It appears that the rightful ruling class, led by Joe Biden, has retaken control of the beltway. We’re free to exhale. And exhale again. But before anyone hyperventilates, we should explore how today’s turmoil is actually structured ……
The sighs of relief represent a thought: “the left is back in charge.” When you look closely, however, the nature of this new regime has been poorly defined by our media because the most astute criticisms of “the left” are currently coming from …… “the left.” Glenn Greenwald isn’t exhaling. Neither is Matt Taibbi. Bret Weinstein still holds his breath, hoping YouTube doesn’t banish him.
If an accurate political spectrum could be reduced to simple phrases, one statement would be: “There are two ‘lefts’ in America.” And this “other left” understands all too well that they’re being targeted by resurgent power brokers from Silicon Valley, DC, and Davos. Their worldview has too much in common with the conservatives now under attack.
Imagine, for a moment, being herded from a train at Auschwitz. You find yourself in a second group in line for the “showers.” Would it provide any comfort to you if some business adversary from your previous life was in the first group? This is the kind of question these liberals are forced to ask themselves about recently de-platformed conservatives. Who, exactly, is my adversary?
A precise model of allies and adversaries is needed. But even a loose model would expose the fallacy of labeling today’s Washington power regime as “left” …… because the incoming administration is closely allied with authoritarian groups.
For example, the deep state’s alphabet agencies, featuring actors like James Comey and John Brennan, cant be categorized as liberal or conservative. They’re creatures of centralized power. Similarly, Biden’s ascendance was aided by Republican stalwarts like Mitt Romney, Liz Cheney, and Fox News hosts. This wing of their party also asserts top-down control.
So, the image of “the left” being back in charge is deeply flawed. It’s based on a limited visual conception of the system. The only debate it allows is, “How far right – or left – are the players?”
The new regime doesn’t represent a victory of “left” over “right.” Instead, it exhibits a resurgent “top” against a newly-wounded “bottom.” The top of the circle does include slight orientations toward the left and right. But so does the bottom.
The discontented – labeled above – consist of libertarian conservatives and citizen-empowering liberals. They’ve been unable to join together into a political coalition thus far.
The top-of-circle actors do see the powerful potential of such an alliance, however. And they’re making every effort to shut down discourse within the lower quadrants. In its place, they promote a carefully constructed narrative: legitimate players have retaken their rightful roles.
But the elites have resorted to authoritarian tactics in their effort to regain power. They rely on disciplined coordination between left and right-leaning “centralists” who sit high in the circle’s upper quadrants. And they can only thwart their conservative adversaries by inflicting collateral damage on citizen-empowering liberals.
The Great Conflation 