The Blame Mongers

This is Not Helpful

The image above is going around social media. Maybe you have seen it. A critique of the people of the United States from a Greenlander. A lot of people on the left are beating their chests over it. It is demoralizing and the opposite of what we need right now.

The comments on these threads are off the hook. There seems to be a need for ritual shame. One man countered my demoralization argument by saying that if a woman states that “all men suck” or if a POC states that everything wrong on this planet is because of “white men in power” the only appropriate response is complete agreement. And in like manner, this man Lykke and all those so situated are victims of American Imperialism, which is directly OUR personal fault. So whatever accusation he makes must be met with complete agreement.

Let’s take these claims one by one. First of all --the only generalization this broad that can be taken seriously is that ALL such generalizations are, de facto, wrong. There is no “all” or “everything”.

As a woman, if I heard another woman make this blanket statement I would laugh in her face. The point is not that ALL men do or are anything in particular. The point is, we choose the bear because ANY man COULD, indeed, suck. And we can’t know with a cursory inspection, so we TREAT all as threats until status is determined.

The second one--White males in power are responsible for ALL the world’s ills. Yes, this is situationally true. But it does not follow that this is an inherent fault in ALL white men. Ninety nine percent of humans in power world wide are men. And due to western hegemony most of these men are white. So, yeah, the damage is coming from white men, because they comprise the whole set of people in power.

They own the harm, and they also own the good that is done at times. Some individuals do plenty of good. The problem is one of diversity. If there were representatives of ALL groups and categories in power, by race, by sex, by any and all orientations, the balance would shift. But there is a second layer--ALL of those chosen for leadership should be GOOD PEOPLE. For there are evil people in every category and when we choose the greedy and selfish to lead, whatever their other attributes, there will be trouble.

And that leaves us with the third item--the foreign victim of American aggression. And unless you believe that every child born a citizen of the United States is born with an “imperialist gene”, that simply makes no sense, for the reasons I outlined above.

Here is my argument against the sentiments expressed in the quote and amplified by certain voices on the left:

It is not merely that I didn’t vote for the guy. It is also that I worked my ass off throughout 2024 to get people to vote blue no matter who. And have spent every day since Deadly Tuesday pushing back in as many ways as one little old woman can push back. This goes far beyond simply refraining from pulling the lever for the fascist.

By itself, merely abstaining from actually putting this regime in power is, generally, not enough. It is the bare minimum. UNLESS you have to drive 3 hours to a polling place and stand in line for 10 hours while being harassed by thugs. Lykke goes further though. There is an implication that failure to stop him single handedly is as blame-worthy as voting MAGA.

This quote specifically notes “it is your responsibility to stop him”. Does Mr. Lykke believe that *I* personally have that responsibility and am simply shirking? I do not believe this statement can be interpreted that way. Doing so requires an impossibility and would therefore be ridiculous. I have done all in my power to stop MAGA. It did not work. Clearly I am simply not powerful enough for this mission.

If it does not mean that *I* personally should single handedly stop this regime, the only other interpretation is that WE collectively are responsible for ending the regime. In THAT case, any of us who is beating our head daily against that edifice IS, by definition, taking responsibility. Which is what Mr. Lykke has asked of us.

People in other countries have every right to be angry at the Regime. But I do not have to personally absorb that anger and neither does anyone else who is doing the hard work of resistance. Blaming any regular citizen for failing to single handedly defeat MAGA is tantamount to blaming Anne Frank for failing to defeat the Nazi Regime. We do not blame Anne Frank.

Once again the left punches itself in the face. Nobody enjoys a guilt-fest more than the sanctimonious wing of the progressive left.

But, why do I say this is demoralizing? For that, I must turn first to the 2024 election itself. I have already written about institutional rigging the very real specter of a stolen election that went unchallenged.

The regime has a popularity that sits around 30%, and this has been true for some time. The vast majority do not support this regime. A truly free and fair election would prove it. A corrupt Supreme Court saw fit to gut the Voters Rights Act of 1965 and to give us unlimited dark money in Citizens United. That is enough to seize power without mechanical rigging. You simply cannot blame the citizens of a country for a coup of this type.

But most of the left has moved on from that. Whether this regime was seated legitimately under the current rules, semi-legitimately, or the result of a plainly stolen election, the people who identify as the resistance began working with the reality of the situation immediately.

And as hard as we worked to prevent it, we are working twice as hard to fix what has been done. I have earned the right to say “not in my name”. And if you are actively resisting, so have you.

One critic in these threads noted that we SHOULD be in the streets 24/7 by the millions for as long as it takes. I have written several times that this may be the ONLY way we win. By a prolonged general strike, a prolonged GENERAL boycott, and our bodies in the streets in massive numbers. Most of us agree on that.

So why isn’t it happening?

For that, we must address the race to the bottom. The fastest growing class in our “classless” society is the nouveau poor. The middle class is gasping for air. The already poor are now destitute. Many are caring for their sick and disabled while working two jobs. One woman wrote that this is all well and good, but she is 5 miles down a snow packed dirt road before she gets to a paved road, and 25 more miles before there is anything resembling a street to be in to protest. And she still needs to eat.

THAT is what is demoralizing. If you lump everyone together and accuse us all of being complicit when we are practically wasting ourselves trying to do something we really can’t do by ourselves, that is abusive. It is bullying.

And it may just push a bunch of hard workers back to their stoop to drink a Forty and watch the world burn. I would prefer the penthouse and champagne but that is out of reach these days.

Why should we stand out in the cold, sitting ducks for an ICE attack, if we are all still shit anyhow?

That, however, is not my response to this nonsense. My response is to call it out, then ignore it. If you LIKE punching yourself in the face, go ahead. But you will be staying far away from MY face. I hope the rest of the resistance will do likewise. We have serious work to do.