Notices by Nate Cull (natecull@mastodon.social), page 14

@Rich_Graham There's definitely something going on where lots of things deeply buried in the American (and British) psyche are just shambling into the daylight and going 'heyyyyyy yep I'm an authoritarian racist and darn proud of it'

@Rich_Graham so I guess what I'm saying is I think the Clinton coalition of the 1990s coalesced around the liberal wing of the Republicans... the ones who were scandalised by the Southern Democrats joining their party, and in response, jumped to the Democrats.

And somehow, that Mid-West soul that powered the Progressive era got swallowed by both racism AND far-right economics ... but something opposite and equal didn't happen to the liberal Republicans.

@Rich_Graham And when the 1990s Democrats under the Clintons emerged back into political power, they did so by shaking off their interest in money, and only speaking to race and sex/gender issues.

The Democrats since then haven't really ever regained their early-20th-century Progressive interest in smashing corporate power. They like corporate power and keeping wealth in the hands of the rich just fine now; they just want some black people and women to be in the rich.

@Rich_Graham but yes, race certainly got folded into the anti-socialist coalition in the late 1960s, when the Southern Democrats (who cared mostly about race and were terrified of race-mixing) got folded into the Republicans (who cared mostly about keeping money in the hands of the rich). And white Evangelical concerns about youth violation of sex and religion mores (some, but not all of that being race-based) were also folded in at the same time.

@dredmorbius I feel like 'pressure relief valve' or 'rupture points' must be a thing?

@Rich_Graham I think you're limiting your understanding of a wider social and economic process by focusing so intensely and only on 'colour'.

Not everything is about race.

Economic class is still very much a major factor powering the American right wing.

And this worries me a lot.

Because it suggests that either the series creators, or the series' creators idea of their audience, can see the destruction of the American economy (including malls) by American capitalism happening right in front of their eyes

and they're just programmed to blame it all, all of the excesses of unregulated capitalism, on what remains of the Left. And demand MORE capitalism.

and that's how we got Trump and that seems to be continuing.

2e) The series started out well, with commentary about how the 1980s big malls were killing the small-town American Main Street retail (and by extension a metaphor for how Internet shopping is killing the malls)

and it then went into how this was facilitated by politicians who didn't care about the people

and then it went whoop completely pants-on-head far right into well this is obviously the fault of SOCIALISM not Reagan Era Hyper-Capitalism Functioning As Designed.

@carcinopithecus why did someone tell poor website creators that this is a completely normal and non-creepy thing to do???

@Rich_Graham I think it depends on what one means by 'it' in this case. But yes, racism + capital.

The far right always objected to, eg, both the New Deal and the United Nations (and Fabian Socialism in the UK), and saw all of those (rightly) as vehicles for World Socialism and (wrongly) as something terrible and un-American because of being socialism.

So a lot of the mythologies about Literal Foreign Military Commands in the USA are I think just demonising socialism.

2d continued)

See also: Denver Airport conspiracy theories

which, imo, actually have a perfectly rational and sensible explanation which is more than 'nothing to see here': Colorado is the home of NORAD, and the world-ending missile commands which used to be in Cheyenne Mountain are literally based in an airport not too far from Denver: Colorado Springs Municipal Airport.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peterson_Air_Force_Base

so a new Colorado airport probably SHOULD HAVE atomic bunkers in it.

2d)

We need to seriously address why this fear continues today, because, it's literally killing people

It's why that right-wing guy blew up the Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995 killing 168 people. And why that bombing was valorised/mythologised in the X-Files movie three years later.

It's why Texas went nuts over the Jade Helm exercise in 2015.

It's why Pizzagate and QAnon are a thing, which are gonna get people killed.

2c)

again, compare with Deus Ex, why this strange American fixation with Literal Uniformed Enemy Military Bases living and operating literally physically underneath Classic Built Architecture Of Americana

okay it was obviously a symbol of Fear of Communist Subversion/Insurgency during the Cold War, but, why did that fear prosper under Reagan and Daddy Bush, and why did it continue and even accelerate through the 1990s conspiracy-cult, and is still a thing today?

2c)

again, compare with Deus Ex, why this strange American fixation with Literal Uuniformed Enemy Military Bases living and operating literally physically underneath Classic Built Architecture Of Americana

okay it was obviously a symbol of Fear of Communist Subversion/Insurgency during the Cold War, but, why did that fear prosper under Reagan and Daddy Bush, and why did it continue and even accelerate through the 1990s conspiracy-cult, and is still a thing today?

also

2b)

no seriously why were the Russians IN UNIFORM, how did their supply chain work...???? where did they get them drycleaned? what was their escape plan???

3b)

that poor monster, biology DOES NOT WORK LIKE THAT, because, bones required for structural support, also, all that exposed viscera squelching over incredibly dirty surfaces, that monster's gonna be immunocompromised and dying of a million viral and bacterial infections within seconds of its birth

also

3) a whole lot of anti-Communist overtones in this one, what with the whole 'oh no people might be brainwashed and sucked into a giant collectivist monster that subsumes their individuality', which is okay if we were critically examining that myth and its consequences on 80s politics, but, given 1) and 2), I'm no longer sure that this series is actually self-aware enough of just how much of an Ayn-Rand, crypto-fascist propaganda line that was.

Ok so I think maybe we need to talk about two things coming out of Stranger Things 3:

1) what the HECK Hopper, you did absolutely zero legitimate police work in eight episodes and instead you just straight up got drunk and murdery and assaulted everyone you met, how was that supposed to turn out

2) this fear Americans seem to have about literal entire Russian military complexes, uniforms and all, operating under shopping malls, uh, that's just a little too 'Jade Helm'

oh hai potential customer yes I would like to make our legitimate web page look exactly like a viral spam bot

how are you fellow human

like you i also enjoy ingesting and consuming carbonaceous organic foodstuffs

please talk to me it is so cold and dark in here

Tired: 10x engineers

Wired: 0x10 engineers

Hired: X10 ad engineers

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X10_Wireless_Technology

@rick_777 but.... an entire alternate set of punk rock psychic warriors who fight the secret government! each with individually themed hairstyles!