Capitalism and its marketing apparatus constantly tell us that we need to buy consumer goods in order to be fully viable human beings. But then they only give a few people the ability to buy those coveted items. Why are they surprised when people decide to loot them?
Ironically, the authorities who say that the police aren’t brutal deploy the police to beat up demonstrators against police brutality. Talk about making a point for you.
When protests are non-violent, the media doesn’t cover them. When protests are non-violent, politicians ignore them.
Can Joe Biden win a presidential campaign from his basement on a small screen without anyone watching? We’re about to find out. Of course, it’s not like most people ever get to interact with the candidates anyway. It’s just that television seems more “real” than the Internet.
The word “quarantine” comes from the Italian term for 40 days because that was the longest time that people were believed to be able to withstand lockdown before they started to lose it. Now we are starting to see why. Is it really life if you can’t live it?
Most people want to get back to the “normal” that prevailed before the COVID-19 pandemic, but others are looking at the police and the murder of George Floyd. They are still killing people of color, just as they always have.
Many Americans bemoan the normalcy before the lockdown prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Until we can get back to normalcy, however, we can do all the things that make America America by using technology.
In the two-party trap of electoral democracy in the United States, people who vote for a third-party or not at all are constantly told that their choice not to support one of those two candidates necessarily leads to the victory of the other one. Here’s an analogy that might help drive a stake through that ridiculous idea.
Even liberal Democrats are unwilling to provide real relief to distressed homeowners and renters. All they want to offer is a temporary moratorium on evictions and foreclosures. In that respect, they are exactly the same as the Republicans. After all, they have a common class interest.
What will people be like if and when they finally emerge from the COVID-19 lockdown? Homo americanus may mutate into an entirely new beast.
