticisms and then acknowledged that they were indefensible and that she doesn't care, they're true anyway*

Now this is a perfectly fine thing to say and indeed I have admitted that my words were lazy or rather in my writing in the thread that inspired this block of posts that seem to have got precisely nowhere I did not use the word "some." Quite how this would have clarified my position, which I outline below, is unclear to me.

I would argue that most people in the western world (where censorship is not rife and a good proportion of us have access to the tool that is the internet, I include people who could but don't) are complicit in the actions of our governments simply because we can find out what is going on and we do very little about it on a daily basis. There is a thread for activism in the Switchboard and the very fact that few barbelith members have posted to it suggests to me that there is not much activism going on with us. That I was specifically talking about the US, a country that frankly is engaging in abhorrent actions right now on a tremendous scale hardly means that I do not consider these things true of other countries and their populations as well. That this was assumed I think says as much about those who have assumed I would talk only about one country in that way as it does about my original post.

So am I biased against America? No. I am biased against capitalist-democracy. To compound my views on it in some simple words I think it is a load of bullshit. My boyfriend calls me a Leninist. Am I going to be polite about the whole crock of shit that is the political system in the USA, Britain and the various other countries around this world that are constantly attacking each other and the very nature of the planet? No because I personally judge that the situation frankly does not deserve a polite response. Could I think of anything to do that would contribute to the downfall of this horrendous, biased and unfortunate system I would do it. Unfortunately the people who agree with me tend to be members of the SWP an organisation that is primarily incoherent.

I think barbelith is disgustingly liberal on these issues. Any anti-American sentiment that is touted here is almost always directed at the administration currently in power. I do not feel that it is entirely accurate as the government was democratically elected and people who vote really should accept the blame for those they elect (clearly we do not have many Bush voters here so my thoughts on that specific element aren't really directed at anyone present. However I find it a bit rich not to blame that part of the electorate). I feel about as much sympathy for the population of the country as I feel for myself in these situations (as in the Blair government holding power) and that amounts to none because I am not behaving like Brian Haw who is bearing a load for a significant number of us who do not sacrifice ourselves for our beliefs. Does this stop me from criticising others? No, I can only accept that to an extent I too have been useless (and I have not sat idly at home either. Letters, money and a very large amount of time has been devoted to a number of causes on these issues).

I am lucky (please note the use of that word this time), as I have already pointed out, in that a number of people with actual authority have put a stop on schemes like 90 day detention in the UK. I would be a complete fucking moron if I didn't regard this as luck because I don't believe that the British population is any less ignorant than the American one. I do live in a country that systematically elected Maggie Thatcher, who despite a chorus of disbelief from some quarters, was indeed worse than Blair in the social policy put to her name.

I will not pretend that this does not all come across as a little arrogant but my political views are born of a great deal of logical thought over a long period of time. I believe in a cohesive system that protects people. I criticise America and the American population primarily because I believe that the system is cohesive but built on the opposite of protection of both its citizens and the larger world. When I look at the USA my communist soul shudders in horror. I see a country with a grossly outdated social infrastructure, a huge and largely unrecognised class divide as highlighted by the events in New Orleans earlier this year, a law that falls in favour of all weapons of destruction whether they are small handguns or nuclear weapons, no proper taxation and a non-existent environmental policy. The UK in contrast I view as a country that is not cohesive, that too often currently relies on those who were not elected to bar the way to terrible things.

In short everyone on barbelith may find it confirmed that I am biased against American policy and a significant proportion of the population of that country and that I am also biased against Britain and very probably every single country on this planet.

Bias and politics