Resistance//Futile
Feb. 25th, 2025 11:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deja_indigoBoycotts, strikes, protests, and mass unrest in general are not going to stop what is happening to this country.
Let me tell you why.
The Most Essential Industries/Institutions Won't Participate
The MAGA regime has secured the support of the most essential pillars of a functioning society, namely agriculture, freight/shipping, manufacturing, religious institutions, and law enforcement. Temporary disruption to the endpoints of commerce (retail, service, and hospitality) does basically nothing but inconvenience consumers and hurt the livelihoods of the smaller businesses (as well as working-class people) that get caught in the crossfire. The machinery of commerce itself remains unaffected, and everything goes back to normal once the disruption is over. That's the best case scenario, wherein a significant number of people participate in the boycott/strike/protest/whatever.
Historically, the strikes that have actually succeeded in creating change have been those at the level of production and transportation of goods. These strikes actually halt the machinery of commerce, creating backlogs and bottlenecks that have ripple effects lasting beyond the strikes themselves. The consequences of these strikes increase geometrically relative to the duration of the strike, creating substantial pressure on the ownership/leadership class in relatively short times. This is precisely why the Culture War has focused on indoctrinating the workers in these sectors to be favorable to this regime.
The MAGA Regime Benefits from Social Unrest
For one, their goal is consolidation of power and ownership. Economic disruptions hurt the smallest and most vulnerable businesses and people the worst, and the fastest. Culling competitors from the economic landscape benefits the most powerful companies by increasing their market share AND reducing the demand for labor, forcing working class people to accept progressively-worse compensation and working conditions. This is directly in line with the actions the regime is taking with respect to mass termination of the federal workforce and elimination of social welfare programs. The goal is transformation of the working class into a peasant class whose survival requires submission.
For two, if social unrest becomes sufficiently intense and widespread, it provides fodder for propagandistic justification of the invocation of emergency powers. This accelerates the transition from representative democracy to unitary executive authoritarianism. It's much easier to implement a police state when there is widespread social upheaval, and there is a long history of using law enforcement as strike-breakers as well. Not only that, it broadly exposes dissidents and organizers, allowing them to be targeted for prosecution and other forms of retaliation by those favorable to the regime. Anyone who has paid attention to the protest movements of the last few decades has seen this in action: movement leaders are identified, targeted, and neutralized in various ways, destroying the cohesion and momentum of their movements and restoring the status quo. This regime is very good at this!
The Opposition is Fragmented
Even if a general strike or mass protest movement or boycott would be enough to stop the MAGA regime, there is no cohesive or coherent opposition movement waiting in the wings to capitalize on such a defeat. The opposition to MAGA is utterly fragmented, comprised of several factions with incompatible goals.
The most powerful faction is that of the DNC "Old Guard"--wealthy urban neoliberals who desire little more than a return to the status quo of the Clinton/Bush/Obama years, with perhaps some very minor concessions to other factions of the resistance. This faction has the most wealth, the most political capital, and the most access to (and control of) major media outlets, which also makes them the least vulnerable to (and most susceptible to being co-opted by) the MAGA regime.
The largest faction in terms of population is the urban working class, which contains much of what used to be considered middle class. This faction generally considers itself radicalized to varying degrees, and is hungry for left-wing populist governmental reform, including progressive taxation, broad expansion of social welfare programs/consumer protections/worker rights, broad implementation of financial regulations, broad judicial reforms to reduce the outcome disparity between wealthy criminals and impoverished ones, and substantive protection of the civil rights of vulnerable populations (among other goals).
This faction is the one most heavily targeted by Culture War propaganda and most heavily subjected to psyops designed to sow intrafactional division, e.g. the matter of transgender people in sports, the Israel/Palestine conflict, and democratic socialism vs. revolutionary communism. It is also vulnerable to infiltration and exploitation by "false collaborators", i.e. those who gain power by professing support for radical ideas, and then abandon those ideas once in power (and instead use the power for personal gain/enrichment).
Then there is the suburban middle class faction, positioned somewhere between the DNC Old Guard and the urban working class. This faction is mostly insulated from the class struggles of the working class (both rural and urban), and mostly composed of those whose civil rights are not immediately and viscerally under threat. Their opposition to MAGA is primarily on grounds of pure ideology--they are educated enough to believe in the concept of civil rights and to understand the dangers of unchecked capitalism, but these are more abstract concerns for them. This faction is frightened of radicalism and has little appetite for what they see as "extremism" among the urban working class, and they are quite susceptible to the soothing lullaby of DNC Old Guard media. They do have sympathy for the plight of the marginalized and some of the agenda of the urban working class, however.
The current dynamic of the opposition to MAGA is one of circular blame between the factions, petty infighting, and overall paralysis. The DNC Old Guard cannot consolidate power because they have nothing of real substance to offer the urban working class (and have also failed to earn their trust). The urban working class cannot consolidate power because their economic stability is under direct attack by the MAGA regime, they are deeply fragmented by Culture War issues and psyops, and and they lack access to mass media channels. As a result of this fragmentation in the opposition, the MAGA regime can only be slowed or stymied, never pushed back (let alone defeated).
Conclusion?
I've said enough for now about the problems, I think. In the next entry I'll talk about what I think solutions could look like--despite the fact that I have zero hope they can be achieved. Mostly I just need to get these thoughts out of my head for my own sanity, since I see no one else articulating them.
Let me tell you why.
The Most Essential Industries/Institutions Won't Participate
The MAGA regime has secured the support of the most essential pillars of a functioning society, namely agriculture, freight/shipping, manufacturing, religious institutions, and law enforcement. Temporary disruption to the endpoints of commerce (retail, service, and hospitality) does basically nothing but inconvenience consumers and hurt the livelihoods of the smaller businesses (as well as working-class people) that get caught in the crossfire. The machinery of commerce itself remains unaffected, and everything goes back to normal once the disruption is over. That's the best case scenario, wherein a significant number of people participate in the boycott/strike/protest/whatever.
Historically, the strikes that have actually succeeded in creating change have been those at the level of production and transportation of goods. These strikes actually halt the machinery of commerce, creating backlogs and bottlenecks that have ripple effects lasting beyond the strikes themselves. The consequences of these strikes increase geometrically relative to the duration of the strike, creating substantial pressure on the ownership/leadership class in relatively short times. This is precisely why the Culture War has focused on indoctrinating the workers in these sectors to be favorable to this regime.
The MAGA Regime Benefits from Social Unrest
For one, their goal is consolidation of power and ownership. Economic disruptions hurt the smallest and most vulnerable businesses and people the worst, and the fastest. Culling competitors from the economic landscape benefits the most powerful companies by increasing their market share AND reducing the demand for labor, forcing working class people to accept progressively-worse compensation and working conditions. This is directly in line with the actions the regime is taking with respect to mass termination of the federal workforce and elimination of social welfare programs. The goal is transformation of the working class into a peasant class whose survival requires submission.
For two, if social unrest becomes sufficiently intense and widespread, it provides fodder for propagandistic justification of the invocation of emergency powers. This accelerates the transition from representative democracy to unitary executive authoritarianism. It's much easier to implement a police state when there is widespread social upheaval, and there is a long history of using law enforcement as strike-breakers as well. Not only that, it broadly exposes dissidents and organizers, allowing them to be targeted for prosecution and other forms of retaliation by those favorable to the regime. Anyone who has paid attention to the protest movements of the last few decades has seen this in action: movement leaders are identified, targeted, and neutralized in various ways, destroying the cohesion and momentum of their movements and restoring the status quo. This regime is very good at this!
The Opposition is Fragmented
Even if a general strike or mass protest movement or boycott would be enough to stop the MAGA regime, there is no cohesive or coherent opposition movement waiting in the wings to capitalize on such a defeat. The opposition to MAGA is utterly fragmented, comprised of several factions with incompatible goals.
The most powerful faction is that of the DNC "Old Guard"--wealthy urban neoliberals who desire little more than a return to the status quo of the Clinton/Bush/Obama years, with perhaps some very minor concessions to other factions of the resistance. This faction has the most wealth, the most political capital, and the most access to (and control of) major media outlets, which also makes them the least vulnerable to (and most susceptible to being co-opted by) the MAGA regime.
The largest faction in terms of population is the urban working class, which contains much of what used to be considered middle class. This faction generally considers itself radicalized to varying degrees, and is hungry for left-wing populist governmental reform, including progressive taxation, broad expansion of social welfare programs/consumer protections/worker rights, broad implementation of financial regulations, broad judicial reforms to reduce the outcome disparity between wealthy criminals and impoverished ones, and substantive protection of the civil rights of vulnerable populations (among other goals).
This faction is the one most heavily targeted by Culture War propaganda and most heavily subjected to psyops designed to sow intrafactional division, e.g. the matter of transgender people in sports, the Israel/Palestine conflict, and democratic socialism vs. revolutionary communism. It is also vulnerable to infiltration and exploitation by "false collaborators", i.e. those who gain power by professing support for radical ideas, and then abandon those ideas once in power (and instead use the power for personal gain/enrichment).
Then there is the suburban middle class faction, positioned somewhere between the DNC Old Guard and the urban working class. This faction is mostly insulated from the class struggles of the working class (both rural and urban), and mostly composed of those whose civil rights are not immediately and viscerally under threat. Their opposition to MAGA is primarily on grounds of pure ideology--they are educated enough to believe in the concept of civil rights and to understand the dangers of unchecked capitalism, but these are more abstract concerns for them. This faction is frightened of radicalism and has little appetite for what they see as "extremism" among the urban working class, and they are quite susceptible to the soothing lullaby of DNC Old Guard media. They do have sympathy for the plight of the marginalized and some of the agenda of the urban working class, however.
The current dynamic of the opposition to MAGA is one of circular blame between the factions, petty infighting, and overall paralysis. The DNC Old Guard cannot consolidate power because they have nothing of real substance to offer the urban working class (and have also failed to earn their trust). The urban working class cannot consolidate power because their economic stability is under direct attack by the MAGA regime, they are deeply fragmented by Culture War issues and psyops, and and they lack access to mass media channels. As a result of this fragmentation in the opposition, the MAGA regime can only be slowed or stymied, never pushed back (let alone defeated).
Conclusion?
I've said enough for now about the problems, I think. In the next entry I'll talk about what I think solutions could look like--despite the fact that I have zero hope they can be achieved. Mostly I just need to get these thoughts out of my head for my own sanity, since I see no one else articulating them.