Geert Kwak's Gezever

Eerst even het gezever van Geert Kwak, 'Nederlands populairste geschiedenisleraar,' volgens de polderpers: 'Ongeveer een derde van het electoraat is boos en voelt zich zwaar misleid.' Een derde? Hoe verzint hij dit? Dan: 'voelt zich misleid,' maar dat is dus slechts een 'gevoel.' Op de vraag 'Als Trump zou verdwijnen, geraken we dan ook van het trumpisme af?' antwoordt Kwak: 'Ik weet het niet.' 

Maar nu een deskundige van wereldnaam, Noam Chomsky. Over Trump zei Chomsky dat hij:

deserves credit for his talent in tapping the poisonous streams that run not far below the surface of American society, with sources that are deep in U.S. history and culture.

I have to say that I was also surprised by the quick reaction of those who own the country and have a large share of responsibility for the malaise that broke forth on January 6. In no small part, it is a consequence of the neoliberal assault since Reagan, amplified by his successors, that has devastated the rural areas that are the homes of many who stormed the Capitol. Those who hold the levers of the private power that dominates the society and political system never liked Trump’s behavior, which harmed the image they project as humanists dedicated to the common good. But they were willing to tolerate the vulgar performance as long as Trump and his accomplices delivered the goods, lining their pockets by robbing the public.

And that they did. The “transfer of wealth” from the lower 90 percent to the ultra-rich since Reagan opened the doors for highway robbery reaches almost $50 trillion, according to a recent Rand corporation study. No one can place numbers on the vastly greater cost of environmental destruction that was a high priority of the Trump-McConnell years of service to the very rich and corporate sector.

But January 6 was apparently too much, and the marching orders were delivered swiftly by the Big Guns.

One has to have some sympathy for the legislators caught between powerful contending forces. On the one hand, they see the angry hordes whipped to a frenzy by Trump’s performances, and still in his pocket, poised to wreak vengeance on those who betray their leader. And on the other hand, looking down on them from above, are the captains of finance and industry who fund their elections and dangle before them many other privileges to keep them in line. (How many members of Congress leave office to become truck drivers or secretaries?)

The dilemma is particularly harsh for senators, who are more reliant on the large donors. And their defection from the ranks of obsequious Trump loyalists has been somewhat greater... 

Whatever the fate of the individual, Trumpism will not be so easily contained. Its roots are deep. The anger and resentment raised to a frenzy by this talented con man is not limited to the U.S. The $50 trillion robbery is only the icing on the cake of the neoliberal disaster, which itself is built on foundations of deep injustice and repression. We are not out of the woods, by far.

https://truthout.org/articles/chomsky-coup-attempt-hit-closer-to-centers-of-power-than-hitlers-1923-putsch/

Niet alleen weet Chomsky veel meer dan Kwak, maar hij plaats de feiten ook nog eens in een betekenisvolle context. Waarom laten ze hier in Nederland en Vlaanderen Geert Kwak toch zo vaak aan het woord? Luiheid, stupiditeit? Een combinatie van die twee?