It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Sunday, February 13, 2022
The American Far Right’s New Target Is the World
What the “Freedom Convoys” Are Really About, And Why It Matters
Around the world, you’ve likely been watching America collapse with a combination of contempt, amusement, and scorn. And you might have thought that it’s just an American problem. Think again. American collapse is coming for you. For your democracy and society, to be precise.
What do I mean by that?
You can’t have failed to see “Freedom Convoys” spring up around the world — “inspired,” they say, by the one in Canada. “Inspiration” is the wrong word, and I’ll come back to that. First, these “convoys” are now happening literally across the globe — from Paris to New Zealand to Germany. More are being called for and planned. What’s really going on here? Have the world’s truckers suddenly decided to rise up in some kind of noble revolution? Of course not.
This is the rise of a so-called “Freedom Movement.” And that “Freedom Movement” is really just another name for American style far-right fanaticism and extremism. America is now spreading its hateful and poisonous far-right fanaticism spreading around the globe — and its aim is to destabilise global democracy.
Before I get into what all that means precisely, let me explain why it matters much more than you think.
There is a very, very big difference between what the “Freedom Convoys” of the “Freedom Movement” are and a legitimate protest. A legitimate protest aims to be heard by democracy. It is an attempt to have what political scientists call “voice.”
These actions of the “Freedom Movement” are not like that. Their explicit aim is to shut down the government. In Canada, for example, the far right is occupying Ottawa, and blockading the main trade routes into the country. This is not a protest — it’s a blockade and an occupation. Its aim isn’t voice, to be heard. It is to bring the gears of government to a grinding halt. That’s not my opinion — the agitators involved in this action have already demanded an audience with Canada’s Governor General, to dismiss the democratically elected government.
Can you think of another event like this? I can, and you should be able to as well (though if can’t think of the one I’m about tell you, I don’t blame you, because you’re probably not American). Think of Jan 6th in America. What happened that day? America’s far right still paints it as a legitimate protest — because of the Big Lie that the “election was stolen.” But it was not a regular protest at all. Far right agitators converged on Capitol Hill — America’s seat of government — and their explicit aim was to shut down the government.
See the parallels with what’s happening in Canada? They should be chillingly clear. These are not protests. They are organized actions deliberately aimed at destroying democracy. In Jan 6th’s case, the idea was to stop electoral votes from being counted. In Canada’s case currently, it’s to chip away at the legitimacy and power of government, to intimidate and bully it into submission. In either case, the aim is the same: to stop democracy from working.
I really, really want you to understand how different this is from a normal, regular protest. Think of anything, a strike for labour rights, women’s rights marches, civil rights demonstrations. The point of all of those is for democracy to work better. It is not to stop democracy from working. These actions that are spreading around the world, in other words, are the opposite of “protests” in a healthy democracy. The far right actions which are spreading around the globe are much more like mini Jan 6ths than protests — little coups aimed at destabilising democracy and bringing it to a screeching halt, for as long as hard as possible.
Even if that’s only a few days, or hours, that’s a significant victory. Because it paves the way for worse. That is what happened in America — it’s the vicious circle of democratic collapse.
So in what sense is all this American? Well, let’s start over now that we can talk more intelligently and precisely.
What’s really happening in Canada? The far right is literally occupying its capitol and blockading its main trade routes. Think about that for a second, because when I put it like that, the stakes should immediately become clear to you, how real and severe they are. Imagine that happening in, say, France, Germany, Sweden. That is what the American far right wants now — and it is not just “inspiring” local far right movements — it’s doing something much, much worse than that.
What’s happening in Canada isn’t “inspired” by America. It’s organized by America. It’s funded by America. And it’s coordinated by America. Yes, really. How so? Let’s go through each one. It isn’t just that the “Freedom Convoy” is organized on Facebook, which is an American company, it’s that far right wing American figures literally have played key roles in making it happen. It isn’t just that the far right in America applauds it — it’s that it encourages it to spread, incites it, eggs it on. And the far right in America is who has provided the money for the agitators occupying Ottawa to enjoy not just hot meals, but saunas and bouncy castles.
These are a tiny fringe of working class people. They don’t have the money — much less the organisation — to do all that on their own. The bouncy castles and saunas and hot meals — not to mention the way they can take large amounts of time away from work to occupy a city — are precisely because this is a sophisticated action, carefully organized, funded, and coordinated. In case you don’t believe me, the Canadian agitators know how to evade police, how to avoid arrest, by, for example, carrying water in jerry cans back and forth. This action has its own supply lines for food, heat, and money — it’s something much, much more like a planned military campaign than a spontaneous protest by students or doctors or women.
Think about that, too, for a moment. America’s far right is who is behind the occupation of Canada’s capital and the blockade of its major trade routes. It’s who has provided the money, the impetus, the ideas, the planning. Without it? Those supply lines and bouncy castles and saunas and hot meals wouldn’t exist. Without it, nobody much would have probably blockaded trade routes and occupied Canada’s capital in the most deliberately extreme way possible — because, frankly, none of this is very Canadian. What it is is very American, to be this obnoxious, extreme, aggressive, hostile, if not outright violent.
So what does it say that America’s far right has already helped organize, fund, and coordinate the occupation of a foreign capital and the blockade of its trade routes? To destabilise its democracy?
What it says is that it’s now it’s time for a little perspective. It shouldn’t be a shock. Let me put it in context for you. The American right has never been a friend of democracy around the globe. It has always been OK with destabilising foreign democracies. Only Europeans and Canadians haven’t thought about it that way, because the democracies which America’s right has destabilised have been in poorer (and less white) countries. And the institutions doing the destabilisation have been the CIA and whatnot.
But this tradition is one on America — interfering with foreign democracies, trying to end them. Let’s do a few examples. Chile had a democratically elected government, and America backed a fascist militia which ended up sending death squads to roam the streets. That pattern repeated itself around the globe. From Latin America to Southeast Asia and beyond, America’s right has repeatedly tried to destabilise democracy — and it’s succeeded.
So far, you’re not very worried, because you might think, so what? Those are poor countries! They’re not like us!
Why? Now comes the part that should worry you. America destabilised all those democracies around the globe because they were social democracies. America didn’t want them to be social democracies. That is why it installed fascist dictators and backed fascist militias from Afghanistan to Nicaragua. America wanted hard right wing governments — and that is what it got.
Let me put that another way. America wouldn’t permit social democracy to flourish anywhere in the world. Except for three places. Europe, Canada, and Australia slash New Zealand. That was it. What did all those nations have in common? Well, they were relatively rich and white. So they were allowed to be — grudgingly — by America’s right wing, which has always controlled most of its government — to be social democracies.
That age seems now to be coming to an end.
The new right wing in America is not like the old one. It is much, much more extreme. You’ve known that, as a citizen of the world, in the way that Trump, for example, was far more extreme, hostile, aggressive, brutish, politically right wing, than even George W Bush. But you might not have thought through what it means for you. What it means for you is this.
The new American right wing is far, far more right, far more extreme. The old one didn’t want social democracy in the “rest of the world,” but permitted it, grudgingly, in Canada, Europe, and the Pacific Rim. But because the new American right is more extreme, what it means that the American right is more extreme, is that it doesn’t want social democracy anywhere.
Not Canada. Not Europe. Not the Pacific Rim. It does not want social democracy to exist.
That is why figures you might not have heard of, or only heard of in passing, back the “Freedom Movement” and the “Freedom Convoys.” Think of, say, Tucker Carlson — he’s America’s most famous far right wing pundit, with a nightly audience of millions on Fox. Think of a new wave of politicians like Marjorie Taylor Greene or Lauren Boebert or Josh Hawley. Hawley’s famous for making a white supremacist salute in public. MJT and Boebert are famous for threatening left wing politicians like AOC with overt and explicit violence.
You might have heard of them and laughed, and not really cared. But now you should, because they are the ones explicitly and aggressively backing the “Freedom Movement” and “Freedom Convoys.” And they have real power. When a Tucker Carlson calls on Americans to back all that, they pour millions in donations. When far right wing American politicians praise these movements and actions, their followers get on Facebook, and provide expertise, planning and help.
The result is already the occupation of a major foreign capitol, and the blockade of its trade routes. In other words, this is not a joke. It is already having real world consequences. It’s having consequences because of the big picture, which I think it’s very, very important that you see. This American right is far, far more extreme, and what it’s extremism means for foreign policy is that it doesn’t want social democracy to exist anywhere.
So now, destabilising nations like Canada and France and Germany and New Zealand is on the table. It’s not just poor, brown countries like Nicaragua and Chile and Afghanistan that America’s right aims to destabilize. Now it’s fair game to destabilise even rich, white, European and Western social democracies — because that is what “the American right has gotten far more extreme” means when it comes to foreign relations.
And this is all just the beginning. Because the truth is that right now, the Democrats in America — the center-left — are still clinging to power. But they will lose, because America will not stop collapsing. American collapse is baked into its socioeconomics: America is a rich country which became poor, and cataclysmic socioeconomic shocks like that inevitably cause fascist-authoritarian political collapses, as people are seduced by the Big Lies of demagogues, which find scapegoats for the woes of the pure of blood and true of faith, who are painted as long-suffering heroes and Nietzschean ubermensch.
The American far-right’s newest scapegoat is global democracy. Global social democracy, to be precise. That is why it is aiming a dagger at Canada. Precisely because it is out of scapegoats — having already scapegoated everyone in could in America, from Black people to Mexicans to Latinos to Jews — and because the most obvious and convenient next target is the prosperous, thriving, sane, kind, gentle social democracy next door.
What do fascists hate most? Equality. Justice. Gentleness. Kindness. Truth. All the very things Canada is renowned for. And Europe. All the very things which social democracy aims to provide as basics to all. That is why global social democracy is emerging as the American far right’s next great scapegoat, target. That is why the gloves are off now, and even rich, Western nations are targets to be destabilised by America’s far right, just like Canada is now.
It will only get worse from here. Because as the Democrats lose, the far right in America will gain even more power. Real power. Remember who destabilised democracy around the globe in poor countries? Many of the mechanisms were the same — fake protests, propaganda, radicalization. But the institutions doing it were the CIA and various other shady government agencies, not to mention America’s politicians. That is what the future holds now. As demagogues like MJT and Hawley and so forth gain real political power over America’s institutions, as Trump is resurgent, the world’s Western social democracies will find themselves in America’s cross-hairs. They will be subject, probably, to intense campaigns of destabilisation which are government funded and led.
If you think that can’t happen, remember that under Reagan, America was so intent on funding fascist paramilitaries in Latin America that it flooded its own cities with crackto get the guns to the fascists in exchange. That’s how far right wing America really is. Now imagine how much more right wing it is today, and what happens when lunatics like this gain real power.
The picture, in other words, isn’t rosy. It is one of global geopolitical realignment. That’s an anodyne term. What it means is this. As a collapsing America swing harder right than it’s ever been in modern post-war history, what foreign policy and foreign relations are going to mean is going to change radically. Even rich Western nations will not be allowed to social democracies, the way they grudgingly were in the post-war era. Instead, America’s far right will try to destabilise them — it already is, after all. And the more power it has, the more it will use.
You might think that’s an exaggeration, because you don’t understand how bad things are in America. They are so bad that everyday soccer moms and dads have been so fully radicalised that they threaten to shoot up their neighbourhood schools. Over what? Over the issue, ostensibly, of “mask wearing.” Of course, it’s not about that at all: it’s a cipher for “my kid has pure blood! Only subhumans have to wear masks!!” In other words, America is becoming a genuinely fascist society. This radicalisation proceeds at an everyday level — millions upon millions of Americans believe the Big Lies that the election was stolen, back mass violence to “take it back,” support banning books and theories, are overtly in favour of supremacy. Death threats aimed at local officials by who were formerly everyday people are commonplace. Guns abound and a hardened, radicalised populace itches to use them. The politics of violence, intimidation, and brutality are now normalized, and democracy ideals of equality and truth and justice have little hold over the average person at all anymore.
America is collapsing. You must not underestimate what that means for you. Things are not going to be like before. America has long been a kind of friend to the Western world’s democracies — the bully who’s their buddy. It’s let them be what they wanted, even if that thing, a social democracy, was something it wouldn’t permit anyone else to be. Think for a moment of how America gave Europe the Marshall Plan’s billions — while stopping Asia and Latin America from being social democracies at that very moment. See the double standard?
But that age is now coming to an end. This new America, fascist America, far right wing America? It doesn’t want anyone to be a social democracy, a civilized nation, a modern society, a democracy at all. Not even rich Western nations. That is why it’s far fight wing is already attacking other Western nations, and doing it successfully. To the point that Canada’s capital is occupied, and its trade routes blockaded. You see, the rest of the rich world doesn’t understand. Europe and Canada are kind, gentle, wise nations, for the most part full of warm and friendly people. They don’t understand how aggressive and hostile and brutal and violent Americans really are. But that is what America is radicalising Canadians and Europeans to be. It is what it wants their countries to become: mirror images of a collapsing, radicalized, fascist America, so that America is in control of their destinies, too, controlling their resources, labour, capital, choices.
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