The Most Dangerous Ideology in America

The horrific massacre on May 14 in Buffalo, New York, is yet another reminder of how racist ideologies pose the most severe danger to the contemporary United States. Teenaged white supremacist Payton Gendron traveled for hours to open fire in a supermarket in a Black neighborhood while live-streaming his actions on Twitch, killing ten people and injuring three others.

He had uploaded a 180-page diatribe regurgitating the “great replacement” theory, a rightwing conspiracy theory which falsely holds that white people are being deliberately “replaced” by immigrants and ethnic minorities. This hateful mass shooting encompasses several dire issues that afflict the world’s richest country: structural racism, political opportunism, easy access to guns, and a rising wave of fascist ideas. 

PCIM Director Raza Rumi contends that the “great replacement theory” can no longer be dismissed as an inconsequential fringe belief. And given the failure of U.S. political and justice systems to punish perpetrators of the January 6 insurrection, this fascist worldview will only gain further traction.

Read Rumi’s full analysis on The Progressive.

During the May 14 “Bans Off Our Bodies” rally in Ithaca, New York, noted feminist writer Zillah Eisenstein delivered this speech as part of the “Summer of Rage” rallies for abortion rights.

Alert: This is a moment of crisis. The right wing in this country is radically trying to solidify its power. The Supreme Court is now a site for this takeover. It is why these judges decided to throw caution to the wind and attempt, once and for all, to decimate Roe. They are leading the charge against racial, sexual, and gender equality and freedom. THIS IS A WAR.

Roe v. Wade grew out of the “women’s liberation movement” of the 1970s. We need a radical movement again. Why? Because Roe has been undermined already: there are as many as 1,300 restrictions on Roe that have been passed by states, and 80% of U.S. counties do not have abortion clinics. 

We have nothing to lose but our chains now.

Read Eisenstein’s full speech on The Edge.

On April 1, film historian Scott MacDonald interviewed experimental filmmaker Su Friedrich as part of the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival.

The website “Edited By” compiles work by women film editors that has gone unrecognized for decades. Organized in the style of a book, it details crucial work by a growing list of women. “In a film production handbook, I was reading the chapter about all the great editing that’s been done, but it never mentioned the editor, only the director,” Friedrich said. “I looked the editors up, and half of them were women, and thought, ‘Well, I didn’t know that. I have to do something about this.’”

Friedrich’s website on William Greaves contains a host of information on the prolific filmmaker’s work, comprising his roles as producer, writer, director, cinematographer and/or editor of seventy-nine films.

Watch the full interview here.

Following recent waves of union campaigns at Amazon and Starbucks — including the successful votes to unionize at all three Starbucks in Ithaca, New York — retail workers at major chains including Target are launching new organizing drives across the U.S.

Independent union efforts have sprung up at Amazon and Trader Joe’s locations in response to health and safety concerns, and more traditional efforts have emerged at REI and Apple stores.

The uptick in organization is partly due to the tight labor market, “reflected in the still-high quit rate among workers who are leaving miserable jobs in favor of better ones,” writes Jacobin. Rounds of stimulus put cash in workers’ hands, and working during a pandemic under increased stress and danger brough coworkers closer together — all while they were deemed “essential” and told to take these risks for the broader public.

This week, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres criticized the broken global energy system leading humanity to climate disaster, urging a transition to renewable sources. “We must end fossil fuel pollution and accelerate the renewable energy transition, before we incinerate our only home.”

Guterres’ words accompanied the latest flagship report of the World Meteorological Organization, which he says represents “a dismal litany of humanity’s failure to tackle climate disruption.” The report notes that four out of seven climate indicators hit record levels last year.

Reliance on fossil fuels must end immediately to address the planetary crisis, Guterres said. “Transforming energy systems is low-hanging fruit. Renewable energy technologies such as wind and solar are readily available and in most cases, cheaper than coal and other fossil fuels.”

1. Forget the Madison Cawthorn sideshow – primary night was good sign for Trump and another wake up call for Democrats | The Independent

2. Republicans Are Defending a Sanitized Version of ‘The Great Replacement’ | The Atlantic

3. Federal Judge Strikes Down Tennessee Law Requiring Anti-Trans Bathroom ‘Notice’ | HuffPost

4. US midterm elections – a simple guide | BBC

5. Buffalo shooting followed tripling of gun sales in 30 years, ATF figures reveal | The Guardian