One of Foucault's sharpest points is that premises of Marxist, Schmittian etc discourse of politics as "struggle" was invented by reactionary nobles... Maybe this is why current political climate in US feels familiar to me after growing up in cult of Confederacy 1/

discursive forms of nationalist revanchism, of class war, or any oppressed groups (race, sex/uality) liberating selves vi struggle, all hinge on exposing that seemingly neutral & universal basis of power is founded on historical violence & this resuming the historical struggle 2/

Foucault's argument that these forms emerge in 17-18h c nobles' complaints about rcentralizing monarchy throwing them out of their historical rights makes sense & explains why ongoing collapse of US consensus & activation of 'history wars' (1619 project) feels like home... 3/

I grew up hearing South had been crushed by centralizing hegemon & slandered in history, that it was important we keep up counter-knowledge about Civil War & win new epistemic struggle: Yankees trying to teach us evolution. Perhaps this is part of Foucault's US appeal? 4/

An American Foucault might tell us: contemporary woke post-post-colonial critiques of US as pseudo-universal liberal capitalist oppressor of minorities & hegemonic homogenizer of difference were invented by Confederate apologist historians brooding on defeat 5/

Confederate-apologist line, that universal rights invoked by US were an alibi to liquidate historic-concrete (states') rights & clear way for economic subordination, is both an echo of thèse nobiliaire & antecedent of woke grievances w/ US empire 6/