Is Being A Liberal / Progressive Transgender, Lesbian, Bisexual or Gay Activist Enough?

It will be a day marked in infamy, if a charismatic leader arises from the ranks of the reactionary conservatives in the United States. So far, none have appeared. This person may not be your run of the mill politician or big business fat cat. They will be an ordinary person rising up from the reactionary minority or even from the liberal / progressive movement which is just another way to be assimilated by the oppressive elite.  They will be well liked and trusted. The rest of the nation in its current situation of class struggle, tough economic times and uncertainty will follow like sheep. As Transgender, Bisexual, Lesbian, Gay or any people living within a marginalized and oppressed minority, we cannot afford to buy into liberal / progressive thinking. It means buying into a broken economic and political system because a few concessions are thrown our way. For example, marriage equality for Gay people means buying into the oppressive socio-economic system. It sends the loud and clear signal that if the oppressor allows LGBT people to get married we can be just like them and makes it far easier to assimilate into the system. This is much like allowing Gay people to serve in the military. Please let us joining the military so we can be cannon fodder in whatever imperialistic wars are being fought. Some might say these are basic rights everyone should have. I agree but I am not deceived. Oppressed people are only given enough to quiet their demands. This is detailed throughout history. Hitler gave the German people hope. He gave them jobs. He gave them death camps. Stalin arose within the Russian communist party and gave the Russian people hope, jobs and also more death camps. So what do we do? Violent revolution is not the answer. The oppressor always has more force and will do anything to maintain their control.  There are those liberal, progressive individuals and organizations that say working within the system is the answer. They effectively join the oppressive system and become complacent. Assimilation is exactly what the oppressor wants. Nothing changes and the broken system continues to run amuck. People are still oppressed. What to do? Do the right thing! Marginalized groups in all of our global society must continue to be vocal in demanding human rights for everyone. Individuals and organizations must be active in words and actions at a grass roots local level. Be very leery of national or global organizations that have assimilated with the oppressor and espouse they are the be all and end all of human rights organizations. Live your authentic lives as if you have equality without buying into the oppressor. As an individual or collectively non-violently resist the oppressor. Facing the Threat from the Far Right, Noam Chomsky Says He 'Has Never Seen Anything Like This' "The mood of the country is frightening. The level of anger, frustration and hatred of institutions is not organized in a constructive way." Noam Chomsky is America’s greatest intellectual. His massive body of work, which includes nearly 100 books, has for decades deflated and exposed the lies of the power elite and the myths they perpetrate. Chomsky has done this despite being blacklisted by the commercial media, turned into a pariah by the academy and, by his own admission, being a pedantic and at times slightly boring speaker. He combines moral autonomy with rigorous scholarship, a remarkable grasp of detail and a searing intellect. He curtly dismisses our two-party system as a mirage orchestrated by the corporate state, excoriates the liberal intelligentsia for being fops and courtiers and describes the drivel of the commercial media as a form of “brainwashing.” And as our nation’s most prescient critic of unregulated capitalism, globalization and the poison of empire, he enters his 81st year warning us that we have little time left to save our anemic democracy. “It is very similar to late Weimar Germany,” Chomsky told me when I called him at his office in Cambridge, Mass. “The parallels are striking. There was also tremendous disillusionment with the parliamentary system. The most striking fact about Weimar was not that the Nazis managed to destroy the Social Democrats and the Communists but that the traditional parties, the Conservative and Liberal parties, were hated and disappeared. It left a vacuum which the Nazis very cleverly and intelligently managed to take over.” “The United States is extremely lucky that no honest, charismatic figure has arisen,” Chomsky went on. “Every charismatic figure is such an obvious crook that he destroys himself, like McCarthy or Nixon or the evangelist preachers. If somebody comes along who is charismatic and honest this country is in real trouble because of the frustration, disillusionment, the justified anger and the absence of any coherent response. What are people supposed to think if someone says ‘I have got an answer, we have an enemy’? There it was the Jews. Here it will be the illegal immigrants and the blacks. We will be told that white males are a persecuted minority. We will be told we have to defend ourselves and the honor of the nation. Military force will be exalted. People will be beaten up. This could become an overwhelming force. And if it happens it will be more dangerous than Germany. The United States is the world power. Germany was powerful but had more powerful antagonists. I don’t think all this is very far away. If the polls are accurate it is not the Republicans but the right-wing Republicans, the crazed Republicans, who will sweep the next election.” “I have never seen anything like this in my lifetime,” Chomsky added. “I am old enough to remember the 1930s. My whole family was unemployed. There were far more desperate conditions than today. But it was hopeful. People had hope. The CIO was organizing. No one wants to say it anymore but the Communist Party was the spearhead for labor and civil rights organizing. Even things like giving my unemployed seamstress aunt a week in the country. It was a life. There is nothing like that now. The mood of the country is frightening. The level of anger, frustration and hatred of institutions is not organized in a constructive way. It is going off into self-destructive fantasies.” “I listen to talk radio,” Chomsky said. “I don’t want to hear Rush Limbaugh. I want to hear the people calling in. They are like [suicide pilot] Joe Stack. What is happening to me? I have done all the right things. I am a God-fearing Christian. I work hard for my family. I have a gun. I believe in the values of the country and my life is collapsing.” Chris Hedges, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, is a senior fellow at the Nation Institute. He writes a regular column for TruthDig every Monday. His latest book is Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle. Original Article