I had the same thought about terrorism and its effectiveness. Maybe you could think of it as like John Brown hoping to spark something? Although, again, womp-womp. as it were.
I agree with almost everything you say here, but i’m having trouble with the idea that thompson was a cog “like everyone else.” i agree that he was not really free (the same way Baldwin talks about white freedom riders’ privilege being contingent on their obedience to the system), but he had mastered the system to such a degree that he and his family were motivated in unusual ways to keep it going and, as Musk says, “ruthlessly“ extract profit. if class means anything, isn’t that what it means? on the one hand, meme/social media culture has absorbed this event and turned into an “event” the way it does everything. but on the other hand, it is really hard for me not to feel refreshed at the willingness to shed pieties and speak ill of the dead when maybe it’s appropriate to acknowledge the ill they have done. and on top of that, there seems to be at least a hint of class solidarity in many of the responses. sorting the substance from the performance might be impossible, unfortunately, and that’s a problem both with terrorism as such and with the media-fication of the act, which brings to mind White Noise.
Ineffectuality is cheap and plentiful in these United States. If you know of any effectuality around, please point to it.
I can't see the victim as an innocent man. I see him as an untouchable protected by law who profits from sickness and death, much like the Sacklers (also untouchable), now retired somewhere, whose grandchildren and great grandchildren will all be millionaires at birth.
Respectfully seems like an all-too-easy take on the matter. The number and scope of people I've seen take the bull right by the horns on this shooting, unapologetically say they see this as a singular act of violence responding to structural violence is unprecedented. People I've known for years as quite conventionally liberal practically became novitiate dialectical materialists overnight. It feels like a meaningful shift at least in the conversation.
Obviously the act is not strategically sound, obviously it invites worse repression and creates an exigency for the state and ruling class. But that was all inevitable anyway. The question for me is what's going on in this moment and I'm 57 years old and this feels like a significant moment. And it's try or die anyway.
I don't recall the glee towards Joe Stack being quite so ecumenical nor widespread.
Mostly I guess I hear Mike Duncan's voice saying "Did they take the hint? Of course not."
I recall little reaction. Though this was in the era of listservs and Usenet, before the explosion of big social media.
I had the same thought about terrorism and its effectiveness. Maybe you could think of it as like John Brown hoping to spark something? Although, again, womp-womp. as it were.
I agree with almost everything you say here, but i’m having trouble with the idea that thompson was a cog “like everyone else.” i agree that he was not really free (the same way Baldwin talks about white freedom riders’ privilege being contingent on their obedience to the system), but he had mastered the system to such a degree that he and his family were motivated in unusual ways to keep it going and, as Musk says, “ruthlessly“ extract profit. if class means anything, isn’t that what it means? on the one hand, meme/social media culture has absorbed this event and turned into an “event” the way it does everything. but on the other hand, it is really hard for me not to feel refreshed at the willingness to shed pieties and speak ill of the dead when maybe it’s appropriate to acknowledge the ill they have done. and on top of that, there seems to be at least a hint of class solidarity in many of the responses. sorting the substance from the performance might be impossible, unfortunately, and that’s a problem both with terrorism as such and with the media-fication of the act, which brings to mind White Noise.
and by the way, I had really missed your posts to LBO-Talk until I stumbled across you on Substack. always illuminating.
Your name rings a bell. Nice to reconnect.
Ineffectuality is cheap and plentiful in these United States. If you know of any effectuality around, please point to it.
I can't see the victim as an innocent man. I see him as an untouchable protected by law who profits from sickness and death, much like the Sacklers (also untouchable), now retired somewhere, whose grandchildren and great grandchildren will all be millionaires at birth.
Respectfully seems like an all-too-easy take on the matter. The number and scope of people I've seen take the bull right by the horns on this shooting, unapologetically say they see this as a singular act of violence responding to structural violence is unprecedented. People I've known for years as quite conventionally liberal practically became novitiate dialectical materialists overnight. It feels like a meaningful shift at least in the conversation.
Obviously the act is not strategically sound, obviously it invites worse repression and creates an exigency for the state and ruling class. But that was all inevitable anyway. The question for me is what's going on in this moment and I'm 57 years old and this feels like a significant moment. And it's try or die anyway.
Always appreciate your posts.