Ethan Klein: The Perfect American Liberal
Ethan Klein and Joe Rogan are both examples of Liberalism as a contradictory, anti-social ideology. (Photo)
Watching as Ethan Klein has spiraled in his increasingly desperate vendetta against “Leftist” activists and news commentators has been.. informative. On the one hand, it has been entirely transparent from the beginning that Klein and his ilk have no tether to reality or the common working person; that after years of overhype and wealth accumulation built on shock-jock/lulcow content, Klein knows only that which is directly attached to his own influence and the power of his internet brand. Meanwhile, he adopts Progressive/Leftist aesthetics, appealing (falsely) to reason and empathy while simultaneously undermining those very tenets with a stream of lies and half-truths on behalf of a ethnic-cleansing campaign by an illegal ethno-state in the Middle East.
Like all true Liberals in the US political scene, Ethan Klein has two opposing viewpoints which he must force together like mismatched puzzle pieces; a slew of contradictory ideas which, without proper context or understanding, seem complimentary at first glance but crumble the moment you ask a single question of validity. Indeed, claims made by Klein and those like him are commonly centered upon the multi-cultural identity of the ethno-state (contradiction), how apartheid does not exist for those in Occupied Territories (why are they occupied and by what means?), or how it is essential to domesticate these people into subservience for the Greater Good of the region (what threat exists there? Why and from whom?). They talk of Rights, of both man and State, while simultaneously ignoring that a Nation has been erased in under 100-years to get us to this point to begin with.
And this is what a Liberal is. A conservative painted blue or purple who uses the language of emancipation to further entrench their own power and privilege over others. That is why the US Democratic Party consistently pursues war, protectionism, and US exceptionalism on the international stage while simultaneously offering vocal support to the very communities they are undermining and controlling. Why on the one hand they can kneel with Kente cloths while propping up dictatorial and rabid regimes across the African continent, claiming solidarity while continuing to allow police to kill thousands of US citizens every year and increasing police budgets across cities nationwide. This is why they can claim to support immigration and the “American Dream” for all while not only allowing for a crackdown on border crossings but moving wholesale rightward to further cement their own influence in a world they do not understand.
As I have said before: if you are reading this, you are probably not a Liberal (even if you call yourself one). In fact, you are likely a Progressive, Socialist, Anarchist, Communist, or Social Libertarian, perhaps a blend of all, but almost certainly not a “Liberal.” And I understand that I am pulling at semantic strings, but this one is important for it is the use of misunderstood language which allows the likes of Ethan Klein, Charlie Kirk, Ben Shapiro, Elon Musk, and Donald Trump to continue to espouse Liberal fantasies and enact Liberal legislation which centers primarily on the disempowerment of those most in need of protection by the government.
Austerity, the privatization, breakdown, and discontinuation of social safety-nets, is a profoundly Liberal idea and is known in international politics as a key component of Shock Doctrine - a method of control, the use of institutional power and manufactured goodwill to dominate, domesticate, and ultimately integrate another nation into Western hegemony. This is how we extract from those who do not wish to submit, how we ravaged the likes of Ukraine, Russia, Germany, Argentina, and Chile in the 20th-Century and created our own billionaire class through unpayable loans and untenable demands to make the money come from somewhere, anywhere, that wasn’t the pockets of an American billionaire or corporation.
And that is what we have here in the US today: the end point of Neoliberal austerity methods which aim primarily to subjugate the American Peoples once more under an astronomical, unpayable debt burden. When the politician talks of privatization, this is Liberalism. When they talk of cutting Medicaid, that is Liberalism. When they discuss the need to defund education, national parks, and crucial infrastructure, that is Liberalism.
Liberalism today (if ever) has nothing to do with the wellbeing of the working poor or the common person. As a political ideology, it exists solely to enrich and empower those who already have way more than their fair share of resources, a profoundly regressive idea which is truly antithetical to the professed beliefs of the US Liberal.
And that is what makes Ethan Klein such a perfect analog to this discussion. Because while we have watched a Nation obliterated in a single lifetime, the Liberal must ignore it if they wish to maintain their veil of authority and authenticity, must actively work to minimize the impact their policies of extractionism and subjugation are having on Peoples across the world (and in their own districts). The Liberal cannot call it what it is for that undermines the work of their forebearers, the establishment of a US territory in the Middle East with the sole goal of domesticating the Arab for the benefit of the West.
So while the world moves forward, the Liberal is dying, being left behind as progress continues its inevitable course towards greater human liberties, protections, and emancipation for all. And so they are lashing out, caught in a web of their own misconceptions, inconsistencies, and blatant contradictions, unable to cope with a world that is not only more informed, but which is more connected than ever before. The Liberal lie is just that, a lie. And when the truth moves faster than your falsities, you find yourself in a spiral which begins at Frenemies and ends with open hasbara-making and a genocide-apologia tour of the occupying aggressor nation.
If you take nothing else from this, remember this: the Liberal uses the language of the oppressed to disempower those who are most in need. Behind every Liberal policy is a defined core of disenfranchisement of the average person for the benefit of the ultra-wealthy. It wasn’t the Liberal who won the Second Civil Rights movement, it was the Progressive, Socialist, Anarchist, and apolitical; in that time it was the “White Moderate” (read; Liberal) who ultimately failed to follow up on their lofty language, to show up for those they claimed to care for.
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