More ‘My Body, My Choice’ Hypocrisy
The writing is on the wall for enemies of the administration…
About six months ago, I wrote an article detailing how ‘private companies’ were pulling out of Russia, effectively harming everyday Russians for the actions of their government.
…given the US government’s recent collusion with social media to deplatform ‘spreaders of covid misinformation’ (who happen to have a track record better than the ‘leaders’), we should ALL be wondering if there isn’t more to this than “The companies all independently decided to pull out of Russia.” (For that matter, maybe we should all be wondering that of the BLM protests of summer 2020.) Do entertainment company executives also have a “special relationship” with government officials? (yes)
Although this financial cancel culture has been an issue for years, as Matt Taibbi’s article coincidentally points out today, it has previously been limited to ‘fringe’ positions. Wikileaks was financially ‘canceled’ in 2010. Paypal has been off-limits for guns purchases for years (the same was true of crypto until the company started offering its own services). Porn makers have been targeted, as have online poker players. And government fingerprints were all over the actions of those ‘private companies’. Hell, Operation Chokepoint guidelines targeted 32 INDUSTRIES for ‘debanking’, and that was in 2013!
Now, another chapter in the financial cancel culture has begun.
Eerily reminiscent of Operation Chokepoint, this action is yet another example of how government is planning to attack dissenters — like Runnin’ Justin did in Canada. (No doubt we would find damning communications between Wells Fargo and the government if we were allowed to look.) This is how the action becomes normalized, paving the way for the confiscation of bank accounts (and whatever else they can get ahold of) belonging to political rivals.
It’s also a stark reminder that “My Body, My Choice” encompasses EXACTLY one issue for the people who are stomping their feet and chanting the slogan. Either “My body, my choice” extends to the right to have decide what medical procedures to have, if I want to have sex for money, or put drugs into my body — or it doesn’t. And if we see this type of attack from an administration that is ostensibly for the rights of sex workers, what do we expect when the tactics are turned against their evil enemies?
This is textbook fascism. Not the kind that Joe Biden likes to rail about during his rallies, but actual no-shit fascism of government ‘instructing’ private corporations on how to operate. I guess when you’re ‘defending democracy’, you think that it’s too important to be left in the hands of those idiot voters.
I might have wished for a different title in that it evokes issues around abortion and the jab. The article does well in starting to note how government tries to control nearly everything, generally along it's chosen ideological grounds. The swamp, perma-government has become no longer responsive to the elected politicians. If the politician's objectives match the permas, they will find a way even sliding past the law if needed. If not, the permas simply slow-roll or ignore the objective. The drift was already in place but Obama made it even more in his liking. Read John Yoo's "Liberty's Nemesis: The Unchecked Expansion of the State Feb 9, 2016". As he notes "First, expand federal powers beyond their constitutional limits. Second, delegate those powers to agencies and away from elected politicians in Congress. Third, insulate civil servants from politics and accountability.
As they see it, it isn't your body but theirs. You can choose either A or A. The law applies to certain people but not to others. Please behave as they require; if you disagree please be quiet because you are obviously one of those bad people. Names are provided for bad people and they know who you are. Federal prosecutors win 95%+ of the time; if we arrest you, you must be guilty. So far we have avoided neighbors checking and reporting on neighbors, beware.
Hypocrisy is a kind word for the duplicity we are witnessing.
They're defending democracy alright. By defining democracy as "voting" and nothing more.
This should also be the final nail in the coffin dividing ideologies and ideas into neat little slots, as if they were pieces of LEGO.
If private capitalist ventures had told the White House to "FOADIAF" when asked to censor and so on, none of these things would have worked without open outright legislation, which could and would be challenged in the various checkpoints - I doubt any Supreme Court of the US would have upheld a law commanding private companies to censor et c citizens on behalf of the governement, especially when it concerns citizens neither charged nor convicted of felonies.
You might not like it (who would, honestly?) but the huge private capitalist ventures have zero problem with bigger governement, more control, less freedom for citizens, fewer real choices and the possibility of opting out/going OTG. Quite the opposite: large capitalist businesses love greater governement control, corporativism and in the end fascism because that system protects those already rich, powerful and having a other vested interests in the system being set up that way.
It's governement plus Big Biz plus special interest groups vs the people. And that leaves the people with very few options to unite around.
It may sound pretentious, especially coming from an outsider, but I really think you the US citizens must re-conquer the meaning and content of the term "American". A few simple core meanings, positive and encouraging and also empowering meanings. Exactly which ones and how to sum them up in useful and memetic shorthand, I'm not the right person to say.