Capitalism Keeps Us Pacified As It Drags Us Ever Closer To Doom, by Rainer Shea

Within today’s capitalist world, particularly the core imperialist countries, the system is held together by a type of cultural hegemony which fits our increasingly grim conditions. This cultural hegemony goes deeper than the set of myths and propaganda narratives that the imperialist media spins to justify the U.S./NATO empire’s perpetual war operations, or the free market fundamentalist dogma that our ruling class uses to justify its cruel neoliberal economic designs. These ideological constructs remain dominant in our culture because for the average person in our society, no cohesive alternative cultural narratives are detectable. It’s due to our lack of culture and guiding ideology that the hypocritical, dishonest ideologies which our ruling class has manufactured are allowed to go unchallenged.

Capitalism Keeps Us Pacified As It Drags Us Ever Closer To Doom, by Rainer Shea

Anti-Asian Violence in America Is Rooted in US Empire

Anti-Asian Violence in America Is Rooted in US Empire

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Now is the perfect time for US to reflect on how anti-China outlook is fuelling hatred against all Asians across America

There’s little sign of significant change under Joe Biden. The White House continues to politicize the virus and place accountability on Beijing, albeit in a more refined manner, and has accepted Trump’s new anti-China consensus.

Yet focusing only on the virus limits the scope of what they did. Yes, the virus was part of the problem, but it was a medium to greater, more sinister things. The administration and its lackeys in the media also whipped up extreme paranoia pertaining to all things China in the process. This included relentless accusations of espionage, which targeted Chinese academics and overseas students. Pompeo even stated that Chinese students who studied in the US were sent by the communist party. At every level, the White House promulgated hatred, and despite the focus on racial injustices thanks to the Black Lives Matter protests, received very little scrutiny for it.

Last week, in his address to the nation, Biden condemned the “vicious hate crimes against Asian-Americans who have been attacked, harassed, blamed and scapegoated.” But at the same time, members of the administration continue to politicise the virus. They do not use explicitly racist language such as “China virus” or “Kung-Flu”, yet Secretary of State Antony Blinken, for example, continues to follow essentially the same messaging of Pompeo by prolonging the idea that China is responsible for the situation in the US. This becomes a venting point for public anger, and continues to put Asian people in the firing line. The language may be a bit softer, a bit more polite, but they have not changed.

The pace of America’s vaccination roll-out may finally help society move on from the flames of hatred that Trump poured petrol over, but we have to be honest in accepting that anti-Asian sentiment has been fuelled by government policy as a whole, rather than just a pandemic.