priorities

[ritaxis]

So Monday thousands of workers are going to stay home all across the country: thousands of shoppers won't shop: thousands of students won't go to school.

What does George Bush think about it?

That radio stations shouldn't play the national anthem in Spanish.

Comments

[blackoakdreams.livejournal.com]

Yeah. My company is pretty close to shutting down on Monday, because we buy and sell plant material, and most of the nurseries won't be open. We're going to be lucky if we can get all our trucks out of the yard.

Now, I'm Mexican-American, but I was basically raised White. So I'm going to work on Monday. I am really hoping someone is going to comment about it.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

The nice fellow has no special claim to Mexicanness, and he's figuring out how to duck out early to make it to at least part of one of the several rallies. I'm going free most of the day, so I'm going to one, once I figure out which one where.

It's just a matter of basic justice and public safety. As long as we maintain a two-tier working class there's no way to secure legal rights and protections, or decent working conditions for anybody. And that is what persecuting immigrants and migrants does, there's no way such behavior keeps them out or even wants to. It's a cynical attempt to whip up hatred, since war fever has run out of gas and anti-gay marriage hysteria is ebbing and the abortion mess is preparing to bite them in the ass (I think that's going to take a while -- wait till South Dakota discovers how much they're going to suffer -- but they can see it coming). The gamble is that if you can get the American people to hate Mexicans enough, the voters will do stupid shit like Prop 236, they'll waste their energy on bitching about Spanish language radio stations and on beating up darkskinned guys instead of paying attention to what's in their actual interest, like labor laws, environmental protection, civil liberties . . .

It sort of looks to me like the American people are really vulnerable to this kind of manipulation -- I'm not comparing this aspect to other people, because honestly I don't know other countries -- but I think it's like any basic stimulus-response nerve thing: if you stimulate a nerve long enough with the same stimulus, the nerve shuts down and you don't get the response any more. And with the Republicans, hatred of other is the only thing they have to offer as a diversion. It's against their principle to do bread and circuses, which is the other half of the fascist distraction program: all they'ge got is viciousness.

And even Americans get tired of viciousness after a while.