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The part of MLK's activism often omitted

Kai "the spy"

Admiral
Admiral
The Intercept| What the "Santa Clausification" of Martin Luther King Jr. leaves out

Zaid Jilani via The Intercept said:
While working alongside Democratic President Lyndon Johnson on civil rights issues, King was also increasingly disturbed by the war in Vietnam, and he would raise the issue privately with Johnson in White House calls and meetings. In April 1967, King decided to publicly denounce the war and call for its end. He gave a speech at Riverside Church in New York City where he called the U.S. government the “greatest purveyor of violence in the world” and denounced napalm bombings and the propping up of a puppet government in South Vietnam. He also called for a total re-examination of U.S. foreign policy, questioning capitalist exploitation of the developing world.
...
King had long considered himself a socialist, In 1966, he told staff at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference that “there must be a better distribution of wealth and maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism. Call it what you may, call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all of God’s children.”

Yep, King was an anti-imperialist and a democratic socialist.

Happy MLK Day, and let's keep fighting for his dream.
 
The Intercept| What the "Santa Clausification" of Martin Luther King Jr. leaves out



Yep, King was an anti-imperialist and a democratic socialist.

Happy MLK Day, and let's keep fighting for his dream.
He was absolutely right, too. The United States has exported terror for decades, we just always called it something else. The difference is that we did it in the name of corporate dominance. We did it to make more money for the wealthy elite. Setting aside, for the moment, the puppet government in Vietnam, in 1954 we had also installed a puppet government in Guatemala that favored the United Fruit Company (better known as Chiquita today), the result was mass slaughter, oppression of the people of Guatemala, and slave conditions, all in the name of profit, until there was finally a coup: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_Guatemalan_coup_d'état

I mean, seriously, we support some awful things in the name of capitalism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_authoritarian_regimes_supported_by_the_United_States
We've engaged in terrorism for decades: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_and_state-sponsored_terrorism
 
Kind of like Russia's export of Communism, only with fewer deaths.
Russia's authoritarian brand of quasi-Communism. Neither the U.S. nor Russia were at all innocent in what they did. Like so many other things, in the process of trying to show off how much better they were than the other guy, they just straight up murdered people and stole things.
 
Russia's authoritarian brand of quasi-Communism.
On the national scale, there isn't any other brand.

Socialism has brands, different levels, and some work better than others, as we can see by comparing Venezuela to Sweden to Germany. Communism...can't really say that, not in practice, anyway.
 
On the national scale, there isn't any other brand.

Socialism has brands, different levels, and some work better than others, as we can see by comparing Venezuela to Sweden to Germany. Communism...can't really say that, not in practice, anyway.
There are many different kinds of Communism. For example, Anarcho-Communism, which eschews a large government, and its authoritarianism.
 
There are many different kinds of Communism. For example, Anarcho-Communism, which eschews a large government, and its authoritarianism.
I don't count it as a "brand" unless it's been established. Just because Slug-O Cola has a name, if nobody's making it, it's not a thing. Get back to me when an anarcho-capitalist country comes into existence and doesn't implode in a few years.
 
I don't count it as a "brand" unless it's been established. Just because Slug-O Cola has a name, if nobody's making it, it's not a thing. Get back to me when an anarcho-capitalist country comes into existence and doesn't implode in a few years.
What you consider a brand, or what "counts" doesn't matter when compared to the reality of the world around us.
 
What you consider a brand, or what "counts" doesn't matter when compared to the reality of the world around us.
Exactly. And the reality is every time Communism has been tried on a national scale, it immediately becomes violently, even genocidally authoritarian. Benign National Communism is the Nibiru of Politics. Not only doesn't it exist, it CAN'T exist... but that doesn't stop its deluded fandom from saying "Oh, NEXT time it will be real!" and making up all sorts of reasons why their predictions keep not coming true.

The main difference is that Nibirunuts haven't murdered 80 million people. Yet.
 
"The reality of the world around us" - isn't that what people in the world made in the first place? I don't understand.
 
Exactly. And the reality is every time Communism has been tried on a national scale, it immediately becomes violently, even genocidally authoritarian. Benign National Communism is the Nibiru of Politics. Not only doesn't it exist, it CAN'T exist... but that doesn't stop its deluded fandom from saying "Oh, NEXT time it will be real!" and making up all sorts of reasons why their predictions keep not coming true.

The main difference is that Nibirunuts haven't murdered 80 million people. Yet.
That's like saying "every time people try to launch a rocket, it explodes. You people are crazy. We'll never get to the moon. It's just not going to be a reality."

Capitalism has murdered the hell out of millions of people, and continues to do so every day. What's worse, is that people accept it because they think it's not only necessary, but crucial to them becoming rich. They have been conditioned to believe this is the best solution, and so they assume, incorrectly, that capitalism is the natural state of things when it isn't. People, for the most part, work together to mutual benefit. Capitalism is the anti-thesis to this, because it encourages people to accrue vast amounts of wealth at the expense of their neighbor.

"The reality of the world around us" - isn't that what people in the world made in the first place? I don't understand.
"The reality of the world around us" means accepting that there are realities separate from what humans do and do not accept. For example, if you tell me that you only count whites as people, you're ignoring the reality based only on what you think matters, or what counts in your opinion.
 
@Doom Shepherd , please stop your anti-communism tirade. This thread isn't about whether communism has merits, it's about Martin Luther King's activism and democratic socialist and anti-imperialist beliefs, as well as his other political views and activism that are not as widely reported and well-known as his civil rights activism.

@Amaris ' post was in relation to Mr. King's anti-imperialist beliefs, specifically to a direct quote of Mr. King in which he called the United States the "greatest purveyor of violence in the world". That did not call for a blatant whataboutism in pointing the finger at Soviet crimes against humanity.

In fact, your anti-communism is something Mr. King would not have appreciated, as a passage from his speech "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence shows:

Martin Luther King Jr. said:
War is not the answer. Communism will never be defeated by the use of atomic bombs or nuclear weapons. Let us not join those who shout war and, through their misguided passions, urge the United States to relinquish its participation in the United Nations. These are days which demand wise restraint and calm reasonableness. We must not engage in a negative anticommunism, but rather in a positive thrust for democracy, realizing that our greatest defense against communism is to take offensive action in behalf of justice. We must with positive action seek to remove those conditions of poverty, insecurity, and injustice, which are the fertile soil in which the seed of communism grows and develops.
 
That's like saying "every time people try to launch rocket, it explodes. You people are crazy. We'll never get to the moon. It's just not going to be a reality."

Yes, if EVERY rocket explodes, that's exactly, 100% true. If EVERY rocket up until now exploded, you would have to be the heir to the throne of the kingdom of idiots to say "I'm'a gettin' on the next one!" They had to demonstrate at least a reasonable success rate before they started putting people on.

Might your 'rocket to the moon' work someday? Sure, AFTER you've figured out how to not make it explode and kill the crew. You're not there yet, Von Braun. Right now, Modern-Day Communism is roughly at the level of Wan Hu.

@Doom Shepherd , please stop your anti-communism tirade. This thread isn't about whether communism has merits, it's about Martin Luther King's activism and democratic socialist and anti-imperialist beliefs, as well as his other political views and activism that are not as widely reported and well-known as his civil rights activism.
Your thread is no longer your property, and has been appropriated for the Good of the People, as Marx would have had it. :D

@Amaris ' post was in relation to Mr. King's anti-imperialist beliefs, specifically to a direct quote of Mr. King in which he called the United States the "greatest purveyor of violence in the world". That did not call for a blatant whataboutism in pointing the finger at Soviet crimes against humanity.

Yeah, he was really kinda wrong in that quote. Not surprising, because at the time he said it, the Soviets were still doing a fairly good job of hiding how awful their regime really was. More nukes, more foreign adventurism (Hell, Cuba alone sent troops to more countries during the 20th century than the US did, to say noting of the Soviet Bloc - you remember them right? The countries the Soviets "liberated" during WWII that never got their own governments back?), more dissidents sent to Siberia.

BTW, Ironically "Whataboutism was actually a derogatory US term for what the Soviet Union did every time it was trying to distract from ITS markedly worse record on... well, pretty much everything. It was literally their only defense.

In fact, your anti-communism is something Mr. King would not have appreciated, as a passage from his speech "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence shows:

*SHRUG* Fuckin' around on your wife, especially when you're a pastor, is something I don't appreciate, so I guess Dr. King and I both get to be hypocrites, just a little bit. I feel safe that the good we all do outbalances the dickishness.

I'm not even anti-socialist. I think Western Europe and Scandinavia prove socialism can work pretty well, when it's part of a healthy balanced capitalist diet. I think 'Star Trek Socialism' is a goal to strive for. I'm NOT for what American Republicans think Capitalism is, I'm against that too.

I'm anti-anti-capitalist. Especially when it's online, because DUH, what do you think you are using?

So, I'll make you a counterproposal. The old "Mexican Standoff" proposal. I'll drop the "blah-blah Communism blah," and You drop the 'blah-blah, Capitalism blah," and we'll all coexist happily ever after until Elon Musk and James Cameron mine the asteroids and Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos build the Giant Solar Power Station, and we enter the post-scarcity society and the entire argument becomes irrelevant anyway. (And then Cochrane builds the Phoenex because HE wants to get rich too, and there you have it.)

“Commerce [and] entrepreneurial capitalism take more people out of poverty than aid." - Bono
 
Yes, if EVERY rocket explodes, that's exactly, 100% true. If EVERY rocket up until now exploded, you would have to be the heir to the throne of the kingdom of idiots to say "I'm'a gettin' on the next one!" They had to demonstrate at least a reasonable success rate before they started putting people on.

Might your 'rocket to the moon' work someday? Sure, AFTER you've figured out how to not make it explode and kill the crew. You're not there yet, Von Braun. Right now, Modern-Day Communism is roughly at the level of Wan Hu.


Your thread is no longer your property, and has been appropriated for the Good of the People, as Marx would have had it. :D
That would be Marxist Communism, one of many different varieties of communism, just as there are many varieties of capitalism. I'm more in line with Libertarian Socialism, or possibly Anarcho-Communism. Capitalism, as it is now, is unsustainable. The materials for the rocket are there, the science is sound, but few people are trying to actually build the rocket because they've been taught that building a rocket without a market based solution is foolhardy.

Yeah, he was really kinda wrong in that quote. Not surprising, because at the time he said it, the Soviets were still doing a fairly good job of hiding how awful their regime really was. More nukes, more foreign adventurism (Hell, Cuba alone sent troops to more countries during the 20th century than the US did, to say noting of the Soviet Bloc - you remember them right? The countries the Soviets "liberated" during WWII that never got their own governments back?), more dissidents sent to Siberia.

BTW, Ironically "Whataboutism was actually a derogatory US term for what the Soviet Union did every time it was trying to distract from ITS markedly worse record on... well, pretty much everything. It was literally their only defense.



*SHRUG* Fuckin' around on your wife, especially when you're a pastor, is something I don't appreciate, so I guess Dr. King and I both get to be hypocrites, just a little bit. I feel safe that the good we all do outbalances the dickishness.
Again, you're speaking of a very authoritarian communism, one that was perverted to suit the power of the state over that of the worker. It's communist in the same way that the Nazi party was socialist. For those at home keeping score, that would be "not at all." All authoritarianism has ever done is enrich those at the top, while denying the rights of the majority. The United States is getting much, much better at that than anyone else, and they do it through the power of the dollar.

Here's what capitalism has done for you:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgencio_Batista
https://www.theatlantic.com/interna...invasions-destabilize-the-middle-east/274190/
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/cia-assisted-coup-overthrows-government-of-iran
http://en.mercopress.com/2012/04/15...-contingency-support-plan-if-the-plot-stalled
http://rabble.ca/toolkit/on-this-day/us-secret-bombing-cambodia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_Guatemalan_coup_d'état
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...75ae6ab94b5_story.html?utm_term=.085383e3c1b3

Noam Chomsky speaks on this:

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There's more. There's a lot more.

1 in 30 children in US is homeless: https://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/one-30-american-children-homeless-report-says-n250136
Homeless population has risen: https://www.usnews.com/news/us/arti...ount-rises-pushed-by-crisis-on-the-west-coast
Many seniors can't afford basic medications to live: https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/millions-skip-medications-due-to-their-high-cost-201501307673
600,000 veterans unable to receive healthcare: https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/o...go-without-health-insurance-if-states-n656426
CHIP, the healthcare plan that gives 9,000,000 kids essential health services has no funding: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/1/18/16901526/congress-chip-crisis

And yet...

http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/countries/united-states/

Where's the money?

I'm not even anti-socialist. I think Western Europe and Scandinavia prove socialism can work pretty well, when it's part of a healthy balanced capitalist diet. I think 'Star Trek Socialism' is a goal to strive for. I'm NOT for what American Republicans think Capitalism is, I'm against that too.

I'm anti-anti-capitalist. Especially when it's online, because DUH, what do you think you are using?

So, I'll make you a counterproposal. The old "Mexican Standoff" proposal. I'll drop the "blah-blah Communism blah," and You drop the 'blah-blah, Capitalism blah," and we'll all coexist happily ever after until Elon Musk and James Cameron mine the asteroids and Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos build the Giant Solar Power Station, and we enter the post-scarcity society and the entire argument becomes irrelevant anyway. (And then Cochrane builds the Phoenex because HE wants to get rich too, and there you have it.)

“Commerce [and] entrepreneurial capitalism take more people out of poverty than aid." - Bono
This is utterly absurd. Let me make a recommendation to you: The Conquest of Bread by Peter Kropotkin. He will explain it far better than I can.
 
Your thread is no longer your property, and has been appropriated for the Good of the People, as Marx would have had it. :D

This thread is nobody's property, but as the starter of this thread I still have more say in what it is about than you. And you are damned off-topic.

Yeah, he was really kinda wrong in that quote. Not surprising, because at the time he said it, the Soviets were still doing a fairly good job of hiding how awful their regime really was. More nukes, more foreign adventurism (Hell, Cuba alone sent troops to more countries during the 20th century than the US did, to say noting of the Soviet Bloc - you remember them right? The countries the Soviets "liberated" during WWII that never got their own governments back?), more dissidents sent to Siberia.

I'm not gonna dignify this by arguing against you, because this is still off-topic.

BTW, Ironically "Whataboutism was actually a derogatory US term for what the Soviet Union did every time it was trying to distract from ITS markedly worse record on... well, pretty much everything. It was literally their only defense.

And what you did was still a whataboutism. Per definition.

So, I'll make you a counterproposal. The old "Mexican Standoff" proposal. I'll drop the "blah-blah Communism blah," and You drop the 'blah-blah, Capitalism blah," and we'll all coexist happily ever after until Elon Musk and James Cameron mine the asteroids and Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos build the Giant Solar Power Station, and we enter the post-scarcity society and the entire argument becomes irrelevant anyway. (And then Cochrane builds the Phoenex because HE wants to get rich too, and there you have it.)

“Commerce [and] entrepreneurial capitalism take more people out of poverty than aid." - Bono

Nope. Discussing the pros and cons of capitalism is on-topic, because Dr. King was an anti-capitalist activist. Since he didn't exactly organize protests against the evils of communism, they are off-topic. And your proposal sounds more like a threat of you planning to keep trolling this thread. So, try me, and I'll report you for trolling.
 
OK. I am generally fairly lax about thread drift, because I generally think a thread needs a bit of room to ebb and flow, just as a regular conversation does. However, since the OP has expressed a desire to keep this thread on topic, we should be able to respect that. So let's try to keep this one more specifically related to MLK and his lesser-known stands on various topics.

@Amaris and @Doom Shepherd , you are of course more than welcome to continue to debate capitalism vs. communism in a new thread.

@Kai "the spy" , I believe it is generally frowned upon to publicly accuse other posters of breaking the rules, so please refrain from that.

Thank you.
 
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