PRIMO RADICAL #242: Glenn Greenwald
Glenn Greenwald is both incredibly smart and deeply principled.
In the first half of this interview, he outlines what the real differences are between (to be reductionist) the Jimmy Dore Left and the TYT left; the real source of the conflict and drama there that’s spiked since the last holiday season.
In a word it’s about their different relationships to Imperialism.
He tells a story about what went down in the Intercept’s virtual newsroom the night they drove old Hillary down, and Trump won.
Everybody on the staff was a leftist of some kind, and nobody was happy to have the Donald in charge. But that night lines were drawn.
A small but determinant majority of them were awash in guilt. Had their own criticisms of Clinton contributed to the disaster? Had they edged into sexism in their coverage of the election?
This self-blame changed the Intercept forever. Its editorial positions drifted ever more in alignment with the Democratic Party.
The same thing happened over time at TYT and a lot of other places, and ‘blue no matter who’ was birthed.
I think this is a really good and important point.
Purely from the point of view of anti-imperialism and rage against the Machine, there really is no marked difference between Trump, and Obama/Clinton/Biden. It’s one party with two heads, and when Biden told his big donors privately that ‘nothing would fundamentally change’, he really and truly meant it–both at home and abroad.
His thumb remains on the Yemenis for the benefit of Raytheon. His thumb remains on the American working class for the benefit of Amazon and McDonald’s and anybody else with pockets deep enough to feed the Dem gravy train.
The same is true, about the kids in cages. The same is true, if you actually believe that black lives matter. The same is true about climate change, and Snowden and Assange, and dozens of other things. A little window dressing here or there aside, nothing changes and there’s not enough difference to bother with.
Now, if you’re primarily motivated by certain culture-war issues–Abortion rights, let’s say, or where trans people are allowed to piss–then sure, there are differences, and I can see why they matter to you.
Personally I just believe that none of that stuff amounts to much, when we’re on the verge of burning or drowning to death, when we continue to have what standard of living we retain by each being good little capitalists and refusing to see that our Brita water pitchers run on the blood of the working class all across the country and all around the world.
Electoralism matters very little any more. Direct action and activism, a bit more than that–maybe a lot more, if you’re serious.
But most days the best I can do, and maybe you too, is to live lightly on the planet, heedless of the hefty consumerist beasts that live to the right and left of you.
That’s not going to change anything either.
But it’s the right thing to do.