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Another episode of The Check-In with Danielle Moodie and I feel like we’re really getting down to the thing about living at the end of empire. This conversation got into the need for family (of choice) and community as we face the oncoming storm that is the collapse of the United States of America, including the political and economic consequences. We get into the colonization of our minds and our culture, the need to educate ourselves in decolonization philosophy and the actual history of our lives. I’m grateful for Danielle and for all the people tuning into these conversations.
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The show where a couple of friends hang out and they're lunch hour and I don't know what we talk about our feelings we talk about our feelings
Anderson and fascism. I'm very excited. I'm here with my good friend Daniel. How are you? It's wonderful to see you. It's wonderful to see you. I am how am I just always a loaded
question. Sure. I am good because I spent the last couple of days with my parents, my family. It was my mom's birthday last
week and so I went to Long Island to hang out for a couple of days and I realized like my mom sends me these like joking memes about how we've you know just she's kind of
unlearning the ways in which we've been indoctrinated and one of them is like how America kind of sold the idea of the nuclear family that young
person you know go in a college moving out right away starting their life and so on and so forth as opposed and like really decimating the idea of the
extended family and collective living and collective care. So my mom is you know she's aging. I'm aging and like and we're talking about this and this idea that
you know I wish that I did live closer. I mean I'm in Brooklyn. My parents are in Long Island. You think well that's not that far. It's actually an hour and a
half away and when you know and on the train and in traffic you know could be longer. But it's this idea that we were kind of bamboozled into this into this concept of what
success looks like it looks like being alone and doing everything on your own it looks like living on your own and assuming and taking on all of
these bills alone as opposed to being a part of this collective and then as you get yourself on your feet and what have you like thinking about expanding from
there and so how we've kind of been set up in that way. So we were just talking about that a lot over you know over over the weekend and what it would have
looked like if it was my parents had said to my sister and I just go off to college but come back you know work save your money like you know then you can
cook you know together maybe buy something and it's a it's a different way of like wealth building and and somebody just put in the chat
interdependency that this idea of the nuclear family and pulling yourself up from your bootstraps to me with another lie of capitalism to kind of get us all in debt struggling on islands of our own when we
could have had more collective care which a lot of still countries and ethnicities and traditions do but we in America like look down at that.
Oh for sure and and you know it's weird because so what we're getting into now is like deeper politics like the ship it's underneath and again Danielle I just want to state my absolute gratefulness that we're not like who you got in the midterms who do you
have in the midterms I don't give a shit and it's really getting down into like the basis of something because we're in a crumbling
empire we're we're watching it die the side effects of all of the greed and hoarding of resources and power it's becoming obvious with every passing day that idea of like rugged individualism and the nuclear family it's an
artifact of a period of time in which America was a large continent that we were conquering like we were like hey you know like you're going to get raised up you're
going to do this and then you're going to move a little bit further west and you're going to homestead and probably possibly die and also probably have nine to ten kids probably four of them will die you know we'll figure it out.
I think we all played organ trail at some point you know and so flashback because so much of what we're talking about is it's people acting on the
whims of capitalism yeah what capitalism wants from us it wanted us to move across the country and basically destroy resources hoard things and conquer the
quote-unquote wild frontier away from people who lived a more interdependent socialistic humanist like right right by the way the one things that was wild for me writing them in that
I had always been told that western civilization won because we had better weapons but no it wasn't that it was because the greed and the lying and the
savagery was actually a weapon against a bunch of people who took care of one another yeah and had more interdependence and acted more in terms of
honor and more in terms of caring about each other and empathy and it just so happened that we were the saddest we were the ones
who were happy to murder and kill and rape and pillage totally funny going back and watching those movies now the savages we were the
savages and so now what are we talking about Danielle the the weird things that pop up and one of my favorite things to pay
attention to are trends right it's it's it's the trends of modern politics and people you know it's like well
every now and then you'll see an article it's like Gen Z's loving avocado toast that's like fuck you you don't
know what the fuck you're talking about but then there's other things Daniel where all of a sudden it's like multiple families are
living together right people are starting to push back on things like monogamy they're starting to live with their parents
longer and these are little trends that if you don't connect the dots you don't understand where they come from
right here's like why are people doing this or why are people living with their families for longer all of
this those are side effects of capitalism reaching this stage right which is where people can't afford a
home so maybe they're going to buy a home with multiple people also you can't afford health care so you're
going to rely more on your family or maybe if you have multiple partners they can help take care of
things or they can hoard you know they can bring the resources together in order to do it I think the
really fascinating thing and what you're talking about and it makes me so happy to hear that your
family was talking about this without meaning to you guys were having a conversation about how we're
going to survive the shocks that are coming correct and they're coming and without like back in the
I always talked about like with a hurricane I lived in the South for 10 years you'd hear a hurricane
was coming you'd get all of your outside stuff put together you'd get some water you'd take out right
we are preparing for a storm that hasn't been forecasted but deep in our bones we all know is
coming and I and I think that this is the thing where paying attention to your intuition paying
attention to your to your gut and actually vocalizing what you are going through as opposed to again
this silent stoicism that has also been a part of corporate culture it also has been a part
of capitalism right just like grin and bear it right and the conversations that I'm having with
my family now it isn't just like with my parents but with my extended family my aunts and cousins
and so forth is what does it look like knowing that the American Empire is crumbling my mom is an
immigrant right to this country she's a naturalized citizen and we no longer feel safe
she's like where can we go right together where we can do essentially someplace else
what we should have been doing in the United States which is you know creating essentially in
some ways a homestead right where we're able to live together take care of one another have
gardens have this have that do you know what I'm saying and create this sense of safety together
right and I think it's really interesting when you say that you're following the trends because I'm
following the same things all of it comes back to the fact that young people uh generation Z is
going to be the first and I would honestly I would argue that some in Gen X some millennials
have not been able to hit the financial heights that their parents did
in terms of being able to buy homes and cars and have the material trappings and uh of success
you're seeing that fewer women are having children right which it also corresponds to the
manosphere and and to and to the male loneliness problem and all of these things that we talk about
that are going on why are people having less kids why are they staying home longer because
capitalism has broken it no longer works for them it's no longer keep your head down and work hard
and then eventually you too will be able to feast on the fruits of your labor no it's like your
labor is going so that Mark Zuckerberg and Peter Teal and Elon Musk can have banquets upon
banquets upon banquets of spoiled luxurious food so that Pete Hegseth can order as many
lobsters and pianos and violins as possible right for the Pentagon so it is it's it's it's we've
reached this kind of breaking point where the rules the lie is the jig is up and and we're realizing
that what we've been sold about rusted you know rustic individualism and and this idea of you
know I I do it on my own was all just a lie to break apart families to bleed people out and get
as much as possible from them right why get one mortgage when you can get five why get you know
one you know one rent when you can get ten and then look down upon those that stay together
building more wealth building more care from one another and you know and so look I don't say
that as if everyone's family is polyanna-ish and people don't come from abuse and leave for reasons
so I'm not I'm not negating the realities of why some leave but I'm trying to to break down the
story and the narratives around that that was about that was tethered to like economic success
and by the way I is speaking of these trends and things we're preparing for Daniel have you
noticed it like in the midst of all of this because we we could be talking about like who's winning
the war by the way it's a wrong you know what what is happening here and and it's the that
America is flailing in the American order is dying we could talk about all of that but we're talking
about humans and we're talking about how these things feel right and we have this thing in our
heads where it's like oh we're different right we're such a privileged species like we're so far
outside of nature and things attacking us America tells us that we're all we're all loneholds Daniel
we're all just warriors out here to show you to do this have you noticed in the middle of all this
all of these little things that are coming together one in the midst of all of this absolute
barbarism every interaction with another person that you care about holds more import and meaning
right it's like if you if you interact with someone and you'd brought up like yeah not everybody
can rely on their families many families are abusive we're all trying to create communities
and by the way the loneliness of modern American life I would say people feel it more than
ever yeah and the reason is because not only were we atomized by capitalism for the record the
reason that happened it wasn't accidental they wanted to keep us from creating the solidarity
necessary to challenge capitalism they don't want people at work talking to each other and
trusting each other they don't want people talking to each other out in the community so that
they can hold economic leverage over us now all of a sudden we're talking to one another and we're
like hey I've been really lonely for a really long time right I've been I've been focusing on
the wrong things I need to be able to build these connections in these bonds because the storm
that's coming we need to be ready for it we need to understand that we will take care of one
one another and and you might notice for the the the people who are like listening or watching think
about like the last time you talk to your neighbor and your neighbor asked you to do something for
them my guess is you told them I'll do that without hesitation and I want you to think back in the
past where maybe you wouldn't have we're now in this together and we've always been in right right
that's the thing the illusion was that we weren't and one of the things we talked about I want to say it
was like maybe it was a month ago maybe a month and a half ago we were talking about you know
how we felt like we were able to like ride out the waves like we were going to be okay the next wave
of layoffs it wasn't going to happen to us the next time you know the our jobs are fun our jobs are
fucked our jobs are fucked I hope everybody understands that and hopefully there's a freedom in that
because it's all fucked like it's not the the people who are in charge are not going to spare you
like what what's your job going to be professional bootlicker professional ask your sir there's
only so many of those jobs in Madaglaceous and Marco Rubio has most of them Marco has 98% and
Madaglaceous has the other two percent locked down and Ezra climbs like banging at the door
what are you going to do like how are you going to make a living the only way that it's going to
happen and we all know it instinctually we haven't been able to say it we all know it instinctually
that the storm is coming it's not going to be good and it's not going to be easy the great
thing about it is once the storm clears you can build something better and we all know it at this
point and that is the that's the lovely thing about it and also it was maybe the second episode
we did together we talked about giving up on the fear of death you're going to die everyone's
going to die everything is going to end at some point you have to be okay with that and you have
to see the possibility of it and what we're talking about right now is the old dying and hopefully
the new being born which is the struggle of where we are the old doesn't want to die and it's in
its death rattle and it's more dangerous than ever and it has to die in order for the new to be born
I mean it's so it's like if you are a person of deep faith what you just said Jared rings true
for people if you are a person of deep spirit like you understand that in order for something to
be birthed right there is a great deal of pain that has to happen there is a clearing that has to
happen for you to plant seeds that allow for new growth and I think that what we are experiencing
right now is the the the kind of pain and and deep suffering that comes from this kind of
clearing right that and I think that for Americans in particular why is it so jarring well because
our entire society up until this point has been created and curated in such a way to allow for
our comfort above all else and so now for the first time I would say probably in the modern
era post world war uh two we're feeling a level of discomfort that our grandparents and great
grandparents felt and understood because they grew up inside of the depression right there their
existence is what spawned the need for the institutions that have now been called and cleared out
because people were dying in the street and people were going hungry uh and and and people weren't
being taken care of and this is where they formed right these institutions and the idea of how
government can step in when those people are unable to do for themselves right when there is mass
depression and so it's just really interesting how technology has has exacerbated the problem
but also clarified the problem for us right like loneliness doesn't come on by itself it comes from
little actions that we take that isolate us further and further from one another it comes from
watching people at a dinner table everyone is on their phones posting about the fact that they are
at dinner but no one's actually experiencing the connection of being at dinner and for folks that
think like that's just young people know it is not I have watched people that are elderly like sitting
at the table forgetting what the art of conversation and connection is recognizing that all of that the
disconnection is the way that capitalism has created new tools for itself if you buy these things if
you watch this streaming if you just vegetate with me are you still listening are you still
watching as Netflix like I'll keep feeding the emptiness right like eventually you'll get
satiated except you don't right so it's just I think that what is underneath all of this particularly
as we're watching the genocide that is not only happening in Gaza but is underway in Cuba
the realization that America not only isn't the good guys now but has never been the good guys
they just had good stories and great PR it's like being taking a soda can and just shaking it
right and then we're all opening the can at once and it's a big old fucking mess
it's a big old fucking mess yep it's it's the equivalent of you know when a when a ship like the
Titanic goes under the water it drags people under with the the the weight that it leaves
and you don't have something as big and as powerful I mean America was so big and so powerful
not because there was something inherently good about us it was because our characteristics
particularly in the 20th 20th century fit so well with capitalism which was denial and delusion
and the willingness to destroy other people to put ourselves forward we were the perfect vessel
for it to jump from the British Empire to us the British Empire built the world in the United
States of America was in the perfect condition to finalize that project and so here we are and
and you brought up Cuba Danielle you can't sit around and scroll on your phone when the entire
island that you live on doesn't have electricity you can't live in delusion when you and your family
are starving that doesn't work and and and and Iran like people who are being killed every single day
innocent people you don't have a lot of time to sit around in delusion be like I'm sure it'll be fine
you huddle with the people that you care about and you take care of the people that you care about
as much as humanly possible I want to give a recommendation I don't know if you've seen it
there is something it's a new show it's on HBO it's called neighbors and it each episode follows a
pair of neighbors who hate each other and and and they they get so angry and radicalized because
they share space with somebody that they disagree with and it's so fascinating and perfect for
this moment because Daniel what does it show it shows that the American problem is that everybody
wants to live in a fucking fantasy and the problem with living in a fantasy is when you come up to
another person who's living in a fantasy and you have to share space America tells us that we can
all live in fantasies without bothering one another where's that gets you it gets you to a state of
civil war and collapse and then all of a sudden it becomes who's willing to hurt the other person
in order to keep their fantasy alive and destroy the other person's fantasy it worked
quote-unquote for a little while back whenever the continent was expanding because if you live next
to someone and you didn't like them you went to the next fucking state and you chopped down some trees
there was free real estate well free there were a lot of people that died in the destroyed
we have reached the point where the American dream it's not getting ahead and living a better life
it's the promise that you can live in a fantasy and guess what like Iran and and like Cuba and
every other place that the United States is destroyed now it's like last night I was watching the
the world baseball classic in the finals Venezuela beat America I know you know why they beat him it
wasn't because they had more talent we went to their fucking country and kidnapped their president
and turned them into a puppet state it meant more to them those people are living and I'm not
equating this with a baseball game but you people need to understand the people we're fighting
it's real for them yep the Iranians it's real for them for us it's a fantasy our fucking
shit for brains president can lie about it every single day he doesn't know what's going on
Pete Hegseth thinks he's still on Fox News they're all in fantasies and if you are going to continue
to live in the America of the past you better be willing to kill people because the fantasy is running
out you cannot live in this bubble forever and once it pops the only thing that's real Danielle
is human connection and living a life worth living everything else is pretend and everything
else is artificial and fragile and it will crumble and be destroyed we're coming to the point where
the check is going to come do and that bubble is going to pop and then you have to make choices
about who you are and what your life is you know it's so fascinating I think this collective
awakening that is happening this like this this you know deep consciousness it's like an alarm
clock that was slowly going off right it was like a part of its volume and then it was turned
up a little bit with each year over the last 10 years and now it's blaring and I think that
what we can escape is the the hurt that we've been lied to the hurt that the waving of our flag
came at the expense of people's lives and their livelihood and their sovereignty
for us to be able to do that there is a video going around right now that I saw and it was of a
white man who fought in desert storm and he said I realized he's like I wanted to be proud
of the mission that we were on and he's like and it didn't take me long to realize that we were
the terrorists that we were the terror that we said that we were fighting and I think that what
is so naked and obvious now that you actually can't look away from because of technology because
of the ways that we have a front seat to the destruction and the genocide that is happening
across every place that this regime touches is that you can't move away from the idea that
everything that you have halt held close to chest as a proud American has come at the expense
of someone and something else and that that that takes a deep kind of reckoning to understand
that truth and then what do I do with it because it sure as hell isn't enough to complain about it
right it sure as hell isn't enough to continue to vote for people that create caveats around
their morality and their values and say well in order for us to be safe others have to die
that's essentially what we have been saying for eons our safety comes at the risk of demolishing
other people I mean this is Israel's whole reason day on track right like their whole entire
military security strategy is based on a deep seated fear of every fucking one around them
and the only way that I can be safe is if every single person that is not Jewish right that doesn't
subscribe to the same level of supremacy that I do is no longer and let's call that what it is
which is the colonial paranoia that's why yeah it's it's like when you start to really unpack and
this is what I say to people like really unpack don't say that you didn't know and I don't know
and what have you you have all of the resources at your fingertips start studying up on just go to
ban books list of civil rights era and indigenous warriors and feminist practitioners and
et cetera and read right like it's it's literally like at your fingertips so it's not
enough anymore for people to say like oh my god I had no idea I'm like I'm reading
right now books that were written in the 1950s that are talking about decolonization
yeah that are talking about like the colonists mentality and ideology and all we've done is
mask it and shift it based on the technology that we have and our ability to like lie
over the course of years like oh colonization is done is it I mean ask the people in Puerto Rico
and guinea and like other places that have no sovereignty and authority is it over
ask the ask the African nations that are paying out the ass to France and the United States
and and and the UK is it over or did it just morph into something else that we accepted
like I just I don't know it is and it and it comes back to the destruction of family and unit
to put in place this machine that tells you you must produce and like at all it like I don't want
to make it so simple I mean people have studied for years and get doctors and all of these things
but like that's how I see it 100 percent and that's the question at the heart of it I
you know what's interesting Daniel I so my original background was in literature
and you go back into like the 1940s into the 1950s which is the golden era America wants to return to
right which is a complete aberration you can't go back there there was a very specific set of
things that took place by the way ask poor people brown people and women whether or not that was
the golden era of America right and you look at all this art and what was the underlying thing it was
wow everything looked good but it felt awful everyone feels a lack of meaning that moved
throughout time meanwhile you go back into the 1990s which I try and tell people constantly what a
horror era that was like it was the idea like America's great it's never going to fall apart
what's underneath the surface it's everyone being like is this all there is right is this all
that there absolutely is we've we've reached the quote-unquote mountaintop the whole point is that
capitalism is anti-human it cannot fill a void it it it works on a negative number inside of us
we think that we have something that we have to make up for that were wretched and broken and the
only way to make it better is external things to take as much as we can and to show ourselves
improve ourselves who are you proving yourself to the boss who's going to fire you and lay you
off the moment that they need to like the what's the best case scenario you get to retirement they
hand you a watch and then you die two years later is that is that is that winning is winning being
Donald Trump a fucking failure embarrassment of a fake billionaire who who's like pathetic like is
that is that the winning are you supposed to be Elon Musk who is like the the most pathetic human
being that is ever-resisting and Mr. is who buys a platform in order to rot people's brains and push
a white supremacist right-wing neo-fascist thing and then post AI women that you ogle at because
nobody loves you is that the answer and then all of a sudden you're like oh what's this
idea of being rich in spirit it's having people you can trust and care about and who love you
and see you and accept you and all of a sudden something becomes clearer Danielle and I want
to I want to make something abundantly clear here everyone says to me okay what should we do
and I say we have to have mass action we have to bring this entire machine to its needs
and that means ruining the fucking economy and making the corporatist and capitalist classes
understand that we have the power and changing the political paradigm well what are we supposed to
do here we'll lose our jobs and we'll lose our financial stability you're going to anyway
we read the writing on the wall this economy is fake it's all fake there's not a single national
internationally respected economist you read what they say Danielle and you just said like
you can do the research on your own go actually read the articles that are written for these people
they'll say we don't know what's going on why because it's not actual economics it's a Ponzi
scheme yep and the people who are wealthy know that it's going to fall apart and they're going
to be there to gobble up what's left of it on the cheat and they know that it's going to hurt us
and they're going to be able to do things like get rid of minimum wage create an underclass that
they will control they want to recreate the beginning of industrialism in which by the way here's
the fun thing Danielle why were we able to get out from underneath that because we were forced to
live with each other and we were forced to talk to one another and eventually we said enough
is enough and we thought our way out it's a cycle for the record we see where this thing's going
it's going to collapse it's going to fall apart so what do you have to lose except for to gain
everything and for the record what you said what I always found writing books is I would go the
library and the answers I looked for were in books that had never been opened they were published
by academics and here's the difference between academics and pop culture writers is academics tell
you what's actually going on pop culture writers will give you a story that feels good that will give
you like a fantasy to live in go I'm sorry I know this is going to make people upset go read marks
yeah go read linen they knew this was coming they all the problem is they didn't see how far it
was going to go and now we're living in that next step so go back actually understand where these
things are and be like man you know what the check is coming to yeah I'm worried about economic
ruin it's coming no matter what you know it's funny I'm speaking of reading old text so
when I'm reading right now because I read multiple books at one time I'm reading uh France
Fennon France Fennon yep read it wretched earth do you have like you're lying to you like I know
I know I know I love you myself it I have a case of friends around here so you okay oh yeah I love them
yeah so I'm like here is me I people think oh Danielle like nose and I'm just like I don't know I don't
know everything so I look to people and I look to like folks that have written and I found him and
I was like wait a minute I'm oh I'm reading Jared and I said oh god damn 1953 wait what can I
can I share something that I'm so glad you brought up you're I mean you're the academic this is
for not when I tell people I'm creating my own syllabus this is what I'm talking about here's the
amazing thing about about Fennon and I'm gonna say something that's actually fucking like it some
people will get this and some people won't every American needs to read decolonization literature
we've been told not to like oh that's DEI why would I pay attention to that here's the secret
everybody white supremacy is hidden colonization yeah we have all been colonized yeah it just so
happens that white supremacy tells you that you haven't that you're on the team that's colonizing
and sometimes you're on the team that's being colonized when they need numbers yep but guess what
when the numbers aren't needed you're all colonized so the whole point is you read Fennon read
all these people because the point isn't that like oh class politics can't be racial race is a
construct yeah and everything is fucking made up and we're being colonized it's just hidden behind
a veneer of privilege that's it I mean it's it's so deep it's so and I and I think that that
sometimes it's like when you're reading right and you're just like oh shit and then you want to
close the book because you're just like oh good god right like it's so deep and you realize like
oh why wasn't I taught this why what why wasn't this I I'm a I'm a political science major
explain to me why that wasn't required reading yeah right like all of the things and again it kind
of it goes to Audrey Lord who said you know the master's tools will not dismantle the master's house
no one's gonna give you your the oppressor is not gonna give you the tools to your liberation right
like and that's the thing is that we have to get out of this mindset that like well why wasn't
I taught this why is your oppressor going to teach you how to break the chains right like you
have been like our minds our spirits have been colonized yes to accept white supremacy and patriarchy
as a given right as a given like air as opposed to a virus that actually can be treated so it's
it I mean it's it's just and how do you treat that through education right and understanding the
ways that you have been forced to assimilate into a system that is absolutely alien the way that
you've been told that others are savage but you watch savagery take place at the hands of those
that tell you that they are the all knowing they are the all being they are the gods chosen one
and it is extraordinary and it's like this is why in fascist regimes what do they get rid of first
the books the academics what do they shut down first the art right the critical thinking
because that is the biggest tool against fascism colonization imperialism like that's it
and and I'll give you a couple of examples because what we're talking about here is so essential
to to what we need to zero in on so like okay so for instance let's say that you're you're an
economist you're you're like an aspirational economist right you want to know how the economy
works you're in college you're getting educated by experts okay so you are a believer in capitalism
correct like you you you are not only a believer in capitalism your job is to understand capitalism
so if you're learning about capitalism and you want to be a person who explains capitalism
Danielle call me fucking crazy I would want to read the critique of capitalism
you know why I think so because you want to understand capitalism and wouldn't you want to make it
better but guess what if you major in this in most schools in the country you're not reading marks
you're not reading lidden you're not reading capitalist critique so what happens Danielle
you're actually put into a bubble where you all of a sudden it's no longer a science
it's a religion and if you actually look at all these people and so amazing Danielle in 2008
when everything came down all the neoliberals were like I don't know where this came from
what are you talking about you didn't know where this came from this has happened in one time
after another after another and thank god by the way what you brought up earlier
you know how I knew it was gonna happen but fucking grandparents told me it was going to happen
because they lived through it so all of a sudden you have to have memory versus expertise and then
what happened when I went read the criticism of capitalism my grant you think my grandma read marks
you think my grandma picked up a book by Vladimir Lenin no are you kidding me but guess what got
reflected common sense intuition and experience by someone who was an expert so by the time I read
it I was like oh yeah I know what this is this is a tradition that was hidden under the dust
yeah and it's kept from everybody and the reasons kept from everybody is this Danielle
it's hard because if you know the facts you have to do something yep and so instead of having like
the shit that our politicians are about to dealing they're not dealing with anything they're out
there putting on a TV show and the TV show sucks and no one's watching it anymore that's the whole
and so as that's happening everyone's all of a sudden like oh wait this was a lie why is it lie
what was kept from me and then all of a sudden you start reading what was kept from you and it
becomes very very clear the reason why it's kept from you and you're exactly right there's a reason
why they burn books there's a reason why they imprison people there's a reason that they do all of
this and it's this it's that they start losing control and at they lose control they become more
dangerous and I want to say one more thing on that that note they're killing people over there
right now do not forget that they were killing people yep yep yes what happens as that gets worse
so will this so will this we're in a moment to take a breath and to get ready we talk about the
ebb in the float that's where we are right now you know and it's again point a part of the
distraction right this let us let me wag the dog and put us into this extended war that I have no
idea how to get out of and now I am just at a loss at the fact that the people that I've been bullying
for 13 plus months now don't want to come to my aid and don't see me as a friend worth saving right
which is where the United States finds itself begging on a street corner with its hand out
for help to open or moose which by the way is open and just say an open to you um I think that what
is incredibly important is understanding that it isn't as if to say that one system is perfect
and another is not it's to say that every system can be abused based on who is in power
but the more aware that you are about why certain systems and structures have been put in place
and who they benefit the better you are to then think when the rubble is done when the dust settles
what is it that we want to create in its stead right like what is it that we want to imagine is
possible because everything Jared from capitalism to communism it's all been invented it was
a bunch of people got into a room and created an idea about a system of governance
yeah about a system of finance right so you're telling me that like that's the only way
it isn't it's about having enough awareness to take what works leave what doesn't
and create actual systems that center human need that center the marginalized because we know what
happens when you center the wealthy right the fat cats what has happened we've been waiting for 40
years for the trickle down we've been living in a fucking drought you know and now it's like you
don't even have to put on the rules that it will trickle down because they're saying AI gonna
replace you anyway so I don't need to care about your health care your 401k don't bitch to me
about what you need in the break room because like the robot isn't going to and I'm putting my
investment and my money into that so that I can fire you in 18 to 24 months can I ask you a question
I I meant to ask you this what's your favorite piece of literature or piece of art that depicts a better
future did the picks a better yeah yeah not weird did the picks a better future yeah yeah
yeah not weird yeah yeah what does that mean it means that our imagination for it has been
putterly destroyed and pummeled down it hardly anything damn yeah yeah yeah
yeah yeah star track is the closest thing to it that's the closest thing to it but guess what
there's nothing this really nothing we don't really have a road map or even an imagination of what
it could be and one of the reasons is because all of the structures of capitalism destroyed every single
one of them in fact let's look at AI where people use an AI for Daniel is to create larger and larger
battles people fighting one another and killing each other that's it if you see anything from AI
that isn't all you know I keep hearing about how it's going to discover a cure for cancer I keep
hearing about how it's going to solve poverty but you know I I haven't seen any movement in that
direction because that's not where the money is right and I you know I'm looking at the comments
and people are saying star track they're agreeing with you and they're saying Wakanda and I agree
with that and I think that for me that's why I've always I for the last several years have been
captivated by Afro futurism and African futurism because one you know all of it though comes from a
place of dystopia all of it recognizes what is to do what is destroyed and then what we move towards
but I think that what's interesting in those few in those future type settings is that
no one gave us a blueprint for this moment yep we started I remember months and months ago now
this show what's saying no one ever talked about what it means to live inside the rubble
of a falling empire we have all we we learned about the fall of Rome and the fall of Greeks
and the fall of the Ottoman Empire and this and that and the other thing but we actually never
studied and were taught what was happening inside of those societies as these great shifts were
happening and it's like that's what we are living in so we don't have a blueprint we have
some idea with some futurism that to some extent like didn't actually create futures for Black
people enter Afro futurism and African futurism and then you have these other ideas but what we are
experiencing now isn't unique it's unique in the fact that we're discussing it to leave behind
some type of I would hope template because this won't be the last destruction no right so it's like
but this will I think the first time that it'll truly be recorded
and and by the way we we had better learn from it I mean and a couple things before we talk about
that part you know something like Wakanda Wakanda happened because a media right hit a certain
place it didn't come out of some sort of like decision to do this or do that like even that has
the caveat someone even said it and it's exactly right Star Trek isn't even on earth it's out in
right right there's no idea of something being better here like we we made things a little bit
better and then we got out of here and then we went out and did other things and on that like we
are living in the compounded destruction of history which is the America falling right now is a
combination of Rome falling the British Empire falling and the third right falling
it's all of it mixed together at once and as that's happening you you look at it and you see it
and you know it and and people then you'll never notice how much fascination white Americans have
with Nazi Germany like how like they love watching the the the pictures of like the rallies and all
the banners and swastikas and all that shit people don't pay that much attention to what happened
after they don't pay attention to what happened in the ruins of Berlin after everything fell apart
or de-naughtification and by the way that's why like it didn't really get rid of all the Nazis
we brought them in we brought them in for an embrace and we said help us defeat the Russians
and guess what we sided with all the fascists we didn't learn our lesson we did not look towards
the future we are absolute prisoners to the past because what is America about we talk about this
a lot it's the complete and utter rejection of learning from history the privilege of living in
a fantasy that does not take into consideration fact or experience or truth that's what it has been
from the very very beginning and so we're going to fall and we're in the process of falling and we
better yet busy imagining what comes next let me ask you something yeah what do you think that
like what does the end in your imagination look like um that's a great question because you know
I grew up evangelical so you know we're talking about imagination my mission the base level is
already it's actually very fascinating because because I grew up in evangelicalism I was told how
it would end and even though I escaped it it's still apocalyptic shit right which is why we create
the apocalypse in the real world I think it's it's much more of economics economic cultural
and political collapse I think we're much closer to regime collapse right now than a lot of people
are really able to let themselves admit I really do and I think I think the worm has turned
economically and also in terms of what the American empire and what it creates so it could be quick
and it could be groaning like we we we might live within it but that's the other beautiful thing
is like that gives us the possibility to create as long as they don't destroy everything you know
what I mean which is the the question yeah yeah I've just been thinking about you know as everybody
does I've been thinking about it and and and kind of and again it goes back to the beginning of
what does it mean to prepare for what you know is is coming in your bones but you can't name and
you can't necessarily draw the picture of it but you know that it's coming and it's closer than
it's ever been so what does it look like to create community care what does it look like to kind
of begin to assign roles to yourself about how you navigate through this and and and it's just
it's really interesting because I agree with you I do think that we are closer to the collapse of
this regime and the collapse of just America in general and that there are a handful of people
those in Congress and the executive branch and on the Supreme Court that are really working
over time to try and make sure that we all don't pull the curtain back yeah that there are still
there like there are still some that believe the wizard is you know that we are the wizard we're
the good ones we're making everything lovely you know beat back the ones that are trying to pull
the curtain and that's where we are it's like they are they're like trying desperately to beat us
back because what happens when everyone when the collective consciousness is recognize as oh
it's just us and they're not great they're not powerful they're not all knowing
they're actually just a bunch of scared inept soulless cruel people
yoke and to scale it up from something that we've talked about Danielle we we talk about the example
of an abusive household we started this out talking about being with family that you're safe with
versus leaving family that you're unsafe with and what do we keep saying it's like the home the
fascist is the abuse of father and the democrats or the liberals or the neoliberals whatever
you want to call them they're the enabling partner and guess what happens if we pull back the
curtain they're left to themselves yeah and certain ruin the only thing that keeps that going
is us our participation in it right and disgustingness and the exploitiveness I mean my god like
I said this a couple of days ago the ask keeps getting worse what do we have to do at this point
like for a while it was like okay people around the world they'll be put in slavery murdered fine
it's happening around the world I don't know them and they're brown and at least I get this
right and then eventually you reach the point and you say oh now I have to look the other way
these pedophiles I have to like look the other way oh oh by the way they're over here murdering
people they can't even be bothered to tell you why they're murdering people oh now I have to be
like oh yeah killing over 100 plus school girls and lying about it like that the ask keeps getting
more and more and the whole answer is we have to go to the door we have to go to the door before
they kill us to keep us from getting to the door yeah I just I mean that's it that's it folks like
you know we never have homework on this show but I'm telling you you pick some revolutionary
writers and thinkers and pick up these books pick up these books and read like that finale
right now huh you could do a lot worse than picking up wretched of the earth right yeah wretched of
the earth what is it the other one white mass black faces like I mean that's that's what I'm
reading right now and I'm just I wish I knew French so that I couldn't read it like out you
like read it in the language you wrote it in but you know pick up linen pick up linen read about
imperialism like you had a dead derights I mean really like it's it's all it's all there yeah
and I you know it's funny because the other day you know I was like I play music in my home all
the time and I'm playing you know Bob Marley right my family's Jamaican that's just like a given
and and you listen to the revolutionary music that Bob Marley was making about colonization about
oppression about overturning uh governments and you realize how dangerous right he was at the time
that roots reggae music was becoming this global phenomenon and at the same time the United States
was heavily invested in a particular party inside of Jamaica and it's just like folks you just
start to realize how all of these things are connected and like all of these struggles have been
intertwined and the more that you learn right the peeling back of this onion the more the the layers
right that and the intersection that happens it's it's it's truly wild it's truly wild
at a hundred percent as and that's the secret it really comes down to it is like all these things
that like disconnect this they're not real they're not real they're not real there's no such thing as
the United States no such thing as a raw and no such things Cuba like there's just not they're we're
all people who are caught in between some of the most disgusting and murderous people imaginable
that's it yeah big secret of the whole thing it's all made up for the benefit of a few
it's all made up for the benefits for you oh man thank you so much for hanging out
this was a good it's it's like hey did it folks we never know where it's gonna go
when we turn on the camera we don't know we talk about what we're thinking about
you're even using a different device today we didn't use it a different device we didn't even know
that this was gonna work right we had no idea and everyone's here my friend thank you so much
every week everybody be safe hopefully we'll we'll all have a good week we'll come back and
do it again we'll do it again all right later everybody

Audio From A Collapsing State | Jared Yates Sexton

Audio From A Collapsing State | Jared Yates Sexton

Audio From A Collapsing State | Jared Yates Sexton
