Stalin or Hitler? Is THAT our choice, Mr Chris Hedges? by Ray Zwarich

To all the Really Good Ones, and to all in peril on land or sea:

27 days to go. In his most recent brilliant article, Professor Michael Rectenwald reports that almost two-thirds of adult Americans, (about 128 million of us), fully expect that all-out civil war will erupt after the election, regardless of which side wins. Fully one third of us, (about 64 million people, divided almost perfectly evenly between both sides), hate the opposing side SO much that they eagerly believe that violence against their opponents is both justified and desirable.

As we saw in the course of its recent rounds of mob violence, the blatantly fascist Identitarian American Left began to move beyond riots, burning, looting, and general destruction in commercial/public districts, and began marching into suburban neighborhoods to threaten the general pop[ulation with its ugly racist hatred. As I have noted in the past, it is one thing, (and frightening enough to people), to see the orange glow of burning Social Chaos in the distant night sky, but quite another thing entirely when people see the actual flames rising over the rooftops, with crazed leftist mobs moving their way.

The crazed cult-ideology that comprises the American Identitarian Left is far too myopically stupid to 'see' that its violent and hateful antics are being orchestrated by its own professed Enemy's wholly-owned and wholly-controlled Mass Media. The American Marionette Left is dancing gratuitously on the ends of its own Enemy's strings. When the Left's cunning and immensely powerful Enemy finally goads and lures the Left fully into its trap, (invading the neighborhoods? can these people really be THAT stupid? Apparently, and sadly, so), The Police, (under the command of whichever of their officers have won their personal loyalty, with government authority having disintegrated), will then move in to 'restore order', and the Common People, (of all races, and genders, and 'identities'), will either cheer, or secretly (and somewhat guiltily) sigh in relief, as the hateful leftist-fascist goon mobs are cut down, and naked right-wing fascism rises to power. 

THAT is how Fascism rises. It rises 'over chaos', and the American Marionette Left is just too hampered (crazed) by its own warped cult-ideology to even 'see' how it is being so obviously 'used' in its own Enemy's cunning and skillfully executed plan to create the necessary chaos. 

Even the Left's most brilliant commentators seem totally blind to how obviously the Left is being 'used', and likewise, they seem totally blind to what is coming. 

I have long highly admired and valued Chris Hedges' work, for example. Mr. Hedges' long-demonstrated brilliance and eloquence in describing such things as "the psycho-pathology of The Rich", and/or the murderous cruelties of our Capitalist economic/political system, are unsurpassed by any other commentator. Unfortunately, however, despite his brilliant, (albeit blindly tribal), vision of 'the other', he fashions himself into just another run-of-the-mill bigot* by striking himself blind and dumb to the glaring faults of his own chosen 'side', the blatantly anti-democratic, blatantly totalitarian, blatantly Stalinist tyranny of Political Correctness being promoted by the blatantly racist, and blatantly sexist Identitarian American Left. 

[* big·ot·ry
/ˈbiɡətrē/
  1. intolerance toward those who hold different opinions from oneself.

  2. Copied and pasted from an online dictionary. Most people anymore don't really even know the definition of this word.]

I think Chris Hedges is among our finest, most clear-thinking commentators. (A portentous statement, fraught with peril, but true). Although I do agree with his thesis in his latest article, (that fascism is rising, and that Christian ‘extremists’ are a major faction behind this dangerous rise), it is tragic, to a less myopically biased observer, (than him), that like the Marxist-inspired Identitarian Left he so avidly supports and represents, he is willfully blind to the "bad moon rising", to the naked fascism rising on the Left.

There is no hint in this article that Mr. Hedges even makes any attempt, at all, to be ‘objective’, or to ‘see’ a bigger picture than the myopically biased one-sided analysis he presents here, which, of course, serves his OWN ‘religious’ identitarian cult ideology to a 'T'.

In full spite of the considerable degree of ‘wisdom’ that Mr. Hedges has gathered, he exposes its limits at the very point at which he abandons objective ‘journalism’, or any pretence of objective/scientific inquiry and Reason, to proselytize for the religiosity of his OWN ideological belief system. This is the same point at which he abandons his own moral principles to claim ‘righteousness’, (clearly claiming to be 'without sin' as he arrogantly casts his 'first stones'). This is the point at which he expresses his self-righteous contempt for other people’s deeply held moral beliefs. And this is the point at which he makes of himself just another stupid human, just another black iron pot, expressing his self-righteous moral contempt for any black iron kettles adhering to the ideological cult religiosity of THEIR black iron belief systems.

Mr. Hedges writes:

“All fascist and totalitarian movements paper over their squalid belief systems with the veneer of morality. They mouth pieties about restoring law and order, right and wrong, the sanctity of life, civic and family virtues, patriotism and tradition to mask their dismantling of the open society and silencing and persecution of those who oppose them”.

It’s stunning to witness that such a brilliant writer could be so willfully blind that he would fail to ‘see’, even as he wrote them, the immense, and VERY obvious, irony in his own words. He clearly fails, (pretty much completely), to understand the magnitude of our predicament, as we, the Common People, are forced to witness various totalitarian factions, including the blatantly Stalinist (politically correct) Identitarian Left, vie with one another for power.

The brilliant Chris Hedges wants us to choose Stalin over Hitler? … Hmm … As just a dumb common man, (among the Common People), I’m gonna have t’ scratch my head awhile on that one, Mr. Hedges. (Thanks for the suggestion, though).

The extreme Christian Right may indeed be dangerous, but to the majority of the nation’s yeomen folk, to the majority of us Common People, the Right is no more (nor any less) dangerous, not one whit, than Mr. Hedges’ cherished Identitarian Stalinist Left.

Just to repeat one time, (for emphasis), to us common folk, there is no more dangerous totalitarian faction in this nation than the Politically Correct Identity Politics American Left. These people are clearly, (from the perspective of people at least trying to be rational), ‘crazed’. They have clearly 'drunk the kool-aid' of a crazed cult ideology, and they are clearly under the influence of their unrestrained, and completely irrational, mob emotions.

Let’s just change a few words from Mr. Hedges’ myopically biased and religiously self-serving quote above:

“All fascist and totalitarian movements paper over their squalid belief systems with the veneer of morality. They mouth pieties about social justice, right and wrong, and, above all, about the sanctity of politically correct, and blatantly racist, and blatantly sexist, Identity Politics, to mask their dismantling of the open society and silencing and persecution of those who oppose them,”

“Cancel culture” anyone? As we, the Common People, watch our nation ruled by the Mass Media-fueled hysteria of rival mobs, how many will vote 'Hitler', how many will vote 'Stalin', and how many will say "a pox on all these totalitarian houses", and search to find some other way?

Does Mr. Hedges REALLY think that the naked fascism from the ‘religious’ cult that comprises the extremist ‘abolish the police’ Identitarian Bolshevik Left, seems more preferable to us Common People, than that from the opposing religious cult of Christian extremism?

Well, as I read this article, from this truly brilliant writer, only to see him behave like a stupid black iron pot, condemning the black iron kettle, for being black, it seems obvious than despite whatever wisdom Mr Hedges has “gathered from coincidence”, (like ole Baby Blue himself), he does not even begin to understand the events happening around him from anything even resembling a reasoned and rational, (i.e.: objective) perspective.

He’s a keenly brilliant observer of general conditions. His analysis of Capitalism is laser sharp. But he obviously cannot “see himself as others see him”. (R Burns). He cannot inhabit other people's perspectives. "Know the Enemy, and know thyself", saith ole Sun Tzu. For all his brilliance, Mr. Hedges cannot inhabit the perspective of those he holds in moral contempt, and he is blind to his own faction's fatally egregious faults.

Only self-awareness can save us, in this, (Humanity's), hour of existential danger. Mr. Hedges’ myopic self-serving bias only exposes the limits of his ability to 'see' anything from beyond his own point of view. As a ‘public intellectual’, he embarrasses himself here, as he reveals himself to be, in full spite of the wisdom he has to offer, a major part of the problem, rather than any part of the solution.

Folks is jes’ folks, Mr. Hedges. From where I sit, (out here groveling among the Common Folk), you sure look like just another poor dumb human to me, (just like me). As such, as just another dumb creature, (like me), your arrogantly overbearing self-righteousness is EVERY BIT as distressing and dangerous, and EVERY BIT as morally repugnant, as ANY emanating from the Right.

Us Common People are caught between a deadly dangerous rock, and a fatal hard place. Stalin or Hitler? Uhhhh … I’ll get back t’ ya on that, Mr. Hedges. Me and some other folks are trying to work out some sane/coherent alternatives to all these totalitarian 'crazies' that have us surrounded. 

Caliban

R Zwarich
Bent Birch Farm
63 Webber Rd
Brookfield, MA 01506