Kristofer J. Petersen-Overton 🇵🇸

political theory prof | co-editor @sputnikfizzle
email: [email protected]

[Kristofer J. Petersen-Overton 🇵🇸 @petersenoverton]

New piece up @STCollective https://t.co/TxWtye2DJY #Gaza

[Kristofer J. Petersen-Overton 🇵🇸 @petersenoverton]

A necessary reminder to the latter-day heirs of Meletus, aspirational Torquemadas, and other would-be censors...

[Kristofer J. Petersen-Overton 🇵🇸 @petersenoverton]

I no longer use this site.

[Jason Hickel @jasonhickel]

All the takes are correct and yet they also miss the point.

Yes, it was insane for the Democrats to think they could win by running a soulless candidate, without a shred of progressive policy vision, pursuing endorsements from neocon war-hawks everybody hates, while arming and funding a genocide, and belittling and crushing those who have enough morality to protest it.  It is enraging that the Democrats are so smug and blind to this.

But these are all just symptoms.  The deeper reality is that liberalism has failed, liberalism is dead, and people urgently need to wake up to this fact and respond accordingly. It is a defunct ideology that cannot offer any meaningful solutions to our social and ecological crises and it must be abandoned.

Democrats have proven over and over again that they cannot accept even *basic* steps like public healthcare, affordable housing, and a public job guarantee - things that would dramatically improve the material, social and political conditions of the working classes. And they cannot accept a public finance strategy that would steer production away from fossil fuels and toward green transition to give us a shot at a liveable future.

Why? Because these things run against the objectives of capital accumulation. And for liberals capital is sacrosanct. They will do whatever it takes to ensure elite accumulation, it is their only consistent commitment.  At home, they suppress and demonize progressive and socialist tendencies. Abroad, they engage in endless wars and violence to suppress input prices in the global South and prevent any possibility of sovereign economic development.

The Democrats have done all this purposefully and knowingly, for my whole life, not as some kind of "mistake" but in full consciousness that it is in the interests of capital.

And because liberalism cannot address our crises, and because it crushes socialist alternatives, it inevitably paves the way for right-wing populism.  They know this pattern, and yet they risk it every time - this election being only the most recent example. They did it in 2016, when they actively crushed the Sanders campaign and sent Trump to the White House. They do it because ultimately they (and I mean the liberal ruling class here) don't really mind if fascists take power, so long as the latter too ensure the conditions for capital accumulation. They 100% prefer this to the possibility of a socialist alternative.

So, progressives have to face reality. The dream of "converting" the Democratic party is dead. This is now a fact and it must be accepted. The only option is to build a mass-based movement that can reclaim the working classes and mobilize a political vehicle that can integrate disparate progressive struggles into a unified and formidable political force and achieve substantive transformation. This will take real work, actual organizing, but it must be done and that process must begin now.

[Bernie Sanders @BernieSanders]

It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them.

While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change.

And they’re right.

[Jakob Reimann @Jakob_Reimann]

Francesca Albanese's @FranceskAlbs greatest hobby: shredding stupid Western journalists to pieces.

[Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt @FranceskAlbs]

I am deeply disappointed that various western governments and diplomats appear to have been misled by spurious, recycled allegations against me, just as I prepare to present my latest report to the #UNGA next week. I am profoundly committed to human rights for all people - how could I ever be an antisemite?? Critique of Israel's actions and policies does not render one antisemitic, especially as Israel continues to commit atrocities without respite. If these governments are truly committed to international law, they ought to focus [not on false claims made about me, but] on ending the illegal and catastrophic situation in occupied Palestine. Never again means never again for everyone - including the Palestinian people.

[Ahmed Alnaouq @AlnaouqA]

We all have failed. We failed Gaza. We failed humanity. We failed ourselves. And our children will not be proud of us.

History will write that we watched the first live-streamed genocide and we did nothing of value to stop it.

By ‘we’ I mean WE. All of us. No exceptions.

[Noura Erakat @4noura]

The Lancet: “The targeting of maternity hospitals and the blockade that limits essential medical supplies, such as anaesthetics and maternity kits, from entering Gaza have turned pregnancy into a life-threatening condition for thousands of women.”

https://t.co/HQQIhItWX8

#Gaza

[asad abukhalil أسعد أبو خليل @asadabukhalil]

In 24 hours, Israel has attacked Beirut, Baghdad, Damascus and now Tehran. Bernie Sanders: Israel has the right to self-defense.

[Laila El-Haddad @gazamom]

Many of you have seen the picture of these beautiful birds of heaven, massacred last night in Khanyounis by Israel with our American weapons and tax dollars. They were my cousins from my mother’s side. Don’t you dare talk to me about @KamalaHarris or blame us for her loss.

[The New York War Crimes @nywarcrimes]

U.S. ally U.S. enemy

[jeremy scahill @jeremyscahill]

When I read the lionizing of Biden, emphasizing his decency and heroism, all I can think of is that little girl in Gaza whose jaw was blown off and all the other Palestinian children who were dismembered, burned alive, murdered with US weapons in a war Joe Biden facilitated.

[Kristofer J. Petersen-Overton 🇵🇸 @petersenoverton]

Nothing in Joe Biden's record can remove the blood of 14,000+ Gazan children.

[Maya Mikdashi @mayamikdashi]

watched PBS Newshour & its amazing how all these Palestinians in Gaza are starving, without medicine/medical care, displaced repeatedly, living under bombardment. apparently all of this is happening. But why is it happening? who is responsible? Who knows! Its all a great mystery

[Verso Books @VersoBooks]

Solidarity with Ilan Pappe

[Jeanne Theoharis @JeanneTheoharis]

Please amplify: over 500 @cuny faculty across 25 campuses signed an open letter criticizing @ChancellorCUNY's decision to call in the NYPD on the Gaza encampment, highlight the different charges CUNY students are facing from Columbia students, and call on him to drop the charges.

[National Students for Justice in Palestine @NationalSJP]

📍Northeastern University, Boston

“No Graduation in Gaza”

Northeastern law students protest graduation, highlighting scholasticide and Northeastern University’s complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza

[Mezna Qato @meznaqato]

On redactions and the redacted. Brilliant.

[Kristofer J. Petersen-Overton 🇵🇸 @petersenoverton]

Up up with liberation.

[#StopCopCity @ChuckModi1]

The freedom vibes are crazy out here.
Hope this helps. Wait for it…
#FreePalestine #upUPwithLiberation!