Read on Twitter
The poor and working-class are innately reactionary because their material circumstances force them to tunnel vision everything and shift the blame for their situations onto disenfranchised groups.
And--Reactionaries and bigots are working class. Not the rich, but the right.
And--Reactionaries and bigots are working class. Not the rich, but the right.
Every single one of you is an ex-reactionary. You may not have had a folder full of racist pepe memes or spent your adolescence regurgitating misogynistic and transphobic bullshit you learned from 4chan, but you had views you needed to unpack, unlearn, and challenge.
They're us. We're them. They're us. These people are just us that grew up w/ different privileges and circumstances that made them adopt malicious bigotry. They weren't born that way. They were taught.
As a leftist, you shouldn't have to be reminded of this. Yet..
As a leftist, you shouldn't have to be reminded of this. Yet..
With that said, even within our own ranks if we're speaking as a collective working class, we have to challenge bigotry that erupts. If someone's a rehabilitated incel and still needs to work on their racism, that can be challenged.
Because if you don't absorb this, you're going to think that reactionaries are just white people and cis transphobes and homophobes. Lol, no.
Marginalized people are equally as reactionary as white people. Their axis just changes.
You ever seen a black transphobe?
Marginalized people are equally as reactionary as white people. Their axis just changes.
You ever seen a black transphobe?
A white trans girl w/ a cat avatar that's racist? A middle-aged latinx man who hates black people despite living beside them?
This is basic. You're aware of this when you look at these cases individually but not when you have to confront the parallels objectively.
This is basic. You're aware of this when you look at these cases individually but not when you have to confront the parallels objectively.
We all have power over one another. You know this, right? If you are black or brown and live in the suburbs, you have more class-based power over a poor white person. Maybe not institutional support, but class backing.
We're reactionary in our privileges. They're justifications
We're reactionary in our privileges. They're justifications
As a black person, I can not tell you how overwhelmingly reactionary my community is. It's an enormous blindspot. Similarly, you go into any community and those who are poor or darker will tell you how fucked up they have it.
If a group perceives a threat, they shift blame.
If a group perceives a threat, they shift blame.
A poor white person living in the rural midwest who structurally has more support than a poor poc but who's materially in the same spot who finds sanctuary in the online alt-right because they offer 'answers' to explain why he's not Elon Musk rn is no different than-
Than a person of color who sees another ethnic group or minority as class competition (black folks do this with latinxs in particular) who's working class and indulges in the group-narrative their people develop about that other group that wreaks of racism and stereotypes
It's about developing a justification for hating another group of people that you perceive as a threat and dehumanize them accordingly either in your head or in real life. That's all being a reactionary is. It's a 'reaction' to material circumstances and finding a scapegoat.
We're the same. We only use the limited power we have against one another to hurt and maim, but that's it.
Reactionaries are working class. Because that ideology was birthed in the working class being distracted from seeing the system that created their suffering.
/mic drop.
Reactionaries are working class. Because that ideology was birthed in the working class being distracted from seeing the system that created their suffering.
/mic drop.
