We live in a partisan age, and our news habits can reinforce our own perspectives. Consider this an effort to broaden our collective outlook with essays beyond the range of our typical selections.
FROM THE LEFT
From “Eugene Debs Believed in Socialism Because He Believed in Democracy,” by Shawn Gude in Jacobin.
The context, from the author: Eugene Debs’ unswerving commitment to democracy and internationalism was born out of his revulsion at the tyranny of industrial capitalism. We should carry forth that Debsian vision today — by recognizing that class struggle is the precondition for winning a more democratic world.
The excerpt: Debs appealed to his audiences with a socialism that took seriously the proclaimed ideals of American democracy. While the United States was marred from the beginning by chattel slavery, he insisted that it could realize its avowed principles (popular sovereignty, equality, republican liberty) if workers took on their bosses at the workplace and the polling station.
From “The Inevitable Whitelash Against Racial Justice Has Started,” by Elie Mystal in The Nation.
The context, from the author: As Black people fight for our lives, white supremacists reach for their guns — and white allies go soft.
The excerpt: Now comes the part where white people abandon us. Now comes the part where the white majority impatiently demands a return to normalcy. Now comes the part where white people say, “I believe that Black Lives Matter, but…” Now comes the part where white people start literally telling Black people to stop protesting because some “bad” people are also protesting. In the immediate aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, white people seemingly joined Black people in their calls for justice and change. But that support was always soft. It was entirely predictable that most white people would abandon the movement long before justice was done or change achieved.
From “There Are No Black Victims in Donald Trump’s America,” by Nathalie Baptiste in Mother Jones.
The context, from the author: Even if all of these false allegations were true, they still would not justify the killings. Police and white people with guns are not the judge, jury, and the executioner, even though recently they have done a good job of adopting all those roles. The rush to search for an excuse, any excuse, for these deaths rests in one underlying assumption: There is no such thing as a Black victim.
The excerpt: As soon as the victim is accused of resisting arrest or smoking weed in college, well-intentioned people flood my social media feeds with videos and images of Black people doing absolutely nothing and still being targeted or killed by police as counter-narrative to a false narrative they seem to have accepted. They are searching for the perfect victim, the clear cut case that will finally convince the right and other assorted racists that we aren’t to blame for our deaths. There’s a problem though. All that these good intentions achieve is to reinforce the idea that some Black people do deserve to be killed by police.
FROM THE RIGHT
From “Wholesale Slaughter Of Japanese Civilians In World War II Was Evil,” by Josiah Lippincott in the American Conservative.
The context, from the author: The American demand for unconditional surrender set the stage for a communist takeover of Asia.
The excerpt: If irradiating and incinerating tens of thousands of Japanese noncombatants is justified because it meant the “salvation of millions,” then it would have been equally legitimate to round up those civilians in camps and gas them to death for the same end. Changing the means used doesn’t change the moral question involved. Intentionally killing noncombatants is a gross violation of the law of war, the basic tenets of civilization, and the principles of the American Founding. ... The insistence on unconditional surrender led American planners to conduct a strategic air campaign against civilian targets, killing hundreds of thousands of noncombatants, all the while preparing an extraordinarily bloody land invasion.
From “How Denying Reality Enables Epic Injustices,” by Jocelynn Cordes in The Federalist.
The context, from the author: Some people refuse to acknowledge unpleasantness, but that is a grave error. Too often, behind the pleasant scenery of an ideological filter is a wretched reality of often horrifying proportions.
The excerpt, from the essay’s opening: A World War II anecdote about Winston Churchill and Adolf Hitler illustrates their vastly different approaches to the realities of wartime devastation. It is said that after a blitzkrieg, Churchill would walk amid the rubble of London and survey the damage firsthand, while after Allied bombs had wreaked havoc on Berlin, Hitler would be chauffeured around the city in a car with its shades drawn. One leader gazed directly at stark reality; the other viewed it through a scrim, if at all. The scrim is an apt analogy for visualizing the behavior of those who simply refuse to acknowledge unpleasantness.
From “The Broken Windows Presidency,” by Mona Charen in The Bulwark.
The context, from the author: Republican acquiescence to Trump’s low-level disorder invited more heinous corruption and lawlessness.
The excerpt: If drug dealers are able to ply their trade unmolested on street corners and drunks are sleeping in vestibules, it’s an invitation to more serious breakdowns of public order. Oddly, conservatives seem not to have applied this insight to Donald Trump, who from the moment he entered the fray, has been hurling rocks through windows. He smashed the window that required candidates to provide their tax returns. He lobbed a brick through the norm that American public figures do not encourage vigilantism. He demolished the principle that American presidents don’t dangle pardons before former aides caught in criminal activity. Each and every time he has violated a law or a norm and received no pushback from his party, he has made further violations of law and custom more likely.
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September 07, 2020 at 10:02AM
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Here’s what to read from the left and the right | Column - Tampa Bay Times
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