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1. Hey just wondering if you could shed some light on something I’m confused about. We on the left know that fascism is just the last line of defence for the capitalist state, and fascists are the useful idiots of the bourgeoisie. I’ve been trying to square this with the corporate media and the Charlottesville fallout and I’m tearing my hair out. Like, even Drumpf had to distance himself from his fascist supporters, and when he mentioned left wing violence, the whole media and political establishment jumped to our defence. I mean, have you read what Mitt Romney said? Or any of the media to the left of Breitbart? Fucking weird!

   Here’s a thought: maybe the capitalist class is actually helping their fascist pets by kicking them off the Internet and prosecuting them. I mean, that’s how Hitler came to power, right? They put him in prison which only made him look like a hero… I don’t know, though. Your thoughts?

2. Fred Malone: “Your thoughts?”

   Some interesting things to ponder there. I, too, have been surprised by the change in media tone as a result of Charlottesville. Thinking about it, my assessment is that the rulers of the US were genuinely surprised themselves at the size & blatancy of the Nazi mobilisation – and were also greatly surprised & taken aback at the massive public reaction against it. This has had three consequences:

   1. The ruling elite in politics & the media have no “agreed line” post-Charlottesville as yet. They haven’t sorted out what they think and, in the process, some voices that wouldn’t normally get through are getting through.

   2. For the US ruling class at the moment, anti-Semitism is a red line. They’ve spent decades both defining Nazism as the epitome of evil (all the better to make themselves look good in comparison) and tarring all opposition to Israel as anti-Semitic. Allowing anti-Semitism into mainstream debate conflicts seriously with those objectives. They won’t necessarily maintain that red line forever, but they’re trying to defend it now.

   3. The public reaction against the Charlottesville murder is so strong that it is scaring the political & media elite. They want to head off a genuine radicalisation, but they also know that to do that requires tactics. The preferred method of heading it off is to shepherd it back into the fold of the Democratic Party and to do that, it requires getting the Democratic Party and its hangers-on into the movement. After that, they can start demonising the radical sections. Premature demonisation risks just enlarging the radical Left without giving the system any leverage on the movement.

3. Heh.

   Yeah alright, I’ll play.

   We on the left know that fascism is just the last line of defence for the capitalist state, and fascists are the useful idiots of the bourgeoisie.

   Kinda. Leftists have proposed a number of different ways of understanding fascism, as well as its relationship to capitalism and the state.

   I’ve been trying to square this with the corporate media and the Charlottesville fallout and I’m tearing my hair out. Like, even Drumpf had to distance himself from his fascist supporters, and when he mentioned left wing violence, the whole media and political establishment jumped to our defence. I mean, have you read what Mitt Romney said? Or any of the media to the left of Breitbart? Fucking weird!

   Yeah nah — Drumpf’s reaction was typically cack-handed; the reasons for his reaction, as well as that of others, had a bit to do with the nature of the UniteTheReich rally but moreover the fact that one of its attendees committed murder. There’s nothing especially weird about political actors seeking to distance themselves from open displays of neo-Nazism and murder. As for Romney (https://www.businessinsider.com.au/mitt-romney-statement-trump-charlottesville-2017-8), as I’m sure you’re aware, as well as being the 2012 Republican presidential nominee and expressing opposition to Drumpf’s run, it’s likely he’s aiming for a 2020 nomination. Putting distance between himself and Drumpf makes a good deal of sense and can be better understood in this context. Finally, while I’m not exacly sure what you mean by ‘our defence’, from what I’ve read most reactions by mainstream actors have been about what you’d expect in such circumstances.

   Here’s a thought: maybe the capitalist class is actually helping their fascist pets by kicking them off the Internet and prosecuting them. I mean, that’s how Hitler came to power, right? They put him in prison which only made him look like a hero… I don’t know, though. Your thoughts?

   Maybe. Then again, maybe not. The capitalist class is not unitary, and its strategy varies according to time, place and circumstance. To the best of my knowledge, the only site to have really suffered as a result of Charlottesville has been The Daily Stormer, having been booted by GoDaddy, then Google, then NameCheap, but also CloudFlare and a Russian registrar. Currently, DS has retreated to the ‘dark web’, where it will continue to eke out an existence before possibly returning, once a technical fix has been found. Otherwise: no, while it’s true that, given widespread sympathy for his cause among German elites, Uncle Adolf received a light sentence for his abortive putsch, Hitler’s path to power was a bit more complicated than that.

4. TRUMP: I will tell you something. I watched those very closely, much more closely than you people watched it. And you have — you had a group on one side that was bad, and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent, and nobody wants to say that, but I’ll say it right now. You had a group — you had a group on the other side that came charging in without a permit, and they were very, very violent.

   (CROSSTALK)

   TRUMP: Go ahead.

   QUESTION: Do you think that the — what you call the alt-left is the same as neo-Nazis?

   TRUMP: Those people — all of those people — excuse me. I’ve condemned neo-Nazis. I’ve condemned many different groups. But not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me. Not all of those people were white supremacists, by any stretch. Those people were also there because they wanted to protest the taking down of a statue, Robert E. Lee. So — excuse me. And you take a look at some of the groups and you see — and you’d know it if you were honest reporters, which in many cases you’re not, but many of those people were there to protest the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee. So this week it’s Robert E. Lee. I noticed that Stonewall Jackson’s coming down. I wonder, is it George Washington next week? And is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? You know, you all — you really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop? But they were there to protest — excuse me. You take a look, the night before, they were there to protest the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee. Infrastructure question, go ahead.

5. f crs! t ws th spntns tprng f pblc mtn nsprd by th sqshng f n bnxs ft chck tht ncssttd th wht sprmcst cptlst stt’s crckdwn n wht sprmcsts. Mks prfct sns. Jst lke hw thr rn’t ny Mslm wbsts snc 911. Cn y vn blv Drmpf’s “wht sprmcy s rlgn f pc” sttmnt? 2017 smdh!