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In America there is a wicked collusion within the woke left, whose influence transcends the political sphere, threatens to irremediably destroy opposing views to its dominance, and consolidates before our eyes. Understanding it is the key to stopping it.
An unhealthy alliance, increasingly evident
For decades the narrative of the “liberals” (the American left) was built on the idea of “fight the power.” They were supposedly the good guys because they stood up to the rich and powerful to defend the rights of the disenfranchised.
That narrative was never true, but now it is more false than ever. Through their teeth, they maintain it, for example, in the calls to eliminate police funding, of which characters like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) have taken so much advantage. Behind the scenes, however, they have nurtured an unhealthy alliance, ever deeper and more visible, with the authoritarian forces they were supposed to be fighting.
This grotesque complicity between the government and the mainstream media continues to grow, and is demonstrated, literally, on screen. This was claimed this week by journalist Glenn Greenwald (famous for collaborating with Edward Snowden in revealing the questionable strategies of massive espionage of the Intelligence agencies).
Greenwald charges that MSNBC devoted an entire segment to defending the National Security Agency (NSA) and that “American liberalism” has become the “political faction that is pro-FBI, pro-NSA, pro-CIA.” He then asked, “If having your newsrooms filled with ex-security state operatives, FBI agents, CIA officials, and Generals — all of whom are paid employees — to reflexively defend the FBI, CIA and NSA isn’t “State TV,” what is?”
That said, Greenwald is not a right-wing journalist. He has been a columnist for Salon and The Guardian, (two of the benchmarks of the left-wing press) and his new book is an open criticism of Jair Bolsonaro, supported by Lula Da Silva and Dilma Rousseff So why did he raise his voice? He may not be conservative, but he’s not blind either.
The unhealthy alliance of the woke left
This alliance unites the liberal political movement (in the American sense) to the Democratic Party that has controlled for the last 20 years the big media, the corporate headquarters of the big companies and a good part of the high bureaucracy of the federal government (a.k.a. “Deep state”).
At first glance, the interests of such dissimilar groups do not add up. What could unite a CEO, a CIA agent, a TV host, a Democratic Party candidate and an Ivy League college professor? The answer does not require a complex conspiracy theory but simply a look at their institutional and, above all, personal overlaps.
At the institutional level
The groups mentioned here share in their organizations a taste for Social Engineering. Academics, big businessmen, politicians and “national security” people have in common a culture of what we could define as “institutional arrogance”. That is, the idea that society only works well when they run it.
For decades each of these organizations pushed its own vision of Social Engineering. However, they have naturally moved towards a kind of consensus around the principles of a globalized, corporate capitalism, which rejects old loyalties to country and religion, replacing them with new loyalties to brands or consumer identities that they hope to manipulate more easily.
Academics want to put their theoretical utopias into practice, while enjoying political and economic privileges, garnished with the sweetness of stardom.
The industrialized press wants to consolidate itself as a global conscience and make a lot of money in the process.
Politicians want to become media stars and use that strength to win elections and multiply their power, which they will now exercise through multinational mechanisms whose functioning is much less subject to checks and balances or oversight.
The high bureaucracy, especially that of “national security” is betting on a globalist model because they calculate that they will control this process and eventually acquire more power, even as America loses relevance.
All this jumble of interests explains one-half of the wicked alliance. The other half is much less political and much more human.
On a personal level
What do the great leaders of business, high bureaucracy, the media, fancy universities and high politics have in common? That they and their children tend to live in the big cities of the American coasts, attend Ivy League universities, read books backed by the consensus of the world, of the great academic world, and coexist with people of a much more left-leaning sensibility.
The “zeitgeist” of cities like New York, Boston, Los Angeles or San Francisco has been completely controlled for decades by “American liberalism”, which in turn is integrated into a “cosmopolitan” way of life whose economic prosperity is such that it can even afford to transform morality itself into an object of consumption.
In other words: they “buy” diversity, inclusion, anti-racism and other identity games with the same ease with which they buy a designer handbag or a weekend trip to Paris, to eat “organic and gluten free” dishes.
They date each other, they marry each other, they live with each other. The result is cosmopolitan elites who have much more in common with each other than with the rest of the citizens of the countries to which they theoretically belong. A member of the American elite has much more in common, in terms of ideology, priorities and identity, with a member of the Mexican or Italian elite than with a middle-class American.
The resulting gap has become increasingly clear in the elites’ ill-disguised contempt for the rest of Americans, whom they divide into “white, backward and racist” and “underprivileged minorities in need of salvation,” both understood as mere instruments for consumption and social engineering.
An unhealthy alliance is underway
This alliance did not emerge overnight. It is many decades old, but its development accelerated in the last generation and was strengthened especially since the Obama Administration and the “resistance” to Donald Trump’s Administration, whose success they themselves boasted in Time magazine, as El American reviewed last February.
This is not a normal statist alliance, since they are not loyal to the President of the United States, as it became very clear with the constant betrayals and the systematic war against Trump. They are loyal to themselves and to the way of life they share in the big cities. They are not patriotic, but transnational, because they believe that America is no longer useful to them. Their goal is global and “liberal” institutions. That is, controlled by them. Otherwise, there’s no deal.
Gerardo Garibay Camarena, is a doctor of law, writer and political analyst with experience in the public and private sectors. His new book is "How to Play Chess Without Craps: A Guide to Reading Politics and Understanding Politicians" // Gerardo Garibay Camarena es doctor en derecho, escritor y analista político con experiencia en el sector público y privado. Su nuevo libro es “Cómo jugar al ajedrez Sin dados: Una guía para leer la política y entender a los políticos”