“We are coming to dismantle this deeply oppressive, racist, sexist, utterly bankrupt system of capitalism. We cannot and will not stop until it is dismantled, and we replace it with a socialist world, based on solidarity, genuine democracy, and equality.” Kshama Sawant, (“Red Sammie”, YouTube) Seattle City Council, District 3
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Here’s a question for you: When a young man dressed entirely in black, uses a racial justice protest to conceal himself so he can break windows, incinerate retail shops and cafes, pelt cops with bottles, rocks and fireworks, and spread mayhem across the city, what is the political message he is trying to send?
1– He is honoring the death of George Floyd
2– He is expressing his support for racial justice
3– He is attacking the system that protects ordinary people from criminal violence
4– He is a paid agitator funded by liberal organizations that seek to intensify social unrest for their own political objectives
If you chose 3 or 4, you’re probably right, there are undoubtedly paid agitators operating on behalf of wealthy outsiders, just as there are many “true believers” who see the riots as a springboard for a broader revolt that will topple the existing system. In other words, there are competing agendas at play in these violent outbursts. The least likely answer is Number 1, that “He is honoring the death of George Floyd.” The riots have nothing to do with George Floyd, he’s merely the fig leaf that hides the true motives of the perpetrators.
Isn’t it odd that –after 60 days of protests and riots– the media has never once asked what these activists want, what their actions mean or who they are?
This shouldn’t surprise us, after all, the media is in the ‘narrative-shaping’ business, their job is to tweak events so they jibe with their political agenda. And that’s what they’re doing. They see the protests as another stick to beat Trump in the upcoming elections, and that is precisely how they are using them. They don’t want people to figure out that these massive, nationwide protests were the largest and most destructive riots in US history. They want you to believe that they were “mostly peaceful”, a sobriquet that’s designed to dull perceptions and lull people back to sleep. Which is how propaganda usually works. Nothing to see here, move along. Check out this excerpt from an article by Michael Tracey who visited many of the cities that were decimated by the riots. See if you can spot the discrepancy between the media’s fabricated storyline and real events:
“In Minneapolis. First place I stop, most of the block is still boarded up. This grocery and tobacco store is owned by an Iranian, neighbor tells me. “They took everything.” Owner is deliberating whether to permanently close after the riots…
Just next door, a small Vietnamese music shop has been closed since the riots. Just down the street, a Malaysian restaurant is boarded up, but has resumed business. As has a Vietnamese sandwich shop, which just re-opened a few days ago. Nearby a Halal market is boarded up. Its next-door neighbor, a child care center, has signs in the windows asking to be spared …What remains of the Minneapolis Third Police Precinct building, looks like Bosnia …This is just one tiny block — and it just happened to be the first place I stopped…. Rioters even smashed the hipster record store!” (Many photos of the damage, “Threadreader”, Michael Tracey)
These scenes were repeated in over 400 cities across the country many of which are still either in ruins, boarded up, or in some phase of digging out. On a strictly financial basis, the losses are incalculable, much more than many small businesses will ever be able to manage. On a psychological level, however, the damage is much worse. Imagine watching everything you’ve worked for your entire life callously destroyed in a senseless orgy of mob violence that lasts maybe just a few hours. The trauma can’t be fixed by simply installing new windows or sweeping up the broken glass. It will last for as long as you live. Thousands of families have seen their futures go up in smoke while the perpetrators slipped away entirely unscathed. It’s shocking. And what’s more shocking is that minority-owned businesses suffered the greatest losses. Here’s Tracey again:
“Of the dozens and dozens of randomly-selected black Americans that I have so far spoken to across the United States, only two expressed what one might call a “positive” view of the riots, and they were both young men. Everyone else I have encountered is unabashedly scornful of rioting, and many even express apprehensions about the basic logic of a movement referred to as “Black Lives Matter” which incongruously appears to them to have caused increased suffering in their predominantly black neighborhoods.
Here’s … Tony in Milwaukee, who describes what it was like to escape from a riotous mob on his way home from work. “It’s crazy man. I really don’t understand it. Cuz they sayin’ Black Lives Matter and all this stuff,” he said. “But man, you’re hurting the black community.”…
…. an immigrant from Sierra Leone, said the following: “I grew up in a war zone, and I’ve never seen anything like it.”… the primary victims — meaning those who feared for their safety, suffered severe material losses, and whose lives were upended — are themselves minorities, and were targeted by activist whites.” (“Corporate Media Is Ignoring Broadest Riots In U.S. History, But Americans Hurt By These Riots Aren’t“, The Federalist)
Here’s more from an article at Fox News:
“The national media might have “moved on” from the riots in Minneapolis, but residents have nowhere to go. Much of the Twin Cities is still in ruins. Boarded-up storefronts still display makeshift notices that read “black owned” or “minority owned” to ward off further destruction. Many locals are reluctant to speak on the record, but some are eager to do so.
“It’s been agony,” says Mohamed Ali, a native of Somalia. “I respect the public anger, but I think we carried it too far, to burn our city.” At the height of the chaos, rioters set a large fire in front of his apartment, which sits atop several streetside shops. He spray-painted desperate appeals onto plywood affixed to the storefront windows: “Don’t burn please … Kids live upstairs.”
“All these businesses are still boarded, and it’s over a month later,” Mr. Ali said, gesturing in every direction of his Minneapolis neighborhood. ”This was a thriving area,” he said. “Now a lot of minority businesses are burned.” (“Michael Tracey: Minority businesses suffering in Minneapolis following rioting after George Floyd’s death”,FOX News)
The media could care less about the devastation and ruined lives. What they care about concocting a storyline that hurts Trump’s chances for reelection. That’s all that matters to them, not the colossal damage that has been done to our cities, our businesses or individual lives. Just the politics, because political messaging is the fast-track to power, and power is the prize that must be recaptured whatever the cost.
Of course, that doesn’t tell us who broke the windows, looted the stores and lit the fires. For that we turn again to Michael Tracey, the only journalist who went from city to city asking locals what they actually saw. As it happens, he got the same answer over and over again:
“According to multiple accounts relayed to me, those who instigated these most extreme acts of destruction appeared to be white left-wing activists who were not from the area. This then… created a vacuum that enabled a portion of the local, largely black and minority populations to engage in opportunistic looting.” (The Federalist)
Surprise, surprise. Who woulda’ known?
We saw the same phenom play out in Seattle although Seattle has a sizable compliment of its own homegrown radicals who undoubtedly played a large role in the destruction of the downtown area and Capitol Hill. Once again, we need to ask ourselves what political message these “activists” are trying to send when they attack Federal Buildings, courthouses, and police precincts?
It’s not hard to figure out, is it? They’re attacking the symbols of state power. They are challenging the legitimacy and authority of the government, the judiciary and the people that are employed to enforce the law. There’s nothing random or slapdash about their choice of targets. They are attacking the symbols that they despise because they represent the biggest obstacle to their frenzied power-grab. And the same rule applies to defunding the police which many people still fail to understand. “Defund the police” is not the impulsive demand of a petulant child. No. It is a sinister political tactic designed to undermine security in order to destabilize the state. A weaker state provides more opportunities for criminal mischief aimed at overthrowing the government which is the ultimate objective. See how it works?
This is not the benign, Bernie Sanders, work-within-the-system-type socialism. This is Bolshevism, there’s a big difference. The smoldering downtown corridor and the ruined lives of thousands of merchants attests to that difference. What we’re seeing is the resolute actions of a thoroughly-committed group of violent extremists who want to obliterate the system and impose their own vision of socialism. If you don’t believe me, then listen to what Seattle City Councilman Kshama Sawant (District 3) said just two weeks ago:
“We are coming to dismantle this deeply oppressive, racist, sexist, utterly bankrupt system of capitalism. We cannot and will not stop until it is dismantled, and we replace it with a socialist world, based on solidarity, genuine democracy, and equality.”
It doesn’t get much clearer than that, does it?
Alot of people will dismiss this hyperbolic rhetoric as attention-seeking blabber, but I disagree. I think Sawant should be taken seriously. We’ve already seen these groups take control of the streets, terrorize the city, and attack the organizations that provide for public safety, security and justice. Sawant even used her Councilman key to allow 400 protestors into City Hall where she used the venue as a platform for one of her trademark incendiary speeches. She also helped establish CHAZ, (Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone) the “police-free” Shangri-la that devolved into a homicidal hellhole just weeks after its founding. Here’s some background on CHAZ from Christopher Rufo at The City Journal:
“The CHAZ saga began on June 8, under the premise that capitalism, police brutality, and the “fascist regime” of Seattle mayor Jenny Durkan were upholding a social order that systemically oppressed African-Americans. Black Lives Matter and Antifa-affiliated activists hoped to create a new regime … based on a “reverse hierarchy of oppression,” implemented race-based segregation in public spaces, and maintained a “police-free zone” that they believed would protect “people of color” from the depredations of the state.
As it turns out, however, maintaining public order is a complex undertaking and can’t be replaced by academic symbolism… Ultimately, the problem of violence—and a dangerously naive understanding of policing—doomed the CHAZ. Over its 24-day history, the autonomous zone saw two gun homicides and four additional shooting victims. All the identified victims were black men—precisely the demographic for whom the CHAZ had claimed to offer protection. In the absence of a legitimate police force, armed criminal gangs and untrained anarchist paramilitaries filled the void.…
In the end, the homicide rate in the CHAZ turned out to be …—nearly 50 times greater than Chicago’s….
What are the ultimate lessons of the CHAZ? ….the true legacy of the CHAZ will be the memory of two black men who died under the false promise of utopia.” (“The End of CHAZ”, Christopher Rufo, City Journal)
And don’t think that CHAZ was just a “one off” experiment by leftist revolutionaries. It’s not. It’s a blueprint for the type of society that will unavoidably replace our own if we don’t stop this nonsense and restore order. The problem is that our liberal mayor (Durkan) and our liberal governor (Inslee) think they can play pattycake with these fanatics to help pave the way for a Biden victory in November. But this is a grave miscalculation. These are hard-boiled extremists with a penchant for violence. They are not to be trifled with. Here’s a snapshot of their activities from a local news station KIRO 7:
“Nearly four dozen people were arrested, and more than 55 officers were injured Saturday after protests turned violent with trailers set on fire, windows at businesses smashed, cars damaged, and explosive devices thrown at police….
During the march, Seattle police said about a dozen people went on a rampage of destruction as they marched past the King County Youth Detention Center at 12th Avenue and Alder Street, targeting the site. Some rioters carried sledgehammers and began shattering workers’ car windows in the parking lot. At the same time, a row of construction trailers next door on 12th Avenue were firebombed after some rioters scaled a fence.
Fire crews responded and reported that five construction trailers were on fire. They were all destroyed.
The destruction did not end there. Seattle police said some protesters spray-painted the East Precinct at 12th and Pine Street, tried to disable cameras and caused damage after someone breached a fence line. Moments after the breach, a device exploded, leaving an 8-inch hole in the side of the precinct, according to police.
A crowd threw rocks, bottles and mortars at officers during the protests, according to police. During the violent protests, 59 officers were injured on Capitol Hill, including one who suffered a leg injury caused by an explosive device, authorities said. Most were treated for their injuries and returned to work.” (“49 arrested, 59 injured in Seattle protests that turned violent”, Kiro 7 News)
These aren’t protests, this is political warfare the likes of which we haven’t seen since the 1960s. Peaceful protesters” do not attack police stations with crowbars and firebombs, they don’t vandalize Starbucks and retail shops, and they don’t lay siege to public land and declare their own sovereign state. These are fanatical ideologues who believe the system must be obliterated and replaced. They are today’s Bolsheviks and they mean business. Here’s a short recap of Russia’s grim experience with Bolshevism some 103 years ago. This an excerpt from an article in the Washington Post:
“At the beginning of 1917, on the eve of the Russian revolution, most of the men who later became known to the world as the Bolsheviks were conspirators and fantasists on the margins of society. By the end of the year, they ran Russia. Fringe figures and eccentric movements cannot be counted out. If a system becomes weak enough and the opposition divided enough, if the ruling order is corrupt enough and people are angry enough, extremists can suddenly step into the center, where no one expects them. And after that it can take decades to undo the damage. We have been shocked too many times. Our imaginations need to expand to include the possibilities of such monsters and monstrosities….
In October 1917, they began using that mass violence…. Many in Russia came to embrace the destruction. They argued that the “system” was so corrupt, so immune to reform or repair, that it had to be smashed. Some welcomed the bonfire of civilization with something bordering on ecstasy. The beauty of violence, the cleansing power of violence: these were themes that inspired Russian poetry and prose in 1918….
In the United States, the Marxist left has also consolidated on the fringes of the Democratic Party — and sometimes not even on the fringes — as well as on campuses, where it polices the speech of its members, fights to prevent students from hearing opposing viewpoints, and teaches a dark, negative version of American history, one calculated to create doubts about democracy and to cast shadows on all political debate…. As in Britain, they don’t remember the antecedents of their ideas and they don’t make a connection between their language and the words used by fanatics of a different era.” (“100 years later, Bolshevism is back. And we should be worried“, Anne Applebaum, Washington Post)
In Seattle, the threat of violence is quite real, the social order is beginning to collapse, and the Bolsheviks are greatly emboldened. They have battled the police and the politicians and they have prevailed. Now they will develop a strategy to further destabilize the system so they can seize more power, weaken their rivals and shape the political agenda. These are smart, motivated people who know what they want and have an almost-instinctive grasp of the times in which we live. They will not hesitate to impose the dramatic changes they seek if they are given even the slightest opportunity. Which is why they must be stopped. Here’s how Sheila Fitzpatrick summed it up in her book, The Russian Revolution 1917-1932:
“It may well be that the Bolsheviks’ greatest strength in 1917 was not strict party organization and discipline (which scarcely existed at this time) but rather the party’s stance of intransigent radicalism on the extreme left of the political spectrum. While other socialist and liberal groups jostled for position in the Provisional Government and Petrograd Soviet, the Bolsheviks refused to be co-opted and denounced the politics of coalition and compromise. While other formerly radical politicians called for restraint and responsible, statesmanlike leadership, the Bolsheviks stayed out on the streets with the irresponsible and belligerent revolutionary crowd. As the ‘dual power’ structure disintegrated, discrediting the coalition parties represented in the Provisional Government and Petrograd Soviet leadership, only the Bolsheviks were in a position to benefit. Among the socialist parties, only the Bolsheviks had overcome Marxist scruples, caught the mood of the crowd, and declared their willingness to seize power in the name of the proletarian revolution.” (Sheila Fitzpatrick, “The Russian Revolution 1917-1932”)
Time to wake up, America. Social disintegration is serious business.
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This article was originally published on The Unz Review.
Mike Whitney is a frequent contributor to Global Research.
Featured image is from Shutterstock
