COVID-19 Stimulus shows that Socialism is gazing at us from all windows of capitalist society

COVID-19 Stimulus shows that Socialism is gazing at us from all windows of capitalist society

By Ranting Panda, 11 April 2020

Ronald Reagan stated that 'the most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help'. Reagan is the grandfather of neo-liberal economics that aims for small government, to minimise government intervention.

So, it's kind of funny to see neo-liberals calling for greater government intervention to provide public health services and to support people who've lost their jobs. They are lauding Keynesian economics, while criticising the very capitalism that has caused much of the issues the world is now facing in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Neo-liberal voters bagged the heck out of the 2008 Rudd/Swan stimulus package that saved more than 500,000 jobs and prevented Australia sinking into recession during the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, while many other first-world countries adopted austerity measures, that destroyed jobs and sunk their economies into recession. Now, many of these neo-liberal voters are lauding Morrison for his $300 billion stimulus package, which will plunge Australia into recession and likely result in significant tax increases: the very things that these voters feared that Bill Shorten would have done had he won the 2019 federal election. Morrison is looking for the Australian government to take over a portion of private hospitals, he is looking to garner support from banks to delay mortgage repayments, to have electricity companies reduce prices ... in other words, he is looking to nationalise many of these services. This is an endorsement of the importance of socialism and a discrediting of capitalism and the neo-liberal concept of small government.

Will all those retirees who are championing this stimulus and who voted to keep their franking credits in the 2019 election, now give them up to help pay for the stimulus that they claim to support? You know those franking credits on which no tax is effectively paid ... (it's paid by the company, who then pay a dividend to retirees, who pay no tax on the dividend, so the government gives these retirees a tax return when they've paid no tax ... yeah, not a bad rort huh? How good is it to get a tax return on dividends that you didn't pay any tax on? Contrast this with how franking credits are supposed to work: Company pays tax, then pays dividend to the shareholder, who also pays tax, so the government refunds the shareholders tax to avoid double taxation). Funnily enough, many of those retirees are quick to criticise welfare recipients for being a drain on the economy, while putting their hands out for unwarranted franking credits to the tune of $12 billion at a time when the government is releasing the biggest public spending program in Australia's history in an attempt to protect the economy.

Morrison's stimulus package is not predominantly aimed at supporting workers who have lost their jobs. When will workers realise that their continued support of neo-liberal politicians is in fact-anti-worker? After all, it's not like Morrison is reviving the economy and protecting workers in order to establish a worker-friendly state. He is only using some elements of socialist economics to shore up the economy so Australia can continue as a capitalist nation, empowering big business to exploit workers and reduce worker pay and conditions. As the leader of the Opposition, Anthony Albanese pointed out in an address to Parliament on 8 April 2020, Morrison's stimulus package is based on the 'structure of the business, not the needs of the workers'. So workers will be treated differently, depending on their employer.

Morrison's stimulus package does not cover every worker in Australia. There are more than one million Australian workers not covered by the Jobkeeper stimulus (Taylor 2020). Further, there are more than one million migrant workers in Australia, who Morrison has explicitly stated will not be eligible for either job-seeker or job-keeper benefits (Pupazzoni 2020). That's more than two million people who lost their jobs and have no income whatsoever. How are they expected to buy food, pay rent, or pay energy bills? The reason that so many are missing out on government support is because Morrison's stimulus is based on the business structure, not people's needs. It is estimated that it would cost a further $25 billion to extend the Jobkeeper program to cover casual and migrant workers (Duke & Bagshaw 2020). That equates to a further 20% increase to the current $130 billion Jobkeeper program. Sound like a lot? Consider the cost of not supporting these people as this crisis drags on. Australia is facing a humanitarian crisis if 2 million people are unable to afford food, accommodation and electricity.

In relation to migrant workers, conservatives have argued they should not have access to the same benefits as Australian citizens. Yet, Australia has been happy to take the $34 billion a year that international students pay for education (Tehan 2019). That amount already outweighs the $25 billion billion increase required to JobKeeper. Australia has been happy to employ migrant workers in jobs in which they are often underpaid and overworked, many receiving less than half the minimum wage (Davey 2018). We've been happy to take their taxes. But now, when the going gets tough and we should be showing compassion to international students and migrant workers, Australia is kicking them into the streets to starve, to suffer from illnesses that they are unable to have treated in Australian hospitals because they can't access Medicare. Morrison has stated that they should just return home if they can't support themselves. Really? If they can't afford to buy food or pay rent, they certainly can't afford a plane ticket. Additionally, many countries have now banned international travel, so how are migrants supposed to return to their country of origin? Morrison stated that international students are required to have the capacity to support themselves for 12 months. Yet, they have lost the jobs they rely on and some of their financial support comes from their families overseas, who are facing the same circumstances of job losses and lack of government support in their own nations.

Is Australia really the country of the fair go?

In the meantime, Melbourne City Council is looking to provide support for the 200,000 international students in Melbourne (Topsfield 2020). Further, the International Education Association of Australia is calling for a hardship fund to help students, with the fund to take contributions from universities and all levels of government. Hopefully, these programs will be established very quickly, because many international students are facing homelessness within weeks (O'Brien 2020).

A stimulus program is necessary, but Morrison's is not comprehensive enough and is not directed at the real needs of many people. Australia is facing a major crisis of poverty, homelessness, starvation and the subsequent social, crime and health issues this causes. Then there are the issues with social isolation, which if it continues too long, will result in civil disobedience and mental health issues as people become more frustrated and desperate to return to a normal life.

And this is just the situation in Australia.

The bigger issue is not just how Australia cares for its own people, but how developed nations look after people in developing countries who do not have the ability to provide welfare as Australia or the UK or New Zealand have. More than one million garment workers in Bangladesh have lost their jobs and now face extreme poverty and starvation (Frayer 2020). Thousands of call centre workers in the Philippines have lost their livelihoods and face extreme poverty. Researchers at UNU-WIDER estimate that the global effects of economic shutdowns could lead to a further half a billion people living in poverty (Sumner, Hoy & Ortiz-Juarez, 2020). They found that most of the poverty will be concentrated in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, with significant increases in the Middle East, North Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. They further conclude international fiscal support is necessary for these countries to provide health services and avoid poverty, starvation, homelessness, and the subsequent issues this leads to.

There is also the risk that with such a huge increase in poverty, there will be a corresponding increase in slavery. Currently, there are more than 40.3 million people enslaved globally, but this is anticipated to increase significantly, because of poverty and opportunism (Smith & Cockayne 2020). With both workers and business-owners losing livelihoods, there will be an increase in the numbers of desperate people vulnerable to exploitation, and of course, an increase in business-owners willing to exploit them to recover their own losses during and following this crisis. With education systems closed down, there is an increased risk of child labour and trafficking. COVID-19 restrictions have disrupted anti-slavery efforts, so there is less monitoring and response efforts to combating slavery.

For people in developed nations, deaths in developing nations often mean very little. But let's bring this home for a minute. During the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, neo-liberal governments implemented austerity measures. Australia did not. Australia's Labor government ran with a stimulus package, as it's conservative government is now. This saved hundreds of thousands of jobs and prevented Australia from recession. In contrast, the austerity measures implemented by the UK resulted directly in the deaths of more than 130,000 people (Helm 2019). Those are preventable deaths, some of whom died because the austerity policies cut funding to health services. Now, just three weeks into the lockdowns in the UK, reports are emerging of millions of people facing a hunger crisis, with more than 1.5 million having already gone a full day without food (Lawrence 2020). And the lockdowns are expected to last months! This is not going to end well.

It is tragically ironic that in countries such as Australia, the UK and the USA, the population is expecting public health services to treat COVID-19 cases, to save people's lives, and yet much of the population has supported the neo-liberal policies that have gutted funding of public health in favour of privatised, user-pays systems. In the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson contracted COVID-19 and was admitted to an Intensive Care Unit for treatment. Meanwhile, for years, both Labour and Tory governments in the UK stripped funding from the National Health Service (Pilger 2020).

The United States under Donald Trump, specifically dismantled Obamacare, which would have helped cover the costs of treatment, now patients are left to pay their own way. In developing countries, such as the Philippines, people are expected to pay immediately for their health treatment, yet many people are too poor to, and now that many workers have lost their jobs because of COVID-19, there are even more people unable to pay for health treatment, risking the likely spread of the virus and increasing death rates.

It is clear from this crisis, that there needs to be socialised medicine. There needs to be socialised welfare systems to protect the unemployed from poverty and homelessness. Energy companies need to be nationalised as many once were. There needs to be socialised education systems, so that anyone can afford a good education, not just the rich. It is clear that privatising essential services and utilities has increased the risk of failure of all these systems during the COVID-19 crisis. The very companies that these services have been outsourced to are now putting their hands out for government subsidies and support. Clearly, this shows the failure of neo-liberal economics.

It is clear that capitalism is just window-dressing for a degenerate society that glorifies wealth accumulation built on a foundation of social inequality and extreme exploitation. But ... when the going gets tough, capitalism is a dismal failure that screams for socialist intervention.

Lenin stated, '... socialism is now gazing at us from all the windows of modern capitalism; socialism is outlined directly, practically, by every important measure that constitutes a forward step on the basis of this modern capitalism' (Lenin 1917).

Socialism is gazing at us from all the windows of our modern capitalist society. Socialism is a necessity. Society cannot be run by the anarchy of the market. Socialism requires an international effort to combat global wealth inequalities, exploitation, and poverty.

Exacerbating the issues in the US, is the feckless President Donald Trump, who essentially requires states to beg him for ventilators. In the worst example of public corruption and moral abandonment, Trump is only dispatching life-saving ventilators, medicines and masks to loyalists, to those who suck up to him, rather than distributing them based on needs ... he even instructed the head of the Coronavirus Task Force, Mike Pence, 'not to call governors in states that are not appreciative'. (Denver Post 2020). Trump has led a bungled response to the crisis, not just in America, but globally. After a 2018 warning that a pandemic was the biggest security threat to the US, Trump dismantled the world's best global pandemic response system because it was set up by Obama (Shesgreen 2020). In China, he removed an expert from the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), who would have helped in advising on the containment of the virus (Derysh 2020). In this context, it is not surprising the USA has the world's highest number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 (Smith 2020) and the world's highest death toll (Maxouris & Andone 2020). Professor Bandy Lee of Yale University, is leading the World Mental Health Coalition, who is calling for Trump's removal on the grounds that he is not psychologically fit for office. They argue that he is battling reality, rather than the virus. The group has stated that, 'We have a presidency that is incapable of protecting lives but is making a global pandemic worse — not just through incompetence and ignorance, but through a dangerous detachment from reality, a need to convey false information, and other symptoms' (Derysh 2020).

The world will recover from COVID-19, however, it isn't the world's first pandemic and it won't be the last. As with any disaster, the recovery stage will take much longer than the response stage. The recovery stage will require addressing the global tragedy of poverty and all the consequences of that, which will include homelessness, starvation, sickness and death. Not to mention, increased crime as desperate people try to feed themselves and their families. The world, more than ever, must work together to address this tragedy. While this will impact developing countries more, it will also have a significant impact in developed countries as described earlier.

Ironically, we've seen some benefits from this crisis. With fewer people travelling, there has been a reduction in pollution and carbon emissions (Gardiner 2020). Many workers have been fortunate enough to keep their jobs and work from home. Once the crisis is over, telecommuting practices should be adopted permanently by businesses. Even if their staff telecommute a couple of times a week, this would dramatically reduce carbon emissions. The world must reconsider its consumption of unnecessary products, the destruction of habitats, its renewable energy mix. Because if these things continue unabated, then so will climate change. Just because the world's recent focus has been on the immediate impacts of COVID-19, doesn't meant that the existential threat of climate change has ceased. All that's happened is that we now have a bigger societal issue to contend with in the form of significant increases in unemployment and poverty.

Using cleaner energy would have saved lives during the COVID-19 crisis. COVID-19 is a respiratory illness. Analysis has shown that there is a link between air pollution and increased death rates. This includes in northern Italy and New York, where high death rates correlate with higher air pollution (Carrington 2020).

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have been worsened because of pollution and social inequality. Prior to COVID-19, pollution was killing up to seven million people a year, including more than 100,000 in the United States (Gardiner 2020). Yet, ignorantly, the United States government is using the pandemic as justification to roll-back pollution reduction policies and Obama-era policies on auto-mileage standards (Gardiner 2020). New York in particular, has exposed its inherent social inequalities, with most victims coming from poorer communities, which are predominantly African-American or Latino (Pilkington & Rao, 2020). One poignant observation about the reason for this is from urgent care physician, Uché Blackstock, who states, 'This pandemic is laying bare the inequities that have always existed in New York City ... We don’t invest in people, we don’t invest in neighborhoods, and this is what we get'.

There are three key priorities over the short-term, medium-term and long-term, which require an international response supported by sharing of wealth, putting people and environment ahead of wealth accumulation and exorbitant profits. The short-term priority is addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. The short to medium term priority is addressing the economic and social issues from shutting down economies globally in response to COVID-19. The long-term priority is to address climate change, which will continue unabated, posing an existential threat to society as we know it if we do not stop the waste, the emissions, and the exploitation of people and natural resources.






References

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Davey, M 2018, 'A third of Australia's foreign workers paid less than half minimum wage – study', The Guardian, 29 October, viewed 13 April 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/oct/29/a-third-of-australias-foreign-workers-paid-less-than-half-minimum-wage-study.

Denver Post Editorial Board 2020, 'Editorial: Trump is playing a disgusting political game with our lives', The Denver Post, 9 April, viewed 11 April 2020, https://www.denverpost.com/2020/04/09/coronavirus-editorial-trump-gardner-polis-supplies/.

Derysh, I 2020, 'Yale psychiatrist: Trump endangers lives by waging war on reality, not the coronavirus', Salon, 2 April, viewed 11 April 2020, https://www.salon.com/2020/04/02/yale-psychiatrist-trump-endangers-lives-by-waging-war-on-reality-not-the-coronavirus/.

Duke, J & Bagshaw, E 2020, 'Expanding JobKeeper to visa workers, casuals could cost $25 billion', Brisbane Times, 12 April, viewed 13 April 2020, https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/politics/federal/expanding-jobkeeper-to-visa-workers-casuals-could-cost-25-billion-20200412-p54j50.html.

Frayer, L 2020, '1 Million Bangladeshi Garment Workers Lose Jobs Amid COVID-19 Economic Fallout', NPR, 3 April, viewed 11 April 2020, https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/03/826617334/1-million-bangladeshi-garment-workers-lose-jobs-amid-covid-19-economic-fallout.

Gardiner, B 2020, 'Pollution made COVID-19 worse. Now, lockdowns are clearing the air', National Geographic, 8 April, viewed 11 April 2020, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/04/pollution-made-the-pandemic-worse-but-lockdowns-clean-the-sky/.

Helm, T 2019, 'Austerity to blame for 130,000 ‘preventable’ UK deaths – report', The Guardian, 2 June, viewed 10 April 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/01/perfect-storm-austerity-behind-130000-deaths-uk-ippr-report.

Lawrence, F 2020, 'UK hunger crisis: 1.5m people go whole day without food', The Guardian, 11 April, viewed 12 April 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/apr/11/uk-hunger-crisis-15m-people-go-whole-day-without-food.

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Maxouris, C & Andone, D 2020, 'The United States is reporting 20,000 coronavirus deaths, more than any other country', CNN, 11 April, viewed 12 April 2020, https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/11/health/us-coronavirus-updates-saturday/index.html.

O'Brien, A 2020. 'Australia's international students are 'weeks away from homelessness' due to coronavirus', SBS News, 10 April, viewed 10 April 2020, https://www.sbs.com.au/news/australia-s-international-students-are-weeks-away-from-homelessness-due-to-coronavirus.

Pilger, J 2020, 'EP.867: John Pilger-What Governments Aren't Telling You About the Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19)', Going Underground, 8 April, viewed 11 April 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jt58it26jCs&fbclid=IwAR39L_BmCIPt8DIwancTu58mjvkoWcGwmGv5pd5tWpMQeXDuyepTO8Ilh1I.

Pilkington, E & Rao, A 2020, 'A tale of two New Yorks: pandemic lays bare a city's shocking inequities', The Guardian, 10 April, viewed 11 April 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/10/new-york-coronavirus-inequality-divide-two-cities.

Pupazzoni, R 2020, 'Calls for migrant workers to be included in JobKeeper subsidy amid coronavirus crisis', ABC News, 8 April, viewed 8 April 2020, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-08/migrant-workers-are-struggling-due-to-coronavirus-jobseeker/12129798.

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Smith, D 2020, 'US surpasses China for highest number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the world', The Guardian, 27 March, viewed 10 April 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/26/coronavirus-outbreak-us-latest-trump.

Sumner, A, Hoy, C & Ortiz-Juarez, E 2020, Will COVID-19 lead to half a billion more people living in poverty in developing countries?, United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research, viewed 8 April 2020, https://www.wider.unu.edu/publication/will-covid-19-lead-half-billion-more-people-living-poverty-developing-countries. Note, that the full paper is available at https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/Publications/Working-paper/PDF/wp2020-43.pdf.

Taylor, J 2020, 'The workers shut out of jobkeeper: 'I've lost 100% of my business'', The Guardian, 9 April, viewed 10 April 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/apr/09/the-workers-shut-out-of-jobkeeper-ive-lost-100-of-my-business.

Tehan, D 2019, 'https://ministers.dese.gov.au/tehan/continued-growth-international-education-sector', Ministers' Media Centre, Department of Education, Skills and Employment, 5 February, viewed 13 April 2020, https://ministers.dese.gov.au/tehan/continued-growth-international-education-sector.

Topsfield, J 2020, 'Melbourne City Council pledges financial support for foreign students', The Age, 8 April, viewed 10 April 2020, https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/melbourne-city-council-pledges-financial-support-for-foreign-students-20200408-p54i63.html.

COVID-19, the failure of capitalism & the collapse of society

COVID-19, the failure of capitalism & the collapse of society

By Ranting Panda, 20 March 2020

The year 2020 has been marked by disasters of biblical proportions. Within the first three months, we've seen catastrophic bushfires in Australia, locust infestations in Africa and Pakistan, earthquakes in Iran and Turkey, floods and mudslides in Brazil, a volcano in the Philippines and then, just when we thought it couldn't get any worse, a global pestilence in the form of COVID-19, a type of Coronavirus that we've never seen before.

Within weeks the entire world was brought a halt as the virus rapidly turned into a pandemic. International travelled all but stopped. Numerous countries forced people to quarantine themselves in their homes. Businesses either laying staff off or requiring them to work from home. Large gatherings banned. Sporting events played to empty stadiums. Many countries not having enough testing kits and their hospitals unable to cope with the influx of victims. But perhaps the most bizarre response, people in Australia panic buying toilet paper even though diarrhoea is a very rare effect of COVID-19.

Those panic-buying hoarders, some of whom got into violent altercations over dunny paper, were rightly and roundly criticised by many others. It was ironic though, that much of this criticism came from ardent capitalists, yet capitalism is all about survival of the fittest and lauding those who accumulate the most wealth and possessions. Apparently hoarding toilet paper at an inopportune time is not acceptable, even though its ok to hoard millions of dollars while failing to pay living wages to the workers who made the rich successful. Ironic then, that these capitalists, wringing their hands in despair of their fellow citizens, were lamenting why don't people share their wealth, why don't people care about their neighbours ... why don't those who have much, help those who have little ... why aren't people sharing 'from each according to their ability, to each according to their need'?

Is there anything more sanctimonious than capitalists criticising the greed in others?

COVID-19 is a deadly virus with currently no known cure. It has killed thousands of people and shows no sign of letting up at this stage. The virus is of grave concern and quite rightly, governments are prioritising the health and safety of people through travel bans and social isolation. As a result, it almost feels like the zombie apocalypse has struck. Cities which are normally packed with people are practically deserted. Roads that are often gridlocked and public transport that is overflowing, are almost empty. It is an eerie feeling.

However, there is potentially a much larger threat than COVID-19 and that is the social catastrophe that this may cause. Many people are unable to go to work because of social isolation measures. No work = no pay. No pay means that mortgages, rent, bills can't get paid. It means that people can't afford to buy essential items. It potentially means homelessness and lawlessness. Large companies have laid off thousands of staff. Qantas for instance, who made $1.3 billion profit in 2018/19, has laid off 20,000 staff.

Australia has a welfare system that will help some people, however, the welfare payments won't pay the bills for those who were earning significantly more prior to this and have large mortgages and other financial commitments.

What about countries without safety nets, Philippines for instance? President Duterte ordered everyone on the island of Luzon to be confined to their houses. The Philippines capital, Manila, is located on Luzon. Also located there are numerous call-centres used by many companies in western countries. These call centres employ many Filipinos. They have shutdown. Of course, its not just call-centres that are affected. Every worker on Luzon is impacted. This is an island of 48 million people and without a welfare safety net, many of these people will not be paid. Imagine the social catastrophe of millions of people suddenly unable to feed themselves and their families, to pay for their food, accommodation, utilities, health care and education.

This is a scenario that will likely be played out across the globe.

The world is potentially facing a catastrophic economic collapse, with millions, perhaps billions, out of work and unable to afford basic necessities. If we thought the fights over toilet paper were bad, this will be exponentially worse. It has the potential to reduce society to utter lawlessness, as desperate people beg, borrow and steal, steal, steal to ensure survival. It may not be the zombie apocalypse that has featured in so many movies and TV shows, but it is going to be close as people fight and kill to access food and essential resources.

COVID-19 isn't just a health threat. Social isolation & quarantine may cost millions of jobs, potentially causing a societal collapse if people can't pay for food or necessities. This could cause a global collapse, lawlessness, anarchy.

The phrase of the year will be 'social distancing' ... perhaps it should be 'Pyrrhic Victory', because shutting down the world to protect against COVID-19, will save some lives, but has the potential to destroy society as we know it. The victory over the virus may cost us more than we would have lost if we didn't shut society down, destroying jobs, business, charities, people's lives.

In many countries, people are banned from going to work, banned from socialising, banned from celebrations. What could possibly go wrong?

It is well known that boredom and desperation make for a violent concoction amongst prisoners. The social distancing measures to counter COVID-19 have turned the entire world into a prison, which will create significant desperation and boredom. The Purge movies revolved around one night a year of civil disobedience and lawlessness. It is entirely possible, that the longer these social isolation measures are enforced, we will see lawlessness on an unimaginable scale and it won't just be for one night a year. It could well become the norm.

In addition to this, there is the pain, suffering, malnutrition, starvation, significant health impacts as health systems across the globe are unable to cope, not just with COVID-19, but the results of extreme poverty and homelessness caused by the loss of millions of jobs. Not every country has a publicly funded health care system; in many countries it is user pays.

We beat the virus and destroy society.

Buckle up, buttercup!

This single event, the COVID-19 crisis, illustrates why capitalism is an abject failure. For years, neo-liberal governments have been privatising essential services, including health, education and energy, resulting in these services being delivered by companies that are only interested in the balance sheet, not in service delivery to the community. Now that we are on the eve of a cataclysmic economic collapse, these companies are expecting governments to bail them out. Clearly, they acknowledge that socialism is ultimately the only way that society can be protected against such disasters. Private industry isn't going to save us.

Australia's neo-liberal LNP government extracted years of political mileage out of criticising the stimulus package that former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his Treasurer, Wayne Swan, implemented early on in the Global Financial Crisis during 2008. This stimulus ensured that Australia was one of only a few western nations that did not go into recession during the GFC. And the LNP condemned it.

Now, Prime Minister Scott Morrison's LNP government has announced a stimulus package to try to rescue jobs and businesses during the COVID-19 crisis. This small act of socialism to share the wealth with the most needy, must gall the ultra-conservative, neo-liberal LNP. 

When the world recovers from COVID-19, it has the opportunity to reform economic systems to be more sharing and caring, to ensure that workers rights are protected and that companies don't go on chasing ultra-high profits while exploiting people. 

The COVID-19 crisis should be a wake-up call to the world. Capitalism promotes individuality, not community. Capitalism idolises private accumulation of wealth at the expense of others. Capitalism is founded in exploitation and slavery, treating workers as disposable resources to be used, abused and discarded. This virus has exposed the spirit of capitalism for what it is: self-serving, individualistic, uncaring. Socialism promotes a community-minded spirit of cooperation and sharing. Socialism protects workers from the predatory, profit-driven nature of private industry. 

Certainly, there needs to be social distancing, but the desperation that will be caused through destroying people's livelihoods, homes, families, could be avoided through wealth redistribution: from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs. 

It is socialism that will save the world, through ending exploitation and more equitably sharing of wealth. Then we can get back to fighting the other capitalist disaster that is threatening the world and future generations: anthropogenic climate change. 

  

Facts, alternative facts & the psycho-ceramic-crackpot-in-chief

Facts, alternative facts & the psycho-ceramic-crackpot-in-chief

By Ranting Panda, 25 February 2020

Trump is a Psycho-Ceramic.

What are pyscho-ceramics? They are 'the cracked pots of mankind' ... as described in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which went on to observe that 'perhaps the more insane a man is, the more powerful he could become, Hitler for example'. Trump is testament to this. He is mentally deranged & morally derailed, yet holds the most powerful office in the world ... meanwhile, the increasingly desperate, delusional & degenerate right-wing continue making excuses for him, justifying him and completely ignore the truth.

Take Senator Lindsey Graham for instance, who bizarrely stated that Trump shouldn't be removed from office, because 'he did nothing wrong in his mind' (Moye 2020). So what if his mind is a cracked pot.

There's a lot wrong inside Trump's mind ... If the right tolerate this behaviour, what will they tolerate next?

Trump is a demagogue: he appeals to his voters through manipulating their fears and prejudices, rather than by making rational arguments. His speeches are devoid of facts, heavy on lies and barely more than an incoherent, rambling, alphabet soup of puerile insults and bigotry.

In One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Kesey goes on to observe, 'mental illness could have the aspect of power, power'. Now, this isn't an attack on people with mental illness, it is questioning whether Trump's particular mental illness makes him unsuitable to lead a nation. Psychologists from all ideological persuasions have determined that Trump has 'narcissistic personality disorder' (Psychology Today, n.d.).

This may explain some of his more concerning behaviours, such as gas-lighting, compulsive lying, distortion, disregard and denial of facts, erratic and contradictory statements, paranoia and his snowflake sensitivity to criticism. Most concerning is how this plays out in the lives of innocent people. He has not only imprisoned people seeking asylum in the United States, but torn their children from their arms and separated them from their families. There are at least 26,000 children, many of whom will never be reunited because Trump did not have plans for recording the children's details before separating them (Blitzer 2019). This is the man who represents 'family values' to his followers.

Trump was impeached for extorting Ukraine to provide dirt on one of his political opponents. The Republican-dominated Senate was so sure of his innocence that they refused to allow new witnesses and evidence to be presented. One of the religious nutters who supports Trump, called for an 'angelic army with flaming swords' to protect Trump  from impeachment (Hamilton 2020).

Trump was accused of colluding with Russia in fixing his 2016 election win. Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, is currently fighting extradition to the United States on espionage charges. In 2016, Wikileaks published emails that were damaging to Hillary Clinton's election campaign. The lawyer acting for Assange has asserted in court, that Trump offered Assange a presidential pardon if he stated that the emails were not leaked by Russia (Borger 2020).

These are not the actions of an innocent man.

It's not just that Trump is a crack-pot. He is a dangerous crack-pot. He has unbelievably managed to herd Christians behind his corrupt, bullying, abusive agenda. He has done this through the equivalent of slapping a 'fish' sticker on his car. In this case, the fish sticker is his abortion policy, which blind, unquestioning Christians think makes Trump a good Christian, while excusing every other immoral, amoral, corrupt, deceitful, bullying action. All these people defending Trump and claiming he is a Christian, claiming he has family morals and values. Yet would they really want their children behaving like Trump?

Even more disturbing is the correlation of increased hate crimes since Trump's election. The FBI reported attacks against Latinos was at a 16-year high (Hassan 2019). Furthermore, a study examining hate crime trends since 1992, concluded that not only was Trump's election win associated with a 'statistically significant surge in reported hate crimes across the United States, even when controlling for alternative explanations', but that this increase was most evident in counties that voted for Trump (Edwards & Rushin 2018). The report was comprehensive and concluded that it wasn't just Trump's 'inflammatory rhetoric throughout the political campaign that caused hate crimes to increase', but that Trump's election 'validated this rhetoric in the eyes of perpetrators and fuelled the hate crime surge'. Further to this, Trump's influence as holder of the most powerful office in the world, has normalised racism globally and legitimised the rise of far-right political parties and their policies of intolerance, prejudice and discrimination (Giani & Meon, 2019).

Then there's Trump's so-called 'peace plans' for Israel. This particularly appeals to Zionist Christians, and of course, Israel. Meanwhile, it legitimises Israel's war-crimes and ethnic cleansing in Palestine. Firstly, he relocated the US embassy from Tel Aviv to the contested area of Jerusalem. Trump stated, 'God decided Jerusalem was the capital of Israel more than 3,000 years ago during the time of King David' (Usher 2018). Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers were shooting Palestinian protesters, leaving more than 50 dead (Davis 2018). More recently, Trump proudly unveiled his 'peace plan', which has an uncanny resemblance to the apartheid of South Africa, of which Israel was the greatest contributing external party, providing diplomatic support, financial aid, military weapons, and other resources for building and maintaining the bantustans (Liel 2020). Trump's peace plan was developed without any Palestinian input. Instead of returning land to Palestinians, which had been illegally taken and occupied by Israel, Trump's plan will create enclaves in the West Bank for Palestinians. It is no different to the bantustans of South Africa. All of this plays into the hands of Israel and Zionist Christians who have white-washed Palestinians from history, claiming they don't exist and have no rights over the land. The very creation of modern Israel was based on the myth of a 'land without people for a people without a land'. The land did have people and they had occupied it for thousands of years (Brownfield 1998). Trump's rhetoric, actions and 'peace plan', legitimise the ethnic cleansing of Palestine from history and the land ... all in the name of God.

Trump claims to be a Christian, but the bible does state, 'by their fruits you shall know them'. Trump's fruit is racism, hate-speech, hate-crimes, apartheid, war-crimes and the justification of ethnic cleansing.

To quote the 1971 song 'One Tin Soldier':

Go ahead and hate your neighbor,
Go ahead and cheat a friend.
Do it in the name of heaven,
You can justify it in the end.

It is from the movie, Billy Jack. The song, One Tin Soldier, tells the story of an age-old battle for a buried treasure, and the blood spilled in pursuit of it. The song ends with the treasure being revealed. Rather than the treasure being gold, silver or jewels, it is simply a message: 'Peace on earth'.

This message reflects Carl Sagan's powerful, poignant, perceptive observation of the 'Pale Blue Dot'. Sagan describes the Earth as a 'mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam'. Sagan goes onto to poignantly observe:

'The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds'.

War has existed for millenia, with people fighting for power, for control, for land. Yet, underpinning the belief-systems of many of these warriors are religions that claim they want 'peace on earth'.

There are Christians who follow Trump, yet cheered him on as he took the world to the brink of war against Iran (Grant 2020). Christians supported President George W. Bush and the 'Coalition of the Willing' in their illegal invasion of Iraq that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people. Christians supported Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush in their wars in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan. Christians supported the wars in Vietnam and Korea. Christians supported Adolf Hitler in the wars he waged and his persecution and genocide of Jews, communists, gypsies, unionists and many others.

Why is this so important? Because many of these same people will criticise Islam for being inherently violent because of terrorist attacks waged by Muslim extremists. Meanwhile, these Christians fail to understand that Christian-led wars have killed far more people than any other religion. This inability and unwillingness to self-critique provides a firm platform for Trump and his ilk to harvest votes from xenophobic messaging and politics.

These behaviours are described so eloquently by French philosopher, Blaise Pascall, when he stated, 'Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction'.

For many years, right-wing voters have been seduced by fear-mongering messages aimed at 'othering' to create division and hatred between people. The following message is similar to that presented by many right-wing parties across the globe. They create an enemy, they create fear, and then they use this to remove people's rights. It turns the people against each other, rather than against those people who promote hate and fear. And from this, war is justified, persecution of minorities is justified, authoritarianism is justified ... exactly what we are seeing with Trump.

'The streets of our country are in turmoil. The Universities are filled with students rebelling and rioting. Communists are seeking to destroy our country. Russia is threatening us with her might and the republic is in danger. Yes, danger from within and without. We need law and order. Yes, without law and order our nation cannot survive. Elect us and we shall restore law and order'.

By the way, that statement was made by Adolf Hitler, but it echoes the messages of politicians, such as Donald Trump and his ilk, which includes Australia's Scott Morrison. It is a message being reflected by right-wing parties across the globe, such as the German far-right party, Alternative for Germany, which has broken decades old laws about curtailing Nazism, in Spain there is the far-right Vox party, Austria's Freedom Party, France's National Front led by Marine Le Pen, the Sweden Democrats, Finland's Finns Party, the Conservative People's Party of Estonia, Poland's Confederation Party, Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the Slovenian Democratic Party led by former Prime Minister Janez Jansa, and in Greece there is the Greek Solution and the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn (BBC 2019). All of these parties and politicians have common messages and policies around anti-intellectualism, anti-socialism/communism, anti-unionism, anti-migration, stronger law and order. They do so through messages of fear that demonise Muslim refugees as terrorists and blame them for destroying the economy, or that socialism is infiltrating schools and universities through science, climate change, gender-fluidity, and political correctness.

Have we forgotten the lessons of Nazi Germany? The Germans in Nazi Germany did not realise just how far Hitler would take them, however, they embraced his message and did his bidding. We should be concerned when these parties are elected into positions of power.

In the United States, Trump ran a similar message in his electioneering and was installed into the highest office in the land. He is not articulate, his messages are rambling and irrational, but while they lack substance, they appeal to his supporters. This is not unlike Hitler, who was also rambling and irrational. In Australia, it is very similar with Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who has no substance to his policies, but continues the irrational and rambling messages of his predecessors, such as Tony Abbott and John Howard. The messages of each of these appeal to the masses because they invoke fear and hatred of the 'other'. They demonise minorities and blame them for economic ills, while providing greater freedom to the wealthy who continue to exploit minorities and the poor.



In the opening scene of the movie, Billy Jack, Billy confronts the sheriff for trying to shoot horses on Indian land. The sheriff declares 'We have the law here'. Billy Jack retorts, 'When policemen break the law, then there isn't any law; just a fight for survival'. This could be modernised to reflect Trump's approach to the law. He has consistently broken it, then criticises police for investigating it, while pardoning criminals with connections to him (Baker et al, 2020).

Ironically, those who support the idiocracy of Trump, claim they support democracy. They don't understand that democracy has died through the division of society, through turning the people against each other, through making some people less human or less deserving of rights than others. Dare I quote Padme from 'Star Wars - Revenge of the Sith', when she stated, 'So this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause . . .'


The hate-speech of the far-right is often masked in neo-liberal economics, which argues for free-market trade, deregulation, privatisation, small government, user-pays systems for health and education, and no welfare. The victims of neo-liberalism are the poor, so it is inherent in neo-liberal strategies to turn the population, including the poor, against a common enemy. That common enemy should be the neo-liberal politicians and big businesses who are only interested in profit over people. However, the common enemy becomes minorities in western countries, such as refugees, LGBTIQ+ people, Muslims, and even the poor themselves. Neo-liberalism is intimately entwined with neo-fascism, neo-Nazism and racism.

Why are these simplistic messages of hate so powerful? Abbott and Morrison both used three-word slogans, such as 'stop the boats', 'lifters not leaners', 'debt and deficit', 'axe the tax'. (Quiggin 2015). These slogans had no substance, no explanation, and were aimed at spreading fear and division. Most people did not go beyond the superficial messaging. Trump is the same. He spreads a simple message of hate. He declared that all Mexicans are murderers and rapists (Jacobs 2018). He continues to wage prejudicial campaigns against Muslims, declaring that 'Islam hates us'. He banned all Muslims from entering the USA. Following the mosque terrorist attacks in New Zealand that killed 51 Muslims and injured many others, he tweeted a link to far-right site Breitbart that had declared Muslim refugees were 'rapefugees'. Trump has retweeted hate speech videos by neo-fascists who wage campaigns of violence against Muslims while claiming to be Christians (Klaas 2019). While Trump claims he isn't racist, his language and actions have empowered Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and white supremacists (Simon & Sidner 2019). Hitler also used these simplistic, rambling messages of hate, fear and division. Hitler claimed he was doing the 'work of the Lord' in attacking communists, Jews and others. Each of these leaders wrapped their messages in Christian beliefs to mask their terrible agendas while seducing Christians into thinking they are defending moral values.

The common theme in these simplistic messages of intolerance and fear is absolutism.

Right-wing politicians will deplore 'moral relativism'. Yet the opposite of relativism is absolutism. Relativism looks at context and nuance. Absolutism does not. Absolutism fails to recognise the differences in people, societies, cultures, perspective. It rejects science because science requires relativism. Absolutism finds fertile ground in religion, because it is easy to manipulate the religious into a superstitious fear of judgement and condemnation by their supreme being if they dare to question. For example, Trump appointed a spiritual adviser, Paula White-Cain, who proclaimed that 'To say no to President Trump would be saying no to God' (Thomas 2019). Wow! Talk about feeding the superstitious fears of the gullible.

Staying with the Star Wars quotes, Obi Wan Kenobi stated 'Only a Sith Lord deals in absolutes. I will do what I must'. Ok, we don't have Sith Lords, but we do have powerful politicians claiming they are doing the work of the Lord. We have politicians dealing in absolutes, because that makes it easier to demonise and divide. It makes it easier to control the gullible to do their bidding. The key though is fear. Send the message that there is an attack on their freedoms, create an imaginary enemy, and the gullible are ripe for manipulation.

Truth and facts? Nah. What use are these when being told what to believe by Trump or other clowns.

Remember when Press Secretary Sean Spicer grossly inflated the attendance numbers for Trump's inauguration? Counsellor to the President, Kelly-Anne Conway decided to cover for him by declaring that these were 'alternative facts'. Chuck Todd, of Meet the Press, explained to Conway, 'Alternative facts are not facts. They are falsehoods' (Blake 2017).

For instance, when politicians or commentators are called out for racism or bigotry, they will either deny it or gaslight it. There may be video footage of the exact statement and they will say that they never said it. Or, they will indignantly declare that their freedom of speech is being attacked by politically correctness 'gone mad', by socialist snowflakes. It is reminiscent of Orwell's dystopian novel, 1984, 'The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command'.

Another great quote from Billy Jack, is when Billy states, 'It's funny isn't it? Only the white man wants everything put in writing. And only then, so he can use it against you in court. You know among the Indians, a promise is good enough'. 

Trump throws even this on its head. It doesn't matter whether it is in writing or there is video evidence of what he has said, he will blatantly lie and deny. It's not just that he is corrupt, but that he treats people with contempt and knows that his supporter base are so gullible, they will defend him no matter what he does. He is the embodiment of corruption and his supporters are complicit, easily-led and ... suckers.

Unbelievably, his supporters will deny facts simply because Trump tells them to. Speak to the brain-washed Trump fans and they will claim he is an amazing president who has turned the economy around. Many of the economic indicators show that Trump has just continued on Obama's trajectory without staging any miraculous economic recovery. For example, the following chart shows unemployment rate by racial and ethnic category. Apart from the dates, can anyone show when Trump took over and 'turned this around'? Of course not. Obama had already established policies that had reduced unemployment following the highs of the Global Financial Crisis which occurred under President George W. Bush.

Source: Jacobson 2020

Clearly, truth does not matter to Trump or many of the other right-wing politicians on the international stage. When people defend Trump or Morrison or any of the others who propagate a culture of deceit, hatred, fear, and division, they are taking their respective nations down a slippery slope that we have seen leads to fascism, authoritarianism and gross human rights abuses.

Trump is a crack-pot.

A dangerous neo-liberal, narcissistic crack-pot.

So how do we counter this threat to democracy?

The left-wing needs to mobilise and unite. Instead of factional in-fighting, it needs to fight against the horrid policies and behaviours of the intolerant right-wing. While Trump and many of those on the right-wing are sensitive to criticism, this shouldn't stop anyone challenging their racist, irrational, damaging politics. Realise that they will attempt to gas-light, they will claim they are victims of political correctness 'gone mad'. Hold them to account for their shallow policies, ask them to explain them and what evidence they have. Sadly, as we have seen, evidence and truth plays no part in their rationale, but they still must be challenged. Identify alternatives to their intolerance and absolutism that still address moral issues, such as caring for the persecuted, creating jobs and establishing living wages. This may be difficult, as many on the right have a warped sense of morality, thinking they are already defending family values and the morals of the bible, and sadly see any assistance for the poor or marginalised as socialism.

It can be discouraging and demoralising trying to hold a rational discussion with the irrational far-right. There could be a case for not holding these discussions. After all, as some anonymous pundit observed, 'Arguing with an idiot is like playing chess with a pigeon. It'll just knock over all the pieces, shit on the board, and strut about like it's won anyway'.

Nonetheless, the less anonymous Martin Luther King provides an explanation of why it is so important to challenge the intolerance and harmful politics of neo-liberals, neo-fascists and the far-right. 'In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends'.

Let's not be silent in the face of fascism, intolerance, hatred, fear-mongering and bigotry.

Stand up against bullying by the likes of Trump and challenge the irrational claims of the far right.


References

Baker, P, Goodman, D, Rothfield, M, & Williamson, E 2020, 'The 11 Criminals Granted Clemency by Trump Had One Thing in Common: Connections', The New York Times, 19 February, viewed 22 February 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/19/us/politics/trump-pardons.html.

BBC 2019, 'Europe and right-wing nationalism: A country-by-country guide', BBC, 13 November, viewed 22 February 2020, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36130006.

Blake, A 2017, 'Kellyanne Conway says Donald Trump’s team has ‘alternative facts.’ Which pretty much says it all', The Washington Post, 23 January, viewed 22 February 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/01/22/kellyanne-conway-says-donald-trumps-team-has-alternate-facts-which-pretty-much-says-it-all/.

Blitzer, J 2019, 'A new report on family separations shows the depths of Trump's negligence', The New Yorker, 6 December 2019, viewed 22 February 2020, https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/a-new-report-on-family-separations-shows-the-depths-of-trumps-negligence.

Borger, J 2020, 'Donald Trump 'offered Julian Assange a pardon if he denied Russia link to hack'', The Guardian, 20 February, viewed 22 February 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/feb/19/donald-trump-offered-julian-assange-pardon-russia-hack-wikileaks.

Brownfield, AC 1998, 'Zionism at 100: The myth of Palestine as "a land without people"', Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, March, viewed 29 February 2020, https://www.wrmea.org/1998-march/zionism-at-100-the-myth-of-palestine-as-a-land-without-people.html.

Davis, JH 2018, 'Jerusalem embassy is a victory for Trump, and a complication for Middle East peace', The New York Times, 14 May, viewed 22 February 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/14/us/politics/trump-jerusalem-embassy-middle-east-peace.html.

Edwards, GS & Rushin, S 2018, 'The effect of President Trump's election on hate crimes', SSRN, 14 January, viewed 22 February 2020, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3102652.

Giani, M & Meon, P 2019, Global racist contagion following Donald Trump's election, British Journal of Political Science, 11 July, viewed 22 February 2020, https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/british-journal-of-political-science/article/global-racist-contagion-following-donald-trumps-election/222D3AC82A8E3BD95880F262EB3F1F87.

Grant, 2020, 'Could tension between the US and Iran spark World War 3?', ABC News, 7 January, viewed 22 February 2020, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-07/world-war-3-qassem-soleimani-trump-us-and-iran/11841254.

Hamilton, M 2020, 'Christian prophetess calls on ‘angelic army with flaming swords’ to protect Trump from impeachment', DeadState, 23 January, viewed 22 February 2020, https://deadstate.org/christian-prophetess-calls-on-angelic-army-with-flaming-swords-to-protect-trump-from-impeachment/.

Hassan, A 2019, 'Hate-Crime violence hits 16-year high, F.B.I. reports', The New York Times, 12 November 2019, viewed 22 February 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/12/us/hate-crimes-fbi-report.html.

Jacobs, B 2018, 'Trump defends Mexican rapists claim during conspiracy-laden speech', The Guardian, 6 April, viewed 22 February 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/apr/05/trump-mexico-caravan-voter-claims-speech-west-virginia.

Jacobson, L 2020, 'No, the economy didn't suddenly get strong under Donald Trump', Politifact, 6 February, viewed 23 February 2020, https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/feb/06/donald-trump/no-economy-didnt-suddenly-get-strong-under-donald-/.

Klaas, B 2019, 'A short history of President Trump’s anti-Muslim bigotry', The Washington Post, 16 March, viewed 22 February 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/03/15/short-history-president-trumps-anti-muslim-bigotry/.

Liel, A 2020, 'Trump's plan for Palestine looks a lot like apartheid', Foreign Policy, 27 February 2020, viewed 29 February 2020, https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/02/27/trumps-plan-for-palestine-looks-a-lot-like-apartheid/.

Moye, D 2020, 'Lindsey Graham bizarrely defends Trump: 'He did nothing wrong in his mind'', Huffington Post, 24 January, viewed 23 February 2020, https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/lindsey-graham-trump-defense-twitter_n_5e29f14cc5b6779e9c2f8373

Psychology Today n.d., 'President Donald Trump', viewed 22 February 2020, https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/basics/president-donald-trump.

Quiggin, J 2015, 'Three-word slogans have left Abbott with an economic quandary', ABC News, 21 August, viewed 22 February 2020, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-21/quiggin-abbotts-economic-quandary/6714896.

Simon, M & Sidner, S 2019, 'Trump says he's not a racist. That's not how white nationalists see it', CNN, 16 July, viewed 22 February 2020, https://edition.cnn.com/2018/11/12/politics/white-supremacists-cheer-midterms-trump/index.html.


Thomas, C 2019, 'Does Trump need spiritual adviser Paula White-Cain?', The Washington Times, 6 November, viewed 22 February 2020, https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/nov/6/does-trump-need-spiritual-adviser-paula-white-cain/.

Usher, BP 2018, 'Jerusalem embassy: Why Trump's move was not about peace', BBC News, 15 May, viewed 22 February 2020, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44120428.

Updated 29 February 2020

Virtue signalling, do-gooders, dog-whistlers & gas-lighters

Virtue signalling, do-gooders, dog-whistlers & gas-lighters

- by Ranting Panda, 22 January 2020

(Jesus was a virtue-signalling do-gooder. Trump is a dog-whistling gas-lighter)

It's better to virtue-signal, than dog-whistle.

Ever notice how conservatives often use invectives to demonise people helping others. If you dare to care, you're a do-gooder or bleeding heart, if you dare to show solidarity with a marginalised group, you're virtue signalling. It's a form of gaslighting, in which conservatives are trying to make those who care, doubt what they are doing by questioning their motives and belittling their actions.

It's better to be a do-gooder than a do-nothing ... or worse, to be someone who does actual harm. These attacks on 'virtue-signallers', 'do-gooders', 'bleeding hearts' and so on, are just perpetuating the systemic racism, bigotry, alarmism & fear-mongering of the establishment and the conservatives who focus on individual greed and gain over social good.

Conservatives use alarmism like most people use coffee. They stimulate fears of 'the other', by claiming that virtue-signalling and do-gooders are part of a socialist plot to destroy the moral fabric of society, they argue that climate change is a socialist plot to take over the world and destroy capitalism, they argue that helping Muslims fleeing war and persecution are terrorists who will destroy our society and replace it with a Sharia state, they argue that allowing same-sex marriage will destroy the traditional family unit. 'The sky is falling, the sky is falling', screech these conservative Chicken Littles as they stampede blindly into Populism Fox's lair ... ignoring common sense and destroying their own values in the process.

Too bad if conservatives feel challenged over their lack of virtue, kindness and love. These attempts to insult and mock those who care for others, says far more about the person doing the mocking than it says about the person being mocked.

Ever notice that many of those who do the mocking are Christians? It's almost like they would consider Christ to be a virtue-signaller when he protected the woman caught in adultery and stated to the crowd, 'let him who is without sin cast the first stone'.  He was certainly a do-gooder when he said to 'love your neighbour' and 'love your enemy'. Remember the parable of the sheep and the goats, in which Jesus states 'whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me'. Now, if the 'virtue-signalling' wasn't clear enough, Christ then stated the converse, 'whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me'. It seems these Christians don't quite grasp the concept of 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you'. They certainly must be angry that the bible actually tells them that Christians are called to be do-gooders. Ephesians 2:10 states 'For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do'. Then there's the Good Samaritan. By conservative standards, the Good Samaritan was virtue-signalling when he cared for the beaten traveller. Interestingly, this parable was told after Jesus said to 'love your neighbour', and someone tried to trick him by asking who was his neighbour. The parable made clear that anyone is our neighbour and we should be do-gooders, we should be 'virtue-signalling' if that means helping others.

Because, you know, visiting asylum seekers in immigration detention, going to Mosques and befriending Muslims, defending transgender people against abuse, would all be seen as virtue-signalling by conservatives, even though these are the very things people should be doing without criticism.

Denigrating those who care for or show solidarity with others, is similar to the behaviour of some convicted criminals who tear down others to make themselves look better, rather than actually trying to better themselves. That in a nutshell is the hollowness behind labels such as virtual signalling and do-gooder. It's easier to tear others down than to improve yourself. It really is more a reflection of the person mocking others than the person being mocked.

Terms such as do-gooder and virtual signalling, are dog-whistling to conservative victimhood, where conservatives portray themselves as the victims when they get called out for victimising innocent people. Accusations of virtue-signalling are used to salve the conscience of those who do not treat others as they would like to be treated. Instead, they love to reframe the narrative as though they are the victims, rather than the people they victimise. They wallow in this sense of victimisation in another attempt to gaslight those who call them out for the bullies, oppressors and tormentors that they are.

This abuse of others should be called out. People should stand in solidarity with the marginalised and the victimised. It is important that marginalised and victimised people understand that they are not alone, understand that there are people who welcome them, understand that there isn't anything wrong with them regardless of the homophobia, Islamophobia, xenophobia, racism and bigotry of those abusing them.

Who is empowered by invectives such as virtue-signalling and do-gooder? Racists, bigots, despots and oppressors. Using these terms in the way that conservatives do, only serves to empower racism and bigotry, while discouraging people from being kind, it gaslights people into thinking that identity politics and cruelty to others is normal. It empowers the politics of cruelty and denigrates the politics of kindness. It normalises hate speech and hate crimes. It is fodder for authoritarians, despots, totalitarians and the likes of populist heads of state, such as Scott Morrison, Donald Trump and Boris Johnson, who have no interest in truth or concern for the poor and the marginalised. In fact, they weaponise fear of the poor and marginalised to stimulate their political popularity.

Some people accused NZ Prime Minister Jacinta Adern of virtue-signalling when she showed solidarity to New Zealand's Muslim community after a right-wing terrorist murdered 49 worshippers in two Mosques. Apparently, Adern was doing this purely for political reasons. Wow! Even if she was, it would be a nice change for the politics of kindness to be more popular than the politics of cruelty.


Alas, in Australia, America and many other countries the politics of cruelty is the popular politics - interestingly, this is supported by Christians and others who claim they are the virtuous ones, the defenders of society's moral fabric. How degenerate have these people become to believe that the politics of cruelty is a necessary part of the social fabric.

It should be noted, that the Christchurch Imam stated that the 'love and affection' of New Zealanders, including the authorities, has resulted in greater unity between Muslims and non-Muslims; it has provided New Zealand's Muslims with a greater sense of belonging (Saqqaf & Theodosiou 2020). This demonstrates the effectiveness of Adern's 'virtue signalling'. This outcome would not have been achieved if politicians chose to perpetuate the marginalisation of the Muslim community. Muslims would have been feeling even more vulnerable, if politicians had chosen to gaslight them or the people supporting them. Muslims would have been more marginalised if politicians had dog-whistled instead of doing good.

Rather than trying to shame people who care, those who are cruel and selfish should be the ones who are shamed. Instead of virtue-signaller and do-gooder being socially-acceptable invectives, they should be unacceptable terms that reflect the racism, bigotry and ignorance of the person using them. Rather than marginalisation, victimisation, racism and bigotry being the acceptable standards, these should be treated with contempt.

Those accused of virtue-signalling and being do-gooders are the heroes, they are the ones whose treatment, concern, care and love for others should be the example that society accepts, for it is this love for others that will truly build up the moral, ethical and unified fabric of society.

It's better to virtue signal than gaslight.

It's better to be a do-gooder than a dog-whistler.

Reference

Saqqaf, S & Theodosiou, P 2020, 'Christchurch imam says unity between Muslims and non-Muslims, not division, was the result of the attack', SBS Arabic24, 23 January, viewed 31 January 2020, https://www.sbs.com.au/language/english/audio/christchurch-imam-says-unity-between-muslims-and-non-muslims-not-division-was-the-result-of-the-attack

Updated: 15 January 2021

~~o00o~~

The sex continuum and gender fluidity

The sex continuum and gender fluidity


For years, LGBTIQ+ people have been fighting for acceptance, recognition, equity and respect. While there have been improvements, there are still some people who argue that there are only two genders and that this is supported by science. However, what theynet are talking about is sex rather than gender. Gender is about roles, identity and expression. The World Health Organization provides the following description of gender.

'Gender refers to the socially constructed characteristics of women and men, such as norms, roles, and relationships of and between groups of women and men. It varies from society to society and can be changed' (World Health Organization).

Gender development is not straight forward. It is complex with many possible variations that are influenced by a multitude of factors, including hormones or conditions such as congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) which causes a high level of male hormones in females, resulting in female genitalia often being mistaken for male genitalia  (NHS 2016).

Sex is binary in its most basic form, that is, male and female. But .... that doesn't exclude variations. Males and females have 23 pairs of chromosomes, for a total of 46 chromosomes. Of these, 22 pairs are identical between males and females. The remaining pair are called the 'sex chromosomes' and in females, they are both X chromosomes, whereas in males, one is an X and one is a Y chromosome (U.S. National Library of Medicine 2019).

However, not everyone is born this way. Some males are born with three X chromosomes, some females are born with a Y chromosome. Some people are born with a physical characteristics of male and female, although it may not be readily identified at birth, or even until much later in life. These people are called intersex. It is estimated that 1 in 1500 people are intersex (Newman 2018).

The following diagram of the 'Genderbread Person', provides an excellent and simplistic guide to sex, gender, identity and expression.

www.ItsPronouncedMetrosexual.com

Just because there's black and white, doesn't mean that colours don't exist. As a result of the variety of sex combinations available through various chromosomal combinations, some scientists have suggested that sex should be considered a continuum, rather than a binary construct (Newman 2018). Similarly, gender identity has a myriad of combinations. The following diagram illustrates some gender combinations.

Science may support two sexes, however, it also supports a spectrum of sex and gender formations and identities. Intersex, by definition, means 'between the sexes', which indicates that sex is not a binary construct; it doesn't have just two options. Unfortunately, understanding nuance is not the forte of conservatives. Many of them have the attitude that intersex is some new fad, even though the number or type of chromosomes one has is not something that one chooses ... and it's been this way for millennia.

Source: Lee (2017)

In terms of hormones, people have testosterone, oestrogen and progesterone. Females tend to have higher levels of oestrogen and progesterone, while males tend to have higher levels of testosterone. But this isn't the case for all. There are men with higher levels of oestrogen and progesterone, while some females are born with higher levels of testosterone.

People are a complex mixture of genes, chromosomes and hormones. Each of these will impact whether a person is male, female or somewhere in-between, whether they are attracted to the same sex, opposite sex or have no sexual attraction, whether they identify with the sex they were apparently born with, or identify some other way ... or any combination not already mentioned.

Sex is a spectrum and gender is fluid, with both presenting in multitudes of ways. This can be confusing for those who only think in black and white, who can't see colours or nuance, who refuse to look outside their own ignorance.

Some conservative or religious people may find that the sex continuum and gender fluidity do not fit their narrow world view, however, not everything can be slotted into some cookie-cutter mould defined by religion or ignorance. Sadly, this has manifested itself through rejection, hate, violence, forced 'medical' treatment, 'conversion' therapy and other harmful practices.

Back in 1967, a quaint, psychedelic British band recorded a song called 'Incense and Peppermints', which had the following timeless lyric that is as relevant now as it was then:

Beatniks and politics, nothing is new
A yardstick for lunatics, one point of view

It's hard to believe that more than 50 years later, there are still people with such narrow world views about sex and gender, while following ultra-conservative politicians and preachers who border on the lunatic.

There's nothing wrong with having a narrow world view, but there is something wrong when this manifests in ways that try to force those views on others. For thousands of years, LGBTIQ+ people have been reviled by others. Of course, not all societies were like that. Some celebrated or revered those who were non-binary or had a gender variance. For instance, North American indigenous communities held 'two-spirit' people, those with male and female spirits, in significant regard (Enos 2017).

Many nations persecute people for their sexuality and gender identity. There are 75 jurisdictions that criminalise same-sex sexual activity between men, 45 jurisdictions that criminalise lesbianism, 12 jurisdictions that impose the death penalty for same-sex activity and another six jurisdictions where the death penalty is a possibility, while 15 jurisdictions criminalise transgender behaviours (Human Dignity Trust n.d.).

Even in countries were it is not criminalised, LGBTIQ+ people face rejection, discrimination and persecution. This was evidenced in Australia during the debate over whether to legalise same-sex marriage. While it was eventually legalised, the arguments were particularly toxic, with there being numerous attacks on LGBTIQ+ people and numerous religious leaders declaring it to be immoral and a threat to the welfare of children. Numerous church leaders said they welcomed gay people as long as they were not engaging in same-sex sexual activities. Imagine the message that this sends to LGBTIQ+ people. It is saying that they are unable to be 100% themselves, they can't bring their whole self to church, to work, or even within their families.

This rejection has a significant impact on the mental health of LGBTIQ+ people. Imagine how it must feel to not be able to discuss what you did on the weekend because it involved your partner and you knew that this would result in you being ostracised, judged, rejected. The first country to legalise same-sex marriage was the Netherlands in 2001. Since then, several other countries have followed, but there is still significant ostracising of and violence against LGBTIQ+ people, resulting in them being more susceptible to anxiety, depression, homelessness, self-harm and suicide. LGBTIQ+ youth often have 'elevated rates of emotional distress, symptoms related to mood and anxiety disorders, self-harm, suicidal ideation, and suicidal behavior when compared to heterosexual youth', with them experiencing three times the likelihood of suicide compared to heterosexuals (Russell & Fish 2016).

Conversely, where there is acceptance of LGBTIQ+ people, there is less mental health issues, less homelessness, few incidents of self-harm. For instance, in 1985, Denmark became the first country in the world to legalise civil unions, and Sweden followed in 1995. Since then, both countries have legalised same-sex marriage, resulting in the number of suicides of lesbians and gay men almost halving (Wakefield 2019)

When Australia implemented anti-bullying programs in schools, there was a backlash by religious fundamentalists who were convinced that this would turn children gay. Yet, this backlash was the very issue that the anti-bullying programs were trying to address. Studies have found that where schools have such anti-bullying programs and affirm student's sexual and gender identities, there are fewer reports of homophobic victimisation, assault and harassment, while LBGTIQ+ students feel safer and are less susceptible to depression, substance abuse and self-harm than in schools which don't have these programs (Russell & Fish 2016).

This affirmation of identity enables LGBTIQ+ people to be their whole selves without fear. They can go to school, work, church, family, and social situations without feeling the need to hide their sexuality or gender identity.

In 1970, the world's first gay pride parade was held in New York City, on the 12 month anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, in which members of the gay community rioted in protest against ongoing police harassment following a raid on a gay nightclub, the Stonewall Inn (History.com 2019).

Gay pride movements sprang up across the globe to combat the homophobia, harassment and rejection that LGBTIQ+ had experienced for so long, and to provide a safe place for people to be who they truly are without fear.

But the ignorance remains. Homophobic bigots have attempted to hold 'straight pride' rallies and think that gay pride is there for LGBTIQ+ people to force others into their 'lifestyles'. The bigots are the ones who are forcing others into their lifestyles, LGBTIQ+ people simply want the same rights and opportunities. They express it as pride, because for far too long they were made to feel ashamed of who they are, to hide who they are. They were subject to violence, persecution, arrest, vilification. They were told that their natural sexuality and identities were sins. They were told that they were abominations. There are some bigots who still claim this. Straight people have never been arrested or vilified for being 'straight', they have never been made to feel ashamed of their sexuality or gender identity and expression. They have never been in a situation where they cannot talk about their partner.

Thankfully, the world is changing and the dinosaurs who try to force their bigoted views on others are in the minority. Sadly, these dinosaurs continue to cause significant trauma to others. They argue that there is a 'gay agenda' to dismantle society's traditional values. They victimise LGBTIQ+ people in the name of their religion or conservative, archaic 'values', then when they are called out for their homophobia they squeal as though they are the victims.

Gender is fluid and sex is a spectrum, as evidenced by numerous scientific studies and regardless of whether or not some people can comprehend this.

Accepting the facts and accepting people for they are will not destroy society, but will improve it, enabling everyone to live their lives openly and fully. The only 'gay agenda' is one of acceptance, equality and equity.


References

Enos, T 2017, '8 Things You Should Know About Two Spirit People', Indian Country Today, 29 March, viewed 18 January 2020, https://newsmaven.io/indiancountrytoday/archive/8-things-you-should-know-about-two-spirit-people-294cNoIj-EGwJFOWEnbbZw.

History.com 2019, Gay rights, 3 July, viewed 18 January 2020, https://www.history.com/topics/gay-rights/history-of-gay-rights.

Human Dignity Trust n.d., Map of Countries that Criminalise LGBT People, viewed 18 January 2020, https://www.humandignitytrust.org/lgbt-the-law/map-of-criminalisation/.

Lee M, 2017, 'How many genders are there? Two. Sort of.', Medium, 31 October, viewed 24 November 2019, https://medium.com/@cultureshock/how-many-genders-are-there-9a2aa6e82151

Newman T, 2018, 'Sex and gender: what's the difference', Medical News Today, 7 February, viewed 24 November 2019, http://medicalnewstoday.com/articles/232363.php.

NHS 2016, Gender dysphoria - Overview, 12 April, viewed 18 January 2020, https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/gender-dysphoria/.

Russell, S & Fish, J 2016, Mental health in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth, 28 March, Annual review of clinical psychology Vol 12, pp. 465-487, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4887282/

U.S National Library of Medicine 2019, Your guide to understanding chromosomes - how many chromosomes do people have?, 12 November, viewed 24 November 2019. https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/basics/howmanychromosomes

Wakefield, L 2019, 'Same-sex marriage in Sweden and Denmark has reduced the number of lesbians and gay men dying by suicide by almost half', 14 November, viewed 18 January 2020, https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2019/11/14/same-sex-marriage-in-sweden-and-denmark-has-reduced-the-number-of-lesbians-and-gay-men-dying-by-suicide-by-almost-half/

World Health Organization n.d., 'Gender, equity and human rights', viewed 24 November 2019, https://www.who.int/gender-equity-rights/understanding/gender-definition/en/.