“Peace” at Home on the Western Front, Exporting Terrorism Abroad: Social Antagonisms and the Contradictions of Capitalism

Left photo: 2016 video footage in the Syrian district of Aleppo, several months before liberation, of a group “moderate rebels” mocking a kidnapped 10-12 year old Palestinian boy moments before they beheaded him on camera. Right photo: members of the ultra-right Svoboda party holding a 2017 torch rally commemorating the anniversary of the Ukrainian offensive, led by the Nazi-allied organization of Stepan Bandera against the Red Army.

Below is an excerpt from an article I had written that was published on LLCO.org on August 24, 2019. 

In a recent video called, “The New YouTube Purge,” Jason Unruhe raises a key point which contradicts a popular American right-wing narrative that there is a “leftist bias” in Western mainstream media and on social media, with the implication that there is a “left-wing threat”. However, as pointed out by Unruhe, there is no credible threat to the system coming from the Western left whose vigor significantly decreased by the 1970s, with many having fallen into the liberal trappings of identity politics. At around the 2:15-minute mark in the video he states that there is actually no “leftist bias” or a bias against the right; but rather, there is a liberal bias that is embedded in the current climate of social media censorship-blitz:

“There is not a conspiracy against conservatives to censor them. Now that’s what they really believe in this case. But let’s really look at what’s going on. Capitalism needs things to function as smoothly as possible in order to make money; in other words: social anxieties and antagonisms “down”, purchasing “up”. Now there are certain barriers to that, certain contradictions within capitalism that creates the problems that run antagonistic to this desire for “smooth sailing”.”

While it is true that high-profile conservative media personalities are being censored on social media, it is not because of an overarching government conspiracy against the right. It is also not an issue of correct or incorrect ideas. After all, capitalism is built upon inequality, and one cannot expect true equality under such a system in regard to ideas or anything else. In order for the capitalist-imperialist system to function properly, the capitalists need to maintain consumer spending in the countries that comprise the imperialist core. Not only do the capitalists need to maintain consumer spending, but they also need to avoid anything that might hinder “business as usual”, such as workers’ strikes, large-scale protests, or any other kind of popular mobilization that might threaten the established system. This includes both right-wing and left-wing mobilizations, although the right is considerably stronger at present, at least in the U.S. Despite all the brutal violence and terrorism perpetrated by the imperialists and their proxies, the ruling class needs to maintain a positive, peaceful image of the capitalist system, especially in the imperialist countries, in order the keep the system running smoothly. Therefore, the capitalists must place constraints on speech, especially through social media, to maintain a veneer of tolerance and acceptability, and to prevent the spread of non-mainstream right-wing or left-wing ideas which may threaten the system. The capitalists must prevent not only the rise of radicalism in the imperialist core, but also any domestic terrorist activity that does not fit within their agenda. When American right-wing pundits such as Stephen Crowder “go too far” with some of their racist comments, they get de-monetized on Youtube not because the capitalists want a truly equitable and just world, nor because right-wingers are a threat to the system in the same way that the Bolsheviks were to the tsarist regime. The capitalist class considers such comments to be problematic because they are outside the boundaries of acceptable and “peaceful” speech within the imperialist core. By limiting speech that is outside the limits of mainstream acceptability, including both right-wing and left-wing speech, the capitalist ruling class effectively kills any attempts toward creating class consciousness, economic justice, international solidarity, or positive change in general.

With that said, there are, of course, certain right-wing sentiments that the capitalist class and liberal media are willing to tolerate — just not on Western soil; and certainly not on American soil today, in spite of it being the “belly of the beast” (to borrow Che Guevara’s words) and having been built on a foundation of slavery and the genocide of its indigenous populations. Right-wing terrorism abroad is not only exported and funded by Western powers against countries targeted by U.S. foreign policy, but it is also glorified and celebrated in Western mainstream media. In fact, many of the loudest voices championing the Banderite neo-Nazi Svoboda party in Ukraine and the numerous Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist proxy forces attempting to destabilize Syria have been liberals (as well as several sections of the Western “left”). For all their bluster about the American “alt-right”, liberal pundits and anti-Trump U.S. politicians alike appear to be tone deaf to their own hypocrisy in supporting right-wing terrorism against Ukraine, Syria, and Venezuela.

Click here to read more.