Divide and conquer has been the most successful strategy used by humans to attain and maintain power since ancient times. The concept is simple and effective in that those being ruled are too busy fighting amongst themselves to be capable of taking a step back and seeing the bigger picture. The bigger picture is that they are being intentionally played.
This strategy is being quite effectively employed by the American oligarchy against the American population. While racism and associated violence certainly still exist, as we recently saw in the South Carolina tragedy, this remains a marginal issue compared to the relentless, systemic and daily oligarch oppression against hundreds of millions of people. The issue of the 0.01% versus the 99.99% is almost never covered or hyped on mainstream media, while issues of “sexism” and “racism” are covered and exploited incessantly. Why is that? It’s divide and conquer stupid.
Naturally, the American plebs must be kept distracted and consumed by issues that, while important, pale in comparison to the major issue of our time: The financial oppression of everyone by a handful of oligarchs and their servants in Congress. Nothing will change as long as we continue to fight amongst ourselves for the diminishing scraps of a shrinking pie and remain incapable of seeing the true problem. The status quo understands this and leverages it more than anyone wishes to admit.
I’ve found that the saying: “It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled,” is 100% true. People who are ignorant really are ignorant. They don’t get it, and they don’t want to get it. Only a serious shock, often financial hardship, can get people to question the false paradigms they have accepted for years if not their entire lives. This is why I don’t expect real change to kick in until the next economic downturn arrives.
Before I share a video of the very eloquent, introspective and brave Byron Thomas, I want to make a few things clear. Personally, I find the Confederate Flag to be offensive. You can’t deny that to many people it elicits painful images of slavery and oppression. Personally, I don’t like looking at the flag and I wouldn’t want it around me. But this is my personal preference and perspective. If someone else wants to fly it because it means something about southern pride, racial bias, or whatever else, that is their right. The flag is a free speech issue. People have a right to offend me or anyone else. All that said, I do think whether or not it flies on state capitols is a fair and necessary debate.
However, is it the most existential issue facing American society today? Of course not. After all, we have a black President who has systematically funneled as much money as possible to the most entrenched wealthy elites in America, and has governed as if his top priority was a seamless continuation of the George W. Bush administration. If that doesn’t prove to you that symbols don’t really mean much in big picture, I don’t know what will. Symbols are just that, symbols.
As I quipped on Twitter yesterday:
“Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people”…and complete fucking idiots obsess about flags.
— Michael Krieger (@LibertyBlitz) June 24, 2015
Now watch the CNN interview. Whether or not you agree with his opinion, we should all agree to defend his right to have an opinion, and to do whatever he wants with a piece of colored cloth.
I believe this hype about the flag is just another attempt by the status quo to attack free speech in a crafty manner. Similar to the recent attack on blog comment sections, which I wrote about in the recent post:
The War on Free Speech – U.S. Department of Justice Subpoenas Reason.com Over Comment Section
In Liberty,
Michael Krieger
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Breathtakingly childish gibberish…
That flag represents centuries of of treating blacks as cattle, and a hundred years of racist hate in the south that still exists, (no matter what the idiot Ducey says) as evidenced in the comment section of every RW blog on the web… confederate flag fans one and all!
So you (those you support) get your RW black man to deny the obvious in the face of unspeakable tragedy… not too obvious at all…lol!
On the positive side, I’m sure this young man’s financial future has been secured… Fox Contributor?
Pathetic drivel.
That guy was interviewed on CNN – not Fox (whom, to your delight, with new ownership is shifting more to the left).
I’m glad the reporter that wrote the article got Byron’s name wrong and called him Bryan; when will the Byrons stop being oppressed?. It also good to ignore that “Racism in the North was entrenched as much slavery was in the South” Many in the North feared former slaves would move North[ their fear wasn’t realized until their supply of white immigrants ran out in WWI, That is when the Great Migration (1916-1970) began
And….who’s the real racist? Is it the person that holds a flag, wears a shirt, or talks negatively and it appears uninformed?
Well… I guess that’s in the eye the beholder. Thank God some racist old “white men and most people don’t know, black men” sat in a hot, stuffy, cramped, and very argumentative room in Philadelphia and wrote the Constitution, more correctly the Bill of Rights. Ironically, which started with Article I, freedom of speech, assembly, and practice of religion.
So… The flag you complain of, the person you criticize, and the organization you hate are all protected under the same. Oh and your writings also! Be careful, flag today, Redskins logo tomorrow, perhaps one day you and your thoughts/writings!
Think about it, it may just make sense to even the most ignorant amongst us!
A freedom fighting patriot
All the drivel is in your post. The “unspeakable tragedy” (which was a mass murder) had nothing to do with the Confederate flag. It had its sole source in the hatred of the fevered mind of the murderer.
The “racist hate” had been dissipating over time, as the honorable citizens of Charleston have demonstrated. But radical leftist hatemongers such as yourself are determined to keep it going. The current attack on the South is part of that same leftwing strategy.
You believe what you want but to me the Confederate Flag is a symbol of States rights that where trampled by Lincoln.
But I don’t get worked up over a symbol as I leave symbols to the symbol minded……..to paraphrase George Carlin.
This condescending ‘PC agenda’ lecture from a white woman to a black man that makes his own mind up and stands by his beliefs is exactly the racism we need to put behind us. She shows zero respect because he doesn’t get in line with the Sharpton agenda, she can’t possibly know what it’s like to presume to lecture – let’s forget about the color of his skin and respect him as a free man and learn from his insight about his heritage and history.
It is quite clear that the people who own and control this country see an economic collapse coming. They fear that the 99% will turn on them. They are desperately trying to create racial tensions in order to divide the country and increase their control. Oldest trick in the book.
The majority of you have eyes but cannot see. Divide and conquer. Simple.
“Personally, I find the Confederate Flag to be offensive.”
I think you ought to read this article from Paul Craig Roberts’ site, Mike:
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2015/07/03/guest-columns-jack-kerwick-ilana-mercer/
Good article. It proves the point, which is that the confederate flag means different things to different people. I completely respect the opinions of those authors, and I genuinely believe the flag means those very positive things to them. I also believe that it symbolizes other things to other people, especially many black people in the south, to whom it is a reminder of their ancestral slavery, whether other people believe that to be historically appropriate or not.
I don’t believe in flag banning and that’s my bigger point. My personal bias against the flag is most likely the result of my upbringing in the north. What I think when I see the flag should be of no consequence, since I defend the right of people who want to fly it, and that’s what’s really at stake here. Freedom of expression.
Agreed.
I grew up in the west, but of course also learned the victors’ version of this history. The version presented in the linked article, and by folks like DiLorenzo, have helped me come to an understanding of our history that makes a lot more sense, in my process of ‘deprogramming’.