Some good answers delving into the foundations of ideology here.
But most people who describe themselves as liberal aren’t that consciously ideological. They simply see the Republicans and Trump camp to be cartoonishly evil. They see the Democrats as “trying” to deliver on their promises for social welfare, human rights and stronger worker autonomy. The media discourse is tightly controlled so as not to allow socialist perspectives to enter the conversation so what most people think is possible is only reflected within this discourse.
Not to mention people in America, liberal or conservative, are too overworked, alienated, or assaulted by a never-ending stream of pop media outrage bullshit to take the time to properly investigate their own ideology. There are a lot of avenues for escapism.
But IMO the #1 disconnect American work-class liberals have (I’m talking about the plenty who would even describe themselves as progressive or socialist) is that they fail to see America’s current foreign policy as a direct but evolved continuation of its settler-colonial doctrine. US citizens are so removed from the direct effects of war and violent imperialism that they simply can’t see the current propaganda and assaults against AES countries overseas as the same exact thing that drove Westward colonial expansion across North America and the displacement and genocide of native people that accompanied it. They see things like slavery and genocide as relics of America’s past that can be healed with enough “acknowledgement” rather than active processes the American state is continuing to pursue today and tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow…
Until Americans en masse can overcome this disconnect, there is very little chance of revolution happening. Because US rage towards their own ruling class can always be redirected into scapegoating other countries by politicians of both parties.
For sure, Americans have been psychologically oriented to never connect the pieces and see how the current system came to be and how it operates. They can only do it in a perverse way to “understand” their enemies and the global south
Some good answers delving into the foundations of ideology here.
But most people who describe themselves as liberal aren’t that consciously ideological. They simply see the Republicans and Trump camp to be cartoonishly evil. They see the Democrats as “trying” to deliver on their promises for social welfare, human rights and stronger worker autonomy. The media discourse is tightly controlled so as not to allow socialist perspectives to enter the conversation so what most people think is possible is only reflected within this discourse.
Not to mention people in America, liberal or conservative, are too overworked, alienated, or assaulted by a never-ending stream of pop media outrage bullshit to take the time to properly investigate their own ideology. There are a lot of avenues for escapism.
But IMO the #1 disconnect American work-class liberals have (I’m talking about the plenty who would even describe themselves as progressive or socialist) is that they fail to see America’s current foreign policy as a direct but evolved continuation of its settler-colonial doctrine. US citizens are so removed from the direct effects of war and violent imperialism that they simply can’t see the current propaganda and assaults against AES countries overseas as the same exact thing that drove Westward colonial expansion across North America and the displacement and genocide of native people that accompanied it. They see things like slavery and genocide as relics of America’s past that can be healed with enough “acknowledgement” rather than active processes the American state is continuing to pursue today and tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow…
Until Americans en masse can overcome this disconnect, there is very little chance of revolution happening. Because US rage towards their own ruling class can always be redirected into scapegoating other countries by politicians of both parties.
For sure, Americans have been psychologically oriented to never connect the pieces and see how the current system came to be and how it operates. They can only do it in a perverse way to “understand” their enemies and the global south