The Justification of Misogyny – a Time-Honored Tradition in Patriarchy

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It is always curious how various philosophies have been used to justify misogyny.  Biological determinism has long been used by the right wing to justify sexist policies and institutions by claiming that men and women are different based on their biology and their supposedly different brains, therefore stereotypical sex roles are natural and predetermined and are beyond the reach of culture and social conditioning.

These days we have dialectical idealism on the Left being used to justify sexist, regressive, revisionist thinking and the rejection of feminism, especially radical feminism, and the dismissal of the reality of sex-based oppression.  In dialectical idealism, how one imagines oneself is more important than what one actually is, therefore if I think I’m a woman that is more important than if I am actually a woman.  That is, one’s idea trumps reality, and therefore it is assumed that people who think they’re women are more oppressed than actual women. 

This thinking is diametrically opposed to dialectical materialism according to Marxist Zachary George Najarian-Najafi, whose brilliant article, Misogyny is Revisionism Part 1: On the Left’s “Woman” Problem  spells out the 3 insidious lies that the Left has accepted as truth, which are undermining women’s liberation and enabling the continued oppression of patriarchy.  According to Najarian-Najafi, they are: 

  1. Transwomen are women.
  2. Sex work is work.
  3. Feminism is bourgeois.

His first article focuses on the first lie, his second article, Misogyny is Revisionism Part 2: The Masque of the “Red” Pimp, focuses on the second lie, and his third article in this series, Misogyny is Revisionism Part 3: In Defense of Feminism focuses on the third. We couldn’t agree more, and our response to the 3 lies is:

  1. Transwomen are men, not women.
  2. “Sex work” isn’t work, it’s slavery.
  3. Radical feminism isn’t bourgeois, it’s revolutionary.

The ways in which men manipulate the truth and attempt to turn reality on its head are myriad, but the fact remains there is objective reality, and that reality is women are still oppressed as a sex.  Regardless of the ways in which the Left or the Right try to justify or deny it, sex-based oppression exists and will continue until we end patriarchy and male supremacy.

Google: The Surveillance State of the Art?

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Big Brother EarthStill using Google, gmail, and now Google+?  I’m not.  Google seems to have inverted its motto, “Don’t be evil” and has been engaging in wholesale collection of data it gathers on its users and is now polluting what was once its premier product, its search engine, with commercialized, proprietary garbage. This has been going on for some time but many people still do not seem to be aware of it. See The Guardian’s “Google ‘improperly’ accessed Kenyan rival Mocality’s database” and read The Case Against Google for a comprehensive argument against using Google by Mat Honan on Gizmodo.com, both written in 2012.

Google was taken to court in a class action suit in 2013 regarding its intrusive data-gathering practices, a case that it lost.  In a victory for online privacy, an article on Consumer Watchdog.org entitled, ““Gmail Judge Holds Internet Accountable To Wiretap Laws In Key Consumer Victory” sums up the ruling against Google thusly:

“This is a historic step for holding Internet communications subject to the same privacy laws that exist in the rest of society. The court rightly rejected Google’s tortured logic that you have to accept intrusions of privacy if you want to send email,” said John M. Simpson, Consumer Watchdog’s Privacy Project Director. “The ruling means federal and state wiretap laws apply to the Internet.  It’s a tremendous victory for online privacy. Companies like Google can’t simply do whatever they want with our data and emails.” Read the decision here: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/resources/GoogleGmailOrder092613.pdf

Google may be involved in much more than anyone might have imagined, and its influence/involvement may likely far exceed data collection. For a very disturbing examination of the larger issues of what Google may be involved in politically, see Google is Not What it Seems for a 2014 Newsweek article containing an excerpt of Wikileaks’ Julian Assange’s book, “When Google Met Wikileaks” regarding Eric Schmidt, previous Google CEO.

After reading these articles, you may agree that Google has abandoned its motto and is now being evil by its own definition as well as by that of many of its erstwhile users.  This is an example of the kind of dismissal of ethics endemic in capitalism, where profit trumps all, and is the larger lesson we need to learn from this betrayal.  Some of us would argue that a system predicated on profit is inherently corrupt, self-serving, and, well, evil.  It is no small matter that the NSA spying has been piggybacking off information gathered by tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and Apple and why these corporations need to be held accountable.  But even more disturbing, Google may be involved behind the scenes in larger world events.  This is why We the People need to take back control of our government and rein in these corporations who think they are “people” so that we can again have some privacy as well as some say in our lives.

Join the Internet Vote on April 23!

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A Message from Fight for the Future:

“Congress is trying to make sure the public doesn’t have a voice in negotiations around the Trans-Pacific Partnership. They’re trying to “Fast Track” the secret deal, threatening our Internet and our democracy. Fight back by joining the Internet Vote on April 23rd. Together we will use the power of the Web to demand transparency and give people everywhere a voice against censorship.

Twitter is one of our most powerful platforms for making sure decision makers know we’re paying attention. Join our campaign on Twitter and help keep the Internet free of censorship.
Join with Twitter

The TPP would be a nightmare for Internet users everywhere — here are a few articles about the worst parts.

  • Force sites to remove allegedly infringing content from the web without a court order — similar to SOPA.
  • Create harsh criminal penalties for journalists and whistleblowers.
  • Punish Internet users who share copyrighted material, even without any personal gain.
  • Limit Fair Use to make copyright even more restrictive on creative innovation.

There are a lot of other reasons groups oppose the TPP beyond its impact on the free and open Internet. You can find out more information about those reasons at StopFastTrack.com.

We need to be as big and visible as possible to stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership — that’s the only way we can win this fight. We all need to get as many people in our audiences, readerships, and communities motivated to do something. We can make this powerfully epic, but only if you help. Companies need to be the frontrunners, leaders, and heroes on this because we’ve seen time and time again with SOPA, Reset The Net, and net neutrality that it’s the key ingredient to raising the bar and making sure everyone goes big.

Time is short — Congress is introducing a bill to Fast Track the TPP in the coming weeks, so we need to act now.

The TPP is the kind of bad legislation that only comes along once every 10 or 20 years. It has pieces of every bad Internet policy we’ve fought against, and if it passes now we’ll be kicking ourselves for decades, fighting uphill battle after uphill battle on copyright reform, whistleblower protections, and so much more. Doing the most we can right now is the only rational step to protecting the open Internet.”

To join the fight go to: www.fightforthefuture.org

Ferguson – The Police State Exposed

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Ferguson simply has exposed what has been happening for many years now in the wake of the Patriot Act, NDAA 2012, HR 347, which transformed our republic into a police state and stripped us of our Fourth Amendment rights. Thanks to the military-industrial complex, which makes billions off endless wars, we now have militarized police forces as well, armed to the teeth with weapons of war. See: https://www.aclu.org/war-comes-home-excessive-militarization-american-policing

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/19/1322763/-Using-the-ballot-box-to-lawfully-disarm-the-American-militarized-police-state-Police-execution-video

Protesters nationwide hope to transform their anger into change and secure the guarantees of the U.S. Constitution & Bill of Rights. See Ferguson Protesters Hope To Transform Anger Into Change, and a quick look at social media offers insight into what people are thinking. Check out Twitter hashtags #sandydarity, #justicefor mike #protestpoliceviolence, #FergusonSyllabus, and Twitter handles @civilright.org and @ryjareilly. For more information, see the Atlantic Magazine, 8-25-14 article by Marcia Chatelan “Ferguson is on the Syllabus:” http://colorlines.com/archives/2014/08/following_ferugson_teaching_the_crisis_in_the_classroom.html

As far as the justice system response goes, Prosecutor McCullough may likely be using the grand jury as a “delaying tactic” to absolve a guilty police officer of shooting Mike Brown on the street of Ferguson, Mo near where he lived with his parents. Officer Darren Wilson will tell his tale to the grand jury and no doubt there will be no trained opposing force who will challenge his story.

According to Bill Simpich, an Oakland attorney and the 2003 Public Justice Trial Lawyer of the year, the 5th Amendment mandates the federal government to use the grand jury in capital cases, but he states that “it has fallen into disfavor over time and become an essential element of the New Jim Crow”. Simpich believes that “only a new civil rights movement can end this abuse of power.” This is part of a systemic problem that only can be corrected by putting the People back in charge of our government instead of a corrupt police state run by warmongering mega-corporations who care only about profits, not the human rights of an unarmed teenager.